The Tsarist bureaucracy, in addition to the military, judiciary and Orthodox Christian Church, played a major role in solidifying and maintaining the rule of the Tsar. As the forces of change brought on by the Industrial Revolution propelled many countries, especially in Europe, to significant social changes. Due to the conservative nature of the Tsarist regime and its desire to maintain power and control, social change in Russia lagged behind that of Europe.
Russia's bureaucrats were nicknamed chinovniki because of the rank or chin they held. Contrary to popular imagination, Tsarist Russia was an under-governed country compared to the rest of Europe.
In 1718, Peter the Great investigated why the ex-Swedish province of Livonia was so orderly. He discovered that the Swedes spent as much administering Livonia (300 times smaller than his empire) as he spent on the entire Russian bureaucracy. He was forced to dismantle the province's government.
Peter tried to pay his officials in money instead of living off the land (banned in 1714) and by bribery. In practice he only paid the Moscow and St Petersburg officials and in 1723 he used a quarter of the administration budget to pay off the deficit. Overall, Peter spent less than 4% of the Russian budget on administration.
In 1722, Peter created the Table of Ranks, a list of 14 ranks for the court, military and civil service. It was supposed to make the government meritocratic but was soon corrupted.
Catherine the Great bought the support of the bureaucracy for her power seizure. From 19 April 1764, any bureaucrat who had held the same rank for seven years or more got instantly promoted. On 13 September 1767 Catherine decreed that after seven years in one rank, civil servants would be automatically promoted regardless of office or merit.
Catherine changed the ecclesiastic provinces so they matched the administrative boundaries, thus increasing the bureaucracy's control over the church.
Originally, getting to rank eight brought hereditary nobility. This was changed to rank five in 1845, four after 1856. This was to stop the dilution of the nobility with careerists.