DISGRACE AND EX:ILE 191From the Palace, Speransky drove to Magnitskii. He learned there
that his friend had been arrested and sent away from the capital.
Returning to his own house quite late - he had left the Emperor at
about 11 in the evening - Speransky found Balashov and de Sanglin
waiting for him with an official carriage. The two police officials
notified Speransky that they had orders to seize and seal his papers
and send him off to his exile without delay. Speransky did not seem
very surprised, as probably the Emperor had already told him what to
expect. He requested permission to go to his study alone, and Balashov
assented. (In his memoirs, de Sanglin maintains that in giving this
permission the Minister had exceeded his instructions.) Speransky sorted
his papers, burning some of them, wrote a few notes, and finally emerg-
ing from the study, handed Balashov a sealed envelope for transmission
to the Emperor. He refused to wake his daughter and mother-in-law,
said good bye to his servants and, entering the police carriage that
stood at the door, started on his journey into exile.
Such was the abrupt end of the most active and influential period
of Speransky's career. With it went his hopes of reorganizing Russia's
administration along clear, logical, orderly, and new - albeit conserv-
ative ~ lines. But before following the fallen dignitary to his exile
and long years of forced retirement, let us note the reaction produced
by his disgrace and fall from power.
Though it had been hoped and worked for by many, the sudden
exile came as a great surprise and shock to most. Those near the
Emperor tried to learn the circumstances and decisive reasons from the
monarch himself. But Alexander either remained silent, or - in keeping
with his character - gave contradictory explanations. To his childhood
friend, Prince A. N. Golitsyn, who inquired on the next day after
Speransky's departure for the reasons of the sovereign's sad mien,
Alexander replied: "no doubt you would cry of pain and lament if one
tore off your hand: last night Speransky was taken from me, and hewas my right hand." 1 To some the Emperor intimated that Speransky
had behaved quite suspiciously. To others still, at various times,
1 Cited by Grand Duc Nicolas Mikhailowitsch, Le Tsar Alexandre ler (Paris 1931)
p. llO. See also the following reminiscences of Nesselrode: "Je veux parler de la
disgrAce de M. Speransky, moll. intime ami, qui, pendant sa longue faveur, avait
ete mon principal appui au pres de l'empereur Alexandre. Son renvoi eut lieu dans
la nuit du dimanche au lundi. Le mardi, l'Empereur me fit venir, et, avec sa bonte
angelique me rassura sur les consequences que j'avais redoutees un moment, c'esta dire sur Ie sort de rna correspondance, que Speransky avait envoyee cachetee a
l'Empereur, et qui se trouvait dans son cabinet. Je trouvais l'Empereur tres emu de
la necessite dans laquelle, it tort ou it raison, il s'etait cru place de se separer d'unhomme dont il aimait Ie caractere et estimait Ie talent. Ii a ete evidemment la
victime d'une intrigue ... " Lettres et papiers du chancelier comte de Nesselrode,
Vol. II, pp. 75-76.