Saint Petersburg.
East Africans were doers. Once they had decided to poach talent from Tsarist Russia, they had already organized personnel to scout the way, with Russian universities as their first stop.
Tsarist Russia placed considerable importance on education. Aside from Saint Petersburg and Moscow, higher education was also quite strong in economically developed and relatively open regions such as Kyiv and Warsaw.
Of course, compared with East Africa, Tsarist Russia's higher education followed a typical elite model. There were very few universities, but that also meant the quality of instruction at Russian universities was relatively high—at least far stronger than that of most East African colleges.
The people leading this trip to Tsarist Russia to "pan for gold" were Dehr, Deputy Minister of Education of East Africa, and Moris, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.
Dehr said, "Russia's education system differs from ours in East Africa. In Russia, universities provide a typical aristocratic education. Those who can generally access them come from the powerful and privileged classes, while ordinary people are few. But for us, these Russian university students without connections or prospects are exactly the people we should target. Russia's economy is now depressed, which will inevitably deal a series of blows to their employment prospects."
Those without "connections" might also have been fallen aristocrats or members of middle-class families that placed great importance on education. Students from the true bottom rung of society who made it into Russian universities were undoubtedly as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
Moris also said at the right moment, "Besides university students, some of Tsarist Russia's major factories are also our targets. With Saint Petersburg as the center, we will divide into three groups and head to Moscow, Kyiv, and Warsaw respectively for recruitment work. The chemical industry in particular