Buturlin, 1831-1843
"Buturlin was the military governor of Nizhny Novgorod. He became famous for his stupidity and so soon rose to the rank of senator. The Emperor, during a visit to Nizhny Novgorod, said that he would be at the The Kremlin the next day, but that no one should know about it. Buturlin summoned all the police officials and announced this to them under the greatest secrecy. As a result the Kremlin was packed solid with people. The Emperor, sitting in his carriage, grew angry, while Buturlin apologized, kneeling in the same carriage.
The same Buturlin became famous for a celebrated order on fire-prevention measures, at a time when fires were devastating Nizhny. Among these measures, householders were instructed to notify the police two hours before a fire.
It happened that in winter a large Khivan embassy was passing back through Nizhny on its way home. In Nizhny the ambassador, a dignitary of royal blood, fell ill and died. Buturlin reported this directly to the Emperor and added that the embassy's officials had wanted to take the ambassador's body further, but that he could not permit this without the authorization of the higher authorities, and that, so the ambassador's body would not spoil before such permission arrived, he had ordered the deceased ambassador to be frozen in the river, in the manner of a sturgeon. The Emperor could not bear it and appointed Buturlin a senator.
A necessary explanation.
The administrative machinery of that time was so well tuned that governing a province was extremely easy. St. Petersburg is more important than Kazan, and yet even there, in the old days, its governors found no difficulty at all in carrying out their manifold duties.
"Who is writing to me here?" the St. Petersburg governor Essen would ask, when the head of his chancery brought him a document.
"You are writing it, sir."
"Ah, so I am writing it. About what?"
Having learned what it was about, the statesman would sign the paper.
There were more anxious administrators, such as, for instance, the governor of Erivan, Prince Andronikov. He was forever suspicious that the head of his chancery might be deceiving him, and devised a way to make sure he was not being deceived.
"Tell me the truth, is this correct?" he would ask the head of his chancery, who brought him documents for signature.
"Correct, Your Excellency."
"Look at the icon and swear it!"
The man would look at the icon and swear; Prince Andronikov would cross himself and sign."