32 "CONSTITUTIONALISM"
distinguished services to the crown. By the Charter of 1785 the nobility
had received some degree of autonomy in the management of its
"corporate" affairs, and the Statute on the Provinces of 1775 had
assigned it an important role in local administration. Was this not
telling proof of the monarch's recognition of the nobility's ability to
take care of itself, to attend to the needs of its estate without harm
to the interests of the state? And it does not really matter for our
present purposes whether this privileged status had been wrung from
the state by the nobility's own efforts or whether Catherine II had
given it as a "sop" to insure the government's centralized and
bureaucratic control of all really important matters of national
policy.l Whatever its origin, the nobles interpreted their new status
as evidence of their social and political maturity. Paul's regime
presented a mortal danger to this newly gained social consciousness
and individual self-esteem.
In the light of this situation, the almost indecent joy which greeted
the news of Paul's violent demise becomes quite understandable. The
exhilaration reached a higher pitch yet when Alexander's proclamation
of accession promised a return to the principles of his grandmother,
the great Catherine.^2 All shared the belief that Paul's course of
arbitrariness and despotism was abandoned forever, and this belief
found its strongest and most articulate expression among the upper
ranks of the nobility. The old dignitaries of Catherine's time, supported
by the "aristocracy" - the greatest and perhaps exclusive beneficiaries
of the policy pursued by the Empress - wished to secure firmly the
privileges of the first estate of the Empire. In their opinion, the
principles of the Enlightt:I~ment - in their English form - should be
put into practice for the benefit of the upper rungs of the nobility.
The catchword which summarized and symbolized these aspirations
was the term "constitution," or, in more careful mouths, "fundamental
laws" and "fundamental institutions". The future for the realization
of these aspirations looked very bright and hopeful indeed, for did
not the young ruler, Alexander I, share these desires and did he not
intend to give "fundamental laws" which would put Russia on an
1 The former interpretation is to be found most frequently in the general
histories of Russia (d. Stahlin, Kornilov, Vernadsky). The latter explanation, which
this writer favors, has been given most recently by P. Struve (in his article,
'''Istoricheskii smysl russkoi revoliutsii").
:l "We accept the obligation to rule the people entrusted to us by God according
to the laws and spirit of Our August late grandmother, Empress Catherine the
Great, whose memory will be eternally dear to us and the entire fatherland ... "
(quoted by Shil'der, lmperator A leksandr Pervyi - ego zhizn' i tsarstvovanie, vol. II,
p. 6); PSZ 19,779 (12. III. 1801), vol. 26, pp. 583-584.