The Problem of the Economic Rights of the Nobility in the Legislative Commission in 1761-1762 and the Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility

The article discusses the economic rights of the Russian nobility in the projects of Chapter XXII "On the Nobility and Its Advantages" created by the Legislative Commission in 1761-1762, in its relationship with the 1762 Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility to serve and not to serve. In 1951, the Soviet historian N.L. Rubinstein put forward a concept according to which the programme of the nobility's freedom was formulated by the court "pro-noble" group of the Vorontsovs in the Legislative Commission at the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. At the same time, he argued that the key point in the programme was the economic privileges of the nobility, but not the freedom to do and not to do service. However, due to the opposition of the "pro-merchant" group of the Shuvalovs, the economic privileges were not approved by Peter III. He approved only the freedom to serve and not serve; thus, the Manifesto was adopted. Rubinstein's concept of struggle around the nobility's rights on the eve of the Manifesto's adoption was supported by historians S.M. Troitsky, S.O. Schmidt, O.A. Omelchenko, M. Raeff, I. de Madariaga, I.V. Kurukin, S.V. Polskoy. However, as it has been revealed, Rubinstein made a significant factual error in the reconstruction of the work of the Legislative Commission on the draft of Chapter XXII "On the Nobility and Its Advantages". In this regard, this article again considers the problem of the economic rights of the nobility in the Legislative Commission of 1754-1766 in its relationship with the Manifesto. As a result, six drafts of the chapter, created in 1761-1762, have been identified and analysed. It has been established that the problem of the nobility's freedom to serve and not to serve never arose either in the Legislative Commission or in the Senate in connection with the economic rights of the nobility before Peter III's accession to the throne. Accordingly, linking the adoption of the 1762 Freedom Manifesto with the struggle over the economic rights of the nobility is groundless. Work on the formulation of the economic rights of the nobility began in the Legislative Commission in 1761 and continued in 1762. As can be seen from the drafts of Chapter XXII, the privileges of the nobles in the economy were expanded from one draft to another. This process was then interrupted by Catherine II's accession to the throne, not by the Shuvalovs' group. At the same time, although the nobility's economic rights were formulated in the Commission regardless of the idea of their freedom, the very concept of the nobility as an important subject of the economy worked to positively resolve the issue of freedom to serve and not to serve. According to the author, the discussion of the economic rights in the Legislative Commission in 1761-1762 and the adoption of the 1762 Manifesto is not in a causal connection, but in a contextual one.

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