61 allein in Betrachtung und Nachdenken iiber allerlei heilsame Einrichtungen und Veränderungen in ihren Ländern.”^®^ It is possible that the plans for a thorough reform of the Russian administrative apparatus along the lines of the collegial principle was beginning to take shape at this time. On April 4, 1714, Peter issued an ukaz which directed that the collegial principle of decision making was to be used by the Senate, the local administration, and the organs of the military administration. In addition, these organs were to “keep minutes of all matters when some matter is decided, or some nkaz is to be sent somewhere, or something is decreed anew.” This measure was, of course, designed to create a more rational and efficient process of decision making. The regular, chronological minuting of the matters before these bodies would facilitate admlnstration, since they would make it possible to find the papers concerning each matter, while at the same time providing a means by which to control the activities of those making the decisions. Once they were minuted, it was not very easy to hide matters, although it had been very easy to do so in the prikazy, as we have seen above. Therefore, the following procedure was to be followed at meetings: the secretary (or the d’iak) is to present the matter at hand and when he is done reading it he shall from below ask one at a time and record the opinion of each one (which each one shall sign with his own hand). But when all have signed their opinions then they are to have a discussion. And that opinion which after the discussion receives the most votes shall form the basis for the decision. Behind Peter’s ukaz, however, one can also detect a political motive that would appear in a more explict form later on,^®’ namely a desire to deprive the old Muscovite service elite, which was directed by the interest of the magnates, of its ability to act independently in the state apparatus. The independence of action of this elite was entirely contradictory to the absolutist position the tsar claimed to occupy with the support of the service nobility. Above all, Peter wanted to stop further development of the client mentality cultivated by the prikaz judges, who often built their influential positions on a network of client relationships. He therefore decreed in this ukaz that “the secretaries and d'iaki shall not, at the risk of the death penalty, sign any ukazy on their own at the order of their principals (as is to sign after all the others. It is unlikely, however, that this ukaz led to any decisive changes in Russian administrative practices. There is nothing, for example, to suggest that a collegial system with the minuting of its activities in acZ5, II, 22. ZA (no. 250), 209. "*■ See p. 88. ZA (no. 250), 209. Peter himself drafted this ukaz. 106 was done earlier), but he who presented the matter ” 108 IU8
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