The first step of Catherine II along the path of creating such a management system was major reform of the Senate, undertaken in 1763 G. Having concentrated in their hands almost all legislative initiative, executive and judicial power and having reached the highest point of its development, the Senate from the mid-50s. began to lose its former role in public administration. Forced to deal with many small cases. The Senate was unable to focus its attention on resolving issues of national importance, and many of its initiatives did not receive proper development.
The need to reorganize this highest state institution was obvious. The plan for the reform of the Senate, prepared by the tutor of the heir to Paul and the closest adviser to the empress in the early years of her reign, N.I. Panin, and approved by Catherine II, provided for the division of the Senate into six departments with strictly defined functions of each in a certain area of government. Four departments were located in St. Petersburg, and two in Moscow (instead of the Senate office).
The most important management issues ("state and political affairs") were concentrated in the first department, headed by the Attorney General himself. This department promulgated laws, was in charge of the Secret Expedition and the Office of Confiscations, finance and financial control, industry, trade, state and church property and their corresponding institutions. In the department of the second department there were questions of the court, land surveying, consideration of petitions addressed to the empress, etc. Third department concentrated the most varied affairs: the management of communications and medicine, the guardianship of the sciences, education and the arts; management of the outskirts that had some autonomy rights (the Baltic States and Ukraine). Fourth department was engaged in military land and naval affairs. Moscow departments corresponded to those of St. Petersburg: the fifth to the first, and the sixth to the second. All departments, except the first, were headed by chief prosecutors subordinate to the prosecutor general.
The Prosecutor General became the highest official of the state, the first and only minister in charge of the most important and varied administrative affairs, with whom in practice the presidents of the collegiums and governors most often preferred to deal with. The Attorney General, on behalf of and on behalf of the imperial power, exercised supervision and control over the actions and decisions of the Governing Senate, other central and local institutions; he acted not only as a guardian of laws, but also often performed the functions of the minister of finance, justice, and internal affairs. The Prosecutor General enjoyed the right of a daily report to the Empress on matters decided in the Senate, and in the event of a disagreement in the senators' opinions on any matter at the general meeting of departments, he reported to the Empress about it and sought her personal decision.
Appointing in February 1764 to this post Prince A.A. Vyazemsky, who remained the de facto head of the state apparatus almost until the end of the reign of Catherine II, the empress drew up for him the so-called "Secret Instruction" - a program of practical measures to be carried out by the Prosecutor General in his work.
The activities of the versatile and well-educated prince A.A. Vyazemsky, which held office for almost 30 years, was not limited to the supervision and control of the administration of justice and the organization of the work of the prosecutor's system, but was very diverse and at times expanded to such an extent that it covered all the main branches of government. He enjoyed the full confidence of CatherineII, was a faithful advisor and reliable guide of all her ideas and innovations in the field of state structure and administration.
At first glance, the reform of the Senate was purely administrative in nature, but if under Elizaveta Petrovna the senators had the right to submit proposals for the consideration of any issue at a meeting of the Senate, now this right has completely passed to the Prosecutor General. Reform 1763 The city changed the order of consideration of cases: they had to be resolved unanimously in departments, and only in case of disagreement, the issue was brought up to a general session of the Senate. During the reform, the Senate lost its legislative function, but still retained its functions control and the highest judicial authority. Their combination in one institution was the main drawback of the reform, but for some time the central administrative apparatus began to work more clearly and efficiently.
An important part of the Senate reform 1763 was the adoption of new states, which introduced salaries for all employees of central and local institutions. The states of 1763 established salaries for officials twice as high as before, while the salary was assigned not according to rank, but according to position. Raising salaries and establishing v 1764 d. pensions for officials the government hoped to strengthen the state apparatus and eliminate the vices that corroded it.
Catherine II, who openly declared her views on members Synod, as civil servants obliged to pursue goals in their activities, indicated by the government, attached great importance to the power of the synodal chief prosecutor and could not help but provide significant assistance to the development of the actual influence of the prosecutor's office on the highest church administration.
This was facilitated by the secularization reform 1764 year, according to which all the monastic lands with the peasants who lived on them were transferred to the jurisdiction of a specially established College of Economy. From that time on, the state itself determined the number of monasteries and monks needed for the country, for it maintained them with funds from the state treasury. The clergy finally turned into one of the groups of the bureaucracy.
TEMPORARY BODIES UNDER Catherine II
Throughout the 18th century, in addition to permanently operating central institutions under the emperors and empresses, various councils and cabinets arose, replacing each other, as the highest legislative and administrative institutions that did not have legal independence.
Such institutions acquired particular importance during the reign of Catherine II, which was associated with the active legislative and administrative activities of the empress herself. Created by her at the beginning of the first Russian-Turkish war in 1768 Council at the highest court was a meeting of the heads of higher and central institutions "for consideration of all matters related to the conduct of this war." It included the most important persons of the empire who had ranks of the 1st and 2nd classes: the vice-chancellor, Count N.I. Panin, Major General, Prince A.M. Golitsyn, President of the Military Collegium, Count Z.G. Chernyshev, hetman of Ukraine, Count K.G. Razumovsky, Prince G.G. Orlov, Prosecutor General of the Senate, Prince A.A. Vyazemsky; in 1774 a new favorite of Catherine II was added to them - Prince G.A. Potemkin as vice-president of the Military Collegium.
