Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky. Speransky Mikhail Mikhailovich - Vladimir - history - catalog of articles - unconditional love

January 12 - 240 years since the birth of Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky
(1772-1839)

Varnek Alexander Grigorievich (1782-1843). Portrait of Speransky (1824)

Officials have always been scolded in Russia, Russia has always dreamed of an ideal bureaucrat. And it was clear what he should be: smart, honest, hardworking, like an ant, at the same time intelligent, educated, talented. The most surprising thing is that such characters still appear in Russia. That is why the names of these disgustingly virtuous people entered Russian history along with the names of geniuses, kings and military leaders. One of them was Mikhail Speransky - a brilliant bureaucrat who laid the foundations of modern Russian statehood, a man for whom Napoleon was ready to give half of France.

Mikhail Speransky was a kind of Pushkin for the Russian bureaucracy. At the beginning of the 19th century, through his efforts, a ministerial system of state administration was introduced in Russia (ministries of finance, foreign affairs, military, naval, Ministry of Internal Affairs, police, justice, public education). The system of ministries he invented is still in effect today. He compiled a complete set of laws of the country. What he did in the field of legislation today is beyond the power of the entire State Duma with all its numerous subcommittees ... One cannot envy his fate - he was one of his own among strangers. By education, abilities and rank, he belonged to the most privileged circle, but he had no close friends. Even those few people in high society who respected and admired his abilities shunned him - for them he remained a seminarian, a priest.

snake in syrup

Speransky never forgot about his low origin and was proud of him. Modest Korf, his first biographer, told the story. 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 a sheepskin coat, a dirty pillow ... "Today is my birthday," he explained, "I always spend this night in such a way as to remind myself of my origin, and all the old times, and his well, I'm waiting." Considering that Mikhail Mikhailovich celebrated his birthday on New Year's Eve, "falling to the roots" can be called symbolic, if not outrageous.

In the small provincial village of Cherkutino, Vladimir province and district, 40 kilometers from Vladimir, the patrimony of the Saltykov princes, the poor parish priest Mikhail Vasilyev, who did not even have a family nickname, and his wife Praskovya Fedorova, the daughter of a local deacon, had a son, Mikhail, born on January 1, 1772 . This clan, according to Speransky himself, transmitted by I. I. Dmitriev, a famous fabulist and Minister of Justice in the era of Speransky, came from Little Russia, where one of his ancestors was a cornet in the Little Russian Cossack army. Speransky's biographer, Baron M. A. Korf, however, doubts the authenticity of this legend. It is only known for certain that Speransky's grandfather, the priest Vasily, priested in the same Cherkutin; that his son, and Speransky's father, Mikhail was at first a deacon in the same place, and a year before the birth of the future statesman, in 1771, he received a priestly place there. Father Mikhail had many children, but he raised few - two sons, Mikhail (born fourth, but raised second after his sister Maria) and Kuzma, and two daughters, Maria and Martha.

Speransky's parents were quite ordinary people, who did not stand out in any way in the environment in which they lived and acted. The father was known for his enormous growth and obesity, for which he received the nickname Omet from his parishioners, and was distinguished, according to Baron Korf, by good nature, “a very ordinary, almost limited mind” and the absence of any education. A sober and diligent priest, for many years he corrected the position of the dean, and in 1797, due to illness and old age, he left the place that his son-in-law, a priest, later archpriest, Mikhail Fedorovich Tretyakov, who was married to his youngest daughter Martha, inherited from him ( eldest daughter Maria was married to the deacon Petrov). Speransky's father died on May 28, 1801, just at the time when the new reign opened up new prospects for his eldest son, even then an official. The old man did not have to see his son as a dignitary. But his mother saw him at the height of the first dignitary of the empire, and in disgrace and exile, and again at his height. She died on April 24, 1824, at the age of 84. Speransky's biographer found only to say about her that “with a small stature, agile, lively, she was distinguished by special activity and sharpness of mind; in addition, everyone in the neighborhood respected her for her piety and pious life. It is quite natural that, as the same biographer notes, "the participation of parents in the first upbringing of their son was the most insignificant." The only thing that can still be noted from this early period of Speransky's life is the testimony of his relatives that he was a boy of poor health, prone to thoughtfulness, learned to read early and became addicted to reading, which, of course, could not be varied in the house of a poor and poorly educated village priest. Speransky's parents sowed wheat and kept livestock - without a subsidiary farm, a priest with a priest would not be able to feed three children. At the age of seven, he was taken to Vladimir and sent to the seminary, where, in view of the abilities he discovered, he was recorded by Speransky, that is, budding, Nadezhdin (from the Latin sperare - to hope).

Theological seminary is the first educational institution in the city of Vladimir.

In the seminary, Speransky studied excellently, was noticed by the local bishop, enrolled in the bishop's choir, which was considered a distinction, and the rector of the seminary made him his cell attendant (also a distinction). And in 1788, among the three best students, he was transferred to St. Petersburg - to the main Alexander Nevsky Seminary in Russia. The capital's seminary has just opened. Like the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, it trained elite officials - only among the clergy. Here, too, Speransky was one of the first students, especially distinguished in the mathematical sciences. Teaching at this higher theological school was then far from the level of a higher educational institution. In the seminary, Speransky tried the joys of life (writing poetry and a card game) - and harshly and soberly, like Pavka Korchagin, refused them. Nevertheless, it was here that Speransky's mind was finally disciplined, and here he mastered the French language, which gave him access to world literature. From that time on, he already began to study the rich philosophical literature of the 18th century. At this time, they begin to entrust him with preaching sermons, which are very successful, are kept on lists by listeners and corresponded by amateurs.

