65 therefore, Peter was able to discern only six independent colleges in the memorandum. Both Miliukov’s dating, which showed that the memorandumwas written sometime just prior to March 23, 1715, and his conclusion that the memorandumcontained a description of the Swedish collegial organization may be accepted. Confirmation of the fact that the tsar and his closest associates were interested in the Swedish colleges early in 1715 is found in a report sent to the Elector of Braunschweig-Liineburg by Weber on April 22, 1715, containing the observation that “Se. Zar. Maj. haben beschlossen und arbciten mit Dero Geheimtesten selbst daran, dass Sie nach dem schwedischen Fuss collegia iusticiae, belli, maris, commercii, thesauri und dergleichen aufrichten und einem jeden einen praesidem vorsetzen wollen, dadurch denn das ehemals gewesene pouvoir der Fursten von selbsten hinfallen wird.” It is interesting that Weber saw the proposed collegial reform as a means of depriving the “princes” of the last vestiges of their former power. For Weber, the “princes” represented the highest level of the old Muscovite service elite, the upper upper service class, whose presence was still felt in the adminstrative apparatus during Peter’s regime. Miliukov even attempted to identify the origins of the memorandum, and he suggested that a German by the name of Heinrich Pick might have been the author, since “the circle of ideas put forth in the project agrees completely with the activities of the well-known foreigner Heinrich Fick, who entered into Russian service in this same year of 1715.” Apparently it was the proposal for the establishment of an academy for training state servants that led Miliukov to this conclusion, since Fick later worked energetically for this idea during his years in Russian service. “But,” continued Miliukov: attributing this project to Fick is prevented by the circumstance that . . . the composition of the project is referred to the period before the 23rd and 11th (sic) of March 1715; but the first information about Fick was reported to Peter on November 13, 1715, and it is probable that Fick was not in Petersburg and did not “make a contract” with the tsar before December of that year. in Sweden, was not included. Thus, in the winter of 1715 Peter was still not Inclined to an acknowledgement of the advantages of the Swedish institutions.” G. A. Nekrasov, “Uchrezhdenie kollegii v Rossii i shvedskoe zakonodatel’stvo,” in V. T. Pashuto et al.,ed., Obshchestvo i gosudarstvo v feodal’noi Rossii. Sbornik statei v chest' 70-letiia akademika L. V. Cherepnina (Moscow, 1975), 337. Voskresenskii, too, agreed with Miliukov’s dating of this memorandum; see ZA (no. 331), 275. “« ZB, II, 54. Miliukov, 426. .5 - Petersou
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