Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Katya is really great. Solovyov feels that if he doesn't find something else to do, he will be sent to see his mother by this girl.

She wanted to have another child as planned, a half-grown girl who had not yet grown up and would have just reached the legal marriage age for the nobility when she got married. I had no idea what she was thinking.

However, this job opportunity still came, because a carriage stopped at the gate of his manor. It might not be noticeable looking at the noble emblem, but looking at the nameplate with the position label next to it, it was quite eye-catching.

Speransky had been working on a reform plan recently, and it was a relatively comprehensive plan, so he was willing to find members of the secret committee and people who were qualified to attend the meeting to discuss it.

Now he came to Solovyov's house, also waiting for notification.

Solovyov is indeed very happy with Katya, but we have to consider that he still has things to do.

"Sir, a man has arrived from Petersburg. He must be a great man you know. He calls himself Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky."

The current steward of the manor is from Katya's family. He may be more familiar with things in Moscow, but he doesn't have enough knowledge about big figures like Speransky.

There was no way, the servants in each family were different. Before Adela was adopted by her father, Solovyov turned her into a mobile living dictionary of St. Petersburg, and she was very familiar with each family.

Now, I miss her a little, the lovely flower girl, who is also my lovely sister. She does things very efficiently.

For Solovyov, perhaps the biggest trouble is that he is with Katya, and he is somewhat nostalgic for the gentleness of life, and even his sensitivity to many things has decreased.

It's no wonder. Although his estate is not far from St. Petersburg, it is a piece of land granted by the emperor and is surrounded by woods. It always looks deserted, except for some royal family members who come here regularly for tutoring. It's summer vacation now, and Nicholas has asked Charlotte to visit the villa of the Royal Aquarium, so no one will come.

He himself was a little lax, so he had to let Speransky have a cup of coffee and enjoy some dessert in the reception room while he changed his clothes before coming out.

Since his wife's early death, Speransky has been a widower, living with his only daughter, Elizabeth, and has no plans to remarry.

He had only marveled at the beauty of Solovyov's stepsister Adela, but he was not attracted to her. The girl was very young, and Solovyov had always been very caring towards his sisters and would definitely find a good husband for her.

In addition to his daily state affairs, as the Tsar's personal secretary and actual state secretary, his greatest pleasure was probably teaching his daughter's studies, and his daily time - like the old duke, was unshakable.

Recently he sent his daughter to Novgorod. The child was not in good health and always needed nursing. Besides, the circle there was better than that in St. Petersburg.

In this situation where he sent his daughter away, his pleasure was probably to work and complete the Tsar's great cause.

Solovyov also admired his wisdom. He just liked to carry out technological innovation along the technology tree. In terms of reforming politics and the national system, he just liked to say a few nice words, as his teacher Suvorov said, but he was not involved in the implementation of specific content and the formulation of the program.

This part is far from enough.

This is what Speransky was good at. After meeting him in Erfurt, Napoleon praised him as "the smartest man in Russia" and said to Alexander in a serious tone: "I am willing to exchange a kingdom under my rule for Speransky!"

Although his political enemy Arakcheev was an antagonist, he also said: "If I had one-third of Speransky's wisdom and ideas, I would become a great man."

However, his measures, although more popular among Europeans, encountered severe resistance in Russia.

In comparison, Arakcheev and he could be considered both enemies and friends. After all, they were both important ministers serving the emperor. However, when it came to communication between thinkers, it could only be said that colleagues were enemies.

He was drinking coffee here and was very patient because he knew Solovyov too well.

Since I'm at home and semi-unemployed recently, I must be more relaxed, as relaxed as a Frenchman.

In terms of work performance, although his performance is a little worse than mine, he is still very efficient because he is a soldier.

He also thought that if he were like him, marching dozens of miles every day during the war, it would be unlikely that he would still be alive and well when he arrived at the next stop.

Even among the civil servants, I am considered to be in good health.

"Mikhail Mikhailovich, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for too long. How about my coffee and dessert?"

"It's said that you are the one who pays the most attention to life at home. This coffee is really good, but this cookie..."

"It's not good to consume too much sugar. The desserts in St. Petersburg are okay, but if it's the Turkish ones, I'm afraid they'll make you choke to death."

"Yes. But it's good now. I thought about it for a while and thought about what to do. Some of the content of the reform plan that the emperor asked me to draft still needs to be adjusted."

"I'm afraid some people will object to your 'liberal' proposals and the 'dangerous revolutionary ideas' that are always in your bills."

"You are right, that is why I came to you and asked you to look at the recent separation of powers bill."

Did Solovyov know the task that Alexander had given to Speransky and the final outcome of this decree? With Alexander's temperament, he would not be able to complete this reform.

If the paranoid Emperor Paul, or the resolute Constantine, or Nicholas who was not frightened by the Decembrists and wanted to maintain a neutral attitude between the liberals and conservatives, they might have done a good job.

Alexander was the only one who wanted to propose reforms. Because he always wanted to be a "messiah" and did not want to get his hands stained with blood, his reforms were slow to progress and he always wavered from side to side.

The plan that Speransky has put forward now is quite clear.

"Introduction to the National Code?"

"Take a look at the content, Misha. I know you are smart, quick-witted, and able to understand the content. In one meeting, I remember you criticized the American system, saying that if the conflict between parties is serious, it will tear the country apart. Therefore, I also made some adjustments."

