The secret committee is an unofficial advisory body in Russia under Emperor Alexander I. It was active from June 1801 to September 1803.
The young Emperor Alexander I gradually removed the murderers of his father Paul I from the court and surrounded himself with his “young friends.” They became part of the Secret Committee. These were Count P. A. Stroganov, Prince A. A. Czartorysky, Count V. P. Kochubey and N. N. Novosiltsev.
It was assumed that the Secret Committee would develop government reforms and even prepare a constitution. The Secret Committee discussed many government events of the beginning. 19th century - reform of the Senate, the establishment of ministries in 1802, etc. The Secret Committee paid close attention to the peasant issue and prepared some measures to solve it - decrees on allowing merchants and townspeople to buy land as their own (1801), on free cultivators (1803 .). N.P.
Novosiltsev Nikolai Nikolaevich (1768 - 04/08/1838) - Russian statesman, president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1803-1810, count (1833).
N.N. Novosiltsev was from an ancient noble family. He was brought up in the house of his uncle, Count A. S. Stroganov. Enlisted as a page from childhood, from 1783 to 1796. was in military service. He distinguished himself in the Russian-Swedish war of 1788-1790. and for his bravery he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. After the end of the war, he was introduced to Grand Duke Alexander I Pavlovich.
In 1794-1795 he distinguished himself in battles during the suppression of the Polish uprising, and showed administrative and diplomatic abilities. In the first years of the reign of Alexander I, he enjoyed his special trust and was a member of the Secret Committee, which united his closest friends. Novosiltsev was involved in projects for reforms of agriculture, trade, crafts and the arts. He proposed replacing collegiums with ministries. He held a number of senior government positions: he was the president of the Academy of Sciences and at the same time a trustee of the St. Petersburg educational district, as well as a comrade (deputy) minister of justice.
From the end of 1804 to 1809, he carried out a number of diplomatic assignments in Western Europe and concluded an alliance with Great Britain. Since 1813 - vice-president of the provisional Council of the Duchy of Warsaw. When it was renamed the Kingdom of Poland, Novosiltsev was the main imperial delegate to his government and the commander-in-chief of the Polish army under Konstantin Pavlovich. In 1819 he drafted a constitution. In 1813-1831. pursued a harsh Russophile policy in the Kingdom of Poland. His arrogance and cruelty displeased the Poles. From 1834 until the end of his life he was chairman of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. According to contemporaries, N.N. Novosiltsev was a man of extraordinary intelligence, but power-hungry and cruel. N.P.
Czartoryski Adam Adamovich (Adam Jerzy (Yuri)) (01/14/1770 - 07/15/1861) - prince, Polish and Russian statesman.
A. A. Czartoryski came from a noble Polish-Lithuanian aristocratic family. His father, Field Marshal of the Austrian troops Adam Kazimierz, claimed the Polish throne, but refused in favor of his cousin E. A. Poniatowski.
The parents tried to give their son the best education, which he completed in England. In 1792
Czartoryski took part in military operations against Russian troops, and this forced him to emigrate to England. He wanted to return to his homeland, having learned about the uprising of T. Kosciuszko, but Catherine II arrested the Czartoryski estates and promised to return them if Adam and his brother Konstantin lived at court as hostages. In 1795, he lived in St. Petersburg, where he became friends with Grand Duke Alexander I Pavlovich, but this friendship aroused suspicion, and Paul I sent him as an envoy to the court of the Sardinian king.
In 1801, Emperor Alexander I summoned Czartoryski to St. Petersburg and appointed him a member of the Secret Committee. He enjoyed the unlimited trust of the emperor, who from 1802 appointed him comrade (deputy) minister of foreign affairs, from 1804 - minister of foreign affairs, at the same time a senator and member of the State Council. In this post, Czartoryski was primarily concerned with the revival of the independent Polish state by concluding a military alliance between Russia, England and Austria against France. But the defeat at Austerlitz and the rapprochement between Russia and Prussia caused the emperor to cool down towards Czartoryski’s plan. In June 1806 he was dismissed from his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, Alexander I continued to listen to his advice, and he participated in the Congress of Vienna in 1814. Czartoryski managed to convince the Russian Tsar to create the Kingdom of Poland within Russia and grant it a constitution. Alexander I appointed Czartoryski senator-voivode and the Administrative Council (government) of the Kingdom of Poland. However, in 1816, he had to resign for spreading the idea of the Lithuanian provinces joining the Kingdom of Poland.
Until 1830, Czartoryski was engaged in science and literature. In con. 1830 Polish rebels who captured Warsaw elected Czartoryski as President of the Senate and head of the National Government. After the suppression of the uprising in 1831, Czartoryski emigrated to France, where he remained until the end of his life, leading the aristocratic camp of the Polish emigration. Czartoryski advocated the restoration of Polish independence through military action by the Western powers against Russia. Emperor Nicholas I in 1831 expelled him from service and deprived him of the princely title and noble dignity.
Kochubey Viktor Pavlovich (11.11.1768 03.06.1834) - prince, statesman.
V. P. Kochubey was a descendant of V. L. Kochubey, executed in 1708 by Hetman I. Mazepa, and the nephew of A. A. Bezborodko, state chancellor during the reign of Catherine II. Kochubey was brought up in the house of his uncle, who predicted a career as a diplomat for him. He began his service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, then was appointed adjutant to Prince G. A. Potemkin. In 1784 1786 was assigned to a mission in Stockholm. He continued his education in Sweden.
