The country underwent many radical transformations: the way of life of the people was changing, the fleet was rebuilt, the army was arming, but its main reforms concerned state administration. It was he who initiated the establishment of the highest administrative body, which was named the Governing Senate.

Foundation history

With all the absolutism of power that was inherent in that period, the emperor decided to transfer part of his powers to the hands of the chosen and close people. At first, this practice was of a fickle nature, and meetings were held only during the frequent absences of the emperor.

By an official decree of Peter the Great, the Governing Senate was established in 1711. It did not arise out of nowhere, the predecessor was the boyar duma, which has historically become obsolete for a long time. The new and bold state demanded order in the legislative and administrative structure, "truth and a rightful court among the people and in state affairs." These duties were assigned by the emperor to the new authority.

Foreign borrowing question

Many historians associate the creation of the Governing Senate (date of the event - February 19, 1711) with the practice of the emperor to adopt everything from the West. However, in addition to the foreign word, there was nothing alien in the new authority, all its structure and functions proceeded only from Russian reality. This was immediately evident from the system of subordination: if, for example, in Sweden the senate could dictate its opinion and will to the monarch, then under Peter this situation was simply impossible.

The emperor took as a basis only the idea of \u200b\u200bEuropean states to include special institutions in the system of government and the distribution of responsibilities between different structures. The central authority was now guided not by ancient law or the customs of ancestors, but by a law common to all. The governing senate under Peter I was still an emerging institution, the main goal of which was to unite the regions under the control of one center. The emperor himself was in charge and directed all the activities of his brainchild, even when he was away.

Role of the Governing Senate before 1741

After Peter's death, the central authority existed in its original form for less than one year. In 1727, Empress Catherine I issued a decree establishing a special oversight over him, which became the Privy Supreme Council. And the Governing Senate itself in Russia was renamed Vysokiy.

Historians associate the reason for the creation of an observation body with the personal qualities of Peter's successors, who, like him, did not know how to lead with an iron hand. The Senate has practically lost its original significance, its duties now included litigation and minor government work. All this took place under the watchful eye of the Supreme Privy Council, whose members were A. D. Menshikov and F. M. Apraksin.

The situation changed with the arrival of Anna Ioannovna, who abolished the controlling body, and all power was again concentrated in the hands of the Empress and the Governing Senate. A reform was carried out, the department was divided into 5 departments, a cabinet of ministers appeared, for the leadership of which Biron, Osterman and Minich fought.

Period from 1741 to 1917

Under Elizabeth, the ruling senate again received great powers, up to legislative activity and influence on foreign policy. However, all introductions of the empress were canceled by Peter III. Under Catherine II, the formation of the state system of the Russian Empire continued actively. The great ruler did not particularly trust the members of the Senate and, whenever possible, tried to withdraw certain departments from the institution and transferred them under the control of trusted people, such as Prince Vyazemsky, Shuvalov and Chernyshev.

The provision on the supreme organ of power was finally formed during the reign of Alexander I. Immediately after accession, he seriously took up the restoration of the high role of the Governing Senate in state administration. The result of his efforts was the decree of September 8, 1802, which became the last piece of legislation that fully clarifies the rights and obligations of this organization. In this form, the institution existed until 1917, when it was abolished.

Structure of the Governing Senate

Initially, the order of the central authority had a very simple structure, Peter's decrees mainly concerned his duties and procedures. But with the growing importance of the Senate in the life of the country, its tasks gradually became more complicated, a clear hierarchy of government was required. In general, the Governing Senate had the following organization:

The main work was carried out by senators, they were appointed by the emperor from among civil and military ranks, only members of the cassation department had to have at least three years of experience in the position of chief prosecutor.
The institution included several departments (their number was constantly changing), joint attendances and general meetings.
Different staffs and types had their own chancery, usually it consisted of a secret, clerk, provincial and discharge table.
Even under Peter the Great, a “punitive payment” was allocated, considering petitions and fiscal reports.
Senate offices, whose duties included the management of collegia from all over the country.

With each successive emperor, the structure of the ruling senate was constantly changing, depending on the era, new departments and structures were abolished or added, a different procedure for the election and management of office work was established.

