Statesman.
Emperor Alexander I’s most influential advisor in the first half of his reign. He prepared great social liberal reforms, that would have given Russia its first parliament. The emperor hesitated and it did not work out.
Background
Lived: 1772-1831.
Mikhail Speransky was a a son of a village priest. He was well educated at various religious seminaries where he acquired the name Speransky (latin verb sperare “to hope”).
Minister of Interior
Speransky made a brilliant career and he became emperor Alexander I’s most important advisor. From 1807-12 he had a great influence on the emperor.
Alexander had dreams of abolishing serfdom and giving his people constitution. In 1808 he commissioned Speransky to prepare a liberal constitution plan. Speransky’s plan would establish a state council and a parliament, abolish torture, relaxed censorship, give serfs more freedom.
The plan was extremely unpopular among the greater nobility. Under great pressure of the landowning nobility the emperor finally backed down and had Speransky exiled in 1816.
Later life
In 1819, after three years of exile, he came back and was appointed a Governor of Siberia. Later he led the investigation and gave sentences to the members of the Decembrist Revolt.
Speransky spent the rest of his life working on the first Complete Collection Of The Laws Of The Russian Empire (1830).
Mikhail Speransky
Statesman.
Emperor Alexander I’s most influential advisor in the first half of his reign. He prepared great social liberal reforms, that would have given Russia its first parliament. The emperor hesitated and it did not work out.
Background
Lived: 1772-1831.
Mikhail Speransky was a a son of a village priest. He was well educated at various religious seminaries where he acquired the name Speransky (latin verb sperare “to hope”).
Minister of Interior
Speransky made a brilliant career and he became emperor Alexander I’s most important advisor. From 1807-12 he had a great influence on the emperor.
Alexander had dreams of abolishing serfdom and giving his people constitution. In 1808 he commissioned Speransky to prepare a liberal constitution plan. Speransky’s plan would establish a state council and a parliament, abolish torture, relaxed censorship, give serfs more freedom.
The plan was extremely unpopular among the greater nobility. Under great pressure of the landowning nobility the emperor finally backed down and had Speransky exiled in 1816.
Later life
In 1819, after three years of exile, he came back and was appointed a Governor of Siberia. Later he led the investigation and gave sentences to the members of the Decembrist Revolt.
Speransky spent the rest of his life working on the first Complete Collection Of The Laws Of The Russian Empire (1830).
Alexey Arakcheyev