Creation of boards year Peter 1. Establishment of boards

A decree was issued on the creation of collegiums

December 11 (22), 1717 the royal decree “Onstaff of the Collegiums and the time of their opening,” which marked the beginning of the reform of central government bodies. The boards were headed by presidents and vice-presidents. The decree noted: “Starting from the new year, all presidents should begin to create their own Collegiums and departments from everywhere, and not get involved in business until 1719.”g., and from next year, of course, we will begin to manage our own Collegiums. And since they haven’t managed it in a new way yet, for the sake of 1719g. manage the old manir, and 1720 g. - new."

The boards replaced the orders that existed in Muscovite Rus' in XVI - XVII centuries, and in comparison with them had a clearer division of responsibilities. Initially, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, Chamber, Justice, Revision, Military, Admiralty, Commerce, State Office, Berg and Manufacture Collegiums were organized.

The competence of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, which replaced the Ambassadorial Chancellery, included managing “all foreign and embassy affairs”, coordinating the activities of diplomatic agents, managing relations and negotiations with foreign ambassadors, and carrying out diplomatic correspondence. The peculiarity of the board was that “no court cases are judged” in it.

The chamber board exercised supreme supervision over all types of fees (customs, drinking, etc.), monitored arable farming, collected data on the market and prices, and controlled salt mines and coinage.

The Justice Collegium exercised judicial functions in criminal, civil and fiscal cases, headed an extensive judicial system consisting of provincial lower and city courts, as well as court courts, and acted as a court of first instance in controversial cases.

The Audit Board was instructed to exercise financial control over the use of public funds by central and local authorities “for the sake of fair correction and audit of all accounting matters in receipts and expenditures.”

The Military Collegium was entrusted with managing “all military affairs”: recruiting the regular army, managing the affairs of the Cossacks, setting up hospitals, and supplying the army. The Military Collegium system contained military justice, consisting of regimental and general Kriegsrechts.

The Admiralty Board was in charge of “the fleet with all naval military servants, including maritime affairs and administrations.” It included the Naval and Admiralty Chancelleries, as well as the Uniform, Waldmeister, Academic, Canal Offices and the Particular Shipyard.

The Commerce Board promoted the development of all branches of trade, especially foreign trade. The board carried out customs supervision, drew up customs regulations and tariffs, monitored the correctness of weights and measures, was engaged in the construction and equipment of merchant ships, and performed judicial functions.

The State Office Collegium exercised control over government spending and constituted the state staff (the staff of the emperor, the staff of all boards, provinces, and provinces). It had its own provincial bodies - renterii, which were local treasuries.

Berg College until 1722was united with the Manufactory Collegium “due to the similarity of their affairs and responsibilities.” The responsibilities of the Berg Collegium included issues of the metallurgical industry, the management of mints and monetary yards, the purchase of gold and silver abroad, and judicial functions within its competence. The Manufactory Board dealt with issues of the entire industry, excluding mining, and managed the manufactories of the Moscow province, the central and northeastern part of the Volga region and Siberia.

Number and competence of boards during XVIII V. changed several times. At first there were nine boards, then their number was increased to twelve. The presidents of the boards were such famous figures of the Petrine era as A.D. Menshikov, G. AND. Golovkin, F.M.Apraksin, Ya. F. Dolgoruky and others.

In 1802 the collegiums were replaced by ministries, and part of the building in which they were locatedtransferred to the Main Pedagogical University, which in 1819was transformed into St. Petersburg University.

Lit.: Anisimov E. B. State transformations and autocracy of Peter the Great in the first quarter XVIII century. St. Petersburg, 1997; Isaev AND. A. History of state and law of Russia. M., 2006; Peskova G. N., Turilova S. L. Collegium of Foreign Affairs in XVIII V. // Diplomatic Bulletin. 2001. No. 2 .

See also in the Presidential Library:

Behrendts E. N. Baron A. H. f. Lyuberas and his note on the structure of colleges in Russia. St. Petersburg, 1891;

Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire, since 1649. St. Petersburg, 1830. T. 5 (1713-1719). No. 3129. P. 525;

Sakovich> V. A. State control in Russia, its history and modern structure in connection with the presentation of the budget system, cash order and state reporting structure. Part 1. St. Petersburg, 1896. Ch. 1 .

Senate and its functions

At the next stage, the king organized the Senate as the main government body in the country.

Political reforms of Peter I

This happened in 1711. The Senate has become one of the key bodies in governing the country, with the broadest powers, which include the following:

• Legislative activity
• Administrative activities
• Judicial functions in the country

Creation of boards

Secret Chancery

Regional reform

• Moscow
• Smolenskaya
• Kyiv
• Azovskaya
• Kazanskaya
• Arkhangelogorodskaya
• Simbirskaya

Each province was governed by a governor. He was appointed personally by the king. All administrative, judicial and military power was concentrated in the hands of the governor. Since the provinces were quite large in size, they were divided into districts. Later the counties were renamed provinces.

Church reform

A. Renewal of government. Bureaucratic apparatus. Supreme authorities

What facts indicate the need

economic reforms in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century?

2. What new features did the economic sphere acquire during the reign of Peter the Great?

3. Is there a connection between economic and social changes in the country (using the example of the reforms of Peter the Great)?

Question 26. State and administrative reforms of Peter I

ANSWER PLAN:

A. Renewal of government. Bureaucratic apparatus. Higher authorities.

B. Creation of boards. Local authorities.

B. Church reform.

D. Procedure for serving. Table of ranks.

D. Military reforms.

1. Under Peter I, a new state apparatus was created. The reform of government bodies was largely dictated by the war, since the old state machine could not cope with the increasingly complex tasks and new functions. When implementing the new government system, Peter relied on the works of European scientists on the theory of state, and also borrowed something from the practice of European states, in particular Sweden.

2. The king believed that he knew what the happiness of the state consisted of, and that his will was the law. He wrote in one of the decrees: “Our people are like children for the sake of ignorance, who will never learn the alphabet when they are not forced by the master, who at first seem annoyed, but when they learn, then they thank ...” Therefore, Peter began fulfilling his will by updating the administrative apparatus.

3. First of all, Peter I stopped consulting with the Boyar Duma, and in 1701 created a “consultation of ministers” of 8 proxies. The last mention of the Boyar Duma dates back to 1704. A certain mode of work was established in the council, each minister had special powers, reporting and minutes of meetings appeared, i.e., management was bureaucratized. In 1711, Peter I established the Governing Senate, which replaced the Boyar Duma. It was the supreme governing body of the country, consisting of nine people appointed by the king. The Senate controlled judicial, financial, military, foreign, and trade affairs, but all legislative power belonged to the king.

Question 20. State reforms of Peter 1.

Decisions by senators were made collectively. Fiscal positions were introduced in the center and locally, who identified facts of violation of decrees, bribery and reported this to the Senate and the Tsar. But in 1722, the tsar organized control over the Senate itself: the prosecutor general and his assistants monitored the work of the Senate.

2. In 1707-1711. The local government system was changed. Russia was divided into 8 provinces headed by governors. They had enormous power: they were in charge of collecting taxes, justice, and recruiting recruits. The provinces were divided, in turn, into 50 provinces headed by a governor, and the provinces into counties (districts). City magistrates collected taxes from the population and judged the citizens. The urban population was divided into “regular” (haves) and “irregular” (have-nots).

3. The main role in the management system was played by Tsar Peter I. For example, the military oath spoke of the obligation to serve the Tsar, and not Russia. Peter was the highest legislative and judicial authority. A personal royal office was created - the Cabinet, which prepared cases for reports to Peter. Acceptance of the title by Peter I in 1721 emperor was an expression and confirmation of absolutism that had become established in Russia.

Read also:

Reforms of Peter 1

The sage avoids all extremes.

The reforms of Peter 1 are his main and key activities, which were aimed at changing not only the political, but also the social life of Russian society. According to Pyotr Alekseevich, Russia was very far behind Western countries in its development. This confidence of the king was further strengthened after he conducted the great embassy. Trying to transform the country, Peter 1 changed almost all aspects of the life of the Russian state, which had developed over centuries.

What was the central government reform?

The reform of central government was one of Peter's first reforms. It should be noted that this reformation lasted a long time, since it was based on the need to completely restructure the work of Russian authorities.

