The biography of Pavel Yaguzhinsky
The strokes to the portrait of the first Russian prosecutor General Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky, the history of the creation and development of the prosecutor’s office, the role of prosecutors in the Russian state, I think, will be not possible for many to discover for themselves. A special page in the history of Russia is filled with stormy changes, the innovation of the era of Peter I- Monarch with unlimited power, but the monarch of a smart, firm, unshakable strategist and tactics.
The young king Peter energetically set about the vast transformations, the fully strengthening of the Russian state. Peter the Great Confidently broke the way of life, which had been established for centuries in Russia, amazing radically all the main state structures, creating new bodies unusual for the Russian state. The orders were preserved only partially, giving way to the so -called colleges.
With the organization of the Holy Synod - the highest institution in Russia, which runs the Orthodox Church, Peter 1 achieved the complete submission of the church of his power. A regular army and police were created, local administration was transformed. Russian legislation was also significantly updated. In the first half of the city century, an average of decrees was issued on average per year.
The tasks were given grandiose. For their implementation, he could rely only on young, talented and energetic people, although not belonging to noble birth. Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky was born in the year. His father was a poor Lithuanian organist. For about a year, along with young sons, Paul and Ivan, in search of the best share, he moved to Moscow, where he got a job as an organist to the Lutheran Church, which was in the German settlement.
Paul from his youth was distinguished by a cheerful and lively disposition, he was known as a smart and witty young man. These qualities, as well as a charming appearance, attracted the attention of Field Marshal Count Fedor Golovin, who took him to his service. In the year, Yaguzhinsky first met with Peter I. The king was fascinated by the figurative, beautiful speech of the young man, shining with his mind and wit, his ability to quickly and intelligently compose any paper.
And the beautiful appearance gave him charm even more. Peter I enrolled Yaguzhinsky in the guard, to the Preobrazhensky regiment. When he was promoted to officers, the king “granted” Yaguzhinsky as his batman. He was to be on duty at the king and actually fulfill the duties of a personal adjutant. From that time on, the rapid and brilliant quarry of Yaguzhinsky, who has become one of Peter's favorites, begins.
At the age of 27, he is already a chamber-junker and captain of the Preobrazhensky regiment, then a colonel, Adjutant General. After a short time, the rank of Major General and, finally, Lieutenant General receives. Yaguzhinsky knew several foreign languages well, was an exclusively well -read person and, moreover, very dexterous. Therefore, Peter repeatedly trusted him with important diplomatic missions: in the year he negotiated with the king of Denmark, in with the Prussian king, participated in a number of congresses.
Yaguzhinsky was constantly among those people close to Peter who accompanied the king in his foreign travels. One of the outstanding merits of Peter 1 was the creation of bodies specially intended for control and supervision of compliance with laws. At first, it was the Fiscal Institute, and then the prosecutor’s office - a new institution, which was standing over the Senate and above all other state institutions.
The decree on its creation took place on January 12 of the year. This date was the birthday of the prosecutor's office of Russia. It determined the duties of senators, prescribed to be present to the presidents of some colleges in the Senate, an audit college was established and established under the Senate of the post of prosecutor general, river, an executor and the heraldmaster.
Peter suggested presenting him with candidates for these positions. In relation to the prosecutor’s office, the decree noted: “To be under the Senate, Prosecutor General and Chief Prosecutor, also in any college in the prosecutor, which will have to be reported to the prosecutor general.” A few days later, the positions of prosecutors in the courts of courts were established. In the same decree, Peter wrote: “Now it is necessary to work in anything in order to choose and submit candidates for the above ranks, but if you are not for the brief time, so that the presidency of the colleges and the general and chief prosecutors choose; that the necessary need is the need to make a carnival to the upcoming carnival, so that then it was possible to get better in affairs; In these ranks, the will is given to choose from all sorts of ranks, and especially to the prosecutors, there is a necessary thing to be the case.
” However, even the time he established, Peter did not wait-he assigned too great hopes to the post of prosecutor general. Therefore, on January 18, he appoints Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky as prosecutor general. According to contemporaries, Yaguzhinsky was a prominent man, with an irregular, but expressive and living face, with free manage, capricious and proud. He was very smart and active.
In one day, Yaguzhinsky did as much as the other did not have time in a week.He expressed his thoughts without flattery in front of the highest dignitaries and nobles, condemned them boldly and freely. Talented and dexterous, he did not timid to anyone. It is no accident that the brightest Prince Menshikov "hated him from the heart." The closest assistant to Yaguzhinsky, the chief prosecutor of the Senate, the same decree was determined by Grigory Grigoryevich Skornyakov-Pisarev, who moved from the midst of the guards officers.
The position of the first prosecutor general of the Senate was very difficult. The king, a person is extremely energetic, often performed prosecutorial duties himself: he constantly went to the Senate and strictly monitored the decisions made there. From the very first days of the formation of the prosecutor's office, Peter I made it clear to all senators what place he intends to take in public affairs to the prosecutor.
Presenting the senators of the first prosecutor general, he said: “Here is my eye, with whom I will see everything. He knows my intentions and desires; What he will like, then you do; And at least it seemed to you that he was contrary to my and state benefits, however, you do it and, notifying me about that expect my command. ” The same thought of Peter was reflected in the decree "On the post of Prosecutor General." It notes: “And this rank is later - like our eye and a shear about state affairs, for the sake of it should be correctly acted, because it will be first collected on it.” The decree was approved on April 27.
