PLANS OF REFORM 145first class of the realm. Like all other citizens, the nobleman has all
civil rights, but is exempt from personal service, though he owes at
least ten years of service to the state. 1 He has the right to acquire
settled lands - i.e., estates with serfs - and to govern the villages they
contain according to existing legislation. The owners of such property
may elect and be elected to some of the new administrative and political
institutions which will be established under the Plan. The nobility
itself is subdivided into two categories, hereditary and personal. The
hereditary nobleman obtains his status by birthright and through
service. In other words, the son of an hereditary nobleman until his
majority is only "personally noble" (like the English lords of courtesy),
then by serving the state he can earn the full status of an hereditary
noble. Personal nobility is acquired by individuals as reward for
meritorious service to the state. The children of personal nobles, how-
ever, belong to the middle estate. Speransky, as we see, carefully preserved
the distinction between the privileged position of the old noble families
and newcomers from the bureaucracy and middle estate. At the discre-
tion of the Emperor, but for very exceptional services only, a personal
nobleman can be promoted to membership in the hereditary nobility
of the realm. In any case, titles can be kept by their lawful claimants
only upon condition of their continuing to serve the state. Although a
nobleman does not derogate by engaging in various economic activities,
such as trade or industry, he does lose his status by becoming a
craftsman or worker. 2
As to the "middle estate," it is to be composed of merchants, towns-
people, odnodvortsy, 3 and free peasants owning a specified minimum
quantity of land. The members of this class have the basic civil rights,
but not the special ones, such as possession of settled estates, which
are reserved to the nobility. Unlike the nobleman, members of the
middle estate owe personal services, to be determined by special
legislation, according to profession. All economic activities are open
to them, and to the extent that they possess real estate, they participate
in some political rights. But Speransky does not go into detail on this,
for the middle estate is to be in reality what its name implies, an in-
1 Speransky suggests reversion to early 18th century practice, qualified compulsory
government service from which the nobility had succeeded in freeing itself under
Peter III.
2 Plan 1809, pp. 63-64. This was an innovation compared to 18th century practice,
though to some extent, it was a reversion to Muscovite traditions.
3 A category - not very numerous - of peasants originally of non-Russian ethnic
origin who were free and owned their homesteads; it was found primarily among
Cossacks in the South Eastern part of European Russia.