Government reform of Alexander I

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Portraits of first ministers of Imperial Russia in the Neva magazine

The early Russian system of government instated by Peter the Great, which consisted of various state committees, each named Collegium with subordinate departments named Prikaz, was largely outdated by 1800s. The responsibilites of the Collegiums were chosen very randomly and often overlapped.

Soon after Alexander I inherited the throne, he formed a Privy Committee (Негласный комитет) which consisted of Viktor Kochubey, Nikolay Novosiltsev, Pavel Stroganov and Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. Mikhail Speransky took an active part in the Committee, although he wasn't a formal member.

The reforms proposed by Speransky were to introduce a parliament and a State Council as legislative and executive bodies of the Tsar and to relieve the Governing Senate of these functions, transforming it to a kind of Supreme Court. Speransky even prepared the Constitution project.

The reform was stopped by 1810 because of the Napoleonic wars and growing resistance from conservative nobility, as voiced by Nikolai Karamzin.

See also

• Government reform of Peter I

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