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

by Astolphe De Custine

  ABDICATION.

  321

  proofs of ferocity, must assuredly have been known by his people. Suddenly, either to amuse himself by testing the long-suffering of the Russians, or under the influence of Christian remorse (for he affected a respect for holy things: and hypocrisy itself may at times feel a sentiment of devotion, since grace, that manna of the soul, will at intervals fall upon the blackest hearts, until death shall have consummated their reprobation): whether, then, under the influence of Christian penitence, fear, caprice, lassitude, or artifice, he one day laid down his sceptre, or rather his axe, and cast his crown upon the earth. Then, and then only, during the whole eourse of his long reign, did the empire rise; the nation, menaced with deliverance, started from its sleep; the Russians, until then dumb witnesses, passive instruments of so many horrors, recovered their voice; and that voice of a people, which pretends to be the voice of God, was suddenly lifted up to deplore the loss of such a tyrant! Perhaps they doubted his good faith, and feared his vengeance in case of their accepting his feigned abdication; it may be their love for the prince had its source in the terror inspired by the tyrant. The Russians have refined upon fear by giving it love for a mask.

  Moscow was menaced by invasion (the penitent had well chosen his time); anarchy was feared; in other words, the Russians foresaw they should be no longer able to protect themselves from liberty,— they would be exposed .to think and to will by and for themselves — to show themselves men, and what was worse, citizens. The prospect that would have given happiness to any other people, drove these to despair. p 5

  322

  THE SECRET OP

  In short, enervated, bewildered, and dismayed, Russia threw herself at the feet of Ivan, whom she dreaded less than she distrusted herself, and entreated this indispensable master to pick up his crown and bloody sceptre, asking, as the only favour, that he would again put on her neck the iron yoke which she will never be tired of bearing.

  If this was humility, it went too far, even for Christianity ; if it was cowardice, it was unpardonable ; if it was patriotism, it was impious. Religion humbles, slavery debases; there is the difference between them that there is between sanctity and brutality. The Russians make a virtue of sacrificing every thing to the weal of the empire. Detestable empire, whose existence may not be perpetuated without the sacrifice of human dignity ! Blinded by then' monarchical idolatry, on their knees before the political idols of their own hands, the Russians, including those of our own century as well as those of Ivan's, forget that a respect for justice, a cultivation of truth, is more important to mankind, not excepting the Slavonians, than the fate of Russia. In this act I imagine that I again see the intervention of a supernatural power. I ask myself, what can be the future reserved by Providence for a community which pays such a price for the prolongation of its existence ? I have too often occasion to remark that a new Roman empire is brooding in Russia under the ashes of the old Greek stock. Fear alone does not inspire so much patience. A passion actuates the Russians in a manner that no people have experienced since the time of the Romans — that passion is ambition; an ambition powerful enough to induce

  RUSSIAN SERVILITY.323

  them to sacrifice all—absolutely all—to its cravings. It was this sovereign law which attached a nation to an Ivan IV.: — a tiger for our God rather than the annihilation of our Empire. Such was the Russian policy under the reign which made Russia, and during which the forbearance of the victims horrifies me much more than the frenzy of the tyrant. It horrifies me because I see it perpetuated, however modified by circumstances; and because, even at this day, it would produce similar effects under a similar reign, if the earth were destined to give birth twice to an Ivan IV. Let us wonder, then, at this unique picture in history : the Russians, with the courage and the baseness of the men who desire to possess the earth, weeping at the feet of Ivan to move him to continue their governor,—him who would have made all government hateful to any people not intoxicated with the fanatical presentiment of their coming glory !

  All swore — the great, the little, the boyards, the tradespeople, the castes, and the individuals; in a word. all the nation swore with tears, to submit to every thing, provided they might not be abandoned to themselves. This height of misfortune was the only reverse which the Russians, in their ignoble patriotism, could not muster courage to encounter, seeing that the inevitable disorder that would have been the result might have destroyed their empire of slaves. Ignominy carried to this point approaches the sublime: it is of the nature of virtue; it perpetuates the state; — but such a state! —the means dishonour the end.