Peter I's reforms in the field of central government began back in 1699. At the initial stage, this change affected only the Boyar Duma, which was renamed the Near Chancellery. With this step, the Russian Tsar alienated the boyars from power and allowed power to be concentrated in a chancellery that was more pliable and loyal to him. This was an important step that required priority implementation, since it allowed the centralization of government of the country.

Senate and its functions

At the next stage, the king organized the Senate as the main government body in the country. This happened in 1711. The Senate has become one of the key bodies in governing the country, with the broadest powers, which include the following:

• Legislative activity
• Administrative activities
• Judicial functions in the country
• Control functions over other bodies

The Senate consisted of 9 people. These were representatives of noble families, or people whom Peter himself elevated. In this form, the Senate existed until 1722, when the emperor approved the position of prosecutor general, who controlled the legality of the activities of the Senate. Before this, this body was independent and did not bear any responsibility.

Creation of boards

The reform of central government continued in 1718. It took the reformer tsar three whole years (1718-1720) to get rid of the last legacy of his predecessors - orders. All orders in the country were abolished and collegiums took their place. There was no actual difference between the boards and orders, but in order to radically change the administrative apparatus, Peter went through with this transformation. In total, the following bodies were created:

• Collegium of Foreign Affairs. She was in charge of the state's foreign policy.
• Military Collegium. She was engaged in ground forces.
• Admiralty College. Controlled the Russian navy.
• Office of Justice. She handled litigation matters, including civil and criminal cases.
• Berg College. It controlled the country's mining industry, as well as factories for this industry.
• Manufactory Collegium. She was involved in the entire manufacturing industry of Russia.

In fact, only one difference between boards and orders can be identified. If in the latter the decision was always made by one person, then after the reform all decisions were made collectively. Of course, not many people decided, but the leader always had several advisers. They helped me make the right decision. After the introduction of the new system, a special system was developed to control the activities of the boards. For these purposes, the General Regulations were created. It was not general, but was published for each board in accordance with its specific work.

Secret Chancery

Peter created a secret office in the country that dealt with state crimes. This office replaced the Preobrazhensky order, which dealt with the same issues. It was a specific government body that was not subordinate to anyone except Peter the Great. In fact, with the help of the secret chancellery, the emperor maintained order in the country.

Decree on unity of inheritance. Table of ranks.

The decree on unified inheritance was signed by the Russian Tsar in 1714. Its essence boiled down, among other things, to the fact that the courtyards that belonged to the boyar and noble estates were completely equalized. Thus, Peter pursued one single goal - to equalize the nobility of all levels that were represented in the country. This ruler is known for the fact that he could bring a person without a family closer to him. After signing this law, he could give each of them what they deserved.

This reform continued in 1722. Peter introduced the Table of Ranks. In fact, this document equalized rights in public service for aristocrats of any origin. This Table divided the entire public service into two large categories: civil and military. Regardless of the type of service, all government ranks were divided into 14 ranks (classes). They included all key positions, from simple performers to managers.

All ranks were divided into the following categories:

• 14-9 levels. An official who was in these ranks received the nobility and peasants into his possession. The only restriction was that such a noble could use the property, but not dispose of it as property. In addition, the estate could not be inherited.
• 8 – 1 level. This was the highest administration, which not only became the nobility and received full control of the estates, as well as serfs, but also received the opportunity to transfer their property by inheritance.

Regional reform

The reforms of Peter 1 affected many areas of the state’s life, including the work of local government bodies. The regional reform of Russia had been planned for a long time, but was carried out by Peter in 1708. It completely changed the work of the local government apparatus. The whole country was divided into separate provinces, of which there were 8 in total:

• Moscow
• Ingermanlandskaya (later renamed Petersburgskaya)
• Smolenskaya
• Kyiv
• Azovskaya
• Kazanskaya
• Arkhangelogorodskaya
• Simbirskaya

Each province was governed by a governor. He was appointed personally by the king. All administrative, judicial and military power was concentrated in the hands of the governor.

Name the 11 colleges of Peter 1 and their functions

Since the provinces were quite large in size, they were divided into districts. Later the counties were renamed provinces.

The total number of provinces in Russia in 1719 was 50. The provinces were governed by voivodes, who directed military power. As a result, the governor's power was somewhat curtailed, since the new regional reform took away all military power from them.

City government reform

Changes at the local government level prompted the king to reorganize the system of government in the cities. This was an important issue as the urban population increased annually. For example, by the end of Peter’s life, there were already 350 thousand people living in cities, who belonged to different classes and estates. This required the creation of bodies that would work with each class in the city. As a result, a reform of city government was carried out.

Special attention in this reform was paid to the townspeople. Previously, their affairs were handled by governors. The new reform transferred power over this class into the hands of the Chamber of Burmisters. It was an elected body of power located in Moscow, and locally this chamber was represented by individual mayors. Only in 1720 was the Chief Magistrate created, which was responsible for control functions regarding the activities of the mayors.

It should be noted that the reforms of Peter 1 in the field of urban management introduced clear distinctions between ordinary citizens, who were divided into “regular” and “vile”. The former belonged to the highest inhabitants of the city, and the latter to the lower classes. These categories were not clear cut. For example, “regular townspeople” were divided into: rich merchants (doctors, pharmacists and others), as well as ordinary artisans and traders. All “regulars” enjoyed great support from the state, which provided them with various benefits.

The urban reform was quite effective, but it had a clear bias towards wealthy citizens who received maximum state support. Thus, the king created a situation in which life became somewhat easier for the cities, and in response, the most influential and wealthy citizens supported the government.

Church reform

The reforms of Peter 1 did not bypass the church. In fact, the new transformations finally subordinated the church to the state. This reform actually began in 1700, with the death of Patriarch Adrian. Peter forbade holding elections for a new patriarch. The reason was quite convincing - Russia entered the Northern War, which means that electoral and church affairs can wait for better times. Stefan Yavorsky was appointed to temporarily fulfill the duties of Patriarch of Moscow.

The most significant changes in the life of the church began after the end of the war with Sweden in 1721. The reform of the church came down to the following main steps:

• The institution of the patriarchate was completely eliminated; from now on there should be no such position in the church
• The Church was losing its independence. From now on, all its affairs were managed by the Spiritual College, created specifically for these purposes.

The spiritual college existed for less than a year. It was replaced by a new body of state power - the Most Holy Governing Synod. It consisted of clergy who were personally appointed by the Emperor of Russia. In fact, from that time on, the church was finally subordinated to the state, and its management was actually carried out by the emperor himself through the Synod. To carry out control functions over the activities of the synod, the position of chief prosecutor was introduced. This was an official whom the emperor himself also appointed.

Peter saw the role of the church in the life of the state in the fact that it had to teach the peasants to respect and honor the tsar (emperor). As a result, laws were even developed that obliged priests to conduct special conversations with peasants, convincing them to obey their ruler in everything.

The significance of Peter's reforms

The reforms of Peter 1 actually completely changed the order of life in Russia. Some of the reforms actually brought a positive effect, while others created negative preconditions. For example, the reform of local government led to a sharp increase in the number of officials, as a result of which corruption and embezzlement in the country literally went off scale.

In general, the reforms of Peter 1 had the following meaning:

• The power of the state was strengthened.
• The upper classes of society were actually equal in opportunities and rights. Thus, the boundaries between classes were erased.
• Complete subordination of the church to state power.

The results of the reforms cannot be clearly identified, since they had many negative aspects, but you can learn about this from our special material.

Collegiums of the Russian Empire

Reasons for the formation of boards

Evolution of the collegium system

Collegium structure:

1. First

· Military

· Admiralty Board

· Foreign Affairs

2. Commercial and industrial

· Commerce Collegium (trading)

3. Financial

· Justice Collegium

· Patrimonial Collegium

General Regulations

Work of the boards

The Senate participated in the appointment of presidents and vice-presidents of the colleges (the opinion of the emperor was taken into account when appointing the president).

Collegiums under Peter I

In addition to them, the new bodies included: four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary (a clerical employee who registers acts or composes them), a registrar, a translator, and clerks.

Meetings of the boards were held daily, except Sundays and holidays.

They began at 6 or 8 o'clock in the morning, depending on the time of year, and lasted 5 hours.

