In the paper the activities of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire Osip Petrovich Kozodavlev are studied. His activities in a peasant question, to which no attention was paid, are researched. Truly said, this question was the most important direction of domestic policy of the Empire under Alexander I. Data for the research were taken from both of public administration acts, and memoirs. Among the firsts there are the documents kept in archives, allowing to specify some aspects of the minister’s activity in 1816-1819 when he had carried out the main reformer actions in implementations of some decrees, such as a decree of 1803 on free ploughmenploughmen, a decree of 1804 on permission to some merchants to own the inhabited lands in preparation the of Baltic region reforms. The provided data allow to state his important minister role in the affair to which in historical literature no attention was paid. In 1816-1819 namely in his activities the social side of the case was reflected. Based on a number of a new, for the first time mentioned sources, including archival materials, the paper authors reveal Cozodavlev’s role in a range of ways of the peasant question solution in this period – in the case (which was considered in the Senate in 1806) on so-called "pilipons", eventually left in government department without transferring into serfs; his role in the implementation of the decree of 1803 on the free ploughmenploughmen, expressing, in particular, in active participation in the activities of the Special Committee on this issue; role in the implementation of the decree of 1804 on permission to some received the 8-ranks merchants to own the inhabited lands with the peasants on terms, the provisions of which he sought to extend to other prosperous categories of not-noblemen. This given analysis helps to clarify the scope of activities of the Minister of Internal Affairs, which practically had no attention. The given conclusions shall be taken into account when analyze a research of domestic policy of the emperor Alexander I. That will allow placing accents more precisely in research literature in assessment of a role and value of politicians of the time.

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