The nobility of Simbirsk Governorate at the end of the 18th - the first half of the 19th century

The goal of the paper is to analyze the socio-economic situation of the Simbirsk Governorate nobility in the late 18th - first half of the 19th century. The authors have characterized the dynamics of the number of nobles in Simbirsk Governorate (in comparison with indicators of Kazan Governorate and the Penza Governorate). The nobility is divided into two groups - hereditary and personal. The authors reveal the position of both groups in the structure of the estate in Simbirsk Governorate and other Middle Volga governorates and trace the dynamics of this indicator. It is noted that hereditary nobility prevailed in Simbirsk Governorate during the study period, although its specific gravity decreased. Another trend was the «bureaucracy». The authors have shown the heterogeneity of the nobility in the region in terms of soul ownership (stratification by this criterion is the most justified). Within the studied class, the highest, middle and lower strata are distinguished. The analysis of the highest stratum composition made it possible for the authors to identify the nobles who were distinguished by the highest level of well-being (P.I. Myatleva, V.P. Orlov-Davydov, A.M. Potemkin, A.S. Urusova, the Rodionovs). The authors come to the conclusion that there was a distribution of landlord estates pledge and their auctioning in the first half of the 19th century. This should be considered evidence of the impoverishment of the nobility on the eve of the Emancipation Reform.