The meaning of boards

The creation of the collegium system completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. A clear distribution of departmental functions, uniform standards of activity (according to the General Regulations) - all this significantly distinguished the new apparatus from the order system.

Disadvantages of the work of boards

Collegiums of the Russian Empire

Collegiums are the central bodies of sectoral management in the Russian Empire, formed in the Peter the Great era to replace the system of orders that had lost its significance. Collegiums existed until 1802, when they were replaced by ministries.

Reasons for the formation of boards

In 1718 - 1719, the previous state bodies were liquidated and replaced with new ones, more suitable for the young Russia of Peter the Great.

The formation of the Senate in 1711 served as a signal for the formation of sectoral management bodies - collegiums. According to the plan of Peter I, they were supposed to replace the clumsy system of orders and introduce two new principles into management:

1. Systematic division of departments (orders often replaced each other, performing the same function, which introduced chaos into management. Other functions were not covered at all by any order proceedings).

2. Deliberative procedure for resolving cases.

The form of the new central government bodies was borrowed from Sweden and Germany. The basis for the regulations of the boards was Swedish legislation.

Evolution of the collegium system

Already in 1712, an attempt was made to establish a Trade Board with the participation of foreigners. In Germany and other European countries, experienced lawyers and officials were recruited to work in Russian government agencies. The Swedish colleges were considered the best in Europe, and they were taken as a model.

The collegium system, however, began to take shape only at the end of 1717. “Breaking down” the order system overnight turned out to be no easy task, so one-time abolition had to be abandoned. Orders were either absorbed by the collegiums or subordinated to them (for example, the Justice Collegium included seven orders).

Collegium structure:

1. First

· Military

· Admiralty Board

· Foreign Affairs

2. Commercial and industrial

· Berg College (industry)

· Manufactory Collegium (mining)

· Commerce Collegium (trading)

3. Financial

· Chamber Collegium (government revenue management: appointment of persons in charge of the collection of state revenue, establishment and abolition of taxes, compliance with equality between taxes depending on the level of income)

· Staff Office Collegium (maintaining government expenditures and compiling staff for all departments)

· Audit board (budgetary)

· Justice Collegium

· Patrimonial Collegium

· Chief Magistrate (coordinated the work of all magistrates and was the court of appeal for them)

Collegial government existed until 1802, when the “Manifesto on the Establishment of Ministries” laid the foundation for a more progressive ministerial system.

General Regulations

The activities of the boards were determined by the General Regulations, approved by Peter I on February 28, 1720 (lost their significance with the publication of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire).

The full name of this normative act is: “General regulations or statutes, according to which state colleges, as well as all of the offices and offices belonging to them, servants, not only in external and internal institutions, but also in the exercise of their rank, are subject to act.”

The General Regulations introduced a system of office work, called “collegiate” after the name of a new type of institution - collegiums. The collegial method of decision-making through the presence of a collegium has acquired a dominant role in these institutions. Peter I paid special attention to this form of decision-making, noting that “all the best arrangements happen through councils” (Chapter 2 of the General Regulations “On the advantage of boards”).

Work of the boards

The Senate participated in the appointment of presidents and vice-presidents of the colleges (the opinion of the emperor was taken into account when appointing the president). In addition to them, the new bodies included: four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary (a clerical employee who registers acts or composes them), a registrar, a translator, and clerks.

The president was the first person in the board, but he could not decide anything without the consent of the members of the board. The Vice President stood in for the President during his absence; usually helped him in fulfilling his duties as chairman of the board.

Meetings of the boards were held daily, except Sundays and holidays. They began at 6 or 8 o'clock in the morning, depending on the time of year, and lasted 5 hours.

Materials for the boards were prepared in the Office of the board, from where they were transmitted to the General Presence of the board, where they were discussed and adopted by a majority vote. Issues on which the collegium could not make a decision were transferred to the Senate - the only institution to which the collegiums were subordinate.

Each board had a prosecutor, whose duty was to monitor the correct and smooth resolution of cases in the board and the execution of decrees by both the board and the structures subordinate to it.

The secretary becomes the central figure of the office. He was responsible for organizing the paperwork of the board, preparing cases for hearing, reporting cases at the board meeting, conducting reference work on cases, drawing up decisions and monitoring their implementation, and keeping the seal of the board.

The meaning of boards

The creation of the collegium system completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus.

Reforms of Peter 1

A clear distribution of departmental functions, uniform standards of activity (according to the General Regulations) - all this significantly distinguished the new apparatus from the order system.

Disadvantages of the work of boards

The grandiose plan of Peter I to delimit departmental functions and give each official a clear plan of action was not fully implemented. Often the boards replaced each other (as orders once did). So, for example, Berg, Manufactory and Commerce Collegium could perform the same function.

For a long time, the most important functions remained outside the control of the boards - police, education, medicine, post office. Gradually, however, the system of collegiums was supplemented by new branch bodies. Thus, the Pharmacy Order, which was already in force in the new capital - St. Petersburg, was transformed into a Medical College in 1721, and from 1725 into a Medical Chancellery.

Creation of boards. Local authorities

1. In 1718, the cumbersome system of orders was replaced by collegiums that were subordinate to the Senate. Each board was in charge of a specific branch of management, all issues were resolved jointly (collegially), it was headed by the president, with him there was a vice-president, several advisers and assessors. A total of 11 boards were created:

> Collegium of Foreign Affairs;

> Military Collegium (involved in recruiting, arming, equipping and training the army);

> Admiralty Board (in charge of naval affairs);

> Chamber Collegium (in charge of collecting state revenues);

> State Office Board (in charge of state expenses; the main expense items were the maintenance of the army and navy);

> The Audit Board (monitored the expenditure of funds);

> Berg College (in charge of the mining industry);

> Manufactory Board (in charge of light industry enterprises);

> Justic College (in charge of issues of civil proceedings; the college had a serf office in which various acts were registered: deeds of sale, acts of sale of estates, spiritual wills, promissory notes, etc.);

> Patrimonial Collegium (successor to the Local Prikaz, considered land litigation, transactions for the purchase and sale of land and peasants, issues of tracking down fugitive peasants, recruits, etc.).

A special place was occupied by the Spiritual College, or Synod, formed in 1721, which managed the affairs of the church.

All collegiums had offices in Moscow, some - the Chamber and Justice Collegium - had a network of local institutions. The local bodies of the Berg College and the Admiralty were located in places where the metallurgical industry and shipbuilding were concentrated.

Collegiums under Peter 1 and their functions

In 1707-1711 The local government system was changed. Russia was divided into 8 provinces headed by governors. They had enormous power: they were in charge of collecting taxes, justice, and recruiting recruits. The provinces were divided, in turn, into 50 provinces headed by a governor, and the provinces into counties (districts). City magistrates collected taxes from the population and judged the citizens. The urban population was divided into “regular” (haves) and “irregular” (have-nots).

3. The main role in the management system was played by Tsar Peter I. For example, the military oath spoke of the obligation to serve the Tsar, and not Russia. Peter was the highest legislative and judicial authority. A personal royal office was created - the Cabinet, which prepared cases for reports to Peter. The adoption of the title of emperor by Peter I in 1721 was an expression and confirmation of absolutism that had become established in Russia.

Church reform

1. Serious changes occurred in the position of the church, which also reflected the trend of bureaucratization and centralization of management. Patriarch Adrian died in 1700. The king's entourage advised him to wait until his election. new patriarch, since, in their opinion, no good will come from the patriarchate. It didn’t take long to convince the tsar; he was well aware of the history of the struggle between Patriarch Nikon and his father, and he also knew about the negative attitude of the majority of the clergy towards their innovations. Ryazan Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky was declared locum tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, and the property of the church was administered by the Monastic Order.

2. In 1721, the Synod, the highest body governing church affairs, was formed. His vice-president, Pskov Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich, a staunch supporter of Peter, composed the regulations of the Synod - the Spiritual Regulations, which determined its functions and responsibilities. The regulations established that the members of the Synod were appointed by the tsar, thereby equating them to officials of other state institutions. His main responsibilities were to monitor the purity of Orthodoxy and fight schismatics. Church ministers were instructed not to enter into “worldly affairs and rituals for any reason.” The secret of confession was violated. According to the decree of the Synod of 1722, all priests were obliged to inform the authorities about the intentions of the confessor to commit “treason or rebellion.” Also in 1722, the position of Chief Prosecutor of the Synod was established. Thus, the church was deprived of its independence and turned into an integral part of the state bureaucratic apparatus.

