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

by Astolphe De Custine

  I saw also a city of furs, and another of potash. I use this word city purposely ; it alone can give an idea of the extent of the various depots which surround the fah`, and which invest it with a character of grandeur that no other fair will ever possess.

  Such a commercial phenomenon could only be produced in Russia. To create a fair like Nijni requires that there should be an extreme desire for luxuries among tribes still half barbarous, living in countries separated by incommensurable distances, without prompt or easy means of communication, and where the inclemency of the seasons isolate the population during a great part of the year. The combination of these, and doubtless many other circumstances which I do not discern, could alone induce commercial people to submit to the difficulties, expenses, and personal fatigues of annually resorting, and of bringing all the riches of the soil and of industry to one single point of the country, at a fixed season. The time may be predicted, and I think it is not far distant, when the progress of material civilisation in Russia will greatly diminish the importance of the fair of Nijni, at present, as I have already said, the largest in the world.

  In a suburb, separated by an arm of the Oka, is a

  SALT FISH FttOM THE CASPIAN.19o

  Persian village, the shops of which are filled exclusively with Persian merchandise. Among these objects I more particularly admired the carpets, which appeared magnificent, the raw silk, and the termo-lama, a species of silk-cashmere, manufactured, they say, only in Persia.

  The forms and dress of the Persians do not greatly strike in this country, where the indigenous population is itself Asiatic, and preserves traces of its origin.

  T also traversed a city destined solely as a receptacle for the dried and salted fish wThich are sent from the Caspian Sea for the Russian Lents.* The Greek devotees are great consumers of these aquatic mummies. Four months of abstinence among the Muscovites enriches the Mohammedans of Persia and Tar-tary. This city of fishes is situated on the borders of the river: some of the fish are piled upon earth, the remainder lay within the holds of the vessels that brought them. The dead bodies, heaped together in millions, exhale, even in the open air, a disagreeable perfume. Another division forms the city of leather, an article of the first importance at Nijni; as enough is brought there to supply the consumption of all the West of Russia.

  Another is the city of furs. The skins of every animal may be seen there, from the sable, the blue fox, and certain bear skins — to obtain a pelisse of which costs twelve thousand francs,—to the common foxes and wolves, which cost nothing. The keepers of the treasures make themselves tents for the night with their merchandise, savage lairs, the aspect of

  * There are four Lents in the Greek chureh. — Trans,

  VOL, III.К

  194LAZZAEONIS OF THE NORTH.

  which is picturesque. These men, although the} inhabit cold countries, live on little, clothe lightly, and sleep in the open air in fine weather. They are the true lazzaronis of the north, though less gay, witty, or buffoonish, and more dirty than those of Naples; because, to the uncleanliness of their persons is added that of their garments, which they never take off.

  What I have already written will serve to give an idea of the exterior of the fair: the interior, I repeat, is much less interesting. Without, are ears and trucks moving amid a crowd where reign disorder, cries, songs, and, in short, liberty : within are regularity, silence, solitude, order, the police, and, in one word, Russia! Immense files of houses, or rather stalls, separate about a dozen long and broad streets, which terminate in a Russian church and in twelve Chinese pavilions. The united length of all the streets and alleys of the fair, properly so called, and without speaking of the faubourgs, is ten leagues.

  The Emperor Alexander, after having selected the new ground for the fair, ordered the necessary works for its establishment, but he never saw it. He was ignorant of the immense sums that had to be added to his budget to make this low land fitted to the use for which it was destined. By means of amazing efforts and enormous expenditure the fair is now habitable during summer, which is all that is required for commerce. But it is not the less badly situated : being rendered dusty or miry by the first ray of sun, or smallest rain, and remaining unhealthy at all times; which is no small evil for the merchants obliged to sleep above their magazines for the space of six weeks.

  BADLY CHOSEN SITE.

