Collegium (ministry)

Following the formation of the Governing Senate in 1711, the Tsar Peter I sought to make more reforms on the imperial government bodies. He planned to replace the Prikaz with a new type of government agency, based on two new principles: • Systematic separation of departments, in order to avoid overlapping/omission of certain governmental duties under the Prikaz system; • Advisory procedure for resolving cases. Similar form of central government institutions were adopted in Sweden and a number of German states. In 1717, Collegium was introduced based on the Swedish Kollegium. == History ==

• 1717 - Establishment of the 8 following Collegiums: Collegium of Foreign Affairs, College of War, Collegium of State Income, Collegium of Justice, Collegium of Commerce, Collegium of State Expenses, Collegium of Mining and Manufacturing, and Collegium of Accounting. • 1718 - Establishment of the Admiralty Board, as well as a special collegium to administer the newly acquired territories along the Baltic Sea. • 1720 - Publication of the General Regulations (), which, among other things, made the following changes: • Formalized the 1718 special collegium into the Judicial Collegium of Livonian and Estonian Affairs () • Established the Chief Magistrate (), which served as a court of appeal for all magistrates. • 1721 - Establishment of the Collegium of Estates. • 1722 - Division of Collegium of Mining and Manufacturing into the Collegium of Mining and the Collegium of Manufacturing. • 1726 - Establishment of the Collegium of Economics (). • 1763 - Establishment of the Collgium of Medicine (). • 1780s - As a result of the local government reform carried out by Catherine the Great, the number of collegiums was sharply reduced, and their functions were transferred to provincial institutions. • 1802 - Passage of the Manifesto on the Establishment of Ministries by Alexander I of Russia, which incorporated the collegiums into newly created ministries. == Regulations ==

The activities of the collegiums were determined by the General Regulations, which was approved by Peter I on February 28 (March 10 on Gregorian calendar), 1720. The General Regulations instituted a set of office administration rules for the collegium. Each collegium was to be consisted of advisers and assessors, and headed by presidents and vice-presidents. The decisions of the collegium need to be debated on, received majority approval, and signed by all members present. == Internal structure ==

Each collegium consisted of the following staff: • President: Head of a collegium, but could not make decisions without the consent of the other members. Appointed by the Governing Senate with consent from the Tsar. • Vice President: Assistant of the president in performing duties of the collegium, and could stand in for the president during the latter's absence. Appointed by the Governing Senate. • 4 counsellors • 4 assessors • 1 procurator • 1 secretary • 1 actuary • 1 registrator • 1 translator • Clerks Meeting were held daily, except for Sundays and public holidays. They started at 6 A.M. or 8 A.M. depending on the season, and usually lasted 5 hours. Materials for the boards were prepared in the Office of the collegium, and were then transferred to the General Presence, where they were discussed and adopted by a majority of the votes. Issues on which the collegium failed to make a decision were referred to the Senate, the only institution to which the collegiums were subordinate to. == See also ==