Restructuring the system of higher and central government bodies (Senate, collegiums, state control and supervision bodies). Table of ranks. Senate of the Russian Empire: history of creation and functions 1711 highest state body

Restructuring the system of higher and central government bodies (Senate, collegiums, state control and supervision bodies). Table of ranks. Senate of the Russian Empire: history of creation and functions 1711 highest state body

06.10.2021 Hypertension

The Governing Senate was established - the highest body of state power and legislation, subordinate to the emperor.

Peter's constant absences I from the country prevented him from dealing with the current affairs of government. During his absence, he entrusted the management of affairs to several trusted persons. 22 February (5 March) 1711 These powers were entrusted to a new institution called the Governing Senate.

The Senate exercised full power in the country in the absence of the sovereign and coordinated the work of other government institutions.

The new institution included nine people: Count Ivan Alekseevich Musin-Pushkin, boyar Tikhon Nikitich Streshnev, Prince Pyotr Alekseevich Golitsyn, Prince Mikhail Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, Prince Grigory Andreevich Plemyannikov, Prince Grigory Ivanovich Volkonsky, Kriegszalmeister General Mikhail Mikhailovich Samarin, Quartermaster General Vasily Andreevich Apukhtin and Nazariy Petrovich Melnitsky. Anisim Shchukin was appointed chief secretary.

In the first years of its existence, the Senate took care of state revenues and expenses, was in charge of the appearance of nobles for service, and was a supervisory body over the extensive bureaucratic apparatus. A few days after the establishment of the Senate on March 5 (16), 1711, the positions of fiscal officers were introduced in the center and locally, who reported on all violations of laws, bribery, embezzlement and similar actions harmful to the state. By the decree of the emperor of March 28, 1714 “On the position of fiscals,” this service received final formalization.

In 1718-1722 gg. The Senate included all the presidents of the colleges. The position of prosecutor general was introduced, who controlled all the work of the Senate, its apparatus, the office, the adoption and execution of all its sentences, their protest or suspension. The Prosecutor General and the Chief Prosecutor of the Senate were subordinate only to the sovereign. The main function of prosecutorial control was to ensure compliance with law and order. Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky was appointed the first prosecutor general.

After Peter's death I The position of the Senate, its role and functions in the public administration system gradually changed. The Senate, instead of the Governing Senate, began to be called the High Senate. In 1741 Mr. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna issued a Decree “On the restoration of the power of the Senate in the management of internal state affairs,” but the real significance of the Senate in matters of internal government was small.

March 5, 2011 marks the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the Senate - the highest body of state power and legislation Russian Empire.

On March 5 (February 22, Old Style), 1711, by decree of Peter I, the Governing Senate was established - the highest body of state power and legislation, subordinate to the emperor.

The need to create such a government body was due to the fact that Peter I was often absent from the country and therefore could not fully deal with the current affairs of government. During his absence, he entrusted the management of affairs to several trusted persons. On March 5 (February 22), 1711, these powers were assigned to the Governing Senate. Initially, it consisted of 9 members and a chief secretary and acted exclusively on behalf of the king and reported only to him.

After the Table of Ranks was adopted (a law on the order of civil service in the Russian Empire, regulating the ratio of ranks by seniority and the sequence of promotion to ranks), members of the Senate were appointed by the tsar from among civil and military officials of the first three classes.

In the first years of its existence, the Senate dealt with state revenues and expenditures, was in charge of the appearance of nobles for service, and was a supervisory body over the bureaucratic apparatus. Soon, positions of fiscal officers were introduced in the center and locally, who reported on all violations of laws, bribery, embezzlement and other similar actions. After the creation of the collegiums (central bodies of sectoral management), all the heads of the collegiums entered the Senate, but this order did not last long, and subsequently the heads of the collegiums were not included in the Senate. The Senate exercised supervision over all colleges except the foreign one. The position of prosecutor general was introduced, who controlled all the work of the Senate, its apparatus, the office, the adoption and execution of all its sentences, their protest or suspension. The Prosecutor General and the Chief Prosecutor of the Senate were subordinate only to the sovereign. The main function of prosecutorial control was to ensure compliance with law and order.

