Functions of the embassy order. Heads of the diplomatic service. Formation and formation of the Ambassadorial order

As an institution Ambassadorial order was not great; in it in 1594 - 1601. there were, besides the "ambassadorial clerk" and his comrade, also a clerk, only 15 - 17 clerks, not counting translators and lower staff.

In the 17th century, the Posolsky Prikaz grew significantly. Since 1620, under the Ambassadorial Order, the so-called flyers (or messages) - reports on important international affairs - were regularly translated and distributed. Based on them, the first Russian handwritten newspaper appeared, compiled for the tsar and Boyar Duma- "Chimes".

Beyond the guide foreign policy, he was also in charge of matters related to the residence of foreign merchants and artisans in Russia, the ransom of prisoners, he managed some cities, was in charge of the post office, the court, and the collection of customs and tavern revenues.

This gave rise to one of his smartest bosses - Ordin-Nashchokin - to say with annoyance that "great affairs of state" should not be confused with "mug", i.e. with the collection of income from mug yards (taverns).

In the second half of the 17th century, the Little Russian order, the order of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Smolensk order were subordinate to the Posolsky order. The states, which were in charge of the Ambassadorial order, were distributed according to the ranks as follows:

1st generation: Holy See, Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Spain, France, England (and all protocol matters).
2nd generation: Sweden, Poland, Wallachia, Moldavia, Turkey, Crimea, Holland, Hamburg, Hanseatic cities, Greeks and visits of "Greek authorities" (Patriarch of Constantinople).
3rd class: Denmark, Brandenburg, Courland (and all matters related to the conduct of technical support for relations; translators, interpreters, dragomans, scribes, gold painters).
4th generation: Persia, Armenia, India, Kalmyk state, Don Cossacks (Don Republic). As well as everything related to communications: diplomatic mail and mail in general, couriers, messengers, messengers, messengers, the security service for diplomatic workers ("violent cases") and trade representation.
5th tribe: China, Bukhara, Urgench (Khiva), Siberian Kalmyks (Zhungar state), Georgia. Also providing equipment for embassy workers and organizing receptions.

The diversity and vastness of the functions of the Ambassadorial Order in the 17th century required a significant expansion of its staff. In 1689, there were 53 clerks, 22 translators and 17 interpreters in the Ambassadorial Prikaz.

The Embassy Prikaz kept state seals (which were attached to diplomatic and internal political acts), as well as state archive, which included the most important foreign and domestic political documentation.

But still, diplomacy was given a central place in the work of the Ambassadorial Order.

The Posolsky Prikaz was one of the central state bodies of Russia in the mid-16th and early 18th centuries, which carried out general management and ongoing work on relations with foreign states.

The Posolsky Prikaz was one of the central state bodies of Russia in the mid-16th and early 18th centuries, which carried out general management and ongoing work on relations with foreign states. It was formed at the beginning of 1549 in connection with the transfer of "embassy affairs" to I. M. Viskovaty. The main functions of the Ambassadorial Order were: sending Russian embassies abroad and receiving foreign embassies, preparing texts of "mandates" for Russian ambassadors, agreements, negotiating, from the beginning of the 18th century. - Appointment and control over the actions of permanent Russian diplomatic representatives abroad.

The embassy department was in charge of foreign merchants during their stay in Russia. In addition, the Posolsky Prikaz was engaged in the ransom and exchange of Russian prisoners, ruled a number of territories in the south-east. country, was in charge of the Don Cossacks and service Tatars-landlords of the central counties. Depending on the Ambassadorial order in the 2nd half of the 17th century. were the Little Russian order, the order of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Smolensk order.

Board of the order in the 17th century. usually headed the Novgorod couple (see Cheti), as well as the Vladimir quarter and the Galician quarter. The order kept the state seals (applied to diplomatic and domestic political acts), the state archive, which included the most important foreign and domestic political documentation. The appearance in the 17th century is associated with the order. a number of official historical and political works. In addition to his board (from 2-3 to 5-6 people), the structure of the order included clerks, clerks, translators and gold painters. Structurally, the Posolsky order was divided into povytya on a territorial-state basis. In the 16-17 centuries. The ambassadorial order was headed by the most prominent Russian diplomats - Viskovaty, A. Ya. and V. Ya. Shchelkalov, A. I. Ivanov, A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin, A. S. Matveev, V. V. Golitsyn and others.

