Who headed the Senate. The Senate as the highest body of state power

II Congress of the RSDLP and the formation of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks as factions (1903)

The ideological differences between the supporters of Lenin and the supporters of Martov concerned 4 issues. The first was the question of including in the party program the demand for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin's supporters were in favor of including this requirement, Martov's supporters were against it. The second issue was the inclusion in the party program of demands on the agrarian question. Lenin's supporters were in favor of including these demands in the program, Martov's supporters were against inclusion. Part of Martov's supporters (Polish Social Democrats and the Bund) also demanded that the demand for the right of nations to self-determination be excluded from the program. In addition, the Mensheviks opposed the fact that every member of the party should be a member of any of its organizations. They wanted to create a less rigid party, whose members could declare themselves as such and participate in party work of their own free will. In questions concerning the program of the party, the supporters of Lenin won, in the question of membership in organizations, the supporters of Martov.

In the elections to the leading bodies of the party (the Central Committee and the editorial office of Iskra), Lenin's supporters received a majority, while Martov's supporters received a minority. Why the first began to be called Bolsheviks, and the second Mensheviks. What helped Lenin's supporters to get a majority was the fact that some of the delegates left the congress. It was the representatives of the Bund who did this in protest against the fact that the Bund was not recognized as the sole representative of the Jewish workers in Russia. Two more delegates left the congress due to disagreements over the recognition of the foreign union of "economists" (a trend that believed that workers should limit themselves to trade union, economic struggle against the capitalists) as the representative of the party abroad.

After the II Congress and until the final split with the Mensheviks (1903-1912)

The opponents of the Bolsheviks dealt the most painful blow to them in 1910, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. Due to the conciliatory position of Zinoviev and Kamenev, who represented the Bolsheviks at the plenum, as well as the diplomatic efforts of Trotsky, who received a subsidy for them to publish his “non-factional” newspaper Pravda (it has nothing to do with the legal organ of the RSDLP (b), the plenum adopted an extremely unfavorable decision for the Bolsheviks. He decreed that the Bolsheviks should dissolve the Bolshevik Center, that all frictional periodicals should be closed, that the Bolsheviks should pay back the sum of several hundred thousand rubles allegedly stolen from the party.

The Bolsheviks carried out the decisions of the plenum in the main. As for the liquidators, their bodies, under various pretexts, continued to come out as if nothing had happened.

Lenin realized that a full-fledged struggle against the liquidators within the framework of one party was impossible and decided to transform the struggle against them into the form of an open struggle between parties. He organizes a number of purely Bolshevik meetings, which decided to organize an all-party conference.

Such a conference was held in January 1912 in Prague. All the delegates there, except for two Menshevik Party members, were Bolsheviks. Opponents of the Bolsheviks subsequently argued that this was the result of a special selection of delegates by Bolshevik agents. The conference expelled the liquidator Mensheviks from the party and created the RSDLP(b).

The Mensheviks organized a conference in Vienna in August of the same year as a counterbalance to the Prague Conference. The Vienna Conference condemned the Prague Conference and created a rather patchwork formation, referred to in Soviet sources as the August bloc.

From the formation of the RSDLP (b) to the October Revolution (1912-1917)

After the formation of the RSDLP (b) as a separate party, the Bolsheviks continue both the legal and illegal work that they carried out before and do it quite successfully. They manage to create a network of illegal organizations in Russia, which, despite the huge number of provocateurs sent by the government (even the provocateur Roman Malinovsky was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), conducted agitation and propaganda work and introduced Bolshevik agents into legal workers' organizations. They manage to set up the publication of the legal workers' newspaper Pravda in Russia. The Bolsheviks also participated in the elections to the IV State Duma and received 6 out of 9 seats from the workers' curia. All this shows that among the workers of Russia the Bolsheviks were the most popular party.

World War I intensified government repression. In July 1914 Pravda was closed. In November of the same year, the Bolshevik faction in the State Duma was crushed. Illegal organizations were also attacked.

