240 GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCESensuite et graduellement vous viendrez a la question de la liberte
civile, c'est a dire la liberte des paysans. Voila Ie veritable ordre des
choses." Such a program would take at least 10 to 20 years.^1
In the meantime, in the absence of a responsible public opinion,
the best course was to recruit as many honest and competent officials as
possible. But where and how? The best men from among the nobility
did not stay in the provinces but went to the capitals where their chan-
ces for promotion and success were so much better. Only the misfits,
or the incompetent, condemned to remain minor clerks for all their life,
stayed in the provinces. A partial solution might be to bring into the
administration members of other classes. The so-called middle class, the
merchants, was too small and its members were extremely reluctant to
enter government service. Many merchants, especially among local tra-
ders, were Old Believers and therefore labored under some legallimita-
tions. The prosperous merchant was the most conservative individual
in Russia at the time and felt (as had his forebears in Muscovy) that it
was not his God-ordained function to participate in the governing of
men. As for the small merchant or craftsman, his status was almost that
of the peasant; he could not afford to give his children an adequate
education, so that they could never expect to rise very high in the
bureaucratic hierarchy.
Speransky therefore cast his eyes in another direction, to the class
from which he himself had come, the sons of the clergy. As governor, he
took a lively interest in the theological seminary of Penza and support-
ed the most promising students in whatever way he could. The follow-
ing episode reported by one of the students at the Penza seminary,
illustrates Speransky's concern. Along with a few other youngsters, the
narrator was sent to Penza to finish his training at the local seminary.
They arrived at the provincial capital (from their home villages) rather
late in the evening. After registering with the local police, they decided
to stay overnight at an inn, for they did not want to rouse the seminary
authorities so late. The next morning, upon waking, they were told
that a constable was waiting to take them to the Governor's residence.
The young lads were quite frightened, but had no other choice
than to obey the summons. The constable could not tell why they were
being summoned to the Governor and treated them - out of habit -
like individuals suspected of a crime. Trembling with fear and full of
apprehension, they reached the Governor's office. They were greatly
surprised, indeed, when the Governor received them most cordially,
1 Letter to Stolypin. 2 May 1818. Russkii Arkhiv, (1869). pp. 1697-1703 (French
sentences in the original).