Speransky

Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (Russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Спера́нский; 12 January 1772 – 23 February 1839) was a Russian reformist during the reign of Alexander I of Russia, to whom he was a close advisor. He later served under Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Speransky is referred to as the father of Russian liberalism.

Speransky was born on 12 January 1772 in Cherkutino, Vladimir Oblast, Russia.

Speransky was the son of Mikhail Tretyakov, a village priest. He studied at the religious seminaries in Vladimir and St Petersburg, where he acquired the surname of Speransky, from the Latin verb “to hope” (sperare). Later, in the ecclesiastical seminary in St. Petersburg, he became a professor of mathematics and physics. His skills led him to become the secretary to Prince Kurakin and a competent imperial official.

Details of his marriage are sketchy, but he is believed to have married Elizabeth Jane Stephens, an Englishwoman, in 1798; she died the following year of tuberculosis after giving birth to a daughter. This daughter, Elizaveta Mikhailovna Speranskaya, was married to Alexander Frolov-Bagreyev, one of the first governors of the Chernigov Governorate of Ukraine in Chernihiv Both father and daughter were named as minor characters in Tolstoy's novel, War & Peace.

In January 1839, he was awarded the title of Count. His granddaughter, Mariya, was permitted by special Imperial decree to carry the title into her marriage in the princely Cantacuzène family; the title was combined with that of the Cantacuzène. Mariya was, in turn, the grandmother of famed Russian general Prince Mikhail Cantacuzène.

Speransky died in St. Petersburg on 23 February 1839. He is buried at the Tikhvinskoe (Tikhvin) Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery; his tombstone was designed by Alexander Brullov.

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