8 THE BEGINNINGSsingled out as an outstanding and one of the most hopeful students.
From the very beginning he eagerly looked forward to the knowledge
he would acquire at school, the advantages this knowledge would give
him in his future life. In the second place, he did not belong to the
most destitute and unhappy among seminarians; on the contrary, he
could consider his material circumstances as most favorable. Indeed,
Speransky's aunt, married to a priest in the city, lived in Vladimir,
and she took care of him as if he were her own son. Unlike most of
his friends, Speransky had a "home" to go to, somebody to look after
his clothes, his health, and other wants. During the first years, this
aunt helped the boy materially and provided a much needed moral
and psychological support for the lonely youngster. Speransky retained
an ever-grateful attachment to his aunt, an attachment even stronger
than that to his own family at Cherkutino. With his physical wants
taken good care of (during his last years at the seminary he actually
lived at his aunt's house), psychologically strengthened by the cheer
and warmth of a friendly family, Speransky easily coped with the
crudity, harshness, and bitter struggle for physical and moral survival
at the seminary. We might add that living in his aunt's house, he was
shielded from the temptations of corrupting influences at school, such
as drinking, gambling, and other vices (he himself confessed that he
had acquired only the rather innocuous habit of snuffing tobacco). He
adjusted himself well to the environment and was not unpopular with
his fellow students. Naturally he was highly esteemed by his teachers
and superiors who considered him the most promising student of the
school. Freed from the worst difficulties and pains of school life,
Speransky devoted all his time and energy to learning, and in this he
succeeded remarkably well. 1
To satisfy the crying need for better trained and educated hierarchs
and priests, the government, in 1788, established, at first on an
experimental basis, a central theological seminary for advanced training
in the capital (on the model of the one at Kiev). Set up at the
Aleksandro-Nevskii Monastery on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, the
seminary (promoted to the rank of a Theological Academy in 1 '197)
was opened in 1790. Enjoying the favor and personal attention of the
Metropolitan of the capital, the seminary's students could expect to
receive desirable appointments and rapid promotion after their
1 Speransky's early interest in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake rather
than for an ecclesiastical career appears clearly from a letter to A. Samborskii,
dated 16 June 1788 from Vladimir, in Russkii Arkhiv, 1871, p. 1944. In the letter
Speransky asks for Samborskii's help to go to the University of Moscow to study
mathematics and French.