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

by Astolphe De Custine

  140CHARACTER OF ТПЕ COURTIERS.

  representation is over. Since my return from Peter -hofiº I can scarcely recognise the city I left four days ago; but were the Emperor to return this evening, everything to-morrow would assume its former interest. We should have to become Russians to understand the power of the sovereign's eye ; it is a very different thing from the lover's eye spoken of by La Fontaine. Do you suppose that a young gh`l bestows a thought on her love affairs in the presence of the Emperor? Do not deceive yourself; she is occupied with the idea of procuring some promotion for her brother. An old woman, so soon as she breathes the air of the court, feels no longer her infirmities. She may have no family to provide for — no matter, she plays the courtier for the pure love of the game. She is servile without an object, just as others like play for its own sake. Thus, by an endeavour to shake off the burden of years, this wrinkled puppet loses all the dignity of age. We have no pity for busy intriguing decrepitude, because it is ridiculous. At the end of life it is surely time to set about practising the lesson which time is ever teaching, the grand art, namely, of giving up. Happy those who early learn to apply this lesson. To renounce is the great proof of a powerful mind: to abdicate a position before it is lost,—this is the policy of old age.

  It is, however, a policy little practised at court, and at that of St. Petersburg less than at any other. Busy, restless old women are the plagues of the court of Russia. The sun of favour dazzles and blinds the ambitious, more especially those of the female sex; it prevents their discerning their true interest, which would be to save their pride by concealing the mi-

  CHARACTER OF THE COURTIERS.141

  series of their hearts. On the contrary, the Eussian courtiers glory in the abject meanness of their souls. The flatterer here shuffles his cards upon the table, and I am only astonished that he can win anything in a game so palpable to all the world. In the presence of the emperor the asthmatic breathes, the paralysed becomes active, the gouty loses his pain, the lovers no longer burn, the young men no longer seek to amuse themselves, the men of mind no longer think. In lieu of all these human states, mental and physical, one combined sentiment of avarice and vanity animates life even to its latest sigh. These two passions are the breath of all courts; but here they impart to their victims a military emulation, a disciplined rivalry, whose agitating influences extend throughout all the stages of society. To rise a step by more carefully dancing attendance — such is the absorbing thought of this etiquette-instructed crowd.

  But then, what prostration of strength, when the luminary in whose beam these flattering motes may be seen to move, is no longer above the horizon ! It is like the evening dew quenching the dust, or the nuns in Kobert le Diable, again repairing to their sepulchres, to wait the signal for another round.

  "With this continual stretch of all minds towards advancement, conversation is impossible. The eyes of the Russian courtiers are the sunflowers of the palace. They speak without interesting themselves in anything that is said, and their looks remain all the while fascinated by the sun of favour.

  The absence of the emperor does not render conversation more free: he is still present to the mind. The thoughts, instead of the eyes, then become the

  • 142

  THE TCHINN.

  sunflowers. In one word, the emperor is the god, the life, the passion of this unhappy people. Imagine human existence reduced to the hope that an obeisance will procure the acknowledgments of a look ! God has implanted too many passions in the human heart for the uses which are here made of it.

  If I put myself in the place of the only man who has here the right to live free, I tremble for him. To have to play the part of Providence over sixty millions of souls is a dreadful office. The Divinity has only the choice of two things: either to destroy his own power by showing himself a man, or to lead his votaries to the conquest of the world, in maintaining his character as a god. It is thus that in Riissia the whole of life becomes nothing more than a school of ambition.

  But by what road have the Russians reached this point of self-abnegation ? What human means could produce such a political result ? The cause of all is the tchinn: the tchinn is the galvanism, the apparent life of souls and bodies here — the passion which survives all other passions. I have shown its effects; it is therefore necessary that I should explain its nature.

  The tchinn is a nation formed into a regiment; it is the military system applied to all classes of society, even to those which never go to war. In short, it is the division of the civil population into ranks, which correspond to ranks in the army. Since this institution has been established, a man who has never seen exercise may obtain the title of colonel.

  Peter the Great — it is always to him that we must go back in order to understand the actual state

  ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN.143

  of Russia — Peter the Great, troubled by certain national prejudices which had a resemblance to aristocracy, and which incommoded him in the execution of his plans, took it into his head one day to discover that the minds of his people were too independent ; and, in order to remedy the evil, this great workman could devise nothing better in his profoundly deep, yet narrow penetration, than to divide the herd, that is to say, the people, into classes, entirely irrelative of name, birth, and family: so that the son of the highest noble in the empire may belong to an inferior class, whilst the son of one of the peasants may rise to the highest classes, if such be the good will of the emperor. Under this division of the people, every man takes his position according to the favour of the prince. Thus it is that Russia has become a regiment of sixty millions strong; and this is the tchinn — the mightiest achievement of Peter the Great.

