324 CODIFYING RUSSIAN LAW
the legislation still in force. eliminating all the laws which had been
revoked or amended. The Digest would provide a bird's-eye view of
the legal norms and institutions currently in force. The third and final
task would be the composition of a new code (ulozhenie). using the
Digest as a guide. Such a new code would harmonize all useful and
desirable legal traditions with new concepts and norms that were
required under modern conditions. It is interesting to note that
Speransky had advocated a similar sequence of codificatory procedure
in his first political paper, written in 1802. Almost the same approach
was also recommended by the Commission on Laws in 1812. after the
defects of Speransky's civil code of 1809 had become apparent.^1 In
his paper of January 1826, Speransky expressed a rather optimistic
view as to the time this triple task would take. He thought that a
couple of years would be sufficient for the first part. then a few months
for the compilation of the Digest, and finally another year for working
out a new code. In fact, the first two tasks alone took seven years. 2
His suggestions, though, met with the Emperor's objections. Nicholas
I accepted readily enough the first two goals, as they corresponded to
his fundamentally pragmatic and empirical way of thinking. But he
rejected the third, the drafting of a new code. The Emperor felt that
a new code smacked too much of theory and of an ideological dogmatism
that was alien to him, and which he distrusted profoundly for its con-
nection with the philosophes and revolutionaries of 18th-century France.
Nicholas was narrowly conservative and afraid of bringing any radically
new elements into Russia's political organization. His aim was quite
modest and limited: he wanted to preserve all that was good and useful
in the existing system, making only minor, "mechanical" improvements
and adjustments where they were needed for the good functioning of
the machinery of government. The compilation of existing legislation
to clarify legal relations and procedures for the guidance of subordinate
officials was such an improvement. It was as far as he was willing to
go; such a clarification would be sufficient in bringing to the imperial
administration consistency, uniformity, and order - the supreme virtues
1 Cf. Semevskii, "Pervyi politicheskii traktat Speranskogo," Russkoe Bogatstvo
(1907), No. I, pp. 54, 55, 56, 57, 67; cf. also, S. V. Pakhman, Istoriia kodifikatsii
grazhdanskogo prava, 1 (St. Pbg. 1876), pp. 434-436 on the thinking of the Com·
mission on Laws in 1812.
2 Speranskii, "Predpolozheniia okonchatel'nornu sostavleniiu zakonov," Russkaia
Starina, XV, (1876), pp. 434-441 passim; Speranskii, Obozrenie istoricheskikh
svedenii 0 svode zakonov (St. Pbg. 1833), passim; A. F. Bychkov, (ed.), "K L·ti letiiu
IIgo otdeleniia Sobstvennoi E. I. V. Kantseliarii," Russkaia Starin a, XV, (1876).
p. 431..