YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

SECRET HISTORY

OF THE

WRT AND GOVERNMENT OP RUSSIA

UNDER THE

EMPERORS ALEXANDER AND NICHOLAS.

By J. H. SCHNITZLEH.

Ephphatha, quod est adaperire. Mark, vii. 34.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
^ublfeljtr m ©rtltnatg to ler fKajeatjj.
1847.

London i
Printed by 8. & J. Huntley, Wilson, ami Ki.rv,
Bnngor House, Shoe Lane.

SUMMARY

SECOND VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.
Pestel, and the Insurrection in the South . . . .1
CHAPTER II.
Moral State of Russia under Alexander. — The Secret Societies . 42
CHAPTER III.
An Alliance between sworn Enemies. — The state of Public Opinion
in Poland . . . . . . .98
CHAPTER IV.
Want of Legal Responsibility and Reforms. — A Struggle against
abuses ....... 142
CHAPTER V.
Diplomacy and Funeral Pomp. — Death of Elizabeth . . 227
CHAPTER VI.
The Expiation . . ... . .301
CHAPTER VII.
Moscow and the Coronation ... . 357

SECRET
HISTORY OF RUSSIA

UNDER THE

EMPERORS ALEXANDER AND NICHOLAS.

CHAPTER I.
PESTEL, AND THE INSURRECTION IN THE SOUTH.
That a country long independent, accustomed to
perform an important part in the world, assuming the
title of republic, and inviting all the nobles, its only
citizens, to take an active part in the government, —
that such a country, after being vanquished and brought
under proconsular authority, should bear impatiently
the yoke of a conqueror, who, to fill up the measure of
misfortune, has been its enemy and rival for ages, is
what cannot reasonably be a cause of astonishment to
anybody. The greatest wisdom, added to a continuous
clemency, can alone triumph over such reminiscences
and lull into forgetfulness such just and bitter regrets.
But in Russia a profound obedience, akin to servility,
and emanating from the religious sentiment, is the
vol. n. B

z SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
habitual condition of all. The people have never
thought of escaping from this thraldom ; for, in their
opinion, the czar, the head and defender of the ortho
dox faith, is the representative of God on earth : this
very faith, the inheritance of their fathers, is cherished
by the Russian people as their most precious treasure ;
it is the only one of which they have enjoyed undis
puted possession, and that foreign intrusion has ab
stained from injuring. As long as the clergy remain
the guarantees of the orthodoxy of the monarch, his
person — between which and the people, however, a
court, aides-de-camp, and a numerous guard interpose, —
may certainly be liable to danger, and history has pre
served on this head the memory of awful catastrophes;
but his throne is safe and has nothing to fear from
revolutions. The narration of the events of which we
have undertaken to give a description will furnish
fresh proofs in support of this assertion.
The apathy of the people and the soldiery, which,
excepting the officers, is composed of ancient serfs be
longing to the crown or to individuals, had caused the
plot framed at St. Petersburg to fall to the ground.
The north of Russia was again quiet ; no trace of dis
turbance was visible in the provinces ; everything
seemed restored to its usual state of tranquillity ; and
yet everybody was far from being reassured : the
nation felt it was ever standing on the brink of a vol
cano. The eruption had just proved abortive on one
point, but sooner or later it might shew itself on
another, and become more complete and submersive

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 3
It was the spirit, which was known to be diffused
throughout the staff of the two great armies sta
tioned in the south, that gave rise to these apprehen
sions ; in spite of the measures taken, and notwith
standing generals of well-tried loyalty and beloved by
the soldiers had been despatched to those parts, the
underhand manoeuvres of so many young and active
men might bring about a second catastrophe, in a
country formerly the seat of the warlike republic of
the Cossacks, long united to Poland, and speaking a
language that forms a medium between the idiom of
that old Sclavonic kingdom and the language of the
great empire, the result of a fusion of the Sclavonic
and the Finnish elements.* The mine was charged ;
it might suddenly explode, and, without producing any
durable effect, nevertheless cover whole countries with
blood and devastation.
Indeed, the real strength of the conspiracy was in
the south ; there were its men of action ; there it
formed as it were a vast net, the meshes of which,
only a few weeks before, had been held by able and1
powerful hands. They had not wasted their time in
making theories, but everything had been prepared for
a general rising with arms in their hands ; at the first
signal, more than ten commanders of regiments would
have been ready to march. The somewhat tardy vigil
ance of the government had, it is true, dissolved this
* This language of Russia Minor is sometimes called Ruthenic to dis
tinguish it from the Russian language properly so called. The Roussniac
of White Russia (the chief town of which is Smolensk) is a simple modi
fication of it. b 2

4 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
formidable organization ; but despair gave added
strength to its scattered remnants.
Before exhibiting the picture of this second scene of
revolt, which succeeded the former within the space of
a few days, it will be expedient to take a hasty view
of the two armies in question.
At the time of which we are speaking, Russia was at
peace with all her neighbours, but the state of the
world or her own pretensions had not allowed her to
disarm. Including the irregular corps, her military
forces amounted, at least nominally, to more than
800,000 men, of whom from 30 to 40,000 composed
the imperial guard, and a nearly equal number the
corps of grenadiers, another choice body of troops
almost as much esteemed as the former. If it had
been necessary to begin a campaign there would have
been about 400,000 fighting men. The guard and the
grenadiers formed the reserve and had their head
quarters at St. Petersburg and Xovogorod. The army,
properly so called, was being mustered in different
points, either to keep a watch on Europe, ever agi
tated by the ideas of progress and emancipation; or
for the purpose of menacing Turkey, with whicli it had
not been possible to come to any satisfactory arrange
ment since the rupture in 18:21 ; or for that of repell
ing the mountaineers of the Caucasus, who, though
reduced to order in 1S23, were again taking up arms;
or, lastly, to guard Finland or other points of the
frontier and the wildernesses of Siberia. The task
of keeping a watch on Europe had devolved on the

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 5
Lithuanian corps, and on its vanguard the army of
Poland, which, in 1822, had been placed under the com
mand of the Grand-Duke Constantine. The two might
form a total of about 80,000 men. The other task,
that of keeping Turkey in awe, was allotted to two
divisions of the army, known till August, 1833, by
the denomination of first and second army, or army of
the west and army of the south.
The army of the south, containing about 120,000
men, was under the command of the conqueror of
Polotsk, the defender of St. Petersburg, Count (since
Prince) de Wittgenstein, sprung, as is well known, from
a German and formerly royal family.* Being nearer
the frontier than the other, it extended its canton
ments from the Pruth, at the extremity of Bessarabia,
almost as far as Tcherkassy on the Dnieper, and had its
head-quarters at Toultchina, a town or large borough
in the district of Bratzlaf in Polodia, especially remark
able as containing one of the principal residences of
the illustrious Polish family Potocki, whose mansion
was a very noble structure. Everybody has heard of
the magnificent gardens of Sofiofka, laid out in honour
of a woman who was as remarkable for her intel
lectual qualities as for her dazzling beauty. This
was the celebrated Countess Sophia. A young Greek
slave, purchased by a French diplomatist at the bazaar
of Constantinople, became, by the caprice of for
tune, the wife of General Count de Witt (the grand-
* We shall devote a short notice to him. See Note (3) in the Notes
and Explanations of the present volume.

b SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
son of the grand pensionary of Holland) and the
mother of another general of that name of whom we
have already spoken. During her husband's lifetime,
she espoused Count Felix Potocki, one of the most
wealthy proprietors in the empire, the owner of
165,000 male slaves, and unhappily notorious in the
annals of his country.* Felix had purchased her at
the price of several millions, and it was his gallantry
towards her that called Sofiofka into existence. The
countess lived there in an intoxication of pleasures ; her
opulence was unrivalled, and till her death, which hap
pened in 1823, she was surrounded with a halo of ador
ation offered to her by the whole of the higher classes.
But, to return to the second army. Its commander, a
warrior well tried in the battle-field — a man of honour,
kind, humane, and affable, enjoyed the highest esteem
of its soldiery. The chief of its staff was M. Paul
Kisseleff (now count, commander-in-chief, and minis
ter), who, the husband of a daughter of the Countess
Sophia Potocki, and bearing the same name as her
self, was, when at Toultchina, as much at home as
though he had been on his own estates. +
* We shall speak of this Polish magnate in the notice we shall devote
to his family : Note (4,) in the Notes and Explanations. Since his time
Polish patriotism has again awakened in tlie heart of the family of Potocki •
and the almost royal domain of Sofiofkn, confiscated and united to the
lands of the crown of Russia, now bears tlie name of Tsaritst/ne-Sad
(Garden of the Czar).
t In 1845, the Countess Kisseleff, who always considers herself a Pole
though the blood of her mother is strong in her veins, was suddenly
exiled from St. Petersburg, by virtue of an imperial order signed at
Palcimo. At tho present day, Russia and Turkey are the only countries

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 7
The first army was much more numerous, and had
also more extensive cantonments ; for from Ostroy in
Volhynia it extended throughout Russia Minor, and
even over a part of Central Russia. Its number was
estimated at 150,000 men, and its head-quarters were
at Kief, the metropolis of Russia Minor, and one of the
ancient national capitals. The command of this vast
body was also intrusted to a German, but one from
the Baltic provinces of the empire, and, consequently,
among those who ought to be reckoned as belonging to
the nation. This was General Count de Sacken,* a
worthy, brave, skilful, and devoted veteran, but whose
faculties were beginning to be enfeebled by age.
Formed in the school of Suwarrow and Benningsen,f he
had taken a distinguished part in most of the wars of
the empire, and had covered himself with glory at
the battle of Leipsic. In 1814, he was governor of
Paris, and had acquired the secret of making himself
esteemed in that delicate function.
Counts Wittgenstein and Sacken had not at that
period the rank of field-marshal, to which they were
promoted together in 1826 ;\ they were simply
generals-in-chief, although the two, with Jermolof,
in Europe where such acts of arbitrariness are possible ; hut, to be just,
we must add that in France, the glorious old times of lettres de cachet
and the mysteries of the Bastile are not of very remote antiquity.
* The right form of his name is Von der Osten Sacken. He has since
been created a prince.
t Benningsen died in the kingdom of Hanover, his native land, on
the 4th of October, 1826.
% They have received since that time the title of prince. Wittgen
stein died in 1843, and Sacken in 1837.

8 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
were the most illustrious commanders in all the Rus
sian army. Notwithstanding the deaths of the last
commanders-in-chief, of Koutosoff (in 1813), the
hero of Borodino and the rather too much flattered
idol of the Russian people ; of the old prince, Nicholas
Saltikoff (in 1816), more distinguished for his high
birth than his military talents ;* of the modest and
skilful Barclay de Tolly (in 1818), whose patriotism
was shamefully requited ;f of Count Goudoritch (in
1820), an old man of ninety, who had reposed long
upon his laurels, gathered in numerous campaigns
against the Turks, the Persians, and the tribes of the
Caucasus ; notwithstanding, I say, these losses, no
marshal's staff had been awarded since the peace ; and
a solemn occasion was only wanting to present itself
that it might be conferred, as the reward of an honour
able career, on these two eminent warriors.
To complete the account of the Russian forces at the
time of the death of Alexander, let us add, by way of
memorandum, that the detached corps of the Caucasus,
commanded by Jermoloff, then figured on the army list
with a total of 40,000 men ; that of Finland reckoned
10,000 ; that of Orenburg, charged to observe and
check the hordes of the desert,} 12,000 ; and that of
* See, for what relates to him and his family, tlie Notes mid Explana
tions of the present \olnuie, note (.">.)
t During tlie reijiii of Nicholas, „ statue lias been creeled to him, as
uls.. to Koutosoff, iii the M|uaro of the cathedral of X. D. de Kiismi,
the perspective from Nevski. General Prince Bagruthion received a
monument worthy of him on the battle-field of Borodino, in 1630.
% Kiigliiscs-Kaiss;iks and others.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 9
Siberia, nearly the same number. There still remained
what was termed the army of the interior, composed in
a great measure of invalids, and amounting to about
75,000 men, besides the military colonies, then, as
now, divided into two principal sections. The first of
these sections, that of the infantry, could furnish
25,000 fighting men ; its head-quarters were at
Novogorod the Great, and it had for its commander the
all-powerful Count Araktcheief. The second section,
that of the cavalry, occupied Russia Minor and New
Russia ; it had its head-quarters at Jekaterinoslaff,*
and was placed under the command of General Count
de Witt, who, at the famous camp of Voznecensk (in
1837), tried to imitate Potemkin by creating, as with
a magic wand, an ephemeral city.
Such was the complement of the military forces in
Russia in 1825. As to its direction, we said a few
words about it in the preceding volume, when we
spoke of Generals Tatischtcheff and Diebitsch.
But we had to tell only of the first and second
army : we beg the reader to pardon us this di
gression. In each of these great bodies existed the nucleus of
a mlEtarj conspiracy; almost every corps was infected
with it, and the idea had already been conceived of
disaffecting the third corps of the second army, which
was composed of two divisions of infantry, of one
division of hussars, and of the artillery belonging to
those divisions. Not only the majority of the officers
* A town, the name of which means " Glory of Catherine."

10 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
had been gained over, but an attempt had even been
made to win the subalterns and soldiers, by insi
nuating that the time had come to rid themselves of
the tyranny of their German chiefs, as the regiment of
the guards of Semenoff had formerly done. The com
mon sense of the multitude withstood these suggestions.
"But, does the Emperor know anything about it?"
was either the simple reply of the soldiers, or else the
poor ignorant men would declare they were ready to
do whatever was required of them, " provided it caused
no rebellion, nor any other mischief."* Though placed
in the centre of the revolutionary cabals, at Kief,
General Sacken paid scarcely more attention to them
than Count de Wittgenstein, whose staff abounded with
conspirators, f although neither himself nor General
Paul Kisseleff, the head of this staff, appeared to
to have the slightest suspicion of it.} The latter,
indeed, had perceived that the officers maintained a
* " Report of the Commission of Inquiry," p. 77.
t Pestel no longer formed a part of Wittgenstein's staff ; but Lieu
tenant-Colonel Fallenberg, Captains Prince Bariatinski and Ivacheff, and
Lieutenants Krukoff and Bassarghine belonged to it, not to mention
Wolf, the surgeon-major, Touschnefski, the military iutendant-general,
and others. To Count de Sacken's staff belonged, among others, Cap
tain Count Moussine-Pouschkine and Lieutenant Titoff. When Captain
Kornilovitch maintained that 100,000 men were ready in the second
army (" Report," p. 103), his boast was not devoid of at least an appear
ance of foundation.
X If it be true, as has been asserted, that General Kisseleff was not
entirely free from suspicion, his innocence was soon acknowledge.!
and the country was not to be deprived of the services of one of the
most intelligent and rising men that ever sprang from the ranks of the
Russian army. We know what authority M. Kisseleff enjoyed as pre
sident of the divans of Moldavia and Wallaehia, in 1S30, and the fol
lowing years, and we have already spoken of the admirable impulse

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 11
constant correspondence with St. Petersburg, and Witt
genstein had given notice of it to the Emperor Alex
ander, who, according to his custom, took no pains
to derive any advantage from this information.
The soul of the conspiracy — the most dangerous of
the tribunes — was in the second army.
This was Paul Pestel, a young man about thirty
years of age, and small in stature, but who seemed
to multiply himself by his activity, and whose spark-/
ling eyes proclaimed the intensity of his passions]
Crafty, cunning, and intriguing, he was full of resources^
and ambitious in proportion. In designating him the)
Riego of Russia, people, perhaps, have not quite done
justice to his capacity ; we would rather compare him
to Catiline, if deeds acted and done, and a well at
tested depravity of morals gave us a right to brand
his memory with so much infamy.
Though his name is of German origin, Pestelj
was by birth a Russian. His father, who, in 1825
lived in a condition bordering on indigence, sue
eeeded Speranski, in the office of governor-general
of Siberia. He was a clever man of business, bui
harsh and despotic, as are all the German parvenus in
Russia, and accused of not having always been inac
cessible to bribery. This accusation, true or false,
occasioned the loss of his place, — a satrapy of un
limited authority in a remote wilderness. In a severe
he gave to the ministry of the domains of the crown, created for him in
1838. He has been rewarded with the title of count, and with many
other distinctions and advantages.

12 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ukase, dated February, 1822, he was reprimanded by
the emperor, whose justice was inflicted at the same
time on two civil governors, and six hundred and
seventy-eight public functionaries, who were all dis
missed for extortion, usury, and malversation of every
kind. Shortly after, this satrapy was dismembered,
and Siberia was divided into two general governments,
under the names of Eastern and Western Siberia, such
as they now exist.
Paul Pestel, one of the sons of this old governor-
general,* had been brought up at Dresden, from
whence he was removed to St. Petersburg, leaving the
! corps of pages, of whom he was one, with the grade of
ensign ; he had afterwards earned tlie epaulets of
a captain in the campaign of France. The follow-
; ing proof of firmness, displayed at Bar-sur-Aube, is
I related in his favour. Seeing some Bavarian soldiers
brutally ill-treating the peaceable inhabitants, he took
the part of the latter, arrested the soldiers, and brought
them to their senses by caning them soundly in the
Russian, or, if you please, in the German fashion. He
was aide-de-camp to General Wittgenstein when he re
turned to his native country, and, as such, was ever
about the person of this distinguished general. Some
time before the revolt, his promotion had caused him
i to quit this service : being made a colonel, he was
( charged with the command of the regiment of infantry
, at Viatka.
* The eldest was in i«afi n colonel like himself ; another, an officer
in the guard. We have mentioned lYMcl's hrotlier-in-lnw, General
Arnoldi, in our liiM volume.

PESTEI/S INSURRECTION. 13
However, Pestel's ambition looked far higher than
this secondary position. Many of his accomplices have
borne witness to this, and especially Ryleieff, whose
opinion of him is said to have been expressed as fol
lows : " He is an ambitious, designing man ; a Buona
parte, not a Washington." He was an avowed repub
lican, but perhaps only because an imperial crown was
not suited to the compass of his capacity. Ryleieff
and Alexander Bestoujeff endured him without feeling
the least sympathy in his favour. However, he was
one of the best heads in the whole association, of which
he had been one of the first authors. He it was
who had drawn up the plan of the constitution it had
adopted. The " Official Report" taxes him with igno
rance; but the proofs it furnishes in support of this
charge appear to us by no means conclusive.*
We shall trace further on, through the mysteries of
the secret societies, the consuming activity of the en
terprising and pervading mind of this man, who, had
he been present at St. Petersburg on the day of the
revolt, would doubtless have effected a very different
result than .did the pusillanimous prince Troubetzkoii
* P. 42. First proof : he gave the name of province of Kholmogory
to the union of the governments of Novogorod, Tver, Livonia, Esthonia,
and Courland. But, was the compiler ignorant that Holmgard (City of
the Isle) was in fact one of the most ancient names of Novogorod ?
Second proof : he calls province of Severia the union of the governments
of Arkhangelsk, Vologda, laroslavl, Kostroma, and Perm. But, we may
reply, this did not allude to the Severians, but only to Sever, the north ;
in fact, he meant to designate it a region of the north. Is this what
should be received to attest an ignorance which "is even ridiculous,
and often carried to an unaccountable degree?" For our part, we see
no sufficient foundation for such censure.

14 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
or the pacific Ryleieff. For the present, let us merely
state that Pestel was, in the south, the pivot on which,
moving in the dark, turned a vast conspiracy,
wherein several hundreds of officers, perhaps nearly
a thousand of every rank, were engaged. There was
no hesitation in the man ! Full of courage, and his
mind fixed on his aim, he marched imperturbably to
wards the goal, surmounting obstacles, or turning them,
whatever resistance they offered to his progress. He
made many proselytes (says the " Official Report," p. 32
and 61), and his colleagues about him seldom could
withstand his influence. He was not only the direc
tor of the society of the south, but he exercised in
it a despotic power. The great majority of the mem
bers placed an unbounded confidence in him.*
* Pestel's person and eloquence must have been endowed with extra
ordinary fascination. Mnjor-General Prince Sergius Volkonski, other
wise a very harmless man, declared he was ready to sacrifice every
thing to establish the form of government proposed by restel (" Report"
p. 61) ; and Lieutenant-Colonel Poggio, after meeting and hearing him,
exclaimed in a rather puerile fit of enthusiasm, " We must confess that
none of those who have lived before our time understood anything of the
science of government. They were disciples, and the science was in its
cradle." When Pcstcl asked him afterwards whom they* should place at
tlie head of the provisional government : " Whom 1 " replied Poggio,
" whom but the man who undertakes and, doubtless, will accomplish the
grand work of the revolution ; whom but yourself)" Pestel objected,
that with a name that was not Hussion this would be difficult, but with
out convincing his interlocutor. " What matters," replied he, if we may
lielieve tlie same " Report," " you will even silence calumny, by quitting
power and returning, like Washington, to the rank of a private citizen.
Moreover, the provisional government will not last long,— a vear or two
*'  st."— "Oli, no ! " replied Pcstcl, "not less than ten ; ten years are
necessary, if it he only for preparatory measures. Meanwhile, to prevent
people murmuring, we will occupy them with a foreign war,— the re-

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 15
The regiments were accustomed to be on duty
alternately at Toultchina, the head-quarters of the
second army. The regiment of Viatka, in which the
seeds of discontent had been abundantly sown, was to
have entered on the 1st of January, 1826. Pestel,)
its colonel, had appointed that day to strike the deci-j
sive blow. The commander-in-chief was to be imme
diately arrested : no harm was to be done "to him,
for Count de Wittgenstein was very popular, but all
the generals and colonels not of the conspiracy were to
be put to the sword. Next, the conspirators were
to march on Kief, to secure the commander of the^
first army, with which they intended to fraternize,]
aided by the accomplices they had contrived to obtain/
there. Then, when other troops arrived to oppose/
the rebellion, they were to oppose them ; to proclaim!
the downfall of the Emperor, whilst Poland woulco
take up arms, and perhaps Courland, Livonia, and other\
provinces would likewise revolt. J
Such was the plan. But would it have succeeded %
This is more than doubtful ; for illusions formed the
basis of an immense portion of the calculations in
which they indulged. There was nothing, for instance,
to authorize the hopes they founded on the Baltic pro
vinces, where, indeed, little sympathy for Russia is per
ceptible, but there is certainly no resistance organized
establishment of the ancient republics of Greece. For my part, when I
have finished my great task, I shall retire to the monastery of Kief,
where I shall live like an anchorite, and then religion will have its turn."
(16. p. 62, 63.) See also the note in page 64 of the " Report," for his
conversation with Ryleieff.

