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

by Astolphe De Custine

  To make the sign of the cross in the streets before an image, and on sitting down to table, is all that the Greek religion teaches.

  Intemperance is here carried to such excess, that one of the men, the most liked, and whose society is the most courted in Moscow, disappears every year

  RUSSIAN CURIOSITY./У

  for six weeks, neither more nor less. If it be asked what has become of him, the answer, " he is only gone to have a fuddling bout" ! satisfies every body.

  The Russians have too much levity to be vindictive ; they are graceful debauchees. I take pleasure in repeating that they are supremely pleasant and agreeable; but their ])oliteness, insinuating as it is, sometimes becomes exasperated and fatiguing. This often makes me regret coarseness, which has, at least. the merit of being natural. The first law of politeness is to indulge only in praises that can be accepted : all others are insults. True politeness is nothing more than a code of flatteries well disguised. What is so flattering as cordiality ? for, in order to manifest it, sympathy must first be felt.

  If there are very polite persons among the Russians. there are also very impolite. The bad taste of these latter is shocking. They inquire, after the manner of savages, into things the most important, as well as into the most trifling bagatelles, without any modesty and with the utmost minuteness. They assail you with impertinent or puerile questions, and act at the same time as children and as spies. The Slavonians are naturally inquisitive; and it is only good education, and the habits of the best society, that ean repress their curiosity : those who have not these advantages never tire of putting you in the witness-box : they must know the objects and the results of your journey ; they will ask boldly, and repeat such interrogations unceasingly — if you prefer Russia to other lands; if you think Moscow more beautiful than Paris; if the Winter Palace at Petersbur£r is finer than the Tuileries; if Krasnacselo is larger than E 4

  80

  PRINCE

  Versailles: and with each new individual to whom you are introduced you have to re-commence the repeating of this catechism, in which national vanity hypocritically draws upon the urbanity of foreigners, and ventures its own rudeness in reliance upon the politeness of others.

  I have been introduced to a person who was de

  scribed to me as a singular character, worthy of obser

  vation. He is a young man of illustrious name, the

  Prince, only son of a very rich individual; al

  though this son spends double his income, and treats

  his mind and body as he does his fortune. The tavern

  is his empire : it is there that he reigns eighteen

  hours out of the twenty-four; on that ignoble theatre

  he displays, naturally and involuntarily, noble and

  elegant manners : his countenance is intellectual and

  extremely fascinating ; his disposition is at once

  amiable and mischievous : many traits of rare libe

  rality, and even of touching sensibility, are recounted

  of him.

  Having had for his tutor a man of great talent, an old French abbé and emigre, he is remarkably well informed; his mind is quick and endowed with great ca}>acity ; his wit is unequalled in Moscow, but his lano;uao;e and conduct are such as would not be tole-rated elsewhere ; his charming but restless face betrays the contradiction that exists between his natural character and his course of life.

  Profligacy has impressed upon his countenance the traces of a premature decay ; still these ravages of folly, not of time, have been unable to change the almost infantile expression of his noble and regular features. Innate grace will last with life, and remains

  AND HIS COMPANIONS.81

  faithful to the man who possesses it, whatever effort he may make to throw it off. In no other land could

  a man be found like the young Prince , l>ut

  there are more than one such here.

  He is to be seen surrounded by a crowd of young men, his disciples and competitors, who, without equalling him either in disposition or in mind, all share with him a kind of family resemblance : it may be seen at the first glance that they are, and only can be Russians. It is for this reason that I am about to give some details connected with their manner

  of lifeBut already my pen falls from

  my hands; for it will be necessary to reveal the connection of these libertines, not with women of the town, but with the youthful sisters of religious orders,—with nuns, whose cloisters, as it will be seen, are not very securely guarded. I hesitate to recite facts which will too readily reeal our revolutionary literature in 1793. I shall remind the reader of the Visitandines; — and why, he will ask, lift a corner of the veil that covers scenes of disorder which ought to remain carefully covered ? Perhaps my passion for the truth obscures my judgment; but it seems to me that evil triumphs so long as it remains secret, whilst to publish it is to aid in destroying it: besides, I have resolved to draw a picture of this country as I see it, — not a composition, but an exact and complete copy from nature. My business is to represent things as they are, not as they ought to be. The only law that I impose on myself, under a sense of delicacy, is to forbear making any allusion to persons who desire to remain unknown. As for the man whom I select for a specimen of the most unbridled E 5

  82

  MURDER IN A NUNNERY.

  among the libertines of Moscow, he carries his contempt of opinion to the extent of desiring me to describe him as I see him. In citing several facts related by himself, I have first heard them confirmed by others.

  A story of the death of a young man, killed in

  the convent of, by the nuns themselves, he told

  me yesterday at a full table-d'hôte, before several grave and elderly personages, employes and placemen, who listened with an extraordinary patience to this and several other tales of a similar kind, all very contrary to good manners.