The ban on the legal activities of the RSDLP (b) during the First World War was caused by its so-called "defeatist" position, that is, open agitation for the defeat of autocratic Russia, propaganda of the priority of the class struggle over the interethnic one (the slogan "turning the imperialist war into a civil war").

As a result, until the spring of 1917, the influence of the RSDLP (b) in Russia was insignificant. In Russia, they carried out revolutionary propaganda among the soldiers and workers, and published more than 2 million copies of anti-war leaflets. Abroad, the Bolsheviks took part in the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences of the socialist parties, which adopted resolutions on the need for revolutionary work during the war, on the inadmissibility for socialists to maintain "class peace" with the bourgeoisie. At these conferences, the Bolsheviks led the group of the most consistent internationalists - the Zimmerwald Left.

After the October Revolution

Links

• Alexander Rabinovich "The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd"
• Nikolai Druzhinin "On the three participants in the revolutionary struggle"
• Martemyan Ryutin "Stalin and the Crisis of the Proletarian Dictatorship"
• The October Revolution: the main event of the 20th century or a tragic mistake?

see also

• Revolutionary Communist Youth Union (Bolsheviks)

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See what "Bolsheviks" are in other dictionaries:

Representatives of a political trend (fraction) in the RSDLP (since April 1917 an independent political party), headed by V. I. Lenin. The concept of the Bolsheviks arose at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903) after the elections to the leading bodies of the party ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Bolsheviks, representatives of a political trend (fraction) in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (since April 1917 an independent political party). The concept of the Bolsheviks arose at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

On matters of war, Tsar Peter I often had to leave the capital. In his absence, he transferred power to trusted persons. The Decree of Peter I on the creation of the Senate was issued in 1711. It said: "The Governing Senate was determined to be for our absences for management."

The Senate, unlike the Reprisal Chamber of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, which worked constantly, at first, only in the absence of the tsar, led the entire state life of the country. The number of its members did not exceed 10 people. All offices, orders, governors obeyed him.

In 1721, when the victory of Russia over the Swedes in the Northern War was solemnly celebrated in St. Petersburg, the Senate presented the tsar with the title of emperor. Russia became known as an empire. Peter I was also called "Father of the Fatherland", "Great".

Position of the Senate

Peter I attached great importance to the Senate. He wrote the document "Position of the Senate", which he himself processed over the course of six years. The document determined that the Senate is the guardian of state interests. The Senate was conceived as a collegiate body. It was supposed to observe the equality of its members in resolving issues. Not a single decree could come into effect without general consent.

Attorney General of the Senate

To monitor order in the Senate, a special position was established - prosecutor general. The Attorney General was obliged to sit at the meetings of the Senate and observe that the senators worked "truly and zealously, without loss of time." He also had to check that the decisions made were executed and implemented, and "only things were not done on the table."

The prosecutor's office was called - "the eye of the sovereign." The first pro-curator general of the Senate was an associate of Peter I, a man of humble origin Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky. He had a whole staff of chief prosecutors. They reported directly to the king. material from the site

Immediately after the palace coup in 1762, the nobleman N.I. Panin presented to Catherine II the project he had developed for the establishment of the Imperial Council. This body, consisting of 6-8 trustees and endowed with significant power (all laws must pass through the Council), would seriously limit the power of the monarch. After long hesitation, finding a plausible pretext, Catherine refused Panin's proposal.

In 1763, the empress reformed the Senate. According to Ekaterina, this body possessed an excess of power and suppressed any independence of institutions subordinate to it.

The Senate was divided into six departments, each of which had a strictly defined range of duties. Some of its functions were transferred to other institutions. The Senate became the highest judicial institution.

The Governing Senate was established - the highest body of state power and legislation, subordinate to the emperor.

Peter's constant absences I from the country prevented him from doing the current affairs of government. During his absence, he entrusted the conduct of business to several trusted persons. 22 February (5 March) 1711 d. these powers were entrusted to a new institution called the Governing Senate.

