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

by Astolphe De Custine

  For the authenticity of one of the accidents connected with the catastrophe of PeterhoíF I can vouch.

  Three young Englishmen, the eldest of whom I know, had been some days in Petersburg. Their father is in England, and their mother waits them at Carlsbad. On the day of the fete, the two youngest sailed for PeterhoíF without their brother, who constantly refused their solicitations to accompany them, alleging that he felt no curiosity. He валу them embark in their little vessel, and bade them adieu until the morrow. Three hours afterwards both were corpses ! They perished together with several women and children and two or three men, who wTere in the same boat; a sailor, who was a good swimmer, was alone saved. The unhappy surviving brother is plunged in a despair which would be difficult to describe. He is preparing to leave, to join his mother and apprise her of the melancholy tidings. She had written to her sons desiring them not to omit seeing

  RUSSIAN MYSTERY.59

  the fete of Peterhoff, nor to hurry their departure, should their curiosity incline them to prolong their stay, intimating that she would wait patiently for them at Carlsbad. A little more urgency on her part would perhaps have saved their lives.

  What numberless accounts, discussions, and proposals would not such a catastrophe have given rise to in any other land except this, and more especially in our own ! How many newspapers would have said, and how many voices would have repeated, that the police never does its duty, that the boats were not seaworthy, the watermen greedy only of gain, and that the authorities, far from interfering, did but increase the danger by their indifference or their corruption! It would have been added that the marriage of the grand-duchess had been celebrated under very gloomy auspices, like many other royal marriages ; and then, dates, allusions, and citations would have followed in great abundance. Nothing of the kind here ! A silence more frightful than the evil itself, everywhere reigns. Two lines in the Gazette, without details, is all the information publicly given ; and at court, in the city, in the saloons of fashion, not a word is spoken. There are no coffee-houses in Petersburg where people comment upon the journals ; there are indeed no journals upon which to comment. The petty employes are more timid than the great lords; what is not dared to be spoken of among the principals, is yet more carefully avoided by subordinates; and as to the merchants and shopkeepers, that wily caution necessary to all who would live and thrive in the land is, by them, especially observed. If.they speak on D 6

  60

  RUSSIAN MYSTERY.

  grave, and therefore dangerous subjects, it is only in strict and confidential privacy.*

  Russia is instructed to say nothing which could render the empress nervous; and thus is she left to live and die dancing! " She would be distressed, therefore hold your peace." And hereupon, children,

  * I may insert here the extract of a letter received in the present year from a female friend, which, though it does not add to, may serve to illustrate what has been already said, and to give a better idea of the subjection in which minds are held in Russia than anything I can myself say. " An Italian painter who was at Petersburg at the same time that you were, is now in Paris. lie related to me, as you had done previously, the circumstances of that catastrophe, in which about four hundred individuals perished. The painter told his story in a very low voice. ' I know all this,' I said to him, ' but why do you whisper it ?' ' О ! because the Emperor has forbidden that it should be spoken of.' This obedience, in spite of the time that had elapsed, and the distance, excited my astonishment. But you, who cannot conceal one truth, when do you mean to publish your journey ?"

  I subjoin yet another illustration, taken from an article in the Journal des Dêbats of the 13th October, 1842: — In the month of October, 1840, two trains running in an opposite direction on the railroad of St. Petersburg and Krasnacselo, came into collision, owing to their engineers not having seen each other's approach, by reason of a heavy fog. Everything was shattered by the shock. Five hundred persons, it is said, lay around the broken cars, killed, mutilated, or more or less severely wounded. This was scarcely known in Petersburg. Early on the morrow, a few curious persons only ventured to visit the scene of the accident. They found the remains of the carriages cleared away, the dead and the wounded removed, and, as the sole evidence of the accident, a few agents of the police, who after interrogating them as to the motives of their morning visit, reprimanded them for their curiosity, and roughly commanded them all to return home."

