Answers and solutions.

Read the text. To whom the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky gave such a characterization? Underline the words and phrases in the text that helped you answer this question.

V. Klyuchevsky wrote about False Dmitry I.
“On the throne of the Moscow sovereigns, he was an unprecedented phenomenon ... He completely changed the prim order of life of the old Moscow sovereigns and their heavy, oppressive attitude towards people... treated everyone simply, courteously, not royally... By his course of action, he acquired a wide and strong affection among the people ... "
The first steps of this man on the Russian throne were numerous favors. The boyars and princes, who were in disgrace under Boris and Fyodor Godunov, were returned from exile, and the confiscated estates were returned to them. The maintenance of the service people was doubled, the land plots were doubled for the landowners - all at the expense of land and monetary confiscations from the monasteries. In the South of the country, the collection of taxes was canceled for 10 years, and the practice of processing “tithe arable land” was also stopped. Bribery was forbidden by law, the term for the prosecution of fugitives was set at five years. He changed the composition of the Duma, introducing into it representatives of the higher clergy as permanent members, and from now on ordered the Duma to be called the "senate."

Is life based on the laws of physics?

Miguel de Unamuno 1 .

1 (If a person never contradicts himself, then the reason must be that he never actually says anything. - Miguel de Unamuno.)

New laws to be expected in the body

In this last chapter, I want to make it clear that everything we know about the structure of living matter leads us to expect that the activities of living matter cannot be reduced to the ordinary laws of physics. And not because there is any " new power"or anything else that controls the behavior of individual atoms inside a living organism, but because its structure differs from everything we have studied so far in a physical laboratory. Roughly speaking, an engineer who was previously only familiar with heat engines, having examined an electric motor, will be ready to admit that he does not yet understand the principles according to which the motor works, he will find copper, familiar to him in boilers, but used here in the form of long, long wires twisted into coils; iron, familiar to him in levers, bars and steam cylinders, and here filling the middle of windings of copper wire. He will come to the conclusion that this is the same copper and the same iron, subject to the same laws of nature, and he will be right in this. But one difference in construction will already be enough for him he expected a completely different principle of operation, he would not suspect that the electric motor was driven by the spirit, just because it can be made to rotate without a boiler and steam by simply turning a switch.

Overview of position in biology

Deploying events in life cycle organism reveals an amazing regularity and order, unparalleled among everything that we meet in inanimate matter. We see that the organism is controlled by a highly ordered group of atoms, which constitutes only a very small part. total weight every cell. Moreover, from our point of view on the mechanism of mutations, we come to the conclusion that the movement of only a few atoms within the group of "controlling atoms" of the germ cell is enough to cause a very definite change in the hereditary traits of a large scale.

This is probably the most Interesting Facts of those that science has discovered today.

We are inclined to recognize them, after all, as not so unacceptable. Amazing Ability organism to concentrate on itself the "stream of order", thus avoiding the transition to atomic chaos - the ability to "drink order" from a suitable environment, apparently, is associated with the presence of "aperiodic solids", chromosomal molecules. The latter are undoubtedly the highest degree orderliness among the associations of atoms known to us (higher than in ordinary periodic crystals) due to the individual role of each atom and each radical that they play here.

In short, we see that the existing orderliness exhibits the ability to maintain itself and produce orderly phenomena. This sounds convincing enough, although, in finding it convincing, we certainly come from experience. social organizations and other phenomena based on the activity of organisms. Therefore, it may seem that something like a vicious circle is obtained.

Overview of the position in physics

Be that as it may, but it should be emphasized again and again that for the physicist this state of affairs seems not only incredible, but also extremely exciting, since it has no precedent. Contrary to the usual notions, the regular course of events, governed by the laws of physics, is never the result of one well-ordered group of atoms (molecule), unless, of course, this group of atoms repeats a huge number of times, as in a periodic crystal or in a liquid, or, finally, in gas, which are a large number the same molecules.

