UNFORTUNATE STATE OF SERFS.181
in 1815. At a little distance the colossal statue of the Emperor appeared a simple likeness, but, on inspecting it more nearly, each feature was found to be composed of mutilated corpses.
In all countries the poor work for the rich, who pay them for their labour; but these poor are not folded for life in some enclosure like mere herds of cattle; and, though obliged to toil at the labour which daily provides their children with bread, they at least enjoy a semblance of liberty; now semblance, or appearance, is almost every thing to a being whose views are limited, but whose imagination is boundless. With us the hireling has the right of changing his employers, his residence, and even his profession, but the Kiissian serf is a chattel of his lord's; enlisted from birth to death in the service, his life represents to this proprietor a part and parcel of the sum necessary to supply the caprices and fantasies of fashion. Assuredly, in a state thus constituted, luxury is no longer innocent. All communities in which a middle class of society does not exist, ought to proscribe luxury as a scandal, for in well-organised lands, it is the profits which this class draws from the vanity of the superior classes which produce general opulence. If, as is anticipated, Russia should become a land of industrial arts, the relations between the serf and the owner of the soil will be modified, and a population of independent dealers and artisans will rise up between the nobles and the peasants, but at present the commerce of the land is scarcely born; the manufacturers, merchants, and tradesmen, are almost all Germans.
It is here only too easy to be deceived by the ap-
182CHARACTER OF THE RUSSIANS.
pearances of civilisation. If you look to the court and the people who are its votaries, you may suppose yourself among a nation far advanced in social culture and in political economy; but when you reflect on the relations which exist between the different classes of society, when you observe how small the number of these classes — finally, when you examine attentively the groundwork of manners and of things — you perceive the existence of a real barbarism, scarcely disguised under a magnificence which is revolting.
I do not reproach the Russians for being what they are, what I blame in them is, their pretending to be what we are. They are still uncultivated: this state would at least allow room for hope; but I see them incessantly occupied with the desire of mimicking other nations, and this they do after the true manner of monkeys, caricaturing what they copy. They thus appear to me spoilt for the savage state, and yet wanting in the requisites of civilisation; and the terrible words of Voltaire or of Diderot, now forgotten in France, recur to my mind — "The Russians have rotted before they have ripened."
At Petersburg every thing has an air of opulence, grandeur, and magnificence; but if we should by this show of things judge of the reality we should find ourselves strangely deceived. Generally, the first effect of civilisation is to render what may be called, material life easy; but here every tiling is difficult: — a cunning apathy is the secret of existence.
If you wish to ascertain precisely what is to be seen in this great city, and if Schnitzler does not
CHARACTER OF PETER THE GREAT. 183
satisfy you, you will find no other guide *: no bookseller has on sale a complete directory to the curiosities of Petersburg: either the well informed men whom you question have an interest in not answering you, or they have something else to do. The Emperor, his health, his movements, the project with which he is ostensibly occupied, such are the only subjects worthy of the thoughts of a Russian who thinks at all. The catechism of the court is the only necessary knowledge. All take pleasure in rendering themselves agreeable to their master, by hiding some corner of truth from the eyes of travellers. No one has any idea of gratifying the curious ; on the contrary, they love to deceive them by false data: it requires the talents of a great critic to travel to advantage in Russia. Under despotism, curiosity is synonymous with indiscretion. The empire is the emperor.
And yet this frightful extent of greatness was not sufficient for the Czar Peter. That man, not content with being the reason of his people, would also become their conscience. The sovereign who did not shrink before such a responsibility, and who, notwithstanding his long apparent, or real hesitation, finally rendered himself culpable of so enormous an usurpation, has inflicted more evil on the world by this single outrage against the prerogatives of the priests, and the religious liberty of man, than he has conferred benefit on Russia by all his warlike and political talents, and his genius for the arts of industry. This emperor, type and model of the empire, and of
* Sclmitzler is author of the best work on Russian statistics that has been written.
