LfS??ARY - 
 
 UNIVERSITY Or CALIFORNIA
 
 REVELATIONS OF RUSSIA: 
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 
 
 AND HIS EMPIRE, 
 IN 1844. 
 
 BY ONE WHO HAS SEEN AND DESCRIBES. 
 
 t 
 
 " T6t ou tard, tout se sjait." — Maixtexojit. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 
 
 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1844.
 
 avis' 
 
 V.I
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE \ii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE EMPEROR AND HIS SUBJECTS 23 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 THE SERF 65 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SERF THE COSSACS CORRUPTION OF RUSSIAN 
 
 OFFICIALS 85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ST. PETERSBURG AND ITS INHABITANTS 128 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 166 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 THE SECRET POLICE 187
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. p^oB 
 
 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS AND TRIBUNALS .... 209 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONSPIBACr OF THE RUSSIAN NOBILITY, AND REVOLT 
 
 OF THE 26th OF DECEMBER, 1825 242 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SAWEE SUBJECT CONTINUED 269 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, AND NATIONAL 
 
 CHURCH 298 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE REGION OF RUSSIA, OR REGION 
 
 OF MORASS, FOREST, AND CORNLAND OLD CAPITALS 
 
 OF MOSCOW, GREAT NOVOGOROD, KIEW, AND KAZAN . 339 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VOLUIME I. 
 
 JEWISH EXILES, DRIVEN BEFORE THE WHIPS OF THE 
 
 cossAcs Frontispiece. 
 
 VOLUaiE n. 
 
 CIRCASSIAN NOBLE CABRTING OFF A RUSSIAN OFFICER 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 MAP OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, DITEDED INTO REGIONS, WITH 
 
 THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES . . . End of the volume.
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 These volumes relate to a subject which is, or ought 
 to be, fraught with interest to every friend of humanity, 
 and to every English reader. 
 
 To every friend of humanity — because involving 
 the present condition of one-twelfth of the whole 
 human race, together with the prospect of a much 
 larger portion of it, should the government of Russia, 
 and the state to which it has reduced its empire, con- 
 tinue to be, through the future, as incompletely known 
 to free countries as it has been to the past, and still 
 remains to the contemporary pubUc. 
 
 To every Englishman it offers the additional attrac- 
 tion of treating of the empire next in power and mag- 
 nitude to his own ; an empire antagonistic to the 
 feelings, institutions, and material interests of the 
 people to which he belongs ; one against which this 
 nation must some day inevitably find itself arrayed — • 
 even if neglectful of more noble impulses, by the mere
 
 Till PREFACE. 
 
 force of these material interests — as the champion of 
 the freedom, enhghtcnment, and civilization of a large 
 portion of mankind, against the adverse principle 
 which Russia not only represents, but seeks to propa- 
 gate with the extension of its rule. 
 
 The general dislike entertained towards Russia in 
 England, is instinctively true to the national interests, 
 feelings, and position. Russia, or at least its cabinet, is 
 not only the implacable, if insidious, enemy of British 
 commerce, enterprise, and prosperity — not only a 
 power repressive of all that excites its sympathies, in- 
 vasive of all human liberties, civil, political, and reli- 
 gious — but so powerful and so situated as to be only 
 accessible, though perfectly accessible, to the anger 
 and hostility of Great Britain. 
 
 We have, indeed, examples that the strong antipa- 
 thies of nations are often as groundless as violent ; to 
 go no further than the extinguished hatred of the 
 Scotch and English; the family feud of Denmark and 
 Sweden, only now subsiding ; or the mutual animo- 
 sities of France and England, which France is so 
 slowly relinquishing. But these are antipathies which 
 fade away surely, if slowly, before increased inter- 
 knowledge, rendering a quarrel between these nations 
 year by year more difficult. With Russia, on the con- 
 trary, the chances of a rupture will become ever more 
 imminent, as she becomes better known to the people 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 Perhaps this is the true distinction betwixt a na-
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 tional and a factitious hatred — that the light of know- 
 ledge thrown upon their objects increases the one 
 and destroys the other. 
 
 The instinctive disUke of the people of England to 
 Russia and its institutions is only tempered by the in- 
 terested views, firstly, of those whose selfish policy 
 takes no concern, except in the material advantages 
 which it imagines to be secured by continued amity with 
 its government ; secondly, by the practical men so 
 wittily described in their political career by the author 
 of " Coningsby," as those who practise the blunders of 
 their predecessors — men who, when they contemplate 
 the imaginary difficulties of interfering effectively w-ith 
 Russia, judge it most expedient to discourage the 
 popular antipathy against her, and deaden the national 
 sympathy for her victims; and lastly, by those whose 
 home experience of imaginary or exaggerated griev- 
 ances has blunted their perceptions or their feelings, 
 even to those most really affecting their own country- 
 men, and consequently leaves them callous or incredu- 
 lous to the sufferings of any distant portion of the 
 human family. 
 
 But increased knowledge of the subject will teach 
 the most selfish utilitarian that even the material ad- 
 vantages to which he would sacrifice all other consi- 
 derations, are likely to be more injured by forbearance 
 than by interference. It will shew practical men, even 
 those not titularly so, who are only unwilling to "bark 
 where they cannot bite," both the weakness of Russia,
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 if assailed by Great Britain, and her consciousness of 
 this weakness, which she hopes to outgrow. It will 
 shew her Polish, Finnish, Baltic, and Caucasian pro- 
 vinces, her very capital and her two great outlets to 
 the seas, both jeopardized in any serious collision with 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Those who are anxious to believe the miserable 
 condition of Russian subjects to be as much exagge- 
 rated as some of the grievances of their own compa- 
 triots, or at least not exceeding those which are most 
 real, will find, with increased knowledge of the sub- 
 ject, no similitude between the partial sufferings of 
 classes in England, the inevitable result of circum- 
 stances, which their fellow-men, be it even through 
 mistaken means, are striving to alleviate — no simili- 
 tude between sufferings which have a voice, and force 
 themselves upon the ear of a nation, that dares not 
 avow itself unwilling to listen or unsolicitous to relieve, 
 and between those of sixty milHons of Russian sub- 
 jects, voiceless and hopeless in their miser}"^, without 
 the power of appeal to any human protective sympathy, 
 or, as they arc taught, even to any in Heaven, which, 
 in their eyes, is the accomplice of the power for whose 
 sole advantage they are bom, and toil through life, and 
 die. Not the victims of a cruel chance or stern neces- 
 sity, the unhappy losers in a great social movement, 
 which has added to the aggregate wealth and prospe- 
 rity of a nation — not the redundant population of an 
 old country, too numerous for its resources, — but the
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 inhabitants of a vast and fertile territory, offering pre- 
 cisely the same elements of prosperity as the United 
 States of North America, Avith a similar world of ad- 
 vantages open to their industry, but sunk by a demo- 
 ralizing system into a condition it will be the endea- 
 vour of the following pages to describe; — a whole 
 people, suffering and debased, without any aim or end 
 in its sufferings and debasement, beyond ministering 
 to the morbid appetite for power of one single family, 
 or any prospect beyond that of extending the same 
 cnthralment to races still unsubdued, and generations 
 yet unborn. 
 
 Hitherto Russia has not only remained unknown 
 beyond its superficies, but, what is worse, has been 
 misrepresented, wherever an attempt has been made 
 to penetrate it. 
 
 The reader's experience, if he have sought for in- 
 formation on this subject, must bear out the assertion, 
 that nothing whatever affording it has yet been pub- 
 lished. The Marquis de Custinc has indeed, with 
 piercing eye, detected much of the stage scenery of 
 the Russian empire, as he hurried through it — sus- 
 pected more — and spoken out his truthful impressions 
 with a bold, unfaltering, if loquacious tongue. 
 
 But if the author had not been acquainted with all 
 the facts which justify so many of that writer's opi- 
 nions, and verify so many of his suspicions, he would 
 hardly have ventured to acquiesce in the severity of 
 his judgments.
 
 XH PREFACE. 
 
 From the perusal of these vohimes, the reader \vilt 
 not be tempted, perhaps, to draw more favourable 
 conchisions ; but he will at least form his opinions 
 from the evidence and facts before him. 
 
 The author feels convinced that when the reader 
 has followed him through some of the earliest chap- 
 ters, the internal evidence of trntli which they exhibit 
 will render needless the assurance that their contents are 
 the result of an extent of personal observation on his 
 part, or of information collected by him on the spot, be- 
 yond the opportujiities afforded to the mci-e traveller. 
 lie is also satisfied, that if the reader have ever read 
 through any of the hitherto published works on Russia, 
 he cannot fail to accompany him through all these 
 pages. He has neglected for them all the adornment 
 of art, being fully sensible that the importance of the 
 matter he had to impart was sufficiently great to 
 absorb all consideration of the manner in which it 
 was conveyed, and he was therefore rather solicitous 
 to omit no material facts, than to give others a more 
 effective and graceful classification, or to dress them 
 in a garb more attractive. 
 
 In the present volumes he has endeavoured to throw 
 these " revelations" into somewhat of an elementary' 
 form. But this is indispensable with the great majo- 
 rity of readers, who, Avithout some knowledge of 
 the nature of so many Russian institutions, similar 
 in name, but only in name, to those of other civilized 
 countries, must otherwise fall into that most fruitful
 
 PREFACE. Xm 
 
 source of all human error — the misapplication of 
 words to things. 
 
 Thus, a freeman, a legislative assembly, a church 
 regulation, a police, a court of justice, or a grade in 
 society, are synonymes of what are so utterly dis- 
 similar in the rest of Europe, that neither in nature 
 nor in purpose do they bear more resemblance to them 
 than the old Roman Pantheon to the Pantheon Bazaar, 
 in Oxford-street. 
 
 As, at the present day, it is the object rather to 
 write books that shall be much read than much 
 admired, so, in this instance, the author may use to the 
 critic the words of the Athenian, " Strike, but hear 
 me !" because indifferent whether these volumes be 
 considered well or ill written, so that he be heard, and 
 have neglected nothing which may instruct. He will 
 thus ensure to himself the satisfaction of having car- 
 ried a torch into some of the dark recesses of a system 
 which inspires such a vague, instinctive terror to 
 all free people, and of helping to define the hideous 
 features of an oriental despotism, served by the ener- 
 getic centralization of the French revolutionary epoch, 
 and inspired by the propagandist spirit of the Koran's 
 early disciples — a despotism striving to wear withal 
 the mask of a reforming absolutism, adopting strong 
 measures to bring a barbarous people within the pale 
 of civilization, and thus, whilst civilization's arch- 
 enemy, travestied as its apostle. 
 
 Since a more accurate knowledge of the Russian
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 system of government, and of the condition to which 
 it reduces its victims, must have the eflFect of exciting 
 the indignation of those hitherto least unfavourably 
 disposed towards Russia, and of increasing all existing 
 antipathy, — since theso volumes can hardly fail to 
 throw some light on the subject, — they must necessarily 
 contribute to the growing unpopularity which increased 
 knowledge must occasion. But, notwithstanding these 
 inevitable results of the truthful portraiture of so dark a 
 subject, the author disclaims all intention of pampering 
 the public appetite for scandal respecting objects which 
 it instinctively dislikes. lie must also distinctly state, 
 that he is animated by no prejudice against the Russian 
 nation; he thinks he has discerned in it — and has 
 pointed out where he has so discerned — many traits 
 in its character, which render it amiable in the midst 
 of its degradation. He has endeavoured to paint 
 its condition as worthy of our interest, our pity, 
 and our sympathy, and to point out how litde active 
 share it has in the oppression of which it is the 
 victim as well as the instrument. Neither has he 
 any personal antipathy to the Emperor Nicholas, 
 because a long study of his character and acts have 
 taught him, that if he be a more complete tyrant, 
 he is not a worse individual, tlian the average of 
 his predecessors : he is a more complete tyrant, 
 because he has the power of being so. Many succes- 
 sive reigns, like the growth of succeeding years which 
 bring a tree to maturity, have improved and com-
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 pleted the mechanism of a vast engine of levelling 
 oriental despotism, and enabled him to use it with the 
 full light of European science ; whilst all his passions 
 and propensities, tending towards the acquisition of 
 absolute power, have never diverted him, like his pre- 
 decessors, from that object. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas has not the brutal instincts 
 of the Tsar Peter the First, any more than his talents ; 
 he has not the disordered passions of the lustful 
 Catherine, his grandmother, any more than her bril- 
 liant intellect and her innate Uberality ; he has not 
 the fitful ferocity of Paul, his murdered sire, any more 
 than his enthusiastic generosity ; neither has he the 
 irresolute, impressionable nature of Alexander, his 
 brother and predecessor, nor Alexander's benevo- 
 lence of intention. 
 
 If the Emperor Nicholas had been bom in the 
 place of Peter, he is the man to have shut himself up 
 with his slaves, in the isolation of a Chinese despot, al- 
 though he might never have cut off heads with his 
 own hand, or presided at the impalement of his 
 enemies. 
 
 Incapable of the vices of his grandmother, he 
 would never, like her, have turned his imperial 
 palaces into temples of the Venus Meretrix ; but he is 
 equally incapable, either of allowing his subjects, like 
 his bold progcnitrice, the hberty which did not im- 
 mediately impede the march of her government, or of 
 conceiving the idea of giving them Hberal institutions
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 — a project which the intoxication of her pleasures and 
 successes caused her to postpone until too late, but 
 not to abandon. lie is not the man to shoot for a 
 wager a female slave working in his garden, like his 
 brother Constantine, any more than to have given 
 up, like Constantine, an empire to dry the tears of a 
 "woman. lie would not, like Alexander, for the sake of 
 seeing his favourites smile, have allowed them to tyran- 
 nize over his subjects on their oicii account, any more 
 than he would, like Alexander, have wept to see it — 
 any more than he would, like Alexander, have advo- 
 cated a charter for the French people, although to be 
 given without prejudice to his own autocratic rights, 
 but in sacrilegious precedent against the right divine 
 of princes. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, Isicholas is neither better 
 nor worse than the average of his predecessors, inclu- 
 sive of the great Tsar who first made Russia European ; 
 but he has done, and he bids fair to do, more injury 
 to mankind than all of them put together. Without, 
 perhaps, the genius or the boldness to have ever 
 })laycd more than a veiy subaltern part in many 
 situations of life, he was peculiarly calculated, when 
 placed by the chances of birth in possession of such 
 power, and at the head of such a system, to push 
 it to its extrcmest limits. He possesses, besides his 
 singleness of purpose, precisely the quantum of moral 
 courage, of obstinacy, and of intellect, to allow him to 
 use the means in his power, in the most effective
 
 PREFACE. Xvii 
 
 manner, to attain this end, and withal the exao-- 
 geratcd self-veneration to induce him to do so. 
 
 During the nineteen years of his reign, only seven 
 men have been condemned to death, but probably 
 more than in all the united reigns alluded to have in 
 reality perished by the hands of the executioner. 
 Men, indeed, are not decapitated, impaled, or hanged 
 up by the ribs with hooks, as formerly ; but whole com- 
 panies of Polish prisoners are flogged to death ; the 
 knout and plitt, which tear away in strips the muscles 
 from the bone, have been inflicted upon thousands 
 and thousands for political offences, who die within a 
 day or two, or perish on the Siberian journey which 
 inevitably follows. So those have been treated who 
 only refused to change the faith of their fathers on an 
 imperial order. 
 
 We read with horror, that under the long regency 
 of Biren, twenty thousand individuals were banished 
 to Siberia for political crimes. The Emperor Nicholas, 
 on the lowest computation, has sent on the same 
 weary journey two hundred and fifty thousand — a 
 quarter of a million of individuals I Of these, three- 
 fifths had offended politically, in some direct or in- 
 direct manner. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas, who nervously shudders at 
 the physical danger in which he sees a private soldier 
 placed, is probably not innately cruel ; but absolute 
 and irresponsible power, — the self-deification to which 
 his auto-veneration has led, — acting on a limited intel- 
 
 VOL. I. b
 
 XVHl PREFACE. 
 
 Icct and selfish heart, have made him think himself 
 the irate Jupiter Tonans, whose wrath should be as 
 terrible as his interests and glory should be sacred 
 from competition with those of humanity. When they 
 are so, he passes over thcra ruthlessly and remorse- 
 lessly, without even appai'ently the consciousness of 
 evil doing. 
 
 Other tyrants, even the most sanguinary, whatever 
 their intentions, had no power of inflicting so much 
 misery ; they had not at tlieir command the means 
 of doing so, afforded to Nicholas by the centralized 
 authority transmitted into his hand, with tlw suc- 
 cessive improvements of more tlian one hundred and 
 thirty years, which, when he ascended the throne, 
 had elapsed since Peter began to reduce oppression 
 to a science, and which his one-minded attention, 
 during nearly twenty years more, has enabled him to 
 })erfect. 
 
 Nero could exhaust his animal ferocity only on a 
 few thousand victims, but might wish in vain that all 
 the Romans had but one neck. Modern centraliza- 
 tion, and its science of administration, have virtually 
 realized this wish for Nicholas ; at least, he can reach 
 the necks of the remotest of his subjects, and tighten 
 the chain that, under his predecessors, all were 
 liable to wear, but of which, under his despotism, 
 none escape the infliction. 
 
 The influence of wealth, of family, of customs, and 
 of privileges, affords no longer any shelter. Prudent as
 
 PREFACE. XIX 
 
 he is in disposition, being aware that he possesses a 
 power unparalleled, he uses it in a manner unpre- 
 cedented. Not only does he hourly trample on both 
 his great vanquished enemies, the nobility of his em- 
 pire, and the Polish nation — not only has he uprooted 
 whole races, and succeeded in extirpating the religious 
 creed of millions — but he seems now bent, both on 
 destroying the nationality and religious faith of the 
 whole of Poland, even, if required, by transplanting its 
 population into Asia. Political violence and cruelties, 
 the mere extirpation of races or of creeds, would be 
 nothing, however, to the condition to which his own 
 subjects are reduced — comparatively nothing — be- 
 cause races are doomed, according to the law of 
 nature, to perish, jmd creeds flourish and wither, and 
 being immaterial, spring again from their ashes. But 
 the dull, monotonous, hopeless, all-pers'ading oppres- 
 sion to which his subjects are reduced, producing the 
 same moral effect on the human mind as the slough 
 of his northern bogs on the human frame sinking into 
 it, blinding the eyes, silencing the tongue, and para- 
 lyzing the agglutinated limbs, is infinitely more ter- 
 rible — doubly terrible, ])ecause it is a destiny the 
 sufferers must not only endure, but propagate, by 
 foreign conquest, and by the natural re-production 
 and increase of population. 
 
 In the same manner as the author disclaims all pre- 
 judice against the Russian people, and all animosity 
 to its ruler, so, where he may shew, in the following 
 1)2
 
 XX PREFACE. 
 
 pages, any sympathy for the interests of his own 
 country where in colHsion with those of the Russian 
 government, he is animated by a feeling superior to 
 that arising from the contracted views of mere pa- 
 triotism. Once overstepping the narrow bounds of 
 nationahty, a looker-on can take no interest in the 
 struggle of rival ambitions, excepting in as far as their 
 success or failure may influence the happiness or 
 misery of mankind ; and it so happens, that never has 
 history recorded, through the past, prospects so ex- 
 treme, of good and evil, as arc held out in the future, 
 by the extension of the respective rules of England 
 and of Russia. 
 
 It is not only that, even at present, there is scarcely 
 any portion of the human family which would not be 
 benefited by becoming a British dependency, but 
 because, since the last great pacification of Europe, 
 for the first time in the history of nations, England 
 has shewn the birth and steady growth of a National. 
 Morality and Conscience. 
 
 It is the permanent embodiment in a people of that 
 spirit, of which a transient gleam caused the enthu- 
 siastic people of Athens to reject the unknown pro- 
 position of Themistocles to destroy the fleet of the 
 assembled allies, when Aristides declared the act to be 
 as unjust as it would be advantageous. 
 
 It was this young national conscience which, re- 
 gardless of the glory, of the prospect of incalculable 
 conquests, and of the Sycce silver ransom which de-
 
 PREFACE. XXI 
 
 frayed them, obliged the British government and its 
 supporters to defend their successes in a profitable 
 war against the most populous empire of the earth, 
 with more solicitude than any responsible power had 
 ever shewn, to palliate the consequences of the most 
 disastrous quarrel. 
 
 It is the growth of this national conscience which, 
 within the last few years, prevents any public man 
 from daring to advocate an aggression, or an acquisition, 
 on the mere plea of its gratifying a national rivality, 
 or securing a national advantage. No man in a 
 British Parliament would now dare, as only a few 
 sessions since we heard the orators of the French 
 Chambers, openly to clamour for war, with such an 
 avowed motive. It has now become necessary to 
 persuade the public that a war is just, for mere suc- 
 cess will no longer justify it. Even now, if it be 
 unjust, the public must be deceived upon this point ; 
 and this is an immense step gained, because every 
 day it will become more difficult to mislead the public. 
 
 This very spirit, which is daily gaining ground, 
 pervading even the national dealings with lawless 
 savages, must not only soon render all injustice im- 
 possible, even in the remotest portions of the British 
 empire, but must eventually make the extension of 
 its dominion a mere diffusion over other races of the 
 rights, privileges, and civilization of its citizens- By 
 turning to the following pages, some idea may be 
 gathered of the fate reserved for that portion of 
 humanity proposed to be Russianized.
 
 XXll PREFACE. 
 
 There is a class in England, and a very respectable 
 one, who arc for leaving to Providence all interference 
 which may lead to violence, even against a system 
 they abhor, and "who seek meanwhile, in a quiet 
 humble way, to extract some honey fi-om the bitter- 
 ness of the hemlock and the nightshade. They indulge 
 unwittingly in a sort of moral Schamaism — a form of 
 worship which is pithily expressed in the vulgar 
 tongue by " holding a candle to the devil." " Let us," 
 think they, "repeat no tales and allow no outcry against 
 this terrible Russian government, and by civility we 
 may coax it into an occasional act of humanity ;" — and, 
 accordingly, the Emperor Nicholas graciously comes 
 forward, and signs the treaty to make the slave trade 
 piracy ; and further, he allows the Bible Societies to 
 circulate their Bibles throughout his empire. These 
 worthy people, who rejoice in the effects of their 
 prudence, will find, on perusing these volumes, that 
 this very Nicholas will not allow, under the severest 
 pains and penalties, of any conversion within his 
 empire, cither of heathen or Christian, except to the 
 Russian church — a church, whose governing synod of 
 bishops all take their orders from the ober-procurator, 
 a layman, lately the Lieutenant-General Count Pra- 
 tassoff, a military officer, aid- de-camp to the emperor, 
 and representing* him as its chief head. These bishops, 
 too, have nominal military rank ; thus, first of the 
 clergy of the holy synod, stands the title of " The 
 humble Seraphin, metropolitan of Novogorod and
 
 PREFACE. XXlll 
 
 Moscow, full General, and decorated with the order 
 of St. Andrew ;" and further, " The Humble Vladimh', 
 archbishop of Kazan, Lieutenant-general, decorated 
 with the order of St. Vladimir ;" " the arch-priest 
 Nicolas MouzofFsky, Major-general ;" — a church prov- 
 ing its enhghtenment, not only by retaining the old 
 Julian calendar, which is belied by the annual course 
 of the earth, but whose imperial head has ordered its 
 substitution, in the kingdom of Poland, for the Gre- 
 gorian — a church which, using, in the spirit of its 
 Byzantine origin, a petty subterfuge, by playing on a 
 letter, gives to the church of Rome, in all its commu- 
 nications, the title of Catholic, or universal. The 
 word Catholic, being derived from the Greek, is in 
 that language spelt with the 0, which the Latins 
 render by the th, the Russians by the/. Thus, says 
 the synod of the Russian church, we may please the 
 Latins, and all papist princes, by calling their church 
 Ca^Aolic, but we reserve the epithet Ca/olic for our 
 own. 
 
 Missionaries may indeed introduce Bibles in any . 
 given quantity ; but let them only venture to attempt 
 to convert, not a member of the Russian church, but 
 a heathen or idolator, to any form of worship but its 
 own, and Siberia stares them and their proselyte in the 
 face. Parodying the words of the Old Testament, the 
 emperor says, " I am the watchful ruler of the church, 
 and conversions are mine." But although this impe- 
 rial vicegerent of Heaven will not allow others to
 
 XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 labour in the vineyard of souls for any persuasion but 
 his own, it does not thence follow that he will always 
 either do so, or allow it to be done for him. 
 
 For instance, he brings up in his cadet schools the 
 children taken as hostages, or kidnapped from Cau- 
 casian parents ; he wishes to make Russians of them, 
 and then turn them loose amongst their wild rela- 
 tives, thus hoping to diminish the hatred against 
 wdiich the Russian arms can make no progress. 
 Now if these young mountaineers were converted to 
 Christianity, they would be all the worse received by 
 parents, who, once half Christians, have — thanks to 
 Russian aggression — learned to view that faith w-ith 
 detestation. There is, therefore, an order given that 
 they shall be brought up as Mussulmans. But here 
 and there, with something of the perverseness of a 
 wild race, precisely because it is forbidden, or ani- 
 mated by better aspirations, these Caucasian chil- 
 dren are anxious to become Christians ; but the em- 
 peror, the visible head of a church based upon the 
 . Gospel, which says, " Suffer little children to come 
 unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven," will 
 not allow it — not even to his own Greek faith — it 
 would defeat the views of his policy. And they will 
 further find, that this very Nicholas is the greatest 
 slave proprietor in the world — upwards of twenty 
 millions belonging to his personal domain ; they will 
 find him lending money on the slaves of his nobles, 
 and every year appropriating them as unredeemed
 
 PREFACE. XXV 
 
 pledges. But these are white slaves, not black, and 
 he therefore signed the Slave Treaty. It was a gene- 
 rosity less costly, but not less insulting to the aboli- 
 tionists of England, than was to the Polish emigrants, 
 whom he had deprived of wealth, of home, and of 
 country, the sum of money which, during his recent 
 visit to England, he sent to the committee of the 
 Polish ball. 
 
 Without sharing the credulity of those who conceive 
 themselves for ever on the threshold of a millennium, 
 the author does believe in a national re-action of opi- 
 nion in the people of England. 
 
 It has been justly observed, that until the cessation 
 of the great political and social tempest, which arose 
 with the French revolution and succeeded it, the 
 public mind, scared and agitated, sought for refuge 
 under the banners of time-honoured parties ; that 
 these parties, whose names remained, but whose 
 spirit degenerated into a mere avidity to acquire 
 office when without it — a solicitude to retain when 
 holding it — ceased, when the storm had cleared away, 
 to satisfy the shrewd reflectiveness of the nation. Its 
 practical sense felt, without defining, the hollowness 
 of these aimless parties, and the want of some principle 
 to substitute for their barren expediency of office. 
 
 The first theory which presented itself, having a 
 principle — a tendency to something — was the cold, 
 selfish, material doctrine of the Utilitarian school, 
 viewing mankind with the eye of a manufacturer, life
 
 XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 as a commercial speculation, and taking no account of 
 human hopes, passions, or happiness. 
 
 At this theory the pubUc mind, in its thirst for 
 some definite policy, caught eagerly. It was a bad 
 principle, one which, like the concentrically curving 
 rings of a spiral, must continue contracting its sphere 
 to the narrowest measure of human selfishness ; but it 
 was still a principle opposed to empty sounds. Some 
 of its first fruits have been to make those possessed of 
 property, and through it of the power of withholding 
 the rights of others, forgetful of all rights but their 
 own. 
 
 Whilst the collective population of Great Britain had 
 attained an aggregate of wealth and power never yet 
 equalled, some of its wretched members have died in 
 their rags, of sheer starvation, divided by a few brick 
 walls from the palace-homes of the wealthy, stored 
 with the luxuries which a century ago were beyond 
 the reach of princes. 
 
 Setting the rights of property before the precepts 
 of Christianity, before the innate S3'mpathy of man to 
 man, and before the great natural law of self-preser- 
 vation, one portion of this population, holding all this 
 unprecedented wealth, denied to the other the very 
 I'ight to live without some portion of that property 
 which it has accumulated from it. 
 
 It erected workhouses, indeed, because it is disgust- 
 ing, inconvenient, and even dangerous, to allow large 
 masses to starve ; for starving men will become both
 
 PREFACE. XXVll 
 
 ravenous and desperate. But the right to life without 
 property it denied, and its retention it punished by- 
 driving it to an oppressive prison, the salutary dread 
 of which kills the pauper slowly, by causing him to 
 abstain too long from its cruel relief. 
 
 When Christianity pleaded in his favour, the Uti- 
 litarian spirit referred the question to political eco- 
 nomy, and judged it by the cold precise arithmetic of 
 reason. 
 
 But when the poor man, analyzing his position in 
 the same spirit, reflects that all legitimate laws are but 
 means necessary to uphold the social contract — that 
 the social contract w^as formed for the mutual ad- 
 vantage and benefit of each individual member of 
 civilized society, but that this contract has been 
 warped entirely against him, reducing him to a con- 
 dition below that of savage life, and sees therefore no 
 reason why he should hesitate to violate these laws 
 which prop up such a system — at least, none beyond 
 the dread of their punishments or his ow^n natural 
 kindliness of disposition, both, often vanishing before 
 the real horrors of his situation — then, when he seizes 
 the torch of the incendiary, as there is no reasoning 
 with despair, the Utilitarian has nothing left but to 
 refer him back to Christianity, with its stores of in- 
 exhaustible patience and forbearance. 
 
 This was the result of a principle, when the old 
 hackneyed parties were without one. All equally 
 adopted, and fitted it to the interests and exigencies
 
 XXVlll PREFACE. 
 
 of the moment. Bat even though successful, or he- 
 lieved to be successful, in securing a pecuniary ad- 
 vantage to property, the sense and feeling of the 
 nation are not only fast awakening to the conviction, 
 that its poor-law is inhuman, unchristian, and unsafe, 
 but to suspicion of the very principle on which it was 
 based, and to contempt of the political sects that 
 truckled to it. 
 
 On the contrary, a principle diametrically opposed 
 to it has arisen, and is steadily diffusing itself — a 
 principle, expansive, not contractive, in its nature — 
 one equally consonant with the dictates of natural and 
 religious feeling and the true interests of all humanity, 
 when these are viewed to consist (as all analytically 
 affect to view them) in the diffusion of the greatest 
 happiness to the greatest number. It is still strug- 
 gling with the interests of classes, still militant with 
 the prejudices and old names of parties — the husks 
 incumbering the chrysalis — but it is daily developing 
 its strong vitality, crushing some, embodying others, 
 and appropriating their better parts. Whether the 
 public press guide or indicate the national mind and 
 feeling, or that they be considered to have a recipro- 
 cating action on each other, its talent, wit, and pathos, 
 are hourly enlisting to give a voice to the dictates of 
 the public conscience. Long and valuable columns, 
 formerly filled with party strife, now consecrate their 
 eloquence, to lay incessantly, in all their hideous 
 reality, the sufferings hunted out in ruined cottages.
 
 PREFACE, XXIX 
 
 in fetid alleys, and in houses of parochial oppression, 
 before the eyes of those who would willingly avert 
 them, to save the weakness of the heart from acting 
 on the pocket. The rapid antiquation and extinction 
 of the Tory party, with all its centenary glories absorbed 
 by Conservatism, afford an example that neither the 
 prestige of time nor of past power yields any shelter 
 or security against the inquiring and unsatisfied 
 spirit of the age ; — thus the venerable decrepitude of 
 Whiggery may no more save it than the precocious 
 impotence of Conservatism, from becoming, in a few 
 months, even in name, a thing of the past. If they 
 continue to endure in name, they must change in 
 nature. 
 
 Without linking their exclusive hopes with a " New 
 Generation," all who watch the signs of the times 
 must see that a change has been steadily creeping 
 over the spirit of the present one. It is becoming 
 daily more disinclined to follow the soiled and tattered 
 banners which led it round, like the mill-horse, in 
 an aimless, endless circle. 
 
 However, this growing healthful opinion, full of its 
 strong vital energy, may embody itself, whether under 
 old names or new — whether under the appellation of 
 Young England, or characterized by white waistcoats 
 and distinctive signs — is nothing to the author's pre- 
 sent purpose. It is enough for him that it exists and 
 thrives, and under some denomination, and in some 
 form must govern. It is principally to this " opinion"
 
 XXX PREFACE. 
 
 that these chapters are dedicated, to the instruction 
 of those who may adopt it that its pages are devoted. 
 
 A few years since, it would have been useless, save 
 to gratify the public curiosity, to have shewn that the 
 extension of a foreign rule was the increase of hope- 
 less and prospectively increasing misery. The 
 governing, as well as the majority of the governed, 
 would have considered their duty to consist in look- 
 ing to themselves ; if they derived the advantage of a 
 few per cent, on the introduction of manufactures, 
 they would have avowed the principle of upholding a 
 system they abhorred, so long as it did not disad- 
 vantageously interfere with them. 
 
 When even it could have been shewn, that in addi- 
 tion this foreign power was injuring the interests of 
 the governed, whilst infinitely inferior in strength and 
 resources to those it was injuring, still the governing 
 and the party who supported them would have argued, 
 that though war must prove equally beneficial to hu- 
 manity and to their country, it might drive them firom 
 office. 
 
 This foreign power, equally aware of the hopeless- 
 ness of any struggle with Great Britain, and of the 
 fear that feeble parties at the helm of state within it 
 entertained, not of the results of war to the nation, 
 but to themselves, incessantly held it in terror over 
 them. Thus the Black Sea was allowed to become a 
 Russian lake ; thus Poland was allowed to succumb 
 when a feather would have turned the balance ; thus
 
 PREFACE. XXxi 
 
 the coast of Circassia, with its promised trade, was 
 closed to British commerce, and the resources of the 
 sea to the hopes of its mountaineers. 
 
 But this state of pubUc feeUng is rapidly passing 
 away ; the selfish policy of class and party interests 
 is fading before others of greater worth and magni- 
 tude. The time is approaching when the policy of 
 England towards Russia will be determined on higher 
 grounds than those of national rivality, or of com- 
 mercial interests. For this it is necessary that more 
 light should be thrown both upon the system of its 
 government, and the effect of it upon its people, and 
 to this knowledge, in the following pages, the author 
 is striving to contribute. 
 
 The space which these volumes have prescribed to 
 the writer has not enabled him fully to point out the 
 comparative strength of the Russian empire, as con- 
 trasted with that of France and England. Some frag- 
 ments of the matter contained in this first portion of the 
 work have appeared in a rough form in the pages of 
 the "New Monthly" and "United Service" Magazines. 
 In conclusion, it is necessary to explain to the reader 
 who may be puzzled at the difference in spelling of 
 Russian names to that which he may elsewhere have 
 met with, that, to a certain extent, this spelling is 
 arbitrary, because we have no letters that exactly 
 yield the sound of some of those of the Russian al- 
 phabet; and that wherever he has made use of 
 figures, he has generally given round numbers —
 
 XXXU PREFACE. 
 
 firstly, because less confusing ; and secondly, because 
 it would have been ridiculous to load the memorv 
 of the reader with tens and units — an attempt at un- 
 attainable accuracy, which may be considered as the 
 poetry of all bond Jide statistics, but which it would 
 be absurd to look for in those of the Russian empire — 
 always purposely falsified in some of the corrupt 
 channels through which they flow into publicity. 
 
 The Author. 
 London, August, 1844.
 
 A 
 
 REVELATIONS OF RUSSIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 It is surprising how little the social and political 
 condition of the Russian empire is known, comprising 
 as it does the largest portion of the habitable globe 
 ever united under one dominion, and giving umbrage 
 as it does to so many interests by the shadow of its 
 still increasing greatness. 
 
 There arc, no doubt, many causes which may par- 
 tially account for this lack of information on a theme 
 so interesting ; and, at least till recently, no traveller 
 had given any account from which the faintest idea of 
 her modern condition could be gathered. 
 
 K we pass in review the best recent books upon the 
 Russian empire, (and the more recent are the most 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 complete,) Bremner, Kohl, and the " Letters from the 
 Baltic," we can glean from them no information on 
 all that is most remarkable in this singular despotism. 
 Its most interesting features are wholly neglected in 
 the picture, or where rarely introduced, are contradic- 
 tory and distorted. 
 
 There are perhaps fewer writers than one is apt 
 to imagine, who are capable of giving anything like a 
 correct idea of a government or a people; and on 
 reflection we shall find such knowledge as we possess 
 on other nations, much less derived from the books of 
 travellers than from their own press, and that increas- 
 ing social intercourse which is daily wearing down the 
 angularities of prejudice. Although our own consti- 
 tution, manners, and customs, invite the investigation 
 of foreigners by their publicity, what nonsense has not 
 been written on England, by grave German professors 
 and French cx-cabinct ministers? 
 
 There are few travellers of the calibre of Charles 
 Dupin, Tocqueville, and Gustave de Beaumont. To 
 this wc must add that, in the Russian empire, the mask 
 of snow which is worn for half the year by nature is 
 only emljlematical of that which disguises all her in- 
 stitutions. A government, of which the head centres 
 entirely in one human being, is influenced through 
 all its vast body by the feelings and vanity of the in- 
 dividual. The sovereigns of Russia, setting aside its 
 political value (which is great), have always been 
 sensitive to the public opinion of Europe. The 
 Emperor Nicholas, whose every wish is law, whose 
 smile is sunshine, to sixty millions of his subjects, 
 and in the wake of whose awful frown follow death
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 and ruin, the expatriation of whole races, and the 
 extirpation of time-honoured creeds — the Emperor 
 Nicholas winces beneath the censure of the foreign 
 press, in impotent rage. 
 
 Concealment from foreigners of everything that 
 will not bear pubhcity and praise is therefore, in their 
 mutual intercourse, the end and aim of all connected 
 with the government, and of all who dread its legions 
 of spies ; in which categories the whole nation may be 
 said to be comprised. 
 
 This concealment is so much the more easy that 
 Russia is, jpar excellence, the country of deceit. 
 The chief course of government consists in the 
 attempts of the governed to deceive its agents ; 
 of its agents, through every scale of the ladder, to 
 deceive the emperor ; and on the part of the 
 emperor, to impose upon one part of his people the 
 belief that he is the chosen of Heaven, the represen- 
 tative of the Godhead upon earth, the living provi- 
 dence ; on the other, the notion that he is the man 
 of destiny, against whose power and fortune all resis- 
 tance would be hopeless. 
 
 There have been such things in Russia as villages 
 built up of boards; like stage scenery in the distance, in 
 desolate districts, w-hich an autocrat has said shall be 
 peopled ; sets of sleek and smiling peasants, with ail 
 their household comforts, have been driven a few posts 
 in advance of a Russian sovereign, all ready to be sur- 
 prised at an abundant meal, in homes which they had 
 inhabited but an hour. There is at the present day, in 
 most kitchens of government establishments, a mess 
 of broth, always kept warm, of which the emperor 
 
 B 2
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tastes when playing Peter the Great, and seeing all 
 with his oicn eyes, he surprises it with a visit ! 
 
 It is not two years since we have seen the Emperor 
 Nicholas taking from a convent of a sect of the 
 United Chureh, the real cross on which the Saviour 
 of the world was crucified, borrowing the accumu- 
 lated offerings of the faithful, and afterwards, in 
 Moscow, and the church of our Lady of Kasan, in 
 St. Petersburg, testifying on his bended imperial 
 knees his veneration of this relic, which was exposed 
 to receive the further offerings of the pious. 
 
 All this may at least account for the difficulties of 
 obtaining information, in the Russian empire, on all 
 subjects on which information is really interesting. 
 The admirably written " Letters from the Baltic," the 
 production of a female pen, only lead us to lament 
 that the fair authoress who has so charmingly described 
 the little she has seen, should have seen so very little. 
 For instance, she professes to depict the Baltic pro- 
 vinces — of which she imbibed her notions in the 
 society of the family of the chief of the secret police ; 
 and as she seems impartially to have described all that 
 she saw and learned, we must conclude from her 
 silence that she was ignorant of two of the most 
 interesting facts connected with the very provinces 
 which she describes — viz., that the peasantry recently 
 emancipated from slavery, and still held ]>ractically 
 in bondage by their nobility, are a totally distinct 
 race from these latter, the descendants of the Teu- 
 tonic knights who conquered them, or the Swedish 
 conquerors of these feudal nobles ; that they bear to 
 them a sullen and unmitigated hatred, which absorbs
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 their natural aversion to the Muscovites, and that it is 
 by playing off the hatred of the conquered people and 
 the fears of their feudal masters against each other, 
 that the cabinet of St. Petersburg considers itself safe 
 in the possession of these provinces. 
 
 Secondly, that, in pursuance of this policy, the very 
 year in which our authoress visited this part of the 
 world, it was the scene of a sanguinary " Jacquerie," 
 excited by a Russian bishop, but carried too far by the 
 enraged peasantry. Hundreds of lives were lost in 
 this insurrection ; the insurgents burning the estates 
 and massacreing the families of their masters, and being 
 only put down by a military force. 
 
 These scenes must have taken place a few miles 
 from the spot which appeared to the writer in ques- 
 tion so smiling and so happy, without her hearing of 
 them ; and those only who have been in Russia can 
 understand how bold any casual visiter to the family 
 in which she was domesticated must have been, who 
 would have ventured to have breathed a syllable on 
 such topics in the atmosphere which she inhaled. 
 
 Kohl, the German traveller, has continued his 
 Russian sketches. The style of his writings gives one 
 no means of judging whether he possesses the sagacity 
 required for a profound, though he is a very minute 
 observer ; — his work is a daguerreotype of all that 
 externally meets the eye in shops, in market-places, 
 in streets, and in churches. It is the description of the 
 exterior of a pyramid, brick by brick, which gives us 
 no idea of its magnitude, purposes, or form ; but this 
 happens to be precisely what is least interesting in. 
 Russia.
 
 b ES'TRODUCTION. 
 
 Indeed, it is futile to expect any vigorous descrip- 
 tion of the Russian empire, and the condition of its 
 people, from a German pen, because no German dares 
 to publish it ; or if he did so, it would be excluded 
 both from Austria and Prussia ; — from Austria, because 
 the censure which, to be sincere, he must heap on a 
 despotic government, would be displeasing to her ; 
 from Prussia, because the censorship will allow nothing 
 to be published more severe than an occasional dia- 
 tribe against Russia on the question of frontier regu- 
 lations, and because she is too much under the 
 influence of Russia to allow the publication of any 
 serious writing which might form a ground of com- 
 plaint from her cabinet. 
 
 Lastly, but not least, we have the book of the bril- 
 liant jMarquis de Custine. It is but some chapters of 
 impressions, to which the reader is apt to give the less 
 credit because couched in poetic language. The mar- 
 quis came to Russia pre-determined to approve, and 
 certainly with no booklearning on the subject, to 
 induce him to prejudge the matter. He calls the 
 Sclavonians, "white Arabs !" He confounds the tame, 
 servile, feeble, sallow, rye-fed 3Iuscovite, with the 
 restless, enduring, carnivorous, quick-eyed Cossac. 
 He talks of the Finns* — aborigines of all the north 
 
 • The Finns, near whom the Russians built their capital, are 
 of Scythian origin. They are still little better than heathen, and 
 so wild that, as lately as 1836, a ukase was issued, enjoining the 
 priest to add a family name to the name of the saint given by 
 him to a child which he baptises. Where the family docs not 
 exist, of what use can it be to designate it ? This race is with- 
 out physiognomy ; the middle of the face is flat, and this renders
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 of Europe and Asia, inhabiting, as an almost unmixed 
 race, a tract of country extending from St. Petersburg 
 nine hundred miles to the Gulf of Bothnia, and the 
 Swedish frontier ; a people converted to Christianity 
 since the twelfth century, numbering on the very ter- 
 ritory of Finland Proper near a million and a half, 
 having a language of their own, a celebrated epic that 
 dates back earlier than the Roman empire, and since 
 the time of Gustav Wasa, pious Lutherans, who have in 
 every village a minister acquainted with the dead, the 
 Swedish, and often German languages ; a people 
 whose regiments (the first in Europe that ever wore a 
 uniform) were the right arm of Gustav Adolph's 
 armies ; — these Finns the Marquis de Custine treats 
 as the scattered remnant of a barbarous horde still lin- 
 gering in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg, and 
 hardly in 1836 converted from paganism. 
 
 But Finland, although Russian, is not Russia, and 
 our author had not travelled in Finland, but in 
 Russia Proper, which he did run hastily through, and 
 where he describes what he heard and saw. He has 
 displayed an extraordinary sagacity, a marvellous 
 rapidity of vision and penetration, in the judgment 
 he has formed on the character of the emperor, and 
 the condition of his empire, and people ; as if in- 
 stinctively, beneath the stage effect of scenery, of 
 
 the features deformed. These ugly, filthy creatures are, I am 
 told, very strong ; fhey are not the less mean-looking, low in 
 stature, and poor. Though natives of the country, few of them 
 are to be seen in Petersburg ; they live in the environs, in swampy 
 plains, and on low granitic hills, rarely coming to the city but 
 on market days. — Custine s Russia.
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 costume, and of studied parts, he has detected the 
 miser}'-, the oppression, and the tinsel-covered leprosy 
 corroding the heart of a people. If the marquis has 
 fallen into a few glaring errors, they in no way affect 
 the case he has made out; and we have no hesitation 
 in saying, that his volumes convey more information 
 on the condition of Russia than all that has been pre- 
 viously published put together. 
 
 But if so intuitively, as it would almost appear, 
 correct in his notions of men and things, the informa- 
 tion the marquis affords is incomplete ; and although 
 he has furnished more than all his predecessors, we 
 imagine much to be still wanting. Although the fol- 
 lowing pages were written before the author had seen 
 the JNIarquis dc (Justine's work, many parts will pro- 
 bably strike the reader as a key and explanation to 
 events and scenes to which he has therein alludecL 
 For instance, he gives us a personal conversation 
 with the Emperor Nicholas, wherein the autocrat 
 describes to him his conduct and feelings on the 
 eventful day of the 2Gth of December, 1825, which 
 ushered in his succession to the throne by a military 
 revolt. With the particulars of the event he appears 
 to have been little acquainted, and states them very 
 meagrely ; neither does he mention that this out- 
 break was the eruption of a vast conspiracy, which 
 had been for years silently mining the throne. To 
 the history of the cons])iracy, and of its suppression, 
 a couple of chapters will be found devoted in the fol- 
 lowing pages. 
 
 In conclusion, the author is bound to state, that to 
 the Marquis de Custine, independently of the gratifi-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 cation that must be derived from the perusal of his 
 book, another debt of gratitude is owing from every 
 EngHshman, and indeed from every friend of humanity ; 
 we allude to its effect in enlightening the French public, 
 and thereby diminishing a hope which the whole policy 
 of the Emperor Nicholas will shew him to have enter- 
 tained, of interesting the ambition or national anti- 
 pathies of that people, so far as to make them forget, 
 in a common cause, their hatred of despotism. 
 
 All who have read his bo 3k with interest, cannot 
 fail to take some in the perusal of those explanatory 
 chapters to which the author has alluded ; but inde- 
 pendently of this borrowed light, he will have to lay 
 before the reader facts and opinions, startling to those 
 who have been limited in their channels of informa- 
 tion to books and travels hitherto published. It will 
 be his own fault if these pages should fail to inspire 
 interest 
 
 He has to paint in them an extraordinary picture, in 
 which all the main features have not only appeared dim 
 and varying in the distance, but have mostly changed 
 and altered in their character. He must portray a 
 foreign sovereign, alien in race and feeling to the 
 country he governs, insatiable in the ambition of his 
 views, and reckless of the price humanity must pay for 
 their accomplishment. He must shew this man com- 
 manding all the arts of enlightenment and civilization, 
 and ruling over at least fifty millions of barbarian 
 slaves ; a people oppressed and suffering for the most 
 part, but M^ho, regarding him as the followers of 
 Zoroaster did the Spirit of Good, only look to him 
 the more reverently in the hope engendered of their
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 miseiy, all unconscious that it is the imperial heel 
 upon the necks of their lords which makes these press 
 so heavily upon themselves. In their ignorance, as in 
 their prayers, his name and power are confounded with 
 those of God ; to their eyes he has grasped the keys of 
 earth and heaven; he is the Timur and the Grand 
 Lama, the omnipotent master, and the highest spiri- 
 tual authority. The power of the Arabian caliphs 
 was less than his, when, from the Atlantic to the 
 Indian Ocean, the first successors of the Prophet were 
 still obeyed, because the caliphs were still bound by 
 the law of the Koran ; the emperor's word is an ukase, 
 and an ukase the supremest law. 
 
 When these slaves, ground down by oppression, 
 rise upon their masters, and roast, and boil, and dis- 
 embowel them, they have always the name of the 
 emperor in their mouths. Bj this peasantry-, one in 
 language and feeling, the emperor is beloved; not 
 personally beloved, because whoever is emperor is so. 
 Even Ivan the Ten'iblc, the most cruel monster that 
 ever disgraced humanity, was the pride of his people, 
 at a time when the tsars were mere temporal princes: — 
 the tsar is now both tsar and patriarch. 
 
 He is beloved in the same manner, with the same 
 superstitious veneration, as we have seen the hideous 
 and cruel idols of many nations loved and worshipped, 
 if this compound of hope and fear can be called love. 
 He is so, because he is the arbiter of doom and des- 
 tiny — the terror, the distributor of retribution, to those 
 who oppress his worshippers. 
 
 But, unhappily, the affection which benevolence can 
 inspire, even with a people most widely differing from
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 the natural servility of the Muscovites, produces but 
 a faint influence, compared to that which superstition 
 and fanaticism may give birth. The moral influ- 
 ence of the emperor, at least on the great bulk of this 
 class, is as absolute and unlimited as his political autho- 
 rity. The immense territory which he possesses in 
 Europe, and on which the race (the main sinew of his 
 strength) is settled, is not a comparatively barren ex- 
 panse, like Prussia and Poland ; it is a rich rank soil, 
 still unredeemed, in its greatest extent, from the 
 morass and forests which cover its natural riches. 
 His fifty millions are not only devoted, but a wise 
 direction would make them wealthy. 
 
 These are not all the elements of the emperor's 
 strength ; he has at his beck the Cossacs, with their 
 nations of horsemen ; they, in a different way, are as 
 devoted to him as the hunting hound to the hunter 
 who cheers him on. 
 
 The Cossacs are daily reclaiming for him the 
 Mongol and Tartar tribes, scattered over the three 
 thousand miles of prairie that border the parallel 
 line of lakes and deserts that divides Northern from 
 Southern Asia. Just as we have seen the wildest 
 species of bird and the hunting leopards trained to 
 the purposes of man, are the Tartar tribes attempted 
 to be organized. None but Cossacs or Tartars can 
 live in the broad zone of desert that divides the Asiatic 
 regions. 
 
 The Mongols and Tartars were no more civilized, 
 no more warlike, no more numerous, when, under 
 Nader Schah and Timour, they ravaged a large 
 portion of the earth, and under the latter are said to
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 have put to death eighteen milHons of human beings ; 
 only they were then united. Tiie pohcy of the tsars 
 unites them tribe by tribe, as they become accustomed 
 to the hood and lure. The Emperor of Russia, if he 
 could feed them, might unite half a million of horse- 
 men ! 
 
 He has, besides, kingdoms, grand duchies, and 
 fleets, which add to his influence, and therefore, 
 through a moral agency, to his power, although 
 physically weakening it. 
 
 The author will therefore have to shew this man 
 wielding elements of power to which there is no 
 parallel in history — that of Scsostris, of Xerxes, of 
 Attila, of Timour, fading into insignificance beside it ; 
 he will have to shew that, noio, there is no aristocracy 
 whose hatred can give any umbi'age to his power, and 
 that the '' check-string to aristocratic power which 
 wound around a despot's neck, and was held at its 
 extremities by the nobles," has no longer existence. 
 He will shew the last long preparation of a struggle 
 betwixt the autocrat and the remains of the old 
 Boyar, which, threatening to be a Titanic combat, 
 and ending in a battle of mice and frogs, has left him 
 undisputed master. 
 
 This mighty sovereign is not so wedded to his 
 imperial dignity as to neglect the arts of policy 
 and dissimulation ; he is not weakened by such 
 scruples. When policy dictated, he could act and 
 fliwn to Lord Durham, smile at the blunt observation 
 that would have doomed the first of his magnates to 
 Siberia, and flatter and caress until he had won even 
 the cold, distant Englishman — nay, he could subdue
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 by civilities a writer of the " Journal des Debats." He 
 could sacrifice his animosities sufficiently to conquer 
 in the same manner, by alternate threats and flattery, 
 when prince royal, the present King of Prussia, 
 although the same prince royal had shewn himself his 
 bitterest enemy, threatening his own father with a 
 judgment for giving a Prussian princess to a heathen 
 and barbarian ; and he is perhaps overweening in 
 estimating his own powers of conciliation — as his 
 sudden visit to Stockholm, and that which he now 
 proposes to pay, and perhaps will have paid, Great 
 Britain, before these pages can appear in print, may 
 indicate. 
 
 We shall next have to shew how he has used this 
 mighty authority and these mighty elements of power 
 — like an Egyptian, Assyrian, or Babylonic prince — 
 to transport the population of a vast concpiered 
 nation by degrees into his Siberian deserts, as he is 
 doing by Poland ; to decree the annihilation of the 
 creed of hundreds of thousand?, sending the recusants 
 to perish on that long journey eastward, where the 
 very circumstances of their martyrdom must remain 
 unknown, as he has done by the United Greeks, a 
 sect of Roman Catholics, whose priests, torn from 
 their flock, and chained side by side, wander and die, 
 stage by stage, on the road to Tobolsk, because an 
 imperial ukase had united them to the Russian 
 church ; by a single edict, to drive all the Polish Jews 
 from their abode on the frontier, on which the feuds, 
 cruelties, and caprice of the middle ages had allowed 
 them to retain a home, in the depth of winter, without 
 distinction of sex or age, at the mercy of an organized
 
 14 LNTRODUCTION. 
 
 banditti, into distant and unknown provinces, a prey 
 to the rapacity, extortion, cruelty, and insults of a 
 Russian police. 
 
 We must shew what this Emperor Nicholas, the 
 signer of treaties to suppress the slave trade, the great 
 emancipator of the peasant serfs, has made the con- 
 dition of these serfs when emancipated; how from 
 being serfs of a lord they become serfs of the crown ; 
 how from being the slaves of slaves, they become 
 simple slaves of his own domain. 
 
 But lest perhaps even this should prove an advance 
 towards freedom, in as far as it simplified the complica- 
 tion of servitude, We shall shew the Emperor Nicholas 
 sacrificing to the spirit of Oriental despotism, of which 
 his empire is a vast monument, by tightening the 
 bonds of other classes, and ruthlessly annihilating the 
 faint liberty which custom or policy still allowed to 
 many classes of his subjects. He has placed his 
 nobility in a condition almost as abject as their serfs, 
 and sternly keeps them within the vast prison-house 
 which he has rendered so intolerable. He has deprived 
 the Cossacs of the Don of their liberties and pri- 
 vileges. First of the many tribes of Cossacs who con- 
 quered Siberia and the Steppes, in which the Mus- 
 covite would have been as much lost as he is upon 
 the ocean, the Don Cossac has always served the 
 empire zealously ; he only craved, like all the other 
 tribes of his brethren, the freedom of serving it in his 
 own manner. He was allowed to do so as long as he 
 was feared, like the rest of his brethren ; but no sooner 
 had the Muscovite population thickened around him, 
 than Nicholas deprived him at once of his privileges.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 In Finland, which, obtained through fraud and vio- 
 lence by his predecessor, pohcy had endeavoured to 
 attach by a mild government, and the promises of a 
 constitution confirmed by the imperial oath — in Fin- 
 land, the Emperor Nicholas grew impatient of seeing 
 its gentle people so indulgently handled. Finland is 
 being now governed like Russia. 
 
 Having shewn this mighty Moloch to his readers, the 
 author will then have to point out a little worm which 
 is cankering his stupendous power — engendered, like 
 other worms too, of corruption — the vast limbs rather, 
 as 3^et, weakening than strengthening the ponderous 
 body to which they are attached, — the useless fleet, the 
 immense but inefficient army. He will have to shew 
 wonderful elements of power which have been disre- 
 garded, and the illusory nature of those which excite the 
 apprehensions of her neighbours, As all, however, 
 look formidable in the fearful pageant, all are alike 
 arms in the hands of her skilful agents and diplomatists; 
 and a period of peace is for Russia a period of wide 
 and hazardless conquests. 
 
 Where war would interrupt, peace is daily realizing 
 the dreams of Russian ambition, or we^hould rather 
 say, of the Russian autocrat's ambition, for all the 
 arts of the governing have failed in raising any thirst 
 for conquest or ambition in the Russian people. 
 Courtiers, and that unfortunate class of them, unknown 
 in other lands, whose servility is inspired only by the 
 hope of avoiding persecution, may affect to call them- 
 selves, with enthusiasm, the modern Romans, for 
 the purpose of flattering power ; or when taunted by 
 the reproaches of foreigners with their abject condition.
 
 16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they may be stung to retort — " At least you fear, and 
 you shall fear us." But allow them to speak out, 
 beyond the reach of spies, and you will find that they 
 would welcome the dominion of the Tartar, Turk, or 
 Pole, so that they oould only be relieved from the 
 benumbing tyranny which presses on them like a 
 nightmare. 
 
 There is evidently a certain point of oppression 
 beneath which the enduring feeling of patriotism and 
 national pride withers and ceases to exist. It is so in 
 the empire of the tsar. The serf might indeed be led, 
 by his ignorance and superstition, to take an active 
 part in a war of foreign conquest, but it would always 
 be unconsciously, always in the belief that he was 
 defending, not attacking. We must therefore not 
 onlv hold the whole Russian people guiltless of its 
 cabinet's ambition, but we must never admit, in reason- 
 ing of the designs of their government, an argument 
 which with all others ought to be so full of weight — 
 namely, the improbability of any canvassed line of 
 conduct, because of its incompatibility with the national 
 interest. 
 
 There is no national, no Russian interest; there is 
 only the interest of the house of Romanoti". Russia 
 is a mere possession of the cmporor and his family ; 
 it is a vast and important one, but the time is looked 
 forward to when it ma}' become comparatively insig- 
 nificant. It is therefore obvious that its interests as a 
 nation may be at variance with and sacrificed to those 
 of its possessor. The Russian is the only sovereignty 
 in the world where the advantage of the governed and 
 the governing, blind as the latter may often be in
 
 INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 perceiving it, arc not indissolubly identified. The 
 Russian cabinet is a collection of servants who have 
 no object but to serve a master, and to carry out his 
 designs ; it is influenced by none of the contradictory 
 interests which distract a constitutional ministry. The 
 terror of its vicinity, and of a power which looms still 
 more gigantic in its indistinctness — the patient and 
 enduring foresight of its intrigues, which play off the 
 fears of petty states against private interests — enable 
 it to make that silent progress which, without obtrud- 
 ing itself on publicity, becomes startling and incontro- 
 vertible when our attention is directed towards it. 
 During a time of profound peace, Russian influence 
 gains ground, and she conquers, not because of the 
 power she does j^ossessy but of that which she is 
 thought to possess. 
 
 The suspicion of his subjects which the late King 
 of Sweden entertained to the last, gave Russia all 
 the ascendancy at Stockholm that it was possible for 
 her to possess in a constitutional country. In Prussia, 
 her present sovereign, led away by his fears for his 
 Rhenish provinces, and the hope of being able to 
 walk alone when he should have obtained that as- 
 cendancy over the petty German states which he 
 hoped to dispute with Austria, entered into a strict 
 alliance (so repugnant to his natural feelings and per- 
 sonal antipathies) with the Russian cabinet ; he has 
 surrendered himself as Faust to Mephistopheles ; 
 coil after coil winds around him, and compromises his 
 position in that civilized Europe in which he would 
 have washed to play the liberal leader, whilst retaining 
 the power and the sweets of despotism ; and its 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 IXTRODLCTIOX. 
 
 Byzantine craft must smile as it sees the ver\' advan- 
 tages for which he prostituted his obeisance and dig- 
 nity escaping from his expectant grasp into its own ; 
 for whilst the sovereign of Prussia leaned for support 
 on Nicholas to take a prominent lead amongst the Ger- 
 man states, in the visionai-y hope of uniting and head- 
 ing a homogeneous German people, Nicholas himself, 
 by marriages, intrigues, and bribes, has made that 
 progress for his own interests, to effect which the 
 Prussian cabinet sold itself to him. 
 
 These silent advances may easily be denied ; a small 
 portion only of their subterranean march can ever be 
 adduced in evidence. A little while back, the Zollve- 
 rein and the severity of the Prussian censorship, which 
 did not allow the publication of articles against Rus- 
 sia which it would even have permitted against its own 
 government, were the only ostensible proofs of 
 Russian influence ; w-e have since seen Prussia submit 
 to the bitter humiliation of acceding to the emperors 
 imperious demand of expelling the Polish refugees. 
 
 We have seen the government of Sweden — Sweden, 
 the country where hate of Russia is imliibed by the 
 child with its mother's milk — refusing to admit the 
 Polish exiles. Has not the influence of Russia been 
 recently powerful, and hardly yet defeated, in the 
 Morea? Is it not still in Turkey a hundred times 
 ffreater than the terror of her real strength can war- 
 rant ? Has not Russia been making progress to 
 obtain a family interest in the reversion to the Danish 
 throne — that interest which a powerful state may 
 expect to gain over a feeble one through family con- 
 nexion, but which is now felt to be unattainable
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 through the aUiance with great princely houses? 
 Nicholas has one child married to a rejeton of the 
 Napoleons, another to the presumed heir to the throne 
 of Denmark ; intermarriages with the families of petty 
 German states have comprised the other alliances of 
 his house. 
 
 There are those who, admitting the oriental despot- 
 ism of the Russian government, look upon Nicholas 
 as one of those vigorous reformers who, by stern and 
 energetic means, abolish great abuses, and pave the 
 way to the happiness of a people bj'^'acts harsh and 
 unjustifiable — who consider him the man fit to rule 
 over and regenerate his semi-barbarous people. The 
 terseness of this not very original judgment has always, 
 wherever it has been applied in history, been greater 
 than its truth. It was not tyranny and cruelty that 
 redeemed from barbarism the inhabitants of Attica 
 and Italy, and they can never Ijc necessary instruments 
 of such reform. 
 
 On the other hand, Nicholas is rendering the lot of 
 that portion of the human race inhabiting his do- 
 minions every hour more miserable. His tyranny, if 
 not greater, is better organized and more complete, 
 than that of his predecessors. It is the savage who 
 has borrowed the knowledge of anatomy and surgery 
 to torture more effectively. His system is, to crush 
 down all beneath him to the same ignoble level, to 
 fetter thought, speech, and mind, and to degrade the 
 races now beneath his rule, as well as those over 
 which he is striving to extend it, to the condition of 
 the Chinese, but Chinese drilled, disciplined, and 
 pipe-clayed. 
 
 c2
 
 20 IXTKODUCTIOX. 
 
 In alluding to the ambition of the oicner of the 
 Russian empire, the author must not be understood 
 as censuring it for itself, but for its baneful effects ; 
 since ambition, for a sovereign or a people, has always 
 been, not only the infallible accompaniment of a con- 
 sciousness of vigour, but, as with individuals, the great 
 motive power which, as directed, may have led to 
 good or evil. This common-place outcry against 
 Russia, branding her with insatiable views of aggran- 
 dizement, everywhere absurd, is especially so in Eng- 
 land. If ambition and aggrandizement be censurable 
 in themselves, of all people we should be the last to 
 throw the stone. A few years since John Bull was 
 almost startled from his apathy by a map published 
 in this spirit, shewing the conquests of Russia within 
 a century ; millions of square miles, fertile and desert, 
 inhabited by millions of human beings ; but it never 
 struck those who had roused his indignation, to lay 
 before him a similar account of the territories or the 
 subjects Great Britain had become possessed of during 
 the same period, though the former far exceeded the 
 acquisitions of Russia, and the latter outnumbered 
 them manifold. 
 
 The ambition of the tsar may be no greater than 
 that of England, and will probably be eventually less 
 successful ; but the effects of these ambitions arc 
 likely to be very different. In the wake of that of 
 England follows inevitable civiHzation. The rule of 
 Russia, always essentially demoralizing, is becoming, 
 imdcr Nicholas, more so every day. Beneath it both 
 civilized and intellectual classes, or whole nations, sink 
 into the condition of the present Pera or the old
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 Byzantine Greeks ; those already rude and barbarous 
 become only more sunken and brutalized, adding the 
 yices of civilization to those of their former condition. 
 
 When Nicholas dies, is the system which has out- 
 lived so many reigns, and -svhich he is so vigorously 
 carrying out, likely to die with him ? 
 
 We must assume a higher ground than that of 
 national feeling or national jealousy, and survey 
 from the point of view of the interests of humanity, to 
 have the right to stigmatize as it deserves the progress 
 and attempted progress of Russian power. 
 
 When we look to the blood shed in India and 
 China, and to our countless usurpations, those who 
 would hold more sacred national vanities, and the 
 rights of states and princes, than the rights of the 
 human race, may exclaim tltat evil should not be done 
 even that good may come of it. But we must at least 
 admit as a mitigation the fact which excuses and may 
 even render meritorious in other eyes the aggression 
 and the conquest — namely, that it must eventually 
 conduce to the happiness and well-being of the sub- 
 jected people. But what are they to say of evil done 
 that further evil may come of it ? — of the conquests 
 and extension of an empire which is to increase instead 
 of alleviating the miseries of humanity? 
 
 In pointing out the feet of clay, as well as in shew- 
 ing the front of brass, of the Colossus which moves 
 obedient to the wishes of one single heart and brain, 
 the author forewarns his readers that the results of 
 personal obseixation will probably shock many of their 
 preconceived ideas, gathered perhaps from the miscon- 
 ceptions of one traveller which those succeeding him
 
 22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 have traditionally repeated. The very notions of the 
 Muscovites — which the reader may as long have 
 mentally associated with his name as the beard, and 
 boots, and caftan that he wears — namely, his fierce 
 warlike spirit and great hardihood and vigour, — the 
 author will have to disturb, by depicting the most 
 peaceful and ph3'sically the least enduring if the most 
 patient race in Europe. 
 
 Before proceeding to the special facts developed in 
 succeeding chapters, the author considers the general 
 want of information on the subject he is treating as 
 warranting him in submitting to the reader a sort of 
 elementary account of the Russian empire, and of the 
 man to whom, with the sixty millions of men it 
 contains, it as completely belongs as the reader's 
 horse or spaniel to himself; with this difference — 
 that there are laws for the prevention of cruelty to 
 animals, and societies for the enforcement of them, 
 which constitute some check upon him, whilst a 
 Russian tsar is untrammelled by any.
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 23 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 THE EMPEROR AND HIS SUBJECTS. 
 
 If it were not for the avowed and unlimited des- 
 potism of the Russian government, — her civil institu- 
 tions, her written laws, the provident regulations of 
 the Russian empire, the official accounts giving the. 
 minutest details of her progress and prosperity, which 
 seem in the most triumphant manner to justify the 
 wisdom of these, would make the country appear, on 
 paper, the realization of a modern Utopia. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, these official accounts, both with 
 regard to the prosperity and happiness of the Rus- 
 sian people, and her political power, are as far from 
 the reality as is the value of her bank-notes from the 
 metallic currency which they nominally represent. It 
 is, however, by such papers that the Russian govern- 
 ment deceives, and is deceived. No country ever 
 existed which was ever administered by such ridicu- 
 lously copious and complex written details, without 
 which the most insignificant act of public business 
 cannot be carried on.
 
 24 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 This system, originall}' devised as a check on those 
 employed, bj placing on record, in black and Avhite, 
 the minutest details of everything connected -with 
 their duty, has had the contrary effect of insuring im- 
 punity, by burying every transaction in such an inex- 
 tricably voluminous nidss of documents, as to prove 
 an effectual shelter for every species of fraud, which 
 is protected, not here and there, or occasionally, but 
 by high and low, and with a nefarious order and 
 regularity similar to that with which, in great capitals, 
 associations of thieves are conducted. 
 
 E-ussia possesses wise laws and excellent regulations, 
 which are, in fact, a dead letter ; she has thousands of 
 troops which have never existed but upon paper ; she 
 has fleets and manufactories which, like the scenery 
 of a stage, excepting for theatrical effect, are of no 
 more use or value to the nation than if they too 
 existed only in black and white. 
 
 The real elements of power and greatness which 
 she possesses are, notwithstanding all this, immense ; 
 thou2;h there are countervailing!; causes which have 
 hitherto prevented, and probably will continue to 
 prevent, their ever coming into such active operation 
 as to contribute much to her prosperity, or to render 
 formidable her preponderance. 
 
 Thou2;h innumerable tribes and nations live beneath 
 the rule of the Russian empire, differing as much in 
 language and in habits as any of the human race, the 
 great bulk of her population is JNIuscovite, speaking 
 the same tongue, professing the same religion, and 
 animated by the same feelings of nationality. In the 
 immense extent of country through Mhich this popu-
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 25 
 
 lation is scattered, and which industrious cultivation 
 would render prodigiously fertile, it cannot fail to in- 
 crease into countless millions, as it has been increasing 
 since it has enjoyed the common protection of a 
 somewhat civilized government. Without, however, 
 anticipating what this population may become, to 
 take it as it is, these millions of peasants, contented 
 in their ignorance, and devoted with a blind and 
 superstitious attachment to a sovereign who vmites in 
 his person, as head of the church, its spiritual autho- 
 rity, to that of the temporal chief and tsar, and who 
 possesses besides all the mechanism of centralization 
 and the science of civilization at his command, to 
 render this force available, — let us ask, was there ever 
 a power more formidable centered in the hands of 
 man than that which at the present day thus lies at 
 the unlimited and uncontrolled command of an em- 
 peror of Russia ? If till this moment his people have 
 been poor, the soil of his country contains in profu- 
 sion every requisite to constitute agricultural wealth, 
 to furnish a superabundance of every valuable Euro- 
 pean production. The riches are there, and within 
 reach. The arms are there to Avork them out. The 
 imperial policy, which would have impoverished other 
 nations, has only partially prevented the Russians 
 from realizing wealth. In his European possessions, 
 inhabited by the purely Muscovite race, there are 
 tracts of land many times larger than France and 
 England, where the soil is as rich as in those parts of 
 Brabant and Flanders w^herein the population seems 
 to cluster like bees about a hive. There are pastures 
 ■which, with a little industr}-, might feed all the flocks
 
 26 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 and cattle in Europe. Nature, by means of winter 
 sledge; roads and immense navigable rivers, has opened 
 many communications, and singularly facilitated others. 
 The climate over two-thirds of her European empire 
 is, taken all in all, more favourable than otherwise to 
 her prosperity ; and she possesses outlets to two of the 
 great inland seas of Europe ; the Black Sea and the 
 Gulf of Finland, the Caspian Sea, in the heart of 
 Asia, and the White Sea, in the polar regions, are 
 connected by inland navigation ; the Russian flag 
 floats over nearly a thousand miles of the shores of the 
 Baltic, and a considerable part of the coast of the 
 Euxine. 
 
 No ai'istocracy interferes, no public opinion raises 
 its voice, to check or to cramp the exercise of imperial 
 authority. The nobles of Russia, proprietors of the 
 soil, though they hold the peasantry m a servitude as 
 complete as was that of the West Indian negroes, 
 though still wealthy, are yet not only without a shadow 
 of political power, but are themselves deprived of 
 many of the common rights of humanity. Too often 
 the oppressors of their peasantry, they constitute, not- 
 withstanding, the class on whom the yoke of despotism 
 presses most gallingly, if not most heavily. It has 
 been the policy of the crown, particularly in the two 
 last reigns, and in the present, to redeem the serf from 
 the vassalage of his baron, and render him an impe- 
 rial instead of a private slave — a servitude which is in 
 most cases merely nominal, that is to say, when he 
 is not forced to work in the government manufac- 
 tories. He pays a fixed and trifling poll-tax to the 
 emperor, instead of the heavy and optional one im-
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 27 
 
 posed on him by his former master, and he is prac- 
 tically almost as free as his late lord can possibly be, 
 excepting in as far as his late lord may have earned 
 superior rank in the service. But do not let the 
 reader imagine that this is a state of freedom which 
 would be tolerated by any other people. No ; the 
 result has been obtained, not by raising the slave, but 
 by crushing down the lord to his level. 
 
 The service of the crown, whether civil or military, 
 for which every proprietor of land must furnish an 
 annual contingent of men, at the expiration of its 
 duration exempts those who have performed it, as 
 well as their descendants, from private servitude. 
 Thus, in the eyes of the peasantry, the emperor, 
 whose authority is always stepping in to release them 
 from a bondage often very oppressive, appears in so 
 favourable a light, that the rooted subserviency of 
 long habit to their ma^^ters, unmixed with any sym- 
 pathy or affection, would constitute no motive to 
 divert them from a blind obedience to the being they 
 look upon as scarcely inferior to God ; and between 
 their duty to their baron and their emperor, the latter 
 would, in every case, be the more popular as well as 
 the more sacred. 
 
 The emperors of Russia seek to invest themselves 
 "(vith this sacred character, in the eyes of the vulgar, 
 by every imaginable means. The peasant and the 
 soldier are taught always to associate the name of God 
 and of the emperor ; and the soldier, in the regulation 
 prayers, is made to call the emperor, " Our God upon 
 earth:' 
 
 It is a common prejudice in other countries to
 
 28 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 imagine that the fear of the nobility operates as a 
 check, on the conduct of the sovereign of Russia, and 
 that the summary process of assassination would be 
 the meed of any very oppressive or obnoxious mea- 
 sures. This notion is utterly erroneous. In a coun- 
 try like Russia, where habits and feelings are pen'aded 
 more by an oriental than an European spirit, as in 
 every unenlightened despotism (if we may be allowed 
 to use the term in contradistinction to the self-styled 
 cnlirjhtencd despotism of another European state,) the 
 sword of assassination must hang perpetually suspended 
 over the good sovereign as well as the wicked, lie has 
 to dread, not like a constitutional king, the fanaticism 
 of a Jacobinical club, or street assassin, but those 
 whom he has raised to power, whether from the class 
 of nobility or peasantry. It is perfectly immaterial 
 what their original rank may have been, though it is 
 true that whilst in office they constitute a kind of aris- 
 tocracy — the only one which has any political exist- 
 ence in Russia, any more than in Persia or in Turkey, 
 where slaves and camel drivers rise to the highest 
 offices, and where the favour of the sovereign confers 
 the only distinction. 
 
 A gloomy and mistrustful tyrant, like Paul, must 
 sometimes be strangled by his immediate confidants, 
 in self-defence, when these become the objects of his 
 suspicion ; a weak-minded but benevolent emperor, 
 like Alexander, may have perished at the hands of 
 those who have not the justification of necessity's 
 stern law ; and the best of monarchs may fall a victim 
 to the despair of those to whom he has intrusted his 
 power, when the detection of their misdeeds becomes
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 29 
 
 inevitable, or even when their ambitious views render 
 a change advantageous. 
 
 The veil of mystery and secrecy which is habitually 
 thrown over everything, renders the concealment and 
 impunity of crimes practicable, which, in the rest of 
 Europe, must meet with immediate publicity and 
 execration. The public mind is so impressed with 
 the facility of hiding every dark transaction from its 
 view, that no personage of importance dies without 
 some rumour of poison or foul play. In the present 
 reign we may instance the deaths of the Grand Duke 
 Constantine and General Diebitch. 
 
 There is a certain individual on whom the 
 public rumour affixes the stigma of being the instru- 
 ment of these dark deeds. His visit to any public 
 characters, or his arrival at the place where they were, 
 has, in so many instances, been the forerunner of their 
 sudden dissolution, that in such a country the report 
 can excite little surprise. Shortly before the respective 
 deaths of Alexander, of Constantine, and of Diebitch, 
 this bird of ill omen is said to have made his appear- 
 ance ; and four or five other similar instances are 
 cited in corroboration of this tale.* 
 
 * " Puis-je vous of!rir de I'eau de Seltz ?" once said this per- 
 sonage to an individual seated at tlie same table, who had called for 
 some of the mineral water. " Cela pourrait ttre de Tacqua To- 
 fana," replied the stranger. The former turned deadly pale, rose, 
 and departed. It is a strange circumstance that the founder of 
 the fortune of his tamily was the principal agent concerned in the 
 assassination of Peter the Third, the legitimate grandfather of 
 the Emperor Xicholas, who was murdered at the instigation of 
 Catherine his wife, the undoubted grandmother of the present
 
 30 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 The prevalence of these rumours on every occasion 
 is not a little fostered by the absurdly mysteiious 
 policy of government, which will not allow the intro- 
 duction of, or at least previously causes the obnoxious 
 pages to be cut out of, any works mentioning any of 
 the murders which have taken place in the imperial 
 family since the time of Peter, even to the assassina- 
 tion of Paul, although the latter is known in all its 
 details, as well as any other public event. 
 
 If the nobility are thus utterly powerless, the clerg}', 
 at one time equally formidable to the tsar, and whose 
 influence niiglit still be imagined to be so with a 
 people blindly superstitious, has been converted by the 
 wise and resolute polic}' of succeeding reigns, from an 
 object of tciTor into a means of power. 
 