16 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
against her; and, at that time, the religious propa-
gandism practised among the Lettonian or Esthonian
peasants by the Russian church, had not excited alarm
among the nobles, nor sown dissension between them
and their husbandmen, — their newly enfranchised serfs.
Other conjectures of the conspirators were no less
chimerical than these. But, even though their plan
had presented better chances of success, it would in
fallibly have failed on Pestel's arrest. This would
have paralysed at once the whole of the enterprise ;
from that moment, the insurrection could be nothing
more than a tumultuous riot.
That event happened in the following manner. In
the beginning of November, Pestel was betrayed by
one of the officers of his regiment, who was implicated
in the conspiracy, but now felt some remorse. Captain
Maiboroda presented himself before Lieutenant-general
Roth, the commander of the 3rd body of infantry in
the second army, entreating him to despatch him as a
courier to Taganrog, as he had news of the utmost
importance to communicate to the emperor. General
Roth was a brave soldier, a native of Alsace, who had
emigrated with his father, a colonel in the royal corps
of artillery, and had entered the Russian service in
1801. Distrusting Maiboroda, he answered that his
request was impossible, and that, if he really pos
sessed a secret concerning the state, he had only to
reveal it to him, his general. The officer would have
declined, but his refusal was not attended to ; he was
informed that he must not stir from the spot before

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 17
he had spoken out. At length, Maiboroda decided on
breaking silence. The extensive revelations he made
determined General Roth to send forthwith a captain
to bear these ominous tidings to Taganrog ; and, in
order to foil the projects of the conspirators in the
mean time, he dispersed the regiments of his corps in
such a manner, that those who were the most ob
noxious to suspicion, were furthest apart, if not
entirely separated.
When his courier arrived on the shores of the sea of
Azof, Alexander had just expired. Having received
an intimation from General Count de Witt, the
commander of the military colonies of Southern Russia,
who had hastened to Taganrog a few days before,
General Diebitsch, after having concerted with Prince
Volkonski, took, as we have already stated, the
necessary urgent measures on his own responsibility.
He entrusted his orders to his Aide-de-camp General
Tchernycheff, at that time much esteemed as a man
to be trusted, and who, since then especially, has con
trived to make himself almost indispensable. This
general, celebrated for the mission of observation
he had so skilfully fulfilled at Paris in 1812, arrested
in the second army, in concert with Count de Wittgen
stein, more than twelve commanders of regiments, and
especially Colonel Pestel, the most compromised of all;*
and in the first army, six commanders of regiments,
not to mention a vast number of inferior officers.
* It was on the 26th of December that they secured them. " Report
of the Commission of Inquiry," p. 130, note.
VOL. II. 0

18 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
At the same time, papers were seized, and preliminary
interrogatories effected.
However, they do not appear to have acted
with the necessary severity and promptitude ; for one
of the principal conspirators, Major-General Prince
Sergius Volkonski, brother-in-law of Alexander's tra
velling companion, contrived to obtain an interview
with Pestel even after his arrest* He exhibited
extreme alarm ; but Pestel comforted him : " Fear
not," said he ; " provided my Russian Code be not in
their hands, we shall perhaps escape this danger ; I am
not a man to make any revelation." Orders, received
from St. Petersburg, soon prescribed extreme se
verity. The other arrests were effected, and the
zeal of the devoted generals now knew no bounds, f
* We have, in a note, already mentioned this conspirator, a member
of a powerful family, and a son of a lady of honour to the empress.
We shall have occasion to revert to him again.
•)- The brothers Skariatine and other young men were arrested without
any plausible pretext, and set at liberty as soon as they reached
St. Petersburg. Neither did they prosecute the arrest of Major-
General Prince Paul Lapoukhine, the son of the president of the council
of the empire. There was a report in the capital that the two sons of
the brave Raiefski, a retired general of the cavalry, and nephew of Prince
Potemkin, had likewise been arrested. However, the "Official Report "
(in the note p. 112) mentions the Raicfckis only to absolve them from all
suspicion ; and the old general wos made, in February, 1826, member
of the council of the empire. But, the same " Report " quotes a depo
sition according to which General Michael Orloff had been under the in-
lUioncc of that family. In Knniin's '• Voyage round the Globe," vol. i. p.
81, he mentions another Raiefski, a colonel of artillery, and director of a
military scliool, whom the traveller actually met in Siheria. The
place of his exile was in the .nvirons of lrkoutsk. Mr. Erman speaks
(vol. i p. V>'?.\) also of u General Count Gorski as having figured in
the conspiracy. We shall allude to him further; but he is scarcely
mentioned iu the official documents.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 19
Owing to the promptitude with which these latter
measures were adopted, no disturbance took place in
the army of Count de Wittgenstein ; but they did not
succeed so well in preventing a resort to arms in the
first army, that which was commanded by Count de
Sacken, not at Kief, the head-quarters, but at a few
leagues more to the south-west, in the environs of the
city of Vassilkoff.
It was not reasonable to expect the least result from
this step, since all the principal actors of the con
spiracy, those on whom the committees had most
relied, were in prison. It was an act of despair under
taken for the personal defence of one individual.
Happily, it did not occasion much bloodshed, and
excepting the soldiers — poor victims led astray, who
could not be made responsible for a transgression
committed through ignorance — it compromised no
body but such as were so already by the seizure
of papers, and the voluminous depositions of the
Inquiry. In the first army the conspiracy had a chief who
was hardly inferior to Pestel, except in ambition and
vicious inclinations. This was Sergius Mouravieff-
Apostol, a lieutenant-colonel in the regiment of infantry
of Tchernigoff. Sergius was a distinguished officer,
noble-hearted, resolute, and impassioned, who had long
been engaged in the conspiracy. His double name called
to mind his twofold extraction, from the numerous
family of the Mouravieffs and from that of Apostol, the
hetman of the Cossacks. His father, Ivan Mouravieff- o 2

20 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Apostol, was a senator and had discharged (during the
empire of Napoleon,) the functions of Russian ambas
sador, first at the Hanseatic towns and afterwards in
Spain. He is still living ; but alas ! far from his native
land, whither he will never be permitted to return,
to honour the memory of his sons who fell by the
sword of the law. Those sons, esteemed and be
loved by everybody, were the joy and pride of his
heart, and never had he had to complain of them.
Himself a man of good sense and honour, inclined
to be one of the opposition, but more of an aristo
crat than a liberal, he had many friends. Being
the nephew of the tutor of Alexander, he had
been, in a manner of speaking, brought up with that
prince, and he was not a man to excite any animosity
against his government. Moreover, he was too fond of
the enjoyments of material life ever to have thought
of nourishing ideas of independence and rebellion in
the minds of his sons. His translation into Russian of
the " Clouds" of Aristophanes attests the profundity of
his classic studies, and his love for antiquity is again
seen in another of his works, likewise written in
the national language, the " Voyage to Tauris, "
(Petersb., 1823, 8vo.) Few Russians have proved
themselves such good philologists : they have hitherto
abandoned to the Germans settled among them the
study of philology.
M. Mouravicff-Apostol, on quitting France to repair
to Madrid, had left at Paris under the guardianship of
their mother, his elder sons, to whom he wished to

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 21
secure the benefit of an equally solid and brilliant edu
cation. Sergius, the eldest, inherited his father's taste
for classic literature, and learned to compose Latin
verse with facility. But these young Russians lived in
the French capital in an atmosphere which was likely
to make the air they were later to breathe, in their
native land, appear oppressive : the sphere of ideas in
which they moved, even in the time of the empire, by
no means accustomed them to the invariable and en
forced reserve of a society in which individual volition
is absorbed by the arbitrary will of the emperor.
Count Ouvaroff is perfectly in the right ; the Rus
sians ought to receive a national education, on con
dition however that the nationality do not consist in
a political idolatry, in a devotedness excluding all
independence of character, and hostile to the spon
taneous development of the mind. Education received
in a foreign country was a source of misfortune to
Sergius and Matthew Mouravieff- Apostol : like Alex
ander himself, assuredly the first liberal in his domi
nions, they were strangers to the state of things then
paramount in their country, and were in opposition
with its laws and manners ; however, they were so
sincerely ; not like many Russians and Poles who,
eager to assume the appearance of civilization and
treating ideas as a matter of fashion, have been, and
doubtless are still, liberals at Paris, but at home ar
rogant to every inferior, hard-hearted to their serfs,
opposed to knowledge, and the abject slaves of routine.
On their return to Russia, Sergius and Matthew,

22 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
closely united by congenial sentiments, entered the
secret societies as early as 1816. Being received as
officers in the regiment of Semenoff, they were cashiered
when it was remodelled in 1820, doubtless for hav
ing, like so many of their comrades, favoured by their
inaction the revolt of the soldiers against their colonel.*
However, Sergius Mouravieff-Apostol had re-entered
the service in a regiment of the army. Circum
stances having caused his acquaintance with Pestel,
he had become intimate with him and listened atten
tively to his suggestions. Sergius was an enthusiast
for liberty ; his studies had made him familiar with
repubbcan institutions, and his own name reminded
him of the confederation of free warriors now en
slaved, whose elective form of government had diffused
throughout Russia Minor a spirit very different from
that which prepared the populations of.J^Iuscoj^or
Russia Major for the yoke. His grandfather, Daniel
Apostol, before being freely elected hetman of the
Cossacks in 1 729, had energetically defended the rights
of his country against the encroachments of Peter the
Great : accordingly he had expiated his audacity by a
long captivity. The unanimous acclamations of the
Cossack people had been his recompense, and he had
* Colonel Sehwart7, a native of Courland, carried his severity even to
tyranny. He was detested both by the officers and the soldiers. The
mutiny took place on the 2Sth of September, 1820. Sec Lesur's "Annu-
aire pour 1820," p. :}<><!; some details are also to be found in Dupre de
Saint-Maun- s " IVtcrsbourg, Moscou et les Provinces," t. ii. p. 171.
Sergius Mouravieff was adored by the soldiers : at the time of their
insurrection lie could ha\c done anything with them.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 23
received the boulava of command at Gloukhoff in that
same government of Tchernigoff whose name was still
borne by Sergius's regiment. Such reminiscences are
never lost on an ardent youth full of imagination ; but
in Russia such reminiscences were not without danger.
For some time Sergius had been tampering with the
soldiers of the regiment : on the one hand he strove
to excite in them a distrust of their commanders, in
order to dispose them for rebellion, and on the other he
did all he could to conciliate their attachment more
and more. His influence even reached several other
regiments of the ninth division, in which he singled
out such soldiers as had like himself served under
Semenoff. He secretly increased the number of his
partisans. " He applied himself even," says the Report
(p. 44) " to make them familiar with the idea of a
general and not very distant change, exacting from
them a promise to follow him on every occasion."
Matthew was less intrepid than his brother, but he
loved him dearly, and had moreover too high an opi
nion of Sergius's merit not to espouse his designs with
heart and soul. Nevertheless, towards the end of 1824,
he proposed some serious objections. " What can
we offer," said he in his letter from St. Peters
burg, " in lieu of rank, money, and tranquillity %
Political abstractions and ensigns of twenty to govern**'
the empire." Indeed, their resources went no farther \j
and there was remarkably good sense in these fraternal
admonitions. Nothing was ripe : though possessed per
haps of means sufficient to cause an awful overthrow,

24 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the conspirators had nothing to set up in the place of
the demolished edifice, and it required all the levity
inherent in the Russian character to dream of effecting
a revolution in such a state of things.
A more thorough-going partisan of Sergius Mouravieff-
Apostol was Michael Bestoujeff-Rumine,an obscure mem
ber of the family of the celebrated chancellor of that
name, who directed the exterior policy of Russia dur
ing the reign of the empress Elizabeth.
Though scarcely thirty years old he was sub-lieu
tenant in the infantry regiment of Pultava, whose
colonel, Tiesenhausen,* was a confederate with the con
spirators ; this regiment formed likewise a part of the
first army and was only a few leagues distant from
Mouravieff. These two young men had long been ac
quainted. Now, Bestoujeff-Rumine was one of Pestel's
principal allies, one of the most useful agents of the
committee of the south, initiated into all its secrets,
implicated in every intrigue in which its members were
engaged, an ardent promoter of their views, and ever
ready to be their instrument in accomplishing them.
When Pestel was arrested, on the 26th of De
cember, fresh orders from St. Petersburg pre
scribed also the arrest of Mouravieff-Apostol and his
brother, a retired lieutenant-colonel, who happened
then to be with him. Bestoujeff-Rumine knew it, and
immediately gave notice to Sergius. Though brave,
* Of a much respected Livonian family, the same as that of the Countess
De Cl.oiscul-Gouffier, the authoress of the " Meuioiro Historiqucs sur
Alexandre."

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 25
the latter did not think it prudent to slight this
warning : he was the more inclined to conceal himself,
in concert with his brother, as he had already heard
of the fatal result of the 26th of December at St.
Petersburg, and as an interview with Count Peter
Moszynski, a Pole still young, a marshal of the nobility
in the government of Volhynia, and a member of the
Patriotic Society of Warsaw, had little answered his
expectations of finding, in case of need, in that quarter,
the resources which failed him in his own country.
Volhynia, ever animated with a Polish spirit, bore
with indignation the yoke of Russia ; but the Society,
whom Sergius was endeavouring to excite to take up
arms, was working, as we shall presently see, on its
own account, calmly and deliberately, and was seriously
prosecuting nothing less than a design of preparing, in
Poland, a revolution strictly national. When, there
fore, after the events at St. Petersburg, on the 26 th
of December, Mouravieff went to visit the count at
Berditcheff, and wished to know from him whether, in
case of an insurrection of the 3rd and 4th corps,
they might rely on the assistance of the Poles, Moszynski
replied that he had no instructions on that head ; he
would not even take charge of a letter from Mouravieff
to Prince Antony Tablonowski, with whom the Russians
had opened a communication, under the pretext that a
law of the Society prohibited every kind of transaction
in writing.*
* Polish "Report" in the "Journal de Saint Pe'tersbourg," 1827.
No. 73, p. 311.

26 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
As there was therefore no hope of any assistance for
him from the Poles ; the safest plan, therefore, was to
elude pursuit as quickly as possible. But the two
brothers did not succeed. Lieutenant-Colonel Ghebel,
who commanded the regiment of Tchernigoff, was
charged to effect their arrest ; and although they had
concealed themselves, this order was executed on the
10th of January, 1826.
This was a painful duty for Colonel Ghebel; for
he was on terms of friendship with Sergius Mouravieff,
who, it is said, was under great obligations to
him. Accordingly, though faithfully executing his
orders, he treated his prisoners with kindness and
regard. Being the more confiding, as he saw them
resigned to their fate and ready to follow the courier
(feldjmger) who was to conduct them to St. Peters
burg, with a feeble escort of a few gendarmes, he did
not observe all those precautions towards them which
are prescribed in such cases. On the evening of his
arrest, at Trilessie\ Sergius received a visit from his
friend ; they conversed familiarly, and agreed to take
tea once more together before this probably very long
separation. Ghebel listened only to the dictates of his
friendship for Mouravieff. But, since the morning, the
latter had found means to give notice of what was taking
place to several members of the Society of the Slaves
irttiiis, young officers of the same regiment of Tcherni
goff; and Lieutenants Kouzmine, Soukhinoff, Chtchipilla,
and the second captain, Baron Solovieff, rushed into the
apartment and surrounded the two captives.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 27
At the same instant, Sergius called out to the colonel
that the tables were now turned, and that instead of
being his prisoner, he detained him in arrest — even him,
the commander of the regiment. " No, by my life ! "
was the reply of the brave officer, who instantly drew
his sword, retreating into a corner of the room, and
shouting for help. In the struggle that ensued, Ghebel
is said to have received fourteen wounds : he fell
senseless on the floor. Mouravieff was the first who
wounded him ; and Solovieff, snatching a gun from the
hands of the sentinel, afterwards struck him several
times. They arrested the courier and the gendarmes,
and issued forth shouting, Eourra, Constantine! Sergius
hastened to declare to the soldiers who crowded around
that he took the command of the regiment, and meant
to remain faithful to the lawful emperor, to whom they
had all pledged their faith. He spoke of Constantine.
The same means by which the poor soldiers of the
guard at St. Petersburg had been led astray, were em
ployed here, and with a success that Mouravieff's words
alone would never have obtained, in spite of the
emphasis with which they were shouted : " Soldiers !
serve God and religion for liberty !"
But circumstances at this moment were anything but
favourable. The companies of the regiment of Tcherin-
goff, which was itself at a considerable distance from
the others, were scattered over a vast extent of country,
owing to the prudent measures of General Roth.
Sergius Mouravieff despatched his friends, each to
his company, to induce them to join the rebellion,

28 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
and then to conduct them to him at Vassilkoff,
whither, preceded by Solovieff at the head of
a regiment, he repaired on the 11th, after having
added to his band the 2nd company of grenadiers at
Kovalevka. Bestoujeff-Rumine, whom he had sent to
reconnoitre at Broussiloff, a small town half way be
tween Kief and Jitomir (in Volhynia), joined him on
his march. Mouravieff also gained over Kousmine's
company. But at eight versts* from Vassilkoff, he heard that
the town was occupied by a battalion of his regiment,
under the command of Major Troukhine, who was
ill-disposed towards them. This officer, having or
dered Solovieff to be arrested, salbied forth, and soon
came up with the van-guard of the rebels. Soukhinoff,
who commanded it, immediately ordered his troop to
make ready and fire. Troukhine gave the same order
to his men, but was not obeyed ; they were staggered
and infected by the example of their comrades. Taking
advantage of their hesitation, the latter surrounded
them : the soldiers made no efforts to defend their
commander ; he was accordingly made prisoner, de
prived of his sword and epaulets, and dragged to
Vassilkoff, into which the rebel companies entered with
out opposition, and confined their prisoner in the chief
fortress. But the major found means to escape, followed
by Lieutenant Pavloff, the adjutant of the regiment,
who carried off with him the papers and the seal. Iu
tho colonel-commandant's quarters the rebels seized on
* Or about two-thirds of an English mile.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 29
the flags, the military chest, and a waggon full of gun
powder, and reinforced themselves with thq three
companies that had remained in the town. They then
ran to deliver Solovieff, as well as all the officers whom
Ghebel had ordered into arrest ; and they even opened
the doors of the city prison and let out a few
malefactors who were detained there. Mouravieff's
little band thus increased ; it was moreover joined by
several officers who arrived from the neighbouring
districts, especially by Alexander Vadkofski, sub
lieutenant in the horse-chasseurs of Negine, and a
member of the Association. Mouravieff, who had sum
moned him from Bela'ia-Tserkof,* a large town to the
south of Vassilkoff, sent him back there to attempt to
excite the squadrons of his regiment to insurrection.!
He despatched others of his party to Kief, the seat of
the Society, in the hope of speedily obtaining succour.
From the necessity of providing for the wants of his
troops, and perhaps also for the purpose of compro
mising it for ever, he broke into the shops of the town.
Another scene took place in the public square of
Vassilkoff, well worth recording as a fresh proof of
the vile degradation of the lower clergy in Russia,
notorious for their cupidity, drunkenness, and servile
* A name meaning White Church. In the Polish, it is called Biala
Cerkiew. t He must not be confounded with Theodore Vadkofski, whom Sher
wood, as early as the month of June, had mentioned in his revelations
("Report," p. 5), and who nevertheless remained at Koursk, whence he
wrote to Pestel, on the death of Alexander, a letter which may be seen
in page 78 of the "Report." How was it that this known conspirator, this
member of the class of bo'iars, was not molested ?