From 1711 to 1714 The seat of the Senate was Moscow, but sometimes for a while, as a whole or in the person of several senators, it moved to St. Petersburg, which since 1714 became its permanent residence. Since then, the Senate has moved to Moscow only temporarily, in the case of Peter’s trips there for a long time. Part of the Senate chancellery remained in Moscow.

In April 1714, a ban was issued on bringing complaints to the Tsar about unfair decisions of the Senate, which was an innovation for Russia. Until that time, the sovereign could complain about every institution. This prohibition was repeated in a decree on December 22, 1718, and the death penalty was established for filing a complaint against the Senate.

After the death of Peter I, the position of the Senate, its role and functions in the public administration system gradually changed. Other higher state bodies were created, to which the functions of the Senate were transferred. Under Catherine II, the Senate was removed from the main legislative functions of political importance. Formally, the Senate was the highest court, but its activities were greatly influenced by the decisions of the Prosecutor General and the admission of complaints against him (despite the formal ban). Catherine II preferred to entrust the functions of the Senate to her proxies.

In 1802, Alexander I issued a decree on the rights and duties of the Senate, which, however, had almost no effect on the real state of affairs. The Senate had the formal right to develop bills and subsequently submit them to the emperor, but it did not use this right in practice. After the establishment of ministries in the same year, the Senate retained the functions of the highest judicial body and supervisory body, since the main management functions remained with the Committee of Ministers (which became the highest body of executive power).

In 1872, the “Special Presence for Judging State Crimes and Illegal Communities” was created within the Senate - the highest political court of Russia.

By the beginning of the 20th century. The Senate finally lost its significance as the highest body of government and turned into a body overseeing the legality of the actions of government officials and institutions and the highest cassation authority in judicial cases. In 1906, the Supreme Criminal Court was established, which tried crimes mainly by officials.

In 1917, the Special Presence and the Supreme Criminal Court were abolished.

By decree of Soviet power of December 5 (November 22), 1917, the Senate was abolished.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

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History of the establishment of the Senate in Russia in 1711

The Senate is a government body that has different countries historically different functions. The Governing Senate in Russia, established on February 22, 1711, by Peter I, the main reformer, statesman, in which Russia entered a new stage of development, was “the supreme place to which, in the civil order of justice, administration and execution, all places and institutions of the Empire are subordinated, except for those that are excluded from this dependence by a special law.”

Prerequisites for the establishment of the Senate

By 1700, it ceased to exist as a permanent state body and was replaced by the nearby office of Tsar Peter the Great, in which the boyars sat as before. At the same time, during the period of frequent absences of the ruler, the conduct of state affairs is entrusted not to the boyars, but to persons close to Peter from the old Duma ranks, as well as other trusted persons.

However, a year later, when setting out on the Prut military campaign, the sovereign entrusted the governance of the country to a newly formed institution - the Senate. The very existence of this organ, according to Peter, is the reason for the king’s frequent absences. Thus, the work of the Senate was initially conceived by Peter as a temporary measure. The Senate replaced:

old Duma commissions, which were appointed to “in charge of Moscow” during the absence of the sovereign;
the permanent “Execution Chamber”, which was the judicial department of the Boyar Duma.

Stages of creating the Senate in Russia

At the same time, upon returning from the campaign, the Senate was not disbanded by the tsar, but on the contrary, Peter affirms it as a permanent body in the organization of which, during the Petrine period, historians note three phases:

The first stage of creating the Senate: in the period from 1711 to 1718, the Senate was a body whose members were appointed to attend;

The second stage of creating the Senate: from 1718 to 1722 it represented a meeting of the presidents of the colleges;

The third stage of creating the Senate: and since 1722 the body has had a mixed composition, which includes senators and presidents of some colleges.

Functions of the governing Senate

The actual department of the governing body in question considered cases that were beyond the competence of the boards, representing the highest administrative state body. At the end of the reign of Peter the Great, it was also endowed with judicial functions, becoming the highest state judicial authority.

The legislative activities of the Senate are still controversial. Some historians claim that in the initial period this body not only had legislative power, but even canceled royal decrees! The other side disputes this claim. At the same time, they all admit that by changing the situation in 1722, Peter the Great deprives the Senate of legislative power. Quite reasonable, because not a single ruler wanted to share his own power. Thus, it is only possible to formally recognize the assignment of legislative power to the Senate for a certain period.

