ABSTRACT
Many families of old lineage or wealth looked down on bureaucrats and preferred to serve their country in the elite regiments of the guards, the elective posts of gentry assemblies and zemstvos, or to enter the professions. When an admirer of Peter A. Stolypin wanted to stress his uniqueness he described him as 'an unusual type of minister, not the bureaucrat who floats with the current in pursuit of personal well-being'. For the untrained scions of lesser gentry, a government post and pension were a necessity and they succeeded in preserving the advantages of birth in entry to and advancement in the bureaucracy. The opening of the bureaucracy to non-nobles in the nineteenth century was made necessary by its expansion and by new tasks. Russia's emperors thought of themselves more as leaders of armies than bureaucracies, and since they liked the simple directness of military men, they frequently entrusted difficult areas of government to soldiers.
