DISGRACE AND EXILE 171Alexander's reign was, perhaps, much simpler than most contemporaries
and subsequent historians have thought.
Ever since the time Peter the Great had moved the capital of the
Empire to the shores of the Gulf of Finland, social and political rivalry
had opposed the nobility living in Moscow to the court and bureau-
cracy at St. Petersburg. This rivalry developed into a most important
aspect of the intellectual and social climate surrounding the Russian
nobility. Moscow resented its new subaltern political role and defiantly
stressed its historic and religious significance, emphasized its attachment
to traditions and the "good old days." For this reason dignitaries and
courtiers settled in Moscow to spend their voluntary or forced retire-
ment in an atmosphere of reminiscence; and in turn their great number
contributed to the preservation of this conservative aspect of Muscovite
life. Away from the hustle and bustle of the Court, and yet not com-
pletely lost in the countryside, Moscow provided the ideal residence
for the upper nobility which, at various moments in the course of the
18th century, had attempted to wrest political and social power from
the weak hands of the successors of Peter the Great. The aristocracy had
failed in its efforts at a political comeback, but the proceeds of past
imperial favors enabled members of the high nobility to live in luxury
in Moscow during the winter and on their estates in the summer.
Dispossessed of their political role, but not of their wealth, the older
representatives of the upper nobility in Moscow acted like potential
members of a Fronde. No wonder that the Emperor viewed them with
unallayed suspicion. The changes in government personnel and policy
brought about by the accession of Alexander I had swollen the ranks
of Moscow's sulking, retired dignitaries, while at the same time
providing them with something of an active political leadership.
After War and Peace it would be profanation to try to describe
Moscow's "society" and recreate the atmosphere of its aristocratic
homes, salons, splendid soirees, and balls. What scholar dare pretend
he can paint a more lively and psychologically truer tableau than
Tolstoi? Nor is there any need to elaborate on Gershenzon's fine sketch
of the personal joys and sorrows in the life of a prominent Muscovite
family.^1 However, neither Tolstoi nor Gershenzon have described
the political moods of the Old Capital. Moscow's political sentiments,
though, turned out to be important in shaping Speransky's fate.
1 M. Gershenzon, Griboedovskaia Moskva, 2d. ed., Moscow-Berlin 1922. My
description of the state of Russian public opinion is based on the memoirs and
correspondence cited in the bibliography to the chapter.