Related information.

Complicating the tasks of the state in the second half of the 18th century. affected the level of competence and organizational structure of central government institutions. Formed by the end of the first quarter of the 18th century. a collegial management system, which implied the consideration and resolution of cases by a general meeting of its members (presence), by the 1760s. was going through a well-known crisis. Collegiums acquired many structural parts - expeditions, departments, offices, offices turned into institutions that slowed down the activity of the state apparatus, especially in conditions when unity of command in the management of the country was strengthened, a ministerial type of leadership was taking shape, and the role of the individual official was increasing.

The total number of colleges in 1725-1775. sometimes it decreased, sometimes it increased. At the same time, the position of the three collegiums - Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs, as well as the collegiums associated with the protection of justice and landowner property - the Justice Collegium and the Patrimonial Collegium, remained stable.

The Collegium of Foreign Affairs (established in 1717), like its predecessor - the Ambassadorial Prikaz - was the main and most prestigious state institution in Russia in the 18th century. By this time, diplomatic relations had been established with most of the European states, where Russian missions were opened. The Collegium was in charge of organizing relations with foreign states, issuing foreign passports, postal affairs and governing Ukraine. To solve these problems, highly qualified and highly educated personnel were required. The collegium officials, who received a secular education and most of them graduated from an academic gymnasium or Moscow University, were strikingly different from other employees and were models of government officials

CHAPTER 1. History of the development of the collegial management system in Russia

In the Middle Ages, during the reign of Ivan III in Rus' (1462 - 1505), there was a transition from appanage reign, which was of a private economic nature, to state administration. Orders were created, including financial ones: the Great Court, the Great Treasury, the Great Parish, and the Accounting Order. The service orders were subordinate to the Tsar and the Boyar Duma, having, in turn, subordinated local government.

In 1512, the State Prikaz (Dvor) was created. And in 1558, the first state economic institution, the Treasury, was formed, and the position of treasurer appeared - custodian of the grand ducal treasury and archive. At the same time, there was no systematic organization of public finances before Peter I1.

In the 17th century, the protection of the financial interests of the state and its Treasury was regulated by the Council Code of 1649. The first known national budget was a list of income and expenses for 1679 - 1680 in the amount of 1220.4 thousand rubles.

During the reign of Peter I (1682 - 1725), the old Orders (Appendix 1) did not conflict with the requirements of his reforms. But by that time they had become dilapidated, the system was complex and confusing, there were no uniform rules for drawing up estimates, the final budget balance was not calculated, and there was no control over execution. Therefore, Peter I gave preference to the collegial approach to governance, which he observed in neighboring European states.

He dissolved the Boyar Duma and formed the first collegial organization in Rus' - the Senate - of 9 people, which included smart and loyal people. Senate confirmation took place on February 22, 1711.

In 1717 - 1718 instead of the previous Orders, 12 boards were created, half of which were of a financial and economic nature. From a financial point of view, the most important of them were three: the Chamber College, which was in charge of state revenues and property; the State Office Collegium, which was in charge of government spending; and an audit board that monitored the implementation of budgets for income and expenses. The Senate became the highest financial management body in the country.

In 1722, the position of Prosecutor General was approved, who became the representative of the supreme power and the state before the Senate. The renewal of central departments led to a new reorganization of territorial bodies. They took the Swedish management structure as a model, which they tried to combine with Russian customs. As a result of this reorganization, the entire country was divided into 11 provinces. Those, in turn, were divided into 45 provinces, headed by governors.

Local revenue control was carried out by voivodes, but direct control was entrusted to the collection supervisors, or camerars, under the command of the Chamber Collegium. At the same time, the position of rentmaster, or treasurer, is approved under the jurisdiction of the State Office Collegium. The treasurer received incoming fees, stored them in a special zemstvo treasury and issued them according to allocations. The treasury, or “rentary,” was located at the provincial chancellery, and in the capital the money went to the main Treasury Chamber, from where expenses for central administration were made. The reform, therefore, instead of the previous order system, introduced a new one - a collegial management system.

The orders were transformed because they slowed down the implementation of the state's tasks in the context of the beginning of the transition from feudalism to capitalism (unclear functions, parallelism in work, imperfect paperwork, red tape, arbitrariness of administrations, etc.). The boards were created on the model of those that existed in Germany, Denmark, France, and Sweden. The collegial way of resolving cases was more progressive. Compared to the order office, things were more clearly organized in them, issues were resolved much faster.

Collegium structure: presence, president (chaired the meeting), vice-president, 4-5 advisors, 4 assessors. There was an office of the board, which included a secretary, notary, registrar, archivist, translator, and scribes. The Collegium was subordinate only to the Tsar and the Senate, and to it the local apparatus. Since 1720, a single “General Regulation” (156 chapters) was introduced for the collegiums.

A number of collegiums have developed a system of sectoral local government bodies. The apparatus of local bodies was located at the Berg Collegium and the Manufactory Collegium (which had commissariats); Justice Collegium (court courts); Chamber Collegium (Chamber and Zemstvo Commissars); Military Collegium (governors); State office (rentmasters).

In contrast to orders, collegiums (with rare exceptions) were built on a functional principle and were endowed with competence in accordance with the functions assigned to them. Each board had its own circle of departments. Other boards were prohibited from interfering in matters not subject to their jurisdiction. Governors, vice-governors, governors, and chancelleries were subordinate to the collegiums. The collegiums sent decrees to lower institutions, and entered the Senate by “reports.” The colleges were given the right to report to the tsar about what they “saw as a state benefit.” The board included a fiscal officer, and later a prosecutor, who controlled their activities (Appendix 2).

1.2 The system of collegiums, as the final process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus

Bureaucratization of the state apparatus took place at different levels over a long period. Objectively, it coincided with the process of further centralization of power structures. Already in the second half of the 7th century, the remnants of feudal privileges and the last privately owned cities disappeared. Central governing bodies, such as the Boyar Duma and Prikazy, underwent significant evolution before being transformed into new structures. The Boyar Duma, from an establishing body, turns into a control body monitoring the activities of executive bodies (orders) and local government bodies.

The system of central sectoral management bodies - orders - has traveled a difficult path. In 1677 there were 60, in 1682 - 53, in 1684 - 38 orders. With the reduction in the number of central orders, the number of provincial administrative bodies of local administrative authorities increased - by 1682 it reached 300. At the end of the 18th century, sectoral and territorial orders were enlarged/unified. Each of them was headed by one of the important boyars or aristocrats, this strengthened the authority and influence of the body. In parallel, special orders were created that carried out control activities in relation to a large group of other orders (for example, the Sytny Order), subordinating them to a single direction of state activity, which undoubtedly contributed to the further centralization of management. During this process, the number of orders decreased, but the total number of officials increased: if in the 40s the order apparatus was approximately 1600 people, then already in the 90s it increased to 4600 people.

At the same time, the number of junior officials increased significantly, which was associated with further specialization in the activities of orders and their departmental delimitation.

The restructuring of the order management system took place in 1718-1720. Most of the orders were eliminated, and in their place new central bodies of sectoral management - collegiums - were established.0

Reforms of the highest bodies of power and administration that took place in the first quarter of the 18th century are usually divided into 3 stages:

1. 1699-1710 -- characterized by only partial transformations in the system of higher state bodies, in the structure of local self-government, and military reform.

2. 1710-1719 - liquidation of the previous central authorities and management, creation of a new capital. Senate, carrying out the first regional reforms.

3. 1719-1725 - the formation of new sectoral management bodies for collegiums, the implementation of the second regional reform, central management reform, financial and tax reform, the creation of a legal framework for all institutions and a new service procedure.

The Senate was formed in 1711 as an emergency body while Peter was on a military campaign. The reform of 1722 turned the Senate into the highest body of central government, standing above the entire state apparatus (colleges and offices)1.

In 1689, a special Preobrazhensky Order was created, which did not fit into the system of other orders.

At the end of 1717, a system of collegiums began to take shape: presidents and vice-presidents were appointed by the Senate, staffing and work procedures were determined.

