XI International Conference of the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia
10th-14th July 2023
Rebecca Gigli (Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria), "«Тогда я еще любил службу, как любовницу»: Career, Service and Duty in the Autobiographical Narrative of I. M. Dolgorukov (1764‒1823)"
Service played a pivotal role in the life of an 18th-century Russian noble. Despite the abolition of the obligation to serve the emperor with the Manifesto of Peter III (“Манифест о вольности дворянства”, 18th February (1st March] 1762), a successful career in the service of the state or in the army continued to be one of the main aspirations for representatives of the Russian nobility. In fact, the aim of this paper is the analysis of the role of service and career in the life and in the autobiographical narrative of I. M. Dolgorukov (1764‒1823), an interesting representative of the Russian nobility of the period. In particular, the present study focuses on his autobiography Повесть о рождении моем, происхождении и всей жизни. In the latter, the author gives an interesting representation of the 18th-century imperial service and its bureaucracy. While starting to serve in the army, I. M. Dolgorukov subsequently chose to pursue an administrative career. However, his hopes of success were soon shattered by a reality where corruption, patronage, favouritism, and family ties dominated. All this turns into a leitmotif in this author’s autobiographical writing and the themes of service, duty and career are transformed into one of his “means” of creating his own “positive myth of himself” to be left to posterity. In particular, faced with the failures of his career, in his autobiography I. M. Dolgorukov presents himself as a faithful and loyal servant of the emperor who is persecuted by lies and enemies.
