Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia
Page 62
chants to obey. — Their nominal Compliance. — Inquiry into
their Motives. — Improvements at Xijni. — The Serf and the
Lord.'— The Governor of Nijni's Explanations of despotic
Administration. — Forbearance of the Authorities. — A Ride
with the Governor. — Value of the Commodities at the Fair
of Xijni. — Portrait of Frenchmen of the Xew School. — An
agreeable Rencontre. — Dinner at the Governor's. — English
Oddities. —Anecdote told by a Polish Lady. — The Utility of
easy Manners. — Visits with the Governor. — The Bureau
cracy. — The Author's Feldjäger. — Flag of Minine. — Bad
Faith of the Government. — Modern Vandalism. — Peter the
Great.—French Character. — The true Glory of Xations.—
The Kremlin of Xijni. — The Governor's Camp. — Song of
the Soldiers. — Church of the Strogonoíïs.—Russian Vau
deville.203
CONTENTS.
VÜ
CHAPTER XXXV.
Assassination of a German Landholder. — Russian Aversion to
Innovations. — Consequences of the established State of
Things. — Servility of the Peasants. — Exile of M. Guibal.—
A Muscovite Witch. — A sick Man among his Friends in
Russia. — Russian Charity. — A Passion for Tombs. — Noc
turnal Lessons in Etiquette. — Gipsies at the Fair. — The
Virtues of Outcasts. — Victor Hugo. —Project of visiting
Kazan abandoned.—Medical Advice.—Ideas of the Russians
respecting Free Governments. — Vladimir. — The Forests
of Russia. — The Use of a Feldjäger. — False Delicacy im
posed upon Foreigners.—Centralisation.— Rencontre with an
Elephant. — An Accident. — Return to Moscow. — A Fare
well to the Kremlin. — Effeet produeed by the Vicinity of
the Emperor.— Military Fete at Borodino. — The Author's
Motives for not attending.—Prince Witgenstein.—Historical
Travesty.Page 236
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Return from Moscow to Petersburg. — History of M. Pernet, a French Prisoner in Russia. — His Arrest. — Conduct of his Fellow Traveller. — The French Consul at Moscow.
Effects of Imagination. — Advice of a Russian. — Great Novgorod. — Souvenirs of Ivan IV. —Arrival at Petersburg.
M. de Barante. —Sequel of the History of M. Pernet. — Interior of a Moscow Prison. — A Visit to Colpina. — Origin of the Laval Family in Russia. —The Academy of Painting.
The Arts in Russia. — M. Brulow. — Influence of the North upon the Arts. — Mademoiselle Taglioni at Petersburg. — Abolition of the Uniates. — Superiority of a Representative Form of Government. — Departure from Russia.— The Feelings of the Author. — A sincere Letter. — Reasons for not returning through Poland. .... 270
VÌÜCONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Return to Ems. — Autumn in the Vicinity of the Rhine. — Comparison between Russian and German Scenery. — The Youth of the Soul. — Definition of Misanthropy. — Mistake • >f the Traveller regarding Russia. — Resume of the Journey. — A last Portrait of Russia and the Russians. — Secret of their Policy. — A Glance at the Christian Churches. — The Task of the Author. — Danger of speaking of the Greek Religion in Russia. — Parallel between Spain and Russia.
Page 300
THE
EMPIRE 0E THE CZAR.
CHAPTER XXVII.
ENGLISH CLUB.REUNION OF NATIONS.PECULIAR CHARACTER
OF ARCHITECTURE IN MOSCOW. OBSERVATION OF MADAME DE
STAËL.ADVANTAGE OF OBSCURE TRAVELLERS.—KITAIGOROD.