The Council was an advisory body that did not have executive power, but the implementation of its decisions was entrusted to various government offices and persons who were required to report the results. The papers submitted to the Council were divided into two categories: one for information, others directly for discussion. The latter came from various institutions or officials and dealt with all the most important issues of domestic and foreign policy of Russia. At the same time, the Council did not take part in the development of the most important legislative acts, but was mainly engaged in current administrative affairs, once again clearly demonstrating its role as an institution of Russian absolutism.
Under Catherine II, the importance of the personal office increased especially: in 1762-1764. from the Cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty stood out office of secretaries of state for "Her Imperial Majesty's own affairs" (only economic issues remained in the jurisdiction of the Cabinet). It was through his personal office that the monarch communicated with the higher and central state institutions, where bills and reports on current affairs were prepared, in which information on all issues of public administration was summarized and analyzed. Only especially trusted and loyal people served in the personal office, who, while occupying a not very high rank, had tremendous influence on the solution of the most important issues of domestic and foreign policy. Thus, within the framework of the personal office of the monarch, the signs of formal and informal institutions of power were intertwined, when the figure of the official who was closest to the emperor and thus had the opportunity to influence him, communicating in an informal setting, acquired particular importance.
A kind of supreme state temporarily operating body was Commission for drawing up a new Code. 1767-1768 The main body of laws of the Russian state, the code of feudal law of the country.
This document became not only the largest act of state policy and legislative doctrine of its time, but also a kind of expression of the theory and politics of "enlightened absolutism". The "Order" was addressed to both the empress's entourage and representatives of different social strata.
Organization of the public administration system in the second half of the 18th century. had a distinctive feature associated with the form of government activities in the era of "enlightened absolutism", when in Russia there was no clear division of power into legislative, executive and judicial. The head of state was the monarch, who embodied all three branches of government.
The imperial power, displacing the traditional institutions of management of the estate-representative monarchy with institutions directly subordinate to the emperor, at the same time created a kind of "duplicate system" of favorites - people close to the emperor and carrying out his direct instructions both through the leadership of state institutions and directly. Favoritism- this is a kind of universal characteristic of the governing system of the absolutist state, which should be fully considered an informal institution of power... The favorite, as a rule, was in close personal relations with the sovereign and, in this regard, received the opportunity to dispose of part of his unlimited power. Favoritism was one of the essential tools in the system of state administration of absolutism. It should be defined as an appointment to government posts and positions, based on the personal interest of the monarch in the activities of a particular person.
The brightest example of this type of favorite - a statesman - can be consider G.A. Potemkin, who managed to successfully realize himself in the system of public service and had a great influence on the development and reform of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 18th century. At the same time, G.A. Potemkin was a fairly typical figure among the famous statesmen of the 18th century: A.D. Menshikov, E. Biron, A. I. Osterman, I. I. Shuvalov, etc. specific areas of government activity. Occupying certain posts, Potemkin at the same time participated in the discussion and solution of almost all issues of legislation, domestic and foreign policy, reforming the state apparatus and the army, the creation of the Black Sea Fleet, etc. In fact, he was the second person in the state, and according to some biographers, even co-ruler of the empress. The fate of G.A. Potemkin was a wonderful example of a successful career: from a student at Moscow University and a reiter of the Horse Guards to the Most Serene Prince, President of the Military Collegium and the governor of the vast lands of Novorossiya and Crimea.
In the early years of her reign, Catherine II, busy with strengthening her position on the Russian throne, which she inherited as a result of the next palace coup and the elimination of the legitimate monarch (her husband, Peter III), did not carry out extensive reforms. At the same time, while studying the state of affairs in the administration of the state, she found a lot in it that did not correspond to her ideas about the proper state structure. In this regard, immediately after coming to power, Catherine II tried to make a number of significant changes in the inherited system of power and administration (Fig. 9.2).
Rice. 9.2.
Along with the declared by Catherine II desire to bring all government positions in proper order, to give them precise "limits and laws", the planned reforms were based on the empress's desire to restore the importance of autocratic power and ensure the independence of the supreme power in conducting state policy. In the long term, the measures taken were to strengthen the centralization of public administration and increase the efficiency of the state apparatus.
By decree on December 15, 1763, a reform was carried out Senate. This reform, as conceived by Catherine II and her advisers, was supposed to improve the work of the highest body of state administration, which was the Senate from the day of its foundation, to give it more definite functions and organization. The need for this reform was explained by the fact that by the time of Catherine II's accession to the throne, the Senate, which had been rebuilt many times and changed its functions after the death of its founder, had turned into an institution that did not meet its lofty tasks. Uncertainty of functions, as well as “and a multitude of various cases concentrated in one department, made the work of the Senate ineffective. in fact, Catherine II had a more compelling reason that prompted her to reorganize the Senate.As an absolute monarch, Catherine II could not put up with the independence of the Senate, its claims to supreme power in Russia, sought to reduce this institution to an ordinary bureaucratic department that performed the administrative functions assigned to him ...
