Mikhail Speransky (1772 - 1839) was not a hereditary nobleman. Four generations of clergy, honest and respectable subjects of the Russian Empire - that's what they were proud of in their family. The boy learned to read and write early, at the age of five he himself read the Law of God and the Psalter. At the age of seven, he easily entered the Vladimir Seminary. Mikhail showed qualities rare for a child of his age: curiosity, perseverance, the ability to briefly and clearly state the most difficult concepts. The teachers first called him Speransky, and then offered to choose this word as a surname. Speransky is Nadezhdin in Russian.
The seminary selected the best students and sent them to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. And in this seminary there was no equal to him in teaching and diligence. He was ready to teach, but a happy accident intervened. His Excellency A. B. Kurakin chose the secretary. There was no better candidate than Speransky. So the former seminarian ended up at the court of Paul I. He was collected, neat, literate and smart. His erudition could be the envy of a professor, and his ability to speak - the best speakers.
Speransky became an important person in the state in just three years. He is accepted at court, rich, he was granted the title of nobility. He is married, he loves, is loved and happy. He is 27 years old, he is a real state councilor. But fate not only spoiled Speransky, she took away his beautiful wife. The birth was difficult, the child survived, and the mother died. He was monogamous and never remarried. He raised his daughter alone, and he had no mistresses. This story adds another touch to the portrait of Speransky - he gave all his spiritual strength to the Fatherland and his daughter.
Under Alexander I, he was invited to serve in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Count Kochubey, the head of the department, appreciated the new employee and instructed him to deal with the most complex legal issues. Speransky stood out from the background of his colleagues. He is honest, did not take bribes, did not know how to be mean. He argued that the rule of law is the main condition for the existence of the state. He openly declared that a reform was needed, as a result of which Russia would have a constitutional monarchy. Oddly enough, the Emperor supported Speransky's innovations, he was not afraid of the phrase "destroy the autocracy."
Emperor's Secretary- this is the name of the new position of the young official. His career was envied: Deputy Attorney General, Privy Councilor, Secretary of State, Director of the Commission of Laws. The personal assignment of the emperor is to develop a plan for state education, on which the "Secret Committee" worked. Alexander I considered this the most important task, he often met with Speransky and demanded daily reports.
Speransky managed to convince the emperor to change the procedure for obtaining titles and privileges. In the Russian Empire, since the time of Catherine II, it was customary to assign ranks to noble children. A child was born, and immediately the rank of the fifth class was brought to him on a silver platter. That is, it is still unintelligent, does not know how to walk, and is listed as a chamber junker. Ten years will pass, the child will enter the age, then he will be granted the title of chamberlain, and with it - a warm and bready place. Speransky worked on the decree. From now on, the "non-service" chamber junkers and chamberlains had to take care of the place. If you do not serve the state, you lose your title, and with it the privileges attached to it. The deadline is two months.
Next, Speransky took up the "Table of Ranks". He offered to check officials before assigning them a new rank. The word "exam" scared everyone. Just think, noble children have to prove their suitability for the rank! Oh, and fussed undergrowth! A university diploma was still all right, and it was still possible to master French as a foreign language. But law and economics, physics, statistics and economics ... Lord, well, who is capable of this ?! Five percent, at best ten. The rest flew into a rage, foreseeing the loss of rewards and privileges.
Speransky gushed with ideas. Until 1812, he managed to reorganize all the ministries. He tried to make changes to the structure of the Senate, but his enemies managed to convince Alexander I to postpone the project until better times. Then the war began, then it was necessary to think about restoration. The project was placed in a distant box, where it was buried. But the plan to establish a Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo was adopted.
Speransky dreamed of the time when Russia would become a state of law. The impending changes and his enthusiasm frightened those close to the emperor, and as a result of palace intrigues, the bold reformer ended up in exile. First Nizhny Novgorod, then Perm. Until August 1816, Speransky lived on the verge of poverty. Upon learning of this, the emperor changed his anger to mercy and appointed him governor of Penza. Only seven months was Speransky in this post.
His reforms:
- introduced local self-government;
- delegated part of the duties of the governor to the vice-governors;
- charged officials with holding receptions of citizens;
- banned the sale of landless peasants;
- facilitated the conditions for the exit of peasants from serfdom;
- appointed a single fee;
- determined the conditions for issuing plots to landless peasants.
At the end of March 1812, Speransky received an order to restore order in Siberia within two years and draw up a plan for its development. To do this, he was given a new position - Governor General. He coped with the task: all his proposals were approved and accepted for execution in 1821. Speransky was not in St. Petersburg for 9 years. The emperor thanked him by appointing him a member of the State Council for the Department of Laws. Knowing how Speransky loves his daughter, the emperor appointed her to the post of maid of honor. And he added three and a half thousand acres of land to him - a good increase in salary.
The most respected minister of the country- This is Speransky. Usually the change of kings on the throne led to the removal of all major officials. Nicholas I, having replaced Alexander I on the throne, asked Speransky to remain in the government. The trial of the Decembrists became a severe test for him. He knew some of them, and therefore was afraid to be biased. In addition, Speransky agreed with many of their proposals. The emperor also understood the imperfection of the judicial system. They assembled a commission whose task is to streamline the legislation. Mikhail Speransky, of course, was appointed head of the commission. The work took five years, and the result was forty-five volumes of the Complete Collection of Laws.
Based on the material collected by the commission on the history of Russian legislation, the commission, working hard for another three years, compiled a complete “Code of Laws of the Russian Empire”. By decision of the State Council, it entered into force on January 1, 1835.
For this truly titanic work, Nicholas I awarded Speransky with the St. Andrew's Star, and he did this by removing this high award from himself.
Three years later, in December 1838, Speransky fell ill. It seems to be a common cold, but the weakened body could not stand it. New Year's gift the title of count became from the emperor, but the illness proceeded so hard that there was no strength to rejoice. February 1839 was marked by severe frosts, but on January 11 it got warmer, the clouds parted, and the sun came out. By noon the great reformer had died. Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was buried almost according to the royal protocol. The Alexander Nevsky Lavra received its former seminarian. Nicholas I was immensely upset. He understood that he would no longer be able to find a person equal to Speransky. Some courtiers recalled the words of Napoleon, who offered Alexander I to give him Mikhail Mikhailovich in exchange for any of his kingdoms. Others recalled the reforms of Speransky, listed his services to the Fatherland. Still others regretted that this amazing man failed to realize his dream - to convince the emperor to abandon autocracy and make Russia a constitutional monarchy.
Childhood and youth
Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was born on January 1, 1772 in the village of Cherkutino, Vladimir province (now in the Sobinsky district of the Vladimir region). Father, Mikhail Vasilyevich Tretyakov (1739-1801), was a priest of the church on the estate of Ekaterininsky nobleman Saltykov. All household chores lay entirely on the mother - Praskovya Fedorova, daughter of the local deacon.
Of all the children, only 2 sons and 2 daughters have grown to adulthood. Michael was the eldest child. He was a boy of poor health, prone to thoughtfulness, and learned to read early. Mikhail spent almost all his time alone or in communication with his grandfather Vasily, who retained a wonderful memory for various everyday stories. It was from him that the future statesman received the first information about the structure of the world and the place of man in it. The boy regularly went to church with his blind grandfather and there he read the Apostle and the Book of Hours instead of the sexton.
Speransky subsequently never forgot about his origin and was proud of him. His biographer M. A. Korf told the story of how one evening he dropped in on Speransky, then already a prominent official. Mikhail Mikhailovich made a bed for himself on a bench with his own hands: he laid down a sheepskin coat and a dirty pillow.
The boy was six years old when an event occurred in his life that had a huge impact on his later life: in the summer, the owner of the estate, Nikolai Ivanovich, and Archpriest Andrei Afanasyevich Samborsky, who was then chamberlain of the court of the heir to the throne, Pavel Petrovich, arrived in Cherkutino, and later (since 1784) became the confessor of the Grand Dukes Alexander and Konstantin Pavlovich. Samborsky fell in love with the boy very much, he met his parents, played with him, carried him in his arms, and jokingly invited him to St. Petersburg.
Vladimir Seminary
Opala (1812-1816)
The reforms carried out by Speransky affected almost all layers Russian society . This caused a storm of dissatisfied exclamations from the nobility and officials, whose interests were most affected. All this had a negative effect on the position of the state adviser himself. Alexander I did not satisfy the request for resignation in February 1811, and Speransky continued to work. But the further course of affairs and time brought him more and more ill-wishers. In the latter case, Erfurt and meetings with Napoleon were remembered to Mikhail Mikhailovich. This reproach in the conditions of the aggravated Russian-French relations was especially heavy. Intrigue always plays a big role where there is a regime of personal power. To pride was added in Alexander an extreme fear of ridicule. If someone laughed in his presence, looking at him, Alexander immediately began to think that they were laughing at him. In the case of Speransky, the opponents of the reforms performed this task brilliantly. Having agreed among themselves, the participants in the intrigue began for some time to regularly report to the sovereign various impudent reviews coming from the lips of his secretary of state. But Alexander did not seek to listen, since there were problems in relations with France, and Speransky's warnings about the inevitability of war, his insistent calls to prepare for it, specific and reasonable advice did not give grounds for doubting his loyalty to Russia. On his 40th birthday, Speransky was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky. However, the handing ritual was unusually strict, and it became clear that the “star” of the reformer was beginning to fade. Speransky's ill-wishers (among whom was the Swedish baron Gustav Armfeld, chairman of the Finnish Affairs Committee, and A. D. Balashov, head of the Ministry of Police) became even more active. They passed on to Alexander all the gossip and rumors about the Secretary of State. But, perhaps, these desperate denunciations in the final analysis would not have had a strong effect on the emperor if in the spring of 1811 the camp of opponents of the reforms had not suddenly received ideological and theoretical reinforcement. In Tver, a circle of people formed around Alexander's sister Ekaterina Pavlovna who were dissatisfied with the liberalism of the sovereign and, in particular, with the activities of Speransky. In their eyes, Speransky was a "criminal." During the visit of Alexander I, the Grand Duchess introduced Karamzin to the sovereign, and the writer handed him the "Note on Ancient and New Russia" - a kind of manifesto of the opponents of change, a generalized expression of the views of the conservative direction of Russian social thought. To the question whether it is possible to limit autocracy in any way without weakening the saving royal power, he answered in the negative. Any changes, "any news in the state order is an evil, which should be resorted to only when necessary." Salvation Karamzin saw in the traditions and customs of Russia, its people, who do not need to take an example from Western Europe. Karamzin asked: “And will the farmers be happy, freed from the power of the master, but betrayed as a sacrifice to their own vices? There is no doubt that […] the peasants are happier […] having a vigilant guardian and supporter.” This argument expressed the opinion of the majority of the landowners, who, according to D. P. Runich, "lost their heads only at the thought that the constitution would abolish serfdom and that the nobility would have to give way to the plebeians." Repeatedly heard them, apparently, and the emperor. However, the views were concentrated in one document, written vividly, vividly, convincingly, based on historical facts and a person who is not close to the court, not invested with power that he would be afraid to lose. This note by Karamzin played a decisive role in his attitude towards Speransky. At the same time, the self-confidence of Speransky himself, his careless reproaches against Alexander I for inconsistency in state affairs, ultimately overwhelmed the cup of patience and irritated the emperor. From the diary of Baron M. A. Korf. Entry dated October 28, 1838: “Giving full high justice to his mind, I can’t say the same about his heart. I do not mean here a private life in which one can call him a truly kind person, or even judgments in cases in which he, too, was always inclined towards goodness and philanthropy, but what I call the heart in a state or political respect - character, straightforwardness, rightness, steadfastness in the once chosen rules. Speransky had ... neither character, nor political, nor even private rightness. To many of his contemporaries, Speransky seemed exactly the way he was described by his main biographer in the words just quoted.