Even when a chemist is dealing with a very complex molecule in vitro, he always encounters a huge number of identical molecules. His laws apply to them. He can tell you, for example, that one minute after a certain reaction starts, half of all the molecules will react, and after the second minute, the same will happen with three-quarters of the molecules. But whether a certain molecule - assuming that you can follow it - will be among those that have reacted, or among those that have remained untouched, this he will not be able to predict. This is a matter of pure chance.

And this is not just a theoretical discussion. We are by no means always unable to observe the fate of a single small group of atoms, or even of a single atom. Sometimes we can do it. But every time we do this, we meet with a complete disorder, which only on the average of a large number of cases leads to regularity. We have already dealt with an example of this in Chapter I, the Brownian motion of a small particle suspended in a liquid is completely random. But if there are many such particles, they give rise to a regular diffusion process with their random movement.

The decay of a single radioactive atom is observable (it sends out a projectile that causes a visible flicker on a fluorescent screen). But if there is a single radioactive atom, then its probable lifespan is less certain than that of a healthy sparrow. Indeed, with regard to this period, we can only say that as long as the atom exists (and this can last for thousands of years), the probability of its decay in the next second, whether it is large or small, remains the same. This apparent lack of individual certainty nevertheless results in a precise exponential decay law for a large number of radioactive atoms of the same kind.

Striking contrast

In biology we meet with a completely different situation. A single group of atoms, existing only in one copy, produces regular phenomena, miraculously tuned one in relation to the other and in relation to external environment, according to extremely subtle laws. I said only one, because after all we have an example of an egg and unicellular organism. It is true that in later stages in higher organisms these instances are multiplied. But to what extent? Something like 1014 in an adult mammal, I imagine. Well, this is only one millionth of the number of molecules contained in a cubic inch of air. Although comparatively voluminous, these groups of atoms together would form only a tiny drop of liquid. And see how they are distributed. Each cell gives shelter to only one of them (or two, if we mean diploidy). Because we know the power of this tiny central office in an isolated cage, don't they remind us of local government stations scattered throughout the body and communicating with one another with great ease thanks to the cipher common to all of them?

This is, of course, a fantastic description, perhaps more suitable for a poet than for a scientist. However, one does not need poetic imagination, but only clear and sober scientific reflection, to understand that we are here encountering phenomena whose regular and regular unfolding is determined by a "mechanism" completely different from the "mechanism of probability" of physics. For it is simply the observable fact that in every cell the guiding principle lies in a single atomic association that exists in only one copy (or sometimes two), and the same fact that it directs events that serve as a pattern of order. Whether we find it surprising or quite natural that a small but highly organized group of atoms should be able to act in this way, the situation is equally unprecedented. It is not known anywhere except in living matter. The physicist and chemist, in studying inanimate matter, have never encountered phenomena that they would have to interpret in this way. Such a case has not yet arisen, and therefore the theory does not cover it - our beautiful statistical theory, which we were justly proud of, since it allowed us to look behind the scenes and see that a mighty order of exact physical laws arises from atomic and molecular disorder; the theory that discovered that the most important, most general and all-encompassing law of entropy growth can be understood without a special assumption for this case, for entropy is nothing but molecular disorder itself.

Two ways in which order arises

The orderliness seen in the unfolding of the life process comes from a different source. It turns out that there are two different "mechanisms" that can produce ordered phenomena: a "statistical mechanism" that creates "order from disorder" and a new mechanism that produces "order from order." To an unprejudiced mind, the second principle seems simpler, more probable. No doubt it is. That is why physicists were proud to establish the first principle - "order out of disorder", which nature actually follows and which alone explains a huge number of natural phenomena and, above all, their irreversibility. But we cannot expect that the "laws of physics" deduced from this principle will be sufficient to explain the behavior of living matter, the most amazing features of which seem to be largely based on the "order from order" principle. You wouldn't expect two completely different mechanisms to produce the same type of law, just as you wouldn't expect your door key to be able to open your neighbor's door just as well.