Ivanov Pavel Alexeyevich - Portrait of Count Mikhail Speransky.

In 1792, Speransky finished the course for twenty years and, noticed by Metropolitan Gabriel, was left in St. Petersburg as a professor of mathematics, physics and eloquence with a salary of 275 rubles a year in the same main seminary in which he had just completed his studies. Three years later, he was transferred to the department of philosophy and appointed prefect of the seminary. This was a sign of great distinction on the part of the metropolitan, because before him clerics were appointed prefects of the main seminary. By this time of his professorship is the completion of his philosophical education and his first literary experiments. In his early twenties he was already one of the most educated people in Russia. The seminary, with its almost monastic obedience, shaped his character. He was like a snake in syrup - closed, but extremely courteous and insinuating. His fantastic industriousness and amazing logic of thought made the future more than clear - it was necessary to become a monk, and eventually take a high place in the church hierarchy. But fate would have it otherwise.

Plum

At the same time, that is, in the last years of the reign of Catherine II, a change took place in the life of a modest academic professor, which paved the way for him to a completely different field. One of Catherine's nobles, Prince A. B. Kurakin, needed a house secretary to manage his extensive official and private correspondence. Metropolitan Gabriel recommended to him Professor Speransky, who needed funds due to the poverty of his relatives, whom he always helped to the best of his ability. “For testing, the young man was ordered to appear one day at eight o’clock in the evening, and Kurakin instructed him to write eleven letters to different people, using about an hour for one explanation in words of what should be said in each letter. Speransky, in order to immediately take up the work entrusted to him, without losing time in going to a remote seminary, and from there back again, stayed overnight with Ivanov (his fellow countryman and friend who served and lived with Kurakin) and immediately wrote all eleven letters, so that by six o'clock in the morning they were already lying on Kurakin's table. At first, the prince did not want to believe his eyes that the deed had already been completed, and then, after reading the letters and seeing how masterfully they were presented, he was even more amazed, kissed Ivanov (who, for his part, also recommended Speransky) for the treasure he had found and immediately received Speransky ". The brilliant abilities discovered in this private service paved the way for Speransky to the state service, when, under Paul, his patron received a large official appointment.

L. Guttenbrun. Portrait of Prince A. B. Kurakin. State Hermitage

From this period of private secretarial service with Kurakin (which did not prevent him from remaining a professor at the seminary), not very much should be noted. His position was not much higher than the senior servant, with whom he dined and with whom he maintained friendly relations later. At that time, he especially became close to the tutor of the young prince, the German Bruckner, who fell in love with Speransky very much and spent all his free time in conversations with him. Bruckner was a man of sharp liberal opinions, a follower of Voltaire and the Encyclopedists, and at the same time with deep and versatile information. Under his influence, Speransky’s political worldview finally took shape, which later affected the extensive reform plans under Emperor Alexander I. Probably, Speransky owes the same Bruckner’s influence, who enjoyed great confidence in the prince and princess, to the fact that he was entrusted with teaching the Russian language to his young nephew Prince Kurakin, Sergei Uvarov, later Count and Minister of Public Education, who forever retained the warmest and most cordial relations with his former mentor.

In 1796, Catherine II died and Paul reigned, radically changing the entire composition of the government. Prince Kurakin was appointed Prosecutor General of the ruling Senate. At a time when ministries did not yet exist and all cases in all departments passed through the Senate, the position of the Prosecutor General was the most important in the state mechanism. The Prosecutor General reported to the emperor all cases that passed through the Senate, that is, all cases of internal administration in all departments, except for the military. Kurakin, who was appointed prosecutor general, was at first in great favor with the emperor, who on December 19, 1796 granted him the Alexander ribbon, on April 5, 1797 - the rank of actual privy councillor, on October 4, 1797 - diamond signs of the Alexander Order, and on December 19, 1797 - St. Andrew's ribbon. This rapid rise ended in an equally rapid fall. The following year, 1798, Kurakin fell into disgrace, was removed from all positions and exiled to the countryside. During his time in power, Kurakin managed, however, to firmly establish his former house secretary and reward him for the services rendered to him. As a master and professor, Speransky was appointed to the office of the Prosecutor General directly with the rank of titular adviser and a salary of 750 rubles a year. Each subsequent year, he will receive a promotion: in three months he will become a collegiate assessor, in 1798 - a court adviser, in 1799 - a collegiate adviser. Prince Lopukhin was appointed to replace Kurakin, followed by Bekleshov, then Obolyaninov.

Pyotr Khrisanfovich Obolyaninov

Prosecutor General P.Kh. Obolyaninov did not leave a single former face in the office. Having appointed Speransky a reception, Obolyaninov expected to meet a trembling, frightened little man in an official's uniform, whom he would trample to his heart's content, and then drive him out. Instead, a pleasant-looking young man in a gray French coat, jabot, cuffs, curls and powder entered his office at ease. Obolyaninov was dumbfounded, invited Speransky to sit down, spoke to him and ... was fascinated.