The denouement came in March 1812, when Alexander I announced to Speransky the termination of his official duties. At 8 pm on March 17, a fateful conversation took place between the Emperor and the Secretary of State in the Winter Palace, the content of which historians can only speculate about. Speransky went out “almost unconscious, instead of papers he began to put his hat in his briefcase and finally fell into a chair, so that Kutuzov ran for water. A few seconds later, the door from the sovereign’s office opened, and the sovereign appeared on the threshold, apparently upset: “Farewell again, Mikhail Mikhailovich,” he said, and then disappeared ... ”On the same day, the Minister of Police Balashov was already waiting for Speransky with an order to leave the capital . Mikhail Mikhailovich silently listened to the emperor's command, only looked at the door of the room where his twelve-year-old daughter was sleeping, collected some of the business papers available at home for Alexander I and, having written a farewell note, left. He could not even imagine that he would return to the capital only after nine years, in March 1821.
Contemporaries will call this resignation "the fall of Speransky." In reality, it was not a simple fall of a high dignitary, but the fall of a reformer with all the ensuing consequences. Going into exile, he did not know what sentence was pronounced on him in the Winter Palace. The attitude of the common people towards Speransky was contradictory, as M. A. Korf notes: “... in some places he went around, quite loudly saying that the sovereign’s favorite was slandered, and many landlord peasants even sent salutary prayers for him and lit candles. Having risen, - they said, - from dirt to high ranks and positions and being the mind above all among the royal advisers, he became a serf ..., inciting against himself all the masters who, for this, and not for any betrayal, decided to destroy him ". From September 23, 1812 to September 19, 1814, Speransky was exiled in the city of Perm. From September to October 1812, M. M. Speransky lived in the house of the merchant I. N. Popov. However, the accusation of treason was not written off. In 1814, Speransky was allowed to live under police supervision in his small estate, Velikopolye, Novgorod province. Here he met with A. A. Arakcheev and through him petitioned Alexander I for his complete “forgiveness”. M. M. Speransky repeatedly appealed to the emperor and the minister of police with a request to clarify his position and protect him from insults. These appeals had consequences: by order of Alexander, Speransky was to be paid 6 thousand rubles a year from the moment of expulsion. This document began with the words: "To the Privy Councilor Speransky, who is in Perm ...". In addition, the order was evidence that the emperor Speransky does not forget and appreciates.
Return to service. (1816-1839)
Penza Civil Governor
On August 30 (September 11), 1816, by decree of the emperor, M. M. Speransky was returned to public service and appointed Penza civil governor. Mikhail Mikhailovich took vigorous measures to restore proper order in the province and soon, according to M. A. Korf, "the entire Penza population fell in love with their governor and glorified him as a benefactor of the region." Speransky himself, in turn, assessed this region in a letter to his daughter: “the people here, generally speaking, are kind, the climate is wonderful, the land is blessed ... I will say in general: if the Lord brings us to live here with you, then we will live here more peacefully and more pleasantly, than anywhere and ever lived hitherto .. "
Siberian Governor General
However, in March 1819, Speransky unexpectedly received a new appointment - Governor-General of Siberia. Speransky extremely quickly delved into local problems and circumstances with the help of the "glasnost" proclaimed by him. Direct appeal to the highest authorities ceased to "constitute a crime." In order to somehow improve the situation, Speransky begins to reform the administration of the region. The "first collaborator" in carrying out the Siberian reforms was the future Decembrist G. S. Batenkov. Together with Speransky, he was energetically engaged in the development of the "Siberian Code" - an extensive code of reforming the administrative apparatus of Siberia. Of particular importance among them were two projects approved by the emperor: "Institutions for the management of the Siberian provinces" and "Charter on the management of foreigners". A feature was the new division of the indigenous population of Siberia proposed by Speransky according to the way of life into sedentary, nomadic and vagrant.
During the period of his work, Batenkov sincerely believed that Speransky, “a kind and strong nobleman,” would really transform Siberia. Subsequently, it became clear to him that Speransky was not given "any means to fulfill the entrusted order." However, Batenkov believed that "Speransky cannot be personally blamed for the failure." At the end of January 1820, Speransky sent a brief report on his activities to Emperor Alexander, where he stated that he would be able to finish all his affairs by the month of May, after which his stay in Siberia "would have no purpose." The emperor instructed his former secretary of state to arrange the route from Siberia in such a way as to arrive in the capital by the last days of March next year. This delay had a strong influence on Speransky. A sense of the meaninglessness of his own activity began to prevail in his soul. However, Speransky did not remain in despair for long, and in March 1821 he returned to the capital.
Back in the capital
He returned to St. Petersburg on March 22, the emperor at that time was in Laibach. Returning on May 26, he received the former Secretary of State only weeks later - on June 23. When Mikhail entered the office, Alexander exclaimed: “Ugh, how hot it is here,” and took him with him to the balcony, to the garden. Every passer-by was able not only to see them, but also to completely hear their conversation, but the sovereign could see this and wanted to have a reason not to be frank. Speransky realized that he had ceased to use his former influence at court.
Under Nicholas I
"Emperor Nicholas I rewards Speransky for compiling a code of laws." Painting by A.Kivshenko
Political views and reforms
A supporter of the constitutional order, Speransky was convinced that new rights to society must be granted by the government. A society divided into estates, whose rights and obligations are established by law, needs civil and criminal law, public conduct of court cases, and freedom of the press. Speransky attached great importance to the education of public opinion.
At the same time, he believed that Russia was not ready for a constitutional system, that it was necessary to start the transformations with the reorganization of the state apparatus.
The period 1808-1811 was the era of the highest importance and influence of Speransky, about whom it was at this time that Joseph de Maistre wrote that he was "the first and even the only minister" of the empire: the reform of the State Council (1810), the reform of ministers (1810-1811), the reform Senate (1811-1812). The young reformer, with his characteristic fervor, set about drawing up a complete plan for the new formation of state administration in all its parts: from the sovereign's office to the volost government. Already on December 11, 1808, he read to Alexander I his note "On the improvement of general public education." Not later than October 1809, the whole plan was already on the emperor's desk. October and November passed in an almost daily review of its various parts, in which Alexander I made his own corrections and additions.
The views of the new reformer M. M. Speransky are most fully reflected in the note of 1809 - "Introduction to the Code of State Laws." Speransky's Code opens with a serious theoretical research"properties and objects of state, indigenous and organic laws". He additionally explained and substantiated his thoughts on the basis of the theory of law or, rather, the philosophy of law. The reformer attached great importance to the regulatory role of the state in the development of domestic industry and, through his political transformations, strengthened the autocracy in every possible way. Speransky writes: “If the rights of state power were unlimited, if the forces of the state were united in sovereign power and they would not leave any rights to subjects, then the state would be in slavery and rule would be despotic.”
According to Speransky, such slavery can take two forms. The first form not only excludes subjects from any participation in the exercise of state power, but also deprives them of the freedom to dispose of their own person and property. The second, softer one, also excludes subjects from participation in government, but leaves them freedom in relation to their own person and property. Consequently, subjects do not have political rights, but civil rights remain with them. And their presence means that there is freedom in the state to some extent. But it is not sufficiently guaranteed, therefore - explains Speransky - it is necessary to protect it - through the creation and strengthening of the basic law, that is, the Political Constitution.
Civil rights must be enumerated in it "in the form of initial civil consequences arising from political rights", and political rights must be given to citizens by which they will be able to defend their rights and their civil liberty. So, according to Speransky, civil rights and freedoms are insufficiently secured by laws and law. Without constitutional guarantees, they are powerless in themselves, therefore, it was precisely the requirement to strengthen the civil system that formed the basis of Speransky's entire plan of state reforms and determined their main idea - "rule, hitherto autocratic, to establish and establish on the basis of law." The idea is that state power must be built on a permanent basis, and the government must stand on a solid constitutional and legal basis. This idea stems from the tendency to find in the fundamental laws of the state a solid foundation for civil rights and freedoms. It bears the desire to ensure the connection of the civil system with the fundamental laws and firmly establish it, precisely relying on these laws. The transformation plan involved a change in the social structure and a change public order. Speransky dismembers society on the basis of the difference in rights. “From a review of civil and political rights, it becomes clear that all of them, in their belonging to three classes, can be divided: Civil rights are common to all subjects; the nobility; Middle class people; The working people." The entire population seemed to be civilly free, and serfdom was abolished, although, while establishing "civil freedom for the landlord peasants", Speransky at the same time continues to call them "serfs". The nobles retained the right to own populated lands and freedom from compulsory service. The working people consisted of peasants, artisans and servants. Speransky's grandiose plans began to come true. Back in the spring of 1809, the emperor approved the “Regulations on the composition and management of the commission for drafting laws” developed by Speransky, where for many years (until the new reign) the main directions of its activity were determined: “The works of the Commission have the following main subjects:
1. Code Civil. 2. Code Criminal. 3. Code Commercial. 4. Various parts belonging to the State Economy and to public law. 5. Code of provincial laws for the Ostsee provinces. 6. Code of laws for those provinces of Little Russian and Polish annexed.
