232 GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES
At the beginning of the 19th century, therefore, provincial life was
culturally drab, socially backward, and politically passive, quite at the
mercy of the misrule and despotism of the local bureaucracy. We
have no evidence pertaining directly to the province of Penza which
Speransky was called to administer for almost two years. But the pic-
ture there was undoubtedly not essentially different from that in any
other province of the European part of the Empire. 1.
The nobility of the central provinces of Russia was composed of two
groups. First there were the very wealthy estate owners, usually former
high court dignitaries, retired government officials, or military com-
manders who spent their last years in the country on their estates.
Some of these "magnates" lived in truly regal manner: their mansions
were small palaces, servants, and hangers-on numbered into the
hundreds; frequently they had a private theater or opera company
(staffed by serfs and directed by a foreigner); numerous visitors came
and went throughout the year, some of the guests staying for weeks,
months, or even years; lavish receptions, balls, hunting parties attracted
the nobility from the entire district or province. Even though in most
cases these magnates neglected to participate in local affairs, they
wielded a great deal of influence in the provincial assembly of the
nobility. Elected marshal of the nobility, such a magnate could at
times even challenge the local governor, mainly on the strength of
his former connections at court. Such an instance was, therefore, rather
a conflict between court parties than a struggle between the forces of
local self-government and the central authorities. In the remote
province of Penza, however, there were no magnates, as they preferred
to live near Moscow where they could spend the winter months.
The ~econd group, on the other hand, was well represented in
Penza. It consisted of the descendants of the old rank and file service
nobility, the local "squires" who had reluctantly accepted the reforms
of Peter the Great, but then had striven for their "freedom." Their
political and social outlook was limited to the maintenance of their
unchallenged mastery over the serfs. Their wealth was relatively modest,
all of it in land, of course; and their prosperity and comfort depended
entirely on the yields of serf labor. 2 These nobles lived on their
- For a good picture of Russian provincial life at the beginning of the 19th
century see N. F. Dubrovin, "Russkaia zhizn' v nachale XIX v.," Russkaia Starina,
vols. 96-99, (Dec. 1898-Aug. 1899) passim.
II Although Penza bordered on the Urals, the local nobility did not engage or
participate in state-sponsored industrial and commercial enterprises like the Demidovs
and Stroganovs farther East. Nor were there any owners of large estates, run along
capitalist lines, with their own factories, such as were beginning to appear in the
Ukraine.
