The Russian statesman and reformer Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speranski (1772-1839) is known for his governmental reforms, based on the doctrine of separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers.

Mikhail Speranski was born on Jan. 12, 1772, to a village priest and received his education in a theological seminary. He taught in an ecclesiastical institution but soon transferred to the civil service. Because of his personality, intelligence, and capacity for work, as well as the patronage of the princes Alexander and Alexis Kurakin and Count Victor Kochubey, Speranski had a rapid rise and a brilliant career. At the request of the minister of interior, Kochubey, in 1803 Speranski prepared one of his first drafts of constitutional reforms. In 1808 Czar Alexander I appointed him assistant minister of justice and in 1810 secretary of state. Speranski's influence with Alexander was very great from 1809 to the beginning of 1812. A contemporary wrote: "M. Speranski is the emperor's...