SERFS. SOCIETY IN MOSCOW. A COUNTRY HOUSE IN A CITY.
REAL POLITENESS.REVIEW OF RUSSIAN CHARACTER.THEIR
WANT OF GENEROSITY.CONTEMPT FOR THE LAW OF KINDNESS.
SEDUCTIVE MANNERS OF THE RUSSIANS. THEIR FICKLENESS.
— RESEMBLANCE OF THE POLES AND RUSSIANS.LIBERTINISM IN
MOSCOW.MORAL CONSEQUENCES OF DESPOTISM. —OBSERVATIONS
ON MODERN LITERATURE.DRUNKENNESS A VICE OF THE HIGHEST
CLASSES.RUSSIAN CURIOSITY. PORTRAIT OF PRINCE AND
HIS COMPANIONS. MURDER IN A NUNNERY.CONVERSATION AT
A TABLE-d'hÔTE. THE LOVELACE OF THE KREMLIN. A BUR
LESQUE PETITION. MODERN PRUDERY.— PARTING SCENE WITH
PRINCE . AN ELEGANT COACHMAN. MORALS OF THE
CITIZENS' WIVES. LIBERTINISM THE FRUIT OF DESPOTISM. —
MORAL LICENCE IN LIEU OF POLITICAL FREEDOM.— CONDITION
OF THE SERFS AND OTHER CLASSES. NATURE OF RUSSIAN AM
BITION. RESULTS OF THE SYSTEM OF PETER THE GREAT.
THE TRUE POWER OF RUSSIA. DANGER OF TRUTH.— SONGS OF
THE RUSSIAN GYPSIES.MUSICAL REVOLUTION ACCOMPLISHED
BY DUPREZ. THE THEATRE IN RUSSIA. FRENCH LANGUAGE
IN RUSSIA UNDERSTOOD SUPERFICIALLY. A RUSSIAN IN HIS
LIBRARYTHE TARANDASSE. RUSSIAN IDEAS OF DISTANCE
A NOBLE TRAIT IN RUSSIAN CHARACTER.
During the last two days I have seen many sights : among others, the Tartar Mosque. The religion of the conquerors is now tolerated in a corner of the capital of the vanquished; and this, only on condition
THE TARTAR MOSQUE.51
that the Christians have free permission to enter the Mohammedan sanctuary.
The mosque is a small and mean edifice, and the men there allowed to worship God and the prophet, have a wretched, timid, dirty, and poverty-stricken appearance. They come to prostrate themselves in this temple every Friday, upon a filthy piece of woollen mat, which each carries with him. Their graceful Asiatic garments are become rags ; their own condition is abject: they live as much apart as possible from the population which surrounds them. In seeing these beggars in appearance, creeping in the midst of actual Russia, it is difficult to realise the idea of the tyranny which their fathers exercised over the Muscovites.
The unfortunate sons of conquerors trade at Moscow in the provisions and the merchandise of Asia, and adhere as much as possible to the practice of their religion, avoiding the use of wines and strong liquors, and shutting up their women, or at least veiling them, in order to shield them from the eyes of other men ; a precaution which is, however, little needed, for the Mongol race present but few attractions. High cheek bones, flat noses, small sunken black eyes, frizzled hair, a brown and oily skin, a low stature, an appearance of filth and squalor, — sueh were the characteristics which I remarked in the men of this degenerate race, and in the small number of women of whose features I could obtain a glimpse.
May it not be said that divine justice, so incomprehensible when viewed in the fate of individuals, becomes brightly visible when mirrored in the destiny of nations ? The life of every man is a drama, played D 5
58THE DESCENDANTS OF THE
upon one theatre, but whose plot will be unravelled on the boards of another. It is not thus with the life of nations : their instructive tragedy begins and ends upon earth ; and it is this which makes history a sacred scripture : history is the justification of Providence.