Thanks to his uncle's influence, in 1792 he was appointed envoy to Constantinople. Kochubey wanted all powers to value Russia's friendship. In 1798 he became a member of the College of Foreign Affairs and an assistant to his uncle. But after the death of A. A. Bezborodko in 1799, he fell out of favor, and Paul I dismissed him.
Under Alexander I, Kochubey was a member of the Secret Committee involved in the preparation of government reforms; from 1801, he was a senator, the initiator of the creation of ministries; in 1802-1807. and 1819 1823 - the first Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire, from 1827 - Chairman of the State Council and Committee of Ministers, from 1834 - Chancellor.
Kochubey considered serfdom a “giant evil,” but was afraid of “shocks.” He developed a project of government reforms, partially implemented in the 1830-1840s, and was a supporter of the separation of powers while maintaining the supremacy of autocratic power. HE .
1.3 Creation of the "Secret Committee"
Attempts at reform in the first years of the reign of Alexander I were associated with a circle of like-minded people, called the “Unofficial Committee”. The famous historian V.O. Klyuchevsky described the “Unofficial Committee” as the activity of the “young friends” of the emperor. By the way, the tsar, with indescribable humor, called the “Unspoken Committee” “comite du salut public,” hinting at Robespierre’s “Committee of Public Safety,” and Catherine’s nobles indignantly called the committee members “the Jacobin gang.” Indeed, the brilliant young aristocrats were admirers of advanced European political ideas. Count Pavel Aleksandrovich Stroganov in his youth, at the whim of his father, a famous philanthropist and freemason, fell into the hands of a kind of educator - Gilbert Romm, who, accompanying him on a trip abroad, introduced the young man to the Paris Jacobin Club in 1789. Prince Adam Czartoryski, while still a sixteen-year-old boy, managed to meet outstanding people of the era. He knew many German philologists and writers, and Goethe himself. In 1794 he fought against Russia under the banner of T. Kosciuszko. Nikolai Nikolaevich Novosiltsov, a relative of Count Stroganov, was much older than Alexander and made a great impression on him with his intelligence, education, abilities and ability to express his thoughts gracefully and accurately.
Meetings of the "Secret Committee" took place two or three times a week. After coffee and general conversation, the emperor retired, and while all the guests were leaving, four people made their way, like conspirators, along the corridor to one of the inner rooms, where Alexander was waiting for them. The Tsar instructed his young friends to develop and implement reforms, in particular, “to curb the despotism of our government” (the original words of the autocrat). The “triumvirate,” as Stroganov, Novosiltsev and Czartoryski were called behind their backs, also made an attempt to resolve the pressing issue of serfdom, although the matter did not move beyond bold plans.
Of course, Speransky immediately found himself in the thick of events and changes. Already on March 19 (a week after the accession of the new monarch; this is the date given in all formal lists) he was appointed “Secretary of State”. He became the right hand of Dmitry Prokofievich Troshchinsky, the trusted “speaker” of Catherine II, who inherited this most important function (“speaker and editor-in-chief”) under the new emperor. His job was to prepare and edit the most important government documents. Naturally, he needed a reliable and gifted assistant. The choice of the experienced bureaucrat fell on Speransky. Troshchinsky, a Ukrainian, the son of a simple clerk, who had made a great career over many years, may have taken into account his “simple” origin when choosing the candidate for his main assistant. One way or another, the “Decree to Our Senate” appears: “We most graciously command that Our Privy Councilor Troshchinsky be with us to rectify the affairs entrusted to him by Our power of attorney to State Councilor Speransky with the title of Our State Secretary and with a salary of two thousand rubles per year from Our Cabinet; the salary of two thousand rubles per year he received until now in his position as the Ruler of the Office of the Commission on supplying the residence with supplies shall be converted into a pension upon his death. Alexander. March 29th day, 1801."
Speransky immediately attracted the close attention of the members of the “Secret Committee”, in the depths of which matured the idea of transforming into ministries (in the European style) the inert, mired in bribery, slow, clumsy, poorly managed boards established by Peter the Great. Speransky becomes, albeit an unofficial, but active participant in the Secret Committee. He becomes Kochubey's main assistant and takes a large part in developing the conceptual foundations of the future Ministry of Internal Affairs.
A serious struggle arose between Troshchinsky and Kochubey for Speransky: each of the dignitaries sought to keep him at their disposal.
Speransky's participation is visible in the preparation of a number of laws. So, in 1801, a decree was issued allowing merchants, townspeople and peasants to buy uninhabited lands. On September 8, 1802, the highest manifesto announced (the text was prepared by Speransky) the establishment - instead of 20 boards - 8 ministries: military (until 1808 - the Ministry of Military Ground Forces), maritime (until 1815 - the Ministry of the Navy forces), foreign affairs, justice, internal affairs, finance, commerce, public education.
Speransky prepared annual reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which were published (this was a novelty) in the ministerial periodical "St. Petersburg Journal". Poet I.I. Dmitriev, who himself was in the civil service and at one time held the post of Minister of Justice, recalled this period of Speransky’s life: “All draft new regulations and annual reports for the ministry were written by him. The latter had not only the advantages of novelty, but also, in terms of methodological arrangement , very rare to this day in our official papers, a historical account of each part of management, of art in style, can serve as guidance and models.”
In February 1803, with the direct participation of Speransky (concept, text), the famous Decree “on free cultivators” was published, which was perceived by the inert nobility almost as the beginning of a revolution. According to this decree, landowners received the right to release serfs to freedom, giving them land. It took many years to pay for the land; if payments were late, the peasant and his family returned to serfdom. During the reign of Alexander I, only 47 thousand people were freed.
