Provincial Secretary

Provincial Secretary - since 1884, the rank of only wartime.
In peacetime, college registrars wore such insignia

The provincial secretary is a state class rank of 13th grade in the Table of Ranks in the Russian Empire .

It was introduced during the reform of the territorial structure of Russia in 1708 in accordance with the imperial decree of December 18, after the introduction of the Table of Ranks, it belonged to the 13th class of the Table, its status was lower than the provincial secretary and higher than the college registrar , it was titled “Your Honor”. During his existence, according to this order, the private nobility complained. The name of the rank came from the post of secretary, who headed the office in the provincial government, with the governor . By the third quarter of the 18th century, the rank gradually began to turn into a universal one, not related to a specific position, but after the post of provincial secretary was abolished as a result of the reform of 1775, it quickly went out of use, they began to produce provincial secretaries “through the class”, directly from the ranks of the XIV class. By the second quarter of the 19th century, only mountain officials remained from the ranks of the 13th-class state, since until 1845 they gave their owners the rights of hereditary nobility (and then personal and not hereditary honorary citizenship), and mining engineers did not want to lose this privilege. Since 1884, this rank, like the rank of army ensign, was used only in wartime. The buttonhole or shoulder strap of an official had one clearance and one asterisk with a diameter of 11.2 mm., The emblem (fittings) of the service department was also attached there.