In Muscovy and in Russia from the 15th to the 18th centuries, a prikaz was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities. The term usually suggests the functionality of a modern "ministry", "office" or "department". Most of the prikazes were subordinated to the Boyar Duma. Some of them were subordinated to the taynyi prikaz or pervyi prikaz, which answered directly to the tsar. The patriarch of Moscow and All Russia had his own prikazes. There was a large number of specialized prikazes. The set of prikazes varied over time.
*Captive Prikaz,, for the redemption of Russian captives and prisoners of war
*Prikaz of Pans - office of Polish affairs
Administrative
*Prikaz of the Seal - placed the tsar's seal on various documents granting various things to private individuals, and collected the corresponding duties
*Prikaz of Petitions - considered complaints or petitions addressed to the Tsar; the adjective chelobitnaya comes from the expression bit' chelom, "to knock with one's forehead ", meaning a very humble submission of a petition, with an extremely low bow. The standard form of such complaint included the words "Slave of God... is beating with the forehead", or "Slaves and orphans are beating with foreheads"
*Prikaz of Requiem - requiems for members of the tsar's family
Patriarchal Prikazes
*Patriarchal Prikaz-in-charge
*Patriarchal Treasury Prikaz
*Patriarchal Palace Prikaz
Other
*Order-in-charge - in charge of higher military and civil administration personnel
*Prikaz of kholops - considered the affairs of kholops
Origin
Originally, prikazes were created by private orders given by the tsar to a certain person. In some cases new orders bore the name of this person. From 1512 on 'Prikaz' was starting to be used as a name of constant offices.
Classification
The classification of the various prikazes is a very difficult task. In fact, each major historian tries to build their own system of classification. Major variants include prikazes of a territory, of a class of population, or of an area of affairs. Another method of classification is to rank prikazes by subordination.
Abolition
The prikazes were abolished by Peter the Great and replaced, beginning in 1717, with administrative organs known as collegiate. This process took a rather long time; the Siberian Prikaz, for example, was restored in 1730 and existed till 1755. At the beginning of the 18th century Peter the Great even established some new prikazes. The system was only fully eliminated by Catherine the Great in 1775.