Much has been done in the field of education. Among the transformative reforms, the School Charter of 1804 should be noted, according to which children of all classes were admitted to schools at all levels - from lower to higher. There have also been serious positive changes in the field of higher education. New universities were established: Kazan, Kharkov, Vilnius, Dorpat; as well as lyceums: Nezhinsky, Yaroslavl and Tsarskoye Selo. The Main Pedagogical Institute was founded in St. Petersburg, which later became St. Petersburg University.
Press rights were significantly expanded. The censorship statute of 1804 exempted literature from preliminary censorship, the rights of which were clearly defined.
Speransky is gradually turning from a simple performer into one of the arbiters of Russia's destinies. Due to Kochubey's frequent absences due to illness, Speransky became the Tsar's main speaker. Desk reports developed into long conversations in which Alexander I and Speransky discussed pressing state problems and read Western political and legal literature together. From these conversations began the friendship between the All-Russian autocrat and the former popovich
Under Alexander I, the same role was destined for Speransky. Star years began in his career. Speransky began to play an important role in diplomatic affairs. In those years, Europe was under the heavy burden of the genius of Napoleon. Having lost the Battle of Austerlitz to his troops, the Russian Tsar was forced to strive for peace with the French Emperor. On June 13-14, in Tilsit (a peace treaty was concluded on the Neman, according to which Russia joined the continental blockade, which was disadvantageous for it. The Tilsit peace aroused the indignation of Russian patriots.
Going to a new meeting with Napoleon in Erfurt (September 2 - October 16, 1808), Alexander took Speransky with him. On September 30, the emperors signed the “Erfurt Union Convention”, which confirmed the Tilsit agreements, Napoleonic redistribution of the continent and, most importantly, Russia’s rights to Finland (Alexander’s troops fought with the Swedes), Wallachia and Moldavia.
Speransky returns to the capital in a new status: friend (as they said then, confidant), closest associate of the monarch, absolute favorite, according to V. Prigodich, with the rank of vice-emperor (A.A. Arakcheev will take this place only after the “fall” Speransky).
Thus, Speransky began to determine the domestic and foreign policy of the state, exercise supervision over administrative, judicial and financial bodies, and unconditionally influence the most important appointments.
Cleanse yourself completely through service." Here he still does not leave the thought of government reforms and proposes, having cleansed the administrative part, to move on to political freedom. To develop the necessary reforms, Speransky advises establishing a committee of Finance Minister Guryev, several governors (including his himself) and 2 - 3 provincial leaders of the nobility. In March 1819 ...
They led to tragic consequences for the government and society. The liberal intelligentsia became increasingly closer to the revolutionaries, while the influence of conservatives in the government camp increased. Representatives of Russian liberalism in the 19th century. much more often it was necessary to criticize the actions of the authorities than to actively participate in their policies. Even the most liberal-minded autocrats (such as...
Neglige) - morning light home clothes. In the 18th century This was also the name for a comfortable suit (both men's and women's) for traveling and walking.
Big Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2000 .
See what "SECRET COMMITTEE" is in other dictionaries:
An unofficial body under Emperor Alexander I from his associates (P. A. Stroganov, A. A. Czartorysky (Chartorysky), V. P. Kochubey and N. N. Novosiltsev) in 1801 1803. The basis of the activities of the Secret Committee was the reform program... ... Political science. Dictionary.
SECRET COMMITTEE, an unofficial advisory body under Emperor Alexander I in 1801 03. Consisted of his closest associates (P.A. Stroganov, A.A. Chartorysky, V.P. Kochubey, N.N. Novosiltsev). Prepared projects for the establishment of ministries... ... Modern encyclopedia
THE SECRET COMMITTEE, an unofficial advisory body under Alexander I in 1801 03 (P. A. Stroganov, A. A. Chartorysky, V. P. Kochubey and N. N. Novosiltsev), prepared projects for the establishment of ministries, the transformation of the Senate and other reforms. Source...Russian history
Secret committee- SECRET COMMITTEE, an unofficial advisory body under Emperor Alexander I in 1801 - 03. Consisted of his closest associates (P.A. Stroganov, A.A. Chartorysky, V.P. Kochubey, N.N. Novosiltsev). Prepared projects for the establishment of ministries... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
An unofficial body under Emperor Alexander I from his associates [P. A. Stroganov, A. A. Czartoryski (Chartoryski), V. P. Kochubey and N. N. Novosiltsev] in 1801 1803, prepared projects for the establishment of ministries, the transformation of the Senate and others... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
The secret committee is an unofficial advisory body that worked at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I. It arose on the basis of the “circle of the Grand Duke”, which formed back in 1797, but usually the period of its work is considered to be the period from 1801 to 1803 or ... ... Wikipedia
An unofficial advisory body in Russia under Alexander I (See Alexander I). It was active from June 1801 to the end of 1803. The composition of the N. K. included the tsar’s closest employees, the so-called “young friends”, Count P. A. Stroganov, Prince A. ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Unofficial consult organ in Russia under Alexander I. Operated from June 1801 to September. 1803. The N. k. included the tsar’s closest employees, the so-called. young friends gr. P. A. Stroganov, book. A. Czartoryski, gr. V. P. Kochubey and N. N. Novosiltsev... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
SECRET COMMITTEE- in 1801–1803 unofficial advisory body under Emperor Alexander I... Russian statehood in terms. 9th – early 20th century
"Unspoken Committee"- SECRET COMMITTEE is a kind of informal highest. state an institution that existed in Russia in 1801 03. Essentially it was a meeting between Alexander I and the so-called. young friends of the emperor P.A. Stroganov, V.P. Kochubey, N.N.... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary
The more a person is able to respond to the historical and universal, the broader his nature, the richer his life and the more capable such a person is of progress and development.
