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

by Astolphe De Custine

  In this manner they tyrannise over us in pretending to do us honour. Such is the fate of privileged travellers. As to those who are not privileged, they see nothing at all. The country is so organised that without the immediate intervention of official persons no stranger can move about agreeably, or even safely. In all this, will be recognised the manners and the policy of the East, disguised under European urbanity. Such alliance of the East and the West, the results of which are discoverable at every step, is the grand characteristic of the Russian empire.

  A semi-civilisation is always marked by formalities; refined civilisation dispenses with them, just as perfect good breeding banishes affectation.

  The Russians are still persuaded of the efficaciousness of falsehood; and such illusion on the part of a people so well acquainted with it, amazes me. It is not that they lack quick perception, but in a land where the governors do not yet understand the advantages of liberty, even for themselves, the governed naturally shrink from the immediate inconveniences of truth. One is momentarily obliged to repeat that the people here, great and small, resemble the Greeks of the Lower Empire.

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  152 RESEMBLANCE OF RUSSIANS TO CHINESE.

  I am perhaps not sufficiently grateful for the attentions which these people affect to lavish upon strangers who are at all known ; but I cannot help seeing below the surface, and I feel, in spite of myself, that all their eagerness demonstrates less benevolence than it betrays inquietude.

  They wish, in accordance with the judicious precept of Monomaque, that the foreigner should leave their country contented.* It is not that the real country cares what is said or thought of it; it is simply that certain influential families are possessed with the puerile desire of reviving the European reputation of Russia.

  If I look farther, I perceive under the veil with which they seek to cloke every object, a love of mystery for its own sake. Here reserve is the order of the day, just as imprudence is in Paris. In Russia, secrecy presides over eveiy thing ; a silence that is superfluous insures the silence that is necessary; in short, the people are Chinese disguised; they do not like to avow their aversion to foreign observation, but if they dared to brave the reproach of barbarism as the true Chinese do, access to Petersburg would be as difficult for us as is the access to Pekin.

  My reasons for wearying of Russian hospitality will be now seen. Of all species of constraint, the most insupportable to me is that of which I have not the right to complain. The gratitude I feel for the attentions of which I am here the object, is like that of a soldier's — made to serve by compulsion. As a traveller who specially piques himself on his independence, I feel that I am passing under the yoke ; they trouble themselves unceasingly to discipline my * See the motto in the title-page.

  DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RUSSIANS AND FRENCH. 153

  ideas, and every evening on returning to my quarters, I have to examine my thoughts to ascertain what rank they bear, and in what uniform they are clothed.

  Having carefully avoided intimacy with many great lords, I have hitherto seen nothing thoroughly except the court. My wish has been to preserve my position as an independent and impartial judge; and I feared to incur accusations of ingratitude or want of good faith; above all, I feared to render subjects of the country responsible for my particular opinions. But at the court I have passed in review all the characteristics of society.

  An affectation of French manners, without any of the tone of French conversation, first struck me. It conceals a caustic, sarcastic, Russian spirit of ridicule. If I remained here any time, I would tear away the mask from these puppets, for I am weary of seeing them copy French grimaces. At my age, a man hat· nothing more to learn from affectation; truth alone can always interest, because it imparts knowledge ; truth alone is always new.

  I observed from the very first, that the Russians of the lower classes, who are suspicious by nature, detest foreigners through ignorance and national prejudice ; I have observed since, that the Russians of the higher classes, who are equally suspicious, fear them because they believe them hostile: " the French and the English are persuaded of their superiority over all other people ;" this motive suffices to make a Russian hate foreigners, on the same principle that, in France, the Provincial distrusts the Parisian. A barbarian jealousy, an envy, puerile, but impossible to disarm, „ influences the greater

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  RUSSIAN HONESTY.

  number of the Russians in their intercourse with the men of other lands.

  The Muscovite character is in many respects the very opposite of the German. On this account it is that the Russians say they resemble the French; but the analogy is only apparent: in the inner character there is a great difference. You may, if you choose, admire in Russia pomp and oriental grandeur; you may study there Greek astuteness; but you must not seek for the Gallic naïvctó, the sociability and the amiabil ity of the French when they are natural; though I admit that you will find still less of the good faith, the sound intelligence, and the cordial feeling of the German. In Russia you may meet with good temper, because it is to be met with wherever there are men; but good nature is never seen.

  Every Russian is born an imitator; he is, by consequence, a great observer.

  This talent, which is proper to a people in its infancy, often degenerates into a mean system of espionage. It produces questions often importunate and impolite, and which appear intolerable, coming from people always impenetrable themselves, and whose answers are seldom more than evasions. One would say that friendship itself had here some private understanding with the police. How is it possible to be at ease with people so guarded and circumspect respecting all which concerns themselves, and so inquisitive about others? If they see you assume, in your intercourse with them, manners more natural than those which they show towards you, they fancy you their dupe. Beware then of letting them see you off your guard, beware of giving them your confi-

  RUSSIAN HONESTY.