 Deprived of the remotest poUtical weight, its sole 
 effect is to propagate and strengthen those religious 
 feelings amongst the people which can but render 
 them more subservient to the emperor, who is head of 
 the church, and whose authority is not looked upon 
 in the same light in which the membei'sof the church 
 of England regard the su])reniacy of the British sove- 
 reiffu — as a mere nominal title — but rather with the 
 
 sovereign, in his palace of PeterhofF, eighty-two years ago, and 
 therefore thirty j'ears before his father Paul was strangled in the 
 ^lichel palace. This man's progenitor first gave the unliappy 
 Peter poison in a glass of brandy, and afterwards kneeled upon 
 his breast, whilst the Princes Bariatinski and Potemkin strangled 
 him with a napkin. It is of another taciturn member of this family, 
 who, brought up on the banks of the Don, had acquired its pe- 
 culiar accent, that the witty N — said, " Si n'a pas le don 
 
 de la parole, il a la parole du Don." 
 
 i
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 31 
 
 implicit belief of a direct delegation of power from 
 Heaven, of the same natm'e as, in the eyes of the 
 lloman catholic, invested even the most ambitious and 
 martial pontiffs with so sacred a character. 
 
 The Russian people may most naturally be divided 
 into three great classes — viz., first, the landed aristo- 
 cracy; second, all those who have been or are em- 
 ployed by government ; third, the peasantry, whether 
 private serfs, crown serfs, or freedmen. 
 
 The first of these classes, more polished than civi- 
 lized, generally given to licentiousness and extrava- 
 gance, and crushed by a sense of its humiliatino- 
 condition, is insignificant by its want of spirit and 
 numbers, and by the fact of a paramount influence, 
 which destroys that which it once possessed over its 
 serfs, and which it has not even the means of coun- 
 teracting by the dissemination amongst them of such 
 enlarged and liberal ideas as its own comparative 
 civilization might suggest, and which might weaken 
 the power of that arbitrary tyranny which is weighing 
 it down, though without strengthening its own. Its 
 members must therefore naturally bear in their hearts 
 a bitter enmity to the oriental despotism which crushes 
 them in the dust. At the close of the late Emperor 
 Alexander's reign, the}'^ made a final effort to shake 
 off this galling tyranny, and the numerous secret 
 societies which Avere conspiring against the imperial 
 authority, included in their ranks some scion of every 
 noble family in the empire, and with each were the 
 hearts and wishes of the stock to which he belonged. 
 These efforts terminated in a hasty and pusillanimously 
 conducted attemnt at rebellion on the accession of the
 
 32 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 present emperor, but he overturned it by his energy, 
 and has since kept his heel upon the throats of the 
 helplessly prostrate aristocracy who attempted to 
 subvert his autocratic power. 
 
 This hatred is not, however, perceptible to the 
 casual observations of the traveller ; and few lips dare 
 utter it in a state where, Venice-like, the very walls 
 have ears, and it is only on a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance that he can catch the accent of these universal 
 curses, " not loud, but deep." The conquered nobility 
 may therefore now be considered harmlessly inimical 
 to the imperial crown. 
 
 The second class — the nobility of office — raised in 
 the very hotbed of corruption and venality, and 
 divested, not only of all public virtue, but of all private 
 honesty, may be considered incapable of a patriotic 
 idea, and can be animated by none but the most selfish 
 feelings, which would naturally lead them to side with 
 the strongest party, in the event of any national 
 commotion. The inferior ranks of this class, which 
 constitute the great bulk of it, have been brought up 
 traditionally to regard the imperial power as the most 
 solid and unshakeable of human institutions. 
 
 The third of these three great classes into which the 
 Russian nation may be naturally divided — many times 
 more numerous than the other two united — constitutes 
 the bulk, the power, and the nerve of the Muscovite 
 people. It is composed of a peasantry on whom 
 civiUzation has yet made no impression, and knowledge 
 thrown no ray of light. For, that a few can read, who 
 are now allowed to read nothing but those prayers 
 which were formerly read to them, and that they are
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 33 
 
 now acquainted with the use of sugar and tobacco, 
 will scarcely invalidate the assertion which we boldly 
 venture to make — that the}' are as barbarous now as 
 previously to the days of the first Peter ; that the}' are, 
 in fact, identically the same as a century and a half 
 ago, in ideas, in manners, and in costume ; as blindly 
 superstitious, as servilely devoted as then; and have 
 only transfen-ed this feeling from their patriarchs and 
 boyars to the person of a single ruler. 
 
 Counting its millions, as this class does, to the 
 thousands of the preceding two, and animated as it is 
 by the blind zeal of barbarism, it lies a ready and tre- 
 mendous instrument of good or evil, in the hands of 
 one man, to execute his commands with a reckless 
 and fanatical devotion. This man is the Emperor 
 Nicholas. 
 
 If we patiently exhaust the records of the world's 
 past history, maturely and deliberately comparing the 
 position of Nicholas with that of any sovereign who 
 has at any time preceded him, we shall not in any age 
 find a parallel to the fearful elements of power which 
 lie at his disposal. A population of forty to fifty 
 millions of Muscovite peasants look upon him as their 
 " God upon earth ;" such being, as it has been 
 observed, the title by which they designate him in 
 their prayers to that Being in whose eyes he is no 
 more than the lowliest of his slaves. 
 
 If we could even suppose that, in the less densely 
 peopled world of bj'gone centuries, any barbarian 
 despot had ever ruled over anything like a similar 
 number of devoted followers, blindly obedient to one 
 single leader, no leader in those remote ages, or of 
 
 VOL. 1. D
 
 34 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 those barbarous followers, possessed the same advan- 
 tao-es — the mechanism and administration of modern 
 civihzation — which the progress of other lands has 
 given the Russian tsar, whereby to render available 
 the unwieldy strength of these inert masses. 
 
 To exercise so immediate an iiiHuence on the 
 destiny of sixty milHons of human beings for whose 
 civilization, happiness, and comfort so much remains 
 to be done, is assuredly the greatest and most noble 
 task that was ever allotted to humanity : for we must 
 admit that the words of the poet. 
 
 How few the ills which kings can cause or cure, 
 
 are little applicable here. 
 
 Having indicated, on the one hand, the causes 
 which would tend to invest a Russian autocrat with 
 apparently stupendous power, it now remains to point 
 out circumstances — arising partly from historical 
 causes, partly from the policy of preceding reigns — 
 •which partially neutralize it, and render any rapid or 
 real progress towards power or civilization so dimcult, 
 as to require for its accomplishment that such a man 
 should unite in his character the will to do good, with 
 a degree of firmness, perspicuity, and talent, which 
 unfortunately the world has seldom seen united in 
 the hands of uncontrolled power. 
 
 Let us first give some account of the man to whom 
 Providence has intrusted this exalted mission. Nicolai 
 Paulovitch, or " Nicholas the son of Paul," according 
 to the \miversal habit of Russian nomenclatures, is 
 now in the prime of life. He is of commanding 
 stature, and presents, not only the most imposing
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 35 
 
 aspect of any living sovereign, but, as perfect as he is 
 colossal in the proportions of his form, he may really 
 be ranked among the handsomest men in Europe. 
 When the whole of his guard, consisting of sixty 
 thousand of the picked men of liis empire, is reviewed 
 by him in the Champ de Mars, the eye of the spec- 
 tator may vainly wander over its ranks to find any one 
 worthy of comparison with him, for figure, Tor manly 
 beauty, or for majesty^ of mien. When he gives the 
 word of command, the deep and sonorous tones of 
 his voice thrill, distinctly audible over the vast plain 
 where an army is manoeuvring or a crowd looking on, 
 as different from the voices of his numerous com- 
 manders as the notes of an organ from the treble of 
 a child. He is seen, however, to more advantage on 
 foot than on horseback, because, being a stiff and a 
 very timid rider, the chargers he rides in public have 
 always been " maneged" into the rocking-horse canter 
 of the pitiable beasts which figure in the theatrical 
 circus ; — so that in the eyes of an Englishman this 
 circumstance qualifies very materially the admiration 
 his splendid equestrian figure would otherwise excite. 
 
 Nicholas has also of late years adopted the habit of 
 staring around him with an air of severity, apparently 
 imagining that his sternness of aspect imposes, whereas, 
 like everything assumed, it has a contrary effect, and 
 rather takes away from the awe which his majestic 
 figure and features cannot fail to excite. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas is, besides, too much of the 
 actor ; and it is notwithstanding this mannerism, not 
 because of it, that the reality of his power imposes on. 
 his subjects ; to the stranger, who is indifferent to his 
 
 d2
 
 36 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 favour or displeasure, it is speedily obvious. The 
 Marquis de Custine says — 
 
 " It is easy to see that the emperor cannot forget 
 who he is, nor the constant attention of vv'hich he is 
 the object ; il pose incessament, (he attudinizes un- 
 ceasingly) — from whence results that he is never 
 natural when he is sincere. His features have three 
 distinct expressions, not one of which is that of simple 
 benevolence. The most habitual seems to me that of 
 constant severity. Another expression, though more 
 rare, better befits that fine countenance — it is that of 
 solemnity. The thii'd is politeness, and into this 
 glide a few shades of graciousness, which temper 
 the cold astonishment caused by the other two. 
 But notwithstanding this graciousness, there is one 
 thins destrovs the moral iniluencc of the man — it is, 
 that each of these physiognomies, which arbitrarily re- 
 place each other on his face, is taken up or cast aside 
 completely, and without leaving any trace of the pre- 
 ceding, whereby to modify the expression of the new. 
 It is a change of scene Avith upraised curtain, which 
 no transition prepares us for. It appears a mask taken 
 off and put on at pleasure. Do not misunderstand 
 the sense I here attach to the word mask ; I use it 
 according to its etymology; in Greek, hypocrite means 
 actor; the hypocrite Avas the man who masked himself 
 to perform a part. I mean, that the emperor is always 
 mindful of his post, and plays it like a great actor." 
 
 Nicholas is said by all who knew him previously to 
 his accession to the throne, to have altered so favour- 
 ably in his personal appearance, that no one, in the 
 godlike-looking emperor — the crowned Apollo — could 
 recognise the Grand Duke Nicholas. All the por-
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 37 
 
 traits taken of him at that period, shewing him tall, 
 slender, and unformed, his features thin and sharp, 
 corroborate this statement. 
 
 Of the extent of his general knowledge and ac- 
 quirements few have the privilege of judging ; but, like 
 most princes of the present day, and like all Russians 
 of high rank, he speaks, fluently and without accent, 
 several languages. French and German are familiar 
 to him as his mother-tongue ; the English he has 
 learned, like all the other members of the imperial 
 family in the past and present generation, from very 
 illiterate Scotch nurses and attendants, whose homely 
 fidelity has always been appreciated in their nursery, 
 and with whom Nicholas and his empress not unfre- 
 quently condescend to drink their tea. From these 
 people the imperial family seem to derive many of 
 their ideas of the English, and, including the emperor, 
 are evidently grossly ignorant of the condition and 
 the usages of British society. Thus the Grand Duke 
 Michael, the emperor's brother, meets the clergyman 
 of the British factory of St. Petersburg in the streets, 
 and addresses him in English, with " G — d — your 
 eyes ! how are you ?" This is from no intention to 
 insult, but only from his ignorance, not only of the 
 true bearing of the words he is using, but of the dis- 
 tinctions of society, which prevents his seeing the 
 impropriety of thus expressing even the exuberance 
 of his good humour towards a personage to whom his 
 character as a clergyman renders such expressions in- 
 decent from any man on earth. 
 
 Domestic and moderate in his habits, few princes 
 have borne a more unblemished private character 
 than the present emperor long had done. A strict
 
 38 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 lover of justice, when not interfering with his own 
 pretensions or interests, he has, for the first time since 
 the reign of Peter L, endeavoured to enforce its rigid 
 administration according to law, with how little suc- 
 cess will be shewn hereafter. Naturally desirous, 
 whenever the weightier personal interests of his family 
 would allow, of improving the material condition of 
 his people and empire, whose well-being, since they 
 belong to him, must be as identified with his own as 
 that of the proprietor with his estate and cattle ; and 
 not contented, like his brother Alexander, with the 
 barren good wishes of an inactive philanthropy, 
 whose indolence rendered the reio;n of a benevolently 
 intentioned man sometimes as oppressive as that of 
 his father Paul, Nicholas I. not only reigns, but, un- 
 dismayed by the laborious duties such an undertaking 
 entails upon him, actually governs in person. On the 
 other hand, he seems to entertain the most exalted 
 ideas of the sacredness of his high prerogative and 
 divine right, and the first consideration that actuates 
 him seems to be the maintenance of its integrity. 
 Severe and vindictive, clemency has never shewn 
 itself amongst his virtues. 
 
 The character of Nicholas in all these particulars 
 differs widely from that of his mild and liberal-minded 
 predecessor, who, appreciating the right and suffering 
 the wrong, because the indolence of his disposition 
 shrank from the task of clearing out the Augean stable, 
 must have entailed upon himself the more fearful 
 responsibility. 
 
 Many instances are given, since the accession of the 
 present emperor, of his unforgiving spirit, which even 
 the completest triumph over his enemies does not
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 39 
 
 apparently disarm ; witness his treatment of those of 
 the conspirators who disturbed the commencement of 
 his reign, and who were banished to Siberia, — to 
 whose condition, though years have elapsed, no alle- 
 viation has been allowed. Thus continuing to make 
 the condemned suffer, where his sufferings can be no 
 example, shews, at the least, a vindictive severity. 
 Towards the Poles, also, his conduct, always harsh, 
 has been in some instances worthy of Ivan the Ter- 
 rible. These, as well as all political offenders, M'ho are 
 classed with assassins, have been carefully excluded 
 from the amnesties which on several occasions of public 
 festivity have extended a pardon to felons. 
 
 Under all circumstances, after the subjugation of 
 Poland, a generous disposition might have contented 
 itself with treating her according to the stern laws of 
 conquest, not, as Nicholas has done, according to the 
 sanguinary code which established authority arrogates 
 to itself the right of applying to rebellion ; for this 
 was scarcely a rebellion crushed, but a country re- 
 conquered. Regular armies fought regular armies, 
 according to all the usages of international warfare ; 
 prisoners of war were made, and communications 
 opened between the chiefs of the contending armies. 
 The emperor himself received the delegates of his ad- 
 versaries. When, however, he proved the strongest 
 in the struggle, and the war was over, those prisoners 
 who had fought as brave men in the field — who, not 
 submitting to a master, had surrendered on the faith 
 of an exchange, and counting on a reciprocity of treat- 
 ment — ^yere, against their vows and wishes, made to 
 serve their enemy, and di-afted into condemned corps.
 
 40 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 where they were required to take the oath of allegiance 
 to the emperor. Their condition in these particulars 
 would of itself have been little preferable to that of 
 British convicts ; but their persecutor was not content 
 with the misery of a hopeless servitude, a perpetual 
 exile, thus inflicted on them; they were left the 
 option between taking an oath against their con- 
 science, which would render them participators in 
 their own degradation, or the most fearful corporal 
 sufferings. On refusing to take the oath, they were 
 condemned to receive a number of lashes which alone 
 would have been a fearful punishment for any offence ; 
 but still persisting, as they did, one victim after 
 another, each as resolute after as before his martyr- 
 dom — as determined in his refusal when he had seen 
 his comrade expire under the lash as when first called 
 out — was it not an unheard of barbarity to renew this 
 torture at every fresh refusal, till death placed them 
 beyond the power of human cruelty ? 
 
 This is no exaggerated picture, no overstrained 
 account of an occurrence which took place far in the 
 interior ; it is the plain narrative of what occurred, on 
 the termination of the Polish war, in the town of 
 Cronstadt, not twenty miles from St. Petersburg, and 
 precisely the point which holds most uninterrupted 
 communication with western Europe. Several hun- 
 dred Polish prisoners, employed in Avorking at the 
 fortifications, were required, and almost unanimously 
 refused, to take the oath. They were then made 
 successively " to run the gauntlet ;" but still in almost 
 every instance they persisted in their refusal, with a 
 resolution worthy of admiration in any cause. Time
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 41 
 
 after time they were thus carried out from the hos- 
 pital, still unwavering in their heroism, to undergo the 
 same infliction, till life or all sensation had departed 
 from the mangled mass of flesh, which was consigned 
 to the burial-cart, or to linger for weeks in a hospital, 
 till relieved by the tardy kindness of death, or in 
 some few cases to recover in several months, crippled 
 and maimed, to drag on a miserable existence, chained 
 to felons and assassins. 
 
 The commission of these barbarities, perpetrated in 
 view of all the inhabitants of Cronstadt, lasted many 
 weeks, and could not have taken place without the 
 imperial knowledge — not to say the imperial command. 
 
 Suppressing for a moment the feelings of indignant 
 humanity which this recital must arouse, let us even 
 suppose these victims to have been utterly misguided 
 men, and rebels against the most legitimate and law- 
 ful authority ; did it not require the ferocity of times 
 now happily gone by in the greatest part of Europe, 
 to persecute to such inhuman extremes a pertinacity 
 which proved not to be the dogged obstinacy of an 
 individual mutineer, but which was evidently the 
 generous, even had it been the erroneous, conviction 
 of a whole body, who preferred death and torture to 
 dishonour ? 
 
 With regard to the personal courage of the emperor, 
 it is difficult to judge from the facts one hears, whether 
 one should form a very high estimate of it. There 
 have been instances where he has undoubtedly dis- 
 played courage, and others where he has failed to 
 shew any. Of those who have seen much of him, 
 some deny his possessing this quality ; others attribute
 
 42 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 it to him in a high degree. We have heard the fol- 
 lowino: circumstance cited in corroboration of both 
 opinions, and leave the reader to draw his own deduc- 
 tions from facts, which must, after all, form the best 
 basis on which every judgment can be formed : — 
 
 The very commencement of Nicholas's reign was 
 disturbed by an attempt at revolution. Constantine, 
 on the death of Alexander, after the army had taken 
 the oath of allegiance to him, abdicated the crown in 
 favour of his brother Nicholas. In St. Petersburg, 
 where the latter then Avas, the whole body of the 
 imperial guards was called together by his order, to 
 take a fresh oath of allegiance to himself ; but by a 
 fatal oversight, no preliminary explanation was given 
 on a subject of great gravity to the Russian soldier, 
 who considers his oath in such case not as a mere 
 matter of form, bvit as entailing on him the most 
 sacred obligations of fidelity. A party, comprising a 
 large portion of the Russian nobility, who had long 
 been conspiring to introduce a constitutional form of 
 government into Russia, and to whom Nicholas was 
 particularly obnoxious, seized eagerly on this opportu- 
 nity for effecting their purpose, and excluding him 
 jfrom the succession. To this attempt, as well as to 
 all the circumstances that led to it, — a strange and 
 eventful history, — we shall hereafter devote a special 
 chapter. For our present purpose, of illustrating the 
 emperor's character, it will suffice to narrate, that the 
 officers of several regiments of the guards, which it 
 numbered in its ranks, taking advantage of the per- 
 plexity of the men, found in them unconscious instru- 
 ments of their designs, by persuading them that 
 Nicholas was usurping, and held his brother Constan-
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 43 
 
 tine in confinement. Headed by their officers, these 
 regiments marched to the St. Isaac's place — a vast 
 plain, on which is situated the Senate, the Admiralty, 
 and the great Cathedral. Here they unhesitatingly 
 proclaimed, as directed by their officers, " Constan- 
 tino and the Constitution !" — Constantine, the em- 
 peror to whom they had sworn fidelity without having 
 been released fi'om their vow ; and " Constitution," — 
 which, incredible as it may appear, they were told and 
 believed meant Constantine' s wife ! 
 
 Other regiments of the guards had, however, taken 
 the oath, and at the head of these the emperor made 
 his appearance. Miloradovitch, the military governor 
 of St. Petersburg, one of the most gallant old veterans 
 of the Russian army, was sent up to parley wdth the 
 mutineers, and persuade them to return to their duty ; 
 but having in a previous instance deceived the troops,* 
 
 * A general commanding a regiment of the foot-guards — for all 
 the regiments of the imperial guards are commanded by major- 
 generals — behaved in so oppressive and tj'rannical a manner to- 
 wards his officers and men, that the latter vi-ere partly driven, and 
 partly encouraged by the former to mutiny. As any similar occur- 
 rence amongst the military excites the greatest alai'm with a de- 
 spotic government, and it was feared that other regiments might 
 not, if called upon, be disposed to act against them, Miloradovitch, 
 the only man who possessed considerable popularity with the army, 
 was dispatched to appease them. After promising them the redress 
 of their grievances, and exemption from punishment, and appeal- 
 ing to them whether he had not always led them on the road to 
 honour, he induced them to lay down their arms and follow him 
 into the fortress, which is situated on the Neva, opposite the 
 Winter Palace. From this moment the fate of the whole regiment 
 remained enveloped in impenetrable mystery, as not a man of it 
 was ever afterwards seen. In all probability they were dispersed
 
 44 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 he found that the great influence he formerly possessed 
 with them had departed ; they were deaf to his argu- 
 ments, the thread of which was cut short by the pistol 
 of one of the conspirators, which ended his career in 
 the midst of his exhortations. The artillery of the 
 guard, which was also at the disposal of the emperor, 
 was now immediately ordered to ply the refractoiy 
 regiments with grape, and some of the faithful regi- 
 ments were induced to use their small arms. The fire 
 of the guns, directed at the most deadly distance, on an 
 almost unresisting mass, was so destructive in its effects, 
 that the insurgents were speedily mowed down or dis- 
 persed. The conspirators were apprehended, several 
 were hanged, the rest reserved for a worse fate — per- 
 petual banishment to Siberia. 
 
 The poor soldiers who survived the massacre, who 
 could not be looked upon in any other light than as 
 the victims of a fatal mistake and a misguided fidelity 
 — who were tools, but could not by any argument be 
 considered participators in the conspiracy — were, how- 
 ever, also punished with vindictive severity, and even 
 the very regiments to which they belonged, though 
 the next day every man was draughted out of them, 
 are, up to the present time, still treated with marks of 
 disfavour. 
 
 The firmness of the emperor on this eventful day, 
 
 privately, and in detail, over distant parts of the empire ; but the 
 prevalent belief amongst the military and the public was, that 
 they had all been walled up alive in the castle, into which they 
 had been entrapped. The general of this regiment, in conse- 
 quence of the investigation of his conduct, to which this circum- 
 stance gave rise, was disgraced.
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 45 
 
 and the decision with which he acted, have been 
 much extolled; for though the conspiracy', confined 
 to a class, had no deep root in the nation, the danger 
 was great at the moment, from the liability to a sudden 
 overturn by a coup de main, to which a thorough 
 despotism is peculiarly exposed, from the centraliza- 
 tion of its principle, that gathers up all the reins of 
 government into one knot, which one or a few ambi- 
 tious hands may grasp, and from the uncertainty of 
 what part would be taken by other regiments then 
 marching into St. Petersburg, whose officers were 
 suspected, and whose soldiers were equally open to 
 delusion. 
 
 On the other hand, the emperor's behaviour on this 
 occasion is stigmatized as pusillanimous, from the fact 
 of his having retired out of shot as soon as his troops 
 began to act. If, therefore, his head remained cool, and 
 his resolution never wavered, he shewed none of that 
 gallantry which was to be looked for in a man whose 
 foible was martial parade, and who always appears to 
 pride himself more on the soldier than the sovereign. 
 
 Again : in the Polish war, the emperor did not head 
 his army, departing very widely from the principle 
 laid down by his father Paul, when he challenged all 
 the sovereigns of Europe, each attended by his pre- 
 mier, to meet himself and his prime minister, set after 
 set, in mortal encounter, to settle a quarrel by which 
 princes only would profit, and which ministers had 
 fostered ; on which account he drew the very sensible 
 inference that it was unfair their subjects' blood or 
 treasure should be expended to support it. 
 
 Another instance shews the conduct of Nicholas in
 
 46 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 a different but equally remarkable light. At the time 
 the cholera, imported overland from India, had spread 
 in Russia with a malignity which tempered as it 
 travelled westwards, its fearful ravages, amongst the 
 population so worked upon the popular terror and 
 ignorance, that they imagined it to be, not a disease, 
 but the effect of poison — some versions taxing the 
 foreigners and the Poles, others the doctors and the 
 authorities, with having conspired to destroy the people. 
 To such a pitch were the passions of the populace 
 inflamed, that they broke through all bounds, in the 
 agony of their fear and suspicious rage, and proceeded 
 to those outrages which, if not peculiar to slaves re- 
 leased from their chain, almost invariably mark their 
 conduct. All over Russia, but particularly in St. 
 Petersburg, an indiscriminate massacre of all connected 
 with the medical profession took place ; the doctors 
 were hurled out of windows, their heads carried on 
 pikes, their bodies torn to shreds, and the police and 
 authorities everywhere sought shelter in concealment. 
 The same superstitious prejudices had invaded the 
 ranks of the soldiers ; the fearful ravages of the pesti- 
 lence put an end to order, and all men felt like the 
 crew of a ship about to go to pieces — released from 
 restraint before the face of death. The mob were 
 thus allowed to proceed from one extravagancy to 
 another, till the emperor rode out alone into the midst 
 of their infuriated ranks, and by the courage and pre- 
 sence of mind he displayed, succeeded in bridling in 
 a few minutes the menacing and unshackled monster. 
 Addressing the rioters in the sternest tones of his 
 sonorous voice, he commanded them to " kneel in the
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 47 
 
 dust, and endeavour to propitiate the wrath of the 
 Almighty, Avho had sent this visitation for their sins, 
 and not increase his anger by their lawless conduct." 
 
 The crowd, awed by his imposing and majestic 
 manner, kneeled down as one man, followed him in 
 the prayer which he offered up, and, quite humbled 
 by his subsequent reprimand, returned to order and 
 obedience. 
 
 This fact alone must establish for the emperor a 
 character for personal fearlessness, when a proper 
 occasion calls it forth. That the emperor is of a 
 nervous temperament is very apparent, as he shews by 
 his morbid anxiety when present at experiments of 
 exploding mines or trying rockets, not only for his 
 own safety, but for that of the men concerned, as well 
 as by the care with which he causes his charger to be 
 broken out of all spirit and even soundness. But 
 nerve is a very different thing from courage ; and 
 certainly, from one glance at the man, a physiologist 
 would be inclined to doubt that the soul of a coward 
 was ever cased in such a frame. Moreover, Nicholas 
 belongs to a family whose members have shewn the 
 boldest blood of any of the present royal or imperial 
 races. Paul, long before his eccentricities grew into 
 insanity, performed feats of extraordinary boldness; 
 the late Grand Duke Constantine habitually displayed 
 a reckless daring ; and the Grand Duke Michael, the 
 younger brother, has shewn on every occasion a steady 
 and unflinching bravery. 
 
 But the Emperor Nicholas has given evidence of a 
 moral resolution on all trying occasions, which is much 
 more valuable in a ruler than a mere recklessness of
 
 48 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 personal danger — a quality to which it is by no means 
 necessarily allied. 
 
 The immediate family of the emperor consists of 
 the empress, his wife, one surviving brother, the Grand 
 Duke Michael, already mentioned, and several sons 
 and daughters. 
 
 The empress, a Prussian princess, has never played 
 any significant part. A sister of the present King of 
 Prussia, she changed her religion from the Lutheran 
 to the Greek communion, to become the wife of 
 Nicholas, much against the inclination of her brother, 
 who is said still to entertain a rooted personal aver- 
 sion to the Russian emperor, though politically he 
 has yielded entirely to his influence since his acces- 
 sion to the Prussian throne. 
 
 The eldest son of Nicholas, the Grand Duke Alex- 
 ander, heir apparent to his throne, is not unknown in 
 England. He has yet given no evidence of character, 
 beyond that of a mild and tractable disposition. 
 
 Of the imperial princesses, the Grand Duchess 
 *' Marie," who, like all her family, is handsome, was 
 wisely allowed by the emperor to follow her own 
 choice in the selection of a partner for life, and is 
 married to the Duke of Leuchtenbcrg, a rejeton of the 
 Beauharnois and Buonaparte blood. 
 
 In the marriages of his, children Nicholas is said to 
 be perfectly indifferent to any corresponding advan- 
 tages of rank, and with regard to his daughters, to 
 have no objection to any husband for them but one of 
 such exalted birth as wo.uld render difficult the estab- 
 lishment of the young couple within his own domi- 
 nions, and the consequent gratification of his paternal
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 49 
 
 afFection by keeping his children near him. He has 
 undoubtedly shewn his wisdom, by estimating at their 
 proper value those great political alliances which never 
 exercise any lasting influence on the interest of na- 
 tions or their policy, but to which, from time imme- 
 morial, the ambition of crowned heads has vainly sa- 
 crificed their own domestic happiness, and the feelings 
 of those most dear to them. But it has been elsewhere 
 shewn that there arc circumstances connected with 
 all these alliances which would have rendered them 
 politic as mariages de convenance. 
 
 The Grand Duchess Olga, the second of the em- 
 peror's daughters, has no rival in beauty amongst the 
 princesses of Europe ; and in this instance, flattery, 
 in asserting her to be the loveliest a;irl in her father's 
 dominions, scarcely outstrips the truth. 
 
 The imperial family of Russia derive their descent 
 from the clerical house of Romanofl*; but their blood 
 has been so repeatedly intermingled with that of 
 ■Germans, that one might doubt if a single drop of 
 Russian origin flowed in their veins, if the personal 
 appearance of its members did not recall to mind the 
 handsome Lieutenant Soltikofl' — one of the earliest of 
 Catherine's favourites, raised by her to the highest 
 offices of the state. 
 
 To the circumstance of the constant alliance of the 
 Romanofls w'ith the German families may be attri- 
 buted the fact of all their sympathies being rather 
 German than Russian ; although the natural mistrust 
 of despotism may partly have occasioned the marked 
 predilection which the sovereigns of Russia have 
 almost always displayed, to the detriment of their 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 natural subjects, in favour of Germans, — intrusting 
 them with three-fourths of the important offices of state, 
 which at present, as during the greater part of the 
 time elapsed since the last century, they continue to 
 occupy. 
 
 It is true that many of these Germans are natives of 
 tlie subject Baltic provinces of Esthonia, Livonia, and 
 Courland, or the descendants of foreignei's who have 
 come a generation back to seek their fortunes in the 
 Russian empire. But those born without the pale of 
 tlic imperial dominions are e(|ually ftivoured. In 
 general, the mongrel German race in this unhappy 
 country, in Avhich they have so much sway, constitute 
 a class full of overwecninu' and ill-founded pretension, 
 and appear to have accpiired, in addition to their 
 native defects, all those peculiar to the Russian, with- 
 out any of the countervailing good qualities which in 
 him may partially redeem them. In general, deci- 
 dedly inferior, intellectually and morally, to the pure 
 Muscovite race, they affect to regard it with a con- 
 tempt which the favouritif-m of their rulers has coun- 
 tenanced. 
 
 If Ave examine closely the character of the real 
 Muscovite, debased and sunken as it is, we cannot 
 help being struck with many of the good and noble 
 qualities which constitute it. The vices which render 
 him odious and contemptible in our eyes at a first 
 glance, may be clearl}- traced to the demoralizing in- 
 Hncnce of the uninterrupted servitude which, for ages 
 past, has rendered one portion of the nation the 
 tyrants of the other, and the absolute arbiters of the 
 individual destiny of their felloAV men, Avhom thev,
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 51 
 
 themselves but slaves, crushed down and ruthlessly 
 oppressed. 
 
 Let us now turn to the Russian nobles, in speaking 
 of whom we mean the landed proprietors, who alone 
 can be considered as entitled to the name, although 
 the present laws of the empire confer this distinction 
 on every individual in the service of the crown who 
 holds a rank, civil or military, equivalent to that of 
 commissioned officer. 
 
 This nobility of office are designated by the title of 
 " chenovniks,^' or men of rank. The lowest of these 
 who sits behind the desk of a public office, is equally 
 a nobleman with the wealthy descendant of the com- 
 peers of the house of RomanofF, and is entitled to all 
 the privileges which the proudest descent confers, 
 including the qualification of becoming a baron or 
 master of slaves, should promotion in office, by giving 
 more ample scope for extortion and public robbery, 
 ever affi)rd him the means of purchasing them. 
 
 The type of this class may be seen in every govern- 
 ment office — a personage, who sits in a coat with the 
 imperial button, his green or pin-ple velvet collar 
 designating the department to which he is attached ; 
 but who, beneath this insignia of his rank, eschews a 
 shirt, who wraps his feet in a tattered rag instead of 
 stockings, using his fingers for a pocket-handkerchief, 
 and smelling strongly of vodtka (corn-brandy) and 
 onions. He must be addressed as '•^ vosliehlogarodit^'' 
 "your nobility." He rejoices in a salary of 15/. per 
 annum, and maintains the dignity of the imperial 
 service by unblushingly pocketing a bribe of agrivnik, 
 a coin of the value of threepence-halfpenny English, 
 
 E 2
 
 02 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 without which, if a'ou have occasion to ask him even 
 a question, he will not open his lips. This class of 
 employes are to be found of every grade — from the 
 individual just described, up to the minister of the 
 imperial court, whose salary is 4000Z., and who is 
 calculated to sell his favours at 100,000/. per annum 
 more ; they differ indeed in fortune and in external 
 refinement, but in point of corruption, venality, and 
 servility, may be unhesitatingly ranked together. 
 
 The landed proprietors, with the exception of an 
 inconsiderable portion who have obtained possession 
 of slaves and land in the manner above alluded to, 
 are the immediate descendants of those turbulent 
 Boyars, of whom we read so much in the early history 
 of Russia ; a feudal and wealthy aristocracy, plunged 
 in all the excesses of ignorance and barbarity, and 
 formidable only to their tsars, until the time when 
 Peter the Great not only reduced them to obedience, 
 but commenced depriving them of every valuable 
 privilege — a work which his successors have followed 
 up so perscveringly and unremittingly, as to have 
 reduced them to the most degraded condition of any 
 landed aristocracy or people in Europe. 
 
 In pursuance of this system of policy, nothing was 
 left them but their wealth, of which probably they 
 were not stripped, from the conviction that their 
 general tendency to luxury and extravagance — another 
 oriental feature in their character, and which all the 
 additional temptations to profusion offered by civili- 
 zation could only increase — would rapidly tend to 
 the rnin and dissipation of their fortunes ; a prevision 
 which is daily being realized, and for the facilitation
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 53 
 
 of which government has carefully provided. The 
 crown is always ready to advance money on slaves 
 and estates, which is seldom repaid, and eventually 
 enables it to gather them into its own domains. 
 
 Originally encouraged by every possible means to 
 visit foreign countries, and to intermingle with the 
 subjects of more civilized nations, and naturally gifted 
 with considerable aptitude for imitation, this class 
 took readily, and at once, the superficial impress of 
 that civilization with which it came in contact, and 
 exhibits, without its valuable substratum, all the polish 
 which should be the finishing varnish of the picture, 
 not, as it is, a gloss to cover its defects. It has adopted 
 the tone, the manners, the elegance, and external re- 
 finement of the best society of other countries, with 
 which those who travel have principally mingled, and 
 which they have widely disseminated amongst the ranks 
 of the untravelled class at home ; but has acquired little 
 of its solid instruction, and still less of those feelings 
 inherited by other nations, from the chivalrous institu- 
 tions which for so many centuries tempered their feudal 
 darkness, tinging the public mind unconsciously with 
 an admiration for what was noble, an abhorrence of 
 what was base. 
 
 It is to this cause that the feeling may be traced, 
 animating even the lowest and most brutalized mem- 
 bers of a British mob, when they will not tolerate 
 any unfair superiority in a street contest, or a blow in- 
 flicted on a fallen man. It is to this cause that we 
 may trace the feelings which, in Britain and other 
 European countries, make those in the most abject 
 condition blush at being detected in a lie, and which.
 
 54 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 if chivalry owe its partial development to Christianity, 
 must be admitted to have acted more directly on 
 the civilization of the modern world than Christianity 
 has done in any other way. 
 
 This is a groundwork of character unknown in 
 Russia, Avhere feudality existed, but chivalry never. 
 That keen and vivid sense of honour, to w^hich in 
 France and England all classes are so generally sen- 
 sitive, though each in their peculiar station, in a 
 different degi'ee, and which we are apt, before we 
 compare them with those of countries where the 
 causes from which they are derived never existed, to 
 attribute to their intuitive perceptions of right and 
 wrong, is in Russia everywhere wanting, both amongst 
 high and low. 
 
 In the education of the Russian nobleman, every- 
 thing is calculated for show, and he is accomplished, 
 without any really solid acquirements. Generally, he 
 speaks several languages with the accent and fluency 
 of a native ; he is a proficient in music and dancing, 
 and converses with ease and brilliancy on the topics 
 of the day; but, very often, the same individual is 
 deficient in classical, in historical, and geographical 
 knowledge, and has not the least idea of wTiting the 
 language he speaks so well, any more than his own ; 
 a tongue rich and musical, but which the higher 
 classes regard much as the gentry in Ireland do the 
 Gaelic. 
 
 Congregating in the chief town of the government 
 in which their property is situated, or in Moscow, 
 still the capital of the nobility, they only visit their 
 estates coring a part of the year, from motives of re-
 
 THE EMPEROR mCHOLAS. 55 
 
 trenchment. Seldom addicted to field sports, they 
 take little exercise ; and cards and other frivolous and 
 sedentary pursuits, which have not the advantage of 
 conducing to invigorate the body, as well as amuse the 
 mind, are their favourite occupations. 
 
 The government service, in which the nobility are 
 forced to enter by the most arbitrary regulations, 
 occupies several very irksome years. Admission to 
 its civil and military posts, instead of being courted, 
 as in other countries, is looked upon by them as an 
 odious task, which either the law obliges them to 
 perform, or which they are expected to undertake by 
 an authority they dare not resist. Though a noble- 
 man enjoys the title of prince or count, his rank only 
 places him at the bottom of the scale of fourteen 
 classes, beginning with field-marshals and descending 
 to ensigns, into which the government divides all its 
 civil and military officers. The officers of thirteen of 
 these classes, unless he attain rank by seiTice, are 
 thus all his superiorsj and he is subject to every kind 
 of insult or contumel}' from them. 
 
 But if, contented with the peaceable enjoyment of 
 its wealth, a noble Russian family, disregarding the 
 humiliation to which its members are exposed from 
 the inferior station in which the law classes them, 
 wishes to live in peace, it must not be imagined that 
 even the letter of that law will long allow them to 
 enjoy such quiet and retirement. If for two genera-J^ 
 tions they neglect to serve until attaining the rank of 
 commissioned officers, the third generation sink to 
 the class of peasants, and not only forfeit the estates 
 (which the rank to which they are degraded n^o longer
 
 56 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 entitles tliem to hold), but become even subject to 
 summary and degrading corporal punishment, at the 
 hands of the lowest police official. The duty they 
 are thus compelled to perform is, in the commence- 
 ment, most disagreeable and severe. A nobleman 
 must enter the service, whatever his influence or 
 interest, unless he come out of a military school, or 
 cadet corps, as it is denominated, as a younker, or 
 volunteer — that is, a private soldier, subject to all the 
 discipline and duties of that unenviable condition, but 
 •with the prospect of receiving a commission, not 
 possibly before three or four years, perhaps only after 
 a much longer period. 
 
 When the Russian noble attains this rank, if he 
 serve in the guards, which is most usual, for the merest 
 trifle (if seen in private clothes, for example, if caught 
 in the perpetration of walking w ithout a sword, or the 
 enormity of wearing kid gloves) he is exposed to being 
 degraded to the rank of private, and sent off a 
 thousand or two of miles into the interior, or to the 
 Caucasus, where the influence of his family, of his 
 wealth, and his ingenuity, are generally exerted for 
 several years, to enable him to work his way again to 
 the position of a conmiissioned officer, which can alone 
 exempt him from the seiTitude of carrying a musket 
 for twenty years longer, to which he is doomed. 
 
 It is therefore not surprising that on attaining the 
 first rank or two, a llussian nobleman quits the service 
 for ever, and flies the weight of his epaulettes with the 
 alacrity of a boy escaping from school. But it is not 
 always that he dare leave ; it is often intimated to
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 5( 
 
 him that he must remain ; and -who can venture in 
 Russia to disobey such intimations? 
 
 There is indeed a portion of the aristocracy, whose 
 dilapidated fortunes have induced them to seek, in the 
 cultivation of court favour, and in the service of the 
 crown, the opportunities of in some measure regaining^ 
 their wealth; and such, with very few exceptions, 
 compose the nobility who inhabit St. Petersburg. 
 
 Nearly all those who are wealthy and independent, 
 shun the vicinity of majesty — the refulgence of whose 
 rays is always apt to be scorching, — and consequently 
 prefer the old metropolis of Moscow, where they are 
 more likely to be allowed to enjoy the quiet in which 
 they would generally be well contented to live. They 
 are there at least less exposed to the constant and 
 arbitrary interference with their conduct and concerns, 
 and from the necessity of daily regulating their inti- 
 macies by the thermometer of the imperial court. 
 The painful restraint which this influence imposes on 
 the highest rank, and on the gay and fashionable 
 world of St. Petersburg, may be judged from the fact, 
 that during a ridiculous political " bouderie," which 
 was enacted between the king of the French and the 
 Emperor Nicholas, who, through their diplomatic 
 agents, retaliated on each other various incivilities, or 
 rather the omission of civilities which the etiquette of 
 royal and imperial intercourse requires, — M. Perier, 
 French representative, having, according to his in- 
 struction, failed to address the customary felicitations 
 to the emperor on new year's day, found, to his sur- 
 prise, that in every drawing-room of St. Petersburg no
 
 5s THE E.MPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 one dared venture to address, much less to dance with, 
 either himself or his lady. 
 
 Such is the condition to which those once haughty 
 Boyars ai*e reduced, who raised regiments of theu* 
 own, and shook the throne at every breath of their 
 displeasure. 
 
 Encouraged so long to travel, that the desire of 
 visiting foreign countries has become, with all the 
 higher orders, a predominant passion, the present 
 emperor places many obstacles in the way of all who 
 wish to go abroad, and obliges them to return at the 
 expiration of three years, under pain of forfeiting their 
 property and rank. To many, the permission to 
 leave the country is altogether refused, and in every 
 case it is only renewed with the utmost difficulty. 
 
 It is said, in defence of these summary measures 
 against absenteeism, that without them most of the 
 wealthy Russians would quit their own country, and 
 scatter their wealth over Europe ; and this is a highly 
 probable supposition, which, when their unenviable 
 condition at home is considered, can scarcely be mat- 
 ter of surprise. 
 
 In costume and mode of life the Russian nobles 
 imitate the French. On entering the house of a Rus- 
 sian nobleman the visiter might imagine himself in a 
 spacious Parisian hotel, if he do not happen to see the 
 nurses, in the gaudy and picturesque national costume, 
 or the dwarf in the ante-room, or cast his eye round 
 on many English comforts which have not generally 
 found their way to Paris. 
 
 In disposition the Russian nobleman is hospitable, 
 generous, and profuse, and capable of entertaining
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 59 
 
 enlarged and liberal views, for which the ideas of 
 some at least of his neighbours, profound as they call 
 themselves, and ma}' be, are much too narrow and 
 contracted. In his present condition, it is lamentable 
 to see him, at the most valuable period of his life, in 
 the dawn of maturity, the slave to a uniform, spend- 
 ing his days and nights in drinking champagne and 
 playing cards, — at which latter, if he happen to take 
 dishonourable advantage, the only disgrace is in detec- 
 tion, which can in a few months be got over. 
 
 When he quits his uniform it is no less painful to 
 contemplate him, his wealth and idleness affording 
 him full time to meditate on the insignificant part he 
 is playing in his native countr}"^, and seeking excite- 
 ment in a course of extravagance and dissipation 
 speedily leading to his ruin. 
 
 It is almost impossible, even with these causes, to 
 explain how rapidly in Russia you see colossal fortunes 
 disappear; and for ruining themselves quickly, the 
 aristocracy of this country bear away the palm, by far, 
 from even the inhabitants of Great Britain. Fortunes 
 of ten, twenty, thirty thousand pounds per annum, in 
 a few years utterly disappear ; they are not tied up 
 for a limited number of years, but utterly dissipated^ 
 principal and interest, and without as much show as 
 the mere entanglement of the annual revenue would 
 have occasioned in England. 
 
 Notwithstanding an appearance of the highest ex- 
 ternal polish, nothing can be more barbaric than the 
 Russian noble. In his profusion, it is evident that he 
 esteems all things by the money they cost, and not 
 for their intrinsic beauty or excellence. The value that
 
 60 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 we see sometimes set, by caprice or vulgarity, on mere 
 rarity, unconnected with any other merit, in England 
 and in Holland, may be palliated by the spirit of com- 
 merce. A man may be excused for esteeming a 
 hideous Chinese idol or a singular looking tulip, higher 
 than the copy of a Canova or a beautiful moss rose, 
 if he only holds these articles as representatives of the 
 value others arc foolish enough to set upon them ; but 
 if he purchase them for the purpose of keeping them, 
 valuing them only from their uniquity, we can almost 
 trace the error of the head to an eiTor of the heart. 
 A sense of the beautiful will suffice to give us pleasure 
 in the possession of a beautiful object; but nothing 
 but the base wish of exciting envy in others will, in 
 a metaphysical analysis, account, en dernier resort, for 
 the satisfaction experienced in the ownership of any- 
 thing which has only great rarity to recommend it. 
 
 This feeling strongly predominates in the Russian 
 noble, and he is ready to purchase all that is rare and 
 therefore dear. At St. Petersburg and at Moscow he 
 will give from one guinea to five guineas a pound for 
 the celebrated sterlet — a very ordinary fish in itself, 
 neither unlike in taste nor superior to the brill ; he 
 will thus often give fifty guineas for a fish, and have 
 two of them at his table, boiled down to soup in oceans 
 of champagne. On the spot where the sterlet is 
 caught, where it is in perfection, and may be purchased 
 for a few shillings, he rarely touches it. He pur- 
 chases Tokay at ten guineas per bottle, a wine, of which 
 the value, always imaginary, is, in the more expensive 
 sorts, as much a matter of caprice as that of the costly 
 Dutch bulbs. I must explain, that the price is eleven
 
 THE EMPEROR XICHOLAS. 61 
 
 ducats per bottle, or flask ; but the flask is so small 
 as to bring it at least to the price above mentioned. 
 
 When travelling abroad, he purchases pictures and 
 engravings at immense prices, and hangs a master- 
 piece of art unconsciously next a performance not fit 
 for an alehouse sign. We have known a Russian 
 gentleman, having little more than that sum of ready 
 money, give upwards of tvro thousand guineas for a 
 Cashmere shawl. There was nothing beautiful about 
 the arrangement of the colours, but the wool, or rather 
 goats' hair, was so marvellously fine, that, although 
 of ample dimensions, and very warm, it could be 
 drawn through a small ring, and its vast volume 
 almost compressed into the hand like a cobweb. The 
 purchaser had neither wife nor family ; nor \vould he, 
 as he expressed, "have wasted a silk handkerchief on 
 any woman in the world ;" nor had he any idea of 
 parting with it at a profit. A few weeks after, 
 wanting money, he sold it for 1,500/., thus paying 
 500/. to be, for a short time, the possessor of a rarity. 
 
 Amongst the oriental tastes and habits which still pre- 
 dominate in the Muscovite nation, that of possessinn- 
 expensive jewels, furs, and shawls, is still prevalent, 
 without the reasons which excuse it in Asiatics, and 
 formerly excused it in the Russian. Before the in- 
 troduction of banks and bank notes, there Avere an 
 obvious advantaoje and convenience in concentrating 
 into as small a compass and weight as possible all the 
 superfluity of wealth, both for purposes of security 
 and easy conveyance. Jewels and shawls, in par- 
 ticular, are the letters of credit and bank notes of 
 the Orientals. A highly valuable shawl may be
 
 62 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 
 
 twisted into a rope for a belt or a turban, and sustain 
 the dagger or pistols, or protect the head. It may 
 be worn for thousands of miles, without being cither 
 torn, or damaged in colour, or creased. Two or 
 three years since a shawl was brought to St. Peters- 
 burg which was valued at GOOO/. by judges, but 
 which the emperor refused to purchase at that price 
 for the empress. Although the shawl might have 
 otherwise found many buyers — for after all the 
 pawning of six hundred serfs to the crown would 
 always produce the required sum — yet who dared to 
 purchase what had been vainly asked by the empress? 
 It is still not uncommon for noblemen to have a large 
 share of their fortunes locked up in property of this 
 description ; and it is very common for a woman's 
 dowry to consist wholly of such articles. These are 
 being constantly pledged at the government Lombard 
 — a place of resort at which it is common to hoar 
 people of fashion give each other rendezvous. It is 
 singular that this habit of tying up capital in costly 
 and unproductive articles should be as ])revalent with 
 the merchant, who ought at least to see his error, as 
 with the noble. 
 
 The Marquis de Custine, whose keen eye during 
 his short sojourn enabled him, in a countr}^ where 
 everything is veiled, to unmask almost instinctively so 
 many deceits, at once saw through the dazzling varnish 
 which hides the still barbarous habits of the Russian 
 noble. He justly obsei-ves, that to sec the Russian 
 noble in his palace, courdy hi his manners, speaking 
 the language of England, France, and Italy, surrounded 
 by works of art, the elegances of Paris, the comforts
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 63 
 
 of England, — we may pardon the error into which so 
 many travellers have fallen, in imagining that the other 
 requisites of civilization must necessarily accompany 
 many of its superfluities ; it required some penetra- 
 tion to discern that the English bed was kept for the 
 eye of the stranger, but never slept in ; that beneath 
 the rich Low is Quatorze dressing-gown, or the sable 
 shube, worth ten thousand roubles, thro\\Ti hurriedly 
 on, was a coarse coloured shirt, which had been a fort- 
 night on its owner's back, and beneath the coarse 
 coloured shirt ! 
 
 When we thus see the costly fui-, the richly em- 
 broidered satin mirrors, and Turkey carpets, and beds 
 of eider-down, conceahng the filthy habits of the 
 Calmvic, we may the more readily understand how 
 polish of manner, elegance, and urbanity, may cover 
 a want of all those feelings which constitute the 
 dignity and pride of humanity, and which amongst 
 western nations in some measure exist, or are not 
 wholly rooted out, where accompanied by vulgarity 
 and even depravity. 
 
 The Russian empire presents striking examples of 
 the rapidity with Avhich some of the tastes of civiliza- 
 tion may be aped by thorough barbarians. Some of 
 the chiefs of the Kirguise Tartars, pensioned, and 
 induced by the policy of government to reside a por- 
 tion of the year in dwellings built for them, retain 
 their sheep-skins, their vermin, and their nomadic 
 habits, but drink champagne, Sauterne, and Dublin 
 stout, to wash down their pillau or their horse-flesh, 
 and look at their guest, to see if his glass wants reple- 
 nishing, through a fashionable gold eyeglass.
 
 64 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. t 
 
 In personal appearance, the noble classes in Russia 
 are darker generally than the peasantry, though even 
 amongst these the fair complexion, on the whole, pre- 
 dominates. They differ from them also in wanting 
 what so adds to the comeliness of both sexes, and 
 embellishes the countenance of the movjik — good hair 
 and good teeth. In general, what beauty they pos- 
 sess appears, by a mistake of nature, to be confined to 
 the men ; and this is the case both among the higher 
 and lower orders, but more especially amongst the 
 peasant women ; it is of the rarest occurrence to meet 
 with one even comely, fresh-looking, and not actuall}'^ 
 hideous or mis-shapen. It is a very common sight to 
 see a matron throwing her breasts over her shoulders, 
 to suckle the child she carries on her back.
 
 THE SERF. 65 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SERF. 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon, if diffuse and wordy in 
 his written style, has at least left to posterity seme of 
 those pithy sayings, into which a whole volume of ideas 
 is condensed — a whole picture crowded. " Grattez 
 le Russe," he said, " et vous trouverez le Tartare ;" 
 " Scratch, and the Tartar will peep through the Rus- 
 sian." We have seen somewhat in our last chapter, of 
 the truth of this epigram. He calls the Emperor 
 Alexander a Greek of the lower empire ; and he fur- 
 ther says, " Woe unto Europe, if ever a tsar should 
 arise who wears a beard I" After one has closely exa- 
 mined the men and things within the Russian empire, 
 one is struck with the profound appreciation of cha- 
 racter, and the portentous import, contained in these 
 picture-sentences, which one had ranked at fii'st 
 amongst sayings more terse than true. 
 
 These words of warning to Europe, whenever a 
 tsar shall wear a beard, strike us in all their force, 
 when we turn from the contemplation of the great 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 Q6 THE SERF. 
 
 body of the Muscovite people, the private serfs, the 
 crown serfs, and the freedmen — the true bearded, 
 caftaned, superstitious Russians of the days of Ivan 
 the Terrible — all comprised in the general name of 
 moujik. There are, at a rough statement, upwards of 
 twenty millions of private serfs, and nearly the same 
 number belonging to the imperial domain ; and they 
 are already so blindly obedient to the tsar, so con- 
 fident of his power, that it is no exaggeration to 
 say that many believe he can stay the pestilence or 
 the tempest, or allay the drought, at his pleasure. 
 This is the case with a sovereign who runs counter to 
 their dearest prejudice, who shaves their cherished 
 beards, \vho sends them chained together to his armies, 
 and whose garb and habits are those of the stranger. 
 What would it be with a tsar who seemed a thorough 
 Muscovite, like themselves, in his dress, his habits, 
 and feelings ? Why he might use their fanaticism as 
 a mighty lever to uproot the very nation, and cast it 
 in any du'ection around him, like a tremendous human 
 avalanche. 
 
 The reader may perhaps remember, in antithesis to 
 this hint given to the tsars to wear a beard, by the 
 great conqueror, the advice which a genius, no less 
 remarkable in the world of letters, gives to the Em- 
 peror Alexander : — 
 
 " Teach him to wash and shave his Baskir hordes, 
 And into ploughshares tuini their harren swords." 
 
 Perhaps in these contradictory counsels are comprised 
 the only courses which would have led to that eleva- 
 tion which the tsars of Russia have so long been
 
 THE SERF. 67 
 
 dreaming, the one to the devastating glory of a 
 Timour, the other to the peace, prosperity, and hap- 
 piness of that large portion of mankind of which 
 fate has made them guardians. The Emperor Nicholas 
 has not had the genius to perceive that the middle 
 path he follows will never lead him into either of those 
 diverging roads to greatness. 
 
 Let us now proceed to examine the class of bearded 
 moujiks, the most important element, if the most inert, 
 of the Colossus of Russian strength. Physically the 
 moujik has retained more of the pure Sclavonic than 
 in his manners, customs, and feelings ; but even phy- 
 sically he bears no small traces of his admixture with 
 the Tuik and Tartar, beneath whose rule he groaned 
 so long; the cat-like eye standing downwards from 
 the temples ; the nose, of which the nostrils are almost 
 always too visible ; and sometimes not only the dark 
 hair and complexion, but the high cheek bones, and 
 the regular Mongolian physiognomy. It would appear, 
 however, as if, on the whole, the Tartar and Mongo- 
 lian type became rapidly effaced in the vigorous fecun- 
 dity of the Sclavonic ; and hence, whilst the European 
 aspect in a few years predominates, where two-thirds 
 of the blood was originally Tartar, the character retains 
 all its true proportion of Asiatic spirit, though the 
 Asiatic features may only be occasionally traced in 
 the faces of individuals. It is this admixture during 
 centuries of ser\'itude, which has made the differ- 
 ence between the Muscovite and Polish character, 
 for the language of these two people still bears as close 
 a resemblance as the dialects of many of our English 
 counties to each other. • 
 
 f2
 
 68 THE SERF. 
 
 As regards personal appearance, the hideousness 
 of the women, and the comparative comeliness of the 
 men, have caused the latter to be considered as hand- 
 some liy many travellers. Their dense hair, thick 
 beard and mustachiocs, white teeth, and the loose dra- 
 pery of their semi-Asiatic dress, are all apt somewhat 
 to mislead us ; but when we sec these men as soldiers, 
 cropped, shaven, and dressed in clothes which shew 
 the figure, the illusion utterly vanishes ; we find the 
 face, that appeared handsome when hidden by tufts of 
 hair, mean and inexpressive ; the Herculean frames, 
 when stripped of the sheepskin, sink into dispropor- 
 tioned insignificance, and are always distorted by the 
 great protuberance of the stomach, occasioned by the 
 want of nutritious quality in their food, and the con- 
 sequent quantity rc(|uired. 
 
 The Marquis de Custine is enthusiastic in his praise 
 of the male beauty of the Muscovites ; but it is evident 
 that he has been misled, partly by the circumstances 
 above-mentioned, partly from having judged of the race 
 by the servants and coachmen of noblemen, to whose 
 appearance he often alludes; but these are no fair spe- 
 cimen, being chosen for their beauty out of thousands of 
 serfs ; — and lastly, from confounding with the pure Mus- 
 covites the Little-Russians — the people of the Ukraine, 
 which is already Cossac. Now the Cossacs, as will be 
 hereafter shewn, are no more jMuscovites than Musco- 
 vites are Poles, or Dutchmen Englishmen. The wish of 
 the llussian government being to obliterate the memory 
 of their Polish brotherhood, this wish has inspired the 
 llussian writers and historians, particularly the courtly 
 Karamsin. The confusion occasioned by the fact that
 
 THE SERF. 69 
 
 " Cossacs," in several adjoining countries, was the 
 general term for all freebooters, has led to the belief of 
 their Muscovite origin, because the early history of 
 Russia constantly alludes to Cossacs long before the 
 present remarkable races had been called into existence. 
 
 The most conclusive evidence on the subject of the 
 personal appearance of the Russians, is to be derived, 
 in St. Petersburg, from the examination of the imperial 
 guard — a selection from sixty millions. There arc 
 many thousands of men all up to the six-foot standard, 
 and yet it would actually be difficult, when stripped 
 of their padding, to find twenty men in a whole divi- 
 sion equal to the first promiscuous twenty in Queen 
 Victoria's first or second life-guards, or blues. 
 
 The moujik inhabits a log-house, which he builds 
 with his own axe, with which he is marvellously dex- 
 terous ; the interstices he stuffs with moss, and cuts 
 down and planes, to a surprising smoothness, with the 
 same instrument. The axe is his constant companion : 
 it is a tool a little crooked in the handle, and he 
 laughs at our English hatchet, as being almost useless 
 for want of this peculiarity. The severity of the 
 climate he inhabits obliges him to make one for him- 
 self, and he does make one within his dwelling, the 
 whole long winter through, hotter than that of the 
 tropics. Necessity, that mother of invention, has 
 taught him what all the science of civilization has 
 left unlearned in this respect in France, in England, 
 and even in Germany. 
 
 In England, if not precisely correct, I am within the 
 mark, in stating that thirteen-fourteenths of our fuel are 
 wasted, or, in other words, that where we burn fourteen
 
 •70 THE SERF. 
 
 tons of coal, the heat of thirteen of them is wasted up 
 the chimney. In France and Germany, the iron stoves, 
 besides never disseminating an equal heat, part with 
 some of their metal to the atmosphere, and burning all 
 the particles of dust and vapour that settle on their 
 surface, give rise to noisome and unwholesome gases. 
 The Russian stove is a vast stack of bricks, with a 
 small oven, and intersected with flues ; the oven is 
 filled with wood or faggots, and directly the carbonic 
 acid has escaped from the fuel, the chimney and the 
 iron door of the oven are closed, and the place is 
 heated for the next four and twenty hours. The 
 bricks, a material very slow in conducting heat, take 
 several hours to heat through, after which they keep 
 parting gradually and equably with the caloric they 
 have absorbed, for the next six and thirty hours. 
 
 The moujik all the winter wears his sheepskin ; 
 sometimes the whole year tlurough, though it is often 
 in summer superseded by a caftan of the coarse brown 
 or grey homespun wool ; he wears a coloured woollen 
 sash to fasten it round the waist, in which his faithful 
 axe reposes. His bushy hair is shaven from the nape 
 of the neck, and the hair is cut all round the head, by 
 clipping away all that appears under a wooden bason, 
 put upon it by the operator ; it is cut somewhat in the 
 fashion of a thorough-bred's " bang" tail, and with the 
 same original object, that of making it look thicker. 
 A leather strap, passing over his forehead, binds dovni 
 these dense locks, and reminds us of the old Greek 
 fashion ; but it requires a powerful imagination to see, 
 like Custine, any trace of the Greek profile or expres- 
 sion beneath this classic head-gear.
 
 THE SERF. 71 
 
 The moujik provides against the rigour of the 
 climate ; he does not, and he cannot, brave it with 
 the same impunity as even the Spaniard or ItaHan. 
 At a battue party, where a hundred and fifty peasants 
 were beating the wood, in an intense cold, with a 
 strong wind, there were only six who were not some- 
 where frost-bitten. The six foreign sportsmen for 
 whom they were beating up the game, though exter- 
 nally less well provided, were untouched by the cold. 
 The moujik leaves his dwelling, his blood raised by 
 the heat of his artificial atmosphere to a high tem- 
 perature, and the thick sheepskin, an excellent non- 
 conductor, retains the heat for several hours ; when it 
 is escaping, the first roof beneath which he takes 
 refuge, restores him to the same tropical warmth. 
 
 The moujik, like all classes of the Russians, is in- 
 ordinately fond of a vapour bath, and learns to endure a 
 temperature of steam approaching to 200° Fahrenheit. 
 When his body is thoroughly heated, it is generally 
 known that he rolls in the snow, or plunges in ice- 
 cold water. At night, the dvorniks, or porters, in 
 St. Petersburg and Moscow, in a cold of twenty-five 
 degrees Reaumer, the intensity of which freezes 
 alcohol, and converts into hail-stones boiling water 
 thrown into the air, come out barefooted and covered 
 only by a cotton shirt and linen trowsers, to let in the 
 carriages of their masters. The moujiks are often 
 seen snoring, dead drunk, in the snow, in the severest 
 weather. 
 
 From facts like these, which arrest the observa- 
 tion of every traveller, it is not surprising that an idea 
 should have been imbibed, that extraordinary power
 
 72 THE SERF. 
 
 of enduring cold characterized the Russian people ; 
 but on closer examination, we find precisely the reverse 
 to be the case. The most delicate English or southern 
 child, when heated in the vapour of the Russian bath, 
 cannot feel the coldness of snow or ice. The pails 
 of iced water thrown on the bather, feel merely tepid. 
 The simple immersion in the coldest water does not 
 even produce a shudder, whilst the body has so great 
 an excedent of caloric to part with ; to remain in it 
 when the human temperature is reduced beyond a 
 certain point, which the Russians never do, might 
 prove dangerous, or even fetal. The moujik, who 
 rushes half boiled from his bath into the snow, feels 
 his teeth chatter on plunging unprepared into water 
 of the spring temperature of our English rivers. 
 
 It is the same principle, of the cold not acting on 
 the human body till it has got rid of the superabund- 
 ant heat artificially imbibed, which accounts for the 
 impunity of the dvorniks. These men (who, by the 
 way are not exposed, as mentioned, above a few 
 minutes,) sleep in rooms in which the temperature of 
 the atmosphere is not less than ninety Fahrenheit, and 
 in addition to this lay upon sheepskins stretched upon 
 the stack of hot bricks which form the Russian stove. 
 They, or anybody else might, when thus heated, stand 
 for many minutes naked in the open air, before feeling 
 the cold ; though if chilled at the outset, instead of being 
 as they are at fever heat, in the same space of time 
 their extremities would be frozen hard. The drunken 
 moujiks who are seen sleeping in the snow, having 
 always rapidly drunk a large quantity of ardent spirits, 
 the body is in a high state of temporary fever. Their
 
 THE SERF. 73 
 
 sheepskins prevent the rapid escape of the heat thus 
 generated ; but when this ceases, the man wakes and 
 seeks the instantaneous shelter of a human habitation. 
 In an intense cold, a few minutes only elapse between 
 feeling chilly, and the stagnation of the blood ; no two 
 evils can well be more different than to be frozen or 
 to be perished. When the moujik is not within reach 
 of a human habitation, or where he has not suffi- 
 ciently recovered his instinct before parting with the 
 animal heat, he freezes to death. Thousands of 
 peasants die in this way every winter, in the Russian 
 dominions. 
 
 Of all people in the world, perhaps the Russians are 
 those who in their lives have felt the least cold; but 
 they understand an art of which we are wholly ignorant 
 in our temperate climes — that of perfectly guarding 
 against its rigours, better even than all other northern 
 people. Perhaps they are naturally less fitted to 
 stand its severity than any of the white race. Physic- 
 ally, the Russian moujik is far from being, in any 
 other sense, strong or enduring ; the very nature of 
 his food precludes the possibility of this. He grows 
 wheat, and rears cattle, of which the rapacity of his 
 master, during four centuries, has almost allowed him 
 to forget the taste ; he lives almost entirely on rye, 
 fermented cabbage, and a little rank black hemp-seed 
 oil. It is true, there are many other people in Europe 
 whose staple article of food is rye ; it is true, that the 
 potato contains chemically still less of what are sup- 
 posed to be the nutritive portions of food than even 
 rye, and it is true that there are races almost fed on 
 the potato. But experience shews that root to be so
 
 74 THE SERF. 
 
 happily adapted, as an article of food, to the human 
 constitution, that man evidently thrives better reduced 
 to the potato, than to the r^^e. 
 
 But the singularly perverted taste of the Muscovite 
 people induces them to reduce, before they consume it, 
 a large part of the nutriment which even rye grain con- 
 tains. They ferment their bread to the third or acetous 
 degree ; the black bread of Russia, unlike that of all 
 other countries, is bitter and sour, and as nauseous in 
 the mouth as alum. The starch and sugar of the grain is 
 so lost by this process, that it contains far less nourish- 
 ment than even the rye-bread of the extreme north, 
 when scarcity obliges the inhabitants to mix with the 
 grain one -half of the sweet tender bark of the pine 
 tree. 
 
 Probably the peculiar acidity of this bread and of 
 the fermented cabbage, obliges the moujik to eat large 
 quantities of salt. The biscuit of Russian men-of- 
 war's men is a rusk made of this bread ; they may be 
 seen soaking it in the sea-water. The weak quality 
 of their food requires them to consume it in immense 
 quantities ; its acidity seems to require much salt, and 
 the joint salt and acid taken into the stomach evidently 
 render necessary a proportionate amount of liquid to 
 wash it do^vn. This liquid is taken in the shape of 
 quass, or water discoloured, and rendered slightly 
 acid, by this bread, or by fermented rye, or else of hot 
 water called tea. 
 
 Tea,* it may be here observed, is the principal luxury 
 
 * The annual importation of tea into the Russian empire ave- 
 rages ten million lbs. — about one-fourth of the quantity now im- 
 ported into Great Britain.
 
 THE SERF. 75 
 
 besides brandy, in which the moujik indulges, when in 
 his power. It is common to see him on these occa- 
 sions call for a samovar, or tea-urn full of water ; this 
 he continues pouring through a small tea-pot contain- 
 ing a pinch of tea, until the water is all consumed. 
 He will actually thus imbibe eight, twelve, or fifteen 
 pints of hot liquid at a sitting. Like the Russians of 
 all classes, he drinks it from a tumbler, and he will, 
 when able to afford it, take with it two or three small 
 lumps of sugar. When in company, for he is con- 
 vivial even over this thin beverage, a piece of sugar is 
 passed round, and each guest bites from it a piece, 
 which he keeps within his teeth w^hilst a glass or two 
 is swallowed. Perhaps this habit was overlooked by 
 a traveller from whom we have largely quoted, when 
 he talks of " this elegant beverage J^ 
 
 It has been deemed advisable, further on, to divide 
 the Russian empire into two great general divisions — 
 the region of the north, or that of forest swamp and 
 cultivation, and the southern region, covered with 
 vast steppes, or prairies, principally inhabited by 
 nomades, and still devoted to pastoral purposes. 
 
 The former of these great divisions is peopled by 
 the great bulk of the purely Muscovite race ; and to 
 those inhabiting it, as regards their mode of hfe, the 
 description given above must be understood to apply. 
 In the region of the steppes, where animal life is less 
 valuable than the produce of agriculture, the case is 
 naturally reversed, and not only the carnivorous races 
 of Tartars and Cossacs live principally upon flesh, 
 but even the Muscovite portion of the scanty popula- 
 tion of these southern regions, as well as of that where
 
 76 THE SERF. 
 
 the forest and prairie governments blend into each 
 other. 
 
 The moujik is deeply tinctured with veneration and 
 superstition ; he is patient, cunning, eager of gain, 
 dishonest in obtaining it, and yet generous. He 
 firmly believes that St. Alexander Ncvsky* (a very 
 prudent and truly Russian saint,) floated down the 
 river Neva upon a mill-stone ; he never enters an 
 apartment without crossing himself before the gaudily- 
 framed picture of the tutelar saint ; he is wonderfully 
 scrupulous that the oil burned in the small antique 
 lamp suspended before it on all holidays, should be 
 the pure oil of the olive, as the dignity of his celestial 
 patron requires ; and when he has risen to the rank 
 which the ambition of every peasant covets — that of 
 meschininc, or licensed to trade — he swears lustily by 
 him, to attest the honesty of a fraudulent bargain, and 
 inwardly endeavours to make Heaven a participator 
 of his deceit, by promising the saint a per centagc on 
 the gain, to be applied to the adornment of his shrine. 
 And where is the marvel ? He knows that he can 
 bribe the powerful baron, his master ; that his master 
 again bribes some one, before whom he trembles ; 
 that his master's master bribes a still more potent supe- 
 rior ; and analogic reasoning will not permit him to 
 doubt, that as the minister is bribed, so the minister 
 bribes the emperor, and so the saint may in the end 
 bribe God Almighty. 
 
 * This story is more popularly related of St. Anthony, who is 
 traditionally said to have embarked on it in the Tiber, and drifted 
 through the Atlantic, the Baltic, the Neva, and the Ladaga Lake, 
 and then commenced a course of internal navigation, for the 
 purpose of converting the Muscovites to Christianity.
 
 THE SERF. It 
 
 Perhaps the state of social relations in the Russian 
 empire may chiefly influence his character, as fax as 
 honesty is concerned. There are few robbers in 
 Russia, but how many Russians are there who are 
 not thieves ? The waking-dream of every Muscovite 
 peasant in the empire is, to become a trader. When 
 he can thus far satisfy his ambition, his avidity of gain 
 is such, that no solid ulterior advantage to be derived 
 from the best cvistomer can induce him to forego the 
 present opportunity of cheating him, if only of a few 
 pence ; nothing can prevent him from asking double 
 the price for his merchandize that he will be eventually 
 contented to take. But, on the other hand, if he rises 
 into a second or first guild merchant, (and although 
 this is, of course, as great a lottery-prize in the exist- 
 ence of the petty trader, as to become a petty trader 
 may be to the indiscriminate population of a Russian 
 village) — he may be pretty safely entrusted Avith large 
 simis of money, as is required in the internal trade of 
 this vast country, and will join in commercial associa- 
 tions, in which the mass answers for the individual. 
 But is not the key to this anomaly to be found in the 
 fact, that the value of credit is the great conservator of 
 the probity of all other commercial communities. 
 
 One striking feature in the character of the moujik, 
 is the rooted distaste he shews for all agricultural em- 
 ployment, and his natural love and aptitude for trade. 
 In this he can only be compared to the Armenian, or 
 rather the Israehte, at least the modern Israelite — for 
 the biblical Hebrews, surrounded by commercial na- 
 tions, shewed in those days as little aptitude for com- 
 mercial pursuits, as they have since been distinguished 
 in them. But, as witli the Jews, at least until recently,
 
 78 THE SERF. 
 
 the Muscovites' love for trade does not extend beyond 
 a matter of barter or agency ; it does not lead him 
 with equal readiness to manufacture, nor does he 
 shew any abstract preference in favour of any of the 
 mechanical arts over agricultural labour, directly the 
 former require any personal manual exertion. 
 
 Superficial observers have supposed the Russian to 
 have a natural incapacity for figures, from seeing him 
 use in every shop and market-place, and even govern- 
 ment office, the little frame of calculating beads, similar 
 to those of the Chinese. But this is a glaring error ; 
 the Russian is an excellent calculator, and he at all 
 times prefers this congenial labour of the brain, to the 
 labour of the hands. 
 
 This tendency, whether inherent, or from whatever 
 causes it may have arisen, is deeply to be lamented 
 in a country of which the principal riches arc agricul- 
 tural ; but it is so general, that perhaps now nothing 
 but the restraints of servitude or misery prevent the 
 great mass of the peasantry from tr^ung their fortune 
 in trade. 
 
 The author has heard an intelligent Russian en- 
 deavour to palliate the arbitrary authority of his go- 
 vernment, by saying, " You are as well aware as I am, 
 that if to-morrow our nobles were as free as English 
 gentlemen, our peasantry as free as English peasants, 
 nine out of ten of every noble family who could scrape 
 together the means, would fly into that civilized 
 Europe we long for through our prison bars; nine 
 out of ten of the moujiks, relieved from their servitude, 
 would abandon the soil to which they are tied, to 
 start with a pedlar's pack."
 
 THE SERF. 79 
 
 Of course, that very freedom would render the Rus- 
 sian empire a residence less to be dreaded by the noble, 
 and the want of bread must soon drive the moujik 
 again to the plough tail. But this tendency of both 
 the higher and lower classes, is not the less true, or 
 the less unlike any other picture of society which the 
 whole world affords us. Let us not talk after this of 
 the artificial condition of civilized communities. 
 
 The following anecdote affords a remarkable illus- 
 tration of what has been advanced on this subject. 
 When the Emperor Alexander visited England, the 
 highly cultivated farm and park-like appearance of the 
 country struck him so forcibly, that he engaged some 
 Englishmen to introduce a similar system in his own 
 dominions. Amongst others were two Quakers, 
 brothers. Land was allotted to them on the banks of 
 the Neva, above St. Petersburg, and also on the road 
 to Tzarskoezelo. Several wretched cottages gave 
 shelter on this ground to a few imperial serfs. The 
 labour of these men was placed at the disposal of the 
 adventurers ; the emperor advanced them 4000/. 
 capital ; they were to hold it for a term of years rent 
 free, and at the expiration of that term the rent to be 
 paid was to be agreed on to their mutual satisfaction. 
 The soil was rich ; the vicinity of St. Petersburg 
 afforded any quantity or quality of manure, and in a 
 few years the whole tract assumed the appearance of 
 an English district. The brothers paid back the 
 borrowed capital, realized a handsome fortune, and 
 offered, at the expiration of their lease, about 2000/. 
 per annum as rent for a part of it, — which was con- 
 ceded to them. The rest of the now fertile land was
 
 80 THE SERF. X 
 
 divided amongst the imperial serfs, who had originally 
 vegetated upon it, and had since been forced to bring 
 it into proper cultivation. It was given to them rent 
 free, with all the stock upon it, as an encouragement ; 
 and around them was an unlimited quantity of equally 
 good land, which would have been conceded to them, 
 and which it was hoped their interests would prompt 
 them to reclaim. 
 
 The results of the first and second years' crop 
 placed each of these men, who had never previously 
 owned as many shillings, in possession of a few hun- 
 dred pounds ; and there was nothing to prevent its 
 becoming an income to them. Instead of this, they 
 one and all abandoned their farms, to speculate. One 
 or two have thriven ; the rest have sunk back to 
 poverty, and the land is again drowned with water, 
 and overgrown with bushes ! 
 
 In the same manner as with the Jews, is it not 
 probable that this tendency of character has been pro- 
 duced by the long oppression under which the serf 
 has groaned, by rendering it an axiom of traditional 
 wisdom with the moujik, not only to turn all his 
 thoughts to the acquirement of wealth as the only 
 method of alleviating his hard lot, but also to seek to 
 obtain it only by those means which will enable him 
 to conceal it both from the rapacity of his lord and 
 of the agents of the emperor ? We shall sec, on ex- 
 amining his condition, that his caution is generally so 
 well founded in this respect that he may well be ^ex- 
 cused for his mistrust in those few instances in which 
 it might be safe to make an exception. 
 
 The singular apathy with which the moujik sees
 
 THE SERF. 81' 
 
 brutal treatment, without allowing his features or his 
 manner to express the slightest disapprobation of 
 their sufferings, or sympathy in them, is strangely 
 anomalous with his usual kindliness of manner towards 
 his own class. 
 
 The drunkenness of Russian moujiks is nearly 
 always a loving drunkenness ; they bow to each other 
 ceremoniously in the street, and use in their language 
 terms of endearment. Is it that, spurned and trampled 
 on, unable to turn their eyes on any human beings 
 more abject, they find, unconsciously, some solace in 
 treating each other with that respect, of which the 
 share, due even to the most fallen humanity, is utterly 
 denied them by the classes above them ? 
 
 There exists a natural kindliness of feeling in the 
 breasts of the Russian peasantry ; the beggar, or the 
 Siberian convict marched along the road, never vainly 
 implores a piece of his black bread, if it be the last in 
 his humble dwelling. There are also traits which 
 argue a latent generosity of disposition ; amongst which 
 we may instance the effort every moujik will make 
 on certain occasions to treat his companions. When 
 he has obtained leave from his lord to hire himself out 
 for wages in the great cities, as the bearded sledge or 
 drosky driver, he lives on about six shillings per month, 
 and yet may be seen, when he has occasionally met 
 with a relative, an old acquaintance, or a neighbour 
 from his village (which is perhaps two thousand miles 
 off), treating him, in a tractirs or vinotorgovlia, to 
 champagne at twelve shillings per bottle ! 
 
