The article studies the reasons and principles of functioning of different collegial bodies created or projected for political and economic decision-making by the government in the period from the reform of the Council of Ministers in 1905 to the beginning of World War I. During this period, Russia's top officials already played the most important role in political and economic decision-making. Of course, the bureaucratization of the political elite was also accompanied by the bureaucratization of the supreme authority. The authors of the article consider the division of powers of departments and attempts to redefine the spheres of influence in the central administrative apparatus during the Duma monarchy on the eve of the War. They describe the position and degree of influence of some royal ministers (V.N. Kokovtsov,
S.I. Timashev, I.K. Grigorovich, S.D. Sazonov, I.P. Shipov, P.A. Stolypin) in this matter. The sources of the research were previously unexplored materials of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), published documents on the course of government meetings, in particular, Special statements of the Council of Ministers. In combination with these sources, a comprehensive analysis of the legislation in the field of public administration allows us to characterize in great detail the organization and activities of various types of interagency meetings.