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SPERANSKI, COUNT MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH...

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 644 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SPERANSKI, See also:COUNT MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH (1772-1839) , See also:Russian statesman, the son of a See also:village See also:priest, spent his See also:early days at the ecclesiastical See also:seminary in St See also:Petersburg, where he See also:rose to be See also:professor of See also:mathematics and physics. His brilliant intellectual qualities attracted the See also:attention of the See also:government, and he became secretary to See also:Prince See also:Kurakin. He soon became known as the most competent of the imperial officials. The most important phase of his career opened in 18o6, when the See also:emperor See also:Alexander I. took him with him to the See also:conference of See also:Erfurt and put him into See also:direct communication with See also:Napoleon, who described him as " the only clear See also:head in See also:Russia " and at the instance of Alexander had many conversations with him on the question of Russian administrative reform. The result of these interviews was a See also:series of projects of reform, including a constitutional See also:system based on a series of See also:dumas, the cantonal See also:assembly (voles') electing the duma of the See also:district, the dumas of the districts electing that of the See also:province or government, and these electing the Duma of the See also:empire. As mediating See also:power between the autocrat and the Duma there was to be a nominated See also:council of See also:state. This See also:plan, worked out by Speranski in 'Soo, was for the most See also:part stillborn, only the council of the empire coming into existence in See also:January 181o; but it none the less, to quote M. Chesle,l dominated the constitutional See also:history of Russia in the 19th See also:century and the early years of the 20th. The Duma of the empire created in 1905 bears the name suggested by Speranski, and the institution of See also:local self-government (the zemstvos) in 1864 was one of the reforms proposed by him. Speranski's labours also See also:bore See also:fruit in the constitutions granted by Alexander to See also:Finland and See also:Poland. From 1809 to 1812 Speranski was all-powerful in Russia, so far as any See also:minister of a See also:sovereign so suspicious and so unstable as Alexander could be so described. He replaced the earlier favourites, members of the " unofficial See also:committee," in the See also:tsar's confidence, becoming practically See also:sole minister, all questions being laid by him alone before the emperor and usually settled at once by the two between them.

Even the once all-powerful See also:

war-minister Arakcheyev was thrust into the background. Speranski used his immense See also:influence for no See also:personal ends. He was an idealist; but in this very fact See also:lay the seeds of his failure. Alexander was also an idealist, but his ideals were See also:apt to centre in himsgIf; his dislike and distrust of talents that overshadowed his own were disarmed for a while by the singular See also:charm of Speranski's See also:personality, but sooner or later he,. was See also:bound to discover that he himself was regarded. as but hemost potent See also:instrument for the attainment of that ideal end, a regenerated Russia, which was his minister's sole preoccupation. In 1810 and the first See also:half of 1811 Speranski was still in high favour, and was the confidant of the emperor in that See also:secret See also:diplomacy which preceded the See also:breach of Russia with Napoleon.2 He had, however, committed one serious See also:mistake. An ardent freemason himself, he conceived in 1809 the See also:idea of reorganizing the See also:order in Russia, with the See also:special See also:object of using it to educate and elevate the Orthodox See also:clergy. The emperor agreed to the first steps being taken, namely the suppression of the existing lodges; but he was naturally suspicious of secret See also:societies, even when ostensibly admitted to their secrets, and Speranski's abortive plan only resulted in adding the clergy to the number of his enemies. 1 Le See also:Parlement russe (See also:Paris, 191o), p. 21 Schiemann, Gesch. Russlands, i. 77. On the See also:eve of tht struggle with Napoleon, Alexander, conscious of his unpopularity, conceived the idea of making Speranski his scape-See also:goat, and so conciliating that Old Russian sentiment which would be the strongest support of the autocratic tsar against revolutionary See also:France.

Speranski's own indiscretions gave the final impulse. He was surrounded with spies who reported, none too accurately, the minister's somewhat See also:

sharp criticisms of the emperor's acts; he had even had the supreme presumption to advise Alexander not to take the See also:chief command in the coming See also:campaign. A number of persons in the entourage of the emperor, including the See also:grand-duchess See also:Catherine, See also:Karamzin, Rostopchin and the See also:Swedish See also:general See also:Baron. Armfield, intrigued to involve him in a See also:charge of See also:treason). Alexander did not See also:credit the charge, but he made Speranski responsible for the unpopularity incurred by himself in consequence of the hated reforms and the still more hated See also:French policy, and on the 17th-29th of See also:March 1812 dismissed him from See also:office. Reinstated in the public service in 1816, he was appointed See also:governor-general of See also:Siberia, for which he See also:drew up a new See also:scheme of government, and in 1821 entered the council of state. Under See also:Nicholas I., he was engaged in the codification of the Russian See also:law (published in 1830 in 45 vols.), on which he also wrote some important commentaries. See the See also:biography (in Russian) by M. Korff (St Petersburg, 1861). On his public See also:life and constitutional reforms see Theodor Schiemann, Geschichte Russlands unter Kaiser Nikolaus I., Bd. i. Kaiser Alexander I. p. 75 seq.

(See also:

Berlin, 1904); See also:Pierre See also:Chasles, Le Parlement russe p. 19 seq. (Paris, 1910), and the See also:works of V. Vagin (St Petersburg, 1872 and See also:Moscow, 1905). Count See also:Nesselrode's letters to Speranski and many references are published in vol. iii. of the Lettres et pa piers du See also:comte de Nesselrode.

End of Article: SPERANSKI, COUNT MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH (1772-1839)

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