 Perhaps it may be said that this — a spark of the 
 same Muscovite spirit which occasions the extrava- 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 8^ THE SERF. 
 
 gance of his lord — arises from an ostentatious feeling ; 
 but let us beware, in estimating the characters both of 
 races and individuals, of seeking to analyze too far 
 anything that bears the semblance of a virtue, in igno- 
 rance of where it may lead us — although assuredly far 
 enough to shock some of our prejudices and some of our 
 most deeply-rooted ideas. Let us content ourselves 
 with the stream where it flows clearly before us, with- 
 out tracing it back to a muddy and- discoloured source. 
 
 We will now examine the condition of the moujiks, 
 who constitute a class not much less than one-twentieth 
 of the whole world's population, or double that of the 
 United Kingdom. In round numbers, they may be 
 computed at from forty-three to forty-five millions. 
 Of these, rather more than half arc still serfs of private 
 individiials; the rest are serfs of the crown. The condi- 
 tion of the serf is no better — barring dead-letter laws, 
 which speak about protecting him, and the absence of 
 prejudice of colour, a real advantage — than that of the 
 nesiro slaves of the Havannah or Carolina. 
 
 We will see what real progress has been made to- 
 wards ameliorating it. Practically, the slave is, in 
 Russia, as completely at his master's mercy as any 
 slave has ever been at any period. He can sell him, 
 he can strip him of his property, he can separate fami- 
 lies for ever, he can torture him to death. It is true 
 that he must evade the law to do all these things ; but 
 this evasion entails not even a risk, but merely an ad- 
 ditional formality. 
 
 It is true, an ukase forbids, under severe penalties, 
 the sale of any slave without the land to which, from 
 protective motives, it attaches him ; but the owner
 
 THE SEKF. 83 
 
 may let out slaves, on a ninety years' lease, to work 
 in the mines of Siberia. He may have two estates a 
 thousand miles distant ; he may order the mother to 
 leave the child at her breast on one, and proceed to 
 settle on the other. The law does not give him the 
 direct right of seizing his slave's property, but he has 
 a thousand ways of extorting it, which he may employ, 
 without the necessity of even evading the law, since 
 the law gives him absolute disposal over his serfs' time 
 and labour. The author has seen a nobleman amuse 
 himself by making his slaves stand for hours on one 
 
 It is generally known that some of the wealthiest 
 men — the larger number of the first guild merchants, 
 whose word is good for a hundred thousand pounds 
 on the Exchange at St. Petersburg, and who are pos- 
 sessed of that sum, or still more considerable property — 
 are mostly slaves. Now, the proprietor of these men 
 can to-morrow order them into his scullery or kitchen, 
 or send them, as swineherds or miners, to their village ; 
 so he can their children, brought up in all the refine- 
 ments of luxury. The law does not allow him to strike 
 a slave, unless he be a certain number of miles removed 
 from a police station ; he may then inflict any amount of 
 corporal punishment, provided the slave does not die 
 within three days of it. But if he dies upon the spot, 
 — as no accusation of a slave can ])e received against 
 his master, — although surrounded by the whole village, 
 witnesses to the execution, there is no means of legally 
 convicting the cruel lord. On the other hand, if there 
 be a police station within a given distance, the master 
 can at any time send his male or female slaves to be 
 
 g2
 
 84 THE SERF. 
 
 beaten Avitli rods. The slave is allowed to make no 
 defence; it is not even discretionary with the low 
 police official not to inflict the punishment; he can 
 only limit the amount of it ; and as his real salary is 
 derived from the annual present of the master, the 
 latter always finds it necessary to order moderation 
 instead of enjoining severit}^ The slave may be sent 
 back as often as the master chooses. If he die on the 
 spot, there is no responsibility for any party.
 
 THE SERF. 85 
 
 CHAPTER W. 
 
 THE SERF — THE COSSACS — CORRUPTION OF RUSSIAN 
 OFFICIALS. 
 
 If we put together the facts contained in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, and remember that on the zeal which 
 the police officer may shew, in attending to the wishes 
 of the master, (and which bears a hideous resemblance 
 to that of the tradesman solicitous of obtaining fresh 
 custom by giving every satisfaction to his employers,) 
 depends the periodic bribes, the aggregate of which 
 tenfold exceeds his miserable salary, it is obvious how 
 arbitrarily the power of torture, and of life and death, 
 is vested in the baron of the Russian serf. This is 
 the case with one-half of the forty-five millions of 
 moujiks. 
 
 Reflection must of course render it self-evident, — 
 depending, as the fate of these peasants does, upon 
 the temper, character, and circumstances of innumer- 
 able landlords, whose minds and hearts must differ, as 
 those of all men do, as much as their features, — that
 
 86 THE SERF. 
 
 nothing can be more dissimilar than their treatment 
 and material condition in different parts of the empire. 
 
 The good slave-master, as the Emperor Alexander 
 said of himself to 3Iadame de Stael, is but a " fortu- 
 nate accident." To prevent the oppression of his 
 slaves, a passive benevolence will be no more effective 
 than was that of Alexander, to relieve the ruthless op- 
 pression under which his subjects suffered. Experience 
 everywhere shews us how easily the disposition of 
 even the better portion of mankind is ruined by irre- 
 sponsible power, and hardened by the habitual spec- 
 tacle of any sort of misery. The author has seen a 
 Russian lady Avho had just capriciously ordered the 
 cruel castigation of her household slaves, weep over 
 the fate of a butterfly which had strayed into the 
 bower that adorns the boudoir of a Russian dame, 
 and burned its wings at a lighted taper. 
 
 But we know that everywhere the better is unfor- 
 tunately not the larger portion of human nature. 
 Moreover, in Russia, amongst slave-masters, all grades 
 have not only the opportunities and the temptations 
 to oppression, but all arc further hardened by that to 
 which they are themselves incessantly subjected from 
 a superior authority. One frown on the emperor's 
 brow, one cold look or word from the empress, may 
 react on the backs of slaves thousands of miles away — 
 slaves as unconscious of the primary cause of their 
 suffering, as man may be of the inscrutable designs of 
 a Providence he cannot comprehend. 
 
 Not only must all that has been said be thrown into 
 the balance, in estimating the chances the serf may 
 have of belonging to a moderate and merciful master.
 
 THE SERF. 87 
 
 but even if thus far favoured, how much does not 
 again depend on whether such a lord personally visits 
 his estates, on the agents he employs, and again on 
 the state of his fortune. If, as it is so unusual, not 
 given to extravagance, he may be in the iron gripe of 
 some government office ; some terrible penalty for 
 some trifling offence may be hanging over him for 
 years, which he can only avert by allowing his wealth 
 to be squeezed from him, and then, in return, he must 
 squeeze his peasantry. 
 
 Slavery and oppression have, on the other hand, so 
 far degraded the nature of the peasant, engendering 
 in him that sullen and enduring obstinacy which we 
 perceive in so many of the beasts of burthen, that he 
 is prone to take advantage of the sympathies of too 
 kind a landlord. The long contemplation of extortion 
 and cruelty, allied in unvarying proportion to power, 
 has engraven amongst the convictions of his race, an 
 utter disbelief in the possible existence of any benevo- 
 lence at variance with interest, and he regards it 
 therefore as the offspring of weakness or folly, instead 
 of Avith any gratitude. If his master ceases one mo- 
 ment to take advantage of the slave, the slave begins 
 to take advantage of the master ; and if, in his shrewd- 
 ness, he suspects that the spectacle of a little cruelty 
 will work upon his weakness, he endures the cruelty. 
 
 We should never, however, forget that fatal experi- 
 ence has taught the moujik that the kindness and 
 forbearance of a master are always ephemeral. A 
 master changes, sells his estates, or dies, but wealth 
 hoarded and concealed is a certain and unvarying friend* 
 And we must also remember that in Russia, money,
 
 88 THE SERF. 
 
 SO powerful a motive of action with all mankind, has 
 a double value. In other countries it may procure 
 enjoyments, but in the Russian empire, besides doing 
 this, it wards off three-fourths of the oppression and 
 the evil which afflict aU classes. 
 
 Perhaps, on the whole, the localit}' which they in- 
 habit more influences the destiny of the Russian 
 peasantry than the characters and temper of their 
 masters. If in one district they may be living in 
 abundance, in others literally starving, so general is 
 oppression where it is worth while to oppress, that, in 
 nine cases out of ten, the condition of the happier 
 portion will be found owing to the unsaleable quality 
 of the produce of the estates they occupy. 
 
 Where communication with any market is easy, 
 even in fertile wheat countries, everything but the 
 stubble is cleared away and sold by the rapacious 
 overseer. On others, where corn and hay will not 
 pay the carriage except at unusual prices, immense 
 granaries get stocked with the crop of many harvests, 
 and the peasantry attain to a considerable point of 
 comfort and affluence. The condition of the serfs is 
 almost invariably better on a poor soil, of which the 
 produce is beyond the reach of a ready market, than 
 on the richest, of which it may be converted into 
 money. Thus, whilst in one government, or in one 
 district, the staff of life is mouldering in magazines, 
 in another, by the joint improvidence of the lord and 
 of his serfs, the failure of one harvest reduces the 
 population to the horrors of absolute famine. Their 
 lord is now obliged to step into their assistance ; he 
 must pledge his estates to purchase corn, lest the im-
 
 THE SERF. 89 
 
 perious laws of hunger should drive all his serfs to 
 wander awa}-. Before this relief can be afforded, 
 which the want of roads, the vast distances, and the 
 consequent cost of transport, render so expensive, 
 it may be imagined what the poor serfs must suffer. 
 Driven to eat the bark of trees, to fill their stomachs 
 vvdth fat clay, when numbers have perished, they 
 generally scatter themselves in different directions in 
 quest of food, and, like a wandering hive of bees, are 
 mostly enticed and secured by the proprietors of the 
 first estates not suffering under the same pressure. 
 Here they receive the passports, or poll-tickets, of 
 some deceased slaves, and as all parties have an equal 
 interest to be silent about the matter, in their new 
 abode they generally end their days undiscovered. 
 
 It is this practice of placing upon the village re- 
 gisters one man in the shoes of another, when one 
 proprietor entices the runaway serf of another estate, 
 together with a similar custom observed by the autho- 
 rities of the towns of southern Russia, which has given 
 rise to the statistical accounts of extreme longevity in 
 this empire. These instances of extraordinary old 
 age are only to be found amongst the northern serfs 
 and the southern townsmen, and amongst neither of 
 these classes do we notice either any large proportion 
 of old men, or even those signs of wearing well, and 
 of heartiness, observable amongst the aged of all those 
 parts of Europe in which the longevity of the popu- 
 lation has been satisfactorily established. 
 
 It is true that the lord is bound to feed his slaves, 
 and that, in the event of his not doing so, or of any 
 other ill treatment, his estate may be placed under
 
 90 THE SERF. 
 
 the tutelage of a court, presided by the marshal of 
 the nobility of the government in which it is situated. 
 But practically this is never done, excepting where 
 there may be least cause, and only as a mode of op- 
 pression exercised towards some proprietor who has 
 incurred the displeasure of some powerful officiaL 
 When there is real cause for interference, a sufficient 
 bribe, or a friend in power, suffices to adjourn the cause 
 of the starving peasant sine die. 
 
 In retracing all the annals of the Muscovite race, 
 no less than in closely examining their present charac- 
 ter, we are struck with its patient powers of endurance. 
 The Muscovite has at last become powerful, and 
 triumphed over all his enemies, by a mere passive 
 vitality ; like a young whale assailed by small fierce 
 dog-fish, he has continued to suffer and grow beneath 
 their inflictions, till they had no hold on the gigantic 
 carcase, which crushed as it rolled over them. The 
 authentic portions of the early history of this race, down 
 to a comparatively recent period, are one unbroken 
 series of subjugations and suifcrings beneath the ravages 
 and rule of Normans, Mongols, Tartars, Swedes, and 
 Poles. The 3Iuscovite race was less tired and ex- 
 hausted by being conquered, than all its foes by their 
 conquests ; and the comparative fecundity of Russian 
 mothers, who bore children ten times faster than 
 the swords of fierce invaders could kill them, has at 
 last given to it the empire of a large portion of the 
 east. 
 
 The Hebrews and the gipsies have outlived the 
 persecution and the captivity of centuries; but the 
 Muscovites increased and grew too powerful under it 
 for any foreign bonds to hold them. In the class of
 
 THE SERF. 91 
 
 peasantry we still trace everywhere the main charac- 
 teristics of their forefathers; they increase beneath 
 misery and oppression which would wither any other 
 stock ; they display the same passive endurance, the 
 same attachment to locality, the same want of pugna- 
 city. In compensation of many evils, nature has 
 bestowed upon the peasant a mirthful, happy, and 
 contented disposition ; naturally, he is as little cruel as 
 he is warlike or courageous. 
 
 The social system itself has perhaps introduced 
 into his character its egotistical and servile apathy 
 under oppression; for constant and sanguinary ex- 
 amples prove to us that his enduring patience has 
 bounds, however surprisingly remote these limits may 
 appear to the more fiery blood of other races ; and 
 when he once oversteps them, then all the wrongs 
 that have ever blighted his existence seem to crowd 
 into his present thoughts, and the ferocity of his des- 
 pair has nothing wherewith one can compare it. 
 
 When the peasants of an estate, or of a certain dis- 
 trict, have been writhing beneath an oppression which 
 the author will not venture to describe, but of which, 
 before finishing these volumes, the reader may form 
 some faint idea, some fresh insult or injury, inflicted 
 when the measure of their patience is full, causes it 
 to brim over, and then is enacted, in deeply exag- 
 gerated colours, those sanguinary scenes of the feudal 
 days of France, when serfs arose against their lords 
 with the sole view of taking one deep draught of 
 revenge, and then seeking refuge in the grave from 
 the intolerable ills of life. The unknown Siberia, 
 with its dimly pictured horrors, ceases at last to have 
 any terrors for the serf, when he contrasts it with his
 
 92 THE SERF. 
 
 situation. " The -worst that can happen is, that a few 
 hundred should perish under the knout, the rest of 
 the village be transported to Asia. That worst is 
 better than his present condition." With this reflec- 
 tion begins the bloody saturnalia ; the proprietors, the 
 overseers, and the agents of their tyranny, together 
 with their wives and children, old or pregnant women, 
 and young tender girls, raised in an artificial atmos- 
 phere, like exotics, to premature womanhood, — all are 
 made to perish in tortures which would often shame 
 the ingenuity of the Red Indian. The torch is next 
 applied to the dwellings of the lord and his agents, 
 perhaps to the whole village, and the drunken wretches 
 who have plundered it perish in the flames, and drop 
 from the falling beams like scorched flies. 
 
 These insurrections have never any political origin ; 
 they have no connexion ; they are not even inspired 
 by a hope ; they are e(jually isolated in their rise and 
 their suppression. 
 
 When such an insurrection has been put down, the 
 ringleaders knouted to death, and a few villages trans- 
 planted to Siberia, the whole afikir dies away. It may 
 have been known in the immediate neighbourhood ; 
 it is known to the immediate relatives and friends 
 of the murdered proprietors ; but it never spreads 
 beyond this narrow circle, and is a subject on which 
 no one cares to dwell. The press, which, even when 
 inevitable fifccidents occur, is the last to circulate the 
 public rumour, and then only does so to extenuate their 
 extent, of course never alludes to these gloomy events. 
 It is not allowed in the Russian dominions to publish 
 even the commonest advertisement in a newspaper.
 
 THE SERF. 93 
 
 without previously obtaining the authorization of the 
 censorship. 
 
 These revoks of villages are constantly taking 
 place ; but unless the traveller should pass within a 
 few miles of the spot, or unless he happen, during a 
 protracted residence, and constant intermixture with 
 the natives, to meet with individuals who have either 
 witnessed them or suffered by them, they are little 
 likely to come to his knowledge. 
 
 The author remembers seeing an officer grossly 
 maltreating his servant, and accompanying every blow 
 and injurious expression with reproaches of his in- 
 gratitude. " Didn't I save you, 3'ou rascal, from going 
 to Siberia ?" On inquiring into the story, the officer 
 himself related, that during an insurrection, in which 
 his family perished, he had been shut up in a wooden 
 outhouse containing the bath-room, and to this fire had 
 been set. His faithful slave, by raising the alarm of 
 the approach of Cossacs, and then concealing him in 
 an adjacent building, saved him from the fury of the 
 mob. The master subsequently rescued him from 
 the exile with which the whole village was punished ; 
 but perhaps the reader may not feel disposed to 
 coincide in the opinion he seemed to entertain, that 
 he had balanced the debt of gratitude in his favour. 
 
 The foreign land steward of some vast estate in the 
 government of Perm, related to the author that he 
 never ventm*ed to spend the night in any of the 
 villages belonging to his master, his immediate pre- 
 decessor having disappeared, with two or three 
 servants accompanying him, and all search for him. 
 having proved fruitless. The same thing had happened
 
 94 THE SERF. 
 
 formerly on the same domain, and within a recent 
 date, on several adjacent ones. The Permaks, or 
 Permese, are, however, not Muscovite ; they ai>e of 
 mixed Finnish and Mongolian origin, and always 
 shew in their demeanour a sullen dislike. 
 
 Within the space of about three months from each 
 other, the author became immediately acquainted 
 with the two following instances among the purely 
 INIuscovite population : — x\ young officer received by 
 letter, whilst he was present, an account from his father 
 of the utter devastation of their estate, Avith its usual 
 accompaniments of incendiarism and bloodshed. In 
 this case, the insurrection had spread over a con- 
 siderable tract of country, yet he never heard it 
 alluded to in the capital except by another sufferer, a 
 neighbour and friend of the first The next instance, 
 of which it will be as well to abridge the very horrible 
 details, the author learned from the brother of the 
 land steward of the estate on which it took place. He 
 had himself seen this man depart with his wife from 
 his brother's, some months previously, to take charge 
 of an estate said to be small and in wretched condi- 
 tion. To judge from his conversation, it was evident 
 that he would be no very merciful master. He ob- 
 served, " that there Avas no village so poor that some- 
 thing might not be squeezed from it." The wife 
 seemed rather more eager than the husband. The 
 author saw him start in his kibitka, in which, amongst 
 other things, he embarked a large violoncello, an in- 
 strument on Avhich he professed himself an accom- 
 plished performer. A few months after, husband and 
 wife had both been murdered in a rising of the slaves.
 
 THE SERF. 95 
 
 The brother, in- narrating it, spoke of them as the 
 mildest of human beings, and considered the conduct 
 of the serfs as utterly unprovoked ; but however that 
 might be, nothing could well exceed the ferocity to 
 which they had been roused. The old woman ^vas 
 scalded to death in a hot cauldron, the steward tor- 
 tured to death, and his intestines, in derision, twisted 
 into strings for his favourite violoncello. 
 
 It is not unfrequently argued in favom* of Russian 
 servage, that in many parts the peasantry look sleek, 
 contented, and happy. But it should be remembered 
 how little constitutes perfect affluence for a Russian 
 serf, and that when he has even risen to the rank of 
 Meschinine, or of a wealthy agriculturist, he is ren- 
 dered happy by the addition to his black bread, salt, 
 and cabbage-pies, of a pickled herring, a little dark trea- 
 cle-coloured oil, sipped with the spoon like broth, and 
 a little tallow, or salt butter, to add to his buck-wheat. 
 
 On the other hand, it is quite unfair to compare the 
 condition of the Russian peasantry of those districts 
 which are allowed to enjoy a considerable degree of 
 material prosperity, with that of the population of 
 western Europe, densely crowded, and suifering from 
 historic causes. The rich and luxuriant virgin soil of 
 the territory they inhabit requires onl}' that they 
 should be permitted to become v\-ealthy ; we can only 
 fairly contrast them with the settlers of the western 
 states of North America. 
 
 Of all places, it is argued, assuredly the Russian 
 empire is the one in which the theory and practice of 
 institutions are most at variance, and where custom 
 has become the most seneral law. Now, is it not
 
 96 THE SERF. 
 
 true that the great majority of the wealthy men in the 
 empire (not being themselves slave-holders) are to be 
 found amongst the slaves ? Are there not slave pro- 
 prietors, who take a pride in having prosperous and 
 wealthy slaves, and who exact no higher capitation 
 tax from the rich than from the poor ? The Shere- 
 metieffs, who are the owners of half the fruiterers in 
 St. Petersburg, and of some of the richest commercial 
 men in that city, — have they not, by their capital, 
 their influence, and their weight, aided them to this 
 result ? Has not the slave this further advantage over 
 the freeman, that he cannot be made liable for any 
 debt exceeding five shillings ? Have not these serfs 
 a protection extended to them from their lords, who 
 exert all their influence in their favour, which, as freed 
 men, they might be entirely without ? And is it not 
 of rare occurrence to find any of these wealthy slaves 
 stripped of their fortunes by their lords ? 
 
 In the first place, it must be observed, that slaves 
 are not frequently stripped of their wealth by their 
 masters, because it is only under indulgent masters 
 that they attain it. In the next place, although the 
 prosperity of the slave is trumpeted forth, he does not 
 dare, nor does his master care, that anything should 
 be said about his spoliation. 
 
 A plain, old, honest English author, one Captain 
 John Perry, who served as engineer under Peter the 
 Great, and published an account of oSIuscovy in 1716, 
 says at that time, talking of the Avrongs of those under 
 him — 
 
 " When I have promised that I would do my utmost, 
 and engage to obtain right for them, they have there-
 
 THE SERF. 97 
 
 upon begged of me by no means to mention the things 
 which they have complained of, alleging this for their 
 reason, that even though they should obtain right at 
 that time, yet that they were sure afterwards to suffer, 
 and to be ruined for their complaining of those in 
 power over them, Avho would mark them out as in- 
 formers." 
 
 This as perfectly applies to Russia now as at the time 
 it was written ; it is the reason of John Perry's subor- 
 dinates, that allows no voice to be raised in complaint 
 within the Russian empire. The Avrongs of free 
 countries, like their beggars, crowd themselves with 
 importunity upon your notice ; in Russia, both must 
 be sought out in their dens of misery, or they will 
 escape observation. 
 
 It is quite true that some wealthy proprietors not 
 only take a pride in the prosperit}^ of their slaves, but 
 largely contribute to it. It is not long since a very 
 wealthy fruiterer (and the St. Petersburg fruiterers are 
 all wealthy, combining the sale of wines, of grocery, 
 and comestibles, with that of foreign fruit) offended a 
 lady, who complained to the military governor of St. 
 Petersburg. The military governor perem})torily 
 ordered his shop to be shut up. Had the fruiterer 
 been a freedman he would have had no redress ; but 
 he was a slave of the Countess Sheremetieff. He 
 threw himself at her feet, and implored her interces- 
 sion. The countess, who had the ear of the empress, 
 caused her complaint to be laid before the emperor, 
 and thus obtained for her slave immediate redress. 
 
 But even the pride of being owner of the wealthiest 
 and happiest slaves in the empire has serious draw- 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE SERF. 
 
 backs ; these very SheremetiefFs, like most of the other 
 proprietors who entertain this pride, are as unwilling 
 to part with a rich slave, as a numismatist with a rare 
 medal of his collection, or a florist with a valuable root. 
 Thus to the merchant, the very disinterestedness 
 which has enabled him to attain prosperity is fatal ^ 
 his chances of liberty. A rapacious master might be 
 tempted by his hoarded gold to sell him — to himself ! 
 It may be said, why wish to extricate himself from 
 bonds so srentle? But the merchant-slave with his 
 
 o 
 
 five or ten thousand a year, wdiose children have been 
 brought up to the elegancies of life, can never forget 
 that he himself, and all that are dear to him, may to- 
 morrow pass into the hands of the heir of his present 
 master, and that his new proprietor may have less 
 taste for a collection of the wealthiest and happiest 
 slaves in the empire, than for the w^ealth they had 
 collected. 
 
 It is customary, in most villages of slaves, for the 
 lord to allow a determined proportion of them to quit 
 their village, and flock to the towns to obtain work, to 
 trade, or hire themselves out as servants ; and they pay 
 a proportionate tax, called the abrok. If a peasant is 
 found without his lord's passport, or without papers 
 proving him to be a freeman, he is advertised in the 
 public papers like a stray head of cattle, and if un- 
 claimed, is eventually transferred to the domain of the 
 crown. The Journal de St. Petersburg, as well as all 
 the other newspapers of the empire, devotes on each 
 appearance a column to this list of runaway slaves. 
 
 It is singular enough, that even in Russia the 
 advantages of voluntary labour over that which is
 
 THE SERF. 99 
 
 compulsory, are tacitly recognised. It is common to 
 find the proprietor of a thousand slaves hiring, as 
 domestic servant, the slave of another, and paying him 
 high wages. 
 
 If by dint of exertion the slave thus allowed to 
 ^ek his fortune can succeed in trade, or in hoarding 
 up money to pay the proper fees, he becomes a 
 meschinine. Once a meschinine, according to the 
 annual dues which he can afford to pay, he may 
 become a third, a second, or a first guild merchant; 
 which latter gives him the privilege of driving four 
 horses in his carriage, even though he may not have 
 succeeded in purchasing his personal fi-eedom from 
 his lord; and should he have become a freeman, he 
 cannot be a holder of slaves — a right reserved to 
 nobility ; and, by virtue of his office, every official 
 whose rank corresponds with that of ensign is a 
 nobleman. 
 
 Another amphibious class of shopkeepers and 
 traders is now springing up in St. Petersburg and 
 Moscow, the offspring of the bearded merchant of the 
 last generation. It consists of men who shave their 
 chins, wear round hats, and who supersede the oriental 
 caftan by a long-tailed great coat, a compromise 
 betwixt the two. Though they still cross themselves 
 devoutly before their images, they do not rigidly 
 observe the fasts, and sneer, not only at their popes, 
 but at the temporal as well as spiritual authorities. It 
 is clear that for them the prestige of the infallibility of 
 priests and emperor has departed for ever; but for- 
 tunately for the latter, though some of the moujiks 
 constantly join this class, none of this class ever join 
 
 h2
 
 100 THE COSSACS. 
 
 and contaminate with their scepticism the peasantry : 
 the stream thus runnino; always downwards. 
 
 It is necessary again to repeat that all that has been 
 said regarding; the mode of life and condition of the 
 peasantry, does not apply to the inhabitants of Little 
 Russia, Bessarabia, or the teratorics settled on by tl|f 
 Cossac race. These people have never undergone the 
 yoke of private servitude, and the Cossacs, even at pre- 
 sent, are allowed considerable freedom. Their principal 
 occupations being pastoral, and living in countries of 
 which the staple commodity is cattle, where the ox is 
 killed and boiled down for its hide and fat, and the 
 flesh even sometimes thrown away, they live more 
 upon animal than vegetable food. These causes con- 
 cur to give them a healthiness of appcariince, a strength 
 of muscle, and an independence of mien, which dis- 
 tinguish them from their Muscovite brethren. 
 
 If on the inhabitants of Bessarabia the extortions of 
 government agents has already imposed a very heavy 
 yoke, the Cossacs, a fiery and restive people, have 
 been handled Avith great tenderness, and it is only on 
 the liberties of the Don Cossacs that the crown has 
 yet ventured warily to infringe. Passionately fond of 
 war, and of a nomade disposition, they are naturally 
 the most enterprising race in Europe. A few Cos- 
 sacs effected the conquest of Siberia; a handful of 
 Cossacs penetrated to Kamtschatka, and crossed to 
 the American continent. In following, or rather pre- 
 ceding the Russian armies, in the late war on the 
 continent of Europe, no danger deterred them from 
 pushing forward in every direction, with a boldness 
 luiknown to the foragers of other nations, and guided
 
 THE COSSACS. 101 
 
 by a remarkable instinct, which in the midst of strange 
 countries, when they could not make themselves un- 
 derstood, enabled them always to regain their direc- 
 tion. On horseback from their youth, they are all 
 warriors, and the military service which each man is 
 galled on to perform, for a few years, under the com- 
 mand of his own officers, is more often anticipated 
 with pleasure than dislike. They live generally con- 
 tented beneath the rule of Russia, and are occupied 
 by her to guard her extensive frontier. Established 
 on the Kouban, they form a barrier against the inroads 
 of the Circassians, and detached to watch all the inlets 
 to this immense empire, we find the Cossac, with his 
 wide trousers, his visorless chako, and his pennonless 
 lance, on the Danube, on the shores of the Gulf of 
 Bothnia, and on the borders of China. 
 
 As long as the Emperors of Russia pursue the policy 
 of conciliating this remarkable people, they will have 
 at their disposal the materials for the finest cavalry in 
 Europe — a people probably the last whom the light of 
 civilization will detach from their allegiance, so long 
 as employment is afforded to the marauding horseman, 
 or the daring soldier. 
 
 It has been shewn that private servitude, or slavery, 
 exists in the Russian empire, with at least as much, or 
 probably more severit}'^, than slavery has ever done 
 between any masters and slaves, not only of the same 
 race, but of the same origin, in any country, or at any 
 period with which we are acquainted. 
 
 We have seen the condition of nearly five-and- 
 twenty millions of private serfs ; of these serfs the 
 Emperor Nicholas is avowedly the great liberator.
 
 102 THE emperor's SERFS. 
 
 Since Catherine, this has indeed been the undeviating 
 pohcy of the Russian sovereigns, but the present em- 
 peror pursues it with redoubled energy. The Em- 
 peror Nicholas is the greatest abolitionist, but he is also 
 the greatest slave-holder, in the world. This is meant 
 not politically speaking, although it is true that, as r^ 
 gards all his subjects, this title might be given him, in 
 contradistinction to all the other despotic sovereigns 
 of Europe. It is meant in the common and literal 
 acceptation of the term. He is the possessor of up- 
 wards of twenty millions of serfs, or nearly as many 
 as all his nobles put together. 
 
 These serfs of the emperor stand in precisely the 
 same relation to him as the private serfs to their own 
 proprietors, and this of course is quite independently 
 of their relation as subjects, in which sense they only 
 share with the highest of the land the degradation of 
 being the absolute slaves of his will. 
 
 As the proprietor of serfs, the emperor, who has 
 bound himself by his own laws, cannot, any more than 
 any other proprietor, lecjally take the life of a serf; 
 but as emperor, whose every command is a fresh law, 
 he has absolute power over the lives and fate both of 
 slaves and their masters. 
 
 The serfs of the imperial domain are, it is true, 
 happier than the serfs belonging to private individuals, 
 or at least they are so as a class. They enjoy such 
 advantages as those peasants possess who do not 
 belong to a needy master ; but they also suffer alLthe 
 inconveniences of the former when the number and 
 extent of that master's estates leave them entirely to 
 the care of agents and subordinates. It is evident
 
 THE emperor's SERFS. 103 
 
 that the emperor feels a peculiar interest in these 
 serfs ; something of what a French author calls 
 " I'orgueil de proprietaire ;" and therefore these agents 
 and subordinates are obliged to hold some measure in 
 their oppression of them, lest their cries should reach 
 the imperial ear. On the other hand, when the reader 
 has become a little further acquainted with the 
 cruelty, rapacity, and venality of all the petty tyrants 
 to whom the power of the emperor is delegated, he 
 will readily judge that even this qualification leaves 
 the crown serfs in no very enviable condition. As 
 contrasted with that of private slaves, it is more even ; 
 the cro^vn serf is never reduced to the same abject 
 misery, never reduced to turn like the trampled worm ; 
 but at the same time, those Avho administer the im- 
 perial domain never allow him to obtain the same 
 prosperity which Ave have seen some benevolent or 
 capricious masters foster with sedulous care. On the 
 whole, however, the transfei'ence from his lord to an 
 imperial master is looked forward to as advantageous, 
 by the great mass of the slave population. 
 
 The empei'or, the greatest proprietor in the empire, 
 is an abolitionist, as far as regards the slaves of all other 
 proprietors. Every fresh ukase, every fresh regu- 
 lation, has an ulterior tendency to free the serf from 
 the yoke of his baron. If a Russian noble is pressed 
 for money, the government grants mortgage after 
 mortgage, which his extravagance seldom allows him 
 to redeem, and thus his slaves pass away from his 
 control. If he neglects, for three generations, to 
 attain the necessary rank, his slaves equally pass 
 away.
 
 104 RUSSIAN SERFS. 
 
 The inquiry naturally suggests itself, when we hear 
 of the etlbrts the Emperor makes to free these serfs, 
 and couple it with the fact that he is himself so large 
 a slave-holder, icliy he does not begin by emancipating 
 his own ? And, God knows, the arbitrary nature of 
 his government would render this emancipation as 
 nominal and illusory as the liberation of an imprisoned 
 bird from its cage into a narrow room. But how 
 ought we to characterize this vaunted liberality when, 
 on examination, we find that in three-fourths of the 
 eventualities which free the slave from the yoke of his 
 private master, he passes directly into the domain of the 
 crown ? 
 
 It is true that all the soldiers in his army, nearly all 
 drafted from the private serfs, as soon as their term 
 of service is expired, receive their manumission, and 
 are freed men, neither slaves of their old master nor of 
 the imperial domain. This term of service is indeed 
 limited on paper ; but in reality it is only limited by 
 such infirmity as renders the soldier useless in the 
 imperial armies ; then and then only is he turned 
 adrift, and no longer a bondsman of the soil. 
 
 What is the use of this liberty to him then ? His 
 children are also nominally free ; but how is the ill-fed 
 Russian soldier, whose pay is only a few shillings a 
 year, to provide for children ? He is obliged to demand 
 for them the bread of the crown, and to enter them in 
 its service. The service for them endures, as we 
 have seen it for himself, till man has become a useless 
 wreck. 
 
 Of all thinsrs the slave dreads beinoj draughted for 
 the army by his master. When every means of
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 105 
 
 punishment have been resorted to, this is the threat 
 held out, and the recruits are sent heavily ironed 
 together, like Siberian convicts. It is true, the natural 
 dread the moujik has of war, and his pacific dispo- 
 sition, have a large share in his aversion to a military 
 life ; but its horrors, and the illusory nature of the 
 hopes it ostensibly holds out, have more. 
 
 It will be seen, by the perusal of the following 
 pages, that the Russian nobility gave the Emperor 
 Nicholas some cause for dread and enmity, and it will 
 be seen with what an unrelenting and vindictive 
 spirit he has since pursued this body. When we 
 remember that the nobility are the principal slave- 
 holders, may we not be permitted to inquire whether 
 his personal feeling towards them has had no share in 
 the anxiety he evinces to remove the serfs from their 
 control ? 
 
 Having passed in brief review the power, and the 
 elements of power, at the disposal of the Russian 
 emperor, the man who fills that station, and the most 
 important classes of the population of his empire, let 
 us proceed to examine more closely the causes before 
 alluded to, which not only paralyze and weaken its 
 mighty framework, but at every step render nugatory 
 the exertion of his authority to improve and civilize — 
 an object the Emperor Nicholas decidedly bears in 
 vie\y'-whenever it does not interfere with his vindictive 
 prejudices against his nobles, the policy of his am- 
 bitious house, or his exalted ideal of imperial omni- 
 potence. It is true there are few possible ameliorations 
 in the condition of his subjects which do not give 
 umbrage to some of these interests; but on that
 
 106 CORRUPTION OF THE 
 
 account it is the more lamentable to see those ^hich 
 escape these complicated limitations fall as it were 
 still-born to the ground. 
 
 The causes which not only limit the power of the 
 Russian emperor, but, pervading the whole edifice of 
 Russian civilization, render all real progress difficult, 
 and dissolution probable, are to be found in the un- 
 blushing venality and corruption of all who Avear the 
 imperial button, and of all who are employed in 
 any capacity, high or low, in any branch of the admi- 
 nistration. From the door of the emperor's ante-cham- 
 ber, from the high officials of his court down to the 
 sentinel at his gate, every man is an extortioner and a 
 public robber, and all are united in one vast conspiracy 
 to deceive the only man in the empire who cannot be 
 bribed — the possessor of it. It has been cynically 
 said, in allusion to the foibles of human nature, " tliat 
 every man has his price"' — a sweeping assertion, which 
 we once deemed only to be true by giving a wide 
 latitude to the meaning these words immediately con- 
 vey, and supposing that every man may be influenced 
 to some dereliction of conscientious duty, by the possible 
 combination and agency of his passions, feelings, and 
 affections. But in Russia it is a lamentable fact, that 
 this epigrammatic sentence bears a literal and uni- 
 versal application, for every man has his price in money. 
 The minister, the judge, the general, the admiral, tlie 
 long hst of subordinates which completes the links of 
 this chain, down to the petty chenovnik, the scrjeant, 
 the boatswain, the boutuschnik, and the executioner, 
 must all be included in the censure. From high to 
 low, all equally conspire to rob the government by
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 107 
 
 their peculations, and the pubUc by their extortions, 
 making the power with which an arbitrary system 
 invests them, down to the last refraction of sub-dele- 
 gated authority, a matter of notorious purchase. 
 
 No inhabitant of old Western Eui'ope can form an 
 idea of the extent of the universal corruption of the 
 Russian employes. It is true, he cannot cross the 
 portals of that empire, without having repeated and 
 annoying proofs of the disgusting venality and rapa- 
 city of the inferior class of officials with whom he 
 comes in contact. But it is still impossible for him to 
 conceive, until he sees, the same spirit pervading all 
 those whose exalted station in every other country 
 places them above suspicion. Having seen, and thus 
 believed, he can yet only account for this deplorable 
 fact by the knowledge that an ingredient is utterly 
 wanting in all classes of Russian society, which has in 
 some measure identified itself with the very nature of 
 even the lowest classes in his OT\nQ, and which leaves a 
 gulf of distinction between them, wider than that which 
 nature has drawn betwixt any of the varied coloured 
 races — black or red or white. 
 
 It is the absence of that chivalric feeling which has 
 tinctured all classes of society, and which either gave 
 rise to a sense of human dignity in modern Europe, 
 or perhaps arose from it. The polish of manners, the 
 apparent refinement of sentiment, the careful education 
 of the most brilliant men of Russian drawing-rooms, 
 have no more instilled one spark of this spirit into them 
 than it has of the blood of another people. Beneath 
 such an exterior, modelled after our own, still beats 
 the heart of the Asiatic, and not even of the Asiatic,
 
 108 CORRUPTION OF THE 
 
 into whom the Saracen, in spreading the empire of 
 his prophet, infused something of those chivahous 
 ideas which the Arab race seems to have shared with 
 the Scandinavian and Germanic. 
 
 The author feels that the reader may consider hhn 
 as almost too sweeping in the preceding denunciations, 
 until he shall have shewn him one of the principal 
 favourites of the Emperor Nicholas — a man whose 
 power far exceeds that of half-a-dozen German princes 
 united; till he has shewn him a personage whose name 
 has become celebrated in history, who was many j^ears 
 the intimate friend of one of the first crowned heads 
 in Europe, and is now elevated to one of the most 
 lucrative posts in the empire ; till he shews that indivi- 
 dual connected with the court, holding his dailj' levees, 
 and receiving a crowd of contractors, suitors, German 
 tradesmen, French artistes, actresses, and courtesans, 
 with whom he bargains for the amount of the perqui- 
 site which is to secure the imperial custom and his 
 own protection ; till he has shewn a general officer, 
 a judge of one of the highest courts, unblushingly, 
 and in a business-like manner, naming the amount of 
 the bribe he requires ; colonels and majors in rank 
 pocketing for the same puqiose a five-rouble note 
 4s. 6d.); a senator giving up his own favourite ne- 
 phew to the executioner, when — half frozen by spend- 
 ing part of a winter's night imder the arch of a bridge, 
 and just escaped from the massacre of the 25th of 
 December — he sought an hour's refuge beneath his 
 roof; and further, though not lastly, till he shews 
 the family of Troubetzkoi, whose claim is more legiti- 
 mate to the throne of the tsars than that of the Ro- 
 manoffs, all Ucking the dust beneath the emperor's
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 109 
 
 footsteps, and fawning and flattering, through every 
 humihation, whilst the head of their house is kept in 
 Siberia, with an unrelentino; hate that no suffering; of 
 his heroic wife could touch — no length of years or 
 enduring devotion soften. 
 
 The pay of all the officials in the Russian empire is 
 still nominally as it was fixed several reigns ago. The 
 luxurious habits of society, and the high price of all 
 luxuries in the Russian empire, now render at least 
 threefold its amount almost indispensable. Instead 
 of this, the paper rouble has fallen in value to two- 
 sevenths, and they are paid in paper roubles. About 
 nine-tenths of the income of all civil and military 
 officers must therefore be made up by fraud; and 
 when once this system is adop'ted by a community, it 
 is not to be expected that they will limit themselves 
 to what is strictly necessary ; neither do they. 
 
 There are three principal modes of extorting bribes, 
 which are practised from the cabinet minister down to 
 the watchman in the street ; by the dii'ect threat and 
 practice of oppression, by the sale of favours, or by 
 withholding the performance of a duty until bribed. 
 The reader should be at once informed that all this 
 peculation is carried on in the face of a law which 
 dooms to degradation the highest authority in the 
 empire, if only convicted of receiving a present. It is 
 also carried on in the face of severe examples now' 
 and then made by different emperors. But these ex- 
 amples, being infrequent and capricious, are considered 
 by those they are intended to deter as amongst the 
 accidents of life ; if ever so frequently repeated, the 
 rooted habits of a century and & half, the impossibility
 
 110 CORRUPTION OF THE 
 
 of maintaining even the decencies of life without them, 
 would probably render the Russians only more 
 cautious in concealing their delinquencies, without 
 their ever dreaming of altogether avoiding them. 
 
 Even the energetic Peter the First, who spared no 
 blood, no cruelties, who tore through the very bonds 
 of natural affection when he had a favourite object to 
 carry ; the man who cut off heads with his own hand, 
 who put to death two thousand of his revolted Strelitzers, 
 and allowing their heads to freeze to the trunk fi*om 
 which they were dissevered, left them, the five months 
 winter through, a ghastly row of corpses, in fearful 
 example of his vengeance ; the man who doomed and 
 wrought the death of his first-ljorn — even this terrible 
 Peter utterly failed in his attempts to stop the venality 
 which we can at least trace back thus far. In vain he 
 denied the pra^^er of his favourite empress, the wife of 
 the Swedish trooper, and tore from her side her 
 favourite to break him on the wheel, and inflict cor- 
 poral punishment on his sister, because they had sold 
 the imperial favour. We learn from Norberg, the 
 chaplain of the Swedish Achilles, that, notwithstand- 
 ing these examples, Peter's chief favourite, Menchicoff, 
 could not resist a bribe from Mazeppa, to lull the 
 suspicions of the tsar, and cloak the meditated rebel- 
 lion of the Hetman's vassals. 
 
 So long as public opinion makes no distinction 
 between the infamous gains produced by the sale of 
 justice and duty, and those the most legitimately 
 earned, this traditionary vice must necessarily endure. 
 When Ave consider the rooted prejudices which the 
 savage energy of Peter enabled him to subdue,
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. Ill 
 
 perhaps we have hardly a right to doubt that even the 
 venality which corrodes the core of Russian strength 
 might be triumphed over; but it would require no 
 less than the genius of Peter — a genius which it would 
 be futile to deny the great barbarian, but which has 
 been lamentably w^anting in all his male successors, 
 although the flattery of courtiers has made each in 
 turn believe that it was resuscitated in his person. 
 
 No one could hitherto have gone further from the 
 course proper to produce so desirable a result than 
 Nicholas I. For instance, he has ordained that every 
 decision shall be strictly legal. In the preceding 
 reigns of Paul and Alexander, even this formality w^as 
 despised; the for?nalit^ is now attended to. The pre- 
 sident of a tribunal, or his secretary, finds amongst the 
 contradictory mass of ukases something to fit the deci- 
 sion in every case brought before them vrith a sem- 
 blance of legalit}^ ; but the decision is not the less a 
 matter of purchase than it was before. And how is it 
 possible that it should be otherwise, when the legiti- 
 mate remuneration of the judge will hardly pay his 
 lacquey? Without a tenfold increase of the salaries 
 of all the officers of the empire, the idea of reform in 
 this matter is an utter and absurd chimera. But even 
 if the finances of the state admitted of this provision, 
 by great sacrifices, reducing the number of those em- 
 ployed, it ofifers still extraordinary difficulties, and 
 when the long habit of corruption is considered, the 
 civil and military officers of the empire might think 
 like the nobleman's butler in the old Joe Miller tale, 
 W'ho, when offered an increase of wages to be strictly 
 honest, candidly answered that it would not pay.
 
 112 CORRUPTION OF THE 
 
 It has been asserted that the emperor, here and there^ 
 at long intervals, punishes these malpractices ; but 
 almost always the cases he selects, or which come to 
 his notice, are comparatively far from flagrant, and the 
 punishment is utterly useless as a warning. Here are 
 two instances : — A fire took place in Cronstadt, in the 
 summer, and it was found that there was not a horse 
 on the island in which it is situated, although the 
 police master had for years charged for the keep of a 
 large number; he was degraded to a private sailor. 
 The very instalment of his successor began by the ex- 
 tortion of a bribe. 
 
 Two years ago, the bank surveyor in the mortgaging 
 department was applied to by an aid-de-camp of the 
 emperor's, to value a house he intended pledging to 
 the bank. The surveyor obser\'ed, " My charge is 
 2000 roubles (90/.) ; pay them down, and I will give 
 a good valuation Avithout looking at the place, other- 
 wise it shall not be valued at all for weeks, and under- 
 valued then." The aid-dc-camp reported the affair 
 to the emperor ; the surveyor was sent to the galleys. 
 Three days after, in the same office, a similar dem^and 
 was made to a fresh applicant. 
 
 It is part of the duties of the secret police, which 
 we shall pi'esently proceed to examine, to endeavour 
 to detect all flagrant instances of this nature ; and here 
 and there, when the extortion of an official or of a 
 department is becoming too notorious, some signifi- 
 cant hint is thrown out; but the secret police, like all 
 the other servants of the state, have too great an in- 
 terest in the maintenance of this order of things, the 
 interest which fundholders have to respect the national
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 113 
 
 debt, ever seriously to interfere with it. Wherever 
 an individual is sacrificed, he falls a victim to the pri- 
 vate pique of some offended superior, and when this 
 is understood, no one takes an interest in his fate ; 
 but if it were a bond fide punishment of public robbery 
 and extortion, he would arouse the sympathies of all 
 his fellow accomplices, that is, of all the civil and 
 military officers of the empire. 
 
 A poor nobleman had been carrying on a lawsuit 
 for several years, when he received an intimation from 
 the secretary of the tribunal, that unless he paid over 
 10,000 roubles (450/.) to the president, the case would 
 be decided against him. The unfortunate litigant, 
 who could not raise as many pence, bethought him of 
 applying to Count Benkendorf, the chief of the secret 
 service, whom he had been led to believe was person- 
 ally anxious to make an example of some of the delin- 
 quents, and who is one of the four or five men holding 
 office in the empire, who are deemed incorruptible by 
 the common rumour — or at least, if the Russians 
 utterly disbelieve in the existence of an unlimited in- 
 tegrity, of whom the}^ say, " We do not think even 
 such a sum would buy him." The party referred to 
 offered the count to furnish him with an unquestion- 
 able proof of the venality of the president of the Court 
 of Appeal ; and for that purpose proposed that he 
 should be entrusted with the amount of the bribe de- 
 manded, in notes privately marked. He undertook 
 that these notes should be found on the president's 
 person. The count consented. Since the good old 
 times of the reign of Alexander, neither the secre- 
 taries, vice-presidents, nor presidents (the parties who 
 
 VOL. L I
 
 114 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 
 
 in the courts of law receive all bribes affecting the 
 immediate decision of civil or criminal cases,) ever 
 make their bargain or receive any money before a 
 third party. Their dread of the anger of Nicholas 
 even occasions them to resort to many precautions 
 formerly not dreamed of; and in this instance the 
 president declined receiving the money in his house, 
 but proposed that the litigant should invite him to 
 dinner at a tavern which he indicated, and there pay 
 over the amount to him. 
 
 It must here be observed, that it is not unusual in 
 Russia for the judge to be thus treated. Let the 
 reader imagine the Lord Chancellor of England 
 taking a white-bait dinner at Greenwich with one of 
 the parties in whose case he was about to decide, and 
 with whom he had only this professional acquaintance ! 
 However, the judge's proposition was acceded to, and 
 his host caused an officer of gendarmerie to be sta- 
 tioned in an adjacent closet. The president made his 
 appearance ; he signified, by the action of his fingei*s, 
 that their pecuniary transaction had better precede 
 the gastronomic entertainment ; the host accordingly 
 gave him over a small roll of bank notes, the pre- 
 sident counted them in a very business-like way, and 
 tossed them into his hat. As this was not yet quite 
 satisfactory, in the hope that his guest would finally 
 transfer the money to his person, his Amphitryon 
 deferred giving the signal for the appearance of the 
 secret police agent, and they sat down to dinner. At 
 this moment some one knocked ; it was the president's 
 nephew, come to him with some trifling message from 
 his lady. The judge gave him a brief answer, and
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 115 
 
 bowed him out. At the conclusion of their dinner 
 he was preparing to depart ; he had pulled on his 
 shube, and put his hat upon his head ; when, on the 
 preconcerted signal, the officer of gendarmerie rushed 
 into the apartment with an order from Count Ben- 
 kendorf, whose dictum every dignitary in the empire 
 must obey, to search his person. " Do not give 
 yourself the trouble to search him," said the excited 
 nobleman, " you will find the bank notes in his hat." 
 The president smiled blandly, and took his hat off at 
 once ; it was empty ; when his nephew went out, he 
 had taken up his uncle's hat instead of his own ! The 
 judge thus not only avoided the trap laid for him, but 
 secured the bait, and doubly punished the informer ; 
 firstly, by deciding the case against him ; and secondly, 
 because, not having substantiated his charge, he was 
 obliged to refund the ten thousand roubles advanced 
 by the police. Can any one doubt that this worthy 
 minister of public justice had received a private hint 
 from Count Benkendoi-ff's office ? 
 
 The Emperor Alexander, — whose character pre- 
 sented a singular compound of liberal views, benevo- 
 lent intentions, and clear-sighted shrewdness, with an 
 indolent weakness, which allowed him, and conse- 
 quently his empire, to be entirely governed by his 
 confidants, — was perfectly conscious of this rottenness 
 of the social system. As no flattery could make him 
 believe that he was cither a Peter the Great or a 
 Napoleon, he never dreamed of undertaking a reform 
 perhaps the most difficult that has ever been attempted. 
 He was perfectly aware that to have any chance of 
 success, he must begin by raising tenfold the salaries 
 \ 2
 
 116 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 
 
 of his officers, which the finances of the state would 
 not have allowed him, and establishing an unlimited 
 freedom of the press, which his ministers would have 
 considered as the mad act of a political Frankenstein. 
 As he wanted the energy to dispute the matter with 
 his advisers, even when he felt their conduct to be 
 cruel and foresaw it to be impolitic, he never dreamed 
 of removing this mountain of social iniquit}^; but he 
 at least saw it exactly as it was ; and perfectly aware 
 that unless the evil were cured at the root, any severity 
 would prove utterly useless — a mere film over the 
 ulcer — he allowed corruption to walk barefaced, instead 
 of obliging it, as the severity of Nicholas has done, 
 merely to veil itself from public view. He avenged 
 himself for the public robberies of his servants by a 
 quiet jest, and allowed his minister to discover, to 
 fume, and to punish. lie placidly observed of his 
 Russian subjects, " If they only knew wliere to ware- 
 house them, they would purloin my line-of-battle 
 ships — if they could do it without waking me, they 
 would steal my teeth while I slept." 
 
 The most august, or if it be derisory to apply that 
 term to anything in such a country, the most im- 
 portant body in the empire is the high directing and 
 legislative senate. One part of its business is to pro- 
 mulgate and watch over the laws on which it is some- 
 times consulted, the law being the ukase or imperial 
 order; it is also the supreme court of appeal. Its 
 members are all old generals and admirals laid upon 
 the shelf, and thus provided for — the rank of general 
 being, it must be remembered, indiscriminately given 
 in the civil and the militarv service, and the directors of
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 117 
 
 schools, manufactories, paper-mills, and water-works, 
 sharing it with veterans, and equally wearing the uni- 
 form. These imperial senators, thus transformed into 
 the interpreters of law, with which they are generally 
 unacquainted, and more immediately under the eye of 
 the emperor, are obliged to consult their secretaries. 
 Their decisions must have a strictly legal colour, which 
 it sometimes requires all the ingenuity of these ad- 
 juncts to impart to them. 
 
 The office of senator was formerly a lucrative one. 
 The Emperor Nicholas has spoiled it ; but the public 
 have gained nothing, — the lawyer-secretaries of the 
 senators now sharing the principal harvest, in which 
 they were formerly glad of a slender participation. 
 Such is the history of all these ill-timed and partial 
 efforts at clearing out the Augean stable : like the 
 blood on Blue Beard's key, in the children's story- 
 books, it is wiped from one end to appear at the other. 
 
 Miloradovitch, who fell in the military insurrection 
 of the 26th of December, 1825 — a gallant old veteran, 
 one of the last soldiers of the Suwarrow stamp and 
 school, blunt, cynical, and incorruptible, because re- 
 gardless of wealth, — when, shortly before his death, 
 governor of St. Petersburg, turned the attention of 
 the governing powers to the infamous and shameless 
 corruption of this body. As military governor, it was 
 his duty to countersign its decisions. The day pre- 
 vious to making his formal complaint, on account of 
 the spirited bidding of the litigants in a law-suit, it 
 had altered its supreme and Jinal decision three times 
 in the four-and-twenty hours, and shamelessly sent it 
 to the veteran to confirm.
 
 118 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 
 
 We have seen that the power of doing this has 
 chiefly passed from the hands of these conscript fathers 
 into that of secretaries and underlings. Two winters 
 ago, in St. Petersburg, the author of the " Life and 
 Diary of a TravelHng Physician," the talented trans- 
 lator of Goethe's Faust, on returning to his apartments, 
 caught a burglar in the very act of his depredations ; 
 he turned out to be a chenovnik, or " man of rank" of 
 the senate. It is more than questionable whether the 
 public have profited by the transference from the 
 senators to their secretaries and underlings. 
 
 The effect of this venality and con'uption is not 
 only remarkable in as far as it affects the happiness and 
 prosperity of the Russian people — in as far as it saps all 
 public and private morality — discolours into blackness 
 the stream of justice at its very fount — and engenders 
 every species of vice, misery, and oppression ; but for 
 its action in paralyzing the strength and power of the 
 empire. Let us turn to the administration of its fleets, 
 its arsenals, and its armies. 
 
 The hobby of the emperor and of the imperial 
 family is their army of guards, which are all under 
 their own eye, and the objects of their unceasing soli- 
 citude. But what a tale do not the hollow cheek 
 and hungry-looking aspect of so many of them un- 
 fold! 
 
 . In the multitudinous regiments of the line scattered 
 over different governments, thousands of men and 
 thousands of horses are paid for by the state, which 
 have never existed. This indeed is a comparatively 
 trifling evil, because experience has proved that when- 
 ever the framework (cadres) of a regiment is in good
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 119 
 
 order, however suddenly its blanks may be filled by 
 recruits, it very speedily becomes as effective as if its 
 full complement had never been diminished. But it 
 is whenever these ill-fed soldiers have to be moved a 
 few hundred miles, even within the limits of this inter- 
 minable empire, that their sufferings fearfully increase. 
 Whilst in quarters, the superior authority squeezes 
 from their allowance of rations, pay, and clothing, the 
 very utmost that will allow him to make, with his 
 patient and uncomplaining men, such an appearance 
 as may cover his responsibility, and he has generally 
 calculated with minute nicety the extreme limit of 
 endurance ; but on a march, his subordinates, re- 
 moved from his own surveillance, immediately pursue 
 the same system on a body of which previous rapacity 
 has already exhausted the vigour. Officers of all ranks, 
 whoever, in short, has the charge for even half the day 
 of any detachment, great or small, immediately makes 
 his bargain with the contractors who should furnish 
 provisions, the peasantry on whom the troops are 
 quartered, the landed proprietors, or their agents ; and 
 if only for a good dinner and a bottle of champagne, 
 the officer winks at the curtailment of the rations of 
 his company. In fact, the soldier might often drop 
 from inanition, if he in his turn did not extort from 
 the peasantry what the regulation gives him as his 
 right. 
 
 From the commander of a division to the corporal 
 of an escouade, all pursue the same course, to which 
 the only limit is the want of opportunity. What is 
 most strange is, that even with the soldier, it hardly 
 causes animadversion, so accustomed have the Russians
 
 120 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 
 
 become to look on all power and authority conferred 
 by any military as well as any civil rank as a mere 
 opportunity of robbing subordinates. The ensign 
 does not, even in his thoughts, visit his grievances on 
 the captain, the non-commissioned officer on the en- 
 sign, or the private on the non-commissioned officer ; 
 but each looks forward anxiously to attaining the 
 rank above him, to profit by its opportunities. 
 
 When destined for foreign service, at least half 
 the strength of a regiment is wasted before reaching 
 the distant frontier. From the nature of the Mus- 
 covite habits, and of their weak vegetable food, con- 
 taining less nutriment than that which fattens English 
 cattle, they would require peculiar care to prevent 
 the dysenteries and epidemics which ravage their 
 ranks like the diseases which carry off sheep and 
 rabbits. 
 
 This weakened force, on crossing the frontier of the 
 empire, is still entrusted to officers who, although 
 receiving, whenever they have passed it, what is called 
 the silver-pay, or three times and a half the usual allow- 
 ance, can still only be deterred by the most imminent 
 and pressing danger, from connivance with an admi- 
 nistration so corrupt in all its branches as the com- 
 missariat, and which has so many and such extensive 
 opportunities of robbing the soldier. 
 
 The details of the campaigns of the Russian armies 
 in the more recent wars with Turkey and Poland, 
 and, in fact, ever since the French revolution, has in- 
 troduced the fashion of moving large multitudes of 
 men to decide the quarrels of nations or of princes, 
 prove two remarkable facts, immediately deducible
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 121 
 
 from the causes on which we have just been d^Velhng. 
 The first is, that the Russian armies, when carrying 
 war into an enemy's country not densely populated 
 and highly cultivated, melt away like wax in the sum- 
 mer's sun, and that it is only by dint of unceasing 
 reinforcements, succeeding each other as wave succeeds 
 wave, that they can be kept somewhere about the 
 original point of effectivity. 
 
 Of course, wherever very large armies are brought 
 on the theatre of war, this is, to a great extent, the 
 case with ever}'' people in the world. But the losses 
 of other nations — always, under these circumstances, 
 great in themselves — are trifling compared to those 
 the Russian troops have met with since the small 
 armies of Suwarrow have been increased to the 
 measure of modern continental strength. Napoleon 
 has been not inappropriately termed " a conqueror at 
 the rate of ten thousand men a day ;" but if Ave include 
 his disastrous campaigns in the account, we shall find 
 his losses less in proportion to the masses moved, than 
 the Russians experienced in the last successful inva- 
 sions of Turkey and of Poland. All military men of 
 experience are aware, but the public in general are 
 ignorant, that in any lengthened campaigns the aggre- 
 gate losses of all armies exceed many times — at least 
 tenfold — the direct casualities of the field ; that is to 
 say, that where twenty thousand men have crossed a 
 frontier, or landed in an enemy's country, and at the 
 end of a few, or of many months, are reduced to half 
 that number, it is hardly ever possible to account for 
 the death of one thousand of them by the accidents of 
 lead or steel, or fire or flood. The author has heard
 
 122 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 
 
 a veteran commander of armies observe, that he knew 
 only one thing as difficult to account for, as what 
 became of all the men that melt away from the muster- 
 roll in long campaigns, and that was, what became of 
 all the pins that are manufactured ? Now these 
 losses, so great in every army, are almost as many 
 times surpassed in those of Russia, as in other armies 
 they exceed the number of the immediate victims of 
 the battle-field, the skirmish, and the breach. 
 
 The second remarkable fact we have alluded to is, 
 that the same causes limit the disponibility of the vast 
 elements of force evidently contained in the tsar's 
 empire. There can be no question that the Emperor 
 Nicholas has at least the framework of a force of 
 upwards of a million of men, and that therefore, if he 
 has them not, he might have them, under arms, and 
 indeed pays for their being so. The resom*ces of his im- 
 mense territor}^, and the unlimited control he has over 
 it, necessarily furnish him with the pecuniary means of 
 setting them in motion for a few campaigns, though 
 they might fail him in a protracted war. And yet it 
 is evident that, by straining every nerve, from 150 to 
 200,000 men is the utmost that he could send across a 
 hostile frontier, and more than he could long maintain 
 there. Under the system which has been described, 
 Russian armies dwindle into brigades — brigades into 
 battalions — before the distant frontier is reached; — 
 there is an enemy unceasingly following, unceasingly 
 decimating them — their own officers. 
 
 No severity, no example, can remedy this evil ; the 
 habit is too rooted in the people, it has become too 
 innate a propensity. As well might you try to reclaim.
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 123 
 
 by such means, a collection of drunkards or gamblers, 
 surrounded by the temptation of casks and dice-boxes. 
 The just indignation of a sovereign, and his unlimited 
 power, may crush one offender beneath his heel, but 
 he cannot reform or deter the next who steps into his 
 place from following his example. 
 
 Perhaps it would not be inapt to compare the posi- 
 tion of a Russian emperor, relatively to his people, to 
 that of the brain animating the body and limbs of a 
 vast muscular giant, but with all the nerves and sinews 
 by which the head must set this body and these limbs in 
 motion, feeble, relaxed, or brittle. There exists in the 
 Russian empire no set of public officers who can be 
 depended on, no material out of which to form them. 
 Its government is reduced to the deplorable condition 
 of not knowing where to find a man to whom it can 
 intrust the care of any portion of its force or interest, 
 so as to render the former fully available, or to be sure 
 that the latter will not be betrayed. It has not merely 
 to dread an occasional violation of its confidence, but 
 to reckon on the certainty of it in ninety-nine cases 
 out of a hundred, and to estimate its probable amount. 
 If it were possible to transfer the civil and military 
 officers of the British empire into the places of those 
 who administer the Russian, or, at least, to transfuse 
 into their feelings and conduct something of their in- 
 tegrity, the power of Russia would be many times 
 multiplied, and prove in reality what it now appears 
 on paper. 
 
 If the army, the hobby of all the successive Russian 
 sovereigns, and of the whole imperial family, suffers 
 thus from the depredations of its officials, the navy —
 
 124 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 
 
 the favourite creation of Peter the Great, neglected by 
 all who followed him, until taken in hand by the 
 Emperor Nicholas, against the wishes of all his ad- 
 visers — offers a no less advantageous field for their mal- 
 practices ; although here, as in every other department 
 since the reign of the present emperor, these abuses 
 have been forced to shun the light of day, in which 
 before they carelessly sunned themselves. 
 
 It is true that the Russian navy, though fostered by 
 the sedulous care of its first founder, like an exotic in- 
 troduced into an unfavourable soil, would probably 
 never have taken deep root under any management. 
 Peter built a navy, organized it by means of foreign sea- 
 men, and conquered a vast maritime coast, in the hope 
 that his Muscovites would in time become sailors to 
 man it. All his successors neglected both his fleet and 
 the views he entertained on the subject. The Em- 
 peror Nicholas has been the first sovereign since his 
 reign who has attempted to revive its glories ; but he 
 has done so without bearing in mind the ideas of 
 Peter on the subject — a neglect which renders the 
 boldness of his ancestor's views an absurdity when 
 thus carried out ; unless, indeed, we are to suppose 
 that the hopes of the present emperor's ambition soar 
 to the visionary height of manning his numerous Mar 
 ships with Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish subjects of 
 his crown. 
 
 The two following anecdotes may serve to illustrate 
 that, in point of the integrity of its administration, the 
 navy enjoys no superiority over the land force ; while 
 in those chapters specially devoted to the condition of 
 the marine and army, the reader will find ample addi-
 
 •^ RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 125 
 
 tional evidence upon this subject. The Emperor 
 Nicholas having been made acquainted, whilst grand 
 duke, with the glaring malversations which took place 
 in the naval arsenals of Cronstadt, some time after his 
 accession, suddenly sent down a commission, who 
 placed the imperial seal on everything, and prepared 
 to commence on the following day the labour of in- 
 quiry. That night the arsenals were destroyed by fire ! 
 But ^ven the consuming element could not destroy 
 the long-accumulated evidence of fraud. On clear- 
 ing the ruins, a number of cannon were discovered, 
 which on reading the inscription on them, were found 
 to belong to a man-of-war which had been lost a 
 short time before in the Gulf of Finland, and as it 
 had been reported, with all its guns and stores on 
 board. It was therefore evident that her own officers 
 had taken her out to sea for the purpose of sinking 
 her, having previously left all the valuable part of her 
 armament and provisioning on shore for sale. 
 
 About two years ago, the Russian government 
 caused a steam-frigate, called the Kamtschatka, to be 
 built in the United States. The cost was more than 
 double what would have been charged in Scotland or 
 the north of England, at least a third more than would 
 have been demanded in London, including the most 
 careful workmanship in the world. It was built under 
 the superintendence of a -Russian officer — one of the 
 best sailors, by the way, in the imperial navy, — the 
 aide-de-camp and principal favourite of Prince Men- 
 chicofF, minister of marine. On its arrival, before the 
 setting in of the ice, although too late to give it any 
 trial, enough transpired I'egarding the vessel to raise
 
 126 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 
 
 Strong doubts as to whether it was Ukely to justify the 
 enormous outlay occasioned by its construction. A 
 committee was appointed — for a committee is a 
 favourite imperial panacea ; the author never heard 
 the ultimate conclusion it came to ; but in the first 
 stage of the inquiry it transpired, that the live oak, 
 which, according to the stipulations of the contract, 
 ought to have been employed, and which was re- 
 ported to have been so, in its construction, had, in 
 some unaccountable manner, been converted into 
 common oak during the frigate's passage across the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 As regards the commissariat and ordnance, as well 
 as all other government departments, one might fill 
 volumes with the accounts of their connivance to de- 
 fraud the crown, no less ludicrous and barefaced than 
 that of a colonel of artillery, who, being charged to 
 superintend the delivery of a certain number of shells 
 and shot cast for"government at a private foundry in 
 St. Petersburg, was bribed to place a subordinate at 
 the front door of the yard, who was to keep the tally 
 of the number of barrowfulls wheeled out, whilst they 
 were wheeled in again by the back gate to pass again 
 in review before him. 
 
 To complete the brief elementary account the 
 author had proposed giving of the condition of the 
 llussian people, before entering into further detail 
 regarding any particular portion of it, or any descrip- 
 tion of the empire, there only remains for him to 
 shew and describe two terrible instruments, by means 
 of which the government oppresses the nation ; one 
 of which may be considered as an engine of torture
 
 RUSSIAN OFFICIALS. 127 
 
 for the lower classes, the other, for the nobility — the 
 civil police, and the secret, or as it is called, the 
 " high police," of which Count Benkcndorff, the em- 
 peror's chief confidant, is the grand master. Both 
 of these terrible inquisitions inflict, in different ways, 
 an ao-gregate of misery far greater than those which 
 doomed for religious differences their fellow men 
 to the torture-chamber and the stake. To vary, 
 however, the serious nature of the subject, the author 
 now proposes taking his reader by the hand, and lead- 
 ing him through the modern capital of the singular 
 empire, of whose social condition he is endeavouring 
 to sketch the salient features.
 
 128 ST. PETERSBURG. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ST. PETERSBURG AND ITS mHABITANTS. 
 
 St. Petersburg, the offspring of the first Peter, is 
 the type of that modern Russia with the existence of 
 which it is coeval — modern Russia, corrupt, pohshed, 
 and uncivihzed, its oriental barbarism glossed over by 
 the varnish of European usages. 
 
 It is not yet a hundred and forty years since the 
 first buildings of this imperial city replaced the fisher- 
 men's huts on the banks and marshy islets of the 
 Neva, and it is little more than that period since the 
 ground on which it stands was Swedish territory. 
 
 No city in Europe is more striking to the beholder 
 than St. Petersburg — few, perhaps, are less imposing. 
 The magnificence of its squares, its buildings, and 
 canals, and the advantageous manner in which its most 
 imposing monuments arc grouped together, produce 
 an effect no European city can rival. But then the 
 incongruous medley of the Greek and mixed southern 
 architecture of its remarkable buildings, with the
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 129 
 
 domes and minarets of Muscovite Byzantine churches, 
 gold, blue, green, silver, and star-bespangled, and the 
 modern and parvenu look of the stuccoed fronts of its 
 gigantic edifices (many of them in a taste worthv the 
 constructors of Buckingham palace, or the national 
 gallery) the very whiteness of the j)laster, in an 
 atmosphere as clear and void of smoke as that of Italy — 
 irresistibly remind us that it is a thing of yesterday. 
 
 There are none of those historical associations con- 
 nected with the spot which invest with interest the 
 old moss-grown buildings of the middle ages, and 
 cause us to look with some reverence on the mean old 
 narrow streets and churches of more ancient cities. 
 Neither has architecture or sculpture any of those 
 treasures to oifer to our view which in older countries 
 reward our patient research. Vast triumphal gates 
 and arches rise before the beholder, the arms and 
 trophies obviously of stucco, painted bronze ; and the 
 gigantic steeds and statues of that metal which sur- 
 mount them are lamentable in execution. Every- 
 where the idea seems to have prevailed of raising 
 edifices Egyptian-like and Babylonic, such as the 
 genius of Martin conceived to have stood on the place 
 of now sand-covered ruins. But the idea has onl}"- 
 been carried out as far as magnitude is concerned ; for 
 instead of bearing the impress of time-defying solidity, 
 which we know to have outlasted the very memory of 
 empires passed away, so characteristic of Egyptian 
 monuments, or the architectural magnificence which 
 modern imagination has transferred to canvas, St. 
 Petersburg, with its gigantic piles, has nothing in its 
 favour but their magnitude ; we gaze on them with no 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 ST, PETERSBURG 
 
 more awe than on the miniature Gothic castle of the 
 cockney ; and if in St. Petersburg everything reminds 
 us that it has sprung up like a rapidly developed 
 marsh-plant from the morass on which its pile-sustained 
 foundations rest, so we labour under the painful and 
 irresistible impression that it will be as ephemeral. 
 
 This impression it produced, not only on the elo- 
 quent and imaginative Marquis de Custine, but on the 
 minute and homely Kohl, and the less matter-of-fact 
 Bremner. " The Russian capital," says the latter, 
 " has filled the nations with wonder by its sudden rise ; 
 is it to fill them with greater wonder by its yet more 
 sudden fall ? Shall the proud monarch of the north 
 hear it said of his darling seat, as it was said to the re- 
 pining prophet of the gourd, which had made him so 
 exceedingly glad — ' It came up in a night,and perished 
 in a night !' " The marquis observes — " The ancients 
 built with indestructible materials, beneath a conserva- 
 tive sky ; here, where the climate destroys everything, 
 are raised up palaces of wood, houses of planks, and 
 temples of stucco. It is true the Russian workmen 
 spend their lives in remaking during summer what the 
 winter has undone. Nothing resists the influence of 
 this climate; those edifices which appear the most 
 ancient were reconstructed yesterday. Stone lasts 
 here no longer than the lime and mortar in other 
 dimes. * * * These polar solitudes are peopled 
 with statues and basso-relievos to perpetuate histo- 
 rical events, without remembering that in this country 
 monuments endure even less than the recollections of 
 the past. * * * This city, with quays of granite, 
 is a marvel, but the palace of ice, in which the Empress 
 Elizabeth held a banquet, was no less a wonder, and
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 131 
 
 lasted as long as the snow-flakes — those roses of 
 Siberia." 
 
 " The idea," says Kohl, " that this beautiful youth- 
 ful city, with all its magnificent creations, is doomed 
 to destruction, is really awful." * * * "At any 
 rate, we need not be surprised if told by the news- 
 papers, some morning, that Petersburg, which sud- 
 denly rose like a splendid meteor from the marshes of 
 Finland, has disappeared as suddenly, like the ignis 
 fatuus which haunts such situations." 
 
 Now, if the judgment of travellers ought seldom 
 singl}'^ to be relied on, — some wanting the power, others 
 opportunities of discerning — some from an alpine 
 height, when a vale of Chamouni opens before them, 
 looking only to the mule tracks and inequalities of 
 their road — others, whose ej^e embraces the wide ex- 
 panse, mistaking, in their enthusiasm, clouds for moun- 
 tains; — if our own impressions, colom-ed by our momen- 
 tary tone of mind, or influenced by vaguely remembered 
 facts, is to be mistrusted, yet when we find them 
 agreeing with those of men so difiierent in ideas, lan- 
 guage, and temper, and these men so well agreed 
 among themselves, we may venture to deduce that this 
 appearance of perishability is one of the marked and 
 characteristic expressions of the features of this gigan- 
 tic city. 
 
 It is said that the soil of St. Petersburg is in many 
 parts fathomless bog, and that the piles rather ^o«^ 
 than directly sustain the buildings above them ; and 
 it is well known that a prevalence of west winds — 
 such as, if rare, will probably occur once in a centuiy 
 or two — would suffice to raise the waters of the Gulf 
 
 k2
 
 132 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 of Finland high enough to sweep away the devoted 
 city. It will be remembered how nearly this hap- 
 pened in the reign of Alexander. 
 
 When St. Petersburg was first founded, and the 
 energetic Peter had wrested the sceptre of spiritual 
 power from a formidable priesthood, every here and 
 there some fanatic of the order rose up in his despair 
 asainst the man of fate, and howled forth his curses 
 and prophecies against the abomination of the tsar's 
 impious creation, foretelling for it the fate of Babylon, 
 Nineveh, and Gomorrah. Monks and priests in dif- 
 ferent parts of the Muscovite dominions raised up their 
 voices in prophecy, and died. Whether inspired by 
 their hatred, their bigotry, or the chances which the 
 natural course of events afforded of the realization of 
 their denunciations, these prophecies so strongly 
 seized on the superstitious imagination of the vulgar, 
 as to have been never since eradicated ; and from 
 time to time an almost unbroken succession of prophets 
 have continued to foretell the desolation which is to 
 overwhelm the modern capital of the tsars. The in- 
 undation of the city in Alexander's reign drowned in 
 the dungeons of the fortress of St. Petersburg several 
 fanatics who had predicted the event. In these dun- 
 geons now linger at least two enthusiasts, who fancy 
 that on them has descended the mantle of their un- 
 happy predecessors. 
 
 The impression produced by these prognostications 
 is assisted by the perishable aspect of the stupendous 
 buildings which everywhere rise around us, whose 
 stuccoed walls are always peeling^ and cracking, to the 
 gripe of the keen frost and the blistering sun.
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 133 
 
 I forget who has called St. Petersburg a vast en- 
 campment of lath and plaster, but the comparison is 
 far from an inapt one. Nothing can be more true, as 
 Custine observes in other words, than that man can 
 here never rest from his labour ; when he has raised 
 up a crowd of colossal edifices, he has not only built 
 nothing for future ages, but has hardly done any- 
 thing for his immediate posterity. Such continuous 
 reparations are necessary, that each generation may 
 almost be calculated to have built the whole city, by 
 instalments of annual repairs. To this the material, no 
 less than the climate and situation, contributes. That 
 chiefly used in St. Petersburg for external embellish- 
 ment, is in no climate very durable ; but the thick, mas- 
 sive walls of brick or stone, which, elsewhere compa- 
 ratively time-defying, are here mere hollow shells, 
 which the fraud of architects, courtiers, and ministers, 
 has filled with sand and rubbish, although the price 
 of every brick and stone which it has replaced, has been 
 wrung from the blood and sweat of the Russian people. 
 Nothing can be more obvious than that, in a very 
 few years — in half the time that has elapsed since St. 
 Petersburg arose from the marsh — if this city were 
 not being perpetually built, the marsh would again 
 succeed the city; the stucco would be dust; the 
 walls it covers, ruins imbedded in the mud, and the 
 cold spongy moss of this northern climate again 
 creeping over it, with the acid cranberry that alone 
 seems to flourish in its alternate bed of snow and 
 stagnant waters. " Only the St. Isaac's cathedral, 
 the Alexander column, and the granite quays of the 
 Neva's bank," it is said, " would a century hence sur-
 
 134 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 vive the ruins of St. Petersburg, were it not for the 
 intervention of man's preserving hand." 
 
 We shall presently see that it is questionable whether 
 the Isaac's church, mountain as it is of metal, marble, 
 and granite, or even the gigantic monolithe, would be 
 amongst these relics of a city which the flattery of those 
 who throng the winter palace calls the modern Rome. 
 
 St. Petersburg is happily likened to an encamp- 
 ment, because, if on Russian territory, it is not yet 
 even now in Russia. The country surrounding it is 
 still principally peopled by Finns ; the opposite bank 
 of the Neva is Finnish ground ; and the frontier of 
 the grand duchy of Finland itself, where all hearts 
 beat with Swedish sympathies, is only about ten miles 
 removed. As the Moslemin turns towards the tomb 
 of his prophet, so do the regrets, the reminiscences, 
 and even yet the hopes, of the Finnish people, turn 
 towards Sweden, the body from which they have been 
 recently and violently dissevered. 
 
 In Sweden there can scarcely be found man, woman, 
 or child, in whose breast the loss of this barren pro- 
 vince does not rankle. Never in the dark ages did 
 the universal enthusiasm of the west pant to recover 
 the holy sepulchre, as the Swedish nation does to re- 
 gain its lost Finland. Sweden and the Russian em- 
 pire now stand face to face, like David and Goliah, 
 indeed, but who can tell whether the march of future 
 events and western poUcy may not put into Sweden's 
 hands the fatal sling. St. Petersburg is not only me- 
 naced by the storms which may roll upon her the 
 waves of the Baltic, but also by those, no less fearful, 
 which the policy, the interest, the abhorrence, or all
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 135 
 
 combined, of civilized nations, may raise against the 
 Russian empire, and she stands exposed to bear the 
 full brunt of the first serious attack directed against it. 
 There are, therefore, more reasons than one why a 
 century hence there should be no more traces of the 
 capital of Nicholas, than is to be found in our own 
 day of the royal village of Attila. 
 
