PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS AND POLITICAL THEORY 227moral education, without challenging the bureaucratic and autocratic
political system.
Speransky did not become aware of the discrepancy between the ends
he hoped for and the means he proposed for their realization. He was
firmly convinced that enlightened despotic and bureaucratic measures
could bring about the "organic" and harmonious development of a
public opinion capable of restraining tyranny and promoting the na-
tion's spiritual progress, But his merit in Russian administrative history
was that he had shown the benefit which could be derived even from
formal reforms and improvements in the administration. It was a
lesson that future generations of administrators and statesmen did not
forget; but in learning it, they also absorbed the weakness of Speransky's
practical approach.
SOURCESRelevant primary sources are cited in the footnotes, There are almost no secondary
studies on this aspect of Speransky's life and thought. What there is, is not very
satisfactory, and I list it only for the sake of bibliographical completeness.
N. G. Chernyshevskii, "Russkii reformator," Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, VIII (St.
Pbg. 1906), 292-319; M. V. Dovnar-Zapol'skii, "Politicheskie idealy M. M. Spe-
ranskogo," lz istorii obshchestvennykh techenii v Rossii (Kiev 1905), 77-144; A.
El'chaninov, "Mistitsizm M. M. Speranskogo," Bogoslovskii Vestnik, (Jan. 1906)
90-123 and (Feb. 1906) 208-245; I. V. Katetov, "Graf M. M. Speranskii kak religi-
oznyi myslitel'," Pravoslavnyi Sobesednik, (1889), Part II, pp. 82-96, 264-318,
428-444, 572-625 and Part III pp. 122-152, 209-261, 412-439, 531-567. The last
two mentioned articles give an exhaustive picture of Speransky's theological and
religious views. N. M. Korkunov, "Politicheskie vozzreniia Speranskogo do ego
znakomstva s imperatorom Aleksandrom I," Vestnik Prava, XXIX (Oct. 1899), 1-40;
N. Poletaev, "Nekotorye dopolneniia k issledovaniiu g. Katetova 0 religioznoi
myslitel'nosti grafa Speranskogo," Pravoslavnyi Sobesednik, (March 1890), No. I,
pp. 415-418; Georg Sacke, "M. M. Speranskij: Politische Ideologie und reformatorische
Tatigkeit," Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, IV (Breslau 1939), Heft 3/4, pp.
331-350; B. Syromiatnikov, "M. M. Speranskii kak gosudarstvennyi i politicheskii
delatel'," Sovetskoe Gosudarstvo i Pravo, (1940), No.3, pp. 92-113. I have dealt at
greater length with the intellectual influences on Speransky in two articles: "The
Philosophical Views of Count M. M. Speransky," The Slavonic and East European
Review, vol. XXXI, No. 77 (June 1953), pp. 437-51; "The Political Philosophy of
Speranskij," The American Slavic and East European Review, vol. XII, No.1,
(February 1953), pp. 1-21.