UDC

94(470)«16/18»

Authors

Andrey A. Efimov
St. Petersburg Institute for History, Russian Academy of Sciences;
ul. Petrozavodskaya 7, St. Petersburg, 197110, Russian Federation;
e-mail: aaefimov5@gmail.com

Abstract

This article deals with two aspects concerning the early period of the existence of the Appanage Department, established by Paul I to maintain financial support for the House of Romanov. Firstly, the author examines the process of the initial formation of the system of appanages and, secondly, studies the establishment of the local appanage management bodies. The research is based on documents of the Appanage Agency, stored at the Russian State Historical Archives. Some of these materials are introduced to scientific use for the first time. The author of this paper believes that the system of appanages, created within a short space of time without adequate preparation, was rather imperfect. First of all, it had to do with appreciable territorial fragmentation, which, despite the awareness of the Department’s officials, was not dealt with by the Emperor’s wish. Moreover, the Appanage Offices, established to govern all these distant estates, had to manoeuvre between the local authorities and the central Appanage Department. The text of the “Instructions for Appanage Offices”, scrutinized here, demonstrates that issues concerning property management of the newly created agency were taken extremely seriously: much attention was paid to the record and control of various types of real estate, from croplands to concessions. While the former were insufficient for the implementation of the plan to replace head-money by land-tax, the latter faced the problem of local initiative limitations and approval requirements. These problems were gradually solved during the reign of subsequent emperors.

Keywords

Paul I, Appanage Agency, Appanage Department, Appanage Offices, concessions

References

1. Brazevich S.S. Udel’nye krest’yane Sankt-Peterburgskoy gubernii v kontse XVIII – seredine XIX veka [Appanage Peasants of the St. Petersburg Province at the End of the 18th Through Mid-19th Centuries]. St. Petersburg, 1993. 19 p.
   
2. Kotov P.P. Udel’nye krest’yane na Evropeyskom Severe Rossii: razmeshchenie i demograficheskie protsessy [Tsar’s Family Peasants in European North of Russia: Distribution and Demographic Processes]. Uchenye zapiski Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2013, no. 1, pp. 18–22.
   
3. Krasnikova Yu.N. Departament udelov i udel’nye krest’yane severo-zapada Rossii v kontse XVIII – pervoy chetverti XIX veka [Appanage Department and Appanage Peasants of the North-West of Russia in the Late 18th – First Quarter of the 19th Century]. St. Petersburg, 2007. 22 p.
   
4. Krasnikova Yu.N. Deyatel’nost’ Departamenta udelov v pervoy chetverti XIX v. [The Activity of the Department of “Udel” in the First Quarter of the 19th Century]. Vestnik VGU. Ser.: Istoriya. Politologiya. Sotsiologiya, 2006, no. 2, pp. 165–169.
   
5. Krasnikova Yu.N. Imushchestvennaya osnova predprinimatel’skoy deyatel’nosti Departamenta udelov (pervaya polovina XIX v.) [Property Basis of Entrepreneurial Activity of the Appanage Department (First Half of the 19th Century)]. Material’nyy faktor i predprinimatel’stvo v povsednevnoy zhizni naseleniya Rossii: istoriya i sovremennost’ [Material Factor and Entrepreneurship in the Everyday Life of Russia’s Population: History and Modernity]. St. Petersburg, 2016, pp. 50–55.
   
6. Krasnikova Yu.N. Korruptsiya v Departamente udelov i bor’ba s ney v pervoy treti XIX veka [Corruption in the Department of Domains and Fight Against It in the 19th Century]. Vestnik Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. A.S. Pushkina, 2010, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 54–65.
   
7. Mironov B.N. Sotsial’naya istoriya Rossii perioda imperii (XVIII – nachalo XX v.): Genezis lichnosti, demokraticheskoy sem’i, grazhdanskogo obshchestva i pravovogo gosudarstva [Social History of Russia of the Imperial Period (18th – Early 20th Century): Genesis of the Personality, Democratic Family, Civil Society and the Rule-of-Law State]. St. Petersburg, 2003. Vol. 1. 548 p.
   
8. Istoriya udelov za stoletie ikh sushchestvovaniya. 1797–1897. T. 2. Krest’yane dvortsovye, gosudarevy i udel’nye [The History of Appanages for the Century of Their Existence. 1797–1897. Vol. 2. Court, Sovereign’s and Appanage Peasants]. St. Petersburg, 1901. 581 p.
   
9. Zavitaev A.N. Reformirovanie dvortsovogo khozyaystva v Rossii i obrazovanie saratovskogo udel’nogo imeniya (vtoraya polovina XVIII – nachalo XIX vv.) [Reformation of the Court Economy in Russia and the Establishment of the Saratov Appanage (Second Half of the 18th – Early 19th Centuries)]. Nauchnoe i obrazovatel’noe prostranstvo: perspektivy razvitiya [Scientific and Educational Space: Development Prospects]. Cheboksary, 2015, pp. 29–33.
   
10. Stoletie udelov. 1797–1897 [A Centenary of Appanages. 1797–1897]. St. Petersburg, 1897. 96 p.