Main functions

Over the two hundred year history of the central body of state power, it has undergone many changes. Gradual transformations led to the fact that the Governing Senate, whose functions were spelled out in a special imperial decree, had unique rights, including both the interpretation of laws and the supervision of the activities of the controlled institutions.

One of its most important functions is the ability to promulgate laws or refuse to officially publish them. Council members exercised control over the normative nature of state acts, interpreted laws, and it was their decision that was final.
The ruling Senate supervised the legality of the actions of ministers, ministries, and provincial authorities. If violations were found, the organization had the right to demand explanations and, if necessary, punish.
He monitored elections to the zemstvo assemblies, the State Duma, city dumas, merchant, bourgeois, and craft institutions, and considered complaints from the nobility.
The Senate had the right, in the event of gross errors in the service of provincial leaders, to issue a reprimand to them and issue appropriate decrees.
The Cassation Department of the ruling Senate was in charge of the judicial system in Russia, and its decisions were no longer subject to appeal.

The uniqueness of the powers of the governing body was also in the fact that the members of the council had the right to initiate criminal prosecution of the highest administrative officials, district representatives of the nobility and other officials.

Features in the appointment of senators

Under Peter I, members of the council, in addition to serving in this central organization, carried out other state orders. Therefore, in the sources of that time, you can often find a mention of the meeting not in full force. Someone was appointed ambassador to Europe, someone went on special assignments to the county cities of the Empire, and it turned out that all duties were performed by 5-6 people.

The main function of management was borne by senators in the departments, and initially there were no outstanding people of their time in their composition, those who were able to lead with a strong hand. The fact is that, according to the existing differentiation of government officials, persons with rank III and IV were appointed to the council, and serving in the government was the height of their careers for them. Thus, the social status of the members who were members of the ruling senate did not at all correspond to its high status.

Appointments were carried out by personal decrees, the senators took the oath established under Peter I.

State persons affiliated with a central government body

Even at the founding of the Governing Senate, a procedure was established according to which two commissioners were appointed from each province to "demand and adopt decrees." They should be the mediators between the regional government and the Senate. Their duties included not only issuing decrees, but also exercising control over execution. Later, these functions were transferred to the collegia.

The institute of fiscal was established in 1711, they were a supervisory body over the actions of courts, officials of all categories and other government officials. A very large power was concentrated in their hands, in fact, because of one denunciation, any person could be accused of a crime. In the subordination of the Ober-fiscal were several close assistants, as well as service people in every province and even city.

Even Peter I wanted to establish control over the Governing Senate, but the problem was to find such a person who could supervise the supreme body. Subsequently, the position of Prosecutor General was established here. And also it is worth mentioning the retmeister and his office, they were the ones who accepted petitions from all over the country and monitored the timing and quality of their execution.

Circle of departments

The establishment of the Governing Senate did not immediately resolve all the problems of government. The list of controlled departments was formed gradually, the first decree obliged the institution to carry out the following functions:

monitor the court and verify the legality of their decisions;
control costs in the state;
monitor the collection of nobles and literate young boyars as officers, search for evaders;
inspection of goods;
to bargain with China and Persia;
control over devastated villages.

The institution could be called the central judicial, military and financial department, which oversaw some areas of government.

The order of office work

Even Peter I noted the unforgivable slowness of the work of the entire system of the organ he created. The institution required a clear order of action, so the institution of office work in the governing senate was gradually organized. In the 18th century, the concepts of a protocol and a reporting journal were already introduced into use, but only the statutes of Alexander II finally established the procedure for conducting business in the departments.

The petition, complaint or other documents go to the office, the employees collected the necessary information, certificates and prepared a note with a summary of the essence of the petition indicating the legal grounds.
The report is delivered orally to the members of a particular department.
A vote is taken, and the decision, with a few exceptions, had to be taken unanimously.
The adopted resolution is entered by the office in the journal and, based on the results of the meeting, a final determination is drawn up.

Before the case went to the departments for consideration, all papers were read and controlled by the chief prosecutor, who had the right to make changes or influence the voting process.

Legislative activity

The governing senate was never completely the agency that develops and issues state decrees. Only under Peter and Elizabeth were council members given complete freedom of action. For two hundred years of its existence, its main function has taken shape - regulation and control of administrative management.