  I have surnamed this singular young man, Prince

  , the Don Jnan of the Old Testament, so greatly

  does the measure of his madness and audacity exceed the ordinary bounds of an abandoned life among modern nations. Nothing is little or moderate in Russia: if the laud is not, as my Italian cicerone calls it, a land of miracles, it is truly a land of giants.

  The story in question related to a young man, who, after having passed an entire month concealed within

  the convent of , began, at last, to weary of his

  excess of happiness to a degree that wearied the holy sisters also. He appeared dying : whereupon the nuns, wishing to be rid of him, but fearing the scandal that might ensue should they send him to die in the world, concluded that it would be better to make an end of him themselves. No sooner said than done : —the mangled remains of the wretched being were found a few days after at the bottom of a well. The affair was hushed up.

  If we are to believe the same authorities, there are numerous convents in Moscow in which the rules of

  THE LOVELACE OF THE KREMLIN.83

  the cloister are little observed. One of the friend? of the prince, yesterday exhibited before me, to the whole legion of libertines, the rosary of a novice., that he said she had forgotten and left that very morning in his chamber. Another made a trophy of a Book of Prayers, which he stated had belonged to one of the sisters who was reputed among the most

  holy of the community of; and the audience

  warmly applauded.

  I shall not go on. Each had his scandalous anecdote to relate, and all excited loud peals of laughter. Gaiety, ever increasing, soon became drunken riot under the influence of the wine of Aï, which overflowed in goblets, whose size was more capable of satisfying Muscovite intemperance than our old-fashioned champagne-glasses. In the midst of the

  general disorder, the young Prince and myself

  alone preserved our reason, — he, because he can outdrink everybody, I, because I cannot drink at all, and had therefore abstained from attempting.

  In the midst of the
uproar, the Lovelace of the Kremlin rose with a solemn air, and, with the authority which his fortune, his name, his handsome face, and yet more, his superior mental capacity give him, he commanded silence, and to my great surprise obtained it. I could have fancied I was reading the poetical description of a tempest appeased by the voice of some pagan god. The young god proposed to the friends whom the gravity of his aspect had thus suddenly calmed, to indite a petition, addressed to the proper authorities, humbly remonstrating, in the name of the courtesans of Moscow, that the ancient religious institutions of nunneries so completely inter-E 6

  84A BURLESQUE PETITION.

  fered with and rivalled their lay community, in the exercise of their calling, as to render that calling no longer profitable; and therefore respectfully stating that, as the expenses of these poor cyprians were not diminished in the same proportion as their gains, they ventured to hope an equitable consideration of their case would induce the authorities to see fit to deduct from a part of the revenue of the said convents, a pecuniary aid, which had become absolutely necessary, unless it was wished that the religious orders should entirely take the place of the civil recluses. The motion was put and carried with loud acclamations; ink and paper were called for; and the young madman immediately drew up, in very good French, and with magisterial dignity, a document too scandalously burlesque for me to insert here, though I have a copy. It was thrice read by the author before the meeting, with a loud emphatical voice, and was received with the most nattering marks of appro-, bation.

  Such was the scene, of which I have perhaps already recounted too much, that I witnessed yesterday in one of the best frequented taverns of Moscow. It was the day after the agreeable dinner-party in the

  pretty pavilion of. In vain is uniformity the law

  of the state : nature lives on variety, and knows how, at all costs, to obtain her wants.

  I have spared the reader many details, and greatly moderated the expression of those which I have inflicted upon him. If 1 had been more exact, I should not be read. Montaigne, Rabelais, Shakspeare, and many other great describers, would chasten their etyle if they wrote in our age ; how much more care-

  MODERN PRUDERY.

  85

  fully, then, should they who have not the same right to independence watch over their words and allusions. The prudery of the present day, if not respectable, is at least formidable. Virtue blushes ; but hypocrisy loudly exclaims.

  The captain of the troop of debauchees, whose head-quarters is the tavern before noticed, is endowed with so singular an elegance, his bearing is so distinguished, his person so agreeable, there is so much good taste even in his follies, so much kindly feeling painted on his countenance, so much nobleness in his manner, and even in his wildest language, that we pity more than wc l)lame him. He rules from a high elevation the companions of his excesses ; he has no appearance of being born for bad company ; and it is impossible to avoid feeling a deep interest in him, although he is, in great part, responsible for the errors of his imitators. Superiority, even in evil, always exerts its influence.

  He had engaged me to-day to accompany him on an excursion into the country, which was to occupy two days. But I have just been to find him in his usual retreat, in order to excuse myself. I pleaded the necessity of hastening my journey to Nijni, and obtained my release. But before leaving him to the course of folly which is dragging him onwards, I must describe the scene that was prepared for me in the court of the tavern, into which they obliged me to descend to view the decampment of this horde of libertines. The farewell was a true bacchanal.