MADONNA OF VIVIELSKI. CHURCH OF VASSILI BLAGENNOÏ. —
THE HOLY GATE.ADVANTAGE OF FAITH OVER DOUBT.CHURCH
f)F THE ASSUMPTION. FOREIGN ARTISTS.TOWER OF JOHN
THE GREAT. —CONVENT OF THE ASCENSIONINTERIOR OF THE
TREASURY. CROWNS AND THRONES, TREASURES OF THE
CZARS. — A CONTRAST. MOORISH PALACE.NEW WORKS AT
THE KREMLIN. —DESECRATION OF THE FORTRESS. ERROR OF
THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. RESTORATION OF THE CAPITAL TO
MOSCOW.VIEW OF MOSCOW FROM THE KREMLIN. — RECOL
LECTIONS OF THE FRENCH ARMY. —OBSERVATION OF NAPOLEON.
— DANGER OF HEROISM IN RUSSIA. ROSTOPCIIIN.THE FALL
OF NAPOLEON. — REVIEW OF HIS CHARACTER
The inflammation of my eye being reduced, I left my prison yesterday, in order to dine at the English club. It is a species of restaurateur, to which there is no admission except through the introduction of a member of the society, which is composed of the most distinguished people in ]Víu`cow. The institution is
VOL. III.В
2
REUNION OF NATIONS.
newly copied from the English, like our cercles of Paris.
In the state which the frequency and facility of communication has produced in modern Europe, one is at a loss where to до to find original manners, and habits which may be taken as the true expression of characters. The customs recently adopted by each people are the results of a crowd of borrowed notions. There arises from this digest of all characters in the crucible of universal civilisation, a monotony that is any thing but conducive to the enjoyment of the traveller, although at no other epoch has the taste for travelling been so universal; owing to the great number of people who travel through ennui instead of for instruction. I am not one of those travellers: curious and indefatigable, I discover each day, to my cost, that differences are the rarest things in the world ; and that resemblances are the great annoyances of the traveller, whom they oblige to play the part of dupe, a part the most unpleasant to accept, precisely because it is the most easy to perform.
We travel to escape the world in which we have passed our lives, and we find it is impossible to leave it behind. The civilised world has no longer any limits; it is the whole earth. The human race is reuniting, languages are being lost, nations arc disappearing, philosophy is reducing creeds to a matter of private belief—last product of a defaced Catholicism, so ordained until it shall shine forth again with renewed brightness, and serve as the future basis of society. Who shall assign limits to this re-assorting of the human race ? It is impossible to avoid seeing in it a design of Providence. The malediction of Babel
THE TREASURY OF THE KREMLIN.3
approaches its prescribed term, and the nations are going to be one, notwithstanding all that has tended to disunite them.
Yesterday I recommenced my travels, by a me
thodical and minute inspection of the Kremlin, under
the conduct of M., to whom I had an introduc
tion. Still the Kremlin ! that building is for me all
Moscow — all Russia; a world within itself! My
footman went in the morning to apprize the keeper,
who waited for us. I expected to find an ordinary
official, instead of which we were received by a mili
tary officer, a polite and intelligent man.
The treasury of the Kremlin is deservedly the pride of Russia. It might serve as a substitute for the chronicles of the country ; it is a history in precious stones.
The golden vases, the pieces of armour, the ancient furniture, are not merely to be admired in themselves ; every object is associated with some glorious or singular event worthy of commemoration. But before describing, or rather rapidly noticing, the wonders of an arsenal that has not, I believe, its second in Europe, the reader must follow me, step by step, along the way by which I was led to this sanctuary, revered by the Russians, and justly admired by strangers.
After proceeding through several straight but small streets, I arrived in sight of the fortress, when I passed under an archwa}r, before which my footman caused the coach to stop, with
out deeming it necessary to consult me, so well known is the interest which attaches to the place ! The vault forms the в 2
4ARCHITECTURE OF MOSCOW.
under part of a tower, singular in shape, like all the (>thers in the old quarter of Moscow.