Rapid rise and fall was the lot of all dignitaries under Emperor Paul, but all four prosecutor generals could not but appreciate the rare abilities of the young official, and Speransky's career was not interrupted by these catastrophes at the top, in the spheres of dignitary, which he had not yet reached. During this time, he was promoted to state councilor, received 2,000 acres in the Saratov province and an order. At the same time, in addition to his position in the office of the Prosecutor General, he was the secretary of the commission for supplying the capital with bread (where the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Alexander was the chairman), and also the secretary of the St. Andrew's Order. Such were the successes of Speransky in the official field during the short but turbulent reign of Emperor Paul. All this multilateral official activity, and especially the service in the Prosecutor General's Office, where, as it was said, all the internal administration of the country was concentrated, was an excellent school for the future statesman. This school, however, was not easy, due to the special properties of that time. “With all four prosecutor generals,” Speransky himself later said, “different in character, morals, abilities, I was, if not by name, then on the thing itself, the ruler of their office. One had to be pleased in one way, another in another; for one it was enough to be efficient in business, for another it was even more required: to be in powder, in uniform, with a sword, and I was all sorts of things in everything. After Bekleshov, the sovereign himself warned his successor against me, believing me to be in ties with Kurakin and Bekleshov and betrayed by him; but the procurator-general stood by me like a mountain and found it necessary to have it with him. Bekleshov was smarter than all of them, but also the most unfortunate - he did not succeed; Obolyaninov had the least ability of all of them - and he got away with everything.

However, Tolstoy in "War and Peace" portrayed Speransky differently. His Speransky is a caricature of a statesman: a man with a meaningless smile, with a look that does not pass into the soul, white hands and unnatural laughter. Pleasing the boss, Speransky gradually became simply necessary for him, and in fact single-handedly ran the affairs of the office. His ability to draw up papers, to state other people's plans, made his superiors smarter in the eyes of the king. The accession to the throne of Alexander I broke the monotony of his career. Speransky was invited to be his secretary by D.P. Troshchinsky, the closest assistant to the tsar. Yesterday's seminarian crept up to the very heights of state power.

Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich (1757-1825). Portrait of Dmitry Prokof"evich Trostschchinsky (1799)

Poor Lisa

Love, as you know, is submissive to all ages and professions. A short-lived but fiery passion warmed this bureaucratic fate as well. There was only one woman in Speransky's life. Her name was Elizabeth Stevenson. She came from England with her governess mother. She was sixteen, he was twenty-six. She did not understand a word of Russian, he did not know English. Seeing her at a dinner with Archpriest Sambrovsky, Speransky fell in love in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, Mademoiselle Stevenson spoke French and the young people were able to explain themselves.

A year later, in 1798, they got married. They rented a small apartment for themselves, hired a cheap cook, received guests on weekends - in short, happiness was immeasurable. After 10 months, a daughter was born - she was named after Lisa's mother. A month later, Speransky's wife died of transient consumption. In winter, she rode in a carriage, the carriage overturned in the snow - the onset of a cold turned into death. In the morning Speransky went to work, and when he returned home, he did not find his wife alive. After kissing his dead wife, he left home. He returned several times, stared like a madman at the corpse, and left again. She was buried in his absence. Three weeks later, Speransky was found in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, alone in the forest - overgrown with a beard, aged, terrible. They thought he was going to kill himself.

The consciousness of his obligations to his daughter, and perhaps to his own convictions, however, returned Speransky to life and activity and saved him from suicide, to which he was very close at one time. The despair of the first time subsided, passed into quiet sadness and reverent veneration of the memory of the late Elizabeth Andreevna, to whom he remained faithful all his life.

He transferred his love for his dead wife to his daughter Lisa. Even when he was working on a set of state laws, he found an hour to take a walk with her. Exiled to Siberia, he wrote her long, boring reports about every day she lived. Widowed at the age of twenty-seven, after an eleven-month marriage, Speransky remained a widower for the rest of his long life (he died at sixty-seven), although in the heyday of his career, many women would have been glad to marry him and he could choose between the first brides of the empire. Yes, and his kinship with a noble noble family would add weight. Speransky preferred work to women. And his main employer - Tsar Alexander I. He, like many contemporaries, adored the Tsar.

How can we equip Russia

Young and handsome Alexander I, having ascended the throne, wanted to make Russia happy with reforms. He united his liberal-minded friends in a "Secret Committee" (the poet Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin called him "the Jacobin gang"). The occupation of state affairs proceeded with oriental slowness. Having dined at the royal table, the members of the "Unspoken Committee" retired to the royal office, and there, over dessert, coffee with a pipe, they discussed reform projects. The young reformers did not have the slightest idea of ​​real state administration. They needed a person who could turn dreams into concrete projects. Speransky became a real find for young aristocrats.

Alexander I

In 1808, the Tsar commissioned him to draw up a master plan for reforms. Mikhailo Mikhailovich was engaged in this work for almost a year. He worked 18-19 hours a day: he got up at five in the morning, wrote, received visitors at eight, after the reception he went to the palace. In the evening I wrote again. In October 1809, he presented his plan to the Tsar.

Even now, after almost two centuries, this plan is striking in its modernity and European logic. Speransky proposed "to equip Russia" like the current prosperous monarchies. The plan for state reorganization began with the first Russian constitution (another outstanding bureaucrat, Sergei Witte, forced the last monarch to adopt it exactly one hundred years later). Speransky introduced the now familiar division of power into executive, legislative and judicial. Prior to this, a rigid state system did not exist. Not only that: it was Speransky who invented ministries in their modern bureaucratic form. He proposed to introduce an elected State Duma and a State Council appointed by the tsar - in fact, it was an analogue of the modern bicameral parliament. Civil and political rights were introduced - that is, it was a question of a constitutional monarchy. Speransky was sincerely convinced that his project to limit the autocracy fully met the aspirations of the sovereign.

Contemporaries did not even know about this plan, striking in its courage. Only a few positions remain from the entire package of reforms. Speransky could console himself with the fact that the tsar instructed him to deal with the "perestroika". On January 1, 1810, the State Council was created, which eventually became an influential state structure and lasted until the October Revolution. Speransky reformed the tax system - they introduced a tax on noble landowners, who had never paid money to the treasury before. Eight ministries were created to manage all economic affairs.