We should not, therefore, be discouraged by the difficulty of explaining life in terms of the ordinary laws of physics. For this is precisely what is to be expected, proceeding from the knowledge gained concerning the structure of living matter. We must expect that living matter is dominated by new type physical law. Or should we call it non-physical, not to say: super-physical law?

The new principle is not alien to physics

No. I don't think so. The new principle is a truly physical principle; in my opinion, it is nothing but, again, the principle of quantum theory. In order to explain this, we must go a little further and introduce a refinement, not to say an improvement, to our earlier assertion that all physical laws are based on statistics.

This statement, repeated over and over again, could not but lead to a contradiction. For indeed there are phenomena distinctive features which are clearly based on the principle of "order from order" and do not seem to have anything to do with statistics or molecular disorder.

Structure solar system, the movement of the planets is maintained almost indefinitely. The constellation of the present time is directly related to the constellation at any moment from the times of the epoch Egyptian pyramids; it can be traced back to this time and vice versa. When the dates of previous eclipses were calculated, it turned out that they were in full agreement with historical records, or even in some cases served to correct the accepted chronology. There were no statistics in these calculations, they were based solely on Newton's law of universal gravitation.

regular traffic good hours or any similar mechanism obviously also has nothing to do with statistics. In short, all purely mechanical phenomena seem to explicitly and directly follow the "order from order" principle. And if we say "mechanical", then this term should be understood in a broad sense. A very common type of clock, as you know, is based on the regular transmission of electrical impulses from a power station.

I remember an interesting little work by Max Planck on "Dynamic and Statistical Type of Law" 1 . In this work, exactly the same distinction is made as we have here designated "order from order" and "order from disorder." The purpose of this paper was to show how an interesting statistical type of law governing large scale events is generated from "dynamic" laws that seem to govern small scale events - the interaction of single atoms and molecules. The latter type of law is illustrated by mechanical phenomena on a large scale, such as the movement of planets, clocks, etc.

1 ("Dynamische und Statistische Gesetzmassigkeit".)

Thus it turns out that " new principle", the "order from order" principle, which we have pointed out with great solemnity as the real key to the understanding of life, is not at all new to physics. Planck's position even restores its priority. We seem to be approaching the ridiculous conclusion that the key to understanding life lies in the fact that it is based on a pure mechanism, on the principle of "clockwork" in the sense that Planck gives this expression. This conclusion does not seem absurd and, in my opinion, not entirely erroneous, although it should be accepted "with big pinch of salt."

clock movement

Let's analyze the movement carefully real hours. This is not a purely mechanical phenomenon. A purely mechanical watch would need neither a spring nor a winding. Once set in motion, they would always move. A real clock without a spring stops after a few strokes of the pendulum, their mechanical energy is converted into heat. And this is an infinitely complex, atomic process. The general idea that a physicist has about it forces us to admit that the reverse process is also not completely impossible: a clock without a spring can suddenly start moving due to the expenditure of thermal energy from its own gears and environment. In this case, the physicist would have to say: the clock experiences an exceptionally intense paroxysm of Brownian motion. We saw in Chapter I (§ 7) that with a very sensitive torsion balance (electrometer or galvanometer) this kind of phenomenon occurs all the time. In the case of watches, this is infinitely implausible.

Whether we will attribute the movement of clocks to a dynamic or to a statistical type of regular phenomena (using Planck's expressions) depends on our point of view. Calling this movement a dynamic phenomenon, we draw attention to the regularity of movement, which can be ensured by a relatively weak spring that overcomes small disturbances. thermal motion, so we can neglect them. But if we remember that without a spring, the clock will gradually stop due to friction, it turns out that this process can only be understood as a statistical phenomenon.