 To return, however, to our palaces of plaster and 
 stucco. Although we may have a due regard for their 
 advantages and utility, although they are pleasing 
 screens for the dark dirty surface of brick, and applied 
 to the unaspiring habitations of humble privacy, look 
 neatness and economy, — when used in the idle attempt 
 to render vast buildings imposing, and moulded into 
 classic architectural forms, it renders them absurd 
 instead of effective, almost in proportion to their vast- 
 ness. The few exceptions to this observation in St. 
 Petersburg are only exceptions as far as material is 
 concerned ; and if in this respect most striking ones, 
 they only serve to render the want of architectural 
 genius still more remarkable. 
 
 Perhaps the only two buildings in St. Petersburg 
 which, independent of their size, have any claims on 
 our attention, are comparatively insignificant ones. 
 We allude to the Academy of Fine Arts, on the right 
 bank of the Neva, and, on the opposite shore, the 
 marble palace, formerly the residence of the Empress 
 Catherine, and in which her favourite Potemkin, to 
 whom she once gave it, scattered his millions with a 
 lavish hand. The latter is also called the palace of 
 Taurida, because faced with red marble brought from 
 that spot. But though creditable taste and material
 
 136 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 concurred in its construction, it is inconsiderable in 
 size, and is a mere Italian palace — such as rise in 
 whole streets along the canals of fallen Venice. 
 
 The two principal exceptions to the ever-recurring 
 plaster and stucco which cover the ill-made brick of 
 which the stupendous buildings of the Russian metro- 
 polis are constructed, are indeed in this respect re- 
 markable. One is the largest monolithic column in 
 the world. The author does not remember the exact 
 height of the whole monument, of which the shaft 
 alone consists of one single piece of polished red 
 granite, eighty-four feet long, and forty-five in circum- 
 ference, its base and capital of bronze, surmounted by 
 a cross and figure of the same metal ; but it struck 
 him as not being far, if at all, inferior in size to the 
 monument raised to the memory of the Duke of York 
 in Waterloo-place. 
 
 The Alexander column is looked on with very jus- 
 tifiable pride by the Russians, because it is the most 
 remarkable of the kind in the whole world ; neither 
 ancient nor modern times ever saw so large a piece of 
 stone fashioned from the quarry. But then art has 
 done its best to spoil the effect which this work pro- 
 duces. The column is surmounted by a gigantic 
 figure of Hope, holding the cross, and pointing up- 
 wards, but in attitude so unfortunate that, seen from 
 two sides, the exceedingly small head of the heavenly 
 handmaid, which is unaccountably poked forward, is 
 hidden by the perpendicular of the cross, and gives 
 the appearance of a headless figure, reminding one 
 irresistibly of the favourite English sign of the " ori- 
 ginal Good Woman."
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 137 
 
 " How is it ?" was observed to a certain Russian, 
 in whose family, notorious for its wit, it appears here- 
 ditary, " How is it that this figure of Hope is without 
 a head ?" " Would Hope itself," he replied, " dare to 
 take up its abode beneath the withering glance of a 
 Russian emperor, si elle rCavoit pas perdu la tetef 
 
 The very anecdotes connected with this column 
 would fill a volume, and are highly illustrative of the 
 state of things in Russia. A recent traveller relates 
 that orders were given to procure a piece of granite 
 eighty-four feet long ; in place of which the director 
 having found one nearly one hundred, cut off the 
 superfluous length, in literal obedience to his instruc- 
 tions. Si non e vero e ben trovato. When the enor- 
 mous cyhndrical block of granite was to be brought 
 from the quarries of Pytterlax, on the coast of Fin- 
 land, where it was cut, the job was intrusted to the 
 military engineer department ; but whilst a commis- 
 sion of generals and colonels were debating on how to 
 set about it, an illiterate peasant, of a class who con- 
 tract for work to be done by bands of labourers or 
 slaves they hire from their masters, set about the task 
 in his own way, and succeeded in it. 
 
 This splendid pillar was found to contain a deep 
 crack, which was hastily filled up with cement, and 
 the whole polished over ; but when raised to its pre- 
 sent position, a few summers and winters rendered the 
 crack again apparent. That the column was cracked 
 there could be no doubt; that the crack will ever 
 spread in a stone so durable as red granite is another 
 question. But in Russia nothing belonging to the 
 government can be admitted to have even a flaw.
 
 138 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 The imperial vanity was touched, and a commission 
 of admirals, generals, and counsellors of state, was 
 formed, to proceed to the top of the column by a 
 scaffolding, and verify the existence or non-existence 
 of the alleged flaw, which stared all St. Petersburg in 
 the face. Whether the commission endeavoured to 
 deceive the emperor by reporting as he wished — for 
 it is always an ungracious task to be the bearer of any 
 tidings which disturb the serenity of the spring-head 
 of the state — or whether they had their cue to deceive 
 the public, is difficult to determine ; but they unani- 
 mously agreed that " it was an optical delusion, occa- 
 sioned by the imperfect polish of that part," &c. 
 
 We cannot charitably admit that all the members 
 of the imanimous commission were themselves de- 
 ceived, unless they were more than St. Thomas like ; 
 because two of them were previously heard to admit 
 that they had themselves put their fingers into the 
 crevice before the column was raised up at all. 
 
 The great cathedral of St. Isaac's, the reproach of 
 many reigns, under which it was successively half 
 built up, half pulled down, and quite neglected, is the 
 pride and boast of the present reign, and is rapidly 
 drawing to its completion. It is an edifice of first- 
 rate magnitude ; its walls are fenced with stupendous 
 blocks of gray polished Finnish marble. It has four 
 facades, and the porticoes of each are supported by 
 monolitliic pillars of red polished granite, fifty-six feet 
 in height, and nearly eighteen in circumference, be- 
 sides the smaller ones which surround the drum of 
 the iron dome. The dome itself is gilded over, and 
 surrounded by gigantic statues of bronze angels. One
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 139 
 
 hundred and eighty-eight pillars of Finnish marble 
 are intended to ornament the interior. 
 
 If the church of St. Isaac's, though very large, has 
 no pretensions on account of .unequalled size — St. 
 Peter's at Rome, St. Paul's in London, St. Maria's in 
 Florence, and St. Sophia's at Constantinople, all ex- 
 ceeding it — yet the splendid materials of which it is 
 built ought to have ranked it amongst the first reli- 
 gious edifices in the world : instead of which it stands 
 a monument of the perverse ingenuity of bad taste, 
 in giving to the most imperishable matter an aspect 
 at once frail, tawdry, and heavy. 
 
 The first thing which strikes one on contemplating 
 this edifice is the sombre aspect given to it by the 
 dark colour of the gray marble with which the walls 
 are based, and of the deep red-brown granite of its 
 columns ; it is sombre without being solemn, like the 
 time-grayed walls of Gothic buildings ; because it is 
 new, and Avill always appear so, on account of the 
 polished surface on the marble and granite. The 
 colour, added to the small-sized windows, and an ab- 
 sence of all relief on the gray, massive, ponderous wall, 
 give it an aspect of peculiar heaviness ; but when we 
 lift our eyes above, to the drum and dome, the air of 
 solidity which might somewhat relieve architectural 
 heaviness is utterly destroyed, because this is all con- 
 structed of sheet iron, which is painted red and gray, 
 to imitate the colour of the marble and granite below, 
 but without deceiving the most inexperienced eye as 
 to its being stone, but rather indicating its being com- 
 posed of some material frail and perishable, such as 
 painted wood.
 
 140 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 The capitals of all the columns are castings of brass, 
 and produce an effect disagreeable from their sharp- 
 ness. They are bronze-coloured. The drum is sur- 
 rounded by similar huge statues of bronze angels — 
 stiff, and without any sculptural merit ; and the 
 dome itself, according to the Muscovite taste, is all 
 gilded over. Now perhaps this barbaric taste, if ex- 
 tended a little further, and applied to all the bronze 
 work of the edifice, would have improved its appear- 
 ance ; for without rendering it more gaudy, it would 
 have relieved the darkness of the stone, and at least 
 have given it an aspect of completeness and finish, 
 which is now wanting ; for the mixture of bronze and 
 gilding produces the irresistible impression that the 
 latter is a bright brass coating, about to undergo the 
 operation of bronzing over. 
 
 It is said that the soil of the spot on which this 
 cathedral is built is of a nature to render the founda- 
 tion as frail and perishable as the upper part of it ap- 
 pears to be. It consists of a deep bog, through the 
 hardened crust of which it has been necessary to drive 
 so much timber as forms a sort of raft to uphold the 
 stupendous mass which floats upon it, and as soon as 
 this timber rots away, the mighty building must 
 naturally sink into the deep slough beneath it. 
 
 This edifice was originally begun in marble, and 
 continued by the Emperor Paul in brick. The epi- 
 gram pasted on its walls, and which may be freely 
 translated as follows. 
 
 An emblem in these walls behold, 
 Both of this reign and of the past ; 
 This brick — whilst marble was the last —
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 141 
 
 is well known to have cost an innocent man his tono-uc, 
 which was cut out by order of the emperor, on his 
 being designated as the author by the police, who 
 were obliged to find a culprit, and unable to discover 
 the real one. The marble reign alluded to, is that of 
 the Empress Catherine. 
 
 Although the author is far from being convinced of 
 what is stated about the bog foundation of the St. Isaac's 
 church, there is no doubt of the fact that the massive walls 
 have already cracked and opened, although the cathe- 
 dral itself is as yet unfinished, or only just completed. 
 But this circumstance, which considerably alarmed 
 the architects at the time, has been attributed to the 
 injudicious junction of a new with the old brick wall, 
 when one shrinking, but not the other, produced by 
 converse means exactly the effect of pouring boiling 
 water into a thick glass, — where one part of it expands 
 while the other remains stationary ; so here, the old 
 wall remained in statu quo, whilst the new one shrank ; 
 the consequence of which was, the divorce of this ill- 
 assorted union. This version at least will perfectly 
 account for the disseverment of the interior wall, 
 without refemng to the fact of any insecurity of the 
 cathedral from its alleged floating foundation. 
 
 The. glaring errors and discrepancies which this 
 building exhibits must not, however, be attributed to 
 Montferrand, its nominal architect. He has been 
 partly obliged to guide himself by the ideas of his 
 predecessors, and daily, during its construction, to con- 
 form to every fancy of authoritative ignorance ; so that, 
 for aught we know, everything worthy of praise may 
 be his own, all that is censurable may be attributable
 
 142 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 to Others. But il it proves, perhaps, nothing against 
 him, he has proved nothing in his favour by this stu- 
 pendous building ; for stupendous it is, though about 
 as far inferior in size to St. Paul's as St. Paul's is to 
 St. Peter's. In the grandeur of its aspect, in its har- 
 monious proportions, the smoke-blackened St. Paul's 
 is still more widely superior to St. Isaac's than in its 
 size ; and yet the St. Isaac's — perhaps the last church 
 of similar magnitude which will ever be constructed, 
 now that an era so universally utihtarian is opening 
 upon us — was built under circumstances far more 
 favourable than Wren, or Bruneleschi, or any of their 
 brethren, enjoyed. Wren built the dome of St. Paul's 
 a cone of brick, and rounded it with timber. The 
 vast stone domes of Bruneleschi required the singular 
 hardihood of his own genius. But at the present 
 time, the most unenterprising of the brotherhood know 
 the facilities which the improvement in ironwork has 
 afforded, — rendering works commonplace which be- 
 fore were marvellous, and submitting, as it were, a 
 new element to the plastic hand of the architect. The 
 matter-of-fact and practical Tredgold shews that an 
 iron bridge of a single arch may be made to span the 
 Thames. 
 
 The dome of St. Isaac's is indeed of iron ; but here 
 is a misapplication of the element of architectural 
 sublimity ; it is made to look like painted wood or 
 plaster, instead of being used to accomplish, according 
 to its capability, what no other known material can. 
 
 The Muscovite cathedral is not confined or crowded 
 by adjacent buildings ; for it fronts a square, or rather, 
 a quadrangle, called, not improperly, the St. Isaac's
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 143 
 
 plaiyi, and sometimes the St. Isaac's steppe, by the 
 hypercritical Russians, whose true national taste shews 
 as great an abhorrence of an open space, as the old 
 philosophers imagined nature to entertain of a vacuum. 
 On this quadrangle, a hundred thousand troops have 
 been assembled, and it is surrounded by gigantic 
 buildings, the finest in St. Petersburg, besides con- 
 taining the two most remarkable monuments in the 
 city — the statue of Peter, and the monolithic column, 
 both already mentioned. The senate-house, the war 
 ministry, the government offices, the imperial winter 
 palace, and the admiralty, frown down upon it in all 
 their stuccoed grandeur. One of its issues is through 
 a triumphal arch ; three others are up three principal 
 streets of the city, of which one, the Nevsky prospect, 
 is as wide as Portland-place, and about four miles in 
 length. On each side of the admiralty, it opens, across 
 the noble river, a vista of the opposite quays, buildings, 
 custom-house, rostral columns, and castle. 
 
 These rostral columns, which were respectable when 
 raised as trophies in old Rome, and adorned by the 
 prows or beaks of the captured Carthaginian ships, 
 are in themselves inelegant, and become ludicrous 
 when formed of brick and blistering plaster, such as 
 those of the Vasili Ostroff. 
 
 The imperial winter palace, whose roof shelters 
 upwards of three thousand, and, according to some 
 accounts, six thousand individuals, is the residence of 
 the emperor. Itadjoinsthe buildings of the Hermitage, 
 a spot notorious in Catherine's private history, now 
 undergoing partial reconstruction, and used as a pic- 
 ture-gallery, and which, being connected with, may
 
 144 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 be considered to form part and parcel of it. The winter 
 palace, a most ungainly building, is crowded by a row 
 of ponderous figures surmounting its roof; and if there 
 is nothing to admire about it but its plate-glass, it is 
 remarkable as having been, after its destruction by 
 fire, reconstructed and furnished within the twelve- 
 month, — somewhat, as will appear by the sequel, at 
 the expense of its solidity. The uncouth figures by 
 which it is surmounted, as well as the angels surround- 
 ing the dome of the cathedral, have so much of the 
 Russian military stiffness and uniformity in their 
 aspect, as quite to justify the expression of the admi- 
 ring peasants, who call them " roths,''^ or companies of 
 angels. 
 
 This building was constructed in the reign of the 
 Empress Elizabeth, by the Italian, Rastrelli. Accord- 
 ing to the old plans, its architecture must have been 
 even less imposing than at present, one order of Greek 
 architecture being crowded on the other, floor by floor. 
 But, perhaps, excepting the Kremlin, no edifice in 
 Russia could boast of the same historical associations ; 
 and hardly the Kremlin, because that is only linked 
 with those barbaric reminiscences of Muscovite history, 
 during which the condition of the Russian people was 
 rather a matter of curiosity than of interest to those 
 more civilized neighbours whose destiny it was, then, 
 never supposed likely to influence. 
 
 Whatever may have been the talent of Rastrelli, 
 and however little taste he may have shewn in the 
 construction of the winter palace, it is evident he 
 satisfied that of his employers, for he was rewarded 
 with the title of count, and was commissioned to build
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 145 
 
 the palaces of Strelna and Peterhoff. But he was thus 
 raised on the flow of the imperial favour, to be left 
 only still lower by its ebb ; he died in Italy, dis- 
 graced, a poor old man, begging the bitter bread of 
 charity. 
 
 The lavish profusion of several reigns had filled 
 these imperial walls with perhaps more of the materials 
 of gorgeous splendour than were contained in any 
 building in the world — velvet and silk, carpets, shawls,' 
 gilding, mirrors, amber and lapis-lazuli, marbles, 
 statuar}'^, and pictures — Dawe's celebrated portraits 
 of four hundred Russian generals, whose names the 
 Russians have forgotten, and the rest of Europe could 
 never have learned to remember. 
 
 In 1837, this building, which had been erected by 
 the labour of eighty thousand workmen, and what its 
 owners had been upwards of eighty years in adorning, 
 fell a prey to the flames of a democratic element, 
 which does not respect the homes of princes, and was, 
 in a few hours, reduced to ashes. To form some idea 
 of the extent of ground this edifice covered and covers 
 now, the reader must remember that its inmates at 
 least exceed three thousand, and are reported, as it 
 has been said before, to amount to nearly double that 
 number. It is a quadrangular building, of which each 
 face is somewhere about seven or eight hundred feet 
 in length. The adjoining Hermitage extends along the 
 Neva about seven or eight hundred feet more ; thus, 
 with the winter palace, containing within its walls a 
 suite of rooms nearly one-third of an English mile in 
 length. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas, who was witness to the 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 destniction of this palace, determined to reconstruct 
 it in the shortest possible space of time. He himself 
 fixed one year as the period in Avhich it must be re- 
 erected. His architects remonstrated, the emperor 
 insisted, and that day twelvemonth he received his 
 court in a new hall of St. George, in a palace which 
 had been rebuilt and furnished within the prescribed 
 period. The whole empire applauded, and some of 
 his courtiers observed *' that it had taken even God a 
 week to construct the tcorld.'^ The chief architects of 
 St. Petersburg had, indeed, obsei^ved that "wherever 
 you collect a sufficient number of men together, you 
 may pile up bricks and mortar, and stone and beams, 
 with proportionate rapidity ; that a large part of the 
 Chinese wall might possibly have been raised up in a 
 single day, but that as there was a limit to the speed 
 with which cements and mortars dried, and walls 
 and foundations settled, it would very likely tumble 
 down again — that nearly one-half of the year being 
 a season of hard frost and inclemency, it could not 
 fairly be said that they had a twelvemonth to recon- 
 struct it, and that if they had, they would not under- 
 take the responsibility of the solidity of so large a 
 building, built up in less time than there was any 
 example of in architectural history.*' 
 
 There was reason in this, but there was the imperial 
 will against it. The verv fact of its beino; what had 
 never been done — a Napoleonic scheme in bricks and 
 mortar — dazzled his imperial majesty, who entrusted 
 its execution to one of his courtiers, a man Avhose 
 character he began by despising, but who, being a 
 thorough-going tool of despotism, one of those beings
 
 ASB ITS IXIIABITANTS. 147 
 
 who read even the wishes of a master, and spare him 
 the remorse and the dirty Avork, has rendered himself 
 so useful as to be rising, year by year, in his favour. 
 This man was brought up in the school of Ara- 
 cheiefF. 
 
 And who was Aracheieff? we think we hear our 
 reader asking. If the reader had lived in Russia, in 
 the reign of Alexander, he would no more have asked 
 the question than a Frenchman of Louis the Thir- 
 teenth's reign who was Richelieu ? Like Richelieu, 
 Aracheieff governed both the sovereign and his 
 dominions ; like Richelieu, his intentions were good 
 in governing, but in the modus operandi he added to 
 the severity of the astute old churchman all the gloomy 
 cruelty of an oriental. He was the projector and the 
 founder of the celebrated military colonies, which 
 would undoubtedly have become dangerous to the 
 peace of the world, or at least have obliged it, in self- 
 defence, to adopt their own system, if they had not 
 begun by being dangerous to the imperial government. 
 Aracheieff, who ruled the emperor, and through him 
 his people, was himself governed by a mistress, a 
 demon in female shape, who stirred him into a frenzy 
 of cruelty. This woman was, at last, murdered by one 
 of her household slaves, whose sister, her principal 
 favourite, whom she had educated in the most careful 
 manner, and surroimded with luxury and splendour, 
 she caused, in a fit of caprice, to be scourged to death. 
 Aracheieff, after the murder, caused all the domestics 
 of his establishment to be tortured ; and as there has 
 been no legal punishment of death in Russia for any- 
 thing but high treason since the reign of Elizabeth,, 
 L 2
 
 148 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 they were all knouted ; those who did not exph'c 
 under the knout were sent to a distant town, of which 
 the governor was a creature of his own, and sentenced 
 to receive a number of lashes, tenfold greater than any 
 human frame could endure. 
 
 After Alexander's death, Nicholas was visiting the 
 hospital of the city in which these victims had been 
 suffering; three or four emaciated wretches, the last 
 survivors, were still in the ward appropriated to those 
 under sentence of corporal punishment. As Aracheieff, 
 the governor's patron, had, on the accession of 
 Nicholas, already received permission to travel, or 
 was, in other words, exiled to Germany, where he 
 died, some one was found bold enough to explain the 
 affair to the emperor. 
 
 The courtier to whom we have alluded, as being 
 commissioned to superintend the reconstruction of the 
 winter palace within the brief space of a single year, 
 had been, as already stated, brought up in the school 
 of this Aracheieff. When he had become his most 
 useful instrument, and been raised to high rank, he 
 has been seen, when his patron gave way to his tem- 
 pestuous temper, excited by the momentar}'^ delay in 
 finding a document required, to wipe the spittle 
 quietly from his face, and only bow at this indignity 
 put upon him, in the presence of an Englishman, 
 many grades his inferior in rank, exclaiming, "Vinavat !" 
 I have erred ! To this man there appeared no impos- 
 sibility before the wish of an emperor ; armed with an 
 imperial ukase, he went to work ; all the best artisans 
 and labourers in St. Petersburg were forced into the 
 service ; fresh relays, of six thousand at a time, night
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 149 
 
 and day, succeeded each other. How many were 
 altogether employed, the author never heard, but the 
 mere quantity of quass drank by them, to cool their 
 burning blood, in the oven-like temperature to which 
 the rooms were raised to dry their walls, is something 
 astounding. 
 
 The reader must not, however, fall into the error of 
 a Mrs. Malaprop, whom the author once heard observe, 
 on hearing of the immense sums paid for the onions 
 consumed by the builders of the Egyptian pyramids, 
 *' If it cost so much for greengrocery, what must their 
 butchers' and fishmongers' bills have been !" The 
 quass formed the largest item of the reward of these 
 workmen ; because the government pay in these cases 
 is slow, subject to deductions which no one dares 
 dispute, and because most of those employed have 
 cogent reasons for never claiming it. Large numbers 
 of these men daily fell ill ; many died, poisoned by the 
 smell of paint, the heat, and the carbonic acid gas and 
 vapours ; but their place was immediately supplied by 
 others. On this subject the author must quote, 
 because he can add nothing to, the powerful words of 
 the Marquis de C us tine. He says — 
 
 *'Thus these unfortunate men had to undergo a 
 difference of temperature of from 50 to 60 degrees, on 
 entering and leaving this abode of death, transformed, 
 by means of their sacrifice, into the seat of vanity, 
 magnificence, and pleasure. Labour in the mines of 
 the Ural is less injurious to life, yet the workmen 
 employed at Petersburg were no malefactors. I have 
 been told, that such of these unfortunate people as 
 painted the interior of the apartments that were most
 
 \ 
 
 150 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 heated, were obliged to wear on their heads a kind of 
 glass cap, that the}' might retain the use ai their 
 senses, in the burning temperature to which they were 
 doomed the whole time they were at work. We 
 should be thoroughly disgusted with the arts, the 
 gilding, the luxury, and all the pomp of courts, if such 
 work could not be performed in a more efficacious 
 manner. Nevertheless, the sovereign was called father 
 by all these men sacrificed before his face, for an 
 object of mere imperial vanity. Six thousand work- 
 men were constantly emplo3'ed. A considerable 
 number died every day, but the place of the victims 
 was instantly supplied by other champions, who filled 
 the chasms, to perish in their turn in that inglorious 
 breach ; the dead were unseen ; — and the only object 
 of so many sacrifices was to gratify the whim of one 
 man. Among nations naturally — that is to say, 
 anciently — civilized, the lives of men are not exposed 
 but for general interests, and such as almost all the 
 world acknowledges the importance of." 
 
 The order of the emperor at least was fulfilled; he 
 sat triumphantly again on the throne, in the hall in the 
 palace which the flames had devoured one short year 
 before. But then began some disagreeables and some 
 dangers. An atrocious odour pervaded some of the 
 apartments ; it seemed as if the dead bodies of those 
 who had perished in t,he work were festering within 
 them. On examination, it was discovered that a 
 quantity of coarse wool, which had been placed 
 between the flooring and ceiling to intercept the dense 
 vapour which the joint heat and damp had given rise 
 to, was rapidly putrifying. Again, the famous hall of
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 151 
 
 St. George was just prepared for some great festal 
 occasion, on which the emperor, the imperial family, 
 and three-fourths of the great officers of the crown 
 were to be united within it, when the ceilino; all fell 
 in with a tremendous crash. If its beams and rafters 
 had held a day or two longer, the motion and vibra- 
 tion occasioned by so large a crowd must inevitably 
 have brought it down upon their heads, and avenged 
 on them, as Sampson did upon the Philistines, the 
 sufferings of the poor artisans who had been forced to 
 raise up this monument of a despot's vanity. 
 
 It must be understood that if the buildings and 
 monuments which have been mentioned will not bear 
 individual scrutiny and inspection, they are most ad- 
 vantageously grouped together. Beyond the Her- 
 mitage, a row of private palaces continues this line of 
 lordly piles up to the palace of Taurida, which borders 
 on the Champ de Mars, a square where the hundred 
 thousand men who have been reviewed on the Isaac's 
 Plain have found room to manoeuvre. The summer 
 gardens skirt one side of it, and on the other are the 
 palaces of the Grand Duke Michel, and the Michel 
 Palace, formerly called the Michaeloff Saraok, now con- 
 verted into the school of engineers, and divested of its 
 fortifications, though still surrounded by the moat, 
 which the suspicious disposition of Paul caused to be 
 dug around it, but which did not prevent its becoming 
 the scene of his assassination. 
 
 The palaces of St. Petersburg and its environs, 
 though all raised within the memory of the last gene- 
 ration, have another feature of caducity besides their 
 incipient and premature decay. Although they have
 
 152 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 but brief historical associations to connect with their 
 ■walls, compared with the remarkable buildiiigs of 
 other cities, yet are they not behind them as the wit- 
 nesses of tragic deeds, and thus inspire precociously 
 the mysterious interest felt upon the scene of dimly- 
 shadowed crime. 
 
 On the other hand, one whose mind is influenced 
 by presages, might be tempted to recognise in the fate 
 of all those who constructed the gigantic piles which 
 surround him, some confirmation of the dark predic- 
 tions of those who denounced misfortune on all con- 
 nected with the erection of the city. We have seen 
 the fate of Count Rastrelli. Brenno, the architect of 
 Paul's Michel Palace, whose rampart on the day of 
 his murder was bristling with cannon — Brenno died at 
 Dresden in abject misery. Cameron, the Scotchman 
 who built either the Senate or the Admiralty, and the 
 celebrated Guarenghi, both died poor and in difficulty. 
 Voronikin, who planned and built the church of Our 
 Lady of Kazan, and Dumot, who built the great 
 theatre, escaped from their misery by seeking volun- 
 tarily that death which was slow in coming to their 
 relief. 
 
 The Nevsky prospect, the largest of the three prin- 
 cipal streets which diverge fan-like from the Isaac's 
 Plain, displays the greatest part of the wealth of the 
 capital. The nearer end is at once its Bond-street, 
 Regent-street, and Palais Royal. All the richest 
 shopkeepers display their most fashionable wares, 
 English and Parisian, in the windows. ToAvards the 
 middle of it, rises the " Gostinnoi Dvor," a vast semi- 
 oriental bazaar, containing some thousand shops,
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 153 
 
 tenanted b}^ the bearded Muscovite merchants. Be- 
 yond this the houses dwindle in size, and nothing but 
 the humble-looking shops, in the old Russian style, 
 meet the eye. 
 
 This magnificent street contains the Kazan church, 
 which, before the completion of the St. Isaac's, ranked 
 as the first in St. Petersburg. It is boasted to be built 
 according to the design of a Russian architect, Voro- 
 nikin. No other nation need be anxious to claim 
 him. The church of Our Lady of Kazan is a parody 
 on St. Peter's and the Piazza di San Pietro; the 
 mean and the pretentious struggle in its ridiculous 
 aspect. The church is built in the form of a cross. 
 The left wing of this cross forms the principal facade ; 
 and this wing is, as it were, intersected by a semi- 
 circular portico, raised several steps from the ground, 
 and supported by a double row of Coi'inthian columns, 
 which, as they approach the side entrance to which 
 they lead from the Nevsky Prospect, seem crowding 
 on each other in confusion. The interior resembles 
 that of most other Greek churches of which we shall 
 have, further on, to give a general description, — with 
 the exception of the unusual and solid adornment of 
 fifty red polished granite columns, forty feet high, 
 and of a single piece, with capitals and bases of 
 bronze. 
 
 When we have long and minutely examined the 
 monuments of St. Petersburg, we are tempted to come 
 to the conclusion that these numerous monolithic 
 pillars, wdth their brazen settings, are the chief objects 
 worthy of admiration. Two bronze statues adorn the 
 half-moon formed by the semicircular portico ; one is
 
 154 ' ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 that of Barclay de Tolly, the conqueror of Finland, 
 of Scottish descent. It is faint praise to be able to say 
 of hira, that he ranked high among Russian generals ; 
 for, with the exception of the great Suwarrow, Russia 
 has possessed few who rose above mediocrity. 
 
 Besides this Kazan church and the vast bazaar, the 
 Nevsky Prospect contains a Lutheran, a Roman- 
 catholic, and dissenting churches, a mosque, a theatre, 
 and an imperial palace ; and each of the private 
 houses being tenanted by from two hundred to two 
 thousand inmates, who occupy sets of apartments as 
 in Paris, it may naturally be supposed that they are 
 prodigious in size. 
 
 The great mass of the fine buildings and monuments 
 of St. Petersburg, thus lie grouped together in the 
 most advantageous manner to give the stranger the 
 idea of a city of palaces ; the transparent waters of the 
 rapid Neva, a thousand feet wide, flowing between 
 these stupendous edifices, or almost within sight of 
 them. 
 
 Three canals, almost as wide as the Seine between 
 its islands, form, through the mainland part of the 
 city, so many arcs within each other. They all look 
 rivers, and each of the main streets diverging from 
 the Isaac's Plain is continued by means of bridges 
 across all of them. 
 
 The rest of the city is very different from the gor- 
 geous specimen which is partially exhibited on the 
 spot to which we have alluded ; and although the 
 streets are, for the most part, wide, wherever the 
 wooden houses still remain, with few exceptions, they 
 present an aspect of unredeemed dirt and misery.
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 155 
 
 These are, it is true, gradually diminishing, because, 
 when destroyed by fire, they must be reconstructed of 
 brick, and also because the price of house-rent renders 
 building an advantageous investment for capital. 
 When, however, replaced by brick houses, although 
 these are mostly considerable — often of immense size 
 — when not in the main streets they are inconceivably 
 filthy. The streets themselves are unpaved, — a wooden 
 footboard being raised in the middle, to enable pass- 
 engers to get through the mud or snow which obstructs 
 them. The doorways and staircases are filthily dirty, 
 all that the scavenger should remove being placed at 
 the chamber-doors or in the j^ard, and a blast of hot 
 air or steam, impregnated with the odour of oil, fer- 
 mented cabbage, or other Russian fragrancies, puffing 
 at every step into the face of the passer-by. These 
 vast houses are inhabited by innumerable tenants, 
 who, instead of occupying a small house or cottage, 
 locate a room or two of the hundred or many hundred 
 apartments which each house contains. 
 
 House-rent is dearer in St. Petersburg than in any 
 city in Europe, and this kind of property brings in a 
 much more certain return than landed estates. Some 
 hoiises bring in an annual return of five, ten, or fifteen 
 thousand pounds sterling, which the owner is sure to 
 receive in cash ; which is by no means the case with 
 landed property. It is common, on this account, to 
 hear a man spoken of as being the possessor of one or 
 more " stone" (i. e. brick) houses, just as his estates or 
 his funded thousands would be spoken of in England ; 
 whereas Russian landed property is considered much 
 in the lig-ht that West Indian and Irish estates would
 
 156 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 be with us. And again, even the land itself is never 
 considered as property of any intrinsic value ; the 
 number of serfs and peasants on it, which the owner 
 possesses, being judged as the only criterion of wealth. 
 According to the government in Avhich the property 
 is situated, these slaves produce from ten shillings to 
 two or three pounds annually per head ; but revolt, 
 sickness, or famine, often render this return un- 
 certain. 
 
 It is obvious that where, in a general way, no agri- 
 cultural labourers are to be hired at wages which -will 
 alloAv the hirer any remuneration, (every man employ- 
 ing his own serfs to cultivate his own ground,) the 
 soil, without the agriculturists, must be valueless. 
 There are proprietors possessing an extent of territory 
 equal to the whole of England, who do not draw as 
 much fi'om it as others from a thousand acres which 
 are naturally no more fertile, but only better peopled. 
 
 Again, from the universal dishonesty and venality 
 inborn in all classes of Russians, there are no means 
 for an extensive proprietor to guard his property 
 from the wholesale depredations of those who admi- 
 nister it. But with the location of a house in St. 
 Petersburg or Moscow, fraud is much more easily 
 prevented; and, on the other hand, until lately, the 
 government granted most encouraging mortgages, to 
 enable speculators to build to an immense extent. 
 
 Thus, a brick, or, as it is called, a stone house, is 
 considered as the safest and most tangible investment 
 and security ; and many a wealthy Russian, travelling 
 abroad, is the proprietor — not of funded property or 
 estates — but of a sinijle lod2;ino;-house in St. Petersburg.
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 157 
 
 The ignoble portion of the town we have described 
 comprises about four-fifths of it, but is redeemed here 
 and there by some stupendous government edifice, 
 which is kept scrupulously clean, and in size seems to 
 have been proportioned to the extent of the overgrown 
 Russian empire. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, 
 every clean-looking and extensive building, which is 
 not a mere lodging-house, is sure to be the property 
 of government. 
 
 Interspersed with these are the numerous Muscovite 
 churches, with their mosque-like domes, their minarets 
 adorned with gilding and paint, and scrupulously 
 whitewashed. These churches, in the true old Mus- 
 covite style, have about them an air peculiarly national 
 and pleasing; and, however indifferent in taste, by 
 their picturesquely oriental appearance, they inspire 
 a respect which we do not feel for the pretending 
 edifices which parody the architecture of southern 
 and western civilization. 
 
 The Neva, which, with its clear arrowy waters, 
 washes the palaces of the imperii city, is a beautiful 
 river. It divides, just where St. Petersburg is situated, 
 into many arms, which embrace the islands that a 
 portion of the city covers. By night, the scene is 
 most striking, when its waters reflect the thousands of 
 lights from the shore, and when, by the blaze which 
 streams from all the windows of the winter palace — 
 and the winter palace is all windows — frigates, cor- 
 vettes, and yachts, are seen at anchor before the im- 
 perial residence. 
 
 But this magnificent river, which connects these 
 palaced shoree, is only traversed by three miserable
 
 158 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 bridges of wooden boats, and when the ice breaks up, 
 or the frost sets in, the communication between one- 
 half of the city and the other is often intercepted for 
 several days together. 
 
 Considerable difficulties present themselves to op- 
 pose the construction of a bridge of stone over the 
 Neva. When the spring thaw takes place, the rapid 
 current brings down complete icebergs, which, if the 
 arches were too near each other, finding no passage, 
 would rise one above the other till a mass accumulated, 
 which might endanger the security of the whole fabric. 
 If, on the other hand, the arches are made far apart, 
 the height to Avhich they must necessarily be raised, 
 would elevate the bridge to an unsightly height above 
 the adjacent banks. 
 
 Two winters since, the mighty potentate of Russia 
 was delayed from crossing by the rebellious waters, 
 and it was decreed that a bridge should be built, 
 and a tax was and has been since levied for that pur- 
 pose. But the foregoing were the difficulties which 
 presented themselves, in addition to the estimated 
 million sterling of cost. 
 
 It is true that the modern art of the blacksmith 
 would have obviated the difficulty, by a chain-bridge 
 at one-quarter the cost. There exists in Switzerland 
 a suspension-bridge for foot-passengers, within fifty 
 feet as -wide as the Neva. But on this plan the em- 
 peror put his veto, declaring that a chain-bridge might 
 be destroyed by one night's labour with the file ; — a 
 reason which was applauded as displaying extraor- 
 dinary acuteness and sagacity, by the committee 
 appointed to decide on the plans submitted ; although
 
 A^'D ITS INHABITANTS. 159 
 
 it is evident that, in a chain-bridge, only the links cut 
 through would have to be replaced ; whereas the arch 
 of a stone bridge may be blown up by a boat-load of 
 gunpowder by the evil-disposed, if the determined 
 malice of such is to be anticipated. 
 
 In speaking of the want of sculptural taste and 
 talent which the monuments of St. Petersburg exhibit, 
 we must except the famous statue of Peter, and still 
 more pointedly the bronze horses on one of the bridges 
 
 in the Nevsky prospect, recently cast b}^ Baron , 
 
 the most promising of Russian artists. Each piece 
 represents a naked figure struggling with a fiery steed ; 
 and duplicates on plaster, bronze-coloured, are placed 
 opposite to them. 
 
 Equestrian sculpture has progressed, if the art of 
 delineatins; the human fio-ure, both with the chisel and 
 the pencil, has retrograded. Only a few of the best 
 pieces of Thorwaldsen and Canova equal some of the 
 great antiques, and we do not know that the best 
 pieces of the latter have come down to us. We have 
 no living painters who would rank amongst the cele- 
 brities of that comparatively modeiTi art ; we compare 
 them together, but whom of them do we venture to 
 compare to Guido, Raphael, Rubens, or Murillo ? 
 But with regard to the delineation of the horse, an 
 immense stride has been taken. The exquisite sense of 
 beauty of form and expression, which the ancients 
 entertained with regard to the human figure, were 
 evidently entirely wanting in their appreciation of the 
 noble animal who bears unconsciously so large a share 
 in the triumphs and glories of mankind. The finest 
 steed vipon the Trajan column would not be worth
 
 160 ■ ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 ten pounds if called into life, and the horse-chanter, at 
 a London dealer's, has an eye for the proportions of 
 the animal, which those who fashioned the immortal 
 productions of Grecian art entirely wanted, to judge 
 from the relics they have left us, and from their perfect 
 drawing of the human hgure, which shews, that they 
 could as easily have represented the horse, had they 
 known or felt what the horse ought to have been like. 
 The formation of the steed of the Greeks and Romans 
 was very peculiar, and some traces of it are perhaps only 
 to be met with now in the Italian breeds. Its charac- 
 teristics were the very heavy ewe neck, (whereas in 
 our modern breeds the ewe neck is generally light, and 
 the heavy crest curved,) and also somewhat of a stag- 
 like build of body ; whereas our modern ideal is more 
 of the greyhound or even hare-like shape. The horse 
 of the ancient Greeks and Romans was as far from 
 beauty as the Egyptian statues, with their heavy negro 
 lips, from human perfection ; but, at the same time, it 
 is not unworthy of remark, that the Egyptians seem 
 to have been acquainted with a breed more like the 
 Arabian of later times, if we may judge from their 
 rude and barbarous paintings. 
 
 The painters of modern centuries, who were no 
 equestrians, took it for granted that the great masters 
 of antiquity, so perfect in their appreciation of the beau- 
 ties of the human form, must be equally acquainted 
 with those of the horse, and either blindly followed 
 the ancients, or transferred to their canvass the heavy 
 animals in use in the times and centuries wherein they 
 flourished. Horace Vernet had, therefore, an ample 
 field before him, and the disciples of the brush and
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 161 
 
 chisel who have since pictured or modelled the horse, 
 stood in a position far more favourable than where 
 they have attempted the human figure, because 
 nothing great existed wherewith to contrast their 
 efforts. Half a century ago, nothing in the shape of 
 the noble quadruped existed in any works of art, 
 which could be compared even to Wyatt's horse, which 
 bears the statue of George III. 
 
 This horse (whether a portrait or not we are not 
 aware) is a light, thoroughbred hack, correctly de- 
 lineated in form, though there is a stiffness about it 
 
 which is not life. The horses of Baron are full 
 
 of fire and spirit, and the consequent poetry- of motion. 
 Both have the merit of being comparatively perfect in 
 anatomy and detail ; but the Baron's horses, the reverse 
 of Wyatt's, are faulty in shape ; and in the formation 
 of the horse, as in the formation of the human being, 
 the harmony of strength is beauty. 
 
 Those practical judges of strength, the sporting men 
 of England, may choose a man disproportionately 
 muscular in certain limbs, as peculiarly applicable for 
 a certain purpose ; but if they had to select the form 
 best fitted for every imaginable kind of fatigue and 
 exertion in the same individual, they v/ould unhesitat- 
 ingly select the Apollo Belvidere, or the still more 
 beautiful Antinous, of the ancients. Still it is evident 
 
 that if Baron had known what the form of the 
 
 steed should be, he would have succeeded in portray- 
 ing it as well as he has the spirit, which he has so 
 happily seized, and the anatomical detail with which 
 he is so well acquainted. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 Whilst on the subject of works of art, we must 
 observe that the taste of the Muscovite in this respect, 
 is as antithetical to that of the Italian, as his cold 
 climate is to the warm sky of Italy. With the excep- 
 tion of music, for which the Russians have naturally 
 ear and taste, and talent and voice, none of the Muses 
 have smiled on the Barbaric genius of this Sclavonic 
 nation. It is true that wealthy Russians have always 
 been munificent patrons of art, in as far as purchasing 
 its most expensive productions. But although Russia 
 is filled with these, it is lamentable to see the genuine 
 pictures of the great masters, hung unconsciously up 
 by the side of daubs and copies unfit for signs, and 
 that by those possessors who have the reputation 
 of being judges. It is common to see paintings 
 unworthy of the back -parlour of an alehouse, 
 even in England, where taste in the fine arts is 
 so exotic, adorning the walls of a Russian magnate's 
 palace, without being an eyesore to any of his 
 visiters. 
 
 In fact, the Russian noble, when travelling, purchases 
 statues and pictures, not by his own appreciation of 
 their value, but from their price and from hearsay, 
 and consequently is constantly egregiously deceived. 
 Some years ago, a connoisseur made a collection of the 
 most choice engravings known, besides numerous pic- 
 tures, which had graduall}^ descended from the lordly 
 halls for which they had been purchased at extrava- 
 gant prices, to hucksters' stalls, where a few pence 
 were asked for them. The original proprietors, who 
 had collected them all over Europe, dying, their 
 heirs, or those who purchased their furniture, utterly
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 163 
 
 ignorant of their value, cast all those aside which 
 were dirty or tarnished. The purchases made for 
 a few hundred pounds, afterwards realized, in 
 civilized Europe, upwards of a hundred and twenty 
 thousand. 
 
 This frequent incongruous mixture of daubs and 
 valuable pictures, may be witnessed even in the most 
 magnificent imperial collection, in the gallery of the 
 Hermitage — one of the four or five finest in the world. 
 Many of the best pictui'cs of the best masters, all the 
 productions of each master being classed together, are 
 mingled with unmistakable copies. At least so it was 
 before the gallery, which is now being re-constructed, 
 was pulled down. 
 
 The Muscovites, who have made some figure as 
 copyists, according to the imitative genius of the 
 nation, have made none as original painters in any 
 style. A certain BrulofF, who has launched boldly 
 into the tragedy of painting, the historic school, is 
 considered as by far the best of their painters, and 
 meets with consequent applause and encouragement. 
 To the glory of being the first of Russian painters, he 
 may be well entitled ; but his chef-cVoeuvre, a colossal 
 picture representing the destruction of Pompeii, is 
 plainly a plagiarism from Martin ; but it wants the 
 grandeur, the magnificent scenery, and the deep back- 
 ground in which Martin shows the beholder on his 
 canvass what he could never have witnessed in reality 
 — the spectacle of half a million of people. BruIofF's 
 picture is contracted and confused ; it does not con- 
 tain a group or an attitude which does not strike you 
 as having met your eye elsewhere, but less constrained 
 m2
 
 164 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 and stiff. Added to this, the colouring is opaque and 
 heavy.* 
 
 Perhaps the cleverest of the Muscovite children of 
 the brush or pencil, was the late Orloffsky. His 
 rough sketches of Cossacs, drivers, and in general 
 what comes under the denomination of *' sujets de 
 fjenre" command immense prices, and are full of 
 character and spirit. Orloffsky may be, in some 
 measure, compared to our own inimitable Morland, 
 of all our painters, the one most keenly appreciated 
 by foreign taste when known, and yet, singularly 
 
 * " A great noise is made in Russia about the talent of Bruloff. 
 His ' Last Day of Pompeii' has, it is said, produced some sensa- 
 tion in Italy. Tliis enormous canvass now constitutes the glory 
 of the Russian school at Petersburg. Don't laugh at this designa- 
 tion. I saw, when going over the Academy of Painting, a door, 
 on which were inscribed these words — Ecole Russe ! ! ! To me 
 the colouring of Bruloff's picture appears false : indeed, the sub- 
 ject chosen by the artist was a fit one for veiling this defect; for 
 who can know what was the colour of the buildings of Pompeii 
 on their last day ? The pencil of this artist is dry, his touch 
 hard, but he has force. His conceptions are not deficient in 
 either imagination or originality. His heads have variety and 
 truth. If he but understood the use of the chiaro-scuro, he might 
 perhaps some day deserve the reputation -s^hich is awarded to him 
 here. At present he is deficient in nature, colouring, lightness, 
 grace, and he has no feeling for the beautiful, though he is not 
 wanting in a sort of wild poetry. At any rate, the general effect 
 of his pictures is disagreeable to the eye ; and his style, stiff, but 
 not destitute of force, reminds the spectator of the school of 
 David. It is drawn as if from plaster models, and ^\•ith much 
 care, and coloured at random. In a picture of the Assumption, 
 which people at Petersburg agree in admiring, because it is by 
 the/(2»?o?w Bruloff, I have remarked clouds so heavy that they 
 might be sent to the opera to serve for rocks." — Ciistinc's Russia.
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 165 
 
 enough, known so little. Like Morland, Orloffsky 
 seems to have been a wayward, moody, and uncertain 
 genius, but is very far from equalling the hasty pro- 
 ductions in which 3Iorland reflected nature on his 
 canvass, dashing on his colours with a head still 
 throbbing, and a hand still trembling, from the pro- 
 tracted orgies of days and nights.
 
 166 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ST. PETERSBURG AND ITS INHABITANTS. 
 
 If the city of St. Petersburg in itself presents nothing, 
 except its Muscovite churches, which is characteristic 
 or national, it is different with the aspect of the crowds 
 which throng its streets. The beards, the long hair, 
 and the long coats or caftans and sash, of two- thirds of 
 the passers-by ; the peculiar vehicles and harness ; the 
 costume of the Russian coachmen, intermingled with 
 the ordinary dress, appearance, and equipages of other 
 European cities ; — all these are striking and novel. 
 
 The principal distinction between unpretending 
 plebeianism and aristocratic pretension, of whatever 
 grade of the fourteen classes into which the law 
 divides it, consists in the retention or rejection of the 
 national costume. The bearded and caftaned Russian 
 never holds any rank or chen ; he is never a holder of 
 slaves; he is subject to corporal punishment at the 
 discretion of a police officer, and he is often a slave 
 himself. He may be a driver, or shopman, or shop- 
 keeper, or a merchant worth his hundred thousand
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 167 
 
 pounds. He is distinguished from the moujik or 
 peasant only by not wearing the sheepskin or coarse 
 brown cloth, but arrays himself instead in the caftan 
 or shube, a robe of blue or green cloth, in winter lined 
 with fur, and distinctive of the bourgeoisie. Exter- 
 nally, the wealthy first-guild merchant has nothing to 
 distinguish him from the lowest of his class, except 
 sometimes the value of his furs. 
 
 The bearded Russian, whatever the real influence 
 his wealth may give him, (and it may be imagined to 
 be not little, in the most venal country under the 
 sun,) were he to enter any place of fashionable public 
 resort, would be looked upon much in the same light 
 as a private soldier in England, taking his seat in a 
 similar place of entertainment in his regimentals. 
 And there is some foundation for the prejudice which 
 excludes him — namely, his insupportable odour. This 
 odour, no doubt, arises from Muscovite habits. The 
 Russian is very heedless in the change of his clothes, 
 although constantly resorting to the vapour-bath ; but 
 in this vapour-bath, which is his greatest luxury, 
 he exposes himself to a heat of steam which, in a cer- 
 tain space of time, would suffice to cook fish, and thus 
 induces a most copious perspiration, which he perpe- 
 tually keeps up by drinking inconceivable quantities 
 of warm water tinged with tea, and of quass, which is 
 water impregnated with the acid of rye flour, or a 
 little honey. He also eats large quantities of the rank 
 hemp-seed oil, either as a soup, or in his pastrj'-, his 
 buckwheat, or his vegetables, during the fast, which 
 lasts half the year. But the principal bulk of his food 
 is the fermented cabbage, and the sour black bread 
 
 t
 
 168 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 which is scarcely more nourishing than bran. Some- 
 thing of the essence of all these things seems to stream 
 through his pores with the perspiration ; or at all 
 events, he smells as if they did. 
 
 Now whether the bearded Muscovite be the pos- 
 sessor of millions, or a beggar, this pdour never aban- 
 dons him, because his mode of life is nearly the same, 
 only that, in addition to these things, the wealthy drink 
 porter, champagne, and revel occasionally in every 
 delicacy, though, on ordinar}'- occasions, dipping into 
 the same wooden bowl with their subordinates. The 
 great distinction is the costume and beard : the shaven 
 Russian is always a man of some rank, or wishes to be 
 thought so, and with the shaven chin, always corres- 
 ponds either a civil or military uniform, or a European 
 habit; but as the absence of the beard, which the 
 moujik glories in, is distinctive of civilization, no vestige 
 of whisker is seen upon the faces of those who eschew 
 the national costume, unless adorning the physiognomy 
 of foreigners. The Emperor Alexander, who had few 
 sympathies with, or prejudices in favour of, his sub- 
 jects, declared that he knew a Russian of any rank 
 by the smell, and he frequently caused perfumes to 
 be burned when they left his presence. 
 
 If we stand in any frequented part of St. Peters- 
 burg, and watch the passing crowd of shaven and 
 unshaven Russians, the latter predominating according 
 as it is a more or less fashionable quarter, we observe 
 as great a variety in the appearance of the vehicles 
 which whirl them by, as in those who ride within, or 
 constitute the stream of foot-passengers. Li the win- 
 ter season, when St. Petersburg is in its glory, let us 
 take the corner of the Nevsky prospect.
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 169 
 
 The old body of a chariot placed upon a sleigh 
 without its wheels, is rapidly whisked past by four 
 rough-looking little horses, wiry and uncouth as the 
 rudest of Welsh ponies, with long ragged tails and 
 manes. Two footmen, in furred greatcoats, with 
 enormous cocked-hats, stand behind the carriage ; a 
 coachman, bearded, caftaned, and wearing the qua- 
 drangular velvet cap which distinguishes his profes- 
 sion, sits on the box, the reins in both hands, without a 
 whip. One of the leaders is mounted by a boy dressed 
 like the coachman, sitting on a high Tartar saddle, the 
 skirts of his ample caftan being tucked round his 
 legs. This may be a minister, a counsellor of state, 
 or some man high in office, driving to the palace. His 
 dingy equipage shows the negligence to externals of 
 the man in power. His four horses are not worth 
 forty pounds ; but these are the hacks which save his 
 fat, sleek, showy nags, of which he has many sets. 
 These horses are harnessed according to the fashion 
 which the Russians have derived from their former 
 Tartar conquerors. The collar is very light, so are 
 the breeching and traces, and all of black oiled leather, 
 which, in dry weather, wears eternally. In the mouth, 
 the horse has nothing but a snaffle. 
 
 Next, perhaps, passes a coach on wheels. The 
 coach itself was abandoned some fifteen years ago in 
 Germany, by some fastidious Englishman, who deemed 
 it worn out, and no longer worth repairing ; but since 
 then it has been constantly in use, and changing 
 hands, and wall probably do service for many years 
 longer, though rather antiquated now. This vehicle 
 is also driven by a Russian bearded coachman ; but it
 
 170 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 is considered to be in the English taste, because a 
 heavy and gaudy old harness, in the English fashion, 
 fastens the horses to the pole. The horses themselves 
 have a touch of the heavy Mecklenburg breed about 
 them. They are nicked, and retain the smallest 
 imaginable stump of a tail. If there are four horses, 
 a heavy postihon, parodying the costume of an English 
 postboy, sits in his saddle like an Austrian dragoon. 
 This is one of the thousand equipages at the disposal 
 of the court, got up in the German department of the 
 imperial stables, and supposed to be in English style, 
 or else the property of some German official. 
 
 Then dashes by us, at an astounding pace, the 
 bearded coachman shouting as he drives along, a light 
 sledge, of polished walnut or maple wood, scarcely 
 heavier than an arm-chair. The horses are bright 
 bay or jet-black, glossy in coat, and so sleek and fat, 
 that the near horse, as he canters or gallops along, 
 covers the trace with foam ; for the near horse gallops 
 always the same shoulder foremost, his neck being 
 rounded, from his head being strapped down, so that 
 his long mane almost trails in the snow. The off 
 horse in reality draws the vehicle. He is harnessed 
 between shafts, and these shafts are held forcibly 
 apart, so as to yield him some support, by a bow 
 about the thickness of a man's wrist, which rises high 
 over his head, above the collar, and to which he is 
 bound by a bearing-rein. This horse trots, whilst 
 the one beside him canters, and the effect is very 
 graceful, when the galloping horse, or pristastcha, is 
 showy ; but it is painful to behold, when the curb of 
 the neck, instead of appearing natural in a fiery
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 171 
 
 animal, is evidently tortui'ing some worn-out brute, 
 which flounders wearily along, as is so often the 
 case. 
 
 In this sledge sits an officer in the guards — a 
 Russian nobleman — enveloped in the light bluish-grey 
 cloak of the Russian army, with a collar of the beau- 
 tiful fur of the sea-otter muffling up his face, and a 
 white cock-tail feather streaming from his preposte- 
 rously large cocked-hat. He is a man of family and 
 fortune ; his conversation will amuse you for an hour ; 
 he appears high-bred and gentleman-like ; — but con- 
 verse with him for a thousand hours, and the theme 
 is always the same — champagne, cards, and French 
 actresses. Make your way into his confidence, and 
 learn the nearest wish of his heart, and a hundred to 
 one it is, to get rid of his uniform. 
 
 The next is the equipage of a Russian magnate in 
 all its glory. The carnage is bran new, with exceed- 
 ingly showy arms upon the panels; for although, 
 properly speaking, no Russian famil}^ is entitled to 
 quarter arms, since the whole nation was plunged in 
 the profoundest barbarism long after the last epoch 
 when men bore their cognisance upon their shields, 
 yet every Russian glories in having them as a sort of 
 ornament, particularly if adorned with much gilding, 
 and parti-coloured. The footmen behind the carriage 
 are wrapped in magnificent many-caped great coats. 
 The capes and the rim of their huge cocked-hats are 
 trimmed with a broad gold or silver lace, checkered 
 with alternate squares, on which the arms of the 
 owner are embroidered. The collar of the footmen's 
 great coats, and the trimming of the bearded coach-
 
 172 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 man"s caftan and velvet cap, are of sable or sea-otter, 
 and worth, perhaps, a hundred guineas. 
 
 The horses, light-limbed, arch-necked, and sleek- 
 coated, show all the useless points of breeding, and 
 the skilful grooming of their dark, glossy coats, shows 
 off the light and elegant harness, which is relieved by 
 silver ornaments and studs, like the cowrie-shells on 
 the Morisco bridles. But perhaps one of those gor- 
 geous footmen standinf? behind the carriap;e shows the 
 toe of his foot coming through his boot, one of those 
 showy horses wants a shoe, and some part of the 
 brilliant harness is fastened with a piece of rope. 
 
 The noble owner is in uniform, although he has 
 paid the onerous tribute of military service ; he has 
 just returned from his three years' permission to travel. 
 Like every Russian, whose first principle is to do at 
 Rome as Rome does, when abroad he has echoed the 
 opinions of the liberal society in which he has mingled, 
 and when speaking of despotism, he has spoken avec 
 connoissance de cause ; but, like most of his country- 
 men, the liberality of his ideas, or at least of those he 
 professes, has been gradually freezing up as he ap- 
 proached his native frontier, and he is beset by vague 
 and instinctive terrors, that his words have been 
 picked up by the quick ears of diplomatic spies and 
 their agents, and transmitted home, or that what they 
 have not overheard, may in malice have been attri- 
 buted to him. He is going thus early, to endeavour 
 to learn from some friend at court how the land lies ; 
 but, meanwhile, there is about him the suspicious and 
 fearful air of a hound crouching in his terror, and 
 until something is known of how the imperial sun
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 173 
 
 will deign to shine upon him, he is shunned as in- 
 fected, by all who, when his fears have proved un- 
 founded, a few days hence will be his intimates. 
 
 His lady is in delicate health, and ill from the 
 effects of the journey ; but if an invitation should be 
 graciously vouchsafed to him, she must quit her sick 
 chamber, and appear, at the risk of fainting under her 
 diamonds, lest the empress should remark, as the 
 Marquis de Custine observes, " That Madame So- 
 and-so is always ill ;" thus cutting off his slender hopes 
 of court favour.* Not that the wealthy magnate 
 wants anything of the court ; his under-steward cheats 
 him annually out of a larger sum than remunerates 
 the highest office in the empire : but a portion of 
 court favour is a protection against all the thousand 
 annoyances of the machinery of despotic government, 
 and the caprice of autocratic jealousy or prejudice. 
 Perhaps, at this moment, if anything interrupts the 
 anxious thoughts which fill his mind, a feeling of envy 
 flashes across it, as that wealthy bearded merchant 
 darts past him in a light sledge, with a powerful half- 
 bred racing trotter, of the famous Orloft' breed, which 
 his coachman, his body half bent forward, and sawing 
 the snaffle-bit to restrain the eager animal, is driving 
 
 • Those who have not the courage or the health requisite for 
 shai'ing this terrible life, are not in favour. The Empress, sj^eak- 
 ing of a woman of high distinction, but delicate in constitution, 
 said to me, the other day, " She is always ailing." B}^ the tone 
 and the air with wliich this sentence was pronounced, I felt that 
 the fate of a family was decided. In a world ■\\here people are 
 not satisfied with good intentions, an illness is equivalent to a 
 disarrace. — Custine'' s Eiissia.
 
 174 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 down to the race-course on the ice, the principal 
 place of amusement of his fellows. 
 
 The noble sighs as he thinks that the enfranchised 
 peasant has acquired millions of roubles in his trade, 
 which, as a capital employed in speculations, he often 
 gathers together in cash, without exciting suspicion, 
 and which he might transmit abroad, and then fly 
 himself; whereas he, the noble, dare not brave the 
 dangers that would attend the attempt to transfer his 
 property abroad, the vigilance of the secret police 
 spies in learning his intentions, or the treachery of 
 his agents or relatives in carrying them out. But the 
 bearded merchant has no wish to leave his country ; 
 he speaks no language but the Russ, and if he has 
 become acquainted wdth the luxuries of civilization, 
 it is only to ingraft them on, not to exchange them 
 with, his barbarous habits. The noble, therefore, 
 looks on him as an imprisoned bird might look on 
 another whose cage was open, but who had no thought 
 of flying away. 
 
 Who is it that passes in that dingy vehicle, with 
 the usual long traces, which connect the leaders and 
 wheelers of his equipage, and which almost trail in the 
 mud as it turns the corner ? He wears a sort of uni- 
 form ; he has an air of astuteness ; and the spectacles 
 upon his nose appear to have been long worn rather 
 to conceal the expression of those cunning eyes than 
 to assist their vision. This is a judge-general; for, as 
 the fourteen ranks of the Chen class everything by 
 military titles, as president of one of the first courts of 
 justice of the empire, he is addressed as general. 
 The pay of his office, in the expensive and luxurious
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 175 
 
 residence of the court, will not defray his wife's French 
 miUiner's bill; he had no fortune, neither had she; 
 he has never inherited any ; — and yet he has, since* 
 his appointment, purchased estates containing eight 
 thousand slaves, which produce him at least as many 
 pounds sterling of annual rental. 
 
 If the severity of the Emperor Nicholas has made 
 the sale of justice a trade requiring some vigilance, 
 you see it at least a thriving and profitable one. 
 
 Let us return to the koupitz, or merchant, and his 
 favourite steed, for both are the types of a race who 
 play a great figure amongst the modern Muscovites. 
 
 Ivan Ivanovitch — John the son of John — got per- 
 mission thirty years ago, from his lord and master, to 
 seek for work, by paying his abrok, or yearly tribute. 
 The instinct of traffic is as natural to the Muscovite 
 as to the Hebrew, and he is both a shrewd and a bold 
 speculator. He began as a pedlar ; then perhaps he 
 kept a lavka, or petty shop ; from thence speculated 
 in corn, or oil, or hemp, or hides. He has undertaken 
 government contracts, and had the capital and spirit 
 to bribe high enough to obtain them, and then to 
 bribe to evade the fulfilment of them. He has been, 
 or may become, lord mayor of St. Petersburg, or of 
 his native town ; but he is seldom ambitious of any 
 honours, which he looks upon as a pretext for fleecing 
 him ; unless, indeed, he gets one of the' crosses, which 
 dangle by scores about the breasts of the hungry 
 employes and officers ; for this at once makes him a 
 nobleman, and enables him to purchase slaves. He 
 has probably now attained the summit of his wishes, 
 and realized the ideas of perfect felicity of a Russian
 
 176 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 of his class — in his estimate of which, the possession 
 of a fat wife, a fat cat, and a fat horse, have a consider- 
 *able share. 
 
 His ordinary mode of Hfe is frugaL He never 
 abandons his fermented cabbage, his buck-wheat gruel, 
 his luscious oil, his fish-pies, and his raw salt-herring 
 and onion ; but when he invites any one to his table, 
 every imaginable luxury from every quarter of the 
 globe is stored upon it. Nevertheless, he scarcely 
 ever concludes a bargain in his business without drop- 
 ping into a fruit-shop. These fruiterers are at once 
 wine-merchants, grocers, sellers of every variety of 
 indigenous and foreign fruit, cheesemongers, and 
 oil and Italian warehousemen, and make a most 
 tempting display of their goods. Here a certain 
 number of bottles of champagne or London porter 
 are drunk, with a luncheon of Caviar or a few oysters. 
 The average price of oysters (which are not found in 
 the brackish waters of the Baltic) is, in St. Petersburg, 
 about a shilling a-piece, which raises them infinitely 
 in the estimation of the Russians, who do not object 
 to their being occasionally high-flavoured. 
 
 In the warm weather, the great luxuiy is the water- 
 melon, which arrives in great quantities from Southern 
 Russia ; and at home, in his profuse moments, the 
 bearded merchant may be seen sitting with one of 
 these cool fruits, into the heart of which he has 
 scooped a hole, ser\dng him as a hat, the juice 
 trickling down and anointing his patriarchal beard. 
 
 He drives out, when in a carriage, with four horses, 
 because this is a privilege which, as a first-guild mer- 
 chant, he holds in common with the nobility — and, in
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 177 
 
 fact, the only one. The costume of his wife and 
 daughter is, in common, homely and dowdy ; but on 
 great occasions they appear in public in all the 
 magnificence of pink and sky-blue satins, marabout 
 feathers, and expensive furs and diamonds. 
 
 With regard to himself, his principal hobby is his 
 horse. For his own sledge he estimates the beauty 
 of the animal by his breadth and fatness ; for the race- 
 course he is naturally influenced by certain breeds 
 and performance. He seldom drives, and never 
 rides — as, in fact, no Muscovite unmixed with Cossac 
 or Polish blood willingly does ; but yet he does not 
 hesitate to give from five hundi'ed to fifteen hundred 
 pounds for a horse — always for what he considers his 
 beauty and his weight, or his speed as a trotter. 
 
 So much has been said about the rapid rate of 
 travelling, and the extraordinary" powers of endurance 
 of Russian horses, that a stranger is led to expect 
 much, and is consequently disappointed. The national 
 breeds of Russian horses, (if we except the ponies 
 natural to all northern countries,) having been princi- 
 pally derived from the Tartar, they contain far more 
 breeding — i. e., more of the Arab blood, from which all 
 excellence is derived — than the horses of France, Ger- 
 many, Belgium, or Holland, and are consequently 
 more lasting ; but they are bony, angular, ewe-necked, 
 and unsightly ; are far from being fast ; and want of 
 care, a cold climate, and coarse food, have rendered 
 their appearance still more unsightly. 
 
 Wherever an equestrian population has paid more 
 attention to the breed, as in the instance of the Cossacs 
 and Tartars, it has less deteriorated, and is an exceed- 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 ingly serviceable one. Some reigns back an attempt was 
 made, and has been since continued, to ameliorate it, 
 by crossing ^t \\hh. Arabian and English thoroughbred 
 blood. The result was the production of excellent 
 horses, but which retained the angularity and un- 
 graceful form of the Muscovite horse ; in consequence 
 of which, heavy Flemish and Mecklenburg mares 
 ■were introduced, and crossed with the English barb 
 and Arab. Studs were foraied all over the country, 
 and from this stock all the cavalry and carriage-horses 
 are supplied; but as breeding was not understood, 
 half-breds and half-breds were constantly mingled ; so 
 that only the useless and showy points of blood are 
 conspicuous. 
 
 The OrlofF breed — the most renowned in Russia, 
 especially the OrlofF trotters — spring from the same 
 origin. They are very large in size, and from the age 
 of one year, are harnessed to light sledges, and never 
 allowed to break trot ; so that an OrlofF trotter has, 
 perhaps, never galloped or cantered since he was 
 foaled, and thus, having lost all instinct of the pace, if 
 a wolf were at his heels, would still trot away from it. 
 When put to their utmost speed, these horses there- 
 fore trot at an astonishing pace. But the race which 
 generally takes place on the race-course on the frozen 
 Neva, opposite the palace, is seldom more than a 
 verst, or two-thirds of a mile, in length ; more fre- 
 quently only half that distance. They cannot therefore 
 be compared with English or American trotters. No 
 doubt that these latter cannot attain an equal speed for 
 short distances; though even for five miles the Orloff 
 horses would stand no chance — firstlv, from inherent
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 179 
 
 want of blood, and secondly, from want of condition, 
 being always as fat as the horses in the life-guard 
 barracks. 
 
 On the other hand, of all the continental nations of 
 Europe, the best thorough-bred horses are now bred 
 in Russia, in the vicinity of Moscow. Of course they 
 are by good English thorough-bred stallions, out of 
 mares of the same blood; and the result has been 
 attained by the employment of English trainers, 
 grooms, and jockeys. A Mr. P — , in particular, has 
 been very successful, and his horses having been tried 
 against thorough-breds of an inferior stamp, pur- 
 chased at immense prices for the imperial family, and 
 imported from England, may probably be, in two or 
 three instances, estimated as having attained to the 
 value of from a hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 pounds, for our own turf, and capable of winning 
 many petty stakes. 
 
 Four or five years ago, no foreign country could 
 boast of as much. The society of Verviers, in Bel- 
 gium, perhaps came nearest, and by employing means 
 almost similar. The object in breeding racers is, 
 however, in Russia, by the few who have attempted 
 it, solely to win the prizes awarded by the crown to 
 native-born horses. The Russians never bet upon 
 the event of the race, (unless it be a trotting race) 
 beyond a few pounds, although they will gamble away 
 fortunes at cards. The man who refuses to back for 
 five and twenty pounds the colt he has watched and 
 reared, and imagines to be the best in the world, will 
 sit down and play ecarte all night long, at fifty pounds 
 a game. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 Again : the Russian, the true Muscovite, at best 
 not prone to the saddle, does not trust himself to ride 
 the thorough-breds he rears; so that it is, on the 
 whole, questionable whether these first successful 
 steps in the only right road to secure a superior breed 
 of horses — viz., by the introduction of a taste for racing, 
 — will not eventually stop short. 
 
 With regard to the powers of endurance of the 
 Cossac horse, extraordinary tales are told, as ,in all 
 countries where no heavy wagers test the marvels re- 
 lated. The stories of wonderful performances are so 
 constantly and so well authenticated, that one could 
 hardly have doubted their immense superiority over 
 our own horses, had not the matter been set at rest by a 
 remarkable trial, towards the close of the late emperor's 
 reign. 
 
 A wager was laid by Mi'. Gibson, the English con- 
 sul, that two English horses would beat any two Cos- 
 sac horses which could be selected, at a race of fifty 
 versts, or upwards of thirty-three English miles. This 
 • took place long after the Cossac horses had been 
 improved by the admixture of English and Arabian 
 blood, and Mr. G. had no particular horses in view 
 in making the match. He commissioned a friend to 
 send two hunters for the purpose. Two tolerably 
 well-bred, but at that date naturally not thorough- 
 bred hunters, were sent out to him ; whilst the Rus- 
 sians selected out of some fifty thousand of the best 
 horses in the Cossac countrj^ The race took place 
 in the presence of the Emperor Alexander; regi- 
 ments of Cossacs were dispersed along the line to 
 keep it clear, thousands of pounds were betted on
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 181 
 
 the issue of the match, and an immense concourse of 
 people assembled to witness it. 
 
 It commenced under these disadvantages for the 
 Englishman : firstly, they had grown men to ride, 
 whilst the Cossac horses were ridden at feather 
 weight ; and secondly, one of the two English horses 
 fell dead lame at starting. The other, at the half- 
 way station, arrived whilst the two Cossacs were 
 far out of sight, and its rider being full of contempt 
 for his antagonists, he dismounted, both to refresh 
 himself and his steed; meanwhile the Cossacs came 
 up and passed onwards. 
 
 Now it happened that the commander of the Cossac 
 horsemen stationed to keep the line, was deeply in- 
 terested in the issue of the race, and by a very inge- 
 nious, if not very creditable, piece of jockeyship, he 
 had contrived to be made acquainted at every instant 
 with its progress. For this purpose the Cossacs had 
 private orders, whenever the Russians were a-head, to 
 hold their lances perpendicular, when the English 
 were foremost, to drop them horizontally. As the 
 horsemen were in sight of each other, this signal was 
 in a few minutes telegraphed from one to the other, 
 up to the count. At about the middle of the race, 
 where the English horse had stopped, the lances, after 
 being constantly down, were suddenly raised up, and 
 Orloff, imagining that now the bottom of the Cos- 
 sacs was beginning to tell, made sure of victory, and 
 betted another hundred thousand roubles on the event. 
 But he was caught in his own trap — the lances went 
 up again — the English horse came in at last, in 
 miserable plight, it is true, but the Cossac horses
 
 182 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 never came in at all, either dying or being obliged to 
 be killed where they had fallen. 
 
 With regard to the fast travelling in Russia, because 
 the horses are always galloping with a short stride, 
 and kicking up the snow, which generally forms an 
 admirable railroad, and because six or eight are har- 
 nessed to a sledge or carnage, foreigners are apt to 
 imagine that they go very fast. But it is probable that 
 even by dint of bribery, exhortations, and the distress 
 of his master's horses, to which the driver may be 
 allured, no private individual accomplishes an average 
 of fifteen versts an hour, which is ten miles, and eleven 
 versts is much more common. The emperor, indeed, 
 travels fast, but then horses constantly drop dead in 
 the harness, and those who do not will never again 
 perform a similar feat. 
 
 Next to the emperor, the feld jaegers, or couriers, 
 manage to obtain the greatest velocity ; you may see 
 one dashing round the corner just after the* bearded 
 merchant. A common sledge, or light cart, or talega, 
 is dragged along at the gallop of three ragged -looking 
 post-horses, harnessed abreast, and constituting the 
 troika. They are driven by a peasant, the feld jficger 
 himself, in an uniform not easily distinguishable froRSi 
 that of a field officer — a gray cloak with furred collar, 
 and a cocked hat with streaming white cock's feathers. 
 He has, perhaps, just arrived from a journey of a 
 couple of thousand miles, in charge of despatches, 
 without halting for half an hour on the road, and he 
 is certainly a most extraordinary personage, because 
 meet him when and where you will, he looks as smart
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 183 
 
 and as spruce as if prepared for parade, and you see 
 him whirl along through the dirt or snow, sitting 
 upright in a seat without even a back to it. He keeps 
 himself warm by exercising his whip on the backs of 
 post-boys and post-masters, and receives a salary of 
 about sixty pounds for going a distance equal to the 
 circumference of the earth in a season. But then, 
 although he is allowed money for post-horses, no post- 
 master dares take it, because he would revenge him- 
 self by driving the whole team to death ; consequently 
 his perquisites become very lucrative. 
 
 Let us next turn to that dashing family-sledge, with 
 its cloth of pale blue, lined and edged with black 
 bearskin, to match the liveries of the coachman and 
 postilion, whose caftans and velvet-caps are of the 
 same azure hue, trimmed with silver lace and some 
 kind of pale fur. The four black, glossy horses are 
 harnessed, leaders to wheelers as usual, with traces 
 twice the length of each horse, and which are kept 
 separate by a cross-bar, which occasionally trails in the 
 snow. Two footmen are on the foot-board, the broad 
 silver lace on their coats and cocked hats embroidered 
 witilj ^the owner's arms. The slave-coachman is a 
 portly and handsome-looking personage, but especially 
 distinguished by a black, silky, bushy beard, as ebon 
 in hue as any Turkish pasha ever dyes this hairy 
 ornament. The beauty and the beard of the coach- 
 man are considered essential to the perfection of the 
 Russian equipage. This one was won at ecarte by 
 his present mistress from another lady a few nights 
 ago, or exchanged for a Cashmere shawl.
 
 184 ST. PETERSBURG 
 
 The noble proprietress of this equipage reclines, 
 ■with her daughters, listlessly in the sledge. There is 
 a pallid languor about all these, which gives them an 
 exotic appearance, if "we may be allowed the expres- 
 sion, which no doubt arises from their being confined 
 so large a portion of the year at an African tempera- 
 ture. If not intermingled with Georgian, Polish, or 
 Livonian families, they are sure not to be beautiful, 
 though never vulgar in appearance ; but you must 
 never look into their mouths, particularly after the 
 contrast which the ivory teeth of the grinning coach- 
 man present, thrown in relief by his dark beard. The 
 costume of these ladies is always the last Parisian 
 fashion, except that they use the most expensive 
 materials, and prefer the most delicate colours. Some 
 pale tinted satin covers their cloaks, lined through 
 with furs of inestimable value, of which the hand- 
 somest part is shown at the collar. The cloak is 
 worth, perhaps, ten thousand roubles. 
 
 Whilst speaking of furs we cannot but observe how 
 little they are generally understood in England. Our 
 fair countiywomen are really seen to wear rubbish, 
 which a Russian lady's maid would disdain. And this 
 is not because, as is commonly imagined, furs are 
 cheap and abundant in Russia. On the contrary, 
 strange as it may appear, the great mass of furs used 
 in Russia comes from London, and every fur is worth 
 fifty or a hundred per cent, more there than in Eng- 
 land. Even the famous Siberian sable is not Siberian ; 
 it comes from the Kurile islands in the Pacific, whither 
 the Russian government every other year despatch a 
 vessel or two, which completes the circuit of the world.
 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS. 185 
 
 and returns laden with the productions of this distant 
 possession. 
 
 In London, one constantly sees well-dressed women 
 with imitation sables, although the real skin does not 
 cost above twelve shillings, the darkest-coloured from 
 twenty to thirty ; but the sable of the Kurile islands 
 may run as high as six guineas a single skin, and is 
 seldom under four in price ; whilst in the beauty of 
 its long, thick, light-feeling, and dark-coloured hair, 
 there is more difference than in the price. This is 
 the sable used by the Russian dames. But in addition 
 to this, two furs are generally worn in Russia, Avhich 
 are almost unknown in England — the most valuable 
 of all furs — the sea- otter and the black fox. The 
 fornSer is used for officers' cloak-collars, and this nar- 
 row strip cannot be obtained under ten pounds, in its 
 most inferior qualities. The black fox is used for 
 ladies' cloaks and muffs ; a single collar of it is worth 
 at least sixty guineas. 
 
 The countess or the princess and her daughter con- 
 verse only in French. Their sledge is now full of the 
 last novels by Sand, Paul de Kock, Eugene Sue, and 
 Soulie. 
 
 As woman is everywhere, the Russian women are 
 more generous and less selfish in disposition than the 
 men, and consequently less senile. They contemn 
 all that is Russian, and idolize what is foreign — 
 especially what is French. If you could read the 
 secret washes of those pale girls, what do you think 
 they .are ? You may feel disposed to believe that at 
 least their thoughts turn on matrimony : but not at 
 all ; it is ten to one if they are not longing or plotting
 
 186 ST. PETERSBURG. 
 
 or scheming some plan to get abroad, and take wing 
 away from that vast prison-house, the Russian empire. 
 In this feeling their noble mother full}' sympathizes 
 with them, and whilst waiting, albeit in vain, in the 
 hope of realizing their dreams, they will go home and 
 repose their full confidence in the French tutor and 
 the Swiss governess.
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 187 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 In Russia, for several reigns past, there has existed a 
 secret poHce. The Emperor Alexander, indeed, for 
 one moment, suppressed it, but was speedily forced to 
 re-establish it, by the dangers menacing his authority, 
 and even his life, — of which the reader will find a 
 detailed account in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 At first sight, the apparent necessity of continuing 
 this terrible institution appears a palliation, or even 
 almost a justification, of its existence ; but on reflec- 
 tion, we shall find that the restraints it imposed on a 
 large portion of Muscovite society resembled those 
 bonds which tie down a being writhing in pain ; it 
 was folly to remove the bonds without removing the 
 maddening cause of torture. Conspiring associations 
 sprung up on every side, amongst the nobility, like 
 mushrooms, as soon as the secret police was partially 
 abolished, and they took even so deep a root as to 
 endure long after its re-establishment ; but they sprang 
 up, because with the secret police a means of re- 
 pressing and discovering the machinations of the op-
 
 188 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 pressed was for a time abolished, whilst the oppres- 
 sion under which they laboured continued to endure. 
 
