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

by Astolphe De Custine

  70REVOLTING CRUELTY OF

  sergeant who had seized the victim., no sooner saw him thus prostrate, than he jumped upon his body, and began to stamp upon him with all his force, trampling him under his feet as the grapes are trod in the wine-press. I had then approached the spot, and am therefore witness of all that I relate. During this horrible torture the frightful yells of the victim were at first redoubled, but when they began to grow fainter and fainter, I felt that I could no longer command myself, and, having no power to interfere, I hastened away.

  What most disgusts me is the refined elegance which is exhibited in the same picture with such revolting barbarity. If there were less luxury and delicacy among the higher orders the condition of the lower would inspire me with less indignation. Such occurrences, with all that they involve, would make me hate the most delightful country in the world; how mueh more, then, a heath of plaster — a painted marsh !

  " What exaggeration! " the Russians would say: " what strong expressions for so trifling a matter!! " I know you call it trifling, and it is that for which I reproach you. Your familiarity with these horrors explains your indifference without justifying it: you make no more account of the cords with which you bind a man, than of the collar which you put on your dog.

  In broad daylight, in the open street, to beat a man to death before he is tried, appears a very simple matter in the eyes of the public and of the constables of Petersburg. Citizens, lords, and soldiers, the poor and the rich, the great and small, the polite and the

  THE POLICE.

  71

  vulgar, the clowns and the fops, the Russians of every class consent to let such things quietly go on in their presence, without troubling themselves about their legality. Elsewhere, the citizen is protected by the whole community against the agent of unjust power; here, the public agent is protected against the just accusations of the injured individual. The serf never accuses.

  The Emperor Nicholas has made a code ! If the facts I have related are in accordance with the laws of this code so much the worse for the legislator; if they are illegal, so much the worse for the administrator of the law. The Emperor is, in both cases, responsible. "What a misfortune to be no more than a man in accepting the office of a god, and yet to be forced to accept it! Absolute government should be confided only to angels.

  I pledge myself to the accuracy of the facts that are here related. I have neither added nor retrenched one circumstance in the recital, and I recount it while the slightest features of the scene continue present to my mind. *

  If such details could be published at Petersburg, with the commentaries indispensable to make them noticed by minds inured to all kinds of brutality and injustice, they would not effect the good that might be expected. The Russian administration would so order matters, that the police of Petersburg should henceforth seem to be more mild in its treatment of the people, were it only out of respect for the

  * It may not be useless to repeat that this chapter, like almost all the others, was preserved and concealed with care during my sojourn in Russia.

  72UNCIVILISED STATE OF THE PEOPLE.

  squeamish sentiments of foreigners; but this would be all.

  The manners of a people are gradually formed by the reciprocal action of the laws upon the customs, and of the customs upon the laws ; they do not change as by the stroke of a wand. Those of the Russians, in spite of the pretensions of these half-savages, are, and will yet long remain cruel. It is little more than a century since they were true Tartars : it was Peter the Great who first compelled the men to admit females into their social meetings; and under all their modern elegance, several of these parvenus of civilisation still wear the bear skin.

  Seeing that they can now no longer avail themselves of the age of chivalry — that age by whose spirit the nations of western Europe were so much benefited in their youth — all that can remain for the Russians is an independent and influential religion. Russia has a faith, but a political faith does not emancipate the human mind ; it shuts it up in the narrow circle of its natural interests. With the Catholic faith the Russians would soon acquire general ideas, based on a rational course of instruction, and on a liberty proportioned to their state of enlightenment. Could they but obtain this elevation, lam persuaded that they might rule the world. The evil of their system is deeply seated, and the remedies hitherto employed have only acted upon the surface — they have healed the wound over without curing it. A genuine civilisation spreads from the centre to the circumference, that of Russia tends from the circumference tOAvards the centre ; it is a barbarism, plastered over, and nothing more.

  THE EMPEROR A REFORMER.73

  Because a savage may have the vanity of a votary of fashion, does it follow that his mind is cultivated ? I repeat, and may, perhaps, repeat again, that the Russians care much less for being civilised than for making us believe that they are civilised. So long as this public disease of vanity shall continue to prey upon their hearts and to corrupt their minds, they will have certain great lords who will be able to make a display of refinement both among themselves and us; but they will remain barbarians at heart. Unfortunately, however, savages understand the use of fire-arms.

  The endeavours of the Emperor Nicholas justify my views. He has thought, before I did, that the time for the display of appearances is past in Eussia, and that the entire edifice of civilisation in that land has to be reconstructed.

