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

by Astolphe De Custine

  My feldjäger undertook to make the drinkers retire: they rose without offering the least objection, were

  THE PLAGUE OF PERSIC AS.181

  crowded into the next room, and the door was fastened upon them by the species of lock I have already mentioned. A score of tables filled up the chamber ` but a swarm of priests in their robes, in other words, a troop of waiters in white shirts, precipitated themselves upon the furniture, and left me with bare walls in a few moments. But what a sight then met my eyes ! Under each table, under every stool, multitudes of vermin were crawling, of a kind I have never before seen: they were black insects, about half an inch long, thick, soft, viscid, and tolerably nimble in their movements. This loathsome animal is known in a portion of Eastern Europe, in Yolhynia, the Ukraine, Russia, and a part of Poland, where it is called, I believe, persica, because it was brought from Asia. I cannot make out the name given to it by the coffeehouse waiters of Nijni. On seeing the floor of my chamber mottled over with these moving reptiles, crushed under the foot at every step, not by hundreds, but by thousands, and on perceiving the new kind of ill-savour exhaled by this massacre, I watJ seized with despair, fled from my chamber to the street, and proceeded to present myself to the governor. I did not re-enter my detestable lodging until assured that it had been rendered as clean as practicable. My bed, filled with fresh hay, was placed in the middle of the room, its four feet standing in earthern vessels full of water. Notwithstanding these precautions, I did not fail to find, on awaking from a restless, unrefreshing sleep, two or three persicas on my pillow. The reptiles are not noxious; but I cannot express the disgust with which they inspire me. The filthiness, the apathy, which

  182

  PRIDE OF

  their presence in the habitations of man betrays, make me regret my journey to this part of the globe. I feel as though there were a moral degradation in being approached by these offal-bred creatures : physical antipathy triumphs over all the efforts of reason.

  Л merchant of Moscow, who has the most splendid and extensive silk-magazine in the fair, is coming this morning to take me over it, and to show me everything in detail.

  I again find here the dust and suffocating heat of a southern clime. I was therefore well advised not to go on foot to the fair : but the concourse of strangers is at this time so great at Nijni, that I could not get a vehicle on hire; I was therefore obliged to use the by-no-means elegant one in which I arrived from Moscow, and to attach to it two horses only, which annoyed me as much as though I had been a Russian. It is not through vanity that they drive four horses : the animals have spirit, but they are not robust ; they soon fatigue when they have much weight to draw.

  On entering the carriage with the merchant who was so good as to act as my cicerone, and with hi¡? brother, I told my feldjäger to follow us. He, without hesitating or waiting to ask my permission, deliberately stepped into the calèche, and, with a coolness

  that amazed me, seated himself by the side of M.'s

  brother, who, notwithstanding my expostulations, was determined to sit with his back to the horses. In this country it is not unusual to see the owner of

  THE FELDJÄGEE.183

  a carriage seated faciug the horses, when even he is not by the side of a lady, whilst his friends place themselves opposite. This impoliteness, which would not be committed among us excepting where there was the strictest intimacy, here astonishes nobody.

  Fearing lest the familiarity of the courier should shock my obliging companions, I considered it necessary to make this man remove; and told him, very civilly, to mount the seat by the side of the coachman.

  " I shall do nothing of the kind," answered the feldjäger, with imperturbable sang-froid.

  " What is the reason that you do not obey me ? " I asked, in a yet calmer tone; for I know that among this half-oriental nation, it is necessary to maintain perfect impassibility in order to preserve your authority.

  We spoke in German. " It would be a derogation," answered the Russian, in the same quiet tone.

  This reminded me of the disputes about precedence among the boyards, which, under the reigns of the Ivans, were often so serious as to fill many pages of the Russian history of that epoch.

  " What do уогх mean by a derogation ?" I continued. " Is not that the place which you have occupied since Ave left Moscow ? "

  " It is true, sir, that is my place in travelling; but in taking a drive I ought to be in the carriage. I wear a uniform."

  This uniform, which I have noticed elsewhere, is that of an agent of the post.

  " I wear uniform, sir; I possess a rank in the

  i
  tchinn; I am not a private servant; I am in the employ of the emperor."

  í( I care very little what you are; though I never said to you that you were a servant."

  ¢¢ I should have the appearance of being one, were I to sit in that place when you take a ride in the city. I have been many years in service; and, as a recompense for my good conduct, they hold out to me the prospect of nobility: I am endeavouring to obtain it, for I am ambitious."

  This confusion of our old aristocratic ideas with the new vanity instilled by despots into a people diseased with envy, took me by surprise. I had before ine a specimen of the worst kind of emulation — that of the -parvenant already giving himself the airs of the parvenu I

  After a moment's silence, . answered: " I approve your pride, if it is well founded; but being little acquainted with the usages of your country, I shall, before allowing you to enter my coach, submit your claims to the governor. My intention is to require nothing from you beyond what you owe me in accordance with the orders given you when you were sent to me : in my uncertainty as to yoiir pretensions, I dispense with your services for to-day; I shall proceed without you."