 A secret police exists even in many constitutional, 
 and in most despotically governed countries. In 
 Prussia and in Austria it is a very formidable instru- 
 ment of oppression ; but in Prussia it is tempered by 
 the fears and by the very ambition of government, 
 whose policy it is to render itself popular at any sacri- 
 fice short of its absolute power, to the neighbouring 
 Germans, and in its own heterogeneous dominions. 
 In Austria the aristocracy has still practically some 
 rights, privileges, and power, which partially check 
 this famous engine of despotism. But in the Russian 
 empire, which, more than a despotism, is essentially 
 an autocracy, this political and social inquisition is 
 unlimited, unbounded, and unmerciful in the exercise 
 of its authority. The reader may call to mind those 
 fearful accounts which appear, in the course of cen- 
 turies, almost to have exuded, like their subterranean 
 dew, through the dungeon walls in which the state 
 of Venice, the Wehmor Gericht, and the Spanish 
 inquisition, confined and tortured prisoners, whose 
 disappearance alone was known, though no, one dared 
 to comment on it; their crime and their punishment 
 alike remaining in all the mystery of the grave, ex- 
 cepting in those few rare instances which inspired 
 the human mind with its proverbial horror, both of 
 the apparent omniscience and the relentless cruelty of 
 these terrible institutions. 
 
 Let the reader picture to himself all that he has 
 read, which has been authenticated, and all that his 
 imagination has probably pictured, concerning these.
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 189 
 
 applying it to the secret police of the Russian empire, 
 and he will still remain behind the reality in estimating 
 its dark, mysterious power, its universal penetration into 
 what appeared impenetrable privacy, and in the terror 
 it inspires. Every man in the empire, from Field 
 Marshal Paskevitch, Prince of Warsaw, (until recently 
 the only man of the first of the fourteen classes,) down 
 to the humblest individual above the condition of the 
 serf, feels or fears that its all-seeing eye is watching 
 his conduct, and often viewing it with vision dis- 
 torted by private malignity, revenge, or envy. From 
 what he has heard, from what he has learned and 
 seen, the Russian doubts those nearest and dearest to 
 him : the friend feels occasionally the suspicion flash 
 across his mind that the friendship of long years may 
 prove only a cloak to this fearful espionnage which the 
 secret police entertains in all classes of society ; the 
 brother sometimes dreads to confide to the brother 
 thoughts which may be registered against him, and 
 meet at some future period with a retribution, sure, if 
 slow; the very bridegroom often questions whether 
 the bride does not open to him her arms to worm from 
 him some secret which may be supposed to exist. 
 
 The author must again beg of his reader not to 
 judge him to be carried away by the enthusiasm which 
 may naturally be excited by dwelling on such a sub- 
 ject, into metaphorical exaggeration. He not only bore 
 actual cases in his mind's eye in waiting the above, 
 but could even instance a father betraying his own 
 son to the secret police, the unnatural treachery of 
 the father proving no mitigation of the son's punish- 
 ment, although personally rewarded by the imperial
 
 190 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 gratitude, and publicly cited for the sublimity of his 
 devotion and virtue. 
 
 Long-rooted and irresponsible power appears apt 
 to establish a strange code of political morality for 
 itself: the preceding allusion reminds the author that 
 of two or tliree titles l^estowed during many reigns, 
 commemorative of the services they were intended to 
 reward — besides that of Zabalkansky, crosser of the 
 Balkan, conferred on Diebitch, of Erivansky, or con- 
 queror of Erivan, on Paskevitch — stands that of Vernoi, 
 or Faithful, tacked, he is sorry to add, to an English 
 name, and earned by the betrayal of a conspiracy. 
 
 The author must hasten to remove an impression 
 which might otherwise be received, that the cases 
 instanced prove any laxity in the ties of natural 
 affection. This would be most unjust to all classes 
 of the Russians ; for, on the contrary, it is a bright 
 and redeeming trait of their character that nowhere 
 are there better sons, mothers, and fathers. Russian 
 parents, indeed, might often be held up as in some 
 respects models to the world. It is seldom one sees 
 them enjoying wealth which they do not share with 
 their children. There are no men who, with an im- 
 mense income, see their own flesh and blood pass 
 through all the gi'een years during which life holds 
 out its chief enjoyments, looking in vain through the 
 barred portals, which may be only opened when too 
 late to enter them — men, and even women, as one 
 sees in England, who live on — to a century, if the}'' 
 can — wallowing in luxury, and allowing their chil- 
 dren to grow gi'ay-haired in comparative privation. 
 It is customary amongst the Russians always to make 
 a large and early provision for their descendants,
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 191 
 
 with the reasonable view of assuring them as many 
 years of happiness as it may be in the power of 
 parental affection to accomplish. It is by no means 
 unfrequent to see a couple equally dividing their pro- 
 perty with their children, and giving it to them on 
 the establishment of each son and the marriage of 
 each daughter. 
 
 When, therefore, such evil results are produced, it is 
 in the moral effect of the secret police, and the man- 
 ner in which it is calculated to work on the fears, the 
 weaknesses, and the vices, — not in any inherent heart- 
 lessness of character, — that we must seek their causes. 
 
 In proceeding to examine it, the reader must not 
 expect any full and complete account of an institution 
 which is of its very nature secret, and of which only 
 a very small portion is ostensible. Yet even this osten- 
 sible portion, though a mere fraction, a branch, as it 
 were, of the whole establishment, is in itself im- 
 mense. 
 
 Under the name of the Haute Police, Count Ben- 
 kendorf, a Livonian nobleman, holds in his hands all 
 the threads of this vast complicated machine. In him 
 the Emperor Nicholas reposes unlimited confidence, 
 and probably in him alone, although alternately, ac- 
 cording to his mood, more subject to the influence of 
 other favourites — such as the General Klein Michel, 
 the unflinching tool, the instinctive reader of imperial 
 wishes almost before they have gathered into thoughts ; 
 Prince Menchicoff, Avho flatters the imperial aspi- 
 rations after maritime power ; or, at times, the versa- 
 tile Prince Tchornichelf, now the antiquated dandy, 
 but once alternately the acute diplomatist, the star of 
 Parisian drawing-rooms, the partisan leader, and the
 
 192 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 successful general ; or else — as their respective fortune 
 may be in the ascendant — Paskevitch Erivansky, 
 Prince of Warsaw, who has been raised, for want of a 
 better, into " a great captain,"' because the splendour 
 of his master's reign would be incomplete without 
 one. 
 
 Count Benkendorff appears to have dated his rise 
 in the emperor's favour chiefly from the services he 
 rendered him on the eventful 26th of January, 1825, 
 by securing the artillery. He is said to be, like.-his 
 master, a lover of justice, when it does not interfere 
 with state policy or imperial interests ; but, unfor- 
 tunately, almost every case referred to the decision of 
 either involves one of these quahfying contingencies. 
 He is not a mercenary man, or, at least, he neglects 
 his own fortune, as far as it is pecuniarily concerned ; 
 although, of course, the favour of a master whose 
 terrestrial omnipotence within his own dominions can 
 make or unmake fortunes with the mere dash of a 
 pen, may be as well worth storing up as it may be to 
 accumulate estates and slaves of which the possession 
 might prove equally transitory, and is perhaps a surer 
 way of eventually attaining and more pacifically en- 
 joying them. But even if he have taken this view of 
 the question, it is some praise to state the fact regard- 
 ing his character ; and it is more, to be able to say, 
 that if the secret police must exist at all, since there 
 must be a grand master to it, there are few whom the 
 Russians would see step into his place, many whom 
 they would dread to see invested with this office as 
 an addition to the misfortune of its existence. 
 
 The "high police," of which this man is grand
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 193 
 
 master, is ostensibly established for the detection of 
 all machinations against the state and the emperor — 
 which, as in the idea of Louis the Fourteenth, are in 
 Russia identified ; for the detection of abuses in the 
 administration of government, and in all those in- 
 stances which no code of laws can reach ; to punish 
 vice and crime, and to protect innocence and virtue, 
 by its discretionary power. Its attributes are there- 
 fore as thoroughly based in the interests of humanity 
 and benevolence as the intentions which Robespierre 
 poured forth in honied accents to the admiring ears of 
 his mountain followers. 
 
 The very direction of this institution, as the Em- 
 peror Nicholas has organized it, unreservedly dele- 
 gates to Count Benkendorf his absolute authority over 
 all his subjects, amongst whom we must remember 
 that even the imperial family is included. Every man 
 in the empire is bound without question to obey the 
 order of this vizier, as if it emanated from the imperial 
 mouth — the mouth which makes laws as binding for 
 sixty millions of subjects as if a nation had deliberately 
 planned and pledged itself to obey them. If a sub- 
 delegate of this grand-master, distinguished by the 
 livery of the secret police, present himself in the dead 
 of night before a frontier fortress, before the palace of 
 an imperial prince, or the dwelling of the first mag- 
 nate of the land, he must have instant admission to 
 the governor, the prince, or the noble — admission 
 even to the bed of death and delirium, or into the 
 nuptial chamber. He may drag any individual into 
 a talcga or kibitka, without assigning any reason, 
 without intimating why he is taken, whither he is 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 going, or when he will return. Family, servants, 
 and- friends, must all keep a discreet silence on the 
 event, and never even dare to ask, excepting after long 
 groping their way through some influential channel, 
 if ever, and when, he is to be restored to them. 
 
 When the individual so treated returns — if ever he 
 returns — he has been " in the country," he has been 
 " absent on business,'" frequently he is himself ignorant 
 of the causes of his abduction ; but he seldom con- 
 fides what happened in the course of it, even to the 
 ear of most confidential intimacy. 
 
 There is a lady still living, who was stepping out 
 of her carriage in her ball dress, when she was 
 quietly handed into a sledge — her destination was 
 Siberia. When the long journey was accomplished, 
 she was located — she knew not in what region or 
 government — in a hut, containing two rooms, each 
 divided from the other, and leading into two separate 
 yards, each a few paces square, and surrounded by a 
 high wall, which only admitted the light of heaven. 
 A sentinel was mounting guard outside the walls ; 
 her coarse food was brought by a silent jailor, and 
 here she remained for two years. At the expiration 
 of this term, the door of the yard was one day opened, 
 and a prisoner was thrust in to her, who turned out 
 to be a Polish nobleman, who had been long confihed 
 in the adjoining cell, but was now removed to make 
 room for another. In this room, or den, she lived 
 with her unfortunate companion for twelve years more, 
 ignorant alike of the spot of earth she was inhabitins;, 
 and of the cause of her being banished thither. One 
 morning, her door was thrown open, and a voice
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 195 
 
 called for number so-and-so, by which, in the rare 
 intervals of months and even years elapsing between 
 the occasions on which her jailors answered her or 
 spoke to her, they had been accustomed to address 
 her. She stepped forward ; the door was closed, vriih- 
 out her even having time to take leave of her com- 
 panion, whom she never saw again ; she was hurried 
 into a sledge; she retraced the journey of many 
 months, and one night found herself in the office of 
 the grand-master of police; a little cupboard was 
 thrown open, and she was presented with the identical 
 ball-dress which had been taken from her on the night 
 of her exile ; the jewels indeed were gone, but there 
 was not a bow, a flower, or a piece of lace of its 
 blackened and faded frippery wanting; even the 
 withered nosegay and the fan, in which a long gene- 
 ration of spiders or brown beetles had nestled, were 
 carefully restored to her. She was thenceforward at 
 liberty. 
 
 This lady never knew the cause of her punishment 
 or of its cessation. " And did you never make the 
 inquiry ?" " What, be so long in Siberia, and not 
 yet have learned discretion !" " And what was said 
 on your re-appearance in society ?" " Nothing ; those 
 who had known me formerly made no comment ; to 
 
 those who inquired. Who is Madame ? where is 
 
 she from ? where has she always lived ? it was simply 
 
 answered, * Madame demeure depuis beaucoup 
 
 d'annees sur ses terres^ — She has long been buried 
 amidst her estates." 
 
 It is four or five years since some indiscretion was 
 committed by an individual who had some interest 
 
 o2
 
 196 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 with those in authority, by narrating certain passages- 
 connected with the history of the secret associations 
 concerning which the reader will hereafter find some 
 copious details ; in a word, he let his tongue run too 
 freely on this dangerous topic. One morning, an 
 officer of gendarmerie presented himself in his draw- 
 ing-room, and, with the greatest urbanity, desired 
 him to follow him to the chancery of Count Benken- 
 dorf. When the pale-blue uniform of the officers or 
 privates of this corps, who are the avowed and ostensible 
 sbirri of the secret police, are once seen crossing the 
 threshold, a visit from the angel of death alighting 
 there could cause no greater consternation. He obeyed, 
 as every one must do in such a case, and leaving hi& 
 family a prey to their terrors, he stepped into a 
 sledge with his dreaded visitant. He did not re- 
 turn that day, nor the next, nor the day following; 
 his relatives were meanwhile assured that he was 
 safe, that he had powerful friends and protectors, and 
 that he would soon be restored to them. 
 
 Thus six months of anxiety passed away ; towards 
 the middle of the seventh, the officer again made his 
 appearance, but in such guise as to be hardly recog- 
 nised by those nearest and dearest to him ; his ruddy 
 cheeks were livid, his rotund body was wasted into 
 angularity, the merry sparkle of his eye was gone, and 
 its brightness quenched for ever in his terror. He did 
 not complain of his treatment ; on the contrary, it had 
 iust been proved to him that it was monitory and 
 friendly. Nevertheless, it had reduced him to this 
 condition. He narrated as follows : — 
 
 Shortly after leaving his home, he was placed in a
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 197 
 
 dark apartment. iVt nightfall, he was ironed and 
 placed in a sort of box upon a sleigh, such as is occa- 
 sionally used in winter to transport prisoners; a 
 grating at the top let in the faint light reflected from 
 the snow, but allowed no view of the scenery through 
 which the speed of horses was hurrying him the whole 
 night through. An hour or two before daybreak, the 
 Vehicle stopped ; he was blindfolded and led into a 
 fresh resting-place. Through the whole of the next 
 night he was carried along in a similar manner, arriv- 
 ing to sleep in a dark dungeon, and being again hurried 
 forward on a road which his fears told him, beyond 
 the consolations of hope, to be that of Siberia. 
 
 Thus, night after night, and day after day, elapsed ; 
 the former in speeding towards the fearful solitude, 
 the latter in reposing as well as he could from the 
 fatigues of his arduous journey. The dark nights be- 
 came moonlight ; the moon waned again ; and again 
 the night became moonlight ; and he was still forced to 
 hasten on uninterruptedly, without having seen one 
 furlong of the way. The faint light of the moonless 
 winter's night, piercing through the narrow aperture 
 which afforded air to his vehicle, now enabled him to 
 distinguish the objects it contained, so well had his 
 eyes become accustomed to the utter darkness in 
 which he was kept during the day. 
 
 Like all people, too, deprived of vision, after many 
 weeks he learned to substitute for it a sense which the 
 eye-sight often leaves comparatively dormant — that of 
 discerning things by touch and feeling. He had no 
 opportunity of making any observations on the road he 
 was travelling ; but the interior of his cage he knew 
 plank by plank, nail by nail, and it might almost be
 
 198 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 said stravv by straw. He therefore, in the darkness of 
 every day, endeavoured to make acquaintance with 
 every fresh dungeon in which he found a night's 
 abode. He was struck with the utter monotony and 
 sameness of these places of relay ; he had seen, as all 
 Russians have, the battalions of the imperial guard, 
 where one man, to the very setting of a cross-belt, to 
 the colour of his hair, the shape of his moustache, and 
 to the very expression of his countenance, as nearly re- 
 sembles another as two peas in one shell ; but he was 
 struck, after travelling some thousand versts or two, to 
 find one dungeon resembling another so closely that 
 every brick and stone was disposed precisely like an- 
 other. 
 
 At last on one occasion he left a piece of the hard 
 brown crust of his rye bread, marked in a peculiar 
 manner with his teeth. To his utter surprise at the 
 end of his night's journey, he found a crust perfectly 
 similar, in the dungeon in which he Avas lodged. He 
 now began to doubt his own senses; sometimes he 
 fancied he was insane ; sometimes he conceived the 
 unutterably fearful idea that he was somehow doomed 
 to a dark and unrelieved monotony, which was to ex- 
 tend to the merest trifles, and that this was a means of 
 moral torture, of which, as he approached Siberia, he 
 was experiencing a foretaste. 
 
 It is strange to say that with these causes of sus- 
 picion, it was not till many weeks after that the 
 thought flashed across his mind — a thought which he 
 discarded'as an illusion, but which at last came break- 
 ing in upon him like a ray of light, — that he had 
 never moved from the same environs, and had re-
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 199 
 
 turned to sleep every night in the same spot. Such 
 in fact proved to be the case : night after night, for 
 months, he had been hurried along the same road, 
 to return to the same cell. It must be remembered 
 that this was not a punishment, but only a friendly 
 warning, to deter a man in whom some one in power 
 felt an interest, from incurring it ! 
 
 It has been stated that the ostensible force consti- 
 tuting the high police, comparatively small, is in 
 itself formidable. In fact, in the chief town of every 
 government (the Russian empire being, as it is well 
 known, divided into governments, instead of counties, 
 departments, or provinces,) there is a branch establish- 
 ment of this institution, with a regular complement of 
 avowed officers, beside a corps of mounted gendarmerie, 
 which may be considered as more especially its exe- 
 cutive, although the whole force of the empire may 
 naturally be called in, should they prove inefficient. 
 Some thousands of avowed officers, and agents, and 
 brigades of this armed force, are thus exclusively de- 
 voted to this service, under the grand-master's orders; 
 but its secret agents, correspondents, and spies, dii'ect 
 and indirect, are supposed to outnumber many score 
 of times those who wear its livery. 
 
 The expense of this establishment is avowedly 
 enormous, but there is every reason to suppose its 
 outlay to be far greater than is even admitted ; and 
 farthermore, it is one which has been year by year 
 increasing. To further its objects, it is not only 
 necessary to entertain spies in all classes -of society, 
 at home and abroad ; it is not only that there must 
 not be a man in the empire above the rank of a serf,.
 
 200 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 on whose conduct and antecedents, at a moment's 
 warning, ample details must not be in readiness, if re- 
 quired by its superior authorities — which naturally 
 necessitates armies of spies, and armies of clerks, to 
 compare and compile their reports ; — but also there are 
 those to be bribed, especially beyond the pale of the 
 empire, whose exorbitant demands, though compara- 
 tively few, still vastly swell its budget of expenses. 
 
 The passport-office is comprised in the institution of 
 the high police ; and through its intermedium every 
 individual above the peasantry is registered. Annexed 
 to the duplicate of his registry, is a compilation of all 
 the reports, collected by all the spies who have come 
 across him during his life, with their original observa- 
 tions, notes, and denunciations, all arranged with such 
 admirable order and regularity, that in St. Petersburg 
 and Moscow, within a few hours, the superintendent 
 of police can become acquainted with the most secret 
 actions of his life, together with the opinions he is 
 supposed to entertain, or, at least, the sentiments he 
 has avowed. There is thus many an individual who 
 imagines himself utterly beneath the notice of govern- 
 ment, to whose name, in its black registry, are ap- 
 pended whole manuscript volumes upon volumes 
 of secret information. Cordial acquaintances, dear 
 friends, servants and slaves, and too often relatives, 
 have consciously or unconsciously contributed to swell 
 the mass. 
 
 It is to be observed that as the reports of spies are 
 naturally compared and subjected to additional scru- 
 tiny where widely dissimilar, these men as seldom 
 utterly deviate from the truth, or build up their accu-
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 201 
 
 sations without a shadow of foundation, as they ever 
 tell the plain, unvarnished, and uninfluenced truth. 
 Thus somewhat of truth is always mixed up with 
 calumnies and colorings of facts which utterly distort 
 them, and all stand arrayed against him in black and 
 white, to be raked up should he ever, innocently or 
 culpably, give umbrage to the secret police, or incur 
 the serious displeasure of any of its innumerable 
 agents. 
 
 " Man forgets and God forgives," whispered a Rus- 
 sian, " but the secret police neither forgets nor for- 
 gives." The frivolous conversation which took place 
 years ago, at the dinner-table, over the punch-bowl, 
 or in a moment of vexation or anger, all are noted, 
 with the malicious comments of those who reported 
 it. All are thrown into the balance when his fate is 
 weighed, unknown evidence thus influencing the de- 
 cision by unknown judges, of the destiny of a man 
 who has perhaps, in reality, never offended even 
 against the peculiar code of political and social mo- 
 rality which is the standard of this fearful institution. 
 When the Russian subject has been found wanting in 
 this balance, his disgrace overtakes him as suddenly 
 and unaccountably as the doom of fate, and he may 
 often waste the remaining years of his dreary exist- 
 ence in vain attempts to guess the cause of his punish- 
 ment, his friends and relatives in conjecturing the 
 nature of it. The grave is not more incommunica- 
 tive as to what passes in the unknown regions beyond 
 its bourne, than the secret police. It is true the 
 enmity of private individuals, the anger or the vin- 
 dictive spirit of princes, may die before them, or die
 
 202 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 with them ; changes of party, and the weft and woof 
 of fresh intrigues, may render meritorious what a few 
 years before was odious in the eyes of those who have 
 been replaced or superseded ; but all these eventuali- 
 ties seldom bring relief to those who suffer. 
 
 Secrecy is the great maxim of the high police, and 
 its Machiavelian spirit finds it better that these indi- 
 viduals should die in the mines, the dungeons, and 
 the deserts, in which they have already wasted so 
 many years, than that the scandal of their return 
 should be given to society. Already, with every pre- 
 caution, too much truth, too many details, escape to 
 the world, notwithstanding the atmosphere of mist 
 and silence with which Muscovite society is enveloped 
 and pervaded. There is another thing; if all men 
 are too apt to forget the unfortunate, fear and poKcy 
 in Russia enjoin the most rapid oblivion of those 
 whom the government has made so. Like the famous 
 Iron Mask, the names of prisoners and exiles are always 
 unknown to their jailors or guai-ds ; they become 
 nwribers. There is no chance of their ever being 
 acquainted with any political change, if such occurred, 
 and that they could ever know that it might affect 
 them; for when the wailing and gnashing of teeth 
 during years has subsided into gloomy despair or 
 quiet idotcy, there is no reason why they should at 
 that precise moment employ any imusual eflForts to 
 make themselves heard. 
 
 On the other hand, when an individual is thus pro- 
 vided for by the state, the business of the recording 
 demon ceases ; it is the last page in the voluminous folios 
 which have been written on his words and deeds;
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 203 
 
 there is no reason why his file should be further re- 
 ferred to; mountains of fresh manuscript, on men 
 politically living, accumulate over and bury his own, 
 and then, and in this case only, he is finally forgotten 
 by the secret office. Governor after governor, and 
 jailor after jailor, receives hereditarily with his office 
 the care of these unhappy men, brutalized by their 
 misery and their long confinement ; he is ignorant of 
 their names, the world has ceased to remember, and 
 at last the individuals themselves either misdoubt or 
 have forgotten them. 
 
 The Russian is not only subject to this teiTible 
 surveillance within the pale of the empire, but when 
 he travels abroad it follows him like his shadow. In 
 the drawing-rooms of London and Paris, he dreads 
 that the eye of the secret police may be upon him. 
 Foreigners, in their own country, laugh at his terrors, 
 but experience has taught him too painfully how 
 truly they are grounded. The secret police acquires 
 information, or, at least, employs spies, as cheaply as 
 it can ; but it purchases them at any price. By a 
 comphcated and proportionately expensive system, it 
 has rendered itself all eyes ; its very spies are spied 
 upon. The liighly paid, and well-selected diplomatic 
 missions of the Russian government, the only effec- 
 tive branch of its service, are as narrowly watched as 
 it is their duty to watch over the travelling Russians. 
 It has been related to the author, by a competent 
 authority, and he believes it, that to his informant's 
 knowledge, upwards of a hundred and fifty individuals, 
 in Paris alone, corresponded, directly and indirectly, 
 with this branch of the Russian administration. The
 
 204 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 payments to most of these people, and their apparent 
 instructions, may emanate from the ministry for foreign 
 affairs, pre,sided by the veteran Nesselrode ; but the 
 high-sounding title and presumed importance of his 
 office, docs not prevent its being entirely subservient 
 to that of the grand master of the secret police. 
 
 The Marquis de Custine relates in his diary a con- 
 versation he held previous to his embarkation for St. 
 Petersburg, Avith the landlord of his inn at Lubeck, 
 who was endeavouring to dissuade him from his in- 
 tended journey. 
 
 " ' You have been in Russia?' said I. 
 
 " ' No, sir, but I know the Russians. Many pass 
 through Lubeck, and I judge of their country by the 
 physiognomy of its inhabitants.' 
 
 " ' What then do you find in the expression of their 
 faces, which should prevent me from visiting them at 
 home ?' 
 
 " * Sir, they have two expressions of face. I speak 
 not of their servants, who are without any, and am 
 only alluding to their masters. When these disem- 
 bark here, to commence their travels in Europe, they 
 appear gay, free, and contented ; they arc like horses 
 set at liberty — birds escaped from their cages. Men 
 and women, old and young, all are like school-boys 
 let out to play. On their return, the same people 
 show us long, melancholy, and anxious faces; their 
 mode of speaking has become short and snappish, and 
 their brows are clouded by care. From this difference 
 I have drawn the conclusion that a country which 
 there is so much joy in quitting, so much regret in 
 returning to, must be a very bad one.' "
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 205 
 
 But the good innkeeper of Lubeck was only partly 
 right in the deductions he had made from his shrewd 
 observations. Every Russian noble, (for none but 
 nobles travel, although they may possess no title, 
 Avhich has nothing to do with their rank,) on landing 
 at Lubeck, or on crossing the frontier, may appear as 
 gay as a released bird, because the Muscovite impro- 
 vidence of his character allows him to feel mirthsome 
 with the prospect of immediate enjoyment before 
 him, and the certainty of the evil day of reckoning 
 being a year or two removed ; but when he is return- 
 ing, there flashes across his mind the dread of all that 
 may have been reported upon his conversation and 
 conduct. Accustomed, at home, to follow the ex- 
 pression of public opinion, expressed as influenced by 
 the fear of despotism, when he arrives in free or 
 constitutional countries, independent of his probable 
 sympathies, the very dread his servility entertains of 
 an opinion which appears a dominant one, induces 
 him to express somewhat analogous sentiments ; and 
 all these he afterwards fears to find recorded where he 
 had as soon thrust his hand into the fire as avow them. 
 But, worse than all, if he have kept the strictest watch 
 upon his words and actions, nothing insures him 
 against the misrepresentations or the calumnies of 
 spies sheltered behind the secresy of their accusations. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it may appear, and it 
 is, matter of surprise, why these people ever return, 
 although, it should be remembered, that it must 
 necessarily be at the expense of their fortune, and of 
 eternal separation from all family connexion and 
 friends in their own country. It may seem to the
 
 206 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 reader easy for a Russian nobleman to realize at least 
 a considerable portion of his fortune before proceeding 
 abroad ; but the Argus eyes of the secret police 
 render this attempt too dangerous, and no permission 
 to travel would be granted where the slightest suspicion 
 to this effect was entertained. There are not many 
 Muscovites who, for the sake of vindicating individual 
 liberty, will consent, like the old Admiral Tchitchagoff, 
 one of the last of the school of Romanzow and Suwar- 
 row and of the servitors of Catherine — a sort of Russian 
 Belisarius — to set a tsar at defiance, and, abandoning 
 a princely income, to retire to a humble cottage at 
 Brighton. 
 
 When we consider for one moment the prodigious 
 authority of the secret police, the mysterious nature 
 of its proceedings, the proneness of all to whom power 
 is delegated in Russia to Qpprcssion and extortion, it 
 is easy to imagine what advantage its agents must take 
 of their peculiar situation, and of the universal terror 
 they inspire. It is true that the grand-master is per- 
 petually struggling against this tendency, as calculated 
 too much to impair the efficiency of the machine 
 which he directs ; but his efforts, under circumstances 
 which so much foster this besetting propensity, far 
 from restraining, can hardly check it in the faintest 
 degree. An order, indeed, emanating from the higher 
 authorities of this institution, regarding any obnoxious 
 individual, its subordinates dare not by any bribe be 
 tempted to disobey ; but, on their own account, they 
 annoy, alarm, and threaten any other individual, 
 until he has largely sacrificed to their rapacity, to 
 obtain some quiet and protection.
 
 THE SECRET POLICE. 207 
 
 A foreign merchant, of immense fortune, was thus 
 summoned, for some trifling afikir, by a messenger 
 from Count Benkendorff 's office. On repairing thither, 
 he was kept standing six hours, and then dismissed. 
 The next day he was again ordered to attend ; the 
 penalty of disregarding such a summons was too dan- 
 gerous to incur ; he again danced attendance in vain ; 
 and thus, week after week, he was annoyed and taken 
 from his important business, the time of his most 
 serious engagements being, as it appeared, wilfully and 
 maliciously, selected. At last, it was hinted to him, 
 that if he would leave a very considerable sum* at the 
 office as a pledge of his appearance whenever it should 
 be required, he would meet with no further annoy- 
 ance. He thought it wisest to comply, and from that 
 moment was never asked for. 
 
 The Countess Beobrinski, a Roman-catholic lady, 
 was negotiating with the agent intrusted with the sale 
 of some large estates in Poland. The agent was shortly 
 called on by a certain baron in the employ of the 
 secret police, for whom he acted as one of those spies 
 who frequent cafes and restaurants, and who are 
 termed " repressive," because everybody knowing 
 them to be spies, their only use can be to alarm and 
 silence the loquacious Frenchmen who resort to these 
 places, and whose tongues it is so difficult for any 
 despotism to silence. This baron represented to the 
 agent, that his negotiation with the countess was 
 fruitless, because there was an order given by the 
 emperor, through the secret police, not to allow her, 
 
 * Not less than 200,000 roubles, upwards of 8000?.
 
 208 THE SECRET POLICE. 
 
 on account of her religious persuasion, to purchase 
 any property in Poland ; the agent consequently de- 
 clined all further communication with the countess. 
 At the same time, the police-spy called on her, repre- 
 senting himself as having completed the purchase for 
 another party of the estate of which she seemed so 
 desirous, but intimated that, on paying a certain 
 bonus, it would be ceded to her. The countess, on 
 his departure, repaired in great wrath to the agent, 
 upbraiding him for his want of good faith in having 
 sold to another the property which it had been agreed 
 that she should purchase. The agent shrugged up 
 his shoulders, and was forced to explain the truth. 
 The Countess Beobrinski, in some alarm, took the 
 bold step of going directly to Count Benkendorf in 
 person. The result of her interview with him was 
 that no such order had been given, and the discovery 
 that the whole transaction was an attempt at extortion 
 on the part of the baron, who, being a foreigner, was 
 sent over the frontier. 
 
 This was a singularly audacious attempt ; the in- 
 tended victim shewed unusual boldness ; but hundreds 
 of such are daily successful all over the empire, and, 
 because successful, remain unknown.
 
 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS AND TRIBUNALS. 209 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS AND TRIBUNALS. 
 
 But if the liaute police, which is under the direction 
 of Count Benkendorff, is an instrument of huraiHation, 
 terror, and annoyance to the higher classes, the more 
 humble grades of society seldom come in collision 
 with it. Yet though their unobtrusive station places 
 them below its notice, they are within the reach 
 of the most infamous and oppressive institution which 
 ever disgraced a country, Christian or heathen — the 
 civil police. The civil police, the great scourge of 
 the middle and lower orders, is everywhere subser- 
 vient to the high police, but instead of being one 
 institution with many branches, it consists of man;^ 
 establishments in the different provinces of the em- 
 pire. In the government of St. Petersburg, the 
 grand-master of the police is a man of consider- 
 able influence, and his office is considered one of the 
 most lucrative of the empire. It has been for many 
 years filled by General Kokoschkine, an aide-de-camp 
 of the emperor's. In the civil police, extortion and 
 
 VOL. L P
 
 210 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 .oppression, which elsewhere seek to hide themselves 
 behind some veil, here walk brazen-fronted. All that 
 the reader may have heard of the old alguazils and 
 the brothers of the Hermandad of Spain, in Le Sage's 
 day, or of the myrmidons of Mahometan cadis, will 
 hardly give him an idea either of their arbitrary 
 power, or the manner in which they use it towards 
 those whose office or station does not place them above 
 its reach. The very existence of the civil police is 
 based on an avowed, if an illegal system of extortion. 
 The police-masters, under the grand-master, the heads 
 of chasts or divisions, the majors of quarters, and the 
 naziratels or aids, under them, all receive salaries 
 merely nominal. They not only make fortunes, but 
 are all expected on New Year's Day to make a present 
 to the grand-master, at least tenfold exceeding the 
 amount of their pay. There is no regulation, indeed, 
 to oblige the subordinate to make the present, and 
 there is even an ukase to punish the superior for re- 
 ceiving any ; but should the tributary offering fail, the 
 underling would be not only removed, but disgraced, 
 and prosecuted, on some other pretext, with all the 
 rigour an indignant master could display towards a 
 dishonest servant who had betrayed his confidence. 
 Should his present prove below the usual amount, he 
 is removed to a less lucrative situation ; and if, on the 
 contrary", his ambition prompt him to sacrifice a larger 
 portion of his iniquitous gains to swell his tribute, or 
 that his superior activity enables him to do so, it 
 ensures promotion to a post which yields a more 
 abundant harvest. A constant emulation is thus
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 211 
 
 kept up in crime, between those established to detect 
 and punish it. The reader may form some idea of 
 the extent to which trade is burthened by these vam- 
 pires, from the fact that tavern-keepers in St. Peters- 
 burg calculate, in a series of years, from forty to sixty 
 per cent, of their profits to be wrung from them, 
 directly and indirectly, by the municipal or civil police. 
 All the inhabitants of the towns, excepting those who 
 are protected by the high offices which they hold, 
 their military rank, or their connexion with people 
 in power, are perpetually exposed to the rapacity of 
 its innumerable officials, grasping, remorseless, and 
 depraved, and invested with an authority over nearl}*^ 
 all the population, on which the only check appears 
 to be the observance of an understanding by which to 
 prevent confusion in the perpetration of all the extor- 
 tion and iniquity of which every large city in Russia 
 presents the hourly spectacle. They parcel out its in- 
 habitants, and respect, to a certain extent, the nefarious 
 " rights''' of each other, if it be not an Hibernianism 
 to apply this term to profits derived from the bitterest 
 wrongs of their fellow-citizens. 
 
 We shall endeavour to give a faint description of the 
 police of the capital ; and, loathsome as the subject is, 
 we feel it nevertheless a duty to drag some of its revolt- 
 ing details to the light, if it were only that the know- 
 ledge of their existence in the very seat of the execu- 
 tive power, will tend to prove — what must be so difficult 
 for those who have never seen closely the mechanism 
 of an utterly irresponsible despotic government, to 
 believe — that such things can, almost beneath his very 
 
 p 2
 
 212 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 eyes, be concealed from the emperor; or, if not con- 
 cealed, tolerated and sanctioned by him ; for that is 
 the alternative. 
 
 The poHce of St. Petersburg may be considered as 
 a fair sample of the police of the whole empire; %r if 
 in many remote parts of it, more flagrant violations of 
 all laws, human and divine, are committed by this 
 body, it is questionable whether they have the oppor- 
 tunity to entail an aggregate of greater misery on the 
 population, than the incessant vexations, oppressions, 
 and injustices of their brethren within the 'capital ' 
 occasion. 
 
 In its organization, this police is military; and in its 
 theor}' this institution, like almost every other in the 
 empire, is, on the whole, good. Under the grand- 
 master of police, (who holds the rank of a lieutenant- 
 general, an office which, as it has been already men- 
 tioned, is, or was recently, vested in the person of 
 Kokoschkine, aide-de-camp of the emgeror,)are several 
 masters of police, who act as his lieutenants in certain 
 districts of the city. These districts are divided into 
 portions, which are placed under the superintendence 
 of other officers, called celetsnoi pristoff, and each di- 
 vision is subdivided into quarters, which are imme- 
 diately administered by the chastnoi pristoff, or major 
 of the quarter. This officer inhabits the station-house, 
 or *' siege dom,^^ a government building, containing the 
 police offices, the fire-engines, the places of detention, 
 and distinguished by a high wooden tower, on which 
 a police soldier is always on the look out for any fires 
 which may break out. He has under his command a 
 certain number of police soldiers, and several subal-
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 213 
 
 tern officers called nadtziratels, one of whom is gene- 
 rally at the head of an auxiliary office within the 
 chast. Police officers and soldiers wear a military 
 uniform, and the latter are armed with swords, and 
 drilled to the use of muskets. 
 
 At the corners of almost every third or fourth street, 
 little round wooden houses are erected, at the door of 
 which a police soldier, armed with a halbert, and 
 called the boutouchnik, or axe man, stands constantly 
 on duty, to maintain the public peace. 
 
 All the inferior trades of officers are nominated bv 
 the police-master ; and independently of these, in the 
 office of each major, are a number of secretaries and 
 writers, who are immediately chosen b}' himself. 
 From first to last, a careful selection of all that is most 
 base and villanous, from the depraved and crapulous 
 class of inferior employes and their spawn, there is 
 probably scarcely a man amongst them who has not, 
 in the exercise, or rather the abuse, of his office, ren- 
 dered himself amenable to the extreme . penalty of 
 those very laws of which he is an executive limb. 
 Venality, extortion, theft, and actually burglary and 
 murder, swell the dark annals of this respectable body; 
 and yet, if their oppression is sensible every hour, and 
 their crimes constantly brought to light, nine-tenths 
 of them are unknown to all but their immediate vic- 
 tims, such is the system of secrecy which stifles the 
 cry of those who suffer, and ensures impunity. Though 
 but a small portion of their misdeeds can ever come 
 to the knowledge of an observer, yet even these form 
 a frightful and disgusting list. 
 
 The memoirs of Vidocq may a little have enlightened
 
 214 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 the English reader who has had the curiosity or patience 
 to peruse them, as to the villany which has been occa- 
 sionally carried on in France, even under a government 
 which was not wholly arbitrary, and in the midst of a 
 people who boasted pre-eminence in civilization; but 
 even Vidocq might have gone to school in St. Peters- 
 burg, where the close atmosphere of despotism and of 
 concealment have fostered to the utmost the diabolical 
 system of which he boasted. 
 
 The law of the empire, it is true, invests the civil 
 police with little more discretionary power than in 
 England is entrusted to the magistracy; but as all 
 access to complaint is carefully shut, and as innumer- 
 able vexatious regulations, which it is next to impos- 
 sible that a citizen can always fulfil, render him certain 
 of being at some future date legally at the mercy of 
 its ministers, they venture with impunity to exercise 
 the most arbitrary authority, and have so long been 
 accustomed to blind submission, that they scarcely 
 know themselves how far their own attributes will 
 warrant their conduct. 
 
 The population has neither any very correct ideas 
 on this subject, nor if it had, would it dare to avail 
 itself of this knowledge. Accustomed to see all laws 
 and regulations utterly perverted, it has no faith in 
 them, and who can be found to resist the most crying 
 injustice, in the uncertainty that his voice, which so 
 many are interested in smothering, will ever be heard 
 in the proper quarter; or in the doubt of ever ob- 
 taining redress at all, and in the face of certain pu- 
 nishment and vengeance, with which, sooner or later, 
 he would be visited by the vindictive feeling he
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 215 
 
 had evoked ? From first to last, they are therefore a 
 set of petty tyrants, whose sole occupation is to devise 
 means of extortion. But what renders them peculiarly 
 odious, in a land where corruption is common to all 
 branches of the administration, is the fact that they 
 prey chiefly on the unfortunate ; and that where 
 others rob and pilfer, and find their harvest by making 
 a sale of their duties, the police wring their infamous 
 gains from the terror of their victims, in the form of 
 bribes to purchase relief from their oppression. 
 
 At the same time that it is so corrupt, it would be 
 difficult to shew a more inefficient body, destined to the 
 same duties of presei*ving order, and suppressing and 
 detecting crime. Although in the annual report of 
 the police master to the Emperor, he always presents 
 a picture of the moraUty of the capital which no other 
 city in the universe can offer, so favourable is it to 
 the virtue of its inhabitants, — there are probably 
 more robberies and assassinations committed in St. 
 Petersburg alone, than in Paris and London — nay, 
 in all the European capitals put together. No 
 criminal intelligence is ever allowed to be given in 
 the newspapers, and it seldom spreads beyond the 
 small circle who have become immediately acquainted 
 vdth the crime committed. But even in his o%vn 
 quarter of the town, a man may often casually acquire 
 the positive knowledge of more murders and more 
 burglaries, than appears at the year's end in the oflB- 
 cial list for the whole capital, or the whole empire, 
 and which professes to be an authentic record of all 
 which have taken place during the twelvemonth. 
 
 It is especially in the long winter months, whea
 
 216 THE CrVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 the nights are dark, and the Neva frozen over, that 
 both on the river and in the suburbs, many assassina- 
 tions take place. How frequent they must be, the 
 number of dead bodies which float down to the sulf 
 of Finland on the breaking up of the frost sufficiently 
 attest. They are generally drunken people, nmr- 
 dered by the sledge-drivers, who use either their 
 hatchet or their knives, and it is very seldom that any 
 pursuit is set on foot, the police contenting themselves 
 with the more easy task of concealing the fact, if 
 some of its members have not connived at it. 
 
 The boutouchniks, or street watchmen, in the 
 remote situations where these dark deeds are com- 
 mitted, are perhaps mostly concerned in such assassi- 
 nations, whilst, beyond all doubt, an understanding 
 exists between the majors of chasts and those profes- 
 sional thieves which infest their quarters, and who do 
 not wear the imperial uniform. It is not unfrcquent to 
 see the same audacious malefactor several times se- 
 cured in the act of robbery, by the same person, and 
 as often released by the police, who find it more 
 profitable to leave him at large, and who therefore 
 would only punish him if bribed to do so more highly 
 than the thief could bribe. The detection of an un- 
 known thief is of very rare occuiTence ; the recovery 
 of the stolen property by its original possessor is un- 
 known ; for even if the sufferer can point it out, he 
 soon finds that it has only passed from the hands of 
 professional, into those of privileged robbers. In no 
 instance can he ever get it back without paying its 
 full value ; but he is not unlikely to meet with the 
 man Avho had abstracted it, at liberty in the next
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 217 
 
 Street, who -will quietly and piously give him his 
 benediction as he passes. 
 
 The inefficiency of this body, -when they most 
 seriously exert themselves, was most signally shewn 
 some years ago, on the occasion of the robbery of two 
 brass cannons, which were stolen in broad daylight 
 from the gardens of the grand Duke Michael's palace, 
 on an arm of the Neva. It was weeks and wrecks 
 before all the thousands of police agents employed 
 in the research for it, could discover the stolen 
 property, which was not of a nature very portable, or 
 very easily concealed, and which, after all, the thieves 
 were quietly employed in breaking up. 
 
 In all cases where it becomes of moment to discover 
 the party guilty of offence against the higher powers, 
 they are much embarrassed, and perfectly understand 
 how to find a criminal, or at least, a scapegoat, with- 
 out making much search for the real one. 
 
 During the administration of the late police-master, 
 a personage of considerable importance discovered, 
 on stepping into his sledge, that he had either lost his 
 pocket-book containing two thousand roubles, or been 
 robbed of it. He applied to one of the police officers, 
 insisting that it should be found. The police major 
 asked for a description of it, and of the numbers of the 
 notes. He was answered, that the latter were un- 
 known, and that no distinct recollection of the pocket- 
 book was entertained, further than that it was a new 
 red one, and that it certainly contained the sum in 
 question. An hour after, the police-major returned 
 triumphantly; he had placed the thief in custody, 
 and he restored the pocket-book with its contents
 
 218 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 untouched, to its illustrious owner, who passed a warm 
 eulogium on the actwity and zeal of the body to which 
 the major belonged, and probably recommended him 
 for promotion. The next day, however, his Highness 
 felt something hard in the lining of his fur pelisse, 
 which, on examination, proved to be the original 
 pocket-book, with its notes, which had slipped through 
 a rent in the pocket, and which the policeman had 
 pretended to restore to him ; the hopes of his patron- 
 age, and the fear of his displeasure, having been con- 
 sidered worth a sacrifice of two thousand roubles ! 
 We never heard what became of the thief who had 
 been taken into custody for a theft which had never 
 been committed ; but as he would undoubtedly have 
 been punished but for the accident which established 
 his innocence, and as all the evidence was prepared 
 to render his guilt undeniably plain, it was probably 
 not thought worth while to reverse the sentence of so 
 insignificant an individual. 
 
 During the reign of the Emperor Paul, some epi- 
 grammatic lines, already quoted, appeared upon the 
 walls of the Isaac's church which Catherine had begun 
 to build in marble, and which her son continued in 
 brick, to the effect, that " the materials which the two 
 sovereigns had used were characteristic of their re- 
 spective reigns." The emperor insisted that the writer 
 should be found, and (as we have related elsewhere) 
 the police, with very little difficulty, discovered and 
 convicted a culprit, whose tongue was ordered to be 
 cut out — a sentence which was rigorously carried into 
 execution. After the death of Paul, the innocence 
 of the sufferer was proved, by the voluntary confession 
 of the author of the pasquinade.
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 219 
 
 The following occurrences, made known by the 
 merest chance, and which took place two winters 
 ago, will furnish evidence of some of the foul deeds 
 attributed to the guardians of public security. Three 
 Russian merchants, who had ])een enjoying copious 
 potations, were returning home very much the worse 
 for liquor, and one of them was so far intoxicated, 
 that his companions were obliged to leave him in 
 custody of the boutouchnik, or watchman. In the 
 course of a few hours, when they were a little sobered, 
 regretting what they had done, they went back to 
 fetch him, but the boutouchnik and the two police 
 soldiers declared that he had gone away long since. 
 They were about to depart, satisfied of the truth of 
 this statement, when one of them espied the boots and 
 cap of his missing friend, which he immediately 
 recognised. In consequence of the suspicions excited 
 by this circumstance, they repaired to the grand master 
 of police, in whose office they had some friend, through 
 the intercession of whom orders were obtained that an 
 immediate search should be made of the boiidtke, or 
 watch-house. Although the body of their companion 
 was not at fiirst forthcoming, his clothes, together with 
 those of many other individuals, were discovered in pos- 
 session of the boutouchnik and his assistants, and a hole 
 was at last perceived, which communicated from the 
 interior of the watch-house with the canal, near which 
 it was situated. Here the remains of the murdered 
 man were discovered ; and in the course of the inves- 
 tigation which ensued, it was elicited that a wholesale 
 system of murder had long been carried on in the 
 watch-box, by its guardians, who were in league with
 
 220 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 the waiters of a neighbouring tavern, who, when any 
 of their guests were sufficiently intoxicated, caused 
 them to be conveyed away by the boutouchnik, who, 
 after murdering them, stripped the bodies, which 
 were cast through this hole below the ice of the canal, 
 where, long before it broke up, they would be carried 
 away by the current. 
 
 These assassinations were daily perpetrated in a 
 little wooden box, scarce ten feet in diameter, in the 
 Nevsky Prospect, the most })opulous street in St. 
 Petersburg, and which is generally as much crowded 
 as the upper end of Oxford-street in London. The 
 guilty parties were punished with the knout ; but the 
 whole circumstance acquired more than usual notoriety 
 from the fact, that the emperor, to whose ears it came, 
 caused some of the waiters who were accessaries, to be 
 flogged before the windows of all the tavern-keepers 
 of the quarter. But for this it might never have 
 transpired beyond the walls of the chast. 
 
 The next instance concerned the police-major of 
 one of the principal chasts of the city. An old gen- 
 tleman, in a precarious state of health, arrived a little 
 after the new year from Moscow, at the London 
 Hotel, on the Isaac's Plain. He fell ill, and as he 
 had apparently no friends in Petersburg, the police- 
 doctor was called in to attend him, wlio recommended 
 a nurse. Feeling himself get suddenly much worse, 
 he wrote a letter to his nephew at Moscow, stating 
 that he had been taken ill, and that he had that day 
 experienced such extraordinary sensations, that he 
 doubted much whether he would live till his arrival. 
 He entreated him not to delay his departure for an
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 221 
 
 instant, and informed him, should he have breathed 
 his last before he could reach St. Petersburg, of the 
 full amount of the property he had left behind him, 
 which was rather considerable, and chiefly in " bank 
 obligations," of which he gave him the numbers and a 
 minute description. In a few hours after, he was a 
 corpse, and the major of the quarter, who was watch- 
 ing the event, having examined his effects, ordered him 
 to be buried. 
 
 A few days subsequently to these circumstances, 
 the nephew arrived in St. Petersburg. On inquiring 
 for his uncle, he was informed that he was dead, that 
 the major of the quarter had declared that he had not 
 left property enough to defray the expenses of his 
 funeral, and that, in consequence, he had been buried 
 in the shell of a common pauper. The nephew went 
 to the bank, and having ascertained that his uncle's 
 statement was perfectly correct, he requested them to 
 detain the bearer of the bills bearing the numbers 
 which had been transmitted to him, as a person hold- 
 ing stolen property. A few days after, a man pre- 
 sented himself to get several of them cashed. When 
 taken into custody, he prevaricated in his account of 
 the manner in which he had obtained them, asserting 
 at first that he had found them, until he was at last 
 induced to confess that he had been sent by the 
 chastnoi pristoif. On receiving this intelligence, 
 the nephew of the deceased went straight to the mili- 
 tary governor, with whom he had sufficient influence 
 to cause the domicile of the police-officer to be searched, 
 before he was apprised of the arrest of his agent, 
 and here the missing bills were discovered. The
 
 222 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 major of the quarter, as soon as he found that the 
 nurse was being interrogated, swallowed a dose of 
 arsenic ; his life was however saved by the timely 
 application of the stomach-pump, and subsequently, 
 to the surprise of every one, he was pardoned by the 
 emperor. The fact of his being the principal protege 
 of the grand-master of the police, and connected with 
 him by man'iage, may at once account for such un- 
 usual clemency, since the investigation of the case 
 was left to him, and it may readily be understood that 
 the police, who have such facilities for proving an 
 innocent man guilty, cannot be much embarrassed, at 
 a push, to prove a guilty man innocent. It was, never- 
 theless, so public and flagrant a violation of justice, as 
 to excite, even in St. Petersburg, some faint indig- 
 nation. 
 
 It must be observed that in both these instances 
 peculiar circumstances led to the detection of the 
 crime, by favouring investigation in a manner which, 
 where police myrmidons are concerned, cannot happen 
 once in a thousand times. It may, therefore, be fairly 
 presumed, that where, in the period of a few weeks, 
 two similar acts, perpetrated by unconnected indi- 
 viduals of the same body, were brought to light, 
 many others were committed in the darkness which it 
 is so difficult.for the public eye to penetrate. 
 
 Before we proceed to a few of the means of annoy- 
 ance to which they resort, to plunder the population 
 their office has been instituted to protect, we must 
 mention, apropos of their efficiency, that even as fire- 
 men, in which capacity they also act, they are exceed- 
 ingly incapable; yet nothing can surpass the admir-
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 223 
 
 able regulations which have been laid down to preserve 
 the city from the effects of fire, or the means resorted 
 to of subduing its violence wherever it has broken out. 
 Yet fires are very frequent in the capital, and whenever 
 they occur, they are seldom put out by the fire- 
 engines or the policemen, though they are prevented 
 from spreading by the thousands of soldiers who collect 
 on the spot, and who, in a very short time, pull down 
 adjacent buildings. 
 
 Yet, to witness the scene which takes place on the 
 outbreak of a fire, one would imagine that nowhere 
 in the world was the firemen's department so admir- 
 ably managed. On the first smoke which is visible 
 by day, or the first flame by night, the sentinels, 
 who are always watching in the towers of the police- 
 stations, immediately telegraph to all the others in 
 what quarter of the town it has taken place. The 
 horses, which are kept perpetually harnessed, are in 
 an instant put to the engines, and in a few minutes, 
 these, together with attendant water-casks, on all of 
 which the firemen are mounted, pour out of all the 
 sieges in the town, traversing it to the scene of danger 
 at the full gallop of their magnificent horses; for, 
 without exception, the finest and most spirited horses 
 in the city are those belonging to the fire-engines, 
 as may easily be understood, when it is explained, 
 that they are all recruited from the fiery steeds which 
 run away in the streets, and are unmercifully confis- 
 cated by the law — a circumstance, which, if it does not 
 as much as would be believed, tend to prevent theTre- 
 quent occurrence of accidents, always occasions the 
 drivers whose team has run foul of anything to bolt
 
 224 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 as fast as possible, without stopping to inquire what 
 injury they have done. 
 
 The number of these fire-engines, which rattle 
 across the streets on the alarm of fire, together with 
 the fact of their being entirely horsed from the con- 
 fiscated steeds of private individuals, whose horses have 
 occasioned some accident, is of itself a speaking ex- 
 ample of the folly of trusting to the government reports 
 in Russia, as some travellers have done, who marvel at 
 the skill of the Russians when in the large city of 
 St. Petersburg their reckless driving occasions so few 
 accidents, that only tico are reported during a whole 
 twelvemonth. 
 
 It is true, that if it were not for this regulation 
 perhaps many more casualties might take place ; for 
 the Russians are fond of rapid driving, and there are 
 some amongst them who would not think much of 
 driving over a few moujiks ; and, at least, arbitrary as 
 the regulation may seem, the emperor himself has 
 given an example of submission to it, for very recenth^ 
 one of the horses in his sledge having shewn a dis- 
 position to bolt, he caused it immediately to be sent 
 to the next police-station. 
 
 On reaching the scene of action, at which probably 
 a greater number of engines are collected in a short 
 space of time than in any other city in the world, tlie 
 firemen commence operations by smashing all the 
 windows of the burning house and of those adjoining, 
 as if for the especial purpose of giving a better draught 
 to the fire. The engines, which are at all times badly 
 supplied with water, as soon as they begin to play, 
 shew how lamentably deficient they are in power.
 
 AND TRIBUXALS. 225 
 
 being seldom able to send their jet higher than the 
 first floor, and, notwithstanding all the imposing 
 apparatus and appearance which leads one to look at 
 first with great confidence to the exertions of the 
 firemen, in nine cases out of ten the only effect of all 
 their efforts is to refresh the destructive element, by 
 pouring upon it just sufficient water to make the 
 flame more fierce. 
 
 There exists a police regulation, obliging the pro- 
 prietor of every house to keep a tub of water at all 
 times on the roof, for the purpose of wetting it in case 
 of danger from the falling sparks, in the event of any 
 proximate building burning ; but the regulation is 
 observed, like many others in Russia, by keeping a 
 cask on the spot indicated, but which is sure to be 
 empty, even if there should be a bottom to it to hold 
 water, which is by no means generally the case. 
 
 So much for their efficiency as firemen, though it 
 is greater in that capacity than in any other ; so 
 much for judicious regulations never carried out ! 
 
 Amongst the by-laws which entangle the people 
 and place them at the mercy of the police, the pass- 
 port system is the most fruitful source of vexation. 
 According to its laws, every man unprovided with a 
 passport, whatever his rank, unless he be actually in 
 the service of government, is considered as a vaga- 
 bond, and the vagabond is treated just as the felon 
 of other countries. It is true that in many other 
 countries of Europe, where the same odious system 
 is established, the letter of the law is equally severe 
 on this subject, since it renders every individual whose 
 passport is not in proper order liable to detention; 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 THE Cn'IL POLICE LAAVS 
 
 yet, excepting under peculiar circumstances of sus- 
 picion, this rigorous measure is never resorted to, and 
 then only until by proper references he can establish 
 his identity. In Russia, on the contrary, it is eagerly 
 carried into execution in its most merciless extension, 
 and every neglected formality entails heavy and accu- 
 mulating fines, which may utterl}- ruin a poor man, 
 or leave him for ever at the mercy of the passport 
 office. 
 
 This passport must be yearly renewed, and on its 
 renewal, a certain sum is paid, which varies according 
 to the occupation of the bearer, imless he be a noble- 
 man, in which case he receives it gratis. But if he 
 allows the date fixed for its renewal to pass over, a 
 fine is inflicted for every day. So far, although a very 
 annoying regulation, this rigour may be defended, on 
 the plea, that it is necessary to enforce what after all 
 is a means of collecting a capitation tax. But when 
 this object is secured by the payment of the tax, the 
 owner of the passport is still subject to the influence 
 of the most vexatious rules ; he is bound to cause it 
 to be noted, as well as the address of his residence, on 
 the books of the police-office of his quarter, whenever 
 he changes his residence ; whenever he sleeps for one 
 night under another roof, he is obliged to go through 
 the formality of erasing his name from the books, and 
 having it written in afresh. The police have the power 
 to make him wait four-and-twenty hours before they 
 will write him out, and the next office just as long before 
 they will write him in, and may, moreover, refuse to 
 deliver it into any hands but his own ; and unless he 
 bribe them, they are sure to avail themselves of their
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 227 
 
 full power to annoy. Should he rashly neglect to do 
 as the law directs, both himself and the householder 
 who has given him shelter are liable to fine. 
 
 The householder is responsible for all who spend a 
 night beneath his roof; the master is responsible for 
 his servants ; should the least neglect have occurred 
 in the form of their papers, he is fined. The fine is, 
 in most cases, so much per day, and the pohce usually 
 leave their victim for many months in unconscious 
 security before they pounce upon him. When he 
 wishes to travel, if only to an adjacent town, if only a 
 few miles into the country, his passport must be 
 changed for another at the passport office, which will 
 not give this travelling pass without a certificate from 
 the major of the quarter, that he has no objection to 
 make to his departure. 
 
 The certificate must be first signed by the na- 
 ziratel, or lieutenant of the subdivision of the quarter 
 in which he lives; to his office, the traveller must 
 therefore first repair. Here, amongst dirt and filth, 
 are four or five writers, whose appearance denotes the 
 lowest victims of vice and debauchery. The favour 
 of these wretches must first be propitiated before he 
 can proceed in the business about which he is come, 
 for they have to write out the form of the document 
 he requires, and may keep him waiting a time un- 
 limited. He has next to induce the naziratel to sio-n 
 it. Having proceeded thus far, he must next take it 
 to the major of his quarter, and get his signature 
 added to that of his lieutenant; and still the docu- 
 ment is not valid before he can prevail on one of the 
 writers at the siegt to affix to it the seal of the office. 
 
 q2
 
 228 * THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 All this must be effected by a silver key. Although 
 none of these officials can refuse to do their duty, they 
 may delay, ad libitum, its performance. The writers 
 may refuse for several days to make out the certificate ; 
 the naziratel, for several more, to sign it; the major, 
 to countersign it ; and the secretaries to put the seal 
 upon it. 
 
 The aggregate of all this time wasted may amount 
 to several weeks before the person wishing to travel to 
 an adjacent town — perhaps only intending to spend 
 there four-and-twenty hours — can obtain permission 
 to depart ; and if he venture to depart without it, he 
 is liable to be marched back, tied to a common felon 
 or a runaway slave. In a case of life and death, the 
 same impediments lie in his way, and there is only 
 one way of removing them — by bribing successively 
 all these officials ; for if he consents freely to pay his 
 way, these obstacles are very easily overcome, where 
 the only object is extortion. Should he, however, 
 be imprudent enough to let it be known that it is a 
 case of imminent necessity, advantage will be taken of 
 it to extract from him two or three times the sum 
 which usually satisfies theii- rapacity. 
 
 When, armed with this certificate, the citizen has 
 at length obtained his travelling pass, and set forth 
 upon his journey, if he remain longer than three 
 days in the town to which he has repaired, he must 
 exchange this travelling pass against a passport of 
 residence ; and if, the fourth day, he wishes to return, 
 all the same formalities are to be gone through to 
 obtain one which will take him safe back again. Thus
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 229 
 
 the passport is like the chain of the galley slave, whose 
 clank perpetually reminds him of his servitude. 
 
 It is not that these delays and vexations are usually 
 experienced by the traveller, because, in almost every 
 case, he submits quietly to give what is demanded ; 
 but these are what the police have the power of sub- 
 jecting him to Avhen he will not pay. Naturally 
 with a body whose venality is excessive, the power of 
 wealth is very great in securing its possessor from mo- 
 lestation, if he do not refuse to bleed freely ; but 
 the first untoward circumstance which throws him 
 into their hands, is taken advantage of to strip him of 
 it unmercifully. 
 
 A mass of formalities, equally tedious and useless 
 to pass through, as those of which a faint outline has 
 been given, as connected with the passport system, or 
 regulations as severe and complicate, envelope the 
 whole intercourse of the police with the people ; and 
 therefore it cannot be wondered at that the latter seek 
 to evade them by purchasing the indulgence of their 
 tyrants, and that they should be living mostly in 
 habitual violation of the law. There are thus few men 
 whom the police has not the power to ruin, and none, 
 unless protected by exalted or official station, whose 
 life it cannot render miserable. 
 
 In allusion to Kokoschkine, the grand master of 
 police, some mention has already been made of the 
 systematic corruption w^hich pervades this body, and 
 of the spirit of infamous emulation which its chiefs 
 have introduced into it. It must be added, however, 
 that the grand master, in his intercourse with all his
 
 230 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 subalterns never directly encourages any violation of 
 the law, or sanctions any action diametrically opposed 
 to their duty; such, therefore, they must always indulge 
 in at their own peril ; but he does avow the principle, 
 that they may withhold the performance of their duty 
 until it is enforced by very substantial and satisfactory 
 reasons. 
 
 It is easy under such circumstances to imagine the 
 conduct of men depraved as the author has endea- 
 voured to describe, on whom their own attributes 
 confer the discretionary power which one sees some- 
 times misappUed in the broad dayhght of publicity, 
 even by the conscientious magistrates of happier 
 climes. 
 
 Every commercial transaction under the value of 
 two thousand roubles, is decided by them without 
 appeal ; every civil case must pass in its earliest stage 
 through the hands of the police major, who also de- 
 cides on the evidence which is to commit any criminal 
 for trial. He has the right to administer corporal 
 punishment to all who are not freemen, and we have 
 seen that many first guild merchants are slaves. He 
 carries into execution, in private, the sentence of the 
 plitt awarded by the criminal courts ; and within the 
 ■walls of his siege is a place of detention, intended 
 for those on whose committal he is to decide, and 
 therefore only as a place of confinement for a very few 
 days ; and yet it is generally crowded with wretches 
 whom he keeps imprisoned for weeks, and often 
 months, and the greater number of whom are never 
 committed for trial at all, because either there never 
 was any evidence against them, and that their cap-
 
 AjStd tribunals. 231 
 
 tivity is a mere scheme to extort money, or because 
 they have been able to pay sufficiently high to be 
 released from prosecution. 
 
 Let us see, from the narrative of M. Pemet, what 
 passes within these walls. " The two first days," says 
 Custine, " he was left without food." ..." The 
 only sounds that met his ear were those of the rods 
 with which, firom morning to night, the unfortunate 
 slaves, sent by their masters to this house for castiga- 
 tion, were being punished. Add to this the fearful 
 sounds of sobs and tears, of the bowlings of victims, 
 the threats and imprecations of executioners, and you 
 may form some idea of the moral torture to which our 
 unfortmiate countryman was, for four weary days, ex- 
 posed, always without knowing the motive of his 
 detention. A slight partition divided his cell from 
 the interior court in which these executions took 
 place." 
 
 Monsieur Pemet understands the Russ language. 
 He was present, without being an eye-witness, at 
 many torturings, unknown beyond these walls. Now, 
 it was two young girls, workwomen at a fashionable 
 Moscow milliner's; these unhappy creatures were 
 being flogged under the very eye of their mistress, 
 who reproached them with having dared to bring their 
 lovers into her very house — the house of a Moscow 
 milliner ! ! ! What an enormity ! Nevertheless, this 
 virago kept exhorting the executioners to strike 
 harder ; one of these yomig girls cried for mercy — 
 she appeared dying, and was covered with blood. 
 What matter ? She had had the insolence to say that 
 she was no more culpable than her mistress, who only
 
 232 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 now redoubled her severity. M. Pernet assured me — 
 adding, nevertheless, that he could hardly wonder at 
 my doubting his assertion — that each of these unhappy 
 creatures received at several times one hundred and 
 eighty strokes. "I suffered too much in counting 
 them," said their fellow-prisoner, " to be mistaken in 
 the figure." Next came the turn of peasants sent by 
 the steward of some proprietor ; of a serf, a hired ser- 
 vant punished at the request of his master. Nothing, 
 in fact, but revengeful acts of atrocity, iniquities, and 
 unseen despair. 
 
 If we now turn from the police to the Russian laws, 
 though the tribunals and judges who administer them 
 are shamelessly con'upt, we shall find them complete, 
 and, in their general character, mild and equitable ; 
 but they are almost as confused, and more contradic- 
 tory than those of England. This striking difference 
 exists, however, between their administration — whilst 
 in England some of the wisest and ablest men in the 
 kingdom are employed to watch'ovcr their application, 
 in as strict conformity as possible with the letter of 
 law or the spirit of equity, in Russia the inge- 
 nuity of their guardians is exhausted in efforts to per- 
 vert it. Even in England, we all know that too often 
 law is not justice ; what must it, therefore, be in 
 Russia. 
 
 The Russian criminal and civil code, contained in 
 eleven ponderous volumes, is a collection of ukases. 
 The ukase is the solemn expression of the tsar's com- 
 mands ; it is the bull of the popes, with this additional 
 peculiarity, that nothing can destroy its force except 
 another ukase specifically annihilating it ; for though 
 a subsequent one should appear contradictory, both in
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 233 
 
 letter and in spirit, it is not thereby invalidated, but 
 both arc laws. Now it would have been well for 
 humanity, if the sovereigns of this empire had been as 
 merciful to their fclloAv-creatures, as they have been 
 to the ukases of their predecessors ; but though they 
 have all made many, they have unmade few. The 
 consequence of this has been the most chaotic confu- 
 sion, in which those charged with the administration 
 of the laws find warrant and authority for any misap- 
 plication their venality suggests. Tlie late Emperor 
 Alexander, at his death, left upwards of twenty-four 
 thousand ukases which had not been carried into exe- 
 cution. 
 
 Before the reign of Peter the Great, his predecessors 
 were obliged to adhere to the oath by which the first 
 Romanoff, the founder of their greatness, had bound 
 himself and his descendants to consult his grandees 
 on every important question, and to make no new 
 laws without their sanction; and the very formula of the 
 ukases of those days, which began with " The Coun- 
 cil of the Boyars ordereth," shewed them not to be 
 instruments of undivided, though they might be of 
 absolute, authority. 
 
 But in changing the formula of these documents, 
 Peter rendered the will of the tsars as unshackled as it 
 was mighty, and concentrated in his own person a power 
 greater than even that which the united sovereign and 
 parliament of Great Britain enjoy, since the most able 
 jurisconsults deny to the latter the right of changing 
 the fundamental principles of the constitution, whereas 
 the power of the autocrat is boundless. Since this 
 step of the great reformer, the tzar's will is the law, and 
 the ukase is the formal expression of it. It may either
 
 234 THE CIVTTi POLICE LAWS 
 
 contain a legislative rule of conduct for present and 
 future generations ; it may be the terrible instrument 
 which at few strokes of the pen crushes the inde- 
 pendence of a nation, and tramples on its rights ; or 
 it may be a mere order, on a subject so trivial and un- 
 important, as to degenerate into the ludicrous and 
 absurd. We will endeavour, by the following anec- 
 dote, to exemplify this. 
 
 Towards the latter end of his reign, the Emperor 
 Paul, whose character was gloomy and suspicious, had 
 imbibed the idea that designs hostile to his throne 
 and life were entertained by unknown conspirators, 
 who were endeavouring to diffuse through the public 
 mind contempt and disrespect for his person, which 
 might eventually favour the execution of their de- 
 signs. This suspicion was not so absurd as it may, on 
 the first blush, appear, since it was by pursuing a 
 similar policy that Catherine, his mother, had suc- 
 ceeded in removing her husband, and succeeding to 
 his throne. Eventually it proved not to have been 
 unfounded, though the tsar forgot that his very con- 
 duct furnished his enemies with their principal arms 
 against him. In these ideas he was encouraged by 
 his favourite. Count Pahlen, afterwards the chief of 
 his assassins, whose policy seemed to be to cause his 
 master to make himself appear as insane as possible in 
 the eyes of the public, to facilitate the revolution he 
 meditated. He easily persuaded the credulous monarch 
 that his subjects on every occasion shewed a con- 
 temptuous want of deference ; and when he drove 
 abroad with him, he confirmed Paul's moody fancies, 
 by pointing out to him groups of the people, who
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 235 
 
 being very distant, had ventured to remain covered. 
 Paul was at last worked up to publishing a set of thun- 
 dering edicts, which laid down the rules of decorum 
 to be followed in the imperial city, and amongst other 
 absurdities, he commanded, under the severest penal- 
 ties, that all who met him should kneel down bare- 
 headed ; that carriages should stop, and those within, 
 whether males or females, should alight and perform 
 their genuflexions in the snow or mud. 
 
 It may easily be imagined that people were not very 
 anxious, under these circumstances, to meet with this 
 amiable sovereign, and whenever they could catch a dis- 
 tant glimpse of the imperial carriage, they fled in every 
 direction. This conduct still further offended Paul, and 
 no wonder that he should feel galled in thus receiving 
 the cutdirect from his subjects. He caused his equipage 
 to be accompanied by several mounted Cossacs, who 
 were despatched in pursuit of any who seemed flying at 
 his approach. In the fulfilment of this duty, they one 
 day brought up to the emperor an individual who had 
 been detected endeavouring to skulk down a by-lane. 
 The furious despot demanded his name, and how he 
 dared to insult his emperor by thus seeking to avoid 
 him, as if he were a wild beast? The culprit replied that 
 he was an Englishman, and a member of the British 
 factory, and asseverated with the utmost solemnity, that 
 he had no intention of shunning the honour of a ren- 
 contre with so august a personage, and he pleaded 
 excessive near-sightedness as the cause of his not 
 having recognised the imperial vehicle. " Then," 
 said the tsar, " if you are near-sighted, we insist from 
 this day forward on your wearing spectacles, that this
 
 236 THE CIVIL POLICE LATVS 
 
 infirmity may not be the cause of such indecorous con- 
 duct again." And an ukase was by order made out 
 to that effect. 
 
 As it was a reign of terror in the capital, the mer- 
 chant was glad to conform, and he became either so 
 much accustomed to these useful auxiliaries to con- 
 tracted vision, or his eyesight, which was previously 
 good, became weakened by the use of them, or by 
 other causes, that he continues to wear them to this 
 day, and has never tried the question whether the police 
 would attempt to punish him for disobedience to an 
 ukase if he were to leave them off; for it has never 
 been repealed, and probably never will be so, as it is 
 not likely that the present emperor will give one out 
 on a subject so absurd. He is always pointed at as 
 the gentleman who wears spectacles by ukase. 
 
 The next instance is scarcely less absurd. A small 
 house with pointed brick facade, on the Vasili-ostroff, 
 an island of the Neva, on which most of the commerce 
 of the town is carried on, contrasting by its peculiarity 
 with the dwellings which surround it, still attests the 
 truth of the anecdote. In the reign of the late em- 
 peror, an English plumber, named Clayworth, who 
 was the proprietor and builder of it, petitioned Alex- 
 ander to be allowed to leave the plain brick facing in 
 the English state, which the regulations determining 
 the very colour of which houses, roofs, and shutters 
 in the capital must be painted, forbade. His petition 
 was graciously granted, and an ukase appeared to the 
 effect that, as an exception, the house of the plumber 
 should be of plain brick, pointed with white. Many 
 years after, the highly favoured owner of this mansion 
 changed his mind, and thought of plastering the front
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 237 
 
 of it, but he had no sooner commenced, than the police 
 interfered, and refused to allow him to proceed, be- 
 cause the very law which entitled him to the distinc- 
 tion of the plain brick facade, rendered it illegal for 
 him to plaster it or paint it. In small things, as in 
 great, it will thus be seen that the ukase is a formid- 
 able document. 
 
 It is only since the accession of Nicholas, that the 
 judges of the criminal and civil tribunals of the em- 
 pire have learned to appreciate the glorious confusion 
 of the laws. Previously to this their decisions were in- 
 fluenced either by the bribes of the parties concerned, 
 or by the recommendation and interest of people in 
 power, whom they dared not disoblige. They were 
 then not fettered by the necessity of giving the faintest 
 legal colouring to their sentence, which the strict 
 orders of the present emperor have enforced. But if 
 occasionally this may tax their ingenuity a little, and 
 if it require a tolerable acquaintance with the laws, to 
 continue, notwithstanding, in their former course, 
 justice is as much perverted as ever. There exists only 
 this difference, that where before it was bartered for 
 interest or money, as the case might be, it is now ex- 
 clusively sold, since those who are charged with its 
 administration, pleading the severity of the emperor's 
 orders, find a ready excuse for not acceding to the 
 wishes of their friends and patrons, and thus reserve 
 all their decisions as a fertile source of pecuniary ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 It is very difficult that a case should present itself 
 which can embarrass the members of a tribunal to de- 
 termine it in any way that may suit their interest ; only 
 that the more flagrant the violation of equity required
 
 238 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 of them, the higher bribe they demand. But just or 
 unjust, which is accordingly as justice or injustice have 
 been bid highest for, their decisions must now always be 
 legal. The only result of the emperor's efforts to 
 obtain for his subjects the impartial application of the 
 laws, has therefore hitherto been to render the places 
 of his judges and their assistants more lucrative, and 
 themselves more cautious, but not more honest. 
 
 The criminal law does not extend the penalty of 
 death to any offence excepting high treason. Its 
 abolition was projected by the Empress Elizabeth, 
 and carried into effect by Catherine the Second, who, 
 with all her faults, and they were many and heavy, 
 was the wisest and best sovereign that has yet ruled 
 the Russian empire. The capital punishment for 
 crimes of the blackest dye is now limited, at the utmost, 
 to forty strokes of the knout, to civil death, and to 
 perpetual exile in the mines of Siberia. 
 
 The knout is a long, thick, and strongly-plaited 
 whip, at the end of which is a tongue of leather, 
 something the shape of an arrow-head, but hard and 
 heavy. It is principally the skill of the executioner 
 which renders the instrument so formidable. He is 
 always himself a condemned felon, who is pardoned 
 on condition of exercising this calling for twelve suc- 
 cessive years. During this time he is incessantly 
 practising, and can generally use his knout with such 
 effect as to smash a brick-bat to powder at the first 
 blow. He has two ways of killing his victim when 
 required : one is by bin.ding a cord round the neck in 
 such a manner that by his own efforts the sufferer 
 dislocates the vertebrae ; the next is by cutting into 
 the intestines, which he can generally do at once.
 
 AND TRIBUNALS. 239 
 
 This, however, excepting in political cases, or to exe- 
 cute the vengeance of some official, he is never per- 
 mitted to do, and it is of rare occurrence that death 
 is the consequence of this punishment; excepting, 
 indeed, subsequently, on the two years' journey to 
 Siberia, whither convicts are marched, chained to- 
 gether, and upon which a large proportion of them 
 perish, whether they have received the knout or not. 
 But if the retribution of justice on the worst crimes 
 against society be apparently lenient, there is no proper 
 scale of punishment, and, therefore, on minor offences it 
 falls with great comparative severity. The parricide 
 receives the knout and is exiled for life to Siberia ; the 
 fraudulent bankrupt, who has been convicted of with- 
 holding the smallest item of property from his cre- 
 ditors (and it is well known in Russia that in ninety- 
 nine bankruptcies out of a hundred which have not 
 come under that denomination are most flagrantly so) 
 is condemned to the plitt, and is equally sent to Siberia 
 for life. Now, the only difference between the punish- 
 ment of the knout and of the plitt is, that the latter, 
 instead of being administered in pubhc, is given within 
 the walls of a siege, with an instrument a little less 
 heavy than the knout, and from the strokes of which 
 it is very questionable whether the culprit suffers one 
 iota less. It is true, that in the privacy of the siege, 
 the executioner, and those presiding at the execution, 
 the officers of the civil police, may often be bribed to 
 render it nearly insignificant ; but, on the other hand, 
 what reclamation can the victim ever make, if his 
 punishment be augmented by them as a means of 
 extortion ? The murderer, who receives the knout in 
 public, also contrives to purchase the goodwill of his
 
 240 THE CIVIL POLICE LAWS 
 
 executioner ; for when driven to the place of punish- 
 ment, an immemorial custom has given the latter the 
 privilege of stopping before every public-house and 
 demanding a glass of spirits, and during the time he 
 is drinking it, the crowd shew their commiseration by 
 showering copper coins upon the criminal. 
 
 It may be very true, that on the arrival of these 
 culprits in Siberia, their treatment may be widely 
 different. One, condemned to the mines, and shut 
 out from the light of heaven, may long for that death 
 which a mercy, in this case certainly mistaken, has 
 denied him ; the other, through time and good conduct, 
 may become eventually a prosperous colonist. But, 
 nevertheless, the eyes of the people will discern little 
 difference in the punishment when they depart toge- 
 ther, and it will appear, for both these crimes, so dis- 
 proportioned in their enormity, as almost the same. 
 