Speransky speaks of the need to create a rule of law state, which should ultimately be a constitutional state. He explains that the security of a person and property is the first inalienable property of any society, since inviolability is the essence of civil rights and freedoms, which have two types: personal freedoms and material freedoms. Content of personal freedoms:
1. No one can be punished without trial; 2. No one is obliged to send a personal service, except by law. The content of material freedoms: 1. Everyone can dispose of his property at will, in accordance with the general law; 2. No one is obliged to pay taxes and duties otherwise than according to the law, and not according to arbitrariness. Thus, we see that Speransky everywhere perceives the law as a method of protecting security and freedom. However, he sees that guarantees are also needed against the arbitrariness of the legislator. The reformer approaches the requirement of a constitutional and legal limitation of power, so that it takes into account the existing law. This would give her more stability.
Speransky considers it necessary to have a system of separation of powers. Here he fully accepts the ideas that then dominated Western Europe, and writes in his work that: "It is impossible to base government on the law if one sovereign power will draw up the law and execute it." Therefore, Speransky sees a rational structure of state power in its division into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial, while maintaining the autocratic form. Since the discussion of bills involves the participation a large number people, it is necessary to create special bodies representing the legislative power - the Duma.
Speransky proposes to involve the population (personally free, including state peasants, if there is a property qualification) to direct participation in the legislative, executive and judicial authorities on the basis of a system of four-stage elections (volost - district - provincial - State Duma). If this plan had received a real embodiment, the fate of Russia would have been different, alas, history does not know the subjunctive mood. The right to elect them cannot belong equally to all. Speransky stipulates that the more property a person has, the more he is interested in protecting property rights. And those who have neither real estate nor capital are excluded from the election process. Thus, we see that the democratic principle of universal and secret elections is alien to Speransky, and in contrast to this, he puts forward and attaches greater value liberal principle of separation of powers. At the same time, Speransky recommends broad decentralization, that is, along with the central State Duma, local dumas should also be created: volost, district and provincial. The Duma is called upon to resolve issues of a local character. Without the consent of the State Duma, the autocrat had no right to legislate, except in cases where it was a question of saving the fatherland. However, in contrast, the emperor could always dissolve the deputies and call new elections. Consequently, the existence of the State Duma, as it were, was called upon to give only an idea of the needs of the people and exercise control over the executive branch. Executive power is represented by boards, and at the highest level - by ministries, which were formed by the emperor himself. Moreover, the ministers had to be accountable to the State Duma, which was given the right to ask for the abolition of illegal acts. This is the fundamentally new approach of Speransky, expressed in the desire to put officials, both in the center and in the field, under the control of public opinion. The judicial branch of government was represented by regional, district and provincial courts, consisting of elected judges and acting with the participation of juries. The highest court was the Senate, whose members were elected for life by the State Duma and approved personally by the emperor.
The unity of state power, according to Speransky's project, would be embodied only in the personality of the monarch. This decentralization of legislation, courts and administration was supposed to give the central government itself the opportunity to solve with due attention those most important state affairs that would be concentrated in its bodies and which would not be obscured by the mass of current petty matters of local interest. This idea of decentralization was all the more remarkable because it was not yet in the queue of Western European political thinkers, who were more concerned with developing questions about central government.
The monarch remained the only representative of all branches of government, heading them. Therefore, Speransky believed that it was necessary to create an institution that would take care of planned cooperation between individual authorities and would be, as it were, a concrete expression of the fundamental embodiment of state unity in the personality of the monarch. According to his plan, the State Council was to become such an institution. At the same time, this body was supposed to act as the guardian of the implementation of the legislation.
On January 1, 1810, a manifesto was announced on the creation of the Council of State, replacing the Permanent Council. M. M. Speransky received the post of state secretary in this body. He was in charge of all the documentation that passed through the State Council. Speransky initially envisaged the State Council in his reform plan as an institution that should not be particularly involved in the preparation and development of bills. But since the creation of the State Council was considered as the first stage of transformation and it was he who was supposed to establish plans for further reforms, at first this body was given wide powers. From now on, all bills had to pass through the State Council. The general meeting was composed of members of four departments: 1) legislative, 2) military affairs (until 1854), 3) civil and spiritual affairs, 4) state economy; and from ministers. The sovereign himself presided over it. At the same time, it is stipulated that the king could only approve the opinion of the majority general meeting. The first chairman of the State Council (until August 14, 1814) was Chancellor Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev (1751_1826). The Secretary of State (new position) became the head of the State Chancellery.
Speransky not only developed, but also laid down a certain system of checks and balances in the activities of the highest state bodies under the supremacy of the emperor. He argued that already on the basis of this, the very direction of the reforms is set. So, Speransky considered Russia mature enough to start reforms and get a constitution that provides not only civil, but also political freedom. In a memorandum to Alexander I, he hopes that “if God blesses all undertakings, then by the year 1811 ... Russia will perceive a new being and will be completely transformed in all parts.” Speransky argues that there are no examples in history of an enlightened commercial people remaining in a state of slavery for a long time and that upheavals cannot be avoided if the state system does not correspond to the spirit of the times. Therefore, heads of state should carefully observe the development of the public spirit and adapt to it political systems. From this, Speransky drew the conclusion that it would be a great advantage to have a constitution in Russia thanks to the "beneficial inspiration of the supreme power." But sovereignty in the person of the emperor, she did not share all the points of Speransky's program. Alexander I was quite satisfied with only partial transformations of feudal Russia, flavored with liberal promises and abstract arguments about law and freedom. Alexander I was ready to accept all this. But meanwhile, he also experienced the strongest pressure from the court environment, including members of his family, who sought to prevent radical changes in Russia.
Also, one of the ideas was to improve the "bureaucratic army" for future reforms. On April 3, 1809, a decree was issued on court ranks. He changed the order of obtaining titles and certain privileges. Henceforth, these titles were to be regarded as mere insignia. Privileges were given only to those who performed public service. The decree, which reformed the procedure for obtaining court ranks, was signed by the emperor, but it was no secret to anyone who was its real author. For many decades, the offspring of the most noble families (literally from the cradle) received the court ranks of the chamber junker (respectively - 5th class), after a while - the chamberlain (4th class). When they entered the civil or military service upon reaching a certain age, they, who had never served anywhere, automatically occupied the “highest places”. By decree of Speransky, chamber junkers and chamberlains who were not in active service were ordered to find a kind of activity for themselves within two months (otherwise - resignation).
The second measure was the decree published on August 6, 1809 on new rules for promotion to civil service ranks, secretly prepared by Speransky. In a note to the sovereign under a very unpretentious title, a revolutionary plan was rooted for a radical change in the order of production to ranks, establishing a direct connection between obtaining a rank and an educational qualification. This was a bold attempt on the system of rank production, which has been in force since the era of Peter I. One can only imagine how many ill-wishers and enemies appeared in Mikhail Mikhailovich thanks to this decree alone. Speransky protests against the monstrous injustice when a graduate of the Faculty of Law receives ranks later than a colleague who has never really studied anywhere. From now on, the rank of collegiate assessor, which previously could be obtained by seniority, was given only to those officials who had in their hands a certificate of successful completion of a training course in one of Russian universities or passed the exams in a special program. At the end of the note, Speransky speaks directly about the harmfulness of the existing system of ranks according to Peter's "Table of Ranks", suggesting either to cancel them or to regulate the receipt of ranks, starting from the 6th grade, by the presence of a university diploma. This program included testing knowledge of the Russian language, one of foreign languages, natural, Roman, state and criminal law, general and Russian history, state economics, physics, geography and statistics of Russia. The rank of collegiate assessor corresponded to the 8th grade of the "Table of Ranks". Starting from this class and above, officials had great privileges and high salaries. It is easy to guess that there were many who wanted to get it, and most of the applicants, as a rule, middle-aged, simply could not take the exams. Hatred of the new reformer began to grow. The emperor, protecting his faithful comrade with his auspices, raised him up the career ladder.
Elements of market relations in the Russian economy were also covered in the projects of M. M. Speransky. He shared the ideas of the economist Adam Smith. Speransky connected the future of economic development with the development of commerce, the transformation of the financial system and money circulation. In the first months of 1810, a discussion of the problem of regulation took place. public finance. Speransky drew up a "Finance Plan", which formed the basis of the tsar's manifesto of February 2. The main purpose of this document was to eliminate the budget deficit. According to its content, the issue of paper money was stopped, the volume of financial resources was reduced, financial activities ministers was put under control. In order to replenish the state treasury, the poll tax was increased from 1 ruble to 3, and a new, previously unprecedented tax was introduced - "progressive income". These measures gave a positive result and, as Speransky himself later noted, “by changing the financial system ... we saved the state from bankruptcy.” The budget deficit was reduced, and the treasury revenues increased by 175 million rubles in two years.
In the summer of 1810, at the initiative of Speransky, the reorganization of the ministries began, which was completed by June 1811. During this time, the Ministry of Commerce was liquidated, cases of internal security were allocated, for which a special police ministry was formed. The ministries themselves were divided into departments (with a director at the head), departments into departments. From the highest officials of the ministry, a council of the minister was formed, and from all the ministers, a committee of ministers to discuss administrative and executive affairs.
Clouds begin to gather over the head of the reformer. Speransky, contrary to the instinct of self-preservation, continues to work selflessly. In a report submitted to the emperor on February 11, 1811, Speransky reports: “/…/ the following main subjects were completed: I. The State Council was established. II. Completed two parts of the Civil Code. III. A new division of ministries has been made, a general charter has been drawn up for them, and draft charters for private ones have been drawn up. IV. Compiled and adopted permanent system to the payment of public debts: 1) termination of the issuance of banknotes; 2) sale of property; 3) setting a repayment commission. V. A monetary system has been drawn up. VI. A commercial code for 1811 was drawn up.
