50 ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIVITIES 1802-1812
establishment of a special school for noblemen, the drafting of a civil
code, the organization of newly acquired Finland, and Russia's
diplomacy and trade policy.
A decree dated 16 March 1801 transferred Speransky to the staff of
Troshchinskii, and a few weeks later, on April 23, Speransky was put
in charge of the Section for Civilian and Ecclesiastic Affairs of the
newly reorganized Council of State. In this double capacity Speransky
supervised the technical, bureaucratic aspects of a major portion of
Russia's internal administration, His responsibility was to put the
final touch to all state papers and reports submitted to the Emperor.
Unfortunately our sources do not inform us about Speransky's personal
contribution to the legislation and state papers in the first years of
the new reign. Yet, his "editorial" role must have been great as can
be gauged from the fact that Count S. Vorontsov's proposed draft of
a Charter for the Russian people bears stylistic corrections in the hand
of Speransky. 1
The struggle between the "senatorial party" and the Emperor's
younger friends in the Unofficial Committee was resolved by a
compromise in the publication of two somewhat contradictory legislative
acts in 1802. The first defined the privileges of the Senate, but it proved
barren of Clny practical value when Count Severin Potocki put its
provisions to a practical test. The second act, the manifesto of
September 8, 1802, replaced the major colleges by ministries. Alexander's
predilection for working with one individual at a time soon contributed
to making the ministries the most important organs of the central
administration.^2 The new ministers, too, needed competent assistants
to give their institutions a good start. Count Kochubei, who had been
appointed Minister of the Interior, immediately asked for the transfer
of Speransky to his ministry as head of a department. Troshchinskii,
whose role and influence were on the wane could not compete with
Kochubei and had to consent - albeit reluctantly - to the loss of his
1 This has given rise to the legend that Speransky was the author of the Charter.
Cf. V. P. Semennikov, Radishchev: ocherki i issledovaniia, (Petrograd 1923), pp.
177, 431, 433; G. Sacke, Gra! A. Voroncov, A. N. RadiUev und der 'Gnadenbrief
tur das russische Volk', Emsdetten 1939(?).
2 The appointment of members of the Unofficial Committee to the newly created
ministries has led some historians to conclude that the origin and aim of the
ministries had been to satisfy the ambitions of the members of the Un-
official Committee. Dovnar-I,apol'skii, "I,arozhdenie minislerstv v Rossii. .. ", Tz
istorii obshchestvennykh techenii v Rossii (Kiev 1905), p. 18. This interpretation
would bear out in Russia's case O. Hintze's conclusion that the ministries had
their origin in the secret and private councils of the ruler, not in the regular feudal
Curia Regis (or Boiar Duma in Moscow) - O. Hintze, "Die Entstehung der
modernen Staatsministerien," Staat und Verfassung (Leipzig 1941) 265-310 (originally
published in Historische Zeitscliri!t, vol. 100, pp. 53-Ill).