 All the additional sufferings to which the more 
 guilty party is subsequently exposed, in a remote part 
 of the empire, would therefore be only wanton cruelt}^ 
 when lost as an example to deter others ; since, though 
 the law of self-preservation may allow society to punish 
 as a warning, society, which is human and erring, can 
 have no right to inflict pain as matter of revenge. 
 Besides this, it is the universal, and not an unfounded 
 belief, that the degree of criminality has nothing to do 
 in reality with the treatment — and who returns to 
 tell? 
 
 The forms of trial in all criminal cases in Russia 
 are eminently inefficient to secure the real ends of 
 justice. When the accused is committed by the 
 police, and given over to the criminal court, it 
 is seldom less than eight months, often more than
 
 AND TRIBUNALS!. 241 
 
 three years, before his case is disposed of, during 
 which time he remains in prison. This long delay is 
 equally iniquitous, whether he be acquitted or proved 
 guilty in the judgment of the tribunal-^since, if 
 guilty, it is screening the culprit, if acquitted, it is 
 detaining an innocent man for a term which, on an 
 average, is the tenth part of his remaining life. The 
 whole trial is carried on in writing, and he is never 
 confronted with the witnesses, nor allowed to read 
 the depositions on which he has been condemned, 
 even after it is over. After all, his fate is pronounced, 
 not by a jury of his peers, but by a corrupt tribunal. 
 
 One consequence of the manner in which the law 
 is administered in Russia is, that of the various classes 
 of lawyers which are connected with it in other 
 ■countries, only that of the notary exists. It is so uni- 
 versally known that the most successful advocate is a 
 bank-note, that no one would waste his money in 
 feeing the most skilful lawyer, and the set of men who 
 assume that name scarcely pick up a miserable sub- 
 sistence, by hanging about the courts, "and acting 
 occasionally as the medium through which the bribe 
 is transmitted. 
 
 Though some of the punishments awarded by the 
 Russian code are very lenient, there are some whose 
 severity has caused them to become altogether obso- 
 lete. The law of defamation is a most remarkable 
 instance of this nature ; it condemns the man who 
 accuses another, by word or deed, of any crime or 
 offence, if he cannot prove his assertion, to the same 
 punishment as the man he has defamed would have 
 been subjected to, had he succeeded in proving his 
 accusation. 
 
 VOL. L R
 
 242 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF THE RUSSLtVN NOBILITY, AND REVOLT 
 OF THE 26th of DECE3IBER, 1825. 
 
 The events to which the title of the present chapter 
 refers, have been only vaguely known to the rest of 
 Europe, though both in the general interest of the 
 subject, and in its stirring details, it bears all the cha- 
 racteristics of a great and eventful drama. The 
 general conspiracy of the only class of a nation of 
 sixty millions who have any claim to civilization, 
 against the corrupt and demoralizing tyranny under 
 which they have been gradually more closely trampled 
 in the dust — a tyranny centering in the only power 
 which at the present day may be considered as the 
 serious propagandist of that despotism which all other 
 European absolutists seek only to conserve where 
 already established, and where existing in a compara- 
 tively temperate form. Beside such a conspiracy as 
 this, those which menaced the existence of the gloomy 
 government of Venice, and w hose details are familiar 
 to us all, fade into insignificance. In the contrasts of 
 character of the numerous actors, the cowardice and
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 243 
 
 selfishness of the mass, the disinterestedness and 
 heroism of the few, and in its tragic termination, exist 
 all the elements -which render some passages of history 
 so dramatic, and throw both shadows and vivid lights 
 across the most striking scenes of that unvarying 
 chronicle of crimes and follies. 
 
 Those enthusiasts whose motives and intentions 
 differed even further than their subsequent conduct 
 from their associates, chiefly men of birth and family, 
 and youthful promise, alone took any active part in 
 its closing and fatal scene, and played it out with 
 courage and devotion. They were nearly all in the 
 Imperial army. One part of the army itself, divided 
 regiment against regiment, was made unconsciously 
 the instrument for striking the decisive blow ; whilst 
 the other served to crush in its cradle all hope of 
 shaking off a yoke intolerable to that small portion 
 of the Russian people which had imbibed the faintest 
 civilization, unperceived by the great mass of its serfs, 
 who were notoriously sunk into a state of degradation 
 and apathy scarcely one remove above the cattle of 
 their fields. 
 
 Nevertheless, although we have never seen any 
 printed account which was even tolerably complete 
 and correct, of an episode so important in the Euro- 
 pean history of the last few years, we find it constantly 
 alluded to, in various works on Russia, (in Dr. Gran- 
 ville, in Bremner, in Letters from the Baltic, and, 
 lastly, in Custine,) from which it would appear that 
 these authors have derived their notions of the circum- 
 stances connected with it from the accounts of those 
 in power. Now within the pale of the Russian em- 
 
 r2
 
 244 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 pire, where the very walls have ears, and where a word, 
 if unnoticed at the moment, is never forgotten, but is 
 noted down, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, in 
 black and white, against the utterer in the voluminous 
 documents attached in the secret police office to every 
 individual's character, (the result of the labours of a 
 vast army of spies,) all those who do not care to con- 
 firm the representations of government on any subject, 
 however trifling, hold their tongues, whether as to a 
 conspiracy, a revolution, a defeat, a fatal accident, or 
 the disputed fact of whether the crack in the granite 
 column of Alexander — the pride of St. Petersburg, and 
 of the present reign — be a real or an apparent flaw. 
 
 With regard to the character of such a conspiracy 
 as led to the insurrection of a portion of the army, and 
 to the consequent bloodshed in the streets of Peters- 
 burg, it would have been as useless to have asked the 
 opinion of the Venetian Council of Ten on the Doge 
 whom they doomed to the scaffold, or of the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety in the Reign of Terror 
 on the ofi^ences of their victims, as to expect any 
 veracity in the accounts of the agents of the Russian 
 government. Those of the fortunate actors who 
 escaped unscathed, or those who, by their direct or 
 indirect connexion with the conspiracy or the conspi- 
 rators, are able and willing to throw any light upon it, 
 will seldom confide their testimony to more than a 
 single friendly ear, with carefully closed doors, in 
 whispered tones, and with precautions w^hich might 
 better have beseemed the progress of the undertaking 
 than the mere relation of it. 
 
 But all are agreed in the main points of their story, 
 and they refer for the confirmation of it to the admis-
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 245 
 
 sions of the committee of inquiry appointed by the 
 emperor, in parts of the evidence which it incautiously 
 made public. This commission consisted of the Grand 
 Duke Michael ; of Tatischeff, then minister of war ; 
 of Count Tchornicheff, who has since held that office, 
 and is now viceroy of Poland ; of Count Benkendorf, 
 grand-master of the secret police ; of Koutouzoff, who 
 succeeded Miloradvitch (killed in the insurrection) as 
 military governor of St. Petersburg ; of Levacheff and 
 Potapoff, aides-de-camp of the emperor ; and of the 
 state counsellors Bloudoff and Gallitzin. 
 
 The Marquis de Custine alludes to those events, as 
 having furnished an occasion on which the Emperor 
 Nicholas distinguished himself in the eyes of all 
 Europe by his firmness and his courage. With the 
 history of the insurrection the marquis appears to have 
 been little acquainted, and still less so with all the 
 circumstances of the preceding conspiracies; he dwells 
 cursorily on these subjects, and is content to take for 
 granted all that was related to him in the immediate 
 atmosphere of the imperial court. But he relates at 
 some length his personal conversation with the em- 
 peror, on the conduct and feelings of the latter on 
 that eventful day. 
 
 Now the behaviour of Nicholas on this occasion is 
 the subject on which he is said to be most accessible to 
 flattery, and we may therefore readily imagine it to 
 be the one on which he is most generally flattered. It 
 is cited both by his admirers and his detractors, and not, 
 perhaps, inaptly by either, as he found here the op- 
 portunity of displaying the most salient features of 
 his character — both good and bad. It will be left to 
 the reader, at the conclusion of the eventful narrative
 
 246 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 which the author is about to commence, to appreciate 
 which quahty predominates, but he may not deem an 
 inapt introduction to it, the quotation of this dialogue 
 between the emperor and the traveller. 
 
 " What you are about to read," says the latter, " was 
 told me, a few days since, by the emperor himself. 
 If I have not related this conversation in my last 
 letter, it is because papers containing such details 
 cannot be entrusted to the Russian post-office, nor 
 even to any traveller. 
 
 " On the day that Nicholas ascended the throne, a 
 rebellion broke out among the guards. On the first 
 tidings of the revolt of the troops, the emperor and 
 the empress went down stairs alone to their chapel, 
 and falling upon their knees on the steps of the altar, 
 swore to each other, before God, to die as sovereigns 
 if they could not quell the mutiny. 
 
 " The emperor judged that the affair was serious, 
 for he had just been informed that the archbishop had 
 already attempted in vain to appease the soldiers. 
 In Russia when the religious authority proves ineffec- 
 tive, the disorder is formidable. 
 
 " After making the sign of the cross, the emperor set 
 out to quash the rebellion by his mere presence, and 
 by the calm energy of his countenance. He related 
 this scene to me himself, in terms more modest than I 
 am about to use. Unluckily I have forgotten the first 
 part of his account, because at the outset I was some- 
 what uneasy at the unexpected turn which our con- 
 versation was taking. I shall therefore take it up at 
 the moment where my recollection of it commences. 
 
 *' ' Sire, your majesty derived your energy from the 
 true source.'
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. • 247 
 
 " ' I knew not what I was going to do or say ; I 
 was inspired.' 
 
 " ' To have such inspirations, one musfdeserve them.' 
 
 " ' I did nothing extraordinary. I said to the sol- 
 diers. Return to your ranks ; and on passing the 
 regiment, I cried, On your knees ! They all obeyed. 
 What made me strong was, that the moment before I 
 had resigned myself to death. I am thankful for the 
 success — I am not proud of it, for it was not owing 
 to any merit of mine.' 
 
 " Such were the noble expressions used by the em- 
 peror in relating to me this contemporary tragedy. 
 
 " You may thence judge of the interest of the sub- 
 jects touched upon in his conversations with the 
 foreigners whom he condescends to honour with his 
 notice ; there is a wide difference between such con- 
 versations and the common-places of the court. You 
 may hence infer what kind of power he exercises over 
 us, as well as over his people and his family. He is 
 the Louis XIV. of the Sclavonians. 
 
 " Eye-witnesses have assured me that he seemed to 
 enlarge at every step he took while advancing towards 
 the mutineers. From being taciturn, melancholy, and 
 attentive to trifles, as he had been in his youth, he 
 became a hero the moment he was a sovereign. It 
 is the contrary with most princes, who promise more 
 than they fulfil. 
 
 " This is so perfectly true on his part, that the throne 
 is for him what the stage is for a good actor. His atti- 
 tude before the rebel guards was so imposing, I am told, 
 that one of the conspirators approached him foiu: times, 
 with the intention of killing him while haranguing 
 the troops, but the wretch's courage failed, like that of
 
 248 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 the Cimbrian in the case of Marius. Well-informed 
 persons have attributed this mutiny to the influence 
 of the secret societies which, it is said, have been at 
 work in Russia since the campaigns of the allies in 
 France, and the frequent visits of Russian officers to 
 Germany. 
 
 " I repeat to you what I hear said ; they are obscure 
 facts, and it is impossible for me to verify them. 
 
 " The conspirators had recourse to a ridiculous 
 falsehood, to excite the array to revolt. They circu- 
 lated a report that Nicholas was usurping the crown, 
 to the prejudice of his brother Constantine, who, they 
 said, was on his way to Petersburg, to defend his 
 rights by force of arms. In order to decide the re- 
 volters to shout under the windows of the palace, 
 * The constitution for ever !' the ringleaders had per- 
 suaded them that (Constitution was the name of Con- 
 stantine's wife, their supposed empress. You see that 
 at bottom it was an idea of duty which actuated the 
 soldiers, since it was only by a trick that they were to 
 be drawn into rebellion. 
 
 " The fact is, that Constantine refused the throne 
 from nothing but weakness ; he was afraid of being 
 poisoned; therein consisted his philosophy. God 
 knows, and perhaps some men know too, whether his 
 abdication saved him from the dancer which he thought 
 to avoid. 
 
 " Thus it was in the interest of le2;itimacv, that the 
 deluded soldiers revolted against their legitimate sove- 
 reign. 
 
 " It was remarked that the whole time the emperor 
 was in front of the troops, he was so calm that he did 
 not once urge his horse into a gallop, but he was ex-
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 249 
 
 tremely pale. He made trial of his power, and the 
 success of that trial ensured him the obedience of his 
 nation. 
 
 " Such a man cannot be judged by the standard 
 applied to ordinary persons. His solemn and autho- 
 ritative voice, his magnetic eye steadfastly resting on 
 the object which attracts it, but frequently rendered 
 cold and fixed, from the habit of repressing his pas- 
 sions more than dissembling his thoughts, for he is 
 frank ; his superb forehead, his features, partaking of 
 the Apollo and the Jupiter, his imposing, imperious, 
 unchanging physiognomy ; his face, more noble than 
 mild, more monumental than human ; all these exercise 
 a sovereign power over every one who approaches his 
 person. He becomes the arbiter of the will of others, 
 because they see that he is master of his own will. 
 
 " I subjoin what I recollect further of our conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 " * After quelling the mutiny, sire, your majesty 
 must have returned to the palace in a very different 
 disposition from that in which you left it ; for you 
 ensured, with the throne, the admiration of the world 
 and the sympathy of all elevated minds.' 
 
 " ' I did not think so ; people have praised what I 
 then did a great deal too much.' 
 
 " The emperor did not tell me that on his return to 
 his consort, he found her attacked by a shaking of the 
 head, a nervous complaint which she has never since 
 entirely got the better of. This convulsion is scarcely 
 perceptible, neither is it, indeed, at all, on those days 
 when the empress is calm and in good health ; but 
 whenever she suffers, morally or physically, the dis- 
 order returns, and becomes worse. This noble woman
 
 250 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 must have had a hard struggle against the anxieties 
 that beset her, while her husband was so daringly 
 exposing himself to the weapons of the assassins. 
 When he came back, as soon as she saw him, she em- 
 braced him without speaking. The emperor, after 
 cheering her, felt a faintness in his turn : again be- 
 coming man for a moment, he threw himself into the 
 arms of one of his most faithful servants, who hap- 
 pened to be present at this scene, and exclaimed, 
 * What a beginning of a reign !' 
 
 " I shall publish these particulars ; it is right that 
 they should be made known, to teach obscure men to 
 be less envious of the fortune of the great." 
 
 It is unquestionable that the resolute firmness, the 
 energetic activit}^, which the Emperor Nicholas dis- 
 played, saved not only his absolute crown, but his life. 
 Uncertain as he was what mines might explode beneath 
 his footsteps, he disdained all compromise, and boldly 
 cast the die for unlimited power or utter ruin. 
 
 On the other hand, in the face of his army, this 
 man, who for years has never quitted his uniform, 
 who idolizes all that is martial, who looks in stature 
 and in port a Coeur-de Lion, as soon as his faithful 
 force began to act, retired so far from the scene of action 
 as to place himself in individual safety, — thus affording 
 a spectacle of moral courage and firmness, and phy- 
 sical timidity, not inseparable, though seldom united. 
 From this day's behaviour, the emperor's friends and 
 foes respectively deduce arguments to assert either 
 his courage or his cowardice. The truth is, that he 
 appears to be endowed with that species of the former 
 which is really valuable in a leader of men ; and it 
 may be that he is deficient in that personal bravery
 
 Airo REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 251 
 
 which is quite unconnected with the former, but 
 which men are apt to prize, both in themselves and 
 others, as if it were a quality less common. In this 
 respect his character seems to have been the converse 
 of that of Constantine, the man of physical daring, 
 the bold rider of unbroken horses, the intrepid swords- 
 man, and the moral coward, who was frightened out 
 of an Imperial crown, and whose conduct on the 
 outbreak of the Polish revolution was marked by 
 vacillating timidity. 
 
 By a perusal of the tale we are about to unfold, the 
 reader will perceive that the firmness of the emperor 
 was not greater than his severity. There are to the 
 present day several disgraced regiments in the Russian 
 Imperial Guards and army, being those regiments 
 which took a prominent part in the revolt. In these 
 corps promotion is slow, and rewards are scarce, 
 though, immediately after the suppression of the insur- 
 rection, not a man or officer remained in them. 
 
 It must here be observed (in order to shew that in 
 this punishment vindictiveness had a greater share 
 than policy) that the administration of the Russian 
 army during the last and present reigns has, after the 
 example of France, laid no little stress on those hono- 
 rai-y marks of distinction or disgrace, which were 
 found to act as a powerful stimulant on the military 
 vanity of a nation so sensitive on all points of honour 
 as the French ; but which, with men of a more " matter- 
 of-fact" temper, are almost useless, unaccompanied 
 by certain and tangible advantages. 
 
 The principle of all extraordinary military distinc- 
 tions is, undoubtedly, that of furnishing a cheap reicard 
 to merit, and the expediency of this plan is unques-
 
 252 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 tionable, where those on whom it is conferred can be 
 induced to consider it as adequate to their deserts, and 
 to confound the shadow with the substance. 
 
 With regard to the Russian army, in which the 
 system of orders and medals has been more fully 
 worked out than in aiiy other, it has entirely failed. 
 It is true that the man with a certain number of 
 orders, distinguishing him for length of service, and 
 for actions of merit, may be looked upon with some 
 envy by a brother soldier or officer of equal rank ; 
 because, according to the regulations of such orders, 
 he stands a better chance of promotion to the next 
 rank, with its advantages of superior pay, power, and 
 opportunities of peculation ; but the whole army, and 
 society in general, will regard with greater respect 
 the man who holds a rank above him, and who, in- 
 stead of having five and twenty such orders on his 
 breast, (a common occurrence in Russia,) may not 
 boast of half a dozen. It is therefore, the military 
 rank, with its tangible advantages, and not the honour- 
 able badge of distinction, which is valued; and all 
 these marks of merit and good conduct sink into dis- 
 tinctive signs of fresh subdivisions of grade, with the 
 drawback of being equivocal ones. 
 
 Thus, on a recent occasion, some Russian forts on 
 the coast of Circassia were stormed by the moun- 
 taineers, as usually happens to a portion of these Rus- 
 sian strongholds when the winter storminess of the 
 Black Sea interrupts communication on its waters. 
 In one of these forts, the powder magazine was 
 blown up ; no one remained to explain how ; those 
 not killed by the explosion being carried into cap- 
 tivity by the mountaineers. The commander-in-
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 253 
 
 chief on the Circassian station, having this unpleasant 
 inteUigence to communicate, states in his despatch, 
 that the fort, defended to the last, when all was lost, was 
 blown up by a certain private, who set fire to the pow- 
 der magazine. The emperor beheved, or affected to 
 believe, what there were no witnesses to contradict ; 
 and thinking this a favourable opportunity of working 
 on the enthusiasm of the army, by an imperial ukase 
 he decreed " that, from this time forward for ever, at 
 muster-roll of his company, the name of the deceased 
 should be read at the head of the list, and that the 
 next present should reply, * he died at such a date, 
 in the defence of his emperor and his country.' " 
 
 In France this would have been a more flatterina: 
 and envied distinction than that conferred on the heirs 
 of La Tour d'Auvergne, who inherited from the de- 
 parted hero perpetually, the title oi Premier Grenadier 
 de Fra7ice. In Russia, when the ukase was read to 
 two Serjeants of the guard, and it was inquired what 
 they thought of it, " Where is the use," observed one, 
 " of reading his name on the muster-roll when the 
 man is not there?" The reply of the other was, 
 " Poor fellow ; I dare say he thought some day to 
 get back to his village ; but he will be kept in the 
 ranks even after he is dead." 
 
 In the disgraced regiments which have been alluded 
 to, from the same ignorance of all point of honour, 
 their disgrace has failed to give rise to the only feel- 
 ing which it can be the object of the emperor to in- 
 spire ; for although the whole army are sensible that 
 these are unfavoured corps, not one man in five hun- 
 dred has the remotest conception why they are so. 
 
 The account already given in the preceding pages,
 
 254 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 contains some description of the oppressions under 
 which the aristocratic portion of the Muscovite com- 
 munity labour. In those devoted to the description 
 of the army, the reader will find more copious details, 
 explaining how the army is a place of forced servitude 
 for the nobility of thi^ vast empire ; whilst the facts, 
 on the narration of which the author is about to enter, 
 will shew that the suspicion and hatred of Nicholas are 
 not entirely groundless, and his animosity against this 
 class, if unworthy, is not unfounded. The following 
 brief history of the general conspiracy of the nobility 
 against the unlimited and ever-abused power of their 
 tsars, will furnish a key to the feeling which the 
 present emperor entertains against his nobles, which 
 renders the fate of the wealthiest and proudest of his 
 aristocracy unenviable, even when contrasted with the 
 hard fate of the British artisan. 
 
 In the present age, amidst a thousand trifling abuses, 
 we owe to the press that its light penetrates into every 
 chink and comer where despotism would hide its dark 
 deeds, and exposes them in their hideous nakedness 
 to the gaze and execration of the world ; neither the 
 deep natural dungeon of a Siberian mine, the insidious 
 veil of calumny, nor scarcely the secrecy of the grave, 
 can eventually hide the truth. The author has been 
 favoured with the perusal of a MS. from the able pen 
 of one of the actors in the scenes he is about to de- 
 scribe, which in a few years will be given to the world. 
 It is full of the minutest and most graphic particulars of 
 transactions, so dark as few men in our favoured West 
 could have imagined to have happened in the century 
 in which we live, even in the midst of Central Asia.
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 255 
 
 The following brief description is compiled fi-om 
 such recollections as a hasty perusal of the above- 
 named MS. enabled him to retain, corroborated by 
 the testimony of many who were indirectly mixed up 
 with these events. 
 
 The author must begin by observing that, although 
 the Russian nobility were not yet reduced to the same 
 abject condition as at present, the Russian sovereigns, 
 since Peter L, had generally continued so far encroach- 
 ing on those privileges and liberties which they had 
 more or less practically enjoyed, as, under the reign 
 of the late Emperor Alexander, to have almost assi- 
 milated the Russian empire to those Oriental despot- 
 isms in which no hereditary aristocracy is acknow- 
 ledged, or consideration enjoyed, which is not derived 
 from the present favour of the sovereign, and where 
 camel-drivers and slaves rise to be ministers and 
 favourites. Those families descended from the haughty 
 Boyars, whose princely houses were two or three 
 centuries ago on an equality with the now reigning 
 Romanoffs — who even a few years ago raised regiments 
 amongst their serfs, bearing the name of their noble 
 proprietors — submitted with a bad grace to the gradual 
 loss of all hereditary influence ; and the aristocratic 
 colonel, when he had Avon his way to considerable 
 rank, and was obliged to receive with submission the 
 insult of the drunken general who spat in his face, 
 felt as intolerable an offence which he might have 
 disregarded in a prince, when he reflected that this 
 general was a serf, or the son of a serf, who had 
 attained his elevation by means as ignoble as his 
 origin. The reign of terror having ceased, as that of
 
 256 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 the insane but energetic Paul may be termed, (who 
 fell a victim, not, as it is generally believed, to his 
 nobility, but to a mere seraglio-revolution, of which 
 Eastern despotisms offer us the incessant picture,) 
 the Russian nobility, whose condition had nowise im- 
 proved under his mild successor, took courage, and 
 formed the resolution of redressing its wTongs. 
 
 During the last nine years of his reign, the throne 
 of Alexander may have been considered as placed on 
 the crater of a volcano. The most remarkable con- 
 spiracy which ever took place in Russia, and which, 
 in its consequences to the destiny of the whole Scla- 
 vonian family, might have proved one of the most im- 
 portant which history has ever recorded, was silently 
 gathering strength, and menacing his authority and 
 his dynasty. It afforded the spectacle, which the pre- 
 judices of Western liberalism will be apt to consider 
 anomalous as that of the Venetian Doge conspiring 
 for the liberty of his subjects, — a feudal nobility 
 plotting against the sovereign, for the freedom of their 
 own country, and of the lands groaning under the 
 oppression of their national power. In Russia, as in 
 Poland, it is only, however, by this class that the 
 advantages of liberty have been understood. It was 
 exclusively from its bosom that, for centuries in 
 Poland, patriotic virtues shone brilliantly forth, neu- 
 tralized as they have always been by feuds, dissen- 
 sions, and jealousies. It is in this class that in Russia 
 they have faintly glimmered, and partially blazed 
 out, to be, we fear, effectually extinguished until the 
 great day when the spirit of Western light and civi- 
 lization shall overthrow the genius of darkness and 
 despotism, and unbind the fetters of sixty millions of
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 257 
 
 people — a consummation which all, who do not de- 
 spair of the eventual destinies of the human race, must 
 look forward to with confidence, however clouded the 
 horizon of the immediate future. 
 
 If in Spain and in Germany the aristocracy have 
 proved a curse to the country, it is to this portion of 
 society that Poland owes her not having been con- 
 signed to oblivion, and hopeless as well as actual 
 slavery, like the Lettonians and Esthonians — a people 
 for whom there is no hope of political resuiTection. 
 It is to her nobility that Russia owes the only noble 
 effort made to redeem her population from that be- 
 numbing and demoralizing despotism which avails 
 itself of all the arts of civilization and enlightenment 
 to extend the spread of darkness. If partial oppres- 
 sion has brought to light all the most exalted virtues 
 which history presents to our view, and the slavery 
 which feels its degradation has engendered philan- 
 thropy and patriotism, — like the soil of the North, 
 which, subject so long to the frost, springs into rapid 
 and sudden productiveness to compensate its winter 
 bari'enness, — yet utter, unrelieved, and unqualified 
 servitude, such as the peasantry of these countries 
 have been subjected to, gives rise to none of those 
 virtues which, under another system, have manifested 
 themselves as proudly in the humblest ranks of the 
 people as in those more exalted. 
 
 This general debasement of the popular character, 
 from which arguments have indeed been drawn to 
 favour the views of oligarchists, constitutes one of the . 
 strongest proofs which could possibly be adduced, of 
 the propriety of removing the causes of it, and shows 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 the imperative necessity of raising its moral tone 
 because it is so low, instead of keeping it down be- 
 cause it is thus far sunken. 
 
 The memorable effort to which we allude, prepared 
 during many years of Alexander's reign, was made 
 when the present emperor ascended the throne. It 
 failed, because the projected revolution had to con- 
 tend at its birth with a man of resolution, energy, and 
 firmness ; because, as in those conspiracies which 
 have been inspired by the purest motives, the ambi- 
 tious, the treacherous, and the cowardl}^, who were 
 associated with the disinterested, the noble-spirited, 
 and the brave, were mingled in too large a propor- 
 tion ; and because those who planned it had miscal- 
 culated the spirit of the time, and in their enthusiasm 
 judging men rather as they wished them to be than 
 as they were, were unwilling to estimate in its deso- 
 lating reality the indifference and servility of the 
 masses on which they hoped to work. They failed, 
 and the rope and knout of the executioner, and exile 
 to Siberia, rewarded the boldness of some, and the 
 vacillation of others. 
 
 Through the veil of secrecy, and amidst the calumny 
 and misrepresentation with which the designs and 
 characters of the conspirators were overwhelmed, — 
 calumnies against which every protesting voice has 
 been silenced, — it would be as difficult to gather 
 authentic details as if already wrapped in the mist 
 of ages, were it not for the comparison of docu- 
 ments, which it would be ruin for those who furnished 
 them to acknowledge. Without reference to these, how- 
 ever, according to the very admissions of the agents
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 259 
 
 of authority, we can trace in the plans of these men, 
 who have been held up to execration as regicides and 
 assassins, and in the very rules of their secret societies, 
 a largeness and liberality of ideas, a degree of dis- 
 interestedness and generosity, and a direct and prac- 
 tical benevolence, which show them to have been 
 inspired, not by ambition, but by the noblest im- 
 pulses ; whilst independently of these, the nationality 
 and patriotism of their views invests their conspiracy 
 with a character perfectly antithetical to that which 
 (as it was intended) merely proved fatal to the tyrant 
 Paul, but was not directed against autocratic tj^ranny. 
 In Alexander's reign, if the weakness of this sovereign 
 suffered all the grossest abuses of administration to 
 oppress the country more heavily and more shame- 
 lessly than at present, he had not — at least, until the 
 latter part of his reign — attempted to seal up the 
 mouths of men by a system of espionage and terror, 
 and therefore they were at least at liberty to talk 
 about, and canvass in private, the abuses which sur- 
 rounded them. 
 
 After the campaigns of 1813, 14, and 15, on the 
 return of the Russian armies from France and Ger- 
 many, the more educated- and therefore intelhgent 
 portion of the officers, which principally consisted of 
 the higher nobility, had all imbibed a due sense of 
 their degraded position ; and some, contrasting the 
 deplorable condition of their country v/ith that of 
 others, through which the fortune of war had carried 
 them, and which, in the midst of all the disorders of 
 political revolutions, appeared comparatively so envi- 
 able, became animated with the patriotic desire of 
 s2
 
 260 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 introducing a better order of things, and went far in 
 their adoption of liberal ideas. Their opinions were 
 speedily disseminated amongst their families ; the 
 leaven began to operate, and the whole of the nobility, 
 who had long groaned under a consciousness of degra- 
 dation, became generally inspired with the hope and 
 confidence of overturning the oriental despotism so 
 incompatible with their existence, and the discontent, 
 so long subdued and sullen, began gradually to ferment 
 into activity. 
 
 This spirit being once awakened amongst that 
 numerous body, all that it contained of youthful 
 ardour, of noble and disinterested feeling, was called 
 forth ; and in the same flow of enthusiasm which we 
 shall presently sec causing them to sacrifice their own 
 interests to an abstract good, they were most forward 
 in hazarding their lives, and braving the dangers of 
 the contest, and therefore took the initiative as the 
 forlorn hope of a whole class, which, from motives 
 very different from their own, wished e({ually the 
 overturn of despotic power. Different secret societies 
 were organized ; the disinterested and enthusiastic — 
 those determined neither to submit to nor to retain 
 the power of oppression — though fisw in number, as 
 they were the first to venture on this step, gave to 
 their institutions a tone and colouring which was far 
 from representing the feelings of the mass of conspi- 
 rators by whom they were afterwards joined, — those 
 who wished to substitute a mere feudal oligarchy for 
 an oppressive despotism — to remove the imperial 
 tyranny weighing on themselves, without giving up 
 the right of themselves exercising it over the humbler
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 261 
 
 classes. These were the men whose subsequent 
 conduct, worthy of their motives, caused them to deli- 
 berate, to hesitate, and to abandon their cause when 
 the hour of trial came, which for nine years they had 
 succeeded in deferring by their vacillations. The best 
 and bravest of their number alone fell victims to their 
 rash attempt. 
 
 The Russian government has since endeavoured to 
 spread abroad the impression that this disaffection 
 was partial and accidental ; and on this account it 
 publicly condemned only thirty-six of the conspirators. 
 But nothing can prove more clearly that it had a deep 
 root in a whole class of society, than the fact, that for 
 nine years the government could never suppress the 
 dangerous institutions, which, as it often received 
 vague indications, were forming in every direction 
 around it. When, with extreme difficulty, the govern- 
 ment succeeded in dissolving one society, it sprang 
 up in another form, just as Whiteboyism in Ireland 
 has been perpetuated under a variety of names. The 
 oppression of the pampered Russian noble produced 
 the same results as that of the half-naked and half- 
 famished catholic of Ireland. 
 
 The founder of the first of these secret societies, 
 which appears to have originated in 1817, was a 
 Colonel Pestel, who is admitted to have been a man 
 of remarkable talent, even by his adversaries, though 
 no pains have been spared by them to blacken and 
 vilify his name, and to trample in the dust those ashes 
 which they scattered to the winds so ruthlessly. He 
 was true throughout to his colours and his cause, and 
 appears to have been by far the most skilful and prac-
 
 262 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 tical of the conspirators. All the rules and regulations 
 which he proposed bear the stamp of a widely compre- 
 hensive benevolence, and of the immediate and bene- 
 ficial apphcabihty to present circumstances, which 
 argues the work of a man Avho was more than a 
 dreaming theorist. At the same time, he compiled a 
 code of Russian jurisprudence, from which the Emperor 
 Nicholas, who hanged him, introduced a considerable 
 portion into the Russian laws, where, according to the 
 corrupt system which pervades their administration, 
 of which we have endeavoured to give the reader a 
 faint idea, the}^ may prove as ornamental, but as use- 
 less, as the Alexander column, which rises in mono- 
 lithic grandeur before his palace windows. 
 
 The name of this first society was the " Union of 
 Salvation." It was divided into three classes, in 
 which the two inferior bound themselves by the most 
 solemn vows to obey blindly the commands of the 
 superior one, called the " Boyars." It was after some 
 time dissolved, but again reappeared under the name 
 of " Union for the public good." The number of its 
 members was infinitely augmented, and the object of 
 the conspirators being to bring' as large- a portion of 
 the nobility together as possible, its regulations were 
 such as did not alarm the most timid fi:om joining 
 them, since its founders declared, " that their only 
 object was the public good, which ought not to be, 
 and they trusted was not, opposed to the views of the 
 emperor, and that therefore their meetings and deli- 
 berations should only be held in secret, to prevent the 
 impediments which suspicion and malevolence would 
 inevitably throw in the way of them if publicly at- 
 tempted."
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 263 
 
 The members of the " Union for the public good" 
 bound themselves by oath, by exertion of their wealth, 
 their talent, their influence, and at their peril, to pro- 
 pagate the intellectual and moral education of all 
 classes of society, to encourage the universal spread 
 of enlightenment, by means of the dissemination of 
 appropriate writings, and by the establishment of 
 Lancasterian schools. They were also to encourage 
 a national as well as a rational feeling amone-st all 
 classes. They were to extend as much as possible 
 the sphere of private and public beneficence, to watch 
 naiTowly all the abuses in the numerous charitable 
 institutions of government, and place those which 
 they discovered incessantly under the eyes of the 
 higher authorities. They were to carry on a merciless 
 war against every species of peculation, but especially 
 that of the tribunals, which they were to drag to the 
 light, and use all their influence and interest to get 
 punished ; whilst they should employ the same means 
 to reward by advancement the integrity of public 
 functionaries, aTid subscribe to offer them pecuniary 
 compensation for the diminution which honesty would 
 occasion in their revenues. 
 
 Although the members of this society bound them- 
 selves to forward all these objects as much as lay in 
 their power, they were to devote themselves more 
 especially to the one for which it was judged that 
 their position in society, their disposition, or their 
 wealth best fitted them, and they were all to seek for 
 and accept such offices as might favour their views. 
 A certain number of them were also selected who 
 were to discuss all questions of political interest and 
 economy.
 
 264 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 The good done by this society was very great, 
 although much interest was not taken in fulfilHng all 
 these benevolent regulations by a large number of the 
 members, who were animated by a very different 
 spirit from the men who had framed them. In politics, 
 the Union continued reserved and moderate. Though 
 they had decided on the necessity of a form of govern- 
 ment not wholly arbitrary, they were still disposed to 
 trust much to the liberality of Alexander, and their 
 efforts were principally confined to endeavouring to 
 remove him from the influence of those who were 
 supposed to pervert the generous resolutions which 
 his words so often conveyed. The liberality of Alex- 
 ander seldom, however, shewed itself in anything but 
 words ; he was too weak and too timid ever to carry 
 into execution designs which he planned in moments 
 of excitement. Brought up by the republican La 
 Harpe, whom Catherine gave him as tutor knowing 
 him to be such, he had, unlike most other princes, 
 early imbibed an exceeding admiration for all liberal 
 institutions; he had learned to consider them as a 
 boon and a blessing, and one which he was always 
 willing to confer, until the moment came and he 
 found that (at home at least) it could only be at the 
 expense of his own authority ; — like those men who 
 have a great abstract veneration for generosity, or a 
 contempt of wealth — who have always the sentiment 
 upon their lips, and recommend it to others — but whose 
 natural avarice instantly dispels the illusion when 
 called upon to part with a shilling of their own. 
 
 The timidity of Alexander was also easily excited 
 with regard to future consequences ; and jNIetternich,
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 265 
 
 the Mephistopheles of Absolutism, as well as the em- 
 peror's own immediate counsellors, always well knew 
 how to terrify him out of his resolutions, when, even 
 at the expense of his rights, he was tempted to pur- 
 chase that reputation for liberality, which was the 
 glory he chiefly coveted ; and it is thus that, in his 
 conduct, the expectations to which his words gave rise 
 were frequently contradicted by the most arbitrary 
 acts. 
 
 If Alexander's timidity, however, prevented him 
 from losing sight of these counsellors, his weakness 
 had even a worse effect than his timidity; for not 
 content with sacrificing the measures of improvement 
 which he had meditated, he allowed them to resort to 
 any injustices and severities they thought proper ; 
 and thus, where he had promised his subjects bread, 
 they too often received a stone. The perfect influ- 
 ence his ministers and favourites attained over him 
 notoriously allowed them to act in direct opposition 
 to his professed wishes and feelings. We have already 
 seen the gloomy and cruel Aracheiefi*, wielding, with 
 unrelenting severity, the power he derived from a 
 master who could, in his conversation, discuss the 
 rights of humanity like a philosopher, and weep over 
 its sufiferings with the benevolence of a Christian. 
 
 Ea-iloff", the fabulist — perhaps the first of any age or 
 country, and, at all events by far the most shining 
 light of Russian literature — very happily illustrates 
 the character of Alexander, in a fable to this effect : — 
 The sheep (his subjects) come to the elephant, and 
 bitterly complain of the ravages of the wolves. " How 
 is this ?" quoth the elephant to the latter. " How dare
 
 266 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 you molest the sheep, my subjects ?" " Sire !" reply 
 the wolves, *' we only demand of them one skin 
 apiece, and they appear to grudge us even that." 
 " Well," says the elephant, " one skin apiece take, 
 then ; but beware how you strip them of any more." 
 
 Innumerable instances, which daily gave a .fresh 
 point to the fable of Kriloff, at last acquainted the 
 conspirators with Alexander's true character. The 
 constitution which he gave to Poland had excited 
 their most ardent hopes, and some of them had ven- 
 tiured to propose then- plans to the emperor himself; 
 he embraced them with affection, he admired and 
 approved their plans, but finally he gave them to under- 
 stand, with tears in his eyes, that society was not yet 
 quite prepared for such a state of things. The consti- 
 tution of Poland also soon proved merely nominal ; a 
 year had not elapsed before it was violated by the 
 Russian government ; and shortly after, it was utterly 
 subverted by the dissolution of the national army, the 
 suspension of the liberty of the press, and the despotic 
 power entrusted to his brother Constantine and to the 
 Russian commissary. 
 
 The Union now began to perceive that there was 
 nothing to be seriously hoped for from this man ; and 
 it was determined to overturn the government, and 
 put an end to a tyranny which, though the tyrant him- 
 self was mild and humane, was as oppressive as any 
 which ever existed. After long deliberation, it was 
 decided that this could not safely be effected vnthout 
 taking the life of the emperor ; and a vast majority 
 decided in faveur of this measure, as well as on the 
 establishment of a republican form of government.
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 267 
 
 But a republic was understood in a very different 
 way by the different conspirators. The far greater 
 number, as it has been already observed, whilst de- 
 sirous of overturning the authority which pressed so 
 heavily on them, were unwilling to abandon a tittle 
 of that which they themselves exercised; and the ideas 
 which their leaders entertained of abolishing the ser- 
 vitude of their slaves, and of forming a mixed republic, 
 in which all classes should be represented, was so 
 indignantly repulsed by the majority, that much 
 dissension ensued. When divided, the conspirators 
 became alarmed at their own rashness, and the founders 
 of the Union affected to dissolve it, and to annul all 
 their resolutions. 
 
 Having thus got rid of the most timid of their 
 number, Pestel reorganized the society under another 
 name : the institution assumed more of a masonic 
 form; the conspirators were divided into different 
 classes, and were promoted from one to the other, so 
 that the secrets of this body were entrusted only to 
 those of approved fidelity. 
 
 There are two remarkable featm'es in the history of 
 this conspiracy: the one is, that during nine years 
 the conspirators were never betrayed by any fully 
 initiated member; the other is the fact, that during 
 the course of its proceedings the Union discovered 
 the existence of three other independent and uncon- 
 nected societies, all having in view a similar object ; 
 that of the " Russian Knights," who professed a 
 knight-eiTantry against all abuses ; that of the " Society 
 for the Independence of Poland ;" and that of the 
 " United Sclavonians," composed of young enthusiasts.
 
 268 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 who had conceived the idea of uniting the whole of 
 the Sclavonic race in one federative republic of inde- 
 pendent states, under the names of Russia, Poland, 
 Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia, and Transyl- 
 vania. The Sclavonic population of all these coun- 
 tries amounts collectively to upwards of 70,000,000 of 
 inhabitants, all speaking a common language, distin- 
 guished only by dialectic differences no greater than 
 are found in the language of many united and inde- 
 pendent people. These societies, like small streams 
 pouring into a large river, all united with Pestel's 
 original Union, whose spirit outlived many transmi- 
 grations of form, and which grew powerful and me- 
 nacing, notwithstanding the heterogeneous materials 
 which constantly crept into it.
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 269 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF THE RUSSIAN NOBILITY, AND REVOLT 
 OF THE 26th of DECEMBER, 1825. 
 
 The great Union was now divided into a northern 
 and southern department, and each of these again 
 into a number of subdivisions, and all the various 
 elements which composed it concun'ing in the same 
 immediate object, yet as widely dissentient as ever in 
 their ulterior views, it was impossible that, under 
 these circumstances, some jealousy and distrust should 
 not arise. The members of this powerful association 
 appear to have consisted of three very distinct classes 
 of men. The first, the least numerous, but the most 
 active, and the one that gave its own tone to all the 
 proceedings of all these secret societies, was composed 
 principally of young men, acting under the most 
 generous and disinterested convictions; they wished 
 to raise the whole of the Russian nation to the same 
 social station as the inhabitants of the most favoured
 
 270 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 lands, and to procure for all the Sclavonic nations 
 civil and religious liberty and toleration in the widest 
 signification of the term, and to an extent which 
 hitherto has not yet anywhere proved practicable, 
 whatever it may hereafter. 
 
 The association consisted mostly of men belonging 
 to the higher aristocracy, possessed of large fortunes, 
 which most of them proposed sacrificing, by giving 
 freedom to all their serfs, the only source of their 
 revenues ; and there appeared to reign a noble emu- 
 lation amongst them, in their endeavours to divest 
 their proceedings of any shadow of personal ambition. 
 They were republicans and democrats, but men whose 
 peculiar position proved the sincerity of their opinions, 
 and gave no room to the suspicion which always in- 
 voluntarily obtrudes, of the motives of those levellers 
 who, in the process which they propose of levelling 
 all classes, will rather bring down others to their own 
 standard than allow themselves to descend. 
 
 Pestel, the most influential leader of the whole 
 society, was the soul of this ultra party, which com- 
 prised the men of heart and action, and though neither 
 distinguished himself by family nor by fortune, he was 
 looked up to by all, on account of his energy and 
 his talents. The three brothers Bestoujeffs, two of 
 the Mouravieffs, Bestoujef-Rumin and Mouravief- 
 Apostol, Batenkoff, Kakovski, Schveikovski, Prince 
 Odoicfski, Wolkoif, Arbuvsoff, Volkonski (Prince Ser- 
 gius), Kousmin, and Prince Steliepin Rostovski, were 
 amongst the most ardent of the number of these dis- 
 interested patriots and reformers ; their courage, when 
 the moment of action came, was equal to the motives 
 which inspired it; unlike the host of conspirators
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 271 
 
 who became alarmed and vacillating when the dan- 
 gers of the struggle were before them, their gallantry 
 did not belie the boldness of their words or the mag- 
 nanimity of their intentions, and we find them all 
 falling the victims of the great cause in which they 
 had engaged. 
 
 The oligarchists constituted, however, the greatest 
 majority, and included in their ranks so large a number 
 of conspirators, that the government, after the explosion 
 of this long-prepared conspiracy, found it impossible 
 immediately to punish all concerned in it, the labours 
 of the committee of inquiry having proved that there 
 was not one noble family of note in the empire guilt- 
 less of participation in it. Although naturally this 
 part of the report was kept as strictly private as pos- 
 sible, as well as many other circumstances of interest, 
 and that so much of it as the public have been allowed 
 to get at is interspersed with a seasoning of the foulest 
 aspersions which the malice of policy could invent, 
 those who choose to be at the trouble of carefully in- 
 vestigating such minutes even of the proceedings of 
 the commission as are accessible, will be able to gather 
 from the admissions of the commissioners themselves 
 a confirmation of all the statements we have made. 
 
 There was also a portion of the members who might 
 be rather said to approve of the proceedings of the rest 
 than to take part in them, and who, in short, flattered 
 themselves that, without incurring the risk of failure, 
 they would profit by the success of their brethren: 
 such were Michel Orloff, MamonofF, Van Wiesen, 
 and a numerous host besides. The activity and the 
 genius of Pestel excited amongst this class, and amongst 
 the oligarchists, some jealousy and apprehension, and
 
 272 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 they succeeded in inspiring with their suspicions even 
 many of the ultras of their party. Pestel was busily 
 occupied in the south, and one of the Mouravieffs had 
 been appointed president of the northern circle, when, 
 on the plea of checking the ambitious views of Pestel, 
 they elected the Princes Troubetskoi and Obolenski 
 jointly to the presidency with him. 
 
 Prince Troubetskoi, who represented the oligarch- 
 ical and the passive division of the conspirators, and 
 who was at last made Dictator, though raised up 
 avowedly to check the ambition of Pestel, was himself 
 a man ambitious as he was vain ; but he was endowed 
 with qualifications which turned upon him the eyes 
 of the majority whose opinions he represented, and 
 gained him their confidence — amongst other qualities, 
 with that sort of courage which leads a man fearlessly 
 into dangers, and abandons him when face to face 
 with them, but which, until it is tried, is just as im- 
 posing as if it were genuine. 
 
 It is a singular fact, that Prince Troubetskoi, whose 
 personal conduct so mainly influenced the issue of 
 the insurrection which crowned this long conspiracy, 
 that perhaps upon it hinged the life of Nicholas, and 
 the fate of despotism in the Russian empire, was him- 
 self of a family which had competed with the house 
 of Romanoff, and was at least as legitimately entitled 
 to the throne ; but this particular incident does not 
 seem to have been borne in mind by the oligarchic 
 party in its selection of him. 
 
 According to the reports of the commission, and the 
 pretended evidence of some of the guilty parties, from 
 1823 to 1825, many atrocious plots were laid to murder 
 the Emperor Alexander and all the imperial family,
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 273 
 
 which were always frustrated by some providential 
 interposition, or abandoned very unaccountably when 
 the moment of execution came. It would appear that 
 this extreme measure, if proposed, was never agreed 
 to, since there was no want of opportunities to carry it 
 into execution, and since the very men to whom this 
 design has been attributed were precisely those who 
 afterwards proved their unflinching resolution. It is, 
 on the contrary, asserted by those who dare to whisper 
 anything on this subject, in contradiction to the dictum 
 of authority, and is energetically maintained in the ma- 
 nuscript which the author has perused, that the amiable 
 qualities which distinguished Alexander alone proved 
 his safeguard, and that if he had been personally more 
 of the despot, even though the tyranny of his reign 
 had been infinitely less, he must inevitably have 
 perished ; but all the more enthusiastic of the con- 
 spirators, who would eagerly have struck down the 
 tyrant, could not bring themselves to sacrifice the 
 victim which they judged necessary to the destruction 
 of the despotism. This statement is the more worthy 
 of belief, because it agrees with the character of the 
 class of the members of the conspiracy who proved 
 themselves to be the only men of action engaged in 
 it, and because it perfectly tallies with the conduct of 
 the association, and accounts for it. 
 
 There is also connected with the progress of this 
 conspiracy another remarkable fact already mentioned, 
 which would go far to prove the rectitude of intention 
 and the conscious integrity of the conspirators — viz., 
 that before the dissolution of the first association, all 
 the men who subsequently took the most prominent 
 part, carried away by their conviction of the innate 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 sympathy of the Emperor Alexander, endeavoured to 
 make a convert of him, and privately exposed to him 
 their constitutional views. The emperor embraced the 
 delegates, wept feelingly when they exposed the 
 miseries of their country, and deplored that its con- 
 dition did not yet fit it for the institutions they pro- 
 posed, but promised, on his honour as a prince, on 
 his hopes as a Christian, to put his shoulder to the 
 wheel, to advance, as rapidly as possible, the great 
 work. When he consulted his ministers, his practical 
 answer, or rather theirs, was the re-establishment of 
 the secret police. 
 
 At last, the face of affairs was changed by the death 
 of the Emperor Alexander at Taganrok, which there 
 is much reason to believe was occasioned by natural 
 causes, though few would be bold enough to vouch 
 for the fact. It is at least certain that the conspirators 
 were guiltless of it, because it took them unprepared 
 and scattered at inconvenient distances over the em- 
 pire. The refusal of Constantine to accept of the 
 imperial crown, and his resignation in favour of 
 Nicholas, of whose character the Union seems to have 
 formed a very correct estimate, obliged them to take 
 some decisive resolution. 
 
 The Grand-Duke Nicholas, thus become emperor, 
 was judged to be of haughty and unyielding temper, 
 and known to be as adverse to all constitutional 
 governments, as he has since not only shewn by his 
 actions, but boasted himself to be in his words. In a 
 colloquy, which Custine records in 1839, as interest- 
 ing as the one previously quoted, Nicholas exclaims — 
 
 " ' I can comprehend a republic — it is a plain and 
 sincere government, or at least it can be so ; I can
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 275 
 
 comprehend absolute monarchy, since I am at the 
 head of a similar order of things ; but I have no con- 
 ception of a representative monarchy. It is the 
 government of falsehood, fraud, corruption ; and rather 
 than adopt it, I would fall back to the borders of 
 China.' 
 
 " ' Sire, I have always considered the representative 
 government as an inevitable compromise in certain 
 societies, at certain periods ; but, like all compromises, 
 it resolves no question — it adjourns the difficulties.' 
 The emperor seemed to say, proceed. I continued : 
 * It is a truce, signed between democracy and monarchy, 
 under the auspices of two very low tyrants, fear and 
 interest ; and prolonged by pride of talent, which 
 delights in loquacity, and by the popular vanity, which 
 pays itself with words. In short, it is the aristocracy 
 of speech substituted for that of birth, for it is the 
 government of lawyers.' 
 
 " * Sir, you speak with truth,' said the emperor, 
 grasping my hand. * I have been a representative 
 sovereign,* and the world knows what it has cost me 
 because I would not submit to the exigencies of that 
 INFAMOUS government, (I am repeating literally.) To 
 buy votes, to bribe consciences, to seduce some in 
 order to delude others, — all these means I disdained, 
 as debasing for those who obey as well as for him who 
 commands, and dearly have I paid for my frankness. 
 But, God be praised, I have done for ever with that 
 odious political machine. Never will I again be a 
 constitutional king. It is too much my nature to say 
 what I think for me ever to consent to reign over any 
 nation by craft or by intrigue.' 
 * In Poland. 
 T 2
 
 276 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 *' The name of Poland, which incessantly occurred 
 to our minds, was not mentioned in this curious con- 
 versation." 
 
 On the accession of Nicholas, the incarnation of that 
 despotism against which the conspirators were banded, 
 it became obvious tiiat now, if ever, they must act. 
 The weak and vacillating were awakened from their 
 dreams, the resolute were called to that action they had 
 long been impatiently awaiting ; but it happened that, 
 at this precise moment, in St. Petersbiu-g, which became 
 the decisive scene of action, the more determined party, 
 besides being in the immense minority, comprised 
 none of the more influential and talented as well as 
 energetic of its members. Nevertheless, the northern 
 circle was called together; but in the face of this neces- 
 sity the majority of the conspirators, including Trou- 
 betskoi, displayed their pusillanimity, and proposed to 
 abandon their designs and dissolve the association. 
 This proposition was indignantly opposed by Batenkof, 
 Bestoujef, Kakovski, Obolenski, Stchepin, Arbusoft, 
 and all the ardent portion of the party, whose eager zeal 
 and spirit-stirring appeals so worked upon the weakness 
 or excited the vanity of the Prince Troubetskoi, that, 
 apparently fired with their enthusiasm, he recovered 
 his confidence, veered round to their party, and was 
 finally chosen Dictator in this eventful crisis — a fatal 
 distinction both for the elected and the electors ! 
 
 In the deliberations which took place on this emer- 
 gency, it was agreed, on all sides, that for the present 
 the utmost change that could be effected, was the 
 establishment of a limited monarchy in place of a 
 despotism ; but this was not the ultimate object of 
 perhaps any of the conspirators, and all were bent on
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 277 
 
 subsequently obtaining a republican form of govern- 
 ment, in lieu of that which they now found necessary 
 to prepare an ulterior transition, but the continuance 
 of which was considered as too dangerous, in the ex- 
 isting condition of the peasantry and the army, even 
 in the opinion of those who wished for a republic in 
 which the aristocratic and popular elements should 
 be properly balanced. To the far greater number who 
 washed for an oligarchy it was still less agreeable. 
 The conspirators had become by this time too well 
 convinced, that both the army and the people would 
 remain perfectly insensible to any appeal in favour 
 of liberties, of which even the faintest instinct seems 
 dead in the great mass of the Muscovites ; but they 
 imagined that they perceived in the present posture 
 of affairs a golden opportunity, and they displayed 
 great ingenuity in the manner in which they decided 
 to take advantage of it. 
 
 On the news of Alexander's death, Constantine had 
 been proclaimed, and many of the regiments of the 
 army had already taken the oath to him. It was 
 determined to contradict the announcement of the 
 resignation of Constantine in favour of Nicholas, 
 (which had never been made sufficiently public,) and, 
 by persuading the army and the mob that Con- 
 stantine was under restraint, and that Nicholas was 
 usurping, to paralyze the march of government, and 
 snatch the reins of it out of the emperor's hands. 
 It was supposed that, in such an emergency, Nicholas, 
 to secure the crown, would gladly have subscribed to 
 the conditions which they should impose, of calling 
 together, by a decree of the senate, deputies from all 
 the governments of the Russian empire, for the pur-
 
 278 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 pose of making organic changes in the constitution of 
 the state ; of inviting the Polish deputies to confirm 
 by their concurrence the union of the two countries 
 in a federative form ; and of acknowledging the 
 authority of a provisional government chosen by the 
 conspirators, until the deputies of the empire should 
 have fixed on that form of constitutional government 
 which might be judged best adapted to the wants of 
 the country, and until the emperor should have taken 
 oath to it. 
 
 If the conspirators were surprised by the death of 
 Alexander, the probable renunciation of Constantine 
 had been both contemplated and canvassed, because, 
 having access to the most private sources of information, 
 they were perfectly acquainted with the existence of 
 the document by which it had been notified to the 
 emperor as early as 1822. It was also thought pro- 
 bable that Constantine, whose fickle temper was well 
 known, on receiving the intelligence of the popular 
 movement in hiwfevour, would suddenly take it into 
 his head to change a resolution which he had been per- 
 suaded into by those who knew his want of confidence 
 in his own ungovernable temper, or perhaps rather 
 in the perfect sanity of his intellect. And strange to 
 say for a man subject to such accesses of brutal ferocity, 
 it was only through the medium of his intense affec- 
 tion for a Polish lady, and in tenderness to her 
 tears, he abdicated an imperial crown. In case of 
 his being tempted, by circumstances acting on his 
 natural instability of character, thus to verify the 
 falsehood of the conspirators, they had decided that 
 a sufficient number of them should adhere to Nicholas 
 to balance the two parties, and thus enable them
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 279 
 
 to force one or other to the adoption of a constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 If, on the other hand, Nicholas resisted and suc- 
 cumbed, having the power in their own hands, they 
 resolved, under the title of provisional government, 
 sanctioning their' authority by the name of Constantine, 
 to call together provincial deputies, and form them into 
 two legislative chambers; and to establish also indepen- 
 dent provincial parliaments with similar local rights; to 
 change the military colonies into national guards, and 
 to place the fort of St. Petersburg in the hands of the 
 municipality of the city. As soon as some organiza- 
 tion had thus been given to the new government, and 
 that it should have possessed itself of the resources 
 and the means of power, it was in contemplation to 
 have elected a female of the imperial family to the 
 constitutional throne — less danger being apprehended 
 from the ambition of a woman than from that of an 
 emperor, who might find in the ranks of the army tools 
 always willing and able to overturn a state of things 
 which did not rest on the broad basis of the popular 
 opinion. These projectors seem to have forgotten 
 that they might possibly have fallen on a Catherine. 
 
 It was also proposed to proclaim the eldest son of 
 Nicholas, as, during a long regency, time would be 
 aiforded so far to consolidate the new form of govern- 
 ment, that when he became of an age to attempt any- 
 thing against it, the young constitution would have 
 been found to have acquired consistency to resist 
 before the young sovereign had gained strength to 
 overturn it. Nothing it would appear was, however, 
 finally decided upon as to their future course by the 
 members of the Union, who were only unanimous in
 
 280 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 their approbation of the immediate steps to which they 
 should resort, to wrest, before it was too late, the ab- 
 solute power from the hands of Nicholas; whose con- 
 duct, if it has since justified the apprehensions they 
 entertained regarding his future rule, may, it must also 
 be admitted, have becii, in some measure, influenced 
 by their own. 
 
 On the 26th, (or the 14th, old style,) of December, 
 1825, it was known that the oath of fidelity to the 
 new emperor w^ould be administered to the troops and 
 to the authorities, and that day was fixed for the out- 
 break of the revolution in St. Petersburg. The Dic- 
 tator, Prince Troubetskoi, having under his orders 
 Yakoubovitch and Colonel Boulatof, was to take the 
 command of the insurrection, and to appear for that 
 purpose, with all the influential unionists, on the 
 Isaac's Plain, whither all the conspirators who had 
 gained over their regiments should repair with them. 
 
 When the eva||^ul morning dawned, no sooner 
 were the troops ijHpred under arms by their colonels 
 to take the oath oTallegiance to the Emperor Nicholas, 
 than they were addressed by such of the conspirajsprs 
 as served in their ranks, and told " that Nicholas was 
 usurping, and their legitimate emperor in irons." The 
 marines of the guard wavered, and at the command of 
 their general laid hands on those who harangued 
 them ; but the presence of mind and eloquence of the 
 brothers Bestouseff;, turned the tide in their favour, 
 and the whole battalion followed them. The regiment 
 of Finland also declared for Constantine ; the grena- 
 diers of the guard were also gained over, and a part 
 of the regiment of Moscow immediately declared itself 
 as soon as the two Bestoujeffs and Prince Stephen
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 281 
 
 Rostovski harangued them. But here the alarm had 
 already been given. Generals Friedricks, Schenschin, 
 and other officers of high rank, had gathered round 
 them the grenadier company, with the standard of the 
 regiment, and exhorted the troops to obedience. All 
 who did not hesitate seemed disposed to obey, but the 
 BestoujefFs and Prince Rostovski, without a moment's 
 hesitation, pushing aside the bayonets directed against 
 them, dashed sword in hand into the midst of the 
 grenadiers. 
 
 After a momentary but gallant conflict, they pos- 
 sessed themselves of the standard, and then all resist- 
 ance vanished ; \he two generals, the colonel, and 
 several soldiers, were lying bleeding on the earth — 
 the conspirators unharmed. The regiment no longer 
 hesitated, but followed with loud acclamations these 
 daring leaders, who led them straight to the Isaac's 
 Plain. As they marched along they were joined by 
 a few of the conspirators in plaijBjclothes, but armed 
 to the teeth, although concealingHpr weapons under 
 their clothes. On reaching the Isaac's Plain, however, 
 they found that none of their confederates were await- 
 ing them, and during the whole day they saw nothing 
 of the chiefs, whose province it was to direct the in- 
 surrection which had been so successfully begun, and 
 to whom they looked forward as the central authority 
 which was to rally and unite all the isolated efforts 
 which were to have been made simultaneously with 
 their own. Of all those who had spoken so enthusias- 
 tically the night before, not one appeared to second 
 the movement ; they had all fled the danger. As for 
 the Prince Troubetskoi, the Dictator, who should 
 have directed all — whilst the revolted regiments were
 
 J282 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 hailing Constantine and the constitution, on the spot 
 and at the hour at which he had given their leaders ren- 
 dezvous, he loas takinfj the oath to Nicholas. 
 
 The emperor was suddenly informed of the revolt 
 of his troops, and as defection after defection was an- 
 nounced to him, his position was truly alarming, be- 
 cause it was impossi])le to tell the extent of the danger, 
 or to know who was for him, and who against him. His 
 coolness and presence of mind, however, never deserted 
 him. Those regiments which had unhesitatingly 
 taken the oath to him, were formed either before the 
 Winter Palace, or in the com-t-yard of that spacious 
 edifice ; and here he addressed them, and pointing 
 out his empress and his children from the balcony, 
 made them renew their oath of fidelity to himself, and 
 swear to protect his family. He then marched against 
 the rebels. 
 
 The revoked regiments were formed in line with 
 their backs to the^bttiate House. They were passive 
 and irresolute, Mmpbse the conspirators, who every 
 instant expected the appearance of their confederates, 
 — devoid of all intelligence of what was passing, aod 
 having no ulterior orders, — knew not how to act. 
 The emperor sent to summon them to take the oath 
 of allegiance, but they answered by fierce cries of 
 *' Constantine and the Constitution !" Count Milo- 
 radovitch, the favourite veteran of the army, whose 
 breast, covered with decorations, had been exposed in 
 ever}' battle in which the oldest Russian soldiers had 
 taken part, now rode up to the mutineers, but he was 
 not allowed to harangue them ; a voice reminded the 
 soldiers of a circumstance already narrated, in which 
 he had deceived them ; loud cries arose of " Where
 
 AKD REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 283 
 
 are our comrades walled up in the fortress ?" At being 
 reproached with perhaps the only act of treachery he 
 had ever committed, Miloradovitch appeared to feel 
 his courage fail him for the fii'st time ; but he made 
 another effort to obtain a hearing, when he was cut 
 short by a pistol bullet, and immediately riddled by 
 the bayonets of the exasperated soldiers. 
 
 It has been said that Kahovski fired the shot which 
 struck him from his horse ; but this is very uncertain, 
 although beyond all doubt he killed with his own 
 hand the Colonel Surler, who came on an errand 
 similaj||to that of Miloradovitch. The emperor, now 
 carefully retiring out of shot, ordered the regiments 
 which had embraced his cause to open their fire, but 
 some refused, and others obeyed but imperfectly, 
 firing over the heads of the rebels. 
 
 In the meanwhile, however, Major General Ben- 
 kendorff was just in time to secure the artillery at the 
 barracks, where the conspirators arrived too late, and 
 brought it to the Isaac's Plain atitte opportune mo- 
 ment ; and his conduct on this day is said to have 
 been the dawn of his fortune, and to have given rise 
 to the confidence which the emperor reposes in him. 
 The artilleiy was immediately ordered to fire on the 
 rebellious, but still quiescent masses ; for the con- 
 spirators and their soldiers were yet anxiously await- 
 ing Troubetskoi, Boulatof, and the chiefs of the move- 
 ment. Then followed a scene of merciless and cruel 
 massacre, when round after round of grape and 
 canister were poured from a murderous distance on 
 men who had ceased to resist. 
 
 Before evening the mutineers were cut down, dis- 
 armed, and secured, and those conspirators who had
 
 284 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 taken an active part in the insurrection were either 
 slain, taken, or tracked in the retreats where they 
 sought in vain for concealment. Whilst this was 
 taking place in the North, in the centre of the empire, 
 Pestel was arrested at Moscow. Too suddenly sur- 
 prised to be able to make any resistance, when over- 
 powered, he evinced no anxiety for anything but his 
 *' Rouskaya ■pravda^'' or his great work on Russian 
 jurisprudence. His equanimity never deserted him, 
 even to the gallows on which he suffered, and he died 
 with sealed lips, though tortures are said to have been 
 employed to wring from him his secret. Tfcp con- 
 spirators, instead of any immediate attempt to deliver 
 him, were only aroused to make a tardy and ineffectual 
 effort after the news of the failure of the insurrection 
 in St. Petersburg had taken place. 
 
 In the south of Russia the brothers Mouravieff had 
 been arrested at the same time that Pestel had been se- 
 cured in Moscow; but they were speedily delivered by 
 Bestoujef and Koussmin, and raising boldly the standard 
 of revolt, they entered the town of Vasilkof. Having 
 gained over a regiment of the line, they then marched 
 forward to occupy a position from whence they could 
 most speedily effect a junction with such troops as 
 they hoped their confederates would succeed in se- 
 ducing. The enthusiastic Bestoujef made a vain 
 appeal to the reason and religious feeUng of his sol- 
 diers. After mass, the chaplain read to them the 
 Russian Republican Catechism, of which Bestoujef 
 was the author, and in which he proved by numerous 
 quotations from the word of God, that all men were 
 equal in the eyes of the Almighty, and that nothing 
 could be more offensive in his sisht than the enslave-
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 285 
 
 ment of man by his fellows. But they remained care- 
 less and indifferent to all the ingenious comments 
 which were made upon this text, as involving a sub- 
 ject on which they neither knew nor wished to know 
 anything. To move and animate them it was found 
 necessary to promise them double pay, and to allude 
 to the rights of Constantine, which immediately 
 aroused an interest in them which they seemed in- 
 capable of feeling in their own. To the cry Con- 
 stantine and Constitution they marched forward, how- 
 ever, under the command of the elder Mouravieff. 
 But iotthe south, as in the north, the great mass of 
 conspirators sought shelter from the storm v.liich they 
 had helped to raise, and pusillanimously held back ; 
 whilst the insurgents who were yet too feeble to at- 
 tempt anything, were overtaken on their march to 
 Telessie by the vanguard of General Geismar's forces. 
 The conspirators, conscious that everything de- 
 pended on the first bold onset, without hesitation, at- 
 tacked the enemy ; the Mouravieifs charged right upon 
 the Imperial artillery, but the elder brother was despe- 
 rately wounded by a grape-shot, and Hippolyte, the 
 younger, fell dead at his side, by the first discharge. 
 Their soldiers fled : in vain the devoted leaders strove 
 to rally them. Mouravieff and Bestoujef, who were 
 wounded, Mathew, the second brother of the former, 
 and Kouzmin, were given up by their own men to the 
 victorious troops. Kouzmin, unwilling to survive the 
 wreck of their hopes, succeeded in snatching a pistol 
 from one of their guardians, and discharging it at his 
 own head, splashed the Mouravieffs with his blood 
 and brains. Thus terminated this vast conspiracy. 
 In the north, in the centre, and in the south, the same
 
 286 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 courage was displayed by the few who had engaged 
 in it from patriotic motives, the same pusillanimity 
 exhibited by the majority, whose narrow and con- 
 tracted views were bounded by mere interest of caste, 
 or that unalloyed self-interest which is the immediate 
 root of it. 
 
 Amongst those of the conspirators who had taken a 
 prominent part, either in the Union, or in the unsuc- 
 cessful attempt directed against the Government, the 
 least to be pitied were those who perished by the 
 hands of the executioners. Though they were made 
 ignominiously to expiate their failure on the g^lows, 
 and though calumny and falsehood pursued them be- 
 yond the grave, their sufferings, at least, were soon 
 over ; and some day, when the colossal system of 
 iniquity which they made a vain, but glorious effort 
 to overturn, shall have become so unbearable to those 
 whom it oppresses, as to lead to its destruction, their 
 country, and all those over which the tyranny shall 
 afterwards have spread its withering influence, will 
 learn to regard with veneration the graves of those 
 who, however visionary their ideas, devoted themselves 
 to the cause of their fellow men, and to look with 
 admiration on the spmt of the generous few which, 
 amidst the universal selfishness and corruption of a 
 race of slaves, rose up like the phosphoric bubbles 
 which ascend from the rank and sweltering marsh, as 
 bright, as transient, as unlike the slough from which 
 they have sprung, and alas ! that it must be added, as 
 useless. 
 
 If the admiration of posterity be indifferent to the 
 dead, let us hope that the anticipation of it may, at 
 least, have proved a consolation to these dying enthu-
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 287 
 
 siasts. Those who perished pubhcly were few in num- 
 ber, but very many disappeared from the light to which 
 their eyes were probably soon closed for ever. The 
 police do not acknowledge to know anything about 
 them, although visibly arrested by its agents ; no one 
 dares press any questions regarding their fate, nor 
 would they obtain any satisfactory answers if they 
 did. 
 
 The Russian despotism is pushed so far that there 
 are agents of authority who are anxious to save the 
 presiding power even the remorse of cruelties and 
 crimeSj^nd those who have rendered themselves ob- 
 noxiou^o it, disappear from before its eyes, or die in 
 their prisons, just as an emperor or his minister could 
 have icishedf and yet without his having ordered it. 
 One hundred and twenty of the conspirators were con- 
 demned by the public commission, of whom five were 
 hanged, and one hundred and fifteen sent to Siberia. 
 Their fate is known to have been horrible, but at least 
 it is certain. 
 
 Amongst these was the Prince Troubetskoi, the 
 craven Dictator, who, whilst his brethren were strikino- 
 the blow, and whilst the imperial crown hung by a 
 thread, had penetrated amidst the staff of the Emperor 
 Nicholas, where he demanded to be allowed to take 
 the oath of fidelity to hii^. He remained amongst 
 them — the hare seeking refuge amongst the hounds — 
 for many hours ; the livid paleness of his countenance 
 denoting his guilt, whilst his incoherent protestations 
 of attachment to the new sovereign rendered it still 
 more contemptible, and were only interrupted by his 
 fits of fainting as the discharges of cannon and mus- 
 ketry broke upon his ear. He nevertheless escaped to
 
 288 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 the house of the Austrian minister, whence the next 
 day the wretched man was dragged before the Em- 
 peror. 
 
 Boulatof, who was to have been second in com- 
 mand, as soon as the insurrection was proclaimed, ran 
 to betray all his associates, beating his breast like the 
 penitents in the churches, and throwing himself on 
 the Emperor's mercy. Prince Odoievski sought re- 
 fuge in the house of his uncle, the senator Lanskoi, 
 half frozen, after spending a Russian December's 
 night concealed under the arch of a bridge : he w^^s 
 instantly betrayed by this worthy relativew||Trou- 
 betskoi was exiled to Siberia for life, with a cham on his 
 leg, his head shaved, a party-coloured dress, and de- 
 prived, not only of his title, but even of his name, for 
 he is now^ only distinguished by a number, being ci- 
 villy dead in the eye of the law. Coarse food, hard 
 labour, and stripes, without a prospect of relief, save 
 in the grave, have succeeded the luxurious life of the 
 wealthy magnate, and the aspiring hopes of the dic- 
 tator. Sixteen years, a large portion of which he 
 spent labouring in a mine, which have elapsed since 
 he departed on his w-eary journey, have brought no 
 amelioration in his condition, excepting that for which 
 he is indebted to the heroism and attachment of his 
 vv^ife — a wife whom he had neglected and ill-treated 
 in the hours of his prosperity — who long after, by dint 
 of supplications, of tears, and entreaties, wrung from 
 Nicholas the permission to share the exile of her hus- 
 band, but on these hard conditions, that if she went 
 she should only retain of her immense fortune a sum 
 equivalent to about 250?. per annum, and that she 
 should not be allowed to return. This noble woman
 
 AND REA'OLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 289 
 
 sacrificed both her fortune and her liberty unhe- 
 sitatingly, and fulfilling the noblest mission of her sex, 
 came like a ministering angel to soothe the anguish of 
 the captive's exile. She has since \vritten, and ap- 
 pears resigned to her gloomy fate. The princess is 
 driven to perform the most menial offices; for the 
 pittance which she has been allowed to retain is said 
 to be all swallowed up in bribing the guardians of her 
 husband into humanity. It is a remarkable fact that 
 the princess, who, up to this period, had been childless, 
 has been, since sharing her husband's exile, blessed, 
 or ratl^r cursed, with a large family ; we say cursed, 
 for what must be the anguish of this noble woman to 
 know that she has given birth to slaves, the emperor 
 having sternly refused her prayer to be even allowed 
 to educate them, or to raise them from the class of 
 serfs — thus visiting the sins of the father on those un- 
 born when he offended. Prince Troubetskoi is con- 
 sidered as a monument of the emperor's clemency, 
 and it is admitted that he has not been so severely 
 treated as many of his more perverse confederates. 
 
 Let us hear the Marquis de Custine's account of the 
 answer given by Nicholas to the petition of the heroic 
 mother, not for pardon, but only for some alleviation 
 to the miseries which those dear to her were enduring. 
 The application was made by a relative worthy of her 
 blood, on the receipt of a letter from the illustrious 
 exile ; on this letter the author was consulted. - He 
 thus states the soul-stirring case : — 
 
 " The prince had a wife allied by birth to the most 
 distinguished famihes in the country. No persua- 
 sions could divert the princess from following her hus- 
 band to the tomb. ' It is my duty,' said she ; * I will 
 
 VOL. r. u
 
 290 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 perform it ; no human power has a right to separate a 
 wife from her husband ; I am determined to share the 
 lot of mine.' This noble-minded woman obtained the 
 favour of being buried alive with her husband. What 
 surprises me, since I have been in Russia, and had a 
 glimpse of the spirit which presides over this govern- 
 ment, is that, from a reUc of shame, it has been thought 
 right to respect this act of conjugal attachment for the 
 space of fourteen years. To favour patriotic heroism 
 is a matter of course ; advantage is derived from it ; 
 but to tolerate a sublime virtue that does not harmo- 
 nize with the political views of the sovereigja is an 
 oversight with which the government must reproach 
 itself. No doubt, it feared the friends of the Trou- 
 betskois ; an aristocracy, how enervated soever it may 
 be, always retains a shadow of independence, and this 
 shadow is sufficient to overcast despotism. 
 
 " Thus then the fear of exasperating preponderant 
 families induced the exercise of a certain sort of pru- 
 dence or clemency. The princess set out with her 
 husband, the convict, and, what is still more marvel- 
 lous, she reached the journey's end — a prodigious 
 journey, and which of itself was a terrible punish- 
 ment. These journeys, you know, are performed in 
 a telega, a small uncovered cart, without springs, that 
 rolls for hundreds — nay, thousands — of leagues over 
 boles of trees, which break the vehicle and bruise the 
 riders. The unfortunate lady endured this fatigue 
 and many others after it ; I have a glimpse of her suf- 
 ferings, her privations, but I cannot describe them ; 
 the details are wanting, and I will not have recourse 
 to imagination ; in this history truth is sacred to me. 
 
 " The effort will appear the more heroic, when you
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 291 
 
 are told that, up to the period of the catastrophe, this 
 couple had lived very coldly together. But does not 
 impassioned devotedness supply the place of love ? is 
 it not love itself? Love has several sources, and the 
 sacrifice is the more abundant. They had had no 
 children in Petersburg ; they have had five in Siberia. 
 
 ** Criminal as prince Troubetskoi may have been, his 
 pardon, which the emperor will probably refuse to the 
 last, because he deems implacable severity a duty 
 that he owes to his people and to himself, has long 
 been granted to the culprit by the King of kings. 
 The almost supernatural virtues of a wife can appease 
 the wrath of a God, though they have not had the 
 power to disarm human justice. The reason of this is, 
 that the Divine Omnipotence is a reality, whereas that 
 of the Emperor of Russia is but a fiction. Long ago 
 he would have pardoned, if he had been as great as he 
 appears ; but, obliged as he is to act a part, clemency, 
 besides being repugnant to his disposition, seems to 
 him a weakness by which the king would sin against 
 his royalty. Accustomed to measure his power by the 
 fear which he inspires, he would look upon pity as 
 a transgression against his code of political mora- 
 lity. * * * 
 
 *' The exiles have lived for fourteen years, by the side, 
 I may say, of the mines of the Ural ; for the arms of 
 such a labourer as the prince can forward but little 
 the material operations of the pick-axe. * * * He 
 is there because he is to be there — that is all : he 
 is a convict, this is enough. You shall see pre- 
 sently to what this condition dooms a man and his 
 children I 
 
 " There are not wanting good Russians in Peters- 
 u2
 
 9 
 292 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 burg, and I have met with them, who consider the 
 condition of persons condemned to the mines as very 
 tolerable, and complain that modern j)hrase-makers ex- 
 aggerate the sufferings of the conspirators of the Ural. 
 They allowed, indeed, that no money can be trans- 
 mitted to them, but their relatives have permission to 
 send them necessaries ; thus they are supplied with 
 clothing and provisions. Provisions ? * * * few 
 are the articles of food that can travel those fabulous 
 distances in such a climate without damage. But, no 
 matter what are the privations, the sufferings of the 
 convicts, stanch patriots approve without restriction 
 of the bagno of Russian invention. These courtier 
 executioners always think the punishment too mild 
 for the crime. 
 
 " Be the delights of Siberia what they may, the 
 health of the Princess Troubctskoi is impaired by her 
 residence at the mines. It is difficult to conceive how 
 a woman, accustomed to the luxury of high life in a 
 voluptuous country, could so long have endured the 
 hardships of all kinds to which she has submitted from 
 choice. She resolved to live — she has lived; she has 
 become pregnant ; she has given birth to children, and 
 brought them up, where the length and the intense 
 cold of winter appear to us to be hostile to life. The 
 thermometer there descends every year to between 
 36 and 40 degrees; this temperature alone would 
 suffice to destroy the human race ; but this sublime 
 woman has sufferings of a very different kind. 
 
