Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa

(Kazan Palace Prikaz), a central administrative office in Russia from the mid-16th to the early 18th century.

The Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa, established in the 1550’s and 1560’s, was a judicial and financial administration in charge of territories situated chiefly in southeastern Russia: the districts of Meshchera and Nizhny Novgorod (until 1587); Kazan with the middle and lower Volga regions as well as Bashkiria (from the annexation of these territories until the early 18th century); the cities of the former Khanate of Astrakhan, which were administered by the Posol’skii Prikaz (Foreign Office) in the 17th century; and the Ural Mountains and Siberia (from 1599 through 1637). From the establishment of the Sibirskii Prikaz (Siberian Prikaz) until 1663, the collegiums of the Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa and the Sibirskii Prikaz were headed by the same person. In the late 16th and the early 17th century, the Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa also administered some districts in northern European Russia.

The Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa supervised local administrations, compiled tax records for the iasak (a tax paid in furs, cattle, and the like), and collected the iasak from the non-Russian population. As a rule, the iasak was sent to Moscow, in contrast to monetary revenues, which were used for local expenditures. The Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa was abolished when the province of Kazan was established in 1708.