30 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
spirit.* We will borrow the account from the "Official
Report" (p. 134).
Before Mouravieff and his party marched forward
again, the almoner of the regiment consented, " for
a sum of two hundred rubles," to celebrate Divine
j service, as well as to read to the troop a catechism
composed long before by Sergius and Bestoujeff-Rumine,
in which, interpreting in their own fashion some de
tached passages of the Old Testament, they had endea
voured to prove that democracy was the only form
of government agreeable to God. The officers hailed
these passages with shouts of Liberty for ever ! But
in the hearts of the soldiers, that shout, which in other
countries has been found so potential, found no echo:
there was no chord there that would vibrate. This
was plain from the embarrassed attitude of the men.
To whom does the empire belong, to Constantine or to
Nicholas Paulovitch ? Such was, in their opinion, the
only question ; as to liberty, they scarcely knew its
name : the church had never spoken to them of it,
neither was there any mention of it in the military
regulations. In Russia, autocracy is like a pillar of
fire going before the people : they follow it with
implicit confidence, and quake with dread when it
sinks in the horizon. Soberly speaking, what surer
guide could they choose than autocracy, of course sup-
* In relation to the last point : we have seen some who, to ob
tain the least favour, would bow before the nobles and the rich in quite
an oriental style, touching the ground witli the forefinger of their right
hand. As to the drunkenness of the Russian priests, refer for proofs
of it in the Notes and Explanations of this volume : Note (6.)

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 31
posing it to be conscientious, and founded upon known
and acknowledged laws ? Liberty 1 Doubtless the
Sclavonians practised it, for Novogorod the Great is
said to have been a republic. But those are bygone
times, and, since then, everything has been trans
formed. If there formerly existed, in the ancient
metropolis of Russian commerce, a flourishing citi
zen class, it had been decimated by the tyrants, and
afterwards scattered, and in a great measure trans-*
ferred, to the new city of St. Petersburg, in obedience
to the absolute will of the. czar-reformer. Compared,
with the present population of the empire, the third\
estate is merely an imperceptible minority ; it exists •¦.
only in the shell. Now, without a third estate, li
berty, which is good only when it operates for the ad
vantage of all, is the monopoly of a single class, and
we have Poland to tell us whether, in such a case, it can
guide a nation. Autocracy lays a levelling hand upon
all without distinction ; and if it does not urge towards
progress — we mean intellectual and moral progress — it
is at least interested in preventing the mass of the popu
lation from being oppressed by a. few privileged indivi
duals. The common sense of the Russian people, gene
rally so remarkable, told them as much ; and they had,
moreover, a faith to which they held fast, without
inquiring on what biblical passages it was based.
The new doctrines did not for a moment stagger the
confirmed faith of the soldiers ; nay, according to Mou
ravieff's own avowal, it produced upon those simple men
an impression unfavourable to his views : accordingly,

32 SECRET niSTORY OF RUSSIA.
Sergius was obliged to invoke once more the name of
Cesarovitch, and to assure the rebels that the alleged
renunciation of the prince was a positive falsehood.
Throughout this affair, Bestoujeff-Rumine was a va
luable ally of Mouravieff : restless, and endowed with
persuasive eloquence, he exercised great influence over
the soldiers, so much so, that he prevailed upon them
to espouse their cause with an oath, ratified by kissing
a holy image. He strove also to raise the moral courage
of Matthew Mouravieff, the commander's brother, who,
as he afterwards said, foresaw the result of their guilty
enterprise. Matthew was deterred from the first by a
knowledge of the consequences which it would entail
on them ; but, as his brother persisted, he was resolved
to share his fate, whatever it might be. But he added
his most earnest prayers to Sergius's entreaties, to in
duce their other brother, Hippolyte, to abandon them.
We have seen the latter escaping from St. Petersburg
on the evening before the 26 th of December, at the
very moment when the order was given that none
should pass, and that all communication should be cut
off. He cheated the vigilance of the guards ; unexpectedly
rejoined his brothers at Vassilkoff, and remained with
them, resolved to share their good or bad fortune.
These unfortunate young men were bound to one
another by the tenderest ties of friendship.
Sergius, ever intrepid, but still uncertain in what
direction ho should march, gave the signal of depar
ture on tho 12th, at noon. It was doubtless the hope
of rallying the other companies of his regiment that

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 33
induced him to take the road to Broussiloff, whence he
could have gained, according as circumstances required,
Kief or Jitomir (Volhynia), in one day's march. Ac
cordingly, he met on his road the first company of
grenadiers, and the first of fusileers, in the village
of Motovilofka. Both seemed disposed to follow him,
thinking they should thereby remain faithful to the oath
taken to the Emperor Constantine. The company of
fusileers did so without much hesitation : but an im
prudent speech alarmed the grenadiers, to whom, ac
cording to his custom, Mouravieff could not help speak
ing of democracy and a republic. " In fact, comrades,"
said he flippantly, " what need have we of Constantine %
We can do without him as well as without the other.
It is a republic we want. Come, let us all shout
' A Republic for ever ! ' " The word liberty conveyed at
least its own meaning ; but that of republic was totally
devoid of signification to these men, excellent in re
sisting, like a wall, the shock of war, and in standing
the enemy's fire without flinching, but very bad politi
cians, and utterly ignorant of history: the word excited
an extraordinary astonishment among them. Whilst
they were ransacking their brains, vacant of all those
notions which are heard in the streets in the more
advanced countries of Europe, trying to get at the
meaning of that singular word, an old grenadier of the
company, leaning on the barrel of his gun, ventured to
come to an explanation with his colonel. " We will
shout A Republic for ever ! if it so please your grace,"*
* Vachi blagorodii. These titles of honour are not less familiar to the
VOL. II. D

34 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
said he, " but who, after all, is to be czar \ " " There
is none in a republic." " Oh ! in that case, your grace,
it will not do in Russia!" The whole company was
of the same opinion : no matter about the republic,
thought they, but at all events we must have a
czar !
Mouravieff then perceived the blunder he had com
mitted ; but it was too late ; Captain Kozloff, concealed
in the ranks in a private's uniform, hastened to
take advantage of it. He was a man of lofty stature,
with a prepossessing exterior, and, like Mouravieff, be
loved by the soldiers. He instantly began haranguing
the company, representing to them that they were
being imposed upon, and led astray to commit crimes ;
that Nicholas I. was the lawful czar, and that there
was no reason to doubt it ; that to refuse obedience to
him was to be wilfully blind to their welfare; that
such an order could only be given by traitors. The
grenadiers listened to him attentively, and were not
slow in testifying their approbation. " Lead us on,
captain," cried they all with one voice, " we will obey
your orders!" And taking him among them, they
withstood all Mouravieff's solicitations ; and to the
threats of the factious, they replied that they were not
afraid of death.
Russians than to tho Germans ; the longest do not embarrass them ;
but heaven knows how troublesome they are to pronounce. The reader
may judge: Your highness is termed, Yacht I't/soknprevoModitelslvo ;
} our eminence, Vachc I'ysnkoprcosviaschtchcnstvo. Princes jwsscssing
an appanage, and grand dignitaries had formerly tlie title of Vysokpove-
litchnii, or most powerful. A Russian vents these apostrophes ns he
would tell his beads.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 35
Mouravieff had too small a party, and was not suffi
ciently sure of his men, to risk a fight : with despair
in his heart, and foreseeing that all his endeavours
would be unavailing, he allowed this chosen company
to depart. Under the guidance of its captain, and
congratulating themselves on having escaped the snares
of hell, the latter retreated, and marched that day ten
leagues that they might present themselves at the head
quarters of the division. The whole company was after
wards received into the guard, together with all its
officers ; so also Lieutenant-colonel Ghebel, Major
Troukhine, Captain Kozloff, and Lieutenant Pavloff,
were promoted a grade, as a reward for their fidelity.
The rebels, now reduced to six companies, passed
the whole of the 13th of January (the 1st according to
the old style) in the village of Motovilofka, " their com
mander," says the " Report," " not daring to impose any
fatigue upon them on the festival of new year's
day." Mouravieff despatched to Kief ensign Masalefski,
accompanied by an under-officer and three private
soldiers, after having cut off the counter-epaulets shew
ing the number of their division. Although their
appearance was intended to commence the insurrection
in the capital of Russia Minor, it appears that it had
no kind of success: either from prudence and fear,
or because that spirit of discontent which has ever
been supposed to be diffused among the formerly so
called free populations of the Ukraine, was wanting, all
remained quiet. The small party returned by the same
road to Vassilkoff, after flinging in the streets of Kief
d2

36 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
three copies of the catechism of treason with which the
ensign was provided. They were arrested as they were
returning. The next day, astonished at not receiving from Kief
the news he expected, Mouravieff marched in the oppo
site direction towards Belaia-Tserkoff, where Viadkofski
was to have acted in his favour and where he thought
he could rely on a regiment.
He had doubtless another motive. The town
of Belaia-Tserkoff or Biala-Cerkiew belongs to the
Branicki family, named Branecki by the Poles, who
contend that the other form of the name is an unau
thorized alteration. According to them, Xavier Bran
ecki, an obscure person bribed by Russia, had betrayed
Poland, of which he was general-in-chief, first by ratify
ing with Adam Poninski the first partition (in 1772),
and afterwards by forming, in concert with Felix Potocki
and Severin Rzewuski in 1 792, the confederation of Tar-
go vitza (the Poles call it the plot in favour of Russia,)
which ruined the hopes of the patriots. However this
may be, Xavier Branicki, married to a niece of the famous
Potemkin and invested with the title of count, with
drew to his estate of Belaia-Tserkoff, where he died in
1819. He left four children, one son and three
daughters ;* but his widow, the Countess Alexandria
Vassilievna, formerly first lady of honour to the Empress
Maria Foedorovna, and afterwards grand mistress of the
* This son is the Senator Count Vhulislaf Branicki, master of the
hounds to the imperiol court. Of the three daughters, two have espoused
each a Count Potocki, and the third also a Count (since Prince) Michael
Woron/.ow, governor-general of New Russia, &e.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 37
court to the reigning empress, remained till her death
(which took place in 1838,) in possession of his im
mense property, consisting, as it is said, of 130,000 serfs
(male souls,) settled on the land of which we have just
spoken, and on other immense domains situated in the
Ukraine,* and moreover of 200,000,000 of roubles in
moveable goods. Mouravieff was not ignorant that
the mansion at Belaia-Tserkoff must contain incred
ible treasures both in money and valuables : ac
cordingly, as we learn from the report of General
Roth,f he conceived the project of securing them in
order to attach his troop to his cause by the liberal pay
he could afford them, and to augment the number of
his partisans by paving his way with gold.
Mouravieff marched till evening in the direction of
Belaia-Tserkoff; but bad tidings induced him once
more to change his plans. On the 15th he wished to
return to Trilessi^, in order, says the " Report," to be
nearer the society of the Sclavonians and to join them if
possible. By these means he gave the staff time to take
efficacious measures, and scarcely had he marched a
few hours when he found the road, between the villages
of Oustinovka and Korolevka blocked up by superior
forces which surrounded him on every side.
Prince Chtcherbatoff,! general aide-de-camp, com
mander-in-chief, and having under his command the
third and fourth corps of infantry of the first army, had
* Potemkin is said to have possessed 200,000 serfs.
t "Journal de Saint Petersbourg," 1826, No. 5.
X Now governor-general of Moscow.

38 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
been ordered by Count de Sacken " to repair in person
to the spot with a number of troops sufficient to exter
minate the band of rebels, and to restore order in the
regiment of Tchernigoff, without hesitating to use such
severity as circumstances might render indispensable."
Moreover, at St. Petersburg, doubtless lest Count de
Sacken should not act with all necessary vigour, it
had been decided, " to remove even the possibility of
any danger," to intrust for the present the command of
the third corps of infantry to the Cesarovitch and
the Grand-Duke Constantine.
This corps was under the immediate command of
Lieutenant-General Roth, upon whom Prince Chtcher-
batoff imposed the task of suppressing the rebellion.
On the morning of the 1 5th, after having despatched to
wards Belaia-Tserkoff, at midnight, twelve companies
of infantry with four field-pieces, in order to cut off
Mouravieff's retreat, he sent off Major-Genl. Geismar *
with three squadrons of Marioupol hussars and two
field -pieces in pursuit of him, and marched forward
himself with five squadrons and six pieces by Fastoff
in order to block up every outlet.
Geismar, at the head of the detachment of the
centre, overtook the rebels on the heights of Ousti-
novka, and summoned them to surrender. Then
vanished every hope of escape ; for the other detach
ments were likewise advancing. Mouravieff, whose in
trepidity of character did not belie itself at that critical
moment, saw that he must die, and so prepared to perish
* Now lieutenant-general, aide-de-camp, and baron.

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 39
like a soldier. Having formed his six companies into
a square, he ordered them to march directly upon the
cannons brought against them, shouldering arms and
without firing a shot. Perhaps he still indulged the
hope that the cannoneers would not fire, but allow
themselves to be enticed into rebellion. However this
be, his companies obeyed the command; but being
received with a shower of grapeshot they were as
tounded, fell into confusion, and at once disarranged
their square ; Mouravieff fell wounded to the ground,
but rose again and continued the fight. And now
the dragoons charged ; Mouravieff was wounded in
the head by a sabre, and the square was broken.
Unable to support himself, the gallant Sergius still
endeavoured to rally his men, when, being at length
undeceived, they threw down their arms, prayed for
mercy, seized their chief of their own accord as he lay
weltering in his blood, and delivered him up, together
with Bestonjeff-Rumine, to the commander of the hus
sars. Hippolyte Mouravieff-Apostol was killed in the
action ; his brother Matthew, as well as the second
Captain, Baron Solovieff, and Lieutenants Kouzmine,
Chtchipilla, Bistritchy and Masalevski, were taken
prisoners ; and Kouzmine the very same day blew out
his brains. Soukinhoff, another lieutenant, succeeded
in escaping and crossing the frontier, but he was soon
after arrested at Kicheneff and delivered up by the
Moldavian authorities to a neighbour too powerful to
be refused. On the side of the imperial troops there
were none slain or wounded ; the rebels had not fired

40 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
a shot ; they had blindly cast themselves in front of
the fire of artillery ; afterwards they had given up all
thoughts of resistance and had been taken prisoners to
the number of seven hundred.
This act of armed rebellion was, till the revolt of
the military colonies in 1832, the last that came
to the knowledge of the public ; excepting a few acts
of riot among the peasantry, order was everywhere
restored ; and if the government had still to act with
severity, it was, from that time, only with the sword
of justice. The state of Sergius Mouravieff's wounds did not
admit of his being compelled to undertake immediately
the journey of 330 leagues which separate Vassilkoff
from St. Petersburg; but Matthew was placed forth
with upon a sledge and conveyed to the capital under
a strong escort. The emperor desired that he should
undergo a preliminary interrogatory in person, doubt
less in order to elicit facts by surprise, which his differ
ent agents might have been interested in concealing
from him ; afterwards he allowed him to write to his
father in his very closet. At one blow, the unfortunate
Mouravieff-Apostol lost his three elder sons : all he
had now to do, as he himself said in the poetic effu
sion of his grief, was to cover his head with their ashes.
For a situation like his, religion alone can supply an
efficacious consolation; but, faithful to his adoration
of antiquity, M. Mouravieff sought his in the perusal of
the " Prometheus" of .Esehylus, a prototype of strongly
moulded characters. His son Matthew did not display

PESTEL'S INSURRECTION. 41
the same stoicism; Christian sentiments had more
power over him than the lessons of paganism: he
was full of repentance. His letter was affecting: he
was henceforth unworthy, he wrote to the author of
his days, to call him his father, but he could not
renounce that dear name which he then used perhaps
for the last time ; now only did he see the whole depth
of the abyss over which he had long walked so giddily;
he entreated his younger brother (by another mother)
to profit by the terrible lesson which his elder bro
thers had given him, and to maintain an inviolable
faith towards his sovereign.
A few days after, the regiment of Tchernigoff and
the whole of the first army took an oath to the
Emperor Nicholas.

42 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.

CHAPTER II.
MORAL STATE OF RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER. — THE SECRET SOCIETIES.
The deeds of the 26th of December and the 15th
of January, especially the former, will stand forth in
the history of Russia as deplorable catastrophes, —
painful symptoms of the evil that is consuming the
nation through its highest ranks.
However, by considering them abstractedly, as we
have just done, perhaps we should not sufficiently
estimate the gravity of the inward commotion of which
those days were at bottom only turbulent but tran
sient explosions, concentrated moreover in the two
localities where they took place, without spreading
further. Nevertheless, perhaps no political disturbance,
since the resistance provoked by the excessively arbi
trary reforms of Teter tlie Great, had been so serious.
The eighteenth century, everywhere else fruitful in
scenes of violence, was not barren in the house of
Romanoff, or rather in the two surviving female
lines; but they were almost exclusively court revolu
tions, planned and accomplished by a few persons,
either favourites or high dignitaries, without any
class of the people taking the least part in them;

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 43
for we do not count the regiments of guards, bribed
by largesses or led astray by deceitful speeches, the
blind instruments of those court intrigues of which
the sanguinary death of Paul I. offered the last but
not the most revolting example. Pougatcheffs rebel
lion in 1773* presents, it is true, a very different
character; yet it was not, properly speaking, a revolu
tionary enterprise, but an attempt made by an adven
turer to turn to his own account the last gleam of
the spirit of independence among the Cossacks, f who
did not love the Russians any more than did the Poles,
and who were especially vexed to see the throne fall
once more into female hands, when Catherine II.
ascended it, after having made away with her husband,
the unfortunate Peter III. None of these events,
however serious their consequences may have been,
had any root in the country itself; they were acci
dents, for good or ill, which, without having a voice
in the matter, it was obliged to endure. The re
volt of the regiment of Semenoff against its colonel,
during the absence of Alexander, then on his road to
the congress of Troppau (in 1820), was an act of
despair to which the soldiers were driven by the harsh
ness of a commander of German extraction : the sol
diers, moreover, were full of submission to their
emperor, and ready to suffer the punishment they had
* See for an account of this revolt, Voltaire's correspondence with
Catherine II : letter 136 et seq.
+ See for what concerns the Cossacks, our work, " La Russie, La Pologne,
et la Finlande," p. 426-444, and the continuation of the subject in ch. v.

44 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
incurred by their transient breach of discipline.* But
the insurrection of 1825 presents a very different
aspect. Doubtless, as we have said, the people remained
completely strangers to it : in their estimation, the
czar, be he good or bad, kind or cruel, is the re
presentative of God showering down his blessings
among men, or inflicting evils upon them just as he
pleases, without their having any right to murmur
against him. The Russian people will rise, when in
utter despair, against a local oppression grown insup
portable, after inhuman treatment, or some unexpected
or inexplicable scourge ;f they mutiny before subal
tern tyrants and shameless officials ; but they never
rebel against the emperor, or take arms for politi
cal questions. For a long time it cannot be other
wise, and, knowing this, the scenes of 1S25 and 1826
must have inspired the autocrat with a sense of
great security. On the other hand, these very scenes
revealed the existence of a numerous discontented
class, impotent, it is true, so long as it remains aban
doned to itself, without exciting the popular sympathy,
but containing nevertheless the germs of a future oppo
sition, silently hostile to autocracy.
People have spoken much, and still often speak, of a
* Sec ante.
t The plague of Moscow, in 1771, and the cholera morbus in 1831,
both attended with horrible excesses. We shall revert to the cholera
morbus in our future publications on Russia, hut in this volume we pro
pose to say a lew words about the contagion of 1771. See Notes and
Ksphumt ions— Note (7), a* well u» the notice on the family Orloff,
Note ()•).

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 45
pretended aristocratic party said to be sometimes
strong enough to impose its own will upon the sove
reign, or at least to suspend the effects of his; it is
represented as looking grim at its master, standing apart,
and undertaking the task of checking the chariot of
state on the steep road of progress. This party, in
which an ancient aristocratic pride is mingled with a
great disgust for that bureauocracy which serves as a
prop for the government, seems to us fraught with
little danger. But several hundreds of persons of
every rank, origin, and religion,* were compromised
in the events of 1825 ;f the clergy alone do not figure
in it, or rather they are represented in it only by that
worthless simoniac of whom we spoke in the preceding
* Amongst the prisoners in the citadel of St. Petersburg, there
were fourteen Protestants who all received, on Easter-day, the commu
nion from the hands of the Minister Reinboth. According to the testi
mony of this ecclesiastic, they were all treated with humanity, and even
with a certain respect.
T The government was interested in disguising this melancholy fact,
especially from foreign countries ; accordingly it took pains to ex
tenuate it. First, it was very careful not to arrest indiscriminately the
members of the Secret Societies, though they had been suppressed by an
ukase. " The commission of inquiry was satisfied with requiring merely
the arrest or the confrontation with each other of those whom credible
testimony authorized to consider as accomplices in the most criminal designs,
and as likely to prove dangerous.'" — (" Report," p. 7.) Secondly, in an offi
cial article, dated January 29th (old style), inserted in the " Journal de Saint
Petersbourg"(1826, No. 14), we read the two following passages: "Their
intentions were such, that the number of men who consented to adopt and
execute them, must necessarily have been very small." " We repeat, the
number of the conspirators, and especially that of the ringleaders, is incon
siderable." With respect to the interior of the empire, Nicholas took
care to state, in his manifesto of the 1st (13th) of June, that " the evil
had not sprung up during his reign, and that it did not menace him
personally, but the whole country in common."