 " After seven years' exile, when she saw her chil- 
 dren growing up, she thought it her duty to write to 
 her family, requesting that the emperor might be 
 most humbly petitioned to permit them to be sent to
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 293 
 
 Petersburg, or to some other large city, in order that 
 they might there receive a suitable education. This 
 petition was carried to the feet of the tsar, but the 
 worthy successor of the Ivans and of Peter I., replied, 
 that these children of a convict-slave, (^galerien,) slaves 
 themselves, needed no education. 
 
 " After this answer, the family, the mother, the 
 convict, kept silence for seven more long years. 
 Humbled humanity, honour. Christian charity, reli- 
 gion, protested alone, but in deep silence ; not a voice 
 was raised to exclaim against ^xxch. justice. 
 
 " Now, however, an aggravation of wretchedness 
 has just forced a last cry from the depth of this abyss. 
 The prince has completed the time of servitude, and 
 the liberated exiles are, it is said, condemned to form, 
 themselves and their young family, a colony in one of 
 the remotest corners of the desert. The place of their 
 new residence, purposely chosen by the emperor him- 
 self, is so wild, that the name of the spot is not even yet 
 marked on the maps of the Russian staif, the most accu- 
 rate and the most minute geographical maps that exist. 
 
 " You may imagine that the condition of the princess 
 (I mention her alone) is more deplorable, since she has 
 been permitted to inhabit this wilderness : — take notice 
 that, in this language of the oppressed, interpreted by 
 the oppressor, permissions are obligatory. In the 
 mines she kept herself warm under ground ; there, at 
 least, this mother had companions in misfortune, mute 
 comforters, witnesses of her heroism ; there her eyes 
 encountered those of human beings, who respectfully 
 contemplated and deplored her inglorious martyrdom 
 — a circumstance which rendered it more sublime ; 
 there existed hearts which throbbed at the sight of
 
 294 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 her ; in short, without even having need to speak, she 
 felt herself in society. Let governments do their 
 worst, pity will shew itself wherever there are men. 
 
 " But how soften bears, pierce impenetrable woods, 
 melt everlasting ice, cross the spongy waste of a bound- 
 less marsh, preserve herself from deadly cold in a 
 cabin? how, in short, subsist alone with her husband 
 and five children, a hundred leagues, perchance more, 
 from any human habitation, excepting, perhaps, that 
 of the overseer of the colonists ? for this it is that is 
 called colonizing in Siberia. * * * 
 
 " Now this father and this mother, destitute of all 
 succour, without physical strength to encounter so 
 many misfortunes, exhausted by the deceitful hopes 
 of the past, by anxiety about the future, lost in their 
 wilderness, crushed in the pride of their wretchedness, 
 which ceases even to have any witnesses, punished in 
 their children, whose innocence serves only to aggra- 
 vate the misery of the parents, — these martyrs of a 
 ferocious policy know not how to support themselves 
 and their family. No matter whether these little con- 
 victs (forgats) by birth, these imperial parias, are dis- 
 tinguished by numbers instead of names ; if they no 
 longer have a country, if the}' have no place in the 
 state, still nature has given them bodies which must 
 be fed and clothed. Can a mother, whatever dignity, 
 whatever elevation of soul she may possess, behold her 
 offspring perish without soliciting mercy? No; she 
 humbles herself. 
 
 " In this extreme destitution she sees only their 
 misery. The father, his heart broken by suffering, 
 allows her to act according to her inspiration ; in short, 
 forgiving — for to solicit mercy is to forgive — with
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 295 
 
 heroic generosity, the cruelty of the first refusal, the 
 princess writes a second letter from the recess of her 
 hut. This letter is addressed to her family, but des- 
 tined for the emperor. It was, in fact, putting her- 
 self under the feet of her enemy ; it was overlooking 
 what she owed to herself — but who would not absolve 
 her, the victim of such misfortunes j * * * 
 
 *' The letter of the princess reaches its destination ; 
 the emperor has read it ; and it was to communicate 
 this letter to me that I was prevented from departing. 
 I do not regret the delay. Never did I read anything 
 more simple, or more affecting. Actions like hers 
 may well dispense with words. She uses her privilege 
 of a heroine ; she is laconic even in begging the life of 
 her children. It is in few lines that she pictures her 
 situation, without declamation, without complaints. 
 She has placed herself above all eloquence : the bare 
 facts speak for her ; she concludes by imploring the 
 sole favour of being permitted to live within reach of 
 an apothecary,, that, as she says, she may be able to 
 procure medicine for her children when they are ill. 
 To her the environs of Tobolsk, Irkutsk, or Orenburg, 
 would appear a paradise. In the last words of her 
 letter, she no longer addresses the emperor ; she for- 
 gets everything but her husband, and it is to the 
 thought of the heart that she replies with a delicacy 
 and a dignity which would deserve oblivion of the 
 most execrable crime : and she is innocent ! And 
 the sovereign whom she is addressing is omnipo- 
 tent, and has no other judge of his actions but God ! 
 ' I am very miserable,' says she ; ' yet, were the thing 
 to do again, I would do as I have done.' 
 
 " In the family of this lady there was one person
 
 296 CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBILITY, 
 
 courageous enough — and whoever is acquainted with 
 Russia will duly appreciate this act of piety — to carry 
 this letter to the emperor, and even to support with 
 an humble supplication the request of a disgraced 
 relative. She is not to be mentioned before the 
 sovereign but with the same terror as if she were a 
 criminal, yet before any other man but the Emperor 
 of Russia, one might well boast of being allied to that 
 noble victim of conjugal duty. What do I say ? In 
 her conduct there is much more than the duty of a 
 wife, — there is the enthusiasm of an angel. 
 
 " All this heroism must nevertheless be accounted 
 for nothing: the speaker is forced to tremble, to 
 solicit pardon for a virtue that forces the gates of 
 heaven ; while all husbands, all sons, all wonjen, all 
 human beings, ought to raise a monument in honour 
 of this model of wives. 
 
 " Well, after a vengeance of fourteen years, wreaked 
 without intermission, but not glutted, this woman, 
 ennobled by so many heroic sufferings, obtained from 
 the Emperor Nicholas no other answer but the words 
 which you shall read, and which I received from the 
 very lips of a person to whom the courageous relative 
 of the victim had just repeated them: * I am asto- 
 nished that any one dares speak to me again [twice 
 in fifteen years] about a family, the head of which 
 conspired against me.' " 
 
 Such was the termination of the only conspiracy 
 made by any class of the Russian nation ; all others, 
 since the time of Peter, having been mere Oriental 
 seraglio-revolutions. It was planned and carried into 
 execution under auspices more favourable than it can 
 be supposed wdll ever exist again, until time shall have
 
 AND REVOLT OF DEC. 26, 1825. 297 
 
 raised up a fresh class, or inspired those which are 
 now utterly inert, with a consciousness of their de- 
 graded situation, and the wish to ameliorate it. If 
 the whole nobility, however, unanimous and organized, 
 could not then make head against the Imperial power, 
 incessantly watched, daily enfeebled, and still further 
 demoralized, it is idle to suppose that they will succeed 
 in doing so now or at any future time ; and the pre- 
 judice entertained in Western Europe that the Em- 
 perors of Russia are now in any way influenced by 
 the fear of their nobility, is just as idle as the hope that 
 they will ever realize that supposed apprehension. 
 
 If we contrast this conspiracy with the one which 
 placed Alexander on the throne, we may read a use- 
 ful lesson on the subject. The first was an attempt 
 at a national revolution — the overturn, which has now 
 less chances of success than ever, of a system ; the 
 latter was a mere change of the despot — a revolution 
 which is as likely to take place to-morrow as it was 
 when Paul was murdered. It would almost seem as 
 if the difference in the opinion of despotism with 
 regard to the enormity of the sin committed against 
 the despot, or ar/ainst the tyranny, were visible in the 
 respective treatment of the men who had ofi^ended 
 against the one, or who had menaced the other ; for 
 the assassins of the father of the present emperor all 
 died in their comfortable beds, and only the Michael 
 Palace, in which the deed of blood was committed, 
 seemed to have fallen seriously into disgrace with the 
 Imperial family, being shunned by them, — some of 
 its vast apartments abandoned as an abode for bats, the 
 rest converted into a school for engineers, or a guard- 
 house for soldiers.
 
 298 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, AND NATIONAL 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Russia, with its government, the most complete 
 despotism in Europe, is not imfrequently cited as a 
 model of religious toleration. With a preponderant 
 national church, to which its members are fanatically 
 attached, the state, nevertheless, not only allows those 
 of every imaginable sect to worship pubhcly, accord- 
 ing to the rites and forms of their respective creeds, 
 but wherever a sufficient congregation can be brought 
 together by a priest or pastor of any denomination, 
 the state assigns him a suitable salary. The only ex- 
 ceptions to this toleration of all sects and religions, 
 are directed against members of the Jewish persua- 
 sion, and the Roman-catholic order of the Jesuits. 
 
 The state makes no peculiar religion a condition of 
 eligibility to its highest offices ; a Lutheran, a Greek, 
 a Roman-catholic, or a Mahometan, may equally com-
 
 AST) NATIONAL CHURCH. 299 
 
 mand the imperial armies, or sit in the imperial 
 cabinet. Neither is this, as in France, the result of 
 the State's indifference, because although in Russia a 
 man may be of ani/ religion, he must be of some reli- 
 gion, or at least he must jyrofess to belong to some 
 communion. No Russian authority will sign the 
 passport which every individual not in the service 
 must annually renew, unless that individual professes 
 some religious creed, and neither atheism nor deism 
 are admitted, unless the latter be veiled under some 
 other denomination. 
 
 Without a passport no stranger can penetrate into 
 the Russian dominions ; a native living without one 
 is considered by the law as a vagabond. In the ser- 
 vice or the employment of government, every man 
 must profess some specific creed or faith, whichever it 
 may be, but once a-year he is required to bring a 
 certificate from his own minister or priest, that he 
 has fulfilled the religious rites which his church en- 
 joins. 
 
 This is one side of the medal, which we will pre- 
 sently reverse, but meanwhile will endeavour in a 
 few words to explain the causes in which originate this 
 seeming toleration, and the peculiar circumstances 
 which have rendered it as easy as politic. If ever 
 there was a case in which the words of Louis XIV., 
 " L'etat c'est moiy^ were peculiarly applicable, it is 
 certainly so in that of a Russian emperor. When 
 so inclined, hke Nicholas,' he becomes his own prime 
 minister, but is at all times the supreme head of 
 the whole Russian church. He is to its communi- 
 cants what the Pope of Rome is to the Roman-ca-
 
 300 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 tholic world, and being as absolute a spiritual as he 
 is a temporal arbiter, can, without difficulty, accord 
 exactly the degree of toleration which he judges expe- 
 dient for his temporal interests. The very spirit of 
 the Greek church, which is known to be that of the 
 Muscovite population, affords in this respect greater 
 facilities than any other, as the reader will subse- 
 quently find, in the brief account we propose to give 
 of it. 
 
 As the Greek church has never been a proselytizing 
 church, it can never have the same inducement to 
 interfere with those of other persuasions, as if it in- 
 dulged the hope, by terror, force, or such means as 
 misguided man calls " pious fraud and violence," of 
 one day inclosing them within its fold. The tacit 
 belief of the Greek clergy in this respect, seems to be 
 like that of the Jews, the Covenanters, and many sects 
 still flourishino; in the United Kingdom of Great Bri- 
 tain, that their own flock comprises the elect, the rest 
 of the world the Gentiles — that their belonging to 
 this chosen flock is a mark of God's especial favour, 
 which he knows best where to bestow — a gift, in the 
 distribution of which man's right to interfere is al- 
 most questionable. 
 
 Thus, although the Greek church leaves open, as it 
 were, its portals, to those who are led into them by 
 divine grace, it does not beckon in, or invite, the passer 
 by. The imperial interests, which are called the in- 
 terests of the state, have for many years past rendered 
 the toleration of other creeds politic, because all the 
 territorial acquisitions made since the days of Peter 
 the Great, as well as most of those which Russian
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 301 
 
 ambition covets, are inhabited by a Catholic, Maho- 
 metan, or a Lutheran population. 
 
 On the other hand, the national religion, which in- 
 vests the sovereign with a peculiar character of sanc- 
 tit}'^, and which devotes all the fervour of its votaries, 
 and all the enthusiasm which it inspires, to favour his 
 personal views, since his hand grasps the key of the 
 whole centralized mechanism of the church, cannot fail 
 of being the most agreeable in the sight of the emperor. 
 
 To go no further back than the present reign, we 
 may trace the result of these conflicting feelings in 
 the anomalous acts of the Russian government. We 
 see it apparently viewing all religious matters in a 
 philosophic light, and declining to interfere in ques- 
 tions which are the immediate concern only of the 
 individual, so long as social order is not affected b}'" 
 them ; recognising all religions as a powerful check 
 upon the passions and vices of mankind, because all 
 inculcating, if in a different degree, principles of mo- 
 rality, and only hostile to utter unbelief, because sub- 
 versive of this powerful auxiliary of good govern- 
 ment. Two-thirds of the cabinet ministers, a large 
 proportion of the generals of the Russian army, and of 
 the immediate courtiers of the Emperor Nicholas, pro- 
 fess the Lutheran religion. 
 
 But at the same time no sovereign in Europe has, 
 in certain cases, shewn greater intolerance, whether it 
 arise from superstitious devotion, or, as it is more 
 probable, from predilection for the faith which en- 
 courages the most profound veneration for his despotic 
 authority. There exist at the present day, in the 
 practice of European legislation, no penalties in the 
 most bigoted countries, so severe against any spiritual
 
 302 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 offenders, as infallibly await any member of the Greek 
 church turning to any other. Ruin, degradation, and 
 exile to Siberia, stare him in the face. Nor is this 
 all. Any Russian subject, professing another faith, 
 may change to the Greek church, (but to no other,) or 
 is liable to the same pnins and forfeitures as if he had 
 fallen away from the national religion. 
 
 All children born of a mixed marriage must be 
 brought up in the Greek faith, from which the seve- 
 rity of the law never allows them to swerve. The 
 Emperor Nicholas obliged his empress to abjure the 
 Lutheran, and embrace the national religion. So he 
 did also by his son's wife, another German princess ; 
 but the imperial children are not permitted, in any 
 case, to depart from the creed of their fathers. 
 
 As regards the Russian clergy, who are not allowed 
 in the remotest degree to interfere in the government 
 of the state, the present emperor encourages the super- 
 stitious ceremonies which tend to increase the devotion 
 of the population, but very speedily checks any inde- 
 pendence, on their part, in the use or application of 
 them. For instance, it has been an imprescriptible right 
 of the higher clergy, from time immemorial, to decide 
 by preternatural agency that certain bones or skeletons, 
 turned up by the plough, or discovered in any other 
 casual manner, were the relics of apostles, saints, or 
 holy men. Certain authorities of the church gave 
 their sanction, and a chapel was forthwith built on 
 the spot, and soon richly endowed by the offerings of 
 the pious, who continued to pour from all quarters to 
 the shrine of the saint, the novelty of which always 
 proved lucratively attractive. A few years since, a 
 similar providential discovery was made, and the Em-
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 303 
 
 peror Nicholas was duly informed of it. According to 
 the custom on such occasions, he went to worship on 
 the tomb, but intimated to his clergy that in future it 
 would go hard with any one attempting to discover a 
 saint without the imperial permission. 
 
 That it was not, however, the intention of the em- 
 peror to discourage the superstition, he proved by 
 soon after visiting a certain monastery in the govern- 
 ment of Minsk, which boasted of possessing the very 
 cross on which the Redeemer of the world was cruci- 
 fied, whereby this fortunate community had succeeded 
 in accumulating untold treasures. He unceremo- 
 niously borrowed the greater part of their funds, and 
 brought the cross with him (on a pious speculation) to 
 be exposed in Moscow to the veneration of the faith- 
 ful- This relic, whole and intact, (notwithstanding 
 the number of authentic pieces scattered through the 
 churches in the very city to which it was brought, to 
 say nothing of the rest of the empire, and which col- 
 lected together might have sufficed to build a shed for 
 the entire one,) when it had done duty in Moscow, 
 was brought to St. Petei'sburg, and exposed in the 
 Kazan church, which was besieged day and night by 
 an unceasing sti'eam of devotees. But piety at St. 
 Petersburg differed in this respect from piety at Mos- 
 cow, that though it prostrated itself in as humble 
 adoration, and beat its breast with as much compunc- 
 tion and fervour, it did not open its purse-strings. 
 Only some fifteen thousand pounds' Avorth of offerings 
 repaid the imperial ingenuity, whereas Moscow yielded 
 ten times that amount. This took place about the be- 
 ginning of 1842.
 
 304 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 There is sufficient motive in the advantage which 
 Imperial authority derives from the maintenance of a 
 creed which is so favourable to it, to account for the 
 encouragement 'the emperor gives to its most super- 
 stitious observances, without supposing that he par- 
 ticipates in them; but if we allow that the politician, 
 taking advantage of one of the most powerful springs 
 of human action, stands intellectually in a very dif- 
 ferent point of view from a blindly superstitious bigot, 
 on the other hand, w here the fanatic has begun a 
 cruel religious persecution against those of another 
 faith, we can find an excuse for his sanguinary errors, 
 which become crimes when the persecution is directed 
 by the private animosity of the man, or the policy of 
 the statesman. 
 
 Whatever motive may inspire the Emperor Nicholas, 
 whether fanatic zeal, or mistaken views of interest, he 
 is the first of the Russian sovereigns who has begun a 
 cruel and bitter persecution of other creeds ; and al- 
 though the evil is local, Poland and the anciently 
 Polish provinces at this moment present to our view 
 more revolting scenes of the interference of arbitrar}'- 
 power between man and his Maker than any country 
 in Europe has offered the example of, since humanity 
 vKas shocked by the sanguinary bigotry of the Spaniards. 
 The persecution of the Roman Catholics, and the 
 violent means by which the members of the united 
 Greek church have been enclosed within the pale of 
 the national church of Russia, form a startling reverse 
 to the medal on which the genius of Muscovy is de- 
 picted hand in hand veith the gentle spirit of religious 
 toleration.
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 305 
 
 Few of our readers have not heard of the late differ- 
 ences between the Russian cabinet and the pope ; 
 and many may have read casual accounts in the news- 
 papers of arbitrary means taken to force the United 
 Greeks to embrace the Graeco-Russian faith. But, 
 like the cries of victims tortured in the depths of sub- 
 terranean dungeons, the voice of wailing has come in 
 such faint and inarticulate sounds upon the ear, as 
 scarcely to excite attention. The means of persecu- 
 tion employed too in the Russian dominions, resemble 
 those instruments of torture, terrible in their nature, 
 but neither sharp nor bloody, which strain the nerves 
 and sinews, burst intestines, and dislocate bones, but 
 leave no marks of acute violence. There is no punish- 
 ment of death — there is no violence offered on the 
 plea of religious difference — no foreign government 
 can raise its voice to intercede between the persecutor 
 and the victim, because the severity of the punishment, 
 and its motive, are equally denied, where occasionally 
 the voice of a solitary sufferer is carried abroad. 
 
 Thus the United Greeks formed a numerous sect, 
 whose origin entitled them to more respect than most 
 dissenting communities, because composed of the 
 members of two creeds, who, instead of making the 
 unimportance of the trifling religious differences which 
 divided them, a cause for aggravated hate, wisely 
 united. The persuasions to which they owe their 
 origin, were the Greek and the Roman-catholic, 
 which, always bearing a close resemblance on the 
 frontier provinces of the Polish republic, and neither 
 being follov»^ed in the strictest purity of their tenets and 
 forms, had so nearly assimilated to each other, that 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION US RUSSIA, 
 
 they could probably only have been kept from amal- 
 gamating, by being urged to mutual persecution. 
 
 Gradually, however, as the church of Rome acquired 
 the opportunity of attending more closely to her 
 affairs, her superior policy and knowledge acquired 
 thus far the ascendan<^y with the United Greeks, that 
 they became in reality Roman catholics, acknow- 
 ledging the jurisdiction of Rome, which wisely shut her 
 eyes to little differences that were never obtruded 
 on the notice of the rest of the Catholic world. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas, whose disposition was 
 always imperious, impatient of any obstacles to his 
 power and ambition, after he had quelled the Polish 
 revolution, seized the opportunity of re-uniting the 
 United Greeks to the church from which he assumed 
 that tliey had formerly strayed. 
 
 Tired of many years of policy wasted to accomplish 
 this object, in 1838 he caused a petition, praying for 
 admission to the Russian church, to be carried round 
 to the Uniate clergy — every artifice, even to false 
 signatures, together with threats, promises, and punish- 
 ments, obtained to it the sanction of 1600 names. In 
 the beginning of 1839, an imperial order declared the 
 incorporation of the United into the Russian church. 
 From this moment it became a capital crime for three 
 millions of people, who were essentially Roman catho- 
 lics, to depart from a new church to which they were 
 forcibly united. 
 
 It has been frequently observed, that the poorer a 
 people are, with the more fervour do they cling to 
 their faith, and the more prone are they to the most 
 absurd superstitions which may have been engrafted 
 upon it J as if the comparative cheerlessness. of their
 
 >K5^ AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 307 
 
 earthly prospects made them seek eagerly for any- 
 thing which they deem a ray of light beaming on them 
 from a brighter state of existence. 
 
 The miserable condition of the Polish and the 
 frontier serfs is proverbial ; and if sometimes far 
 happier than is supposed, it is generally even below 
 the description which is commonly given of it. It 
 may be imagined that such a population would not 
 readily abandon the faith they cherished on the 
 strength of an Imperial ukase. The persecution of 
 the Russian government was naturally directed against 
 the pastors of this sect, the immense majority of whom 
 were disinclined to conform. Being declared to belong 
 to the Greek church, they were at once treated as re- 
 fractory members of its flock, wherever threats, men- 
 aces, and bribes, had failed to induce them to do so. 
 
 The success of this measure is surprising, unless 
 we take into consideration the absolute futility of all 
 resistance, and the impossibility of all public protesta- 
 tion or communication between the persecuted. And 
 to this we must add the nature of the persecution 
 which has rendered it the first successful one which 
 history records on so large a scale. The stake, the 
 axe, and the torture chamber, have no terrors for 
 the real enthusiasts of an oppressed religion, while 
 they shrink before a persecution which invests them 
 with no glory in their own eyes, or the estimation 
 of their religious brethren. The recusant pastors 
 of the United Greeks were given over to the mercies 
 of the inqviisitorial police, and legally harassed, ruined, 
 imprisoned, accused on political grounds, and even- 
 tually punished vnth. the plitt, and banished to Siberia. 
 
 x2 
 
 \ ♦
 
 308 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 The Roman-catholic population of those districts 
 in which they constituted the minority, have been, 
 and continue to be, persecuted by the same means, to 
 drive them to embrace the Greek faith, and some 
 indirect connexion with the late revolution is a ready 
 pretext for the exercise of any severity. 
 
 The Emperor of Russia next attempted what no 
 sovereign has yet succeeded in effecting, unless where 
 he has rooted out the Roman-catholic religion, — viz., 
 to prevent its clergy from communicating with the 
 See of Rome, without its correspondence being trans- 
 mitted through the hands of government. In a 
 country now so hermetically closed to the rest of 
 Europe, such a proceeding would leave the Roman 
 catholics wholly at the mercy of the persecution 
 inider which they are groaning. To this their 
 clergy refused to conform, and Polish bishops have 
 been imprisoned, and numbers of Romanist priests 
 added on other pretexts to the victims of the United. 
 Greek church. Many hundreds of venerable men, 
 for years beloved and respected in their parishes, are 
 now with irons on their legs, half-shaven heads, and 
 in coarse party-coloured garments, chained two and 
 t^\^o, pursuing their weary journey to Siberia, which 
 occupies two years, some every day expiring on the 
 road, unmourned and unpitied. Not a few of these 
 carry with them the germ of inevitable death, their 
 frames being enfeebled, and their constitutions broken 
 by having undergone the cruel sentence of the plitt. 
 
 The plitt is a sort of knout, and in experienced 
 hands is no less formidable ; and both are not, as it is 
 vulgarl}^ imagined, mere whips or scourges, but the 
 most formidable instruments of torture and of execu-
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 309 
 
 tion ever devised. By the plitt, as well as by the 
 knout, the executioner can at every stroke tear out 
 from the muscles on each side of the spine, pieces of 
 flesh the size of a walnut. With a fiend-like dexterity, 
 the little horny tongue of boiled leather, which is 
 fastened on a brass or iron ring at the extremity of the 
 heavy thong, is just so much softened, by dipping 
 it in milk, as to enable it, after bruising the flesh, to 
 draw out the piece by the power of suction, as we see 
 schoolboys, with a piece of wet leather and a string, lift 
 up a brickbat. A very few more strokes of the plitt 
 than are required from the heavier knout will suffice 
 to inflict a mortal injur}--, or to take life on the spot. 
 
 A foreigner dwelling ^a a station through which 
 the convicts are principally directed, assured the 
 author that in a very short space of time he had recog- 
 nised sixteen priests, but dared not address them ; 
 he had recognised them, notwithstanding their grisly 
 beards, their convict dresses, and half-shaven crowns — 
 some by the marks left by the tonsure, a small cir- 
 cular spot*on the top of the head, shaven in comme- 
 moration of the crown of thorns of Christ, which is 
 as distinctive of the Roman-catholic clergy as the 
 moustachio of the soldier ; others by the manner in 
 which they sang the service of their church in Latin. 
 How many had passed whose covered heads and silent 
 voices afforded him no clue, he said it made his 
 heart bleed to imagine. 
 
 The question between the Emperor Nicholas and 
 the Latin clergy is still in abeyance. The ener- 
 getic remonstrances of the pope produced more effect 
 on the resolution of the emperor than was expected, 
 and he at least found it necessary to answer them.
 
 310 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 There is something strange in the present century in 
 the spectacle of a feeble old man whose temporal 
 authority is only bolstered up by foreign bayonets, 
 arresting even for a moment the upraised arm of 
 absolute power in its insolent contempt of all, except 
 its autocratic rights, or to find his attempt to call it to 
 account, vouchsafed an answer; but even the obsolete 
 authority of papacy regains something of its pristine 
 vigour when its voice is raised against oppression, and 
 that it can appeal to the common sympathies, not 
 only of Christianity, but of humanity. 
 
 If we are to take, however, as measure of the ex- 
 tent of persecution, the aggregate of human misery 
 inflicted, then the recent persecution of the Jews even 
 exceeds that of the United Greeks and Polish Roman 
 catholics. Let us imagine a whole population, sur- 
 rounded for centuries by nations whose bitter enmity 
 and prejudice has rendered it a matter of astonishment 
 that it should still be in existence, and which nothing 
 but the inherent vitality which has kept the people 
 together since the destruction of Jerusalem-*-a vitality 
 of which their Muscovite persecutors offer an almost 
 parallel example — could have kept from annihilation. 
 Not only the tyranny of the Russian administration 
 directly weighed upon, but the oppression exercised 
 over the Polish proprietors and population had, be- 
 sides this, reacted on the despised Hebrews. The state 
 of degradation, misery, and poverty, into which they 
 had thus been sunken, may be conceived ; and it was 
 perhaps mainly the profits which their commercial 
 aptitude, and their frontier situation allowed the more 
 fortunate members of this community to make, toge- 
 ther with that extensive charity towards each other
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 311 
 
 •which is such a redeeming trait in the Jewish cha- 
 racter, that enabled this portion of the Hebrew people 
 to dras; on a miserable existence. 
 
 On the one side the local advantages of the country 
 in which they had buried the bones of their forefathers 
 for many centuries, and the pressure of their misery ; 
 on the other the enticing venality of the Russian 
 employes, naturally induced them to devote their 
 energies to the contraband trade — the only occupation 
 by which the complicated oppression they suffered 
 under would allow them to earn bread. At the same 
 time in this they were not without numerous and suc- 
 cessful competitors. 
 
 Instead of improving the organization of his custom- 
 house, instead of giving proper salaries to its officers, 
 by a fulminating edict, worthy of Nebuchadnezzar 
 or the Pharaohs, the Emperor Nicholas remedies this 
 small leakage in the revenues of the state, which may 
 equal in amount the expenditure wasted on an impe- 
 rial fete at Peterhoff, or a change in the uniform of 
 one division of his guards. His ukase uproots the 
 whole of this long-suffering population from the soil 
 on which they had been so long settled, drives them 
 far ever from their homes and their occupations, in 
 all the severity of a bitter season — men, women, and 
 children, by thousands upoiu thousands. 
 
 We have seen in some preceding chapters how the 
 low rapacity of the Russian police grinds down and 
 oppresses in St. Petersburg, under the very eyes of 
 the emperor, a people whom he wishes to protect. Is 
 it not easy to imagine what its conduct must be when 
 far removed from his presence, and where he himself has 
 given the signal for persecution ? What remote chance
 
 312 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 do those stand who have accumulated a little property 
 of rescuing from the fangs of these persecutors the 
 smallest wreck of it, and to whom are their poor to 
 turn for countenance and assistance ? 
 
 When thus stripped of everything of value, torn for 
 ever from its home and country, the whole of this 
 community is driven, like a herd of animals, into a 
 distant and inhospitable government, before the whips 
 and lances of their Cossac escort, exposed to all its 
 brutality ; for if the Cossac has many good points in 
 his character, the habit of playing the gendarme all 
 his life, in so many regions, has hardened him as 
 much to the sufferings of his victims as a noble hound 
 to the pangs of the prey it is worrying ; and if in 
 his undefined though superstitious faith he has any 
 religious prejudices, these are all against the children 
 of Israel. He is not by any means certain that the 
 Mahometan faith is not a good enough one in its way ; 
 but as regards the Jews, he commonly asks, in the words 
 of the boy whom Coleridge admonished for striking a 
 young Hebrew — " Why did he crucify our Christ ?" 
 
 To the publication of this edict there is no fair pa- 
 rallel to be found in modern history, because those by 
 which Isabella and Ferdinand expelled the Moors and 
 Jews from Spain, and Louis XIV. his protestant 
 subjects from France, in the first place left the option 
 of conversion, and in the next appear to have been 
 inspired by mistaken notions of national and legal 
 interest ; a great object was to be attained by a great 
 injustice ; whereas the emperor Nicholas has perpe- 
 trated a great injustice to obtain a little object. 
 
 It would appear that, unlike Napoleon, to whom it 
 is the most palatable flattery to compare him, he has
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH, 313 
 
 , always entertained the illiberal prejudice of the Ger- 
 mans towards this people.* Not only had he long 
 since added to the restraints which the laws of his 
 predecessor imposed upon them, confining them to 
 certain towns, but he had refused all composition for 
 the military service of their proportion of recruits ; 
 they were sent, chained, to their destination, and in- 
 variably employed on the most disagreeable service. 
 
 In pursuance of this system, they were mostly 
 draughted into the navy, which is the recipient for all 
 the refuse of the army — a strange way of improving its 
 condition. Here again they w^ere employed princi- 
 pally on board the steam boats and about the engines. 
 One day the emperor came on board a steam-boat, in 
 high good humour ; conversing with the foreign in- 
 spector, he complimented him on the appearance of 
 everything on board, and told him to report the most 
 meritorious portion of the crew. They happened to 
 be all Jews. The emperor's brow immediately be- 
 came clouded. The inspector remarked, " I find 
 them the best and most intelligent men I have on all 
 the steam-boats." " What !" exclaimed the emperor, 
 *' do you mean to tell me that two Jews will do the 
 work of one Russian ?" " Of those I have here I find 
 that one Jew is of more service than two Russians." 
 The emperor turned short on his heel ; the men did 
 not receive the expected gratuity. 
 
 Although in spite of the law which banned their 
 faith, Count Cancrin, the Imperial minister of finance, 
 
 * The Jews are excluded from most of the governments of old 
 Kussia, and only allowed to reside in two or three cities of the 
 empire. Every Jew must belong to some trade, or be treated as 
 a vagabond — i. e., as a felon.
 
 314 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 Stieglitz, the court banker, the Russian Rothschild, 
 and the greatest capitahst in the emperor's dominions, 
 and Jacobi, the cleverest of Russian savants and pro- 
 fessors, were Jews, Nicholas seems never to have 
 discarded his bitter prejudice against this people. 
 His persecution of the united Greek and Roman ca- 
 tholics was attempted to be concealed and veiled, be- 
 cause the sympathies it might excite in Hungary and 
 Germany and in the Romanist world might prove some 
 clog, at a future day, on the imperial pohcy ; but with 
 regard to the Hebrews there was no sympathy to fear ; 
 he therefore gave way to a movement of dislike and 
 disgust, on the first opportunity which called for his 
 interference with them. One dash of his pen openly 
 and boldly exiled a whole people, torn ahke from all 
 associations of the past, and launched upon a hopeless 
 future. There was no sympathy to fear from any of 
 the nations of Germany, because in every state of 
 Germany, its empire, its kingdoms, and its princi- 
 paHties, this ill-fated race continues to endure a cruel 
 and illiberal persecution of opinion. 
 
 The author is far from being an admirer of the cha- 
 racter of the continental Hebrc\\^. With many and 
 brilliant exceptions, this people, like the middle and 
 lower classes of Germans, and like the Muscovites, is 
 no doubt in a great measure what its social condition 
 during centuries has made it. It displays some traits 
 of resemblance with the German — ^its servihty, its in- 
 terestedness, and utter want of adventurous spirit ; and 
 a considerable likeness to the Muscovite, in its fondness 
 and aptitude for trade and barter, — all probably the 
 result of circumstances. But these nations, uniting be-
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 315 
 
 tween them all the defects of the modern Israelites, 
 ought sm'ely to be the last to throw the stone at them. 
 
 It should be remembered, at least in Germany, 
 what an immense proportion of all the real talent is 
 Jewish, although the persecuted people, which, under 
 its persecution, still furnishes it, constitutes so infi- 
 nitesimal a proportion of the whole population. In a 
 country in which they have hardly been allowed to 
 accumulate wealth, how many greater names have not 
 the Jews produced than immediately occur to the 
 author's memory when he cites Jost, Mendelssohn, 
 with his grandson the composer. Borne, Heine, the 
 two Jacobis, Benderman the painter, Count Arnheim 
 the minister, Professor Gans, Neander, Wehl, Benary, 
 and Meyerbeer. It should also be remembered, that 
 in Germany the Jewish savants have not, hke so many 
 of their Christian brethren, advocated the cause of 
 patriotism and progress until they had rendered it 
 worth the while of governments to give them paltry 
 places, abandoning then for ever the party which 
 looked forward to them as its light. 
 
 Let us now proceed to examine the Graeco-Russian 
 or, as it styles itself, the Oriental Catholic church, 
 boasting the most niunerous community but one in 
 Europe. But we must, in common justice, first disclaim 
 for it any share in the fearful persecutions, both of Roman 
 catholics and Jews, which emanated solely from the im- 
 perial cabinet, not from the holy synod of the empire. 
 
 The national faith of Russia is well known to be 
 that of the Greek church of the eastern empire. By 
 the consent of the Greek patriarchs — too much occu- 
 pied, after the fall of Constantinople, with their own
 
 316 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 safety to feel ambitious — it was allowed to detach 
 itself in 1588, and left to its own government. At 
 this time, the patriarch of Constantinople, having 
 travelled for the purpose to Moscow, anointed its 
 metropolitan Jol), as the first Russian patriarch, giving 
 him thus the supreme authority over all the faithful 
 in the Muscovite empire. The separation was thus 
 peaceable and amicable, and it is only in a few forms 
 and ceremonies, but not in any of its dogmas, that 
 the Russian church has since differed from the mother 
 establishment. Few readers are not aware that the 
 Greek church bears the closest resemblance to the 
 Roman-catholic, both in its tenets and its rites ; the 
 differences which exist are indeed so insignificant, 
 that the Greeks and Romans term each other recipro- 
 cally only schismatics, reserving the epithet of " here- 
 tics" to a more determined departure from the fold, 
 such as that of all the sects which have sprung from 
 the reforms of Luther and of Calvin. 
 
 The fusion of these two churches into one, which 
 many ineffectual efforts were made to effect, was a 
 question often agitated in the middle ages, though 
 probably never even contemplated with any sincerity 
 by the Greeks, who, by vague promises of compromise 
 and submission, merely sought to purchase western 
 assistance against the Mahommedans, whose conquest 
 finally swallowed up their empire. 
 
 It is a remarkable characteristic of the fanaticism of 
 the human mind, that the more trifling the distinction 
 of creed which arouses its hostility, the more bitter is 
 the feeling excited : thus, the Roman catholics and 
 the sects of the reformed church have evinced a vio- 
 lence of reciprocal hatred, which neither has displayed
 
 AND NATIONAL CUURCII. 317 
 
 SO frequently against the Hebrew, the Moslem, or the 
 Pagan ; and thus, in proportion as the differences 
 were small between the Greek and Catholic churches 
 has been the inverse magnitude of their mutual hate. 
 
 We thus see the Greeks of C/onstantinople, at the 
 last siege of the devoted city by Mahomet the Second, 
 so shocked at the Latin sacrifice of the mass — not be- 
 cause they differed with the Romans on the doctrine 
 of transubstantiation, ])ut because the latter used un- 
 leavened instead of fermented bread — that, even in 
 the extremity of their national agony^ they rejected 
 the proffered succour at the price of tolerating such 
 an enormity, and were heard to declare that they 
 would rather see the jNIoslem's turban than the Pope's 
 tiara surmounting the church of St. Sophia. 
 
 The Greek church is said by theologians to differ in 
 forty-one points from the Roman-catholic ; but some 
 of these distinctions are so subtle as to escape altogether 
 the perception of an unsubtilizing inquirer. The most 
 important are but trivial, with the exception of what 
 relates to church discipline, and the independence of 
 papal authority. It acknowledges, as the only rule of 
 its faith, the Holy Scriptures and the authority of the 
 seven first general councils ; but the interpretation of 
 the declarations of the one and the decisions of the 
 other is only allowed to its patriarchs, Avhich, in the 
 Russian church, are represented by the " Holy Synod." 
 It acknowledges the creeds of Nice and of St. Athana- 
 sius, and holds the doctrine of the Trinity, but differs 
 from the Roman catholics in believing the Holy 
 Ghost to proceed from the Father alone, and not 
 from the Father and the Son.
 
 318 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 The Greek church denies the existence of purga- 
 tory, but, with singularinconsistency, allows of prayers 
 for the remission of the sins of the departed. It 
 acknowledges, in common with the catholics, the con- 
 version of the bread and wine at the communion- 
 table, and in the sacrifice of the mass into the body 
 and blood of Christ, but with the distinction of using 
 the leavened instead of the unleavened bread. 
 
 It inculcates the veneration and invocation of the 
 mother of the Redeemer, of the saints and martyrs, 
 and a profound regard and respect for relics, to which 
 it attributes a miraculous agency. It does not allow 
 in its churches of the carved images of the holy Virgin, 
 the saints, or martyrs; but recommends the use of 
 painted representations, to assist devotion by such 
 visible portraiture. In consequence, not only the 
 churches of the Russian faith are filled with images, 
 on which the zeal of the faithful has lavished more 
 wealth than the utmost piety of the Roman-catholic 
 world on the shrines and figm'es of its own saints; but 
 every one of its votaries considers it as a matter of 
 obligation to have his own particular image, and to 
 devote one to each apartment of a house. 
 
 Predestination is an important dogma of the Greek, 
 and especially of the Graeco-Russian chiu"ch, with 
 which it has become almost an article of faith. Like 
 the Roman catholic, it has seven sacraments, strik- 
 ingly similar, even in their forms, excepting that of 
 confirmation, which, under the name of chrism, the 
 Greeks impose immediately after baptism. 
 
 The Greek church differs, also, in not only allowing, 
 but enforcing, the marriage of its secular priests, who
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 319 
 
 cannot take orders until married, and who, on the 
 death of their wives, were formerly incapacitated from 
 officiating further, although they have always been 
 forbidden a second marriage, unless they choose to 
 lay aside the ecclesiastic gown ; for the Greeks, unlike 
 the Roman catholics, do not hold that the priestly 
 office invests the man with a permanently sacred 
 character of which he can never subsequently divest 
 himself, but assume that he may lay it aside wdth the 
 hierarchical dignity which confers it. 
 
 Supererogation, dispensations, and indulgences, it 
 disallows. Where no church has ever shewn less am- 
 bition — being rather apparently animated, as we have 
 already observed, by the exclusiveness of feeling of 
 Judaism than the proselytizing spirit of the church of 
 Rome — it has shewn toleration, because indifferent to 
 the conversion of those of other creeds ; but has always 
 persecuted with cruelty those within the pale of its 
 own fold which seem disposed to wander from the jflock. 
 
 In common with the church of Rome, the evil of 
 the wide departure from its tenets, in its usual practice, 
 is in some measure compensated by the general spirit 
 of them, which, laying less stress on faith than on 
 good works, is likely to produce more practical morality 
 than the too strict inculcation of the former, and to 
 give rise, even in the breast of the bigot, to an active 
 benevolence, which must qualify the austere fanaticism 
 that would otherwise have nothing; to redeem its un- 
 charitable harshness. No church has ever been so 
 little dogmatical as that of the Greeks and Russians ; 
 it neither pretends to infallibility, nor to determine 
 the perdition of those souls which it believes to be
 
 320 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 wandering in error, as the church of Rome and the 
 church of England, in their Athanasian creed, have 
 done. 
 
 After the creation of a patriarchal see in Russia, 
 the patriarchs, in a few years, acquired in Muscovy as 
 much temporal authority as the popes in the middle 
 ages exercised over the rest of Europe. They took 
 the first seat after the tsar, who on certain occasions 
 was forced to hold their stirrup ; neither war nor 
 peace could be undertaken without their blessing, and 
 they had a power of life and death over all his sub- 
 jects ; even the united tsar and boyars were always 
 obUged to yield to the patriarch and his clergy. One of 
 the first steps of Peter the Great was to destroy this 
 imperium in imperio, turning the vices and ignorance 
 of the clergy against themselves. By means of firm- 
 ness, cruelty, and ridicule, he succeeded in utterly 
 subverting the hierarchical power ; the faith itself 
 he left standing as a useful instrument, but wrenched 
 its direction from the hands of the priests. 
 
 On the death of the Patriarch Adrian in 1700, 
 Peter utterly abolished the patriarchal office, and de- 
 clared himself head of the church. He appointed an 
 exarch, with very limited authority, immediately to 
 preside over all spiritual affairs; but, twenty years 
 after, he abolished the exarchy also, and instituted 
 the " Holy Legislative Synod," which still continues 
 to this day to govern them, under the immediate 
 cognizance of the emperor, who, besides appoint- 
 ing the members of synod, chosen from the higher 
 clergy, is always represented in this assembly by the 
 ober-procurator, a layman, who can oppose all their
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 321! 
 
 resolutions till submitted to the decision of the em- 
 peror. 
 
 In the commencement of the reign of the reformer, 
 Peter,one-haIf of the lands of the empire are said to have 
 belonged to the clei-gy and the numerous convents and 
 monasteries, and the cotemporary writers give a most 
 lamentable picture of their ignorance and corruption. 
 " Few," says Jovet, " could even repeat the Ten Com- 
 mandments, still less read." The monks, he tells 
 us, were forced to lead so abstemious a life, within 
 the w^alls of their monasteries, that whenever they 
 came out of them they availed themselves of the oppor- 
 tunity with such right good will that they were obliged 
 to be carried back to their holy walls. The nuns were 
 as much dreaded by the foreign and Armenian mer- 
 chants as the sirens and mermaids of the deep by the 
 ancient Greek mariners; for by the lure of lucre, 
 which proved a surer bait both to the youthful and the 
 grey-bearded trader than their voice or their charms 
 could have been, they were accustomed to entice them 
 to their convents under the pretext of purchasing their 
 wares, and when there, to put them privately to death, 
 and secure their merchandise. Strange orgies, and 
 even fearful crimes, even at the present day, occa- 
 sionally disgrace the walls of the Greek convents and 
 monasteries, and in several instances transactions 
 worthy of the dark ages have been dragged into the 
 light, contrasting with the factitious and sickly civili- 
 zation of the modern society without these cloisters. 
 
 Widely differing from the learned clergy of Rome, 
 even the highest grades in the church were formerly 
 plunged in almost equal darkness with their flocks. 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 Their year commenced in the autumn, and, according 
 to Voltaire, they gave as a reason for this, " that it was 
 prolbabe that God had created the ^Yorld in the season 
 in which all the fruits of the earth were in their full 
 maturity," never imagining that their autumn might 
 be the winter of some other clime. It cannot, after 
 this, be wondered at, that when Peter changed it to 
 the first of Januaiy, the common people should have 
 admired the tsar who had been bold enough to change 
 the course of the sun by ukase. On the introduction 
 of tobacco, it was gravely disputed by subtle theologians 
 whether its use was not sinful, and they condemned 
 it on the text of the apostle, which says, " It is not 
 that which goeth in which defileth, but that which 
 Cometh out of the mouth." 
 
 Notwithstanding the natural violence of his cha- 
 racter, Peter was obliged to proceed with comparative 
 caution in his reforms of this powerful body, and 
 sometimes to conciliate it. He joined the clergy in 
 their persecution of the " Raskolniki," sectarians, who 
 reprobated the use of images ; he condemned many 
 of them to the flames, and drove them to revolt ; 
 he punished blasphemy with exile to Siberia, and 
 visited with the utmost severity the least dereliction of 
 religious duty. But whenever he had, by some public 
 act, belied the assertions of the clergy, who accused 
 him of being the bitterest foe to religion, and endea- 
 voured to prove him to be the Antichrist, he alwaj^s 
 followed it by some mortal blow at the clerical autho- 
 rity, until he had at last gathered it entirely into his 
 own hand. But it was long after he had quelled the 
 powers of the Boyars that the priests still ventured to
 
 AISTD NATIONAL CHURCH. 323 
 
 prophesy that Petersburg would be swallowed up by the 
 waves, as well as all who had been guilty of the im- 
 piety of helping in its construction, and that they 
 dared to shew a picture or a basso relievo image of the 
 Virgin, whose eyes shed tears over the devoted city, — 
 Peter himself exposing the cheat to the populace, by 
 shewing to them that it was effected by means of 
 thickened oil. He took the opportunity of their exe- 
 cuting, at the stake, for heresy, a young Russian, who 
 had returned from his travels, to deprive them of the 
 power of life and death, and he ordered that no man 
 before the age of fifty should be allowed to take mo- 
 nastic vows. 
 
 The Russian church is now much as Peter left it 
 after he had subdued it. In the higher orders of the 
 clergy are now indeed to be found men of consider- 
 able erudition and learning, amongst whom we may 
 cite the late metropolitan of Moscow. Its lower 
 grades still continue corrupt, ignorant, and de- 
 bauched. 
 
 The Russian clergy are divided into three classes — 
 the archires, the black clergy, and the white. The 
 archires are the superior authorities of the church, 
 and comprise the metropolitans, the archbishops, and 
 the bishops. The black clergy, or tchornoi duhovenstvo, 
 is the monastic portion of it, from which the former 
 must be chosen ; it comprises the archimandrites, or 
 abbots ; the hegumins, abbots of the smaller houses of 
 reclusion ; the ieromonachs and ieradeacons, who per- 
 form divine service in the monasteries, and, lastly, the 
 monks. Both the black clergy and those who have 
 risen from it are obliged to lead austere and rigid 
 
 y2
 
 32-4 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 lives ; they are forbidden the use of animal food, and 
 are not permitted to marry after they have entered 
 this order. They are very wealthy, but wealth can 
 have but few attractions for them, unless in the case of 
 those who feel a satisfaction in the consciousness of 
 the possession of gold, although they cannot apply it 
 to any of those purposes which make it coveted by 
 men ; and on the whole, at the present day, those best 
 acquainted with the subject laud both their learning 
 and their piety. As much cannot be said for the se- 
 cular priests, the bialoe duhovenstvo, or white clergy, 
 who officiate in the cities and parishes, and appear the 
 plebeians of this body. They are divided into proto- 
 popes, popes, deacons, sacristans, and readers, and are 
 too often drunken, profligate, and grasping characters, 
 extorting greedily every farthing they can from the 
 superstition of their flock, and neglecting no means of 
 working on it. It is common to see them intoxicated, 
 and very uncommon to meet with one who has not 
 got a pack of cards or two about him, which he pro- 
 duces directly they are in request. Nine-tenths of 
 the remuneration attached to their office arises from 
 voluntary contributions, which they practise every 
 method unscrupulous ingenuity can devise to wrest 
 from the fears and hopes of their flock, who usually 
 look upon the priest as the chosen of Heaven, in whom 
 man}' things are allowable which would not be so in 
 the laymen ; just as they see the man who wears the 
 Imperial button pilfer and rob with impunity, whilst 
 the retribution of the lash awaits the moujik who should 
 venture on the same course. On the other hand, the
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 325 
 
 duties which the Russian secular priest ought to per- 
 form are so arduous and exorbitant that the church 
 ceremonial alone would fill up all his time, and leave 
 him none to devote to study or to acts of charity. 
 
 The long monastic service of the church must be 
 performed three times a day ; he must attend to the 
 administration of baptism, marriage, and the burial of 
 the dead, with all the complication of their numerous 
 and interminable ceremonies ; he is enjoined to visit 
 the sick, to comfort and instruct his flock, and he has, 
 besides all this, to look to his own pecuniary interests 
 — the only part of all this catalogue which he never 
 neglects, unless when other duties happen to go hand- 
 in-hand with it. 
 
 The clergy of all denominations is generally re- 
 cruited from the families of the clergy, but amongst 
 the white clergy the church ma}^ be considered as an 
 hereditary occupation, and has always been so. Pre- 
 viously to the reign of Peter, their profession was too 
 valuable not to make it tacitly an affair of caste ; but 
 when his severit}^, and the reforms he introduced, ren- 
 dered it as unenviable as before it had been coveted, 
 and when he ordered that none should be ordained 
 who had not received a proper education for the mi- 
 nistry, in schools established for that purpose, he soon 
 found that so few candidates for the surplice presented 
 themselves to undergo the preparatory course of in- 
 struction, that the church was in danger of being, at a 
 future date, without any clergy to administer its rites 
 and promulgate its doctrines. 
 
 To remedy this evil, he made a law, that the sons
 
 326 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 of priests should be allowed to follow no occupation 
 but that of their father, and this law had remained 
 unrepealed until within the last few years. Hence 
 many thousands have been driven to enter the priestly 
 order, not from choice, but from necessity, and long 
 habit seems to have framed, in this respect, a law as 
 seldom departed from as the ukase of Peter, whilst it 
 remained yet unrepealed. On the death of the wives 
 of the secular clergy, they are allowed to enter the 
 monastic order, a privilege of which they seldom avail 
 themselves, though it opens the way to the highest 
 dignities of the church, which, however, can only be 
 attained at the sacrifice of all their jovial and dissi- 
 pated habits, by a course of abstinence and study. 
 The number of monasteries and convents in the 
 whole empire is said not to exceed 500 at the present 
 time. 
 
 The whole clerical population, including its highest 
 and most humble ranks, amounts to somewhere about 
 500,000 individuals ; they all enjoy in common the 
 privilege of complete exemption from all civil taxa- 
 tion, and cannot be subjected to corporal punishment, 
 even for capital crimes. Promotion amongst the black 
 clergy, to the rank of bishop, depends entirely on the 
 pleasure of the emperor. When a vacancy takes place 
 in a diocese it is customary for the " synod" to select 
 two or three candidates from the body of archiman- 
 drites or abbots, one of whom his majesty appoints 
 to the vacant bishopric. The autocrat, however, has 
 the power, and sometimes exercises it, of paying no 
 regard whatever to the choice of the holy legislative 
 synod.
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 327 
 
 The empire was a few years ago divided into thirty- 
 six eparchies, or bishoprics, (since increased by seven 
 or eight,) none of which are in any way subordinate 
 to each other, and these are administered by archires of 
 different rank — metropolitans, archbishops, or bishops 
 — but whose title is in nowise attached to the diocese, 
 but as personal as the orders and crosses which the 
 emperor confers on them, and in which they may be 
 seen officiating. These eparchies contain nearly 
 twenty-eight thousand cathedrals and churches ; but 
 their number has not increased proportionately with 
 the population, for we find that a hundred and fifty 
 years ago, the city of Moscow alone contained twelve 
 hundred churches. 
 
 These buildings are usually large, built either of 
 wood or brick, in the form of a square, a quadrangle, 
 but especially in the figure of a cross. There is a 
 peculiar and picturesque aspect about their semi- 
 Asiatic architecture, and the well-known enormous 
 mosque-like domes, either blazing in one sheet of 
 gilding or silver leaf, or painted green or blue and 
 studded with gold and silver stars. Besides the larger, 
 there are generally four smaller domes, which are apt 
 to assume too much of a pepper-castor appearance. 
 The belfry is commonly separate from the church ; it 
 often rises in a column-like steeple, from the midst of 
 the churchyard which surrounds the house of wor- 
 ship. The Russian foible for enormous bells, we have 
 long since read of in every elementary book of geo- 
 graphy. 
 
 The interior of the churches is more striking than 
 imposing. Decked out with a pompous magnificence.
 
 328 BELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 which renders it gaudy and glittering, the Russian 
 clergy have not had the art of investing it with that 
 character of solemnity and grandeur which, in the Ro- 
 man-catholic cathedrals, involuntarily fills the breast 
 of the beholder wath awe and veneration. In the 
 true spirit of a barbaric people, they have sought in a 
 mass of paint and gilding, in rich stuffs, and in a dis- 
 play of gold, silver, and jewellery, to produce the 
 effect which the intellectual Italians sought in the 
 ideal conceptions of architecture, of sculpture, and of 
 painting, embellishing indeed at times with too much 
 finery, but never depending on the mere gorgeousness 
 of decoration. 
 
 The church is divided into three parts. The inner 
 and most holy division, contains the altar, on which 
 is raised a massive cross of gold or silver, and on 
 it a richly bound cop}' of the Scriptures is placed, 
 clasped with bands of silver or gold, often richly 
 set with precious stones. The second division, in- 
 tended to contain the congregation, is the nave of the 
 church ; it is separated from the altar part by the 
 Ikonostas, a kind of screen, on which are pictures of 
 our Saviour, of the Virgin, of the apostles and saints, 
 and containing in the middle what are called the 
 royal doors, M^hich are shut or opened to admit the 
 view of the congregation into the sanctuar}-, at dif- 
 ferent phases of the service. These pictures, always 
 wretched daubs, shew very often only the face, hands, 
 and feet of the holy personages they are intended to 
 represent, all the body and garments being formed by 
 one raised and embossed sheet of gold or silver, and 
 often studded Nvith precious stones of incalculable
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 329 
 
 value, the pious offerings of the faithful during many- 
 ages. 
 
 In the country of the Cossacs, who, differing from 
 the Muscovite in character, in feeling, and in temper, 
 have perhaps principally been bound to him by the 
 link of religious sympathy, before these images are 
 suspended the fruits of their plmider in France, Italy, 
 and Germany, gathered in their predatory excursions, 
 as they hovei'ed like a cloud round the Russian armies ; 
 and in the pettiest village church, the richest offerings 
 are sometimes collected together. Before this screen, 
 divided from the congregation by a rail, sit the choir 
 of singers and the readers. 
 
 The third division of the church is the Trapeza, 
 the porch of the temple, which is only filled with wor- 
 shippers when the nave affords no further room. The 
 service, which, from its extreme length, is evidently of 
 monastic origin, consists, besides the sacrifice of the 
 mass, in the chaunt and recitation of psalms and 
 hymns, which, for the sake of brevity, are now much 
 more read than sung, and when read are hurried 
 through with such rapidity as to be utterly unintel- 
 ligible. When sung, however, nothing can be more 
 imposing than these passages of the Greek ritual, a 
 fine bass voice being made an indispensable qualifica- 
 tion in all those whose duties will lead them to officiate 
 in the churches ; and the study of music being assi- 
 duously attended to, the richness and the sweet 
 solemnity of this unmixed vocal music, far surpasses 
 even the finest effects of the mingled song and organ 
 tones which sweep through the gothic aisles of the 
 cathedrals of the Latin church. We must add to this
 
 330 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 the appearance of the clergy of the Greek church, 
 decidedly the most imposing of any clergy in the 
 world, especially that of the very portion whose con- 
 duct and morals are so little in consonance with 
 their venerable exterior. Taken all in all, they are 
 the finest class of men in the empire ; a fact for which 
 one can only account by the supposition that as only 
 those who have good voices are selected for this office, 
 power of the voice is a general indication of organic 
 vigour. They allow their hair and beard to grow to 
 their natural length, without interfering in any way 
 with the luxuriance of nature. Their locks flow back 
 upon their shoulders, as long as the dishevelled hair 
 of women, and their beards descend upon their chests, 
 and have an indescribable effect in qualifying the 
 ignoble expression of the meanest countenance, and 
 in rendering a noble countenance majestic. 
 
 These priests are the only class or people who 
 glory in all their hairy ornaments. The Moslem lets 
 grow his beard, but shaves his head ; the moujik lets 
 grow his beard, but cuts short his hair on the line of 
 the lower extremity of the ear; and in civihzed 
 Europe we leave very little either of hair or beard. 
 There is only the Greek priest who scrupulously pre- 
 serves them both intact, and, when nature has favoured 
 him in other respects, presents to our view the beau 
 ideal of a patriarch of scriptural times. 
 
 It is difficult to be convinced, without seeing the 
 Russian clergy, that man loses as much of the dignity 
 of his aspect by the scissors and the razors, as the 
 horse of his beauty when shorn of his tail and mane; 
 nor is it easy to repress the suspicion that the uni-
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 331 
 
 versal custom which pervades the human race in this 
 respect, and which leads them, according as they 
 wear the hat or the turban, to make war on the in- 
 ferior or superior crop which should adorn their heads 
 or chins, has been the original suggestion of some 
 tail-less foxes, who, unlike those of ^S^op's fable, were 
 never requested to turn round by the multitude. 
 
 But if this custom has been absurd in 'the young, it 
 is especially so in the old ; for when age thins the 
 locks and bares the skull, it strengthens the beard and 
 renders it more venerable, as it mixes its dark tints 
 with silver, and the bald old man who, having refused 
 the compensation which nature offers, resorts to a 
 wig to render his physiognomy grotesque, would have 
 inspired awe as a Russian pope, which even decrepi- 
 tude would not have diminished. 
 
 Of late years the custom of preaching has been in- 
 troduced into the Russian church, but so recently, 
 that excepting in Petersburg and Moscow, even 
 pulpits are yet unknown. Formerly, no attempt was 
 made to explain the Scriptures, or to comment on 
 them, beyond reading occasionally some of the homilies 
 of St. Chrysostom. One of the last patriarchs even 
 banished to Siberia the protopope of Morum and 
 other priests who had ventured to preach, asserting 
 *' that the Lord had always operated through his mere 
 word, and had thus founded his church, without 
 further explaining it — that therefore it was not needful 
 for his clergy to do so." 
 
 The Russians make no use of a complete copy of 
 the Bible in their churches, retrenching certain books 
 which they consider too immodest to be brought into
 
 332 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 a house of worship. Even their clergy very seldom 
 possess an entire copy of the Scriptures. Their church 
 books are all written in the old Sclavonic, in which 
 language the service is also performed, and which 
 resembles the modern Russ about as nearly as the 
 English tongue of the leign of King Henrj^ the First 
 assimilates to the English of the present day. They 
 consist principally of twenty ponderous tomes, con- 
 taining the service of the church, of the writings and 
 commentaries of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, or Quirilla 
 Jerusalimski, as they call him, who, together with St. 
 Chrysostom and St. Basilius, seem to be their prin- 
 cipal authorities, on the interpretation of the sacred 
 writings and the rules of their monastic orders ; of 
 the writings of St. Chrysostom, of St. John Damas- 
 cenus, of St. Gregory Nazarene, and Ephrin Syria, 
 or Ephraim, Deacon of Edessa in Syria, and five 
 volumes of the lives of the saints, from which passages 
 are read in the matines of monasteries. The twenty 
 volumes containing the church service consist of twelve 
 minocon, or one for every month of the year, contain- 
 ing the services and hymns for the festivals of saints. 
 
 The Octoechos compose two volumes, which are 
 divided into eight tones or voices, each of which con- 
 tains hymns for the days of one week, which are 
 mixed in the service according to the subjects to which 
 the days of the week are appropriated. Thus — Sun- 
 day, to the resurrection; Monday, to the angels; 
 Tuesday, to John the Baptist; Wednesday, to the 
 Virgin Mary ; Thursday, to the Apostles ; Friday, to 
 the passion of Christ ; and Saturday, to the Saints and 
 Martyrs. To these there is a supplementary volume
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 333 
 
 to supply the deficiency in the minocon. The psalter 
 and the hours take up another volume. The Book 
 of Psalms is divided into one and twenty parts, one 
 of which is recited at every service, so that the whole 
 is gone through every week. The Book of Prayers 
 contains the prayers for vespers, matines, and com- 
 munion service for the use of the priests and deacons. 
 The fast Triods fill two volumes, and relate to the 
 service during the great fasts. The four gospels, a 
 portion of which is read every day, compose another 
 volume. The book of Offices contains the rites and 
 ceremonies of burials, baptisms, christenings, and all 
 the sacraments, and the twentieth tome, called the 
 book of regulations, contains directions for the proper 
 use of the nineteen preceding volumes. 
 
 The fasts of the Russian church are long and severe, 
 and occupy on the whole more than half the year. 
 The single fast of Easter lasts for seven consecutive 
 weeks. It begins by what is called the " butter week^^ 
 during which, a mere abstinence of flesh is enjoined ; 
 but the week ensuing the carnival, which intervenes 
 with its boisterous dissipation, they abstain for forty 
 hours even fi:om butter-milk and eggs, and the more 
 devout only indulge in salt fish on the Sundays. The 
 second fast begins after Pentecost; — the third great 
 fast begins in August, and lasts fifteen days ; and the 
 fourth, from the 12th of November till Christmas. 
 All through the year they either abstain from meat 
 or all fat substances on the Wednesday and the 
 Friday. 
 
 All the peasantry and lower order of the Russians 
 are profoundly devout, and blindly superstitious ; they
 
 334 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 never pass a church, or hear the clock strike, without 
 crossing themselves ; they all carefully trim and re- 
 plenish the lamp in which they burn the fine oil of 
 the olive or w^ax tapers before the image of their 
 tutelar saint ; they assist at the service, of which they 
 cannot comprehend a word, in the most humble and 
 attentive manner ; and they never refuse a piece of 
 bread to the beggar who asks for it in the name of 
 God. They have the rite of confession in the Rus- 
 sian, as well as in the Romish church, with this differ- 
 ence, which neutralizes all the practical excellence of 
 the institution — repentance alone suffices to obtain 
 forgiveness of the sins committed — but neither resti- 
 tution nor atonement are insisted on, when another 
 party has sustained loss or injury by the sin con- 
 fessed. 
 
 On receiving the sacrament, which, as well as the 
 Roman catholics and Lutherans, they hold to be the 
 real body and blood of Christ, they consider that any 
 sin committed on that day is peculiarly heinous, and 
 to avoid all temptation thereunto, they often resort to 
 the singular expedient of going to bed and sleeping 
 the time away. With many of the mercantile classes, 
 with most of the employes, and with the greater part 
 of the landed aristocracy, all faith and confidence in 
 their creed has long departed, but more or less its super- 
 stitions remain, like the dross that adheres to the vessel 
 when the valuable metal which it disfigured and tar- 
 nished has been molten and poured away. This 
 melancholy tendency of the human mind, still to 
 cherish the superstition where it has rooted out devo- 
 tion and belief, is too often seen in Russia — a tendency
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 335 
 
 which MoHere has admirably depicted in his Don 
 Juan, where he makes his servitor, who thinks lightly 
 of his master's Atheism, exceedingly shocked that he 
 should doubt the story of the Wandering Jew. 
 
 The veneration of the Russians for images is exces- 
 sive — that is to say, for ornamented pictures of the 
 virgin and the saints — for a sculptured figure, or one in 
 alto-relief, they would consider it idolatrous to pros- 
 trate themselves before, as they prostrate themselves 
 to the pictures encased in rich frames, and in which 
 the halo round the head and the figure and garments 
 are, with the poorer classes, of gilt or silvered copper, 
 set often with stones of coloured glass, to imitate the 
 gold and silver and jewellery so profusely lavished by 
 their wealthier brethren, and in their churches, on 
 similar objects. In every shop, in every house, in 
 every room, one of these pictures hangs in the corner, 
 with a little lamp suspended to it by a chain, in which, 
 on Sundays and holidays, a light is always burning. 
 To this the merchant turns, and crosses himself, as he 
 swears by it that he is losing money by the sale of 
 merchandise on which he is really gaining a hundred 
 per cent, mentally promising the saint to spend a por- 
 tion of his gain in tapers and in oil devoted to his 
 honour, and thus cunningly imagining that he has 
 made his patron in some degree an accomplice of his 
 cheat. To this image, on entering a room, he imme- 
 diately turns ; he addresses no one, speaks to no one, 
 till he finds it, and has made the cross before it. 
 Even under the piazzas of the market-place, these pic- 
 tures, richly chased in silver, and illumined by lights 
 and lamps, gratify the piety of buyers and sellers, and
 
 336 RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA, 
 
 draw from the passer by the sign of the cross and a 
 five-kopeck piece. 
 
 As much, and more, than the household gods were 
 to the Romans, has always been his image to the 
 Russian. When, in 1610, La Gardie occupied Nov- 
 gorod with his army, and the Swedish soldiers found 
 that the inhabitants had concealed everything valu- 
 able, they bethought themselves, at last, of carrying 
 away the images from the houses in which they were 
 quartered — a scheme which fully answered their ex- 
 pectations, as the inhabitants pursued them with 
 lamentations when they marched away, and paid the 
 most exorbitant sums to ransom their penates from 
 captivity. 
 
 It is also related, that in 1643, the tsar was thrown, 
 as well as his whole court, into great consternation, 
 by the fact of his image becoming alarmingly red in 
 the face — a circumstance which puzzled even the 
 patriarch, until the painter being appealed to, de- 
 clared that the last covering of paint having gradually 
 been kissed away, was beginning to shew through it 
 the original coat of red over which it had been laid. 
 
 There are both stationary and itinerant dealers in 
 these pictures, who do not sell them, as it is acknow- 
 ledged to be impious to traffic in such articles, but who 
 exchange new ones for old — like the magician with his 
 lamps, in the story of Aladdin — only that they expect 
 to receive as the difference what is understood to be 
 the full value of the thing exchanged. When an 
 image is very old, and in a very disgraceful state, as 
 the Russian dares not burn it or destroy it, he treats 
 it as the mother of Moses did the future prophet — he
 
 AND NATIONAL CHURCH. 337 
 
 places it on a board, and sends it floating down a 
 river, where it is expected that it will take care of 
 itself. 
 
 There exist in Russia many dissentient sects, known 
 under the general name of Raskolniki, or schismatics, 
 an appellation derived from the word roskol, to divide. 
 One of the most remarkable of these assumes to be of 
 the original church ; its members call themselves of 
 the stare vei — or of the " old faith" — and remind one, 
 by the gloomy austerity of their manners, and the sim- 
 plicity of their lives, of the old Scotch covenanters. 
 They have outlived many persecutions ; the Emperor 
 Alexander gave them a long breathing time, but 
 Nicholas treats them with harshness and severity. 
 Four years since, one of these enthusiasts, excited by 
 the persecution directed against his fellow sectarians, 
 sought out the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, and 
 calling him the antichrist, spat in his face, and struck 
 him on the cheek. He was condemned to Siberia and 
 the knout, and the Metropolitan, much to his credit 
 as a Christian prelate, interceded warmly for him, but 
 the emperor was inexorable. He was knouted, and 
 is said to have expired before he reached the prison 
 after the execution. In addition to these old schis- 
 matics from the Greek church, of late years, sects 
 whose opinions and practice are destructive of the 
 whole social edifice, spring up with such alarming 
 rapidity as to menace more nearly than any other 
 causes, in the minds of well-informed Russians, the 
 existence of the empire; but this is a subject that will 
 be treated more fully in a future chapter, in which 
 some account of these sects will be given. 
 
 VOL. L z
 
 338 RELIGIOUS PEBSECUTION IN RUSSIA. 
 
 If we look to the history of the Russian church, we 
 find it disgraced by many cruel examples of persecu- 
 tion towards the schismatics of its own creed ; hun- 
 dreds of the sect whose principal distinction was, that 
 they signed the cross with three fingers instead of 
 with two, and who were termed Vosko- Jesuits, were 
 burned alive by the last patriarch and by Peter the 
 Great. Towards those who professed a faith entirely 
 distinct from their own, they have always evinced 
 comparative mildness, and have never gone beyond 
 the gentle means of persuasion to gain over to their 
 fold even the vanquished, on whom they might have 
 imposed their law ; reminding us of those animals who 
 have no animosity or gall but against those of their 
 own species. 
 
 It has been already observed that the recent perse- 
 cution of the imitcd Greeks and of the Polish Roman 
 Catholics, cannot be laid to the charge of the Russian 
 church, being, as it is, the act of an autocratic in- 
 dividual, with which it had only feebly co-operated.
 
 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE REGION OP RUSSIA. 339 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE REGION OF RUSSIA, OR REGION 
 OF MORASS, FOREST, AND CORNLAND — OLD CAPITALS 
 OF MOSCOW, GREAT NOVOGOROD, KIEW, AND KAZAN. 
 
 European Russia, though bounded in on many 
 sides by mountains, is one uniform level, with the 
 exception of the governments of the extreme north, 
 and of the Valdai hills, or rather table land, which, 
 rising in the interior to an elevation of a thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea, cover a space nearly 
 four hundred miles in length, and forty in breadth, 
 and give birth to the rivers Volga, Dnieper, and 
 Duna. 
 
 The mountains which enclose the European em- 
 pire, are those of Finland and Lapland, stretching 
 from the White Sea to the vicinity of St. Petersburg 
 on the north western side, and forming the advanced 
 guard of that continuous range of hills which covers 
 nearly the whole of the Scandinavian peninsula. On 
 z2
 
 340 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 the south west, the incipient Krapaks border on its 
 territory ; on the south, the peninsula of the Krimea 
 rises from steppe land into high and precipitous hills ; 
 further eastward, the mountain land of the Caucasus 
 forms the boundary of Europe. On the eastern side, 
 the Ural mountains divide it from Asia, and rising in 
 the adjacent isles of Nova Zemlia (new land), in the 
 extreme north they continue, across the strait of fFai- 
 gatch on the mainland, to extend southwards for nearly 
 two thousand miles, rising in some parts to the height 
 of six thousand feet. 
 
 Between this partial enclosure, except the Valdai 
 plateau, which is called the Russian Switzerland, the 
 country presents one unvaried aspect of level uni- 
 formity, scarcely broken by a hillock higher than the 
 barrows which the Monguls, or the Norse pirates, 
 have reared up in the southern plains over the burial 
 places of their chiefs. 
 
 The general character of this vast plain differs 
 strikingly in the northern and in the southern dis- 
 tricts. In both, the soil is generally rich, but in the 
 south it is bare of trees, and parched up in the summer 
 by drought. In the north, this plain, except where 
 its aspect has been changed by cultivation, presents 
 an almost continuous surface of bog and pine forest, 
 until those northern latitudes, where the wood gra- 
 dually diminishes and becomes stunted, and the ex- 
 treme severity of the climate will allow of no vegeta- 
 tion, except the mosses and the low plants which, 
 buried amongst them, lie during the long winter deep 
 beneath the snow. Here nothing but the bogs and 
 mosses cover the face of the country during the few
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 341 
 
 months that the sun has power to thaw the snow and 
 ice. 
 
 The Russian empire in Europe is thus naturally 
 divided into two regions, — the regions of pastoral 
 and periodically barren plains, or steppes, which extend 
 over the south, and the regions of wood and morass, 
 occupying the northern and middle country, which 
 have been partially reclaimed and cultivated, and 
 which feed the great bulk of the Sclavonic population. 
 
 The same natural division exists for the vast empire 
 of Siberia, whose surface is level, though enclosed on 
 its eastern coast, and on its southern frontier by moun-' 
 tains ; and if it were not for the Ural range which 
 divides it from European Russia, its northern region 
 of wood and morass would be as continuous with that 
 of Muscovy as its southern region of steppes. The 
 same description of the natural aspect of these lands 
 will almost literally apply to either, with this distinc- 
 tion, that in Siberia the climate is everywhere as 
 cold, in a certain latitude, as it is in Muscovy several 
 degrees northwards. Thus, with the interruption of 
 various rivers, and of the Ural chain, the Russian 
 empire, both in Europe and in Asia, may be generally 
 described as two broad belts stretching over both 
 continents — the northernmost one a region of wood 
 and marsh and cultivation, the other a vast level plain 
 without a tree. The first of these great divisions it 
 is the purpose of the present chapter to describe. It 
 must be, however, observed, that each of these regions 
 may again be naturally subdivided. 
 
 Sometimes chequering the treeless region of the 
 steppe, or prairie, and parallel with it, on its whole
 
 342 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 southern frontier, stretches a district of rockj, sandy, 
 or saline desert, dividing the Siberian empire from 
 central and Southern Asia. These inhospitable plains, 
 only passable by Tartars, reach even further eastward 
 than the steppes, because continuing as far as the 
 Sea of Okotsk, a portion of the Pacific. The southern 
 region may therefore be subdivided into that of prairie 
 and of desert. In the same manner the great northern 
 division is constituted, — firstly, by that part in which 
 the forest trees of various kinds flourish, and in which 
 the earth still yields a haiTcst of the hardiest grain, 
 which it does as far as any forests will grow, and even 
 where the earth is never thawed through — a bed of 
 ice being found in the heat of summer at a few feet 
 beneath the surface — as indeed is everywhere the case, 
 beyond the sixty-seventh degree ; — secondly, by all 
 that portion lying so far north that even forests cease 
 to grow, and the summer morass and the winter's 
 snow, covering an eternally frozen substratum, supply 
 its place. 
 
 In this extreme north, beyond the arctic circle, lie 
 tracts where all vegetable life almost entirely ceases ; 
 the snow, in summer never thoroughly thawed, gets 
 mingled into a discoloured mass with the earth, and 
 withered mosses which cover the unthawed ground, 
 and a few of the latter overspreading the stones and 
 points of rock, look like a mildew of nature. But 
 here man is found — the Samoyedes and lakout tribes 
 live where no plant larger than the moss can with- 
 stand the rigour of the cold, and" find their food, 
 their dwelHngs, and their raiment, in the spoils of the 
 animal kingdom, from the flesh, the blubber, the
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 343 
 
 bones and skins of the marine animals and fish. These 
 savages, who have not even a distinct idea of the 
 Russian empire, are all ranked amongst the faithful 
 subjects of the emperor, and have been the subject of 
 many ukases, of which they have never dreamed in 
 their frozen solitudes. 
 
 Southward of these inhospitable lands, the snow- 
 thaws indeed, but so late that nothing but the moss 
 springs from the cold soil, which accumulating higher 
 and higher, and absorbing like a sponge the dissolved 
 snow, rots underneath, and forms interminable bogs. 
 Southward again of these districts, the crust of living 
 mosses becomes dry enough on the surface to give life 
 to a few plants ; then a few stunted trees are visible ; 
 and at last, pine and birch woods intervene, and the 
 morass and forest unite and mingle, the mosses accu- 
 mulating and rotting between the stumps of the trees. 
 This is the case in all the wooded districts which 
 spread far towards the south, until they meet the 
 great naked plains of the steppes. 
 
 Not only the city of St. Petersburg is built upon 
 a marsh, but in the late survey taken for the projected 
 railroad between the capital and Moscow, it has been 
 discovered that more than half of the five hundred 
 miles of road that intervene betwixt them is bog; land. 
 In the city of Moscow itself, the turf may be dug in 
 the very streets. These bogs, which are more or less 
 difficult to drain, ensure to the soil, when properly 
 cultivated, a prodigious fertility; and the decayed 
 vegetable matter which forms the surface of the soil, 
 renders needless all manure, excepting such as will 
 hasten its decomposition.
 
 344 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 Those travellers who have dreaded for the Russian 
 people the gradual extinction of their forests, must 
 either have overlooked this inexhaustible mine of turf, 
 or have carried their solicitude as far into the future 
 as a morning paper, which bitterly lamented some 
 seasons since, that in about twelve hundred years all 
 the coal of Great Britain would be exhausted. 
 
 The woods consist chiefly of the white fir, red pine, 
 and birch trees ; for although Novgorod and the south- 
 eastern governments of the empire abound in oak, 
 this valuable tree is scarcely seen in those vast tracts 
 of forest land which cover such an immense extent of 
 country, stretching from the Baltic and the frontier 
 of Poland, up to the Ural mountains, and on the other 
 side of these mountains over the centre of Siberia. 
 The trees of many of these woods, growing on the har- 
 dened crust of bogs, when they attain a certain height 
 and weight, are easily blown down by the wind, their 
 roots being torn out of the soil. This appears, jfrom the 
 particular formation of the white fir, (which stretches 
 them along the ground, and never sinks them deep 
 into it), to be in every situation the case with this 
 tree, most of the forests composed of it presenting a 
 strange aspect of desolation, from the larger trees 
 which everywhere lie rotting amidst the younger ones, 
 their broad and ragged roots standing upturned in the 
 air, whilst the trunk and branches are decomposing in 
 the mire, in which the traveller who adventures 
 through sinks up to his middle, betwixt tree and tree. 
 