With education in the early 18th century. The Embassy office (at first traveling, then permanent in St. Petersburg), the role of the Ambassadorial order is gradually falling. Abolished in 1720. Replaced by the College of Foreign Affairs.

Lit .: Belokurov S. A., On the ambassadorial order, M., 1906; Leontiev A.K., Formation of the command system of government in the Russian state, M., 1961.

In commemoration of the 200th anniversary Russian Ministry Foreign Affairs by Presidential Decree Russian Federation V. V. Putin on October 31, 2002, a professional holiday was established - the Day of the Diplomatic Worker, which is celebrated on February 10. This date in Russian historiography is conventionally considered to be the day of the formation of the first foreign policy department of Russia - the Posolsky Prikaz.

There is no exact official date for the establishment of the Ambassadorial Order, since no special act on its creation and functions has been preserved. It was created from the Treasury Court - the office of the Moscow State, which also dealt with foreign relations. By the middle of the 16th century, the external relations of the Moscow state had expanded so much that there was an urgent need to create a central department for foreign affairs.

In 1549, Tsar Ivan IV ordered the duma clerk Ivan Mikhailovich Viskovaty to "be in charge of the embassy business", who in a short time managed to put the embassy documents in order, sorted out and systematized the vast tsarist archive, which was badly damaged by the fire of 1547. For the first time, descriptions appeared with him archival documents kept records of used business papers. It was under Viskovat that the Ambassadorial Office was finally formed, which was soon called the order.

Here is what the documents of those years say, in particular the "Brief extract on the correspondence between Poland and Russia, wars and truces", made in the Ambassadorial order around 1565-1566: "In the 57th year (i.e., in 7057" from the creation of the world" or 1549) the embassy work of Ivan Viskovaty was ordered, but he was still a clerk ...". It also says that on February 1 (10), 1549, I. Viskovaty, together with the clerk Bakaka Karacharov and a Lithuanian clerk, wrote a truce letter, that is, an agreement on a truce, at the Treasury Court. Thus, the date of February 1 (10), 1549 is considered the most accurate date for the founding of the Ambassadorial Order.

From the very beginning, the Posolsky Prikaz became the center where information about all external affairs flowed. Visiting strangers were asked here about what they saw and heard, about events that took place in the world, about the relationship of monarchs, etc. Reports of Russian ambassadors came here, containing a wide variety of information about the countries where they happened to be, by which it was possible to judge what represented interest for Russia at that time. Orders were also prepared here for Russian ambassadors who were going abroad. Only from 1549 to 1559 Moscow was visited by 32 embassies from different countries.

The Posolsky Prikaz was in charge of not only diplomatic affairs, but also legal ones related to trade. Letters of commendation to foreign merchants directly stated that, in addition to exemption from duties, they could enjoy the privilege of suing Russian subjects through the Posolsky Prikaz.

In the 17th century, the growth of the international significance of the Russian state caused a significant expansion of the functions of the Ambassadorial Order. Structurally, it was divided on a territorial-state basis into povytia, that is, peculiar departments that performed certain functions. The bailiffs and the watchman appeared in the order. All employees of the order were sworn in, promising to keep state secrets, not to communicate with foreigners, and to translate truthfully when translating. There were also gold painters in the order, that is, those who painted letters sent to foreign countries with gold and paints (usually the borders of letters and initial words). The Ambassadorial Order was entrusted with the overall management of the country's foreign policy and all current diplomatic work. In addition, the Posolsky Prikaz kept state seals and the state archive.

If in the 16th century the Posolsky Prikaz was mainly the office for foreign relations, executing the decisions of the tsar and the Boyar Duma, then in the 17th century it turned into a central government agency with broad powers and considerable autonomy.

Since 1667, not the clerks, but the boyars, were at the head of the Ambassadorial Order, some of them, for example, A.L. Among the leaders of the Ambassadorial Department there were many outstanding Russian diplomats - A. Ya. Shchelkalov and V. Ya. Shchelkalov, A. S. Matveev, V. V. Golitsyn, E. I. Ukraintsev and others.

The main task of Russian diplomacy of that time was control, monitoring of relations with foreign states, the annexation of new territories and the gathering of the Russian state. A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin, in one of his appeals to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, especially emphasized: “In the reigning city of Moscow, the Immaculate People of the Ambassadorial order, like the apple of an eye, keep. Because this institution is the eye of the whole great Russia!" Russian diplomacy most closely followed the observance of the "state interest".

