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

226 PIDLOSOPHICAL VIEWS AND POLITICAL THEORY

hope.^1 To the Emperor he wrote that, as stated in the Holy Alliance.

"1. the true aim of human societies is to lead men to the union in

Christ, 2. Christ must be the head of Christian states"; and that the

Alliance will endure if "the sovereigns will pray, read the Scriptures.

be true Christians .. ." 2

In the final analysis, for him - as for some Slavophile thinkers later

• the primary role of government was the preservation of the ethical

and spiritual values of the nation's and individual's personality. To

this end he advocated rule by clearly defined laws and regulations,

expressive of the natural moral law, and an organic order of political

harmony firmly rooted in the country's historical traditions, under a

spiritually pure Tsar, assisted by a good bureaucracy. Though in form

and style, as well as in his practical suggestions for implementing his

ideas, Speransky proved himself a genuine son of the Enlightenment

and enlightened absolutism; his philosophic premises were clearly

those of a "19th century figure." His closeness and debt to the romantic

and conservative spirit of the early 19th century were unmistakable,

His epistemology and metaphysics were strongly influenced by Schel-

ling's Naturphilosophie and Identitiitslehre; his ethical and sO,cial

concepts bore the impress of Fichte, and in his respect for national

traditions and historical evolution he stood close to Herder and

Savigny. Nor did Speransky escape the religious and mystical features

of "romanticism", and he treated this world merely as a stage in man's

progress to the ultimate union with the divine. In his views on

political economy, he adopted a physiocratic version of Adam Smith

and the latter's followers, a method which had the merit of emphasising

the dignity and worthiness of individual achievement as a school for

1 "Enfin un grand trait de lumiere m'eclaire et decide toutes mes incertitudes:

c'est Ie manifeste du 25 decembre. J'e puis donc me livrer it tout l'entrainement de

mes idees, rose dire de mon inspiration, et entretenir I'Empereur sur Ie seul sujet

digne de son attention. Malheur it moi si je me tais maintenant ... Je me propose

d'envoyer it l'Empereur un livre! qui contient une prophetie complete du manifeste,

avec des maximes etendues sur ce qu'on doit faire en vertu de cette union. Oh,

union sacreel Que toutes les benedictions du Ciel descendent et s'attachent it toi.

Longtemps ce livre (traduit en 1784 de l'allemand, un appel aux souverains de

regner chretiennement) a fait Ie fond de mes reveries sur la perfectibilite des gouveme-

ments et sur l'application de la doctrine de Notre Seigneur aux affaires publiques.

Je conviens cependant, que je croyais l'epoque de cette application bien eloignee ...

A la lecture de ce Manifeste, toutes ces idees se retracerent dans mon esprit... je

courus vite consulter mon visionnaire et Ie trouvant encore plus precis que je ne

pensais, je me crus des lors oblige d'en faire l'usage que j'en fis [Le., send it to the

Emperor]." Letters to F. Zeier, 31 Dec. 1815 and 11 Jan. 1816 in M. A. Korf, "Iz

bumag 0 grafe Speranskom v dopolnenii k ego Zhizni izdannoi v 1861 g." Russkii

A.rkhiv, V (1867), pp. 444-453 and 453-454, respectively.

3 Letter to Alexander I, 6 Jan. 1816, in Sbornik materialov l·go otdeleniia E. I. V.

Kantseliarii, II (St. Pbg. 1876), pp. 38-39.