F. M. Dostoevsky
During the reign of Emperor Alexander I (1801-1825), a secret organization was created - the Secret Committee, consisting of four people (Kochubey, Novosiltsev, Czartoryski and Stroganov), whom the emperor himself called “young friends”. The main task of the secret advisory body was to prepare, first of all, administrative reforms, in the words of Alexander himself, “an ugly state building.” This association of people close to the emperor did not have the status of an official government body, which is why it was called a “secret committee.” This article is devoted to an overview of the circumstances and purposes of the creation of the committee, a description of its main participants, as well as a description of the main areas of activity.
Circumstances of the creation of the Committee
The history of the creation of the secret committee should begin in 1792. This is still the period of the reign of Catherine II. Her grandson Alexander is only 15 years old, however, while receiving his education, he meets young government officials. One of them was Victor Kochubey, who at the end of 1792 was appointed ambassador to Istanbul. He was only 24, that is, he was 9 years older than Alexander. While in the service, Kochubey often corresponded with the young Romanov, and his letters touched on the topic of reforms in Russia. It was from this meeting that the idea of the future organization arose.
When Alexander's father Paul I became emperor, the heir to the throne was already familiar with all the participants in the future committee. Since 1796, Alexander himself has used the name “young friends.” The plans of the future emperor were to “lead the state from despotism to constitution.” Therefore, he selected the participants of the future secret committee according to their views and intellect, that is, the choice fell on those people who supported Alexander’s views. And these views were simple - to carry out reforms and radically change everything that was done before, and what was done by his father. That is why young Alexander was very impressed by the democratic views of his “young friends.” In 1801, power passed to Aleksnadr. By this time, the Secret Committee was already fully formed.
The main purpose of the secret committee
When creating the Secret Committee, the future emperor set the following tasks:
- Modernization of the state apparatus, primarily the creation of an effective administrative system.
- Expanding the rights and freedoms of the empire's subjects.
- Limiting the power of the emperor through the adoption of the Constitution.
Some of the committee members were greatly influenced by the French Revolution, so its slogan “liberty, equality, fraternity” became their main focus for reform. Alexander I, together with his “young friends,” characterized their own homeland as an empire that was significantly behind the leading countries of the world, and in order for Russia to become a developed empire of the world, it needed reforms.
Interesting fact: each member of the Secret Committee had the unique right to go into the emperor’s office at any time and share his ideas. By this, the emperor showed the priority of reforms for his policies.
Committee member
The participants held their first meeting as the Secret Committee under the Emperor of the Russian Empire on June 24, 1801, three months after Alexander became the new monarch. The meeting was opened by the emperor himself, but in the future he did not attend committee meetings so often. In total, the Secret Committee included four people:
- Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey.
- Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov.
- Adam Jerzy Czartoryski.
- Nikolai Nikolaevich Novosiltsev.
Some historians also name the children's teacher Alexander Laharpe as a member of the committee. However, he was not present at the meetings, so if he was a participant, it was only a formal one.
Kochubey V.P.
Now it’s worth going into more detail to describe the committee members. The first of them was V. Kochubey, already mentioned earlier. In 1798, he returned from Istanbul, having gained experience and knowledge there, and also gained even greater determination in the need for reforms in Russia. In 1798, a circle of “young friends” was formed, so V. Kochubey was invited by Alexander to one of the meetings, where he met all the participants.
Stroganov P.A.
Another participant was P. Stroganov. He was four years older than Alexander, he underwent training and internship in France (he was born, by the way, in Paris), and the most interesting thing is that he was in Paris just at the beginning of the legendary French Revolution in 1789, he was familiar with the works of the Enlightenment (Rousseau , Voltaire and others). After returning to Russia in 1791, he entered the public service. In 1795 he met Alexander. The latter was very impressed by Stroganov’s erudition, as well as his political views. Later, it was P. Stroganov who came up with the idea of creating an advisory secret committee under the emperor. Stroganov was also a vocal opponent of serfdom in the Russian Empire. By the way, Stroganov left memories of the Secret Committee, which serve as an invaluable source for historians.
Novosiltsev N.N.
In the same 1795, when Alexander met Stroganov, a meeting took place between the future emperor and Nikolai Novosiltsev, a nobleman in public service. It was P. Stroganov who introduced them. N. Novoseltsev was a well-known politician in Russia at that time; he even took part in the suppression of the Polish uprising of T. Kosciuszko in 1794-1795. In 1796, Alexander met the last member of the future committee, Pole Adam Czartoryski. After the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1772 to 1795, Russia received part of Poland, therefore, the number of Poles in the capital and in the civil service increased. Such citizens of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were Adam and Konstantin Czartoryski. Adam received a European education, visited France, England and Switzerland, after which he developed his own plan for reforms in the Russian Empire.
Performance results
Considering that not all projects of the Secret Committee were implemented, we therefore provide a short list of ideas and contributions of participants:
- P. Stroganov developed a plan for the reform of the Senate, and also wrote a draft of the Constitution of Russia.
- N. Novosiltsev wrote a draft law prohibiting the individual sale of serfs and proposed expelling nobles from the Assembly of Nobility for illiteracy and inhumane treatment of serfs. In addition, in 1802 he wrote a draft ministerial reform.