The difference in views of historians on the competence of the Senate also determines its significance for the state. Some researchers consider the Senate to be the highest government agency, which united and directed the work of the administration, which did not recognize any authority over itself except that of Peter. Others argue that by directing and controlling the administration, this body was completely controlled and its decisions actually depended on the orders of the “supreme ministers” - persons close to the king who managed foreign affairs, the fleet and troops. Also, the Senate depended on the decisions of the Prosecutor General.

Composition of the Governing Senate

The composition of the Senate members was determined personally by the emperor from civil and military ranks of the first three ranks of the Table of Ranks. Moreover, their ranks included ministers and comrades (deputies) of ministers, and the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod. Other persons could also be invited to the Senate - with the right of an advisory vote - on issues related to them.

The Senate consisted of six departments, including criminal cassation and civil cassation.

With the change of monarchs, the position of the Senate also changed: in an unstable situation it was in decline, but in a stable situation, on the contrary, it had a huge influence on the emperor. The Senate united all three branches of government, thus doing the most difficult work.

Powers of the Governing Senate

The outstanding Russian historian Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky noted in his writings that the Senate was endowed with very extensive powers. The Prosecutor General of the government Senate was given the right of legislative initiative. Klyuchevsky identifies the following powers of the Senate under Peter: The Senate had great, but only administrative powers; the initiation of legislative issues remained the task of the king alone. The Senate was left with a rather painful role in the development of laws. The Prosecutor General, seeing cases not explained by law, proposed that the Senate issue clear decrees on them. The Prosecutor General was given a legislative initiative.

KKlyuchevsky believed that other powers of the Senate were also constrained. Under him, at the same time as the prosecutor's office, the positions of racketeer and herald master were also established. The first was in charge of the “administration of petitioners’ cases,” accepted and considered complaints about the slow or incorrect resolution of their cases in the boards, forced cases to be resolved within the specified time frame, and himself inquired about judicial bias, interceding for the offended.

The Senate was the supreme guardian of justice; but the appeal at the collegium went past the Senate, through the racketeer directly to the sovereign, and only after his inscription on the appeal went to the Senate. The Master of Arms was the successor to the Rank Order, which later became part of the Senate Chancellery as one of its tables, and was in charge of the nobility and its service; by the way, he was supposed to represent the nobles in cases “when asked” to fill positions and carry out assignments. The Senate filled many positions, starting with very high ones, but only choosing from two or three candidates who were presented for each noble place by the king of arms as worthy.

Thus, the institutions attached to the Senate as if with the significance of its auxiliary instruments, in fact, constrained it and screened it from society, served as ramparts for it, defending this “fortification of truth,” but at the same time preventing its expansion.

Introduction of the position of Prosecutor General

The new position of prosecutor general, which was established in 1722, was supposed, according to the plans of Peter the Great, to serve as a real connection between the central governing bodies and the tsar’s entourage. At the same time, the ruler repeatedly tested other methods of control, gaining strength in the Senate. At first (in 1715), the body was supervised by an auditor general, after which (in 1721) guard headquarters officers were on duty in the Senate, who were supposed to provide security and help speed up matters. In addition, mandatory minutes of meetings also served as a means of control of the Senate. At the end of such experiments, the tsar finally established a prosecutor's office.

The duties of the Prosecutor General included communication between the Tsar and the Senate. That is, he had to tell the ruler about the conduct of the affairs of the Senate and convey the will of Peter. At the same time, he had the right to stop the decision made by the Senate. In general, most decisions received force only after consideration and approval by the king. Also, the Prosecutor General was in charge of the senatorial office.

Other agents of government supervision (for example, prosecutors and chief prosecutors, fiscal officers and chief fiscal officers) also acted under the direct command of this official. Such powers made the prosecutor general the most powerful person in the administration. For example, Yaguzhsky, who assumed the post of Prosecutor General, was the first to be generally considered the head of the Senate, and many represented him as the first person in the state after Tsar Peter.

This view of the situation is shared by those historians who are accustomed to belittle the power and importance of the Senate. Even more, for example, in his works, the historian Gradovsky claims that the prosecutor general, merging into one with the Senate itself, only increased the state significance of this state body and its significance for the country as a whole!