46 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
chapter. If the military, generals, colonels, or inferior
officers furnished the most numerous contingent, it is
because in Russia the career of arms is generally the
starting point in the public service, even to arrive at
high civil functions ; but among the conspirators,
we find functionaries of every ministerial depart
ment, and also literary men, some of whom were
reckoned among the intellectual spirits of a country
in this respect still rather poorly endowed. If Alex
ander Pouschkin, a real genius, and the most popular
of the Russian poets, abstained from a movement with
which he certainly sympathized in his heart, but the
tortuous proceedings of which his loyalty doubtless
censured, it is nevertheless well known that he had
long been classed among the malcontents. Towards
the close of Alexander's reign, he had suddenly re
nounced the service ; being treated with suspicion hy
the government, he had been forbidden to live
either at St. Petersburg or Moscow, and he had im
parted his grief to the people in his Epistle to Iasykoff:
" I am the sport of cruel fate ; for years, I have
wandered at the caprice of despotism without a home."
Besides, however it may be as regards this prince of
Russian poets, the names of Bestoujeff, Ryleieff, Glinka,
Rosen, Kiichelbecker, and others, belong to literature ;
and never had so many men, of such different classes,
officers of every grade, functionaries, poets, and nobles,
taken part in an attempt directed against the govern
ment. In this respect, the movement of 1 825 acquires
extreme gravity, though it may also be accounted for

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 47
by equally singular circumstances : Alexander's liber
alism contrasting with the things as they were ; the great
number of Frenchmen cast into Russia by the emigra
tion, who, becoming preceptors of the young nobles,
implanted in the minds of their pupils, in spite of their
own detestation of revolutions, principles which, when
applied to the country where they lived, might them
selves be considered as revolutionary.
Having mentioned Alexander Pouschkin, we beg
to be allowed to make a short digression in his
favour. Accused of having been wanting in the respect due
to the throne, he remained for several months confined
to his estate in the environs of Pskoff, whence he was
not allowed to stir till after the accession of Nicholas.
About the time of his coronation, the youthful monarch
had a strong wish to judge personally of the sentiments
of a man whose genius he admired. The " Byron of
Russia," less untractable than his model, presented him
self before him, and they had a long private conversation
in the emperor's study. Nicholas, sincerely desirous of
assuaging the discontent of the proud and ardent mind
of the poet, listened without impatience to his austere,
simple, honest, sensible language ; in his turn, the czar
appealed to his feelings by some of those cordial expres
sions which speak to the heart, and with which the
emotion of his own inspired him, on more than one
occasion, at the commencement of his reign. They came
to a good understanding, and the disagreeable im
pressions of the past were obliterated. The emperor

48 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
restored to Pouschkin the right of inhabiting either
capital at pleasure, or any part of the empire he
desired, and moreover announced to him with his
own lips that henceforth, he should have no other
censor than himself (the emperor). The bard of
Oneghine could not withstand such generosity : re
conciled to his country, he became friendly to the
government, served as a volunteer in the campaign of
Asia against the Turks in the army of Paskevitch, ac
companied it as far as Erzeroum, returned afterwards,
and settled at St. Petersburg, and undertook the im
portant task of writing the history of Peter the Great,
which, with all due respect to Voltaire, would have
been by no means an Iliad after Homer. Unfortu
nately, the poet's days were numbered : it is well-
known that he fell in a duel with his brother-in-law,
in February, 1837. Pouschkin's name will survive
with those of Karamzin and Kryloff, the fabulist:
it is hitherto the only one in modern Russian litera
ture preserved in the memory of our regions of the
West. Before returning to our subject, we must here set
down a few general observations, intended to explain
how Russia, where the work of popular emancipation
had hardly commenced, was able to engage in
a career of revolutions, pursued in the manner of
so many other nations of Europe infinitely more
advanced in civilization.
The state of things in Russia is strange, the
consequence of which is a state of uneasiness, which

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 49
nobody entirely escapes. The reader may remember
the explanations already given on this head in our
Introduction. Peter the Great found barbarism in his
country, even as, in our time, Mahmoud II. did in
Turkey, and perhaps to a greater degree ; for, in de
fault of Christianity, Turkey possessed an admirable
position, enjoying a fine climate and the proximity of
two seas. This barbarism was the more odious to him
as he perceived it to be his chief obstacle, — a source
of inferiority and impotence. He needed to be strong,
and he was determined to be rich and powerful : to
obtain this end, it was necessary to impart to "the
Russians knowledge, activity, and a manner .of living
like that of other nations. Accordingly, exterior power,
and material prosperity, were the only aims of the
czar-reformer. His government became European as
if by magic, and, to gain his favour, the nobles of his
court were forced to become so likewise. However,
civilization, far frianjjeingjjf instanianefiiig growth, isu,
the slow and difficulty produce of time: the spirit of
imitation may counterfeit its appearance, but nothing
that is not^ gradually accomplished, can supply the -
place of the intellectual and the moral. It is then,
as it has been termed, tinselled barbarism: when
brought in contact with mere and simple barbarism,
such as it is found among the people at large, the
primitive nature incessantly reappears among the
upper classes, on whom the benefit of education is
often nothing more than an entirely superficial, though
brilliant varnish.
VOL. II. e

50 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
It is to this hasty civilization, the offspring fiffear J>£_
interest, that the extreme indigence of Russia,Jii_mat-^
ters of intellectual creation, must be attributed; this
is what we must accuse, if literature, old before its
prime, has produced no master-piece truly worthy of
such an appellation ; if art languishes ; if the church
seems to be petrified ; if characters are without energy ;
and if history makes abstractions of individuals. The
fever of imitation stifles or excludes those spontaneous
sentiments and that clear and calm purpose which
are originality and oftentimes genius.
But it also gives rise to another and most serious
inconvenience. Bound by self-love to follow the footsteps of pro
gress, indefatigable in imitating and appropriating to
themselves every kind of novelty that appears in the
world of fashion, in literature and the arts, or in the
direction of material interests, the educated classes in
Russia, and with them the government, have the same
wants and necessities as cultivated minds in all other
countries ; like these, they are familiar with the notions
of liberty, publicity, national sovereignty, and inde
pendent and inviolable justice, now so common among
constitutional states. But, in their rapid progress, the
educated classes are not followed by the bulk of the
nation, who are little acquainted with such matters,
and little interested about them. The result of this
is a fact of extreme gravity; which is, that in Russia
there arc, so to speak, two nations; one placed at the
summit of civilization, and the other, at the best, in

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 51
a state of slow and hardly perceptible transition.
M. de CustineV "words,* " a half barbarous society,
but regularized by fear," apply only to the latter.
The interests of these two nations are irreconcilable :
there is a gulf betwixt them ; what appears necessary
to the one would be injurious to the other ; what the
former ardently desires, the latter rejects as foreign
from its faith and national tradition. Now, to which
of the two ought most favour to be shewn ; which
ought to be governed to the detriment of the other 1
Ought it to be the minority, a fraction interesting
from its science, its elegant manners, and its wealth, —
a fraction, moreover, whose numerical force may be
estimated at a few millions 1 If so, they must have
liberal laws and institutions, founded on the co-opera
tion of citizens in public affairs; and such laws would
interrupt the unity of so vast an empire, displease the
multitude, and doubtless the church, and widen still
more the gulf of which we have spoken,' — in a word, it
would occasion anarchy. Or should it be the majority :
for the welfare of those 50,000,000 of men still gro
velling in servitude or in a state of degradation which
results from it, and is equal to it? If so, you must
place a barrier against every intellectual importation,
do violence to the wants of the former class of which
we have spoken, check their aspirations, lead them
back, cut off all their communications with abroad,
and keep them in check by the rigour of the laws.
Such is the fatal alternative in which Russia is
* Vol. iii. p. 95.

52 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
placed, thanks to the work of Peter the Great, and
especially to the everlasting European imitations of
his successors. In the space of a century, much might
have been done to bring these two nations into closer
communion, by instructing the one termed the black
people (tchornii narod), and in nourishing in the
other the national, in the place of the imitative
spirit. The government has committed the enormous
fault of disdaining this important task, and that dis
dain which, perceiving its mistake, it has at length
abandoned, now bears its fruits.
The difficulty is great : Alexander perceived this ;
and this it was that paralysed and arrested the exe
cution of his projects. A sincere partisan of libe
ral ideas, he found himself hemmed in on every.side,
and was everywhere stumbling against almost insur
mountable obstacles ; in this dilemma he turned to the
right-about, so far as to treat as criminal enterprises
provoked, or at least encouraged, by himself. He thus
excited hatred against himself, and that hatred grew
stronger and more envenomed in meetings which at
first he had sanctioned, but which he afterwards dis
trusted ; which he prohibited later, and among which
he was at last considered nothing better than an apos
tate unworthy of respect.
Now let us return to the conspiracy ; and in order
to estimate its real importance, let us no longer confine
ourselves to the knowledge of the facts which appeared
on the surface of things, but let us penetrate into the
secret cabals, and go back to the original springes

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 53
of this plot, so patiently contrived, but nevertheless,
too soon abandoned to hands which could only throw
everything into confusion.
Here we must remind the reader of the restrictions
already laid down. As an historian of a contempo
raneous event, the gravity of which has not been fully
appreciated, and which nobody has yet made known in
its entire extent, we are obliged to enter into a great
number of details. These may appear trifling to many
readers ; in that case, we beg them to have the good
ness to remember that, independently of our task as
a chronicler, and of our having been an eye-witness of
the events related, we have wished to study Russian
civilization in its present state, and that nothing is
more likely to give us an exact idea of it than these
interior debates, the movement of .the secret societies,
and the ambitious or enthusiastic agitation of their
numerous initiated members.
"We have already seen in the account of the two
catastrophes which happened, one in the north, and
the other in the south, that a very different spirit
animated the two principal centres of the conspiracy.
One of these centres was abandoned to the turbulent i
i
and ambitious activity of a man who loved agitation, I
either on its own account and to satisfy his natural j
impetuosity, or as a means of emerging from his ob- j
scurity, and of creating for himself a situation pro- j
portioned to his talents ; in the other, in which civic I
manners preponderated over the habits of military life, |
there prevailed the liberalism of our century, or a cer-i

54 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
tain ideology, the mother of enthusiasm, foreign to all
personal views ; — in a word, disinterested. Well then,
from the very beginning, these two spirits were repre
sented in the secret societies established in Russia:
the former by Paul Pestel, with whom the reader is
already sufficiently acquainted, and who was the
framer of the statutes of the oldest among them ; and
the latter, by Alexander Mouravieff, their real founder,
of whom we have not yet spoken.
Like the Tolstois, the Galitsins, the Dolgoroukis,
and others, the Mouravieffs are extremely numerous in
Russia : the history of the conspiracy presents us with
men of this name belonging to three different branches.
We have already mentioned the Mouravieff-Apostols
and their relationship with Michael Nikita Mou
ravieff, one of the tutors of Alexander and Constantine,
the distinguished author of different historical, philoso
phical, and esthetical works, specially composed for the
use of his pupils.* We shall speak later of Artamon
Mouravieff, brother-in-law to Count Cancrine, and one
of the instruments of the conspiracy of the south. In
this place, our business is with Alexander Nikolaievitch
Mouravieff. He was the son of a general, known for
his works on the art of war, and the brother of that
captain of the guards (Nicholas Nicolaievitch) whose
"Voyage to Khiva," written about the year 1820, is not
forgotten by the learned, and who, having been after-
• After having completed the education of tlie grand-dukes, he be
came successively a senator, a secretary of state, and a colleague of the
minister of public instruction. lie died at St. Petersburg, on the
29th of July, 1807.

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 55
wards employed in the campaign of Turkey in Asia,
charged with a mission in Egypt, and invested with the
command of the troops which Russia, at the demand of
Mahmoud II., landed in 1833, opposite Constantinople,
became one of the most esteemed generals of the empire.
Alexander Mouravieff had received an excellent
education, and the cultivation of his mind could only
be equalled by his personal beauty and the nobleness
of his manners.* He had served in the campaigns of
1813 and 1814, as aide-de-camp to General Tcherny-
cheff, and had performed high confidential functions
at the head-quarters in Paris. Shortly after his return
to Russia, Alexander Mouravieff retired from military
service, either because he had nothing to do, or perhaps
from loyalty, in order to remain faithful to his liberal
opinions without transgressing his oaths, Those opi
nions were in him a matter of conscience : he was a
religious man, a tender husband, and an excellent
father; and when God chastened him by taking from
him some of his children,! he doubtless felt it as a
punishment more severe than that from which the
clemency of the emperor afterwards relieved him.
We have already indicated the causes of the liberal
ism of so many young Russians ; a few particulars on
* Such is the description of him as furnished by M. Erman (" Reise urn
die Erde," t. ii., p. 78), who met him at Irkoutsk, where, after his
condemnation, mitigated by the emperor, he had become a municipal
magistrate (gorodnitche'i). The penalty of hard labour had been com
muted in his favour into a simple banishment to Siberia, without any
loss of rank or nobility.
t His wife also died while sharing her husband's exile.

56 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the mode of life of the persons of the class to which
they belong, will complete the explanation.
Enthusiasm may arise from a mobility as well as
from an intensity of feeling : in Germany, it springs
from the latter cause ; in Russia, from the former.
But in Russia it has not a favourable soil. Amid
the calculations of material life, it is difficult for the
sentiments to become impassioned, and the sight
of those monotonous plains covered with snow dur
ing six or seven months of the year, under a gray
or murky sky, plunges the soul into a kind of apathy
which is the very opposite of enthusiasm. To con
jure away this evil, says an enlightened and sincere
Russian, "we are forced to have recourse to strong
and lively sensations ; the vicissitudes of gaming, the
excitement of dancing, the noise of vast assembbes,
the sensuality of the table, the velocity of our sledges,
the emotions of the theatre, the frequency of traveUing
and removing — whatever may interrupt the mono
tony of a captive existence, becomes an imperative
want which must be satisfied at any price, under pain
of dying of consumption."* Accordingly, the Rus
sians generally pass for a sensual and frivolous people :
" they live and die," says M. de Custine, " without
having once looked at the serious side of existence.
Doubtless, there might be found many honourable
exceptions ; but exceptions, as is well known, only
confirm the rule.
* Sec Dupre dc St. Maurc, " Petersbourg, Moscou, ct les Provinces,"
t.ii. p. 98.

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 57
Thus idealism is not a common tendency in Russia.
In that country reality has the greatest attraction for
all, and the necessity of enjoyment favours there, still
more than elsewhere, that worship of the material
interests which is one of the evils of our century.
In a portrait, doubtless exaggerated, but very curious,
which the travelling moralist whom we have just
quoted, sketches of Russians of the higher classes,* he
accuses them of living in a state of complete moral
anarchy, in which he knows not what surprises him the
most, the licence of some or the moderation of others.
And as, according to his custom, he makes autocracy
responsible for this disorder, he levels against it an
imputation, expressed in a manner too remarkable for
us to pass it by in silence, but nevertheless too serious
to be admitted without some restriction. "The go
vernment of this country," says he, " is too enlightened
not to know that, under absolute power, a revolt must
burst forth somewhere or other, and it would rather
that it should do so in morals than in politics."
However, since the French Revolution, a succession
of great events, the prodigies of the empire — the cata
strophe of Moscow, the rising en masse of nations against
foreign oppression, the religious and almost mystical
spirit which animated them in their struggle, offered
an extraordinary aliment to enthusiasm ; and Russia
did not fail to accept her share. Besides, till very
lately, the young Russian nobility have almost always
been educated by tutors engaged from abroad,
* " La Russie en 1839," t. iii. p. 347 et seq.

58 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
especially French or Swiss, the former heartily detest
ing revolutions, though involuntarily inclined towards
them by the natural vivacity of their minds and the
factious freedom of their language; and the latter
being the avowed friends of progress and new ideas, and
ever ready to serve as their apostles. Had not even
Catherine II. chosen Cesar Laharpe to form the minds
of her grandchildren 1 Being more inclined to initiate
their pupils in the doctrines ihey professed than_to
develope in them ideas compatible with_the..oxdejUQf
things in which they were destined to live, these foreign
masters often ill prepared them forTK- taslTltay:
were to fulfil afterwards towards so backward a_ panu=.
lation. There are infirmities the sight of which we
must learn to support until a remedy for them has
been discovered : to look upon them with disgust is
not the way to cure them. Knowledge will triumph
sooner or later, over all the remains of ancient bar
barism ; but to produce a salutary effect, knowledge
ought to be dispensed with prudence, by degrees, and
in such a manner as not to give birth to new wants
before it is reasonable or possible to satisfy them.
Having been long imbued with ideas termed liberal,
though still sterile relatively to their own country,
many of these youths, officers in the guards, or scat
tered throughout the different corps of the Muscovite
army, became still more completely so during their
long residence in Germany and France, from 1S13 to
1816. In the former of these countries, the patriotic
enthusiasm, the politico-religious ferment, the general

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 59
diffusion of the most solid and real knowledge ; and, in
^EeTatter, the wonder due to the perfection of all the
arts, the public, spirit, the freedom of speech, and
the equality consecrated by manners even more than
by laws, had given them much matter for meditation,
and a sad reflection on their own country could not
foil to be the consequence of their observations. There,
the people were still grovelling in ignorance, separated,
as we have said, by a gulf from the nobility, nay, even
from the citizen classes in certain towns, such as St.
Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, Odessa, Revel, Mitan, Koursk,
Orel, and others. This nobility made its glory consist
in the vain glitter of luxury, and in all the trifles of
outward elegance, more than in profundity of know
ledge, superiority of merit, or consistency and dignity
of character. The Third Estate, that strengjh^jof,
modern, .societies, was at best only in the bu^.Jhe
manufacturing system will perhaps succeed in creat7
ing one, but at that time, .that., system, the object
of so many controversies, was not yetjnjtctipn. The
clergy were devoid of manners as much as of know
ledge and spiritual tendencies; they were without that
magisterial influence, the supreme power of that check
which is always imposed, in default of institutions, by
old customs and deeply-rooted manners. Shackles of
every kind impeded the circulation of ideas ; legisla
tion was a chaos ; the law was devoid of sanction, and
its exact application daily compromised by the venality
of its functionaries. Yet such a state of things existed
under a generous, philanthropic prince, the friend of

60 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
knowledge, intimately familiar with all the liberal
ideas of which he was often the eloquent interpreter,
and which he had often proclaimed to be at once the
want and the honour of the century ! How would it
have been if Paul had had a successor like himself 1
As we have seen, at the commencement of this his
tory, Alexander was less behind his age than any sove
reign of his time. He rejoiced at seeing the Russians,
in their turn, join the movement of the intellectual
world ; he delightedly expected this effect from the
share his empire was taking in the great European
struggle. " The march of the Russian army through
\ Germany and on to Paris," said he, in an audience
Wiven at Berlin in 1813,* "will be profitable to all
Russia. There is a new epoch in history about to
Commence for us also, and my projects are multifa
rious." However, for the present, he confined the
application of his liberal views to Poland, which had
lqng been in the enjoyment of free institutions, but
which that aristocratic republic had, unfortunately for
itself, made the monopoly of a single class. Alexander
thought they might be applied there at once, and
without danger.
But was it possible that Russia, still intoxicated with
victory, could believe herself without the pale of the
civilization of the century, outside the general move
ment, and incapable of sharing in it, when the same
* Sec tlie book, already frequently quoted, of the evangelical bishop,
Dr. Eylcrt, " Charnkter/iige und Historischc Fragmenta nus dem Lcbcn
Fricdrick Wilhelm's III.," t. ii. p. 265.

RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. 61
ideas were fermenting there in every youthful brain \
During the reign of Paul, an absolute monarch who
exaggerated even to illusion the conviction of his im
perial power, pretensions of this kind would have been
repressed and taxed as criminal ; but now they were
advanced with confidence, for their authors were able
to invoke the authority of words uttered from the very
throne.* Those words repeated on different occasions,
confirmed the young Russian officers more and more in
that liberalism to which they had been already accus
tomed under the paternal roof, and which they saw
reigning in England, Germany, and France. It was
the fashion of everybody to conform his own lan
guage to that of the emperor. People felt so sure of
being" agreeable to tfcfczar in taking this direction,
that they went so far as to communicate to him the
often precocious or still-born productions of that
philosophical spirit imported from abroad, which was
no longer hostile to the religious sentiment. Alex
ander received the plans of regeneration conceived
by so many young reformers, without proceeding with
them, it is true, but in that affable and gracious
manner which was . peculiar to himself. It might
nevertheless have been foreseen that this mania would
at length exhaust his patience ; for, good heavens !
* We may perceive their influence even in the Russian journals of
that period. The following appeared on the 4th of October, 1816, in the
" Post du Nord," printed at St. Petersburg :— " The liberty of the press,
protected by our august monarch, has the inappreciable advantage of al
lowing every truth to reach the foot of the throne ; it can displease none
but those who wish to isolate the prince from his people, and such men
will never be listened to during the reign of Alexander."

