Ministerial reform in the Russian Empire

The onset of the nineteenth century brought public administration reforms to Russia: upon accession to the throne, the young emperor Alexander I created the State Council ("The Permanent Council"), active work was underway on new laws, but a new management system was needed that could quickly solve many growing problems of public policy.

[1] The first transformative experiments were associated with the initial period of the reign of Emperor Alexander I, whose accession to the throne was enthusiastically received by Russian society.

In the manifesto on March 12, 1801, the emperor assumed the obligation to rule the people "according to the laws and to the heart of his wise grandmother".

These people formed the so-called "Secret Committee", which gathered in the secluded room of the emperor during 1801–1803 and worked out a plan of necessary transformations with it.

It was supposed to preliminarily study the current situation of the empire, then to transform certain parts of the administration and complete these separate reforms with "the code established on the basis of the true national spirit".

The "Secret Committee", which functioned until November 9, 1803, for two and a half years considered the implementation of the Senate and Ministerial reforms, the activities of the "Permanent Council", the peasant question, the coronation projects of 1801 and a number of foreign policy events.

Thus, the combination of two public administration systems – collegial and ministerial – was carried out, which was the result of a compromise decision made by Alexander I at a meeting of the "Secret Committee" on March 24, 1802.

In accordance with this decision, the collegiums were not abolished, but continued to act in subordination to the ministers and were subject to gradual abolition in the future, when experience shows their futility.

In the first years of the reign of Alexander I, Mikhail Speransky still remained in the background, although he prepared some documents and projects for members of the "Secret Committee", including on ministerial reform.

In June 1802, Speransky headed the department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was instructed to prepare draft state reforms.

Inspired by the "Notes" of the young leader, the king through Viktor Kochubey instructs Speransky to write a capital treatise – a plan for transforming the state machine of the empire, and he enthusiastically gives himself to a new job.

In 1803, on behalf of the emperor, Speransky compiled a "Note on the Structure of Judicial and Governmental Institutions in Russia", in which he proved himself to be a supporter of the constitutional monarchy, created by the gradual reform of society on the basis of a carefully developed plan.

Only in 1807, after unsuccessful wars with France and the signing of the Tilsit Peace, in the context of the domestic political crisis, did Alexander again turn to reform plans.

Already in 1807, Speransky was invited several times to dinner at the courtyard, this fall he accompanied Alexander to Vitebsk for a military review, and a year later to Erfurt, to meet with Napoleon.

Upon returning to Russia, Speransky was appointed a fellow of the Minister of Justice and, together with the emperor, began working on a general plan of state reforms.

The reformer attached great importance to the regulatory role of the state in the development of domestic industry and, through its political transformations, strengthened the autocracy in every way.

As the contemporary researcher of this problem Sergey Mironenko correctly observes, "independently, without the tsar's sanction and approval, Speransky would never have dared to propose measures that were extremely radical in the conditions of the then Russia".

But it was precisely at this time that Mikhail Speransky, the true author of the report of July 18, 1803, and the note of March 28, 1806, began to take an increasingly active part in the implementation of the ministerial reform.

In this project, Speransky identifies three main disadvantages of ministerial reform: A new transformation of the ministries of 1810–1811 was aimed at eliminating these shortcomings.

Its beginning was already proclaimed in the Manifesto "On the Establishment of the State Council": "The various units entrusted to the Ministries require different additions.

We will propose to the Council the beginnings of their final arrangement and the main foundations of the General Ministerial Order, which accurately defines the relations of the Ministers to other State Establishments and their limits of action and the degree of their responsibility will be indicated".

[2] The competence of the Ministry of the Interior changed significantly: its main subject was "care for the dissemination and promotion of agriculture and industry".

Details and controversial issues arising from the direct distribution of cases were discussed in the Committee of Ministers at a meeting on August 4, 1810.

Changes in the composition of ministries in the first half of the 19th century were associated with the search for the most rational system of central administration of the empire.

This document changed the position of the nobles who wore the ranks of chamberlain and chamber junker, who did not combine with certain and permanent official duties, but provided important advantages.

Its significance in the management system was expressed in the Manifesto on January 1 by the definition that in it "all parts of the government, in their main relation to the law, are realized and through it go back to the supreme authority".