312 SPERANSKY AND THE DECEMBRISTSthan before. He maintained the closest relations with Arakcheev and
other "reactionary" favorites of the day. Mindful of the disadvantages
of his social isolation before 1812, Speransky now endeavored to gam
admittance to the high society of St. Petersburg. He wanted to see his
daughter well settled by making an advantageous marriage. These social
and political interests of his did not make of Speransky a likely
sympathizer with the Decembrists. And yet his name was put forward
with some insistence by the conspirators. The fact that he was the best
known and most talented official whose name would lend respectability
and prestige to the new regime could have contributed to the choice,
but would perhaps not have been decisive.
Actually, the Decembrists thought of Speransky's candidature because,
as Prince Trubetskoi put it, "he was not considered to be an enemy
of innovation." 1 At first glance this does not seem a very strong
argument. What Trubetskoi meant was that Speransky was known to
have been the Emperor's assistant in working out plans and measures
of reform during the first "liberal" decade of Alexander's reign. The
Decembrists believed that before his exile Speransky had been engaged
on a thorough reorganization of Russian political life along modern,
liberal, constitutional lines. Though this characterization is questionable,
as we have tried to show, one still must ask how the members of the
secret societies knew about Speransky's intentions and proposals. His
major reform project, the Plan of 1809, had remained secret and was
known in its entirety only to a very select few. Speransky's silence on
his activities before 1812 also makes it unlikely that even his close
assistants, like Batenkov, knew very much about the specific contents
of the Plan of 1809. But the discussions and various constitutional
reform proposals of the Decembrists show that they were acquainted -
albeit superficially and in a somewhat biased way - with the ideas of
Speransky.
The answer to the question lies in the disposition made of the papers
which were seized at Speransky's house on the night of his exile.^2
Three trunks containing all his political plans and projects were
deposited under seal in the State Chancery. In 1813 they were opened
and examined by Senator Koshelev and State Secretary Molchanov, and1 "Prilozhenie k dokladu sledstvennoi kommissii," lac cit., p. 435.
2 The following exposition is based on Fateev, "Bumagi Speranskogo," Zapiski
Russkogo Istoricheskogo Obshchestva v Prage, I (1927), pp. 105-111 passim. After
the manuscript had gone to press, there appeared a circumstantial and more up to
date account of the fate of Speransky's papers and of their present state in S. N.
Valk, "Zakonodatel'nye proekty M. M. Speranskogo v pechati i v rukopisiakh",
Istoricheskie Zapiski, 54 (1955), pp. 464-472.