The Collegium was a type of government department in Imperial Russia. It was established in 1717 by Peter the Great to replace the system of Prikaz. They were housed in the Twelve Collegia building in Vasilyevsky Island, Saint Petersburg. In 1802, the Collegium was incorporated into and gradually replaced by the newly created system of Ministries.

Origin

Following the formation of the Governing Senate in 1711, the Tsar Peter I sought to make more reforms on the imperial government bodies. He planned to replace the Prikaz with a new type of government agency, based on two new principles: Similar form of central government institutions were adopted in Sweden and a number of German states. In 1717, Collegium was introduced based on the Swedish Kollegium.

History

Regulations

The activities of the collegiums were determined by the General Regulations, which was approved by Peter I on February 28 (March 10 on Gregorian calendar), 1720. The General Regulations instituted a set of office administration rules for the collegium. Each collegium was to be consisted of advisers and assessors, and headed by presidents and vice-presidents. The decisions of the collegium need to be debated on, received majority approval, and signed by all members present. Peter I paid special attention to this form of decision-making, noting that “every better arrangement happens through councils” (Chapter 2 of the General Regulations “On the advantage of colleges”).

Internal structure

Each collegium consisted of the following staff: Meeting were held daily, except for Sundays and public holidays. They started at 6 A.M. or 8 A.M. depending on the season, and usually lasted 5 hours. Materials for the boards were prepared in the Office of the collegium, and were then transferred to the General Presence, where they were discussed and adopted by a majority of the votes. Issues on which the collegium failed to make a decision were referred to the Senate, the only institution to which the collegiums were subordinate to.