With the development and strengthening of statehood in the Russian Empire, it was necessary to create a clear structure of state administration, which was to be based on uniform principles of office work. Peter the Great, as a reformer tsar, simply could not help but create such a document as the General Regulations.
How was the document created?
A certain system of public administration, of course, existed even before the introduction of the General Regulations. As many sources say, at the beginning of the 18th century in the Russian Empire there were collegiums in various areas of state policy. The problem was that the powers of officials of these state bodies were not clearly defined.
The General Regulations of Peter the Great were based on the principles of the organization of state power, which were in force in the advanced European countries at that time. For example, in Sweden in 1718 a charter was adopted, which served as a model for Tsar Peter. But the tsar did not dare to automatically adjust the norms of Swedish to Russian life, therefore, on June 11, 1718, a decree was issued, according to which it was necessary to compare the norms of Swedish office work and legislation withRussian in all aspects of public administration. Such a task was given to 3 main boards: the board of chambers, the military administration and the revision board. In 1719, the draft document was already ready. Before being signed by the Emperor, the draft had to be approved by the Senate. This stage in the adoption of an important document for the Russian Empire was passed quickly enough, but with the signing by the tsar and, accordingly, obtaining legal force, a strange hitch arose. The tsar signed it only a year after its adoption in the Senate.
Document structure
Note that the structure and essence of the norms laid down in the text of the charter corresponded to the advanced legal norms at that time. An important part of the text was the preamble, which indicated the reasons for the adoption and the tasks that should be solved as a result of the adoption of this document. The General Regulations of 1720 consisted of 56 chapters, which were approximately the same in size. The text of each chapter carried a fairly large semantic load, was very specific and clearly addressed the essence of the issue, which was important for the effectiveness of public administration.
General Regulations and its tasks
As we have already noted, certain tasks were noted in the preamble, which the adoption of the document should have solved. Here is a list of these questions:
- clear management of public affairs;
- systematization of government revenues;
- clear work of the justice authorities and the Russian police;
- protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens.
How to understand the essence of these tasks? It was during the reign of Peter the Great that Russia became a more modern state. After his trips around Europe, the king realized that public administration is a matter in which there should be clarity and order. Consistency in governing the country is needed so that the authorities know about all the processes that are taking place in society, in order to avoid unexpected turns of events.
The essence of the main provisions of the regulation
Chapter 1 established that all members of the colleges must, upon taking office, take an oath of allegiance to the state. The norms of chapter 2 established a six-day work week. The length of the working day was also regulated. If a member of the board leaves his workplace an hour before the end of the working day, he may be deprived of his salary for a week. The order of interaction of collegiums, as actual executive authorities with the Senate (legislative power), is traced. The presidents of the collegiums came every Thursday to the meeting of the Senate, where they reported on the work and received assignments.
How were the meetings? A protocol was necessarily kept, in which all questions and proposals that the board considered were noted. The notary was responsible for keeping the record. The principle of collegiality in making decisions provided for the presence at the meeting of the collegium of all or most of the members.
The Collegium also had contact with the bodies that were in the regions. The General Regulations (year of adoption 1720) approved the free postagecorrespondence from the collegium to the governorships and voivodships, as well as in the opposite direction. There could be no other connection between central and local authorities at that time, because even the telephone appeared towards the end of the 19th century.
Let's add that the text of the document refers to the powers of various positions in the boards, the procedure for granting holidays and the rules for doing business in public authorities.
Conclusion
The General Regulations is an important documentary source on the history of Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Lost its legal force in 1833 after the adoption of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire.