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  dence: to men who are without feeling themselves, it is an amusement to observe the emotions of others, an amusement to which I, for one, do not like to administer. To observe our manner of life is the greatest pleasure of the Russians ; if we allowed them, they would amuse themselves by striving to read our hearts and analyse our sentiments, just as people study dramatic representations at the theatre.

  The extreme mistrust of all classes here with whom you have any business, warns you to be circumspect; the fear that you inspire discloses the danger that you run.

  The other day at Peterhoff, a victualler would not permit my servant to provide me with a miserable supper in my actor's box, without being previously paid for it, although the shop of this prudent man is but two steps from the theatre. What you put to your lips with one hand, must be paid for with the other; if you were to give a commission to a merchant without presenting him with money in advance, he would believe you were in jest, and would not undertake your business.

  No one can leave Russia until he has forewarned all his creditors of his intention, that is to say, until he has announced his departure three times in the gazettes at an interval of eight days between each publication.

  This is strictly enforced, unless at least you pay the police to shorten the prescribed time, and even then you must make the insertion once or twice. No one can obtain post horses without a document from the authorities certifying that he owes nothing.

  So much precaution shows the bad faith that exists H 6

  156THE ONLY SINCERE RUSSIAN.

  in the country; for as, hitherto, the Russians have had little personal intercourse with foreigners, they must have taken lessons in wariness from themselves alone.

  Their experience is only such as their position with regard to each other can teach them. These men will not allow us to forget the saying of their favourite sovereign, Peter the Great, " It takes three Jews to cheat a Russian."

  At each step you take in the land, you recognise the polities of Constantinople as described b
y the historians of the crusades, and as discovered by the Emperor Napoleon in the Emperor Alexander, of whom he often said, " He is a Greek of the Lower Empire." Transactions with people whose founders and instructors have always been the sworn foes of chivalry, should be avoided as much as possible. Such people are slaves to their interest, and lords of their word. Hitherto, I have found in the whole empire of Russia but one person who appears to me to be sincere, and that one, I take pleasure in repeating, is the Emperor.

  I own it costs less to an autocrat to be candid than it does to his subjects. For the czar to speak without disguise, is the performance of an act of authority. An absolute monarch who flatters and prevaricates must abdicate.

  But how many have there not been who, on this point, have forgotten their power and their dignity ! Base minds never think themselves above falsehood: we may therefore admire the sincerity even of a powerful ruler. The Emperor Nicholas unites frankness with politeness, and in him these two qualities, which are never seen combined in the vulgar, wonderfully act and re-act upon each other.

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  Among the nobles, those who do possess good manners, possess them in perfection. The proof of thifr may be seen daily at Paris and elsewhere; but a drawing-room Russian who has not attained true politeness, that is to say, the facile expression of a real amenity of character, has a coarseness of mind, which is rendered doubly shocking by the false elegance of his language and manners. Such ill-bred and yet well-informed, well-dressed, clever, and self-confident Russians, tread in the steps of European elegance, without knowing that refinement of habits has no value except as it announces the existence of something better in the heart of its possessor. These apprentices of fashion, who confound the appearance with the reality, are trained bears, the sight of which inclines me to regret the wild ones: they have not yet become polished men, although they are spoiled savages.

  As there is such a place as Siberia, and as it is appropriated to the uses that are so well known, I could wish it were peopled with fastidious young officers and nervous fair ladies: " You want passports for Paris, you shall have them for Tobolsk ! "

  In this manner I would recommend the Emperor to check the rage for travelling, which is making fearful progress in Russia, among imaginative sublieutenants and fanciful women.

  If, at the same time, he were to take back the seat of his empire to Moscow, he would repair the evil caused by Peter the Great, as far as one man may atone for the errors of generations.

  Petersburg, a city built rather against Sweden than for Russia, ought to be nothing more than a sea-

  158ERRORS OF PETER THE GREAT.

  port, a Russian Dantzie. Instead of this, Peter the First made it a box, from whence his chained boyards might contemplate, with envy, the stage on which is enacted the civilisation of Europe; a civilisation which, in forcing them to copy, he forbade them to emulate !

  Peter the Great, in all his works, acted without any regard to humanity, time, or nature. The more we examine Russia, the more strongly shall we be confirmed in the opinion that that prince has been too highly extolled, both at home and abroad. Had he been as superior a character as is pretended, he would have perceived and shunned the wrong road into which he drove his people ; he would have foreseen and detested the frivolity of mind, the superficial acquirements, to which he condemned them for ages.

