CODIFYING RUSSIAN LAW 337rights and privileges that might have served as an entering wedge for
a gradual emancipation with land, were eliminated. The final step in
this process of levelling the peasants' legal status was taken quite
easily in 1861. It is of course possible to argue that the bringing about
of such a uniformity in the peasant status !lad beneficial resu,lts for the
future development of the country. But in aily case, it was' in flagrant
violation of the Digest's avowed purpose of being only an accurate
reflection of existing conditions.
Speransky's disregard for a complex reality was much more than mere
lack of respect for tradition or historically determined conditions, quite
surprising in a follower of Savigny and German historicism. It involved
and illustrated a basic attitude which was shared by both· Speransky
and the government of Nicholas 1.1 Theirs was essentially a mechanical
bureaucratic approach, and they obviously aimed at uniformity and
simplicity of legal relationships and categories. In spite of their willing-
ness to take into consideration - up to a point - the creations of the
past, they did aim at re-directing the evolution of Russia by bureau-
cratic means. Minor exceptions and special cases had to be eliminated
to bring about uniformity and a streamlining of legal relations that
would pave the way for bureaucratic orderliness and military efficiency.
The state, by means of statutes, codes, and ~igests worked out by
the bureaucracy defined the legal status of the people, assigned and
ordered their rank, role, and function. By redefining legal concepts,
contractual practice, and civil relations, the government smoothed the
way for a different economic and social order. This is not to say that
Speransky's solution or goal were necessarily bad. But it does illustrate
his rather high-handed, mechanistic manner of dealing with the social
and economic problems of Russia. In final analysis it resulted in a
narrowing of the area and a limiting of the ways of gradual, auton-omous, and organic change. It smacked of an "enlightened" apsolutism
that simplified social complexities and introduced new social values
and principles by bureaucratic police action. Despite his respe<;t for the
customs and traditions of people who were completely different from
the Russians (as shown in Siberia), Speransky did not like to admit of
variety and great differences within one group. Aiming at uniformity
of law and administration, he used the Digest as a means for achieving
it in Russia.
Speransky was not unaware of the fact that he was introducing legal1 The foregoing discussion is based on: B. E. Nol'de, "Svod Zakonov 0 sostoianii
liudei v gosudarstve," Sbomik statei posviashchennykh P. B. Struve ko dniu 35 letiia
ego nauchnopublitsisticheskoi deiatel'nosti 1890-30.1.1925 (Prague 1925), pp. !H3-323.