From clientage structure to a new social group: the formation of the group of public servants in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late eighteenth century

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Lietuvos istorija; Socialinė istorija; Socialinės grupės; Valstybės tarnautojai; The Lithuanian history; Social history; Social groups; Public servants.

ENDuring the early modern period, it became increasingly difficult for European nobles to uphold their traditional medieval role as defenders of society: they farmed landed estates, resided in towns, served other nobles or took up public service (for instance as judges). This tendency affected the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as early as the sixteenth century. Educated persons, who can be referred to as civil or public servants, formed the pillar of the developing system.of judicial, political, diplomatic and educational administration through the eighteenth century. Their importance increased gradually at the expense of traditional patron-client relations. The reforms of public administration in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the eighteenth century were related to these wider social changes. The establishment in 1764 of permanent fiscal and military administrative commissions in both the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania opened the ladder of public service to nobles of middling fortune, while the creation of the Permanent Council of the Commonwealth in 1775 facilitated the formation of a group of public servants within the nobility. Further reforms during the Four Years Sejm included the opening of some offices to townsmen. This chapter asks: can the emergent community of public servants in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania be considered a separate social group? It is addressed on the basis of prosopographical research, using the criteria of interaction, membership and identity. [Extract, p. 148]