Chetvertnoy Prikaz

Prikaz (Russian: прика́з, prikaz; IPA: [prʲɪˈkas]) was an administrative (palace, civil, military, or church), judicial, territorial, and executive offices earlier in Muscovy and Russia of 15th-18th centuries. The term is usually implies "ministry", "office" or "department". In modern Russian "prikaz" literally means an order.

Most of Prikazes were subordinated to the Boyar Duma. Some of them (Palace Prikazes (дворцовые приказы)) were subordinated to the Tayny Prikaz, or Privy Prikaz that answered directly to Tsar. The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia had his own Prikazes.

There was a large number (up to 60) of specialized Prikazes. Their set varied over time.

Originally, Prikazes were created by private orders (Russian: приказ, prikaz) to do something given by the tsar to a certain person. In some cases new orders bore the name of this person (Order of dyak Vakhromeyev, where 'Vakhromeyev' is a last name).

From 1512 on 'Prikaz' was starting to be used as a name of constant offices.

The classification of the various Prikazes is a very difficult task. In fact, each major historian tries to build their own system of classification. Major variants include Prikazes of a territory, of a class of population, or of an area of affairs. Another method of classification is to rank Prikazes by subordination.

The Prikazes were abolished by Peter the Great and replaced, beginning in 1717, with administrative organs known as collegiate.

This process took a rather long time; the Siberian Prikaz, for example, was restored in 1730 and existed till 1755. At the beginning of the 18th century Peter the Great even established some new Prikazes. The system was only fully eliminated Catherine the Great in 1775.

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