71 ported that he had discussed the Russian plans for a collegial reform with the Holstein diplomat Henning Friedrich von Bassewitz, and that von Bassewitz had said „he knows a Holsteiner for this task who has served as a confidential secretary to the reigning prince, and who is a very clever person; he is very knowledgeable about the Swedish colleges and legal regulations, and in all probability he will now enter (our) service. The date of Weyde’s letter indicated by Pekarskii—November 13, 1715—has been generally accepted by historians as a terminus post quern for the establishment of contact with Fick.^^' But this interpretation of Pekarskii’s information is untenable, since another source proves that the Russian collegial reformers had known of Pick long before and had even considered employing him for the planned administrative reform.The fact is that, on December 3, 1714, General Jacob Bruce wrote to Peter’s private secretary, Aleksei Makarov, that “it is necessary to write to Lord Governor Prince Golitsyn at Riga in the name of His Tsarist Majesty about a pass for the foreigner Heinrich Fick (to come) here to St. Petersburg or Reval.“ The idea that contact with Fick had been established by the end of 1714 is also supported by the memorial concerning the Swedish colleges that we discussed above; that memorial was written before March 23, 1715, and its origin has been traced to Fick. Thus it is that all the evidence suggests that Fick visited either Reval or St. Petersburg at the end of 1714 or the beginning of 1715 and there demonstrated his knowledge of Sweden to the Russian officials. In Heinrich Fick the Russians had found the perfect man for the sensitive assignment of reconnoitering the Swedish administrative system. Not only was he familiar with administrative operations, but he had previously been in Swedish service and would therefore be able to move about the Swedish capital relatively freely without arousing the suspicions of the authorities. What we know of Pick’s earlier career stems primarily from his own pen. For one thing, there is the curriculum vitae submitted by Fick to Charles XII in 1715 along with a petition requesting readmission to that monarch’s service.^^** This petition is dated February 16, 1715, by which time Fick had already begun negotiations with the Russians about participating in the reform of the Russian administration. It is impossible to know whether Fick was sincere about his desire to re-enter Swedish service; i:t« p Pekarskii, Istoriia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk v Peterburge (2 v., St. Petersburg, 1870—1873), I, 201 note 1. Cederberg, 11. It is concciv.'ible that Weyde’s “Holsteiner” was someone other than Fick, since Fick had never served as privy secretary to the Duke of Holstein. 2A (no. 21), 42. RA, Biographica F: 7, Heinrich Fick. « 136 i»a 139 140
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