Speransky Mikhail Mikhailovich (unknown artist, early 1810s)

Perhaps the only person who could appreciate the bureaucratic genius of Speransky was Napoleon. He told Alexander that he would give half of France for such an official. And as a sign of special favor, he presented Speransky with a diamond snuffbox. The snuffbox did not add political dividends to the new owner. Clouds were gathering over him. Envy of officials. Fury of taxpaying nobles. And it already seemed to Alexander that it was not he who ruled the country, but this “bursak”. The dissatisfaction of the emperor was fueled by denunciations of intriguers, who accused Speransky of bribery, treason, and ties with Freemasons.

On March 17, 1812, Speransky was summoned to the palace. In a long one-to-one conversation, Alexander said that he should remove him from business. Leaving the tsar, Speransky almost fainted - in confusion, he tried to put his hat into his briefcase. Alexander I looked out of his office and said: "Farewell again, Mikhailo Mikhailovich." In his diary, the Sovereign coquettishly wrote that parting with a faithful friend was just as painful for him, as if his hand had been taken away. At home, the disgraced official was already waiting for a post wagon and a private bailiff with an order to go into exile in Nizhny Novgorod. Speransky did not have the courage to say goodbye to his daughter, he only crossed the door of her bedroom and left the capital for a long nine years.

Speransky Mikhail Mikhailovich (engraving, Skotnikov)

Out of business

First, he was brought to Nizhny Novgorod, where he did not stay long. With the advance of Napoleon deep into Russia, Speransky was sent to Perm. His financial situation was so cramped that he had to borrow money from strangers on the security of orders and sniff Russian tobacco instead of the usual French. The governor of Perm mocked him like the Soviet militia mocked Sakharov in Gorky: spies were on duty at the house, and the boys were paid a dime to shout after Speransky "Spy!" Speransky behaved like an abandoned favorite - showered Alexander I with tearful letters. In the end, the tsar heeded - he appointed a pension of 6 thousand rubles a year (before disgrace Speransky received 30 thousand).

In 1816, the emperor finally remembered Speransky. At first he was appointed governor of Penza, and then - governor-general of Siberia. He "disdaind" his new posts, but, hoping for the return of the past greatness, he did his work diligently. He traveled through all of Siberia, stopping at every half-station and putting things in order. There was not a single official in Tomsk who did not take bribes - Speransky dispersed everyone. He brought the governor of Irkutsk Treskin to trial. Thanks to Speransky, the Siberian Territory first learned about the existence of the law - 680 people from the local administration ended up in prison. But Speransky treated the local population with the curiosity of a naturalist. He classified the Siberian peoples into nomadic and sedentary, compiled their detailed description and instructions on how to govern which people.

Speransky M.M. (engraving by Wright from a portrait of Dow)

In March 1821 Mikhailo Mikhailovich returned to St. Petersburg. He was appointed a member of the State Council, granted lands, his daughter was given the title of maid of honor. It was time for the girl to get married. And her father arranged for her to marry A.A. Frolov-Bagreev, the offspring of a noble family, the nephew of Count Kochubey, the grandson of a prominent Catherine nobleman Bezborodko.

At that time, Pushkin met Speransky. The poet called him "the genius of goodness." The "genius of evil", respectively, was Arakcheev, Alexander's new favorite. Incidentally, both geniuses hit it off. Speransky even wrote an article in which he supported the idea of ​​military settlements. However, this happened in 1825, when he struggled to return to power.

Tropinin Vasily Andreevich (1776-1857). Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (Russian: State Museum of Political History of Russia)

Executioner-opportunist

By any means he wanted to regain his former political influence. The death of Alexander I and the uprising of the Decembrists gave him a chance. Speransky almost certainly knew about the uprising on Senate Square. Speransky was personally acquainted with K. Ryleev. S. Trubetskoy, S. Volkonsky, N. Muravyov. The Decembrist Batenkov, who served under Speransky in Siberia, lived with him in St. Petersburg. The leaders of the republican wing of the Northern Society knew in general the reformist works of Speransky (lists of treatises of 1802 and the project of 1809 were found in the papers of N.I. Turgenev). Ryleev testified during the investigation that after the victory it was supposed "to force the Senate to appoint a provisional government Duma, consisting of Mordvinov, Speransky and, as the ruler of affairs, a member of the Northern Society, Lieutenant Colonel Batenkov" ("He will surely be ours; we will act on him through Batenkov").

G. S. Batenkov

Recall that G.S. Batenkov, an officer, philosopher, poet, revolutionary, associate of Arakcheev (!), lived in the Speransky family. It was from Speransky that they learned about the appointment of the oath to Nikolai Pavlovich on December 14th. On the day of the uprising, Speransky said to the Decembrist Kornilovich: "Get the upper hand first," apparently, if successful, he was ready to support the rebels.

But the uprising was defeated and - the tsar's Manifesto on the events of December 14 was compiled by Speransky. Nicholas I needed a person who would competently organize the trial of the Decembrists. We needed an official who knew the law. And Speransky did a brilliant job of organizing the trial and investigation. He meticulously classified the guilt of the accused by categories and proposed punishments, including the death penalty, which was almost never used in Russia.