In addition to the leaders, the boards included four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary, a registrar, a translator and clerks. A special decree ordered that starting in 1720, cases should begin to be processed using a new procedure. Already in December 1718, the register of colleges was adopted:

1. Foreign Affairs.

2. Government fees.

3. Justice.

4. Audit (budget).

5. Military.

6. Admiralteyskaya.

7. Commerce (trade).

8. Staff office (conducting government expenditures).

9. Berg Collegium and Manufactory Collegium (industrial and mining).

In 1721, the Patrimonial Collegium was established, replacing the Local Order; in 1722, from the single Berg Collegium and the Manufacture Collegium, the Manufacture Collegium was separated, which, in addition to the functions of industrial management, was entrusted with the tasks of economic policy and financing. The berg collegium retained the functions of mining and mining.

The activities of the collegiums were determined by the General Regulations (1720), which united a large number of norms and rules that described in detail the operating procedure of the institution.

Thus, the creation of the collegium system completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. A clear distribution of departmental functions, delimitation of spheres of public administration and competence, uniform standards of activity, concentration of financial management in a single institution - all this significantly distinguished the new apparatus from the order system.

1.3 Commerce Board as a type of collegial management

The establishment of absolutism in the first quarter of the 18th century. was accompanied by the creation of a new centralized system of public administration1. At its central level, several boards were organized, which were responsible for managing the economic life of the country. Already in the earliest plans for the creation of boards in Russia, the idea of ​​​​the need to organize a central institution specialized in the field of trade, mainly external, was invariably present. Subsequently, with all the structural changes in public administration, the merger and even the liquidation of some of the economic departments, the Commerce Collegium invariably continued its activities. This indicates the special role assigned to it in the implementation of the government’s economic policy throughout the 18th century. permeated with the ideas of mercantilism. One of the instruments for implementing these ideas was the College of Commerce (1717-1802).

The Commerce Board, like other boards, was the administrative and executive management body in the area designated for it, which determined the main place in its activities of the organizational and managerial function. As evidenced by the minutes of meetings of the Commerce Collegium, supervision of foreign trade involved the regular collection of information about the goods of Russian and foreign merchants, the number of incoming and outgoing ships, and the amount of duties. The Commerce Board was interested in information about the impact of the next customs tariff on the volume of trade turnover and the amount of duties. Particular attention of the board was paid to the work of port and border customs, the organization of the collection of foreign trade duties as an important source of cash receipts for the treasury. This area of ​​activity included the appointment of customs officers, the development of instructions for them, the organization of the rejection of goods, the determination of mooring places for barges with goods, the procedure for unloading and loading them, the construction of guest yards and other commercial buildings, warehouses, piers and harbors. The task of finding means to increase government fees and profits was directly formulated in the regulations of the Commerce Collegium of 1724. This left a strong imprint on the nature of all the activities of the college, defining a purely fiscal approach to the assessment of its activities. The workload and orientation of the entire work of the Commerce Collegium, as well as other central institutions, on current affairs, the focus on a clearly defined but limited range of issues, the fiscal requirements and the bureaucratic nature of its activities made it unsuitable for preparing major issues of trade policy.

The development of many economic measures, as well as general legal provisions, was carried out in various commissions specially created for this purpose. They held an important place in the state structure of Russia in the 18th century. For example, in the 30s alone, almost 40 commissions were created (31 central and 8 provincial). They existed alongside the established collegial management system. One of them - the Commission on Commerce - dealt with issues of trade and the position of the merchants. Throughout the 18th century. There were three Commissions on Commerce. The first was established in 1727 and was active in the late 20s and early 30s. The second did not last long - from 1760 to 1762. Finally, from December 1763 to 1796, the third Commission on Commerce operated.

If in the 20s of the XVIII century. The authors of the proposal to create a Commission on Commerce were members of the Supreme Privy Council (A.D. Menshikov, A.I. Osterman, etc.), which was in charge of the domestic and foreign policy of the state, and in the late 50s the question of its establishment was nominated by Senator P.I. Shuvalov, who determined the internal policy of absolutism in the mid-century, the development of draft instructions for the third Commission on Commerce was carried out by Catherine II's Secretary of State G. Teplov, who enjoyed special influence in the government. These facts alone indicate the invariability of the exclusive place given to commerce, and primarily to foreign trade, in the development of the economic course of government policy.

The composition of the members of the commission on commerce was representative, including prominent government officials. Among them: A.I. Osterman, A.M. Cherkassky, I.G. Chernyshev, Ya.P. Shakhovskoy, E. Minikh, G.N. Teplov, A.R. Vorontsov and others. The commission of 1760 - 1762, in addition to officials of various institutions, included representatives of the commercial and industrial world, who made up almost half of the members of its presence (Moscow merchants and manufacturers B. Strugovshchikov and M. Sitnikov, Tula-L Luginin, Yaroslavsky - I. Zatrapezny, Tobolsky - G. Shevyrin). This was not the only case. The work of the Commission on Coinage (1730-1731), the Commission on Duties (1754 - 1760), and the Statutory Commission of the 1750s - 1760s was based on the combination of government officials and merchants.

The combination of high-ranking officials in the commissions on commerce (especially the first and third) allowed them to play an active role in determining the tasks of trade policy. The third commission had the greatest weight, established not under the Senate, like the second, or under the Commerce College, like the first commission, but at the imperial court, which took it out of the direct control of the Senate. At the same time, all such commissions were advisory bodies, and their recommendations were not binding on the government.

As an advisory body, commissions on commerce directly participated in the government's lawmaking, preparing a legislative solution to a particular issue, often taking the initiative in raising it. Moreover, these questions themselves covered the areas of activity of various economic boards (Commerce and Manufactures, Chamber Boards, Chief Magistrate).

When developing regulations of the commission on commerce, firstly, they turned to previous legislation on this issue; secondly, they attracted foreign models similar to the document being developed (charters, regulations, etc.); thirdly, they called upon Russian and foreign merchants with significant trades to discuss the project being prepared. Their circle was outlined by the top of the Moscow and St. Petersburg merchants, it also included nonresident merchants closely associated with the supply of goods to St. Petersburg and their overseas holidays.

Thus, the special place of the Commerce Collegium among government institutions that implemented the economic policy of absolutism, the duration of existence and the repeated re-establishment of commissions on commerce indicate the desire of state authorities to actively influence the development of trade, the invariability of the foreign trade orientation of the economic policy of the government throughout the 18th century. V.

CHAPTER 2. Education and development of the absolute monarchy in Russia (late XVII - XVIII)

2.1 Transition to absolutism in Russia

It was a time of rapid changes in Russian society, the state, and the legal system, which aroused conflicting feelings among both participants in the events and historians. The transition to absolutism is, of course, not a one-time phenomenon. This is a specific process that takes a certain period of time.

The question of the time of the emergence of absolutism is related to the problem of its essence. In literature there is a contrast between autocracy and absolutism. Autocracy is understood as the external independence of the monarch, for example from the Horde, his sovereignty, and absolutism is reduced to internal sovereignty, to domination over his subjects. Cherepnin L.V. Decree. Op. P. 177 V.I. Lenin considered the terms “absolutism”, “autocracy”, “unlimited monarchy” to be synonymous. Lenin V.I. Full Collection Op. T. 4. P. 251..

V.I. Lenin really distinguished between autocracy in one century or another. Distinguishing autocracy at different stages of its development, V.I. Lenin did not distinguish between autocracy and absolutism.

The emergence of absolutism is a natural phenomenon that has its own objective prerequisites. Of course, the transition to absolutism is determined primarily by socio-economic reasons. However, the question of the level and nature of economic development and the socio-economic contradictions that determine this phenomenon is controversial. It seems that the decisive role in the development of absolutism in Russia was not played by the intra-class struggle or even the struggle between the exploiting classes. The most important prerequisite for the emergence of autocracy was the class resistance of the finally enslaved peasants, the need for the feudal lords to create a strong government capable of keeping the rebellious peasantry in check. The great importance of the peasant movement as a prerequisite for the establishment of absolutism is not a unique feature of Russia. This factor played a noticeable role, for example, during the transition to absolutism in England and Germany1. A factor that accelerated the process of transition to absolutism was also the military danger from neighboring states. Russia had not yet solved some important historical problems: all Ukrainian lands had not been reunited, it was necessary to break through to the seas, etc. It is characteristic that out of the 35 years of the reign of Peter I, a state of complete peace was maintained for only about a year2.

