REFORM OF RUSSIA'S FINANCES AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION 115is essential for the sake of the strength and permanency of the
law; 4. great states are governed by means of institutions; individua)s
chang~ and die, but the spirit of an institution lives on for many
centuries and protects its foundations." 1
Moved by these considerations, Alexander I consented to the creation
of a Council of State, whose first session he opened with great pomp
on January I, 1810. The Council was meant to be only a part of a
larger plan of administrative reorganization, but it was the only one
to come into existence. The decree of January 1, 1810 establishing the
Council (PSZ 24,064) defined the role of the new body as follows:
"I. In the hierarchy of government institutions, the Council is
the body (soslovie 2) in which all aspects of the administration
are considered in their relation to legislation, and from where they
proceed to the Supreme Imperial Power. II. Therefore, the original
drafts of all laws, statutes, institutions are proposed to and
considered by the Council of State, and then, by act of the
Sovereign Power, forwarded for implementation. III. No law,
statute, or institution can be issued by the Council and none can
obtain its full execution without approval of the Sovereign Power." 3
The members of the Council were appointed by the Emperor, the
Ministers were nominated ex officio; the President of the Council was
the Sovereign himself. The Council was subdivided into five depart-
ments, one for each of the most important areas of government business:
state economy, codification, military, justice, etc. under the chairman-
ship of a Councillor who was not a Minister. The individual depart-
ments and the Council in plenary session met regularly at specified
times (in practice, about once a week). The Council was 'assisted by
a special Chancelry under the direction of the State Secretary. The
State Secretary was not merely a high ranking clerk; his was a most
important role, for he organized 'and supervised the flow of business
(drew up the agendas, drafted and kept the minutes), and coordinated
the work of the various departments of the Council. The importance
of this position can be readily gauged from the fact that none other
than Speransky was appointed to it on January 1, 1810. The decree
1 Speranskii, "0 neobkhodimosti uchrezhdeniia Soveta," in Korkunov, Russkoe
gosudarstvennoe pravo, II, pp. 70-72, passim.
2 Speransky's term for "body" is soslovie. Contrary to the often expressed opinion,
soslovie in Speransky's vocabulary did not mean "representative estate" (an em-
bryonic Estates General or Parliament), it meant nothing more than a govern-
mental institution or body, composed of a group of officials, for the discussion of
administrative and legislative problems. In the same sense, he also used the term
soslovie in his "Pervyi politicheskii traktat," pp. 66-67, and the "Zapiska 1803 g."
(see ch. 5 infra). Cf. also Korkunov, Russkoe gosudarstvennoe pravo, II, pp. 75-83
passim.
II PSZ 24,064 (pp. 3-4 of vol. 31).