From 1711 to 1917, the Governing Senate was the highest legislative, judicial, and executive body subordinate to the Russian emperors . The senate was instituted by Peter the Great to replace the Boyar Duma and lasted until the very end of the Russian Empire . It was chaired by the Procurator General , who served as the link between the sovereign and the Senate; he acted, in the emperor's own words, as "the sovereign's eye".
18-536: Originally established only for the time of Peter's absence, it became a permanent body after his return. The number of senators was first set at nine and, in 1712, increased to ten. Any disagreements between the Chief Procurator and the Senate were to be settled by the monarch. Certain other officials and a chancellery were also attached to the Senate. While it underwent many subsequent changes, it became one of
36-528: Is the second son and third child (of five children) of Alexander Lieven (of the Baltic German princely family, tracing ancestry to Liv chieftain Kaupo) by his first wife, Irishwoman Veronica Monahan (d. 1979). He is the elder brother of Anatol Lieven and Nathalie Lieven QC, and a brother of Elena Lieven and Michael Lieven and distantly related to Christopher Lieven (1774–1839), who was Ambassador to
54-661: The Court of St James from Imperial Russia over the period 1812 to 1834, and whose wife was Dorothea von Benckendorff, later Princess Lieven (1785–1857), a notable society hostess in Saint Petersburg and influential figure among many of the diplomatic, political, and social circles of 19th-century Europe. Lieven is "a great-grandson of the Lord Chamberlain of the Imperial Court" of Russia. Lieven
72-664: The Secret Council . Catherine I of Russia introduced the Supreme Secret Council . Its role varied during different reigns. Peter III of Russia created the Imperial Council on 20 May 1762 ("Императорский Совет"), or, formally "The Council at the Highest Court" ("Совет при высочайшем дворе"). It was dismissed shortly after the succession of Catherine II of Russia . The State Council
90-589: The State Council of the Soviet Union was created amid its imminent breakup . The latter council would be short lived and dissolved by year end. Dominic Lieven Dominic Lieven (born 19 January 1952) is an English research professor at Cambridge University (Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College) and a Fellow of the British Academy and of Trinity College, Cambridge . Lieven
108-591: The University of Cambridge in 2011. In May 2016, Lieven was one of 300 historians who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian warning voters that if they chose to leave the European Union in a process called Brexit on 23 June of that year, they would be condemning Britain to irrelevance. Lieven was historical adviser on the BBC 's television adaptation of War and Peace , which added incest to
126-739: The Napoleonic era and the First World War, and on European aristocracy. Lieven is on the Editorial Board of Journal of Intelligence and Terrorism Studies . He was elected in 2001 Fellow of the British Academy , and was head of the History Department at the London School of Economics from 2009 to 2011; he was appointed lecturer there in 1978, and professor in 1993. He was appointed to his current position at
144-403: The council was the preliminary investigation, promulgation and abrogation of laws. There were four departments of the council: Legislative; Civil and Ecclesiastical Administration; State Economy; and Industry, Science and Commerce. Each department had its own presiding officer (State Secretary) and met separately to discuss matters assigned to their departments. There were also plenary sessions of
162-575: The country. The Senate was composed of several departments, two of which were Courts of Cassation (one for criminal cases, one for civil cases). It also included a Department of Heraldry , which managed matters relating to the rights of the nobles and honorary citizens. Count Ivan Musin-Pushkin , Boyar Tikhon Streshnev , Prince Petr Golitsyn , Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov , Grigoriy Plemiannikov, Prince Grigory Volkonsky [ ru ] , General Mikhail Samarin , Quartermaster general Vasiliy Apukhtin and Nazariy Melnitskiy . As an ober-secretary
180-537: The monarch, who could support the majority, a minority, or disregard the council's recommendations altogether, as he saw fit. According to Dominic Lieven it "played no part in the formulation of foreign policy and its members' access to the emperor was very limited. During 1906–1917, the status of the State Council was defined by the Russian Constitution of 1906 . Its chairman was appointed by
198-504: The most important institutions of imperial Russia, especially for administration and law. The State Council , created by Alexander I , was supposed to inherit the executive power of the Senate. An envisioned parliament was to inherit legislative power, but that never happened. In the 19th century, the Senate evolved into the highest judicial body in Russia. As such, it exercised control over all legal institutions and officials throughout
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#1732765374567216-418: The narrative, and was slated by Downton Abbey adviser Alastair Bruce over its mistaken military costumes. Lieven said: You couldn't completely rule out the strangest sexual antics in young aristocratic St Petersburg, though brother-sister incest is perhaps a bit ripe.... I thought it was pretty good given modern tolerances and pressures. It gets the spirit of Tolstoy and his book right. Dominic Lieven
234-599: The tsar. Half of its members were appointed by the tsar from persons distinguished at civil and military service, and half by elections from various categories of society, separately: The State Council was the upper house of the parliament , while the State Duma of the Russian Empire was the lower house . Compared to the contemporary British House of Lords and Prussian Herrenhaus , the Russian upper chamber
252-547: The whole council presided over by the Chairman of the State Council. The council as a whole examined projects of law proposed by the ministers who were ex-officio members. The majority of their sessions concerned the budget and state expenditures but they would examine anything submitted to them. They had no authority to propose changes to the law, to examine anything that was not submitted to them for examination or decision-making authority. The council only made recommendations to
270-535: Was appointed Anisim Schukin . State Council of Imperial Russia The State Council (Russian: Госуда́рственный сове́т , IPA: [ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj sɐˈvʲet] ) was the supreme state advisory body to the tsar in the Russian Empire . From 1906, it was the upper house of the parliament under the Russian Constitution of 1906 . Early tsars' councils were small and dealt primarily with external politics . Peter I of Russia introduced
288-536: Was educated at Downside School , a Benedictine Roman Catholic boarding independent school in Stratton-on-the-Fosse , near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, followed by Christ's College, Cambridge , where he graduated top of the class of 1973 (Double First with Distinction), and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University in 1973/4. Lieven is a writer on Russian history, on empires and emperors, on
306-404: Was established by Alexander I of Russia in 1810 as part of Speransky 's reforms . Although envisaged by Speransky as the upper chamber of the Russian parliament , it was actually an advisory legislative body composed of people whom the tsar could trust. The number of members varied at different periods. Upon its establishment in 1810 there were 35 members; in 1890 there were 60. The main duty of
324-587: Was more democratically constituted, as half of its members were democratically elected from different sections of society, while the Herrenhaus consisted of hereditary peers, and the House of Lords consisted of hereditary peers and clergy from privileged dioceses. The State Council ceased to exist after the February Revolution of 1917. The Soviet Union did not replace this council until 1991 when
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