Artemiy Volynsky's position in the debate on the anonymous project "About economic and industrial needs of Russia" in 1735

In early 1735, Anna Ioannovna received an economic project of an unknown author and ordered to discuss it among Russian senior officials. The Cabinet ministers Osterman and Prince Cherkassky, the senators (Field Marshal Prince Trubetskoy, General Ushakov, Baron Shafirov, Prince Trubetskoy, Count Golovkin, Naryshkin and Maslov), as well as the President of the Admiralty Board Count Golovin, Major-General Volynsky and Prince Kurakin, had to submit their views on the project. The anonymous project consisted of five points, indicating the sources for the improvement of economic and industrial spheres of the Russian empire. Among them there were: 1) the increase of taxes from the so called "aliens"; 2) a special poll tax for those who sheltered fugitive peasants in grassroots cities (as punishment); 3) the moving of "old regiments" (the former streltsy) from Nizhny Novgorod and Novgorod provinces to the "Tsaritsyn defence line"; 4) the creation of spare bread stores and the reduction of distilleries; 5) the creation of a special office of the Governing Senate to control the distribution of harvests and taxes. The organization of cereal stores in starving regions was a result of the project's discussion. The taxation of the "aliens" was not increased; the distilleries were not destroyed, but the Government bought bread to feed the starving people. The proposal of Volynsky to leave runaway serfs in their new places of residence was not accepted. The majority of persons who discussed the project supported the views of the anonymous author.