  Imagine a dozen young men already more than half drunk, loudly disputing among each other respeet-in¤· their seats in three calèches, each drawn by four

  86PARTING SCENE WITH PRINCE .

  horses. A group of lookers on, the tavern-keeper at their head, followed by all the servants of the house and stables, admired, envied, and ridiculed—although this last was done under the cloak of much outward reverence; meanwhile the leader of the band, standing up in his open carriage, played his part, and ruled, by voice and gesture, with unaffected gravity. There was placed at his feet a bucket, or rather a large tub, fidl of champagne-bottles in ice. This species of portable cellar was the provision for the journey, — to refresh his throat, as he said, when the dust of the road was troublesome. One of his adjutants, whom he called the general of the corks, had already opened two or three bottles ; and the young madman was dispensing huge goblets of the costly wine, the best champagne to be had in Moscow, to the bystanders, as a parting libation. Two cups, quickly emptied and incessantly replenished by his most zealous satellite, the general of the corks, were in his hands. He drank one, and offered the other to the nearest bystander. His servants were all clothed in grand livery, with the exception of the coachman, a young serf whom he had recently brought from his estates. This man was dressed in a most costly manner, far more remarkable in its apparent simplicity than the gold-laee trappings of the other servants. He had on a shirt of precious silken tissue, brought from Persia, and above it a cafetan of the finest cassimere, bordered with beautiful velvet, which, opening at the breast, displayed the shirt, plaited in folds so small as to be scarcely perceptible. The dandies of Petersburg like the youngest and handsomest of their people to be thus dressed on days of ceremony. The rest of

  AN ELEGANT COACHMAN.

  87

  the costume corresponded with this luxury. The boots, of fine Torjeck leather, embroidered with flowers in gold and silver thread, glittered at the feet of the rustic, who seemed dazzled with his own splendour, and was so perfumed that I was almost overcome with the essences exhaled from his hair, beard, and clothes, at the distance of several feet from the carriage.

  After having drunk with the whole tavern, the young noble leant towards the man thus decked out, and presented him with a foaming cup, saying," drink." The poor, gilded mugie was, in his inexperience, at a loss how to act. ei Drink, I say," continued his master (this was translated to me), " drink, you rascal; it is not to you I give this champagne, but to уоггг horses, who will not have strength to gallop the whole jom*ney if the coachman is not drunk :" upon which the whole assembly laughed and loudly cheered. The coachman was soon persuaded : he was already in the third bumper when his master gave the signal to start, which he did not do till he had renewed to me, with a charming politeness, his regret at having been unable to persuade me to accompany him on this party of pleasure. He appeared so distingue, that, while he spoke, I forgot the place and scene, and fancied myself at Versailles in the time of Louis XIV.

  At last he departed for the chateau, where he is to spend three days. These gentlemen call such an excursion a summer /ггг?г^.

  We may easily guess how they relieve themselves in the country from the ennui of town life—by continuing the same thing ; by pursuing the same career ; by reviving the scenes of Moscow, except, at least,

  88

  TAVERN CONVERSATION.

  that they introduce upon them new figurantes. They cany with them, in these journeys, cargoes of engravings of the most celebrated pictures of France and Italy, which furnish them with subjects for tableaux vivants, which they cause to be represented with certain modifications of costume.

  The villages, and all that they contain, are their own ; so that it may easily be supposed the privilege of the nobleman in Russia extends further than at the Opera Comique of Paris.

  Thetavern, open to all the world, is situated

  in one of the public squares of the city, a few steps only from a guard-house full of Cossacks, whose stiff bearing and severely gloomy air would impart to foreigners the idea of a country where no one dares to laugh even innocently.

  As I have imposed upon myself the duty of communicating the ideas that I have formed of this land, I am obliged to add to the picture already sketched, a few new specimens of the conversation of the parties already brought before the reader.

  One boasted of himself and his brother
s being the sons of the footmen and the coachmen of their father ; and he drank, and made the guests drink, to the health of all his unknown parents. Another claimed the honour of being brother (on the father's side) of all the waiting-maids of his mother.

  Many of these vile boasts are no doubt made for the sake of talking : but to invent such infamies in order to glory in them, shows a corruption of mind that proves wickedness to the very core—wickedness worse even than that exhibited in the mad actions oí' these libertines.

  MORALS OF TIIE CITIZENS' WIVES.89

  According to them, the citizens' wives in Moscow are no better than the women of rank.

  During the months that their husbands go to the fair of Nijni, the officers of the garrison take special care not to leave the city. This is the seasou of easy assignations. The ladies are generally accompanied to the place of rendezvous by some ?`espectable relation, to whose care their absent husbands have confided them. The good-will and silence of these family duennas have also to be paid for. Gallantry of this kind cannot be excused as a love affair : there is no love without bashful modesty, — such is the sentence pronounced from all eternity against women who cheat themselves of happiness, and who degrade instead of purifying themselves by tenderness. The defenders of the Russians pretend that at Moscow the women have no lovers: I agree with them : some other term must be employed to designate the friends whose intimacy they seek in the absence of their husbands.