Ober Prosecutor - a position in the Russian Empire . There were posts of the synodal and senate chief prosecutor.
Content
Senate
Ober-Prosecutor of the Department - official, prosecutor of the department in the Government Senate . Since the 18th century, it has been subordinated to the Attorney General of the Senate. The post was established in 1763 with the division of the Senate into departments [1] .
Synod
The Ober-Prosecutor of the Holy Ruling Synod is the position of a secular official appointed by the Russian emperor (appointed in 1917 by the Provisional Government ) and his former representative in the Holy Synod. Powers and roles differed at different times. During the synodal period of church history, thirty-four people held the position of chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod.
History
On May 11, 1722, the position of Chief Prosecutor was established at the Holy Synod, in the words of Peter I , "the eye of the sovereign and solicitor of state affairs in the Synod." The chief prosecutor had at his disposal a synodal office and was obliged (according to instructions) to be “in meetings of the presence” of the Holy Synod [2] . Its significance was initially small, due to its subordination to the prosecutor general .
From July 1726 until December 31, 1741, the position of Chief Prosecutor remained unsubstituted. From 1741, throughout the eighteenth century, his influence and role gradually intensified: he received the right to directly report on the affairs of the Synod of "supreme power", that is, to the emperor. Nevertheless, chief prosecutors in the 18th century were figures with limited influence, which depended on the nature of the bearers of this position and the degree of proximity of the ruling hierarchs to the Court. Under Emperor Paul I there was even a unique case when the emperor, through the archbishop of St. Petersburg Ambrose (Podobedov), authorized the Synod to independently elect a candidate for the position of chief prosecutor [2] .
In the 19th century, the situation changed dramatically. In 1803, upon the establishment of the ministries , the chief prosecutor, who was not assigned to any ministry, was put in direct contact with the emperor: the personal reports of the members of the Synod to the monarch ceased and all relations between the synod and the supreme authority began to take place through the chief prosecutor.
In 1817, the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs was established, combined with the Ministry of Education, the so-called “pure ministry” under the leadership of Prince A. N. Golitsyn . The chief prosecutor was subordinate to the minister. The activity of the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs in the “department of affairs of the Greek-Russian religion” that was part of it caused fierce opposition from the hierarchs of the Church; Metropolitan Seraphim (Glagolevsky) called him "this Egyptian yoke." As a result, in 1824 the “pure ministry” was abolished, and the “department of affairs of the Greek-Russian religion” was transferred to the Synodal Chief Prosecutor and in 1839 became part of the office of the chief prosecutor, established in 1836 under the chief prosecutor Count N. A. Protasov . The public prosecutor received the rights of the minister of legislative and administrative affairs of the Church; on questions of his competence, they began to invite him to meetings of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers.
The status of the chief prosecutor’s position gradually became equal in rights with the ministers and chief administrations of separate departments: at the beginning of the 20th century, the chief prosecutor was appointed and dismissed by registered decrees of the Senate ; in matters of service, he was liable solely to the supreme authority; presented the emperor with the most comprehensive reports on the "department of the Orthodox confession"; attended the meetings of the Synod, but not among its members, but at a special table; monitored the movement, direction and legality of actions and decisions of presence; gave his opinions on the issues under discussion; He entered the Synod with proposals; looked through and signed for execution its protocols and magazines.
The Ober-Prosecutor mediated between the Synod, on the one hand, and the emperor, the highest central state institutions, ministers and chief administrators, on the other: he announced to the Synod the highest decrees, orders and resolutions on the reports of the Synod, brought to the highest discretion the reports and definitions of the Synod, and communicated for affairs of the Orthodox Confession Department with ministers, chief administrators, the Committee of Ministers, the State Council and the Senate; was a member of the Committee of Ministers and the Council of State.
The chief prosecutor supervised all the institutions under the Synod; officials serving in them were appointed and fired either with his participation, or with his orders, or with his knowledge. The bodies of his supervision were the prosecutors of the synodal offices, secretaries of theological consistories , members-auditors of the spiritual educational committee, the chief inspector and diocesan observers of parish schools.
