The article looks at the civil service as an occupation from the neo- Weberian perspective aiming to analyze specifics of the professionalization of the bureaucrats. Based on the results of the semi-structural interviews with Russian civil servants a conclusion was made that as far as civil service as an occupation exists only within the federal and regional government bodies in Russia, this limitation makes it difficult for civil servants to form professional associations to provide professional autonomy, to restrain practices of social closure thus complicating emergence of a positive image of the profession.