 Although there exist magnificent woods of tall and 
 stately timber^ this is therefore not generally the cha- 
 racter, as one would imagine, of these vast primaeval
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 345 
 
 forests, of which, compared to their extent, only a 
 very insignificant portion has ever been submitted to 
 the influence of the hatchet. 
 
 Some of these larger woods, in drier situations, arc 
 so dense, that the snow falling on their serried 
 branches forms a sort of thatch, and does not pene- 
 trate through them; thus sheltered from the keen 
 wind, they retain during the winter a comparatively 
 moderate temperature, and arc the resorts of all the 
 smaller game. They are called by the peasants, " the 
 tuarm looocls.'''' 
 
 The marshy soil amidst which these trees spring up, 
 and equally the naked bogs or mosses which intervene, 
 or which, far north, overspread the whole surface of 
 the land, are covered with innumerable berries, prin- 
 cipally varieties of the cranberry, which ripens and 
 enlarges itself beneath the snow to the size of the 
 small black cherry, and which, wherever the white 
 carpet thaws away with the first warm days of spring, 
 lies scattered over the ground in red and inviting pro- 
 fusion, contrasting with the brown and withered 
 grasses, leaves, and mosses. 
 
 In a space of time marvellously short, the whole 
 face of nature changes, and everything becomes luxu- 
 riantly green ; innumerable flowers spring up ; the 
 aquatic birds of every description resort to nestle 
 amidst these congenial solitudes ; the cries of the 
 crane and the wild swan, the pipirig of the curlew 
 and the croak of the snipe and woodcock, as they flit 
 over the budding birchwoods at day-break and at 
 sunset, give animation to a scene so long plunged in 
 frozen silence.
 
 346 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 The drier woods are densely peopled by the caper- 
 cailzie, or the cock of the wood, the largest of the 
 grouse species, and the common black cock of the 
 Scottish moors. In the spring, the pairing season, the 
 hoarse voice of the former, perched on the summit of 
 a tall pine-tree, rings through the forests as he calls to 
 his mate ; this is the only time at which he can be 
 with certainty approached and shot. The fox, the 
 hare, and the ptarmigan are also amongst the most 
 numerous of the permanent denizens of the woods, 
 amongst which are scattered the bear, the wolf, the 
 lynx, and the elk, but very thinly, a very few of these 
 animals being found in a space as large as one of our 
 English counties. The wolves, indeed, on account of 
 their ubiquitous traces on the snow, have the reputa- 
 tion of being much more numerous than they are — 
 the wolf roaming all the long night of winter through 
 in quest of prey, and always in the vicinity of man. 
 
 Towards autumn, the woods are filled with a bird 
 of passage of the grouse kind, much resembling our 
 English grouse in plumage, but perching on the trees, 
 on which they are shot in immense numbers by the 
 peasants, with their pea-rifles. In the extreme north 
 the rein-deer are very numerous. 
 
 Besides the richness of the soil, covered with such 
 a compound of decayed vegetable matter, the very 
 snow which covers it in winter constitutes another 
 element of fertility ; for, warmed as soon as it is melted 
 by the sun, which in the spring and summer is very 
 powerful, its tepid water has a very different effect to 
 that of marshy gromid, which is soaked by land- 
 springs, and wherever the summer is long enough to
 
 REGION OF RUSSU. 347 
 
 dry it up only so much that it will not drown the 
 cultivated plants, or where it is sufficiently drained to 
 annul this effect, it tends to render the earth wonder- 
 fully productive, and enables it to thrive with extra- 
 ordinary vigour and with a scarcely credible rapidity, 
 to which the extreme length of the spring and summer 
 days, and the consequently larger share of light, which 
 assists vegetation, also contributes. 
 
 In the extreme north, the corn is sowed and reaped 
 in a few weeks ; we see the wood-strawbeiTy bloom- 
 ing to-day, and a few days after its fruits are ripe and 
 redly glowing. It is remarkable that the further 
 north corn can be made to thrive, the shorter is the 
 period of time in which it comes to maturity ; it has 
 also been observed, that com grown in the extreme 
 north, when used as seed in a southern country, gives 
 its first produce more speedily, ripening in a much 
 shorter time, although at a second sowing it loses 
 this quality. This fact has been taken advantage of 
 in Sweden, corn being annually brought for seed 
 fi'om Torneo, (in the north of the Gulf of Bothnia, 
 and almost within the Arctic circle,) and planted in 
 lands so much exposed, that the corn could only be 
 sown so late that it had no time to ripen. Formerly 
 on this account utterly barren, they are thus rendered 
 fruitful. 
 
 In Siberia, the midland parts of which are very 
 productive in corn, only rye, oats, and barley are 
 growTi in the north, and do not appear to thrive be- 
 yond the sixtieth degree of northera latitude. In 
 European Russia it may be reared with greater faci- 
 lity six degrees northwards, and the government of
 
 348 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 Olonetz, which is celebrated for the growth of its 
 hemp, is situated between the sixty-first and sixty- 
 fifth degrees. The heat and vivifying influence of 
 the sun, and the quantity of organic matter, call into 
 existence a prodigious amount of insect life, which is 
 the case even where the water drowns the larger 
 plants. Clouds of mosquitos, so large and dense 
 that their humming can be heard for many miles, rise 
 frequently into the air like huge columns of smoke. 
 Everywhere in the woods the number of large blue- 
 bottle flies and other insects renders one's passage 
 through them quite maddening, and explains why the 
 elk, the rein-deer, and the bear, spend most of the 
 day plunged up to the neck in the pools of the forests 
 or wallowing in its mire. The further northward one 
 travels, the more annoying these tormentors grow. 
 
 The region of European Russia which the severity 
 of the climate renders either wholly unproductive, or 
 where the vegetable kingdom only ministers partially 
 and incompletely to the wants of man, is comprised 
 in the extensive government of Archangel, and of 
 part of Wologda, of Olonetz, of Finland, and of Perm. 
 The government of Archangel, which is four or five 
 times larger than the united kingdoms of England 
 and Scotland, lies partly within the Arctic circle, 
 and comprises a portion of the territories of the Lap- 
 lander. 
 
 The White Sea almost divides the whole of this 
 region. The land between its eastern shores and the 
 Uralian mountains forms a vast declivity of table land, 
 down which flow into it the rivers Petchora, Mezen, 
 and Dwina. Westward of the shores of the White
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 349 
 
 Sea, spreads to the Polar ocean and the gulph of 
 Bothnia, bordering even the Norwegian frontier, a 
 vast extent of table-land of granitic rock, chequered 
 by myriads of lakes, and covered northward only by 
 bogs and mosses, by vast forests in less exposed si- 
 tuations. It is singular that the northernmost region 
 of the Russian empire, or that which is swept as bare 
 by the chilling blast as the steppes of the southern 
 region are by the parching winds of summer, the vege- 
 tation of the larger plants being drowned in one and 
 burned up in the other, should both be inhabited by 
 Nomadic tribes. 
 
 The chief population of the eastern shores of the 
 White Sea consists of the wandering Samoyedes and 
 Suranese tribes, whose origin is still disputed, being 
 referred by some to the Mongolian or to the Mantchou 
 stock, whilst others hold them to be an aboriginal 
 race, driven northward like the Finnish tribes, by the 
 Sclavonic influx, but whom Sclavonic ambition has 
 tracked, as far as it can follow their footsteps, to these 
 inhospitable shores. They are dark-haired and beard- 
 less, believers in the transmigration of souls, and po- 
 lygamists ; filthy in their habits, great hunters and 
 fishers, still shooters with the bow, and devourers of 
 raw fish and flesh. The tribes of these people spread 
 far along the frozen regions of Siberia. 
 
 The districts west of the White Sea are inhabited 
 by the Lapes, or Laplanders, a diminutive tribe, of 
 Finnish origin ; they are chiefly fishers or herdsmen 
 of rein-deer ; the former avocation being the refuge of 
 poverty. The rein-deer is also reared by the Samo- 
 yedes. The Lapes are also hunters, but the taste of
 
 350 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 the Lape is more pastoral, that of the Samoyede leans 
 more towards the chace. These misshapen Lapland 
 dwarfs, indifferent to the Christianity which they have 
 within a few years affected to embrace, are astute and 
 avaricious ; they are well known to live in tents, and 
 to shift their quarters according to the wants of their 
 herds. 
 
 The Lapes in the Russian dominions are said to be 
 converted to the Greek church. Their embracing this 
 persuasion is a necessary consequence of their conver- 
 sion from paganism, because the Russian laws, so 
 boastful of their toleration, do not allow any indivi- 
 dual within the empire, if he change his creed at all, 
 to turn to any but the dominant church. Instructed 
 by a few drunken priests, of the inferior order, and 
 yielding, from fear and complaisance, they mingle and 
 confound the superstitions of the Russian church with 
 the old incantations of witchcraft. 
 
 The men, when not pressed by the necessities of 
 their avocations, squat round their fires in dreamy idle- 
 ness ; in this resembling the Finns, of whose people 
 they are a stinted tribe, for the Finn, particularly to- 
 wards the borders of Lapland, will spend whole weeks 
 with a rye cake and a jug of water beside him, wrapped 
 up in sheepskins, and crouching on his stove in a state 
 of semi-torpidity, like that of the bear on the falling of 
 the early snows. 
 
 The wandering and pastoral Lape cannot indulge 
 to the same extent, but he loves to doze in the smoke 
 of his tent, unless roused for a holiday ; for there are 
 holidays even in the long polar night of the northern- 
 most Lapland winter. By the light of the crackling
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 351 
 
 aurora borealis, they quaff deep draughts of the Arch- 
 angel brandy, or sit down round their fires to play at 
 cards made of the birch bark, and spotted by the blood 
 of the rein-deer. 
 
 The herds of rein-deer, in themselves a precarious 
 tenure, yield, however, to the inhabitants of the ex- 
 treme north the only security against the periodical 
 decimation of hunger ; for however abundant the pro- 
 duce of the chase or the fishery, there are periods 
 during which it fails, and these are fatal. Applied as 
 this animal is to every domestic purpose, it is used as 
 a means of conveyance, but nothing can be more ex- 
 aggerated than the accounts given of its peculiar apt- 
 ness as a beast of draught or burthen. It is true that 
 when first harnessed, annoyed and alarmed, it may, in 
 frosty weather, get over forty or even sixty miles; but it 
 is quite exhausted, perhaps injured by such a journey. 
 A numerous team of these animals must be attached 
 to the lightest sledge to draw it, and be often changed, 
 and, unless tho weather is very cold, it is exceedingly 
 painful to see the poor beasts panting and struggling 
 slowly over the snow. Harnessed, or rather yoked, 
 by the head, they are driven without a rein, but guided 
 by the voice and by a long wand. 
 
 The rein-deer lives on the gelatinous mosses which 
 cover myriads of square miles in the northern regions. 
 These never fail it, unless when the snow, thawed by 
 the sun of early spring, covers it with too thick a 
 coating of ice. This food has the effect of insippating 
 the milk of the doe, so far as to render it almost glu- 
 tinous. 
 - The rein-deer is, excepting the hideous elk, the
 
 352 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 least graceful of the deer tribe, and in size not sur- 
 passing our fallow deer ; its ragged, mangy-looking 
 coat, straggling horns, and the great splay hoof, which 
 prevents it from sinking through the snow, render it 
 the very antipodes of the light and elegantly-formed 
 roe. The fatted venison is good — the blood-puddings 
 and the smoked tongues well known delicacies. Every 
 winter, from Archangel, a herd or two of these ani- 
 mals is driven down to St. Petersburg, and the drovers, 
 encamping on the frozen Neva, opposite the winter 
 palace, offer these rein-deer sledges as a novelty, for 
 hire to the inhabitants. 
 
 Although unfit for any active exertion, in a milder 
 climate, or in the milder season, they thrive and fatten 
 wherever there are mosses, and would probably suc- 
 ceed better on some of the wet moors of England 
 and Scotland, than in the northern regions they in- 
 habit, because tortured to death during the Lapland 
 summer by the myriads of flies. 
 
 A few miles from the White Sea, at the mouth of 
 the river Dwina, even in these frozen solitudes, rises 
 a large commercial Russian city, that called of the 
 Archangel. With the exception of one or two public 
 edifices, it is entirely built of wood. This is well 
 known to have been the only sea-port Russia formerly 
 possessed, and even this is now many hundred miles 
 north of any district inhabited by a Russian popu- 
 lation. 
 
 The lower orders here derive their subsistence en- 
 tirely from the produce of the net, only a few vege- 
 tables being reared in the vicinity, every sort of 
 grain brought from a distance. Archangel, which
 
 -v^ REGION OF RUSSIA. 353 
 
 numbers from fifteen to eighteen thousand inhabitants, 
 is a station of the Russian navy. At the mouth of 
 the river Dwina, about fifty miles from it, is the island 
 of Kholmogory, an ancient settlement of the Norman 
 sea-kings, and the old capital of this cheerless region. 
 It was probably chosen by these enterprising adven- 
 turers for the very reason which causes Archangel to 
 remain a flourishing sea-port, though situated on an 
 inhospitable shore, and blocked up for so large a por- 
 tion of the year by the ice — viz., on account of its 
 extensive water communication with the interior. 
 Since this period, the works of man have so far aided 
 nature, that the produce of the greatest portion of 
 the empire may be conveyed by rivers and canals 
 to the White Sea, and the adjoining Frozen Ocean. 
 Goods from the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, 
 in the unknown heart of Central Asia, are thus con- 
 veyed, and embarked on foreign vessels visiting the 
 Arctic Seas, which wash the coast inhabited by wan- 
 dering Lapes and Samoyeds. 
 
 In the gloomy solitude of Kholmogory were con- 
 fined for many years the princes and princesses of the 
 family of Brunswick, the brothers and sisters of the 
 unfortunate Ivan, or John, the Sixth, so long impri- 
 soned, and finally murdered, in the dungeons of the 
 fortress of Schlusselbourg, or the key borough, so called 
 because it commands the entrance into the Ladoga 
 Lake from the Neva, and the canal which has been 
 dug to turn the falls, where the lake, seeking an issue, 
 precipitates itself through a narrow channel, and is 
 designated, as it flows onwards, the river Neva. The 
 princes and princesses, the legitimate heirs to the 
 
 TOL. I. A A
 
 354 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 throne of Muscovy, were kept till the ages of thirty 
 and six and thirty, till they had become half idiotic 
 and stupified by their long confinement. They 
 amused themselves, as grown up men and women, in 
 sliding on a little pond, and in feeding ducks and 
 fowls, when the Empress Catherine, satisfied with the 
 imbecile condition to which they were reduced, sent 
 them into Norway. 
 
 There are, besides Archangel, two flourishing towns 
 in this inhospitable division of the empire, Wologda, 
 a manufacturing city, and the great entrepot of the 
 commerce of Europe to Asia. In the government of 
 Olonetz, there is Peterzavodski, or the works of Peter, 
 containing a cannon foundry and iron works, and 
 famous for the excellent iron ore collected in the fer- 
 ruginous bogs and marshes. 
 
 The adjacent government of Perm, which is rather 
 larger than England, Ireland, and Scotland, is much 
 more densely peopled than that of Archangel, con- 
 taining, according to the last census, 1,488,000 inha- 
 bitants, of which about 120,000 are of Finnish origin, 
 and consist of Voguls, Suranese, and Permaks. They 
 have mostly been reduced to the condition of serfs, 
 and are now the property of different Russian nobles, 
 who employ them principally in working the mines, 
 and collecting the ore from the adjacent Ural moun- 
 tains. The Permaks are described as a fierce and 
 sullen race, impatient of their hopeless servitude. 
 The stewards and agents of their masters dare never 
 pass the night in the villages of the estate, unless 
 numerously attended, as many of them have disap- 
 peared, without anything regarding their fate having
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 355 
 
 ever been elicited from the silent hatred of the popu- 
 lation, by reward or punishment. 
 
 The fruitful part of Russia, in which the cultivated 
 land intervenes amidst the uncleared forests and un- 
 drained marshes, covers all the rest of the northern 
 and central governments. 
 
 Almost everywhere we see the poorest soil selected 
 for cultivation, whilst that which is of the richest de- 
 scription remains neglected in its vicinity; for the 
 poorer soil is generally the higher ground, which re- 
 quires no trouble in draining. The ragged fences of 
 split pine-wood, laid slanting one upon the other, 
 and supported between two cross spars, lashed with a 
 piece of birch bark, attest also the negligence of the 
 cultivator, where, indeed, it is not rendered still more 
 obvious by the utter want of them. 
 
 So great has become the apathy of the serf in many 
 places, that he may be seen scratching up the soil 
 with a plough like the prongs of a large pitchfork, the 
 clod which he turns over, covering a ridge of its own 
 breadth; and thus, whilst half the surface of the ground 
 is untouched, making the whole look brown to the 
 eye — which seems to satisfy him. When he has done 
 his day's work, he climbs on to the back of his horse, 
 hoists up the plough on to his shoulders, and jogs 
 homewards. In others he sets fire to patches of 
 forest, ploughing between the stumps, utterly exhaust- 
 ing the land by as many crops as it will bear, and 
 then abandoning it. Myriads of acres of the neglected 
 land are richer than the soil of Lincolnshire, and yet 
 the serfs upon it often perish from starvation. This 
 fertile middle region comprises Great Russia, the home 
 A A 2
 
 356 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 of nearly the whole purely Muscovite, or Great-Russian 
 race, and all appertains, as well as the middle and 
 northern zone of Siberia, to t^e region of morass, 
 forest, and arable land. This fruitful Great-Russian 
 stock has indeed spread into the Baltic and the 
 southern provinces, and into those of the old Tartar 
 kingdom of Kazan, but in the following governments 
 it is either the sole or the predominant race. 
 
 Ingria, of which the capital is St. Petersburg. 
 
 Great No^ 
 
 'gorod. 
 
 Tambow. 
 
 Smolensk. 
 
 
 
 Riazan. 
 
 laroslawl. 
 
 
 
 Toula. 
 
 Kostroma. 
 
 
 
 Kalouga. 
 
 Wladimir. 
 
 
 
 Orel. 
 
 Nejni-Novgo 
 
 •od 
 
 Kursk. 
 
 Tver. 
 
 
 
 Woronesch. 
 
 Belonging to the same region of wood and morass, 
 and partially inhabited by the Muscovites, although 
 greatly chequered by tribes of Tartar, Mongolian, and 
 Finnish origin, are the governments of the old Tartar, 
 or rather Turcoman, kingdom of Kasan, conquered in 
 the sixteenth century, by the Russians under Ivan the 
 Terrible. It comprises the governments of — 
 
 Kasan. Pensa. 
 
 Perm. Simbirsk. 
 
 Wiatka. 
 The principality of Finland, inhabited by the pure 
 Finnish race, and the Baltic provinces of Esthonia, 
 Livonia, and Courland, appertain to the same great 
 natural division. Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland, 
 are principally peopled by the wreck of three races 
 more aboriginal than, and totally distinct from, the
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 357 
 
 Scandinavian, Germanic, or Sclavonic. These are 
 the ^stii or Esti of Tacitus, who have given their 
 name to Esthonia, and the Letti, or Lithuanians, to 
 Livonia. These people have been more or less mixed 
 with the Finns. The Koures, a tribe of the Letti, 
 gave rise to the name of Courland. In Livonia and 
 Esthonia, the peasantry are all derived from an ad- 
 mixture of these little known families. Conquered 
 by the German Teutonic knighthood, these latter re- 
 duced them to servitude, and being afterwards them- 
 selves subdued by the Swedes, the Swedish and Ger- 
 man families, without ever mixing with the native 
 blood, constitute the aristocracy, clergy, and ma- 
 gistracy, holding exclusive possession of the soil. 
 German and Muscovite settlers have helped to people 
 the towns. 
 
 Little Russia still appertains either wholly to the 
 division of wood and corn land, or forms the frontier 
 of the immense southern prairie. It contains the go- 
 vernments of 
 
 Kief. Pultava. 
 
 Tchernigoff. Charcow. 
 
 Volyhnia. Podolia. 
 
 The two latter governments form already a portion 
 of the steppe. These provinces, which include the 
 Russian and Polish Ukraines, are inhabited by the 
 Little Russians, (Malo-Rossi,) a people differing, mo- 
 rally and physically, as much from the Muscovites, or 
 the Great-Russians, (Veliki-Rossi,) as the men of Kent 
 from the inhabitants of southern Ireland. The Little- 
 Russians, indeed, as well as the Poles and Muscovites, 
 owe the chief part of their origin to the Sclavonic
 
 358 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 race, but the Little-Russians have preserved the breed 
 in comparative purity ; the Muscovites have so mixed 
 it during centuries with the blood of the probably ab- 
 original Finns, over whose territory' they spread, as 
 well as with that of the Huns, Mongols, and Tartars, 
 by whom they were so often conquered, that the chief 
 resemblance they continue to exhibit to the Little- 
 Russians, or to the Poles, now consists in their lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The Little-Russian is tall and well made ; the 
 Great-Russian looks almost always misshapen, when 
 wide or flowing garments do not conceal his form. 
 The Little-Russian is darker-haired, often dark-eyed ; 
 he carries his head high ; his. glance is independent, his 
 step elastic. The Little-Russians gave rise to the 
 different Cossac nations; their costume, their wide 
 trowsers, as well as their general aspect and bearing, 
 remind us strongly of these warrior tribes. But the 
 Great-Russian, with his oriental caftan, crouching to 
 the ground to kiss your feet, thanking his superior for 
 his blows and contumely, sallow-complexioned, and 
 often Tartar-eyed and Mongul-featured, does not dif- 
 fer physically more from the Little-Russian than in 
 his character. The Little-Russian, though quicker 
 and more intelligent than the Muscovite, is generous 
 and confiding ; but his impatient genius, his careless 
 temper, and his idleness, leave him a prey to the 
 Great-Russian merchants, agents, and speculators, 
 whose persevering and untiring avidity causes them 
 to play the part of the Hebrews in Poland. In Little 
 Russia the Jews were obliged to hide their dimi- 
 nished heads before these rivals, and between them
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 359 
 
 they carry on all the trade of their country. The 
 complexion of the Little-Russians is often ruddy, their 
 features handsome ; beauty is not uncommon amongst 
 their women. In the whole of what is called the 
 Russian Ukraine, or that portion of the Cossac coun- 
 try which early emancipated itself from the tyranny 
 of the Polish republic, and for this purpose sought the 
 protection of the Muscovite tsars, — the peasantry are 
 freedmen, and most of them are small proprietors. 
 
 In the Polish Ukraine servage still exists ; but even 
 the Little-Russian ser/" differs so widely from the Great- 
 Russian, as clearly to prove that slavery alone has not 
 made the difference between them, but that this result 
 has been produced by their admixture with, as well 
 as their oppression by, the hideous races of Huns, 
 Mongols, and Finns. 
 
 In this northern region are also comprised the 
 Lithuanian governments of — 
 
 Witepsk. Grodno. 
 
 Mohilew. Bialystock. 
 
 Minsk. 
 
 These include what has been called White Russia, 
 Black Russia, Red Russia, and Samogitia. The soil 
 is generally poor and sandy. The nobility of all these 
 governments is chiefly Polish ; the peasantry of that 
 part called White Russia, belongs to a peculiar race, 
 known by the name of Bielo-Rossi, or White-Russian ; 
 that of the other parts of Lithuania, is a mixture of 
 the Letti, a very ancient nation, whose descendants 
 now chiefly people Livonia, and of the Gothic tribe 
 of the Venedae, or Wendes. The Bielo-Rossi, or 
 White-Russians, called also Bousniaks, are a portion,
 
 360 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 and the most miserable portion, of the Sclavonic 
 people ; their language is a mixture of Great-Russian 
 and Polish dialects. Pale, inexpressive eyes, fair hair, 
 an inordinate length of neck, on v^'hich the head shakes 
 with a sort of palsied motion, contrast strangely with 
 the bull neck and fiery eye of the Little-Russian. 
 They are, besides, physically distinguished by a sin- 
 gular precocity, their women bearing children at the 
 early age of eleven or twelve. They are an idle, simple, 
 harmless people, and partially in a state of servage. 
 
 The Samogitians, descended from the tall Gothic 
 Wendes and thick-set Letti, (according to the learned, 
 engrafted on the old Sarmatian stock,) were originally 
 the conquerors of the surrounding people, and the 
 founders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A 
 Lithuanian historian pretends that an Italian colony 
 landed and organized this people, about the tenth 
 century, and the chronicles from which he draws his 
 authority, if authentic, even furnish illustrious Italian 
 names, amongst others that of an exiled (yolonna. It 
 is, however, certain, that after subduing the surround- 
 ing people, a Lithuanian grand-duke conquered Kiew, 
 and all the Russian principality, and eventually, his 
 posterity intermarrying with the royal race of Poland, 
 founded the famous dynasty of the Jagellons. The 
 Teutonic knights were driven out by the Samogitians, 
 and all the above-named governments of Lithuania, 
 the conquests of their grand-dukes, were added fede- 
 rally to the Polish republic, and in 1569, the united 
 Polish and Lithuanian diet effected the virtual union 
 of these states. 
 
 The plebeian population of the whole of Lithuania, 
 is thus either White Russian, the original, or Samo-
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 361 
 
 gitian, the conquering race, or else the mixture formed 
 betwixt these two. The Samogitians, although free 
 from servage, are perhaps the most miserable, and 
 their poverty, which reduces them to live in hovels, 
 and to feed on roots and turnips, drives them almost 
 back to savage life. 
 
 The Lithuanians generally are cursed with the 
 Polish plague, the terrible plica, which is said in some 
 districts to attack every seventh or eighth individual 
 amongst the peasantry. This plica, which has been 
 frequently described, appears to be both a constitu- 
 tional and a contagious malady, periodically, or chro- 
 nically, or accidentally attacking the patient. In its 
 most dangerous form, it causes blindness by falling on 
 the eyes, or madness by falling on the brain, or death 
 by corroding the marrow of the bones. Its most dis- 
 gusting appearance is when the poisonous matter, se- 
 parating from the blood, flows off through the nails, 
 and principally through the hair, every hair swelling 
 and sometimes splitting its tube, to discharge it. 
 Nothing can be more hideous than to see these 
 swollen hairs all matted together, and swarming with 
 the vermin which this fearful malady engenders, re- 
 minding one, in this stage, of the terrible disease which 
 so well revenged humanity upon the person of Sylla. 
 Its external appearance is the signal of final or tempo- 
 rary cure, but this horrible convalescence lasts many 
 months. The vulgar prejudice, or perhaps experience, 
 leads the sufferers to believe it fatal to cut off a 
 single lock of hair, v^hich depriving the venom of a 
 conduit of escape, would send it back to ravage the 
 system. 
 
 The remaining governments of European Russia
 
 362 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 belong to the region of the steppe, which, besides in- 
 vading PodoHa and part of the Ukraine, comprises the 
 official divisions, of — 
 
 Bessarabia, Tidaura, 
 
 Country of the Don Cossacs, Cherson, 
 Ekaterinoslavl, 
 and in Asia of the kingdom of Astrakan, comprising 
 the governments of — 
 
 Astrachan, Orenburg, and Saratow, 
 besides all the southern districts of Siberia. To this 
 southern prairie and desert land a special chapter will 
 be devoted. 
 
 If we take the population of Russia Proper (exclu- 
 sive of Poland, Finland, the Caucasian provinces, and 
 Siberia) at 51,000,000, according to the estimate 
 made by Koppen in 1838, we shall find the northern- 
 most region with a population of 1,800,000 inhabitants, 
 and an area of about 468,000 square miles, or less 
 than four inhabitants to each square mile ; the 
 central region of wood, marsh, and arable land, con- 
 taining about a million and a quarter of square miles, 
 with a population of 40,000,000, or more than thirty- 
 two inhabitants to each square mile. And lastly, we 
 have Southern Russia, about 400,000 square miles, 
 with a population of upwards of 11,000,000, or less 
 than twenty-eight inhabitants to the square mile. 
 
 There are, however, one or two of these govern- 
 ments which average above a hundred to the square 
 mile; those of Pultava, laroslavl. Kief, Riazan, and 
 Orel, average seventy-two. The soil in these more 
 densely peopled governments, so far, however, from 
 offering greater elements of fertility than those over
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 363 
 
 which the population is thinly scattered, is, on the 
 contrary, generally poorer, and such as the British 
 husbandman would unhesitatingly reject, if choosing 
 between the two. Adventitious circumstances, or the 
 fact of their having been reclaimable with less trouble 
 because easier to drain or less densely timbered, have 
 been the original cause of their superior cultivation. 
 
 In the opinion of men conversant with agriculture 
 and acquainted with the two countries, the whole of 
 this middle region of Russia might be rendered as 
 productive as the soil of Belgium, which many years 
 since already averaged 300 inhabitants to the square 
 mile. If this middle region alone were therefore 
 fully cultivated, it might amply supply the wants of 
 325,000,000 of people ! The 400,000 miles of Southern 
 Russia — for the greatest part reclaimable, as we have 
 endeavoured to shew elsewhere — giving to it only the 
 same population as that of France* before the French 
 Revolution, might feed upwards of 70,000,000. 
 
 The Asiatic dominions of Russia cover between 
 five and six millions of square miles, with a population 
 of about four millions and a half.f Of this, about 
 two-fifths, or an extent greater than the whole area of 
 European Russia, it is said, could be rendered amaz- 
 ingly productive by cultivation ; that is to say, the soil 
 contains the elements of fertility, where it is not checked 
 by a cUmate too severe, or, as in Eiu-opean Russia, by 
 
 * France, before the Revolution, counted 178 inhabitants to 
 each square mile. 
 
 t Koppen reckons 6,140,000, in which he includes 1,500,000 
 Circassians ; which is about as absurd as if he were to reckon the 
 population of Sweden as Russian subjects.
 
 364 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 want of wood and excessive drought in southern 
 parts, by superabundance of wood and humidity in 
 the north — both evils which it has been satisfactorily 
 proved that the industry of man can remedy, and of 
 which casual examples are afforded in localities the 
 most unfavourably affected by them. In many parts 
 of Siberia, cultivation has made rapid progress, and 
 dense harvests of waving wheat overspread a country 
 that the associations of our early recollections have 
 taught us to regard as a land of perpetual and unpity- 
 ing winter. 
 
 A rough estimate will thus shew us that the culti- 
 vable lands of the Russian empire might easily suffice 
 to feed the whole human race, yet no government so 
 much disregards the means of prosperity which thus 
 lie at its disposal, or has ever sought with more pal- 
 pable avidity to increase, at the expense, of such neg- 
 lect its overgrown dominion. 
 
 All statistical accounts in Russia, like every other 
 species of official reports, are little to be trusted, and 
 returns of population less than any ; each document has 
 to flow through so many channels, that it is more than 
 probable that in one or the other some interest at vari- 
 ance with the truth will cause it to be at once mutilated, 
 in the unscrupulous hands through which it passes. 
 
 Frauds of landowners, in connivance with tax- 
 gatherers, to avoid the capitation tax, and the habit 
 of only reckoning the male population of villages, 
 which has prevailed from time immemorial, are all a 
 fruitful source of error. It is even now customary, 
 where exact returns of the number of inhabitants of a 
 village are required, to sec an account of so many
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 365 
 
 souls and so many women, as if it was a matter of ex- 
 treme doubt whether the female sex were animated 
 by the same immortal principle as their lords. This 
 Moslemin spirit of treating the fair sex speaks volumes 
 for the estimation in which they were formerly held 
 by the Muscovites, as indeed by all people whose 
 usages were not invaded and modified by those two 
 bright streams of chivalry — the Norman, flowing north, 
 and the Saracenic, or Arabian, southwards, which, 
 modifying the uncourteousness of Mahommedanism, 
 taught everywhere gentleness to the feeble. 
 
 It would appear, however, from such accounts as 
 are published, that the population of the Russian 
 empire exceeds 63,000,000, of which more than 
 58,000,000 are in Europe, less than 5,000,000 in 
 Asia, and 61,000, in her American possessions. This 
 population consists of nations and tribes derived from 
 the Sclavonic, the Lithuanian, the Finnish, the Tartar, 
 the Mongul, the German, the Jewish, the Manchou, 
 the Armenian, and the Hindoo stock.* 
 
 The Sclavonic nations number 52,000,000 
 
 viz. — Muscovites 38 millions 
 
 Little-Russians and Cossacs . 7 millions 
 White-Russians, Samogitians, 
 
 and Poles, 6 millions 
 
 Bulgarians, Servians, &c. . . 1 million 
 
 The Lithuanian race, or Letti 2,000,000 
 
 In the vicinity of the Duna Niemen, and in 
 the provinces of Courland and Livonia. 
 
 The Finnish races, above 3,300,000 
 
 viz. — Finns in Finland, in the govern- 
 ments of the vicinity of the Baltic, and 
 in a Siberian colony . . . . H millions 
 
 * The Ziguenes, or Gipsies.
 
 366 
 
 NORTHERN AND IVUDDLE 
 
 i million 
 
 Esthonians, a mixed race of Finns 
 
 and Letti ^ million 
 
 Laplanders "i 
 
 Voguls 
 
 Votiaks 
 
 Permaks 
 
 Suranese 
 
 Besermani 
 
 leranese 
 
 Mordvinians 
 
 Ostiaks 110,000 
 
 Tchuvashi 400,000 
 
 Tcheremisses 220,000 
 
 Teptarins 69,000 
 
 The Samoieds 70,000 
 
 Li 13 tribes, or nations. 
 
 The Tartar races, in 26 tribes, or nations, above . . 
 
 viz. — Kirguise and Nogais, about 1 million 
 
 Kazan Tartars .... 150,000 
 
 Baskirs 130,000 
 
 Ivrim Tartars 250,000 
 
 lakoutes 72.000 
 
 Meschtcheraks 
 Koumouks . 
 Berabinzi 
 Teleuts . . , 
 Of fKundrouni . 
 Astrachan \ Taschketzi . 
 Obi Tartars 
 Turalinzi . , 
 [■ Truchmenzi 
 < Kiviote . . . 
 
 On the 
 Caspian 
 
 L Karakalpac )> o 
 
 Kabailes of the lennessi . . 
 Tchulumi of the government of 
 
 Tobolsk 
 
 Kaschini 
 
 Kistima 
 
 Tuliberti 
 
 Obinzi ^ 
 
 Verchotomza 
 
 Beltirei 
 
 Beriussi 
 
 2,000,000
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 367 
 
 The Mongul races, about 400,000 
 
 viz.— The Monguls 20,000 
 
 The Kalmucks 140,000 
 
 The Burati 190,000 
 
 The Troubelschani 
 
 The Jewish races, above 1,500,000 
 
 viz. — In 1 7 Russian governments, above 1 million 
 Polish Jews .... nearly i million 
 Caraite Jews* .... some thousands 
 
 Germans, about 600,000 
 
 Germans established since the 12th century, in 
 
 the Baltic provinces 160,000 
 
 Colonies in the government of Saratow 1 12,000 
 Colonies and individuals scattered about 
 
 the empire 350,000 
 
 The Manchew races 40,000 
 
 viz. — Tungusians 
 Lamutes 
 Olenzes 
 
 The Armenians, above 400,000 
 
 In Georgia, Astrachan, Ekaterinoslavl, and scat- 
 tered over the empire. 
 
 To these must be added the Georgians, about half- 
 a-million in number; a few thousand of the Circassian 
 tribes, the Esquimaux, in North America ; the Greeks, 
 in the south of Russia, to the number of 70,000 ; the 
 Gipsies and the Persians, who may amount, collect- 
 ively with the former, to 650,000. 
 
 The numerical preponderance of the Sclavonic over 
 the other dispersed i-aces is thus about five to one. 
 The preponderance of the Muscovite over the other 
 Sclavonic branches of its race is as thirty-eight to 
 fourteen; of this fourteen, more than half are as 
 really incorporated with the Russian nation, by simi- 
 
 * Inhabiting the Crimea. They reject all traditions of the 
 Talmud, and found their religious belief solely on the Old Testa- 
 ment.
 
 368 NORTHERN^ AND MIDDLE 
 
 larity of manners, of language, and religion, as ihey 
 have been in the political distribution of the empire. 
 
 If the whole of this population continues to increase 
 as it has done since 1832, it is calculated that it must 
 treble every century — the annual number of births 
 exceeding the deaths by nearly one and a half per 
 cent, on the whole population.. 
 
 The once extensive kingdom of Poland is not only 
 fallen hnd trampled on, but has even been curtailed 
 in every direction to an area of less than 50,000 square 
 miles; it has been, since 1837, divided into the eight 
 governmenjts of ^\ 
 
 Augustowo. LiiKlin. Podolachia. \. 
 
 Kaiiscji. M'Ssovia. " Sandomir. \ 
 
 Kielce. Plock. 
 
 Siberia is divided into Eastern and Western ; the 
 former consists of the governments of 
 
 lakvutsk. lenessei. Karatschatka. 
 
 Irkutsk. >. . ,; Odioisk. . , > /v ' '\ 
 Western Siberia of the governments of Tomsk and 
 Tobolsk. ■■ . . - . 
 
 The principality of Finland is 'divided into the fol- 
 lowing lans, or governii\,ents : — 
 
 Abo and Biorneborgs Ian. Uleaborg's Ian. 
 
 Kuopio Ian. Wasa Ian. 
 
 St. Midlers Ian. Wiborg's Ian. 
 
 Nyland's Ian. 
 The Caucasian provinces consist of the Caucasian, 
 the Tchornomorskie Cossac, the Grusian, Immeritian, 
 and Caspian governments. Tiflis, which has a popu- 
 lation of about 30,000 inhabitants, is the capital of 
 Grusia, which comprises Georgia and the still uncon-
 
 MOSCOW. 371 
 
 dwell among its widely and irregularly scattered 
 streets. It is situated on the muddy Moscowa, which 
 winds through it with some tributar}/ streams, and is 
 crossed by more than a hundred and twenty bridges. 
 The ground on which it stands is broken and undu- 
 lating, and it is in the irregularity of its disposition 
 the exact antithesis of the regular St. Petersburg ; 
 Moscow looks, as it is, the voluntary work of an ori- 
 ental and barbaric people — St. Petersburg, like a city 
 of ukases. 
 
 What associations does not the traveller connect 
 with Moscow — the holy city of the tsars — the New 
 Jerusalem of their people — the scene of all those 
 terrible domestic events and foreisrn ravages which 
 illustrate its barbaric history ? Moscow — the tomb of 
 the surviving host led from all parts of Europe by the 
 greatest of earth's conquerors ; Moscow — where he 
 buried the unparalleled fortunes which had made him 
 the hope or terror of the world ! 
 
 This alone must ever make it a classic city ; but, 
 alas, that memorable sacrifice which we have been 
 accustomed to admire from our cradle — the voluntary 
 conflagration of its huts and palaces, from the ashes 
 of which these gaily-painted minarets and gilded 
 domes have arisen, phoenix-like, so fresh and glowing 
 — existed only in the enthusiasm of Western imagina- 
 tion ! Day by day the traveller finds upon inquiry, 
 that chance, or destiny, or Providence, kindled those 
 flames which we had learned to attribute to a sub- 
 lime effort of patriotism. 
 
 In the midst of the city the Kremlin arises, with a
 
 372 MOSCOW. 
 
 forest of fantastic minarets or spires. The Kremlin is 
 not a palace, but an imperial citadel, overlooking 
 Moscow, built upon a rock, and surrounded by cre- 
 nelated walls. Nothing can be more wonderful, more 
 irregular, grotesque, or architecturally terrible, than 
 the piles on piles which seem the midnight work of 
 gnomes — the scenery of the fairy tales of our nursery 
 days ! 
 
 The Kreml, or fortress, forms the heart, and is one 
 of the divisions of Moscow ; half round it stretches the 
 Kitai-gorod, or the Chinese city, the old caravanserai 
 of the Chinese merchants. It is half fair and half 
 bazaar. The Kreml and the Chinese city are both 
 surrounded by the White City, another division of the 
 town, whilst the Semlanoi-Gorod, the fourth quarter, 
 again embraces and extends around the three pre- 
 ceding. 
 
 Moscow is not only the venerated city of the lower 
 order of the Russians, but the favourite residence of 
 their lords, the great centre of all the inland and Asiatic 
 trade, and if not a great manufacturing city, at least 
 the centre of all the great manufactories which fill 
 the government of the same name in which it is si- 
 tuated. 
 
 When Moscow was partially destroyed by fire, during 
 the great invasion of 1812, from two-thirds to four- 
 fifths of the houses of the city are said to have been 
 destroyed. But the mysteiy in which everything which 
 can become official is hidden in the Russian empire, 
 leaves even such a matter of history and political in- 
 terest in doubt. Nearly the whole of the Bialoigo- 
 rod, or the White, and the greatest part of the Chinese
 
 MOSCOW. 373 
 
 city were destroyed, but the solid old massive walls of 
 the Kremlin, with their ponderous towers and base- 
 ment of rock, and the strange old city within them, 
 remained comparatively undamaged. In vain the 
 malice of the mighty Corsican, who had perhaps sacri- 
 ficed his better judgment to the vanity of dating a 
 bulletin from this old barbaric capital of the tsars, 
 caused mines to be laid beneath its gio-antic enclosure. 
 The mines broke through the massive masonry here 
 and there, and inflicted wounds on the antique forta- 
 lice, which they could neither shake nor ruin. 
 
 Thus it happens that for two reasons there is no- 
 thing one should visit before the Kremlin — nothing 
 worth seeing after one has visited it ; firstly, because 
 the Kremlin concentrates within itself all that is archi- 
 tecturally most remarkable ; and, secondly, all that is 
 most ancient. 
 
 The University of Moscow, (the establi^lfeient, not 
 the building,) the most ancient in Russia — nearly ninety 
 years of age — in the White City, is a mere Italian 
 building. The stupendous Foundling Hospital, with 
 its two thousand windows, containing 15,000 inmates, 
 is one of the true St. Petersburg edifices, a monstrosity 
 in extent, of lath and plaster. Many such buildings, 
 on a smaller scale, mar the picturesque architecture of 
 the old city. A vast triumphal arch, stuccoed and 
 painted bronze, ushers the traveller, from the courtly 
 into the national capital of Muscovy, a city which 
 boasts a Kremlin. Of this sort, too, there are theatres, 
 the Mint, the Exchange, the Arsenal, the Palace of 
 the Tribunal, intermingling with three or four hun- 
 dred Byzantine churches. Moscow, a century ago.
 
 374 MOSCOW. 
 
 boasted 1500, and now contains 600 baths, the only 
 places in which Russians ever wash themselves. 
 
 The church of Pokrow should not be forgotten, 
 with a multitude of little churches near, a score in 
 number, embedded round it, like the barnacles upon 
 a sea-shell. 
 
 But of all that predominant portion of the city, 
 which is truly Byzantine and Mongolic, a mixture 
 which has given us the Muscovite, we find an epitome 
 in the'gloomy yet gaudy Kremlin, and to this we must 
 lead back our reader. 
 
 Within its high, rock-based and turreted ramparts, 
 there are, to begin with, three cathedrals ; the cathe- 
 dral of the Assumption, in which the tsars are 
 crowned ; the cathedral of the Archangel Michael, in 
 which they were long buried ; and the beautiful little 
 cathedr^l^ the Virgin, said to be on the model of St. 
 Sophia'sPlrConstantinople, of which the gilded roofing 
 looks as if it had been dipped in the sunset. This 
 cathedral was built by Ivan the Terrible, to comme- 
 morate the conquest of Kazan, the great Tartar city. 
 The architect gave his employer so much satisfaction 
 that to prevent him from ever destroying its unique- 
 ness by building another, Ivan put out his eyes. 
 
 There are besides ten or twelve other churches in 
 the Kremlin, to satisfy the piety of the tsars, for they 
 were all pious men until the days of Peter, and held 
 the stirrup for the patriarch to mount his mule. 
 
 It was here that Ivan the Fourth perpetrated his 
 sanguinary orgies ; here he murdered his first-born ; 
 here he violated his daughter-in-law, almost in his
 
 MOSCOW. 375 
 
 dying hour. Around these old Tartaric-looking ram- 
 parts were formerly great hooks, whence often hung 
 suspended by the ribs, like the joints of meat in our 
 butcher's shops, the enemies of the tsars. Here Peter 
 the Great, more humane than any who had reigned 
 before him, impaled the lover of his repudiated wife, 
 garnishing the scaffold with the heads of four great 
 dignitaries, and fifty inferior members of the church. 
 Here, too, Peter confined his first-born, whom he also 
 murdered. 
 
 If churches are to be considered as places of prayer, 
 and the main object of prayer be to ask pardon of 
 Heaven for sins, then the masters of the Kremlin were 
 right to have many churches. 
 
 There are in the Kremlin various palaces as well 
 as churches ; also the famous vaulted hall, of which 
 the arches radiate fi'om the common centre of a 
 ponderous pillar, the spot on which thqflkrs gave 
 their banquets — banquets in which the blooa flowed 
 sometimes as plentifully as the wine. In the Palace of 
 the Armory are many crowns ; the imaginary crown 
 of Siberia; the crowns of the conquered sovereigns 
 of Kazan and Astrachan, who never wore anything 
 but fur cap or turban,* and the treacherously usurped 
 diadems of Poland and of Georgia ; also the keys 
 
 * There is no notice appended beside these crowns, that as late 
 as three centuries back, these Russian tsars had received, since 
 the year 1300, the mounted Tartar ambassadors on foot, present- 
 ing them, according to custom imposed on them, with a bowl of 
 mare's milk, if one drop of which fell on the horse's mane, the 
 tsar was obliged to lick it up with his tongue.
 
 376 MoscoAV. 
 
 of Warsaw, and the scythe-armed cars of the Strelitzes, 
 which they drove furiously to clear the road amongst 
 the mobs of Moscow. 
 
 The author knows not whether the famous jewel, 
 which Catherine bought by a title and a grant of 
 slaves from the man who had stolen and concealed it 
 for many months in a sore of his leg, adorns one of 
 these supernumerary crowns, or embellishes the one 
 worn by the emperor. 
 
 Here, too, amongst old thrones and gilded trumpery, 
 and the old boots and shoes of Russian sovereigns, 
 Avhich courtier-like servility has preserved as relics, 
 is the proudest trophy of the great and cruel Peter — 
 the arm-chair on which the Swedish conqueror of so 
 many combats was carried wounded to fight the fatal 
 battle of Pultava. 
 
 There is somcthinp; sino-ularlv intercstins; in this 
 turbulent Swedish monarch, particularly 
 has stood on the scene of 1^ early victory 
 at Narva, where the body of Prince Crouy, the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the Muscovite army (who siu*- 
 rendered to him, and was not, as Custine says, killed 
 in the battle) is still preserved in the desiccated state, 
 his creditors never having allowed it to be buried ; 
 on the field of Pultava, near the capital town of that 
 part of Little Russia, where a simple monument re- 
 cords the names of the Swedes who perished there ; 
 and in the humble little church of the Ridderholm, at 
 Stockholm, in which his body is deposited, in the 
 beautiful little chapel buijt by Gustavus the Third, 
 near the great Gustav Adslph, the Banners, Horns and 
 Tortcnsons.' There is preserved, too, under a glass case.
 
 MOSCOW. 377 
 
 the coarse blue coat, with its plain brass buttons, the 
 buff waistcoat and baldrick, and the heavy square-toed 
 boots, in which he was shot, and there is suspended 
 near it a cast of his head, taken after he had received 
 his death wound, in the frozen Norwegian trench, as 
 if for the purpose of contradicting all the histories 
 which attribute his death to the chances of war. 
 
 The aperture, which the plaster reproduces, is plainly 
 the result of a pistol, or of a small bored musket-ball, 
 not the ball of a wall-piece, as so long asserted. Re- 
 cent Swedish historians hardly doubt that he was 
 murdered, and foul suspicions attach to the Prince of 
 Hesse, who afterwards succeeded him. 
 
 The history of Charles is a strange romance, and 
 Voltaire has beenunjustl}^ reproached for making one 
 of his life; but if we examine it closely, we find every 
 passage still more strange ; and unhke so many other 
 heroes w-ho are said to be none to their valets-de- 
 chambre, not only on the minutest scrutiny we find 
 him the hero still, but inspiring others to deeds sur- 
 passing the fables of Homeric days. His ungrateful 
 favourite, Arfvetl Horn, emulates the young monarch, 
 in attacking the wild bear with an oaken club. Ren- 
 schold, who commanded under him, when Charles 
 landed in the Baltic province, to march to Narva, 
 finding the royal yacht too crowded, mounted, his 
 charger, armed and equipped, and caused it to be 
 pushed, with himself upon its back, into the boiling 
 waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, as an example to the 
 men. 
 
 After his reverse of Pultava, through which he was 
 carried on this verv brancard chair, a whole brood of
 
 378 MOSCOW. 
 
 heroes, who had sprung up after him, defended the 
 Baltic provinces in a series of actions, such as under 
 more fortunate auspices have won men an imperishable 
 reno^vn, but which the misfortunes and extraordinary 
 deeds of their master seem to have effaced at once 
 from the memories of men. 
 
 To sum up a history of which the detail is so well 
 worthy of examination, Charles left in the Baltic pro- 
 vinces a mere handful of men when he started on 
 his adventurous career. When Peter reconquered this 
 territory at the head of immense armies, we find the 
 Swedish officers drawing out a ridiculously petty force 
 (tens to the thousands of the Muscovites) in proud 
 array of battle, and gallantly fighting, or wonderfully re- 
 treating to fight again, until all destroyed. Fort after 
 fort and town after town is defended, the commander 
 refusing, when all hope was past, to yield, and when 
 the place is carried by storm, not one of its defenders 
 accepting quarter. In the pockets of the dead go- 
 vernors are found the order of Charles never to sur- 
 render ! 
 
 Besides the indomitable will of Peter, besides his 
 undeniable talent, what good fortune was not also ne- 
 cessary to enable him to triumph on the day which 
 decided the fate of his empire ! 
 
 There is no one good account of the battle of Pultava. 
 Voltaire's short history of Charles XIL, so generally cor- 
 rect, although so much abused, gives a very confused 
 and incorrect statement of this battle. The history of 
 it, which Marshal Saxe relates in his famous " Reveries," 
 derived from an actor on that important field, together 
 with that from Lunbladt, explain it with tolerable
 
 MOSCOW. 379 
 
 clearness. From these authorities we may deduce that 
 Charles, unfit to command from the painful operation 
 he had undergone, left the direction of the fight to 
 two rivals, Renschold and Lowenhaupt — Renschold, 
 whose character mirrored the rashness of his master, 
 miraculously saved from the boiling surf of the Gulf 
 of Finland, to give fresh instances of fiery fearlessness 
 and want of military talent ; and the cautious Lowen- 
 haupt, to whom Charles trusted the bringing up of a 
 co-operating army — the mere military pedant, attacked 
 on his road by the tsar, whom he beat, but did not 
 venture to follow, and who attacked him again and 
 again, till he rejoined Charles, with the reputation of 
 having maintained his ground in many hard-fought 
 fields, but with only a remnant of that army with 
 which he might, on any one occasion, have annihilated 
 the enemy he was contented to drive back. 
 
 These men, who were as fire and water, disputed 
 both before and during the battle. When the King 
 of Sweden, half stupified as he was, appeared upon 
 his brancard, it became difficult for them to lose a 
 battle with a Swedish array. The redoubts were 
 carried, the cavalry of the tsar routed and pursued 
 far beyond them. At this moment alone of the battle, 
 a little more rashness, or a little more impetuosity, on 
 the part of the leader of the Swedish cavalry, would 
 have inevitably ruined Peter. He was probably lost 
 had they not pursued at all ; but if they had pursued 
 a Httle further, the whole of the flying cavalry of the 
 tsar must have perished. It had actually been driven 
 into a sac without outlet, formed by the river, the im- 
 passable forest, and the marsh.
 
 380 MOSCOW. 
 
 Charles, whom it has been the fashion to consider 
 as a mere Homeric hero, but who, if an unfortunate 
 soldier, was an eminently skilful, as well as a dar- 
 ing one, a man who never manoeuvred where hard 
 blows would suffice, but who out-manoeuvred, when 
 required, the Saxon general, the most cunning tac- 
 tician of his time — Charles cannot be said to have 
 fought this battle, although he was carried through 
 the melee sword in hand, on this identical arm-chair, 
 having just submitted to one of the most painful ope- 
 rations of surgery ; the heart was there, but the head 
 was gone. Thus it required that Charles XII. should 
 be wounded before Pultava, that he should have de- 
 legated his command into hands so unfortunate, and 
 besides this, a singular fortune during the fight itselfj 
 to give Peter this decisive victory, which perhaps he 
 deserved for daring it. 
 
 This arm-chair on which Charles. was carried, and 
 under which so many of the soldiers who bore it 
 along bit the dust, gave rise to a sneer from Voltaire, 
 on the courage of the most fearless of all human beings. 
 He said that he could mount his horse to flee the 
 fatal field, to which he was carried on a brancard. If 
 Warwick shewed no cowardice by slaying his horse to 
 fight on foot, then there was no less daring in going 
 to battle in this arm-chair, than on the back of a fleet 
 steed. 
 
 The only moment of his life during which Charles 
 was not true to his character of rash, exaggerated 
 valour, was when the wound began to suppurate. 
 Here, indeed, the cynic might satirise, by contrast- 
 ing with the game cock the most fearless warrior
 
 MOSCOW. 381 
 
 figuring in history. The cruel experiment has been 
 tried of cutting off all the limbs of a bull-dog, when it 
 has fastened on a bull, and the determined animal 
 has only let go his hold with death. But a bull-dog 
 torn in a preceding fight, will decline the combat 
 until roused, when its wounds are suppurating. There 
 is no created thing which under these circumstances 
 retains the same unchanged fierceness of spirit, ex- 
 cepting the game cock. Starved, blinded, and torn 
 to pieces, when its wounds are festering, those who 
 have tried the inhuman experiment have found this 
 noble bird as eager to attack at the voice of his ad- 
 versary, as fearless in the note of its defiance. 
 
 Within this palace of the Armory, or of the Trea- 
 sury, as it is also called, are preserved the armour and 
 arms, and horse equipments of all the Russian sove- 
 reigns. On the whole, if the Kremlin is the most in- 
 teresting spot in the Russian empire, the interior 
 of the Armory is the most interesting spot in the 
 Kremlin. 
 
 The outside is of mixed Greek architecture, with 
 Corinthian columns and classic perystiles, in the midst 
 of all the melon-shaped domes, the pointed minarets 
 and glittering spires of Muscovite churches and palaces ; 
 like an ancient Greek or Roman, with his tunic or 
 toga, in the midst of a picturesque tissemblage of 
 Tartars. 
 
 There is also beside the old palace of the tsars, the 
 modern palace of Alexander, the small and unpre- 
 tending habitation of the present emperor, and the 
 small pyramidal angular palace, encrusted with var- 
 nished tiles ; and, lastly, the vast new palace, in the
 
 382 MOSCOW. 
 
 centre of which the old church of our Saviour is swal- 
 lowed up, like a pebble embedded in a flood of lava. 
 
 All round the elevated and central fortress of the 
 Kremlin, whose ramparts and turrets creep over the 
 ground, rising and falling with its undulations, as we 
 see in the pictures of the wall of China, — all round 
 this gloomy circle is now laid out the fashionable pro- 
 menade, the city, with its winding streams, irregular 
 streets, vast gardens and terraces, lying stretched like 
 a map beneath the beholder. 
 
 The Kremlin was built as a defence against the 
 Tartars, by Demetrius Dorskoi ; it was originally of 
 wood. It was continued by the Russian tyrants, to 
 overawe their people, and to afford a refuge against 
 the turbulence of the Boyars. Ivan the Third is said 
 to have commenced building it in stone, and Italians 
 have at different times been employed in the construc- 
 tion of most of its edifices, but more as engineers than 
 as architects ; for they appear to have merely followed 
 out the Muscovite plan, and to have been solely re- 
 sorted to, because the incapacity of the Russian archi- 
 tects caused their buildings to crumble as soon as 
 finished. The gloomy cathedral of the Ascension is 
 thus said to have fallen three times. 
 
 The population of Moscow presents, besides a more 
 peculiarly Oriental aspect, an appearance of life> com- 
 pared to that of St. Petersburg, which has so forcibly 
 struck travellers, that they are apt to exclaim, " Here 
 we are in a free city." This difference is observable 
 from the prince to the serf in Moscow. 
 
 There is between the Moscow nobles and those of
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 369 
 
 quered Circassia ; Derbent, on the Caspian Sea, with 
 a population of 10,000 souls, is the capital of the Cas- 
 pian government. 
 
 It appears that in this vast empire only the three 
 cities of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Warsaw, are 
 inhabited by a population exceeding 100,000; that 
 only five others exceed 50,000; and that only twenty- 
 two exceed 25,000. The united population of St. 
 Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Tobolsk, and Tiflis, 
 scarcely amounts to one-half of that of the metropolis 
 of Great Britain. The population inhabiting the 
 towns constitutes almost a ninth of that of the whole 
 Russian empire. 
 
 No similar extent of continent in the world affords 
 the same convenience of water communication, be- 
 tween seas so far distant, as that of the Russian em- 
 pire in Europe. The White Sea and the Frozen 
 Ocean, as well as the Baltic, communicate with the 
 Asiatic Caspian, and a vessel may be floated from 
 the Black Sea to the Baltic. This is partly owing to 
 the immense I'ivers flowing northward and southward ; 
 but much is also due to the industry of man, and the 
 numerous canals which have been dug, either in the 
 reign of Peter, or planned by him, and carried into 
 execution by his successors. On the other hand, 
 roads are everywhere wanting, except upon the great 
 lines of communication which imperial carriages have 
 to travel over. It is true, that for nearly half the year 
 the snow supplies their place. 
 
 We have seen that large and populous cities are 
 still scarce in this vast empire. Having, in earlier 
 chapters, led the reader through the modern capital 
 
 VOL. I. B B
 
 370 MOSCOW. 
 
 of the Russian empire, let us now point out the charac- 
 teristics of the true old Muscovite city, Moscow, the 
 growth of barbaric ages, whose walls will probably be 
 still standing, its minarets still glittering in the sun, 
 long after all the classic buildings of St. Petersburg are 
 buried in the marsh; whether it be that nature 
 triumphs over the works of man, that foreign foes 
 should strike successfully at this accessible point, or 
 that the imperial policy at last discovers how it has 
 mistaken the vocation of its people in imagining that 
 it can ever be rendered maritime, and that therefore 
 the value of this outlet to Europe shall cease to dazzle. 
 
 Moscow, the city in which the tsars are yet crowned, 
 is still to all Russians the city of the heart. On ap- 
 proaching it from the St. Petersburg road, there rises 
 suddenly from the waste of dusky, sterile, and uncul- 
 tivated ground, an inconceivable collection of mina- 
 rets, domes, spires, and steeples, towers and palaces — 
 all seemingly raised and crowded one upon the other, 
 gilded, plated, star-besjiangled, and painted every 
 colour of the rainbow, to the number, it is said, of more 
 than a thousand. Nothing can be more gorgeous, 
 more unique, more startling. The mingled barbaric 
 taste of Mongolian, Tartar, and Muscovite, has decked 
 the strange Byzantine architecture, half beautiful, and 
 half grotesque, in all the Oriental splendour and va- 
 riety of colouring. 
 
 The city of Moscow, if we take other cities without 
 their suburbs, is one of the largest in Europe ; the 
 wall, or ramparts, which surrounded it were one-and- 
 twenty miles in circumference ; 300,000 inhabitants
 
 MOSCOW, 383 
 
 St. Petersburg this striking difference — that nearly all 
 who inhabit Moscow, do so from choice ; whereas those 
 of St. Petersburg dwell there from hope or fear, or 
 by order ; they are perpetually under the eye of the 
 schoolmaster, who paternally interferes in their most 
 private circumstances. When the tsar's eye falls on a 
 St. Petersburg noble, he inquires something about him, 
 and then everything depends upon the tale poured 
 into his ear in answer to this inquiry ; should it lead 
 to favour, favour leads also to the calumnies of envy, 
 and thus to a reaction. 
 
 But it is not in the nature of things that, with all his 
 desire of omniscience, the emperor should trouble him- 
 self so much about the people he seldom sees. The 
 nobility of Moscow are indeed under the ferule of the 
 master, but they are scholars in the play-ground ; in 
 St. Petersburg they are in the school-room. Here, 
 therefore, they may be seen revelling in comparative 
 security in their wealth. The gorgeous equipages, 
 the gay liveries, the horse-races, and the variety of 
 amusements, far exceed those of the northern capital. ' 
 The caftaned and bearded Russ, too, is here more at his 
 ease. In St. Petersburg, if when primed with brandy 
 on a prasnik (holiday) he laughs or sings too loud in the 
 streets, he is seized by the boutouchnik, who watches 
 like a spider at every corner ; he must either give up 
 several days' earnings, or be given into the hands of 
 a more powerful extortioner at the police-office, who 
 will torture, besides stripping him of eveiy thing. 
 
 In JNIoscow the vast influx of Asiatic and nomadic 
 people has rendered this severity impossible, and the
 
 384 MOSCOW. 
 
 moujik has profited by it ; besides, here he feels him- 
 self on his own ground ; amid the plaster palaces of 
 St. Petersbm'g he is not at home. 
 
 In Moscow may be met men of every tribe or na- 
 tion, not only of this vast empire, but of nearly the 
 whole of central Asia. Their varied costumes excite 
 neither remark nor surprise, so many centuries has 
 Moscow been in reality the frontier town of Europe 
 and Asia. Here the produce of North America, of 
 the West India Islands, of London, and of Paris, is 
 exchanged, sometimes for articles brought from Japan 
 by Chinese traders to their northern frontier, and 
 thence overland to Moscow by the Russian merchant. 
 
 In the vicinity of Moscow — that is to say, within 
 about forty miles, which is vicinity in the Russian 
 empire, where, in the hot weather, people go a thou- 
 sand miles' land journey to their country house, to 
 seek the shade of their birch groves — is the famous 
 monastery of the Trinity, or the Troitsko-Lmo7-a.* It 
 contains within its walls, now covered by arched gal- 
 leries, nine churches, and has often given refuge to the 
 stars and their treasures. It has been besieged, but 
 vainly, both by Tartars and Poles ; a baffled Polish host 
 sat down two years before it, and was obliged to leave 
 unscathed the treasure, and the prey secured within. 
 
 Besides Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the maritime 
 cities of the Baltic, there are few of any importance 
 by their magnitude in this northern region, the great 
 home of the ^luscovite people. Perhaps, if we look 
 to present condition, or future prosperity, Nijni-Xo- 
 
 * LawTa, the name given to monasteries, of which the metro • 
 politan of the eparchy in -vvhich they are situate is the titular 
 abbot.
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 385 
 
 vogorod alone is worthy of arresting our attention, 
 because in the event of any future violent dismem- 
 berment of the Russian empire, it would be not un- 
 likely to become the real capital of the Muscovites. 
 
 Nejni-Novo-Gorod, or the lower new city, so called, to 
 distinguish it from the Veliki-Novogorod, or the great 
 Novogorod, is situated so as to command the navigation 
 of the Wolga and the Oka. It stands midway be- 
 tween Europe and Asia, between the region of wood 
 and corn land, and of the pastoral Steppe. Here is 
 brought the produce of the mines of Perm and Siberia, 
 the corn and hemp of the w^est, the fish of the Wolga, 
 and the tallow of the south. Here arrive the caravans 
 from China and from Central Asia. It is the point 
 where the trades of Europe and of Asia meet ; and 
 since the fair of Makarieff has been transferred to 
 Nejni Novogorod, it has become the greatest periodic 
 market in the world — the famous fair of Leipsic sink- 
 ing into insignificance beside it. Although the city 
 itself, which is rapidly improving, does not number 
 thirty thousand inhabitants, above eighty thousand 
 boatmen annually come up on board the rafts which 
 convey the varied merchandize, and the fair is visited 
 by between three and four hundred thousand sellers 
 and purchasers. 
 
 As regards their past importance and historical 
 associations, Kiew in Little Russia, Kazan in the east, 
 and Veliki-Novogorod, (although the latter has now 
 shrunk into a decaying town, with ten or twelve 
 thousand inhabitants,) are well worthy of obsen^ation. 
 Kiew is the old capital of the grand dukes of Russia, 
 and one of the holy cities of the old Muscovites. It 
 
 VOL. I. c c
 
 386 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 has still a populatron of 44,000 inhabitants, contained 
 in four distinct towns, into which it is divided. 
 
 Another portion of the Muscovite people which 
 separated from it about the twelfth century, formed 
 the famous republic of Great Novogorod. Allusion 
 has already been made to the conquests, in the early 
 ages of Russian history, of that extraordinary race of 
 Norman adventurers, the younger sons of the land- 
 less, and the outcasts whom the poverty of their native 
 soil drove abroad, who, embarking in their sea-di'agons, 
 as sea-kings (1. e., pirates commanding several ships), 
 or vi-kings (pirates with a single vessel), scattered 
 themselves over Europe like a swarm of hornets driven 
 from the hive. Every sea which washes European 
 shores became the high road of these singular adven- 
 turers, equally distinguished as the most daring sea- 
 men on the ocean, irresistible as soldiers on the land, 
 unequalled as legislators and administrators. This 
 magnificent people founded institutions, and gave 
 laws, which have changed the face of modern Europe, 
 and over nearly the whole of it they have left as 
 relics, beside their chivalrous institutions and their 
 indomitable spirit of freedom, scarcely a kinglyior a 
 lordly race which does not owe its origin to them, or 
 w^as not forcibly intermingled wdth their northern 
 blood. Over thousands of miles of coast, and the 
 banks of rivers, in Iceland, in Britain, in Ireland, in 
 France, in Northern and Southern Russia, are still to 
 be seen the grass}- mounds or barrows in which, in 
 their early career, the sea-kings, or vi-kings, were 
 buried by their comrades ; sometimes with their horse 
 and arms ; and sometimes even the mouldernig ribs of
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 387 
 
 the small craft with which they traversed so many 
 miles of ocean, dragged on shore, have been found 
 within the tumulus, to contain the skeleton of the dead ■ 
 warrior placed at the helm, and around him those of 
 his choice companions, either slain in the same hapless 
 field, or committing suicide, as the northern sagas 
 teach us to follow to the Valhalla some famous leader. 
 
 Whilst these adventurers, under the name of Danes, 
 of Northmen, and of Normans, were conquering Eng- 
 land, the east of Scotland, Holland, and the north 
 of France, or wresting their conquests from each other, 
 whilst others were exploring the European and the 
 African shores of the Mediterranean, founding king- 
 doms and principalities in Italy and Sicily, or crossing 
 the Atlantic to the northern coast of America, detach- 
 ments of their brethren, sailing round by the Frozen 
 Ocean, founded the settlement of Holmgard in the 
 White Sea, on the mouth of the Dwina. Or at least 
 it is certain, that the settlement of the old Holmgard 
 was on some part of the White Sea ; and as Kolmogori, 
 on an island of the Dwina's mouth, is of great anti- 
 quity, and Holmgard is evidently derived from the 
 Scandinavian holm (island), and probably, gorod, the 
 Russ for city or borough, there can scarcely be a 
 doubt, that the only relics of any ancient buildings 
 in the whole region of the White Sea, particularly 
 being on an island, are the ruins of this settlement, so 
 often mentioned in the chronicles of the Northmen. 
 
 It is to be observed that the Muscovite corruption 
 
 of Holm to Kolm is naturally accounted for, from the 
 
 fact of there being no h in the Russian tongue ; its 
 
 place is always filled by the g or the k ; thus the 
 
 c c 2
 
 388 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 modern Russians call the town and palace of Peter- 
 lioff (the German for Peter's-court), Peter-gofF. 
 
 From the old Ilolmgard, on whatever part of the 
 White Sea it may have been situated, these Norse 
 pirates pushed their conquests amidst the Muscovite 
 people, founding a colony on the Ladoga Lake, and 
 another at Novogorod on the Volchorva river. This 
 was called the New Ilolmgard. Forcing the con- 
 quered people to march as their vassals, they spread 
 their dominion as far as the Obi in the east. South- 
 ward they subdued the Muscovites of Kiew, and forced 
 them to follow in their fleets of l)oats, descending the 
 rivers into the Black Sea to ravage the environs of 
 Constantinople, others following the course of the 
 Volga to meet with equal success in Asia. 
 
 These Northmen, or Varangian invaders, appear, 
 after marvellous exploits, to have been at last absorbed 
 in the very extent of the population they had con- 
 quered and appropriated ; but the settlement of the 
 New Ilolmgard being nearer to Scandinavia, probably 
 retained a larger number of these emigrants. The 
 Normans, or A^arangians, soon mingled with the Mus- 
 covites, of whom they had every where rendered them- 
 selves the lords : and the names, the families, and the 
 chivalrous spirit of these few adventurers were soon 
 utterly lost and effaced in the fruitful Muscovite 
 breed. 
 
 The facilit}', indeed, with which the Northmen 
 amalgamated with a conquered population, w^as always 
 one of their many remarkable characteristics. From 
 the famous Chronicle of Rolf the Ganger, or Rollo 
 the Rover, who, after ravaging Friesland and England,
 
 REGION OP RUSSIA. 389 
 
 in his old age consented, as the price of peace, to 
 receive the hand of the King of France's daughter, 
 with the sovereignty of Normandy in perpetuity, we 
 learn that a northern pirate, a certain Harold, long 
 settled in France, was employed to interpret the inter- 
 rogation of its monarch; so ignorant was the whole 
 piratic army of the language of the natives. But we 
 find the very next generation born of French mothers, 
 the Northmen taking no women with them in their 
 expeditions, all having adopted the French language, 
 compiling in it their Norman code ; and three genera- 
 tions after, under the natural son of his grandson, 
 Robert, the celebrated William the Conqueror, intro- 
 ducing their language, which has continued to the 
 present day in the laws, the diplomacy, and the 
 palaces of Great Britain, whilst the French names of 
 their adoption are still proudly claimed in the pages 
 of its peerage, and more particularly the records of its 
 aristocratic families. 
 
 In fact, everywhere but in England, which was 
 exposed to such an unceasing influx of Scandinavians 
 during at least three centuries, their language became 
 rapidly obhterated. In England, notwithstanding 
 the popular notion that we are descended from a 
 direct Germanic race, any person acquainted with 
 the Scandinavian tongues, (i. e., Danish, Swedish, and 
 Norwegian,) as well as with -the German, must, on 
 examination, admit that the great majority of English 
 words, derived from either Saxons or Scandinavians, 
 are rather Scandinavian than German, and principally 
 resemble the German where the Scandinavian, a 
 kindred tongue, does so.
 
 390 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE 
 
 An Englishman is struck with words and whole 
 sentences in the dialect of different parts of the 
 Swedish and Norwegian continent, which are per- 
 fectly intelligible, and quite English in then* pronun- 
 ciation. This is never the case with German, and 
 only very rarely so with the Dutch and Flemish, de- 
 rived from it. The Norwegian pilots and fishermen 
 all pick up English with the greatest facility, and the 
 dialect of our north-country counties is perfectly in- 
 telligible to those of them who have never learned a 
 word of our language. The German learns to pro- 
 nounce or speak English correctly with the greatest 
 difficulty — more than is experienced by the Italian, 
 the Russian, or the Spaniard, if more easily than the 
 Frenchman. 
 
 On the other hand, it is far from proved that the 
 Saxons were not Scandinavians instead of Germans.* 
 They are constantly mentioned as Saxons, Angles; 
 and Jutes. The Jutes, or inhabitants of Jutland, 
 were at least Scandinavian, and the Anglo-Saxon 
 names of Horsa, Ella, Ida, OfFa, Switholm, and 
 Harold, now Scandinavian, and not German, all occur 
 in English history before 787, when mention is first 
 made of an invasion of the Danes or Norwegians, who 
 afterwards, for near three hundred years, kept flowing 
 into the country. 
 
 In Russia, all traces of the names and language of 
 a handful of adventurers, so easy in their intercourse 
 with an immense native population, were therefore 
 soon lost ; but something of their fierce spirit of free- 
 
 * Scandina\'ians and Gennans, as well as Goths, having earlier 
 branched off from the same stem.
 
 REGION OF RUSSIA. 391 
 
 dom long outlived this amalgamation in the powerful 
 republic of Novogorod the Great, which sprung 
 from the settlement of the New Holmgard. Of this 
 spirit of independence, the Scandinavians, their des- 
 cendants, everywhere gave evidence, and the feudal 
 system, introduced by them, based on the principle 
 of liberty to one race at the expense of a conquered 
 one, was as consonant with its existence as the slavery 
 in which the old republicans of antiquity and the 
 modern republicans of the United States still keep 
 another people. 
 
 In the twelfth century, their dukes had become 
 elective magistrates, and, under a republican form, 
 apparently as complete as existed anywhere in the 
 middle ages, Novogorod attained a high pitch of 
 prosp'erity and power. It disputed with Sweden the 
 possession of Finland, and contained one of the fac- 
 tories of the Hanseatic cities, which, about the same 
 period, established another in London. 
 
 Its population is said to have amounted to 400,000 
 individuals, which, if we suppose part of it to be fluc- 
 tuating, as is now the case with that of Nejni- Nov- 
 gorod, and even with Moscow, there is no reason to 
 doubt. The famous motto of the city was, " Quis 
 conti'a Deos et magnam Novogordiam ?" It was sub- 
 dued at the end of the fifteenth century by the tsars 
 of the southern branch of the Muscovite people ; and 
 even after this. Sir Richard Chancellor, the English 
 traveller, in passing through it in 1555, on his return 
 from Moscow, declares it far to exceed the latter city 
 in magnitude. 
 
 Ivan the Terrible, a Kttle later, accusing the city of
 
 392 NORTHERN AND MffiDLE 
 
 corresponding with the Poles, put to death in excru- 
 ciating tortures thirty thousand of the citizens, whose 
 unburied and putrefying bodies gave rise to an exter- 
 minating pestilence. Since then this celebrated city 
 has dwindled down to about fifteen hundred houses, 
 which straggle along each side of the Volkof river, 
 connected by a bridge ; and were it not for the carrying 
 trade between St. Petersburg and Moscow, its seventy 
 churches might be in ruins, and the great city a mere 
 tillage. 
 
 Kazan, the capital of a Tartar, or rather Turcoman 
 kingdom, is situated on the Volga, where the Kama 
 flows into it ; it was also captured by Ivan the Ter- 
 rible, in 1552, who, as cowardly as ferocious, when his 
 own capital of Moscow was afterwards taken by the 
 khan of Little Tartary, offered to yield it up to him. 
 This Turcoman kingdom comprised the present go- 
 vernments of Kazan, Perm, Viatka, Pensa, and Sim- 
 birsk, and the aboriginal Finnish population, which 
 they still contain, is said to have called in the Musco- 
 vites, and favoured their conquest. 
 
 Kazan is both a commercial and a manufacturing 
 city. It is famous for its soap, which is flavoured 
 with tansy or lavender, and packed in little frames or 
 boxes of birch bark, in which it is sent all over the 
 empire. The environs are celebrated for the little hardy 
 and enduring, but ugly Tartar horses, drab coloured, 
 and with light dense mane and tail, which are also 
 exported from the government to all parts of Russia. 
 
 Kazan has still a population ofnear 50,000 inhabitants, 
 and covers, with its Tartar forts, its churches, mosques, 
 and convents, several gentle eminences situated in the
 
 BEGION OF RUSSIA. 393 
 
 midst of marshes and meadows, which the Volga fre- 
 quently flows over. A large portion of the population 
 is still Mahommedan, but these Turks, who are mis- 
 called Tartars, like those of the Crimea, dijEfer from 
 the Tartars in their sedentary lives, their industrious 
 habits, their regular features, and dark bushy beards. 
 They are said to speak almost pure Turkish. In ge- 
 neral, the Tartars have in common with them theii 
 honesty and fidelity, to which the Russians, Avho 
 calumniate them, by trusting, render tacit justice. 
 These qualities, and their attachment to the horse, 
 cause them to be employed in all the great cities as 
 grooms, as post-boys, and even as coachmen, notwith- 
 standing their want of hair upon the chin, so essential 
 to the Russian's conception of a fitting driver of a com- 
 plete equipage. 
 
 Nothing can be mere applicable at the present day 
 to both Russ and Tartar, than the following words from 
 Captain John Perry, from whom the author has al- 
 ready quoted, who had become acquainted with the 
 Tartars whilst engaged in superintending for Peter 
 the Great the canal of Kamischinka, to connect the 
 Don and the Volga, and through them the Black and 
 Caspian Seas. Writing in 1716, he says: — 
 
 " Above half the labourers that were sent to dig the 
 caiial there were of these Tartars, and most of the 
 horse that were sent down to cover the workmen, 
 •were composed of the gentry, or better sort of the 
 same people. I have often taken occasion to ask them 
 about their religion, and they say that the Russes' 
 using of images is a terror to them to think of em- 
 bracing their religion, for that there is but one God,
 
 394 NORTHERN AND MIDDLE REGION OF RUSSIA. 
 
 and that he cannot be pictured or described by men ; 
 and because of the falsity of the Russes in their Hves, 
 they tell them to their faces (I mean the common 
 people, in their discourse with each other), that they 
 will not believe there is any good in their religion ; 
 and say to them, that if their religion be right, why do 
 they not do right ? 
 
 "As to these Tartars, I must do them this justice, 
 that as often as I bad occasion to trust or make use of 
 them, both I and all my assistants have observed that 
 we have found them sincere and honest in their lives, 
 and ingenuous in their conversation, alcove what we 
 have in the Russ nation." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 T. C, Savil], Printer, 107, St. Martin's Lane, Charing Cross.
 
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