Saint Paul has said, " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers : the powers that be are ordained of God." The church, with him, called men from a state of isolation nearly two thousand years ago, by baptizing them citizens of an eternal community, a society of which all others are but imperfect representations. These truths are not falsified; on the contrary, they are confirmed by experience. The more deeply we study the character of the different nations who share the earth, the more clearly do we recognise that their fate is the consequence of their religion. The religious element is essential to the duration of society : men need a belief in the supernatural, in order to raise themselves from that pretended state of nature which is a state of violence and iniquity ; and the miseries of oppressed races are no more than the punishment of their voluntary errors in matters of faith. Such is the belief which my numerous pilgrimages have instilled into me. Every traveller is obliged to become a philosopher, and more than a philosopher ; for it is necessary to become a Christian to contemplate without shocked senses the condition of the various races dispersed upon the globe, and to meditate without despair upon the dealings of God, — mysterious causes of the vicissitudes of man.
I am recording reflections made in the mosque
MONGOLS IN RUSSIA.59
during the prayer of the children of Bati, now become pariahs among those they enslaved. The present condition of a Tartar in Russia is inferior to that of a Muscovite serf.
The Russians take credit for the tolerance which they accord to the faith of their ancient tyrants. I find such tolerance more ostentatious than philosophical ; and, for the people to whom it is extended. it is but one humiliation more. ЛУегс I in the place of the descendants of those implacable Mongols, who were so long masters of Russia and the terror of the world, I would prefer praying to God in the secret of my heart, rather than in the shadow of a mosque accorded by the pity of my ancient tributaries.
When I wander over Moscow without aim and without guide, I never weary. Each street, each outlet, affords a view of a fresh city ; a city which, studded with its embroidered, pierced, and battle-mented walls, broken with towers, and supporting multitudes of turrets and watch-towers, appears as though built by the genii. Then there is the Kremlin, poetical in its aspect, historical by its name, the root of an empire, the heart of a city, and which is for me all Moscow. I return there with an ever-new attraction ; but it is necessary carefully to avoid examining in detail the incoherent masses of monuments with which this walled mountain is encumbered. The exquisite sense of art, the talent, that is, of finding the one only perfectly just expression of an original conception, is unknown to the Russians ; nevertheless, when giants copy, their imitations always possess a kind of beauty : the works of genius D 6
60
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
are grand, the works of physical power are great: and this alone is something.
To divert my mind for a moment from the terrific Kremlin, I have paid a visit to the tower of Souka-reflf, built on an eminence near to one of the entrances of the city. The first story is a vast structure, containing an immense reservoir, from whence nearly all the water drunk in Moscow is distributed to the different parts of the city. The view'of this walled lake, reared high in air, produces a singular impression. The architecture is heavy and gloomy ; but the Byzantine arcades, the massy flights of steps, and the ornaments in the style of the Lower Empire, make the whole very imposing. This style is perpetuated in Moscow: had it been applied with discernment, it would have given birth to the only national architecture possible to the Russians: though invented in a temperate climate, it equally accords with the wants of northern people, and the habits of those of the south. The interior of Byzantine edifices are very similar to ornamented cellars ; the solidity of the massive vaults, and the obscurity of the walls, offer a shelter from the cold as well as from the sun.
I have also been shown the University, the School of Cadets, the Institutions of St. Catherine and of Saint Alexander, the Hospitals for Widows and for Foundlings, all vast and pompous in appearance. The llussians pride themselves in having so great a number of magnificent public establishments to show to strangers: for my part, I should be content with less of this kind of splendour ; for no places are more tedious to wander over than these white and sumptuously-monotonous palaces, where every thing is
THE EMrEROR EVERYWHERE.61
conducted in military order, and where human life seems reduced to the action of the pendulum of a clock.
The reader must learn from others
all that is to be seen in these useful and superb nurseries of officers, mothers of families, and governesses : it will suffice for me to say, that the institutions, half political, half charitable, appear models of good order, eare, and cleanliness—a fact which does honour to the heads of the different schools, as well as to the supreme head of the empire.