- A. Czartoryski began his activities as a member of the committee with a detailed analysis of the problems of the Russian Empire. It is noteworthy that many of the problems identified by Czartoryski were never resolved in the 19th century and became the cause of the revolutions of the early 20th century.
- V. Kochubey, together with Novoseltsev, developed a project for the creation of ministries in Russia.
As we can see, the idea of the Secret Committee is unprecedented in the history of Russia. This was the first time that an advisory collegial body was created to prepare draft laws. It was a kind of “laboratory” for developing reforms. However, the foreign policy situation, and especially the aggravation of relations with France and, as a consequence, further wars with Napoleon, made adjustments to the work of the “young friends” committee. After Russia's victory in the war, as well as the signing of the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, led to restrictions on the work of the Secret Committee.
The days of the Alexandrovs began wonderfully.
Alexander Pushkin
It was very easy for the Russian sovereigns who ascended the throne to begin: it was enough to abolish, forgive, rehabilitate - correct what was done by their predecessor. In 1822, Pushkin recalled with longing the wonderful days of the beginning of Alexander’s reign. In 1801 everyone was happy. On March 15, 4 days after the murder of Paul, the new tsar forgave 156 people, including Radishchev. Subsequent decrees pardoned other victims of the overthrown emperor - a total of 12 thousand people. Taking into account the small size of the ruling stratum, which was primarily the target of the wrath of Paul I, this figure is very impressive. In March, noble elections in the provinces were restored; those who fled abroad were amnestied; free entry and exit abroad declared; Private printing houses and the import of all kinds of books from abroad are allowed. On April 2, the charter granted to the nobility and cities, given by Catherine, was restored. The secret expedition - the emperor's secret police - was destroyed. On September 27, torture and “biased interrogations” were prohibited. The very word “torture” was forbidden to be used in business.
In manifestos, decrees, and private conversations, Alexander I expresses his ardent desire to replace arbitrariness with legality. To prepare and implement the necessary reforms, Alexander gathers around him friends, young people, who in May 1801 become members of a special Secret Committee.
The composition of the committee, which met in secret until September 1804, aroused hopes among supporters of reforms and fears among opponents. Alexander appointed four representatives of the new generation as members of the committee, brought up on the most advanced ideas of the 18th century, who knew Western Europe very well. Alexander did not appoint Laharpe, who came to St. Petersburg at the invitation of the emperor, to the committee, although he spoke with him a lot.
In the second half of the 19th century. The minutes of the meetings of the Secret Committee were published, all its members wrote memoirs. The first clash of dreams and reality experienced by Alexander I is well documented. A note on the need to create a special Secret Committee to discuss the plan for the transformation of Russia was presented to the Tsar by Count Pavel Stroganov (1772-1817), the only son of the richest of Catherine’s nobles, a personal friend of Alexander. In 1790, together with his teacher, the French republican mathematician Gilbert Romm, Pavel Stroganov ended up in Paris. He joined the Jacobin club and became the lover of the frantic revolutionary Théroigne de Mericourt. Summoned by Catherine to St. Petersburg and sent to the village, Pavel Stroganov was soon returned to court. Prince Adam Czartoryski (1770-1861) introduced him to Grand Duke Alexander. Alexander, rushing between Catherine’s court and his father’s Gatchina court, chose as his friend Prince Czartoryski, who was in St. Petersburg as a hostage after the defeat of the Kosciuszko uprising. The friendship continued even after the heir became emperor. Even rumors about the heir’s young wife’s infatuation with the Polish prince did not interfere with close relationships. They said that when Grand Duchess Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter in May 1799, she was shown to Pavel. The Emperor asked State Lady Lieven: “Madam, is it possible for a blond husband and a blond wife to have a black baby?” The lady of state quite rightly objected: “Sir! God is omnipotent." Adam Czartoryski was “exiled” as an ambassador to the court of the king of Sardinia, who was in exile, but remained close to Alexander - and was summoned to St. Petersburg after the murder of Paul.
The third member of the committee was Pavel Stroganov's cousin Nikolai Novosiltsev (1761-1836). The fourth was Viktor Kochubey (1768-1834), nephew of Chancellor Bezborodko, raised in England, who at the age of 24 served as ambassador to Constantinople.
The talented, educated friends of the emperor at the very first meeting of the Secret Committee formulated the tasks and plan of its work: to find out the actual state of affairs in Russia; to reform the governmental mechanism and, finally, to ensure the existence and independence of state institutions by a constitution granted by the autocratic power and consistent with the spirit of the Russian people. Two fundamental, unchangeable problems were on the agenda: autocracy and serfdom. Alexander understood the need for reforms and agreed with La Harpe, who said that “the law is higher than the monarch.” The dilemma was the squaring of a circle: how to limit autocracy without limiting the power of the sovereign? Derzhavin says that, as a minister, he insisted in a conversation with Alexander on some of his proposals: “You always want to teach me,” the sovereign said with anger. “I am an autocratic sovereign and that’s how I want it.” The conversation took place during the most liberal era of the reign.