184 CRUELTIES OF PETER THE GREAT.
the emperors in all ages, was a singular union of the great and the minute. With a lust of power grasping as that of the most cruel tyrants of any age or nation, he united the ingenuity of the artisan in a degree that made him the rival of the best mechanics of his times; a sovereign scrupulously terrible, an eagle and an ant, a lion and a beaver : — this monarch, dreadful during life, now imposes himself on posterity as a species of saint, and tyrannises over the judgments, as he formerly tyrannised over the acts of men. To pass an impartial opinion upon him is at the present time a sacrilege which is not without danger, even for a stranger, in Russia. I brave this danger every moment of the day, for of all yokes, the most insupportable to me is that which imposes the necessity of admiring.* In Russia, power, all unlimited as it is, entertains an extreme dread of censure, or even of free speech. An oppressor is of all others the man who most fears the truth; he only escapes ridicule by the terror and mystery with which he environs himself. Hence it is that there must be no speaking of persons here : one must not allude to the maladies of which the Emperors Peter III. and Paul I. died, any more than to
* In the History of Russia and of Peter the Great., by M. le General Comte tie Ségur, we read as follows, (the Strelitz are the parties referred to) : — " Peter himself interrogated these criminals Ъу the torture, after which, in imitation of Ivan the Tyrant, he acted as their judge and their executioner. . . . Drunk with wine and blood, the glass in one hand, the axe in the other, in one single hour twenty successive libations marked the fall of twenty heads of the Strelitz, which the emperor struck off, piquing himself all the while on his horrible address."
CULPABILITY OF ТПЕ ARISTOCRACY. 185
the clandestine amours that certain malevolent persons have ascribed to the reigning emperor. The amusements of this prince are viewed only as relaxations from the cares of greatness. This once known, and with whatever consequences they may be attended to certain families, one must profess ignorance of them under pain of being accused of the greatest of all crimes in the eyes of a people composed of slaves and diplomatists—the crime of indiscretion. I am impatient to see the Empress. She is said to be a charmino`, though at the same time a frivolous
О-7О
and haughty personage. It needs both hauteur and levity to support an existence like that of hers. She neither interferes with nor informs herself respecting any publie affairs : knowledge is worse than useless, where there is no power to act upon it. The Empress does as the other subjects of the Emperor: all who are born Russians, or would live in Russia, must make silence upon public affairs the motto of their life. Secret conversations would be very interesting, but who dares indulge in them ? To reflect, and to discern would be to render one's self suspected.
M. de Repnin governed the empire and the Emperor : he has been out of favour for two years, and for two years Russia has not heard his name pronounced, though that name was previously in every body's mouth. In one day he fell from the pinnacle of power into the lowest depth of obscurity. No one dared to remember that he was living, nor even to believe that he ever had lived. In Russia, on the day that a minister falls from favour, his friends become deaf and blind. A man is as it were buried
186 CULPABILITY OF THE ARISTOCRACY.
the moment he ap
pears to be disgraced. Russia does not know to-day if the minister who governed her yesterday exists. Under Louis the XV. the banishment of M. de Choiseul was a triumph ; in Russia the retirement of M. de Repnin is a funeral.
To whom will the people one day appeal, from the mute servility of the great? What explosion of vengeance is not the conduct of this cringing aristocracy preparing against the autocratic power ? What are the duties of the Russian noblesse? To adore the Emperor, and to render themselves accomplices in the abuse of sovereign power, that they themselves may continue to oppress the people. Is such the position that Providence has ordained them to occupy in the economy of this vast empire? They fill its posts of honour. What have they done to merit them ? In the history of Russia, no one except the Emperor has performed his part. The nobles, the clergy, and all the other classes of society, have each failed in their own. An oppressed people have always deserved the ills under which they suffer. Tyranny is the work of the nation. Either the civilised world will, before another fifty years, pass anew under the yoke of barbarians, or Russia will undergo a revolution more terrible than that, the effects of which we are still feeling in Western Europe.
I can perceive that I am feared here, which I attribute to its being known that I write under the influence of my convictions. No stranger can set foot in this country without immediately feeling that he is weighed and judged. " This is a sincere man," they think, " therefore he must be dangerous."
