ambitious. He is also tolerably honest. He is the ideal bureaucrat.
XII
German influence has been no less dominant in the Russian academies and in scientific institutions. The Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg was organized on the pattern of the Academy of Berlin. It was an official institution with high privileges and it remained consistently German. Until recently its proceedings were published in the German language and German scientists were invariably preferred rather than Russian scientists. Mendelieff, one of the most creative scientific minds of his generation, was a member of every European academy except the Academy of Petersburg.
The Germans have been an even greater power in the Russian universities. They took full advantage of the prestige which German science had acquired in Europe, and they largely filled the ranks of the Liberal professions. German doctors, German veterinary surgeons, German "Feldschers," German foresters, German engineers, were to be found in every part of the Empire. A casual reading of the post-office
