Aprikaz (Russian: прика́з; IPA:[prʲɪˈkas]ⓘ, plural: prikazy) was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Tsardom of Russia from the 15th to the 18th centuries.[1] The term usually suggests the functionality of a modern "ministry", "office", "department", or "bureau"; however, in practice prikaz was historically applied to most governmental organizations regardless of their function or authority.[2] In modern Russian, prikaz literally means an 'order' in the meaning of 'directive' or 'command'.
Most of the prikazy were subordinated to the boyar duma. Some of them, palace prikazy (Russian: дворцовые приказы, romanized: dvortsovyje prikazy), were subordinated to the taynyi prikazorpervyi prikaz, which answered directly to the tsar of Russia. The patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' had his own prikazy.
Originally, prikazy were created by private orders given by the tsar to a certain person. The functions of the prikazy would be led by boyars and professional administrators. From 1512, the term "prikaz" started to be used to refer to offices. There were 22 prikazy (departments) in 1613, however this number would balloon to 80 by the mid-17th century.[1]
The prikazy were abolished by Peter the Great as part of his governmental reform program and replaced them, beginning in 1717, with administrative organs known as Collegiums. This process would undergo a long span of time; the Siberian Prikaz, for example, was restored in 1730 and existed until 1755. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great even established some new prikazy. The system was only fully eliminated by Catherine the Great in 1775.[citation needed]
Captive Prikaz, (Polonyanichy Prikaz from archaic Russian: полон, плен 'polon', 'plen' meaning "captive") — for the redemption of Russian captives and prisoners of war
Prikaz of Pans (Panskiy Prikaz) — office of Polish affairs
Administrative
Prikaz of the Seal (Pechatny Prikaz) — placed the tsar's seal on various documents granting various things to private individuals, and collected the corresponding duties
Stone Prikaz (Kamennyi Prikaz)
Coachman Prikaz (Courier Prikaz, Yam Prikaz: Yamskoy Prikaz)
Preobrazhensky prikaz (ru) — oversaw the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments in the 18th century
Prikaz of German feeds — probably, paid a salary to foreigners (known as "Germans" (Russian: немцы, romanized: niemtsy, which also means "mute people")) in Russian military or state service
Ritter Prikaz
Financial Prikazes
Domestic Prikaz (Pomestny Prikaz)
Accounting Prikaz
Prikaz of Grand Treasury
Prikaz of Grand Income
Security
Prikaz of Petitions (Chelobitny Prikaz) — considered complaints or petitions addressed to the Tsar; the adjective chelobitnaya (Russian: челобитная) comes from the expression bit' chelom, "to knock with one's forehead (on the ground)", meaning a very humble submission of a petition, with an extremely low bow. The standard form of such complaint included the words "Slave of God ... (or: 'Your slave') is beating with the forehead", or "Slaves and orphans are beating with foreheads"
Privy Prikaz (Prikaz tainyh del [ru], Tayny Prikaz) — secret police (1654–1676)
Robbery Prikaz (Razboiniy Prikas) — criminal police
Prikaz of Investigations (Sysknoy prikaz)
Regional Prikazes
Little Russia, Ministry of the Ukrainian (Malorossiya) Affairs (Малороссийский приказ, Malorossiyskiy prikaz)
Kazan (Казанский приказ, Приказ Казанского дворца, Kazan Palace Prikaz), Volga Region (Поволжье) Affairs (South-West of Russia, territories of former Kazan Khanate)
The classification of the various prikazes is a very difficult task. In fact, each major historian tries to build their own system of classification. Major variants include prikazes of a territory, of a class of population, or of an area of affairs. Another method of classification is to rank prikazes by subordination.
