152 PLANS OF REFORM(volostnoi gorod). 1 The efficiency of this scheme - which is of course
strongly reminiscent of Peter the Great's and Catherine Irs territorial
divisions - is open to question. Its most obvious drawback is that
it does not take into consideration the historical or economic relations
that have already developed between various parts of the country.
At the very top of Russia's political structure, the three main
divisions of governmental power - executive, judiciary and legislative
- are unified in the person of the absolute sovereign assisted by an
advisory and preparatory council, the Council of State. The activities
and functions of the Duma of the Empire, the Senate, and the Ministries
are centralized, given unity, and legislative form in the Council of
State. 2 The Council of State was actually established and took an
important place among the central institutions of the Empire, and as the
Statute of the Council, promulgated on January 1, 1810, was an exact
copy of the proposals concerning it contained in the Plan of 1809, we
need not repeat here what has been said about it in the previous
chapter. The original intentions of Speransky concerning the Council
of State were rapidly perverted, however, because the Council was the
only institution suggested in the Plan that was given life and therefore
had to survive as it were, outside its natural milieu, deprived of the
support of the other members of the system.
We are struck by the truly comprehensive scope and character of
Speransky's Plan of 1809. It was a blueprint for the complete over-
hauling of Russia's administration as well as a declaration of the new
principles which were to guide the political life of the nation in the
future. The Plan endeavored to implement a set of basic concepts of
government, namely, that good government required a logical and
efficient division of administrative functions, orderliness and regularity
of procedure, responsibility and accountability for actions taken. Fur-
thermore, the organization of the judiciary contained features which,
if they had been fully developed in conjunction with the limited
degree of participation provided by the local Dumas, could have per-
formed an extremely valuable "pedagogical" function for future
generations. They could have become the training ground for a respon-
sible citizenry and an active, nationwide "public opinion." This in
turn might have raised the level of civic and political consciousness
among the peasantry. No doubt this is what Speransky hoped for (and
it was realized, mutatis mutandis, by the reforms of Alexander II).
But he did not give these institutions sufficient power and strength
1 Plan 1809, pp. 107-111, 71-72.
2 ibid., pp. 112-117.