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

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276 GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES


served as the basis for the legal relations of the natives down to 1917.^1
The provisions of the statute of 1822 for the natives remained the
basis for the natives' administration until the end of the century, and
even beyond. Upon examination, the principal feature of the reform
was that it clearly and effectively restricted the Russian administra-
tion's interference in native judicial matters. The foremost student of
Siberian native customary law, V. Riazanovskii, has summarized the ef-


fects of the statute in the following words: "It established clearer limits

to the jurisdiction of native courts, it set up a system of judiciary
instances, of firm terms for appeals, it introduced a few general princi-
ples of judiciary procedures, and a few other things. But the system of
the statute was not devoid of serious defects: the union of justice and
administration, a great number of institutions, lack of acquaintance
of higher authorities with the customary law of the natives, absence
of detailed procedural rules and of a code of the material customary
law, etc." 2
In strictly administrative matters, the Russians maintained their
dominant role, and for all practical purposes the natives had wide
autonomy only in applying the policy set by Russian officials. The
statute did not protect the natives fully against the collegiate bodies of
the administration, though it did shield them from abuses by individual
officials. Another characteristic feature of the law was the dominant
role assigned by it to the "better" among the natives. In so doing,
Speransky was not only bowing to existing conditions - as they had
developed in the second half of the 18th century - but he was also
implementing the basic principles of his own political philosophy. Only
the "better" people, economically, and what was more important yet,
spiritually, could be given positions of responsibility. But it is also
significant to note that the better among the natives were also more
russified, or at least tended to become it. Through its new adminis-
trative functions, the native aristocracy was in a position to play the
leading role in a progressive and organic russification of the natives.^3
1 V. A. Riazanovskii, Mongol'skoe pravo - preimushchestvenno obychnoe (Kharbin
1931), p. 153; V. A. Riasanovsky, Fundamental Principles Of Mongol Law (Tientsin
1937), p. 76.
Besides Riazanovskii, materials for the native code were published in Russian
by D. I. Samokvasov (ed.) Sbornik obychnogo prava sibirskikh inorodtsev (Warsaw
1876).
The history of the codification work on this Code of the Laws of the Steppe is
summarized by A. Nol'de, UK istorii sostavleniia proekta 'Svoda Stepnykh zakonov
kochevykh inorodtsev Vostochnoi Sibiri'," Sbornik S. F. Platonovu, ucheniki, druz'ia
i pochitateli (St. Pbg. 19II), pp. 502-521.
2 Riazanovskii, Mongol'skoe pravo, p. 232.
3 Bogdanov, op. cit., p. 101; V. G. Kartsov, Ocherk istorii narodov severozapadnoi
Sibiri (Moscow 1937), pp. 78-79; I. I. Mainov, "Russkie krest'iane i osedlye inorodtsy
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