54 signature. All important and far-reaching decisions, such as the administrative reform of 1699 and the creation of the regular army, were issued by the tsar in the form of imennye ukazyJ^ A total of sixty-five prikazy existed at one time or another during Peter’s reign. The prikaz administration was still characterized by high mobility, and as old chancelleries were merged together or disbanded, new ones were opened. However, the sixteen newprikazy created during Peter’s reign were significantly fewer than the thirty set up under Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich."" Several of the prikazy created during Peter’s reign were set up in connection with the founding of the regular army and navy in 1699—1700. From this time we find the following prikazy with special tasks of military administration: 1) the Admiralteiskii prikaz, which was responsible for the dockyards and for the construction of warships, 2) the Voennyi morskoi prikaz, which administered the naval personnel, 3) the Prikaz artillerii, which was responsible for the artillery, 4) the Voennyi prikaz, which recruited soldiers and administered their pay, and 5) iheProviantskii prikaz, which was responsible for feeding the troops, a task which had previously been divided up among several chancelleries."® Viewed in the longer perspective, however, the prikaz administration was unable to meet the demands for increased administrative efficiency which arose from the need to supply the regular military establishment. Because of the regional, and even functional, diversity which characterized the prikaz administration, it was difficult to pursue a uniform financial policy, just as the absence of established and uniform norms for the administration left room for arbitrariness and corruption, which further underlined the inability of the administrative apparatus to execute polltical decisions effectively. A new administrative organ known as the Blizhniaia kantseliariia, which was charged with checking on the financial administration of the prikazy and which was under the direction of Peter’s associate Nikita Zotov, was created in 1699. All the prikazy were ordered to send their accounts to the Blizhniaia kantseliariia for audit. The chancellery was also assigned the function of a central governmental organ from which the decisions of the highest government authorities were sent to the central administration and to which the heads of the prikazy were called to present their business. In 1705 the Blizhniaia kantseliariia was ordered to keep a register of the ukazes issued by the tsar in response to the presentations by the prikazy, just as each prikaz was to inform this chancellery about the tasks the Ibid., 244—246. Brown, 508. Bogoslovskii, IV, 274.
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