In the course of the reorganization carried out, the Senate was divided into six departments, each of which was endowed with specific functions in a particular area of public administration. The most extensive functions were vested in the first department, which was responsible for particularly important issues of public administration and policy. These included: promulgation of laws, administration of state property and finances, financial control, administration of industry and trade, supervision of the Senate Secret Expedition and the Office of Confiscations. The peculiarity of the new structure of the Senate was that all newly formed departments became independent subdivisions, resolving affairs with their own power on behalf of the Senate. Thus, the main goal of Catherine II was achieved - weakening and belittling the role of the Senate as the highest state institution. Having retained the functions of control over the administration and the highest judicial body, the Senate was deprived of the right to initiate legislation.
In an effort to limit the independence of the Senate, Catherine II significantly expanded the functions of Attorney General of the Senate. He exercised control and supervision over all actions of the senators and was the personal confidant of Catherine II, endowed with the disposition of daily reports to the empress on all decisions taken by the Senate. The Prosecutor General not only personally supervised the activities of the first department, was the guardian of the laws and was responsible for the state of the prosecutor's system, but only one could make proposals for the consideration of cases at the Senate meeting (previously all senators had this right). Using the special confidence of the empress, he was essentially in charge of all the most important branches of government, was the highest official of the state, the head of the state apparatus. Without deviating from your rule - whenever possible, manage the affairs of the state through capable and dedicated people. Catherine II, who was well versed in people and knew how to select the necessary personnel, appointed in 1764 to the post of Prosecutor General an intelligent and comprehensively educated person - Prince A.A. Vyazemsky, who served in this post for nearly thirty years. Through him, the empress communicated with the Senate, freeing her hands to carry out her plans to transform the state apparatus.
Simultaneously with the reform of the Senate, which reduced this supreme body in the state to the position of a central administrative and judicial institution, the role of the personal chancellery under the monarch was strengthened, through which the empress's connection with higher and central state institutions was established. A personal chancellery also existed under Peter I, who also preferred to act on his own initiative and relied on personal authority in management matters. The Cabinet created by him, which served as the Tsar's military campaign office for the operational management of state affairs, was then restored in a new capacity by his daughter Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Wishing to govern the state personally following the example of her great parent, she established, among other things, the Cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty, headed by I.A. Office of State Secretaries, appointed from trusted and loyal people and exerted an enormous, often decisive influence on the formation of public policy.
The policy of Catherine II in relation to the Church was subordinated to the same goal - to strengthen the centralization of state administration. Continuing the line of Peter I in the field of church government, Catherine II completed the secularization of church land tenure, conceived but not implemented by Peter I. During the secularization reform of 1764, all monastic lands were transferred to the management of a specially created Board of Economics. The peasants who lived on the former monastery lands were transferred to the category of state ("economic") peasants. Monks were also transferred to the maintenance from the state treasury. From now on, only the central government could determine the required number of monasteries and monks, and the clergy finally turned into one of the groups of state officials.
Under Catherine II, in accordance with the empress's earlier ideas about the role of the police in the state, police regulation of various aspects of society's life is intensified, and the activities of state institutions are being policeized. In the general mainstream of this policy, the creation and activities of the Senate Secret Expedition (October 1762), established to replace the Secret Chancellery liquidated by Peter III and which was under the personal tutelage of Catherine II, should be considered. This special structure of the Senate, which received the status of an independent state institution, was in charge of the political search, considered the materials of the investigative commissions created during the Pugachev uprising, all the political processes of the times of Catherine's rule passed through it. The general management of the activities of the Secret Expedition was carried out by the Prosecutor General of the Senate. Catherine II was personally involved in initiating detective cases, participated in the investigation of the most important cases.
A special place in the reformist plans of Catherine II in the first years of her reign belonged to the creation and activities of Of the laid commission on the compilation of a new "Code". The commission did not work for a full year and a half (1767-1768) and was dissolved in connection with the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish war. In terms of its significance, it was a unique attempt for that time, organized by the government, to express the will of the people on the main issues of the life of the empire.
The very idea to appeal to the opinion of society was, although not new, but, taking into account the main goal, but with which this representative institution is convened, of great importance and practical results. Attempts to adopt a new set of laws were made earlier, starting with the reign of Peter 1. In order to develop a new Code, the government created special commissions, one of which worked in 1754-1758. Catherine II chose a different path. Wishing to establish the correct order and good legislation in the state, based on new principles and consistent with the people's needs, she rightly believed that it would be impossible to do this if we rely only on the bureaucracy that grew up on old laws and poorly represented the needs of various strata of Russian society. It was more correct to find out these needs and requirements from the society itself, whose representatives were involved in the commission for drawing up a new set of laws. In the work of the Commission, many historians rightly see the first experience of establishing a parliamentary type in Russia, combining the domestic political experience associated with the activities of the previous Zemsky Sobors and the experience of European parliaments.
The meetings of the commission opened on July 30, 1767. It consisted of 564 deputies elected from all the main estates (with the exception of the landlord peasants), who came to Moscow with detailed instructions from their voters. The work of the Legislative Commission began with the discussion of these orders. Of the total number of deputies, most were elected from cities (39% of the composition of the Commission, with the total share of urban residents in the country not exceeding 5% of the population). To draw up individual bills, special "private commissions" were created, which were elected from the composition of the general Commission. Deputies of the Commission, following the example of Western parliaments, had parliamentary immunity, they were paid a salary for the entire period of work in the Commission.
