OFFICE OF SECRET INVESTIGATIONS, central government agency. Formed April 6 1731 from the Office of General A.I. Ushakov, who on March 24, 1731 was entrusted with managing the affairs of the abolished Preobrazhensky Order (in 1729-30 these affairs were under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Privy Council, in 1730-31 - the Senate). Initially it was located in the General Courtyard in Moscow (Preobrazhenskoye village). The competence of the Office of Secret Investigative Cases includes the investigation of crimes of the “first two points”, as well as cases of spies. She had an equal position with the collegiums, but in fact was initially subordinate directly to the imp. Anna Ivanovna, and then Her Office Imperial Majesty. In Jan. 1732 was transferred to St. Petersburg, August 12. In 1732, the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs was created in Moscow under the “directorate” of S. A. Saltykov, thanks to whose great connections it enjoyed some independence from the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs (after Saltykov’s death in 1742, the head of the office was not appointed, and it became completely dependent on Office of Secret Investigation Cases). At the head of the office was the chief, his closest assistant was the secretary. During the long trips of the head of the chancellery from St. Petersburg to Moscow (1742, 1744, 1749, etc.), the office received the name of the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs, and the office received the name of the office (depending on the location of the head). After the death of the imp. Anna Ivanovna by decree of October 23. In 1740, the office was placed under the control of the Prosecutor General of the Senate, after the arrest of E.I. Biron, it was personally subordinated to the ruler Anna Leopoldovna (the office retained the same position under Emperor Elizaveta Petrovna). On Nov. 1743 it was forbidden to give any certificates and documents from the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs to other government institutions (without the personal order of the Empress).
In addition to cases of state crimes, the office also conducted “search cases” on the personal instructions of the empress. Among others, the office conducted investigations into the cases of princes Dolgorukov (1739), A.P. Volynsky and others (1740), Biron (1740), I.I. Lestok (1748) and others; although in the case of A. I. Osterman, H. A. Minich and M. G. Golovkin (1741) a special investigative commission was created, A. I. Ushakov was put at its head and in fact the investigation was conducted in the Office of Secret Investigation Cases. In 1745, all cases related to the emperor were transferred to the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs. Ivan VI.
In addition to the current office work, three office work forms were maintained in the Office of Secret Investigative Cases: “Book of Personal Decrees”, “Protocols”, “Journal of the Secret Office”. Manifesto of the Emperor Peter III on February 21. 1762 The Office of Secret Investigative Affairs was abolished. At the same time, “the word and deed of the sovereign” was prohibited and the affairs of the Office of Secret Investigation Cases were transferred to the Senate for “eternal oblivion.” The liquidation of the Office of Secret Investigation Cases was confirmed by the decree of the Emperor. Catherine II dated October 19. 1762 (with the simultaneous creation of the Secret Expedition).
On March 6, 1762, Peter III abolished the Secret Chancellery - the first secret service in national history. It was called the “Russian Inquisition”; even those who refused to drink to the health of the monarch fell under its jurisdiction.
On your own blood
In January 1718, Tsar Peter I was waiting for the return of the prodigal son Alexei, who had fled to the Austrian possessions. Going from Naples to St. Petersburg, Alexey thanked his father for the promised “forgiveness.” But the sovereign could not put his empire at risk, even for the well-being of his own son. Even before the prince’s return to Russia, a Secret Office of Investigative Affairs was created specifically for Alexei’s case, which was supposed to conduct an investigation into his “treason.”
After the completion of Alexei’s case, which led to the death of the heir, the Secret Chancellery, unlike the “major’s offices,” was not liquidated, but became one of the most important government agencies, subordinate personally to the monarch. On November 25, 1718, Cabinet Secretary Alexei Makarov notified Tolstoy and General I. I. Buturlin: “In order to hear the investigative cases of your office, His Majesty has deigned to determine one day in the week, namely, Monday, and for this purpose you will be informed about it.” . Peter often personally attended meetings of the chancellery and was even present during torture.
If during interrogation it seemed to the investigators that the suspect was “locking himself in,” then the conversation was followed by torture. To this effective method in St. Petersburg they resorted no less often than in the basements of the European Inquisition.
The office had a rule: “those who confess should be tortured three times.” This implied the need for a triple confession of guilt of the accused. In order for the readings to be considered reliable, they had to be repeated at different times at least three times without changes. Before Elizabeth's decree of 1742, torture began without the presence of an investigator, that is, even before the start of questioning in the torture chamber. The executioner had time to “find” a common language with the victim. His actions, of course, are not controlled by anyone.
Elizaveta Petrovna, like her father, constantly kept the affairs of the Secret Chancellery under complete control. Thanks to a report provided to her in 1755, we learn that the favorite methods of torture were: the rack, the vice, squeezing the head and pouring cold water(the most severe of tortures).
