CODIFYING RUSSIAN LAW 325to the military and technological mind of Nicholas I. 1 Speransky was
therefore given the green light to compile a full collection of laws
issued since 1649 and a digest of the laws in force.
Efficiently set up by Speransky, a past master at bureaucratic organ-
ization, the Second Section embarked upon its task with great energy
and speed. Several subsections were established, new officials appointed,
including some jurists and young men with legal training. 2 First, all
the legislation since 1649 had to be gathered, its textual accuracy
established, the laws arranged chronologically, and the documents
prepared for publication. All laws up to 1825 (the cut-off date was the
day of the death of Alexander I) were to be included in a first series
of the Complete Collection. Legislation issued since December 1825
was to be the subject of a second series. With the help of the repertoire
prepared by Rosenkampf and of the labors of previous Commissions
and jurists, work proceeded quite rapidly, considering the amount of
material that had to be sifted. The first volume of the Complete Col-
lection of the Laws of the Russian Empire (PSZ) was ready for printing
in 1828; and with the presses of the Imperial Typography working at
full speed, by 1830 the first series had been completed. It consisted of
45 volumes, plus several volumes of appendices. While this first job
was still in its last stages, Speransky set the Second Section to compiling
the Digest (Svod). a This took another two years, and the final text ot
the Digest was based on all the laws in force as of January 1, 1832.
The Digest was submitted for comment and review to various govern-
ment bodies to make sure that it was clear and complete. On January
1, 1833 this task too had been accomplished, and the 15 volumes
compiled were presented to the Emperor. The Digest came into force
on January 1, 1835 as the sole authoritative source of Russian law.
The truly huge job had been accomplished only thanks to Speransky's
organizational talent and driving energy. He did not spare his own
time, or labor, but neither was he sparing of that of others. As was his1 Among others, see A. Filippov, "Imperator Nikolai I i Speranskii," lmperatorskii
iur'evskii universitet (Tartu Ulikool), Uchenye Zapiski, (1897), No.2, section I,
pp. 7-8.
2 V. Bil'basov, "Speranskii i dva Nikitina," Russkaia Starina, 87 (1896), p. 446;
d. also Maikov, "Speranskii i studenty zakonovedeniia," lac. cit., passim and the
interesting article by A. Fateev, "K istorii iuridicheskoi obrazovannosti v Rossii,"
Uchenye zapiski osnovannye Russkoi Uchebnoi Kollegiei v Prage, vol. I, fasc. III
(Prague 1924), pp. 218-255 on juridical education in Russia in the first half of the
19th century.
3 The Svod was a compilation of all laws that were in application at the time
of its publication. The closest term in English would be Digest, in its Justinian
meaning. See Speranskii, "0 sushchestve svoda" (1828), Russkaia Starina XV (1876),
pp. 586-592 passim.