Solovyov looked at what Speransky wrote. He didn't speak a word of Russian. He used French when writing the introduction to the code. After all, there were too many people in the court who couldn't master Russian. "If you wrote it in Russian, I think Karamzin would object. He would say that it violated the long-standing Russian tradition, but this tradition was destroyed during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, and was further destroyed by Boris Godunov. If you need a debate partner, I can challenge this gentleman."

After listening to Solovyov's words, Speransky couldn't help laughing. He also made a more serious joke: "If it's a duel, a hundred Karamzins are not enough for you to fight, but what we have to do is to solve this problem ideologically."

Speransky's reform plan also implemented the rule of law in Russia and the separation of powers on the basis of legislation, administration and justice, but all this was carried out under the absolute monarchy of the Tsar, who was still able to guarantee absolute power.

There is no way. If it were in another country, perhaps Speransky would change to a constitutional monarchy.

In Solovyov's opinion, Karamzin would still oppose it. Although this design would decentralize power, it would not affect the Tsar's ruling power.

The Tsar himself has the right to appoint the Grand Justice, or even dismiss him directly; the Tsar himself also has the right to convene or dissolve parliament; as for executive power, the civil servants headed by the Imperial Chancellor are also under the Tsar.

Although it seems that the president has been replaced by a hereditary czar, his power as a ruler is still high (see Trump), and it is still a form of big government, but conservatives are afraid that they will not buy it.

Moreover, the Dumas at all levels set up by Speransky, from the District Duma to the State Duma, had their speakers appointed by the Tsar himself, and important members of the Duma also needed the Tsar's personal approval.

No matter how you look at it, it is centralized. As for the administrative organs headed by the Imperial Chancellor, they must indeed be approved by the Tsar himself.

The bill could not take effect without being reviewed and discussed by the executive branch and without the final approval of the Tsar.

No matter how you look at it, it's not the French way.

Karamzin’s previous rumors were difficult to understand. Speransky had already made adjustments on the power basis on the Russian side to ensure the stable operation of the four-level structure of local-regional-provincial-national.

From a design perspective, it's pretty clever.

As for the class issues involved, according to Russian tradition, serfdom had not yet been abolished at this time.

Therefore, there were three main classes, with the registered nobility at the top naturally and the commoners two levels below.

The second class is the "middle class", which includes free self-employed farmers, merchants and the petty bourgeoisie, who have certain property.

The third estate is the "working people", including serfs, craftsmen and servants. After their property level reaches a certain level, serfs and servants can gain freedom, and craftsmen can be promoted to a higher class.

Although the noble class is more difficult to enter, the standard for promotion from the third class to the second class in the two classes of the common people is not that high.

Speransky probably played a trick here, hoping to solve Russia's serf problem bit by bit through the salami-slicing tactic.

Judging from the reaction of Russian conservatives, it is indeed an idea to gradually adjust and lower their threshold over a period of ten to twenty years.

"That's great, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Your plan is very clever, but there is a problem. If someone like Karamzin directly expresses opposition, it will be like turning the table over. He doesn't want to proceed step by step according to the plan you designed for the emperor. He simply doesn't want to play cards on the table. What will you do then?"

"You really are familiar with these people. It seems that your work as an aide-de-camp for these years has not been in vain."

Speransky also knew the problem, but he was a truly humble public servant. Apart from his daughter's happiness after she grew up, he had no personal wishes at the moment. He still wanted to complete the reform in Russia, which was a truly great cause.

To be honest, Count Stroganov was the one who supported him the most. After all, he was a member of the Jacobin Club in Paris. However, he also believed that the current situation in Russia was not suitable for revolution, so naturally he also took the path of reform.

Solovyov was present at the closed-door consultations of the secret committee in the first few years, and he heard some of them. However, because he later went to Paris to serve as a military attaché and had many overseas missions, he did not participate too deeply in the committee.

After all, he and Peter Volkonsky looked like they were the doormen for the committee.

There is actually a lot of content in this, which is entirely Alexander's own idea.

In a place like Russia where the power of the great nobles is relatively strong, the only way to make them obediently follow the will of the monarch is to destroy a few opposition groups or confiscate their property and exile them to Siberia.

However, in the murder case against Paul, only the main culprit, Palen, was hanged in the square.

There is no way around it. The Russian Tsar's personality, although he can be ruthless when expanding territory, also has to act tough internally and sometimes has to play the role of "Little Tsar Dad" and compromise with the nobles.

Paul was just too stubborn. Although he had almost dealt with the people below in one breath, he was caught off guard by his own confidants.

Alexander naturally had to learn from this lesson, and since he had always been an actor, that was the case.

Although what Speransky wrote were more or less the Tsar's own ideas, when there were opposing voices outside, Alexander might not necessarily agree with this series of actions.

If he didn't attach great importance to close ministers like Speransky, he would probably use him as the first step to shift the blame.

Solovyov didn't know this. After all his previous efforts, he had actually cleared out a lot of conservatives who might appear around Alexander.

For example, Amfeldt, whose skull was taken back by the Kalmyks and given to the lamas as a ritual tool, gained Alexander's trust after running over from Sweden. He then began to target Speransky and attack his reforms.

Catherine was forced to marry in France, and Solovyov had to go to escort her to the wedding, which prevented the emergence of an anti-liberal circle around this girl. Although Karamzin had been introduced to Alexander, his influence was not that great.

After all, the princess's sister was going to Paris, so he could just present his own work and then sing a different tune.

The remaining troubles are probably the great nobles and the Minister of Police, Balashov. (End of this chapter)