  The wild beast, touched with compassion, took pity on the herd on which he had so long preyed; p 6

  324IVAN EESmiES HIS CKOWN.

  he promised to continue to decimate them; he re-assumed his power without any concessions, — on the contrary, with absurd conditions, all in advantage of his pride and fury, although they were to be accepted as favours by this people, as enthusiastic in slavery as others arc fanatical in liberty, — this people, imbrued in its own blood, and which wished to be killed in order to amuse its master, who grew uneasy and trembled whenever he ceased to murder.

  From this period may be dated the organisation of a tyranny so methodical and yet so violent, that the annals of the human race present nothing that can be compared to it; seeing that there was as much insanity in submitting to it as in exercising it. Prince and nation at this moment were smitten with frenzy, and the effects of the fit continue yet to operate.

  The mighty Kremlin, with all its associations, its iron gates, its mysterious subterranean passages, its inaccessible ramparts soaring into heaven, appeared too weak a refuge to the insensate monarch, who sought to destroy the half of his people that he might govern the other half in security. In his horrid heart an inexplicable terror — for it had no apparent motive—united itself to an atrocity without object; the most disgraceful fear pleaded for the most blind ferocity. A new Nebuchadnezzar — the king changed into a cowardly tiger.

  He first retired into a strong palace near the Kremlin, and afterwards into л solitude — the Slobode Alexandrowsky. This place became his habitual residence. It was there that, from among the most debauched and utterly abandoned of his slaves, he

  EXTRACTS FROM KARAMSIN.325

  chose a guard, consisting of a thousand men, whom he called the elect—Oprìtchnina. To this infernal legion he gave up, during seven consecutive years, the fortune and life of the Kussian people; I might add their honour, if such a word had any signification among men whom it was necessary to gag, in order to govern them as they wished to be governed.

  Karamsin thus describes Ivan IV. in the year 1565, nineteen years after his coronation:—

  " This prince was tall and well-made ; he had broad shoulders and breast, muscular arms, beautiful hair, long mustachios, an aquiline nose, small grey eyes, but formerly bright and piercing, and in all respects a countenance that had once been pleasing : but at this period it was so changed as to be scarcely recognised. A sombre ferocity was depicted on his deformed features. His eye was dull, his head nearly bald, and only a few hairs remained on his chin — inexplicable effect of the fury that devoured his soul! After a fresh enumeration of the faults committed by the boyards, he repeated his consent to keep the crown, dwelt at great length on the obligation imposed upon princes of preserving tranquillity in their territories, and of taking, with this object, all the measures they may judge necessary ; expatiated on the nothingness of human life; the necessity of man carrying his thoughts beyond the tomb ; and finally he proposed the establishment of the Oprìtchnina, a name until then unknown.

  " The Czar announced that he should choose a thousand satellites among the princes, the gentlemen,

  326

  EXECUTION OP

  and the boyard children*, and that he should give them in his territories, fiefs, the actual proprietors of which would be transferred to other places.

  " He took poss
ession, in Moscow itself, of several streets, whence he drove the gentlemen and official persons whose names were not written among the thousand of the Czar. *

  " As though he had conceived a hatred for the august associations of the Kremlin and for the tombs of his ancestors, he refused to inhabit the magnificent abode of Ivan III.; beyond the Avails of the citadel, he built another palace, fortified with strong ramparts. This new abode was peopled with the thousand of the Czar, who formed a court, peculiar to Ivan IV., that received the name of Opritchnina."

