16 noe gosudarstvo) of the Western European type. According to Bogoslovskii, the total reorganization of the Russian state administration during the reign of Peter the Great had been initiated by the Western European political theories which influenced the tsar."’® The ideal of the European state directed by an absolute prince striving for the common good served as the model for Peter the Great’s reformefforts.®® The general explanation for the later administrative reforms of the Petrine period was, argued Bogoslovskii, that the previous administrative system had proven inadequate in view of the fact, for example, that the Senate was overburdened with routine tasks in the absence of any intermediate bodies between it and the local administration. In this crisis situation, Peter turned to the West in his search for a model for a more perfect system. Russia was not sufficiently mature to bring about an independent political creation all of her own, and the model was borrowed from Sweden.®” The main principles of the Swedish administrative system were transferred to Russia. This was especially the case with the local administration, where, according to Bogoslovskii, it is easier to prove Swedish influence than it is in the case of the central administration.®* In addition, Bogoslovskii presented the reform as Peter the Great’s own project, and claimed that it had been put into effect without any systematic planning.®* Both the state school’s concept of the reform period and Miliukov’s opinion concerning the critical situation in the administration are easily recognizable in Bogoslovskii’s arguments. In regard to the process by which Swedish legal models were used in the reform of Russia’s central and local administration, Bogoslovskii’s book did not contribute anything significantly new to that which Miliukov had presented in his study. Bogoslovskii also devoted an entire chapter to the new system of courts introduced in connection with the reform of the local administration. In the beginning, the legal system was reformed according to Swedish models, but, since the various courts had to be adapted to the needs and conditions of Russian society, Swedish influence was ultimately limited to the nomenclature used for the courts.®* Only in one sense was it possible to demonstrate a direct loan from Sweden, namely in the sharp distinction drawn between judicial and executive functions, which was so characteristic of the Swedish system, but such a novelty for Russia.®^ Ibid., 18. Ibid., 24. Ibid., 28. 58 Ibid., 36. 5« Ibid., 37. Ibid., 221. «' Ibid., 222.
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