Vsyakogo China Lyudem: Ways of Expressing the Addressee in the Printed Decrees of Peter the Great

The article studies the ways of expressing the addressee in the printed decrees of Peter the Great from 1714 to 1725. The two most typical formulaic nominations “to all people of all ranks” and “to all those in business” are analyzed in detail. A number of linguistic features of such formulas are identified, manifested primarily at the grammatical level: special word order (following the Latin pattern); calquing; combination with a determinative pronoun; the use of prepositional-case forms, and others. 
Peter the Great's desire to explain the content of his decrees to everyone and to bring it to the attention of all subjects, regardless of their rank, is noted. This tendency is reflected in the frequent use of the lexemes with the root вѢд-(вѢст-). For comparative purposes, decrees of Catherine I and Peter II (1725–1730) on various topics are examined in order to trace the linguistic changes in the tradition of addressee nomination in the printed decrees of the post-Petrine period. Initial observations show that the most stable and traditional formula, dating back to the 11th century, is "every kind of person", which is often used not only to nominate the addressee. In the decrees of the post-Petrine era, the use of more complex syntactic structures indicating the addressee is noticeable, as well as the desire to specify people by rank, status and position.