  Further on, Ave come to the re-commencement of the murders of the boyards.

  ee On the fourth of February, Moscow witnessed the fulfilment of the conditions announced by the Czar in the town of Alexandrowsky. They began with the executions of the pretended traitors accused of having conspired, with Kourbsky, against the life of the monarch, of the Czarina Anastasia and their children. The first victim was the celebrated Vaivode, Prince Alexander Gorbati-Schouïsky, descendant of Saint Vladimir, of Vsevolod the Great, and the ancient princes of Souzdal. This man, who possessed a superior genius, military skill, and an equal love of religion and his country, and who had powerfully aided in

  * Les enfants boyards, a corps of 500,000 men, tenants of the crown, instituted as an order of inferior noblesse b7 Ivan III., grandfather of Ivan IV.

  PRETENDED TRAITORS.327

  the reduction of the kingdom of Kazan, was condemned to death, together with his son Peter, a young man of seventeen.* They arrived at the place of execution with fearless, calm, dignified countenances, and holding each other by the hand. That he might not witness the death of the author of his life, the youthful noble first offered his neck to the sword, but his father withheld him, ejaculating with emotion,¢ Nay, my son, I will not see thee die !' The young man yielded, and immediately the head of the prince was severed from the body: his son took it in his hands, covered it with kisses, and, lifting his eyes to heaven, submitted himself, with serene composure, to the stroke of the headsman. Numerous other nobles suffered at the same time. The Prince She-viref was impaled. It is said the victim lingered for a whole day under his horrible tortures, but that, supported by religion, he forgot them in singing the praises of Jesus. * * A vast number of other gentlemen had their estates confiscated and suffered exile."

  In the same volume Karamsin describes the manner in which the Czar formed his new guard, which was not long restricted to the number of a thousand, nor selected only from among the higher classes.

  c¢ They sought for young men whose only qualification was an audacity and corruption, as proved by their debaucheries, which rendered them ready to undertake anything. Ivan questioned them regarding their birth, their friends, and their patrons. It was

  * The execution of these parties was unattended with torture, a mercy envied by multitudes in this reign. — Note of the Author of the Travels.

  328FORMATION OF HIS NEW GUARD.

  especially required that they should have no kind of connection with the great boyards; obscurity, and even meanness of extraction, was a recommendation. The Czar increased their number to 6000 men, who took oath to serve him in all things, and against all persons; to denounce traitors ; to have no connection with the citizens of the commonalty, that is, with none who were not enrolled in the legion of the elect; and to recognise neither relationship nor family when serving the sovereign. In return, the Czar bestowed upon them, not only the lands, but also the houses and goods, of twelve thousand proprietors, who were driven from their possessions, destitute: so that many of them, among whom were men distinguished for their services, and covered with honourable wounds, were obliged to depart on foot, and during the winter, with their wives and children, for other far distant and desert abodes," &c. &c.

  It is also in Karamsin that we may read the results of this infernal institution. But the present sketch is too confined for the filling up of the picture with the details furnished by history.

  The horde of banditti once let loose upon the land, and nothing but murder and rapine were to be seen. Merchants and burghers, boyards and peasants — all, in short, who were not of the elect, belonged to the elect. That terrible guard was like a single man, of whom the emperor was the soul. Merit, birth, fortune, beauty, every kind of advantage, brought evil on its possessor. The young females who had personal charms, and were so unfortunate as to be considered virtuous, were carried away to serve as toys for the Czar and his brutal favourites. That prince

  HIS COWARDICE.

  329

  retained them in his den until tired of them, when they were either despatched by tortures invented expressly for them, or sent back to die of shame among their husbands and families. Nor was this all. The instigator of such abominations obliged his own sons to take part in the orgies of his crimes, by which refinement of tyranny he robbed his besotted subjects of even the future.

  To hope for a better reign would have been to conspire against the sovereign; besides — to sound in its profoundcst depths this abyss of corruption — Ivan, in inciting to debauchery, was inflicting another kind of death. In destroying souls he found relief from the fatigue of destroying bodies, while he yet continued to destroy. Such was the tyrant in his hours of relaxation.

