Interdepartmental conflicts within the administrative apparatus of the Russian Empire in the last third of the 18th century (on the example of the Irkutsk province)

The article examines the plot of the conflict among the Siberian urban bureaucracy of the 18th century through the prism of its political role. Attention is paid to the interaction and relations within the administrative structure of the subjects of the empire. The author has studied the illustrative conflict within the regional bureaucracy in the face of the two strongest institutions of the provincial city over the division of the police department. The materials that served as the main article are archival, previously unpublished documents related to one of the poorly studied topics - the history of the police in the regions of Siberia in the 18th century. The author's hypothesis is that the middle bureaucratic echelon of Russian society has independent interests as well as opportunities for political influence. The author dwells on the characteristics of the capabilities of representatives of the Russian bureaucracy to delay the consideration of the case even with the direct order of the leadership, in order to retain and strengthen their own positions in the management level. From this point of view, the bureaucracy had only one of the tools of resistance available to it - bureaucracy, deliberate delay and compliance with a full set of formalities. This phenomenon was complicated by the fact that the situation of the conflict of the leading forces of the city was used by numerous petitioners who, not receiving satisfaction of their interests from one side, rushed for protection to the other, thereby introducing more confusion into the delimitation of the already complex relations. The paper proves the thesis that the bureaucracy of the eighteenth century is not only an independent political force, but also a kind of political style in exercising power and protecting one's political ambitions.