The small staff of the Posolsky Prikaz tirelessly maintained relations with almost three dozen countries, collected military, political, economic and cultural information about the countries of Europe and Asia. In fact, the employees of the Order laid the foundations and principles of Russian diplomacy.

In the second half of the 17th century, the Posolsky order began to be called the State Order, which emphasized its special significance. Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, he received the name of the State order of the embassy press. From the 80s of the 17th century, it was sometimes called the State Embassy Office, which later, under Peter I, was transformed into the Ambassadorial Field Office, and then in 1720 into the Collegium of Foreign Affairs.

Prepared on the basis of the article A. Yu. Guseva,
third secretary of the IDD

The life path and career of the heads of the Ambassadorial Department are very changeable and dramatic. First of all, attention is drawn to the short duration of their service. AT Time of Troubles only for the period from 1601 to 1613. the change of chiefs of the Ambassadorial order took place four times. Afanasy Ivanovich Vlasyev (1601-1605), Ivan Tarasevich Gramotin (1605-1606), Vasily Grigorievich Telepnev (1606-1611), again I.T. Gramotin (1610-1611), and then Pyotr Alekseevich Tretyakov alternately headed the diplomatic department (1613-1618). Each of them held the post from one to five years.

With the approval of the Romanov dynasty on the throne, the situation stabilized. A. Ivanov was at the head diplomatic service 14 years old, A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin had almost 30 years of experience in the embassy service, but stayed as head of the embassy for only four years, his successor A.S. remained in charge for only five years. V.V. Golitsyn began his career at the age of 15 with the rank of steward, and already being a prominent statesman, at the age of 39 he became “the royal big seals and the great state embassy affairs saver”, but he held this post for only seven years. One of the last heads of the Ambassadorial Department, E.I.Ukraintsev, began to fulfill his first diplomatic assignments at the age of 21, reached the highest stage of his diplomatic career only at the age of 48 and remained the head of the Ambassadorial Order for 10 years. For comparison, we can say that in the 16th century, I.M. Viskovaty headed the order for 13 years, A. Vasiliev (Ignatiev) - 8 years, A. Ya. Shchelkalov - 24 years.

Most of the chiefs (judges) of the Ambassadorial Department of the 17th century, although they had a fairly high social status, were not of noble origin: A.I. Vlasyev, P.A. Tretyakov, I.T. Gramotin, A.S. clerical environment, A. Ivanov's father was a merchant, A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin - the son of a provincial nobleman who served on the Pskov list, E. I. Ukraintsev was born in the family of a governor, and only V. V. Golitsyn belonged to an ancient princely family .

The leading cadres of the Posolsky Prikaz were trained directly in the Prikaz itself, and by the time they took office, one might say, they were professional diplomats. No judge was a random figure in the realm foreign policy. In official terms, the judges of the Posolsky Prikaz were quite high: they all had the rank of a duma clerk. I.T.Gramotin, A.Ivanov, A.L.Ordin-Nashchokin, V.V.Golitsyn were granted to the printers, A.L.Ordin-Nashchokin became a boyar, A.S.Matveev became a roundabout.

Ambassadorial judges of the 17th century. corresponded to their time, were distinguished by social activity, education, were bright, outstanding personalities, statesmen of a new type.

The main staff of the Posolsky Prikaz were clerks. They were divided into three categories - "old", "medium" and "young". The “old” clerks led the povyt, participated in the preparation of documents, the “middle” ones directly compiled the text of the documents, made inquiries in the archives of their own and other orders, the “junior” ones carried out technical work, conducted office work.

In the distribution of clerk work, an intermediate position between clerks and clerks was occupied by "assigned" clerks.

At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, the staff of the Posolsky Prikaz was quite stable. Probably because the service in the Posolsky Prikaz was one of the most prestigious and highly paid, and the career of an embassy employee opened the way to the highest authorities.