62 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
what would Russia have become with a rising gene
ration animated by such a spirit, or with an army
commanded by officers each of whom had the plan of
a constitution in his pocket !
We must confess that this fever of liberalism was
really dangerous; the men of the old school were not
the only persons who said so : a Russian general offi
cer, himself a liberal, uttered the following significant
words in 1816, as he was quitting French Flanders
with a few regiments : " Instead of sending us back
home," cried he, " the emperor would do better to
drown us all in the Baltic."
Formerly in our Western regions, liberal ideas, whe
ther in religion or in politics, before making an irrup
tion into the world, remained a long time confined to a
circle of adepts meeting in secret or sometimes under
the protection of the government ; they thus gained
strength, arrived at maturity, and prepared their future
triumph noiselessly, without impatience and without
being exposed to the vulgar contempt of a populace still
too ignorant to comprehend them. This esoterism was
a necessity for higher intellects, and a subject of hope
for the future welfare of all ; nay, it was a source of
security to the state ; for the multitude was thus
preserved from the contact of those dangerous torches,
which, kindled prematurely, and imprudently bran
dished, often produce, in lieu of a beneficent light, a
general conflagration.
Is this same esoterism still possible in our own
time, when so many different ferments are incessantly

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 63
agitating the people 1 The answer of government to
this question has been in the negative, and they have
almost everywhere prohibited secret societies. At the
time of which we are speaking, enlightened and patrio
tic men thought, on the contrary, that these societies
were the only remedy for the evil which is consuming
Russia ; that they would happily blend the pretensions
of one class with the diametrically opposite wants of
another, and form, without any danger, a gentle trans
ition from the present state to a more hopeful future.
At that period secret societies had not yet been for
bidden : * they were very numerous, and the greater
part of them were very inoffensive. Everybody made
a point of belonging to an association of the kind : it
was on this condition alone that a man believed him
self to be a friend of progress and to be of some moral
worth. These associations were secret only in name, or
if there was anything really jconcealed in them it was
less on account of their dangerous designs than to give
still greater attraction to the speculations in which
they indulged.
A few men, however, associated together with more
* The prohibition, expressed in a mandate to the minister of the in
terior, Count Victor Kotchoubei', is dated April 25th (13th) 1822. It
commanded likewise the closing of all the masonic lodges. By virtue of
this decision, every functionary of the government was to declare, on
oath, whether he belonged to any secret society at home or abroad ; to
swear to break off every tie or communication with the societies to
which he might have belonged, upon pain of deprivation of office and
beggary ; and no one could obtain any civil or military employment
without signing the same declaration. This mandate was rigorously
executed ; the sale of the furniture of the lodges was made in public,
as if to make a laughing-stock of the mysteries of freemasonry.

64 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
defined and premeditated views, and these seriously
believed in the necessity of shrouding themselves in
mystery. The Tugendbund of the German students
was then exercising a powerful influence over every
imagination.* It was thought that Russia, where the
emancipation of the people was advancing so slowly
and timidly, needed more than any other country
institutions of that kind, which, however, were by no
means hostile to the supreme authority, since in Ger
many the kings had just found in them useful auxiliaries.
Alexander Mouravieff, young, enthusiastic, upright,
and a sincere friend of his country, figured conspicuously
among the abettors of these secret societies. Perhaps
he did not do himself justice when, seeing the results,
he afterwards repentantly alleged that the mainspring
of his actions had been " an Ul-conceived love of
his native land concealing from his own eyes the
impulses of a restless ambition." At all events, he
did not belong to that class of young men stigmatized
by the official press f as led astray by their ardent
and licentious imaginations, as well as by the example
of the revolutions of which Europe had been the theatre,
and who "forgot the noble traditions of true patrio
tism which were preserved in the bosom of the
Russian nation, their most sacred duties towards the
sovereign and the state, the oaths they had taken, the
social position in which they stood, to abandon them-
* Its statutes may be seen in the " Staats-Lexikon," hy Rotteck and
Wclkcr, at the article Tugendbund, t. xv. p 4l>3.
f No. 14 of the "Journal do Saint Petersbourg," 1826.

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 65
selves to the dream of an absolute reform in Russia, and
to combine in the dark for the means of accomplishing
it." His only aim was the public welfare ; and it was
notjo violence, commotion, or regicide, that he thought
of having recourse to realize it. His example and
influence led astray his brother Michael Mouravieff, but
it was to Nikita (Nicetas) Mouravieff, a more distant
relation, and to Prince Sergius Troubetzkoi, that he
first communicated his projects.
Our readers are already acquainted with the prince.
Nikita Mouravieff* was a young man of a lively
imagination, a warm heart, and a resolute cha
racter. When twelve years old, eluding his mother's
vigilance, he absconded from the paternal roof at
Moscow to go and fight the French, then marching
upon that capital. Since then he had been attached
to Benningsen's staff, and had entered Hamburg with
him in May, 1814. Later, he espoused a young
Countess Tchernycheff, and had associated in his plans
his brother-in-law, the young Count Zachary, of whom
we have already spoken,f an officer in the guards,
and the only hope of an illustrious family. At the
* He died in Siberia in 1 846.
t Vol. i. There exists in Russia but a small number of majo
rats. The Tchernycheff family was in the possession of one of them,
and 14,000 serfs belonged to it. After the condemnation of the young
count, General Tchernycheff, of whom we have spoken in vol. i.,
laid claim to this rich inheritance ; but he was disappointed in his
hopes; the majorat passed to Count Zachary's eldest sister (Madame
Mouravieff was the second), whose husband then assumed the name of
Count Tchernycheff-Krouglikoff. The last male heir, admitted by favour
to serve as a private soldier in the army of the Caucasus, died a short
time after.
VOL. II. F

06 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
time of the revolt, Nikita Mouravieff was a captain in
the staff of the guards.
His first conferences with his relation Alexander and
Prince Troubetzkoi took place as early as 1816.
Captain Jakouschkin and Mouravieff-Apostol's two
elder brothers were successively admitted to their meet
ings. The association was limited as to number; for
the first steps of these future conspirators were charac
terised by extreme timidity ; they raised theories, they
did not prepare to act. To decide them to lay aside
this supineness required the intervention of a bolder
man, one less inclined to observe circumspection.
This man was Paul Pestel, then a young officer,
aide-de-camp to Count de Wittgenstein, but already
what he afterwards shewed himself, imperious, abso
lute, and inclined to extreme measures.
Having made the acquaintance of Alexander Mou
ravieff in 1817, he organized with him and his friends,
under the title of Union of Salvation (Soious spa-
c6nia), or Worthy Sons of the Country, one of the
first secret societies, the statutes of which, extracted
from a few masonic lodges, were his own work. They
were founded on blind obedience ; and, in the cere
mony of initiation, the most fearful emblems, such as
daggers and poison, were judged necessary to add to
the solemnity of the oaths.
Equality was not Pesters ruling passion : his first
principle was constantly the necessity of constituting a
strong hierarchy, so as to concentrate all the power in
: the superior degree, accessible only to a few. Accord-

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 67
ingly, we find in his first statutes these three degrees,
brothers, men, and boiars. The earliest members of the
society were, with a few persons chosen by them, to
compose this last class, which was superior to the other
two, and from which the elders or directors were to be
elected every month. To give institutions to the empire
was, from the beginning, the real aim of the society ; but
a remote future alone could realise this aim, and, till
then, it was important that their time should be use
fully employed. They therefore discussed, in their
meetings, the means of working for the public welfare;
of cooperating in the accomplishment of every useful
design, if not by any active proceedings, at least by an
approbation publicly expressed; and of contributing
to the repression of abuses, by divulging every culpable
act which the functionaries or any of the government
agents might commit. In the estimation of Alexander
Mouravieff and Prince Troubelzkoii, this was the most
essential and the most immediately practicable part
of their task ; but to an ambitious man, like Pestel,
impatient of arriving at power, such pacific in
tentions, even if carried into effect, could be only
accessories. Another secret society was being organized at St.
Petersburg by Major-General Michael Orloff. This
important personage and zealous patriot was the eldest
of the adopted sons of Count Feodor Orloff,* one of
the five brothers of this name so famous during the
reign of Catherine II. He had espoused a daughter of
* See notice No. (2) in the Notes and Explanations of this volume.
f2

68 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the honourable General Raiefski. He himself had
served in the army with distinction. He had arrived
before Paris with his father-in-laVs regiment, and his
signature was conspicuous to the capitulation of the
31st of March, 1814; but, being an avowed partisan of
the constitutional form of government, he had devoted
all his admirable faculties to that cause, and had been
so bold as to press Alexander to grant a charter to his
subjects.* The society founded by General Orloff_had
two objects in^newTf first, that of putting an enjLltP
the collisions and other abuses which had croptjnto
the interior administration of the empire^ and, secjmdlj,
that of counterbalancing theln¥uence of thajififireL
Polish societies which were said to be striving -to. re
establish Poland in her former condition,— a tendency
to which the Russian patriots were avowedly opposed,
but which they suspected the Emperor Alexander of
encouraging. The denomination they had chosen was
that of the Society of Russian Chevaliers. This society
died almost at its birth, although it numbered among
its founders, besides Orloff, Count Mamonoff, a very
estimable patriot, who had been initiated in the an
cient Russian free-masonry, against which Catherine
* In Lesur's " Annuaire" for 1822 (p. 322), we read as follows : —
" There arc important changes in the army of the south, commanded by
Count de Wittgenstein. Reports had spread concerning some demo
cratic proceedings in General Sabanieff 's army, and especially in Orloff's
division, where mutual instruction on the Lancastrian method had been
introduced, — proceedings which have occasioned the punishment of
several soldiers, and the dismissal of a few officers. But the government
has ordered these reports to be contradicted."
+ "Report," p. 12.

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 69
II., though "a republican in soul," believed herself
obliged to wage war, considering it as a coterie of
malcontents. Being in communication, these first two secret socie
ties invited each other to unite ; but they could not
agree upon the bases of such a union. Nay, perfect
unanimity did not even reign in the older of the two,
the only one that had really an existence. It had
been recruited with new members ; however, since the
departure of Pestel for Mitan, which was then the
head-quarters of Count Wittgenstein, it had been halt
ing between two opposite opinions. Whilst, according
to the wishes of some, the society was to confine itself to
a gradual action upon the minds of men, to expunge
from its regulations all the violent laws adopted by
Pestel, and to substitute regulations borrowed from the
Tugendbund code, as it had just been published by the
German journal entitled " Freiwillige Blcetter ;" others,
if we are to believe the " Report of the Commission of
Inquiry," suggested a horrible recourse to regicide
as the only means of arriving at an efficacious reform.
Among the latter, according to this " Report," the man
who made himself most remarkable, with the exception
of Michael Lounine, who was a lieutenant-colonel in
one of the cavalry regiments of the guard (Grodno
hussars), was Major Prince Chakhofskoi', belonging to a
family illustrious by birth and celebrated for the ho
nour of having bestowed on Russia her most prolific
dramatic poet. Takouschkin, excited by the violent
language of his colleagues, and moreover a prey to the

70 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
torments of an unhappy passion which made him
detest life, offered, it is said, to slay the emperor
with his own hand.
The confusion produced by such a difference of
opinions, brought about the dissolution of the earlier
society, or at least its complete reorganization. Ano
ther instantly arose out of its ashes, which assumed
the title of Union for the Public Welfare (Scious
blagodenstviya), and of which Alexander Mouravieff,
with his brother Michael and Prince Sergius Trou-
betzkol were the founders. This latter was durable;
and, in 1819, the prince enticed into it a high func
tionary, M. Nicholas Tourgueneff, a man remarkable for
his intelligence, and the moderation of his principles.
As his name will doubtless be transmitted with this
period of the history of his country, * a few particulars
of his life cannot fail to be interesting.

* We have been this moment informed that M. Tourgueneff is em
ployed upon the publication of his own memoirs, which perhaps will
appear simultaneously with the present work. We regret we did not
know this circumstance sooner. Tlie work in the press could give us
no new information concerning the facts of the revolt, which we our
selves witnessed, at a time when M. Tourgueneff had been more than
two years absent from his country ; but there is room to believe that
we might derive from it much information concerning the state of Rus
sian society at that period. However, among the hints we have received
on this head, there is one which gives us confidence. M. ToUTgueneff
is said to have not confined himself to disprove the numerous charges
brought against him personally by the " Report of the Commission of
Inquiry," but also to deny, in general, the importance of the secret socie
ties in Russia, thereby reducing the whole conspiracy to the few acts
and deliberations which immediately preceded the explosion of the re
volt in December, 1825. On this latter point we regret we cannot be
of his opinion, notwithstanding the just confidence which his assertions

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 71
M. Nicholas Tourgueneff, born about 1790, is the
second of three brothers, all men of merit and united
by the strongest bonds of affection. Their father, a
provincial governor, had long before given proofs of
that craving of the intellect, those spiritual tendencies
which afterwards swayed the minds of his sons. He
had belonged to that sect of theosophists and free
masons termed Martinists, which, at Moscow, counted
the famous Prince Repnine among its principal protec
tors. We shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the
eldest of the three brothers, Alexander Tourgueneff,
one of the principal auxiliaries of Prince Galitsin in
the ministry of public worship, and who terminated
at Moscow, on the 15th of December, 1845, a most
honourable career. The second son, M. Nicholas Tour
gueneff, after having thoroughly studied law at Gottin-
gen, had been appointed, in 1813, Russian commissary
attached to the person of Baron de Stein, charged with
the provisional administration of the German countries
retaken from France. The elevated character of the
celebrated Prussian statesman, the patriot and liberal,
had made a strong impression on his mind. On his
return to Russia, he entered the civil service, where he
rose to the rank of actual councillor of state.* De- *
voted to his native land, and a sincere well-wisher to the
must inspire : his view of the subject, in our opinion, agrees neither with
the testimony of the facts, nor with the confessions of a great number of
the condemned.
* Notwithstanding this epithet actual, it is merely an honorary title,
like all the others of tchinn ; it answers to that of major-general in the
army, and gives a right to the title of your Excellence.

72 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
peasantry, he had devoted himself to the study of that
great question, the emancipation of the serfs,* and had
collected, towards its solution, the most valuable mate
rials. He had been appointed assistant secretary of
state, a post which connected him with one of the com
mittees of the council of the empire, and, at no distant
period, he might, without presumption, have aspired
even to a ministerial portfolio. The third brother was
Sergius Tourgueneff. Early in 1826, he arrived in
Paris after a journey to Rome, in company with
Joukofski, the excellent lyric poet, and able trans
lator of Schiller and Hebel, when he learned the news
of the skirmish at St. Petersburg, and of the dis
closures by which his brother Nicholas was seriously
compromised. Sergius was so affected by this intelli
gence, that he lost his reason, and died a few months
afterwards. Alexander gave a no less indisputable
proof of his strong attachment to his brother : he
secured his fortune, and transferred it to him at Paris,
where Nicholas, now the sole survivor, has ever since
resided. Secret societies are liable to the laws in force in
every country ; but to shew that the Union for the
Public Welfare, so far from pursuing a criminal course,
was based upon an enlightened patriotism, it will be
sufficient to indicate its character in the exact words in
the " Report of the Commission of Inquiry" (p. 16-18).
" The principal propositions in the code of the union,"
* Sec, on this question, chap, iv., and the Notes and Explanations,
Note (15).

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 73
says the " Report," " the most remarkable ideas, and
even the very style, exhibit an imitation of, and in
a great measure, a translation from the German. The
authors declare, in the name -of the founders of the
association, that the welfare of the country is their
only aim ; that such aim cannot be at all injurious to
the views of the government ; that, notwithstanding its
powerful influence, as the government needs the co
operation of individuals, the society they were or
ganizing would serve as its auxiliary in doing good ;
and that, without concealing its intentions from citi
zens worthy of sharing them, it would prosecute its
labours in secrecy, to shield them from the inter
pretations of malevolence and hatred. The members
were divided into four sections or branches. Every
member was to be registered in one or other of the
sections, without, however, the power of refusing to take
a part in the labours of the others. The object of the
first section was philanthropy, or the furtherance of
public and private beneficence. Its duty was to watch
over all the charitable establishments, and to report to
the directors of such establishments, as well as to the
government itself, any abuses that might creep in, and
the means of remedying them. The object of the second
section was intellectual and moral education, the pro
pagation of knowledge, the establishment of schools,
particularly on the Lancastrian system, and a useful
co-operation in the instruction of youth in jgeneral, by
examples of good morals, by discussions and writings
analogous to those views andjm accordcmce wjtJiJhe

74 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
purpose of the society. * The members of this second
section, were intrusted with the supervision of all the
schools. They were to inspire youths with a love of all
that is national, and to oppose, as far as possible, the
idea of having them educated abroad, as well as every
foreign influence. The third section was directed to pay
particular attention to the proceedings ofjthe tribu
nals: its members pledged themselves not to refuse such
judicial functions as might be intrusted to them by the
election of the nobility or by the government ; to fulfil
them with zeal and punctuality,! to observe carefully
the progress of affairs of this nature, to encourage
upright functionaries, to grant them even pecuniary
assistance, to strengthen in good principles such as
should betray any weakness, to enlighten such as should
lack knowledge, and to inform against dishonest or
corrupt officials, and expose their conduct to the go
vernment. Lastly, the members of the fourth sec-
* An excellent idea, and worthy of being considered by all true
Russian patriots. See what we have said on this head, in our article on
Russian literature, in the " Encyclop^die des Gens du Monde," t. xx. p.
723. t The tendency to shun public employments conferred by election was
but too evident. In an ukase dated August 20th, 1802, Alexander had
already censured it. "We have heard,'' said he " that the best among
the nobles and citizens avoid appearing at the elections, and, consequently,
shun employments. The natural result of this would be that the distri
bution of justice would fall into the hands of persons who do not offer a
sufficient guarantee," &c. Indeed, the most ordinary men, bent upon
living on unlawful profits, would alone seek such duties. The patriots
thought, like Alexander, that a remedy was wanting for this evil, and it
was to preserve to justice its character of integrity that Rvleilff, Pousch-
tchin, and other nicmbcis of the secret societies, accepted gratuitous
offices in the tribunals.

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 75
iejgaselyes,.to the study of_political
economy; they were to endeavour to discover and
define the immutable principles of the wealth of
nations, to contribute to the development of every
branch of industry, to strengthen the public credit and
to oppose monopoly."
Did this last section conceal under the cloak of
science political propositions which were not confined
to mere theories ? We know not ; but as to all the
other avowed powers of the sections it is impossible
to refuse them our unqualified approbation. Let us
boldly state our opinion : to combine with such in
tentions was to deserve well of their country. In the
state of things now existing in Russia, the system indi
cated is the only one that ought to be followed ; but
there was one element wanting, without which, in our
estimation, it would be incomplete and ineffectual. In
Russia little attention has hitherto been paid to this
first of all the principles of civilization, though its ex
terior influences exercise an immense influence upon
the multitude. It is under the auspices of religion
that instruction and the teaching of morals should
be placed ; it is to a regenerated clergy that these
important duties should be intrusted ; it should be
their task to open schools, to visit cottages, to exhibit
good principles together with good examples, to en
courage the national spirit, and arrest the contagion
of foreign ideas which is so much dreaded, and which
is in fact noxious, because it impels towards a facti
tious, borrowed, and discordant civilization. In fact,

76 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
it is now necessary to swim against the stream, to re
commence things at the point where Peter the Great
found them, and to develop them in quite a different
direction. This noble mission can be undertaken suc
cessfully only by the clergy, but, as we have said, a
completely regenerated clergy, prepared and effected
by the sovereign, aided by well directed seminaries
and nominations to the higher dignities in the church,
made after mature reflection and with the most consci
entious care.
These ideas, to which we intend to revert elsewhere,
did not figure in the programme of the new secret
society, but those which really found a place there are
nevertheless exceedingly valuable. They seemed so
little likely to appear hostile to a government which
derived its powers from an Alexander, that Michael
Mouravieff, strong in the belief of their inoffensive-
ness and in his personal intentions, which were so truly
pure, proposed to solicit the monarch's assent to the
establishment of the society. His proposal was ne
gatived by a majority. Moreover, we must confess
that the green book (so called from the colour of its
binding), which ostensibly contained the regulations
of the society, comprised only the first part of its
statutes ; it alludes to a second part which, however,
never received the sanction of the more influential
members. The plan of this second part was presented
by Prince Troubetzkoi but without being taken into
consideration, and Alexander Mouravieff threw it into
the fire, together with other papers, in 1822, three

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 77
years after he had withdrawn from the society, when,
to use his own expression, the ray of divine mercy
had enlightened his soul which had been grovelling in
darkness.* Besides Captain Nikita Mouravieff, several persons of
that name figured in the ranks of the society : for
instance, Artamon colonel in the regiment of hussars
of Akhtyr,-)- Alexander a cornet in the horse-guards,
and others.
As early as 1819, the Union of Public Welfare
counted too great a number of members for its exist
ence to be likely to be compromised by individual
desertions. The following is the manner in which it
was or would have been constituted.
By virtue of their being older members, the found
ers of the society formed what was termed the cen
tral union. From that union was selected the
central council, composed of a surveillant and five
assessors, one of whom was elected under the autho
rity of the surveillant to the functions of president,
and then assumed the title of chief of the union.
Every fourth month two of the assessors retired from
the council and were replaced by others as was also the
surveillant at the end of the year. When the remain
der of the members of the central union joined the
* "Report," p. 50.
t This is the description appended to the name Artamon Mouravieff,
brother-in-law of General Cancrine, the minister of finance, in the list
annexed to the Russian original of the "Report;" but, according to the
text (French transl. p. 59), he belonged, during the conspiracy, to the
regiment of chevalier-guards. He died in Siberia in 1846.

