18 nm BEGINNINGSwas also gradually becoming acquainted with the social and intellectual
life of the Capital. 1 When he came to the Aleksandro-Nevskii Seminar,
from the school at Vladimir, he had already one connection with St.
Petersburg society. We recall that as a boy in his village, he had been
befriended by the court chaplain, A. A. Samborskii. During his student
days at Vladimir, he had traveled to Moscow to visit Samborskii, and
when he came to the capital; he naturally re-established contacts with
the court chaplain. Samborskii was an interesting figure, in many ways
quite unusual for a Russian priest of that time. He had been chaplain
of the Russian Embassy in London for many years, and there he had
met many important Russian dignitaries. Through these connections
he obtained an appointment of tutor in religion to the Grand Dukes
Alexander and Constantine, and thus found himself close to the Court.
In England, Samborskii had become well acquainted with the current
religious and spiritual revival as well as with the latest economic
doctrines, especially the physiocratic ideas on agriculture. After his
return to Russia, he actively propagandized both of these facets of
contemporary Western thought: spiritual betterment through a deeper
and more emotional religious experience, and material improvement
of the people's life by means of modern agricultural techniques and
economic policies. More "worldly" and better educated than the
ordinary Russian priest, Samborskii was well received in society and
became himself an influential figure in the cultural and intellectual
life of the period.
The enthusiasm with which the Russian educated class had greeted
the outbreak of the French Revolution proved to be also the high
point of the "preponderance franpise" in Russia. Catherine's and
Paul's "reactionary" policies after 1791, as well as the excesses of the
Jacobins, put an abrupt end to the gallomania of the Russian nobility
or drove its expression underground. Yet, it was not easy to discard
overnight all the ideological heritage of the Enlightenment, so that
the "discovery" of a more conservative and sensible application of the
political principles of the philosophes in England met with an
enthusiastic reception in Russian society. English ideas and English
ways seemed to satisfy also some of the basic intellectual, spiritual
1 The hypothesis has been expressed - but no decisive evidence found - that
Speransky was the author of a poem, signed "(5", which was published in 1.
Martynov's Mum 1796-1797. If this were true, it would indicate Speransky's early
and deep interest in belles-lettres as well as science, philosophy, religion, and
politics. See on this: D. F. Kobeko, "Neskol'ko psevdonimov v russkoi literature
XVIII v.," Bibliograticheskie Zapiski, 1861, No.4, p. 115 (cited by M. Korf, Zhizn'
grata Speranskogo, I, p. 34, note). The poem in question, "I moe schastie" is
reprinted by Kolbasin, "I. I. Martynov," Sovremennik, March 1856, p. 24.