Abstract
Speransky’s exclusive preoccupation with his work on the administrative reform of the provinces did not prevent his being affected by the dramatic events which took place in December 1825 on the occasion of the death of Alexander I and the ensuing interregnum. Much against his will, he was at first himself implicated in the Decembrist movement, and later given an important part in the trial of the conspirators of December 14. This involvement affected his relations to the new sovereign, Nicholas I, and his position in the new reign. It deserves therefore some consideration in a political biography.
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References
B. E. Syroechkovskii, Mezhdutsarstvie 1825 g. i vosstanie dekabristov… (Moscow-Leningrad 1926), p. 30.
N. A. Borovkov, “Avtobiograficheskie zapiski,” Russkaia Starina, 95 (Nov. 1898) p. 348.
Iakushkin, Zapiski, p. 146 and M. Murav’ev, “Ideia vremennogo pravitel’stva u dekabristov i ikh kandidaty,” Tainye obshchestva v Rossii v nachale XIX v., (Moscow 1926), pp. 68-88 passim.
Ryleev recalled: “In the course of the conversation on the formation of a Great Assembly (sobor), we also talked about a Provisional administration. This was, it seems, at the house of Mit’kov. M. Murav’ev-Apostol proposed to nominate to it the directors of Pestel’s Society, one more from the Southern Directorate, and N. Turgenev or Trubetskoi. To this the latter objected that the Provisional administration should include people already known to all of Russia and proposed Mordvinov and Speranskii, To this all agreed. I also was in agreement, and from then on, to the very 14 December, this idea remained unchanged in the Northern Society,” Vosstanie dekabristov, vol. I, p. 176, quoted by Nechkina, Vosstanie 14 Dekabria 1825 g. p. 28. Also Semevskii, Politicheskie i obshchestvennye idei dekabristov, p. 492.
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Vosstanie dekabristov, I, p. 374.
Semevskii, Politicheskie i obshchestvennye idei dekabristov, p. 493. On the basis of the documents published so far, it does not seem that all Decembrists were enthusiastic about Speransky’s participation in the movement or even in their provisional administration. There was much distrust of him, perhaps a lingering carry-over from the pre-1812 feelings against him.
Ibid., p. 495.
“Prilozhenie k dokladu sledstvennoi kommissii…,” Russkii Arkhiv (1875), No. 3, p. 435; also, Oreus, “G. P. Batenkov — istoriko biograficheskii ocherk,” Russkaia Starina, (1889), p. 314.
“Prilozhenie k dokladu sledstvennoi kommissii,” loc cit., p. 435.
The following exposition is based on Fateev, “Bumagi Speranskogo,” Zapiski Russkogo Istoricheskogo Obshchestva v Frage, I (1927), pp. 105-111 passim. After the manuscript had gone to press, there appeared a circumstantial and more up to date account of the fate of Speransky’s papers and of their present state in S. N. Valk, “Zakonodatel’nye proekty M. M. Speranskogo v pechati i v rukopisiakh”, Istoricheskie Zapiski, 54 (1955), pp. 464-472.
Borovkov, “A. D. Borovkov i ego avtobiograficheskie zapiski,” loc. cit., p. 348.
“Prilozhenie k dokladu sledstvennoi kommissii…,” loc. cit., p. 435.
Golitsyn, “Speranskii v verkhovnom sude nad dekabristami,” Russkii Istoricheskii Zhurnal, Nos. 1-2 (1917), pp. 61-102 passim.
Ibid,, p. 74.
Komarovskii, “Zapiski grafa Komarovskogo,” Istoricheskii Vestnik (1897), p. 455.
The full text of the letter was first published by Shchegolev, “P. G. Kakhovskoi” in Byloe (Jan. 1906) and then in Dekabristy, p. 227. Also Golitsyn, “Speranskii v verkhovnom sude…,” loc. cit., p. 84.
Golitsyn, “Speranskii v verkhovnom sude…,” loc. cit., p. 96.
Korf, Zhizn’ graja Speranskogo, II.
Syroechkovskii, Mezhdutsarstvie, pp. 77-79.
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© 1957 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Raeff, M. (1957). An Unpleasant Interlude Speransky and the Decembrists. In: Michael Speransky. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9304-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9304-7_10
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