Never, perhaps, in Russia in the course of one year were so many general state decrees made as in the past. /…/ From this it follows that in order to successfully complete the plan that Your Majesty deigns to deign for himself, it is necessary to strengthen the methods of its implementation. /…/ the following subjects in terms of this seem to be absolutely necessary: I. To complete the civil code. II. Draw up two very necessary codes: 1) judicial, 2) criminal. III. Complete the arrangement of the Judicial Senate. IV. Draw up the structure of the ruling Senate. V. Administration of the provinces in judicial and executive order. VI. Consider and strengthen ways to pay off debts. VII. Establish state annual revenues: 1) By introducing a new census of people. 2) The formation of a land tax. 3) A new wine income device. 4) The best source of income from state property. /…/ It can be stated with certainty that /…/ by committing them /…/ the empire will be placed in a position so firm and reliable that the age of Your Majesty will always be called a blessed century. Alas, the grandiose plans for the future outlined in the second part of the report remained unfulfilled (primarily the Senate reform).
By the beginning of 1811, Speransky also proposed a new project for the transformation of the Senate. The essence of the project was largely different from the original. It was supposed to divide the Senate into a government and a judiciary. The composition of the latter provided for the appointment of its members as follows: one part - from the crown, the other was chosen by the nobility. Due to various internal and external causes The Senate remained as it was, and Speransky himself eventually came to the conclusion that the project should be postponed. We also note that in 1810, according to the plan of Speransky, the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was established.
Such was the general outline of the political reform. The state of serfdom, the court, administration, legislation - everything found a place and resolution in this grandiose work, which remained a monument of political talents far beyond the level of even highly talented people. Some reproach Speransky for paying little attention to the peasant reform. In Speransky we read: “The relations in which both these classes (peasants and landowners) are placed completely destroy all energy in the Russian people. The interest of the nobility requires that the peasants be completely subordinate to it; the interest of the peasantry is that the nobles were also subordinate to the crown ... The throne is always a serf as the only counterweight to the property of their masters, "that is, serfdom was incompatible with political freedom. “Thus, Russia, divided into various classes, exhausts its forces in the struggle that these classes wage among themselves, and leaves to the government the entire scope of unlimited power. A state organized in this way - that is, on the division of hostile classes - if it has one or the other external device, - those and other letters to the nobility, letters to the cities, two senates and the same number of parliaments - there is a despotic state, and as long as it consists of the same elements (warring classes), it will be impossible for it to be a monarchical state. The consciousness of the need, in the interests of the political reform itself, to abolish serfdom, as well as the consciousness of the need for the redistribution of power to correspond to the redistribution of political power, is evident from the argument.
Code of laws
Emperor Nicholas I, first decided to create a solid system of legislation. The architect of this system was Speransky. It was his experience and talent that the new emperor wanted to use, entrusting the compilation of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. Speransky headed the 2nd department of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery. Under the leadership of Mikhail Mikhailovich, by 1830, the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire was compiled in 45 volumes, which included laws starting with the Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1649) until the end of the reign of Alexander I. Back in 1832, a 15-volume Code of Laws was published. As a reward for this, Speransky received the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. At a special meeting of the State Council in January 1833, dedicated to the publication of the first edition of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, Emperor Nicholas I, having removed the St. Andrew's star, put it on Speransky.
Mikhail Mikhailovich (January 1, 1772, Cherkutino, Vladimir province - February 11, 1839, St. Petersburg) - an outstanding statesman of Russia, Siberian in 1819–1821, count.
Born in the family of a village priest. He studied at the Vladimir Seminary, from 1788 at the Alexander Nevsky Seminary in St. Petersburg. At the end, he was left in it by a teacher. In 1795 M.M. Speransky becomes the prefect of the seminary, but soon leaves it and becomes the secretary of the Prosecutor General A. B. Kurakin, and from 1799 - the ruler of his office.
The rise of the career of M.M. fell on the first years of the reign of Alexander I. Erudition, great capacity for work, independence of judgment - all this attracted the young tsar to M.M. . In 1801, he makes him Secretary of State and instructs him to develop a plan for state reforms. MM. Speransky is appointed director of the department of the newly formed Ministry of the Interior and deals with issues of state structures. By 1809, he provided Alexander I with a liberal project to transform the state administration in the country, but because of the opposition of the conservative nobility, it was only partially implemented, and the reformer himself was sent into exile in Nizhny Novgorod in March 1812, and from September of that year to Perm.
In 1814 he was allowed to return from exile and live in the Novgorod estate of Velikopolye. In August 1816 M.M. Speransky was again returned to public service and appointed Penza civil governor. In March 1819, he was assigned to lead the revision of Siberia and was appointed Siberian governor-general. In a short time, he traveled almost all of Siberia, resolutely fought against arbitrariness and embezzlement. local administration. 680 officials were brought to court, from whom 2.8 million rubles were recovered. August 29, 1819 M.M. Speransky arrived at. A small team of M.M. Speransky, which included the future Decembrist, in a short time prepared a package of reforms to transform the management of Siberia. Among them are the "Charter on the management of foreigners", "Charter on the exiles", adm. and judicial reform, etc. A special body was created in St. Petersburg to consider Siberian cases - the Siberian Committee.
In March 1821 M.M. Speransky returned to the capital and was introduced to the State Council. From the late 1820s, he was engaged in compiling the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire and codifying civil and criminal law. By 1835 the work was completed and the Code of Laws came into force.
January 1, 1839 M.M. Speransky was elevated to the dignity of a count, and a month later he died suddenly.
Compositions
- Projects and notes. - M.; L., 1961.
- Speransky's letters from Siberia to his daughter Elizaveta Mikhailovna. - M., 1869.
Irkutsk. Historical and local lore dictionary. - Irkutsk: Sib. book, 2011.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky in Irkutsk
Among the outstanding statesmen of Russia in the 19th century, one of the first places belongs to M.M. Speransky. A rootless native of the "foal class", thanks to his natural intelligence and hard work, Speransky made a brilliant career in a short time, knew the highest ups and the bitterness of the fall, leaving behind the memory of a recognized reformer and an outstanding lawyer. By the will of fate, having found himself in 1819 the governor-general in the vast Trans-Ural region, Speransky also engaged in reforms here, the beneficial influence of which Siberians still feel today. The selfless desire for the good of the country will long remain in people's memory.
Sending Speransky to Siberia, Alexander I endowed him with unprecedented powers. Speransky went to Siberia in two persons - as an auditor and as "the chief head of the region", who was instructed to conduct an audit, " give who need a legal judgment", figure out" on the spot most useful device of this distant region and make an inscription on paper". In the spring of 1819 Speransky crossed the border of Siberia. The first Siberian city of Tyumen made him look "sad", in Tobolsk - the ancient capital of Siberia - the auditor did not stay long either. He hurried to the distant and mysterious Irkutsk, as if foreseeing that it was there that the “root of evil” was located. Having finally reached, Speransky, in a few days, will write the lines that later became famous. “If in Tobolsk I put everyone on trial ... then here it would be left to hang everyone».
Irkutsk was preparing for the arrival of the new governor-general as never before. The townspeople remembered the meeting for a long time. The main buildings of the city - the Cathedral, the Triumphal Gate and the main streets - Bolshaya and Zamorskaya - were literally flooded with lights. At the crossing over the Angara, an orchestra thundered, and among the huge confluence of people, the governor N.I. Treskin with officials in full dress uniforms and orders. In his diary, Speransky described his first impressions of: The view of the illuminated city from across the river was magnificent". However, already the first acquaintance with the results of the management of the region by I.B. Pestel and Treskin shocked Mikhail Mikhailovich. " The further I sink to the bottom of Siberia, the more I find evil, and almost unbearable evil.", he wrote.
Starting the revision, Speransky was well aware of the opinion, which had taken root in government circles since Catherine's time, that all Siberians are Yabedniks. Therefore, it is not worth paying attention to their forgiveness and complaints. With great difficulty, he was able to convince the inhabitants of the province that " that complaints against local authorities do not constitute a crime". And then ... complaints rained down, as if from a cornucopia. Their number reached three hundred a day. In Irkutsk, in a matter of days, all stamped paper was sold out, on which complaints should be written.
The governor was, according to Speransky, a man " bold, bold, stupid", but " poorly brought up" and " cunning and cunning like a demon". To match him was a flock of officials with a lower rank: Verkhneudinsky police officer M.M. Gedenstrom, Irkutsk - Voiloshnikov, Nizhneudinsky - Loskutov.
The audit revealed a blatant picture of abuses and arbitrariness of the local administration. The auditor himself wrote that extortion in all its forms has become a common subject of "investigative cases." Treskin was put on trial, along with him, about seven hundred officials of a lower rank were involved in various abuses. Speransky was able to clean out the "Augean stables" in a short time. This is his undoubted merit.
The life of our hero in Irkutsk was organized very modestly. Together with the young officials who came with him - G.S. Batenkov, K.G. Repinsky, F.I. Tseyer and others, they lived and worked in a simple but not very comfortable house of A.A. Kuznetsov, located by no means in the center, but on the outskirts, not far from the river. The only attraction of this house was an abandoned garden, which became a favorite place for walking Speransky and the young people who accompanied him. On Sundays, Speransky attended mass in the parish church, he liked to go out of town to the river, and in the evening he could easily look at the light of familiar merchants. Many years later, the old-timers of Irkutsk recalled a tall, slightly stooped man walking in the fresh air in any weather, dressed in a simple overcoat without any insignia, a modest leather cap. It was difficult to perceive in this lonely wanderer an outstanding thinker, in exchange for whom Napoleon offered Alexander I to give up any of the states of Europe that belonged to him.
