356 LAST YEARS - CONCLUSIONformal and distant: Nicholas was not a person to whom one could be
close; and the great discrepancy in age between the Emperor and his
Privy Councilor could not be easily bridged either. But Nicholas
respected Speransky and even came to like him in his own formal and
rigid way. The Emperor showed his esteem and appreciation of Spe-
ransky's services to the state by elevating him - the son of a village
priest - to the rank of Count of the Russian Empire, in December 1838.
When Speransky fell ill, the Emperor visited him at his sickbed, a
rare distinction, and was genuinely grieved by his death, which came
in February 1839.
But for all the sympathy and respect with which he was surrounded
in his last days, Speransky died as he had lived - lonely and isolated
from the mainstream of Russian society.
The news of the death of Speransky created no great stir in Russia.
The public at large and the intellectual elite took almost no notice of
the event. Besides the official eulogies, we have the reactions of only
those who had known him personally as a colleague or superior in the
administratioJ?. Let us first cite two contemporary comments. The first
is by a man who had known Speransky since 1808, but had never quite
liked him and who, at the time of this comment was living in Paris.
The second reaction was based on an acquaintance made during the
last decade of Speransky's life.
Alexander Turgenev wrote from Paris to his friend A. Ia. Bulgakov:
"It is a pity about Speransky! He did much that was useful for
Russia! But with a more independent and more elevated soul,
he would have accomplished more yet. The Lvovs, Magnitskiis,
Zhuravlevs [subaltern bureaucrats in Speransky's entourage] who
surrounded him, would not refreshen the moral cli1ll\ate in which
he smothered himself. In spite of this, posterity - more than
ourselves - will be grateful to him, not so much for the difficult
and multi-volumed accomplishment of the Digest of Laws, as for
the Council [of State], for the supervisory control. " and for the
idea of the responsibility of ministers which is hidden in the
general statute on the ministries. He loved work and never bragged
about it. In him there was the seed of a better future, but the
fear of the Jews and Pharisees of our times did not allow it togrow ... [sid]. He did not understand his role, either before or
after his exile, nor did he understand Alexander who, after the
Siberian and Penza experiences, was offering himself completely
to him, and he sought out Arakcheev who embraced him andsmothered him in his military colonies ... Peace be to his remains!
I have forgiven him long ago his faintheartedness in a situation