In rare cases, the central authority could submit a draft law for the consideration of the emperor and the ministers, however, council members rarely used this right, since the department did not have enough funds and capabilities to conduct legislative activities. Thus, the decrees of the ruling Senate concerning the terms of service of officers from the nobility were criticized and rejected by Alexander I.

Abolition

From the beginning of the 19th century until 1917, the role of the Senate in public administration was the same as under Alexander I. The problem of communication with the highest power in the person of the emperor remained unresolved, all communication took place through the chief prosecutor, and its initial great importance was like under Peter I this department could not reach. After the October Revolution, the council was disbanded, although temporary presences were renewed during the Civil War in Omsk and Yalta.

The establishment of the Governing Senate laid the foundation for a clear organization of management in our country, the experience of the departments in the Russian Empire was taken into account in the formation of the modern political system.

Reconstruction of the system of higher and central government bodies (Senate, collegia, government control and supervision bodies). Table of Ranks

Peter's state transformations were accompanied by radical changes in the sphere of supreme government. Against the background of the incipient process of the formation of an absolute monarchy, the significance of the Boyar Duma is finally falling. At the turn of the 18th century. it ceases to exist as a permanent institution and is replaced by the first created under it in 1699. Near office, meetings of which, since 1708 have become permanent, began to call By the Consulate of Ministers. This new institution, which included the heads of the most important state departments, Peter I initially set about conducting all state affairs during his many "absences".

In 1711, a new supreme body of state power and administration was created, which replaced the Boyar Duma - Government Senate. Established before the departure of Peter I for the Prut campaign instead of the abolished Consilia of Ministers, initially as a temporary government body, whose decrees Peter I commanded to execute as unquestioningly as the decisions of the tsar himself, the Senate eventually turned into a permanent supreme administrative and control body in the system of state administration.

The composition of the Senate has undergone a number of changes since its inception. At first, it consisted of noble persons appointed by the sovereign, who were entrusted with the administration of the state during the absence of the king. Later, from 1718, when the Senate became a permanent institution, its composition changed, all the presidents created by that time began to sit in it. collegiums (central government bodies that replaced the Moscow orders). However, the inconveniences of this state of affairs soon came to light. As the highest administrative body in the state, the Senate was supposed to control the activities of the collegia, but in reality it could not do this, since it included the presidents of the same collegia in its composition ("now being in them, as they can judge themselves"). By a decree of January 22, 1722, the Senate was reformed. The presidents of the collegiums were removed from the Senate, they were replaced by specially appointed persons independent of the collegia (the right to sit in the Senate was left only to the presidents of the Military Collegium, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and, for a time, the Berg Collegium).

The Senate attended three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). For the proceedings of the Senate, there was an office, originally headed (before the establishment of the post of the Prosecutor General) chief secretary (the titles of positions and titles were mostly German). Helped him executor, who kept order in the building, sent and registered the decrees of the Senate. At the Senate office there were notary actuary (custodian of documents), registrar and archivist. The same positions were in the collegia, they were determined by one "General Regulations".

The Senate also included: attorney General, Master of Requet, Master of Herald and ober-fiscal. The establishment of these posts was of fundamental importance for Peter I. Thus, the General-Reketmeister (1720) had to accept all complaints about the wrong decision of affairs in the collegiums and the Chancellery of the Senate and, in accordance with them, either force the state institutions subordinate to the Senate to a fair decision of cases, or report on complaints to the Senate. It was also the duty of the General-Reketmeister to strictly monitor that complaints against the lower government bodies did not go directly to the Senate, bypassing the collegiums. The main duties of the king of arms (1722) were the collection of data and the compilation of personal service records of the nobility, the entry into the genealogy books of the nobility of persons of lower ranks who rose to the rank of non-commissioned officer. He also had to ensure that more than 1/3 of each noble family was not in the civil service (so that the land would not become scarce).

In its main activity, the Government Senate carried out practically the same functions that at one time belonged to the Boyar Duma. As the highest administrative body in the state, he was in charge of all branches of government, supervised the government apparatus and officials at all levels, and performed legislative and executive functions. At the end of the reign of Peter I, the Senate was also assigned judicial functions, making it the highest court in the state.