78 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
council, that assembly assumed the name of central
direction. The central council exercised the executive
power in the union ; the legislative power belonged to
the central direction. The latter was charged with
the election of the functionaries of the union, of which
it formed likewise the supreme tribunal. The council
was authorised to enrol members, and to invest with
its powers, at their own houses, such individuals as
enjoyed the confidence of the central union. Thus new
directions were established, termed effective, second
ary, and principal. They took the title of effective as
soon as they were composed of ten members, and then
received a copy of the first part of the regulations.
The central union had the power of making an effect
ive direction out of a less number than ten, when
ever the need of accelerating the diffusion of the
society justified this exception. Every effective direc
tion was able to establish a secondary one which had
no connection with any other, so long as it did not
attain the number of ten members. The title of prin
cipal direction devolved upon all such as had completed
three secondary directions, or three free societies, — a
name given to associations which, without forming an
integral part of the union of pubbic welfare, were
nevertheless able to contribute to the furtherance of its
views by their influence on literature, the arts, and so
forth. Each direction had at its head for the exercise of
authority, the maintenance of order, and the division of
labour, an elective council composed of a surveillant
and one or two chiefs, according as the direction itself

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 79
was composed of ten or twenty members. Every kind
of business both in the directions and in the central
union was decided by a majority of votes. There
were no particular ceremonies on the introduction of
members : the candidate handed in a written declara
tion which was afterwards burnt without his know
ledge. He had the right of quitting the union on
taking a solemn engagement to observe secrecy re
specting everything that had come to his knowledge
during his membership. In order to enable the society
to defray its expenses, each member was to pay into a
common treasury the twenty-fifth part of his annual
income ;* he was moreover bound to conform to the
laws of the union.
There existed two directions at St. Petersburg, one
presided over by Semenoff, the officer of chasseurs —
whom we must not confound with his namesake, the
titular counsellor — and the other by Colonel Bourtzoff ;
moreover, there were free societies, two of which were
in the regiment of Izma'iloff, one of the oldest in
the guards : one established by Prince Eugene Obolen-
ski, by Ensign Jacques Tolstoi, and by the assessor of
the college Tokareff, who died during the preliminary
* On this subject we read as follows, in a notice, unfortunately too
individual, on Bestoujeff-Rumine, in the Supplement to Michaud's "Bio-
graphie Universelle :" " The society was increasing slowly, and notwith
standing the enormous sum given by Bohrinski, son of Count Bohrinski,
the illegitimate offspring of Catherine II. and Prince (Gregory) Orloff,
the funds were so trifling that these mischief-makers despaired of a suc
cess which they had at first considered very easy." We know not of
what this contribution consisted : there is no mention of Count
Bohrinski in the " Report."

80 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
proceedings, and the other by Semenoff, the officer of
chasseurs we have just mentioned.* At Moscow there
existed also two directions : the former had for its pre
sident Alexander Mouravieff, who resided for some time
in that capital after retiring from service ; and the
second, Prince Feodor Chakhofskoi. Other directions
were also established in the provinces, as we shall
presently see.
Major-General Michael Orloff and M. Nicholas Tour
gueneff not having succeeded in founding the society
they projected, caused themselves to be enrolled in the
Union for the Public Welfare, as we have stated. Many
questions were discussed during the sittings of the
directions of the council, and often violent proposals
were made ; but, according to Pestel, there was not
one fixed principle adopted, and, on more than one
occasion, what had been unanimously resolved one
day was changed on the morrow. The idea of attempt
ing the life of the Emperor Alexander was very soon
proposed : it was especially seconded by Pestel and by
Nicholas Mouravieff; but for a long time the other
members agreed in rejecting it as odious, maintaining,
with reason, that the first consequence of such a crime
would be a disastrous anarchy, whicli the jproyisional
government, meditated by Pestel, would not succeed
in reducing to order. However, if the " Report" may be
believed, this dreadful idea gained ground, and it was
without question this disposition of men's minds that
induced Alexander Mouravieff, frightened at the con-
* « Report," p. 23.

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 81
sequences of his own work, to quit the association. He
was doubtless afraid that violence would ultimately
outweigh his own views.
Pestel, on his part, saw there were no great results
to be obtained at St. Petersburg ; accordingly, he
concentrated, from that time, all his activity on the
south and on the second army, in the heart of which
he had founded the direction of Toultchina, a town in
which had just been established the head-quarters of
Count de Wittgenstein, to whom, at that period, he
was aide-de-camp. He was incessantly repeating to
his young comrades, says the " Report," that, though
it was obliged to remain a secret some time longer,
Alexander's wish was to inspire the Russian youth and
the troops with ideas of reform ; that, in preparing a
new order of things, they would be acting conformably \
to the monarch's intentions ; that in St. Petersburg :
the minds of men were all in a ferment ; that a
society both numerous and imposing, on account
of the talents or the social position of its members,
was already formed there ; and that everything fore
boded a coming revolution. It is impossible to
see without astonishment what an incredible ascen
dancy this young officer exercised over every mind : he
made numerous proselytes, and his speeches were listen
ed to as though they had been the language of the
Gospel. Conferences were held either at his house or
at Jouschnefski's, the general intendant of the second
army, a functionary superior in grade, since he had the
rank of major-general, but with whom Pestel, who had
VOL. II. G

82 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
affiliated him to the union, remained to the last on a
footing of perfect intimacy. Occasionally, when at these
meetings his opinions excited contradiction, discussion
degenerated into dispute. Pestel was absolute, and
would never admit that the wisdom of others out
weighed his own : accordingly, to be the more sure of
being always in the right, he would speak at one time
of a dictatorship, at another of a triumvirate ; for he
was fond of quoting Roman history, less, however, in
favour of public liberties than of power.
A stronger organization of the society appeared a
step absolutely necessary to Pestel, who became vexed
at the want of agreement he met with in some, and
the apathetic philosophism of others. On his part,
eager to act, he was indignant at seeing that so many
speeches and sittings had not yet produced the least
result. Like Napoleon, he detested prattlers and
ideologists. It was doubtless in the hope of at length gaining at
St. Petersburg that authority which he really enjoyed
only in the south, that he proposed the holding of an
assembly in which the whole society should be repre
sented by deputies. The central union consented,
and sent to Moscow, the place appointed for this
assembly, two important men — Nicholas Tourgueneff,
with whom the reader is already acquainted, and
Foeder Glinka, the colonel of the Isma'iloff regiment,
an esteemed poet, and the author of several military
works.* However, Pestel was prevented from attend-
# We shall have to revert to him again ; let us merely say here that

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 83
ing by his military duties: the powers of the direction,
of which he was the chief, were entrusted to Colonel
Bourtsoff, then the commander of the Ukraine regi
ment of infantry, and to Lieutenant-colonel Komaroff.
Besides these four members, the general assembly was
composed of Major-General Michael Von Visin (Von
Wiesen), and his brother Ivan, of Major-General Mi
chael Orloff, Colonel Grabbe,* Jakouschkin a retired
captain, Michael Mouravieff, Alexander's brother, and
Okhotnikoff. According to the " Report," the presidency
was conferred, for the whole time the meeting might last,
on M. Tourgueneff, whose moderation never failed him
throughout the course of the debates. These, how
ever, presented a spectacle of anarchy and weakness ;
and such was the opposition of opinions, that General
Orloff declared in writing that he would withdraw
from the society (a resolution in which, luckily for
himself, he persistedf), while a majority of the other
members thought it would be impossible to continue
their meetings without exciting the suspicions of the
police. Indeed, it was high time to dissolve : some were
tired of the constant renewal of the same quarrels ;
others recoiled at the sanguinary projects which
remained no longer a mystery; others again, — and
these were the real conspirators — felt the necessity of
he must not be confounded with Sergius Glinka, a journalist and dra
matic author.
* Since known by the command he exercised in the Caucasus, and by
the advantages which Chamyl gained over him.
t As also did Grabbe, a Prince Dolgoronki, and several others. g 2

84 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
getting rid of those scrupulous, timid, irresolute men,
(who may be false brethren, thought they,) or whose
alliance at least seemed more likely to prove danger
ous than advantageous to them. Consequently, to
wards the end of February, 1821, after a short deli
beration, the president declared, in the name of all the
assembled deputies, that the Union for the Public Wel
fare was from that time and for ever dissolved. The
regulations and all the other papers were committed
to the flames.
From that moment M. Tourgueneff no longer took
any part in the secret societies ; but the dissolution was
only a blind on the part of the conspirators. Even before
the return of the two deputies of the Toultchina direc
tion, Pestel concerted with Touschnefski to fix upon a
new plan of proceeding ; they agreed to consider the
dissolution as null and void, and to take advantage of
the resolutions of Moscow only to purge the society,
and thus get rid of men who, in their opinion, were too
pusillanimous. These latter were few in number in the South; and,
accordingly, the news brought by the two delegates was
ill received. Henceforth, free to do as it pleased, the
Toultchina direction consolidated itself more strongly,
and became itself the centre of the plot.
Pestel returned to his former plan. There were to
be three classes of members : the brethren, or the merely
initiated, who had not the right of affiliating others ;
the men, who enjoyed this right, but who must not
reveal to the new adepts the names of their coasso-

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 85
ciates in the different classes ; and, lastly, the boiars,
a superior class, out of which were chosen the pre
sidents or directors, whom, in serious emergencies, all
could join in order to determine the necessary mea
sures. This class was composed in the following man
ner : besides himself and his friend Touschnefski, the
general intendant, Pestel introduced Colonel Avramoff,
commander of the Kasan regiment of infantry, Surgeon-
Major Wolff, Captain Ivacheff, the two Krukoffs, one of
whom was aide-de-camp to the general in chief; Prince
Bariatinski, occupying the same confidential post ;
Lieutenant Bassarghine, General Prince Sergius Vol-
konski, a subaltern conspirator, notwithstanding his
great name ;* and Colonel Vassili Davidoff. Pestel and
Touschnefski were elected presidents or directors ; and,
a little later, Sergius Mouravieff-Apostol was added to
their number.
To the douma or directory of Toultchina two com
mittees (oupravy) were subordinate ; that of Kamenka
or right committee, was presided over by Davidoff and
Prince Sergius Volkonski, and that of Vassilkoff or left
committee having Mouravieff-Apostol and Bestoujeff-
Rumine at its head.
Since the revolutions of Spain, Naples, and Piedmont,
the idea of a military insurrection had been daily
gaining ground. In January, 1823, the leaders of the
* As we have said, he was brother-in-law to Prince Peter, Alexan
der's confidant. By his wife he was likewise brother-in-law to General
Michael Orloff ; both having General Raiefski for their father-in-law.

86 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
committees assembled at Kief, with the chiefs of the
direction, that they might at length come to some
resolution. Pestel had drawn up, under the name
of Russian Code (Rousska'ia Pravda), a projected
charter, partly copied from the constitution of the
Corte's, but if anything, rather more republican. ^Jn_
this document the whole empire was parcelkd^utjata.
a certain number of great provinces or states, forming
together a confederation of republics. The transition
from absolute monarchy to this new regime was to
be effected by means of a provisional government, over
which Pestel, as a matter of course, was to preside,
with the joint assistance of some eminent preTafe*an<r
some other personage of consequence favourable to his
designs, which he hoped to secure. The first measure
of this government (the " Report " takes good care to
state it, in page 43) was to be the suppression of the
secret societies, and the organization of an active
espionage, exclusively confided to agents " commend
able for their good sense and the purest morals."
A few chapters of this Russian Code were read at
the meeting, but there is room to believe that appro
bation was not bestowed upon those portions of it
which we have just enumerated. Then another ques
tion arose : " When the new laws have been put in
force, what is to be done with the imperial family V
An enemy to half-measures, Pestel did not hesitate to
reply ; " It must be exterminated." He consented at
most to the transportation of the grand-dukes and
duchesses, to be effected by the fleet of Kronstadt,

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 87
with which they had kept up a secret intelligence.
All, however, were not of his opinion; Mouravieff-
Apostol in particular protested against regicide, and
though the majority sided with Pestel, it was agreed
not to decide irrevocably in an assembly formed of
only six individuals so vital a question as that of
the fate of a dynasty.
Time, or Pestel's suggestions, soon dispelled the scru
ples of Vassilkoff, the president of the committee, and
on the first opportunity that occurred of executing their
projects he shewed himself ready for active measures.
In 1823, the approach of the emperor was announced to
the 9th division, mustered in a camp in the neighbour
hood of Bobrouisk, a fortress on the Borosino, in the
government of Minsk (Lithuania). The Saratoff regi
ment of infantry, commanded by Colonel Schveikofski,
one of the conspirators, formed a part of it. Mouravieff-
Apostol, in concert with Bestoujeff-Rumine, built
great expectations upon this circumstance. By the
help of a few officers of that regiment disguised as
privates, he designed to seize the monarch, the Grand-
Duke Nicholas, who accompanied him, and Diebitsch,
the head of the general staff; next, to excite the
troops, collected in the camp, to rebel; to leave a
garrison in the fortress, which might serve him as a
place of refuge in case of any reverse, and to march
upon Moscow, carrying with him all the troops quar
tered along the road.
To effect a coup-de-main of such importance, it was
necessary to have auxiliaries of. every kind, but, among

88 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the superior officers, besides Schveikofski, nobody but
Lieutenant-Colonel Noroff could be relied upon ; conse
quently, an appeal was made to the zeal of Colonel
Davidoff. Pestel was asked for his advice, and Best
oujeff-Rumine even repaired to Moscow, to invoke
the assistance of the conspirators, whom he supposed to
be still in communication with each other, and' to
bring back a few young men willing to be his tools.
No part of this plan succeeded. In the month of April
in the following year (1824), Pestel himself concerted
with the two friends a similar attempt, but without any
better success. A false report had led them to expect that
the Emperor Alexander would come, in the course of
that year, to review the 3rd corps of the first army near
the town of Belaia-Tserkoff. The following plan was
then determined between them. During the evening
of the day on which the monarch should alight at the
pavilion situated in the park of Alexandria, belonging
to the Countess Branicka, and at the moment the
guards were being relieved, officers, disguised as com
mon soldiers, were to rush into his apartment and kill
him. At the same instant, Sergius Mouravieff-Apostol
and Colonels Schveikofski and Tiesenhausen, com
manders, one of the regiment of Saratoff, the other of
Pultava, were to cause the camp to revolt, and then
to march upon Kief and Moscow, where their allies
would assist them. From Moscow, Mouravieff was to
have directed his course towards St. Petersburg, to act
upon, and in conjunction with, the society of the north.
Such are the assertions of the "Report;" but all this re-

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 89
mained a mere project, for the expected review did
not take place.
We have just again mentioned a society of the
North. The dissolution of the Union for the
Public Welfare had not been considered as real in
St. Petersburg any more than at Toultchina, or
at Moscow ;* but, as the members differed from
Pestel in principles, and as they were more patient,
and had less taste for extreme measures, they cared
not to remain connected with him. Nicholas Tour
gueneff and Alexander Mouravieff no longer be
longed to the society, but it still met and enrolled new
members. It was composed, among others, of Prince
Eugene Obolenski, a man more impetuous and less sub
ject to scruples than his predecessors, of whom we have
just spoken; of Colonel Narischkin, commander of
the Taroutino regiment of infantry, and of Semenoff,
the titular counsellor ; they soon had accessions from
the imperial guard, and Mitkoff, colonel of the Finland
regiment, especially, became one of their party.
As this guard quitted the capital shortly afterwards,
the operations of the society were suspended ; but it
resumed its sittings in the year 1823. Its real chief
then was Captain Nikita Mouravieff.
Whilst Pestel's Russian Code was the fundamental
rule of the association of the South, Mouravieff drew
up for that of the North another plan of a constitution,
* In the " Report" (p. 60) there are, moreover, secret societies men
tioned as having existed in the Caucasus and. at Kharkoff. The young
Count Jacques Boulgari was named as being the president of the latter.

90 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
likewise discovered by the agents of the inquiry, and
which was produced on the trial. This constitution,
whilst it maintained a monarchical government, left the
emperor a very limited authority, like that of the Presi
dent of the United States, and likewise parcelled the
empire into independent states, united by a bond of
federation, — a dismemberment which seems certainly to
have been opposed by every patriot proud of the atti
tude her colossal greatness allowed Russia to assume in
Europe ; but to which other members had consented,
substantial civilization and efficient interior adminis
tration being, in their opinion, considerations of far
greater importance.
The society was divided into two sections, that
of believers (obejedennis) or superior section, and
that of adherents (soiedinennii or soglasnii) or inferior
section. The members of the latter were simply adopted
persons, admitted after a few preparatory proofs, to
whom the objects of the association were gradually
revealed. They were made acquainted neither with
the means of attaining them, nor with the period of
future action, nor indeed with any other member than
the one by whom they were initiated. Nevertheless,
through the mediation of the latter, who was a mem
ber of the superior section, they had themselves the
right of initiating two candidates. The adherents
might pass into the class of believers, if they had in
their favour the suffrage of all the members present at
St. Petersburg. It was the superior section that had
the privilege of electing the members of the directory,

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 91
or council, charged with the government of the society,
and with the control of the acts of this council.
The society of the North, though acting indepen
dently of that of the South, did not renounce its co
operation. Like the latter, it looked forward to the
time when a military insurrection would realise its
hopes. But, besides that they were differently con
stituted, they were distrustful of each other, on ac
count of their respective leaders, between whom there
existed very little sympathy. Communications be
tween the societies were generally verbal and of rare
occurrence ; and when Pestel wrote to N. Mouravieff
in 1823, "Half measures are good for nothing; we
must get rid of rubbish :" it was not the way to
make the connexion more intimate. Nevertheless, he
made strenuous efforts to effect this object : Prince
Volkonski, and Colonels Davidoff and Schveikofski
came successively to propose on his part the union
of the two societies, and being himself, at St. Peters
burg in 1824, he left nothing untried to conciliate
the friendship of Ryleieff, then one of the directors,
but too great an admirer of Washington to allow a
footing in Russia for a Napoleon, even supposing one
should appear. Ryleieff was not the only member pre
judiced against the dictator of the South ; notwith.
standing the praises bestowed on him by Matthew
Mouravieff-Apostol, the society of the North so far dis
trusted his restless and ambitious spirit, that it con
sidered it expedient to watch his proceedings, — a task
accepted by Prince Sergius Troubetzkoi on the occa-

92 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
sion of a journey to Kief, where he was to fulfil the
duties of military governor, and make the influence he
might derive from that employment serve the interests
of the conspiracy.* On his return from abroad, about
the end of 1823, he had been associated, together
with Prince Obolenski, by the believers of St. Peters
burg, with Nikita Mouravieff, till then the only chief of
the society. But his departure for Kief had caused
Ryleieff to be received in the directory at the end of
1824, and from that moment the republican tendency
gained the upper hand. Being a pupil of the Ajne=-.
ricanschool, Ryleieff had signalized his entrance into
this council by a protest against directors holding
their offices for life ; in his opinion, they should have
been re-elected every year.
Scarcely had Ryleieff been received into the society,
when he introduced his friend Alexander Bestoujeff;
and, doubtless, the example of the latter operated upon
his brothers and many young writers. The number of
the conspirators increased every day : to the historical
names we have already seen conspicuous in the Ust,
such as Troubetzkoi, Obolenski, Odoifski, Chtchepin-
Rostofski, Narischkin (not to speak of the society of
the South, in which we find Princes Volkonski, Baria-
tinski, Chakhofskoi", and others), must also be added
those of Moussin Pouschkin and Galitsin. Prince
Valerian, a gentleman of the chamber, represented

* He is said to have escorted to Paris, at the emperor's expense, a
Princess Kourakin, afflicted with a mental malady.

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 93
this latter family, one of the most illustrious in
Russia.* Among the means of propagating their opinions, are
mentioned seditious songs and other pieces of verse
composed by Ryleieff, who also undertook to complete
the catechism of the free man commenced by N. Mou
ravieff. All this was printed clandestinely, with news
paper essays and proclamations, Lieutenant-Colonel
Michael Lounin having established a lithographic
press for the purpose.
We have said that in 1824, Pestel, then colonel
of the Viatka regiment, came himself to St. Petersburg.
Believing the time for action to be fast approaching, he,
doubtless, wished to extend his relations and to con
trive to obtain auxiliaries in the very seat of govern
ment. He therefore proposed to open conferences.
At a meeting at which Princes Troubetzkoi and
Obolenski, Ryleieff, Matthew Mouravieff-Apostol, and
several other members were present,f Pestel, after
complaining of the inaction of the society of the
North, of its want of union and fixed principles, and of
the difference that prevailed between its regulations
* See the notice about this family at the head of the reflections in
the present volume.
t The " Report '' (p. 65) also names among them M Nicholas Tour
gueneff ; but, perhaps, with no more correctness than later (p. 92), at a
time when this patriot was certainly no longer in Russia. M. Tourgue
neff desired a change in the form of the government ; this is incon
testable ; but he does not appear to have relied much on the secret
societies for attaining this end. He considered their proceedings a loss
of time, and retired from them. If it was distrust, perhaps they paid
him back in his own coin. As to the rest, his work will doubtless
enlighten us on this point.

