Revisiting the reasons for the closing of the Olonets court of conscience

Based on unpublished documents from the Russian State Historical Archive and legislative acts, an attempt was made to analyze the reasons for the closure of the court of conscience in the Olonets Province in 1848. The relevance of the research topic is due to the absence of domestic historiographical works examining the abolition of courts of conscience in the Russian Empire. Moreover, consideration of issues related to the activities of domestic courts of conscience helps to analyze more deeply the state of the entire pre-reform judicial system. The article analyzes the reasons for the closure of the Olonets Court of Conscience in 1848 in comparison with the Astrakhan Court of Conscience closed in 1828 and the Arkhangelsk Court of Conscience closed in 1847. It is concluded that in the Olonets Province, the main reason for the closing of this court was a small number of cases pending in this judicial institution. The closing of the Olonets Court of Conscience was initiated by the Minister of Justice, V. N. Panin, while in the Astrakhan and Arkhangelsk provinces different administrative mechanism was used and the closing of their respective courts was initiated by local authorities (the heads of provinces). The personnel and financial issues in the Olonets Court of Conscience were not as challenging as, for example, in the neighboring Arkhangelsk Province. The closing of the Olonets Court of Conscience took place not only as part of the reorganization of the judicial system of the Olonets Province, but also as a state event aimed at saving budget funds.