Sibirskii Prikaz

a central state office in Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Sibirskii Prikaz was split off from the Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa (Kazan Palace Prikaz) in 1637. It had responsibility throughout all Siberia for administrative, judicial, military, and financial affairs, for trade, mining, and the postal and transportation system, and, to some extent, for relations with neighboring countries.

In the 17th century the Sibirskii Prikaz was headed by boyars or, less frequently, by okol’nichie (nobles with a rank lower than boyars). In the first provincial reform, that is, by the ukase of Dec. 18, 1708, the Sibirskii Prikaz became the Moscow Chancery for the province (gubernia) of Siberia. By 1710 it had virtually ceased to exist, its functions having been transferred to the governor of Siberia and the provincial chancery in Tobol’sk. In 1730 a decline in treasury revenues from Siberia prompted the government to reestablish the Sibirskii Prikaz and to place it under the authority of the Senate. The new Sibirskii Prikaz had responsibility only for administrative, financial, customs, and commercial affairs. A ukase of Dec. 15, 1763, permanently abolished the Sibirskii Prikaz.