Supreme Privy Council: year of creation and participants

The Supreme Privy Council was created after the death of Peter the Great. The accession of Catherine to the throne necessitated his organization in order to clarify the situation: the empress was not able to lead the activities of the Russian government.

Background

The establishment of the Supreme Privy Council, as many believed, was supposed to "calm the offended feelings" of the old nobility, eliminated from the management of unborn children. At the same time, it was not the form that was to change, but the nature and essence of the supreme power, because, having retained its titles, it turned into a state institution.

Many historians have expressed the view that the main flaw created by the great Peter the system of government was the impossibility of combining the nature of the executive branch with the collegial principle, which is why the Supreme Privy Council was founded.

It turned out that the emergence of this supreme deliberative body was not so much the result of a confrontation of political interests, but rather a necessity related to filling the gap in the inferior Petrine system at the level of senior management. The results of the Council’s short work were not very significant, since it had to act immediately after an intense and active era, when one reform replaced another, and in all spheres of public life there was a strong excitement.

Reason for creating

The creation of the Supreme Privy Council was designed to understand the complex tasks of Peter's reforms, which remained unresolved. His work clearly showed that it was from the inherited Catherine that stood the test of time, and what should be reorganized. Most consistently, the Supreme Council adhered to the line chosen by Peter in politics concerning industry, although in general, the general tendency of his activity can be described as reconciling the interests of the people with the interests of the army, abandoning extensive military campaigns and not accepting any reforms regarding the Russian army. At the same time, this institution responded in its activities to those needs and matters that required an immediate solution.

Members of the Supreme Privy Council

The date of the establishment of this highest deliberative state institution was February 1726. His members were appointed His Highness Prince, General Field Marshal Menshikov, State Chancellor Golovkin, General Apraksin, Count Tolstoy, Baron Osterman and Prince Golitsyn. A month later, the duke of Holstein, Catherine’s son-in-law, the empress’s most confidant, was also included in his composition. From the very beginning, the members of this supreme body were exclusively the followers of Peter, but soon Menshikov, who was under exile under Peter the Second, ousted Tolstoy. After some time, Apraksin died, and the Duke of Holstein completely stopped attending meetings. Of the originally appointed members of the Supreme Privy Council, only three representatives remained in its ranks - Osterman, Golitsyn and Golovkin. The composition of this advisory body has changed a lot. Gradually, power passed into the hands of powerful princely families - the Golitsyn and Dolgoruky.

Activities

The Senate also subordinated the Privy Council on the orders of the Empress, which at first was demoted to the point that they decided to send him decrees from the Synod, which had previously been equal with him. Under Menshikov, the newly created body tried to consolidate the power of the government. The ministers, as their members dignified, together with the senators swore allegiance to the empress. It was strictly forbidden to execute decrees not signed by the empress and her brainchild, which was the Supreme Privy Council.

According to the test of Catherine the First, it was this body that was granted authority during the infancy of Peter II, equivalent to the power of the sovereign. However, the Privy Council did not have the right to make changes only in the succession order of the throne.

Change in government

From the first moment of the establishment of this organization, many abroad predicted the possibility of attempts to change the form of government in Russia. And they were right. When Peter II died , and this happened on the night of January 19, 1730, despite the will of Catherine, her descendants were removed from the throne. The pretext was the youth and frivolity of Elizabeth, the youngest heiress of Peter, and the infancy of their grandson - the son of Anna Petrovna. The question of the election of the Russian monarch was decided by the influential voice of Prince Golitsyn, who stated that attention should be paid to the older line of the Petrine clan, and therefore proposed the candidacy of Anna Ioannovna. The daughter of John Alekseevich, who had already lived in Courland for nineteen years, suited everyone, since she had no favorites in Russia. She seemed manageable and obedient, without a penchant for despotism. In addition, such a decision was due to Golitsyn’s non-acceptance of Peter's reforms. The long-established plan of the “supreme leaders” to change the form of government joined this narrowly individual tendency, which, naturally, was easier to do during the reign of the childless Anna.

"Condition"

Taking advantage of the situation, the "leaders", deciding to limit the somewhat autocratic power, demanded that Anna sign certain conditions, the so-called "Condition". According to them, it was the Supreme Privy Council that should have possessed real power, and the sovereign's role was reduced only to representative functions. This form of government was new for Russia.

At the end of January 1730, the new empress signed the “Condition” presented to her. From now on, without the approval of the Supreme Council, she could not wage war, conclude peace treaties, introduce new taxes or levy taxes. Not in her competence was the expenditure of the treasury at her own discretion, the performance of ranks higher than the rank of colonel, the salary of patrimonies, the deprivation of the nobles life or property without a court, and most importantly - the appointment of the heir to the throne.

The struggle for the revision of "Condition"

Anna Ioannovna, having entered the Mother See, went to the Assumption Cathedral, where the highest state officials and troops swore allegiance to the empress. The new oath in form was deprived of some of the previous expressions meaning autocracy, it did not mention the rights that were vested in the Supreme Secret Authority. In the meantime, the struggle between the two parties, the “leaders” and the supporters of the autocracy, intensified. In the ranks of the latter, P. Yaguzhinsky, A. Kantemir, Feofan Prokopovich and A. Osterman played an active role. They were supported by broad sections of the nobility, who wished for a revision of "Condition". The discontent was primarily due to the strengthening of a narrow circle of members of the Privy Council. In addition, in condition, most of the representatives of the gentry, as the nobility was called at that time, saw the intention to establish an oligarchy in Russia and the desire to assign two surnames - Dolgoruky and Golitsyn - the right to elect a monarch and change the form of government.

Cancellation of "Condition"

In February 1730, a large group of representatives of the nobility, which, according to some sources, comprised up to eight hundred people, appeared in the palace to present the petition to Anna Ivanovna. Among them were a lot of guards officers. The petition to the Empress was an urgent request, together with the nobility, to once again revise the form of government in order to make it acceptable to the entire Russian people. Anna, because of her nature, hesitated somewhat, but her older sister - Ekaterina Ioannovna - forced her to nevertheless sign a petition. In it, the nobles asked to accept the complete autocracy and destroy the points of "Condition".

Anna, under the new conditions, secured the approval of the bewildered "leaders": there was nothing left for that, only to nod their heads. According to a contemporary, they had no other choice, since with the slightest confrontation or disapproval, the guards would have attacked them. Anna enjoyed publicly tearing up not only Condition, but her own letter of acceptance of their items.

Inglourious end of Council members

On March 1, 1730, under the conditions of a complete autocracy, the people once again took the oath to the Empress. And only three days later, the Manifesto of March 4 abolished the Supreme Privy Council.

The fate of its former members has developed in different ways. Prince Golitsyn was dismissed, and after some time he died. His brother, as well as three of the four Dolgorukovs, was executed during the reign of Anna. Repressions spared only one of them - Vasily Vladimirovich, who was acquitted under Elizabeth Petrovna , returned from exile and, moreover, was appointed head of the military college.

Osterman during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna was at the most important state post. Moreover, in 1740-1741, he briefly became the de facto ruler of the country, but as a result of another palace coup, he was defeated and was exiled to Berezov.