IMPLEMENTING CONTROL OF CLERICAL AND ARCHIVAL ACTIVITIES IN THE DEPARTMENTAL SYSTEM UNDER MANAGEMENT OF THE RUSSIAN STATE TERRITORIES (on the example of the Chuvash Region)

The purpose of the study is to identify the main forms and methods of controlling central and local authorities in the field of record keeping and archival affairs at the regional level of public administration. Methods and materials. The source base of the research was made by recently published documents of Yadrin government office from the fund № 157 Yadrin Voivodeship office (1645–1775), stored in the Scientific and Historical Archive of St. Petersburg Institute of History under the Russian Academy of Sciences. The research is based on the basic principles of historical cognition – objectivity and historicism, which presuppose a comprehensive critical analysis of historical processes and phenomena in their formation, evolvement and development. Based on the historical and typological method, an attempt is made to identify general trends in implementing control in specific manifestations of the clerical and archival activities carried out by local state institutions. The novelty of the research lies not only in the use of new sources that were not previously involved in the study of the stated topic, but also in filling the existing gap in the development of Chuvashia’s history associated with the clerical and archival activities of local authorities in the territory of the region in the pre-Soviet period. The scientific and practical significance of the proposed publication meets the problems of modern Russian archival science. Study results. The subjects of control during the period under review were the tsar, the Boyar Duma, the prikazes, as well as the voivodes appointed by the supreme power to manage individual territories. As methods of control, the following were used: sending auditors – “detectives” – by the Boyar Duma to check the actions of the voivodes; submission of annual reports – “estimate books” and making up sign-up lists when changing voivodes to report to the Prikaz of the Kazan Palace; the practice of storing documents sent from the central authorities at their direct recipient, as well as in the form of a copy – in the government office (assembly house); the system of submitting petitions to implement feedback with the population; the institution of suretiship. Documents, including archival ones, were not only the object of control, but played a significant role in implementing the control activity itself as well. Conclusions. From the point of view of its organization, the control system established in the XVII century in the field of records management and archives was an important element of public administration and generally coped with the tasks set.