The main business of Mikhail Mikhailovich during his two-year stay in Irkutsk was not a revision, but the development of projects for a future reform, which were included in the literature under the general name of the "Siberian institution" or "Siberian reforms" of 1822. Speransky and his "confidants" through the Siberian Committee presented to consideration of a package of proposals to Alexander I, consisting of 10 bills: "Institution for the management of the Siberian provinces"; "Charter on the management of foreigners"; "Charter about the exiles"; "Charter about the stages"; "Charter on the management of the Kirghiz-Kaisaks"; "Charter on land communications"; "Charter about city Cossacks"; "Regulations on zemstvo duties"; "Regulations on grain stocks"; "Regulations on debt obligations between peasants and between foreigners", which were approved by the king on June 22, 1822. new system Speransky tried to build the administration of Siberia on a compromise of interests of the supreme, i.e., autocratic, power with regional characteristics and a clear understanding of the impossibility at that time to completely subordinate Siberia to the action of general imperial legislation.
Since the time of Catherine II, the government at various levels has traditionally recognized the significant features of the Siberian region. One of the manifestations of this was the intention of Catherine to make a special reservation on the non-proliferation of provincial institutions in 1775 to Siberia. In 1801, sending I.O. Selifontov with a revision to Siberia, Alexander I explicitly stated in the decree: “ We find that the Siberian Territory, in terms of its space, in terms of the differences in its natural position, in terms of the state of the peoples inhabiting it ... requires ... in dividing it ... and in the very way of governing it, a special resolution"based" on reliable knowledge of local circumstances". But the idea of the need for a special form of governance for Siberia was most clearly expressed in the report of M.M. Speransky for a survey of the region. A thoughtful auditor on the pages of the document returns to this idea repeatedly. Ultimately, he comes to the conclusion that Siberia in its space " requires special arrangements».
In the Siberian legislation of 1822, first of all, attention is drawn to its careful preliminary preparation. MM. Speransky and his assistants, primarily G.S. Batenkov; a huge complex of source materials was collected and analyzed. The final "package" of laws in the approved form is not only striking in its volume - it consists of 4019 paragraphs - but is also distinguished by the exceptionally high quality of the development of legal acts for that time. Its most characteristic feature was Speransky's desire to ensure in the new legislation a combination of fundamental political principles the functioning of the empire, Siberian specifics with the solution of national problems.
The regionalism of M.M. Speransky manifested itself primarily in the division of Siberia into two governor-generals - Western and Eastern Siberia. Thus, in essence, the beginning was laid for the administrative division of Siberia, which has been preserved to this day. Regional motives were inspired by the proposal to create two Main Directorates and advisory bodies under them - councils. The same mechanism was introduced at the level of the province and districts (districts). The creation by Speransky of a system of counterweight to individual power seems to be a unique phenomenon in Russian legislation in the first half of the 19th century. Much later, in the 1860s, something similar can be observed in other governor-generals of Asiatic Russia, for example, in Turkestan. However, at that time it was a fundamental innovation in legislative practice, inspired by the traditional desire of the Siberian bureaucracy for "autocracy". The collegiate councils were, according to Speransky's plan, to become the guarantors of the legality of the decisions made. Attention is drawn to the composition of the Main Directorates, which, under the chairmanship of the Governor-General, included six officials each: three appointed by the chief chief of the region, and three representing the interests of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Finance and Justice. In such a mechanism for the formation of councils, we found a combination of the principles of sectoral, territorial and national levels of government, centralization and decentralization tendencies. The same foundations were fixed in the articles of the law defining the relationship of the governor-general with the nationwide departments represented in the region: the gendarmerie and postal services, cabinet officials, state chambers, etc.
Regional motives were especially pronounced in the development of the "Charter on the management of foreigners." The fact that a new estate category appeared in Russian legislation is proof of this. It was Speransky who introduced the word "foreigners" into the practice of the Russian language, into legal vocabulary. It reflected the evolution of the relationship between the government and the peoples of Siberia, the depth of the incorporation of Siberian aborigines into national political, economic and socio-cultural mechanisms and processes. Here it is appropriate to note that during the three hundred years of the history of pre-Soviet Siberia, the official name of the peoples of the region has repeatedly changed. In the 17th century the indigenous inhabitants of Siberia were called "yasash foreigners", since Siberia and its population were just beginning to be part of the Russian state. However, as they asserted their allegiance, they ceased to be foreigners. in the seventeenth and first decades of the nineteenth century. Siberian natives were usually called " yasak gentiles”, i.e. people of a different religion than Christianity. In the 19th century in connection with the spread of Orthodoxy among the peoples of Siberia, this name disappears as inaccurately reflecting the confessional affiliation of the natives. Speransky introduces a new term - "foreigners", which became the official name of the peoples of the region and acquired a class character. Thus, in the very term "foreigners" there are elements of regional specificity associated with a change in the legal and social status of these peoples within the Russian state. The same document draws attention to a number of other provisions related to Siberian specifics: the division of aborigines into three categories - settled, nomadic and vagrant, the proposed codification of customary law - on the one hand, and the possible integration of aborigines into the all-Russian administrative and economic system- with another.
Speransky's desire to take into account regional peculiarities can also be easily seen in the analysis of other laws that make up the complex of the "Siberian institution". An example of this is the regulation of taxes and fees, the creation of state stocks of grain, the conclusion of commercial transactions, etc.
At the same time, it is impossible not to notice that Speransky's legal regionalism was based on imperial legislation, its postulates, and had strictly measured limits. In the "Siberian institution" of 1822, one can easily trace the ideas of the Catherine's Institution on the provinces of 1775, which proclaimed the principle of unity of command in the person of the governor-general as an exclusively entrusted person from the emperor. Speransky did not at all intend to limit the governor-general's power. Under the conditions of an absolute monarchy, this was impossible, and Speransky did not want this. However, he tried to place the activities of regional authorities within a strictly defined framework of legislation, which was an undoubted innovation for the region and the empire as a whole.
At the same time, the very fact of the presence of the governor-general's power, the limits and essence of which were not clearly spelled out in the legislation, complicated the issue of subordinating institutions of various departments to it, gave rise to discussions and questions that were undesirable from the point of view of the government. It seems that the governor-general's power introduced a certain element of decentralization into the system of government, which was a direct product of the contradictions in the internal policy of the autocracy in the first half of the 19th century. " Alexander's inconsistency in matters of internal improvement affected all events". This is how the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich described the domestic policy of his crowned ancestor.
In this characterization, we see, first of all, a combination of imperial principles and regionalism in the legislation of 1822. was in line with public policy. As you know, in 1809 Finland, a former Swedish province, after joining Russia, received the autonomous status of the Grand Duchy of Finland, the position of which was very privileged even "in comparison with the indigenous regions of the empire." In December 1815 Emperor Alexander I " granted a constitution to Poland”, which was considered at that time the height of liberalism in Europe. In the Caucasus, which was a very motley conglomerate of ethnic groups and religions, an administrative reform is being carried out, aimed at more firmly linking this strategically important region with Russia, but at the same time built taking into account local ethnic, religious and other traditions. The expansion of the territory of the state and, as a result, the complication of domestic political, including managerial, tasks, put forward the task of finding ways for the incorporation of new territories into the general imperial space before the government. One of these methods was the development of regional-territorial legislation, which clearly reflected the geopolitical features of specific territories. The Siberian legislation of 1822, the foundations of which were developed in Irkutsk, logically fit in and supplemented the doctrine of the marginal policy of the autocracy. It became the first experience of complex regional legislation in the empire, which operated without significant changes until the end of the 19th century and was ten years ahead of the all-Russian codification.
Popova Katya. Usinsk, Komi river (grade 9)
One of the most famous statesmen of Russia in the 19th century was Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (1772-1839). Speransky was born into the family of a priest in the village of Cherkutino, Vladimir province. From the age of seven he studied at the Vladimir Seminary, and from 1790 - at the newly opened main seminary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. Extraordinary abilities put him out of the midst of students, and at the end of the course he was appointed teacher of mathematics, physics, eloquence and philosophy. Having studied independently political and philosophical literature in German, French English, he acquired a very wide knowledge, got acquainted with the views of Voltaire and the French encyclopedists. Later he became the house secretary of Prince A.B. Kurakin, a well-known diplomat and statesman.
In 1797, he entered the service in the office of Kurakin, who, upon Paul's accession to the throne, took the place of prosecutor general. During the accession of Alexander Speransky, he received the title of secretary of state and in 1802 he transferred to the service of the Ministry of the Interior. Here he soon drew attention to himself, and in next year Minister V. Kochubey instructed him to draw up a plan of judicial and government places in the empire.
In 1806, Speransky made a personal acquaintance with Alexander - during his illness, Kochubey began to send him with a report to the sovereign, the latter appreciated the outstanding ability of the official and brought him closer to himself; he did not look like either Catherine's nobles or his young friends. Alexander showed interest in this man, which in itself was already a phenomenon. In 1808 he included him in his retinue during his meeting with Napoleon. Having become the emperor's main adviser, Speransky was given the task of preparing a general project for state reforms in Russia.
“Introduction to the Code of State Laws” Speransky prepared by the end of 1809. In it, the author warned the government that the existing social structure “is no longer characteristic of the state of the public spirit.” In order to prevent a revolution, he proposed to Alexander I to give the country a constitution, which would only have to “envelop autocratic rule with all, so to speak, external forms law, leaving in essence its same force and the same space of autocracy. “These external forms, according to Speransky, should be: elementary legality, the election of some officials and their responsibility, new bourgeois principles of organizing court and control, separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers under the admission of elected representatives from the people to legislative advisory activities, i.e. expansion of the political rights of the “middle class”.
According to the project, the head of state should be a monarch, vested with full power. It should have a State Council, which is an advisory body of dignitaries appointed by the monarch.
All major state events are discussed in the council; through him all cases from lower bodies come to the sovereign, and in this way the unity of all the activities of the government is carried out.
In addition, there should be elected State and local dumas. The volost duma is made up of all those who have the right to vote and foremen of the state peasants (one from 500 people). She decides all local issues and elects deputies to the district duma for three years. The latter deals with the affairs of her district and elects deputies to the provincial duma. Deputies to the State Duma - the highest representative body - are elected by the provincial Duma from among its members. The State Duma discusses the bills proposed to it from above, which are then submitted to the State Council and for approval by the sovereign.