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  friends, relations, all who are loved, die, and no one dares to even weep for them. People here are too unfortunate to complain.

  The Russians are all courtiers. Soldiers, spies, gaolers, executioners in this land all do more than their duty ; all ply their trade as parasites. ЛУЪо shall tell me to what lengths a society may not go which is not built on the foundation of human dignity ?

  I repeat that as much must be undone as done, before there can be here made a people.

  This time, the silence of the police is not merely the result of a desire to flatter, it is also the effect of fear. The slave dreads the angry mood of his master, and employs every effort to keep him in a state of benignity and good humour. The chains, the dungeon, the knout and Siberia, are all within reach of an irritated czar; or at the best there is the Caucasus, a Siberia mitigated to the uses of a despotism softened in accordance with the spirit of the century.

  It cannot be denied that in this instance the first cause of the evil was the carelessness of the administration. If the authorities had prevented the boatmen of Petersburg from overloading their vessels, or from venturing on the gulf in craft too small or weak +o ride the waves, no one would have perished; and yet, who knows ? The Russians are generally bad seamen : wherever they are, there is danger. When Asiatics, with their long robes and long beards, are the sailors, there can be little surprise at hearing of shipwrecks.

  On the day of the fete, one of the steam-boats that generally run between Petersburg and Kron-

  62SAVING OF A STEAM BOAT.

  stadt, started for Peterhoff. Although large and strong, it was in danger of foundering like the smaller vessels, and would have done so had it not been for a foreigner who was among the passengers. This man (who was an Englishman) seeing several vessels capsized around them, knowing the danger they were in, and observing further that the boat was badly-served and badly commanded, conceived the happy idea of cutting with his own knife the cords which held the awning raised upon deck for the comfort and convenience of the passengers. The first thing that ought to have been done, -upon the least sign of a squall, was to remove this pavilion. The Russians never dreamt of so simple a precaution, and had it not been for the foreigner's presence of mind the boat would have infallibly capsized. It was saved, though too much damaged to continue its voyage, and its crew only too happy in being able to return to Petersburg. If the Englishman who saved it had not been an acquaintance of another Englishman, who is one of my friends, I should not have known the fact. It was confirmed to me by other informed persons, to whom I mentioned it; but they requested that I would keep it secret!

  It would not do to talk about the Deluge, if that catastrophe had happened under the reign of a Russian emperor.

  Among all the intelligent faculties, the only one that is here valued is that of tact. Imagine a whole nation bending under the yoke of this drawing-room virtue. Picture to your minds an entire people, prudent as a diplomatist who has yet his fortune to make, and you will compass the idea of the substance

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  and worth of conversation in Russia. If the atmosphere of the court oppresses us even when at the court, how unfriendly to life must it not be when it pursues us into the very retirement of the family circle!

  Russia is a nation of mutes. Some potent magician has transformed sixty millions of men into automata who must await the wand of another enchanter before they can again enjoy life. Or it reminds me of the palace of Sleeping
Beauty in the wood—it is bright and magnificent, but it lacks one thing, which is life, or, in other words, liberty.

  The Emperor must suffer from such a state of things. Whoever is born to command, no doubt loves obedience; but the obedience of a man is worth more than that of a machine. A prince surrounded by complaisant flatterers must always remain in ignorance of every thing which it is wished he should not know ; he is, therefore, necessarily condemned to doubt every word and to distrust every individual. Such is the lot of an absolute master. In vain would he be amiable, in vain would he live as a man ; the force of circumstances makes him unfeeling in spite of himself; he occupies the place of a despot, and is obliged to submit to a despot's destiny — to adopt his sentiments, or, at least, to play his part.

  The evils of dissimulation extend here further than may be imagined: the Russian police, so alert to torment people, is slow to aid or enlighten them when they have recourse to its aid in doubtful situations.