The Senate exercised full power in the country in the absence of the sovereign and coordinated the work of other state institutions.

The new institution included nine people: Count Ivan Alekseevich Musin-Pushkin, boyar Tikhon Nikitich Streshnev, Prince Pyotr Alekseevich Golitsyn, Prince Mikhail Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, Prince Grigory Andreevich Plemyannikov, Prince Grigory Ivanovich Volkonsky, Krigsalmeister General Mikhail Mikhailovich Samarin, Quartermaster General Vasily Andreevich Apukhtin and Nazariy Petrovich Melnitsky. Anisim Shchukin was appointed chief secretary.

In the early years of its existence, the Senate took care of state revenues and expenditures, was in charge of the attendance of the nobles for service, and was a body of supervision over an extensive bureaucratic apparatus. A few days after the establishment of the Senate on March 5 (16), 1711, the posts of fiscals were introduced in the center and in the regions, who reported on all violations of the laws, bribery, embezzlement and similar actions that were harmful to the state. By the decree of the emperor of March 28, 1714, "On the position of fiscals," this service was finalized.

In 1718-1722 gg. The Senate included all the presidents of the colleges. The position of Prosecutor General was introduced, which controlled all the work of the Senate, its apparatus, the office, the adoption and execution of all its sentences, their protest or suspension. The Prosecutor General and 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. Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky was appointed the first prosecutor general.

After Peter's death I the position of the Senate, its role and functions in the public administration system gradually changed. The Senate instead of the Governing One became known as the High. In 1741 d. empress Elizaveta Petrovna issued a Decree “On the Restoration of the Power of the Senate in the Board of Internal State Affairs”, but the real significance of the Senate in matters of internal administration was small.

At the beginning of Peter's reign, the Boyar Duma still remained the supreme body for legislation, administration and courts. But after the creation in October 1704 of the Cabinet of His Majesty, the role of the Boyar Duma decreased significantly - its meetings cease to be convened. Back in 1699. from the composition of the Boyar Duma, the Near Office was separated, renamed in 1708. to the Council of Ministers, which gradually almost completely replaced the Boyar Duma.

During the Northern War, which required frequent departures of the tsar, Peter the Great decided to create a new supreme body to govern the state during his absences. Departing for the Prut campaign in February 1711, Peter 1 promulgated a decree: “The Governing Senate was determined to be for our absences, to manage ...”, on the same day a manifesto was announced on the outbreak of war with Turkey.

Initially, the Senate was established temporarily, but soon turned into a permanent state body. On March 2 of the same year, all "places and persons" were ordered to obey the Senate, as the sovereign himself. At the same time, the Senate also received the first job description, from which it is clear that Peter 1 endowed the new body with broad powers. This Decree also speaks of “an unhypocritical court”, and of “expenses throughout the State”, and of the assembly of nobles in the army, of money, bills and goods, of salt and other economic affairs. The scope of the Senate's departments expanded rapidly, partly on the direct instructions of the sovereign, partly on his own initiative. All management, supreme supervision of justice, the highest administrative and legislative power were concentrated in his hands.

The Senate was a collegiate body whose members were appointed by the king. At first, it consisted of nine senators with equal votes: princes P.A. Golitsyn, M.V. Dolgoruky, G.I. Volkonsky, Count I.A. Musin-Pushkin, T.N. Streshnev, G.A. Nephews. M.V. Samarin, V.G. Apukhtin, N.P. Melnitsky. They sat in one common presence and decided all matters together. Under him, for office work, there was an office under the control of the chief secretary, who was probably the head of all writing.

Initially, the Senate was directly related to the central and local government, there were no connecting authorities between it and the provinces. All documents from the provinces went directly to the Senate through the provincial and secret table. Under the Senate, for proper relations, there were special commissars from the provinces (2 from each).

