Chapter 97: A Glimpse into Russian Officialdom and the General's Evaluation

Regarding the content of Nadia's letter, at first glance there is nothing particularly special about it, but upon closer thought, something seems a bit off.

As for the content she asked about in the letter, one could forcibly argue that descendants of great nobles and minor nobles might still marry, but the resistance faced would undoubtedly be far greater; after all, even in later eras, the prevailing theme was often a union of the strong with the strong to reach a higher level.

There must be some rationality to it, but what will it ultimately become?

One can only say that only heaven knows.

There are truly no new things under the sun; sometimes it is actually similar to a drum-beating flower-passing pig-slaughter scam; everyone knows a bomb will inevitably be detonated, but everyone is gambling that the one who gets blown up won't be themselves.

Unfortunately, Nicholas I and the few tsars who followed him belonged to the batch that got blown up.

By the way, as a talented exam-taker from a small town in this era, Mikhail's future could actually be described as passable.

In present-day Russia, especially under Tsar Nicholas I, who was on the verge of being overthrown by the nobles, his restrictions on the nobles could actually be described as severe.

After all, regarding his own position, he certainly did not want to share power with the nobles; ideally, the entire nation would be his good serfs, and everyone would strive together for the empire, creating an even brighter future.

And in reality, during the reign of Peter the Great, Russia was roughly such a system; the only free person in all of Russia was the tsar, and even the nobles were merely serfs in another form. For instance, during Peter the Great's era, nobles were not allowed to evade military service or falsely report the number of serfs; anyone who concealed the number of peasants faced confiscation of property and the death penalty.

The nobles were essentially serving for life, eternally bound to the state system; if they violated this, for example, the law of 1720 stipulated that nobles who abandoned their posts would face punishments such as whipping, nose-cutting, lifelong hard labor, deprivation of fiefs, and flogging with rods. Reporting a deserter from military service entitled one to his property.

And accepting a deserter from military service was punishable under the collective responsibility law, to the extent that some nobles preferred to become merchants or farmers, or gave their descendants over to people of other classes, rather than serve as soldiers.

But such a system undoubtedly placed extremely high demands on the tsar himself; if his qualities were even slightly lacking, a moment's carelessness would see him directly strangled by this perverted system; indeed, after Peter the Great, there were one or two unlucky souls who met such an end.

Under this system, the nobles naturally suffered greatly, but later, with the rise of Catherine II, the nobles' savior arrived; however, while the nobles became comfortable, the lives of the lowest-level serfs became even harder.

Of course, Catherine II also adopted certain countermeasures, roughly following the path of Qin Shi Huang: employing foreign experts and appointing people from other nations, like Li Si, to high offices, while suppressing the power of domestic nobles. During Catherine's reign, the proportion of foreign nationals in the Russian government's civil service once reached as high as 37%.

Here with Nicholas I, there were similar measures; roughly, among all civil officials, the proportion of nobles could not exceed 30%.

On this foundation, a talented exam-taker like Mikhail, even if his origin was not so noble, would after working for a few years have the opportunity to obtain an official title; even if the post was not large, it was at least an official position, allowing him to brush against the nobility.

Of course, if Mikhail's family were of noble origin, it was highly likely he would start as a Tenth-Class Civil Official; taking some connections to begin as a Ninth-Class Civil Official was also not impossible.

But in the officialdom of Tsarist Russia, the difference between having connections and not having them was too great; trying to secure a formal position was far too difficult, even for a talented exam-taker.

And even if he rose up, normally speaking, the Fourteenth-Class Civil Official position would very likely be Mikhail's entire life, followed by doing meaningless work day after day, enduring demands and insults from superiors and even greater figures.

Thus, in such days with not a shred of hope, he would gradually be worn away until becoming an insignificant cog in a vast machine, even to the point of mental confusion and self-deception, becoming a man in a case.

In classic Russian literary works such as "The Stationmaster," "The Overcoat," "The Death of a Government Clerk," and Old Dostoevsky's "Poor Folk," "Crime and Punishment," and so on, all contain such pitiable and tragic figures trapped in spiritual distress.

So, have such figures become outdated?

One can only say that every era has its own unique civil servants and men in cases.

So, to return to the point, damn it, even a talented exam-taker can only be like this; no wonder later Russian university students were more and more actively agitating for revolution; how could one feel comfortable in their hearts without doing this?

Of course, if Mikhail were to follow the old path of Onegin, currying favor with some noble lady, finding connections to operate, it might not be impossible to start from a slightly higher official position; furthermore, deceiving a general's daughter and committing many lowly deeds might also allow him to climb to even higher official positions.

But even if he reached this step, the official position would probably be just that; after all, looking slightly upward, either this one entered the court with Peter the Great, or that one had noble bloodline reaching back to the previous Rurik dynasty; you, a soft-rice eater, just eat your fill, and still want to compare with these masters?!

What boldness!

It seems this is truly a good reason for revolution—pfft!

On this ordinary day, largely due to receiving Nadia's letter, Mikhail briefly imagined other paths for himself, and ultimately concluded that revolution was better.

Of course, if one speaks truly, there are indeed other paths, but they are still related to what Mikhail is currently doing.

For a very long time, Russian nobles were a group of spiritual Frenchmen and spiritual Germans; although this has eased slightly now, this trend certainly still exists; in this situation, if Mikhail could have some cultural prestige in the old revolutionary base of old Paris and other parts of Europe, it would indeed be possible to make himself safer and more prestigious.

After pondering the possible developments slightly, Mikhail made several decisions in his heart, and did not think any more unnecessarily, but continued to read the remaining content of Nadia's letter.

Among the remaining content, the most noteworthy was undoubtedly the General's evaluation of Mikhail's new work.