In the second half of the 17th century. not only the need arose, but also the possibility of establishing an absolute monarchy arose. Instead of the willful noble militia, a standing army was created.

The king received independent sources of income in the form of yasak and a wine monopoly. The development of the order system prepared an army of bureaucrats. The need for class-representative bodies disappeared, and they were discarded. This meant that the monarch was freed from all fetters, that his power became unlimited, absolute.

2.2 State mechanism

Under Peter I, the Senate was established, which performed the functions of the highest legislative, administrative and judicial body, sometimes replacing the person of the emperor. However, under Catherine I, the position of the Senate changed. In February 1726, the Supreme Privy Council was created, pushing aside the Senate. If under Peter he reported directly to the emperor, now the Supreme Privy Council stood between the Senate and the Empress. The Senate refused to be in a subordinate position. The belittling of the importance of the Senate was already predetermined in the decree on the creation of the Supreme Privy Council. The decree ordered that particularly important matters be transferred from the Senate not to the Empress, but to the Council. The Military and Naval Collegiums were removed from his subordination. It was decided to henceforth call him not the Government, but the High. The composition of the Senate changed accordingly. Its members - close associates of the empress, representatives of the new Petrine nobility, who entered the Supreme Privy Council, left the Senate and were replaced by less significant persons. On February 12, 1726, a decree sent from the Supreme Privy Council was announced to the Senate, which stated that the Senate should write reports to the Council, and the Council would send decrees to the Senate.

The document established new restrictions on the rights of the Senate. The result, which consolidated the new position of the Senate, was the decree of March 7, 1726. "On the position of the Senate." This decree was the first historical step that changed the meaning of the Senate.

Under Peter I, the central government bodies were significantly transformed. The complex and confusing system of orders was replaced by a new, clear system of boards. They became the first industry management bodies. Each of the boards had to be in charge of a clearly defined branch of management: foreign affairs, maritime affairs, state revenues, etc. Together with the central government bodies, the local government system also underwent changes. Having changed the administrative-territorial division, Peter I put new administrative units and new officials at the head. Governors were placed at the head of the provinces.

They had a very wide range of rights and were directly subordinate to the Senate and collegiums. Under the governor there was a Landrat Collegium as an advisory body.

With the transition to absolutism, important reforms are also being carried out in the field of city management. In 1699, Peter I established new bodies - the Burmist Chamber, or Town Hall, in Moscow, and in other cities - zemstvo huts. The reform meant that for the first time in the history of the Russian state, city government was separated from general local government, and the bureaucratic principle was combined with the principle of self-government.

City administration received broader functions with the publication in 1719 of the Regulations of the Commerce College and especially the Charter of the Chief Magistrate of 1721, as well as instructions for the city magistrate of 1724.

New economic conditions and the intensification of the class struggle required appropriate adaptation of the judiciary. Important changes are taking place in their structure. First of all, it should be noted that during this period the separation of the court from the administration was born and developed.

Having created bodies that specifically dealt with judicial matters, Peter nevertheless retained some judicial functions for administrative bodies. For example, the land court belongs to the Patrimonial Collegium; crimes against the financial rights of the state were considered by the Chamber Collegium. The court and lower courts established by Peter acted under the supervision of governors and voivodes, i.e. were subordinate to the administration.

Catherine II, more consistently than Peter, carried out the separation of the court from the administration. At the same time, the judicial bodies established by her were structured according to a strictly class principle: separate courts for nobles, separate ones for townspeople, separate ones for state peasants. As for the landowner peasants, they are subject to patrimonial jurisdiction, like purchases during the time of Russian Pravda.

Each of the class courts established by Catherine had two levels. For the nobles, a district court was established as a court of first instance and an upper zemstvo court - a court of the second level; there was one for the entire province. For the townspeople - city and provincial magistrates, respectively. For free peasants - lower punishment in the district and upper punishment in the province. In addition to these courts, Catherine II established one conscientious court in each province. It goes without saying that the competence of these courts included only minor criminal and civil cases.

Catherine made the highest authority for all judicial bodies of the province two chambers - the civil and criminal courts. And the Senate became the highest judicial body. During this period, special bodies for combating political crimes are also being developed. The most famous of them is Peter's Preobrazhensky Order. Later, its functions were performed by the Secret Chancellery.

Under Peter I, the prosecutor's office was also created. He established the position of prosecutor general under the Senate and prosecutors under the collegiums and court courts.

The enormous scale of peasant unrest in the 18th century. required significant armed force to suppress them. At the same time, the active foreign policy of the Russian emperors also forced them to strengthen their armed forces. For these purposes, reforms are being carried out in the military structure of the state. The main feature of the military reform carried out by Peter I was the creation of a regular army. Standing troops existed before Peter. They acted in the form of rifle regiments and mercenaries. However, these troops were far from perfect.

Peter I first introduced a new principle of troop formation - conscription. In Western Europe, this principle was introduced only a hundred years later. The soldiers were completely detached from civilian life and devoted themselves entirely to military service.

Russia's military power also determined its diplomatic successes and the implementation of external functions through peaceful means. Under Peter I, the organization of external relations was significantly improved. For the first time, Russia is establishing permanent diplomatic missions in European states, and not only neighboring ones. For the first time, the Russian Tsar personally signed international treaties.

The development of the state apparatus under absolutism and numerous wars required enormous funds. Because of this, methods of squeezing money out of the population are being improved. An important point was the replacement of the household tax with a poll tax. As a result of this reform, the tax pressure on the peasantry intensified.

Under Peter I, the Spiritual Collegium was also created, later called the Synod and subordinate to the Senate. It became the state governing body of the church. Under the successors of Peter the Great, the status and economic position of the church repeatedly changed in one direction or another, but under Catherine II the church was completely placed under the control of the state, essentially became a state body, and its property was taken away in favor of the treasury. All church hierarchs were placed on state salaries, which were paid from income from former church properties. About a third of the income was spent on this, and more than half of it simply went to the treasury. The College of Economy was created to manage church lands and peasants, and the peasants began to be called economic. Catherine II and Paul I did not hesitate to distribute part of the former church lands to their associates. At the end of the 18th century. simultaneously with the provincial reform, the composition of the dioceses was revised, and the territory of the diocese began to coincide with the provincial1.

Conclusion

From the middle of the 17th century. The estate-representative monarchy develops into an absolute one, this reflects the entry of feudalism into a new stage. In the era of late feudalism, the class division of society was formalized as estate. The class system acquires features of isolation and conservatism.

The transition to absolutism is characterized by noticeable changes in the state mechanism. Estate-representative bodies are dying out and abolished, and a complex, branched, expensive system of bodies filled with officials - nobles - is being created.

The creation of ministries as central government bodies, which replaced the collegiums introduced by Peter I in 1717, became the next stage in the development of Russian statehood.

It should be noted that already under the successors of Peter I there were attempts to introduce a management system with personal rather than collegial responsibility. Thus, under Catherine I (1725-1727) and Peter II (1727-1730) there was a Supreme Privy Council, and under Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740) there was a Cabinet of Ministers, in which leadership of certain areas of state life was concentrated in one person. At the end of the 18th century, under Paul I, attempts were also made to introduce greater centralization and personal responsibility in the public administration system. But all these changes, deviations from the collegial management system were random, temporary, without affecting the management of the police. When introducing collegiums, Peter I, despite recommendations, refused to create a special police collegium. By the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, police management was within the competence of governors. There was no central police authority.

The accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander I in March 1801 was perceived by most contemporaries as an event raising hopes for changes for the better. His predecessor Paul I pointedly emphasized that he was above all laws and was free not even to take into account the rights of the nobility. He abolished many provisions of the Charter of the Russian nobility, including the well-known 15th paragraph of this charter, which prohibited subjecting nobles to corporal punishment.

Therefore, Alexander I, in the first days of his reign, announced the restoration and observance of all class rights and privileges and declared his respect for the rule of law. The young Emperor Alexander I and his closest friends, according to contemporaries, were full of hope for the possibility of profound changes in the state and legal sphere. The creation of ministries was seen as part of future reforms.

