LAS'f YEARS - CONCLUSION 355house after 1825 (and Speransky was a regular visitor to Zhukovskii's
weekly receptions); but they no longer represented the thoughts and
opinions that were slowly coming to dominate the intellectual scene
of Russia. Thus in his last years, Speransky was isolated from the
mainstream of Russian artistic and literary life.
The events of 1825 also had their repercussion on Speransky's relat-
ions til society and the court. Speransky's active efforts at gaining full
recognition by court society either misfired or were stopped short by
the changed atmosphere following the Decembrist revolt. For the period
after 1825, we have no evidence to indicate that Speransky led an active
social life. He continued to receive some friends (at one of such Sun-
days, Pushkin talked to him about Pugachev 1), but otherwise does not
seem to have been very much in the limelight. His many duties left
him little time, and with advancing age, he grew too weary to make
extra efforts. And so it was that for the last years of his life he went
back to pretty much the same social isolation as at the beginning of
his career. There was of course a difference; he now was a respected and
esteemed official. But perhaps his isolation was even greater than at
the start of his government service. His old friends and acquaintances
from the lower social classes, classmates from the seminary, the mer-
chants, doctors, and professional people whom he had met at Sam-
borskii's house, were all gone now - either dead or living in retirement.
His family life too had become more restricted, since his daughter was
married and had a family of her own.
The only new activity he took up in the 1830's was traveling abroad.
In 1830 he went abroad for the first time in his life (if we except the
short official trip to Erfurt). He visited foreign countries pretty reg-
ularly thereafter, to undergo treatment at watering places, or simply
to rest. He went to Germany, Paris, and Prague. He expressed keen
interest in the revival of the Western Slavs. Curiously enough, though,
his travel notes and letters from abroad are remarkably uninteresting
and empty. They reveal a very naive artistic taste and an astonishing
lack of sophistication in observing and judging life and conditions
.abroad. In any case, this direct acquaintance with Western Europe came
too late to change or influence in a new way his work and thought.
We have noted that after the brief period of distrust during the
investigation of the Decembrist movement, Speransky's relations with
the Emperor became very good. But the relationship remained always
1 I. A. Bychkov (ed.), "Neskol'ko dannykh k istorii knigi barona M. A. Korfa,
'Zhim' grafa Speranskogo' - iz bumag akad. A. F. Bychkova,'" Russkaia Starina,
109 (1902), p. 150.