GOVERNING RUSSIA'S PROVINCES 259ordinates was not forgotten. In a sense, though on a much smaller
scale, Speransky's role in forming a Siberian society can be compared
to Peter the Great's a century earlier in European Russia.
As a result of his travels across the width and breadth of Siberia,
his close contacts with the inhabitants, Speransky came to change his
opinion about the region very radically. He had come to Siberia with
the stereotype picture of a backward, cold, dreary, and unpromising
country, fit to be only a penal colony, deprived of any serious economic
and social value to Russia. The first impressions confirmed the stereo-
type image, Siberia was a colony, and not a very rich or nice one at
that. In his first letters from Siberia he complained of the drabness
and unfriendliness of the region. He detected no natural beauties and
no human values. But travelling extensively, Speransky was struck by
Siberia's variety in respect to the natural, climatic, economic, and
human environment. In the South, it was almost Persian; in the South-
east it was not far from being completely Chinese. And while the North
and Northeast remained unfriendly, cold, and not very inviting, the
Central districts held out great promise of becoming rich agricultural
centers. The people too were not as hopeless as he had thought at
first. True, they were not as yet ready to play even a limited role in the
government of the territory. But they were a hard-working, patient,
and resolute people, with great potentialities. It was not true that Sibe-
ria was populated only with convicts and fonner convicts. As a matter
of fact, Speransky found that the convicts and their descendents were
but a tiny fraction of the population. Not more than 2000 persons ayear came to Siberia on penal servitude. If Siberia would only be
opened up to the good elements of the Russian peasantry, if the local
inhabitants would be taken care of by an honest and efficient adminis-
tration, the future of Siberia could look very bright and promising.
Far from being a colony, an appendage of Russia, Siberia would become
part and parcel - and not the least useful or the poorest 'at that - of
the Russian Empire.
To bring this about, a proper political, administrative, legal, and
social framework had to be created first, This was his most important
task. He reflected on it all the time he was in Siberia, and upon his
return to St. Petersburg in 182'2, he was ready with specific recommenda-
tions of reform, These recommendations were discussed and adopted
without major opposition or qualifications by the Committee on
Siberian Affairs and by Emperor Alexander 1. Speransky's suggestions
received legislative implementation in the statutes of 1822. They were
the most important and durable contribution of his short governorship.