196 DISGRACE AND EXILEdriving streams of refugees into the interior, the hatred for everything
that was connected with France spread among the masses of the
population. In the process the former State Secretary also became an
object of the distrust or even hatred of the population at large.
Nizhnii Novgorod was a major destination for the streams of refugees
from the invaded Western provinces. The refugees, among whom
could be counted many prominent noble families from Moscow,
brought to the Volga rumors of Speransky's treasonable role, rumors
which Count Rostopchin had done a great deal to propagate. Spe-
ransky was branded as Russia's evil genius and made the scapegoat of
all the defeats and misfortunes of the country. As the conflict wore on,
as Napoleon's troops progressed further East, the people and the
authorities became increasingly more nervous and panicky. The routine
reports of the police of Nizhnii Novgorod about Speransky's doings
received a most sinister interpretation.
Police agents had observed that the exiled dignitary was often
frequenting low class pubs and taverns, public markets. He seemed
to be eager to strike up conversations with common folk. Accepting the
factual information of these reports as correct, what were Speransky's
motives for such a behavior, which - he must have realized - could
arouse the suspicions of the authorities? There are no personal records
preserved on this period of his life, and we have no way of knowing
his reasons for seeking out the company of the lower classes. Was it
because of his isolation, his bitterness toward the nobility and bureau-
cracy? or was it because in his period of defeat and depression he felt
closer and more at ease with these simple folks who had been the
companions and playmates of his childhood? Perhaps it was from a
desire to take advantage of the unexpected turn of fortune and study
at first hand the people's condition, opinions, beliefs, hopes, desires?
One thing is certain, he had no evil intentions and did not spend his
time in taverns spreading anti-governmental sentiments and pro-French
propaganda, as the authorities seemed to believe. But as the proverb
goes, "fear has big eyes," and in the late summer of 1812 the govern-
ment was terrified at the thought of a peasant rising. The serfowners
and the bureaucracy lived in the constant fear that Napoleon might
issue a proclamation of emancipation (as he was urged to do by some
of his advisers), reviving for Russia the original revolutionary popular
slogan, "guerre aux palais et paix aux chaumieres!" Firmly believing
that while in power the State Secretary had worked for a radical
change, nay a subversion, of Russia's social order, for the destruction
of the nobility and the emancipation of the serfs, the authorities of