However insignificant in practice friction and heat may be in clocks, yet there can be no doubt that the second point of view, which does not neglect them, is more fundamental, even if we are dealing with the regular movement of clocks driven by a spring. For one should not think that the driving mechanism really completely eliminates the statistical side of the process. The true physical picture does not exclude the possibility that even a properly running clock may suddenly reverse its movement and, working backwards, wind its own spring at the expense of the heat of the environment. This event is "slightly less probable" than "Brownian paroxysm" for watches that do not have a clockwork at all.

The clockwork eventually turns out to be static

Let's now consider the situation. The "simple" case that we have analyzed exemplifies many others - in fact all of them - that avoid the seemingly all-encompassing principle of molecular statistics. A clock made from real physical matter (as opposed to imaginary) will not be a "true clockwork". The element of chance can be more or less reduced; the chance of the clock suddenly going completely wrong may be infinitesimal, but fundamentally it always remains. Friction and thermal influences take place even in the motion of celestial bodies. The rotation of the earth is gradually slowed down by tidal friction, and with this slowdown, the moon gradually recedes from the earth, which would not happen if the earth were a perfectly solid rotating ball.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that "real clockworks" clearly exhibit very pronounced "order-of-order" traits, the type of trait that thrilled the physicist when he encountered them in the organism. It seems likely that both cases eventually have something in common. It now remains to be seen what this is in common, and what is the striking difference which makes the case of the organism ultimately new and unprecedented.

Nernst's theorem

When does a physical system - any kind of association of atoms - reveal a "dynamic law" (in Planck's sense) or "features of a clockwork"? Quantum theory gives a short answer to this question, namely, at absolute zero temperature. As the temperature approaches zero, molecular disorder ceases to affect physical phenomena. This, by the way, was not discovered by theory, but by a thorough study of chemical reactions in wide temperature limits and the subsequent extrapolation of the results to the actually unattainable temperature of absolute zero. This is the famous "thermal theorem" of Walter Nernst, which is sometimes, and not without reason, given the loud name of the "Third Law of Thermodynamics" (the first is the principle of conservation of energy, the second is the principle of entropy).

Quantum theory provides a rational basis for the empirical Nernst law and at the same time allows you to determine how close this system must approach absolute zero to reveal approximately "dynamic" behavior. What is the temperature in each separate case practically equivalent to zero?

So, one should not think that it should always be very low temperature. Indeed, Nernst's discovery was prompted by the fact that even at room temperature entropy plays a surprisingly minor role In many chemical reactions(Let me remind you that entropy is a direct measure of molecular disorder, namely, its logarithm).

Pendulum clocks are essentially at zero temperature

What about pendulum clocks? For pendulum clocks, room temperature is practically equivalent to zero. This is the reason they work "dynamically". They will continue to work if they are cooled (provided all traces of grease are removed), but they will not work if they are heated above room temperature, as they will eventually melt.

Relationship between clockwork and organism

What will be said below, although it seems very trivial, but, I think, hits the main point. Clocks are able to function "dynamically" because they are constructed from solids whose shape is held by Heitler-London forces firmly enough to avoid the disturbing effects of thermal motion at ordinary temperatures.

Now, I think, a few words are needed to formulate the similarity between a clockwork and an organism. It simply and exclusively boils down to the fact that the latter is also built around a solid body - an aperiodic crystal, forming a hereditary substance, not mainly subject to the effects of random thermal motion. But please don't blame me for calling the chromosome threads "cogs of the organic machine", at least don't do it without reference to those deep physical theories on which the resemblance is based.

Because it really doesn't take much eloquence to recall the main difference between the two and justify for biological case epithets - new and unprecedented.

The most striking differences are: firstly, the peculiar distribution of prongs in a multicellular organism (I can recall the somewhat poetic description in § 62) and, secondly, the fact that an individual prong is not a crude human product, but a most beautiful masterpiece when or achieved along the lines of the Lord's quantum mechanics.

<...> I am a peasant of the Ryazan province, the Ryazan district. I was born in 1895 according to the old style on September 21, in a new way, that means October 4. There are many sectarians and Old Believers in our region. My grandfather, a wonderful man, was an Old Believer teacher.

