Cabinet Secretary of the Russian Empire

The Chancery of State Secretaries was separated from the Imperial Cabinet in 1763 and served as the personal office of the monarch until the establishment of ministries in 1802.

After accession to the throne, Catherine II commissioned Adam Olsufiev, Ivan Yelagin and Grigory Teplov to manage her affairs.

Catherine was accustomed to hearing the secretaries on a daily basis and only by the end of the reign reduced the number of audiences to two per week.

At the time of the Empress's death, three people were in charge of "Her Imperial Majesty's own affairs" — Dmitry Troschinsky, Petr Turchaninov and Adrian Gribovsky.

The position of the cabinet secretary gave them the opportunity to make connections with the court and, thanks to their efficiency, move up the career ladder, which Bezborodko and Zavadovsky, for example, used to the full.