GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES 245fully greeted by the Siberian population in the expectation of a better
administration. But it did not take long ere the new governor fol-
lowed in the footsteps of his predecessors. It was the path of least
resistance, and it was advised by the subordinate officials on the spot.
The desire to get rich quickly was an added reason. To secure as good
a treatment as possible and to carry on their own activities undisturbed,
the Russian settlers bribed the newly appointed governor and put him
in a false position from the very start. Not long after his arrival, the
new governor behaved no better than his predecessors, and the Siber-
ians were again wistfully yearning for the next change in administra-
tion. Bribery, corruption, arbitrary rule, and ruthless exploitation of
the people were the endemic traits of all those who held authority in
Siberia.
From time to time, St. Petersburg made half-hearted efforts at im-
proving the situation and at rectifying abuses. But nothing came of it,
for, as Speransky correctly noted, distance and difficult communications
gave the Governor security from direct supervision, control, and imme-
diate prosecution. At the same time, the absence of clearly defined laws,
norms and institutional safeguards, left to his discretion not only a
wide range of concerns but also the manner of implementing the
policy the government or himself had decided upon. Considering Siberia
part and parcel of Russia, Catherine II extended the law of 1775 on
provinces to the subcontinent. The region's conditions and needs were
quite different from those of European Russia, however, and a mechani-
cal application of the statute was not likely to yield good results. The
need for effective supervisory control was not satisfied and no stable
and clear rules of procedure were established. Nor could the local
gentry act as a brake on the Governor, for Siberia had no nobility and
no other social class could take its place readily.
While the character of Siberia's administration remained pretty
constant throughout the entire 18th century, deepening the disorder,
gradual transformations were taking shape in the economic and social
realms. And more important still, both the government and the people
were beginning to see Siberia's role and potentialities in a different
light. It was becoming increasingly evident that Siberia could offer
more than a few valuable pelts, and that it could be more than the
forced residence of criminals or undesirable individuals. 1
The scientific explorations of geographers, ethnographers, and mission-
1 Incidentally, Siberia as tile land of exile dates only from the middle and second
half of the 19th century, But even then the total number of individuals exiled to
Siberia was much smaller by far than the yearly migration - legal or extra legal -
of peasants, artisans, merchants, etc.