The article is devoted to a comprehensive description of the pension system in the Russian Empire in the 19th - early years of the XX centuries. The foundations of this system were laid by the Pension Statute of 1827. The general pension statute was supplemented by numerous provisions on pensions for "special branches of service", more favorable for their recipients both in terms of the amount of payments and the length of service of the pension. Already by the middle of the nineteenth century it became clear that the pension provision for the bulk of officers and civil officials was insufficient, due to the lag of pensions (according to the categories of the Pension Statute, as well as the salaries of officers) from the growth of salaries received in the service. As a partial compensation for the inadequacy of pensions from the late 1850s emerital cash desks appeared, first in the Naval and Military Departments, and then in some civilian ones. Emerital pensions supplemented state pension provision. For some (relatively small) part of the military personnel, there were also pensions and benefits issued by state and semi-state charitable institutions and organizations (Alexandrovsky Committee on the Wounded, Skobelevsky Committee, etc.). There was also a Charity Committee for Honored Civil Officials. These institutions and organizations provided assistance only to retired officers and officials who had no means of subsistence. The practice of applying the Pension Statute also included the appointment of "reinforced pensions". This practice was quite widespread in the civilian department, but was relatively rare in the military. Starting from the 2nd half of the 19th century the pension system began to extend to employees of zemstvo institutions and teachers of public schools. This provision was carried out at the expense of special emerital (pension) funds. The Orthodox parish clergy received state pensions, as well as pensions from diocesan emeritus funds. The main drawback of the pension system of the Russian Empire was the lack of necessary reforms.
