PLANS OF REFORM 155icism," in the classical meaning of the term.^1 Unlike most of his
colleagues in the government, Speransky was steeped in Russian
history and well acquainted with the antecedents of the political and
social institutions with which he had to deal. He was not, of
course, a scholar or professional historian, and his analyses or
conclusions have not always been confirmed by later investigation. But
he had illuminating aperfus into the dynamics and character of the
historical evolution of government policies. This permitted him to see
more clearly the structural weakness of the institutions he wished to
transform. For instance, Speransky was among the first influential
Russian administrators to understand correctly the historical rationale
of serfdom, namely, that originally it had been established gradually
to meet the military and fiscal needs of the state. Therefore, if the
government wished to abolish or change serfdom, it had to transform
the basis on which the whole Russian state structure rested. It would
be such a radical change that concrete steps towards its realization could
be taken only with the utmost caution. One of the important prereqllisite~
would be the raising of the country's level of economic activity. Further-
more, as the serfs' status was not the outcome of arbitrary usurpations,
any change in it must be brought about gradually, by means of cautious
legal and administrative measures. The historical relativism implied in
this outlook and approach shaped the political and social conservatism
and cautious reformism which we have had occasion to observe in
our exposition of Speransky's projects. 2
It may be surmised - for we have no direct evidence - that
Speransky's conception of the State Duma, and of its local equivalents,
was inspired by the history of the Zemskii Sobor of Muscovy. Indeed,
as our description must have shown, the Dumas contemplated by him
bore little resemblance to the contemporary representative legislative
assemblies in Western Europe and America. The Duma - as the
Zemskii Sobors of another age - was rather an assembly of Estates
(Stiindetag) similar to the English Parliament and the French Etats
Generaux in the Middle Ages, called to give moral support and
approval to the monarch's actions. Like the medieval assemblies, the
Duma was called to inform the government of the needs and wishesof the country, to give its advice, if requested, on specific problems,
and to see to it that the ministers did not abuse the sovereign's
confidence. This conception of a national assembly had been popular-1 F. Meinecke, Vom Weltburgertum zum Nationalstaat, (2d. ed., Berlin 1911),
p. 129.
2 Mannheim, "Conservative Thought," lac. cit., pp. 103, IiO-ll1, 115.