And as a child, I grew up breathing the atmosphere of folk poetry.

The grandmother, who spoiled me very much, was very pious, she gathered the beggars and the crippled, who sang spiritual verses. Very early I learned a poem about Mikola. Then I myself wanted to portray "Mikola" in my own way. Even more important was the grandfather, who himself knew many spiritual verses by heart and was well versed in them.

Because of me, he had constant arguments with his grandmother. She wanted me to grow up for the joy and comfort of my parents, and I was a mischievous boy. Both of them saw that I was weak and frail, but my grandmother wanted to protect me in every possible way, and he, on the contrary, hardened me. He said: he will be bad if he fails to fight back. So he's completely screwed up. And the fact that I was a bully made him happy. In general, my grandfather was a strong man. Heavenly to heavenly, and earthly to earthly. No wonder he was a wealthy man.

Religious doubts came to me early. As a child, I had very abrupt transitions: now a streak of prayer, then extraordinary mischief, right up to the desire to blaspheme and blaspheme.

And then there were the same streaks in my work: compare the mood of the first book with at least "Transfiguration".

People ask me why I sometimes use indecent words in society in my poems - sometimes it’s so boring, so boring that you suddenly want to throw out something like that. And, by the way, what are "indecent words"? All of Russia uses them, why not give them the right to citizenship in literature as well.

I studied at a closed church school in one provincial city, the Ryazan province. From there I had to enter the Moscow Teachers' Institute. It’s good that this didn’t happen: I would be bad

was a teacher. For some time I lived in Moscow, visited Shanyavsky University. Then I moved to Petersburg. There I was struck most by its surprise by the existence in the world of another poet from the people who had already attracted attention - Nikolai Klyuev.

Klyuev and I became very good friends. He is a good poet, but it is a pity that the second volume of his "Songs" is worse than the first. The sharp difference with many Petersburg poets of that era was reflected in the fact that they succumbed to militant patriotism, and I, with all my love for the Ryazan fields and for my compatriots, always had a sharp attitude towards the imperialist war and militant patriotism. This patriotism is organically completely alien to me. I even had troubles because I don't write patriotic poems on the theme "thunder of victory, resound", but a poet can only write about what he is organically connected with. I have told you before about various literary acquaintances and influences. Yes, there were influences. And now in all my works I am perfectly aware of what is mine and what is not mine. Valuable, of course, only the first. That is why I consider it wrong if someone begins to divide my work into periods. When dividing, it is impossible to take anything superficial as a sign. There were no periods, if we take essentially my main one. Everything is sequential here. I have always been myself. ‹...›

Are you asking if my worldly path was whole, straight and even? No, there were such breakdowns, scrapes and dislocations that I wonder how I still remained alive and intact.

Yesenin S. A. complete collection works: In 7 volumes - M .: Nauka; Voice, 1995-2002. T. 7. Book. 1. - S. 343-345.

<...> I am a peasant of the Ryazan province, the Ryazan district. I was born in 1895 according to the old style on September 21, in a new way, which means that there are many sectarians and Old Believers in our region.

And as a child, I grew up breathing the atmosphere of folk poetry.

The grandmother, who spoiled me very much, was very pious, she gathered the beggars and the crippled, who sang spiritual verses. Very early I learned a poem about Mikola. Then I myself wanted to portray "Mikola" in my own way. Even more important was the grandfather, who himself knew many spiritual verses by heart and was well versed in them.

Because of me, he had constant arguments with his grandmother. She wanted me to grow up for the joy and comfort of my parents, and I was a mischievous boy. Both of them saw that I was weak and frail, but my grandmother wanted to protect me in every possible way, and he, on the contrary, hardened me. He said: he will be bad if he fails to fight back. So he's completely screwed up. And the fact that I was a bully made him happy. In general, my grandfather was a strong man. Heavenly to heavenly, and earthly to earthly. No wonder he was a wealthy man.

Religious doubts came to me early. As a child, I had very abrupt transitions: now a streak of prayer, then extraordinary mischief, right up to the desire to blaspheme and blaspheme.