THE AUTHOR SUSPECTED.187
Under the government of the lawyers* a sincere man is only useless!
" An indefinite hatred of despotism reigns in France," they say, " but it is exaggerated and unenlightened, therefore we will brave it. The day, however, that a traveller, who convinces because he himself believes, shall tell the real abuses, which he cannot fail to discover among us, we shall be seen as we really are. France now barks at us without knowing us ; when she does know us, she will bite."
The Russians, no doubt, do me too great honour by this inquietude; which, notwithstanding their profound dissimulation, they cannot conceal from me. I do not know whether I shall publish what I think of their country; but I do know that they only do themselves justice in fearing the truths that I could publish.
The Russians have every thing in name, and nothing in reality. They have civilisation, society, literature, the drama, the arts and sciences — but they have no physicians. In case of illness you must either prescribe for yourself, or call in a foreign practitioner. If you send for the nearest doctor you are a dead man, for medical art in Russia is in its infancy. With the exception of the physician of the Emperor, who, I am told, is, though a Russian, learned, the only doctors who would not assassinate you are the Germans attached to the service of the princes. But the princes live in a state of perpetual motion. It is often impossible to ascertain where they may be; or, when that is known, to send
* Alluding to France. — Trans.
188RUSSIAN PHYSICIANS.
twenty, forty, or sixty versts (two French leagues are equal to seven versts) after them. There are, therefore, practically speaking, no physicians in Eussia. Should even the physician be sought at the known residence of his prince, and not be found there, there is no further hope. " The doctor is not here." No other answer can be obtained. In Russia every thing serves to show that reserve is the favourite virtue of the land. An opportunity for appearing discreet cannot but offer to those who know how to seize it, and what Russian would not do himself credit at so little cost? The projects and the movements of the great, and of those attached to their persons by so confidential an employ as that of physician, ought not to be known, unless officially declared, to persons who are born courtiers, and with whom obedience is a passion. Here mystery supplies the place of merit.
The most able of these doctors of the princes are far inferior to the least known among the medical men of our hospitals. The skill of the most learned practitioners will rust at court: nothing can supply the place of the experience gained by the bedside of the sick. I could read the secret memoirs of a Russian court physician with great interest, but I would not follow his prescriptions. Such men would make better chroniclers than doctors. When, therefore, a stranger falls sick among this soi-disant civilised people, his best plan is to consider himself among savages, and to leave every thing to nature.
On returning to my hotel this evening I found a letter, which has very agreeably surprised me. Through the influence of our ambassador, I am to
KINDNESS OF COUNT WORONZOFF.189
be admitted to-morrow to the imperial chapel, to see the marriage of the Grand Duchess.
To appear at court before having been presented, is contrary to all the laws of etiquette, and I was far from hoping for such a favour. The Emperor has, however, granted it. Count TVoronzoff, Grand Master of the Ceremonies, without pre-informing me, for he did not wish to amuse me with a false hope, had despatched a courier to Peterhoff, which is ten leagues from Petersburg, to solicit his Majesty in my favour. This kind consideration has not been unavailing. The Emperor has given permission for me to be present at the marriage, in the chapel of the court, and I am to be presented, without ceremony, at the ball on the same evening,
190COINCIDENCE OF DATES.
CHAP. XI.
COINCIDENCE OF DATES. — MARRIAGE OF THE GRANDSON OF M. DE
BEAUHARNAIS. — CHAPEL OF THE COURT. THE EMPEROR NI
CHOLAS. — HIS PERSON.THE EMPRESS. CONSEQUENCES OF
DESPOTISM. —THE AUTHOR`S DEBUT AT COURT. AN ACCIDENT.
MAGNIFICENT DECORATIONS AND COSTUME. ENTREE OF THE
IMPERIAL FAMILY.THE EMPEROR MASTER OF THE CEREMONIES.
