Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

by Astolphe De Custine

  I have never seen any thing more beautiful to contemplate, yet at the same time more saddening to reflect upon, than this pretended national reunion

  VOL. II.В

  2FETE OF PETERHOFF.

  of courtiers and peasants, who mingle together in the same saloons without any interchange of real sympathy. In a social point of view the sight has displeased me, because it seems to me that the emperor, by this false display of popularity, abases the great without exalting the humble. All men are ecµial before God, and the Russians' God is the emperor. This supreme governor is so raised above earth, that he sees no difference between the serf and the lord. From the height, in which his sublimity dwells, the little distinctions which divide mankind escape his divine inspection, just as the irregularities which appear on the surface of the globe vanish before an inhabitant of the sun.

  When the emperor opens his palace to the privileged peasants and the chosen burghers whom he admits twice a year to the honour of paying their court *, he does not say to the labourer or the tradesman, "You are a man like myself," but he says to the great lord, " You are a slave like them, and I, your God, soar equally above you all." Such is (all ])olitical fiction aside) the moral meaning of the fete : it is this which, in my opinion, spoils it. As a spectator, I remarked that it pleased the sovereign and the serfs, much more than the professed courtiers.

  To seek to become a popular idol by reducing all others to a level, is a cruel game, an amusement of despotism, which might dazzle the men of an earlier century, but which cannot deceive any people arrived at the age of experience and reflection.

  * On the 1st of January, at Petersburg, and at Peterhoíf, nn the birthday of the, Empress.

  FETE OF PETERHOFF.

  3

  The Emperor Nicholas did not devise this imposition ; and such being the case, it would be the more worthy of him to abolish it. Yet it must be owned, that nothing is abolished in Eussia without peril. The people who want the guarantees of law, are protected only by those of custom. An obstinate attachment to usages, which are upheld by insurrection and poison, is one of the bases of the constitution, and the periodical death of sovereigns proves to the Russians that this constitution knows how to make itself respected. The equilibrium of such a machine is to me a deep and painful mystery.

  In point of magnificent decorations, and of picturesque assemblage of the costumes of all ranks, the fete at Peterhoff cannot be too highly extolled. Nothing that I had read, or that had been related to me concerning it, gave me any adequate idea of this fairy scene; the imagination was surpassed by the reality.

  The reader must picture to himself a palace built upon a terrace, the height of which seems that of a mountain in a land of plains extending farther than the eye can reach : a country so flat that, from an elevation of sixty feet, the vision may sweep over an immense horizon. At the foot of this imposing structure lies a vast park, which terminates only with the sea, on whose bosom may be descried a line of vessels of war, which were illuminated on the evening of the fete. This illumination was general; the fire blazed and extended, like a conflagration, from the groves and terraces of the palace to the waves of the Gulf of Finland. In the park, the lamps produced the effect of daylight. The trees в 2

  4

  FETE OF PETEKHOFF.

  were lighted up by suns of every colour. It was not by thousands nor tens of thousands, but by hundreds of thousands, that the lights in these car-dens of Armida might be counted; and they could all be seen from the windows of a palace crowded with a people as profoundly respectful as if they had lived all their days at court.

  Nevertheless, in this assemblage, the object of which was to efface all distinctions of rank, each class might still be separately traced. Whatever attacks despotism may have made upon the aristocracy, there are yet castes in Eussia. Here is presented one more point of resemblance to the East, and not one of the least striking contradictions of social order created by the manners of the people operating in unison with the government of the country. Thus, at this fete of the empress,, this true bacchanalian revel of absolute power, I recognised the order which reigns throughout the state, through the apparent disorder of the ball. Those whom I met were always either merchants, soldiers, labourers, or courtiers, and each class was distinguished by its costume. A dress which would not denote the rank of the man, and a man whose only worth should arise from his personal merit, would be considered as anomalies, as European inventions, imported by restless innovators and imprudent travellers. It must never be forgotten that we are here on the confines of Asia: a Russian in a frock coat in his own country appears to me like a foreigner.

  True bearded Russians think as J do upon this subject, and they comfort themselves with the idea that a day shall come when they will be able to put

  FETE OF PETEKHOFF.5

  to the sword all these coxcombical infidels to ancient usages, who neglect the nation, and betray their country, in order to rival the civilisation of the foreigner.

  Russia is placed upon the limits of two continents. It is not in the nature of that which is European to amalgamate perfectly with that which is Asiatic. The Muscovite community has been governed hitherto only by submitting to the violence and incoherence attendant upon the contact of two civilisations, entirely different in character. This presents to the traveller a field of interesting, if not consolatory, speculation.

  The ball was a rout: it professed to be a masquerade, for the men wore a small piece of silk called a Venetian mantle, which floated in a ridiculous manner above their uniforms. The saloons of the old palace, filled with people, resembled an ocean of heads of greasy hair, over all of which rose proudly the noble head of the Emperor, whose stature, voice, and will, alike soar above his people. This prince seems worthy and capable of subjugating the minds of men, even as he surpasses their persons. A sort of mysterious influence attaches to his presence ; at Peterhoff,' on the parade, in war, and in every moment of his life, may be seen in him the power that reigns.