Speransky Mikhail Mikhailovich (engraving, Wright)

Speransky could have stayed away - and it would not have cost him his life. Count Mordvinov, for example, voted against the death penalty. Others, on the contrary, proposed quartering the conspirators. Speransky was much more humane: he offered to hang his yesterday's like-minded people. He caught the conjuncture very accurately - Nicholas I asked to apply the execution "without the shedding of blood." He did not calculate the price he would have to pay to return to power. He won the trust of Nicholas I, but was completely crushed. They say that when the verdict was passed, Speransky wept.

Sokolov Petr Fyodorovich Portrait of M.M. Speransky (1830s)

Veteran Reformer

Speransky took up Russian legislation. By this time, there were so many laws in Russia that one could assume that they did not exist at all. For six years, Speransky was engaged in ant labor: he collected archives and systematized the laws of the Russian Empire. In fact, he wrote the first civil and criminal codes in Russia. 45 volumes of the Complete Collection were published, and in 1833 - the Code of Laws in 15 volumes. For this work, Speransky was generously showered with the favors of the monarch - in addition to a solid salary, he was assigned a 10,000th pension and was awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.

In 1835, he taught law to the heir Alexander Nikolayevich (the future Alexander the Blessed, the Tsar-Liberator). Speransky had private conversations with him - he praised French laws, the separation of powers and constitutional orders. When Nicholas I became aware of this, the veteran reformer was strictly pointed out.

Speransky M.M. (graph)

His old age passed in glory and honor. In February 1839, Speransky caught a cold and did not get out of bed. He died on February 11, bestowed only a month before his death with the dignity of a count.

Coat of arms of Count Speransky

He was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Nicholas I, the court, members of the State Council, the Senate and the Synod in full force came to pay him their last debt. "The light of the Russian administration has died down," Baron Modest Korf, a student of Speransky's, wrote in his obituary.

Speransky's daughter Elizabeth ( Frolova-Bagreeva Elizaveta Mikhailovna (1799 - 1857)) grew up as a sickly child. Due to her state of health, doctors advised her to change the climate, and Speransky was forced to send her to Kyiv, where she lived for several years with her grandmother, aunt and uncle. Prior to this, life with the family of his deceased wife was complicated for Speransky by the fact that his sister-in-law wanted to take her place, but, fortunately, she got married in Kyiv and, quickly becoming a widow, became the owner of the Velikopolye estate (9 miles from Novgorod, on the Vishera River) . After the death of her aunt, the estate passed into the inheritance of Elizabeth. At the end of 1809, Speransky bought a two-story mansion near the Tauride Garden, rebuilt it to his liking, sent his daughter and mother-in-law out of Kyiv, and thus finally began to live a family life under the roof of his own house. Now he was able to pay serious attention to the upbringing and education of his beloved daughter: in addition to the best teachers, Speransky personally dealt with his daughter in several subjects. They lived in this house on the corner of Sergievskaya Street for about three years. In 1812, when Speransky was accused of having connections with Napoleon and spying for France, the family of the disgraced reformer was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod by order of Alexander. For almost a year, the daughter and mother-in-law shared with Speransky the hardships of his Permian exile. Only in February 1813 did Speransky manage to send them to Velikopolye (with a long stopover in St. Petersburg). It was Elizabeth who handed over to the Emperor the famous "Speransky's letter from Perm", his original apology, ending with a request for "freedom and oblivion." Upon his return from exile, having become the governor-general of the Penza province, Speransky decided to get rid of the property, which brought up painful memories of unjust disgrace. As a result of efforts that took several years, both the house and the estate were sold. With the permission of the Emperor, Arakcheev took an active part in the sale of Greater Poland. It is not surprising that in the spring of 1819 Velikopolye was bought by the treasury for 140,000 rubles as a military settlement; and in memory of the master, the peasants renamed him Speranka. By this time, Speransky's daughter had already turned into an adult girl. From her mother she inherited spiritualized beauty, from her father - an undoubted ability for literature (she wrote poetry and prose). It's time to think about the future of Elizabeth. In October 1821, Speransky managed to arrange her as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress. Around the same time, the father introduces his daughter to the nephew of the powerful Count Kochubey - Alexander Alekseevich Frolov-Bagreev, a diplomat, a participant in the war of 1812. , and at that time - the Chernihiv civil governor. The groom was much older than the bride, and according to legend, the girl opposed marriage with him, because. loved another person. But on September 16, 1822, a wedding took place, after which the young people left for Chernigov. Bored by loneliness and missing his daughter, Speransky seeks consolation in correspondence with her, appears in society in order to inform Elizabeth in detail about secular news, gossip, fashion, literary news, etc. In February 1824, Speransky's grandson Mikhail was born, who later went into military service, and was killed during a drunken brawl while defending a colleague.

Frolova-Bagreeva Elizaveta Mikhailovna (lithography)

Her daughter married Prince Kantakuzen. Subsequently, Elizaveta Mikhailovna traveled all over Europe, made a trip to the East. In her Poltava estate, she set up several orphanages. According to her mind and views, she was one of the outstanding Russian women. Living abroad, she attracted many literary celebrities to her salon. Her writings, mostly fictional, written in French and German, do not, however, go beyond the level of mediocrity.

