The emperor appears to me little disposed to lay down a part of his authority. Let him suffer, then, * " J'y ai été trop bien reçu pour en parler."
THE TASK OP THE AUTHOR.327
the responsibility of omnipotence: it is the first expiation of the political lie by which a single individual declares himself absolute master of a country and all powerful sovereign of the thoughts of a people.
Forbearance in practice does not excuse the impiety of such a doctrine. I have found among the Russians that the principles of absolute monarchy, applied with inflexible consistency, lead to results that are monstrous; and, this time, my political quietism cannot withhold me from perceiving and proclaiming that there are governments to whieh people onght never to submit.
The Emperor Alexander, talking confidentially with Madame de Staël about the ameliorations which he projected, said to her, " You praise my pliilanthro-pical intentions—I am obliged to you; nevertheless, in the history of Russia, I am only a lucky chance."
That prince spoke the truth : the Russians vainly boast of the prudence and management of the men who direct their affairs ; arbitrary power is not the less the fundamental principle of the state; and this principle so works that the emperor makes, or suffers to be made, or allows to exist, laws (excuse the application of this sacred name to impious decrees) whieh, for example, permit the sovereign to declare that the legitimate children of a man legally married have no father, no name; in short, that they are ciphers and not men.* And am I to be forbidden to accuse at the bar of Europe a prince who, distinguished and superior as he is, consents to reign without abolishing such a law ?
* See the History of the Princess Troubetzko'ï, chap. xxi.
•i2hCHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR.
His resentment is implacable: with hatred so strong, he may yet be a great sovereign, but he cannot be a great man. The great man is merciful, the political character is vindictive: vengeance reigns, pardon converts.
I have now made my last observations upon a prince that one hesitates to judge, after knowing the country where he is condemned to reign; for men are there so dependent upon things, that it is difficult to know how high or how low to look in fixing the responsibility of things done. And the nobles of such a country pretend to resemble the French ! The French kings in barbarous times have often cut off the heads of their great vassals; but those princes, when they destroyed their enemies and seized their goods, did not debase by an insulting decree their caste, their family, and their country: such a forgetfulness of all dignity would have rendered the people of France indignant, even in the middle ages. But the people of Russia suffer even worse things than these. I must correct myself— there is no people of Russia : there is an emperor, who has serfs, and there are courtiers who have serfs also ; but this does not constitute a people.
The middle class, few in number as compared with the others, is at present almost entirely composed of strangers; a few peasants, enfranchised by their wealth, together with the smallest employes, begin to swell its ranks. The future fate of Russia depends upon this new citizen class, the elements of which are so diverse that it seems scarcely possible they can combine together.
The attempt is now making to create a Russian nation; but the task is difficult for one man.
THE TASK OF THE AUTHOR.329
Evil is quickly committed but slowly repaired : the mortifications of despotism must often, I should think, enlighten the despot on the abuses of absolute power. But the embarrassments of the oppressor do not excuse oppression. I can pity them, because evil is always to be pitied; but they inspire me with much less compassion than the sufferings of the oppressed. In Russia, whatever be the appearance of things, violence and arbitrary rule is at the bottom of them all. Tyranny rendered calm by the influence of terror, is the only kind of happiness which this government is able to afford its people.
And when chance has made me a witness of the unspeakable evils endured under a constitution founded on such principles, is the fear of wounding this or that delicate feeling to prevent my describing what I have seen ? I should be unworthy of having eyes if I ceded to such pusillanimous partiality, disguised as it has this time been under the name of respect for social propriety, as though my conscience had not the first claim to my respect. What! when I have been allowed to penetrate into a prison, where I have understood the silence of the terrified victims, must I not dare to relate their martyrdom, for fear of being accused of ingratitude, because of the complaisance of the gaolers ? Such reserve would be any thing but a virtue. I declare, then, that, after having observed well around me, after endeavouring to see what was attempted to be concealed, to understand what it was not wished I should know, to distinguish between the true and the false in all that was said to me, I do not believe I am exaggerating in affirming, that the empire of Eussia is a
330THE TASK OF THE AUTHOR.
country whose inhabitants are the most miserable upon earth, because they suffer at one and the same time the evils of barbarism and of civilisation. As regards myself, I should feel that I was a traitor and a coward if, after having already boldly sketched the picture of a great part of Europe, I could hesitate to complete it, for fear either of modifying certain opinions of my own which I once maintained, or of shocking certain parties by a faithful picture of a country which has never been painted as it really is. On what, pray, should I ground a respect for evil things ? Am I bound by any other chain than a love of truth ?
