Conclusion The aim of this study has been to investigate the preconditions for the administrative and judicial reforms of the last decade of Peter the Great’s reign with special regard for the role of Swedish administrative institutions and Swedish law as models for these reforms. The question of the role of Swedish administrative law for Peter’s reforms has a long tradition in Russian historiography, but it has never before been the subject of a monographic study of any length. Contemporary Soviet historians do not by any means deny that the Swedish administrative system was studied in connection with the extensive reforms of the central and local administration carried out in Russia during the last decade of Peter the Great’s reign, but it is a common perception among them that the Swedish influence was very limited. They argue that the Swedish administrative forms and legal concepts which were in fact borrowed first went through a “creative reworking” (“tvorcheskaia pererabotka”), for which reason they find it incorrect to speak of any direct Russian borrowing of Swedish prototypes. According to Soviet historians, Peter and his collaborators were aware that no foreign administrative system could be implemented in Russia without modifications and therefore chose to borrow only those elements they found applicable to Russian political and social conditions. In addition, the aspects of the Swedish state administration that Peter considered suitable for the Russian reforms were subjected to a thorough reworking. Since no comprehensive study of the Petrine reforms has ever been published in the Soviet Union, however, no one has ever demonstrated how this so-called “creative reworking” was actually carried out. In view of the lack of any such comprehensive study, one aim here has been to include in this study all of the central and local administrative organs which began to be organized in 1718. Primary interest has been devoted to the initial stages of the reform, while the changes in the central administration carried out in 1722, the reorganization of the Senate, and the founding of the Procuracy General have not been touched upon. The presentations of the various administrative sectors have varied in scope
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