57 administrative organs of secondary importance, while others were simply disbanded.^** In preparation for the tsar’s departure for the theater of war, the Ruling Senate {PraviteVstvuiushchii senat) was established in March 1711 to serve as the supreme governmental organ with authority to exercise the executive authority in the absence of the tsar.®' However, the Senate’s political influence was limited, as is especially evident fromthe fact that such powerful men as A. D. Menshikov and F. M. Apraksin were not included among its members. One of the Senate’s primary duties was to maintain constant supervision of the country’s economy and, in Peter’s own words, to “collect as much money as possible, since money is the artery of war.”®® Decisions in the Senate were to be reached by majority vote, with each Senator enjoying one vote. The establishment of the Senate did not have any decisive effect on the structure of the prikaz administration except in the case of the Razriadnyi prikaz, which was absorbed by the new institution.'-’” But the Senate did receive extensive authority to supervise the activities of the prikazy, and this resulted in the jurisdiction of the chancelleries being disrupted even more. Therefore, the Senate reform may be considered a step in the direction of a more centralized administrative apparatus. The Senate was to exercise its judicial powers fairly and “to punish unjust judges by the removal of their honor and all of their property.” To fulfill this charge, a staff of fiskaly was appointed to check “secretly” to see that the administrative personnel did nothing contrary to the interests of the government, with special emphasis being placed on the embezzlement of state funds. If a fiskal discovered that someone had committed such an act, he was to “call him before the Senate (whatever his high rank) and expose him there.” The absolutist state found in this staff of fiskaly an effective instrument for forcing the administration to obey and execute the government’s decisions. The guberniia reform and the creation of the Senate put an end to the further development of the prikaz administration. Instead, the government began looking for other organizational forms in its efforts to reconstruct the administrative apparatus. The solution was found in the collegial Erik Amburger, Gcschichte der Behördenorganisation Riisslands von Peter dem Grossen bis 1917 (Leiden, 1966), 116—118. For the composition and duties of the Senate, see Reinhard Wittram, Peter I. Czar and Kaiser (2 v., Gottingen, 1964), II, 106—109. ZA (no. 241), 198. ZA (no. 244), 203. "O ZA (no. 240), 198. ZA (no. 241), 199. *- ZA (no. 244), 203. 8!»
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