Speransky proposed the principle of election and the creation of the judiciary. In his opinion, the volost, district and provincial courts should be elected. However, the highest judicial instance - the judicial Senate (which simultaneously remained an administrative institution) should be appointed by the sovereign for life from among the representatives elected in the provincial dumas.
The electoral system of Speransky was based not on the estate (feudal) principle, but on the property qualification (possession of movable and immovable property), which testified to the preservation of the inequality of estates. The entire population of Russia was divided into the following three categories: the nobility, which had all civil and political rights; people of “average status” (merchants, philistines, state peasants), who had only civil rights - property, freedom of occupation and movement, the right to speak in their own name in court, and “working people” - landlord peasants, servants, workers and households, who do not have any rights. Only representatives of the first two categories could use the right to vote. Thus, the basicpolitical rights received only two estates.
For the third estate - the "working people" - the project of the reformer provided some civil rights while maintaining the serfdom. Speransky believed that serfdom would be abolished gradually, through the development of industry, trade and education, since "there is no example in history that an enlightened and commercial people could remain in slavery for a long time." Preserving the existence of estates, Speransky's project weakened estate partitions, providing for more wide opportunity transition from the “middle state” to the nobility through seniority, and from the “working people” to the “middle state” through the acquisition of property. Objectively, the plans of the reformer were aimed at some limitation of the autocracy by expanding the rights of the nobles and the bourgeoisie, at a faster evolution of the absolute monarchy towards the bourgeois monarchy. At the same time, the plan was abstract, “nothing the sovereign, nor the minister could in any way adjust it to the level of the actual needs and cash resources of Russia,” wrote V.O. Klyuchevsky. Speransky overestimated the possibilities of autocracy and underestimated the dominant power of the nobility, which could not voluntarily limit its power. Therefore, radical social reforms could not be implemented in the conditions of feudal Russia.
Alexander I himself was quite satisfied with only partial transformations of feudal Russia, flavored with liberal promises and abstract arguments about law and freedom. A. Czartoryski, who knew him well, wrote: “The emperor loved the external forms of freedom, just as people are fond of spectacles. He liked the specter of free government and boasted about it; but he sought only forms and external appearance, not allowing them to turn into reality; in a word, he would willingly grant freedom to the whole world, on the condition that all voluntarily submit exclusively to his will.
Two private measures, which had an internal connection with the reforms that were being prepared, indicated what kind of people were required for new government institutions. The decree of April 03, 1809 on court ranks determined that ranks are not distinctions and do not give the right to a rank. Courtiers were deprived of their titles if they were not on public service. Another decree, dated August 06, established the rules for promotion to civil service ranks. Now, in order to obtain the appropriate rank, it was required to go through the entire hierarchy of the service: an official, starting from grade VIII and above, required a university diploma, in the absence of the latter, he had to pass an exam according to the program attached to the order. Both decrees caused discontent and commotion in the court society and among the officials, as they were prepared secretly and were issued quite unexpectedly.
Significant parts of Speransky's transformational plan related to the central administration and gave it a more streamlined appearance.
On January 1, 1810, the manifesto of Alexander I was announced on the abolition of the Permanent Council and the establishment of the State Council. The latter included 35 senior dignitaries appointed by the sovereign. The State Council was to discuss all the details of the state structure, insofar as they require new laws, and submit their considerations to the discretion of the emperor.
Being in close proximity to the sovereign, Speransky concentrated in his hands all the current management affairs: he dealt with finances, which were in great disorder, and diplomatic affairs, in which the sovereign himself devoted him, and the organization of Finland, then conquered by Russian troops. In 1811 on the initiative of Speransky ministries were reorganized. The Ministry of Commerce was abolished, the affairs of which were distributed between the ministries of finance and internal affairs. The Department of Police was formed to deal with internal security matters. Established new special departments - state control, spiritual affairs of foreign religions and means of communication - began to exist with the significance of ministries. The composition and clerical work of the latter, the limits of the power of ministers, their responsibility were determined.
This is where the reforms ended. SamState Council became an opponent of further changes. The reform of the Senate was never implemented, although it was discussed for quite some time. It was based on the division of administrative and judicial cases. The Senate was proposed to be divided into a government, consisting of ministers, and a judiciary. The composition of the latter provided for the appointment of its members as follows: one part - from the crown, the other - was chosen by the nobility. Members of the State Council saw the restriction of autocratic power in the right of elections by the nobility of the composition of the Senate. They did not even break the transformation of the provincial administration.
The most important event of that time was the financial reform carried out by Speransky through the State Council, which never became the authoritative body that the reformer had hoped for.
As a result of a series of wars, Russia's finances were in a very upset state. The state budget deficit reached a huge figure. Back in 1809. Speransky was instructed to develop a plan to improve the country's financial situation. At his suggestion, the government stopped issuing new banknotes, sharply reduced government spending, sold part of state estates into private hands, and finally introduced new taxes that affected all segments of the population. these activities have yielded positive results. So, in 1812. state revenues increased from 125 million to 300 million rubles. But at the same time, these measures, and above all general taxes, caused discontent among the population. At the same time, general irritation was directed against Speransky. In noble circles, he was contemptuously called “malicious popovich”.
Speransky already in 1811 began to understand the impracticability of his far-reaching plans.
In October, he even asked the emperor to release him from all affairs and provide him with the opportunity to continue work on the code of laws. But Alexander I refused him this. However, the fall of Speransky was not only inevitable, but also close.
Active opponents of Speransky, who openly opposed his reforms and expressed the views of the most reactionary noble circles, were the well-known writer and historian N.M. Karamzin and the sister of Alexander I, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna. keen interest in public life. In 1809 she married Prince Georg of Oldenburg and lived with him in Tver. Here, around her, a close circle of a definitely conservative direction was formed. Karamzin was her welcome guest.
The Grand Duchess considered the constitution
"complete nonsense", and the autocracy - useful not only to Russia, but also to the Western European states. In her eyes, Speransky was a "criminal" who mastered the will of a weak-willed monarch. It can be assumed that, in addition to ideological antagonism, the princess's enmity towards the reformer was also explained by her personal dislike for the person who screened her from the emperor and did not stand in her way. Speransky, in particular, had the courage to speak out against Karamzin's candidacy for the post of Minister of Public Education, nominated by Ekaterina Pavlovna after Zavadovsky's death. He refused, in addition, to support the Swedish political party, which predicted the husband of the Grand Duchess, Prince of Oldenburg, to the Swedish throne.
N.M. Karamzin tried to play an active role at the court of Alexander I. On March 15, 1811, the emperor visited his beloved sister in Tver. The latter handed him a note "On ancient and new Russia in its political and civil relations." In it, the writer sharply criticized all the activities carried out by the government, considering them untimely and contrary to the "spirit of the people" and historical tradition. Speaking for enlightenment, he at the same time defended the autocracy, arguing that Russia "was founded by victories and unity of command, perished from diversity of power, and was saved by the wise autocracy. He argued that giving freedom to the peasants means harming the state: “It seems to me that for the firmness of being a state it is safer to enslave people than to give them freedom at the wrong time.”
Karamzin's general thought was that the country needed not reforms, but "patriarchal power." In his opinion, "things will go as they should in Russia if you find 50 smart, conscientious people in Russia" who will zealously observe the "good" of the Russians entrusted to each of them. The historian-publicist urged, contrary to Speransky, to be "more careful in new state creations, trying more to approve the existing ones and thinking more about people than about forms."
The attacks and numerous denunciations against Speransky, as well as the dissatisfaction of the conservative part of the nobles with the latest transformations, had their effect on the weak-willed and indecisive Alexander. On the eve of the war, he decided to put an end to all sorts of reforms and remove their main director from the government stage. If at the beginning of their joint path to reorganize the country, Alexander respected Speransky and trusted him, was interested in the ideas of the reformer and even imbued them, “at the time of this insight, they created their own constitution,” wrote V.O. back-breaking work, assigned to the mind and heart of his sovereign! At the first mistake, as soon as the opportunity presented itself to drag him down from a painful height and put him on the level of a subject, with what self-satisfied and vengeful generosity he read his royal lesson to Speransky and, after affectionately saying goodbye to him, ordered his enemy, the Minister of Police Balashov, to exile him as a delinquent official to Nizhny. After that, Alexander no longer respected anyone, but he was still afraid, hated and despised.
1812, when Napoleon's army approached Moscow, he was sent to Perm under stricter supervision. In January 1813 Speransky sent a letter of justification to Alexander from Perm to Moscow, to which the emperor did not want, or perhaps could not answer. Only in the autumn of 1814. The disgraced minister was allowed to live on his daughter's estate in Velikopolye, not far from Nizhny Novgorod.
By the decree of Alexander I of August 30, 1816, Speransky was fully acquitted, after which he was appointed governor of Penza. Later, from 1819 to 1822, he was governor-general of Siberia.
The new Siberian governor-general decided to conduct an audit of Siberia. Speransky's audit revealed flagrant abuses, arbitrariness of the local authorities and the complete lack of rights of the population. In order to somehow improve the situation, he decided to carry out reforms in Siberia.
The “first collaborator” during the Siberian reforms was the future Decembrist S.G. Batenkov. He energetically engaged in the development of the "Siberian Code" - an extensive code of reforming the administrative apparatus of Siberia, which determined government policy in relation to the indigenous Siberian peoples. Most of the projects were written (statutes on exiles, stages, etc.). Especially important was the creation of the "Charter on the Administration of Foreigners", which was in effect until the beginning of the 20th century.
During the period of work on the Siberian Code, Batenkov sincerely believed that Speransky, “a nobleman kind, strong, and strong only for good,” would really transform Siberia. Subsequently, it became clear to him that Speransky had not been given "any means to fulfill the entrusted order" and the results of his activities in Siberia did not meet the hopes that had been placed. However, Batenkov believed that "Speransky personally cannot be blamed for the failure." He wrote about the latter: “The memory of him was preserved throughout Siberia, despite the change in faces, charters, and ideas, because many monuments and an outline of the institution survived among all this. His personality was not easily erased from memory, and many families remembered it well.”