According to the decree “On the Establishment of the Governing Senate”, it was also established “instead of the order of the Razryadnago, there should be a table for the discharge at the above-described Senate”. The Senate inherited many rights from the category, which was in charge of service people of various ranks and concentrated all government orders on the official part. After the destruction of the discharge order, the Senate became the focus of such orders, and the special task of “writing to the ranks” was transferred to it, that is, appointment to all military and civil positions, managing all the service class, maintaining lists for it, conducting reviews and monitoring non-evasion from service. In 1721-1722. the discharge table was first converted into a collapsible office, also attached to the Senate, and on February 5, 1722, a king of arms was appointed to the Senate, who was in charge of the service class through the office of the king of arms.

A few days after the establishment of the Senate, on March 5, 1711, the position of fiscals was created, whose duty it was to “supervise all affairs”, conducting and denouncing in court “all sorts of crimes, bribes, theft of the treasury, etc., as well as other silent deeds, etc. do not have a petition about themselves." The decree of March 17, 1714 "On the position of fiscals" already more clearly defined the structure of the fiscal service and the duties of the fiscals. The Senate was ordered to elect a Chief Fiscal with four assistants (two from the merchants and two from the nobility), whose duties were to "observe the course and fair administration of affairs in all provincial government offices and prosecute the abuses of persons, no matter how high they were." , to have attention to government fees, to be an intercessor for the oppressed. Under the provincial governments there was also a provincial fiscal with three assistants, in the cities - 1-2 city fiscals. Fiscals did not receive a salary, as a reward for their work they were entitled in the first years to half, and then a third of the confiscated property.

When the constant absences of Peter 1 stopped, the question of dissolving the Senate did not even arise. With orders increasingly losing their significance, the Senate becomes the place where all the most important affairs of administration, court and current legislation are carried out. On December 11, 1717, a decree “On the staff of colleges and the time of opening them” was signed, according to which most of the orders were abolished and 12 colleges were established. Their discovery began in 1718.

Since then, the structure of the Senate has undergone some changes. Firstly, between the Senate, as a body of supreme power, and local institutions, intermediary instances appeared, especially for local administration, the chamber chamber and the justice college. At the same time, some boards (foreign affairs, military and admiralty) receive an independent position, but this does not reduce the power of the Senate. Then, with the establishment of other colleges, the composition of the Senate also temporarily changes. According to the Decree of 1718, it was to consist of the presidents of the collegiums. It was assumed that in this way he would unite various departments into one whole and direct their activities towards one goal. But such an order existed until 1722. In the Decree of April 27, 1722, “On the position of the Senate,” it is said that “this, despite what was done at first, should now be corrected.” The reason for the return to the previous structure of the Senate was the slowness of the Senate office work, which was explained by the lack of time for the presidents of the collegiums to work also as senators. But it was not this reason that forced Peter 1 to change the structure of the Senate, but most likely "the desire to provide the state with an independent, strict and controlling institution." Other dignitaries of the state were appointed senators, and only the presidents of the military and foreign affairs boards were left of the presidents. And in order to strengthen the supervising power of the Senate, the emperor ordered: "Revision boards should be in the Senate, since it is one thing that the Senate does."

Of all the institutions that have ever been attached to the Senate, the institution of the prosecutor's office, which also appeared in 1722, had the most practical significance. The prosecutor's office controlled the activities of the Senate and the collegiums. The establishment of the post of Prosecutor General was due to several circumstances: firstly, a connecting body was needed between the Senate and the Emperor; secondly, it was necessary to supervise the activities of the Senate, which sometimes did not justify the hopes placed on it.

Dissatisfaction with the Senate affected the establishment as early as 1715 of the post of auditor general or overseer of decrees. Vasily Zotov, appointed to this position, turned out to be too weak, however, to influence senators and prevent voluntary and involuntary violations of decrees. In 1718, he was assigned to the tax audit, and his position was abolished by itself. The constant strife between the senators again forced Peter to entrust someone with monitoring the course of the Senate meetings, such an observer was appointed chief secretary, who also turned out to be unsuitable for this. Shortly before the establishment of the post of Prosecutor General, the supervision of the deanery of the Senate meetings was entrusted to the monthly changing staff officers of the guard.

