SUMMARY:

The document published in the archival section was written by one of the associates of Peter I, a well known cameralist and bureaucrat of the Petrine epoch, Heinrich Fick. Involved in the political struggle surrounding Empress Anne’s ascension to the throne, Fick was exiled to Northern Siberia, where he spent ten years in a small fort. Fick’s stay in Siberia served as the immediate background for the text of his “Propositions.” The document focuses on abuses and disorder in the taxation of Siberian peoples, the Iakuts and the Tungus, and suggests ways to improve the position of the iasak-paying population in Siberia. Deeply sympathetic to these peoples, the document reflects an attempt to describe the management of different ethnic groups by ad hoc imperial institutions in Siberia from the point of view of cameralist theory, betraying this theory’s concern for the well-being of the subjects and for smooth and orderly administration. The document strikingly demonstrates the universalist assumptions of the early eighteenth-century cameralism in that Fick has no concern whatsoever for the cultural particularities of the region. At the same time, the document lends itself to anthropological analysis by bringing in Fick’s personal travel impressions, concerns, and evaluations.