At the very first meeting of the Commission, the deputies were presented on behalf of the Empress with a "Order" for further discussion. The "Order" consisted of 20 chapters, divided into 655 articles, 294 of which, according to V.O. Klyuchevsky's estimates, were borrowed, mostly from Montesquieu (which, as is known, Catherine II herself admitted). The last two chapters (21 on decency, i.e. on the police, and 22 on state economy, i.e. on government revenues and expenditures) were not made public or discussed by the Commission. "Order" widely covered the area of legislation, related to almost all the main parts of the state structure, the rights and obligations of citizens and individual estates. The "Mandate" widely declared the equality of citizens before the law common to all, for the first time raised the question of the responsibility of the authorities (government) to citizens, the idea was carried out that natural shame, and not fear of punishment, should keep people from crimes, and that the brutality of government hardens people , teach them to be violent. In the spirit of the ideas of the European Enlightenment and taking into account the multinational and multi-confessional nature of the empire, the attitude towards religious tolerance, equal respect for all religious confessions was established.
For a number of reasons, the work of the Commission on drawing up the new Code did not bring the expected results. The creation of a new code of laws was not easy. First of all, the composition of the Commission contributed little to this, the majority of whose deputies did not have a high political culture, the necessary legal knowledge and were not prepared for legislative work. Serious contradictions that arose between the deputies who represented the interests of various estates in the Commission also affected. Despite this, the work of the Commission, accompanied by a broad discussion of many issues of the political and economic life of the state, was not useless. She gave Catherine II a rich and varied material for further work on improving legislation, its results were used by the empress to prepare and carry out a number of major administrative reforms.
An important part of the domestic policy of Catherine II was the reform of government bodies. In 1762, Catherine rejected NI Panin's proposal to create the Imperial Council, which was to become a legislative body under the Empress. In 1763 the Senate was reformed: it was divided into 6 departments with strictly defined functions and under the leadership of the Attorney General, appointed by the monarch. The Senate became a body of control over the activities of the state apparatus and the highest court, but lost its main function - legislative initiative, the right of legislative initiative actually passed to the empress.
In 1775, a regional reform was carried out, which increased the number of provinces from 23 to 50. The size of the new provinces was determined by the size of the population; each of them was supposed to live from 300 to 400 thousand souls, the provinces were divided into counties with 20-30 thousand inhabitants in each. 2-3 provinces were entrusted to the governor-general or governor, who was invested with great power and supervised all branches of government. The governor's assistants were the vice-governor, two provincial councilors and the provincial prosecutor, who made up the provincial government. The vice-governor headed the treasury chamber (treasury revenues and expenditures, treasury property, lease payments, monopolies, etc.), the provincial prosecutor was in charge of all judicial institutions. In the cities, the post of mayor, appointed by the government, was introduced. Platonov S. F. Complete course of lectures on Russian history. Ed. 10th, 1993 Email edition .//http: //www.gaudeamus.omskcity.com/
Simultaneously with the establishment of provinces, a system of estate courts was created: for each class (noblemen, townspeople, state peasants), its own special judicial institutions were introduced. In the counties, county courts were introduced for the nobility, city magistrates for merchants and petty bourgeoisie, lower reprisals for foreigners and state peasants. In some of the new courts, the principle of elected assessors was introduced. Power in the district belonged to the police captain elected by the assembly of the nobility. From uyezd institutions, cases could go to higher instances, that is, to provincial institutions: the upper zemstvo court, the provincial magistrate and the upper punishment. In the provincial cities, a criminal chamber was established for criminal proceedings, a civil chamber for civil proceedings, a state chamber for state revenues, and a provincial government with executive and police powers. In addition, courts of conscience, noble guardianship, orphan's courts and orders of public charity (in charge of schools, shelters, hospitals) were established.
