60 thinking of the absolutist monarchs), have to establish their forms of government in accordance with this (order) if they wish to enjoy the sweet fruits of a flowering state for their great efforts. The order referred to here was the collegial order, for “experience has hitherto shown conclusively that realms and countries cannot be put in better order than through the establishment of good colleges.” Therefore, the memorandum proposed that a collegial system with nine colleges be set up in Russia, the nine colleges being a state college (Statskoi kolegium), a college of war (Voinskii kolegium), a college of revenue (Finantsii kolegium), a police college (Politsei kolegium), a college of justice {lustits kolegium), a college of commerce {Komertsii kolegium), a college of religion {Very kolegium), a college of audits {Revizii kolegium), and a college of sciences {Nauk kolegium). The description the author provides of the systematic structure of the collegial administration reflects in a very telling way the rationalisticmechanistic world view of the epoch of manufactories.^”^ Thus one reads that “as in a clock one wheel is driven by another, in the great state clock one college is driven by another. And when everything is in exact proportion and close harmony, then it cannot be otherwise than that the pointer of wisdomwill show the country happy hours. How this memorandum was received by Peter and his advisers is not known. However, it was much too vaguely formulated to be able to serve as a basis for planning an administrative reform. Only one college, the proposed college of sciences, was described in any detail. In addition, the collegial administration described in the memorandum was a theoretical construct which as such could not have been taken very seriously by the Russian leadership. Instead, any extensive reform of the Russian administration according to a collegial pattern would require a model which existed in reality and which therefore could furnish detailed information about an administrative system that had been tested by experience. Nonetheless, it is fully possible that this memorandum reinforced Peter’s opinion that administrative reformwas necessary. Peter once again had an opportunity to devote a good deal of his time to the question of administrative reform in 1714. In April of that year, Friedrich Christian vonWeber, the Hanoverian resident at the Russian court, wrote to Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Braunschweig-Luneburg, that the tsar was spending “gar viele und die melste Zeit vor sich ganz 102 ” 104 ZA (no. 330), 270. Ibid., loc.cit. Franz Borkenau, Der Obergung vom feudalen zum burgerlichen Weltbild (Paris, 1934; reprint, Darmstadt, 1971), 12—13. ZA (no. 330), 270. 101 103 104
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=