Энциклопедисты петербургской власти. К изданию архивного справочника «Органы власти и управления Санкт-Петербурга. 1775–1993»

Abstract

The review is devoted to analysis and review of the content of the first two volumes of a large-scale five-volume archival project, which is being carried out by the central city state archives employees under the charge of the Archival Committee of St. Petersburg. The project is to produce a comprehensive reference book on the history of city government and administration and state institutions of St. Petersburg—Petrograd—Leningrad—St. Petersburg. The reference book covers a significant historical period, staring from the moment the city government was established during the gubernia reform of the Empress Catherine the Great and ending with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin no. 2252 of December 21, 1993, which put an end to the Soviet authorities’ existence in the northern capital. The reference book results from long years of the authors-compilers’ research of pre-revolutionary and Soviet archival fonds and regulatory legal acts concerning creation, reorganization, liquidation of the regional power structures of St. Petersburg—Petrograd—Leningrad—St. Petersburg. On the basis of a representative complex of archival documents, previously unintroduced into scientific use, the first two volumes offer over 130 detailed historical references on the history of state authorities and state institutions. Every article is supplemented with comprehensive references: archival ciphers, sources, detailed bibliography of published works on the history of this particular branch of public administration or city organization. The first volume contains 60 articles and is devoted to the highest city authorities and administration: from the Commander-in-Chief in St. Petersburg (1780–97, 1805–08, 1812–16) to the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU (1931–90). The second volume includes 78 historical references on the governing bodies of the city economy: from the Petrograd Treasury Chamber (1780–1918) to the Main Directorate for Housing, Civil, and Industrial Construction in the city of Leningrad (1955–89). The reviewed publication permits to study general and particular in the organization of public administration over 200 years of Russian history, without its usual division into pre-revolutionary and Soviet history, in the largest capital city of Russia. The reader obtains informative historical background and all scientific apparatus necessary for the subsequent organization of their own research.