  This perpetual reigning, and its perpetual worship, would be a real comedy, if upon such permanent dramatic representation there did not depend the existence of sixty millions of men, who live only because the man whom you see before you playing the part of the emperor, gives them permission to в 3

  6IMMENSE POWER ОГ THE EMPEROR.

  breathe, and dictates to them the mode of using this permission. It is the divine right, applied to the mechanism of social life. Such is the serious side of the representation, wherein are involved incidents of so grave a nature, that fear soon extinguishes the inclination to laughter.

  There does not exist on the earth at the present time, not in Turkey, not even in China, a single man who enjoys and exercises such power as the emperor. Let the reader figure to himself all the skilfulness of our governments, perfected as they are by centuries of practice, put into exercise in a still young and uncivilised society; the rubrics of the administrations of the West, aiding by modern experience the despotism of the East; European discipline supporting the tyranny of Asia; the police employed in concealing barbarism, in order, not to destroy, but to perpetuate it; disciplined brute force and the tactics of European armies, serving to strengthen an Eastern policy;—let him conceive the idea of a half-savage people who have been enrolled and drilled, without having been civilised, and he will be able to understand the social and moral state of the Russian nation. To profit by the progressive discoveries in the art of governing made by the European nations, in order to rule sixty millions of Orientals, has been from the time of Peter the First the problem to be studied by those who govern Russia.

  The reigns of Catharine the Great and of Alexander did but prolong the systematic infancy* of this nation, which still exists only in name.

  * L'enfance systépiatiqu
  THE EMPRESS CATHERINE.

  7

  Catharine had instituted schools to please the French philosophers, whose praises her vanity desired to obtain. The governor of Moscow,
one of her old favourites, who was rewarded by a pompous exile in the ancient capital of the empire, wrote to her one day that no one would send their children to the school. The Empress replied pretty nearly in these words: —

  " My dear Prince, do not distress yourself because the Russians have no desire for knowledge: if I institute schools it is not for ourselves, but for Europe, in whose estimation we must maintain our standing; but if our peasants should really wish to become enlightened, neither you nor I could continue in our places."

  This letter has been read by a person in whose statements I have every confidence. Undoubtedly, in writing it, the Empress forgot herself; and it is precisely because she was subject to such absence of mind that she was considered so amiable, and that she exercised so much power over the minds of men of imagination.

  The Russians will, according to their usual tactics, deny the authenticity of the anecdote ; but if I cannot be certain of the strict accuracy of the words, I can affirm that they truly express the sentiments of the sovereign. In this trait may be discovered the spirit of vanity which rules over and torments the Russians, and which perverts, even in its source, the power established over them.

  Their unfortunate desire for the good opinion of Europe is a phantom which pursues them in the secrecy of thought, and reduces conversation among в 4

  8VIEWS OF THE PRESENT EMPEROR.

  them to a trick of jugglery, executed more or less adroitly.

  The present emperor has, with his sound judgment and his clear apprehension, perceived the shoal, but will he be able to avoid it ? More than the strength of Peter the Great is necessary to remedy the evil caused by that first corrupter of the Russians.

  At the present time, the difficulty is of a double character; the mind of the peasant remains rude and barbarous, while his habits and his disposition cause him to submit to restraint. At the same time the false refinement of the nobles contravenes the national character, upon which all attempt to ennoble the people can alone be built. What a complication ! Who will unloose this modern gordian knot ?

  I admire the Emperor Nicholas. A man of genius can alone accomplish the task he has imposed upon himself; he has seen the evil, he has formed an idea of the remedy, and he is endeavouring to apply it.

  But can one reign suffice to eradicate evils which were implanted a century and a half ago ? The mischief is so deeply rooted, that it strikes even the eye of strangers the least attentive, and that too in a country where every one conspires to deceive the traveller.

  In travelling in Russia, a light and superficial mind may feed itself with illusions ; but whoever has his eyes open, and adds to some little power of observation an independent humour, will be presented with a continued and painful labour, which consists in discovering and discerning, at every point, the struggle between two nations carried on in one community. These two nations arc — Russia as she is,

  RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY.

  9

  and Russia as they would have her to appear in the eyes of Europe.

  The Emperor is less secure than any one against the snares of illusion. The reader will remember the journey of Catherine to Cherson ; she traversed deserts, but they built her lines of villages at every half league of the road by which she passed, and as she did not go behind the scenes of this theatre on which the tyrant played the fool, she believed her southern provinces were well-peopled, though they continued cursed with a sterility which was owing to the oppression of her"government rather than to the rigour of naùire. The finesse of the men charged by the Emperor with the details of Russian administration, still exposes the sovereign to similar deceptions.

  The corps diplomatique, and the western people in general, have always been considered by this Byzantine government and by Russia in general, as malignant and jealous spies. There is this similarity between the Russians and the Chinese, that both one and the other always believe that strangers envy them : they judge us by their own sentiments.