  By its means, that prince freed himself in one day from the fetters of ages. The tyrant, when he undertook to regenerate his people, held sacred neither nature, history, character, nor life. Such sacrifices render great results easy. Peter knew better than any one that, so long as an order of nobility exists in a community, the despotism of one man can be nothing more than a fiction. He therefore said, " To realise my government I must annihilate the remains of the feudal system ; and the best way of doing this is to make caricatures of gentlemen—to destroy the nobility by rendering it a creation of my own." It has consecpiently been, if not destroyed, at least nullified by an institution that occupies its place, though

  144 DESTRUCTION OF THE ARISTOCRACY.

  it does not replace it. There are castes in this social system, in which to enter is to acquire hereditary nobility. Peter the Great, whom I should prefer to call Peter the Strong, forestalling our modern revolutions by more than half a century, thus crushed the spirit of feudalism. Less powerful under him than it was among us, it fell beneath the half civil half military institution which constitutes modern Russia. Peter was endowed with a clear and yet a limited understanding. In rearing his system on so great a ruin, he knew not how to profit by the exorbitant powers he had engrossed, except in mimicking more at his ease the civilisation of Europe.

  With the means of action usurped by this prince, a creative genius would have worked much greater miracles. The Russian nation, ascending after all the others upon the great stage of the world, possessed the gift of imitation in lieu of genius, .and had a carpenter's apprentice for its prompter ! Under a chief less fond of miimtiæ, less attached to details, that nation would have distinguished itself, more tardily, it is true, but more gloriously. Its power, corresponding with its own internal requirements, would have been useful to the world : it is now onl·v astonishing.

  The successors of this lawgiver in fustian have, during one hundred years, united with the ambition of subjugating their neighbours, the weakness of copying them. In the present day, the Emperor Nicholas believes the time is arrived when Russia has no longer need of looking for models among foreigners in order to conquer and to rule the world. He is the first really Russian sovereign since

  THE TCHINN DIVIDED INTO CLASSES. 145

  Ivan IV. Peter I,
was a Russian in character, though not in politics; Nicholas is a German by nature, but a Russian by calculation and by necessity.

  The tehiim consists of fourteen classes, each of which possesses its own peculiar privileges. The fourteenth is the lowest.

  Placed immediately above the serfs, its sole advantage consists in its members having the title of freemen. Their freedom means that no one can strike them without rendering himself liable to prosecution. In return, every member of the class has to inscribe on his door, his registered number, in order that no superior may be led to act under an ignorance that would render him liable to a penalty.

  The fourteenth class is composed of persons in the lowest employ under the government, clerks of the post-office, factors, and other subordinates charged with carrying or executing the orders of the heads of departments : it answers to the rank of sub-officer in the imperial army. The men who compose it are servants of the Emperor, and serfs of no one : they possess a sense of their social dignity. But as to human dignity, it is not known in Russia.

  All the other classes of the tchinn answer to as many military grades; the order that reigns throughout the entire state is analogous to the order of the army. The first class stands at the summit of the pyramid, and is now composed of one single man — Marshall Paskiewitch, viceroy of Warsaw.

  The will of the Emperor is the sole means by which an individual is promoted in the tchinn ; so that a man rising step by step, to the highest rank

  VOL. II.H

  146 IMMENSE POWER OF THE EMPEROR.

  in this artificial nation, may attain the first military dignity without having served in any army. The favour of promotion is never demanded, but always intrigued for.

  There is here an immense quantity of fermenting material placed at the disposal of the head of the state. Medical men complain of their inability to communicate fever to certain patients in order to cure them of chronic maladies. The Czar Peter inoculated with the fever of ambition the whole body of his people, in order to render them more pliant, and to govern them according to his humour.

  The English aristocracy is equally independent of birth; it depends upon two things which may be acquired, office and estate. If, then, this aristocracy, moderated as it is, still imparts an enormous influence to the crown, how great must be the power of that crown whence all these things — the rank, and also the office and estate — are both de jure and de facto derived!

  There results from such a social organisation a fever of envy so violent, a stretch of mind towards ambition so constant, that the Russian people will needs become incapable of any thing except the conquest of the world. I always return to this expression, because it is the only one that can explain the excessive sacrifices imposed here upon the individual by society. If the extreme of ambition can dry up the heart of a man, it may also stop the fountain of intellect, and so lead astray the' judgment of a nation as to induce it to sacrifice its liberty for victory. Without this idea, avowed or disguised, and the influence of which many, perhaps,

  FUTURE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA.147

  obey unconsciously, the history of Russia would seem to me an inexplicable enigma.

  Here is suggested the grand question : is the idea of conquest that forms the secret aspiration of Russia a lure, suited only to seduce for a period, more or less long, a rude and ignorant population, or is it one day to be realised?

