RB 29

59 One finds evidence of significant interest in a collegial administrative reform during the period just prior to the establishment of the Senate. In 1711, Johann Friedrich Bliiher, an “officer of mines” from Saxony who had been in Russian service for more than a decade, proposed that the tsar should establish a college of mines consisting of “individuals who are knowledgeable in this art, to which (college) the full direction of this business should be entrusted.” However, no action was taken on Bliiher’s proposal. The following year, Peter issued instead an ukaz to the effect that “a college shall be established for the improvement of trade . . . for which it is necessary to have one or two foreigners . . . for without contradiction their trade is incomparably better than ours.” While this project was pursued—a chancellery was organized in St. Petersburg under the direction of P. M. Apraksin—no genuine college of commerce with a regular collegial administration was set up. Another indication of increased interest in foreign administrative organlzations at this time is provided by a note made by the tsar at the end of 1713: “Copy the rank order {poriadok gradusov) between all positions with the exception of the military ones in accordance with the Swedish and other [rank orders]. Among the Russian sources dating from this time is an anonymous and undated memorandum on the advisability of establishing a system of colleges in Russia, which has been ascribed to the German philosopher Leibniz.^® In essence, this memorandum lists the ideals established by the German cameralists for the absolutist-ruled Polizeistaat. The first point on the programcalled for a rationally organized administration, especially as regards finances, with the help of which the absolutist regime would be able to mobilize all of the potential resources of the realm for the support of the military and civil administration, upon which institutions the absolutist prince based his power. In the introduction to this memorandum, the author therefore appealed to Peter in the following manner: God, as a God of order, rules everything wisely and in an orderly manner with his invisible hand. The gods of this world, or the likenesses of God’s power (I am n(i ” 97 100 N. F. Kalachov, ed., Doklady i prigovory, sostoiavshiesia v PraviteVstvuiiishchem Senate v tsarstvovanie Petra Velikogo (6 v., St. Petersburg, 1880—1901), I, 122— 123. The complete title of the memorandum was "Memorial with some points about the establishing of mining affairs, with what good establishment and with what means (they should be) set up and managed in accordance with other European states.” PiB, XII: 1, 24. Miliukov, 424. ZA (no. 15), 39. ZA (no. 330), 269—271. Liselotte Richter, Leibniz nnd sein Russlandbild (Berlin, 1946), 136—142. ZA (no. 330), 269. 0« »9 100

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