  Peter the Great woidd have overthrown it a second time in order to rebuild it. Nicholas is more skilful. I am filled with respect for this man, who, with the whole energy of his mind, struggles in secret against the work of the genius of Peter the Great. While continuing to deify that mighty reformer, he is all the while bringing back to their proper position a nation led astray among the paths of imitation for upwards of a hundred years. The views of the present emperor manifest themselves even in the streets of Petersburg. He does not amuse himself with building, in haste, colonnades of stuccoed bricks ; he is everywhere replacing appearance with reality; stone is everywhere superseding plaster, and fabrics of a strong and massive architecture are rising; above the showy monuments of a false splendour. It is by first

  YOL. II.E

  74THE COLUMN OF ALEXANDER.

  bringing back a people to their primitive character, that they are rendered capable and worthy of true civilisation, without which a nation cannot know how to work for posterity. If a people would rear a monument to their own power and greatness, they must not copy foreigners — they must study to develope the national genius instead of thwarting it. That which in this creation most nearly approaches to Deity, is nature. Nature calls the Russians to great things, while they, under their pretended civilisation, have been occupied with trifles. The Emperor Nicholas has appreciated their capabilities better than his predecessors, and under his reign, by a general return to truth, everything is becoming great. In Petersburg stands a pillar, which is the largest piece of granite that has ever been cut by the hands of man, not excepting the Egyptian monuments. Seventy thousand soldiers, the court, the city, and the surrounding country, gathered together without inconvenience or pressure in the square of the imperial palace, to witness, in a religious silence, the miraculous erection of this monument, conceived, executed, and placed by a Frenchman, M. de Montferraiid ; for the French arc still necessary to the Russians. The prodigious machines worked successfully, and at the moment when the column, rising from its fetters, lifted itself up as if animated with a life of its own, the army, the crowd, the emperor himself, fell on their knees to thank God for so great a miracle, and to praise him for the stupendous achievements which he permitted them to accomplish. This I call a real national fete ; not a flattery that might, like the masquerade of Petcrhoff, have been also taken for

  REFORM OF COURT LANGUAGE. 75

  a satire, but a grand historical picture. The great, the little, the bad, the sublime, and all other op-posites, enter into the constitution of this singular country, while silence perpetuates
the prodigy and prevents the machine from breaking.

  The Emperor Nicholas extends his reforms even to the language of those who surround him; he requires Russian to be spoken at court. The greater number of the women of the highest circles, especially those who have been born at Petersburg, are ignorant of their native language; but they learn a few Russian phrases, which they utter through obedience to the emperor, when he passes into the saloons of the palace where their duties may retain them. One of them acts always as a sentinel, to announce to the others, by some conventional sign, the arrival of the monarch, on whose appearance French conversation immediately ceases, and Russian phrases, destined to flatter the imperial ear, are heard on every side. The prince observes, with self-complacency, the extent of his power as a reformer; and the fair rebels begin to laugh as soon as he has passed.

  However, like every reformer, the Emperor is endowed with an obstinacy which must ultimately produce success.

  At the extremity of that square, vast as a mighty region, in which stands the column, is to be seen a mountain of granite — the church of Saint Isaac, of Petersburg. This edifice, though less stately, less beautiful in design, and less rich in ornaments than that of St. Peter's at Rome, is quite as extraordinary. It is not finished, and one cannot therefore judge of the whole, which will be a work whose gigantic pro-E 2

  76

  CHURCH OF ST. ISAAC.

  portions will far exceed those which the spirit of the age has produced among other nations. Its materials are granite, bronze, and iron, and no other. Its colour is imposing, though sombre.

  This marvellous temple was commenced under Alexander, and will soon be completed under the reign of Nicholas, by the same Frenchman, (M. de Montferrand), who raised the column.

  And such efforts for the benefit of a church crippled by the civil power! Alas ! the word of God will never be heard under this roof. The temples of the Greek church no longer serve as roofs for the pulpits of truth. In scorn of the memories of the Athana-siuses and the Chrysostoms, religion is not taught publicly to the Russians. The Greek Muscovites suppress the word of preaching, unlike the Protestants, whose religion consists of nothing but that word.

  The Emperor, aided by his armies of soldiers and of artists, exerts himself in vain. He will never invest the Greek church with a power which God has not given it: it may be rendered a persecuting, but it cannot be rendered an apostolical, church, — a church, that is to say which is a civiliser, and a conqueror in the moral world. To discipline men is not to convert souls. This political and national church has neither moral nor spiritual life : where independence is wanting, there can be nothing else that is good. Schism, in separating the priest from his independent head, immediately throws him into the hands of his temporal prince; and thus revolt is punished by slavery. In the most bloody periods of history, the Catholic church laboured to emancipate the

  SPIRIT OF THE GREEK RELIGION.

  nations: the adulterous priest sold the God of heaven to the god of the world to enable him to tyrannise over men in the name of Christ; but this impious priest, while even he was killing the body enlightened the mind: for, altogether turned from the right way as he was, he nevertheless formed part of a church which possessed life and light: the Greek priest imparts neither life nor death, — he is himself a dead body.