Finally, before the departure of Peter the Great for the Persian campaign on January 12, 1722, a prosecutor's office was created in the form of a complex and harmonious system of supervision not only over the Senate, but also over all central and local administrative and judicial institutions. At the head of the Prosecutor's Office was the Prosecutor General as the head of the Senate Chancellery and as a body of supervision over the Senate presence in terms of not only deanery during meetings, but also the compliance of Senate decisions with the Code and decrees. P.I. was appointed the first Prosecutor General. Yaguzhinsky. A few days later, an assistant to the prosecutor general was appointed - chief prosecutor - Skornyakov-Pisarev. And on April 27, 1722, an instruction was given to the prosecutor general. His main duty was to observe, “so that the Senate keeps its position, and in all cases that are subject to Senate consideration and decision, truly, zealously and decently, without loss of time, according to the Regulations and decrees sent ...”. Also, the Prosecutor General led the Senate debate, not allowing the senators to excessive talk and abuse, for which he was armed with the same means that were previously given to the Senate chief secretary and guard officer who was present at the Senate. It was he who appointed an hourglass time for discussing the issue, stopped overly ardent opinions, took a fine from scolding senators, and, if necessary, informed the sovereign. He stops the decisions of the senate, which, in his opinion, are incorrect, at his choice, either gives a new term for reviewing the case, or reports to His Imperial Majesty. Under his control is the office of the Senate, under his command it acquires a new significance and, together with him, sharply stands out, as a completely separate element, from the institution of the Senate. All reports and denunciations of governors and other subordinate institutions go through the office, therefore, all cases go through the hands of the prosecutor general.

Finally, the prosecutor general was an intermediate link between the sovereign and the senate, through him the sovereign made sure that the senators understood his intentions correctly and were fulfilling their duties. "This rank is like our eye and a lawyer on state affairs." The establishment of the Prosecutor General belittled the power of the Senate presence, but did not limit the power of the Senate, of which he was a member.

In the last years of Peter's reign, when, after the end of the Northern War, he began to pay more attention to the affairs of internal administration, the emergency powers vested in the Senate lost their meaning. The decrease in the power of the Senate affects mainly in the field of legislation. In the first decade of its existence, the Senate, in the field of civil law restrained by the authority of the Council Code of 1649, in the field of administrative law, enjoyed very broad legislative power. On November 19, 1721, Peter instructs the Senate not to fix any determination of the general without signing his hand.

The Senate founded by Peter did not bear the slightest resemblance to foreign institutions of the same name (Sweden, Poland) and corresponded to the peculiar conditions of Russian state life of that time. The degree of power granted to the Senate was determined by the fact that the Senate was established instead of His Royal Majesty himself.

The Senate was established in Russia under Peter the Great in 1711, following the model of a similar institution that existed in Sweden. Studying government institutions in Sweden, Peter the Great settled on the Senate; this institution, with some changes adapted to the life of Russian life, should, in his opinion, find a convenient basis in our system of government. By means of such an institution, based on a purely collegiate principle, he thought to achieve: 1) unity in all management and 2) put an end to all abuse of officials.

Leaving abroad in 1711, Peter the Great entrusted all management not to the “boyar duma”, as was done before, but to the newly established institution - the senate. He was entrusted with: supreme supervision in matters of court, finance and administration; his main duty was to oversee the exact and uniform execution of the law. Subsequently, through practice itself, the scope of the Senate's departments expanded to extraordinary proportions. It can be said that there was no branch in public administration, wherever the power and activity of the senate extended. All institutions and persons in the state obeyed him: spiritual and secular, military and civil, higher and lower. He had administrative, judicial, and partly even legislative power; in a word, Peter V., especially due to the fact that he often had to leave the state, and on the other hand, wishing that as a result of this there would be no stops in state administration, he provided the senate with such power as no institution had before. , nor after it. In relation to the legislative function, the senate was truly something peculiar and exceptional. He not only had the right to draw up projects and submit them for the approval of the sovereign, but even himself, by his own power, could issue laws during the absence of the sovereign; of course, this right was temporary and was conditioned by the then exceptional circumstances; at the same time, the senate in its legislative activity was responsible to the monarch. As for the participation of the senate in the legislative activity of the bearer of supreme power, manifested in the drafting and discussion of laws, such participation belonged to the senate constantly during the life of Peter, it was a completely normal phenomenon and was not caused by any exceptional circumstances.