Since 1864, there was a position of a companion of the chief prosecutor with the rights and duties assigned to the comrades of ministers. The chief prosecutor had an office organized exactly the same as the ministerial offices. The chief prosecutor by that time actually had the status of minister [3]
Synod Chief Prosecutors by years
| No. | Fig. | Name | Period | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | Ivan Vasilievich Boltin | June 19, 1722 - May 11, 1725 | The position has been created, the personnel officer of the dragoon regiments has been appointed, directly from the position of commander of the Kargopol dragoon regiment . | |
| 2 | Alexey Petrovich Baskakov | May 11, 1725 - December 2, 1730 [4] | ||
| Guard Captain Raevsky (appointed July 14, 1726 as "prosecutor" [5] ) [6] | ||||
| Further, until 1740 , chief prosecutors of the Holy Synod were not appointed | ||||
| 3 | Nikita Semenovich Krechetnikov (d. 1745) | November 3, 1740 - 1741 [7] | N. Yu. Trubetskoy decided to restore and strengthen the institution of prosecutors and, with the consent of Regent Biron , introduced the position of Chief Prosecutor Krechetnikov. Appointed by decree on November 3, 1740 with the production of major generals ; but the swift overthrow of Biron led to the cancellation of the Trubetskoy project. Krechetnikov did not take office and in February 1741 asked for his appointment to some place. | |
| four | Yakov Petrovich Shakhovskaya (1705-1777) | December 31, 1741 - March 29, 1753 | ||
| five | Afanasy Ivanovich Lvov (1703 - after 1762) | December 18, 1753 - April 17, 1758 | ||
| 6 | Alexey Semenovich Kozlovsky (1707-1776) | April 17, 1758 - June 9, 1763 | He was dismissed, as Empress Catherine II later planned to pursue a tougher policy towards the Church. | |
| 7 | Ivan Ivanovich Melissino (1718-1795) | June 10, 1763 - October 24, 1768 | In the “Points” compiled by him - the draft punishment for the Synodal Deputy in the Legislative Commission of 1767 — he proposed to destroy the posts, abolish some rites, allow the fourth marriage, and in general conduct a kind of “reformation” in the Protestant spirit. The judgment of the Synod on these points is unknown; the commissions of 1767 are not in the Synodal Archive and in the “case”. Fired, probably in connection with this story. | |
| eight | Peter Petrovich Chebyshev (c. 1735 - after 1775) | October 24, 1768 - May 7, 1774 | Upon assuming office, he became in a hostile relationship with most members of the Synod; openly declared his atheism and, using the patronage of the empress, despotically ordered in the Synod. Free use of synodal money gave them the opportunity to remove the chief prosecutor. Vyazemsky oversized the treasury, discovering a deficiency of 10,440 rubles taken by the chief prosecutor “according to his own receipts and written orders”; although this money was paid by Chebyshev, he was fired. | |
| 9 | Sergey Vasilievich Akchurin (1722-1790) | May 12, 1774 - July 28, 1786 | Without explanation, Catherine II was dismissed from office. | |
| ten | Apollos Ivanovich Naumov (1719-1792) | July 28, 1786 - July 26, 1791 | Being already old, Naumov filed a petition for dismissal, "for old age and disease." | |
| eleven | Alexey Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin (1744-1817) | 1791— 1797 | ||
| 12 | Vasily Alekseevich Khovansky (1755-1830) | 1797— 1799 | ||
| 13 | Dmitry Ivanovich Khvostov (1757-1835) | 1799— 1802 | ||
| 14 | Alexander Alekseevich Yakovlev (1762-1825) | December 31, 1802 - October 7, 1803 [7] | He tried to establish legitimacy in the Synod, which caused dissatisfaction of its members and very soon asked for his dismissal. | |
| 15 | Alexander Nikolaevich Golitsyn (1773-1844) | October 21, 1803 - October 24, 1817 [8] (or November 19, 1817 [7] ) | In 1803-1817 served as chief prosecutor, and in 1817-1824. - Minister of Spiritual Affairs and Public Education . | |
| sixteen | Peter Sergeevich Meshchersky (1778-1857) | November 24, 1817 - April 2, 1833 | ||
| 17 | Stepan Dmitrievich Nechaev (1792-1860) | 1833 - June 25, 1836 | In February 1836, he took a vacation and went to the Crimea to his dying wife. His absence allowed the synodal members who did not like Nechaev, with the assistance of the official A. N. Muravyov, to draw up a report asking the emperor to “give Nechayev, as a person with extensive state abilities, another, more significant appointment, and appoint Count Protasov as chief prosecutor.” The request of the Synod was granted. | |
| 18 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Protasov (1798-1855) | February 24, 1836 - January 16, 1855 | February 24, 1836 was appointed Acting Chief Prosecutor; On June 25, he was appointed to the position of Chief Prosecutor. March 1, 1839 he carried out a reform of the structure of the Holy Synod, which turned into a likeness of the ministry and the executive body. | |