  Great men, in building up the future, do not destroy the past; on the contrary, they avail themselves of it, even in order to modify its consequences. Far from continuing to deify the enemy of their natural genius, the Russians ought to reproach him with being the cause of their possessing no character.*

  That crowned missionary forced nature for a moment, because he had the power to do so; but to this his power was circumscribed. Had he been, in reality, what the superstition of his people, and the exaggeration of writers have made him in history, how differently would he have acted! He would have waited, and by that patience have merited his brevet of great man: he preferred obtaining it in

  * The Russians are superficial in every thing, except the art of feigning.

  THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS.159

  advance, and caused himself to be canonised while yet living.

  All his ideas, with the faults of character of which they were the consequence, have spread and multiplied under the reigns that followed. The Emperor Nicholas is the first who has endeavoured to stem the torrent, by recalling the Russians to themselves; an enterprise that the world will admire when it shall have recognised the firmness of spirit with which it has been conceived. After such reigns as those of Catherine and Paul, to make the Russia left by the Emperor Alexander a real Russian empire ; to speak Russian, to think as a Russian, to avow himself a Russian—and this, while presiding over a court of nobles who are the heirs of the favourites of the Semiramis of the North — is an act of true courage. Whatever may be the result of the plan, it does honour to him who devised it.

  It is true the courtiers of the Czar have no acknowledged nor assured rights; but they are still strong against then* masters, by virtue of the perpetuated, traditional customs of the country. Directly to rebuke the pretensions of these men, to show himself, in the course of a reign already long, as courageous against hypocritical adherents as he was against rebel soldiers, is assuredly the act of a very superior monarch. This double struggle of the sovereign with his infuriated slaves on the one hand, and his imperious courtiers on the other, is a fine spectacle. The Emperor Nicholas fulfils the promise that brightened the day of his elevation to the throne, and this is saying a great deal; for no prince assumed the reins of power under circumstances more critical; none

  160ABSURD ARCHITECTURE.

  ever faced an imminent danger with more energy and greatness of soul!

  After the insurrection of 13th December, M. de la Ferronnays exclaimed, "I see Peter the Great civilised!" an observation that had point because it had truth. In contemplating this prince, in his court, developing his ideas of national regeneration with an indefatigable, yet quiet, unostentatious perseverance, one might exclaim with still greater reason, :: I sec Peter the Great come to repair the faults of Peter the Blind."

  In striving to form a judgment of the present Emperor with all the impartiality of which I am capable, I find in him so many things worthy of praise, that I do not suffer myself to listen to any thing that might disturb my admiration.

  Kings are like statues; people examine them with so minute an attention that their smallest faults, magnified by criticism, cause the most rare and genuine merits to be forgotten. But the more I admire the Emperor Nicholas, the more I may be thought unjust towards the Czar Peter. Nevertheless, I appreciate the efforts of determination that were needed to rear a city like Petersburg in a marsh, frozen during eight months of the year ; but when my eyes unfortunately encounter one of those miserable caricatures which his passion, and that of his successors, for classic architecture has entailed upon Russia, my shocked senses and taste cause me to lose all that I had gained by reasoning. Anticrue palaces for barracks of Finns, pillars, cornices, pediments, and Roman peristyles under the pole, and all these things to be renovated every year with fine white stucco, — such

  BEAUTY OF THE QUAYS.161

  parodies of Greece and Italy, minus the marble and the sun, are, it must be allowed, calculated to revive all my anger. Besides, I can renounce with the greater resignation the title of impartial traveller, because I am persuaded that I still have a right to it.

  Though I were menaced with Siberia, I would not be prevented repeating that the want of good sense in the construction of a building, of finish and of harmony in its details, is intolerable. In architecture, the objeet of genius is to find the most short and simple means of adapting edifices to the uses for which they are destined. Where, then, could be the genius of men who have piled up so many pilasters, arcades, and colonnades, in a land which cannot be inhabited for nine months in the year without double sashes to windows hermet
ically closed ? At Petersburg, it is under ramparts that they should walk, not under light and airy peristyles. Vaulted galleries should be their vestibules. The heaven is their enemy ; they should banish therefore the sight of it: the sun will not vouchsafe them his beams, they should live by torch-light. With their Italian arelú-teeture, they set up claims to a fine climate, and this only renders the rains and storms of their summer more intolerable, to say nothing of the icy darts that are respired under their magnificent porticoes, during the interminable winter season. The quays of Petersburg are among the finest objects in Europe. Why? Their splendour lies in their solidity. Mighty blocks of granite forming foundations that supply the place of mother earth ! the eternity of marble opposed to the destructive power of eold !... These things give me an idea of strength and of greatness which

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  THE GREAT SQUAEE.

  is intelligible. Petersburg is both protected from the Neva and embellished, by the magnificent parapets with which that river is lined. The soil fails us; we will therefore make a pavement of rocks that shall support our capital. A hundred thousand men die in the attempt, it matters not; we have now an European city and the renown of a great people. Here, whilst continuing to deplore the inhumanity that has presided over so much glory, I admire, though with regret. I admire also several of the points of view that may be obtained before the winter palace.