Г have not seen Constantinople, but I believe that, next to that city, Moscow is the most striking in appearance of all the capitals in Europe. It is the inland Byzantium. Fortunately, the squares of the old caj>ital are not so immense as those of Petersburg, in which even St. Peter's of Rome would be lost. At Moscow the sites are more confined, and therefore the edifices produce greater effect. The despotism of straight lines and symmetrical plans is opposed here both by nature and history : Moscow is everywhere picturesque. The sky, without being clear, has a silvery brightness: the models, of every species of architecture, are heaped together without order or plan; no >†ructures are perfect, nevertheless the whole strikes, not with admiration, but with astonishment. The inequalities of the surfaee multiply the points of view. The magic glories of multitudes of cupolas ~parkle in the air. Innumerable gilded steeples, in form like minarets, Oriental pavilions, and Indian domes, transport you to Delhi; donjon-keeps and turrets bring you back to Europe in the times of the iTiisades ; the sentinel, mounted on the top of his watch-tower, reminds you of the muezzin inviting the faithful to prayer ; while, to complete the confusion iif ideas, the cross, which glitters in every direction, commanding the people to prostrate themselves before the Word, seems as though fallen from heaven amid an assembly of Asiatic nations, to point out to them all the narrow way of salvation. It was doubtless before this poetical picture that Madame de Staël ■ xclaimed— Moscow is the Borne of the North!
ADVANTAGE OF OBSCURE TRAVELLERS. Õ
The expression wants justice ; for, in no respect can a parallel be drawn between these two cities It is of Nineveh, Palmyra, or Babylon that we think, when we enter Moscow, and not of the chefs-d'oeuvre of art in either Pagan or Christian Europe. Nor have the history or religion of this country any nearer connection with Rome. Moscow might have been better compared to Pekin: but Madame de Staël thought of any thing rather than viewing Russia, when she traversed that country to visit Sweden and England, there to carry on the war of genius and of ideas with that enemy of all liberty of thought—Napoleon. She had to deliver herself in a few words of the impressions of a person of superior intellect arrived in a new country. The misfortune of celebrated characters when they travel, is that they are obliged to scatter words behind them ; and if they abstain from doing so, other people do it for them.
I place no confidence except in the recitals of unknown travellers. It will be said I am sounding my own trumpet: I do not deny it; for I at least profit by my obscurity, in seeking and endeavouring to discover the truth. The pleasure of rectifying the mistakes and prejudices of some of my friends, and of the few whose minds resemble theirs, will snfìice for ray glory. My ambition is modest,—for nothing is more easy than to correct the errors of superior characters. It appears to me that if there are any who do not hate despotism as much as I hate it, they will do so, notwithstanding its pomps, after the veracious picture of its works which I offer to their meditation.
The massive tower, at the foot of which my footman made me alight, was picturesquely pierced by в 3
в
THE KITAIGOROD.
two arches ; it separates the Avails of the Kremlin, properly so called, from their continuation, which serves as a girdle to Kitaigorod, the city of the merchants, another quarter of old Moscow, founded by the mother of the Czar, John Vassilieviteh, in 1534. This date appears to us recent, but it is ancient for Russia, the youngest of the European realms.
The Kitaigorod, a species of suburb to the Kremlin, is an immense bazaar, a town intersected with dark and vaulted alleys, which resemble so many sub-terranes. These catacombs of the merchants foi`m no cenietries, but a permanent fair. They are a labyrinth of galleries, that rather resemble the arcades of Paris, although less elegant, less light, and more solid. This mode of building is essential to the wants of commerce under the climate: in the north, covered street* remedy, as far as it is possible, the inconveniences and severity of the open air. Sellers and buyers are there sheltered from the storm, the snow, and the frost; whereas light colonnades, open to the day, and airy porticoes have an aspect that is ridiculous. Russian architects ought to take the moles and the ants for their models.
At every step that you take in Moscow you find some chapel highly venerated by the people, and saluted by each passenger. These chapels, or niches, generally contain some image of the Virgin kept under glass, and honoured with a lamp that burns unceasingly. Such shrines arc guarded by some old soldier. These veterans are to be met with in the antechambers of the rich, and in the churches, which they keep in order. The life of an old Russian soldier, if he could not obtain an asylum among the
THE MADONNA OF VIVIELSKI.7
rich, or among the priests, would be one of extreme wretchedness. A charity void of display is unknown to this government: when it wishes to perform an act of benevolence, it builds palaces for the sick, or for children; and the facades of these pious monuments attract all eyes.