  195

  Notwithstanding the taste of the Russians for straight lines, many think with me that it would have been better to have placed the fair by the side of the old city on the crest of the mountain, the summit of which might have been rendered accessible by gentle, terraced slopes. At the foot of the hill, on the borders of the Oka, the objects too heavy and bulky to be carried up, might have still remained, by the side of their vessels, while the livelier, retail fair would have been held on a spacious platform at the o·ate of the lofty city. Imagine a hill crowded with the representatives of all the Asiatic and European nations. Sueh a peopled mountain would have produced a grand effect: the marsh, where the travelling population now swarms, produces very little.

  The modern engineers, so skilful in all lands, would then have had whereon to exereise their talents ; the poets, the painters, the admirers of noble sites and picturesque effects^ the sight-seers, who are become quite a nation in this century, in which the abuses of activity produce fanatics in idleness, — all these men, useful through the money which they expend, would have enjoyed a magnificent promenade, far more attractive than that afforded them in a bazaar where no point of view can be gained, and where the air breathed is mephitie; while it merits consideration, that sueh a result would have been obtained at much less expenditure of money than it has cost the emperor to establish his aquatic fair.

  The Russian peasants are the principal commercial

  agents in this prodigious market. Nevertheless, the

  law forbids the serf to ask, or the freemen to grant

  him, a credit of more than_ƒ¾e roubles. And yet they

  к 2

  196BAD FAITH OF THE NOBLES.

  deal with some of these people, on the strength of their word only, for two hundred thousand — five hundred thousand francs; and the dates for payment are very distant. These slavish millionnaires, these Aguados of the glebe, do not know how to read. In Russia it is requisite that the men should possess great natui`al intelligence, to supply the want of acquired. The people are very ignorant of arithmetic. For centuries they have reckoned their accounts by frames, containing series of movable balls. Every line has its colour ; each indicates units, tens, hundreds, &c. This mode of calculation is sure and rapid.

  It must not be forgotten that the lord of these enormously-wealthy serfs could despoil them in a day of all they possess, provided he did not injure their persons. Such acts of violence, it is true, are rare, but they are possible.

  No one remembers that any merchant ever suffered by his confidence in the peasants with whom he dealt: so true it is, that in every society, if only it be stable, the progress of morals corrects the faults of institutions.

  I have, however, been told that, on the other hand, the father of a Count Tcheremitcheff, who is now living, once promised liberty to a family of peasants, in consideration of the exorbitant sum of 50,000 roubles. He received the money, and retained among his serfs the despoiled family.

  Such is the school of good faith and probity in which the Russian peasants arc instructed, under the aristocratic despotism, which crushes them in spite of the autocratic despotism which governs them, and

  TRICES 0Г MERCHANDISE.197

  which is often powerless against its rival. Imperial pride contents itself with words, forms, and numbers ; aristocratic ambition aims at things, and makes a profit of words. Never did a master receive more adulation and less obedience than the deceived, soi-disant absolute sovereign of the Russian empire : disobedience is indeed perilous; but the country iÿ vast, and solitude is dumb.

  The governor of Nijni, M. Boutourline, ha
s very politely invited me to dine with him daily during my stay in the eity: to-morrow he will explain to me how conduct similar to that of Count Tcheremitcheftj rare everywhere and in every age, cannot be now repeated in Russia, I will give the summary of his conversation, if I can make anything out of it; for hitherto I have gathered little from the lips of the Russians but confused language. Is this owing to the want of logical minds, or is it done purposely, with the view of perplexing foreigners ? It is, I believe, attributable to both causes. By continually endeavouring to hide truth from the eyes of others, people become at last unable to perceive it themselves, except through a veil which daily thickens.

  Nothing is cheap at the fair of Nijni, except articles that no one cares to buy. The epoch of great differences in pi`iee in different localities, is passed: everywhere the value of things is known: the Tartars themselves, who come from the centre of Asia to Nijni to pay very dear for the objects of luxury supplied by Paris and London, bring, in exchange, commodities of which they perfectly well know the value. The merchants may still avail themselves of the situation of the buyers to refuse them articles at a just к 3

  198TUEQUOISES OF THE BUCHAKIANS.

  price; but they cannot deceive them. Yet they do not abate their prices; they coolly ask too much; and their probity consists in never departing from their most exaggerated demands.

