Падение барьеров на пути к офицерскому чину: офицерский корпус русского флота накануне и в годы Первой мировой войны
Falling barriers to officer’s commision: the officer corps of the Russian Navy before and during the World War I.

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the composition of the officer corps of the Russian navy in the period 1905– 1917 and its corporate essence. It is specified that access to the various categories of the navy officer ranks (eg navy corps) was limited to varying degrees, as prestigiousness of corps of the navy was different. The most prestigious was the category of Executive or Military Branch officers of the navy, less prestigious was a group of personnel of Engineering Branch, shipbuilders and hydrography. Still lower were the officers of the Admiralty, that bare, as a rule, the service on the coast. The lowest level of officers were officers of Reserve, not despite the fact that they could serve as line officers or mechanical engineers. The position of officers of naval aviation was not clear yet, since this category appeared only during the World War I. The most difficult was the access to the corps of Executive officers who were trained in the Naval Cadet Corps or in a Independent Midshipman classes. More accessible for people from the lower classes was Marine Engineering College, that graduated mechanical engineers and shipbuilders. During the World War I several schools for accelerated training of officers out of civilian mariners and graduates of secondary schools were opened. The February Revolution led to the cancellation of a number of restrictions and privileges, and a part of the partitions in the officer corps has been removed. However, only after the October Revolution the old barriers to officer rank finally fell.

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