  The Russian hospitality also, vaunted as it is, has become an art which may be resolved into a refined species of policy. It consists in rendering its guests content at the least possible cost of sincerity. Here, politeness is only the art of reciprocally disguising the double fear that each experiences and inspires. I hear every where spoken the language of philosophy, and every where I see that oppression is the order of the day. They say to me, — "TVe would gladly dispense with being arbitrary, wc should then be more rich and powerful; but we have to do with в 5

  10INFLUENCE OF FEAR ON SOCIETY.

  an Asiatic people : " at the same time they think in their hearts, " we would gladly dispense with talking liberalism and philanthropy, we should then be more happy and more strong, but we have to do with the governments of Europe."

  The Russians of all classes conspire with an unanimity which is extraordinary in causing duplicity to triumph among themselves. They have a dexterity in lying, a natural proneness to deceit, which is revolting. Things that I admire elsewhere, I hate here, because I find them too dearly paid for; order, patience, calmness, elegance, respectfulness, the natural and moral relations which ought to exist between those who conceive and those who execute, in short, all that gives a worth and a charm to well-organised societies, all that gives a meaning and an object to poHtical institutions, is lost and confounded here in one single sentiment — that of fear. In Russia, fear replaces, that is, paralyses thought. This sentiment when it reigns alone can never produce more than the appearances of civilisation ; whatever short-sighted legislators may say, fear will never be the moving influence of a well organised society ; it is not order, it is the veil of chaos; where liberty is wanting, there soul and truth must be wanting also. Russia is a body without life, a colossus which subsists only by its bead; and whose members, all equally deprived of force, languish ! Thence arises a profound inquietude, an inexpressible uneasiness, an uneasiness which does not, like that of the new French révulutionnaires, arise from a vagueness of ideas, from abuses, from the satiety of material prosperity, or the jealousies which a combination of

  SLAVISHNESS OP THE NOBILITY.11

  agencies gives birth to, it is the expression of a real state of suffering, the indication of an organic malady.

  I believe that in no part of the world do the men enjoy less real happiness than in Russia. ^We are not happy among ourselves, but we feel that happiness is in our power: among the Russians it is unattainable. Imagine republican passions (for, once again, fictitious equality reigns under a Russian emperor) boiling under the silence of despotism ! This is a terrific combination, especially as viewed with regard to its future influence upon the world. Russia is a cauldron of boiling water, well closed, but placed over a fire which is ever becoming more fiercely heated; I dread the explosion, and the Emperor has several times experienced the same dread during the course of his laborious reign ; laborious in peace as in war, for, in our days, empires, like machines, are ruined by remaining inactive.

  It is, then, this head without a body, this sovereign without a nation, who gives popular fetes! It appears to me that before creating popularity he should create a people.

  In sooth this country lends itself marvellously to every species of fraud: there are slaves elsewhere. but to find a nation of courtly slaves it is necessary to visit Russia. One scarcely knows at which most to wonder, the inconsistency or the hypocrisy. Catharine II. is not dead, for notwithstanding the open character of her grandson, it is still by dissimulation that Russia is governed. Here, to avow the tyranny would be to make a beneficial progress.

  On this point, as on many others, the foreigners who have described Russia have combined with the в G

  12 author's motives in writing his travels.

  natives to deceive the world. Could any persons be more treacherously complaisant than the greater part of those writers who congregate here from all the corners of Europe, in order to excite a sensibility on the touching familiarity which reigns between the Russian emperor and his people ? Are, th
en, the illusions of despotism so strong as to overpower even the simple spectator? Either this country has not hitherto been described except by men whose position or character does not permit of their being independent, or else minds the most sincere lose their liberty of judgment as soon as they enter Russia.

  As regards myself, I oppose to this influence the aversion which I have for disguise.

  I hate but one evil, and if I hate it, it is because I believe that it engenders and includes all the others : this evil is falsehood. I therefore endeavour to unmask it wherever I meet with it; it is the horror with which it inspires me that gives me the desire and the courage to write these travels: I undertook them through curiosity, I relate them from a sense of duty. A passion for truth is an inspiration which supplies the place of energy, youth, and enlightened views. This sentiment influences me to such an extent as to cause me to love even the age in which we live: for though it be somewhat coarse, it is, at least, more sincere than that which preceded it. It distinguishes itself by the repugnance, sometimes rude and unmannerly, which it evinces for all affectations. In this repugnance I partake. A hatred for hypocrisy is the torch which serves to guide me through the labyrinth of the world : those who deceive men, whatever means they

  NO MIDDLE CLASS IN EUSSIA.13

  may use, seem to me as poisoners; and the more elevated and powerful they are, the more are they culpable.

  Such are the sentiments which prevented my enjoying, yesterday, a spectacle which, notwithstanding, my eyes admired. It was beautiful, magnificent, singular, novel — but it appeared deceptive: this idea sufficed to deprive it of all real splendour. The passion for truth, which in the present day pervades the hearts of Frenchmen, is still unknown in Russia.