The guberniia procuracy during the reign of Catherine II, 1764-1796 - article ; n°3 ; vol.36, pg 221-248

John P.Le Donne

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Cahiers du monde russe : Russie, Empire russe, Union soviétique, États indépendants - Année 1995 - Volume 36 - Numéro 3 - Pages 221-248
John P. Le Donne, The guberniia procuracy during the reign of Catherine II, 1764-1796. The purpose of this article is to discuss a little known subject. A first part draws a composite portrait of the guberniia procurator before and after the provincial reforms of the 1770s — his origin, his place in the apparatus, his appointment and length of service. A second part analyzes his responsibilities — legal adviser, defender of the law; his role in the initiation of future legislation; guardian of the state's fiscal interest; his crucial role in reconciling Russian and local laws in the borderlands, and the resulting political problems. A third part examines the relationships between the procurator and the governor or governor general after the reforms; this latter relationship provides valuable insights in the operation of Russian local government. The conflict between the governor general of Kursk and Orel and the Kursk procurator is given as an illustration.
John P. Le Donne, Le procureur de gubemija sous le règne de Catherine II, 1 764-1 796. Le but de cet article est de présenter un sujet peu connu. Une première partie présente un portrait composite du procureur de gubernija, avant et après les réformes de l'administration locale des années 1770 — ses origines, sa place dans l'appareil, son mode de nomination et la durée de son service. Une seconde partie analyse ses fonctions — conseiller légal, défenseur du droit ; son rôle d'initiateur de la législation future ; gardien de l'intérêt fiscal de l'État ; son importance dans la procédure de conciliation entre la loi russe et le droit local et les problèmes politiques qui en résultent. Une troisième partie examine les rapports entre le procureur et son supérieur, le procureur général ; entre le procureur et le gouverneur ou le gouveneur général après les réformes ; ces derniers rapports nous donnent quelques indications utiles sur la façon d'opérer du gouvernement local russe. Le conflit entre le gouverneur général de Kursk et d'Orel et le procureur de Kursk sert à l'illustrer.
28 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: CAHIERS_DU_MONDE_RUSSE_-_RUSSIE-_EMPIRE_RUSSE-_UNION_SOVIETIQUE-_ETATS_INDEPENDA
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1995
• Nombre de lectures: 47
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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John P. LeDonne
The guberniia procuracy during the reign of Catherine II, 1764-
1796
In: Cahiers du monde russe : Russie, Empire russe, Union soviétique, États indépendants. Vol. 36 N°3. pp. 221-248.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
LeDonne John P. The guberniia procuracy during the reign of Catherine II, 1764-1796. In: Cahiers du monde russe : Russie,
Empire russe, Union soviétique, États indépendants. Vol. 36 N°3. pp. 221-248.
doi : 10.3406/cmr.1995.2429
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_1252-6576_1995_num_36_3_2429Abstract
John P. Le Donne, The guberniia procuracy during the reign of Catherine II, 1764-1796. The purpose of
this article is to discuss a little known subject. A first part draws a composite portrait of the guberniia
procurator before and after the provincial reforms of the 1770s — his origin, his place in the apparatus,
his appointment and length of service. A second part analyzes his responsibilities — legal adviser,
defender of the law; his role in the initiation of future legislation; guardian of the state's fiscal interest; his
crucial role in reconciling Russian and local laws in the borderlands, and the resulting political problems.
A third part examines the relationships between the procurator and the governor or governor general
after the reforms; this latter relationship provides valuable insights in the operation of Russian local
government. The conflict between the governor general of Kursk and Orel and the Kursk procurator is
given as an illustration.
Résumé
John P. Le Donne, Le procureur de gubemija sous le règne de Catherine II, 1 764-1 796. Le but de cet
article est de présenter un sujet peu connu. Une première partie présente un portrait composite du
procureur de gubernija, avant et après les réformes de l'administration locale des années 1770 — ses
origines, sa place dans l'appareil, son mode de nomination et la durée de son service. Une seconde
partie analyse ses fonctions — conseiller légal, défenseur du droit ; son rôle d'initiateur de la législation
future ; gardien de l'intérêt fiscal de l'État ; son importance dans la procédure de conciliation entre la loi
russe et le droit local et les problèmes politiques qui en résultent. Une troisième partie examine les
rapports entre le procureur et son supérieur, le procureur général ; entre le procureur et le gouverneur
ou le gouveneur général après les réformes ; ces derniers rapports nous donnent quelques indications
utiles sur la façon d'opérer du gouvernement local russe. Le conflit entre le gouverneur général de
Kursk et d'Orel et le procureur de Kursk sert à l'illustrer.ARTICLES
JOHN P. LE DONNE
THE GUBERNIIA PROCURACY
DURING THE REIGN OF CATHERINE П1
1764-1796
A Richard Wortman
A study of the local procuracy is of scholarly interest for at least two reasons. The
procuracy was required to supervise the operations of local government agencies, a
task that became increasingly more complex after the reforms of
the 1770's. Supervision was understood in the broad sense of not only watching over
the execution of the law, but also of providing legal advice and even recommending
new legislation when no laws could be found to settle particular cases. Such a
supervisory function gave the procuracy access to the operations of all government
agencies, a paradoxical phenomenon to be sure, because its purpose was to compel
agencies to observe legal procedures in a political environment strongly marked by
the pervasive application of arbitrary power.
