The secret office became the first secret service in Russian history. It was called the “Russian Inquisition,” and even those who refused to drink to the health of the monarch fell under its jurisdiction.
On your own blood
In January 1718, Tsar Peter I was waiting for the return of Alexei's prodigal son, who had fled to Austrian possessions. Departing from Naples to St. Petersburg, Alexei thanked his father for the promised "forgiveness". But the sovereign could not endanger his empire, even for the welfare of his own son. Even before the return of the tsarevich to Russia, the Secret Office of Investigation Affairs was created specially for Alexei's case, which was supposed to conduct an inquiry about his "treason".
After the completion of Alexei's case, which was marked by the death of the heir, the Secret Chancellery was not liquidated, but became one of the most important state bodies subordinate to the monarch personally. Peter often personally attended meetings of the chancellery and even attended the torture.
Torture
If the investigators during the interrogation thought that the suspect was “locked up,” then the conversation was followed by torture. This effective method was resorted to in St. Petersburg no less often than in the cellars of the European Inquisition.
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There was a rule in the office - "one who confesses to torture three times." This meant the need for a triple plea of the accused.
In order for the testimony to be considered reliable, it had to be repeated at different times at least three times without changes. Before Elizabeth's decree of 1742, torture began without the presence of an investigator, that is, even before the beginning of questioning in the torture chamber. The executioner had time to "find" a common language with the victim. Naturally, his actions are not controlled by anyone.
Elizaveta Petrovna, like her father, constantly kept the affairs of the Secret Chancellery under full control. Through a report given to her in 1755, we learn that the favorite methods of torture were: rack, vise, head compression and pouring cold water (the most severe of the torture).
Inquisition "in Russian"
The secret office was reminiscent of the Catholic Inquisition. Catherine II in her memoirs even compared these two organs of "justice":
"Alexander Shuvalov, not by himself, but by the position he held, was a threat to the entire court, city and the entire empire, he was the head of the Inquisitional court, which was then called the Secret Chancellery."
These were not just nice words. Back in 1711, Peter I created a state corporation of informers - the institute of fiscal (one or two people in each city). The ecclesiastical authorities were controlled by spiritual fiscals called "inquisitors". Subsequently, this initiative formed the basis of the Secret Chancellery. This has not turned into a witch hunt, but religious crimes are mentioned in the cases.
In the conditions of Russia, just awakening from medieval sleep, there were punishments for making a deal with the devil, especially with the aim of harming the sovereign. Among the last cases of the Secret Chancellery, there is a trial about a merchant, who declared the then deceased Peter the Great the Antichrist, and threatened Elizaveta Petrovna with a fire. The impudent foul language was one of the Old Believers. He got off easily - he was whipped with a whip.
Eminence grise
General Andrei Ivanovich Ushakov became the real "gray eminence" of the Secret Chancellery. “He ran the Secret Chancery under five monarchs,” notes the historian Yevgeny Anisimov, “and knew how to negotiate with everyone! First he tortured Volynsky, and then Biron. Ushakov was a professional, he didn't care who to torture. " He came from among the impoverished Novgorod nobles and knew what a "fight for a piece of bread" was.
He led the case of Tsarevich Alexei, tipped the cup in favor of Catherine I, when, after Peter's death, the question of the inheritance was decided, opposed Elizabeth Petrovna, and then quickly entered the favor of the ruler.
When the passions of palace coups thundered in the country, he was as unsinkable as the "shadow" of the French revolution - Joseph Fouche, who during the bloody events in France managed to side with the monarch, the revolutionaries and Napoleon who replaced them. Significantly, both "gray cardinals" met their death not on the scaffold, like most of their victims, but at home, in bed.
Denunciation hysteria
Peter urged his subjects to report all disorder and crimes. In October 1713, the tsar wrote menacing words "about the heralds of decrees and those laid down by the law and the robber of the people", for denunciation of which the subjects "would come without any fear and announced this to us ourselves." The following year, Peter revealingly publicly invited the unknown author of an anonymous letter "about the great benefit of his majesty and the whole state" to come to him for a reward of 300 rubles - a huge sum for those times. The process that led to the real hysteria of denunciations was launched. Anna Ioannovna, following the example of her uncle, promised "mercy and reward" for a just accusation. Elizaveta Petrovna gave freedom to serfs for "right-wing" denunciation of landowners who sheltered their peasants from revision. The decree of 1739 cited as an example a wife who reported on her husband,for which she got 100 souls from the confiscated estate.
In these conditions, they reported everything and everyone, without resorting to any evidence, based only on rumors. This became the main tool for the work of the main office. One careless phrase at a feast, and the fate of the unfortunate was a foregone conclusion. True, something cooled the ardor of the adventurers. Researcher of the “secret office” Igor Kurukin wrote: “In the event of the denial of the accused and refusal to testify, the unfortunate informer could rears himself or be imprisoned from several months to several years”.
In the era of palace coups, when the thoughts of overthrowing the government arose not only among the officers, but also among persons of "vile rank", hysteria reached its climax. People started reporting on themselves!
The Russkaya Starina, which published the files of the Secret Chancellery, describes the case of the soldier Vasily Treskin, who himself came to the Secret Chancellery with a confession, accusing himself of seditious thoughts: “that it is not a great thing to hurt the Empress; and if he, Treskin, took the time to see the merciful Empress, he could have stabbed her with a sword."
Spy games
After Peter's successful policy, the Russian Empire was integrated into the system of international relations, and at the same time the interest of foreign diplomats in the activities of the St. Petersburg court increased. Secret agents of European states began to arrive in the Russian Empire. Espionage cases also fell into the jurisdiction of the Secret Chancellery, but they did not succeed in this field. For example, under Shuvalov, the Secret Chancellery knew only about those "convicts" who were exposed on the fronts of the Seven Years War. The most famous among them was the Major General of the Russian Army, Count Gottlieb Kurt Heinrich Totleben, who was caught for correspondence with the enemy and for giving him copies of the "secret orders" of the Russian command. But against this background, such well-known "spies" as the French Gilbert Romm were doing their best in the country.who in 1779 handed over to his government the detailed state of the Russian army and secret maps; or Ivan Valets, a court politician who sent information about Catherine's foreign policy to Paris.
The last pillar of Peter III
Upon accession to the throne, Peter III wanted to reform the Secret Chancellery. Unlike all his predecessors, he did not interfere in the affairs of the organ. Obviously, his dislike of the institution in connection with the affairs of the Prussian informers during the Seven Years' War, whom he sympathized with, played a role. The result of its reform was the abolition of the Secret Chancellery by the manifesto of March 6, 1762 due to "uncorrected morals among the people."
In other words, the body was accused of not fulfilling the tasks assigned to it.
The abolition of the Secret Chancellery is often considered one of the positive outcomes of the reign of Peter III. However, this only led the emperor to his inglorious death. The temporary disorganization of the punitive department did not allow the participants in the conspiracy to be identified in advance and contributed to the spread of rumors defaming the emperor, which now had no one to suppress. As a result, on June 28, 1762, a palace coup was successfully carried out, as a result of which the emperor lost the throne, and then his life.