Inquisition "in Russian"
The Secret Chancellery performed, among other things, functions similar to the affairs of the European Inquisition. Catherine II in her memoirs even compared these two bodies of “justice”: “Alexander Shuvalov, not in himself, but in the position he held, was the threat of the entire court, the city and the entire empire, he was the head of the Inquisition Court, which was then called the Secret Chancellery "
It wasn't easy beautiful words. Back in 1711, Peter I created a state corporation of informers - the Institute of Fiscals (one or two people in each city). Church authorities were controlled by spiritual fiscals called “inquisitors.” Subsequently, this initiative formed the basis of the Secret Chancellery. It hasn't turned into a witch hunt, but religious crimes are mentioned in the cases. In Russia, just awakening from its medieval sleep, there were punishments for making a deal with the devil, especially with the aim of causing harm to the sovereign. Among the latest cases of the Secret Chancellery is the trial of a merchant who declared the then deceased Peter the Great the Antichrist, and threatened Elizabeth Petrovna with a fire. The impudent foul-mouthed man was from among the Old Believers. He got off lightly - he was whipped.
Gray cardinal
General Andrei Ivanovich Ushakov became the real “gray eminence” of the Secret Chancellery. “He managed the Secret Chancellery under five monarchs,” notes historian Evgeniy Anisimov, “and knew how to negotiate with everyone! First he tortured Volynsky, and then Biron. Ushakov was a professional; he didn’t care who he tortured.” He came from among the impoverished Novgorod nobles and knew what “the struggle for a piece of bread” was. He led the case of Tsarevich Alexei, tilted the cup in favor of Catherine I when, after the death of Peter, the issue of inheritance was decided, opposed Elizabeth Petrovna, and then quickly entered into the favor of the ruler. When the passions of palace coups thundered in the country, he was as unsinkable as the “shadow” french revolution– Joseph Fouché, who during the bloody events in France managed to be on the side of the monarch, the revolutionaries and Napoleon who replaced them. What is significant is that both “gray cardinals” met their death not on the scaffold, like most of their victims, but at home, in bed.
Hysteria of denunciations
Peter called on his subjects to report all disorders and crimes. In October 1713, the tsar wrote threatening words “about those who disobey the decrees and those laid down by law and who are robbers of the people,” to denounce whom the subjects “without any fear would come and announce it to us ourselves.” IN next year Peter pointedly publicly invited the unknown author of the anonymous letter “about the great benefit of His Majesty and the entire state” to come to him for a reward of 300 rubles - a huge sum at that time. The process that led to real hysteria of denunciations was launched. Anna Ioannovna, following the example of her uncle, promised “mercy and reward” for a fair accusation. Elizaveta Petrovna gave the serfs freedom for the “right” denunciation of the landowners who were sheltering their peasants from the audit. The decree of 1739 set the example of a wife who denounced her husband, for which she received 100 souls from the confiscated estate.
Under these conditions, they reported everything to everyone, without resorting to any evidence, based only on rumors. This became the main tool for the work of the main office. One careless phrase at a party, and the fate of the unfortunate man was sealed. True, something cooled the ardor of the adventurers. Igor Kurukin, a researcher on the issue of the “secret office,” wrote: “If the accused denied and refused to testify, the unlucky informer could himself end up on his hind legs or spend from several months to several years in captivity.”
In the era of palace coups, when thoughts of overthrowing the government arose not only among officers, but also among persons of “vile rank,” hysteria reached its apogee. People started reporting on themselves! In “Russian Antiquity,” which published the affairs of the Secret Chancery, the case of soldier Vasily Treskin is described, who himself came to confess to the Secret Chancery, accusing himself of seditious thoughts: “that it’s not a big deal to offend the empress; and if he, Treskin, finds time to see the gracious empress, he could stab her with a sword.”
Spy games
After Peter's successful policy, the Russian Empire was integrated into the system international relations, and at the same time the interest of foreign diplomats in the activities of the St. Petersburg court increased. Secret agents of European states began to arrive in the Russian Empire. Cases of espionage also fell under the jurisdiction of the Secret Chancellery, but they did not succeed in this field. For example, under Shuvalov, the Secret Chancellery knew only about those “infiltrators” who were exposed at the fronts Seven Years' War. The most famous among them was Major General of the Russian Army Count Gottlieb Kurt Heinrich Totleben, who was convicted of corresponding with the enemy and giving him copies of “secret orders” of the Russian command. But against this background, such famous “spies” as the French Gilbert Romm, who in 1779 handed over to his government the detailed state of the Russian army and secret maps, successfully carried out their business in the country; or Ivan Valets, a court politician who conveyed information about Catherine’s foreign policy to Paris.