In general, the Russians have struck me as being men endowed with great tact; extremely quick, but possessing very little sensibility; highly susceptible, but very unfeeling: this I believe to be their real character. As I have already said, a quick-sighted vanity, a sarcastic finesse are dominant traits in their disposition; and I repeat, that it would be pure silliness to spare the self-love of people who are themselves so little merciful : susceptibility is not delicacy. It is time that these men who discern with so much sagacity the vices and the follies of our society, should accustom themselves to bear with our sincerity. The official silence which is maintained among them deceives them: it enervates their in-tellect: if they wish to be recognised by the European nations, and treated as equals, they must begin by submitting to hear themselves judged. All the nations have had to undergo this kind of process. When did the Germans refuse to receive the English, except on condition that the latter should speak well
ТПЕ TASK OF ТПЕ AÜTHOE.331
of Germany ? Nations have always good reasons for being what they are, and the best of all is that they cannot be otherwise.
This excuse could not indeed be pleaded by the Russians, at least not by those who read. As they ape every thing, they might be otherwise; and it is just the consciousness of this possibility which renders their government gloomy, even to ferocity ! That government knows too well that it can be sure of nothing with characters which are mere reflections.
A more powerful motive might have checked my candour — the fear of being accused of apostasy. ¢¢ He has long protested," it will be said, " against liberal declamations ; here behold him ceding to the torrent, and seeking false popularity after having disdained it."
Perhaps I deceive myself; but the more I reflect, the less I believe that this reproach can reach me, or even that it will be addressed to me.
It is not only in the present day that a fear of being blamed by foreigners has occupied the minds of the Russians. That strange people unite an extremely boasting spirit with an excessive distrust of self; self-sufficiency without, uncomfortable humility within, are traits which I have observed in the greater number of Russians. Their vanity, which never rests, is, like English pride, always suffering. They also lack simplicity. Naïveté, that French word of which no other language can render the exact sense, because the thing it describes is peculiar to ourselves, naïveté, that simplicity which can become pointedly witty, that gift of disposition which can produce laughter without ever wounding the heart, that for-
332ГНЕ T
ASK OF THE AUTHOR.
getfulness of oratorical precautions which goes so far as to lend arms against itself to those with whom the individual converses, that fairness of judgment, that altogether involuntary truthfulness of expression, in one word, that Gallic simplicity, is unknown to the Russians. A race of imitators will never be naif; calculation will, with them, always destroy sincerity.
I have found in the will of Monomaehus, prudent and curious counsels addressed to his children : the following is a passage which has particularly struck me, and I have therefore taken it as a motto for my book, for it contains an important avowal: " Above all, respect foreigners, of whatever quality, of whatever rank they may be, and if you cannot load them with presents, at least lavish upon them tokens of good will, for, on the manner in which they are treated in a country depends the good and the evil which they will say of it when they return to their own." . (From the advice of Vladimir Monomaehus to his children, in 1126.)
Such a refinement of self-love, it must be owned, takes from hospitality much of its worth. It is a charity founded on calculation, of which I have, in spite of myself, been more than once reminded during my journey. Men ought not to be deprived of the recompense of their good actions, but it is immoral to make this recompense the primum mobile of virtue.
Karamsin himself, from whom the above is cited, speaks of the unfortunate results of the Mongol invasion, in its effect upon the character of the Russian people : if I am found severe in my judgments, it may be seen that they are justified by a grave historian who yet was disposed to be indulgent.
THE TASK OF THE AUTHOR.333
The following is an instance:— "National pride was lost among the Russians: they had recourse to artifices which supply the want of strength among a people condemned to servile obedience : skilful in deceiving the Tartars, they became also proficient in the art of mutually deceiving each other. Buying from barbarians their personal security, they became more greedy of money, and less sensitive to lüí`ongs and to shame, while exposed unceasingfy to the insolence of foreign tyrants." Further on he says, —
" It may be that the present character of the Russians preserves some of the stains with which the barbarity of the Mongols soiled it."
In 2`ivino; a resume of the c`lorious reimi of the «`reat and good prince, Ivan III., he says, " Having at last penetrated the secret of autocracy, he (Ivan) became a terrestrial god in the eyes of the Russians, who thenceforward began to astonish all other people by a blind submission to the will of their sovereign.''''
These admissions appear to me as doubly significant, coming from the mouth of a historian as courtier-like and as timid as Ivaramsin. I might have multiplied the citations, but I believe the above are sufficient to show my right openly to express my views, thus justified by the opinions of an author accused of partiality.
In a country where minds are, from the cradle, fashioned in the dissimulation and finesse of Oriental policy, natural sentiment must be more rare than elsewhere; and, consequently, when it is discovered it has a peculiar charm. I have met in Russia some men who blush to feel themselves oppressed by the
334GENERAL CHARACTER
stern system under which they are obliged to live without daring to complain: these men are only free in the face of the enemy; they go to make war in the Caucasus, that they may get rid of the yoke imposed upon them at home. The sorrows of such a life imprint prematurely on their faces a seal of melancholy, which strikingly contrasts with their military habits and the heedlessness of their age: the wrinkles of youth reveal profound griefs, and inspire deep pity. These young men have borrowed from the East their gravity, and from the North their vague imaginative reverie : they are very unhappy and very amiable: no inhabitants of any other land resemble them.