The peasant question was no less difficult. During its discussion in the Secret Committee, different opinions were expressed. Czartoryski spoke out against serfdom, because keeping people in slavery was immoral. Novosiltsev and Stroganov spoke about the danger of irritating the nobility. The only measures to resolve the peasant issue were the adoption of the project of Admiral Mordvinov (who spent many years in England, where, as his biographer writes, “he was imbued with the spirit of English science and respect for the institutions of this country”) and the project of Count Rumyantsev on free cultivators. Mordvinov approached the peasant issue from an unexpected angle. An admirer of Adam Smith and Bentham, he believed that it was necessary to create an economic system in which the nobility itself would recognize the unprofitability of the forced labor of serfs and would itself renounce its rights. Mordvinov proposed giving the right to own real estate to merchants, townspeople and state-owned peasants, thus depriving the nobility of their monopoly on land ownership. As a result, in his opinion, farms with hired workers will arise, who will compete with serfdom and induce landowners to agree to the emancipation of the peasants. In 1801 this project became law.
In 1803, according to Rumyantsev’s project, a law on “free cultivators” was adopted. The landowners were allowed to set the peasants free with a plot of land for a fee. The peasants, without registering in another state, became “free cultivators.” To conclude a deal, it was therefore necessary to have the consent of the landowner and the availability of money from the peasant. On the basis of this decree, 47,153 families were freed during the reign of Alexander I, and 67,149 families during the reign of Nicholas I.
The law on “free cultivators,” as well as the deprivation of the nobility’s monopoly on land ownership, testified to the desire to find a solution to the peasant question and at the same time to the absence of both a plan and the will to implement it. La Harpe, who was considered a Jacobin and a democrat, also did not know what to do. He considered the main need of Russia to be education, without which nothing could be done, but at the same time he recognized that under the conditions of serfdom, education was very difficult to spread. Even the Swiss Republican could not find a way out of the vicious circle.
The members of the Secret Committee completely completed only one task - the transformation of the central government bodies. On September 8, 1802, ministries were established, replacing the previous collegiums: foreign affairs, military and naval, and new ministries - internal affairs, finance, public education, justice and commerce. The new rules of the Senate defined its functions as a body of state supervision over the administration and the highest court.
The activities of the Secret Committee aroused fears, discontent, and resistance. Derzhavin, appointed Minister of Justice, sharply criticized the idea of the ministries, emphasizing that the project was created by “Prince Czartoryski and Kochubey, people who have no thorough knowledge of either the state or civil affairs.” The poet-minister did not like not only his new colleagues (Adam Czartoryski was appointed comrade of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Count Vorontsov, and Viktor Kochubey - the Minister of Internal Affairs), but also the unpreparedness of the law, the uncertainty of the rights and responsibilities of the minister.
What irritated Gavrila Derzhavin most was the “constitutional French and Polish spirit” with which the emperor’s entourage was “stuffed”. The author of the “Notes” names Czartoryski’s name in full, but limits himself to letters when talking about other “Jacobins”: N[ovosiltsev], K[ochubey], S[troganov]. Prince Czartoryski, who under Alexander Vorontsov, who was considered a very old man (he was 61 years old), became practically the head of Russian foreign policy, was especially unpleasant to Derzhavin, as the most influential of the “Poles and Poles surrounding the sovereign.” The hint of “Pole” was obvious to contemporaries, who knew that the emperor’s mistress was Maria Naryshkina, nee Princess Chetvertinskaya, a Pole, therefore, “a beauty and a coquette,” as they said about her.
Gavrila Derzhavin’s opinion about the activities of the Secret Committee and its members was generally accepted in the highest circles of society.
This was not the only thing that hindered the work of the Committee. There was a reason that can be called administrative. Dreaming of a constitution, a rule of law state, the Committee was a powerless body, born of the will of the monarch. “Meanwhile,” wrote Adam Czartoryski, “the real government - the Senate and the ministers - continued to govern and conduct affairs in its own way, because as soon as the emperor left the toilet room in which our meetings took place, he again succumbed to the influence of the old ministers and did not could carry out none of the decisions that we made in the informal committee." Prince Czartoryski, who wrote his memoirs many years after his activities in the Secret Committee, blames the insignificance of the results on the emperor, on his hesitation and concessions to the “old ministers.” A modern historian agrees that Alexander I was not ready to take decisive steps in the field of reforms, that he “only perceived with his feelings the invincibility of the impending changes, but with his mind, as a son of the time and a representative of his environment, he understood that their onset would mean before only a change in his own position as an unlimited monarch."
Alexander Kiesewetter, the author of a psychological portrait of Alexander I, argues with the view of the weakness and indecisiveness of his son Paul. On the contrary, it emphasizes his determination and ability to insist on his point of view. At the same time, the historian admits that among the members of the Secret Committee, “Alexander was the least inclined to take any decisive steps along the path of political innovation.” And he explains this for two reasons. The first is a combination of an enthusiastic attitude towards the wonderful ghost of political freedom and a reluctance to actually realize this ghost. “There was neither insincerity nor weakness of will here; here there was only cold love for an abstract dream, combined with the fear that the dream would disappear when trying to realize it.” In addition to psychological fears, Alexander lived with a completely real fear: his grandfather and his father were killed by his inner circle, dissatisfied with their policies.
Alexander's hesitation, indecision, fears and fears had real grounds. The sober La Harpe, who for some time was a member of the Helvetic Directory, which gave him government experience, returned to Russia at the invitation of the emperor, compiled for his former student an analysis of social forces depending on their attitude to reforms. Almost all of the nobility, bureaucrats, and most of the merchants (they dream of becoming nobles and owning serfs) will be against it, according to Laharpe. Those who are frightened by the “French example: almost all people are of mature age” will be especially opposed to reforms; almost all are foreigners.” La Harpe warns against involving the people in the transformation. Russians “have will, courage, good nature, cheerfulness,” but they were kept in slavery, they are not enlightened. Therefore, although “the people want change... they will not go where they should.” The forces on which the reformer tsar can rely are small: an educated minority of nobles (especially “young officers”), some of the bourgeoisie, a few writers. Therefore, the Swiss republican does not recommend limiting autocracy (the traditional authority of the royal name represents a huge force) and proposes to act as energetically as possible in the field of education.
