“It is impossible to compose those sheets soon”. Administrative daily life of the Russian province in the era of bironovshchina

Abstract

This report attempts to examine one specific, almost “model” document provincial office, tells about the difficulties that impeded the elaboration of the national “tax books”, which contained information about the payment of taxes and fees are levied annually up to a set amount each tax-paying unit. According to the author, the transformations of the first quarter of the XVIII century, which were aimed at creating a “regular” state as a multi-level, accurate and uninterrupted management mechanism with qualified and responsible executors, were not and could not be implemented at the time of the system capabilities, as well as the level of training and provision of managerial personnel. Widespread ideas about the power and cruelty of Anna Ioannovna strongly exaggerated in the literature. Real administrative capacity of small and often incapable of the provincial Governor and “clerks” was very narrow and did not allow them to perform even objectively important and urgent task of streamlining the financial sector of the country.