The provincial reform significantly strengthened the administrative apparatus, and, consequently, the supervision of the population. As part of the policy of centralization, the Zaporizhzhya Sich was liquidated, the autonomy of other regions was abolished or limited. The system of local government, created by the provincial reform of 1775, remained in its main features until 1864, and the administrative-territorial division introduced by it - until 1917. History of Russia. Learning theories. Book one. From ancient times to the end of the 19th century. Tutorial. /Under. ed. B.V. Lichman. Yekaterinburg: SV-96, 2001. E-mail. Version. //http://www.gaudeamus. omskcity.com/
By 1765, Catherine II came to the idea of the need to convene the Legislative Commission to bring "in better order" the existing legislation and in order to reliably find out "the needs and sensitive shortcomings of our people." Attempts to convene the current legislative body - the Legislated Commission - have been made more than once before, but all of them, for various reasons, ended in failure. Taking this into account, Catherine, endowed with a remarkable mind, resorted to an act unprecedented in the history of Russia: she personally drew up a special "Order", which is a detailed program of actions of the Commission. Of the 526 articles of the "Order", divided into 20 chapters, 294 go back to the work of the famous French educator Montesquieu "On the Spirit of Laws", and 108 - to the work of the Italian legal scholar Cesare Beccaria "On Crimes and Punishments." Catherine also made extensive use of the works of other European thinkers. However, this was not a simple Russian translation of the works of eminent authors, but their creative rethinking, an attempt to apply the ideas inherent in them to Russian reality. Rakhmatullin M. Empress Catherine II. Science and Life No. 3, 2003
The manifesto on the creation of a draft of a new Code and on the convocation of a special Commission for this purpose appeared on December 14, 1766. The main motive: the country can no longer live according to the medieval code of laws - the Cathedral Code of 1649. 571 deputies were elected to the Commission from the nobility, townspeople, odnodvorets, Cossacks, state peasants, non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia. Central institutions - Senate, Synod, chancellery - were allocated one deputy each. Only the serfs, who constituted the majority of the country's inhabitants, were deprived of the right to elect their deputies. There are no deputies from the clergy either, for the business undertaken was of a purely secular nature. The social composition of the Commission looked like this: the nobility was represented by 205 deputies, the merchants - 167. Together they made up 65% of all the elect, although less than 4% of the country's population stood behind them! Representatives of other estates clearly did not make any "weather" in the Commission: there were 44 of them from the Cossacks, 42 from one-households, from state peasants - 29, from industrialists - 7, from clerical officials and others - 19, from "foreigners" - 54 (almost no one of the latter, he did not speak Russian, and their participation in the work of the Commission was limited to only spectacular - thanks to exotic clothes - attending meetings). Rakhmatullin M. Empress Catherine II. Science and Life No. 4, 2003
The work of the commission eloquently testified to the intensity of social contradictions in the country. The nobility came up with a number of requirements of a narrow class character. But the demands of the nobles ran counter to the interests of the merchants who were gaining strength. However, the greatest controversy was caused by the peasant question. The speeches of the state peasants showed the plight of this detachment of the peasantry, exhausted under the burden of taxes. Taking advantage of the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish war as a pretext, Catherine dismissed the Commission for an indefinite period. The history of Russia from ancient times to the beginning of the XX century. /Under. ed. I. Ya. Froyanova: History textbook for universities. M. 1999.S. 285. But individual committees continued to work for several more years.
The commission taught Catherine II a subject lesson about the impossibility of realizing the theoretical constructions of European philosophers on Russian soil. The dissolution of the Legislated Commission was for Catherine a farewell to illusions in the field of domestic politics. Nevertheless, although the Commission did not draw up a Code, it did familiarize the Empress with the needs of the country. Using the work of the Commission, Catherine II issued many important laws.
In 1782, Catherine publishes the "Charter of the Deanery" - according to the content of the law on the police, which was entrusted with the education of subjects and control so that each member of the society rigorously fulfilled his duties. This was another necessary touch to the construction of a regular, "police" state, against which the people of the 18th century did not yet have a prejudice. It is no coincidence that it is in the “Charter of the Deanery” that we find a kind of moral code of a citizen of the Russian Empire, those “seven commandments” that he was obliged to observe: “I. Do not do something to your neighbor that you yourself cannot stand. II. Do not just do it dashing to your neighbor, but do good for him, as much as you can. III. If someone has created a personal offense to a neighbor, either in the estate, or in a good rank, let him satisfy as far as possible. IV. Help each other in good, lead the blind, give a roof to the one who does not have, give the thirsty one a drink. V. Take pity on the drowning man, lend a helping hand to the one who is falling. Vi. Blessed is he who has mercy on the cattle, if the cattle and your villain stumble, raise her. Vii. Show the way to the one who has gone down. " It is especially important that these suggestions came from someone who for a Russian person was the personification of the power of God on earth. World history in persons - XVIII century. Decree. Op.
The program documents of Catherine II were Letters of Charter to the Nobility and Cities. Catherine defined the meaning, rights and responsibilities of different classes. In 1785, a Certificate of Merit was granted to the nobility, which determined the rights and privileges of the noble class, which after the Pugachev revolt was considered the main support of the throne. The nobility finally took shape as a privileged estate. The diploma confirmed the old privileges: the monopoly on the ownership of peasants, land and mineral resources; secured the rights of the nobility to their own corporations, freedom from poll taxes, conscription, corporal punishment, confiscation of estates for criminal offenses; the nobility received the right to petition the government for their needs; the right to trade and entrepreneurship, the transfer of the title of nobility by inheritance and the impossibility of losing it otherwise than by court, etc. The letter confirmed the freedom of the nobility from public service. At the same time, the nobility received a special estate corporate structure: county and provincial noble assemblies. Once every three years, these assemblies elected the district and provincial leaders of the nobility, who had the right to appeal directly to the tsar. This measure turned the nobility of the provinces and counties into a cohesive force. The landowners of each province constituted a special noble society. The nobles filled many bureaucratic positions in the local administrative apparatus; they have long dominated the central apparatus and the army. Thus, the nobility turned into the politically dominant class in the state.