If the competence of the Senate extended to the entire public administration in general, then its judicial significance was already determined under Peter V. to the greatest extent. The Senate was both the first instance in the most important cases and the highest appellate instance in ordinary cases. However, at least at first, the decisions of the senate were not final, since complaints were also allowed to the emperor himself, but already from 1718 complaints about the decision of the senate were prohibited under pain of death on the grounds that “that supreme senate from his The royal majesty is highly trusted and consists of honest and noble persons, to whom not only petitions, but also the government of the state is entrusted. This prohibition, however, did not extend to all kinds of complaints; thus, complaints about the slowness of proceedings or the denial of justice were not prohibited.

Finally, the administrative activities of the Senate were extremely varied; thus, in relation to military affairs, the senate had the duty to gather men for war, to replenish the army with officers, to replace the loss that had occurred in the troops, to supply the army with all the necessary supplies, and even to make orders of a purely military nature. With the establishment of collegiums, the circle of the Senate's department in military affairs narrowed somewhat. In financial terms, the senate was entrusted with managing the revenues and expenditures of the state; he had not only controlling importance in this area, but he could independently manage the state treasury. In addition to finding sources of state revenue and managing the latter, the Senate was also obliged to apply its concerns to the promotion of trade and industry, and finally, it was also responsible for the minting of coins. With the establishment of collegiums in this sphere as well, the whole mass of petty cases passed from the senate to these institutions. In addition to military and financial affairs, the Senate had to take care of the welfare and security of the state, which included concerns about communication routes, the improvement of cities, public food, public education, the creation of conditions for the security of life and property of everyone and everyone, and much more.

The Senate initially consisted of nine senior dignitaries and the presidents of the established colleges. The participation of the latter in the affairs of the Senate, although it seemed extremely inconvenient to Peter, in view of the fact that the presidents of the collegiums often became judges in their own affairs, transferred from the collegiums to the senate, but due to the lack of suitable persons to form the composition of the senate, Peter had to reconcile for a while with this evil; but already by decree of April 27, 1722, the presidents of the colleges were deprived of the title of senators, with the exception of the presidents of two military colleges - naval and land, as well as foreign and berg colleges. The number of senators was increased by persons chosen from former ambassadors to foreign courts. As regards the rights of senators, it was only in relation to the court that they enjoyed the privilege of being judged by their equals, i.e. in the Senate, or in an emergency court, the so-called "higher"; in all other respects they were equated with ordinary officials. In addition to the actual senators in the Senate, there was still a fairly significant number of persons vested with special duties. These were: commissars, chief fiscal, racket master, king of arms, and finally, the prosecutor general, chief prosecutor and prosecutors. Each province had two commissars attached to the Senate; the purpose of establishing this position was to establish the easiest relationship with the provinces, so the commissioners had to have all the necessary information regarding their province. They were also sometimes entrusted with monitoring the execution of decrees sent to the provinces. With the establishment of colleges, commissars lose their significance, although they still continue to exist.

The duties of the Chief Fiscal, and since 1723 the General Fiscal, were to monitor the correct administration of all official duties by officials, and mainly to monitor state interests and protect them. The chief fiscal was subordinate to the provincial fiscals, who in turn had their own fiscals. In general, it must be said that there was not a single department, not a single instance, not a single office where there was no fiscal. Such a sad phenomenon can only be explained by the circumstances of that time, by the mass of abuses in the bureaucratic world that Peter had to fight. Initially, the fiscals were even freed from all responsibility, which, of course, should have led to another extreme: the fiscals themselves, taken from the same environment, were not slow to take advantage of their irresponsibility and stained their already unseemly activities with unheard-of abuses. This led to the transformation of the institution of fiscals and to the establishment of their responsibility. With the establishment of the post of Prosecutor General and prosecutors, the fiscals are pushed into the background, until finally, due to their uselessness, they were finally abolished.