Historians and conservative contemporaries, primarily Karamzin (who combined both qualities), reproached Alexander I for being too prone to reforms and weak-willedly following unkind advisers. Liberal historians criticized Alexander I for his indecisiveness in carrying out reforms. Karamzin, in a “Note” addressed to the monarch, recalled the “rule of the wise” who knew that “every news in the state order is evil.” Klyuchevsky said about Alexander: “a beautiful flower, but a hothouse one,” “he was convinced that freedom and prosperity would be established immediately, by themselves, without labor or obstacles, somehow magically “suddenly.”
In the second half of the 80s of the 20th century, in the first years of “perestroika”, which sowed many illusions, Soviet historians turned to the past in search of analogies. Nathan Eidelman most clearly outlined the theory of “revolution from above,” the only possible (not bloody) one in Russia. Analyzing the activities of Alexander I, he came to the conclusion that “in Russia, “you know better from above.” The underdevelopment of socio-political life and the centuries-old practice of autocratic rule have led to the fact that “at the very top, among ministers and kings, it is natural for people to appear who know better the interests of their class, estate, and the state as a whole.” Using a chess term, Nathan Eidelman says that those who “know better” can count “two moves ahead,” while serf owners and most bureaucrats can only count “one move ahead.”
The insignificant results of the activities of the Secret Committee, the inability to find an answer to two main questions - political and social: how to limit autocracy without limiting the autocrat and how to free the peasants without offending their owners - did not mean that society remained motionless. And this movement was undoubtedly due to the initiatives and views of Alexander I at this time.
The grandson of Catherine, who inherited an empire, the expansion of which would continue under him, Alexander I very well felt the imperial character of Russia. This was expressed in his interest in the problem of managing a vast territory. In his youth, Alexander showed an interest in federalism, which can easily be explained by the influence of La Harpe. Having ascended the throne, he made attempts to establish a relationship with Thomas Jefferson, elected President of the United States in 1801. A reflection of this interest was the reform of provincial government. The governor reported directly to the sovereign, but the provincial departments were subordinated not to the Senate, as before, but to the ministries. “Some administrative decentralization became possible, leaving more freedom for local initiative and autonomy; this was necessary to lubricate the mechanism and provide greater flexibility to the control.”
The sense of empire was expressed in a sense of difference between its individual parts. Continuing Catherine's policy, Alexander is concerned about the rapid colonization of southern Russia. From 1803 to 1805, more than 5 thousand colonists (Germans, Czechs, South Slavs) settled in Novorossiya. New settlers were provided with significant benefits. Odessa, whose governor at that time was the French emigrant Duke Richelieu (the monument to Duke still adorns the city), received the status of a free port, i.e. the right to duty-free import and export of goods, and became a major trading port. The development of southern fertile lands is proceeding very quickly, and Novorossiya is becoming an important source of grain exports, primarily wheat.
After 1805, the colonization of the southern steppes developed primarily at the expense of Russian peasants: state peasants from relatively densely populated provinces (Tula, Kursk) were transferred to Novorossiya, and the mass export of foreigners ceased. While taking some steps towards decentralization, St. Petersburg did not want to give up control. An additional example of this policy can be the American epic. In the 18th century Russian sailors traded in a relatively limited area of the Pacific Ocean: off the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka, reaching the Aleutian Islands and the North American coast. St. Petersburg did not respond to requests from merchant sailors to provide them with support. Only in 1799, the project of Grigory Shelekhov (1747-1795), the most dynamic of Russian merchant seafarers, was approved by Emperor Paul I 15 years after his death. A state-controlled Russian-American company was created, which received a monopoly right to trade in the Pacific Ocean . The model for the statute of the Russian-American Company was the charters given in the 18th century. Dutch, English and French companies trading with India and other colonies. Alexander I, continuing his father’s work, transferred the board of the Russian-American Company from Irkutsk to St. Petersburg.
The first years of Alexander's reign, a time of dreams and talk about reforms, were a period of religious tolerance, the breadth of which becomes especially obvious when compared with the policies of Nicholas I. Among the reasons was the emperor's indifference to religion, in which he saw one of the forms of enlightening the people, interest in esotericism and mysticism. All members of the Secret Committee were, as contemporaries believed, Freemasons. Prince Alexander Golitsin, whom Alexander appointed chief prosecutor of the Synod that led the Orthodox Church, was suspected of Freemasonry, with serious reasons. In 1803, the young emperor was visited by I.V. Beber, one of the most prominent Masons of his time. “What you tell me about this society,” Alexander allegedly said, convinced by his interlocutor, “forces me not only to provide him with patronage, but even to ask to be accepted as a Freemason.” According to existing contradictory versions, Alexander I was admitted to the Masonic order in 1808 in Erfurt, in 1812 in St. Petersburg, in 1813 in Paris at the same time as the Prussian king Frederick William III.
