PLANS OF REFORM 137formalities." For instance, "the police in the villages must, no doubt,belong to the landowners; but their power will not suffer in any way if
punishments are carried out by the township [volost'] administration." 1
Regularization of procedural forms, the removal of the execution of
sentences from the hands of the landowner who has imposed them to
the township-police (to preclude excessive cruelty on the part of in-
dividual masters), these are the only improvements in the peasant's lot
Speransky feels it possible to suggest. He specifically states that the
economy of the village must remain in the hands of the landowner.
The suggestion is a repetition - albeit in a weakened form - of his
proposals in the paper of 1802. The cautious and timorous approach of
the would-be reformer when it comes to matters affecting serfdom finds
further illustration in his suggestion of a rural code. The code would
make uniform the rights and powers of serfowners throughout the
Empire. Speransky argues that the effect of such a code would be to
give the serfs the feeling that the government is not abandoning them,
and it would also instill the hope that, in due time, they will be freed
from the excessive hardships of serfdom.2 We may be allowed to
remain somewhat sceptical of Speransky's optimism. The peasants might
also have seen in the code a legal recognition and sanction - as well
as "freezing" - of their servile status and react rather strongly, for as
we know, they had always considered serfdom an abuse of power by
the nobility.
In spite of a clear awareness of the real problems of Russia, and
in spite of an expression of a high ideal of "true monarchy," the
practical bearings of the memoire of 1803 were limited. Speransky
himself expressed the value of the effort best: "Who knows how to
select and plant the first root has done much, although only time and
the action of the elements of nature can make it grow into a tree." 3
In 1809 Speransky wrote his most important and comprehensive plan
for a reorganization and reform of Russia's political life. This plan
embodied the thought and experience of the first decade of his active
career as official and administrator. No longer do we find in it the
immature judgments of his first papers. Unlike the memoire of 1803,
the Plan of 1809 also attempted to cover all the branches of the
administration with equal thoroughness.
The full text of the Plan of 1809 remained unknown to Speransky's1 ibid., pp. 226-227.
2 ibid., pp. 228-229.
3 ihid., p. 229.