Educational and professional level of the directors of Nizhyn district court in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century.

This article is aimed at characterizing the professional qualification of the directors of Nizhyn district court and their colleagues during the institution's operation from 1874 to 1918. The article analyzes the legislation in the field of personnel support of the empire, from the normative legal acts of the first half of 18th century and ending with the Judicial Statutes of 1864. The main requirements for the level of education of officials are clarified. The steps of the state that led to a complete change of the judicial system, the level of professionalism of judiciary and the attitude of society towards the newly created institutions are characterized. The research methodology is based on the principles of science and historicism. The application of prosopographic, historical and comparative methods made it possible to analyze the requirements of the state for the professional level of the official apparatus, to find out the level of training of the directors of Nizhyn district court. It has been established that judicial reform would not have been possible without the introduction of a system of educational institutions during the first half of the 19th century. And although there was a lack of personnel with higher education in the beginning of the implementation of the reform, the state managed to successfully allocate the most capable employees to the judicial department. As a result of this situation, officials were often transferred from one court location to another. As a result, during their career they managed to work in many provinces, holding various positions in court chambers and district courts. There were nine people in the post of head of Nizhyn district court, and seven people in the position of deputy head. All of them had a higher legal education (except for three leaders, about whom there is no evidence). Their careers were studied, on the basis of which it was established that they devoted their whole lives to the work of the judicial department. During their work at the court, they worked in almost all positions, as a candidate for a position, a court investigator, a deputy prosecutor, a member of the court. As a result, they had fundamental knowledge and practical skills of all judicial specialties of that time.