Government bureaucracies are now among the most important political institutions worldwide. This original study provides the first fully documented analysis of the behavior of Russian bureaucrats from tsarist times to the present, shedding invaluable light on the relatively neglected topic of Russia's public administration. The author traces the development of the bureaucracy, the culture and work style of the bureaucrats, continuities from regime to regime, and the bureaucracy's remarkable ability to resist change. The book concludes with a discussion of the immense barriers the bureaucracy poses to Russian normalization and democratization, as well as prospects for significant reform under Putin.