123 8. Foreigners in tJje Service of the Russian Colleges It was clear to Peter and his collaborators right from the very beginning that, in order to replace the Muscovite prikaz administration with a collegial organization, it was not enough merely to describe the foreign models which they had adopted for the Russian reforms; it was also necessary to enlist the help of foreigners who had practical experience in collegial office procedures and decision-making processes. The task of such foreigners was to establish operating procedures for the colleges and to instruct their Russian colleagues. For this reason, several men were commissioned by the tsar to recruit knowledgeable people in different parts of Europe for service in the Russian colleges. General Adam Weyde, who had lerned a great deal about the Swedish administrative system during his stay in Sweden as a prisoner of war, and who had therefore been named to participate in organizing the Russian colleges, was the first to be engaged for the recruitment of foreign personnel.''*^® In August 1715, the tsar commissioned him to recruit “learned persons and persons experienced in the law (pravosti) for the handling (otpravlenie) of affairs in the colleges” with the promise of an annual salary of five hundred rubles and free lodgings.'^^** Weyde was to operate primarily in Livonia, but we know nothing of the results of Weyde’s efforts.^^” It was mentioned earlier that the tsar decided in September 1715 that the Danish administration, too, should be studied thoroughly. General Adjutant P. I. laguzhinskii was given the task of collecting materials concerning the Danish colleges and the Danish local administration, “for,” as Peter explained, “We hear that the Swedes, too, have borrowed from [the Danes]. ukaz dealing with the impending collegial reform. Confirming receipt of laguzhinskii’s answer “concerning the Danish law and economy,” Peter noted that it was necessary to find Danes who could explain how theDanish administration actually functioned, since “without this it is not possible to do anything only according to books, for they never write about all circumstances.” Therefore, laguzhinskii was to hire one Dane to serve in each of the Russian colleges, and, according to thetsar’s explicit instructions. Two months later, the tsar sent laguzhinskii yet another ” 341 338 See Friedrich Christian von Weber’s report to the Elector of Braunschweig-Luneburg dated St. Petersburg, April 22, 1715 in 2B, II, 54. Cf. Weber’s letter to Leibniz dated St. Petersburg, April 26, 1715 in Wladimir Guerrier, Leibniz in seincn Beziehungen zu Russland und Peter dem Grossen (St. Petersburg & Leipzig, 1873), 332. ZA (no. 255), 213. Cederberg, 11; Wittram, II, 115. *■" ZA (no. 25), 44—45. 8:19 340
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