The Senate in the Crown Local Government System of Russia and the Formation of Its Chancellery Staff

Abstract

The article presents the reconstruction of the original composition of the Chancellery of the Governing Senate (autumn 1711). The main source of the study was the previously unpublished “List of the Chancellery of the Governing Senate to the Clerks...”, created no later than November 27, 1711. As a working document, the “List” contains not only a nominal list of clerks-candidates for various positions in the office, but their former places of service, the size of the former salary, professional characteristics, representations of the authors of the document on the internal organization of the Chancellery and the definition of the places of service of the subdeacons. The analysis of information extracted from this source and “convoy” documents of the Senate Chancellery clarifies a number of debatable issues related to the definition of the structure of the office and its staff, sources of staffing, assessment of the clerks’ qualifications and managerial specialization; it reveals the logic of the distribution of employees by the Chancellery structural divisions. It is shown that the Chancellery’s institutions-“donors” were not only the old central administrative bodies — prikazy, but also the new ones created in the course of reforms, including those of local government (the office of the St. Petersburg province and the Town Hall (Ratusha)). Based on the study of the structure and staff, it is concluded that the Senate of the first years of its existence was focused more on control over local administrations, playing the role of not just the highest, but the central level of government, which was at that time in the stage of deep transformation. © 2021 Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of RAS. All rights reserved.