In the same 1785, the Certificate of Merit to the cities was promulgated, which completed the structure of the so-called urban society. This society was made up of ordinary people belonging to the tax-paying estates, that is, to merchants, petty bourgeois and artisans. The merchants were divided into three guilds according to the size of their declared capital; who announced less than 500 rubles. capital were called "bourgeois". Craftsmen for different occupations were divided into "workshops" on the model of Western European ones. Bodies of city self-government appeared. All taxable inhabitants gathered together and made up the "general city council"; they elected from their midst the mayor and 6 members to the so-called six-head duma. The Duma was supposed to deal with the current affairs of the city, its incomes, expenses, public buildings, and most importantly, it took care of the execution of state duties, for the serviceability of which all the townspeople were responsible.
The townspeople were assigned the right to engage in trade and entrepreneurial activities. A number of privileges were received by the elite of the townspeople - "eminent citizens" and guild merchants. But the privileges of the townspeople against the background of noble permissiveness seemed imperceptible, the bodies of city government were tightly controlled by the tsarist administration. On the whole, the attempt to lay the foundations of the bourgeois estate failed. Russian history. Learning theories. Decree. Op.
In order to strengthen absolutism, the central authorities were rebuilt. Catherine II believed that the Senate had arrogated too much power to itself, and in 1764 she reformed it, dividing it into 6 departments (4 in St. Petersburg and 2 in Moscow). At the same time, each department acted as an independent subdivision with its own circle of affairs and its own office, which destroyed the unity of the Senate, weakened it. The role of the empress's personal chancellery has grown enormously. The preparation of legislative acts from 1768 was concentrated in the Council at the highest court; its creation once again clearly demonstrated the stability of the supreme councils under the person of the monarch as an institution of Russian absolutism.
Reforming local government primarily solved the problem of strengthening the power of the monarch. Catherine II drew with her own hand the draft "Institutions for the administration of provinces", which in 1775 received the force of the current law. This law centralized local government, increasing the number of provinces and counties and endowing governors (under the authority of each governor, as a rule, 2 - 3 provinces were united), directly subordinate to the emperor, with broad individual power. At the same time, the 1775 “Institution” was based on the ideas of the 18th century Enlightenment: the election of the court and its separation from the administration, giving it the character of an estate “court of equals”. Along with the three-tier system of elective judicial-estate institutions (the district court in the county and the upper zemstvo court in the province - for the nobles, the city court and the provincial magistrate - for the townspeople, the lower and upper reprisals - for the state peasants) in the provinces, a conscientious court was created from representatives of three estates, which performed the functions of a conciliation or arbitration body. It was to this court that everyone who was held in prison for more than three days, not informed of the reason for the arrest and not subjected to interrogation, could file a complaint, and if he was not suspected of a serious crime, then he was released on bail (an attempt to borrow the English guarantee of the inviolability of personal rights). The influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment is even more felt in the creation of the provincial Order of Public Charity, which also consisted of elected representatives from the nobility, townspeople and state peasants and was obliged to help the population in the construction and maintenance of schools, hospitals, almshouses, orphanages and work houses.
In an effort to create more real guarantees for an "enlightened monarchy", Catherine II began to work on letters of gratitude to the nobility, cities and state peasants. Diplomas to the nobility and the cities received the force of law in 1785. A charter to the nobility secured for every hereditary nobleman freedom from compulsory service, from government taxes, from corporal punishment, ownership of movable and immovable property, the right to sue only by “equal” (i.e. . nobles), conduct trade, start "factories, handicrafts and all kinds of factories." The noble society of each county and each province secured the right to periodically meet, elect class leaders, and have their own treasury. True, the empress did not forget to put the noble assemblies under the control of governors-general (governors).
According to the literacy of the cities, representatives of the "middle clan of people" (bourgeois), like the nobles, received personal and corporate rights - hereditary inalienability of the estate title, inviolability and free disposal of property, freedom of industrial activity. From among the inhabitants of the cities, traders were distinguished, registered in the guild and receiving special privileges - to pay off recruiting with money and be free from state outfits. In addition, merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds, as well as eminent citizens (scientists, artists, bankers, wholesalers, etc.), were exempted from corporal punishment. The urban society was viewed as a legal entity; it had the right to discuss and satisfy its needs, to elect a city head. The city “general council” of deputies from all categories of city society became the uniting center of city self-government. Guided by the general principles of freedom of economic life, the legislator allowed the villagers to “freely, safely carry their crops, handicrafts and goods to the city and take out what they needed from the city”.
Senate reform
Reasons and goals:
- Catherine wanted to concentrate legislative power in her hands
- Allocation of specific departments of the Senate for specific tasks
By personal decree of Catherine II, the Senate was divided into six departments and lost its legislative function, which passed personally to the empress and her confidants - state councilors. Five of the six departments were headed by chief prosecutors, the first was the prosecutor general, who personally reported on important matters to the royal person.
Separation of functions of departments:
- first - control of political and state affairs in the capital
- the second - the court in the capital
- third - supervised everything related to education, art, medicine, science and transport
- fourth - was responsible for naval and military land decisions
- fifth - control of political and state affairs in Moscow
- sixth - court in Moscow
Thus, the empress monopolized the legislative branch and paved the way for subsequent reforms. The highest administrative and judicial functions were still carried out by the Senate.
