about "narrow interests", as some Soviet researchers are inclined to think. In regard to attached serfs who belonged to merchants and worked in their factories, Shcherbatov considered it necessary to have them registered in their places but not allowing any more to be bought. As far as those serfs who were registered at the factories, he proposed to free them little by little, giving them freedom as a reward for good character and excellent knowledge of arts. Shcherbatov stood for the preservation of serfdom, arguing that the peasants, being uneducated, would not be able to properly use their freedom. He also believed that the problems of serfdom could be solved, not by destroying it, but gradually as a result of changes in attitude and treatment of farmers by landlords. Shortly before his death, Shcherbatov created two works, which reflected his views on politics: "Various Opinions about Government" and "General Thoughts about Legislation". In those works, he distinguished four forms of government: monarchy, despotism (or autocracy), aristocracy and democracy and considered the monarchic government the most comprehensible. Shcherbatov saw the ideal monarch as the one who esteems himself father of the people, who does not reject legislation to establish autocracy, who does not divide his interests with the interests of the State and who is adept at choosing councillors among people, combining diligence to their sovereign with love for motherland and laws". However, the majority of the governors, being subject to various "passions", could not meet the given characteristics. The aristocratic board was not comprehensible to Russia yet. Failure or unwillingness of people to suppress their excessive ambition, selfishness and lust for power "generates divisions, parties, hatred and evil, which in essence were a result of those destructive passions". The democratic governments "gnaws at its own entrails dividing into various parties, which in various troubled times are tossed like a ship on a stormy sea, often escaping being sunk by the skill of the pilot, but even more often perishing, sometimes even right at the dock". Rejecting autocracy as a form of government, Scherbatov wrote "yet there is torture, in which there are no other laws and regulations except for the insane self-will of the despot". The Russian views on legislation were a result of the practical work of Shcherbatov in various public institutions. Since the establishment of the new laws required a thorough examination of the subject, Shcherbatov believed that