At the same time, the position of the Senate in the system of public administration was significantly different from the role that the Boyar Duma played in the Moscow state. Unlike the Boyar Duma, which was an estate body and shared power with the tsar, the Senate was originally created as a purely bureaucratic institution, all members of which were appointed personally by Peter I and were under his control. Without admitting the very idea of \u200b\u200bthe independence of the Senate, Peter I tried to control its activities in every possible way. Initially, the Senate was supervised by the Auditor General (1715), later the staff officers of the Guard (1721) were appointed for this purpose, who were on duty in the Senate and monitored both the acceleration of the passage of affairs in the Senate Chancellery and the observance of order in the meetings of this supreme state body.

In 1722 a special position was established attorney general The Senate, called upon, according to the plan of Peter I, to provide communication between the supreme power and the central government (to be the "eye of the sovereign") and to exercise control over the activities of the Senate. Not trusting the senators and not hoping for their conscientiousness in resolving matters of state importance, Peter I by this act, in fact, established a kind of double control ("control over control"), placing the Senate, which was the highest body of control over the administration, in the position of a supervised institution ... The Prosecutor General personally reported to the Tsar on matters in the Senate, conveyed the will of the supreme power to the Senate, could stop the Senate's decision, and the Senate Chancellery was subordinate to him. All decrees of the Senate received force only with his consent, he also monitored the execution of these decrees. All this not only put the Attorney General over the Senate, but also made him, in the opinion of many, the first person in the state after the monarch.

In the light of the above, the allegations of the empowerment of the Senate with legislative functions are controversial. Although initially the Senate had something to do with lawmaking (it issued the so-called "general definitions" equated to laws), unlike the previous Boyar Duma, it was not a legislative body. Peter I could not allow the existence of an institution next to him, endowed with the right to make laws, since he considered himself the only source of legislative power in the state. Becoming emperor (1721) and reorganizing the Senate (1722), he deprived him of any opportunity to engage in legislative activity.

Perhaps one of the most important innovations of the Petrine administrative reform was the creation in Russia of an effective systems of state supervision and control, designed to control the activities of the administration and to protect state interests. Under Peter I, a new one begins to form for Russia institute of the prosecutor's office. The highest control functions belonged to the Attorney General of the Senate. He was subordinate to other agents of government supervision: chief prosecutors and prosecutors at the collegia and in the provinces. In parallel with this, a ramified system of secret supervision over the activities of the state administration was created in the form of posts established at all levels of management. fiscal.

The introduction of the fiscal institute was a reflection of the police character of the Petrine system of government, became the personification of the government's distrust of the state administration. Already in 1711, the position of the Senate was introduced ober-fiscada. In 1714 a special decree was issued on the distribution of fiscal to different levels of government. The Senate consisted of an ober-fiscal and four fiscal, under provincial governments - four fiscal led by a provincial fiscal, each city - one or two fiscal, each collegium also established fiscal positions. Their duty was to secretly find out about all the violations and abuses of officials, about bribes, theft of the treasury and report to the chief fiscal. Denunciation was encouraged and even rewarded financially (part of the fine imposed on the violator or bribe-taker went to the fiscal who reported him). Thus, the denunciation system was elevated to the rank of state policy. Even in the Church, a system of fiscal (inquisitors) was introduced, and the priests, by a special royal decree, were obliged to violate the secret of confession and report to the authorities on the confessed, if their confession contained one or another "sedition" that threatened the interests of the state.

It has already been said above that the modernization of the state apparatus carried out by Peter I was not distinguished by a systematic and strict sequence. However, upon closer examination of the Peter's reformation, it is easy to see that with all this two tasks remained for Peter I always priority and indisputable. These tasks were: 1) unification government bodies and the entire administration system; 2) conducting through the entire administration collegial beginning, which, together with the system of explicit (prosecutorial) and secret (fiscal system) control, should, according to the king, ensure the rule of law in government.