It is impossible for a single moment to forget that one individual by whom Russia lives, thinks, and acts,—that man, alike the science and the conscience of his people, who commands, measures, and distributes all that is necessary or permitted to other men, none of whom may think, feel, will, or imagine, except within the sphere marked out by the supreme wisdom which foresees, or is supposed to foresee, all the wants of the individual as well as of the State.
Among us there is the fatigue of licence and variety; here we are discouraged by uniformity, frozen over by pedantry, which yet we may not separate from the idea of order; whence it follows, that we hate what we ought to love. Russia, that infant nation, is nothing more than an immense college ; every thing is conducted there as in a military school, the only difference being, that the scholars never leave it until they die.
All that is German in the spirit of the Russian government is antipathetic to the Slavonian character. The latter oriental, nonchalant, capricious, and poetical people, if they said what they thought, woidd
62THE NOBLEMEN'S CLUB.
bitterly complain of the Germanic discipline imposed upon them since the times of Alexis, Peter the Great, and Catherine II., by a race of foreign princes. The imperial family, let it do its best, will be always too Teutonic to govern the Russians without violence, and to feel as one with them.* The peasants alone are deceived.
I have carried the sight-seeing duties of the traveller so far as to allow myself to be taken to a riding-school, the largest, I believe, which exists. The ceiling is supported by light and bold h`on arches. The whole edifice is wonderful in its kind.
The club of the nobles is closed during the present season. I visited it also as a matter of conscience. In the principal hall is a statue of Catherine II. This hall is ornamented with pillars and a semi-rotunda ; it will contain about 3000 persons ; and, during the winter, magnificent balls are given in it. I can well believe this, for the Russian nobles reserve all their luxury for pleasures of parade. To dazzle is, with them, to display civilisation. It is but little more than one hundred years since Peter the Great dictated to them the first laws of politeness, and instituted assemblies similar to those of old Europe; obliging the men to admit the other sex into these circles, and exhorting them to take off' their hats when they entered an apartment. While thus teaching them common civility, he was himself
* The Komanows were originally Prussians ; and, since the election that placed them on the throne, they have usually intermarried with German princesses, contrary to the custom of the ancient Muscovite sovereigns.
POLITE EDUCATION.
63
exercising the vilest of all professions — that of the headsman. He has been seen in a single evening to strike off twenty heads with his own hand, and has been heard to boast of his address. Such was the education, and such the example, given to the Russians by this worthy heir of the Ivans, — this prince whom they have made their God, and whom they view as the eternal model of a Russian sovereign !
The new converts to civilisation have not yet lost their taste, as upstarts, for every thing that dazzles — every thing that attracts the eye. Children and savages always love these things. The Russians are children who have the habit, but not the experience of misfortune; hence the mixture of levity and causticity which characterises them. The enjoyments of a calm and equable life, adapted solely to satisfy the affections of intimacy, to administer to the pleasures of conversation and of mind, would never long suffice them: not that these great lords show themselves altogether insensible to refined pleasures; but, to captivate the haughty frivolity of such disguised satraps, to fix their vagrant imaginations, lively excitements are necessary. The love of play, intemperance, libertinism, and the gratifications of vanity, can scarcely fill the void in their satiated hearts: the creation of God does not furnish wherewith these unhappy victims of wealth and indolence can get through their weary days. In their proud misery they summon to their aid the spirit of destruction. All modern Europe is the prey of ennui. It is this which attests the nature of the life led by the youth of the present day : but Russia suffers, from the evil worse than the other communities ; for here every
64A RUSSIAN COFFEE-HOUSE,
thing is excessive. To describe the ravages of society in a population like that of Moscow would be difficult: nowhere have the mental maladies engendered in the soul by ennui — that passion of men who have no passions — appeared to me so serious or so frequent as among the higher classes in Russia: it may be said that society has here commenced by its abuses. AVhen vice does not suffice to enable the human heart to shake off the ennui that preys upon it, that heart proceeds to crime.