Provincial reform
Reasons and goals:
- Increasing tax efficiency
- Preventing uprisings
- Introduction of electiveness of a part of administrative and judicial bodies, separation of their functions
Provincial reform of Catherine II - 1775
As a result of the signing by Catherine II of the document "Institutions for the administration of the provinces of the All-Russian Empire", the principle of the administrative-territorial division of the provinces was changed. Under the new law, the provinces were divided on the basis of the number of people living and capable of paying taxes - taxable souls. In addition, a hierarchical system of institutions was built, between which the functions of administration and the court were divided.
Administrative part
General Government- consisted of several provinces
Province- contained 10-12 counties, numbered 350-400 thousand tribute souls.
County- unification of volosts (rural areas), 10-20 thousand taxable souls.
Town- the administrative center of the county.
Governor general- led all the troops and governors stationed in the provinces allocated to him.
The governor- ruled the province with the help of the provincial government and all subordinate institutions.
Governor- the chief official and chief of police in the city, which became a separate administrative unit.
Police Captain- presided over the lower zemstvo court and controlled the police in the county.
Treasury chamber- was responsible for collecting taxes and distributing funds between institutions.
Public Charity Order- supervised all social facilities. Hospitals, schools, orphanages, institutes of art - were subordinate to this structure.
Judicial part
Senate- the highest judicial body, divided into civil and criminal chambers.
Upper Zemsky Court- the main judicial institution of the province, mainly engaged in the affairs of the nobles, considered complex cases of lower instances.
Lower Zemsky Court- supervised the implementation of laws within the county, dealt with the affairs of the nobles.
Upper reprisal- Judged peasants in the province, appeals from lower reprisals.
Lower reprisal- dealt with the affairs of peasants in the county
Provincial magistrate- considered appeals from city magistrates, tried citizens.
City magistrate- considered the lawsuits of the townspeople
Conscientious court- was all-estates, served for the reconciliation of litigation on insignificant and not socially dangerous cases.
The changes assumed that, depending on whom the trial was carried out, those representatives were among the assessors - the Zemsky courts were elected by the noble estate, reprisals - by peasants, magistrates - by the bourgeois (townspeople). However, in reality, the higher nobility always intervened in the course of affairs of interest to him.
As a result of the transformations, the total number of the bureaucratic apparatus has increased significantly, as have the costs for it. In comparison with the expenditures for the army, the salaries of officials were allocated twice as much. The growth in the number of bureaucrats of all types and ranks, coupled with favoritism, numerous military spending and the backwardness of the economy, led to a systematic shortage of money in the budget, which could not be eliminated until the death of Catherine II.
Judicial reform
Police reform
Date: April 8, 1782
After the "Charter of the deanery, or policeman" was signed, a new structure took shape within the cities - the Office of the Deanery, with its own functions and positions.
Reasons and goals:
- The need to strengthen the vertical of power
- Defining the functions and hierarchy of urban police
- Formation of the basics of police law
Police reform 1782
Functions of the Governor of the Deanery:
- Compliance with order and law within cities
- Supervision of non-governmental organizations
- Investigation and search activities
- Execution of decisions of the court and other institutions
The city was divided into parts (200-700 courtyards) and quarters (50-100 courtyards), which were to be monitored by private bailiffs and quarter overseers. The only elected position was the quarterly lieutenant, who was elected for three years from among the residents of the quarter.
The head of the Council was the mayor, the chief of police (in the centers of the provinces) or the chief of police (in the capitals).
In addition to detective work and directly performing police functions, the councils supervised the public service personnel - the delivery of food, ensuring the safety of roads, etc.
Urban reform
Economic reforms
Monetary reform
The signing of the manifesto "on the establishment of the Moscow and St. Petersburg banks" created a precedent for the use of paper banknotes on the territory of the Russian Empire.
Reasons and goals:
- The inconvenience of transporting large amounts of copper money within the country
- The need to stimulate the economy
- Striving to meet Western standards
Example of banknote
The banks created in Moscow and St. Petersburg received 500 thousand rubles of capital each and were obliged to issue the corresponding amount in copper equivalent to the bearer of banknotes.
In 1786, these banks were merged into a single structure - the State Assignation Bank, with the definition of its additional functions:
- Export of copper from the Russian Empire
- Import of gold and silver bars and coins.
- Creation of a mint in St. Petersburg and organization of minting of coins.
- Accounting for promissory notes (receipts for the obligation to pay a certain amount)
50 rubles 1785
Free Enterprise Manifesto
Under the "manifesto on freedom of entrepreneurship", it is customary to understand the publication of a document that allows all citizens of the Russian Empire to open any small handicraft production - "Manifesto on the graces bestowed upon various estates on the occasion of the conclusion of peace with Porto Ottoman." The Peasants' War of 1773-1775, which frightened all the nobles, made it clear that without any concessions to the most numerous class, new unrest is quite possible.
Causes:
- The need to stimulate the economy and the development of small business
- Peasants' dissatisfaction with exploitative policies
Key points of the document:
- More than 30 different fees for trades (hunting for furs, poultry, fish) and processing industries (oil mills, slaughterhouses, etc.) have been canceled.
- Any citizen is allowed to open "all sorts of camps and handicrafts" without any additional permitting documents.