In the second half of the XVII century. the income of clerks consisted of an annual cash salary, holiday dachas, annual and salt salaries, one-time cash and in-kind payments, as well as local dachas. Each of these sources of income had its own significance. The annual cash salary indicated that the clerk belonged to one or another category. Holiday dachas were also tied to it: grain and salt salaries, dachas for a hut building and fire ruin. Holiday dachas had great importance for junior clerks of the order, since they were the main official source of income for them. In addition, they extended to non-performed clerks. Grain and salt salaries, with rare exceptions, were directly tied to the size of the annual salary. The estate dachas were of particular importance, since, if we accept the proposed method of transferring them into monetary terms, they were, as a rule, the largest form of income for the clerks who possessed them. In addition, they seemed to serve as an indicator of the official value of the clerk.

Thanks to the active and selfless activity of the employees of the Posolsky Prikaz, throughout the 17th century, Russia constantly strengthened its international position and gradually penetrated into the pan-European international politics. For almost the entire century, the diplomatic service focused its attention on relations with the Crimea, Poland and Sweden. For this reason, attempts to create the first Russian permanent missions in European states were made by the Ambassadorial Order in Sweden (Stockholm) in 1634 and the Commonwealth (Warsaw) in 1673.

By the middle of the 17th century, especially in its second half, the shortcomings of the prikaz system were noticeably aggravated: its slowness, the vagueness of the distribution of responsibilities between individual institutions. The government "red tape" was also recognized by the government, which mentioned it in official documents. And if in business national importance decisions were made relatively quickly, then in the so-called petition cases, slowness of consideration was almost the norm. Often it was used by orderly people to extort bribes. There were orders and direct theft of the treasury.

Back in the middle of the century, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich tried to correct the shortcomings of the prikaz system by ordering the Order of Secret Affairs and the Accounting Order to control the work of other prikaz institutions. But after the death of the king, both departments were liquidated. The next reform attempt dates back to the reign of Fyodor Alekseevich, when measures were taken to reduce the number of orders and create larger institutions, primarily in the field of financial management.

At the end of the XVII century. a number of orders were created related to new trends in the reign young Peter I: Naval, Admiralty, Artillery, headed by other people. So, a very unusual phenomenon in the practice of the Russian administration was the promotion of foreigners to high posts. One of them was the son of a Dutch merchant who had settled in Russia, Andrei Andreevich Vinius, who headed some orders.

Innovations did not save the old orders. Having existed until early XVI II century., They are in 1718-1720. were replaced by colleges. Some of them have lasted longer. For example, the Siberian Prikaz, which was finally liquidated in 1763. The Prikaz building was demolished in 1769 in preparation for the construction of a new Kremlin Palace.

Local government. The process of centralization of local government led in the XVII century. to the advent of the post of governor. The voivodeship administration was established in the border towns in the second half of the 16th century, and at the beginning of the 17th century. was extended to the entire territory of the Russian state. This system of local government organization lasted until the transformations of the first quarter of the 18th century.

In the original sense of the word, a voivode is a military leader, a leader of regiments. During the Time of Troubles, the need to fight the interventionists and various social movements led to the fact that the government united in the hands of the military commander all types of power: military, judicial, administrative. Thus, all local government was concentrated in the hands of the governor.

The main administrative unit in the XVII century. there was a county with a city that directly depended on this or that order. At the end of the XVII century. there were 146 counties. From the order, governors were appointed to subordinate cities with counties, who were approved by the tsar and the Boyar Duma. They obeyed the order, which was in charge of the corresponding city with the county. Officially, the governor received (in addition to estates) local and monetary salaries for his service. The service life of the governor lasted 1-3 years. AT big cities several governors were appointed, one of which was considered the main one.

Each governor received from the order an order that determined the scope of his activities. All local government was concentrated in the hands of the governor. He was the chief administrator of the county, the chief judge for civil and criminal cases, and performed police functions. In particular, the governor carried out the protection of feudal property, fought against the harboring of the fugitives, supervised the gathering of the noble militia, was in charge of the local police, and had financial responsibilities. Large landowners - boyars and monasteries - had a number of police, fiscal and judicial functions in relation to their own peasants.

Next to the voivode, the buildings created in the 16th century were preserved. local self-government bodies - lip and zemstvo institutions, but in fact they were subordinate to the voivode.

Assistants were appointed to help the governor - clerks and clerks. The voivode had an orderly (or moving out) hut, in which all matters related to the management of the city and county were carried out. The clerk's hut was headed by clerks, under whose leadership the clerk also worked.