  In a financial point of view, the importance of the fair continues to increase yearly; but the interest which attaches to the singularity and picturesque appearance of the assemblage diminishes. In general, the fair of Nijni would disappoint the lover of the grotesque and the amusing. Every thing is dull, stiff, and regular in Russia, except, at least, in moments when the long-repressed instinct of liberty bursts forth in an explosion : then the peasants roast their lord, or the lord marries his slave; but these rare outbreaks are little talked of: the distances and the measures taken by the police prevent isolated facts being circulated among the mass.

  In my promenades through the central portion of the fair I saw the Buchanans. These people inhabit a corner of Thibet bordering upon China. They come to Nijni to sell precious stones. The turquoises that I bought from them are as dear as those sold in Paris; and all stones of any value are equally high in price. The dealers in these stones pass the year in their journey, for it takes them, they say, more than eight months to go and come only. Neither their persons nor dress struck me as very remarkable. I scarcely believe in the genuineness of the Chinese at Nijni; but the Tartars, Persians, Kirguises, and Calmucs suffice for curiosity.

  The two last-named barbarians bring, from the solitudes of their steppes, herds of small wild horses to sell at the fair. These animals have many good

  KIRGUIS IIORSES.199

  qualities, both physical and moral; but their make does not recommend them. They are, nevertheless, excellent for the saddle; and their character causes them to be valued. Poor creatures ! they have better hearts than many men : they love each other with a tenderness and a passion that prevents them from ever voluntarily separating. So long as they remain together they forget exile and slavery, and seem to believe themselves in their own country. "When one is sold, he has to be cast, and forcibly dragged with cords out of the enclosure where his brethren are confined, who, during this violence, never cease attempting to escape or rebel, and to neigh piteously. Never have I seen the horses of our own country show so many proofs of sensibility. I have seldom been more affected than I was yesterday, by the sight of these unhappy creatures, torn from the freedom of the desert, and violently separated from those they love. I may be answered by the line of Gilbert:

  Un papillon souffrant lui fait verser des larmes.

  but I shall not care for being laughed at, feeling sure that if the reader had seeu the carrying-out of these cruel bargains he would have shared my feeling. Crime, when recognised as such by the laws, has its judges in this world; but permitted cruelty is only punished by the pity of kindly-disposed people for the victims, and, I hope also, by Divine equity. It is this tolerated barbarity which makes me regret the narrow limits of my eloquence: a Rousseau or a Sterne would know how to make the reader weep over the fate of these poor Kirguis horses, destined to carry, in Europe, men as much slaves as themselves, but whose condition к 4

  200THE PAIR AFTER SUNSET.

  does not always deserve as great pity as that of the enslaved brute.

  Towards evening the aspect of the plain became imposing. The horizon was lightly veiled in mist, which afterwards fell in dew on the dust of Nijni, a kind of fine brown sand, the reflection of which imparted to the heavens a reddish tint. The depths of the shade were pierced by the fantastic light of a multitude of lamps in the bivouacs by which the fair was surrounded. Everything had a voice;—from the distant forest, from the bosom of the inhabited river, a murmur brought to the attentive ear the sounds of life. What an imposing gathering together of mankind ! what different languages and contrasting habits ! and yet what uniformity of sentiments and ideas. The object of this great meeting, of each individual it comprised, was simply to gain a little money. Elsewhere the gaiety of the people conceals their cupidity; here commerce stands naked, and the sterile rapacity of the merchant predominates over the frivolity of the lounger: nothing is poetical; everything is mercenary. I am wrong, — the poetry of fear and of sorrow is at the bottom of everything in this country : but where is the voice that dares express it ? Nevertheless, there are a few pictures to console the imagination and to refresh the eye.

