Speránski

Aliases

Michael Mikháylovich Speránski

Titles

Secretary of State

Appearances

• First: Book SIX · Chapter IV · ¶ 1
• Latest: Book SIX · Chapter XVIII · ¶ 18

Relationships

• Friendship · Prince Andrew Bolkónski

  “This first long conversation with Speránski only strengthened in Prince Andrew the feeling he had experienced toward him at their first meeting.”

• Mentor · Prince Andrew Bolkónski

  “It was clear that he thought it necessary to interest himself in Bolkónski.”

  “Bolkónski would soon have discovered his weak, human, unheroic sides; but as it was, Speránski’s strange and logical turn of mind inspired him with respect all the more because he did not quite understand him.”

Quotations

• “the youthful Speránski was at the zenith of his fame and his reforms were being pushed forward with the greatest energy.”

• “Speránski its chief promoter”

• “It was Speránski”

• “The chairman of the Committee on Army Regulations is my good friend Monsieur Magnítski”

• “The smile vanished from Speránski’s white face”

• “If you will do me the honor of calling on me on Wednesday”

• “Speránski produced a strong impression on Prince Andrew”

• “he readily believed that in Speránski he had found this ideal of a perfectly rational and virtuous man.”

• “Speránski more than once remarked: 'We regard everything that is above the common level of rooted custom...'”

• “Speránski’s cold, mirrorlike look, which did not allow one to penetrate to his soul,”

• “Speránski told him sarcastically that the Commission had existed for a hundred and fifty years,”

• “he had not yet seen Speránski in his domestic surroundings.”

• “Speránski, wearing a gray swallow-tail coat with a star on the breast.”

• “this was not Speránski but someone else.”

• “Speránski corked a bottle of wine.”