  The following is an example of this designed inertia. At the last carnival, a lady of my acquaintance had permitted her waiting-woman to go out on

  64MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF

  the Sunday. Night came, and this person did not return. On the following morning the lady, very uneasy, sent to obtain information from the police.*

  They replied that no aecident had occurred in Petersburg on the preceding night, and that no doubt the ƒemme-de-chambre had lost herself, and would soon return safe and sound.

  The day passed in deceitful security. On the day following a relation of the girl's, a young man tolerably versed in the secrets of the police, coneeived the idea of going to the Hall of Surgery, to which one of his friends procured him an admission. Scarcely had he entered when he recognised the corpse of his cousin, which the pupils were just about to commence dissecting. Being a good Russian, he preserved self-command sufficient to conceal his emotion, and asked — " Whose body is this ?"

  " No one knows : it is that of a girl's who was

  found dead the night before last, instreet; it

  is believed that she has been strangled in attempting to defend herself against men who endeavoured to violate her."

  " Who are the men?"

  í( We do not know : one can only form conjectures on the event; proofs are wanting."

  " How did you obtain the body ?"

  " The police sold it to us secretly; so we will not talk about it."

  This last is a common expression in the mouth of a Russ, or an acclimated foreigner. I admit that

  * I have been obliged to conceal names, and to change such circumstances as might allow of this account being traced to individuals ; but the facts are essentially preserved.

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  the above circumstances arc not so revolting as those of the crime of Burke in England; but the peculiar characteristic of Russia is the protective silence in which similar atrocities are shrouded.

  The cousin was dead. The mistress of the victim dared not complain; and now, after a lapse of six months, I am, perhaps, the only person to whom she has related the death of her femme-de-chambre.

  It will by this be seen how the subaltern agents of the Russian police perform their duties. These faithless servants gained a double advantage by selling the body of the murdered woman: they obtained a few roubles, and they also concealed the murder, which would have brought upon them severe blame, if the noise of the event had got abroad.

  Reprimands addressed to men of this class are, I believe, accompanied with other demonstrations, of a character likely to engrave the words indelibly in the memories of the unfortunate hearers. A Russian of the lower class is as often beaten as saluted. The lifting of the rods (in Russia the rod is a large split cane) and the lifting of the hat are means employed in about equal measure, in the social education of this people. Beating in Russia can only be applied to certain classes and by men of certain other classes. Here ill-treatment is regulated like the tariff of a custom-house ; it reminds us of the code of Ivan. The dignity of caste is admitted, but no one dreams of the dignity of man. The reader will recollect what I have already said of the politeness of the Russians of all ranks, and of its real value ; I will now confine myself to relating one or two of the illustrative scenes that pass daily before my eyes.

  66POLITENESS AND BRUTALITY.

  I have seen in the same street two drivers of drowskas ceremoniously lift their hats in passing each other: —this is a common custom: if acquainted, they lift their hand to their mouth with an amicable smile, and kiss it, making at the same time a little expressive and intelligent sign with the eyes: so much for politeness.

  A little farther on I have seen a courier, a feld-jäger, or some other government servant, descend from his vehicle, and, running to one of these well-bred coachmen, strike him brutally and unmercifully with whip, stick, or fist, in the breast, the face, or on the head, which punishment the unlucky wight, who had not made way in sufficient haste, received without the least complaint or resistance, out of respect to the uniform and the caste of his tormenter, whose anger, however, is not always in such cases promptly disarmed by the submission of the delincµient.

  Have I not seen one of these carriers of dispatches, courier of some minister, or valet-de-chamhre of some aide-de-camp of the emperor's, drag from his seat a young coachman, and never cease striking him until he had covered his face with blood. The victim submitted to the torture like a real lamb, without the least resistance, and in the same manner as one would yield to some commotion of nature. The passers-by were in no degree moved or excited by the cruelty, and one of the comrades of the sufferer, who was watering his horses a few steps off, obedient to a sign of the enraged feld-jäger, approached to hold his horse's bridle during the time that he was pleased to prolong the punishment. In what other country could a man of the lower orders be found who would assist in

  CRUELTY OF A FELD-JÄGER.67

  the infliction of an arbitrary punishment upon one of his companions?