| nineteen | Alexander Ivanovich Karasevsky (1796-1856) | December 25, 1855 - September 20, 1856 | He left his post due to illness, died on December 25 of the same year. | |
| 20 | Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy (1801-1873) | September 20, 1856 - February 28, 1862 | ||
| 21 | Alexey Petrovich Akhmatov (1817-1870) | March 1862 - June 1865 | ||
| 22 | Dmitry Andreevich Tolstoy (1823-1889) | June 23, 1865 - April 23, 1880 | ||
| 23 | Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev (1827-1907) | April 24, 1880 - October 19, 1905 | In April 1880 he was appointed chief prosecutor; On October 28 of the same year, he was a member of the Committee of Ministers, which was an unprecedented formal increase in the status of the public prosecutor's office. | |
| 24 | Alexey Dmitrievich Obolensky (1855-1933) | October 20, 1905 - April 4, 1906 | After the revolution of 1905, in the government of Count S. Yu. Witte, he served as Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod. Under him, the question of convening a church council was worked out and a pre-cathedral presence was established. | |
| 25 | Alexey Alexandrovich Shirinsky-Shikhmatov (1862-1930) | 26 April - July 9, 1906 | He held the post for several months. | |
| 26 | Pyotr Petrovich Izvolsky ( 1863-1928) | July 27, 1906 - February 5, 1909 | The candidacy was proposed by his brother Alexander Izvolsky , Minister of Foreign Affairs. As chief prosecutor, Izvolsky proved himself to be a supporter of the independence of the church. His resignation was associated with the defense of the autonomy of theological schools, which was rejected by the conservative part of the episcopate. | |
| 27 | Sergey Mikhailovich Lukyanov (1855-1935) | February 5, 1909 - May 2, 1911 | The epidemiologist. | |
| 28 | Vladimir Karlovich Sabler (1845-1929) | May 2, 1911 - July 4, 1915 | ||
| 29th | Alexander Dmitrievich Samarin (1868-1932) | July 5, 1915 - September 26, 1915 | ||
| thirty | Alexander Nikolaevich Volzhin (1860-1933) | October 1, 1915 - August 7, 1916 | On September 30, 1915, he was appointed Acting Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, and on January 1, 1916, he was approved in office. | |
| 31 | Nikolay Pavlovich Raev (1856-1919) | August 30 [9] 1916 - March 3, 1917 | The last chief prosecutor of the empire. Had a reputation as a supporter of Rasputin. | |
| 32 | Vladimir Nikolaevich Lvov (1872-1930) | March 3, 1917 - July 24, 1917 | He held the post of Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod in the first and second (first coalition) members of the Provisional Government. He removed his former members from the Synod, whom the press accused of having links with Rasputin. On April 14 (27), 1917, he initiated the issuance of a decree of the Provisional Government on changing the composition of the Holy Synod, which left only Archbishop Sergius (Stragorodsky) of its former members. | |
| 33 | Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev (1875-1960) | July 25, 1917 - August 5, 1917 | First Minister of Religion of the Provisional Government (1917). On behalf of the Provisional Government, on August 15, 1917, the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church opened and took an active part in its work. | |
See also
- List of Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church
Literature
- Alekseeva S. I. The Holy Synod in the system of higher and central state institutions of the post-reform Russia, 1856-1904. St. Petersburg: Science, 2003; 2nd ed., Erased. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2006.276 s.
- Alekseeva S. I. Institute of the Synodal Ober-Prosecutor's Office and Ober-Prosecutors of the Holy Synod in 1856-1904. // Nestor. 2000. No. 1. S. 291-310.
Notes
- ↑ Prosecutor General // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ 1 2 History of the diocese - website of the St. Petersburg Metropolis
- ↑ Russian Church in 1917: the path to the restoration of the patriarchate | Orthodoxy and the world
- ↑ Dates of the first 2 chief prosecutors for: Higher and central state institutions of Russia. 1801-1917 . - St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1998 .-- T. 1. - S. 135.
- ↑ Statehood of Russia . - M., 2001, pr. 4. - S. 109.
- ↑ Sometimes it is included in the list of chief prosecutors - apparently, by mistake.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Higher and central state institutions of Russia. 1801-1917 . - St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1998 .-- T. 1. - S. 135.
- ↑ D.N. Shilov. Statesmen of the Russian Empire. - SPb., 2002 .-- S. 186.
- ↑ D.N. Shilov. Statesmen of the Russian Empire. Heads of higher and central institutions. 1802-1917. - SPb., 2002. - S. 620