94 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
and those of the society of the South, adverted to the
necessity of uniting the two societies, of having the
same leaders, boi'ars, at St. Petersburg as at Toult
china, of causing every measure to be put to the vote
by them and carried by the majority, and of providing
that such decisions were afterwards obligatory upon all.
The proposal was assented to, but as the first member
of the directory of the North, Nikita Mouravieff, was
not present at this sitting, Pestel repaired to his house
in the hope of convincing him also. He again explained
to him his plans to get rid of all the members of the
imperial family, to force the holy synod and the senate
to declare the secret society the provisional government
of the empire with unlimited powers. This was ever
the essential point in his mind, the rest being far less
important. The provisional government, added Pestel,
after having received the oaths of all Russia, distri
buted amongst the members of the society the ad
ministration, the command of the armies and their
troops, and other public employments, might gradually
and in the course of a few years introduce the new
order of things.
N. Mouravieff as well as Ryleieff distrusted the am
bitious colonel ; besides, their views did not coincide
with his. They did not despair of the triumph of reform
while they preserved the monarchy, which, however,
previous to 1822, Mouravieff had himself held in slight
regard. The plan of the latter was summed up in the
following terms : to finish the plan of a constitution he
was preparing, and to distribute manuscript copies of it

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 95
among all classes ; to excite an insurrection in the
army and then get this plan printed ; the revolt gain
ing ground, to organize in every place occupied by the
rebels the new authorities whose institution he pro<
posed, and to change the tribunals ; in case the imperial
family, "if that, indeed, were possible," (Mouravieff was
very young,) should not accept his constitution, to mo
dify it and propose the establishment of a republican
government. Mouravieff, it will be seen, ended, and
then only in the event of extreme necessity, with what
Pestel wished to begin, without any kind of hesitation.
Accordingly, he convoked a new meeting that the ques
tion should be examined once more. At that meeting
he maintained that a complete junction between the
two societies was impossible, first, on account of the
distance, and next, because of the difference of opi
nions. " Each enjoys his own opinion in the society
of the North," said he, "in that of the South on the
contrary, if I am well informed, nobody dares contra
dict Pestel ; the majority of votes would be, therefore,
only the expression of his single will." Pestel, added
Mouravieff, did not tell, moreover, how many boi'ars he
had in his society, and he reserved to himself the right
which he however granted to the rival society, to
create new ones. Now, he was resolved for his part
never to be the blind tool of any majority whatever,
whose decisions might be repugnant to his conscience :
he would rather withdraw from the association. These
words made a great impression ; Pestel gave up the
point, and it was agreed to leave things in their present

96 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
state till 1826, at which period delegates, furnished
with full powers, were to be assembled to give the two
societies the same leaders and the same principles.
From that moment an evident coolness was observed
in Pestel : he no longer shewed any confidence in men
who seemed to place so little in him, and, though he had
promised to communicate his plan of a constitution,
he never sent it, neither did he furnish any information
respecting the laws or the composition of the society
placed under his direction.
Meanwhile, that society was becoming impatient ;
according to its own assertion everything was ripe for
a revolution ; — as if such great crises could be suddenly
created at the caprice of the passions of individuals)
and were not the spontaneous produce of known, impe
rative, and universally felt necessities. The Vassilkoff
committee especially, directed by Sergius Mouravieff-
Apostol and Bestoujeff-Rumine, proceeded with fever
ish activity. It greatly increased the number of its
initiations, says the "Report" (p. 69); it traced plans
and decided upon the enterprises of its own leader, not
without giving notice to the directory at Toultchina,
but without waiting for its consent. It was the first
to enter into correspondence with a Polish society, with
which, and also with the society of the United Sclavo
nians, it opened a communication.
This was a new turn in the conspiracy, especially
important to Poland, whose re-establishment in its in
tegrity was still meditated by thousands of patriots,
and where, in spite of the prohibitory act of the 18th

THE SECRET SOCIETIES. 97
of December, 1821, the secret societies were in full
activity. Those of Russia offered them their co-oper
ation ; and this alliance, negotiated by Pestel and
Bestoujeff-Rumine, or in their name by agents, is curi
ous enough to deserve to engage the reader's attention
in a separate chapter.

VOL. II.

98 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.

CHAPTER IH.
AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN SWORN ENEMIES.  TBE STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION
IN POLAND.
Poland, bound to Russia by an indissoluble tie, is
like a fire-ship attached to the side of a large vessel
and obliged to sail in company with her : in spite of
every effort, and notwithstanding a few partial explo
sions, the inflammable matter remains in the incendiary
vessel, and the least accident, by setting it on fire, may
occasion a terrible catastrophe. The danger might he
removed by cutting away the ropes which fasten the
two vessels together ; but the fire-ship is a capture
which the victors are unwilling to relinquish, a trophy
of which they are proud, a weapon which they reserve
to make use of whenever an opportunity occurs.
The reader has seen in the preceding volume, the
old rivalry between the two principal Sclavonic nations,
which are jealous of each other ; separated by interests ;
incessantly disputing for the possession of vast do
mains, without any moral affinity whatever; though
sprung from the same stock, very different in character ;
and lastly, influenced by totally dissimilar historical and
religious traditions.
It was impossible to expect any good result from
their union : the decline of one or the ruin of the
other country must be the inevitable consequence.*
* Sec M. de Chateaubriand's remark, vol. i.

ALLIANCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND POLAND. 99
Politically speaking, Russia sufficed for her own sup
port ; she was independent of Europe, she was able to
stand clear of the affairs of the west, which really lit
tle concerned her; for her essential interests lie in her
own region, which, as we have said, contains a world
to be elevated into historical value and importance.
United to Poland, she became her guardian — her
gaoler ; she accepted a responsibility in the affairs of
others, and the odium of acting a part which is no
longer pardoned in our age of feebleness and philan
thropy. " She must," says an anonymous author, "keep
Poland imprisoned alive in the tomb, and place upon
that tomb a hundred thousand men to prevent it from
opening. She has been obliged to go forth, to overrun
her neighbours, to intrude upon offended civilization,
and to take her ground in an attitude to which are
attached those ideas of fear and irritation which it
was neither her intention nor to her interest to pro
duce." Poland has prevented, and will long prevent,
Russia from pursuing her true policy ; she has forced
her again into the rather paltry and antiquated conflict
of European affairs, which offer to her a motive or a
pretext for incessant interference. K we may be per
mitted to anticipate the sequel of these reflexions,
we will assert here, that, as to the Emperor Nicholas,
Poland has violently turned that' monarch from the
path that was naturally traced out for him and which
he had begun to pursue, which was an entirely interior
policy, involving the reformation of abuses, the endea
vour to implant guardian institutions in the soil, and
an anxiety to develop the abundant resources which
it offers, or that would be found in the genius of a
H 2

100 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
nation, still uncultivated in every respect, but abun
dantly endowed. It is evidently the struggle between
Russia and Poland that caused the adoption of the
present system of centralization and uniformity, a sys
tem prematurely begun in a country whose law ex
tends over twenty different races of people ; nay,
where eighty different languages bear witness to the
juxtaposition of the most discordant elements. It is
seeing the state of Poland that makes us understand
why Russia is now renouncing that spirit of religious
toleration imposed by Peter the Great, upon a popula
tion that till then had been fanatical, and even upon
a clergy before so exclusive, and hostile to foreign
innovations and creeds. Russia is driven to that re
nunciation now, that she may restore to the national
faith its ancient confidence in itself, that she may
give it more energy and expansion, that she may invite
it to propagate its doctrine, to urge it on to its tri
umph, and to make an auxiliary of the temporal
power in its deadly struggle with insubordinate sub
jects, belonging to a different church.
However, what was the congress of Vienna to have
done with Poland, unwilling as it was, under any
circumstances, to restore her independence, so desirable
doubtless for many reasons, but difficult to effect, and
against which, the three great powers of the north had
bound themselves by treaty 1* Besides, was the congress
* Perhaps there was one way of parrying the difficulty arising from
this state of things, and of re-establishing ancient Poland without com
pelling the three other powers to give up their part of the spoil. To
offer an opinion on this subject is, doubtless, to come postjistum, to do
a tiling for which there is no occasion ; but the reader will pardon our
giving a little more development to an opinion too rapidly sketched in

ALLIANCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND POLAND. 101
free to vote on that question ? Was not the will of the
Emperor Alexander heavy in the balance there ; and
did he not manifest energetically a resolution of
appealing once more to arms rather than renounce
his projects 1 Russia imperatively exacted the crea
tion of a new kingdom of Poland in her favour : she
has accordingly none to blame but herself for the cruel
embarrassment which her conceded demand has inflicted
upon herself.
Alexander, benevolent but capricious, soon felt a
keen sense of the necessity of repairing, as far as
possible, a great act of injustice, by restoring their
native country to the Poles. He saw himself in per
spective, the constitutional king of that old republic,
and that character flattered his ambitious and enthu
siastic nature ; it appeared to him more noble than
an earlier portion of this work. This then is our opinion. The amal
gamation of Poland with the three neighbouring powers was a thing im
possible, and no one should have expected to see her three great divisions
separated, without at the same time expecting to see a desire on their
part to reunite. Accordingly, it was necessary to have endeavoured to
re-unite them by a new tie that might have respected the Polish spirit
of nationality which is ever so sensitive. The three great divisions,
added to the republic of Cracow, might have formed a confederation of
which that town, the ancient residence of the Piast kings, would have
been the centre, — the seat of government. This government might have
consisted of a kind of federative diet, in which each of the three powers
should have had a representative ; two others to be named by the
municipal republic of Cracow. Thus, there would have been, in the
council at least, two Poles to three foreigners, or representatives of
foreign interests. Laws would have been made in common ; a general
and uniform direction would have been given to the affairs of the coun
try ; while each of the three powers would have remained mistress of
her part of the territory, carrying on the administration, and charged
with its defence. This idea is doubtless as Utopian as many others,
and we see very plainly the objections that might be urged against it ;
but of several evils or inconveniences, ought one not to prefer the least ?

102 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
that of an autocrat reigning over dumb slaves in an
immense wilderness.
But it was impossible to conceal that this was a
dangerous part to play. "It was difficult to con
ceive," says the French anonymous writer, already
quoted, " that, in the same empire, it would do, on
arriving at a certain point, to pass from absolute
power to constitutional liberty at a stride, that is to
say, that one had only to take a single step to stand
in a different century." The force of this observation
did not escape the acuteness of statesmen, for, as
early as 1814, Lord Castlereagh ventured to warn
Alexander that the experiment he meditated, was likely
" to excite in his own states a poktical ferment."*
Alexander turned a deaf ear to such observations,
which indeed were dictated by interested motives : he
was determined to try the experiment, and he per
sisted in his project.f
At first, everything went well. The Poles, intoxi
cated with the liberal professions communicated to
them, happy to emerge once more into existence, and
expecting from the future still more than the present
bestowed on them, were not backward in praising the
* Lord Castlereagh, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry, made this
remark in his correspondence witli Alexander concerning Poland, — a
correspondence recently made public, and the analysis of which will be
seen in Note (8,) in the Appendix to this volume.
t A constitutional organisation of Poland was, in the emperor's opi
nion, the only means of pacification. He said it was greatly to the inter
est of Russia to put an end to the agitation of the Poles, and he ex
pected this result from his charter of 1815. " If longer oppressed," said
he in his letter to Lord Castlereagh, " they will one day react against fo
reign influence, and that reaction must necessarily endanger the tranquil
lity of Russia and the north."

ALLIANCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND POLAND. 103
chivalrous king who, by restoring them to the rank
of nations, had become the master of their destiny,
Their hearts once more expanded with hope, and
the great peace-maker lulled all former animosity.
Notwithstanding their old quarrels, and those antipa
thies envenomed by the remembrance of a spoliation
unheard of in history, the Poles and the Russians made
mutual demonstrations of friendship : they came to an
understanding to live together in amity ; they did not
despair of continuing good friends ; at all events, if
they could not sympathise with, they thought at least
they might endure each other. They expected to see
ancient Poland sooner or later reconstructed; for Alex
ander had formally promised to annex to the former
grand-duchy of Warsaw a few of the dismembered pro
vinces, still however to be subject to his rule. * What
could be more interesting to patriots ; and was it not
just to allow some concessions in return for such a
prospect 1 Besides, the diet was to meet, and it did meet

* Independently of verbal promises, we read as follows in the 1st article
of the final aet of the congress of Vienna : " His imperial majesty re
serves to himself the right of giving to this state, enjoying a distinct ad
ministration (though united to the empire of Russia), what interior exten
sion he may think proper." Moreover, even such of the Polish provinces
subject to Russia as were not incorporated with the kingdom, were to be
maintained in their nationality. The same article in the final act stipu
lates in their favour as follows : " The Poles, the respective subjects of
Russia, Austria, and Prussia, shall obtain a representation and national
institutions, regulated according to the mode of political existence that
each of the governments to which they belong shall judge it useful and
proper to grant." And in one of the readings of art. 3 of the treaty be
tween Austria and Russia, dated May 3, 1815,  "shall obtain
institutions which assure the preservation of their nationality." As to
the rest, the final act is dated the 9th of June, and is consequently
posterior.

104 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
solemnly, in March, 1818. So they had, at length, a
tribunal where the voice of the nation might be heard ;
where rights were placed under the safeguard of the
senators and nuncios chosen among the most respectable
persons : nobody could doubt but that these functionaries
would remain faithful to the national traditions, though
they might profit by the rude lessons of experience, so
efficacious in putting men on their guard against that
individual spirit of nationality which leads to anarchy.
The opening of the diet answered the expectations
of the Poles. As the reader knows, the most assua-
sive language was heard from the throne on that occa
sion. The emperor was never weary of repeating that
the existence of Poland was guaranteed not only by
the fundamental law, but also by the inviolability of
exterior engagements.*
There were, therefore, no gloomy forebodings dur-
* He had already written from Vienna to Count Ostrowski, the presi
dent of the senate : " It is with particular satisfaction,'' says he in his
letter, " that I announce to you that the destiny of your country has just
been definitively determined, by the assent of all the powers united at the
congress," and yet those " exterior engagements" which, according to
Alexander's speech, were to have been a guarantee, have been slighted
by the act which suppresses the independence of Cracow, by the fiat
of three of the contracting powers only, and without the co-opera
tion, nay in defiance of the other powers that signed the treaty. Prince
Metternich, in his despatch of the 4th of January, 1S47, maintains the
right of the three northern courts in this particular ; but his memory
was defective, for here is what he had himself written in a former de
spatch of the 9th of February, 1818 : " The final act of the congress of
Vienna is undoubtedly the fundamental law of the present political
system of Europe, since it has been sanctioned by the assent of all the
states of which that system is composed. For this reason, the arrange
ments and principles whicli are set down in this act, whether they regard
any European state directly or indirectly, have become obligatory upon
all."

ALLIANCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND POLAND. 105
ing the first years of the annexation of Poland to the
powerful empire of the czars. But, before long, peo
ple began to perceive that the hopes in which they
had indulged were fallacious.
Alexander had to consult the susceptibility of his
own people, ill-disposed towards the Poles, and little
satisfied at seeing rights granted to them which they
did not themselves enjoy. An agitation of no slight
description was, moreover, observable in Germany and
other countries, which was said to have been occa
sioned by the secret machinations of demagogues.
The sovereigns, heedful to preserve their, power in
tact, were alarmed by it ; they communicated their
uneasiness to their too easy ally, combated his liberal
tendencies, and succeeded in persuading him to enter
into their views. After the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle,
Alexander's language was no longer the same : fear had
usurped the place of confidence, promises were forgot
ten, and the execution of his former projects was in
definitely postponed. The Poles now perceived that
they could no longer rely on Alexander. The unit
ing into one- nation provinces which Russia had ac
quired by virtue of the new partition, and the kingdom
with which she had recently aggrandized herself, be
came more and more problematical ; the autocrat
assented to the oppressive mode of government esta
blished by the Grand-Duke Constantine ; the liberties
granted by the constitution were found to be all com
promised, and, — the illusion dispelled, — ^there remained
nothing for the Poles but the memory of their past
grandeur, aggravated by the painful sense of their pre
sent abasement. Accordingly, feelings of animosity

106 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
revived in all their force, and a new struggle was
brewing.* It would, however, be unjust not to allow that, till
1830, Russia did much for the material prosperity of
the little kingdom annexed to it ; and, even in a
moral point of view, there was at that period a per
ceptible progress, owing to the establishment of a great
number of popular schools, and to the influence which
social advancement ever exercises over the intellectual
development of man.
But when the national sentiment is aroused to
jealousy these benefits are not reckoned ; they are re
garded as a bait, intended to enervate us and to lull
our vigilance.
Complaints arose in every direction. The Russian
government re-established the censorship, suppressed
freemasonry and every association, recalled the youths
from the foreign universities, where they were com
pleting their studies, established a surveillance over
those at home, waged war on many occasions against
the political theories (in its opinion subversive of
order) in which they indulged, and at length (February
* Our business in this work can only be with the earliest scenes to
which it gave birth : the struggle itself will be related in another publi
cation. Though terminated apparently by the siege and capture of
Warsaw in 1831, it nevertheless was followed by a train of commotions,
and, after an interval of fifteen years, brought about the suppression
of the free town of Cracow (at the convention of Vienna, November
6th, 1846), the last remnant of the ancient aristocratic republic,
where the ashes of the Piasts had, till then at least, remained in the
Polish soil. At the present day, a frightful desolation reigns through
out the different divisions of Poland, especially in Galicia, as will
be seen from the details related in Note (9,) at the end of this
volume.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 107
13th, 1825,) went so far as to abolish the publication
of the debates at the Diet.
This violent measure was intended to stifle the out
cry of an opposition which of course arose in the
chamber of nuncios. This opposition displayed itself
as early as the session of 1820, and the election of
the brothers Niemojowski as members of the provin
cial council of Kalitz, was a very significant symptom
of the public discontent. But an open war against
Russia had then few chances of success : people had
scarcely emerged from one protracted crisis, and were
little disposed to recommence another. The patriots
perceived this : they resolved to bide their time, and
to prepare in silence a future insurrection. Thus
Poland has her carbonarism, like Italy.
Perhaps even that country had a certain share in the
establishment of secret societies in Russia, where hitherto
they had been unknown and useless, at least where in
earlier times the most anarchical doctrines had been ut
tered publicly with the most perfect security. Dombrow-
ski, the illustrious leader of the Polish legions, is said to
have been the first to suggest to his fellow-countrymen
the idea of providing for their enfranchisement, by asso
ciations in which they would learn to know and to rely
on each other, and where they might organize before
hand an authority which, when the time came, might
undertake the .direction of affairs. Dombrowski had
passed several years in the Italian peninsula with the
wreck of the Polish army in the pay of France, which
he had commanded. Even on his death-bed (in 1818)
his mind was still busied with the salvation of his
country. " Why can I not," said he, " reanimate the

108 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
former energy of the Poles! That they may be
strong and powerful as their forefathers they lack
nothing but confidence in their own strength. Let
them go and demand back their country of those who
have robbed them of it," &c. These words, engraven in
the memory of the numerous friends present at the scene,
were regarded as a kind of political testament, for the
fulfilment of which several of the old companions in
arms of the dying hero, for instance, General Uminski,
and other Polish patriots, considered their faith engaged.
It was repeated to the youths in the universities, and
they were fired by it; and, as early as 1820, there
were associations at Wilna, where Professor Lelewel
rekindled and sustained the national spirit. The
avowed aim of the patriots was a devotion to
scientific studies, but, notwithstanding the indul
gence of the Governor-General Krymski-Korsakoff,
so well known for his defeat at Zurich,* several
prosecutions took place. Thomas Zan, a student,
founded a new society, termed Friends of Virtue, and
among his colleagues a youth, Adam Mickiewicz, was
observable, who has since become a celebrated poet.
The Russian authorities caused this society to be dis
solved, and its leaders to be brought to trial. The pre
liminary inquiry did not furnish any sufficent charges
against them ; but a second having been intrusted to
the care of Novociltsoff, an old friend of Alexander,
he succeeded, in 1823, in bringing a few in guilty. Zan
nobly and generously took upon himself the full re
sponsibility of all that was laid to their charge ; and
he expiated his transgressions, which doubtless were
not very serious, by an exile to Siberia.
* He died in 1826.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 109
As early as 1821, freemasonry, as we have said, had
been prohibited as well in Russia as in Poland. But
General Uminiski founded almost immediately, in the
grand-duchy of Posen,* an association called the
reapers (Kossiniery,) which extended to every part
of the ancient republic. Other members of the ma
sonic order assembled secretly at Warsaw, and formed
there an institution (called a vendita) at which they
unreservedly debated the interests of the country,
notwithstanding the active espionage of the govern
ment. Such was the origin of the Patriotic Society,
for that was the name they soon adopted. One of
their leaders was Major Valerian Lukasinski, a resolute
man, who had fought in all the campaigns of the
Polish legions from 1806 to 1814. His tragic end
was spoken of throughout Europe. The Russian police
having discovered the existence of this secret society,
and being, in addition, informed of everything relating
to it, by a treacherous member, who, having been accused
of bigamy, wished to purchase his pardon by this act
of villany, they communicated all they had learned to
Constantine, who caused the major to be arrested at
one of the meetings of the society ; and Machnicki,
Dobrogoyski,Dobrzycki, Szreder the advocate, Koszutski,
besides several other patriots fell with him under the
tender mercies of the grand-duke. He immediately in
stituted a rigorous inquiry. If we are to believe Polish
reports, he employed every kind of torture to extort
confessions from his chief prisoner. Pent up in a
cell eight feet square, without either air or light,
* This is the official German name of this fraction of Poland ; the
national name is Poznan or Poznania.

