On September 22–23, 2022, St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the International Scientific Conference “The Great Reformer of Russia: On the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky”. 72 researchers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, North-Western, Central and Southern Russia, the Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia, as well as near (Belarus) and far abroad (USA, Japan, Germany, Finland). The scientific forum was interdisciplinary in nature, leading experts in the history of the Russian state and society took part in its work: historians, archivists, lawyers, researchers in the field of economic history and the history of finance, philosophers, social scientists, cultural scientists.
In their speeches, the conference participants emphasized the need and relevance of addressing the creative heritage of M.M. Speransky, a reformer and administrator, noted the importance and significance of the scientific publication of his unpublished works and further study of documents covering the biography and various activities of a major statesman and thinker.
An exhibition of documents “M. M. Speransky and his era in the collections of the Archive of SPbIH RAS”, which featured several handwritten letters from M. M. Speransky to A. D. Balashov; as well as documents with his autographed signature from the collection of N.P. Likhachev (a letter to M.M. Filosofov, a report on receiving a decree from the Senate, a power of attorney for K.G. Repinsky to receive a salary, etc.). The exposition included: a draft note on the Senate, preserved in the Vorontsov family archive, edited by M. M. Speransky; related to his codification activities, a clerical copy of the “Case of Law Students Candidates” and a printed copy of the imp. Nicholas I on the enactment of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire; as well as materials exposing M. M. Speransky and describing the circumstances and events that led to his resignation (a copy of F. V. Rostopchin’s note to Emperor Alexander I and A. I. Kovalkov’s handwritten note written for M. A. Korf). The exhibition featured rescripts of Alexander I and Nicholas I, autographs led. book. Ekaterina Pavlovna, A. A. Arakcheeva, A. D. Balashov, V. P. Kochubey, Prince. A. B. Kurakin, N. M. Karamzin, F. V. Rostopchin, M. M. Filosofov and other figures of the era of the first half of the 19th century.
The conference, organized by SPbIH RAS, became the only major scientific forum in Russia held in the year of the 250th anniversary of M.M. Speransky.