Speransky, Mikhail Mikhailovich, later a count, a famous Russian statesman, was born on January 1, 1772 in the village of Cherkutin, Vladimir province, in a poor family of a clergy. For seven years he was sent to the Vladimir Seminary, and when, in 1790, the best students from the provincial theological and educational institutions were called to the newly founded main seminary in St. Petersburg (later the Theological Academy), Mikhail Speransky was among those sent to St. -Petersburg. Unusual talent soon brought him here, and, at the end of the course, he was left as a teacher of mathematics and philosophy. Soon Speransky took the place of the house secretary of Prince Kurakin, whom Speransky amazed at the speed and efficiency of his work, and from here begins his rapid rise. When, upon the accession of Emperor Paul, Prince Kurakin was made Prosecutor General of the Senate, Speransky, thanks to him, received the post of expeditor, or governor of affairs in the Senate. In 1801, upon the accession to the throne of Alexander I, the dignitary Troshchinsky placed Speransky in the office of the newly established state council with the rank of secretary of state.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky. Portrait by A. Varnek, 1824

In 1803, Speransky, leaving the service in the State Council, moved to the Ministry of the Interior, which at that time, in view of the extensive changes proposed by the government, was of paramount importance. Here Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky soon became the main figure and declared himself a supporter of fundamental reforms. In 1806, during an illness Kochubey, who was at the head of the ministry, Speransky several times appeared with reports to the emperor, and these personal relations soon became very close. Around the time of the Peace of Tilsit (1807), Emperor Alexander parted company with the former members of his "Tacit Committee" and brought Speransky even closer to himself, entrusting him with the mass of affairs that had previously been in his hands Novosiltseva. Speransky left the Ministry of the Interior and, as Secretary of State, worked exclusively on behalf of the Emperor himself. Before going to the Erfurt Congress, Emperor Alexander appointed Speransky to the commission of laws (1808), and soon after his return made him a deputy minister of justice in order to confirm his importance in the commission. Speransky was, by the way, in the retinue of the sovereign in Erfurt, and Napoleon, who had long been the subject of enthusiastic worship of Speransky, made a strong impression on him here, as well as on Alexander I himself, with his personality and further strengthened in him the zealous reverence for the French administrative devices and Napoleonic Code.

Now, when Emperor Alexander began to think again about a broad political reform, he could not find a better collaborator than Mikhail Speransky. While working in the commission of laws on the draft of the new Code, Speransky at the same time, on behalf of the sovereign, worked out a grandiose "plan of state transformation", which brought into a coherent system the ideas that had occupied Alexander and his employees since 1801, and had the goal "by means of laws to approve the power of the government on a permanent basis, and thereby communicate to the action of this power more dignity and true strength. The sovereign himself made some amendments and additions to the plan, and it was decided to gradually put the latter into action. On January 1, 1810, the transformed state council was solemnly opened by the speech of the sovereign himself, edited by Speransky; in it, among other things, it was said that “the transformation was aimed at giving the State Council “public forms”. This was followed by a reorganization of the ministries; next in line was the transformation of the senate, which already the first advisers of Emperor Alexander wanted to give the value of only the highest judicial authority. Speransky also wanted to eliminate the confusion of judicial and administrative powers in the Senate and proposed to divide it into the Senate. ruling, one for the whole empire, consisting of ministers, their comrades and the chief chiefs of individual departments, and the senate judicial- from senators from the crown and at the choice of the nobility, located in four districts: in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and Kyiv. The projects of both institutions, despite strong opposition, were adopted by the state council and approved by the emperor, but, in view of the need for preparatory measures and significant costs, as well as due to foreign policy circumstances, they were not carried out. Finally, Speransky also worked out a draft civil code and a plan for streamlining finances.

Portrait of Speransky. Artist V. Tropinin

But of all the assumptions of Speransky, only a few individual details were implemented: his general plan contained the basic laws that determine the rights, duties and mutual relations of the estates (here, by the way, the paths were indicated for the gradual emancipation of the peasants, but without land), as well as the complete reorganization of public administration on the basis of representation and ministerial responsibility. According to Speransky's project, legislation is entrusted to the "state Duma", the court - to the senate, the administration - to the ministries; the action of these three institutions is united in the Council of State and through it ascends to the Throne. The State Duma(legislative assembly), according to Speransky's plan, should discuss the laws proposed by the government and approved by the Supreme Power. It is composed of deputies from all the free estates, elected by provincial councils; the latter are drawn up in the same order from deputies from county councils; these, in turn, from deputies from volost councils, made up of all landowners of the volost and deputies from state peasants. These organs of the legislative order correspond to administrative and judicial institutions, also divided into four degrees: board the volost, uyezd and provincial ministries, and at the head of all of them; courts volost, district, provincial and at the head of the Senate.

The lively activity of Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was interrupted by an unexpected, albeit long overdue, denouement. He made many enemies for himself in the highest court and bureaucratic spheres, with whom he had neither the desire nor the time to get close, and in which they looked at him as an upstart. The very ideas of Speransky, as far as they were known and implemented in practice, met with a hostile attitude from the conservative elements of society, which found expression in 1811 in the famous “Note on Ancient and New Russia” by Karamzin and in 1812 in two anonymous letters to Emperor Alexander. Particular anger against Speransky was caused by two decrees he passed in 1809 - on court ranks and on exams for civil ranks: the first - the ranks of chamberlains and chamber junkers were recognized as differences that were not associated with any ranks (previously they gave the ranks of the 4th and 5th grade according to the Table of Ranks); the second - it was ordered not to promote to the ranks of a collegiate assessor and a state adviser persons who had not completed a university course or had not passed the established test (the measure was aimed at attracting young people to newly opened universities, as well as raising the educational level of officials, but was, of course, extremely burdensome for old employees and subsequently cancelled).

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 the arbitrariness and embezzlement of the 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

1. Projects and notes. - M.; L., 1961.
2. 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 the most useful device of this remote 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 tsar on June 22, 1822. Speransky tried to build a new system of government in Siberia on a compromise of the interests of the supreme, i.e., autocratic, power with regional characteristics and a clear understanding of the impossibility in that period time to completely subordinate Siberia to the action of the 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 its division ... and in the very manner of government, 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 elaboration of legal acts for that time. Its most characteristic feature was Speransky's desire to ensure in the new legislation a combination of the fundamental political principles of the functioning of the empire, Siberian specifics with the solution of national tasks.