The Last Pillar of Peter III
Upon ascending the throne, Peter III wanted to reform the Secret Chancellery. Unlike all his predecessors, he did not interfere in the affairs of the body. Obviously, his hostility towards the institution played a role in connection with the affairs of the Prussian informers during the Seven Years' War, to whose ranks he belonged. The result of his reform was the abolition of the Secret Chancellery by the manifesto of March 6, 1762 due to “uncorrected morals among the people.” In other words, the body was accused of not solving the tasks assigned to it.
The abolition of the Secret Chancellery is often considered one of the positive results of Peter's reign. However, this careless move only led the emperor to his inglorious death. The temporary disorganization of the punitive department did not allow the participants in the conspiracy to be identified in advance and contributed to the spread of rumors defaming the emperor, which now there was no one to stop. As a result, on June 28, 1762, a palace coup was successfully carried out, as a result of which the emperor lost his throne and then his life.
The successors of Peter I declared that there were no more important and large-scale political affairs in the state. By decree of May 28, 1726, Empress Catherine I liquidated the Secret Chancellery and ordered all its affairs and servants to be transferred to Prince I. F. Romodanovsky (the son of Peter the Great's satrap) to the Preobrazhensky Prikaz by the first of July. There the investigation was carried out. The order became known as the Preobrazhenskaya Chancellery. Among the political cases of that time, one can name the trials of Tolstoy, Devier and Menshikov himself. But Peter II in 1729 stopped the activities of this body and dismissed Prince Romodanovsky. From the office the most important cases were transferred to the Supreme privy council, less important ones were sent to the Senate.
The activities of special bodies resumed only under Anna Ioannovna.
On March 24, 1731, the Office of Secret Investigation Cases was established at the Preobrazhensky General Court. The new intelligence service was functionally designed to identify and investigate political crimes. The Office of Secret Investigative Affairs received the right to investigate political crimes throughout Russia, which resulted in the order to send to the office persons who declared “the sovereign’s word and deed.” All central and local authorities had to unquestioningly carry out the orders of the head of the office, Ushakov, and for “malfunction” he could fine any official.
When organizing the office of secret investigative cases, the experience of its predecessors, and first of all the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, was undoubtedly taken into account. The Office of Secret Investigative Affairs represented a new, higher stage in the organization of the political investigation system. It was free from many of the shortcomings inherent in the Preobrazhensky order, and above all, from multifunctionality. The office arose as an industrial institution, whose staff was entirely focused on investigative and judicial activities to combat political crimes.
Like its historical predecessors, the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs had a small staff - 2 secretaries and a little more than 20 clerks. The department's budget was 3,360 rubles per year with a total budget Russian Empire 6-8 million rubles.
A.I. was appointed head of the Office of Secret Investigation Cases. Ushakov, who had experience working in the Preobrazhensky Prikaz and the Secret Chancellery. He was able to obtain such a high position thanks to his demonstration of exceptional devotion to Empress Anna Ioannovna.
The new institution reliably guarded the interests of the authorities. The means and methods of investigation remained the same - denunciations and torture. Ushakov did not try to play a political role, remembering the sad fate of his former comrades Tolstoy, Buturlin, Skornyakov-Pisarev, and remained only a zealous executor of the monarch's will.
Under Elizaveta Petrovna, the Secret Investigation Office remained the highest organ of political investigation of the empire. It was headed by the same Ushakov. In 1746 he was replaced by the actual chamberlain P.I. Shuvalov. He led the secret service, “instilling horror and fear throughout all of Russia” (according to Catherine II). Torture, even under Elizaveta Petrovna, remained the main method of inquiry. They even drew up a special instruction “Rite of what the accused is trying to do.” She demanded that “after recording torture speeches, they should be assigned to the judges without leaving the dungeon,” which regulated the registration of the inquiry.
All political affairs were still carried out in the capital, but their echoes also reached the provinces. In 1742, the former ruler of the country, Duke Biron, and his family were exiled to Yaroslavl. This favorite of Anna Ioannovna actually ruled the country for ten years. The established regime was nicknamed Bironovschina. The Duke's opponents were persecuted by servants of the Secret Chancellery (an example is the case of Cabinet Secretary A.P. Volynsky and his supporters). After the death of the empress, Biron became regent of the young king, but was overthrown as a result of a palace coup.
Reign period Peter I was marked by many innovations, but not all of them had a beneficial effect on the king’s subjects. Secret Chancery became the first secret service for political investigation. Even those who did not want to drink to the dregs for the Tsar’s health fell under her “all-seeing eye.” And the methods of inquiry in the Secret Chancellery were used no more mercifully than in the Spanish Inquisition.
Initially, the Secret Chancellery was established by Peter I in February 1718 as a body designed to understand the treason of Tsarevich Alexei. After the death of his son, the tsar did not liquidate the secret service, but at first personally monitored its actions.
