Reports of ministries in the system of administrative transformations in the Russian Empire in the first third of the 19th century
Abstract
This article analyses the practice of submitting and reviewing of ministerial reports during the reign of Emperor Alexander I. Using archival documents, the article provides information about the number of reports received from the ministries in the fi rst third of the 19th century. Control over the activities of the new executive bodies created in 1802 was entrusted to the Government Senate. Members of the Senate Committee for the examination of ministerial reports were able to analyse in detail the activities of ministries only in 1802?1803. The long process of reviewing reports and frequent departures of the emperor from the capital contributed to the fact that the most detailed reports were submitted much later than the set time. This reduced the ability to actually evaluate the activities of the ministries. The article emphasises that the Senate themselves finished the reviewing of incoming reports. From 1810, control of the ministerial reports was passed to the State Council, but all the documents received immediately ended up in the archives of the Offi ce. After the resignation of M. M. Speransky from the post of State Secretary and the beginning of the war of 1812, the Ministers generally stopped making and submitting annual reports on their activities. The author comes to the conclusion that the administrative transformations of 1810?1811 failed to establish an eff ective system of supervision of departments. The practice of submitting ministerial reports resumed only at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I.
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