At the Senate consisted, further, as it is said, the general-reketmeister and the king of arms. The duties of the first were entrusted with the initial consideration of cases transferred to the Senate from the collegiums, as well as cases on complaints against the collegiums of their office; he was instructed to intercede in cases of foreigners, and subsequently other duties were assigned to him. In the event of a complaint against any higher judicial place, the general-reketmeister himself personally undertook an audit and brought the perpetrators to the court of the senate. As for the king of arms, he kept a genealogical book of the nobles, had to take care of the institution for the noble children of educational institutions; it was his duty to have a sufficient number of reserve nobles ready in case of demand from the senate.

Finally, one of the most important positions in the Senate is that of the Prosecutor General. Peter's desire to form a strong body of control over the proceedings in the Senate led to the establishment of this position. The institution of the prosecutor's office developed, however, gradually. Supervision of the proceedings in the Senate passed from one official to another: thus, initially, for this purpose, the post of Auditor General was formed; from him the duties of supervision passed to the chief secretary of the Senate chancellery, then to the staff officers of the guard, and in the end the institute of the prosecutor's office, which was then firmly established, appeared. The position of Prosecutor General was formed on a more rational basis than on which the former control bodies rested. The Attorney-General received much more rights than his predecessors, and also incomparably more means to be a true organ of control, and not only in relation to the Senate, but also to all the present gestures of the empire. In the Senate, he was the head of the office, thanks to which he got the opportunity to get acquainted with the entire course of the proceedings, which the previous control bodies did not have. The Prosecutor General was also an active member of the Senate; his activity was not limited to only one observation, he was not only one “eye of the sovereign”, but at the same time he was also a “solicitor on sovereign affairs”, due to which he often took an active part in solving cases, he had to direct every case in such a way so that it cannot cause any harm to the state. The power of the procurator-general extended, as has been said, to all the lower institutions of the empire; for its implementation, under his direct department were the prosecutors established at the collegiums and courts of courts, who had the same rights with respect to the institutions under which they consisted, which the prosecutor general had in relation to the senate. In addition to the prosecutors, under the command of the prosecutor general was the chief prosecutor as his assistant.

Thus, the position of the Prosecutor General was an element connecting the Senate - on the one hand with the sovereign, on the other with lower institutions. In addition, it is impossible not to admit that in the person of the Prosecutor General, Peter partly returned to the former personal principle in administration, against which he was precisely fighting, but which was too tenacious and too rooted in Russian life to disappear so soon and suddenly. However, according to Peter, the prosecutor general should have been a necessary element of the senate, outside of which all its significance was lost. As a result of this, the Senate, as the highest state institution, which was the most complete expression of the collegiate principle, and the Prosecutor General, who represented a personal principle, were not opposite to each other, but, on the contrary, seemed to complement each other. Control over the entire administration is the business of the collegiate senate; observation, that nothing should be overlooked, that harmful factors be eliminated, and that all the activities of institutions and officials be directed towards one goal - the work of the Prosecutor General, as a representative of a personal principle. Therefore, one cannot but agree with Petrovsky that “with the Prosecutor General, the Senate has become more perfect, its power is more powerful, more real. The Prosecutor General with the prosecutors gave him a whole mass of information that had hitherto been lost, unknown, stimulated his activity more strongly, he became more energetic, his forces seemed to be concentrated. The Prosecutor General and the Senate merged into one whole and history bound them together by one fate: the time of the high position of the Prosecutor General is at the same time the time of prosperity, the greatest energy and activity of the Senate itself, the time of the decline of the Prosecutor General under the closest successors of Peter - the time of the humiliation of the Senate, and Finally, when the Attorney General became the Minister of Justice, the Senate became almost only a judicial seat.

Senate office work under Peter was organized on the following grounds: all cases that came to the senate went primarily to the chief secretary, from whom they were either transferred directly to the senate meeting for decision, this is precisely in the case when the case was not difficult and not required preliminary inquiries, or came to the table to the assistants for inquiries. In the meeting, cases were reported by the chief secretary, and the prosecutor general supervised the submission of opinions and debate that followed. Decisions were made by majority vote; if a unanimous decision was also practiced, then it was not very long, namely from the time the Senate was founded until 1714, therefore no more than three years. The decree of 1714 then commands to keep minutes of the meetings in all cases, so that it can be seen what and how happens in the meetings, and in order to thereby force the senators to treat cases prudently and conscientiously. Further, it was required that all senators should certainly participate in the decision of affairs; those who did not appear at the meeting without explanation of the reasons, or, although due to illness, but without notice, had to pay a fine of 50 rubles a day.

The Senate chancellery, headed by the chief secretary, was divided into four tables: secret, command, provincial and discharge. The affairs of the highest state administration, especially those subject to secrecy, were concentrated in a secret table, although some other matters were also dealt with here, partly financial, partly external relations. In the clerk's desk, the affairs of the current state administration were conducted, requiring special consideration and permission from the senate. The provincial desk was in charge of the affairs of the provinces, with the exception of Moscow, which was in charge of the clerk's desk. The discharge table, like the former "discharge", considered cases related to the service class. There was also the so-called fiscal table, in charge of which cases were concentrated on denunciations of the fiscals and on the fiscals. This distribution of cases among the tables, however, did not remain anything permanent, but was subject to more or less frequent modifications and transfers of cases from one table to another.

Recalling everything that has been said about the Senate under Peter the Great, we come to the conclusion that it was the highest state institution, operating both in the sphere of supreme and subordinate government. If the former "boyar" and "tsar's duma" were much more personal advice in the person of the monarch than real state bodies, then the senate, on the contrary, received the character of a state institution in the true sense of the word. The composition of the “Duma” was more aristocratic than the composition of the Senate, since the former was precisely such an institution in which the state significance of the aristocracy was embodied, and the position of which characterized the relationship between the representative of the supreme power and the upper class; the senate was a completely monarchical institution, not connected with the aristocracy by any threads; if it included representatives of the upper class, ancient boyar families, then not on the basis of time-honored custom, but only solely at the personal discretion of the monarch, and not as representatives of the clan, but as equal members of the collegiate institution; along with them in the senate there were also persons not distinguished by the antiquity of their kind. The Senate was for the first time an institution with a certain permanent composition and with detailed tasks in the field of legislation, administration and the judiciary. Before the establishment of the Senate, there was no supreme body of control over all institutions and officials in the state, which at the same time would be the guardian of law and justice; there was no body set to act with the help of persons and institutions subordinate to it in all parts of the administration. With the establishment of the Senate, the foundation for the unity of state administration is laid, and the responsibility of the administration becomes a firmer basis. But the higher administration under Peter was not yet sufficiently differentiated, so the same body operates both in the sphere of supreme and in the sphere of subordinate administration. The Senate under Peter V. concentrated in itself everything that was much later distributed among various bodies - the State Council, the Committee of Ministers and the Senate. The very distinction between the supreme and subordinate government under Peter was far from being presented in the form as it was later determined, in view of the fact that Peter himself was not only a monarch and head of state, but at the same time one of the most active administrators who created for himself represented by the Senate Assistant for all matters of public administration. The extent to which the newly formed institution corresponded to the real needs of public life is shown by the fact that it exists to this day with the same main tasks - to be the body of control over the entire administration, the guardian of laws and the guardian of justice. The strength and stability, as well as the expediency of this institution, are also fully confirmed by the fact that the Senate had to go through difficult times, when the old principles of Moscow administration came to the surface of state life, when the Senate had to wage an unequal struggle, from which it eventually emerged. winner. This struggle began immediately after the death of Peter the Great.