He established the basic duties of the prosecutor, his powers to supervise the Senate, to the leadership of the subordinate bodies of the prosecutor's office. The decree prescribed that “the prosecutor’s general is guilty of sitting in the Senate and watching firmly, so that the Senate kept his position and in all matters that are subject to Senate consideration and decision, truly, zealously and decently, without losing time, according to regulations and decrees, he sent him to the legal reason for sending him, that everything was guilty of his junk.” The prosecutor was also charged with the obligation to observe that in the Senate “not on the table, only things were performed, but the acts are performed according to the decrees”, as well as “to watch firmly, so that the Senate in its rank was righteous and inconsistent”.
If the prosecutor’s general discovered that the Senate was violating the laws, then he was obliged to invite the Senate to correct the mistake, and if he did not listen, “to protest and stop it”. Yaguzhinsky focused on the control of the daily work of the Senate, for the correctness and legality of the resolution of affairs, their timely passage, order in the Senate, etc.
Stronging for the Senate, Yaguzhinsky, all his proposals given by the senators to the authority of Peter, to which he was very close, was very close. At first, the prosecutor general made a lot of effort to put an elementary order in the Senate. Collegial decisions were still alien to the consciousness of pride dignitaries. Senators are not used to reckoning with other people's opinions and respect him, so quarrels, screams and abuse, and sometimes fights, often arose in the Senate Assembly.
In this regard, on October 16, Yaguzhinsky wrote a special “proposal” to the Senate, in which he asked the senators to refrain from quarrels and disputes, “because first of all it is indecent for such an institution as the Senate.” At that time, the Senate existed the following procedure for considering cases. By listening to the senators of a report on any issue, they were allowed to talk to each other or another, for which a term was given from half an hour to three hours.
To determine the exact time, the prosecutor general always had a sand clock at hand. As soon as the report ended, he immediately put the clock on the table. When all the sand spilled out, the senators were obliged to immediately sit in their places and “cast voices”, starting with the younger ones. Gradually, the prosecutor general occupies a key position in public administration.
The Russian historian V. Klyuchevsky wrote on this subject: “The prosecutor general, not the Senate, became the flywheel of the entire management; Without its composition, without having a senatorial voice, he, however, was his real president, looked beyond the order of his meetings, aroused legislative issues in him, judged when the Senate acted right or wrong, through his sand clock he led his reasoning and turned him into a political building in the sand.
” Supervisory foreigners noted that the prosecutor general Yaguzhinsky was the second person after the emperor in the state in his strength and significance. However, all this was given to Yaguzhinsky with great difficulty. He clearly realized that only the support of Peter I provides him with the opportunity to firmly defend the interests of the law. It was especially difficult for him because relations with the main assistant-the chief prosecutor Skornyakov-Pisarev did not work out.
Along with the leadership of the prosecution authorities, Yaguzhinsky was the head of the entire Senate office: he determined the order of office work and undergoing cases, monitored discipline, etc.Coven by nature, the energetic and honest Yaguzhinsky enjoyed the full confidence of Peter I, who once said about him: “What Paul would examine, as if I had seen it myself.” Yaguzhinsky always justified this trust.
While many large, even close to the emperor, nobles often mired in dashing and other abuses, the shadow of such a suspicion did not even fall on the prosecutor general. Peter I, who always brutally pursued the dignitaries for bribery and theft, often entrusted the prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky to conduct the “wanted”, that is, investigations for such cases, although the investigation of crimes was not then a direct duty of prosecutors.
In the year, Peter I received the petition of the Posad man Sutyagin, in which he conveyed the abuses of the Yaroslavl provincial-phrase Poptsov. In the denunciation it was reported that Poptsov contains fugitive peasants, releases from the recruitment for bribes and plunders state money. Sutyan filed such a complaint a few years ago, but it was lost somewhere in bureaucratic chancellers.
And now she has reached the emperor. Peter ordered his secretary Makarov’s office to send the received petition to Yaguzhinsky so that he would investigate everything. Yaguzhinsky quickly found out the essence of the matter and found that Poptsov, pleading his guilt, expelled in bribery and chief-phiscell Nesterov. The prosecutor general also established that the “fierce defender” of the stunned fiscals was the chief prosecutor Skornyakov-Pisarev.
Yaguzhinsky immediately reported all Peter 1. The emperor, who did not disregard such facts, wrote him from Astrakhan on October 15: “G. G. Yaguzhinsky, your letter from October 5 reached us, in which you write that fiscal Poptsov with the search showed in bribes and in other crimes on the Oblor-phrase Nesterov and blamed in his crimes, and tell this, by hedge, follow and look for the prosecutor Yegor Pashkov and for that he will give him to the prosecutors, who will demand to whom he will demand, he will demand, he will demand.
And if the chief-phrase reaches the search, also others, then tell you to find it. ” Soon, the chief-phisclailed Nesterov was exposed in bribery and executed. Peter I carefully made sure that people of dishonest people who had already compromised themselves did not penetrate into state institutions. On this occasion, he has repeatedly turned to Yaguzhinsky.
In one of the letters to the prosecutor general, he noted: “The former language officer who was wanted and was clearly punished by the thief, and he heard that he was determined from the military college or want to determine the case, which you should not be repaired, so that they will make a little pack and make the thieves a sweat.” The emperor was not mistaken in his choice of prosecutor general.
Yaguzhinsky jealously fulfilled all the instructions of Peter I, completely trusting Yaguzhinsky, the emperor often left a solution to certain issues at the discretion of General-Rorra. In one of the letters, he suggested: “G. Prosecutor General, decrees were sent a resettlement of some matters, and the same about copper money; As you see from them yourself, you should be executed.
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