ABSTRACT
On September 8, 1802, the Russian Emperor Alexander I issued a Manifesto that established eight central ministries of executive power, including the Ministry of Internal Aairs (MVD) (Kaiser and Marker, 1994). Numerous historians noted this document instituted the Russian police bureaucracy and concurrent development of the Russian politseistaat (police state) (Fastov, 2005; Rybnikov and Aleksushin, 2008; Yaney, 1973). e new government institutional ministers were personally appointed by the emperor and ordered to consult with each other prior to reporting to him (Yaney, 1973). e result was the creation of an unocial, and later ocial, “committee of ministers” (later known as the “state council”) that met regularly and was the only consultative agency to the emperor other than the Senate. Both played an important role in the political life of the Russian Empire throughout the entire nineteenth century.
