“The sovereign leader of the Russian army and navy”: the problem of the leadership of the armed forces and the constitutional reform of 1906

For the first time in historiography, with the involvement of new, including archival, sources, the article examines such an important aspect of the history of the creation of the Fundamental State Laws on April 23, 1906, as a solution to the problem of leadership of the armed forces of the Russian Empire. The aggravation of this problem was caused by the establishment of the legislative State Duma, which could become a competitor to the II and key figures of the bureaucratic elite found it necessary to isolate the people's representation from this area, but they imagined the degree of such isolation in different ways. At the beginning of the 20th century the leadership of the armed forces meant being the commander-in-chief of the army and navy and management of the latter in administrative, technical and economic areas. P.A. Kharitonov, A.P. Salomon and Count A.F. Heyden in their draft Fundamental Laws, which were at the disposal of Nicholas II by December 1905, assigned to the tsar first of all the commander-in-Chief. The same was carried out by the draft of the State Chancellery prepared in January-February 1906 on the basis of Kharitonov's project. In March 1906, cardinal additions were made to the draft of the State Chancellery in the Council of Ministers under the chairmanship of Count S.Y. Witte and on his initiative. The draft of the Council of Ministers ensured that the monarch managed the army and navy not only administratively, but also technically and economically. A special meeting chaired by Nicholas II in April 1906 further strengthened the tsarist prerogative in the field of leadership of the armed forces. At the same time, the new Fundamental Laws did not exclude the indirect influence of the State Duma in this area.