TY - JOUR

T1 - Officer Dynasties in Siberian Army Garrisons: Hereditary Military Personnel in the Population Structure of the Eighteenth-Century Russian Empire

AU - Dmitriev, Andrey

PY - 2026/9/30

Y1 - 2026/9/30

N2 - This article studies the phenomenon of hereditary dynasties of military personnel holding officer ranks who served in garrison units of the Russian regular army in Siberia throughout the eighteenth century. When examining the personnel lists of the garrison regiments of the Siberian Inspectorate in the late eighteenth century, the author identified representatives of about twenty military families, whose ancestors were natives of Siberia in the first half and middle of the century; for an earlier period, almost fifteen families were also discovered, whose representatives served in the garrison troops to the east of the Urals for practically the entire eighteenth century. Analysis of the data contained in the sources shows that a significant proportion of these officers were descendants of serving people: Siberian nobles, deti boyarskie (minor nobility), and Cossacks. Also encountered among them were descendants of merchants and foreigners who came to Siberia for military service. A network of marital ties among hereditary military personnel, which as a rule did not extend beyond the army milieu, can also be recognized as a characteristic phenomenon. The stability of the social ties possessed by representatives of officer dynasties is confirmed by their lifelong attachment to the Siberian towns and districts from which they originated, including during both military and civil service after retirement. With the disbandment of garrison units as a separate branch of the military within the structure of the regular army of the Russian Empire in the early nineteenth century, these family dynasties did not continue. However, for the eighteenth century, there are grounds to argue that such a group of persons of unprivileged origin should be distinguished from the ‘military estate’ in the structure of the country’s population and considered separately both from ordinary soldiers and from the officer corps of the field units of the Russian army. In this connection, the author raises the question of whether this phenomenon was characteristic only of the territory of Siberia, or whether similar family groups of people, connected by heredity with military service in garrison units, could also have formed in other regions of the Russian Empire. It is concluded that to answer this question, it is necessary to study the personnel composition of the officer corps of the garrison troops in the European part of the country.

AB - This article studies the phenomenon of hereditary dynasties of military personnel holding officer ranks who served in garrison units of the Russian regular army in Siberia throughout the eighteenth century. When examining the personnel lists of the garrison regiments of the Siberian Inspectorate in the late eighteenth century, the author identified representatives of about twenty military families, whose ancestors were natives of Siberia in the first half and middle of the century; for an earlier period, almost fifteen families were also discovered, whose representatives served in the garrison troops to the east of the Urals for practically the entire eighteenth century. Analysis of the data contained in the sources shows that a significant proportion of these officers were descendants of serving people: Siberian nobles, deti boyarskie (minor nobility), and Cossacks. Also encountered among them were descendants of merchants and foreigners who came to Siberia for military service. A network of marital ties among hereditary military personnel, which as a rule did not extend beyond the army milieu, can also be recognized as a characteristic phenomenon. The stability of the social ties possessed by representatives of officer dynasties is confirmed by their lifelong attachment to the Siberian towns and districts from which they originated, including during both military and civil service after retirement. With the disbandment of garrison units as a separate branch of the military within the structure of the regular army of the Russian Empire in the early nineteenth century, these family dynasties did not continue. However, for the eighteenth century, there are grounds to argue that such a group of persons of unprivileged origin should be distinguished from the ‘military estate’ in the structure of the country’s population and considered separately both from ordinary soldiers and from the officer corps of the field units of the Russian army. In this connection, the author raises the question of whether this phenomenon was characteristic only of the territory of Siberia, or whether similar family groups of people, connected by heredity with military service in garrison units, could also have formed in other regions of the Russian Empire. It is concluded that to answer this question, it is necessary to study the personnel composition of the officer corps of the garrison troops in the European part of the country.

KW - Russian regular army

KW - Siberia

KW - family dynasties

KW - garrison units

KW - history of Russia in the eighteenth century

KW - officer corps

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105052736129

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/57333d29-0423-39b4-ad43-0a2250526a6f/

U2 - 10.15826/qr.2026.3.1086

DO - 10.15826/qr.2026.3.1086

M3 - Article

VL - 14

SP - 775

EP - 790

JO - Quaestio Rossica

JF - Quaestio Rossica

SN - 2311-911X

IS - 3

M1 - 3

ER -