178 and supplications. The college has no time to consider how the realm’s ruinous economy and finances, and thus His Imperial Majesty’s interests, might be improved, or how it might be possible to restore the subjects and promote their welfare. The memoranda submitted by Kochius and Pick were written in connection with a review of the collegial administration undertaken in 1723 in an attempt to identify and remedy its shortcomings. The secretary of the Swedish legation, Paulin, wrote home on November 20, 1723, “that His Tsarist Majesty has for the last eight days been occupied, and is daily occupied, with reviewing the instructions of the colleges and putting the administration of justice into better order,” and from Peter’s own notes we know that it was the functioning of the kamer-kollegiia that they were striving to improve. According to the tsar, it was necessary to gather more information concerning the Swedish fiscal administration. In addition. Swedes familiar with Swedish cameral routines were to be offered positions in the kamerkollegiia,^^^ and for this purpose it was decided to send someone to Stockholmto recruit suitable Swedes.The task was charged to a chief procuror named Bibikov,^®® but we know nothing about the extent of his successes in finding Swedes willing to join the Russian civil service during his visit to Sweden in 1724, We do, however, know that Bibikov returned to St. Petersburg with further materials concerning the Swedish collegial administration, including the Swedish personnel budget for 1721.^®’ In spite of renewed efforts during the last year of Peter’s reign, the kamer-kollegiia never became an administrative organ comparable to its Swedish counterpart. The sources cited above reveal the great problems that arose—indeed had to arise—when the Russian administrative plans were put into practice. Not only did many of the provincial accounts necessary to the work of the college fail to materialize, but the shortage of knowledgeable personnel and comprehensive guidelines for the perRA, Muscovitica 149. TsGADA, f. 9 otdclenie 1 delo 54 1. 44S. 2A (no. 156), 120. ZA (no. 187), 138. The Swedish minister at St. Petersburg, Herman Cedercreutz, reported that Bibikov had been instructed to “inform himself about the organization of the chancellery and the colleges in Sweden, on the basis of which (information) His Majesty the Tsar is apparently determined to establish his here (in Russia), as well.” Cedercreutz to Kungl.Maj:t, March 6, 1724, RA, Muscovitica 146. Cedercreutz later wrote that “since Chief Procuror Bibikov has returned from Sweden, affairs deliberated upon in the Senate are divided up between specific days, just as in Stockholm, with Wendesday designated for Swedish affairs.” Cedercreutz to Kungl. Maj:t, September 11, 1724, RA, Muscovitica 146. TsGADA, f. 248 delo 58 1. 236. 185 186
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