In 1718-1720. new central government bodies were established, called collegiums. They replaced the old orders and were built according to Western European standards. The Swedish collegiate device was taken as a basis, which Peter I considered the most successful and suitable for the conditions of Russia. The creation of the collegia was preceded by a lot of work on the study of European bureaucratic forms and clerical practice. Experienced practitioners, who are well acquainted with clerical work and the peculiarities of collegial organization ("in the right of the skilful"), were specially discharged from abroad to organize new institutions. Swedish prisoners were also invited. As a rule, each collegium from foreigners appointed one adviser or assessor, one secretary and one schreiber (clerk). At the same time, Peter I tried to appoint only Russian people to the highest leading positions in the collegia (presidents of collegia); foreigners usually did not rise higher than vice-presidents.

Establishing Collegia Peter I proceeds from the idea that "conciliar government in a monarchical state is the best. The advantage of the collegial system was seen in a more efficient and at the same time objective solution of matters (" one head is good, two is better). It was also believed that the collegial structure of state institutions would significantly limit the arbitrariness of high-ranking officials and, no less important, eliminate one of the main defects of the former order system - the widespread spread of bribery and embezzlement.

The collegium began its activity in 1719. In total, 12 collegiums were created: Foreign Affairs, Military, Admiralty (naval), State Offices (Department of State Expenditures), Chamber Collegium (Department of State Revenues), Revision Board (exercising financial control) , Justitz Collegium, Manufacturing Collegium (industry), Berg Collegium (mining), Komerts Collegium (trade), Patrimony and Spiritual Collegium. Formally, the collegia were subordinate to the Senate, which controlled the activities of the collegia and sent them its decrees. With the help of prosecutors appointed in the collegia, who were subordinate to the Attorney General of the Senate, the Senate oversaw the activities of the presidents of the collegia. However, in reality, there was no clear uniformity in the subordination here: not all collegia were equally subordinate to the Senate (the Military and Admiralty collegia had much greater independence than other collegia).

Each collegium drew up its own regulations that determined the scope of its actions and responsibilities. The decree of April 28, 1718 ordered to compose regulations for all collegia on the basis of the Swedish charter, applying the latter to the "position of the Russian state". Since 1720, the "General Regulations" were also introduced, which consisted of 156 chapters and was common to all colleges.

Similar to the orders of the 17th century. collegiums consisted of general presence and office. The presence consisted of a president, a vice president, four (sometimes five) advisers, and four assessors (a total of no more than 13 people). The president of the college was appointed by the king (later by the emperor), the vice president - by the Senate, followed by confirmation by the emperor. The collegiate chancellery was headed by a secretary, who was subordinate to a notary or a protocol clerk, an actuary, a translator and a registrar. All other clerical officials were called clerks and copyists and were directly involved in the production of cases on the appointment of a secretary. The presence of the college gathered in a specially designated room, decorated with carpets and good furniture (gathering in a private house is prohibited). No one could enter the "chamber" without a report during the meeting. Outside conversations in the presence were also prohibited. Sessions were held every day (except holidays and Sundays) from 6 pm or 8 am. All issues discussed at the meeting of the presence were decided by a majority vote. At the same time, the rule was strictly observed, according to which, when discussing an issue, opinions were expressed by all members of the presence in turn, starting with the younger ones. The protocol and the decision were signed by all those present.

The introduction of the collegial system significantly simplified (from the point of view of eliminating the previous confusion in the system of command management) and made the state administrative apparatus more efficient, giving it some uniformity and clearer competences. In contrast to the order system, which was based on the territorial-sectoral principle of management, the collegia were built according to the functional principle and could not interfere with the activities of other collegia. However, it cannot be said that Peter I managed to completely get rid of the shortcomings of the previous management system. It was not possible not only to build a strict hierarchy of levels of government (Senate - collegiums - provinces), but also to avoid confusion of the collegial principle with the personal, which was the basis of the old command system.

As in the orders, in the newly created collegia, the last word often remained with the superiors, in this case the presidents of the collegia, who, together with the prosecutors assigned to the collegia to control their activities, replaced the collegial principle of decision-making with one-man intervention. In addition, the collegia did not replace all the old orders. Next to them, there were still order institutions, called either offices, or, as before, orders (Secret Chancellery. Medical Office, Preobrazhensky Prikaz, Siberian Prikaz).