Although the scope of power of the governors was wide, yet their power could not be called strong, since they did not have a sufficiently strong apparatus at their disposal. Conflicts between clerks and governors were a common thing, because along with the official function (clerical work), clerks and clerks had to monitor the activities of the governors and report disorders to Moscow. The governors had to execute orders from the center, but there was no real control over their activities. The position of voivode was usually filled by retired servicemen who had no administrative experience, and sometimes were simply illiterate. Their age also served as a hindrance to the performance of difficult voivodship duties.

The lack of control and the breadth of powers of the voivods largely contributed to the abuses

Administrative division. During the 17th century in the border areas most threatened by external enemies, larger military-administrative districts were created - the so-called ranks, representing the prototype of the provinces of the time of Peter the Great. Such were the categories of Smolensk, Belgorod, Sevsky, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Yenisei, Lensky. The ranks concentrated in their hands all the administration of the regions, including financial functions. Local governors acted under the control of the discharge governors.

Through orders, the state carried out not only diplomatic functions, sectoral and territorial administration, but also the management of social groups that were formed and existed in the form of specific public service categories - ranks. Thus, orders were not only administrative, but also judicial bodies.

Factors that made central government reform inevitable. So, the 17th century was the heyday of the command system of government in Russia. The bureaucracy expanded, the number of orders increased. As a result, such a powerful and cumbersome management system developed that it made office work difficult. However, in order to feel the scale and dynamics of that time, one should take into account such a significant indicator as the number of all employees of the Moscow orders. In the entire central administration of the Russian state, the total number of employees in the mid-1620s was only 623 people, including 48 clerks (2 duma and 46 clerks) and 575 clerks. By the end of the century, their number increased to 2,739 people (5 duma clerks, 86 clerks, 2,648 clerks). For comparison, we point out that in the middle of the XVIII century. the total number of officials was 5,379 people, and by the beginning of the 20th century. about 500 thousand.

Summing up the chapter, we note the factors that led to the inevitability of the reform of the central administration and the elimination of the order system.

The absence of a centralized system for organizing sources of financing for autocratic power.

Availability a large number orders with intertwining functions and departmental striping.

Insufficient unification and specialization of orders.

Entanglement with the states of orders and archaic office work.

The crisis of the order system in the conditions Northern war. The first years of the war showed that the old system of executive power was no longer able to cope with the scale and pace of the ever-increasing workload. The problems of general coordination of management on the upper and lower floors came to the fore (it was impossible to quickly provide the army with money, recruits, supplies, etc.).

The crisis of the service local system led to the reform of the army. The new regular army no longer needed the old organs of organization and management of the local-territorial service. The consequence of this was the decline in the role of the category and all those orders that were in charge of service people.

The abolition of the patriarchate and the creation of the Monastic order led to the collapse of the system of patriarchal orders.

Creation of provinces in 1708-1710. In the course of this process, one of the fundamental principles of the order system, the territorial conduct of business, was destroyed.

Such is the specificity of the general evolution of the prikaz system in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. During the 17th century, through the Time of Troubles, restoration, having reached the pinnacle of its development, the command management system fulfilled its historical mission. The next stage of development was possible only under the condition of a radical reform of the entire system of state institutions.

test questions and tasks

1. What were the characteristic features of the development of statehood in Russia XVII in.?

2. What impact did the Time of Troubles have on state structure Russia?

3. List the signs of a new absolutist power that was emerging in the state administration of Russia in the 17th century.

4. Describe the role and place of royal power in Russia in the 17th century.

5. Determine the place and prerogatives of the Boyar Duma and Zemsky Sobors in the state administration of Russia.

6. How was the bureaucratization government controlled Russia and what changes took place in the structure of the "service class" in the 17th century?

7. Why the XVII century. became the heyday and fall of the command system of government?

8. What were the features of local government and administrative division Russia in the 17th century?

9. What factors led to the inevitability of the reform of the central administration and the elimination of the order system?

Kotoshikhin G. About Russia in the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. M., 2000.

Mankov A.G. The Code of 1649 is a code of feudal law in Russia. L., 1980.

"The Eye of All Great Russia". Comp. N.M. Rogozhin. M., 1989.

Platonov S.F. Essays on the history of the Time of Troubles in the Muscovite state of the XV1-XVII centuries. M., 1995.

Skrynnikov R.G. Troubles in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. Ivan Bolotnikov. L., 1988.