  This question besets me unceasingly, and, in spite of all my efforts, I cannot resolve it. All that I can say is, that since I have been in Russia, I take a gloomy view of the future reserved for Europe. At the same time, my conscience obliges me to admit that my opinion is combated by wise and very experienced men. These men say that I exaggerate in my own mind the power of Russia; that every community has its prescribed destiny, and that the destiny of this community is to extend its conquests eastward, and then to beeome divided. Those minds that refuse to believe in the brilliant future of the Slavonians, agree with me as regards the amiable and happy disposition of that people; they admit that they are endowed with an instinctive sentiment of the picturesque; they allow them a natural talent for music; and they conclude that these dispositions will enable them to cultivate the fine arts to a certain extent, but that they do not suffice to constitute the capacity for conquering and commanding which I attribute to them. They add, that " the Russians lack scientific genius; that they have never shown any inventive power ; that they have received from nature an indolent and superficial mind; that if they apply themselves, it is through fear rather than inclination: fear makes them apt to undertake and H 2

  148OPPOSITE OPINIONS ON THE

  to draw the rough drafts of things, but also it prevents their proceeding far in any effort: genius is, in its nature, hardy as heroism ; it lives on liberty ; whilst fear and slavery have a reign and a sphere limited as mediocrity, of which they are the arms. The Russians, though good soldiers, are bad seamen ; in general, they are more resigned than reflective, more religious than philosophical; they have more instinct of obedience than will of their own; their thoughts lack a spring as their souls lack liberty. The task which is to them most difficult, and least natural, is seriously to occupy their minds and to fix their imaginations upon useful exercises. Ever children, they might nevertheless for a moment be conquerors in the realm of the sword; but they would never be so in that of thought: and a people who cannot teach any thing to those they conquer, cannot long be the most powerful.

  " Even physically, the French and English are more robust than the Russians; the latter are more agile than muscular, more savage than energetic, more cunning than enterprising; they possess passive courage, but they want daring and perseverance. The army, so remarkable for its discipline and its appearance on days of parade, is composed, with the exception of a few elites corps, of men well clad when they show themselves in public, but slovenly and dirty so long as they remain in their barracks. The cadaverous complexions of the soldiers betray hunger and disease : the two campaigns in Turkey have sufficiently demonstrated the weakness of the giant. Finally, a community that has not tasted liberty at its birth, and in which all the great political crises have been

  FUTURE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA.149

  brought about by foreign influence, cannot, thus enervated in its germ, have a long existence in prospect."

  Such, it seems to me, are the strongest reasons opposed to my fears by the political optimists. From them it is concluded that Russia, powerful at home, and formidable when she struggles with the Asiatic people, would break herself against Europe so soon as she should throw off the mask, and make war in maintenance of her arrogant diplomacy.

  I have in no degree weakened the arguments of those who thus think. They accuse me of exaggerating the danger. At any rate my opinions are shared by other minds quite as sober as those of my adversaries, and who do not cease to reproach these optimists with their blindness, in exhorting them to see the evil before it become irremediable.

  I stand close by the Colossus, and I find it difficult to persuade myself that the only object of this creation of Providence is to diminish the barbarism of Asia. It appears to me that it is chiefly destined to chastise the corrupt civilisation of Europe by the agency of a new invasion. The eternal tyranny of the East menaces us incessantly; and Ave shall have to stoop to it, if our extravagances and iniquities render us worthy of the punishment.

  The reader must not expect from me a complete account of Russia. I neglect to speak of many celebrated things because they make little impression upon me. I wish only to describe that which strikes or interests me. Nomenclatures and catalogues disgust me with travels, and there are plenty of them without my adding to the list.

  Nothing can be seen here without ceremony and и 3

  150RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY.

  preparation. Russian hospitality is so edged round with formalities as to render life unpleasant to the most favoured strangers. It is a civil pretext for restraining the movements of the traveller, and for limiting the freedom o
f his observations. Owing to the fastidious politeness exercised in doing the honours of the land, the observer can inspect nothing without a guide: never being alone, he has the greater difficulty informing his judgment upon his own spontaneous impressions; and this is what is desired. To enter Russia you must, with your passport, deposit also your right of opinion on the frontier. Would you see the curiosities of a palace, they give you a chamberlain, with whom you are obliged to view every thing, and, indiscriminately, to admire all that he admires. Would you survey a camp — an officer, sometimes a general officer, accompanies you: if it be an hospital, the head surgeon escorts you; a fortress, the governor, in person, shows it, or rather politely conceals it from you ; a school, or any other public institution, the director or the inspector must be previously apprised of your visit, and you find him, under arms, prepared to brave your examination; if an edifice, the architect himself leads you over the whole building, and explains to you all that you do not care to know, in order to avoid informing you on points which you would take interest in knowing.

  All this oriental ceremony leads people to renounce seeing many things were it only to avoid the trouble of soliciting admissions : this is the first advantage gained ! But if curiosity is hardy enough to persist in importuning official personages, it is at least so carefully watched in its perquisitions, that they end

  POLITE FORMALITIES.

  151

  in nothing. You must communicate officially with the heads of the so called public establishments, and you obtain no other permission than that of expressing before the legitimate authorities the admiration which politeness, prudence, and a gratitude of which the Russians are very jealous, demand. They refuse you nothing, but they accompany you every where : politeness becomes a pretext for maintaining a watch over you.