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T
Table of Ranks
The commonly used name for a system that
classified the Russian gentry in a hierarchy of
seniority according to their service to the state,
the Table of Ranks was first introduced by
PETER
I
the Great in 1722, who drafted it in collabora-
tion with his adviser Andrei
OSTERMANN
. With
modifications over the next two centuries, it
served as the organizing principle for the Rus-
sian army and bureaucracy until 1917. Formally
known as the “Law about the State Service
Order in the Russian Empire,” the Table of Ranks
organized military (army and navy), court, and
civilian service in 14 parallel grades where each
rank in one service had a corresponding rank in
the other two. The first class was the highest
rank and the 14th was the lowest. In theory,
every official entering the three categories of
state service began at the 14th rank and worked
his way up the ladder through merit or length of
service. Peter intended for the system to be open
to advancement of gentry as well as nongentry
officials. In the military ranks, officials in the 14
categories were given the status of hereditary
nobility, while in the civilian and court ranks,
only the top eight ranks assured hereditary
nobility status, with the lower six awarding the
right to personal nobility that could not be trans-
ferred to one's children. Although Peter's Table
of Ranks resembled existing systems in Euro-
pean countries such as Prussia and Denmark, it
was a significant departure for a society that had
abolished a cumbersome system of social prece-
dence (
mestnichestvo
) only 40 years before, espe-
cially with its emphasis on merit over social birth
the basis for promotion. In an attempt to restrict
entry into the nobility, in 1845 personal nobility
was granted only when reaching the ninth level
rather than the 14th.
Tal, Mikhail
(1936-1992)
chess player
A daring, intuitive player who held the world
chess championship from 1960 to 1961 with a
style that went against the stereotype of the
machinelike Soviet school of the 1950s and
influenced a younger generation of Soviet chess
players. Tal was born in Riga, the capital of
Latvia, which during most of his lifetime was a
part of the Soviet Union. At the age of eight he
started playing chess with the Young Pioneers'
chess club in Riga. Five years later he was taking
private lessons with Alexander Koblencs, one of
the leading Latvian players. Tal followed his first
major victory, the 1953 Latvian championship,
with back-to-back victories at the Soviet
national championship in 1957 and 1958, dur-
ing which time he also gained international
grand master status. Tal's emergence energized
the Soviet chess world, which for the previous
decade or so had been dominated by Mikhail
BOTVINNIK
and his methodical, even scientific
style of play, which had been elevated to the sta-
tus of chess orthodoxy by the Soviet chess
bureaucracy. In 1959, Tal won the international
candidates' tournament held in Yugoslavia to
choose the player who had the right to challenge
Botvinnik for the world title. The match for the
title began in 1960 with a quick victory by Tal in
the first game. After 21 matches, Tal won the
requisite six matches with only three defeats to
unseat Botvinnik. At the age of 23, Tal became
the youngest world champion ever, a record he
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