306 PROJECTS FOR REFORMING THE PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIONexample. Rather they would become the object of envy and discontent,
and upset the social harmony in the village. 1 Through the growth
of peasant capital, the peasants, merchants, and industrial entrepreneurs
would be brought closer together. The passage from one group into the
other would become easier, with benefit to the country at large. Spe-
ransky was perhaps not consciously planning the growth of a Russian
middle class (bourgeoisie in the Western sense); but he obviously did
sense that the 19th century was destined to see the rise of a new
aristocracy, the aristocracy of commercial, industrial, and landed
wealth.^2 It would be to Russia's advantage - both economic and
political - not to hamper this process, so that the Empire of the Tsars
keep in step with the other countries of Europe.
After 1821, as before his exile in 1812, Speransky exhibited a some-
what dualistic, contradictory approach towards the basic social and
economic problem of his time. Politically, he clearly was a conservative
and a firm believer in the state's active role in directing the progress
of the nation. In the economic realm he wished to promote the untram-
meled activity and free enterprise of individuals. To attain this double
goal the most effective way, he thought, was to re!pect and make use
of the institutions and traditions of Russia's social and economic life
which had grown over the centuries. In the villages, for instance, the
commune should be preserved to help maintain stability and peace,
to alleviate the hardships of dislocation during the period of transition.
It also explains his extremely cautious - over-cautious from our point
of view ~ approach to serfdom.
Speransky's ambivalent attitude was dominant among the Slavophile
reformers in the 1860's, the ("legal") liberals in the 1870's, and eventhe "progressive reactionaries" a la Katkov. Economic and sociallaisser-
faire liberalism was to be established by bureaucratic methods combined
with a political conservatism which stressed the pedagogical function
of the bureaucratic state. It was a strange kind of mixture, full of
contradictions and vagueness - and these provided one of the dominant
themes in Russian political thought throughout the 19th century and
into the 20th. The ordinary meanings of liberalism and conservatism
hardly characterized adequately this type of attitude, not even an
ideology. Speransky was one of the influential originators of this mode
of thought which intermittently, and not too consistently, helped shape
the policies of the Imperial Government.
1 Ibid., p. 818 and "Nuzhdy i zhelaniia," loco cit., p. 814.
z "Narodnye smiateniia," Pamiati, pp. 822-823.