Michael Speransky. Statesman of Imperial Russia, 1772–1839 - Marc Raeff

THE BEGINNINGS 11

Speransky had made good use of the years he had spent at the

Aleksandro-Nevskii Seminary. He acquired a great deal of knowledge

and, what was more important, widened his intellectual horizon

immensely, so that he could easily take his place among the best

educated men in Russia at the time. In addition to the traditional

seminary subjects of metaphysics, theology, apologetics,' religious

literature, and history, Speransky became quite familiar with the

secular writings of the period. He learned French (to write and speak, as

well as to read), and this opened up to him the works of the

philosophes. Unfortunately no detailed record of his readings has been

preserved, but his own writings of later years show that he had absorbed

the major authors of the Enlightenment quite thoroughly. It may be

noted in passing that this acquaintance with the writings of the

philosophes was not obtained in secret or illicitly; the teachers

themselves expounded the ideas of the "radical" authors of the age.

One of the instructors, when not drunk, was always lecturing on

Voltaire, Diderot, and others. Contemporaries and historians have

noted that the intellectual atmosphere of the Seminary was saturated

with the rationalism and "materialism" of 18th century thought.^1

Speransky's own interests, and the necessity of preparing lectures on

philosophy, made him undertake a systematic study of the major

philosophic systems. Not con,tent with the textbook exposition of

Baumeister and Winckler, he read and studied the works of Descartes,

Locke, Leibniz, Kant, and Condillac. 2 Needless to add that, like most

of his educated contemporaries, Speransky was very much at home

among the classics, which 'he used as models and illustrations in his

own treatise on rhetoric, and to which he turned for relaxation and,

inspiration.

Speransky shared his century's interest in the natural sciences, and

as he also had to teach scientific subjects, he became more thoroughly

studies, he entrusted him (Speransky) with the teaching of rhetoric and physics."
Letter of P. A. Slovtsov to I. Kalashnikov, dated 6 February 1840, quoted in
Kalashnikov, "Zapiski irkutskogo zhitelia" Russkaia Starina, vol. 123, Aug. 1905,
p. 399.
1 A. Fateev, "M. M. Speranskii - vliianie sredy na sostavitelia Svoda Zakonov
v l·i period ego zhizni," Iuridicheskii Vestnik, X (1915), No. 11 p. 140.
2 Speransky's classmate, Slovtsov reminisced many years later: "In 1794, I recall,
I found Speransky reading Newton, in 1795 he was appointed instructor of philosophy
and in addition to his teaching Obligations, he engaged for two years in a critical
study of philosophical systems, beginning with Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, etc. down
to Condillac, very renowned at the time. Occasionally Mikhail Mikhailovich would
read to me his critical observations." Quoted in Kalashnikov, "Zapiski irkutskogo
zhitelia," loco cit., p. 399. For further details on Speransky's scientific interests and
readings, see my article, "The Philosophical Views of Count M. M. Speransky,"
Slavonic and East European Review, XXXI, No. 77 Oune 1953), pp. 439-440.