On January 17, 1763, the Prussian envoy Solms reported the rumor that came to him that the empress decided to "elect five or six people who, with the titles of state secretaries, would manage the collegiums; they will gather in the empress's office, reporting to her each according to their industry and receiving orders from her".

Actually, on January 8, 1763, Catherine II signed the Manifesto on the establishment of the "Imperial Council", but it was not made public.

The project of Panin of the permanent Imperial Council of high-ranking officials, Catherine II rejected,[1] explaining: "By law, the established Council will rise in time to the value of co-ruler, bring the subject too close to the sovereign and may give rise to the desire to share power with him".

Catherine arrived and here with that timidity, indecision, attentiveness to all opinions... Catherine did not obey Panin, gathered opinions...The draft manifesto was discovered by Nicholas I on November 26, 1826, in the office of his deceased brother, Alexander I, signed, but with a torn signature.

The documents submitted by Panin on this issue were published in 1871 in the seventh volume of the Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society.