REFORM OF RUSSIA'S FINANCES AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION 109Education, Finance, Treasury, Comptroller General, 4. Ministry of
Justice, 5. Ministry of Police.^1 Some matters which transcended or did
not accurately fit any of the divisions listed were handled by separate
agencies, as for example the Holy Synod, the Main Administration for
Transportation.
It is to be noted that not only was this division of the government
based on the idea of functional organization of administration (Ressort-
trennung); it went far beyond the traditional Russian concepts regard-
ing the proper function of government. The traditional view had been
that government existed only for the purpose of providing the financial
and military means for the preservation of the security (and expansion)
of the state. Hence, administration only meant the maintenance of
military strength and the collection of taxes for that purpose. True
enough, Peter the Great had held a broader view of the role of
government; but his absorption in foreign affairs (in the widest sense
of the term) forced him to treat all matters of internal administration
mainly from the point of view of their usefulness as a source of
revenue or military preparedness. Compared to this tradition, Spe-
ransky's views were an innovation in so far as they elevated the concern
for the nation's economic and cultural prosperity, security, and pro-
gress to the status of a major governmental responsibility.2 In Spe-
ransky's mind, the purpose of state economy was much more than
giving a material foundation to the institutions devoted to the
preservation of external security (army, navy, diplomacy). State
economy meant that the state, through the agency of the Minis-
tries of the Interior, Finance, Education, Treasury, the Admin-
istration of Transportation, actively helped to promote economic
aCtIVIty, and protected and stimulated the spiritual and cultural
development of the people. And in a similar vein, internal secur-
ity, in Speransky's' view, was more than the prevention (and
punishment) of acts detrimental to the state, as had been the
traditional Russian concept, Internal security had a positive function,
it guaranteed (through the Ministry of Police) the security of individual
citizens in their life and property, it protected their peaceful and
lawful economic and social pursuits against attacks from fellow citizens
and bureaucratic arbitrary tyranny. The conception of the state as the
watchman of the peace of Russian citizens, the idea of the police acting
both as constable and teacher of the people - these were novelties in
Russia. We should perhaps qualify the last statement by pointing out
1 PSZ, 24,307 (p. 278), Sec. 3. Cf. also, PSZ 24,326 (17 August 1810).
2 See Korkunov, Russkoe gosudarstvennoe pravo, II, p. 408.