300 years ago, the Secret Office was created, a special service dealing with the country's internal security. From it and the Preobrazhensky order originate modern Russian state security institutions.
For the first time in Russian history, the expression "Secret Chancellery" was used by Tsar Peter I to a commission of four people investigating the case of the conspiracy of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich.
The Office of Secret and Investigative Affairs was created in Moscow in February 1718 as a temporary commission of inquiry, but in March of the same year, after moving to St. Petersburg, to the Peter and Paul Fortress, it was transformed into a permanent department. She had to sort out a difficult question: Tsarevich Alexei was under suspicion of a conspiracy against the Russian monarch. The investigation into the Tsarevich's case was led by Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy, who managed to find the fugitive abroad and return him to Russia. Tolstoy and became the first minister of the Secret Chancellery.
After the completion of the affair of Tsarevich Alexy, Tsar Peter did not abolish the organization, but transferred to it part of the functions of the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, which also dealt with issues of internal security. Thus, there were two parallel structures in Russia that had similar functional responsibilities, the Preobrazhensky Prikaz in Moscow and the Secret Chancellery in St. Petersburg. Since it was more convenient for the tsar, who was in the new capital, to keep track of cases that fell under the jurisdiction of the Secret Chancellery, he came to the Peter and Paul Fortress weekly, carefully studied the cases, and was often present at interrogations.
The investigation was conducted only by the most reliable and trusted people who enjoyed the special trust of the sovereign. Prior to the reign of Alexander II, archival materials on political processes that took place in the Secret Chancellery were virtually inaccessible to historians.
In addition to matters of state importance, the chancellery considered many completely insignificant cases. For example, gossip circulating among the people, in which the name of royal persons was mixed up. As soon as someone publicly shouted: "I know the word and deed of the sovereign!", Which meant that a person was ready to tell about a crime against the person of the sovereign - the most serious crime of the state, the suspects immediately found themselves in dungeons. Here they were interrogated and severely tortured - rack, whip, burning with fire and other tortures. Often, the case was not particularly important, but rarely did anyone leave the dungeons: under torture, most people were ready to confess to any crimes or incriminate innocent people. Of course, this approach generated a lot of abuse and created an atmosphere of fear in society.
For quite a long time, the Secret Office was an absolutely independent organization. However, in 1724, Peter ordered to hand over the affairs of the chancellery to the Senate, apparently suggesting that it be turned into one of the Senate chanceries. Due to the death of the king, this reform was incomplete. Later, the functions of the Secret Chancellery were transferred to the Preobrazhensky Order and the Supreme Privy Council. Under Anna Ioannovna, instead of the Secret Chancellery, the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs was created, and after its abolition in 1762 - the Secret Expedition of the Senate.
It should be noted that with the accession of Elizabeth Petrovna, known for the fact that she practically abolished the death penalty, humanization is observed in Russian legislation, the legal grounds for the use of torture are minimized, and under Alexander I, who called him "shame and reproachful to humanity", they were finally abolished.
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Kirill Bragin