In the course of Peter's state reforms, the final form of the absolute monarchy in Russia took place. In 1721, Peter I took the title of emperor. In a number of official documents - the Military Regulations, the Spiritual Regulations and others - the autocratic nature of the monarch's power was legally fixed, which, as the Spiritual Regulations said, "God himself commands for conscience."

In the general mainstream of the final stage of the process of the formation of the absolute monarchy in Russia was the reform of church government, the result of which was the abolition of the patriarchate and the final subordination of the Church to the state. 14 February 1721 was established Holy Governing Synod, replacing the patriarchal power and arranged according to the general type of organization of colleges. The Spiritual Regulations, prepared for this purpose by Feofan Prokopovich (one of the main ideologists of the Peter the Great Reformation) and edited by the tsar himself, directly pointed out the imperfection of the sole administration of the patriarch, as well as the political inconveniences that resulted from the exaggeration of the place and role of the patriarchal power in the affairs of the state ... The collegial form of church administration was recommended as the most convenient. The Synod formed on this basis consisted of 12 members, appointed by the king from representatives of the clergy, including the highest (archbishops, bishops, abbots, archimandrites, archpriests). All of them, upon taking office, had to take an oath of allegiance to the emperor. At the head of the Synod was chief prosecutor (1722), appointed to supervise his activities and personally subordinate to the emperor. The positions in the Synod were the same as in the collegia: president, two vice-presidents, four advisers, and four assessors.

Under Peter I, in the course of the reform of the state apparatus, accompanied by the institutionalization of management, the spread and active implementation of the principles of Western European cameralism, the old traditional model of public administration was basically rebuilt, in the place of which a modern rational model of state administration begins to form.

The overall result of the administrative reform was the approval of a new system for organizing the civil service and the transition, within the framework of the emerging rational bureaucracy, to new principles of equipment acquisition government agencies. A special role in this process was called upon to play the g. Introduced by Peter I on February 22, 1722. Table of Ranks, which is considered today to be the first law on public service in Russia, which determined the procedure for the passage of service by officials and consolidated the legal status of persons who were in public service. Its main significance consisted in the fact that it fundamentally broke with the previous traditions of management embodied in the system of parochialism, and established a new principle of appointment to public office - the principle of serviceability. At the same time, the central government sought to place officials under strict state control. For this purpose, a fixed size of the salary of government officials was established in accordance with the position held, the use of official position for the purpose of obtaining personal gain ("bribery" and "bribery") was severely punished.

The introduction of the "Table of Ranks" was closely related to the new personnel policy in the state. Under Peter I, the nobility (from that time called the gentry) became the main class from which personnel were drawn for the state civil service, which was isolated from military service. According to the "Table of Ranks," the nobles, as the most educated stratum of Russian society, received the priority right to public service. Geli, a pedagogue was appointed to a public office, he acquired the rights of the nobility.

Peter I strictly demanded that the nobles serve the civil service as their direct estate duty: all the nobles had to serve either in the army, or in the navy, or in state institutions. The entire mass of the serving nobles was placed directly under the Senate (previously they were under the jurisdiction of the Discharge Order), which carried out all appointments in the civil service (with the exception of the first five upper classes). The accounting of fit for service nobles and staffing of the civil service were entrusted to the Senate king of arms, who was supposed to keep lists of nobles and provide the Senate with the necessary information on candidates for vacant public positions, strictly monitor that nobles did not evade service, and, if possible, organize professional training for officials.

With the introduction of the "Table of Ranks" (Table 8.1), the previous division of the nobility into class groups (Moscow noblemen, policemen, boyar children) was abolished, and a ladder of service class ranks, directly related to the passage of military or civilian service. The "Table of Ranks" established 14 such class ranks (ranks), giving the right to occupy one or another class position. The occupation of class positions corresponding to ranks from 14 to 5 took place in the order of promotion (career growth), starting from the lowest rank. The highest ranks (from 1 to 5) were awarded by the will of the emperor for special services to the Fatherland and the monarch. In addition to the positions of the civil service, the status of which was determined by the "Table of Ranks", there was a huge army of lower clerical employees who make up the so-called.