The regionalism of M.M. Speransky manifested itself primarily in the division of Siberia into two general governorships - 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 most chief head 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 that define 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 year 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.

The great reformer of the Alexander era, Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (1772 - 1839) became famous primarily as the "father" of Russian jurisprudence. However, the most important stage of his activity was participation in the development of a number of reforms to improve the state structure of the Russian Empire. With the help of Speransky, the decree of Emperor Alexander I "On free cultivators" (1803) was prepared. This decree allowed the landowners to release their serfs into the wild along with the issuance of a land plot.

Speransky's father was a village priest, so the future reformer had to go through a difficult path before becoming one of the close associates of the Russian emperor. Mikhail Mikhailovich studied at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Young Speransky was distinguished from other students by his extraordinary diligence and craving for knowledge. A diligent student soon took the position of professor. At first, Speransky taught physics and mathematics, then he began to teach eloquence, and after several years of conscientious service he was appointed to the post of prefect of the academy.

In 1797, Mikhail Speransky entered the civil service in the Senate and became a collegiate assessor, and with the coming to power of Alexander I in 1801, he held the position of state secretary of the new sovereign. During this period, Speransky took an active part in the preparation and implementation of many liberal reforms. So, with his help, letters of commendation to the nobility and cities were restored, corporal punishment of clergymen was abolished, and a secret expedition that terrified the inhabitants of the Russian Empire during the reign of Paul I was liquidated. excellent service Speransky is awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

However, relations between Speransky and the Russian emperor were soon brought to naught. Court intrigues, rumors that the reformer was collaborating with the enemy of Russia, Napoleon Bonaparte, placed doubts in the Russian emperor. After being accused of high treason in 1812, Mikhail Mikhailovich was arrested and exiled to Nizhny Novgorod, and then transferred from there to Perm.

Only in 1816 Speransky was allowed to resume public service. The once disgraced reformer acted as governor of Penza. Already in 1821, Mikhail Mikhailovich was able to return to St. Petersburg, where he spoke to the sovereign with a new draft Code for Siberia.

During the reign of Nicholas I, Speransky performs an equally important task - he is engaged in the codification of laws. The result of his activities are two voluminous works - "The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire" and "The Code of Laws of the Russian Empire".

Before his death, in 1839, Speransky was awarded the title of count.

Interesting facts and dates from life

(1772-1839) Russian statesman

The fate of Speransky Mikhail Mikhailovich is unique in that in the history of Russia there was no other politician whose ideas would have had such a strong influence on the development of the country.

He was the son of a poor rural priest who lived in a small village in the Vladimir province, and due to his origin, he could only count on a career as a priest. At the age of seven, Mikhail entered the Vladimir Theological Seminary. The father instilled in the boy a passionate love for reading, so Speransky spent all his free time in the seminary library.

He brilliantly completed the course and, by order of the local church authorities, received the right to free education at the newly opened Alexander Nevsky Seminary in St. Petersburg.

There, Mikhail Speransky became seriously interested in physics and mathematics, read and translated the works of major European philosophers. During his second year, he becomes the top student in the seminary.

In September 1791, Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky made his first public appearance. The leadership of the seminary entrusted him with a sermon on the occasion of the empress's namesake. This first public speech by Speransky was highly appreciated by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg Gabriel (Buzhinsky).

The following year, when he brilliantly graduated from the seminary, Metropolitan Gabriel ordered that the young man be left as a teacher of mathematics, physics and rhetoric.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky worked at the seminary for several years, he did a lot of self-education and soon became one of the best teachers of that time.

Four years later, Metropolitan Gabriel invited him to become a monk, otherwise he could not count on promotion in the church hierarchy. But Speransky resolutely refused, because by that time he had already chosen a different path for himself.

He took advantage of the offer of Prince A. Kurakin, who needed a house secretary. True, Speransky's duties soon expanded, and he became the prince's personal assistant. He brilliantly used his position in order to make the connections necessary for further advancement.

In 1796, after the accession to the throne of Emperor Paul I, Kurakin was appointed prosecutor general. He immediately makes Speransky the head of his personal office. From that time on, the brilliant career of Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky as a statesman began.

His rapid promotion was also explained by the fact that he had a brilliant command of literary and business language. Speransky compiled the texts of most of the decrees and manifestos that Emperor Paul I signed. The emperor knew about this and left Speransky in office even after Kurakin's resignation.

By the beginning of 1801, Mikhail Speransky already had the rank of state councilor. At the beginning of the 19th century, he was included in the group of the so-called young friends of the future Emperor Alexander I. After his accession to the throne, Speransky was granted the rank of a real state councilor, and by personal command he was appointed head of the expedition of civil and spiritual affairs.

In fact, he becomes the main character in the Indispensable Council, which is created by Alexander I to develop a new state policy. Speransky prepared several notes for the emperor, in which he proposed a system for reforming judicial and government institutions. Almost for the first time in Russian history, it was proposed to systematize the work of the state apparatus.

Of course, not everything that Mikhail Speransky proposed could be implemented in those years. But his notes were noticed, he becomes an assistant to the Secretary of State V. Kochubey.

In this position, Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky visits the emperor daily with reports and gets the opportunity to bring his plans to his attention. Alexander I quickly appreciated Speransky's abilities. He also understood something else: a capable official was not included in either the palace or administrative circles, therefore he was far from court intrigues.