- Exemption from the poll tax for merchants with a capital of more than 500 rubles. Instead, an annual fee of 1% on capital was introduced.
Customs reforms
Adjustments to customs tariffs were made frequently - in 1766, 1767, 1776, 1782, 1786 and 1796. customs duties were changed, providing treasury receipts from the import of foreign goods, prohibiting the transportation of certain types of raw materials, or alleviating the tax burden for certain categories of products. The external economy was actively developing, the volume of industrial and manufacturing products imported into the Russian Empire was growing.
Delivery of goods
The key element of the customs policy was the signing on September 27, 1782 of the document "On the establishment of a special Customs border chain and guard to prevent the secret transportation of goods."
According to the innovations:
The positions were introduced border guards and customs patrolmen, for each of the border western provinces - they were listed in the service in the Treasury. According to the instructions, they were ordered to be in places "convenient for the import of goods" and to discourage smuggling. If it was impossible to stop the smugglers on their own, the border guards had to immediately arrive at the nearest settlement to receive assistance.
Social reforms
Estate reforms
Date: 1785 g.
Causes:
- The Empress relied on the nobles and wanted to increase their loyalty
- Strengthening the vertical of power
- It was necessary to define the rights of two classes, gaining numbers due to the development of the economy and cities, merchants and bourgeoisie (townspeople)
Ball of nobility
Key points:
- Nobles were exempted from taxes and civil service
- The noble class received the inalienable right to own serfs, property, land and its subsoil
- Noble assemblies and ancestral books were established to confirm the origin
- The merchants got access to administrative posts (general city and six-vowel dumas) and were exempted from the poll tax.
- The merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds were exempted from corporal punishment.
- A new class emerged and received the rights - the townspeople
- Serfs finally turned into slaves
Educational (school) reform
It is impossible to single out a specific document or date that are key in the policy of enlightened absolutism of Catherine II. She consistently issued decrees and opened institutions aimed at increasing the level of knowledge and the availability of their receipt. Mainly, educational services were provided to the nobility and townspeople, but homeless children and orphans also did not go unnoticed.
The main figures were I. I. Betskoy and F. I. Yankovich.
"Orphanages" were opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg - it was necessary to solve the problem of homeless and abandoned children.
Institute for Noble Maidens
In 1764 a school for young men was founded at the Academy of Arts, and in 1765 a similar one at the Academy of Sciences.
The Commercial School, opened in 1779, was designed to train qualified personnel in the field of trade.
Formed in 1782, the "Commission for the Establishment of Public Schools" by 1786 developed a "charter for the Public Schools of the Russian Empire." This document approved the class-lesson system of teaching and provided for the opening of two types of educational institutions in cities: small public schools and main public schools.
Small schools trained applicants for two years - basic reading, writing, rules of conduct and related knowledge.
The main schools provided a wider subject training - for five years, in addition to basic skills, languages, history, exact and natural sciences, architecture were taught here. Over time, it was from the main school that the teachers' seminary was separated - a center for the training of future teachers.
The training was based on a benevolent attitude towards students, physical punishment was strictly prohibited.
The peasantry remained outside the educational reform - the project of rural schools and compulsory primary education, regardless of gender and class, was proposed by Catherine II, but was never implemented.
The secularization of the church
The reign of Catherine II for the Orthodox Church was not the best period. However, all conditions were made for other confessions. The Empress believed that all religious movements that do not oppose her power have the right to exist.
Causes:
- Excessive autonomy of the church
- The need to increase tax revenues and land use efficiency
Churchmen
As a result of the signing of a decree to the Senate on the division of spiritual estates, "all lands and peasants belonging to the clergy came under the control of the state. A special body, the Collegium of the Economy, began to collect per capita tax from the peasants and transfer part of the amount received for the maintenance of monasteries. The so-called "states" of monasteries were established, the number of which was limited. Most of the monasteries were abolished, their inhabitants were distributed among the remaining churches and parishes. The era of "church feudalism" is over
As a result:
- The clergy lost about 2 million monastery peasants
- Most of the land (about 9 million hectares) of monasteries and churches came under the jurisdiction of the state
- Closed 567 of 954 monasteries.
- The autonomy of the clergy was eliminated
Outcomes, significance and results of internal reforms
Catherine the Great
The reforms of Catherine II were aimed at creating a state of the European type, i.e. to the logical conclusion of Peter's transformations, which was carried out by the methods of enlightened absolutism on the basis of the ideas of the humanization of justice. Under Catherine II, the legal registration of the estate structure of the society was completed; an attempt was made to involve the public in the reforms and to transfer some of the management functions “to the localities”.
The policy towards the serf peasantry was distinguished by some contradictions, because, on the one hand, the power of the landowners was strengthened, and on the other, measures were taken that somewhat limited the serf oppression. In the economic sphere, state monopolies were eliminated, freedom of trade and industrial activity was proclaimed, the secularization of church lands was carried out, paper money was introduced into circulation, the State Assignation Bank was established, and measures were taken to introduce state control over expenditures.
At the same time, it is worth considering the negative results - the flourishing of favoritism and bribery, increased debt, currency depreciation and the dominance of foreigners in the scientific and cultural spheres.