Table 8.1. Petrovskaya "Table of Ranks"

The peculiarity of the Petrine Table of Ranks, which distinguished it from similar acts of European states, was that, firstly, it closely linked the assignment of ranks with the specific service of certain persons (for persons who are not in the civil service, class ranks are not provided), secondly, the basis for promotion was not the principle of merit, but seniority principle (it was necessary to start service from the lowest rank and serve in each of the ranks for a set number of years). In a similar way, Peter I intended to simultaneously solve two problems: to force the nobles to enter public service; to attract people from other estates to the public service, for whom being in the public service meant the only opportunity to receive the nobility - first personal, and in the long term and hereditary (upon reaching the VIII class rank).

March 5, 2011 marks the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the Senate - the highest body of state power and legislation of the Russian Empire.

On March 5 (February 22, Old Style), 1711, by the decree of Peter I, the Governing Senate was established - the highest body of state power and legislation subordinate to the emperor.

The need to create such a government body was due to the fact that Peter I was often excommunicated from the country and therefore could not fully deal with the current affairs of management. During his absence, he entrusted the management of affairs to several trusted persons. On March 5 (February 22), 1711, these powers were entrusted to the Governing Senate. Initially, it consisted of 9 members and the chief secretary and acted exclusively on behalf of the king and reported only to him.

After the Table of Ranks was adopted (the law on the order of public service in the Russian Empire, regulating the ratio of ranks by seniority and the sequence of promotions), members of the Senate were appointed by the tsar from among the civil and military officials of the first three classes.

In the early years of its existence, the Senate dealt with state revenues and expenditures, was in charge of the appearance of nobles for service, and was the body overseeing the bureaucratic apparatus. Soon, in the center and in the localities, the posts of fiscal officials were introduced, who reported all violations of the laws, bribery, embezzlement and other similar actions. After the creation of the collegia (central bodies of sectoral management), all the heads of the collegia entered the Senate, but this order did not last long, and subsequently the heads of the collegia did not enter the Senate. The Senate supervised all collegia, except the foreign one. The post of the Prosecutor General was introduced, who controlled all the work of the Senate, its apparatus, chancellery, the adoption and execution of all its sentences, their appeal or suspension. The Prosecutor General and the Chief Prosecutor of the Senate were subordinate only to the sovereign. The main function of the prosecutor's control was to ensure the observance of law and order.

From 1711 to 1714 the seat of the Senate was Moscow, but sometimes for a time, as a whole or in the person of several senators, he moved to St. Petersburg, which since 1714 became his permanent residence. Since then, the Senate moved to Moscow only temporarily, in the case of Peter's trips there for a long time. A part of the Senate chancellery remained in Moscow.

In April 1714, a ban was issued to bring complaints to the tsar about unfair decisions of the Senate, which was an innovation for Russia. Until that time, the sovereign could complain about every institution. This prohibition was repeated in the decree on December 22, 1718, and the death penalty was established for bringing a complaint to the Senate.

After the death of Peter I, the position of the Senate, its role and functions in the public administration system gradually changed. Other higher state bodies were created, to which the functions of the Senate were transferred. Under Catherine II, the Senate was removed from the main, politically significant legislative functions. Formally, the Senate was the highest court, but the decisions of the Attorney General and the admission of complaints against him (despite the formal ban) had a great influence on its activities. Catherine II preferred to entrust the functions of the Senate to her confidants.

In 1802, Alexander I issued a decree on the rights and duties of the Senate, which, however, almost did not affect the real state of affairs. The Senate had the formal right to develop bills and subsequently submit them to the emperor, but he did not use this right in practice. After the establishment of the ministries in the same year, the Senate retained the functions of the highest judicial body and oversight body, since the main administrative functions remained with the Committee of Ministers (which became the highest executive body).

In 1872, a "Special Presence for Judging State Crimes and Illegal Communities" - the highest political court of Russia was created within the Senate.

By the beginning of the XX century. The Senate finally lost its significance as the supreme body of government and turned into a body overseeing the legality of the actions of government officials and institutions and the highest cassation instance in court cases. In 1906, the Supreme Criminal Court was established to deal mainly with the crimes of officials.

