XIX a. vidurio kauniškoji biurokratija

Abstract

The paper deals with the life of bureaucracy and concentrates on several important points: their means of living, social relations and ideological tendencies. The main source of the income for officials was the governmental salary granted according to the imperial standards. It depended on the category they be longed to. The salary could be supplemented with bonuses, but on very rare occasions and for very special tasks. Usually they were given to officials of the highest rank. Officials of the lower standing turned to a mechanism of getting unofficial income through bribes and renting private property. Though not large in number, the group of corrupted officials belonged to all levels - from highest to lowest. A certain model of social relationships united the two groups of the bureaucracy, ie representatives of aristocracy and gentry. These relations depended on the economic and symbolic capital. In order to stimulate conformist attitudes among the officials, in their newspaper authorities of the Kaunas government (gu bernija) used to publish articles with a distinct ideological bend. The propoganda of russification, orthodoxy and autocracy was only partially effective be cause the state officials were being influenced by a patriotic and somewhat romantic ideology. Their mentality was rather conservative, reflecting tradi tional values of nobility. An intensive cultural and intellectual life of the city, dating back to the 1860s, did not have much impact on the attitudes of the state officials.