Many millions from the state treasury are in uncertainty: Soul tax arrears in the 1720s-1760s

The relatively high collection of direct taxes in Russia was coupled with the government's inability to address issues of information management and documentation. This contradiction can be easily explained. The process of collecting the poll tax was greatly simplified (compared to the 17th century), allowing even low-skilled officials to carry out the task. Since the tax was to be distributed, collected, and delivered to the chancelleries by the taxpayers themselves (or their elected representatives), the small number of officials was not critical. However, managing the vast amount of paperwork required a level of expertise that the clerks of the time typically lacked. The material discussed leads to the following conclusions. The primary task when working with fiscal statistics from this period is the correct use of various types of data, thorough source criticism, and a reliance on primary sources, particularly fiscal documents from provincial chancelleries. This type of data demonstrates a high rate of poll tax collection (over 90%). Significant non-payment appeared in annual reports due to several factors: very strict payment deadlines, a certain level of taxpayer indiscipline, and most importantly, the lack of established procedures and channels for information transfer. Clerks played a key role in the emergence and maintenance of "bureaucratic chaos," which fostered opaque reporting practices and made it difficult to create and process required documentation on time. Nevertheless, the tax collection procedure itself allowed for the steady flow of revenue, even in the context of insufficient and underqualified provincial officials.