SPERANSKY, MIKHAIL MIKHAYLOVICH, GRAF

(Count) born Jan. 12 [Jan. 1, old style], 1772, Cherkutino, Russia died Feb. 23 [Feb. 11, O.S.], 1839, St. Petersburg Russian statesman prominent during the Napoleonic period, administrative secretary and assistant to Emperor Alexander I. He later compiled the first complete collection of Russian law, Complete Collection of the Laws of the Russian Empire, 45 vol. (1830), leading to his supervision of the Digest of the Laws, 15 vol. (183239). Additional reading Marc Raeff, Michael Speransky: Statesman of Imperial Russia, 17721839, 2nd rev. ed. (1969, reprinted 1981), is an excellent biography. See also his Siberia and the Reforms of 1822 (1956). For Speransky's own early writings (to 1809), see M.M. Speranskii: Proiekty i zapiski, ed. by S.N. Valka (1961).