The local procuracy also provides a model for studying how the authority,
jurisdiction, and power of local authorities depended on the importance of particular
individuals in Petersburg at any given time. Relationships in Russian politics and
administration were primarily vertical, and depended to a minimal extent on
territorial associations. Moreover, they grew within broad patronage networks
headed by members of the ruling elite who shared among themselves all the key
positions in the central government and distributed the spoils of office among their
protégés in the capital and elsewhere. Catherine's reign witnessed the emergence of
the procurator general to a position of unprecedented power; the reforms of her
grandson Alexander I transformed him into a mere minister of justice with narrowly
circumscribed responsibilities. Accordingly, the local procuracy reached its apogee
between 1764 and 1796.
The origin of the Imperial procuracy goes back to 1711. A Senate of nine
members was created in February, in anticipation of Peter I's departure for a distant
and potentially dangerous campaign against the Turks. In March, a hierarchy of
"supervisors" (fiskaly) was created in gubernii and towns headed by a senior
supervisor (oberfiskat) in Moscow to literally spy (taino nadsmatrivať) on other
Cahiers du Monde russe, XXXVI (3). juillet-septembre 1995, pp. 221248. 222 JOHN P. LE DONNE
members of the apparatus, appeal their judicial decisions and report their fiscal
mismanagement to the Senate. Fines imposed by the Senate would be shared equally
by the Treasury and the oberfiskal. Such sanctioning of official denunciations for
pecuniary reasons created much resentment and much corruption, and the oberfiskal
himself was eventually executed in 1722. Meanwhile, the creation of colleges in
1718 downgraded the supervisory function when the oberfiskal was subordinated to
the College of Justice. Fiskaly were attached to the nine guberniia tribunals, and their
function was narrowed to the protection of the courts against the arbitrary
interference of governors and voevody unaccustomed to see their authority
challenged in civil affairs.2
While the trend definitely pointed toward the abolition of fiskaly, the institution
was given a new lease on life in 1722, but in a different form. The Senate ceased to
be a committee of ministers, the colleges were subordinated to it and governors to
the colleges. Supervisory functions were vested in a procurator genera]. The April
Instruction3 outlined his jurisdiction, subordinated him to the tsar directly, and
announced the appointment of procurators in the colleges and the guberniia courts.
The fiskaly were subordinated to them. Their existence was later found to be
superfluous at a time of fiscal retrenchment and the entire institution was abolished
in 1729.4 Guberniia procurators were given an instruction in September 1733, and
additional procurators were appointed in the provincial capitals thirty years later.5
Procurators were not secret agents, but attended the deliberations of the agency they
were called upon to "supervise," advised members to reconsider their decisions to
make them conform to the law, and turned in the last resort to the procurator general,
who appointed, transferred, and dismissed them. It is the purpose of this article to
draw a composite portrait of the guberniia procurator, to examine his various
responsibilities, and to analyze his relationships with the governor of his guberniia
and his hierarchic superior in Petersburg.
I
A fairly comprehensive table of organization of central colleges and local
chanceries was at long last promulgated in December 1763. It divided the Senate into
eight departments, seven of them with a senior procurator, the First with the
procurator general himself, confirmed the appointment of a procurator in each
guberniia capital, and added a procurator in each provincial chancery subordinated,
like the guberniia procurator, directly to the procurator general.6 New appointments
were made in April 1764, two months after Prince Aleksandr Viazemskii was
appointed to succeed Procurator General Aleksandr Glebov.7 Such was the simple
organization of the Russian procuracy until 1775.
Seventy procurators were appointed between 1764 and the completion of the
reform in their respective guberniia* There were 36 in Russia proper, another 34 in
the borderlands including 13 in the Ukraine and 15 in the eastern frontier from
Astrakhan' to Irkutsk. None was appointed in the Baltic gubernii of Vyborg, Estland
and Livland, where the Russian government continued to recognize the traditional
rights and privileges based on Germanic law. The table of organization did not assign
a grade to the guberniia procurator, but the context makes it clear that he was placed THEGt/BE/WV/MPROCURACY 223
in grade 7, the equivalent of a lieutenant colonel in the army. Guberniia procurators
thus belonged to the lower management level of the political apparatus.9 The nine
appointments made in 1764 were sent to the Senate over the signature of the
procurator general and the senior procurators of the Second, Third, and Fourth
Departments, but Prince Viazemskii gradually assumed full control over the
nomination of all procurators and submitted his choices to the empress for routine
approval.10 In his guberniia, the procurator was outranked only by the governor and
his two deputies (tovarishchï).
Procurators were not necessarily in grade 7 at the time of their appointment. For
exampl