Successful careers of Catherine the Great courtiers: N.B. Yusupov and I.M. Murav’ev-Apostol

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the specialties of courtier’s successful career development in the reign of Catherine the Great. As a case study were chosen two courtiers: N.B. Yusupov and I.M. Murav’ev-Apostol. There is also made an attempt of comparative study between these two careers in order to highlight common and particular features of their biographies. From the viewpoint of the author this research could illuminate the well-studied reign of the Empress from another side. Besides, it could give an additional information about the social mobility mechanisms in the aristocratic milieu during the second part of XVIII century and also could help to evaluate the impact of the education, birth rank and personal qualities on the courtier’s career development. Criteria of typically successful careers are also offered in the article. The biographies of N.B. Yusupov and I.M. Murav’ev-Apostol were chosen in order to illustrate the suppositive differentiation in the group of nobles, who were granted with a court ranks and managed to exploit their success by receiving an appointment to the important governmental posts. The author employed the prosopography as a key method of analysis and used material from the massive biographical data sources, such as mesyatseslovy and adres-kalendari of the Russian Empire. The article is also based on the scholarly works dedicated to the biographies of N.B. Yusupov and I.M. Murav’ev-Apostol or to the different aspects of the issue.