The Governing Senate and its places in the system of government bodies (diagram)

SENATE INSTEAD OF THE BOYAR DUMA

Following the organization of the provinces, the Senate was established in 1711, replacing the Boyar Duma. Aristocratic in composition, the Boyar Duma began to die out since the end of the 17th century: it was reduced in composition, since the awarding of Duma ranks was no longer carried out, non-Duma ranks, persons of humble origin, but enjoying the trust of the tsar, penetrated into the Duma. The Near Chancellery, which emerged in 1699, became an institution that exercised administrative and financial control in the state. The nearby chancellery soon became the seat of meetings of the Boyar Duma, renamed the Council of Ministers.

Going on the Prut campaign, Peter established the Senate as a temporary institution “for our constant absences in these wars.” All persons and institutions “under severe punishment or death” were ordered to unquestioningly carry out the Senate decrees. The Senate turned into a permanent institution with very broad rights: it controlled justice, supervised expenditures and tax collection, “since money is the artery of war,” it was in charge of trade, and the functions of the Discharge Order were transferred to it.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SENATE

The features adopted by the Boyar Duma under Peter were transferred to the government agency that replaced it. The Senate was born with the character of a temporary commission, which was allocated from the Duma during the tsar’s departure and which the Duma itself began to turn into during Peter’s frequent and long absences. Getting ready for the Turkish campaign, Peter issued a short decree on February 22, 1711, which read: “We have determined that there will be a Governing Senate for our absences to govern.” Or: “For our constant absences in these wars, the Governing Senate has been determined,” as stated in another decree. So, the Senate was established for a while: after all, Peter did not expect to live in eternal absence, like Charles XII. Then the decree named the newly appointed senators in the number of 9 people, very close to the then usual composition of the once populous Boyar Duma […]. By one decree on March 2, 1711, during his absence, Peter entrusted the Senate with supreme supervision of the court and expenses, concern for increasing income and a number of special assignments for the recruitment of young nobles and boyars into the officer reserve, for the inspection of government goods, for bills and trade. , and another decree defined the power and responsibility of the Senate: all persons and institutions are obliged to obey him, as the sovereign himself, under pain of death for disobedience; no one can even declare unfair orders of the Senate until the return of the sovereign, to whom he gives an account of his actions. In 1717, reprimanding the Senate from abroad for disorder in government, “which it is impossible for me to see at such a distance and behind this difficult war,” Peter inspired the senators to strictly monitor everything, “you have nothing else to do, just one thing.” rule, which if you do imprudently, then before God, and then you will not escape the local judgment.” Peter sometimes called senators from Moscow to his temporary place of residence, in Revel, St. Petersburg, with all the statements for a report, “what has been done according to these decrees and what has not been completed and why.” No legislative functions of the old Boyar Duma are noticeable in the original competence of the Senate: like the council of ministers, the Senate is not state council under the sovereign, and the highest administrative and responsible institution for current affairs of government and for the execution of special orders of the absent sovereign is the council, which met “instead of the presence of His Majesty himself.” The course of the war and foreign policy were not subject to his control. The Senate inherited from the council two auxiliary institutions: the Execution Chamber, as a special judicial branch, and the Near Chancellery, which was attached to the Senate for the accounting and audit of income and expenses. But a temporary commission, such as the Senate in 1711, gradually turns into a permanent supreme institution […].