In 1812 Speransky returned to St. Petersburg and was received by Alexander I. The history of the rise, state activity and exile of this man in an environment of increased political life in Russia consisted of a series of events that aroused thought, forced to reflect on the real reasons for what was happening.
The Decembrists were well aware of Speransky's secret political projects: "Introduction to the Code of State Laws", "An Excerpt on the Commission of the Code", "On the Form of Government", etc. Therefore, when the idea of creating a temporary revolutionary government arose, M. M. Speransky was named the first candidate for it. “A comparative analysis of Speransky’s projects and the Decembrists’ program on the peasant issue show that, reflecting on the need to eliminate serfdom, the ideology of Decembrism and Speransky proceeded from the general principles of the advanced philosophy of their time - the creation of a natural human right to freedom ... However, in the field of specific proposals, a sharp delimitation between the program settings of the nobles revolutionaries and Speransky.
Speransky tacitly supported the Decembrists, or rather, played a "subtle game", and after the defeat of the uprising, his fate hung in the balance. The tsar found an opportunity to "punish" Speransky for his connections with the Decembrists and appointed him in 1826. a member of the Supreme Criminal Court, which was "a great personal tragedy" for Speransky. The daughter often saw her father "ruined and with tears in her eyes."
Speransky’s active participation in the trial by the Decembrists did not fully “redeem” his guilt in the eyes of Nicholas I. Until the last years of his life, Speransky was the tsar, despite external signs of attention (his own awarding of the St. to the heir to the throne, etc.), did not forget about the direction of his activities until 1812. and about his unidentified connections with members of secret societies.
Pushkin in 1834 said to Speransky: "You and Arakcheev, you stand at the door opposite this reign (under Alexander I), as geniuses of Evil and Good."
M.M. Speransky died in February 1839. at the age of 67 years.
“Speransky is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable people in Russia. He deserves the great merit that he wanted to give his country a constitution, free people, free peasants, a complete system of elected institutions and courts, a world court, a code of laws, orderly finances, thus anticipating for more than half a century the great reforms of Alexander II and dreaming for Russia of successes that she could not achieve for a long time.
There is a lot of truth in this assessment of Speransky. Indeed, the full implementation of his projects would undoubtedly hasten the evolution of Russia in the direction of a landowner-bourgeois monarchy. The collapse of feudal-serf relations and the foreign policy situation after the Tilsit peace treaty forced the nobility to a certain extent to put up with Speransky.
Famous statesman.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was born in Russia in January 1772 into a poor family of a rural priest in the village of Cherkutin, Vladimir province. Several generations of his ancestors served as priests. The same fate was destined for Mikhail Mikhailovich from childhood. At the age of six, he was already reading "Hours", "Apostle" in the village church and singing on the kliros. When the boy was seven years old, his father assigned him to the Vladimir Theological Seminary. The curriculum of this institution included, in addition to theological subjects, mathematics, physics, rhetoric, Latin and Greek. Speransky's remarkable abilities manifested themselves from the first years of his studies, and until the last grade he held the first place among his students.
In January 1790, among the best graduates, he was sent to St. Petersburg to the newly founded First Theological Seminary. Education here was more "secular" and approached the university. Civil history (ancient, medieval and modern), philosophy, mathematics, mechanics, physics, geography, new European languages, especially French, were widely studied. After graduating from the seminary in 1792, Speransky was left with her as a teacher of mathematics, physics and eloquence. Since 1795 - he also began to lecture on philosophy and received the important position of "prefect of the seminary."
But despite such a versatile activity, Speransky's salary was very small, providing only a modest existence. Metropolitan Gabriel of St. Petersburg, wishing to give the young teacher a "private income", recommended him as a personal secretary to the rich and influential nobleman Prince Kurakin. In the form of a check, the prince gave Speransky the task of compiling 11 letters with different content during the night. By 8 o'clock in the morning the task was completed. Kurakin was delighted with Speransky's letters and without hesitation accepted him as his house secretary. In 1796, appointed Prosecutor General Kurakin took Speransky to the civil service and instructed him to manage his office. Brilliant abilities and extraordinary diligence provided him with a quick promotion through the bureaucratic-hierarchical ladder. According to Klyuchevsky, “Speransky brought to the Russian untidy office of the 18th century an unusually straightened mind, the ability to work endlessly (48 hours a day) and an excellent ability to speak and write. In all this, he was a real find of the stationery world. This prepared his unusually fast service career. In January 1797, Speransky received the rank of titular councilor, in April of the same year - a collegiate assessor (this rank gave personal nobility), in January 1798 - a court adviser, and in September 1799 - a collegiate adviser.
Speransky's career did not stop even after he was killed in August 1798.
Kurakin was unexpectedly removed from his post and sent into exile by Emperor Paul I. Speransky remained at the head of the chancellery under the subsequent prosecutor generals. In November 1798, he married the Englishwoman Elizabeth Stephen, whom he loved passionately and passionately. Unfortunately, his married life was short - in September 1799, shortly after the birth of his daughter, his wife died. Speransky was so shocked by grief that he almost committed suicide.
Only love for his daughter brought him back to life.
The true rise of Speransky began with the accession to the Russian throne of Alexander I. As is known, this sovereign, assuming power, had in his heart a sincere intention to carry out deep liberal reforms in Russia. Under him, young, new-minded people began to be promoted to leading positions.
The state businessmen of the old Catherine's generation gradually left the stage. In this situation, great prospects opened up before figures like Speransky. Already in March 1801, he was appointed to the post of secretary of state under the state secretary Troshchinsky, and in July of the same year he received the rank of real state councilor, which gave the right to hereditary nobility. However, Speransky did not stay in this post for long. In 1802, he was transferred to the newly formed Ministry of the Interior and appointed director of the second, most important, department of the ministry, which was in charge of "the police and the welfare of the empire." Once, in 1806, the Minister of the Interior, grandfather Kochubey, was unable to report to the emperor due to illness and sent Speransky instead. The very first meeting with him made a great impression on Alexander. He was amazed at the clarity and elegance of his report, immediately appreciated the mind, diligence and diligence of the speaker and saw in him a person whom he had been looking for for a long time. First, he brought Speraysky closer to him as a "business secretary", and then as his closest assistant - and began to give him personal instructions and take him with him on private trips.
In September 1808, Alexander took Speransky to an Erfurt meeting with Napoleon. Here Speransky had several "private" conversations with the French emperor. Later, Napoleon spoke of him as "the only bright head in Russia." He said to Alexander: “What kind of person do you have with you! I would give a kingdom for him!” Upon his return to Russia, Speransky became the person closest to Alexander. They carried out. whole evenings together in reading and discussing draft laws and notes drawn up by Speransky or others on various issues, in conversations about the structure of the administration and the improvement of legislation. In addition to the military and partly diplomatic spheres, all aspects of politics and government in Russia came into Speransky's field of vision, and at the end of 1808 Alexander instructed Speransky to draw up a Plan for the state transformation of Russia. At the same time he was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice.
Speransky took on the project with his usual energy and responsibility. He went into this business, giving it all the power of his mind. They say that he turned into a hermit for a while, leaving his office only for conversations with the emperor. In preparing his Plan, Speransky proceeded from the latest political doctrines that were established in the 18th century. According to him, all classes of Russian society were to be equalized in their rights and before the law. Peasants were to receive personal freedom (but without land) by state decree.
The management system, in accordance with the principle of separation of powers, was made up of a triple kind of institutions - legislative, executive and judicial, and all these institutions from top to bottom, from the rural volost to the top of management, had a zemstvo elective character. Three institutions were to be at the head of this entire building: the legislative one - the State Duma, consisting of deputies of all classes, the executive one - the ministries responsible to the Duma, and the judicial one - the Senate. The activities of the three higher institutions were to be united by the State Council, which was directly attached to the emperor.
The work on the Plan proceeded with exceptional speed. Begun at the end of 1808, at the end of October 1809, it was already lying ready on the emperor's table. According to the biographer Speransky Korf, October and November "passed in an almost daily review of various parts of this Plan, in which the sovereign made his own amendments and additions." Recognizing the project as a whole "useful and satisfactory", he, however, refused to fully put it into operation, rightly believing that "different transitional measures are necessary first." First of all, on January 1, 1810, a manifesto on the establishment of the Council of State was promulgated by decree, and on the same day its opening took place. It included all the ministers and senior dignitaries appointed by the sovereign. From now on, the task of this important body (which existed until 1906) included the consideration of draft new laws in all branches of government, as well as the discussion of all issues of the state structure. The final decision, however, remained with the emperor.
To organize the activities of the State Council, the State Chancellery was created, headed by the Secretary of State, who appointed Speransky. Since all bills were originally sent to this office and edited there, the importance of Speransky in making all state decisions was very great.
The establishment of the Council of State was followed by another important measure in the field of higher administration, the ministerial reform of 1810–1811. The ministries, into which the Petrine collegiums were transformed by the September Manifesto of 1802, worked very unproductively. The reason for this, according to Speransky, was that, firstly, the responsibility of the ministers was not clearly defined and, secondly, there was no clear distribution of areas of activity between the ministries, so that they constantly interfered in each other's affairs. Correcting these shortcomings, Speransky prepared two important acts reforming their activities. In July 1810, the manifesto "On the division of state affairs into ministries" was published.
Here, new principles for the division of higher management were proclaimed and the range of issues transferred to the jurisdiction of each ministry was strictly defined. In July 1811, the General Code of Ministries was published. Here the composition and office work of the ministries, the limits of their power, responsibility and other issues of ministerial management were determined. Both of these acts, in terms of the harmony of the plan, the logical sequence of its development, the originality and accuracy of presentation, were exemplary works of higher legislation. After their introduction, the work of the ministries and the state apparatus as a whole improved markedly. Speransky was rightly proud of this reform. (The order he established remained unchanged until 1917.) In addition to difficult questions state reform, Speransky in 1809 was entrusted with the decision of another the most difficult task- improvement of the financial system, which after the wars of 1805-1807. was in a state of deep distress. However, since the time of Catherine II, the state budget of Russia has always been in deficit - expenditures have always exceeded revenues. The deficit was usually covered by borrowing or issuing paper money. But such a policy could not continue indefinitely. If in 1807 the expenses exceeded the income in the budget by one and a half times, then by 1810 it was already almost twice (with 125 million rubles of income and 230 million rubles of expenses).
