General Regulations: structure, essence and meaning

With the development and strengthening of statehood in the Russian Empire, it was necessary to create a clear structure of state administration, which should have been based on uniform principles of record keeping. Peter the Great as a reforming king simply could not fail to create such a document as the General Regulations.

How was the document created?

Certain system of public administration, of course, existed even before the introduction of the General Regulations into force. According to many sources, at the beginning of the 18th century there were colleges in the Russian Empire in various areas of state policy. The problem was that the powers of the officials of these state bodies were not clearly defined.

The General Regulations of Peter the Great 1 were based on the principles of organization of state power, which operated in the advanced countries of Europe at the time. For example, in Sweden in 1718 the charter was adopted, which served as a model for Tsar Peter. But the king did not dare to automatically adjust the norms of Swedish to Russian life, so on June 11, 1718, a decree was issued, according to which it was necessary to compare the norms of Swedish record keeping and legislation with those of Russia in all aspects of public administration. This task was given to 3 main colleges: chamber-collegium, military administration and audit collegium. In 1719 the draft document was already ready. Before getting to sign the emperor, the project was to be approved by the Senate. This stage in the adoption of an important document for the Russian Empire was passed fairly quickly, but with the signing of the tsar and, consequently, the receipt of legal force, a strange hitch occurred. The king signed it only a year after the adoption in the Senate.

Document structure

It should be noted that the structure and essence of the norms laid down in the text of the charter corresponded to the advanced norms of law at the time. An important part of the text was the preamble, which indicated the reasons for the adoption and the tasks that must be accomplished 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 rather large semantic load, was very specific and clearly solved the essence of the issue that was important for the effectiveness of public administration.

The General Regulations and its tasks

As we have already noted, the preamble noted certain tasks that the adoption of the document was supposed to solve. Here is a list of these issues:

• Clear management of public affairs;
• Systematization of state revenues;
• Clear work of the judicial authorities and the Russian police;
• Protection of the rights of law-abiding citizens.

How to understand the essence of these tasks? It was during Peter's reign that Russia became a more modern state. After his trips to Europe, the king realized that public administration is a matter in which there must be clarity and order. Systemic management of the country is necessary for the authorities to know about all the processes that take place in society, in order to avoid unexpected turns of events.

The essence of the main provisions of the regulations

Chapter 1 found that all members of the collegiums should take the oath of allegiance to the state upon taking office. The norms of Chapter 2 established a six-day working week. The length of the working day was also regulated. If a member of the college 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 boards as actual bodies of executive power with the Senate (legislative power) is traced. The presidents of the colleges visited the Senate every Thursday, where they reported on the work and received assignments.

How did the meetings go? It was necessary to conduct a protocol, in which all the questions and proposals that the collegium was considering were noted. Notary was responsible for keeping the record. The principle of collegiality in making decisions provided for the presence at the board meeting of all or most of the members.

The collegium also had a connection with the bodies that were in the regions. The General Regulations (the year of adoption of 1720) approved the non-payment of postal dispatch of correspondence from the collegium to governorships and voivodships, as well as in the opposite direction. Another connection between the central and local authorities at that time could not be, because even the phone appeared closer to the end of the 19th century.

We will add that in the text of the document it is a question of powers of various posts in boards, about an order of granting of holidays and rules of conducting business in government bodies.

Conclusion

The General Regulations - this is an important documentary source on the history of Russia 18-19 centuries. Lost its validity in 1833 after the adoption of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire.