Reform of Speransky

The reforms of Speransky became the real peak of the government reforms at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I. The son of a simple priest from the village, he made a lot of efforts to become a famous lawyer and make a dizzying administrative career.

In 1807, Speransky was already among the persons close to the emperor, talked with him almost daily, discussed drafts of reforms. His opinion was often decisive for Alexander I when choosing candidates for public office. He also had ill-wishers who believed that he owns the will of the emperor and himself runs Russia. But in fact he was only, albeit very talented, fulfilling the instructions of Alexander I. Speransky's political views were as vague as the views of the emperor himself. On the one hand, they wanted to make Russia a truly European power, and on the other hand they understood that the country is not yet ready for drastic changes. Speransky, as a fan of Napoleon and his ideas, believed that in a country with a predominance of a captive population, there can be no question of a real monarchy. However, he also understood that if the peasant question was sharply resolved, the autocratic power of the emperor would be limited, so he behaved extremely cautiously.

The political reforms of Speransky were developed and submitted to the emperor for consideration only in 1809. In the new project, he pointed out that in connection with the revolutions that shook Europe, it is impossible to postpone the transformation in Russia more.

Speranskii's reforms primarily concerned the separation of several branches of power (judicial, executive, legislative) through the convocation of the State Duma and the introduction of judicial elective instances. He also considered it of paramount importance to create a State Council that would link the central and local government with the emperor. The reforms of Speransky, however, endowed all these new bodies with just the right of deliberative. They did not influence the autocratic power of the emperor in any way.

Speransky and his reforms, which were liberal in nature, certainly had not only supporters. Against them were the nobles, who were conservative. In the transformations, they saw a threat to their situation and for the autocratic serfdom in general. The historian and writer NM Karamzin, as the main ideologist of the conservatives, presented to the emperor a note in which he asked (and even insisted) to preserve the old order in order to preserve the autocracy and serfdom.

The reforms of Speransky also met resistance from Count AA Arakcheev, close to Alexander I. Count, on the contrary, believed that to strengthen the power of the emperor, it is necessary to further develop the existing bureaucratic system. The struggle between the conservatives and the liberals culminated in the defeat of the latter. And their ideologue was removed from state affairs and sent into exile.

Speranskii's reforms were implemented only in one issue: in 1810 the State Council was established. It included ministers and other high dignitaries appointed by the emperor himself. The functions of the State Council consisted in meetings on the development of new laws and interpretation of the significance of laws already passed. He also dealt with the distribution of finance between ministries, reviewed the reports of ministers for a year, before giving them to the emperor. These functions were retained by the State Council until 1906.

In general, the reforms carried out in the country from 1802 to 1811 did not change the essence of its political system. On the contrary, they made the state apparatus even more centralized. The Supreme Legislative and Executive Power remained the Emperor.