  Signs of the cross, salutations in the streets, bowing of the knees before the chapels, prostrations of old devotees upon the pavements of the churches, kissings of the hands, a wife, children, and universal contempt —such are the fruits of the priest's abdication—such is all that he has been able to obtain from tire most superstitious people in the world. What a lesson ! and what a punishment! In the midst of the triumph of his schism, the schismatic priest is struck with impotence. A priest, when he wishes to engross temporal power, perishes for the want of views sufficiently elevated to enable him to see the road that God has appointed for him; — a priest who allows himself to be dethroned by the king, for the want of courage to follow that road, equally fails in his high calling.

  I cannot apologise for the wandering character of my thoughts and disquisitions, for, in passing freely from object to object, from idea to idea, I describe Russia as a whole, and show the truth as it appears to me, better than if, with a more methodical style, 1 purposely endeavoured to avoid the reproach of inconsistencies, digressions, or confusion of subjects. The state of the people, the greatness of the Em-E 3

  78CONVERSATION WITH A FRENCHMAN.

  peror, the aspect of the streets, the beauty of the public buildings, the degraded state of minds consequent upon the degeneration of the religious principle, all struck my eyes at the same moment, and passed so to speak, at once under my pen; and all constitute Russia, the principles of whose life reveal themselves to my thoughts in the contemplation of objects the least significant in appearance.

  Yesterday I walked out with a Frenchman, an intelligent pei`son, well acquainted with Petersburg, where he resides as tutor in the family of a great nobleman. He has consequently opportunities for attaining a knowledge of the truth, entirely beyond the reach of passing travellers. He considered my views of Russia too favourable. I laugh at this reproach when I think of those which the Russians will make against me, and I maintain that I am impartial, seeing that I hate only that which appears to me evil, and that I admire all which appears good, in this, as in other lands.

  This Frenchman passes his life among Russian aristocrats.

  We were walking leisurely along the beautiful promenade of the Perspective Newski, when suddenly a black, or dark green coach passed before us. It was long, low-built, and closed on all sides, and much resembled an enormous coffin raised upon wheels. Four little apertures of about six inches square, crossed with iron bars, gave air and light to this moving tomb; a child of eight, or, at the most, ten years, guided the two horses attached to the machine; and, to my surprise, a considerable number of soldiers escorted it. I had scarcely time to ask my compa-

  A TRAVELLING PRISON.79

  nion the uses of so singular an equipage, when my question was answered by a ghastly face, which appeared at one of the air holes, and at once informed me that this carriage served to transport prisoners to the place of their destination.

  " It is the travelling cell of the Russians," said my companion; "elsewhere, no doubt, they have similar odious objects ; but then they seek to hide them as much as they can from the public; here they make as much display of them as possible. What a government!"

  " Think," I replied, " of the difficulties it has to encounter!"

  " Ah ! you are still the dupe of their gilded words. I see the Russian authorities impose upon you whatever they please."

  " I endeavour to place myself as much as possible in their situation; nothing requires more candid consideration than the position of those who govern, for it is not they who have created the existing state of things; their business is to defend it even while prudently reforming it. If the iron rod which governs this debased people were to be removed but for one moment, society would be overturned."

  " They tell you that; but, trust me, they delight in this pretended necessity. Those who most complain of the severities they are obliged, as they say, to put in force, would renounce them with regret. In the bottom of their hearts they love a government without check or counterpoise; such a government works more easily than any other. No man willingly gives up that which makes his task more easy. Could E 4

  80AN INSUERECTION.

  you expect a preacher to dispense with the terrors of hell, in his efforts to convert hardened sinners ? Hell is the capital punishment of the theologians *; at first they make use of it with regret, as of a necessary evil, but they soon acquire a taste for dealing out damnation upon the greater part of mankind. It is the same thing with severe measures in politics; they are feared before they are tried, but after their success is witnessed, they are admired; and such, you may depend upon it, is the feeling too general in this country. I often think that
they take pleasure in creating circumstances, under which it is necessary to inflict punishment, for fear they should get out of practice. Are you ignorant of what is now passing on the Wolga?"

  " I heard of serious troubles there, but they say that they were promptly repressed."

  "No doubt: but at what price? And what should you say, were I to tell you that these frightful disorders were the result of a word of the Emperor's?"

  " Never will you induce me to believe that he can have approved such horrors."

  c¢ Neither do I say he has. Nevertheless, a word pronounced by him — innocently, I believe, has caused the evil. The fact is as follows: notwithstanding the injustice of the overseers of the crown, the lot of the peasants of the Emperor is still preferable to that of other serfs; and whenever the sovereign becomes proprietor of some new domain, its inhabitants are the envy of all their neighbours. The