The council of ministers met randomly and in a random composition, despite the regulations that precisely regulated its paperwork. According to the list of 1705, there were 38 Duma people, boyars, okolnichi and Duma nobles, and at the beginning of 1706, when Charles XII, with an unexpected movement from Poland, cut off communications from the Russian corps near Grodna, when it was necessary to discuss and take decisive measures, under the Tsar in Moscow there were only two ministers, thoughtful people: the rest were “at work”, in official dispersal. Of the orders in Moscow, only those that required and spent, such as Military, Artillery, Admiralty, and Ambassadorial, remained in Moscow. Financial consumption was concentrated in the capital, and the provincial administration mined; but in Moscow there remained no institution for supreme control of financial production and for supreme supervision of financial consumers, that is, there was no government. Among his military-strategic and diplomatic operations, Peter did not seem to notice that, by establishing 8 provinces, he created 8 recruiting and financial offices for recruiting and maintaining regiments in the fight against a dangerous enemy, but left the state without central internal administration, and himself without direct closest interpreters and conductors of their sovereign will. Such a conductor could not be a ministerial congress in the Near Chancellery without a specific department and permanent composition, from managers busy with other matters and obliged to sign the minutes of the meeting in order to thereby reveal their “stupidity.” Then Peter needed not a state Duma, advisory or legislative, but a simple state government of a few smart businessmen capable of guessing the will, catching the tsar’s unclear thought hidden in the laconic charade of a hastily sketched personal decree, developing it into an understandable and executable order and authoritatively looking after its execution - a government so empowered that everyone fears it, and so responsible that it itself fears something. The alter ego of the king in the eyes of the people, every minute feeling the royal quos ego above him - this was the original idea of the Senate, if any idea participated in its creation. The Senate had to decide cases unanimously. So that this unanimity would not be squeezed out by anyone’s personal pressure, none of Peter’s top employees was brought into the Senate: neither Menshikov, nor Apraksin, nor Sheremetev, nor Chancellor Golovkin, etc. […] The majority of the Senate was made up of businessmen from far from the top bureaucratic nobility : Samarin was the military treasurer, Prince Grigory Volkonsky was the manager of the Tula state-owned factories, Apukhtin was the quartermaster general, etc. etc. Such people understood military affairs, the most important subject of Senate jurisdiction, no worse than any principal, and they could probably steal less than Menshikov, but if Senator Prince M. Dolgoruky did not know how to write, then Menshikov was a little ahead of him in this art, with difficulty drawing the letters of your last name. So, two conditions were created by the needs of governance, which caused the establishment of the Senate as a temporary commission, and then strengthened its existence and determined its department, composition and significance: the disorder of the old Boyar Duma and the constant absences of the Tsar.

Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history. Full course of lectures. M., 2004.

DECREE ON THE POSITION OF THE SENATE

Paragraph VI. 1. In the Senate, the ranks must be said, which are depicted below,

2. give decrees to the entire state and those sent from us decide immediately;

3. and others like that, namely: in the ranks to say, from the military - to the entire generals, from the state and civil government - as a minister, in the collegium - as president, in the province and in the province - as governor, governor and commandant, assessor, chamberlain, rentmaster and zemstvo and court kamsar, as well as collegiate members, including the secretary, and so on; and in the provinces - by the president, to the court courts, to the lantrichters and zemstvo secretaries.

Decree on the position of the Senate on April 27, 1722 // Russian legislation of the 10th–20th centuries. In 9 volumes. T.4. Legislation of the period of formation of absolutism. Rep. ed. A.G. Mankov. M., 1986. http://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/senat2.htm

SENATE AND NOBILITY

The entire mass of serving nobles was placed under direct subordination to the Senate instead of the previous Rank Order, and the Senate was in charge of the nobility through a special official, the “master of arms.”

THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK OF THE SENATE

The Senate, as the highest guardian of justice and state economy, had from the very beginning of its activity unsatisfactory subordinate bodies. In the center there were a bunch of old and new, Moscow and St. Petersburg, orders, offices, offices, commissions with confused departments and uncertain relationships, sometimes with random origins, and in the regions - 8 governors, who sometimes did not listen to the tsar himself, not just the Senate . The Senate consisted of the Chamber of Execution, inherited from the ministerial council, as its judicial department, and the Near Accounting Office. Among the most important responsibilities of the Senate was “to collect money as possible” and to consider government expenditures in order to cancel unnecessary ones, and yet money bills were not sent to him from anywhere, and for a number of years he could not draw up a statement of how much there was in the entire state in the parish, in consumption, in balance and in milk. […] The most important task of the Senate, which became clearest to Peter during its establishment, was the supreme control and supervision of the entire administration. The nearby office joined the Senate office for budget accounting. One of the first acts of government equipment of the Senate was the establishment of an active control body. By decree of March 5, 1711, the Senate was ordered to elect a chief fiscal, an intelligent and kind man, no matter what his rank, who should secretly oversee all matters and inquire about unjust trials, “as well as in collecting the treasury and so on.” The Chief Fiscal brought the accused, “no matter how high,” to justice before the Senate and convicted him there. Having proven his accusation, the fiscal received half the fine from the person convicted; but even an unproven accusation was forbidden to blame the fiscal, even to annoy him for this “under severe punishment and ruin of his entire estate.”

Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history. Full course of lectures. M., 2004.

THE ADMINISTRATION CREATED BY PETER

In a systematic presentation, the administration created by Peter will be presented in this form.

Since 1711, the entire administration has been headed by the Senate. Around 1700, the old Boyar Duma disappeared as a permanent institution and was replaced by the nearby office of the sovereign, in which, as in the old days, a meeting of the boyars sometimes took place. During his incessant trips, Peter entrusted the conduct of state affairs in Moscow not to an institution, but to several trusted persons from the old Duma ranks (Peter did not give these ranks to anyone, but did not take them away from those who had them) and persons of new ranks and titles. But in 1711, setting off on the Prut campaign, Peter entrusted the state not to individuals, but to a newly founded institution. This institution is the Senate. Its existence, as Peter himself declared, was caused precisely by the “absences” of the sovereign, and Peter commanded everyone to obey the Senate as he did himself. Thus, the Senate's mission was initially temporary. It replaced: 1) the old Duma commissions, appointed to “in charge of Moscow” in the absence of the sovereign, and 2) the permanent “Execution Chamber,” which was, as it were, the judicial department of the Boyar Duma. But with Peter’s return to business, the Senate was not abolished, but became a permanent institution, in the organization of which three phases were noticed under Peter. From 1711 to 1718, the Senate was an assembly of persons appointed specifically to attend it; from 1718 to 1722 the Senate became a meeting of the presidents of the colleges; since 1722, the Senate has received a mixed composition, it includes some presidents of the colleges (military, naval, foreign) and at the same time there are senators who are alien to the colleges.

The department of the Senate consisted of control over the administration, in resolving cases beyond the competence of the boards, and in the general direction of the administrative mechanism. The Senate was thus the highest administrative body in the state. To him, in last years Peter, the judicial function was also assigned: the Senate became the highest court. There are different shades of opinion regarding whether legislative activity was inherent in the Senate. Some (Petrovsky “On the Senate during the reign of Peter the Great”) believe that the Senate at first had legislative power and sometimes even canceled the decrees of Peter himself. Others (Vladimirsky-Budanov in his critical article “The Establishment of the Government Senate”) argue that the legislative function never belonged to the Senate. But everyone recognizes that Peter, by modifying the position of the Senate in 1722, deprived it of legislative power; It is clear that Peter could not place meetings with legislative rights next to himself, as the only source of legislative power in the state. Therefore, even if we recognize the legislative function of the Senate, it should be considered an accidental and exceptional phenomenon.

The difference in ideas about its national significance also depends on the difference in ideas about the competence of the Senate. Some consider the Senate to be the absolute highest institution in the state, uniting and directing the entire administration and knowing no other power over itself than the sovereign (Gradovsky, Petrovsky). Others believe that, while controlling and directing the administration, the Senate itself was subject to control and depended on the “supreme ministers” (i.e., those close to Peter who controlled the troops, navy and foreign affairs) and on the prosecutor general, the representative of the sovereign’s person in Senate.

Platonov S.F. A complete course of lectures on Russian history. St. Petersburg, 2000

http://magister.msk.ru/library/history/platonov/plats005.htm#gl6

ASSESSMENT OF V.O. KLUCHEVSKY OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM OF PETER

“The capital clerk, the traveling general, the provincial nobleman threw the decrees of the formidable reformer out of the window and, together with the forest robber, were little worried about the fact that in the capitals there was a semi-sovereign Senate and nine, and then ten, Swedish-style collegiums with systematically demarcated departments. Impressive legislative facades covered the general lack of order.” Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history. Full course of lectures. M., 2004.

March 5, 2011 marks the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the Senate - the highest body of state power and legislation of the Russian Empire.

On March 5 (February 22, Old Style), 1711, by decree of Peter I, the Governing Senate was established - the highest body of state power and legislation, subordinate to the emperor.

In 1872, the “Special Presence for Judging State Crimes and Illegal Communities” was created within the Senate - the highest political court of Russia.

In 1917, the Special Presence and the Supreme Criminal Court were abolished.

By decree of Soviet power of December 5 (November 22), 1917, the Senate was abolished.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources