Prison Castles, Buildings of the Presence, Treasury Buildings: “New Arrangement of Government Buildings” in Russian Cities in the First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

The article is devoted to mass state-owned construction in Russia in the 19th century. The introduction of the ministerial system of government in 1802 marked a new stage in the reorganization of Russian cities, which began during the reign of Catherine II and affected mainly provincial centers. With the establishment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was entrusted with the construction industry, architectural and urban planning reforms in the empire were given a systemic character, aimed at simultaneously covering all cities in all 33 provinces according to the administrative-territorial division of the country established under Alexander I. Having begun its activities with an audit of the state of their provision with approved regular plans and state buildings, the new – “internal” – ministry decisively aimed at “bringing to an end the matter” in relation to the former and “new arrangement” of the latter. The article, based on legislative and identified archival sources, reconstructs the course of
mass state construction in Russian cities during the first decades of the functioning of the ministerial system of governance. The drawings discovered in the archives reproduce unknown model projects, including those by A.D. Zakharov from 1803.