GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES 255small and even less influential than in Europe. There remained
the merchant class, the so-called middle class. But Speransky, as most
observ~rs of his time, was unfavorably impressed by the Siberian mer·
chant group (with some individual exceptions, of course). Their back·
ward economic and social attitudes and the unsavory character of their
business practices had not - for the time being at least, Speransky
thought - qualified them for leadership or even membership among the
spiritual elite of the population.
The second problem was the need for more education and enlighten.
ment in Siberia; it was an absolutely essential prerequisite for building
up local leadership. Speransky turned his attention to the intellectual
and spiritual needs of the province. As in Penza, he established branches
of the Bible Society to which he invited representatives of other local
religions, in particular the Buddhist lamas. He seems to have had hopes
of bringing all the creeds together and of making them play an active
part in the moral and spiritual education of the people. He therefore
viewed favorably the selfless efforts of the English missionaries who
had settled among the Mongols beyond Lake Baikal. 1 Speransky also
devoted much time and thought to the education of the Russian set·
tlers. As the need for schools was extremely great and the facilities quite
limited, he established many Lancaster schools of mutual instruction
right away without waiting for the full development of a regular school
system .. In this domain he had the devoted assistance of P. Slovtsov, a
former classmate of his at Aleksandro-Nevskii seminary, and now inspec-
tor of schools at Irkutsk. Slovtsov, one of the early Siberian regionalists
(oblastnik), helped Speransky to put Siberia's education on a firm basis.
Speransky was one of the first governors of Siberia to take an active
interest in furthering the scientific knowledge of the region. He serious-
ly endeavored to obtain correct statistical data on which to base his
administrative regulations and fiscal policy. The diary he kept during
his journeys through Siberia reflects his personal interests in this respect.
It is curiously barren of all political matters, but there are daily entries
on the climate, atmospheric pressure and vegetation. He was the first
governor who went to Nerchinsk and inspected the local mines (noting
the appalling conditions which prevailed there, he recommended that
the mines be transferred to the jurisdiction of the civilian authorities).1 On the activities of the English missionaries see in particular Vagin, lstoricheskie
svedeniia 0 deiatel'nosti grata M. M. Speranskogo v Sibiri s 1819 po 1822. g. (St.
Pbg. 1872) I, pp. 280-284, 721-726; Bogdanov, Ocherk istorii buriat·mongol'skogo
naroda (Verkhneudinsk 1926), pp. 162 ff; B. Laufer, Ocherk mongol'skoi literatury
(Leningrad 1927), pp. 78, 90-91; for a contemporary description and appreciation
see A. Martos, Pis'mo 0 Vostoel/noi Sibiri 1823-1824 (Moscow 1827), pp. 67-71.