THE BEGINNINGS^15was the .tutor of the Prince's children, a German called Brueckner.
Brueckner, a shy and meek but quite learned man, was probably the
first to introduce him to the post-Kantian German idealism, which
was to play an important part in Speransky's intellectual development.
Soon, luck served again the fortunes of the young seminary teacher
and private secretary. Upon the death of Catherine II, not long after
Speransky had entered his service, Prince Kurakin was appointed
Procurator General of the Senate which, in Paul 1's time, was almost
equivalent to being prime minister. Naturally this imperial favor meant
that the duties and functions of the Procurator General's private
secretary, too, would become more numerous and important. Kurakin
offered to obtain the admission of his talented young secretary into
government service, and Speransky eagerly welcomed this opportunity
of following a new career. His powerful employer and protector easily
secured the reluctant consent of the ecclesiastic authorities to
Speransky's release from their jurisdiction. Early in January 1797, the
former seminarian formally entered into the ranks of government
service. A new life was opening to him. The patronage of Prince
Kurakin, as well as his own outstanding talents, contributed to his
rapid rise in the bureaucratic hierarchy. Three months after he had
entered government service, April 1797, he was given the eighth rank
(chin), that of Collegiate Assessor (kollezhskii assessor), equivalent to
a captaincy in the army, and which in those days conferred hereditary
nobility on the bearer and his family. Barely a year later, on January
1, 1798, Speransky was appointed Court Councillor (nadvornyi
sovetnik), and on November 18, 1798, Collegiate Councillor (kollezhskii
sovetnik), the sixth rank of the hierarchy and equivalent to a colonelcy
in the military branch.
At first, Speransky served in the chancery of the Procurator of the
Senate, Prince Kurakin's office, which handled all the important
administrative and judiciary problems of the Empire. As one of the
responsible officials there, the young state servant was in a good position
to become intimately acquainted with the entire mechanism of the
state and to observe at close quarters its problems and defects. But
there was little security in this position, for the jealous and capricious
Paul I kept promoting and demoting the Procurators of the Senate
without any rhyme or reason - in less than four years four different
Procurators! But Speransky was an adaptable individual, and at the
Seminary he h3d learned how to deal with people and how to please
his superiors by playing on their idiosyncrasies and foibles. He not
only maintained his position under all Procurators, but also gained