Soon, suspicion began to fall on all those who not only caused confusion in the policies of Peter I, but also simply refused to drink to the Tsar’s health. The Secret Chancellery was equipped with torture chambers. Among the favorite means of torture of the secret service were vices, the rack, squeezing the head, dousing ice water. As a rule, the suspect was tortured three times, even if he confessed after the first time. A threefold admission of guilt was required. For such methods of inquiry, the ministers of the Secret Chancellery were called inquisitors.
Peter I himself issued a decree encouraging denunciations of crimes and disorders committed. People had to report without fear or a shadow of embarrassment. Needless to say, the Secret Chancellery worked without respite, since facts were not initially required to open a case; a denunciation was enough.
The first head of the Secret Chancellery was Prince Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy. After him, Andrei Ivanovich Ushakov became the boss, who was called “the thunderstorm of the court,” because he didn’t care who he tortured. The last to head the Secret Chancellery was Stepan Ivanovich Sheshkovsky. Historians mention a mechanical chair that stood in Sheshkovsky’s office. When the suspect sat down there, the armrests snapped into place, the chair lowered into the hatch, leaving only his head above the floor. The perpetrators undressed the victim and flogged him with rods, not knowing who it was. However, Sheshkovsky never personally investigated representatives of the low class; for this he had assistants.
The secret chancellery controlled not only the internal, but also foreign policy. It was necessary to identify the “deported” diplomats. By the time of the reign of Peter III, the secret service was involved in the affairs of Prussian spies. As you know, the tsar sympathized with Prussia and spoke negatively about the methods of work of the Secret Chancellery. Perhaps this indirectly influenced the tsar’s decision to disband this department, and in 1762 the Secret Chancellery disappeared. Many historians consider this a positive moment for the entire period of the reign of Peter III, however, as you know, the king suffered a very sad fate after this.
Peter III is not the only one
February 21 (March 4), 1762 Peter III A Manifesto was published on the destruction of the Secret Investigative Office - the central government agency Russia, the body of political investigation and the court.
In Peter's Manifesto III it was said: “...following Our philanthropy and mercy, and making extreme efforts, not only innocent arrests, but sometimes even torture itself; but even more so, to cut off the paths to the creation of their hatred, revenge and slander by the most malicious, and to provide ways to correct them... from now on, the Office will no longer be the Secret of Investigative Affairs, and it will be destroyed...” The affairs of the Chancellery were transferred to the Senate.
The secret chancellery was created by Peter I in 1718 to investigate the case of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. In the early years, this department existed in parallel with the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, which performed similar functions; later both institutions merged into one. The leadership of the Secret Chancellery, as well as the Preobrazhensky Order, was carried out by Peter I, who was often present during the interrogations and torture of political criminals.
The practice of informing and accusing someone of a state crime, which has become extremely widespread since the time of Empress Anna Ioannovna, opened up wide opportunities for settling personal scores and extrajudicial arbitrariness. The utterance of the expression “word and deed” by anyone entailed arrests and torture, under which it was difficult not to admit to any “malicious intentions.”
According to the Manifesto on the abolition of the Secret Chancellery, the expression “word and deed” was forbidden to be used, “and if anyone from now on uses it, in drunkenness or a fight, or avoiding beatings and punishment, they should be punished in the same way as disgraces and disorderly persons are punished by the Police.” “Word and deed” shouted out of ignorance or without malicious intent were left without consequences, and “false and convicted informers should have been punished in every possible way to the fullest extent of the laws, so that others could be corrected by their example.”
Anyone who wanted to report “intentions” against the health and honor of the emperor or about rebellion and treason had to appear at the nearest judicial place or to the nearest military commander and submit a denunciation to in writing; criminals could not be informers in any cases.
All provisions of the Manifesto received the force of law throughout the empire; an exception was made only for those places where given time the sovereign was located and where he could administer his court. Those wishing to inform the sovereign about important matters had to contact specially authorized persons - lieutenant general Lev Naryshkin and Alexei Melgunov and secret secretary Dmitry Volkov.
In the same 1762, by decree of Empress Catherine II, a Secret Expedition under the Senate was established, which replaced the Secret Chancellery. After the liquidation of the Secret Expedition, its functions were assigned to the 1st and 5th departments of the Senate.
Lit.: Veretennikov V.I. History of the Secret Chancellery of Peter the Great’s time. Kharkov, 1910; Esipov G. Sovereign affair // Ancient and new Russia. 1880. No. 4; Semevsky M. Word and deed. St. Petersburg, 1884; Simbirtsev I. First special service of Russia: secret office Petra I and her successors, 1718-1825. M., 2006
See also in the Presidential Library:
Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire, since 1649. St. Petersburg, 1830. T. 15 (from 1758 to June 28, 1762). No. 11445. P. 915
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