Prohibitive measures against “schismatics” were stopped by Catherine II in 1783-1785. Under Alexander, although with hesitation, the Old Believers began to receive permission to build churches, chapels, worship services and cemeteries. Historians call Alexander's time the “golden age” of Russian sectarianism. Emerging from the second half of the 17th century. Numerous sects, reflecting the intense nature of the spiritual quest of the Russian people and the intensity of religious sentiments, were persecuted even more actively than the Old Believers. Alexander I, having ascended the throne, immediately stopped persecuting them, all sectarian prisoners were released from prison, and the exiles returned. Sectarians - Khlysty, Skoptsy, Doukhobor, Molokans, etc. - got the opportunity to resettle from the internal provinces, where they were persecuted by local authorities and the hostility of the population, to the outskirts: to the Tauride, Astrakhan, Samara provinces.
The tolerance of the authorities contributed to the awakening of interest in Russian “spiritual Christianity” and sects in the capital’s high society. Particular attention was drawn to the mystical sect of the Khlysty and the eunuchs who stood out from them, who taught that female beauty “devours the whole world and does not allow one to go to God, and since no means are valid against women, it remains to deprive men of the opportunity to sin.” The founder of the scopal sect, Kondraty Selivanov, after returning from exile in Siberia (1775-1796), lived in St. Petersburg (died in 1832), where he enjoyed the constant attention of high society and merchants. In 1805, Alexander I, leaving for the army, paid a visit to the founder of the skopchy. They say that Kondraty Selivanov predicted the emperor's defeat at Austerlitz.
The view of religion as an instrument of enlightenment determined to a large extent the emperor's attitude towards Lutheranism and Catholicism. “That is why,” writes the biographer of Alexander I, “Lutheran pastors and Catholic priests, as secularly educated people, enjoyed greater rights to respect in the eyes of Alexander than our Orthodox clergy. Polish priests and Baltic pastors easily achieved such privileges that Russian priests did not even dare to dream about.”
Plans to convert Russia to Catholicism were revived, seemingly interrupted by the assassination of Paul I. One of the most active propagandists of Catholicism was Joseph de Maistre, who believed that it should begin with the conversion of a dozen aristocrats to Catholicism. Significant successes were achieved in this direction: the spiritual daughters of the Jesuits were M. Naryshkina (Chetvertinskaya), the emperor’s favorite, noble ladies - Buturlina, Golitsina, Tolstaya, Rostopchina, Shuvalova, Gagarina, Kurakina.
The liberal air of the era encouraged dreams. Alexey Yelensky, chamberlain of the last Polish king, having settled in St. Petersburg, became a follower of the Skoptchestvo and in 1804 sent Novosiltsev a project for creating a corps of state prophets. They would attach themselves to all the most important government officials and appease God with their prayers, and also proclaim the will of the Spirit of God. Elensky assigned the place of the main representative of the Holy Spirit to the Emperor to the “God” of the eunuchs, Kondraty Selivanov. The project remained in Novosiltsev’s papers; the author was exiled to a monastery. Alexander visited Selivanov a year later.
The expansion of the empire through the territories that were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was finally liquidated after the third partition, led to the inclusion of a million-strong Jewish population (at the end of the 18th century) in Russia. The Jewish question arose, which will not cease to occupy statesmen and politicians, ideologists and publicists even at the end of the 20th century.
Catherine II, having ascended the throne, was forced, as she says in her Notes, to immediately resolve the issue (it was his turn in the Senate) about a project that would allow Jews to enter Russia. Having found out that Elizabeth rejected such a proposal with the resolution: “I do not want benefits from the enemies of Jesus Christ,” the young empress ordered the matter to be postponed “until another time.” As the imperial territory and Jewish population increased, the question took on a different character. The problem of Jews entering Russia becomes the problem of their life in the empire. In 1791, the Pale of Settlement was introduced - a territory outside of which Jews had no right of residence. The Pale of Settlement included Little Russia, Novorossiya, Crimea and the provinces annexed as a result of the partition of Poland. But even in this territory, Jews had the right to live only in cities, but not in rural areas. In 1794, Catherine imposed double taxes on Jews compared to Christians.
In 1798, Senator Gavrila Derzhavin was sent to Belarus to “investigate the behavior of the Jews, whether they are exhausting the villagers in feeding them with deceptions, and to look for means so that they, without burdening the latter, can feed themselves with their labor.” Derzhavin, as he says in his memoirs, collected information “from the most prudent inhabitants, from the Jesuit Academy in Plock, all public places, the nobility and merchants and the Cossacks themselves, regarding the way of life of the Jews...”
Senator Derzhavin presented his “opinion about the Jews” to Paul I, but the emperor ignored him. Derzhavin’s note “set into motion” under Alexander I. A committee was created. Its composition testified to the importance attached to the issue. Members of the committee were Count Czartoryzhski, Count Potocki, Count Valerian Zubov and Gavrila Derzhavin. The committee's first decision was to invite representatives of the Jewish population to listen to their opinions on the conclusions made by Derzhavin. In 1804, the “Regulation on Jews” was developed. The Pale of Settlement was preserved, but its territory was expanded to include the Astrakhan and Caucasus provinces. Within the Pale of Settlement, Jews were to enjoy “the protection of the laws on an equal basis with all other Russian subjects.” There was a ban on living in rural areas and it was strictly forbidden to sell wine. In the first place in the regulations of 1804 are articles encouraging education. Jewish children were given the right to study in all Russian public schools, gymnasiums and universities. At the same time, the creation of Jewish “special schools” was allowed for those who wished to do so.
The Regulations of 1804 were the first act regulating the position of the Jews of the Russian Empire. Its liberality and tolerance - a sign of the times - become obvious when compared with subsequent legislation, which was continuously tightened.