FORMS OF THE GREEK CHURCH. —M. DE PAHLEN.EMOTION
OF THE EMPRESS. DESCRIPTION OF THE DUKE OF LEUCHTEN-
BERG. HIS IMPATIENCE. PRUDERY IN MODERN CONVERS
ATION. ITS CAUSE. MUSIC OF THE IMPERIAL CHAPEL.THE
ARCHBISHOP.THE EMPEROR KISSES HIS HAND. TALISMAN OF
M. DE BEAUHARNAIS. NO CROWD IN RUSSIA.IMMENSITÏ OF
THE PUBLIC SQUARES. THE COLUMN OF ALEXANDER. — FALSE
TASTE OF THE RUSSIANS IN THE ARTS.TRIUMPHAL ARCH.
STORM AT THE MOMENT OF THE MARRIAGE. THE EMPEROR TO
BE PITIED. THE EMPRESS A VICTIM. —THE AUTHOR'S PRE
SENTATION.— THE EMPEROR'S VOICE.THE AFFABILITY OF THE
EMPRESS. —A FETE AT THE PALACE.COURTIERS. COURT
DANCES. THE POLONAISE.THE GRAND GALLERY.POLITICAL
REFLECTIONS. FRENCH POLITICS. THE SUPPER. KHAN OF
THE KIRGUISES.THE QUEEN OF GEORGIA. RUSSIAN COURT
DRESS. THE GENEVESE AT THE EMPEROR'S TABLE. POLITE
NESS OF THE MONARCH.A NIGHT SCENE IN THE NORTH. AN
UNEXPECTED INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPRESS.PHILOSOPHY OF
DESPOTISM.
I лм writing on the 14th of July, 1839, fifty years after the taking of the Bastille, which event occurred on the 14th of July, 1789. The coincidence of these dates is curious. The marriage of the son of Eugene de Beauharnais has taken place on the same day as that wliich marked the commencement of our revolutions, precisely fifty years ago.
CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 191
I have just returned from the palaee, after having witnessed, in the Imperial chapel, all the Greek ceremonies of the marriage of the Grand Duchess Marie with the Duke de Leuchtenberg.
I will endeavour to describe in detail, but in the first place I must speak of the Emperor.
The predominant expression of his countenance is that of a restless severity, which strikes a beholder at the first glance; and, in spite of the regularity of his features, conveys by no means a pleasant impression. Physiognomists pretend, with much reason, that the hardness of the heart injures the beauty of the countenance. Nevertheless, this expression in the Emperor Nicholas appears to be the result of experience rather than the work of nature. By what long and cruel sufferings must not a man have been tortured, when his countenance excites fear, notwithstanding the voluntary confid
ence that noble features inspire.
A man charged with the management and direction, in its most minute details, of some immense machine, incessantly fears the derangement of one or other of its various parts. He who obeys suffers only according to the precise measure of the evil inflicted : he who commands, suffers first as other men suffer, and afterwards that common measure of evil is multiplied a hundred fold for him by the workings of imagination and self-love. Responsibility is the punishment of absolute power.
If he be the primum mobile of all minds, he becomes the centre also of all griefs: the more he is dreaded the more he is to be pitied.
He to whom is accorded unlimited rule sees, even in
192 CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR.
the common occurrences of life, the spectre of revolt. Persuaded that his rights are sacred, he recognises no bounds to them but those of his own intelligence and will, and he is, therefore, subject to constant annoyance. An unlucky fly, buzzing in the Imperial palace during a ceremony, mortifies the Emperor: the independence of nature appears to him a bad example : every thing which he cannot subject to his arbitrary laws becomes in his eyes as a soldier, who in the heat of battle revolts against his officer. The Emperor of liussia is a military chief, and every day with him is a day of battle.
Nevertheless, at times, some gleams of softness temper the imperious looks of this monarch, and then the expression of affability reveals all the native beauty of his classic features. In the heart of the husband and the father, humanity triumphs for a moment over the policy of the prince. When the sovereign rests from his task of imposing the yoke upon his subjects, he appears happy. This combat between the primitive dignity of the man and the affected gravity of the sovereign appears to me worthy the attention of an observer: it oecnpied mine the greater part of the time I passed in the chapel.
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 19