  I felt inclined to laugh at the tone of importance with which I spoke; but I considered this dramatic dignity necessary to my comfort during the rest of the journey. There is nothing, however ridiculous, which may not be excused by the conditions and the inevitable consequences of despotism.

  This aspirant to nobility, and scrupulous observer

  THE CITY OF THE FAIR.185

  of the etiquette of the highway, costs me, notwithstanding his pride, three hundred francs, in wages, per month. He reddened when he heard my last words, and, without making any reply, he left the carriage and re-entered the house in silence.

  The ground on which the fair is held is very spacious ; and I congratulated myself that I did not proceed to that city of a month on foot, for the heat continues to be great during a day in which the sun still darts his rays for fifteen hours.

  The men of every land, but especially those of the extreme East, here meet together: these men are however more singular in name than in appearance. All the Asiatics resemble each other, or they may, at least, be divided into two classes: those having the faces of apes, as the Calmucs, Mongols, Baskirs, and Chinese ; and those having the Greek profile, as the Circas-sians, Persians, Georgians, Indians, &c.

  The fair of Nijni is held, as I have already said, on an immense triangle of sandy and perfectly level land, which runs to a point between the Oka, at its embouchure into the Volga, and the broad stream of the latter river. It is, therefore, bordered on either side by one of the two rivers. The soil upon which so immense an amount of wealth is heaped scarcely rises above the water. This merchant-city consists of a vast assemblage of long and broad streets: their perfect straightness injures their picturesque effect. A dozen of buildings called Chinese pavilions rise above the shops; but their fantastic style is not sufficient to correct the dulness and monotony of the general aspect of the edifices. The whole forms an oblong bazaar, which appears solitary, so vast is it in extent. The

  186

  SUBTERRANEAN CITY.

  dense crowds that obstruct the approaches disappear as soon as you penetrate the interior lines of stalls. The city of the fair is, like all the other modern Eus-sian cities, too vast f
or its population, although that population, including the amphibious community scattered in boats on the river, and the flying camps which environ the fair, properly so called, amounts to 200,000 souls. The houses of the merchants stand upon a subterranean city, an immense vaulted sewer; in whieh labyrinth he would be lost who should attempt to penetrate without an experienced guide. Each street in the fair is doubled by a gallery, which follows its whole length, under earth, and serves as an issue for all refuse. The sewers are constructed of stone, and are cleansed several times daily, by a multitude of pumps, which introduce the water from the neighbouring rivers. They are entered by large and handsome stone staircases.

  These catacombs of filth, which are also for the prevention of every thing offensive in the open streets, are placed under the charge of cossacks, who form its police, and who politely invite the individual to descend. They are one of the most imposing works I have seen in Russia, and might suggest models to the constructors of the sewers at Paris. So much vastness and solidity reminds one of the descriptions of Eonie. They were built by the Emperor Alexander, who, like his predecessors, pretended to conquer nature by establishing the fair on a soil inundated during one half of the year. He lavished millions in remedying the inconveniences of the injudicious choice made when the fair of Makarief was transported to Nijni.

  SINGULAR APPEARANCE OF THE RIVER. 187

  The Oka, which separates the city of the fair from the permanent city, is here more than four times the breadth of the Seine. Forty thousand men sleep every night upon its bosom, making themselves nests in boats, which form a kind of floating camp. From the surface of the aquatic city rises, at evening, the heavy murmur of voices that might be easily taken for the gurgling of the waves. All these boats have masts, and form a river-forest, peopled by men from every corner of the earth : their faces and their costumes are equally strange. The sight has struck me more than any other in the immense fair. Rivers thus inhabited remind one of the descriptions of China.

  Some of the peasants in this part of Russia wear white tunic shirts, ornamented with red boi`dcrs: the costumes is borrowed from the Tartars. At nighttime, the white linen gives them the appearance of spectres moving in the dark. Yet, notwithstanding its many singular and interesting objects, the fair of Nijni is not picturesque : it is a formal plan rather than a graceful sketch. The man devoted to political economy, or arithmetical calculations, has more business here than the poet or the painter : the subjects relate to the commercial balance and progress of the two principal quarters of the world — nothing more and nothing less. From one end of Russia to the other I perceive a minute, Dutch-taught government, hypocritically carrying on war against the primitive faculties of an ingenious, lively, poetical, oriental people, a people born for the arts.

  The merchandise of every part of the world is collected in the immense streets of the fair ; but it is

  188

  ORIGIN OF THE FAIR.

  also lost in them. The scarcest objects are buyers. I have seen nothing yet in this country without exclaiming, " the people are too few for the space ! " It is just the contrary in ancient communities, where the land fails the civilisation. The French and English stalls are the most elegant; while viewing them, the beholder might fancy himself at Paris or at London: but this Bond-street of the East, this Palais Koyal of the steppes, does not constitute the real wealth of the market of Nijni. To have a just idea of the importance of this fair it is necessary to recollect its origin, and the place where it was first held. Before flourishing at Makaricf it was established at Kazan : the two extremes of the ancient world, western Europe and China, met in that ancient capital of Russian Tartary to exchange their various products. This is now done at Nijni. But a very incomplete idea of a market for the commodities of two continents would be formed, if the spectator did not leave the regular stalls and elegant pavilions which adorn the modern bazaar of Alexander, and survey some of the different camps by which it is flanked. The line and rule do not follow the merchant into the suburbs of the fair : these suburbs are like the farm-yard of a chateau — however stately and orderly the principal habitation, the disorder of nature reigns in its dependencies.