Since the Russians possess grace, they must necessarily have some kind of natural sentiment in their character, though I have not been able to discern it. It is, perhaps, impossible for a stranger travelling through Russia as rapidly as I have done to grasp it. No character is so difficult to define as that of this people.
Without a middle age—without ancient associations—without Catholicism—without chivalry to look back upon—without respect for their word *—always Greeks of the Lower Empire — polished, like the Chinese, by set forms — coarse, or at least indelicate, like the Calimics—dirty like the Laplanders — beautiful as the angels — ignorant as savages (I except the women and a few diplomatists) — cunning as the Jews — intriguing as freedmen —gentle and grave in their manners as the Orientals — cruel in their sentiments as
* Notwithstanding all that has been already said, it may be proper here to repeat, that this applies only to the mass, who, in Russia, are led solely by fear and force.
OF THE RUSSIANS.
335
barbarians—mockers both by nature and by the feeling of their inferiority—light-minded in appearance only;
the Russians are essentially fit for serious affairs. ЛИ have the requisite disposition for acquiring an extraordinarily acute tact, but none are magnanimous enough to rise above finesse; and they have therefore disgusted me with that faculty, so indispensable to those who would live among them. With their continual surveillance of self, they seem to me the men the most to be pitied on earth. This police of the imagination is incessantly leading them to sacrifice their sentiments to those of others: it is a negative quality which excludes positive ones of a far superior character; it is the livelihood of ambitious eourtiers, whose business is to obey the will and to guess the impulses of another, but who would be scouted should they ever pretend to have an impulse of their own. To give an impulse requires genius; genius is the tact of energy; tact is only the genius of weakness. The Russians are all tact. Genius acts, tact observes; and the abuse of observation leads to mistrust, that is, to inaction; genius may ally itself with a great deal of art, but never with a very refined tact, because tact
that supreme virtue of subalterns who respect the enemy, that is, the master, so long as they dare not strike — is always united with a degree of artifice. Under the influence of this talent of the seraglio, the Russians are impenetrable: it is true that we always see they are concealing something, but we cannot tell what they conceal, and this is sufficient for them. They wñll be truly formidable and deeply skilful men when they succeed in masking even their finesse.
Some of them have already attained to that profì-
336
THE SECRET OP
ciency : they are the first men of their country, both by the posts they occupy, and the superiority of their abilities. But, good heavens ! what is the object of all this management ? What sufficient motive shall we assign for so much stratagem? What duty, what recompence, can so long reconcile the faces of men to bear the fatigue of the mask ?
Can the play of so many batteries be destined to defend only a real and legitimate power? Such a power would not need it; truth can defend herself. Is it to protect the miserable interests of vanity? Perhaps it is; yet to take so much pains to attain so contemptible a result would be unworthy of the grave men to whom I allude: I attribute to them pro-founder views; I think I perceive a greater object, and one which better explains their prodigies of dissimulation and longanimity.
An ambition inordinate and immense, one of those ambitions which could only possibly spring in the bosoms of the oppressed, and coiüd only find nourishment in the miseries of a whole nation, ferments in the heart of the Russian people. That nation, essentially aggressive, greedy under the influence of privation, expiates beforehand, by a debasing submission, the design of exercising a tyranny over other nations : the glory, the riches which it hopes for, consoles it for the disgrace to which it submits. To purify himself from the foul and impious sacrifice of all public and personal liberty, the slave, upon his knees, dreams of the conquest of the world.
It is not the man who is adored in the Emperor Nicholas — it is the ambitious master of a nation more ambitious than himself. The passions of the
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THEIR POLICY.
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Russians are shaped in the same mould as those of the people of antiquity : among them every thing reminds us of the Old Testament; their hopes, their tortures, are great like their empire.
There, nothing has any limits, — neither griefs, nor rewards, nor sacrifices, nor hopes: the power of such a people may become enormous, but they will purchase it at the price which the nations of Asia pay for the stability of their governments—the price of happiness.
Russia sees in Europe a prey which our dissensions will sooner or later yield to it: she foments anarchy among us in the hope of profiting by a corruption which she favours because it is favourable to her views : it is the history of Poland recommencing on a larger scale. For many years past Paris has read revolutionary journals paid by Russia. " Europe,'1 they say at Petersburg, " is following the road that Poland took; she is enervating herself by a vain liberalism, whilst we continue powerful precisely because we are not free: let us be patient under the yoke ; others shall some day pay for our shame."
The views that I reveal here may appear chimerical to minds engrossed with other matters; their truth will be recognised by every man initiated in the march of European affairs, and in the secrets of cabinets, during the last twenty years. They furnish a key to many a mystery; they explain also, without another word, the extreme importance which thoughtful men, grave both by character and position, attach to the being viewed by strangers only on the favourable side. If the Russians were, as they pretend, the supporters of order and legitimacy, would they make use of men, and, what is worse, of means which are revolutionary ?
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 91