On September 8, 1802, 8 ministries were formed: military forces, naval forces, foreign affairs, justice, commerce, finance, public education and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Manifesto on the establishment of ministries emphasized the personal responsibility of the minister for the state of affairs in the department entrusted to him. “The minister must have continuous relations with all the places under his control, and be knowledgeable about all the affairs that are carried out in them.”

The basis for the creation of ministries were pre-existing boards, which, in whole or in part, became part of the new central government bodies. Each ministry received the so-called Mandate, which defined its tasks. The largest and most multifunctional was the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

By the beginning of the 19th century. The collegial management system introduced by Peter I was in a state of complete collapse and needed urgent reform. Therefore, in 1802, instead of the previous 12 colleges, 8 ministries were created. However, the reform was unsuccessful, since the functions and structure of the ministries were not defined. Therefore, in 1810-1811 the principles underlying it were adjusted. From that time on, the affairs of each ministry were in charge of a specially appointed minister who was personally responsible to the emperor. All major branches of management were separated into independent ministries with a uniform internal structure and principles of business management; in addition, the relationships of ministries with other government bodies were determined.

The highest administrative body of the country was the Cabinet of Ministers, which arose in 1802, which actually represented a meeting place between the emperor and his most trusted senior officials. The Cabinet of Ministers never became a body that unites and coordinates the activities of ministries. The emperor retained these functions as the head of the executive, legislative and judicial powers in the country.

Thus, the political superstructure of Russia in the pre-reform period remained feudal, adapted to protect the foundations of feudal society, protecting and defending the interests of the ruling class of feudal lords from any threat to its existence and dominance.

In the course of the course work, aspects of the development of collegial management, its relevance, as well as the stages of ongoing reforms by the highest authorities and the formation of a system of collegiums by them were studied. The main types of collegial management were identified and studied, and using the example of a commercial board, the principle and structure of the most important and widespread type of management were examined in detail. The process of transition to absolutism in Russia was considered as a time of rapid changes in public administration and the legal system. The reform of government carried out by Peter I and Catherine II was studied in great detail, because These reforms characterize the most important changes in the process of management and development of the state system.

1.1 Prerequisites for the emergence and development of collegial management

In the Middle Ages, during the reign of Ivan III in Rus' (1462 - 1505), a transition was marked from appanage reign, which was of a private economic nature, to state administration. Orders were created, including financial ones: the Great Court, the Great Treasury, the Great Parish, and the Accounting Order. The service orders were subordinate to the Tsar and the Boyar Duma, having, in turn, subordinated local government.

In 1512, the State Prikaz (Dvor) was created. And in 1558, the first state economic institution was formed - the Treasury, and the position of treasurer - custodian of bicycles - appeared.

Reasons for the formation of boards

Evolution of the collegium system

Collegial government took place until 1802, when " Manifesto on the establishment of ministries"The beginning of a more progressive, ministerial system was laid.

General Regulations

The activities of the boards were determined by the General Regulations, approved by Peter I on February 28, 1720 (lost their significance with the publication of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire).

The full name of this regulatory act: “The general regulations or charter, according to which the state boards, as well as all of the offices and offices belonging to them, servants, not only in external and internal institutions, but also in the exercise of their rank, have the right to act as subjects”.

The General Regulations introduced a system of office work, called “collegiate” after the name of a new type of institution - collegiums. The dominant role in these institutions was given to collegial decision-making method presence of the board. Peter I paid special attention to this form of decision-making, noting that “ all the best things happen through advice"(Chapter 2 of the General Regulations "On the advantage of boards").

Work of the boards

The Senate participated in the appointment of presidents and vice-presidents of the colleges (when appointing the president, the opinion of the tsar (emperor) was taken into account). In addition to them, the new bodies included: four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary (a clerical employee who registers acts or composes them), a registrar, a translator, and clerks.

The president was the first person in the board, but he could not decide anything without the consent of the members of the board. Vice President deputized for the president during his absence; usually helped him in fulfilling his duties as chairman of the board.

Meetings of the boards were held daily, except Sundays and holidays. They began at 6 or 8 o'clock in the morning, depending on the time of year, and lasted 5 hours.

Materials for the boards were prepared in Offices of the Collegium, from where they were transmitted to General presence of the board, where they discussed and adopted majority votes. Issues on which the collegium could not make a decision were transferred to the Senate - the only institution to which the collegiums were subordinate.

Each board had a prosecutor, whose duty was to monitor the correct and smooth resolution of cases in the board and the execution of decrees by both the board and its subordinate structures.

The central figure of the office becomes secretary. He was responsible for organizing the paperwork of the board, preparing cases for hearing, reporting cases at the board meeting, conducting reference work on cases, drawing up decisions and monitoring their implementation, and keeping the seal of the board.

The meaning of boards

The creation of the collegium system completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. A clear distribution of departmental functions, uniform standards of activity (according to the General Regulations) - all this significantly distinguished the new apparatus from the order system.

In addition, the creation of the collegiums dealt the final blow to the system of localism, which had been abolished back in 1682, but took place unofficially.

Disadvantages of the work of boards

The grandiose plan of Peter I to delimit departmental functions and give each official a clear plan of action was not fully implemented. Often the boards replaced each other (as orders once did). So, for example, the Berg, Manufactory and Commerce Collegiums could perform the same function.

For a long time, the most important functions remained outside the control of the boards - police, education, medicine, post office. Gradually, however, the system of collegiums was supplemented by new branch bodies. Thus, the Pharmacy Order, which was already in force in the new capital - St. Petersburg, was transformed into a Medical College in 1721, and from 1725 into a Medical Chancellery.

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Literature

• Isaev I.A.
• Ed. Titova Yu. P. History of state and law of Russia. - M., 2006.

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(continuation)

Under the jurisdiction of the Senate stood a number of central institutions known as collegiums; they were established in 1718 and finally formed in 1720. The boards replaced the old orders. With the establishment of the Senate, which little by little acquired the functions of the most important orders, these latter (for example, Rank) were replaced by the “tables” of the Senate; small orders turned into offices and offices of various types and retained the previous organization. Around 1711, Peter I decided to organize a central administration based on Western European models. Quite consciously, he wanted to transfer the Swedish collegial system to Rus'. The collegial system was also recommended to him by the theorist Leibniz. Men were sent abroad to study bureaucratic forms and clerical practices; Experienced clerks were imported from abroad to organize new institutions with their help. But Peter I did not give these foreigners a commanding position in the boards, and they did not rise above vice-presidents; Russian people were appointed presidents of the boards.

Since 1719, the collegiums began their activities, and each one drew up a charter for itself, which determined its department and office work (these charters learned the name of regulations). Twelve boards were established: 1) the Board of Foreign Affairs, 2) the Military Board, 3) the Admiralty Board (naval), 4) the State Board (department of expenses), 5) the Chamber Board (department of revenue), 6) the Justice Board (judicial), 7) Revision Collegium (financial control), 8) Commerce Collegium (trade), 9) Manufactory Collegium (industry), 10) Berg Collegium (mining), 11) Patrimonial Collegium (industry), 12) Chief Magistrate (city government). The last three colleges were formed later than the others. The newly founded institutions did not, however, replace all the old orders. The orders continued to exist either under the name of offices, or under the former name of orders (Medical Office, Siberian Order).

The building of the Twelve Collegiums in St. Petersburg. Unknown artist of the third quarter of the 18th century. Based on an engraving by E. G. Vnukov from a drawing by M. I. Makhaev

The colleges were subordinate to the Senate, which sent them its decrees; in turn, local governments were lower than the collegiums and obeyed them. But, on the one hand, not all collegiums were equally subordinate to the Senate (the military and naval ones were more independent than the others); on the other hand, not all boards were related to regional governing bodies. Above the provincial authorities, as a direct higher authority, stood only the Chamber and Justice Collegium and the Chief Magistrate. Thus, both central and local government bodies did not represent a strict and harmonious hierarchy.

Each board consisted, like the order of the 17th century, of a presence and an office. The presence consisted of the President, Vice President, Councilors, Assessors and 2 Secretaries, who were the heads of the Chancery. There were no more than 13 people present, and matters were decided by majority vote.