In the pillar which separates the double arcade of the tower, is enshrined the Virgin of Vivielski, an ancient image, painted in the Greek style, and highly venerated at Moscow. I observed that every body who passed this chapel — lords, peasants, tradespeople, ladies, and military men,—all bowed and made numerous signs of the cross; many, not satisfied with so humble a homage, stopped, and well-dressed women prostrated themselves to the very earth before the miraculous Virgin, touching even the pavement with their brows; men also, above the rank of peasants, knelt and repeated signs of the cross innumerable. These religious acts in the open street were practised with a careless rapidity which denoted more habit than fervour. My footman is an Italian. Nothing could be more ludicrous than the mixture of conflicting prejudices which are working in the head of this poor foreigner, who has been for a great number of years established in Moscow, his adopted country. His ideas of childhood, brought from Home, dispose him to believe in the intervention of the saints and the Virgin ; and, without losing himself in theological subtilties, he takes for good, in defanlt of better, the miracles of the relics and images of the Greek church. This poor Catholic, converted into a zealous adorer of the Virgin of Vivielski, proves to me the omnipotence of unanimity in creeds. He does в 4
8
MIRACULOUS VIRGIN.
not cease repeating to me, with Italian loquacity, " Signor, creda à me, questa madonna fa dei miracoli, ma dei miraeoli veri, veri verissimi, non è come da noi altri; in questo paese tutti gli miracoli sono veri."
This Italian, preserving the ingenuous vivacity and the good temper of the people of his country in the empire of silence and reserve, amuses me.
A gossip in Eussia is a phenomenon, a rarity delightful to encounter, a thing that is missed every hour by the traveller, wearied with the tact and prudence of the natives of the country. To lead this man to talk, which is not difficult to accomplish, I risked a few doubts as to the authenticity of the miracles of his Virgin of Vivielski: had I denied the spiritual authority of the Pope, my Roman servant could not have been more shocked. In seeing a poor Catholic endeavouring to prove to me the supernatural power of a Greek painting, I thought that it is no longer theology that separates the two churches. The history of all the Christian nations teaches us that princes have known how, in aid of their political schemes, to avail themselves of the obstinacy, the ßubtilty, and the logic of the priests, to envenom religious controversies.
In the small square to which the vaulted passage leads, stands a group in bronze, executed in a very bad soi-disunt classic style. I could have fancied myself in a second-rate sculptor's studio at the Louvre during the Empire. The group represents, under the figure of two Romans, Minine and Pojarski, the liberators of Russia, from which country they drove the Poles at the commencement of the
seventeenth
THE HOLY GATE.
ír
century, — singular heroes to wear the Roman habit ! These two individuals are very much in fashion in the present day. Further on I saw before me the extraordinary church of Vassili Blagenuoï. The style of that grotesque edifice contrasts in a whimsical manner with the classic statues of the liberators of Moscow. A quantity of bulbous-shaped cupolas, not one of which resembles the other, a dish of fruits, a vase of Delft ware full of pine-apples, all pointed with golden crosses, a colossal crystallization, — such, on a near approach, were the only things to which I eoìid compare the church that had appeared so imposing on my first approach to the city. This building is small, like most other Russian churches; and, notwithstanding the interminable medley of its colours, it does not long interest the observer. Two fine flights of steps lead to the esplanade on which it stands. The interior is confined, paltry, and without character. Its erection cost the life of the architect. It was built, according to Laveau, by the order uf Ivan 1ЛТ., politely surnamed the Terrible. That prince, as a reward to the architect who had greatly embellished Moscow, caused his eyes to be torn out, under the pretext that he did not wish such a cJtef-íVœuvre to be built elsewhere.
On leaving the church we passed under the sacred gate of the Kremlin; and, in accordance with the custom religiously observed by the Russians, I took care to doff my hat before entering the archway, which is not long. The custom is traced back to the time of the last attack of the Calmucs, whom an intervention of the tutelary saints of the empire prevented, they say, from penetrating into the sacred в 5