To be honest, although the General often makes astonishing remarks, he can truly be counted as a loyal reader of Mikhail; according to Nadia, not only Mikhail's poetry, but even some of Mikhail's novels, the General could not put down.

Even for the few pieces he did not like, according to Nadia, the General mentioned them frequently; to this, Mikhail could only say the General might truly be a bit hypocritical.

Also, by the way, although the General felt very regretful after learning of Mikhail's commoner status, he did indeed invite Mikhail to attend their family dinner; however, because Mikhail had other matters at the time, he could only say he would definitely come next time.

If the General invited him again, Mikhail would indeed have no reason to refuse.

And this time, the General naturally read the long novel Mikhail published, and said as follows:

"How dare a small person oppose a powerful duke? He has truly lost his mind. However, this duke cannot be counted as a very respectable person either; it was one thing that his family was a fallen household before, but later, instead of relying on the army to win military merit and revive the family business, or relying on his own cultural knowledge, he actually chose to revive the family business by marrying a tax farmer's daughter! He is truly shaming our nobility!

A person like this, no matter how high a position he holds in the future, I look down on him from the bottom of my heart!"

Damn it, the General is a figure.

To be honest, in a certain sense, the General is also quite upright; he is a very upright old noble of Saint Petersburg.

Oh right, the General's instructions are not finished yet:

"Tell Mikhail to publish the rest of the story quickly! However, unlike others, I am not in the least bit anxious; serialized novels are like this; now in Saint Petersburg there are very many people who are both impatient and unable to endure; people like them will find it very difficult to accomplish anything.

Moreover, serialization has an obvious benefit: the writer can adjust their story based on the opinions of those respectable readers, so as to prevent their story from falling into clichés."

When reading this, Mikhail was actually surprised that the General indeed had some profound insights, but very quickly he saw again:

"Therefore, in my opinion, the story should proceed as follows: After this lawsuit broke out in Saint Petersburg, the matter quickly escalated, even reaching the point where the Emperor took notice! Just at this moment, our wise and divine Emperor could no longer bear to watch this farce, so he immediately dispatched his right-hand man, a respectable General, to handle this lawsuit.

And this respectable General would naturally not betray the Emperor's trust; he is rich in wisdom and possesses a clever mind, quickly seeing the essence of this case; thus, he first rebuked that disrespectful duke, then rebuked the steward who dared to commit an offense against his superior.

After both of them felt remorse for their actions, under the General's judgment, they forgave each other; the steward apologized to the duke, and the duke returned the due reputation to that steward. And this respectable General, naturally, deservedly received the Emperor's commendation."

Mikhail: "???"

In your fantasies, is the Emperor always wise and divine, General, you fellow?

The General is a figure, but his opinions on the novel are truly nonsense.

After finishing the letter, Mikhail laughed for quite a while, and very quickly wrote a reply to that Miss; besides chatting about recent moving trivialities, he also answered some of Nadia's questions about this novel.

In fact, it is precisely in the discussion of these somewhat serious questions that one is more likely to judge whether the other party's tendencies are roughly on the same path as one's own.

Especially in the coming era, whether thoughts can be similar has become a very important issue.

Although Mikhail did not think too much, discussing these issues is actually quite good; it can slightly exercise the brain.

Also, it must be said that since Mikhail became friends with Belinsky and others, it is almost impossible not to discuss political topics.

And recently, Belinsky actually discussed the novel "The Insulted and Humiliated" with Mikhail again.

Roughly, besides seeing the kind people who suffered humiliation, Belinsky also discovered another very important issue: the issue of intermarriage between nobles and wealthy merchants.

In today's Russia, due to the influence of class barriers, the hierarchy system, and traditional concepts, such things are extremely rare; even if they occur, they happen under very secretive circumstances. Therefore, for some conservative nobles, the phenomenon Mikhail wrote about is simply impossible.

But for Belinsky, he had indeed keenly perceived the changes in Russian society, so he discussed this issue with Mikhail for a long time.

The general line of thought was to first state the power of the emerging social class, then the impact and destruction on the existing system, and finally conclude that revolution must arrive in Russia.

Mikhail: "."

I didn't say a single word, you know.

"Mikhail, great writers and their works can often perceive the changes in our society earlier than the masses! You are such a writer! Let those who mock your writing as unrealistic watch! When the prophecies in your novel become reality, they will finally discover how extraordinary and sharp your vision truly is!"

This was the prophecy Belinsky made regarding Mikhail's long novel.

While Mikhail was thinking about these matters, he finished writing the reply quite quickly.

At his current stage, he certainly had the money to buy good paper. And when Nadia learned that Mikhail's financial situation had improved greatly, she did not attach a few blank sheets to the end of the letter; instead, she placed some flowers of an unknown variety inside the envelope.

Although they were slightly wilted by the time they reached Mikhail, he could still smell an unknown fragrance, which felt quite pleasant.

By the way, during the promotion phase of the "Contemporary" magazine, this Miss seemed to have done a lot of promotion for Mikhail within her own circle, and also encouraged people she knew to buy the hardcover edition of the "Petersburg Anthology," indirectly helping Mikhail and his group open up sales for their anthology and magazine.

Hmm, the price set for the hardcover edition of the "Petersburg Anthology"—Mikhail really went all out, to the point where Nekrasov and Belinsky were left staring in shock, repeatedly asking Mikhail: "Will this work? Will anyone really buy it?"

To be honest, Mikhail himself wasn't sure either, but fortunately, the sales were really good, so Mikhail and his group managed to make another profit from this.

Thinking about these matters, Mikhail put the letter into the envelope, pondered for a while, then walked out of the house and headed toward a very famous flower shop in Saint Petersburg.

Learn from this.

(End of this chapter)