Soon Alexander I appointed Mikhail Speransky to the post of Secretary of State, and in the autumn of 1808 he took him with him to Erfurt for negotiations with Napoleon. Speransky proved to be a very gifted diplomat. He helped work out an agreement under which Russia would emerge from the war with minimal losses.

They say that Napoleon highly appreciated Speransky's abilities and after the end of the negotiations gave him a snuffbox with his portrait and offered to go to his service, but he, like a true patriot, refused.

Returning to Russia, Alexander I appoints Speransky Comrade (Deputy) Minister of Justice. In fact, he becomes the chief adviser to the emperor in all state affairs. All documents addressed to the emperor pass through it. He is daily invited to the palace for dinners and confidential conversations with Alexander I.

At the end of 1808, the emperor invited Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky to return to his plan for state reforms and prepare a system of relevant laws. Speransky for a long time did not dare to embark on such a responsible assignment. He saw that Russia needed a deep transformation, but he also understood that his decisive actions could lead to resignation.

Nevertheless, in the fall of 1809, he proposed to the emperor his project entitled "Introduction to the Code of State Laws." For the first time in the history of Russia, Speransky proposed to divide power into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The State Duma, as the Russian representative body, became the supreme body. Elections to it were to be held on the principle of class representation.

Under the emperor, the State Council was established, its members were not elected, as in the Duma, but were appointed by the tsar. Not a single law could come into force without the approval of it by the State Duma and the State Council. But Speransky gave the right to final approval of the law to the tsar.

The reformer wanted Russia to gradually move from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one. Such a reorganization corresponded to the spirit of the time, because in Europe there were almost no absolute monarchies left.

However, not everyone liked Mikhail Speransky's plan. Representatives of the aristocracy did not want power to be in the hands of the highest bureaucracy. Supporters of the monarchy did not want any changes at all. The supporters of the reforms did not have sufficient influence to win over public opinion.

Nevertheless, some reforms have begun to be implemented. In 1810 the Council of State was created. It began a detailed discussion of the proposals of State Secretary Speransky. But even individual laws developed by him were passed with great difficulty.

True, some of Speransky's supporters, including the poet G. Derzhavin, also considered his reforms too decisive. It was Derzhavin who uttered the words that turned out to be a prophetic assessment of Speransky's activities: "All right, but not the time yet."

Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was not going to give up. He reformed where he could. He managed to introduce examinations for ranks. They were received only by those who had a diploma of relevant education.

The decree on ranks hit primarily the underage, who until that time could make a career sitting at home. Now, any person could advance in the service if he received a diploma and passed the appropriate exam.

In February 1810, Speransky carried out a reform of the monetary and tax systems: the issuance of bank notes was stopped and the rate of paper money was stabilized. Anticipating an imminent war with France, he introduced special tax collections from large landowners. He understood that such unpopular measures would add opponents to him, but he went for them in the interests of Russia.

It all ended with the fact that on March 17, 1812, Alexander, taking into account the mood of conservative opposition circles, who considered Speransky an upstart and accused him of treason, called him to the palace and informed him of his resignation. Mikhail Speransky was dismissed from all posts and sent into exile in Nizhny Novgorod.

The disgraced official tried to justify himself and asked the emperor to allow him to live on his estate. But in response, he was sent under escort to Perm, and soon his family arrived there from St. Petersburg - his wife and two sons.

For two years, Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky lived in the position of an exile, only in the fall of 1814 he was allowed to move to his estate Velikopolye, not far from Nizhny Novgorod.

After the end of the war with Napoleon, Speransky begins again to petition for a return to public service. Alexander I remembered him and at the beginning of 1816 appointed him governor of Penza.

Speransky continues the reforms in a new place, this time reforming the administration of the province. He is very strict in ensuring that his orders are strictly followed, and as a result, he manages to get rid of bribery and embezzlement.

The experience of Mikhail Speransky was noticed, and three years later he was appointed governor-general of Siberia. He settled in Irkutsk, where he developed the legislative framework for managing the Siberian provinces. Alexander I was informed about his project, and he ordered to approve it.

Speransky was summoned to Petersburg, reinstated in the State Council and appointed head of the Siberian Committee. True, now he no longer had any real power, but was engaged in drawing up various laws aimed at organizing local government.

But he is becoming popular again. Therefore, after the death of Alexander I in 1825, he was entrusted with compiling the Manifesto and the Coronation Address of Emperor Nicholas I to the people. After the Decembrist uprising, he becomes a member of the Supreme Court, which sentenced the participants in the uprising.

It seemed that fate again favored Speransky. But Nicholas I did not fully trust him. After accession to the throne, the emperor appoints him chairman of the commission for compiling the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire and head of the Second Department of His Imperial Majesty's own chancellery. The new position meant a strong official position, but did not provide any real state power.

Having passed the bureaucratic ladder from top to bottom, Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky understood the importance of systematizing legislative acts. In four years, he prepared forty-five volumes of the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. They covered the period from 1649 to 1825.

At the same time, under his leadership, the official Code of Laws of the Russian Empire was prepared. By order of Nicholas I, it became the only normative document for making official decisions. For this work, Speransky was awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, the emperor also elevated him to the dignity of a count.

According to contemporaries, Mikhail Speransky was an extremely lively and sociable person. Many famous people visited his house. The dynamic and mobile image of Speransky was created by L. Tolstoy in the novel War and Peace. Through the lips of Andrei Bolkonsky, who strove to be like Speransky, it is said about him: “If anything good has been done in the current reign, then all good things have been done by him - by him alone. And posterity will give him justice.