Relevance. The place of St. Petersburg University of the imperial period in Russian history was not determined solely by scientific, educational and enlightening functions. From the material of many studies, one can see that the University played an important role both as a center of the struggle for the autonomy of higher education and as a place of attraction for revolutionary students. However, one of the unobvious aspects of the University's activity was left without proper research attention, namely, its participation in the preparation of the bureaucracy. Method or methodology. In order to partially fill the existing void, we applied the method of statistical analysis and prosopography to show how the basic characteristics of the bureaucracy had being changed. We also used the probability sampling method to study the part of the faculty's staff that entered the civil service (ministries and the State Council). Results. Due to this approach, we managed to educe the fact, that the quantitative and qualita