In 1917, the Special Presence and the Supreme Criminal Court were abolished.

By the decree of the Soviet government of December 5 (November 22) 1917, the Senate was abolished.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Convenient article navigation:

The system of public authorities under Peter I

Formation of a new management system under Peter I

Until the end of the Northern Won, government bodies under Peter the Great in Russia did not have any special differences. However, after the end of hostilities against Sweden and the victory, the Russian state took its place of honor in the international arena. Considering these events, in 1721 the Senate proclaimed Tsar Peter the Emperor, as well as the “Father of the Fatherland” and “Great”.

From that day on, the emperor acquired more extensive powers than the king of the period of the so-called estate-representative monarchy had before. In the state there was no longer a single state governing body that could somehow limit the imperial will and power. Only Peter the First himself had the right to issue laws, completely forming at his own discretion the legislative basis of the state, and only the emperor could exercise judgment through the Synod. Thus, every decision and verdict of the court was made on behalf of the sovereign. The emperor deprived the Russian Church of autonomy and completely subordinated it to the state, abolishing the post of patriarch.

Absolutism of Peter I

The power of the emperor was so undeniable in the state that Peter easily managed to change the order of succession to the throne in the Russian Empire. Prior to that, the right to govern the country passed from the son to the father, and in the absence of a legal heir, the future ruler could be elected by the Zemsky Sobor. However, Peter himself believed that this outdated order does not correspond to the ideas of an absolute monarchy, and if the heir is not a good candidate, then the emperor should have the right to deny him the right to take the throne, choosing a new ruler on his own. Naturally, under the "unworthy heir" Peter, first of all, meant his own son, who dared to oppose his father's reforms.

Establishment of the Governing Senate in 1711

In the same period, the Governing Senate acted as the highest institution of the Petrine administration, with which the sovereign replaced the former ineffective Boyar Duma. On February 27, 1711, before setting out on the Prut military campaign, the tsar signed a decree according to which, at the time when Peter was not in the capital, all government was passed into the hands of the Governing Senate. The Senate was attended by nine members and the chief secretary.

Functions and powers of the Senate

The Senate performed the following functions:

consideration of cases as the highest court;
solving issues that were associated with the conduct of military operations in the territories belonging to the Russian state;
hearing reports of commissions;
consideration of various kinds of complaints, as well as displacement and appointment of chiefs of different categories, etc.

Along with this governing body, the Russian monarch established fiscal in the provinces and put the chief fiscal in the Senate. The duties of these officials included supervision over the observance of the rule of law in the provincial and central institutions. Later, all these duties were included in the actual activities of the Prosecutor General, who, according to the Tsar's order, was supposed to be present and keep order at every meeting of the Governing Senate. The tsar appointed Pavel Yaguzhinsky as the very first chief prosecutor.

And although the Senate was established as a temporary solution to administer the state during the absence of the tsar in the country, this institution continued to exist even after the return of Peter the Great from the Prut campaign, representing the highest state - control, judicial and administrative.

Establishment of the prosecutor's office in 1722

1722 is considered the beginning of the Russian prosecutor's office. In the same period, a special position of the reketmaster was established, considering complaints and making decisions on the unfair decision of the collegiums. The reketmaster had to report all such matters to the Senate, demanding a prompt solution of the issue, and sometimes his duties included a report on this to the emperor himself.

The above position was completely abolished only in 1763 during the reorganization of this governing body. In addition, the Governor of the Senate also had an herald, who was an official in charge of all the affairs of the upper nobility. For example, the duties of this official included the registration of nobles, their appointment to civil service, control over their military service, etc.

In 1731, under the Governing Senate, the so-called Office of Secret Investigative Affairs appeared, investigating and prosecuting all state crimes. Thirty years later, it was abolished and replaced by a secret expedition of the Senate, investigating the most important cases of a political nature.

After the death of Peter the Great, the political importance and power of the Senate dried up. Formally, while remaining the highest authority after the monarch, he was completely subordinate to the Supreme Privy Council.

Table: reforms of Peter I in the field of government

Table: state and administrative reforms of Peter I

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In what year was the order on the establishment of the Governing Senate signed?

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In what year was the Russian prosecutor's office established?