Studying the History of the State Control in the Russian Empire During the Period of the Duma Monarchy

Abstract

After the establishment of constitutional monarchy in Russia as a result of the 1905–1906 reforms, the position of the Russian State Control (imperial audit service) changed. Formerly relatively independent, the State Control, whose head was directly accountable to the Emperor, now found State Control provoked a wide public discussion, which involved Duma deputies, employees of the State control as well as competent Russian economists and financial experts, who made relevant recommendations calling for reducing the number of state institutions that were unaccountable to the audit service and giving the latter more independence. This paper analyses the key works of pre-revolutionary authors published in the early 20th century and devoted to the history of the State Control of the Russian Empire. Both in the imperial period and today, the Russian audit institution, in contrast with political, historical and military topics, has been of primary interest not to historians, but to economists, financiers and lawyers, since it requires special knowledge of the State Control’s technical mechanisms. Based on this, the author selected the following works that require thorough examination: How People’s Money Is Spent in Russia by I.Kh. Ozerov, On the Transformation of the State Control by Yu.V. Tansky, an official anniversary edition State Control. 1811–1911, and Essays on the Russian Budget Law. Part 1 by L.N. Yasnopolsky. The author of this article considers these works to be the highest quality studies on the Russian State Control at the beginning of the 20th century and their analysis to be of unquestionable importance for contemporary research into the history of the Russian audit institution.