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

GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES 261

confused relations between various administrative bodies; 4 to give
the local institutions an organic unity and latitude for autonomous
action without constant reference to central authorities; 5. to adapt
the administration more closely to local circumstances and conditions;

6. to simplify and clarify the mode of operation of this machinery.^1
   They illustrate an important advance made by Speransky over his own
   past policies and attitudes. They showed his awareness of the need of
   seriously taking local conditions into consideration: a legislation devised
   for one type of society cannot be applied mechanically to another.
   Speransky's historical and philosophical studies no doubt contributed
   in helping him to gain this awareness.
   Inspired perhaps by Balashov's scheme of Lieutenancies (1818), and
   desirous to combine unity of policy with some independence of action
   from far away St. Petersburg, Speransky divided Siberia into two
   Governor-Generalships, Western and Eastern Siberia. These. ..in turn
   were subdivided into smaller units (provinces - guberniia) which,
   though by-and-Iarge patterned on the regular provincial administration
   of European Russia, were left enough freedom and flexibility to take

care of special conditions of geography and social composition. To

insure that local conditions would be taken into account, the governors

general were permitted to set up four different types of district adminis-

trations, depending on individual local needs. 2 Some areas, for the

time being at least, were to have a simplified pattern of administration.

It was expected that in due course of time, as their settled population

grew and their economic and social pattern became more complex,

these special administrative units would receive regular provincial

status.^3

On the first level of Siberian administration - in greatest need of

reorganization - was the office of Governor General, which had been

the source of so much abuse and arbitrary rule over the last century.

Here the major problem was to combine a reasonable latitude of guber-

natorial action with effective supervision. As we recall, lack of super-

visory control had been the major feature of Siberia's administration

in the 18th century and the rule of Pestel was a reminder that it still

could take place in the more enlightened and efficient 19th. Speransky

1 "To transform the personal power into [the power of] an institution; and

having reconciled the unity of its action with its public character, preserve this

power by legal means against arbitrariness and abuses... To establish the action

of this power in such a manner that it be neither personal nor 'domestic: but

public and official." Obozrenie glavnykh' osnovanii mestnogo upravleniia Sibiri,

pp. 50-52 and PSZ 29,125, par. 474.

2 PSZ 29,125 pars. 54. 62.

3 PSZ 29.125. pars. 573. 574.