304 PROJEcrs FOR REFORMING THE PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIONpossessing great psychological and moral significance, that it would be
both dangerous and unprofitable to destroy it merely for the sake ofsome economic doctrine. If the commune could still play a useful role
in the peasant's relations to the state and the landowner, and if the
peasant himself wished to preserve it, the commune should be kept.
But the commune should not be preserved by force of law against the
will of the peasants. Moreover, to develop individual self reliance and
initiative, only such measures should be taken as would bring about
the commune's gradual, "organic", disappearance. 1 For once, Speransky
approached a vital aspect of Russian life from the point of view of its
social reality. He could do it in this instance the more easily as it
performed a desirable spiritual function.
Speransky therefore envisaged the eventual disappearance of the
commune and its replacement by individual "strong" peasants. His
position should not come as a surprise to us. We have seen that as
early as 1809 he had relied on the property owner for the success of his
plan of reorganization. Similarly, in his draft statute for the provincial
administration submitted to the Committee of December 6, 1826, he
had clearly specified that only the heads of households, i.e., the actual
owners of houses and land, would be allowed to participate in the
volost' and village administrations.
Speransky never ceased to stress the desirability of developing a class
of active and energetic peasants who themselves might become rich
landowners and traders. He therefore suggested that the forcible pe-
riodical redistribution of lands in the village communes be stopped.
The surplus population for which land could not be found in the old
settled districts' should be resettled in areas where free land was
plentiful, Siberia for instance. (This idea was taken up and partly
implemented by Kiselev in the 1840's and 1850's as far as the state
peasants were concerned). Such a resettlement was naturally possibleonly if the raison d' etre for periodic redistribution, the capitation (poll)
tax (podushnaia podat), were eliminated and replaced by a general
proportional land tax. 2 This was an idea that was taken up by the
reformers of the 1860's, but was not realized until the end of the
century.
Holding out as his ideal an harmonious and organic nation, Spe-
ransky wished to see the rise of a class that would serve as "transition"
1 Druzhinin, op. cit., I, p. 183.
2 Speranskii, "Mery k ustroistvu gorodskikh i kazennykh sel'skikh obyvatelei,"
Pamiati, p. 817. Though Speransky mentions specifically only state peasants, the
suggestion would apply to all peasants once they have attained equality of status with
the state peasants as envisaged in the first part of the program.