Speransky M.M. (1772-1839), statesman

Categories / Capital/Personalia
SPERANSKY Mikhail Mikhailovich (1772-1839, St Petersburg), Count (1839), statesman, Actual Privy Counsellor (1827), Honorary Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1819), full member of the Russian Academy (1831). Graduated from the Main Alexander Nevsky Seminary in St Petersburg (1791). From 1792, he served at the seminary; from 1797, he was in the Senate; from 1803, he headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he became a close colleague of Count V. P. Kochubey's. From 1807, he served the Emperor personally; from 1808, he was Deputy Minister of Justice and Chairman for the Law Drafting Commission; in 1810-12, the State Secretary. Authored important administrative reforms, which formed a system of higher and central public institutions in Russia, such as reorganising the Ministries (1810-11) and establishing the State Assembly (1810); initiated the public declaration of laws concerning court ranks (1809) and examination of ranks (1809). As the result of court intrigues, he was deprived of all posts and titles and exiled to Nizhny Novgorod (1812), then to Perm. In 1816-19, he was Governor of Penza; in 1819-21, Governor-General of Siberia, carrying out a number of reforms regulating the regional administration system. From 1821, he lived in St Petersburg, was a member of the State Assembly; from 1826 he headed the Second Department of His Imperial Majesty's Chancellery. Guided the compilation and publication of the Complete Code of Laws, Code of Military Decrees, and other legislative publication. In 1821-23, he lived at 6 Fontanka River Embankment; then, until 1832, he was at the Armenian Church building at 42 Nevsky Prospect (memorial plaque installed); in 1832-38, he moved to 44 Fontanka River Embankment. He owned a house at 8 Sergievskaya (today Tchaikovskogo) Street, given to him in 1838 by Emperor Nicholas I. Buried at the Tikhvinskoe Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (today the Necropolis of Artists); his gravestone is a granite sarcophagus with a bronze cross (architect A. P. Bryullov).

References: Корф М. А. Жизнь графа Сперанского: В 2 т. СПб., 1861; Томсинов В. А. Светило российской бюрократии: Ист. портрет М. М. Сперанского. М., 1991; Сидорчук М. У Сперанского, на Невском... // С.-Петерб. панорама. 1992. №8. С.18-19; Чибиряев С. А. Великий русский реформатор: Жизнь, деятельность, полит. взгляды М. М. Сперанского. М., 1993; Федоров В. А. М. М. Сперанский и А. А. Аракчеев. М., 1997.

D. N. Shilov. Bryullov Boris Pavlovich
Kochubey Viktor Sergeevich, Duke
Nicholas I, Emperor
Speransky Mikhail Mikhailovich
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 44
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 6
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 42
Tchaikovskogo St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Сидорчук М. У Сперанского, на Невском... // С.-Петерб. панорама, 1992
Корф М. А. Жизнь графа Сперанского: В 2 т. СПб., 1861
Томсинов В. А. Светило российской бюрократии: Ист. портр. М. М. Сперанского. М., 1991
Чибиряев С. А. Великий русский реформатор: Жизнь, деятельность, полит. взгляды М. М. Сперанского. М., 1993
Федоров В. А. М. М. Сперанский и А. А. Аракчеев. М., 1997 Russian Academy of Sciences
Senate
Ministry of Internal Affairs
State Assembly
Chancellery, His Imperial Majesty's Personal
St. Catherine’s Armenian Church
Necropolis of Artists