Cherepnin L.V. Zemsky Sobors of the Russian state of the XVI-XVII centuries. M., 1978.

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The formation of the Ambassadorial Prikaz - a special institution in charge of foreign affairs - took place simultaneously with the formation of the entire state apparatus of the Russian state. ”, “yard”).

The process of formation of chancelleries dragged on for several decades (from the end of the XV

until the middle of the 16th century). Each "hut" or "yard", together with the official who headed it, was a prototype of the future independent state institution - the "order".

The prikaznaya system of public administration originates from an order (in the literal sense of the word) as a one-time order. The first central state institutions had a military purpose. These include the Bit, Local orders and the Armory. By the second half of the 16th century, other orders were formed: Streltsy, Pushkar, Stone Affairs, Bronny, Aptekarsky, etc. With the expansion of foreign policy tasks, there is a need to create a single body to manage the “embassy business”. In addition, the specifics of international relations required the involvement of persons who specialized only in the diplomatic service.

IN. Klyuchevsky noted: “Despite the multilateral development of diplomatic relations of the Moscow court since the time of Ivan III, for a long time there was no noticeable special institution in charge of them: they were conducted directly by the sovereign himself with the Duma”8. In fact, there was a close connection between foreign policy affairs and the office work of the Boyar Duma and the house treasury of the Grand Duke. At the same time, according to the inventory of the Tsar's archive, by the beginning of the 16th century, so many diplomatic documents had accumulated that there was a need to systematize them9. To this end, the deli on relations with certain states began to be distributed according to years and special numbered boxes: “Voloshi”, “German”, “Crimean”, etc.

In Russian historiography, the generally accepted date for the formation of the Posolsky Prikaz after S.A. Belokurov began to consider the year 1549. This date was established on the basis of an extract from the embassy affairs, compiled in the embassy order in 1565-1566, which mentions that in 1549 "the embassy business was ordered to Ivan Viskovaty, but he was still a clerk."

There are, however, reasons to assume that the Posolsky Prikaz existed earlier as a state institution. This is primarily evidenced by the data of the already mentioned reference book by V.I. Savva about the development of the bureaucratic hierarchy in charge of foreign affairs. S.A. Belokurov, on the other hand, points out that Viskovaty, even before his appointment as head of the Ambassadorial Department, participated in diplomatic affairs. While still a clerk, in March 1542 he wrote a truce with Poland. This is also evidenced by the abundance of such a specific type of clerical work as embassy books10.

In view of the importance of the post they held, Viskovaty's successors already bore the title of duma clerks. Among the persons who headed the Ambassadorial Prikaz, such well-known figures as the brothers Andrey Yakovlevich and Vasily Yakovlevich Shchelkalov, Almaz Ivanov, Afanasy Lavrentievich Ordin-Nashchokin, Artamon Sergeevich Matveev, Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, Emelyan Ignatievich Ukraintsev stand out. This is about them, the clerk of the Ambassadorial order G.K. Kotoshikhin wrote in the 17th century: “Although there are fewer breeds, but by order and deeds above all”11.

In 1565 a special Embassy Chamber was built12.

Based on the surviving embassy books, it is possible to reproduce the functions of the Duma embassy clerk. In the second half of the 16th century, the duma embassy clerks accepted letters brought by ambassadors; conducted preliminary negotiations; attended the receptions of foreign diplomats; checked the prepared lists of response letters; drafted orders to Russian diplomats sent abroad and bailiffs to meet foreign ambassadors; got acquainted with the reports of Russian ambassadors who returned home after completing a diplomatic mission. Moreover, being present at the "sitting" of the sovereign with the boyars, in case of disagreement with the solution of the issue according to their department, they expressed their opinion13.

The replacement of the head of the Posolsky Prikaz was sometimes associated with changes in the foreign policy course.

In addition to diplomatic relations, the Embassy Department was responsible for: foreign merchants and artisans living in Russia; Tatars settled in Russia; Moscow settlements inhabited by foreigners; courtyards for receiving ambassadors; the ransom of prisoners, as well as individual assignments. Thus, eminent people of the Stroganovs, merchants and industrialists who participated in the development of Siberia were under his control; several large monasteries.

In the 17th century, the apparatus of the Posolsky Prikaz grew significantly, and separate structural units appeared in it - “povytia”, which were headed by “senior” clerks. Three howls were in charge of relations with Western Europe, two - with Asian states and owners.