  On the roads which connect the different merchant-encampments, may be seen long files of singular vehicles, being pairs of wheels united by ah axle, which, when attached to others, so as to form an equipage of four or six wheels, had served to carry the beams and poles used in the construction of some of the temporary erections of the fair. They return

  EFFECT OF MUSIC IN RUSSIA.201

  thus detached, drawn by one horse, guided by men who stand upright on the axle, balancing themselves with a savage grace, and managing their half-broken steeds with a dexterity I have seen nowhere but in Russia. They remind me of the charioteers of the Byzantian circus; their shirts form a Greek tunic that is truly antique. As the Russian female peasants are the only women on earth who make themselves a waist above the bosom, so are their male relatives the only men I have ever seen who wear their shirts over their pantaloons.

  In wandering at night about the fair, I was struck with the brilliancy of the eating-booths, the little theatres, the taverns, and the coffee-houses. But from the midst of so much light there rose no sound save a dull suppressed murmur; and the contrast formed by the illumination of the place, and the taciturnity of the people, gave the idea of magic. I could have believed the human beings had been touched by the wand of an enchanter. The men of Asia continue o·rave and serious, even in their diversions : and the Russians are Asiatics, drilled, but not civilised.

  I am never tired of hearing their popular songs. The value of music is doubled in a place where a hundred different communities are drawn together by their common interests, though divided by their language and religion. When speech serves only to separate meji, they sing to understand each other. Music is the antidote of sophistry ; whence the ever-increasing vogue of this art in Europe. There is, in the pieces executed by the mugics of the Volga, an extraordinary complexity, evolving effects of harmony which, notwithstanding, or perhaps owing to к 5

  202

  THE FAIR AT NIGHT.

  their rudeness, we should call scientific in a church or a theatre. These melodies are not sweetly inspired; but, at a distance, the numerous voices counteracting each other in choruses, remarkable for the mournfulness of the accords, produce a novel and profound impression upon us Western people. The plaintive sadness of the sounds is not diminished by the decoration of the scene. A thick forest of masts bounds the view on two sides; on the other, a solitary plain, lost in a forest of firs : by degrees the lights are seen to diminish; at length they become extinguished; the obscurity hei
ghtens the effect of the eternal silence of these pale regions, and spreads in the soul a new surprise : night is the mother of astonishment. All the scenes that a short time before animated the desert are effaced; vague recollections succeed to the movements of life; and the traveller finds himself alone with the Russian police, who render the darkness doubly fearful: he believes himself in a dream, and regains his lodging, his mind full of poetiy, that is, of a vague fear, and of mournful presentiments. It is impossible for a moment to forget, while travelling over Russia, that the people are Orientals, who in their former migrations lost their road, and whose chiefs, by mistake, led towards the north, a people born to live in the sun.

  FINANCIAL PHENOMENON.203

  chap, xxxiv.

  FINANCIAL PHENOMENONFINANCIAL REFORM OF THE EMPEROR`S.

  MEANS TAKEN BY THE GOVERNOR OF NIJNI TO INDUCE THE

  MERCHANTS TO OBEY. THEIR NOMINAL COMPLIANCE.EN

  QUIRY INTO THEIR MOTIVES.IMPROVEMENTS AT NIJNI. — THE

  SERF AND THE LORD.THE GOVERNOR OF NIJNI`S EXPLANATIONS

  OF DESPOTIC ADMINISTRATION. FORBEARANCE OF THE AU

  THORITIES. — A RIDE WITH THE GOVERNOR. VALUE OF THE

  COMMODITIES AT THE FAIR OF •NIJNI.PORTRAIT OF FRENCH

  MEN OF THE NEW S`CHOOL. AN AGREEABLE RENCONTRE.

  DINNER AT THE GOVERNOR'S. ENGLISH ODDITIESANECDOTE

  TOLD BY A POLISH LADY. THE UTILITY OF EASY MANNERS.