The charter of the Russian Empire is a bill developed in the years 1818-19 by the government of Alexander I.
This document provided for the creation in Russia of the State Sejm (parliament), consisting of the Ambassadorial Izba and the Senate.
In addition, the charter of the Russian Empire implied the creation of a bicameral local government system.
In accordance with the document, the king was vested with the right to veto and the right to legislative initiative. And the state diet had to approve laws and the budget. It was assumed that members of parliament would be elected from noble assemblies and urban communities.
The charter was named the project of Novosiltsev, by the name of the author. Many historians consider it the main part of the reforms of Alexander I.
A prerequisite for the creation of this bill can be considered the crisis of the Russian management system at all levels, which became apparent in the early 19th century. Mechanisms that have been protecting public peace for a long time are outdated overnight and require urgent replacement. This situation has developed for several reasons. Firstly, in the countries of Europe at that time there were rapid transformations. The revolution in France, the war of Napoleon could not affect the development of statehood in Russia. In addition, the internal processes characteristic of the country's public life, which determined the vector of its development over time, came into conflict with the new requirements put forward by the foreign policy situation.
The charter of the Russian Empire not only incorporated all the experience of previous transformations. It has become a holistic system that harmoniously combines originally scattered ideas.
For modern scholars, an analysis of this document makes it possible to understand what external and internal factors determined the Russian statehood of that time.
The charter of the Russian Empire allows you to study the social model, which Alexander I did not have time to translate.
Despite the fact that the king ascended the throne at a young age, he had a prevailing idea of the peculiarities of the country's internal development.
Based on his own political views, he created the idea of a "true monarchy", which was based on the postulate that power should belong to the monarch, but at the same time there are unshakable laws over which even the tsar’s will not rule. Accordingly, institutions are needed that will monitor compliance with these laws.
This idea of subordinating the system of legislation to certain fundamental principles was characteristic of European thought of the late 18th century.
However, on Russian soil, it turned out only to strengthen the autocratic power.
The State Charter of the Russian Empire was designed to embody Alexander's view on the fundamental foundations of public life.
With the help of this document, an attempt was made to solve several problems that arose after the reign of Catherine the Great.
So, the need has ripened for reforming the state apparatus, which was extremely imperfect due to the imbalance of the entire management system. Russia of that time was distinguished by geographical and social heterogeneity. The state was not a single entity. In some areas tribal relations dominated, while in others capitalism developed.
Both this and the other problem were supposed to be solved with the help of a new code, which was to be based on the force of law.
So, the Charter of the Russian Empire represented the pinnacle of the reform efforts of the government of Alexander I. It is an example of a rather controversial document aimed, on the one hand, to strengthen the power of the monarch, and on the other hand represents the first attempts to establish "Russian constitutionalism". For that time, the Charter became a truly advanced document that has no analogues in history.