The embassy order began to perform a number of other functions, which were often a source of additional income for it.

The average salary of a Duma clerk in the middle of the 17th century was a significant amount at that time - 200-250 rubles. It should be noted that the salary in the Ambassadorial order was 3-5 times higher than in most other orders. Since the 60s of the XVII century. The embassy order was in charge of the post office, the affairs of the Don Cossacks, the court and the collection of customs and tavern revenues, the appointment of governors and clerks, etc.

The duties of each order at the same time also included the management of several cities. The Posolsky Prikaz was in charge of the cities of Kasimov, Elatma, and Romanov. In the second half of the 17th century, the so-called quarter territorial orders, or quarters, were transferred to him: Novgorod, Galician, Vladimir, Ustyug, which collected income from the vast territories under their jurisdiction and spent the collected money mainly on salaries of the boyars, okolnichi and other service people of the Ambassadorial order. Temporarily emerging institutions were also attributed to it: Smolensk, Little Russian, Lithuanian, Novgorod, Great Russian, Printed and Polonyanichny orders.

Such an extensive activity of the Ambassadorial Order also determined the diversity of the functions of its employees. From the second half of the XVI

century, next to the duma clerk - the head of the Ambassadorial order - we constantly see his "deputy" (comrade), or second clerk. So, signed by the postnik Dmitriev (1589-1592), comrade of the head of the Ambassadorial order A.Ya. Shchelkalov, memories are sent about the issuance of "food" to foreign ambassadors and about their departure; persons appointed to the “state embassy” came to him for orders; he received foreign ambassadors and made speeches on behalf of the sovereign; he also listened to reports on the implementation of diplomatic missions.

The duties of the Ambassadorial Order even included the collection of income from various regions and "circle yards" ("tavern money"). It is no coincidence that the head of the order A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin said that the second clerks "interfere with embassy affairs with taverns." Some second clerks eventually became the heads of the Order, for example, V.Ya. Shchelkalov, A.I. Vlasiev, Almaz Ivanov, E.I. Ukrainians. In total, from 1559 to 1714, 52 “comrades” of the chiefs of the Ambassadorial order are known by name14.

In the distribution of clerical work, an intermediate position between clerks and clerks was occupied by "assigned" clerks, that is, they had the right to sign outgoing documents. In essence, these were clerks of the highest qualification (i.e., "old" clerks). Often they were at the head of tables or povyti.

Assistants to the Duma clerks and their "comrades" were clerks, who, in essence, constituted the main staff of the Ambassadorial order. They were divided into several categories: "old", "medium" and "young". The old clerks were at the head of the povytia, the middle and young ones conducted office work and correspondence of the Order, were engaged in the manufacture of maps. To XVII century the Order developed its own, special school of writing - in small and elegant handwriting. The largest number of "peepers" were young clerks. But the most important documents (“leaf letter”, i.e. letters) were written by clerks of higher ranks.

In addition to the clerks, who corresponded in Russian, there were employees in the Posolsky Prikaz who knew foreign languages. From the beginning of the 16th century, interpreters were engaged in interpretation in Prikaz and as part of embassies, and written office work in foreign languages was entrusted to translators. In the second half of the XVII

century, among the permanent employees, there were about 15 translators and 40-50 interpreters who knew the languages: Latin, Polish, Tatar, German, Swedish, Dutch, Greek, Persian (Farsi), Arabic, Turkish, Volosh, English and Georgian. Foreigners who were in Russian captivity often acted as translators. It happened that in order to study foreign languages and the acquisition of various skills of boyar children were specially sent abroad15.

Among the employees of the Embassy Department there were also gold painters, who painted letters with gold and paints. At the end of the 17th century, five gold painters served, who were charged with writing “borders” and initial words. In the second half of the 17th century, historical and translated works were published in the Posolsky Prikaz containing information on Russian history, foreign relations, as well as books on election to the kingdom and genealogies of Moscow sovereigns. As a rule, all books were richly illustrated with drawings, portraits and ornaments16.

In the second half of the 16th century, watchmen and bailiffs who accompanied foreign diplomats also served in the Embassy Department. Among them were many people from noble families. Bailiffs were also appointed to deal with court cases that were within the competence of the Ambassadorial Order.