178 DISGRACE AND EXILE
have all kinds of other learning to be a loyal and good servant of the
state. Such knowledge, argued Karamzin, rather tended to undermine
the old faith, raised doubts, and gave rise to dissatisfaction with
traditional and time-tested ways. Anyway, of what use could these
various fields of human knowledge possibly be to the nobleman in the
performance of the tasks generally entrusted to him? The petty nobil-
ity's and lower officialdom's hatred of Speransky found their expres-
sion in a libelous pamphlet that circulated in the chancelries of the
administration. 1
At this point, the movement against the influential but isolated
State Secretary received additional impetus from a regular· court in-
trigue that was mounted against hini in St. Petersburg. In an absolute
monarchy - as in a dictatorship - the struggle for power and influence
finds its expression in competition between rival factions of high
o££icials, courtiers, foreign residents, and diplomats. John Quincy
Adams had this in mind when he noted that an autocracy has no fewer
"parties" than a democratic constitutional regime, only the forms these
partie~ tqke are di££erent. 2 As these rival interests could not be
organize<l within any institutional framework to attain their ends,
they had to gain a hearing at court and obtain the favor of the
EmperQr. The changes in domestic policy after 1801 and the dramatic
diplomatic reversal of 1807 had fostered the formation of numerous
and powerful "parties" of courtiers, dignitaries, and diplomats who
competed for the Emperor's attention. These parties pursued quite
selfish aims and did not pretend that they had any general and
permanent political principles. They were only temporary alliances
of courtiers whose composition and purpose varied from one circum-
stance to the next. By 1811 several groups or cliques were actively
working for the downfall of Speransky and a change in Russia's
domestic and foreign policies.
First place among the "parties" at court was held by the enem,ies
of Alexander's alleged pro-French orientation. This group found its
main support within the Imperial family itself, in the person of the
Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna, the Emperor's mother. 3 Alexander
1 Bychkov. "Deiateli i uchastniki padeniia Speranskogo," Russkaia Starina 109
(1902), pp. 469-508, passim. Playing up to the prevailing sentiments of Moscow,
the pamphlet was signed, "Rostopchin and Moscovites."
2 "In this country there are political parties, ambitious rivalries, and personal
animosities, perhaps not the less violent and inveterate for being much cramped
and restricted in the expression of their sentiments and purposes." U. S. Department
of State - Russia, John Quincy Adams to the Secretary of State, dispatch No. 86,
dated 11 June 1812.
3 See A. Vandal (ed,), "La cour de Russie en 1807-1808." Revue d'histoire
diplomatique, IV (1890), pp. 402--407