  It is no easy task to traverse, even rapidly, these exterior depots, for they are themselves each as large as cities. A continual and really imposing activity pervades them, — a true mercantile chaos, which it is needful to see in order to believe.

  To commence with the city of tea : It is an Asiatic

  THE CITY OF TEA.

  189

  camp, whieh extends on the banks of the two rivers to the point of land where they meet. The tea eomes from China by Kiatka, which is in the back part of Asia. At this first depot it is exchanged for merchandise, and from thence transported in packages, whieh resemble small ehests, in the shape of dice, about two feet deep every way. These packages are frames, covered with skins ; the buyers thrust into them a kind of probe, by withdrawing which they ascertain the quality of the article. From Kiatka the tea travels by land to Tomsk; it is there placed in boats, and sails along several rivers, of whieh the Irtish and the Tobol are the principal, till it arrives at Tourmine, from whence it is again transported by land to Perm, in Siberia, where it is re-shipped on the Kama, which carries it into the Volga, and up that river it ascends to Xijni. Russia receives yearly 75,000 or 80,000 ehests of tea, one half of whieh remains in Siberia, to be transported to Moscow during the winter, by sledges, and the other half arrives at this fair.

  The principal tea-merehant in Russia is the individual who wrote for me the above itinerary. I do not answer for either the orthography or the geography of that opulent man ; but a millionnaire is generally correct, for he buys the science of others.

  It will be seen that this famous tea of the caravans, so delicate, as is said, beeause it eomes over-land, travels nearly always by water: to be sure, it is fresh water; and the mists of rivers do not produce such efteets as the ocean fogs.

  Forty thousand ehests of tea is an amount easily named ; but the reader can have no idea of the time it

  190THE CITY OF BAGS.

  takes to survey them, though it be only by passing before the piles of boxes. This year, thirty-five thousand were sold in three days. A single individual, my geographical merchant, took fourteen thousand, which cost him ten million silver roubles (paper roubles are not current here), a part payable down, the rest in one year.

  It is the rate of tea which fixes the price of all the commodities of the fair: before this rate is published, the other bai`gains are only made conditionally.

  There is another city as large, but less elegant, and less perfumed than the city of tea — that, namely, of rags. Fortunately, before bringing the tatters of all Russia to the fair, those into whose hands they have fallen, cause them to be washed. This commodity, necessary to the manufacture of paper, has become so precious, that the Russian custom-house forbids the exportation with extreme severity.

  Another town which attracted my attention among the suburbs, was that of barked timber. Like the faubourgs of Vienna, these secondary cities are larger than the principal. The one of which I speak serves as a magazine for the wood, brought from Siberia, destined to form the wheels of the Russian carts, and the collars of the horses — those semicircles formed of a single piece of bended wood, which are seen fixed in so picturesque a manner at the extremities of the shafts, and which rise above the heads of all the shaft-horses in the empire. The store necessary to furnish these wheels and collars to "Western Russia forms here, mountains of wood, of which our timber-yards at Paris cannot give even an idea.

  THE CITY OF IKON.191

  Another city, and it is, I believe, the most extensive and curious of all, serves as a depot for the iron of Siberia. I walked for a quarter of a league under galleries, in which are to be found, artistically arranged, every known species of iron bar, grating, and wrought iron; pyramids built of the utensils of husbandry and house-keeping, magazines full of vessels of cast-iron ; in short, a city
of the metal which forms one of the principal sources of the wealth of the empire. The sight of sueh wealth made me shudder. How many criminals must it not have required to dig up those treasures ? and if there are not criminals enough in that subterranean world which produces iron, their number is made up by the unfortunate victims of despotism. The system which regulates the miners of the Ural would be a curious subject of inquiry, if it were permitted, to foreigners. But the means of pursuing this study would be as difficult for an European from the West as the journey to Mecca is for a Christian.

  All these towns form only ehapels-of-ease to the principal fair, round which, as a common centre, they extend without any plan or order. Their outer, or general cireumferen.ee, would equal that of the larger European capitals. A dajr would not afford sufficient time to pass through all the temporary suburbs. Amid sueh an abyss of riches it is impossible to see everything; the spectator is obliged to select.

  I must abridge my descriptions. In Russia we resign ourselves to monotony ; it is a condition of existence : but in France, where I shall be read, I have no right to expect the reader to submit to it with the same 2;00d grace that I do here. He has not the

  192THE CITIES OF WOOL AND FUES.

  same obhgation to be patient as he would have if he had travelled a thousand leagues to learn the practice of that virtue of the vanquished.

  I forgot to notice a city of cashmere wool. In seeing this vile, dusty hair, bound in enormous bales, I thought of the beautiful shoulders that it would one day cover; the splendid attires that, when transformed into shawls, it would complete.