Fiscal

Fiscals ( lat. Fiscus - basket; cash, treasury, finance) - a position established by Peter the Great .

In the last paragraph of the decree, given March 2, 1711 to the Senate , it is said: "to institute fiscals in all matters, and how they will receive news . " After 3 days, on March 5, a new decree ordered the establishment of the position of chief fiscal ; he was to have secret supervision of all matters; he was to watch to see if the wrong court was being prosecuted somewhere, whether the “collecting the treasury and other things” was illegal. “Whoever is committing a lie” , the chief fiscal should have reported to the Senate, and if he really convicted the guilty, then half of the fine went to the treasury and half to the fiscal.

Oberfiscal was the top secret surveillance officer; the provinces had fiscal provinces , one for each branch of government; they had "underneath" the "lower", urban. It was said of them all that they "have in everything the same strength and freedom as the chief fiscals . "

The high position did not guarantee against secret surveillance and summoning to the Senate; everyone was subject to him, "no matter how high a degree . " High officials could only be attracted by the chief fiscal; this was the only difference in the degree of authority of the chief fiscal and ordinary fiscals.

With the establishment of colleges , college fiscals appeared, one at each college.

In August 1711 , N. M. Zotov was appointed a state fiscal , that is, “an overseer, so that no one escapes the service and doesn’t repair anything else” .

But there were a lot of abuses, and the scope for them was great. Provincial fiscals were not dependent on local authorities and were subordinate to their superiors, chief fiscal. Obliged to convey, they were not prosecuted for infringing infidels; the decree explicitly states: “If you don’t convict (the perpetrator, before the Senate), then you shouldn’t put the fiscal at fault below the vexation, under severe punishment and the ruin of the entire estate . ”

Known trick Stefan Jaworski against this institution. On March 17, 1712 , in a sermon, he made very clear allusions to him: “the law of the Lord is blameless, but human laws are evil; but some kind of law, for example, to put the overseer over the courts and give him the will of whom he wants to convict, reprove whom he wants to dishonor, and dishonor him ... ” etc. His words were not left without influence. On March 17, 1714 , a new decree was issued in which the scope of the fiscals was much more precisely defined. They had to expose all sorts of crimes of decrees, all sorts of bribes and theft of the treasury and all that could lead to “harm to the state interest” , were to initiate cases for which there are no petitioners . Fiscals are punished for interfering in court cases brought by either party. They are also being pursued for denunciations made for mercenary purposes; if the denunciation turns out to be unfair, the fiscal bears the punishment that would have been incurred by the person agreed by him, if he had been truly guilty; fiscal is also punished in those cases when it is not reported for its own mercenary reasons.

The power of provincial fiscals was difficult to control; obliged to travel around the province once a year and to check the actions of lower fiscals, the provincial fiscals were vested with the authority to remove them, to impose penalties, etc., which again gave rise to abuse. In 1722 , their power was largely constrained by the establishment of prosecutorial posts in all the provinces. Prosecutors - this already open supervision of the court - not only limited their control over court cases, but also served as a mediating court between them and the chief fiscal.

The institute of fiscals, discredited by the actions of its officials, was particularly undermined by the abuses of its top officials, chief fiscals. The establishment of the post of Fiscal General under Catherine I did not help. The Supreme Privy Council under Peter II was busy investigating not only the crimes of the chief fiscals, but also the mercenary acts of the general fiscals.

When Anna Ivanovna fiscals were abolished ( 1730 ). The institution, which had the purpose of secret surveillance of all residents and all institutions, could not bring special benefit; fiscals were hateful to everyone. The second-time chief financial officer, M.V. Zhelyabuzhsky , and his assistant A. Ya. Nesterov, soon after taking office, addressed the tsar with a complaint to the Senate, saying that they had a very bad time there: Senator G. A. Plemyannikov them he didn’t call him “street judges” , and Prince Yakov Dolgoruky directly called antichrists and rogues .

But fiscals undoubtedly brought some benefit. The famous revelations of Nesterov (regarding Prince M.P. Gagarin , the same Dolgorukov , etc.) shed light on such abuses and crimes that without fiscals would have completely escaped retaliation. Nesterov also drew attention to the exploitation of small merchants by wealthy merchants; merchant fiscals were appointed, obliged to secretly oversee affairs in this estate. However, Nesterov, this most active and clever of the highest official fiscals, could not resist the temptation in the end and was convicted of bribery and concealment.

Fiscals (military) - Following the establishment of fiscals in the civilian department, they were introduced into the army by decree of 1711 . According to the Military Charter of 1716, fiscals should have been in the regiments and fortresses , with divisions - chief fiscals in the rank of major , and with the army - fiscals general in the rank of lieutenant colonel . According to the definition of the Military Charter, the fiscal “is a caretaker for every rank, so does he serve as a truth in every position and in other matters handed to him, he acts . ” The fiscals were obliged to conduct and report on crimes, support the prosecution in court and monitor the observance by the courts of the statutory deadlines for the consideration of cases; fiscals should only report violations of official interest to the commissariat. In those cases when the accusation raised by the fiscals turned out to be unfounded, they could only be subject to light penalties for negligence. By a decree of February 22, 1723, fiscal generals and ober-fiscals were promoted due to the fact that at first the fiscals were selected "from the lowest people without evidence" and from among the ober-fiscals some were found guilty of "great crimes and atrocities" . No rank was assigned to the regimental fiscals in the states of 1720 , and in terms of salary they were placed below the ensign and somewhat higher than the regimental auditor .

The last time the fiscals of the troops were mentioned in 1732 , when a special instruction was issued for them, obliging them to inform the inspectors of the troops about the reported violations.