  In the conduct of public affairs, the life of the monster was an inexplicable mixture of energy and cowardice. He menaced his enemies so long as he felt the strongest; but, when vancµiished, he wept, prayed, cringed, and degraded himself and his people. But even this, even public shame, that last chastisement of nations who fail in their duty to themselves, did not open the eyes of the Russians.

  The Khan of the Crimea burnt Moscow; the Czar fled : he returned when his capital was a heap of ashes; his presence produced more terror among the remaining inhabitants than had been caused by the enemy. Yet not a murmur reminded the monarch that he was a man, and that he had erred in abandoning his post as a monarch. The Poles and Swedes witnessed by turns the excess of his arrogance and his cowardice. In his negotiations with the Khan of the Crimea he so lowered himself as to

  330FRIENDSHIP OF IVAN AND

  offer to the Tartars, Kazan and Astrachan, which he had formerly taken from them so gloriously. At a later period he yielded to Stephen Batori, Livonia, that price of blood, the object of his people's efforts during many ages. But notwithstanding these treasons of her head, Russia, indefatigable in servility, did not for one moment falter in her disgraceful obedience.

  Under this reign Siberia may be said to have been first discovered and conquered by heroic Muscovite adventurers. It was the fortune of Ivan IV. to bequeath to his successors that instrument of tyranny.

  Ivan felt for Elizabeth of England a sympathy which had the nature of an instinct. These two wild beasts understood each other, even at a distance; the affinities of their dispositions operated, notwithstanding that difference in their situations which explains the difference in their acts. Ivan IV. was a tiger at liberty, Elizabeth was a tigress in confinement.

  Ever a prey to imaginary terrors, the Muscovite tyrant wrote to the cruel daughter of Henry VIII., the triumphant rival of Mary Stuart, to beg of her an asylum in her realm in case of a reverse of fortune. She replied to him in a long affectionate letter. Karamsin only cites parts of this letter in the original language. It is preserved, he says, in the archives of Russia. I translate literally the English passages which he gives us.

  " To the most high and mighty Prince, our beloved brother the Emperor and Grand Duke Ivan Vassili, Sovereign of all the Russias.

  " If at any time it should come to pass that you should, by any casual event, by any secret conspi-

  QUEEN ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND.331

  racy, or by any foreign hostility, be obliged to leave your country, and should, in such case, desire to come into our realm, together with the noble empress your consort, and your beloved children, we shall, with all honour and courtesy, receive and act towards your Highness and your suite in such wise as is due to so great a prince; leaving you free to pass a qui
et and peaceable life, with all those whom you may bring with you. And you shall be at liberty to practise your Christian religion in that manner which you prefer; for we have no mind to offend your Majesty nor any of your subjects, neither in any way to meddle ourselves in the matter of the conscience and religion of your Highness.

  " And we will assign a place in our kingdom whereat you may reside, at your опт charge, so long as it shall please you to remain with us. We promise this by our letter, and by the word of a Christian sovereign. In pledge whereof, we Elizabeth, the Queen, subscribe this letter with our own hand in presence of our «obles and council:

  " Nicholas Bacon, Knight (father of the celebrated philosopher), Grand Chancellor of our Realm of England; William Lord Parr, Marquis of Northampton, Knight of the Garter; Henry Earl of Arundel, Knight of the said Order ; Robert Dudley Lord Denbigh, Earl of Leicester, Master of the Horse, and Knight of the Garter."

  Several other names follow, of which the last is Cecil, Secretary of State.

  332IVAN ASSUMES THE COWL.

  In conclusion, the Queen adds these lines:

  " Promising ourselves that we shall unite our forces to combat together our common enemies, and that we shall observe all that is contained in this letter, so long as God shall grant us life; and this is confirmed by our word and royal faith.

  " Given at our palace of Hampton Court, this 18th day of May, in the twelfth year of our reign, and in the year of our Lord 1570."