Looking closely at the differences between the collegiums and the old orders, we see that the system of collegiums significantly simplified the previous confusion of departments, but did not destroy the confusion of the personal principle with the collegial principle, which lay at the basis of the previous central administration. Just as in orders in their collegial form, the personal principle was expressed by the activity of the powerful chairman, so in the collegiums, influential presidents and prosecutors assigned to the collegiums for general control violated the collegial system with their personal influence and in fact sometimes replaced collegial activity with individual activity.

Addition

Collegiums under Peter I (based on lectures by V. O. Klyuchevsky)

The Senate, as the highest guardian of justice and state economy, had from the very beginning of its activity unsatisfactory subordinate bodies. There were in the center a bunch of old and new, Moscow and St. Petersburg, orders, offices, offices, commissions with confused departments and uncertain relationships, sometimes with random origins, and in the regions - 8 governors, who sometimes did not obey the tsar himself, not just the Senate . The Senate consisted of the Chamber of Execution, inherited from the ministerial council, as its judicial department, and the Near Accounting Office.

Among the most important responsibilities of the Senate was “to collect money as possible” and to consider government expenditures in order to cancel unnecessary ones, and yet money bills were not sent to him from anywhere, and for a number of years he could not draw up a statement of how much there was in the entire state in the parish, in consumption, in balance and in milk. This lack of accountability, in the midst of war and the financial crisis, should have most strongly convinced Peter I of the need for a complete restructuring of central administration. He himself was too little prepared for this branch of government affairs, did not have enough ideas or observations, and, as before, in finding new sources of income, he used the ingenuity of home-grown profit-makers, so now in the structure of management he turned to foreign models and experts for help.

He made inquiries about the structure of central institutions abroad: in Sweden, Germany and other countries he found colleges; Foreigners gave him notes on the introduction of collegiums, and he decided to adopt this form of Russian governance. Already in 1712, an attempt was made to organize a “collegium” for trading with the help of foreigners, because, as Peter I wrote, “their trading is incomparably better than ours.” He instructed his foreign agents to collect regulations on foreign collegiums and books on jurisprudence, especially to invite foreign businessmen to serve in Russian collegiums, and without people, “it will be impossible to do books alone, because all circumstances are never written.” For a long time and with great effort, they recruited in Germany and the Czech Republic learned lawyers and experienced officials, secretaries and scribes, especially from the Slavs, who could organize business in Russian institutions; Even captured Swedes who managed to learn Russian were invited to serve.

Having become acquainted with the Swedish colleges, which were then considered exemplary in Europe, Peter I in 1715 decided to take them as a model when organizing his central institutions. There is nothing unexpected or capricious in this decision. Neither in the Moscow state past, nor in the businessmen surrounding Peter, nor in his own political thinking did he find any material for building an original system of state institutions. He looked at these institutions with the eyes of a shipwright: why invent some special Russian frigate when Dutch and English ships sail beautifully on the White and Baltic Seas. Quite a few homemade Russian ships have already rotted in Pereyaslavl. But this time too, things followed the usual course of all the reforms of Peter I: a quick decision was accompanied by slow execution. Peter sent the Holstein cameraler Fick, whom he had hired, to Sweden for a closer study of the local colleges and invited the Silesian Baron von Luberas, an expert on Swedish institutions, to his service. Both brought him hundreds of regulations and statements of Swedish collegiums and their own projects for their introduction in Russia, and the second hired hundreds of one and a half hunters in Germany, the Czech Republic and Silesia to serve in Russian collegiums. Both of them, especially Fick, took an active part in the formation of these boards. Finally, by 1718, a plan for the collegiate structure was drawn up, the official composition of each college was established, presidents and vice-presidents were appointed, and all colleges were ordered to create regulations for themselves based on the Swedish charter, and points of the Swedish charter that were inconvenient “or dissimilar to the situation of this state , replace with new ones according to your own reasoning."

In 1718, presidents had to organize their colleges in order to begin their work in 1719; but there were delays and postponements, and the boards did not come into effect since 1719, and others not since 1720. Initially, 9 boards were established, which the decree of December 12, 1718 lists in this order and with the following names: 1) Foreign Affairs, 2) Kamor, department of state monetary revenues, 3) Justice, 4) Revision, “account of all government receipts and expenditures,” i.e., the department of financial control, 5) Military(collegium), department of ground military forces, 6) Admiralty, department of maritime forces, 7) Commerce, trade department, 8) Berg And Manufactory, Department of Mining and Factory Industry, and 9) States office, the government expenditure department. From this list, first of all, it is clear which state interests, as primary ones, required, according to the then concepts, enhanced implementation in management: out of nine boards, five were in charge of state and national economy, finance and industry. The boards introduced two principles into management that distinguished them from the old orders: a more systematic and concentrated division of departments and a consultative order of business.

Of the nine boards, only two coincided in the range of cases with the old orders: the Board of Foreign Affairs with the Ambassadorial Order and the Revision Board with the Accounting Order; the remaining boards represented departments of the new composition. In this composition, the territorial element inherent in the old orders, most of which were in charge of exclusively or predominantly known affairs only in part of the state, in one or several counties, disappeared. The provincial reform abolished many such orders; During the college reform, the last of them also disappeared. Each board in its assigned branch of government extended its action throughout the entire state. In general, all the old orders that were still living out their days were either absorbed by the collegiums or subordinated to them: for example, the Justice Collegium included 7 orders. In this way, the departmental division in the center was simplified and rounded off; but there still remained a number of new offices and offices, which were either subordinate to the collegiums or constituted special main departments: thus, next to the Military College there were the Main Provisions and Artillery offices and the Main Commissariat, which was in charge of recruiting and uniforming the army.

This means that the collegiate reform did not introduce into the departmental routine the simplification and rounding that the composition of the collegiums promises. And Peter I could not cope with the hereditary habit of administrative sidewalks, cages and basements, which the old Moscow state builders loved to introduce into their administration, imitating private house-building. However, in the interest of a systematic and uniform distribution of cases, the original plan of the boards was changed during execution. The local order, subordinate to the Justits College, was encumbered with its affairs and became an independent Patrimonial Collegium; the constituent parts of the Berg and Manufactory Collegium were divided into two special colleges, and the Audit Collegium, as a control body, merged with the Senate, the highest control, and its isolation , according to the frank admission of the decree, “without considering what was done then” as a matter of thoughtlessness. This means that by the end of the reign there were ten colleges.

Another difference between collegiums and orders was the advisory procedure for conducting business. This order was not alien to the old order administration: according to the Code, judges or heads of orders had to decide cases together with their comrades and senior clerks. But the administrative collegiality was not precisely regulated and died out under the pressure of strong bosses. Peter, who carried out this order in the ministerial council, in the district and provincial administration, and then in the Senate, wanted to firmly establish it in all central institutions. Absolute power needs advice as a substitute for law; “All the best dispensations happen through advice,” says the Military Regulations of Peter I; It is easier for one person to hide lawlessness than for many comrades: someone will give it away. The presence of the board consisted of 11 members, a president, a vice-president, 4 advisers and 4 assessors, to which was added another adviser or assessor from foreigners; of the two secretaries of the collegiate chancellery, one was also appointed from foreigners. Cases were decided by a majority vote of the presence, and for reporting to the presence they were distributed among advisers and assessors, each of whom was in charge of a corresponding part of the office, forming at its head a special department or department of the board. The introduction of foreigners into the boards was intended to place experienced leaders next to Russian newcomers. For the same purpose, Peter I usually appointed a foreigner as vice-president of the Russian president. So, in the Military Collegium under President Prince Menshikov, the vice-president is General Weide, in the Chamber Collegium the president is Prince D. M. Golitsyn, the vice-president is the Revel Landrat Baron Nirot; Only at the head of the Mining and Manufacturing Board do we meet two foreigners, the learned artilleryman Bruce and the aforementioned Lyuberas. The decree of 1717 established the order for the appointed presidents to “constitute their boards” and make up their presence: for the positions of advisers and assessors, they themselves selected two or three candidates, but not from their relatives and “own creatures”; Based on these candidate lists, the meeting of all collegiums ran for the positions to be filled.

So, I repeat, the collegiate division differed from the administrative division: 1) departmental distribution of affairs, 2) the space of action of institutions and 3) the order of business.