  The scene in question took place in the finest part of the city, and at the busiest hour. When the unfortunate man was released, he wiped away the blood, which streamed down his cheeks, re-mounted his seat, and re-commenced his bows and salutations as usual. It should be recollected that this abomination was enacted in the midst of a silent crowd. A people governed in a Christian manner would protest against a social discipline which destroys all individual liberty. But here the influence of the priest is confined to obtaining from the people and the nobles signs of the cross and genuflexions.

  Notwithstanding its worship of the Holy Spirit, this nation has always its god upon earth. Like Tamerlane, the Emperor of Russia receives the idolatrous worship of his subjects; the Russian law has never been baptized.

  I hear every day some encomium on the gentleness, politeness, and pacific humour of the people of Saint Petersburg. Elsewhere I should admire this calm; here, I can only view it as the worst symptom of the evil of which I complain. The people are actuated by fear to a degree that urges them to dissimulate, and to assume the appearance of a content and tranquillity which conduces to the satisfaction of the oppressor, and the security of the oppressed. Your true tyrant likes to be surrounded with smiles. Under the terror which hovers over all heads, submission becomes the general rule of conduct : victims and executioners, all practise the obe-

  68REVOLTING CRUELTY OF

  dience that perpetuates the evil which they inflict or to which they submit.

  The intervention of the police between people who quarrel would expose the combatants to punishment yet more formidable than the blows they bear in silence, and they avoid therefore all noise that might call the executioner to the spot.

  Of the following tumultuous scene chance, however, rendered me a witness this morning.

  I was passing along a canal covered with boats laden with wood, which the men were carrying on shore. One of these porters got into a quarrel with his comrades, and they all commenced fighting as they might
have done among ourselves on a similar occasion. The aggressor, finding himself the weakest, took to flight: he climbed, with the agility of a squirrel, a large mast of the vessel, and perching himself upon a yard, set at defiance his less nimble adversaries. So far I found the scene amusing. The men seeing themselves balked in their hope of vengeance, and forgetting that they were in Russia, manifested their fury by loud cries and savage menaces. There are found at certain distances, in all the streets of the city, agents of the police in uniform : two of these persons, attracted by the vociferations of the combatants, repaired to the scene of action, and commanded the chief offender to descend from his perch. This individual did not obey the summons; one of the policemen sprang on board; the refractory porter clung to the mast; the man of power reiterated his commands, and the rebel persisted in his disobedience. The former, infuriated, tried himself to climb the mast, and succeeded in

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  seizing one of the feet of the fugitive, which, without troubling himself with any consideration as to the manner in which the unfortunate being was to descend, he pulled at with all his force. The other, hopeless of escaping the punishment that awaited him, at length yielded to his fate; he let go his hold, and fell from a height of about twelve feet upon a pile of wood, on which his body lay as motionless as a sack. The severity of the fall may be imagined. The head struck against the wood, and the sound of the concussion reached my ear, though I was about fifty paces off. I supposed the man was dead; his face was bathed in blood; nevertheless, on recovering from the first stunning effect of the fall, this unfortunate savage, thus taken in the snare, rose ; his visage, wherever the blood allowed it to be seen, had a frightful paleness, and he began to bellow like an ox. His horrible cries diminished my compassion; he seemed to me as nothing more than a brute, and I could not therefore feel for him as for one of my fellows. The louder the man howled the harder my heart grew ; so true it is that the objects of our compassion must exhibit something of their proper dignity, ere we can deeply participate in their trouble. Pity is a sentiment of association, and who woidd mentally associate with that which he despises ? They at length carried him off, although he continued to offer a desperate and protracted resistance. A small boat was brought alongside by other police agents; the prisoner was bound with cords, his hands were fastened behind his back, and he was thrown on his face into the boat. This second rude shock was followed by a shower of blows, nor did the torture here finish; the