"We have the right thing". The Presidential Library marking the 300th anniversary of the Russian Prosecutor's Office

January 12 is traditionally celebrated as a professional holiday - the Day of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. And 2022 is also a jubilee year, since the institute of prosecutorial supervision was established in Russia exactly 300 years ago in St. Petersburg.

In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, 2022 will hold events dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Prosecutor's Office of Russia.

The portal and the collections of the Presidential Library contain a lot of materials telling about the history and the present day of the Russian Prosecutor's Office, some of them are included in the section The Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation of the basic collection of the Presidential Library State Authority. On February 7, 2022, in the building of the library on Senate Square, 3, the opening of the exhibition Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Empire: marking the 300th anniversary of its creation will take place. The exhibition will be devoted to the history of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Empire: its establishment, formation and development, the activities of the Prosecutor Generals of the Senate in 1722-1802 and the Ministers of Justice, who were prosecutors-general in their positions in 1802-1917.

January 12, 1722 in accordance with the Imperial Decree of Peter I, the Russian Prosecutor's Office was established to the Governing Senate: "The Prosecutor General and Ober Prosecutor should be attached to the Senate, as well as in any Prosecutor's Board, which will have to report to the Prosecutor General". When the Prosecutor's Office was created by Peter I, the task was set to "destroy or weaken the evil arising from disorder in business, injustice, bribery and lawlessness". The full text of the Decree is available in the 6th volume of the Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire (1830).

Later, on January 27, Peter approved the Instruction on the position of the Prosecutor General of the Senate, which said: "The Prosecutor General is guilty to sit in the Senate and look firmly so that the Senate retains its position in all matters that are subject to Senate consideration and decision, truly , zealously and decently, without wasting time, according to regulations and decrees, he sent ... <...> Prosecutors must look over all, so that in their rank they act truly and zealously". A unique document - a digitized copy of this instruction, written by the hand of the emperor himself, is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Dmitry Serov in his dissertation Fiscal Service and Prosecutor's Office of Russia in the first third of the 18th century (2010) wrote that the objective prerequisite for the founding of the Prosecutor's Office was the need, which had developed by the beginning of the 1720s, to complete the construction of a control and supervisory mechanism designed to establish the rule of law in the state apparatus of Russia at a new level. The subjective prerequisite for the founding of the Prosecutor's Office was Peter I's awareness of the idea of ​​legality. The prototype of the Russian Prosecutor's Office was the French Prosecutor's Office, with the structure of which the emperor was introduced to the diplomat Andrei Matveyev and the naval officer Konon Zotov, who carefully studied the structure of the French state apparatus. In May 1721, Zotov submitted a project to create the post of "the nation's overseer or state solicitor", which formed the basis for the preparation by Peter I of the law "The Office of the Prosecutor General".

The historian Pyotr Ivanov, in his rare book The Experience of the Biographies of Prosecutors General and Ministers of Justice (1863), expressed the opinion that the introduction of the control principle in our country should be attributed to "the solicitude of a genius reformer". In order to monitor the activities of the courts, prevent deviations from the law, explain the meaning and significance of new decrees, Peter created the institution of prosecutors. This position was the penultimate rung of the ladder of government instances, headed by the monarch himself.

The emperor appointed Count Pavel Yaguzhinsky as the first Prosecutor General of the Senate. Introducing the Prosecutor General to the Senators, Peter I said: "This is my eye, with which I will see everything".

Over the centuries of its activity, the Russian law enforcement agencies have changed and improved. The main stages of the development and transformation of the prosecutor's office were outlined by Vasily Shevchenko in his author's abstract The Prosecutor's Office in the system of separation of powers and the state mechanism for protecting the constitutional rights of citizens (2009). He wrote that at the present stage there are constant changes in the legal status of the prosecutor's office. Russian society is developing, and the legislator is bringing the system of the prosecutor's office into a state that meets the requirements of Russian statehood.

Today, the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, while maintaining the historically unchanged foundations and goals of its activities, complies with the new principles of the functioning of state power.

New requirements for prosecutors are being put forward and more complex tasks are being posed. Large-scale reforms, the implementation of national projects require a new quality of prosecutorial supervision so that the human rights and law enforcement potential of the prosecutor's office really contributes to the development of a democratic state governed by the rule of law.

The fight against crime and corruption, protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, and ensuring the unity of the country's legal space continue to be among the priority areas of activity of the Prosecutor's Office.

At present, the prosecution authorities attach great importance to timely informing the bodies of representative and executive power at all levels about the state of legality in law enforcement practice.

This is the main direction of the Prosecutor's Office, which the well-being and legal protection of citizens, the security and interests of the state largely depend on.

Information from the website of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation was used while preparing the material

https://epp.genproc.gov.ru/web/gprf/about-the-proc/300-years.