  It is shown that the St\"uckelberg formalism can be regarded as a
field-enlarging transformation that introduces an additional gauge symmetry to
the considered model. The appropriate BRST charge can be defined. The physical
state condition, demanding that that a physical state is to be anihilated by
the BRST charge, is shown to be equivalent to the St\"uckelberg condition.
Several applications of the new approach to the formalism are presented. The
comparison with the BFV procedure is given. (The author field has been
corrected.)