And then there were the same streaks in my work: compare the mood of the first book with at least "Transfiguration".

People ask me why I sometimes use indecent words in society in my poems - sometimes it’s so boring, so boring that you suddenly want to throw out something like that. And, by the way, what are "indecent words"? All of Russia uses them, why not give them the right to citizenship in literature as well.

I studied at a closed church school in one provincial city, the Ryazan province. From there I had to enter the Moscow Teachers' Institute. It is good that this did not happen: I would be a bad teacher. For some time I lived in Moscow, visited Shanyavsky University. Then I moved to Petersburg. There I was struck most by its surprise by the existence in the world of another poet from the people who had already attracted attention - Nikolai Klyuev.

Klyuev and I became very good friends. He is a good poet, but it is a pity that the second volume of his "Songs" is worse than the first. The sharp difference with many Petersburg poets of that era was reflected in the fact that they succumbed to militant patriotism, and I, with all my love for the Ryazan fields and for my compatriots, always had a sharp attitude towards the imperialist war and militant patriotism. This patriotism is organically completely alien to me. I even had troubles because I don't write patriotic poems on the theme "thunder of victory, resound", but a poet can only write about what he is organically connected with. I have told you before about various literary acquaintances and influences. Yes, there were influences. And now in all my works I am perfectly aware of what is mine and what is not mine. Valuable, of course, only the first. That is why I consider it wrong if someone begins to divide my work into periods. When dividing, it is impossible to take anything superficial as a sign. There were no periods, if we take essentially my main one. Everything is sequential here. I have always been myself. ‹...›

Are you asking if my worldly path was whole, straight and even? No, there were such breakdowns, scrapes and dislocations that I wonder how I still remained alive and intact.

‹ Autobiography of S. A. Yesenin, recorded by I. N. Rozanov (1921)› - Rozanov, p. 20-23.

Reprinted and dated from this edition.

Ivan Nikanorovich Rozanov (1874-1959) - literary critic, historian of Russian poetry, author of works on Russian poets of the 18th-20th centuries. - met Yesenin in 1920. Two books have been preserved with Yesenin's dedicatory inscriptions to I. N. Rozanov (see: p. 136, 169 of this book).

The memoirs of I. N. Rozanov about Yesenin were written and published in 1926 in three books: “My acquaintance with Yesenin” (in the collection “In Memory of Yesenin”), “Yesenin and his companions” (in the collection of EZhLT), “ Yesenin about himself and others. I. N. Rozanov was the first to write down Yesenin's biography from the words of the poet himself: “In 1920 and 1921. I often saw Yesenin. I was not his close friend. He told me information about himself, as a person who is interested in his poetry, who will someday write about him. At that time I was working on the second volume of my "Russian Lyrics", and Yesenin, laughing, said: "I will probably enter only your tenth volume!"

He spoke a lot and willingly about himself. What seemed to me the most interesting, I wrote down. ‹...›

On February 26, 1921, I wrote down his autobiography just told to me before this Yesenin ”(Rozanov, p. 3, 18).

1. My grandfather... was an Old Believer clerk.

My grandfather ... was an Old Believer teacher. - See comment. to autobiographies - present. book, p. 369, 386.

2. The book was not completely exceptional with us and a rare occurrence...

The book was not completely exceptional and rare in our country.... - See comments. to the autobiography of 1924, p. 407.

3. Now I work in a bookstore...

And now I work in a bookstore... - In 1919-1922. The Imagists had two bookstores. Yesenin and Mariengof worked in one of them. Rurik Ivnev recalled: “... I saw with my own eyes this then famous “Imagist bookstore” on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in all its

magnificence. It was almost always crowded with buyers, trade was brisk. New editions of the Imagists were sold, and in the second-hand book department - old books of pre-revolutionary publications.

