Statutory charter of the Russian Empire

Statutory charter of the Russian Empire - a bill developed in 1818-19 by the government of Alexander I.

This document envisaged the creation in Russia of the State Seim (Parliament), consisting of the Ambassadorial izba and the Senate.

In addition, the Charter of the Russian Empire implied the creation of a bicameral management system in the field.

In accordance with the document, the right of the veto and the right of legislative initiative were fixed for the tsar . And the State Seimas had to approve laws and budget. It was assumed that members of parliament would be elected from noble assemblies and city communities.

The charter was named Novosiltseva, after the author's name. Many historians consider it to be the main part of the reforms of Alexander I.

The prerequisite for the creation of this bill can be considered the crisis of the Russian management system at all levels, which became evident at the beginning of the 19th century. The mechanisms, which for a long time protected the public peace, were obsolete and required urgent replacement. This situation has developed for a number of reasons. First, in the countries of Europe at that time there were stormy changes. The revolution in France, Napoleon's wars could not but affect the development of statehood in Russia. In addition, internal processes, characteristic of the country's social life, which determined the vector of its development for a long time, came into conflict with the new demands put forward by the foreign policy situation.

The charter of the Russian Empire not only absorbed all the experience of previous transformations. It became a complete system, harmoniously combining originally disparate ideas.

For modern researchers, the analysis of this document provides an opportunity to understand what external and internal factors determined the Russian statehood of that time.

Charter Charter of the Russian Empire allows you to study the social model, which Alexander I did not have time to implement.

Despite the fact that the king ascended the throne at a young age, he had an established idea of the specifics of the country's internal development.

On the basis of his own political views, he created the idea of a "true monarchy," which was based on the postulate that power should belong to the monarch, but there are unshakable laws over which even the tsar's will does not control. Accordingly, we need institutions that will monitor compliance with these laws.

This idea of subordinating the system of legislation to certain fundamental principles was characteristic of European thought at the end of the 18th century.

However, on Russian soil, it turned into a consolidation of autocratic power.

The State Charter of the Russian Empire was designed to embody the view of Alexander on the fundamental foundations of public life.

With the help of this document, an attempt was made to solve several problems that arose after the reign of Catherine the Great.

So, there was a need for reforming the state apparatus, which was extremely imperfect due to the imbalance of the entire management system. Russia of that time was distinguished by geographical and social heterogeneity. The state did not constitute a single entity. In some areas tribal relations dominated, while in others capitalism developed.

Both that and another problem was supposed to be solved with the help of a new code that was supposed to be based on the power of the law.

So, the Charter of the Russian Empire was the peak of the reform efforts of the government of Alexander I. It is an example of a rather contradictory document aimed, on the one hand, to strengthen the monarch's power, and on the other hand represents the first attempts to establish "Russian constitutionalism." For that time, the Diploma became a truly advanced document, unparalleled in history.