Government reform of Alexander I

The early Russian system of government instituted by Peter the Great, which consisted of various state committees, each named Collegium,[1] was largely outdated by the 19th century.

Soon after Alexander I inherited the throne in 1801, he formed a Privy Committee (Негласный комитет) which consisted of Viktor Kochubey, Nikolay Novosiltsev, Pavel Stroganov and Adam Jerzy Czartoryski.

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.

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

[2] On September 8, 1802 Alexander issued the Manifesto according to which following ministries had been founded on the basis of the Administration of State Affairs: The Manifesto facilitated the formation of the Russian state and unified the system of the executive power bodies.