Michael Speransky. Statesman of Imperial Russia, 1772–1839 - Marc Raeff

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332 CODIFYING RUSSIAN LAW


Yet, in spite of these drawbacks, some of which were determined by
the historical circumstances of Speransky's time, the level of legal and
historical scholarship, and the peculiarities of the Emperor's views, the
accomplishment was an important one. Speransky's work should be
judged in terms of the 1830's and not in terms of the 1900's as too
many historians have done. For the first time in Russian history all
major legislative monuments were gathered in one place and made
easily accessible to those who might need them. Jurisprudence, the
study and history of law became possible. Judges and administrators
were provided with a relatively reliable source book, and their inter-
pretations and decisions could be checked by reviewing authorities
(something that had been almost impossible in the past, as every court
and office had a different and incomplete set of legal sources). The
historian, too, might well be grateful to Speransky and the Second
Section, for much material is now easy to find in the Collection (and
it is virtually complete for the reign of Alexander I). In any case, the
Collection itself and the preparatory work involved in compiling it,
set a precedent and blazed the trail for later - and more accurate and
successful - searches in archives, publications of documents, and the
like. The Collection now only needed to be supplemented; the basic
foundation had been laid.


To the minds of Nicholas I, Speransky, and their assistants, the Com-

plete Collection of Laws was only the first step, the preparation for a
more important task, the compilation of a Digest of the laws in force.
In a sense, the first series of the PSZ was only a "complete" historical
reference to the Digest.^1 In drawing up the Digest, Speransky's inten-
tion was to present in a compact, systematic and clear form, a handy

reference book to all those legislative acts that were still in force. It was


to provide a basis for judicial decisions and administrative practice.
To keep the Digest up to date, a yearly supplement would be published,
and at periodic intervals a new edition would eliminate all the acts
that had been superseded in the meantime. (Actually, however, only
three editions of the Digest were published during the 19th century
and the supplements appeared at irregular intervals).
The material included in the Digest was to be arranged in logical
fashion, according to some convenient scheme to facilitate its ready use
for reference purposes. To this end, of course, legislative acts might
have to be rearranged or even rephrased (if redundant or in obsolete
language). Laws or decrees enacted to take care of specific situations
were to be put together with the general laws and principles which they
1 Filippov, "K voprosu 0 sostave pervogo PSZ," lac. cit., p. 137.
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