late eighteenth century was not sustained. At Poltava in the 1820s most
Jfficers amused themselves by hunting, playing cards or billiards, drinking
)Unch, or visiting the local brothel.^128 There were few books-our serious-
ninded informant, a Baltic German, owed his education to a chance copy of
3rockhaus's Encyclopedia-and those who wanted to better themselves received
ittle encourag~ment from comrades Oi superiors.!^29
The cultural blight was least marked in the capital. The formalism for which
a. Petersburg was noted, and the tight administrative controls, were offset by
he presence of several military educational establishments where enlightened
iews survived sub rosa, and the well-connected could mix freely in aristocratic
ociety. Free-thinkers were more likely to be found among the upper and
1iddle strata of the nobility. The cadet schools preferred men with this back-
round, and could afford to choose since there were always more candidates
1an vacancies. On the other hand, the Russian dvoryanstvo was losing its
iste for military service. One reason for this was the spread of education: ris-
1g cultural standards engendered a desire for greater personal independence.
. nother was the draconian discipline that was enforced in these establish-
lents, which deterred the more sensitive souls from entering them, unless their
unities were so poor that this was the only way ahead. In the 1830s, according
1 recent calculations, only some 10 per cent of dvoryane were in the armed
rces, which was certainly a significant decrease.130
Nicholas I wanted to keep the schools, and the officer corps, a noble pre-
~rve, and also to ensure that all officers were properly educated.^131 He failed
t both counts. In 1840-3 a system of examinations was introduced which all
.ndidates for commissions had to take.^132 Nine new cadet schools were added
iring the reign and four others raised in status.^133 They produced 17, 754
aduates, of whom (by 1850) 14,415 had become officers. The army as a
tole had about 2,000-2,500 vacancies each year. The cadet corps could fill
;s than 600 of them; but of those who passed out 38 per cent joined the
ards or engineers rather than line regiments, which received only about one-
:th of their requirements from this source.13^4
The rest were either so-called yunkery or NCOs promoted from the ranks.
rnkery-only the name was Prussian-were successors to the supernumer-
es (see above, p. 233): gentry sons who volunteered for service with a regi-
:nt as sergeants and were commissioned after a specified term, normally two
us.m Their educational attainments were very low, since they received no
21 Von Hansen, Zwei Krie~sjahre, p. 22. 129 Curtiss, Russian Army, pp. 194-9.
!O Kabuz.an and Troitsky, 'lzmeneniya v chislennosti ... dvoryanstva', pp. I 53, I 59, 164.
11 Floyd, 'State Service', pp. 213-16; II PSZ v. 3457 (I Feb. 1830); viii. 5982 (16 Feb. 1833).
12 Floyd, 'State Service', pp. 255-6; II PSZ xv(i), 13176 (18 Feb. 1840); xvii(i), 15716 (4 June
Z); xviii(i), 16523 (9 Feb. 1843). For a description: Milyutin, Vosp., p. 89.
3 Beskrovnyy, Potentsial, p. 125; Polievktov, Nikolay /, p. 332.
4 'K isl. voyenno-uchebnoy reformy', p. 352; Floyd, 'State Service', p. 216.
' For those who had allendcd university the term was reduced to six months, and for those
degrees to three months. II PSZ iv. 2874 (18 May 1829); Curtiss, Russian Army, p. 187;
·d, 'State Service', pp. 213-14.