The total public debt has reached an astronomical amount - 677 million rubles.
The exchange rate of the banknote (paper) ruble against the silver one fell from 73 kopecks. in 1807 to 25 kopecks. in 1810 Russia stood on the verge of state bankruptcy. The financial reform plan proposed by Speransky was based on two principles - on a complete cessation of the issuance of new banknotes with the gradual withdrawal of old ones and on an increase in all taxes. In 1810–1812 all taxes were more than doubled (including the poll tax from peasants, fees from merchant capital, duties), the price of salt and drinking fees increased. All the landlords' lands were even taxed, which had never happened before. As a result of these measures, by 1812 state revenues immediately increased to 300 million rubles. Thus, Speransky not only eliminated the threat of bankruptcy, but also found funds to prepare for war.
However, it is understandable that the solution of financial problems in this way produced a loud murmur in society. A sharp increase taxes caused discontent among peasants and merchants. The nobility, which had long been suspicious of Speransky's reformist plans, was indignant at the top of his voice. But Speransky had especially many enemies among the highest dignitaries. His enormous influence, his closeness to the sovereign, his liberal projects aroused the strongest hatred among them. A rumor was spread that Speransky was a French spy. At a time when the war with Napoleon was already just around the corner, when it began to unfold patriotic movement, this accusation was very dangerous. People close to Alexander did everything possible to quarrel him with Speransky. Their efforts were not in vain. At the beginning of 1812, the emperor, suspicious and very sensitive to insults, noticeably lost interest in Speransky and began to avoid him. They met less and less. There was no longer any talk of former closeness. And on March 17, a decree unexpectedly followed on the expulsion of Speransky from the capital to Nizhny Novgorod, and without any indication of the reason for disgrace. Speransky was not even dismissed.
In September of the same year, Speransky was transferred to Perm, where he lived until the summer of 1814. At the end of August, a manifesto "On the forgiveness of criminals" was published. Among the persons who received amnesty under this decree was also Speransky. He moved to his estate Velikopolye in the Novgorod province, where he spent two more years in silence and scientific work. During the time of rural solitude, he thoroughly studied the works of the holy fathers, wrote several discourses on theological, philosophical, legal issues, and translated most of the multi-volume work of Thomas of Kempis "On the Imitation of Christ." He was also engaged in self-education - he learned English, German and Hebrew. Finally, the “solitary and calm” life began to weigh on him. Speransky aspired to public service. In 1816, he turned to Arakcheev for assistance. The all-powerful favorite agreed to help, and in August of the same year, by imperial decree, Speransky was appointed Penza civil governor.
The Penza province was considered at that time a remote and remote province.
Speransky was received here with strong prejudice. He began by traveling around all the local "celebrities", communicating with them and with his tact, openly endeared many to him. Speransky "opened free access to himself" with requests and complaints and received visitors "from morning to evening." In a short time, the entire apparatus of the provincial government was updated. Then, going around one county after another, Speransky made an audit of the county administration and did a lot to restore order here.
In March 1819, Alexander appointed Speransky governor-general of Siberia. This remote Russian region was at that time in the complete power of the local administration, which ruled it arbitrarily and uncontrollably. Local governors were notorious for their cruelty and despotism. Knowing this, the emperor instructed Speransky to carefully investigate all the lawlessness and endowed him with the broadest powers;
Speransky could remove any boss from office, could bring the perpetrators to trial and was not limited in any way in carrying out necessary measures and reforms.
Speransky immediately set off. As we moved towards Irkutsk, the flow of complaints from local residents about the lawlessness and arbitrariness of local authorities grew. “The further I go down to the bottom of Siberia,” Speransky wrote in one of his letters, “the more I find evil, almost unbearable evil.” The new governor-general had to simultaneously audit the region entrusted to him, and manage it, and develop the foundations for paramount reforms. His clear analytical mind and phenomenal efficiency came to the aid of Speransky. First of all, he made himself a personal office of honest and devoted people. Then he began inspection trips - he traveled around the Irkutsk province, visited Yakutia and Transbaikalia. At the beginning of 1820, he reached Nerchinsk, the border center of trade between Russia and China. To investigate the crimes of Siberian officials, three investigative commissions were formed, which brought about 700 people to court. Of these, more than 400 were imprisoned for abuse and embezzlement. However, Speransky understood that the evil was rooted not so much in people as in the very system of government in Siberia - in the lack of control, in the underdevelopment of institutions and in the poor development of fundamental laws.
Trying to raise and develop this richest region, he established the Main Department of Trade of Siberia, the Treasury Chamber to resolve land and financial issues, took a number of measures to encourage agriculture, trade and industry of the region. A number of important legal acts were developed and adopted: on the procedure for governing the provinces, on the relationship between various groups of the population (especially Russians and non-Russians, for example, the "Charter on the Administration of the Siberian Kirghiz"), on the status and position of the exiles ("Charters on the Exiles"), on trade and means of communication (“Regulations on the grain reserves of Siberia”, “Decree on the limits of navigation and on the procedure for coastal relations”, etc.). In addition, Speransky carefully thought out and developed many other "charters", "regulations", "rules" and "report cards". The result of Speransky's activity as the Siberian Governor-General, in fact, a new chapter in the history of Siberia, was the fundamental Code for the Management of Siberia, which examines in detail the structure, management, legal proceedings and economy of this part of the Russian Empire. (Like everything Speransky did, these acts turned out to be so well thought out that they remained in effect until the beginning of the 20th century.) In March 1821, Alexander allowed Speransky to return to St. Petersburg and appointed him a member of the State Council. He was entrusted with the development of important bills, but he never had the same importance in the state system - Count Arakcheev remained the closest assistant to the emperor until his death.
The death of Alexander and the uprising of the Decembrists led to another change in the fate of Speransky. At first, the new Emperor Nicholas I had strong suspicions against him. Indeed, it turned out that the Decembrists had high hopes for the famous reformer and were going to entrust him with important posts in their future government. However, Speransky's complete innocence in the conspiracy was soon completely proven.
The investigation into his case was closed. Soon he was introduced to the Supreme Criminal Court, established over the Decembrists, and played an important role in this trial. Although Speransky tried to "keep in the background" as an ordinary member of the court, in fact he immediately became its most important driving force. It was he who developed in detail the entire procedural side of the court and the program of its activities, he also owned a strictly developed classification of the accused by category. Speransky submitted his considerations in the form of a draft, and his recommendations were accepted and executed by the Supreme Court in all details. After the end of the investigation and the trial of the Decembrists, Speransky entrusted! but there was another important matter - the codification of Russian laws. This matter was old.
The last codification of legal acts was carried out in Russia in 1649 under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Over the next two hundred years, a huge number of za-Іts kons were issued on a variety of occasions. It was extremely difficult to understand this huge mass of unsystematized acts, and the lack of proper order in the legislation gave rise to numerous abuses in the courts. By the way, many Decembrists also pointed to this. “We have a decree for a decree: one destroys, the other renews, and for each case there are many legalizations, some disagreeing with others,” we read in the “Code” of their testimony. “From this, the strong and the thugs triumph, and poverty and innocence suffer.” This accusation was true. Even Peter I was aware of the urgent need to develop a strict code for the state. Work on it has been intermittently carried out since 1700. But due to the complexity of the task and the colossal amount of material, the matter has not moved forward for more than a hundred years. A person with Speransky's abilities and talents had to appear in order to finally bring him to a happy conclusion.
In January 1826, specifically for codification, the II Department of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery was formed. Balugyansky was placed at its head, but Speransky supervised virtually all the work of this department. He began by arranging all the decrees, statutes and regulations from various offices and archives, starting with the Code of 1649 and ending with the last decree of Emperor Alexander I, and arranged them in chronological order and printed them, giving the collection the title "The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire" . A total of 45 voluminous volumes were published, containing some 31,000 pieces of legislation, each volume accompanied by drawings, tables, and elaborate indexes.
Speransky spent less than four years on such a grandiose work: having begun in 1826, he completed it in 1830. Speransky put this complete collection of laws at the basis of the Code of Acts. To this end, he took legalizations suitable for action from various acts, clothed them in brief articles, applied to the text of the original, and, with references to the source, arranged them in a systematic manner, reducing them to special charters. This is how the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire was compiled, published in 1833 in 15 volumes. The first three volumes set out the "basic and constituent" laws, that is, defining the limits of power and the order of office work of government agencies. The State Council, the Senate, ministries, provincial administration, etc. In the next five volumes (from the 4th to the 8th), the laws of "state forces", that is, the means by which the state feeds, laws on state duties, incomes and property. In the 9th volume, the laws "on states", that is, on the estates, in the 10th - civil and boundary laws, in volumes from 11 to 14 - the laws of "state improvement and deanery", that is, policemen, and, finally, in the last 15th - criminal. In January 1833, the State Council decided to regard the Code of Laws as the main legal act of the Russian Empire.
The emperor highly appreciated the work done by Speransky and right at the meeting of the council laid on him the ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, which had been removed from him. In the same year, Speransky was appointed chairman of the department of laws - the most important in the State Council.
In subsequent years, Speransky brought into proper order and codified a huge mass of disparate laws relating to the military department and the national regions of Russia. Under his editorship, a 12-volume Code of Military Regulations was published, as well as Codes of Laws for the Baltic, Western provinces and the Grand Duchy of Finland. Along with this, in 1834-1837. Speransky taught the fundamentals of law to the heir to the throne, Alexander Nikolaevich (the future Alexander II). Exceptional performance did not leave him until old age. Only in 1838, at the age of 67, did he begin to feel severe ailments - he was plagued by gastritis and inflammation of the liver, but he still did not leave his work. In January 1839, Nicholas granted Speransky the title of count. This award, as it were, summed up his unparalleled activity - in next month Speransky died unexpectedly. The emperor was greatly shocked and upset by his death and said many times that it would be impossible to find a replacement for such a person. And it was absolutely true - the Russian bureaucracy never again had in its ranks such a brilliant and versatile figure as Speransky was.