Yesenin and Mariengof did not always stand behind the counters (there were several other employees), but they were always in the room. On the second floor there was another room, furnished like a salon, with a large round table, sofa and upholstered furniture. It was called the “cabinet of the directorate”” (Vosp., 1, 335).

...Andrey Bely... - Pseudonym of Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev (1880-1934), poet, prose writer, theorist of symbolism. He met Yesenin at the beginning of 1917.

4. ... Ivanov-Razumnik ...

...Ivanov-Razumnik... - Pseudonym of Razumnik Vasilyevich Ivanov (1878-1946) - critic, literary historian, publicist. He met Yesenin in 1916, collaborated together in the Scythians collections, corresponded (see vol. 6 of this edition).

Speransky was considered public opinion an exemplary official, a kind of standard Russian bureaucrat.

Indeed, Speransky was an absolutely exceptional phenomenon in our top administration of the first half of XIX century. Without much exaggeration, he can be called the organizer of the bureaucracy in Russia ... Before Speransky, the civil service in public opinion was very low; Speransky raised her to an extraordinary height, he informed her of importance, for he pulled the administration of Russia into central institutions, made them the stewards of the people's welfare; He imparted to the civil service career a peculiar attraction, the possibility of constant movement forward - movement in that era of emergency; Not only that, he gave her charm possible dangers and mystery. Speransky was a kind of Pushkin for the bureaucracy; How great poet Like a sorcerer, he dominated the thoughts and feelings of generations, just as the image of Speransky hovered over the developing bureaucracy for a long time.

From the book of S. M. Seredonin “Count M. M. Speransky. Essay on state activity "(St. Petersburg, 1909)

Among contemporary statesmen Speransky was clearly distinguished by his intelligence and education. “Mikhailo Mikhailovich, a man with excellent talents, a degenerate, one might say, in his field,” wrote his colleague Sergei Petrovich Sokovnin about him. - Although my relationship with him was very casual and unstable, it is pleasant to remember even the shortest minutes in which we approach a genius. I dare to call him such because of his high talents and his extraordinary fate. Professor Ivan Yegorovich Neiman, a teacher of Russian law at Kazan University, who served in his youth under Speransky, said in his declining years: “Believe me, I have met and encountered many in my life, but I have never seen a smarter man than Speransky.”

The extraordinary mental abilities and education of Speransky were so undeniable that they were unconditionally recognized not only by those who felt sympathy for him, but even by his enemies. On the other hand, it was just as obvious that the Russian administrative system did not tolerate intelligence and talent. She was reliably programmed for mediocrity and thoughtlessness, blind obedience to her superiors.

“Why, by the way, do we have few capable government people? - A. V. Nikitenko asked in his diary and immediately gave an explanation: - Because each of them was required to do one thing - not the art of doing things, but obedience and the so-called energetic measures so that everyone else would obey. Could such a simple system educate and educate statesmen? Everyone, taking on an important position, thought of one thing: how to satisfy the personally dominant demand, and his mental horizon involuntarily narrowed into the narrowest frame. There was nothing to argue and think about, but only to go with the flow. How could, how could a man gifted with extraordinary mental faculties, become the hero of such a system?

This, of course, paradoxical situation was quite natural. A bureaucratic system programmed for mediocrity, narrow-mindedness and blind diligence can function and develop effectively only under one indispensable condition, namely, when talented people who are able to think independently stand in its decisive areas at decisive moments. Where people are cogs, there must be a person lever arm. A consistently evolving bureaucratic system, in order not to suffocate in the chaos of its constituent institutions and internal connections, must inevitably undergo restructuring at certain stages - major reorganizations. The growth of the bureaucracy is impossible without streamlining relations between its constituent elements, without dividing the entire administrative structure into branches of administration, without a sufficiently clear demarcation of the functions of various bodies. For the implementation of all this, suitably trained figures are required. Smart, encyclopedically educated Speransky was vital Russian bureaucracy, and precisely with his mind and education. She needed him as a designer, as a designer and organizer. That is why she took him into her arms and lifted him up.