Abstract
This article focuses on the role of the personal factor on the process of developing, making, and implementing political decisions in the Russian Empire in the first third of the eighteenth century, and, more particularly, in St Petersburg. First, it is claimed that St Petersburg as the new imperial capital played a dual role in the government system. On the one hand, it represented a unique precedent that was unparalleled; on the other hand, the city acted as a bridgehead for administrative experiments, the most successful of which were planned to be extended to the territory of the entire state. In this regard, the most powerful and trusted persons, whose behavioural strategies directly influenced the reform process, were appointed to key positions within the government system of St Petersburg. The author refers to the construction of several complexes of inns in St Petersburg in 1722–1723 as an example that clearly marks the role of the personal factor in the government system. The article demonstrates how prince A. D. Menshikov, governor-general of St Petersburg Province carried out the general management of construction activities, and then promoted an initiative to publish a royal decree prohibiting private hiring of housing for visitors to the city and forcing them to settle in state inns. The author examines the role of other statesmen (A. M. Devieir, P. I. Yaguzhinsky, I. I. Bibikov, P. A. Tolstoy, A. I. Osterman, F. M. Apraksin), who launched a campaign to counter the prince’s initiative and the circumstances of the subsequent cancellation of the decree. As a result, it is concluded that the personal factor in the system of public administration, the importance of the tsar’s trust, and a wide network of social ties that made it possible to enlist support in the context of political decisions played the most significant role.