State Council and the Political Crisis of the Interregnum

Abstract

The article is devoted to the activities of the highest state body of the Russian Empire during the interregnum of 1825. The political crisis changed the institutional status of the State Council. His position in the system of power during this period was not based on legislative acts, it depended on the position of the time-honored Senate and was determined by the tasks of the plan for Nikolai Pavlovich’s coming to power. It is shown that during the meeting on November 27, the members supported the initiative of Nicholas to swear allegiance to Constantine, but included in the official protocol an unacceptable formula of his abdication. Senate completely ignored the decision of the Council. This circumstance was perceived as normative and natural. The decisive meeting of the State Council took place on the night of December 13–14, but it is difficult to identify bureaucratic logic in this event. Nikolai gathered the members of the Council, read out a manifesto to them and, without requiring an oath, sent them home. For all the actors of these events, the key was the oath of the Senate. All this gives reason to conclude that the State Council was only the proscenium of the political struggle of the period of the interregnum, a theatrical performance that served for Nicholas as a source of information about the moods of the highest dignitaries. He made all the key decisions on his own, coordinating them only with his confidants, and implemented them through the decisions of the Senate.