The interior of a Russian coffee-house is very curious. It consists generally of a large, low apartment, badly lighted, and usually occupying the first floor of the house. The waiters are dressed in white shirts, girded round the middle, and falling like a tunic over loose white pantaloons. Their hair is long and smooth, like that of all the lower orders of Russians; and their whole adjustment reminds one of the theophilanthropes of the French republic, or the priests of the Opera when paganism was the fashion at the theatre. They serve you with excellent tea, superior, indeed, to any found in other lands, with coffee and liqueurs; but this is done with a silence and solemnity very different from the noisy gaiety which reigns in the cafes of Paris. In Russia, all popular pleasures are melancholy in their character: mirth is viewed as a privilege; consequently, I always find it assumed, affected, overdone, and worse than the natural sadness. Here, the man who laughs is either an actor, a drunkard, or a flatterer.
This reminds me of the times when the Russian serfs believed, in the simplicity of their abjectness, that heaven was only made for their masters: dread-
SOCIETY IN MOSCOW.65
ful humility of misfortune ! Such was the manner in which the Greek church taught Christianity to the people.
The society of Moscow is agreeable; the mixture of the patriarchal traditions of the old world with the polished manners of the modern, produces a combination that is, in a manner, original. The hospitable customs of ancient Asia and the elegant language of civilised Europe have met together at this point of the globe, to render life pleasant and easy. Moscow, fixed on the limits of two continents, marks, in the middle of the earth, a spot for rest between London and Pekin.
A small number of letters of introduction suffice to put a stranger in communication with a crowd of persons, distinguished either by fortune, rank, or mind. The debut of a traveller is here easy.
I was invited a few days ago to dine at a country-house. It is a pavilion situated within the limits of the city, but to reach it, we had to traverse, for more than a league, fields that resemble steppes, to skirt solitary pools of waters; and, at last, on approaching the house, we perceived, beyond the garden, a dark and deep forest of firs, which borders the exterior bounds of Moscow. Who would not have been struck at the sight of these profound shades, these majestic solitudes, in a city where all the luxuries and refinements of modern civilisation are to be found ? Such contrasts are characteristics; nothing similar is to be seen elsewhere.
I entered a wooden house — another singularity. In Moscow both rich and poor are sheltered by planks and boards, as in the primitive cottages. But the in-
66SUMMARY OF RUSSIAN CHARACTER.
terior of these large cabins exhibits the luxury of the finest palaces of Europe. If I lived at Moscow, I would have a wooden house. It is the only kind of habitation the style of which is national, and, what is more important, it is the only kind that is adapted to the climate. Houses of wood are esteemed by the true Muscovites as warmer and healthier than t
hose of stone.
We dined in the garden; and, that nothing should be wanting to the originality of the scene, L found the table laid under a tent. The conversation, although between men only, and very lively, was decent — a thing rarely known among the nations who believe themselves the first in civilisation. The guests were persons who had both seen and read much; and their views appeared to me very clear and just. The Kus-sians are apes in the manners and customs of refined life; but those who think (it is true their number is limited) become themselves again, infa miliar conversation — Greeks, namely, endowed with a quickness and sagacity which is hereditary.
The dinner seemed to me short, although in reality it lasted a long time, and although, at the moment of sitting down at table, I saw the guests for the first time, and the master of the house for the second. This remark is worthy of notice, for great and true politeness could alone have put a stranger so quickly at his ease. Among all the recollections of my journey, that of this day will remain as one of the most agreeable.
At the moment of leaving Moscow, never to return, except merely to pass through it, I do not think it will be inappropriate for me summarily to review the
WANT OF GENEROSITY.67
character of the Russians, so far as I have been able to discern it, after a sojourn in their country, very brief, it is true, but employed without cessation in attentively observing a multitude of persons and of things, and in comparing, with scrupulous care, innumerable facts. The variety of objects which passes before the eyes of a stranger, as much favoured by circumstances as I have been, and as active as I am when excited by curiosity, supplies, to a certain extent, the time and leisure which I have wanted. I naturally take pleasure in admiring: this disposition ought to procure some credit for my opinions when I do not admire.
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 67
