The order of public charity is a provincial institution, introduced in Russia by Catherine II in 1775, which was responsible for managing public schools , hospitals, shelters for the sick and demented, hospitals , almshouses and prisons . Gathered from elected assessors chaired by a government official.
History
Orders of public charity were introduced by the “Establishment of Provinces” by Empress Catherine II in 1775 for the management and development of shelters and public education institutions (the establishment and management of public schools, orphanages, hospitals, pharmacies, almshouses, work and strait houses). To increase funding for orders, they were allowed to take deposits and issue loans for real estate and government interest securities.
The management of public schools already in 1782 passed to the Commission on the establishment of public schools. In 1866, the administration of workers' and strait houses was transferred to the jurisdiction of provincial boards and committees on prisons committees . With the introduction of zemstvo institutions, cases of orders of public charity were transferred to the zemstvo, and financial resources were distributed among the provinces from January 1, 1869.
According to the Charter on public charity, adopted in 1857 (as amended from 1892), by 1901 orders of public charity existed in the following non-Jewish provinces:
- Arkhangelsk province
- Astrakhan province
- Vitebsk province
- Volyn province
- Grodno province
- Kiev province
- Mogilev province
- Poltava province
- Stavropol province
- Tobolsk province
- Tomsk province
- Yenisei province
- Irkutsk province
- Don Army Area
Workflow
The power of each order extended only to one province. The governor of the province chaired the order, also the leadership of the order consisted of 3 members (assessors or deputies), elected one by one from the nobility, the urban society of the provincial city and the inhabitants. In some provinces, the provincial leader of the nobility and a member of the order, appointed at the discretion of the Minister of the Interior, joined here. All cases were decided in the presence of all members of the order.
The revenues of the order were formed from the interest of the inviolable fund in the tickets of the government debt repayment commission and in the bonds of the main railway company. In addition, orders were financed through allowances from cities and the treasury, donations, penalties and fines (penalties for failure to fulfill the division in the estate over a two-year period, for violation of decisions on drinking taxes, etc.), household and other income (income from working houses, factories, etc.). Despite the unsatisfactory composition and scarcity of funds, some orders developed quite successful activities for public charity.
Bibliography
- "Review of the activities of orders of public charity" in the "Journal of Min. ext. affairs ”(1854-57).
- Morozan V.V. History of banking in Russia (second half of the 18th - first half of the 19th century) - St. Petersburg: Kriga, 2004.S. 233 - 265.
- Andreevsky I.E. About the first steps of the activity of S.-Petersburg of the order of public charity. (Based on archival documents). Read at the solemn act of the archaeological institute on May 14, 1889 // Russian Antiquity , 1889. - T. 63. - No. 8. - S. 447-456.
- Public charity // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.