GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES 233estates and left their district as rarely as possible. If forced to take up
service, they usually went into the army, and, retiring at the first
opportunity, they returned to their estates. European education and
enlightenment had not penetrated very far into their midst, and at
times had by-passed them almost completely. Whatever education or
knowledge they possessed, they had learned from the local priest or
some poor devil of a private tutor - the latter more often than not a
lowly uneducated foreigner whom fate had thrown into Russia and
who took to tutoring for want of a better profession. Interest in
education, wherever it existed, was very limited and entirely pragmatic.
Noblemen only cared to know the minimum required for a commission
in the army. They whiled away the long winter evenings by reading
the Almanach and cheap sentimental novels. In many houses, the
reading matter consisted only of a. few old religious books and chance
copies of journals several decades old. Although the nobles' social
and economic security depended on agriculture, they made little
effort to apply themselves towards an improvement of their economic
knowledge or managerial skills. They rarely put to use the new
developments in agriculture which were reported in the serious journals
and -books of the period (and which men like A. Samborskii had
popularized among the nobility of the capital). They were not
particularly interested in political events, quite satisfied when they
knew the names of the ruling emperor and present governor. Of course,
Napoleon's invasion of Russia had shaken them from their lethargy for
a while; but no so~mer had Napoleon been expelled from Mother
Russia, than they fell back info their apathetic half-slumber, to the
great disgust and indignation of the young officers who had partic-
ipated in the campaigns of Germany and France. Returning to live on
their family estates, these young officers - some of whom later joined
various secret societies - tried to shake their neighbors from their
lethargy, but with little success.
The limited education and simple psychology of the average nobleman
in remote provinces like Penza rarely put complicated schemes or
complex ideas into his head. He did not try to overcome his own
indolence or his peasant's passive resistance to any change. As a result,
his interests and activities centered almost entirely on comfortable
(though by no means very luxurious) living, as defined in terms of
gargantuan meals, long naps, hunting, visiting, and entertaining. Of
course some "squires" had to participate in local affairs, in the assem-
blies of the nobility, at the elections of the marshals and Land Captains
(ispravnik). One might have expected that in the exercise of these