110 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Lukasinski is said to have been confined in the strictest
solitude, sequestered from the world : permission to see
him was refused to his nearest relations. They even
made him suffer the gnawing pangs of hunger to overcome
his obstinacy. The prisoner did not deny having belonged
to a secret society, but he represented himself as the
only person guilty ; stating, moreover, that the society
was not in existence after the day when the ukase pro
claiming the dissolution of secret societies was pro
mulgated. Being brought before a council of war
with five of his friends, he was condemned to the
loss of his rank and to nine years' hard labour.
The former part of this sentence, commuted to seven
years by the Emperor Alexander, was executed at
Warsaw in presence of the troops and a vast concourse
of people, on the 1st of October, 1824. The chain
which bound Lukasinski to the barrow of a galley-slave
was riveted on his body, and he was sent in this man
ner to the fortress of Zamosc where he was to undergo
his punishment. Firm and constant to the last, he
conspired anew with his companions in misery. Not
withstanding the suppression of the revolution in Italy
and in Spain, the state of Europe seemed to him so
favourable to his projects, that he believed a signal
alone would suffice to effect an insurrection in Poland.
This signal was to have been the surprise and capture
of Zamosc. But the plot was betrayed, and Lukasinski
was brought once more before a court-martial. He
was condemned to death ; a sentence which Con
stantine commuted into perpetual imprisonment, his
motive being, as it is asserted, that he still hoped
to extort from him all his secrets. Accordingly, he

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. Ill
underwent a further and a strict examination, and,
report adds, he was lashed with the knout to overcome
his obstinate reserve. The agonized Lukasinski at
length made a partial confession, which he afterwards
disavowed when he was summoned before the tribunal
before which the conspiracy of 1825 was undergoing
examination. Exposing to his merciless judges his
bleeding body, he is said to have called upon them to
declare whether confessions obtained by such torture
ought to be held valid in the eyes of justice. After
that scene nobody knows what became of the unfor
tunate man ; for, from the night of the 29th of
November, 1830, he was sought for in vain in every
dungeon in Warsaw. But some peasants of the country
through which the caesarovitch, surrounded by his
guards, effected his retreat, asserted that they had
seen, chained to a cannon and running behind it, a
man who was manacled on the hands and feet. People
have concluded that that man, thus ignobly dragged
along by Constantine, was the unfortunate Lukasinski.
However this may be (for we can affirm nothing for
certain on this subject), the imprisonment of the
founders of the patriotic society did not occasion its
complete dissolution ; but prudence dictated to its
members to suspend its meetings for a time, and to
keep apart as much as possible.
The whole of ancient Poland was comprised in the
sphere of action of the society ; for, faithful to a
policy, in our opinion, injurious to their cause, the
Poles have ever been unwilling to renounce any part
of their ancient territory, or to act otherwise than in
common with all their fellow countrymen, without

112 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
respect to the government whose subjects they have
become. Accordingly, independently of the kingdom
of Poland, the society extended to the free town of
Cracow, to the grand-duchy of Posen, to Galicia,
Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and even to Kief,* a
province whose chief town is one of the ancient
Russian capitals, one of the principal sanctuaries of the
orthodox people ; the whole population, excepting the
nobility and the Jews, still belonging to the com
munion of the Church of the East, and speaking the
language of their forefathers. The case is similar in
Volhynia, a country essentially Russian, though shared
among Polish nobles, ardent and patriotic like those
of Podolia.
In each of the three last mentioned provinces the
society had a local committee or council ; these
councils, sometimes formed into one, having its presi
dent at Kief, would take up its quarters in the three
chief towns, according as necessity or circumstances
directed. Among the principal members, quoted in
the " Report of the Committee of Inquiry at Warsaw to
the Csesarevitch Constantine," \- we meet with historical
names ; for instance, Tarnowski, derived from Tarnow,
in Galicia, a town only too unhappily notorious as
being the place where the massacre of the nobles of
the district in 1845 occurred. These conferences
usually took place at the fairs of Balta in Podolia, and
of Berditcheff in Volhynia, or at the statutes of Kief,
which are annual fairs to which the country proprietors
* According to the Russian pronunciation./ The Poles'pronounce and
write it Know.
\- See the " Journal de Saint Petersbourg," 1827, No. 73, pp. 297-312.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 113
repair in the month of January, for the settlement of
their affairs. At Kief, a certain Grodecki had been
since the year 1824, charged with watching the in
terests of the Patriotic Society, only a few leagues'
distance from Pestel, but the latter altogether unaware
of it, was occupied with similar designs. Bestoujeff-
Rumine made this discovery. Although the Polish
society was not formed on the same principles and had
not the same interests as the Russian society, they
might, nevertheless, render assistance to each other.
Had the Poles been ready to act, a formidable military
revolt, discovering itself not only in the south of
Russia, but in the very seat of government, would have
formed a very serviceable diversion ; to the Russian
conspirators, it would not have been less advantageous,
to see the Polish and Lithuanian armies, and the
csesarovitch himself, contending against a national in
surrection in Poland, at the very moment they were
marching against Moscow and St. Petersburg ; and they
would not have hesitated to purchase this assistance
even at the sacrifice of a conquest dear to Russian
pride. Neither party had been blind to these con
siderations. At that period, the Patriotic Society of Warsaw had
just been paralysed by the capture of its chiefs. Dis
persing for a time, the members who had escaped arrest
sent instructions to the committee of Volhynia to dis
continue for the present the enrolment of new members.
But, after this solitary clap of thunder, the storm sub
sided ; the government were evidently not acquainted
with much ; they had only laid hands on a few scattered
portions of the plot, and the rest had escaped observation.
VOL. n. I

114 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
The firm Lukasinski withstood the tortures employed to
extort his confession, and some of his fellow-prisoners
were acquitted for want of evidence against them. The
emperor Alexander granted an amnesty to the other
members of the Patriotic Society. They therefore took
courage, and quitting their hiding-places, where they
had remained shut up, they began gradually to assem
ble, and at length re-established their former con
nexion. A centre of action was now in full opera
tion : it was composed of Severin Krzyzanowski, a lieu
tenant-colonel in active service, of Prince Antony Ja-
blonowski, of Grzymala, the master of requests, and of
the secretary Plichta. To these was added, shortly after
wards a still more important person, Count Stanislaus
Soltyk, a venerable gentleman respected by every body,
and whose illustrious name shone yet more from the re
membrance of public services extending over half a cen
tury. He was the son of a castellan of Warsaw, and
nephew to Gaetan Soltyk, the celebrated bishop of Cra
cow, who, animated by an hereditary hatred to the Rus
sians, and by a religious fanaticism to which this senti
ment, doubtless, was not foreign, resisted the imperious
will of Prince Repnine in the affair of the Dissenters,
supported with ardour the cause of Polish independence,
and became the victim of a bold attempt to secure it in
1767. It is well known that Repnine, whose pride
was hurt, seized on the person of the courageous
bishop, as well as on those of several other patriots,
and sent them off from Warsaw during the night, to be
transported into the interior of Russia.* His nephew,
* John Krasinski, bishop of Kameniec (Kamenietz), succeeded, as is
well known, in escaping arrest, which was intended for him also.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 115
Stanislaus, remained true to the traditions of his family
and to the cause of his native land. He took an im
portant part in the adoption of the constitution of the
3rd of May, 1791, which was intended to save the
country by preserving it from the incurable evil of
anarchy. Unfortunately, Catherine II., furious at the
loss of Poland, would not permit this course ; the
violence of the Russians brought about a second and a
third partition, and at length the unhappy country
disappeared from the map of Europe. At the time of
its partial restoration, under the auspices of Napoleon,
in 1807, Soltyk quitted his retirement in which he
had cultivated literature and the arts, and having been
elected nuncio, he was appointed in 1811, marshal of
the diet. After the creation of the little kingdom
which the congress of Vienna set up in the place of
the grand-duchy of Warsaw, Soltyk, like many
others, at first put confidence in Alexander's promises,
but seeing none performed, nay more, seeing the rights
consecrated by the constitution openly violated, he
once more indulged his former feelings of hatred to
wards the Russians. He was then more than seventy
years old, having been born in 1751. Notwith
standing this advanced age, he still preserved all the
ardour of his patriotism : about the year ] 824, he
entered the secret societies, and is said even to have
endeavoured to lure into them Prince Czartoryiski,*
who, however, withstood the veteran's suggestions.
One may easily imagine with what pride the Patriotic
Society received such a man among its members : few
names were more revered than that of Stanislaus Soltyk,
* The same to whom we devoted Note (7) in vol. i. i 2

116 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
but moreover, having been again elected nuncio in
1825, he had been raised in that year to the dignity of
castellan senator. The society hastened to acknow
ledge him for its chief ;* but the most active mem
bers were his two colleagues, Prince Jablonowski and
Lieutenant-Colonel Krzyzanowski.
It was through the latter that the society of Warsaw
was brought in contact with the committee of Vas
silkoff, — a contact that was fatal to it, without impart
ing any real strength to the Russian conspiracy.
Prince Jablonowski and Count Victor Ossolinski,
whom business called occasionally to the fair of Kief
and into Volhynia, had, in 1823, noticed among the
officers of the regiments stationed there, symptoms of
a discontent which they did not attempt to dissemble
even in public. Having, also, collected the vague re
ports in circulation respecting the existence of a secret
society which aimed at overthrowing the form of the
government of the empire by a revolution, they brought
them to Warsaw, where these reports soon excited ge
neral attention. It was resolved that an inquiry should
be instituted.
On the other hand, Bestoujeff-Rumine had, in the
same year, discovered the Polish secret society ; and
* Married to the Princess Coroline Sapieha, Stanislaus had a son
by her worthy of himself, General Count Roman Soltyk, an enlight
ened patriot, who took share in every campaign in which his country
men fought, was not a stranger, it is said, to the conspiracy of 1825, and
performed also an important part during the insurrection of 1830. At
that period, he was nuncio of the diet and commander of the artillery at
Warsaw. He afterwards took refuge in France, where he published a
" Precis Historique et Politique de la Revolution du 29th Novembre" (2
vols. 8vo), as well as two other works ; and died at Saint Germain
en Layc, on the 24th of October, 1843.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 117
from that moment neither he nor Mouravieff Apostol
could rest till they had formed a connection with it.
Count Alexander Chodkiewicz (another name illustrious
in the Polish annals) was their mediating agent, but it
was not till 1824 that they contrived to meet together
in a conference with Colonel Krzyzanowski.
Here we must set down an important observation.
From the very outset, a striking contrast is observable
between the two kinds of conspirators, partly natives
of the same provinces (Kief, Volhynia, Podolia), and yet
representatives of two different nationalities. Among
the Russians, there was more impetuosity and violence,
and less respect for truth, national traditions, and human
life; whilst, among the Poles, — in whose ranks, moreover,
figure more illustrious names, — there was a total absence
of that thirst for blood which we shudder to observe in
Pestel and his friends, — more patience and moderation,
a certain self-possession in factious debates, a complete
harmony with national tendencies, and in this particu
lar also, great sincerity towards the Russians. In the
very first interview with Vassilkoff's two friends, Krzy
zanowski declared to them that he was not by any
means authorized to make any definite arrangements
with them ; that he had no other view than to esta
blish between the two societies (and he shewed great
discretion respecting that of Warsaw) a communication
that might enable them to come to an understanding.
Next, he replied with perfect frankness to the over
tures made by Mouravieff-Apostol. The latter shewed
himself extremely liberal ; according to him, the neces
sity had arisen, and the time was come to get rid of
that national animosity, the offspring of barbarous

118 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
times, and an anachronism in an enlightened age, when
the interest of all nations is identical. Consequently,
added he, the Russian society offers Poland her ancient
independence, and is ready to make use of every means
in its power to put an end to those unhappy animosities
which still separate the two nations. Krzyzanowski
declared that, for his part, he was, perhaps, equally with
the Russian delegates, above such a feeling ; but that,
owing to circumstances, prejudices were so deeply
rooted and so general among the Poles, that it would
be a difficult task to persuade them to enter into an
alliance with Russians, " and infinitely more difficult
still to inspire them with confidence."
Thus, no intimacy was as yet possible. Nevertheless,
every question was discussed. The Pole inquired in
the first place, in what space of time the Russian con
spirators would be ready to act ; but no satisfactory
answer could be returned, no definite decision having
been made on this subject. On the question whether
Poland was to receive her ancient limits with respect
to Russia, which would have implied the concession of
all the grand principality of Lithuania, besides several
half Russian, half Polish provinces, and perhaps even
that of Kief, should they trace further back than the
old partition of 1772 ; on this second question, I say,
they were not able to give any more positive assurance :
this matter, they said, could only be regulated after
wards, as the opinions of the Russian society were
divided on that point, and a party existed among them
which advocated the integrity of the empire in its
present boundaries.* The Russian delegates entered
* Indeed, the members of the association of the north reproached

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 119
into more precise explanations as to the form of govern
ment which it might be expedient to adopt. Their
model was the federal constitution of the United
States ; they were resolved to introduce an analogous
organization into their own country, and they would
wish the Poles to imitate their example. But Krzy
zanowski remained extremely reserved ; besides that he
had no express authority from his society to discuss
matters with them, he observed he had no idea of the
opinion of his party on this point, which, up to that
time, had never been the subject of debate. He even
ventured to say that he considered the Russian dele
gates maintained their own opinions with too much
warmth, an observation which occasioned the following
reply from Bestoujeff-Rumine : " Without enthusiasm
no one can do anything great !"
As to the rest, one of the conditions of the amicable
arrangement, and which Bestoujeff, as well as Moura
vieff, considered of primary importance, was, that the
Poles should do all in their power to prevent the csesar-
ovitch from returning to Russia to organize a counter
revolution. On this point they were not far from
coming to an understanding. " If the authorities of
the society," replied the Polish negotiator, " put into
the form of a treaty what shall have been discussed
among ourselves, it is certain that it will do all in its
power to give you satisfaction on this fundamental
point, provided you do not demand the death of the
Pestel for the facility with which he sacrificed provinces annexed to
the empire. "How could it be helped?" replied he, in concert with
Davidoff, " the promise was already made, and such was the will of the
society of the south." " Report," p. 50 ; see also ante.

120 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
grand-duke." In reply to the question, whether the
society of Warsaw would prevent the Lithuanian body
of troops from forming an obstacle to the enterprises of
the Russian conspirators, he promised, but ever with
the same reserve, that the society would undertake to
disarm that corps, or to reduce it to a state of inaction
in some other manner, should it declare in favour of
the grand-duke.
All this, in reality, was nothing more than a vague
parley, devoid of an official character ; however, two
persons, Antony Czarkowski and Grodecki, were chosen
to continue the communications between the members
of the two associations which had made the preUmi-
nary overtures. If Bestoujeff-Rumine drew up the
articles debated with Krzyzanowski, under the title of
Convention, it was without the knowledge of the latter
aDd without any signature ratifying the act. Nay, a
considerable space of time elapsed before the least in
telligence was received at Vassilkoff or at Kief, either of
the Patriotic Society of Warsaw, or of the light in
which the overtures had been considered in it : accord
ingly, the impatience of Mouravieff-Apostol and Bes
toujeff-Rumine knew no bounds. The former was
induced by his impatience to write a letter to the
society, which he wanted Prince Sergius Volkon
ski to forward for him to Grodecki. But the prince
refused to be a party to such an act of imprudence, and
reminded him that every kind of communication in
writing was prohibited. By way of retaliation, he
contrived a personal interview between Grodecki and
Testel, and by these means the dictator was, at the
fairs or statutes of 1825, brought into communication

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 121
with Prince Jablonowski, who had come this time, it
would seem, with positive instructions from the Patri
otic Society, whilst Krzyzanowski, who had likewise
returned to Kief, where his father had just died,
abstained from any further communication with the
Russian party.
Prince Jablonowski was not brought to judgment
like his colleague ;* nevertheless, the conference which
Pestel, accompanied by Prince Sergius Volkonski, had
with him, appears to have been really important and
to have been attended with positive results.
Let us give an account of what passed between the
two negotiators. Prince Volkonski, accustomed to
remain dumb in presence of the chief whose words
he considered as so many oracles, was a silent witness
of the scene.
The dictator of the South was the first to open the
debate. He sketched an eloquent description of the
state of things in his native land, of the task under
taken by the secret society in whose name he was
speaking, and of the resources, immense in his estima
tion, which it had at its disposal. Like all the coun
try, said he, the army is ready to cast off the yoke of
despotism. The German provinces, resolved to remain
united with the empire, will follow the impulse emanat
ing from provinces inhabited by Russians of true blood.
* At least not hy the high court of Warsaw, nor by that of St.
Petersburg. But those judgments were not the only ones pronounced
in the business of the secret societies. Like Baron Solovieff and his
associates, Captain Maieweski, the founder of the Templars, of whom
we shall soon have to speak, was brought before a private commission
which pronounced three sentences of death, and several others of a lesser
penalty.

122 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
As to Poland, she was formerly a distinct nation ; she
has her own private views, which it is essential to
know, in order to act in concert ; for it is impossible
not to rely on her co-operation. " There is no middle
course," continued he, " you must be with us or against
us. We may conquer your freedom for you without
your assistance ; but if you lose the opportunity which
is now offered to you, you must forego all hope of ever
recovering your existence as a nation." Thereupon he
requested to be made acquainted with the intentions
of the Poles, especially with respect to the form of
government they intended to adopt for their country,
when once restored to her independence.
Prince Jablonowski replied to this without any em
barrassment. The exclusive aim of the Patriotic So
ciety, in the name of which he was speaking, he said,
was to recover that very independence, with the limits
which Poland had possessed before the second parti
tion ; * before explaining further, therefore, he wanted
to know whether the Russian society would subscribe
to this equally just and moderate requisition. Pestel
replied that there could not be any difficulty in the
case ; and even supposing a doubt should arise on the
subject, the free populations should have the liberty of
deciding to which of the two nations, Russia or Poland,
they preferred to remain united. Then the prince passed
on to the form of government, the question being again
brought forward by Pestel. No resolution had been
* A pretension more moderate than most of these since brought for
ward, and which excluded the claiming of White Russia and Polish
Livonia, but which still extended to Lithuania, acquired by Russia at
the time of the second partition, in 1793. See, for the effects of those
partitions, " La Russic, la Pologne, et la Finlandc," p. 521 et seq.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 123
come to on that head : the Polish society believing the
day when there would be a possibility of acting, to be
still remote, had been in no hurry to debate that ques
tion. As to his own individual opinion, he thought
that a constitutional monarchical government was the
best adapted to his country. Pestel was not of that
opinion : he maintained with warmth, the advantages
of a republican government, such as is in operation in
the United States. But a discussion of this nature
was not likely to be of any utility. The Pole did not
admit that the Russians could have any idea of inter
fering in the interior government of his country ; if they
had the intention of governing it altogether, said he, it
would be as well to remain submissive to a single mas
ter common to both nations. Pestel did not insist,
but passed on to an article more essential in his point
of view. " What," he asked, " will the Poles do with
the Grand-Duke Constantine, when a revolution has
broken out in Russia V The answer he desired was :
" He shall be treated in the same manner as all the
grand-dukes in Russia." But Jablonowski did not
take upon himself to make such an answer : " the
intentions of the Patriotic Society did not yet extend
to acts of violence of that kind, and as for assassi
nation, it spurned the idea. " No Pole," Krzyzanow
ski declared, " has ever imbrued his hands in the blood
of his sovereigns!" The prince pledged himself on
only one point, which was, that no promises or con
cessions, made by the csesarovitch to his nation, at the
moment of the revolution, should have the power of
arresting its course. This was not enough to satisfy
Pestel, but still it was better than nothing ; for, in his

124 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
opinion, the Poles might, in the event of concessions-
conceive the idea of raising the grand-duke to the
throne of the empire, in order to obtain from him
afterwards, the independence of their own country, or
even to elect him king of Poland on the basis of the
constitution of the 3rd of May, 1791, to which the real
patriots among the Poles were still attached. Con-
stantine's well known partiality for his adopted coun
try seemed to authorize such a suspicion.
Pestel's expectations were therefore, for the most
part, disappointed. However, Jablonowski agreed with
him that it would be useful to propagate the society in
the detached corps of Lithuania, composed equally of
Poles and Russians. In order not to run the risk of
mutually counteracting the measures that might be
taken for this purpose on either side, it was resolved
that Count Moszynski* and Colonel Povalo-Schveikof-
ski should settle between themselves the manner in
which the propagation of the society should be effected
in that corps. It was likewise determined that no
Russian should be received into the Polish society, nor
any Pole into the Russian. The necessity of continual
communications between the two societies was also
acknowledged ; and as the method of negotiating by
Kief was subject to the inconvenience of delay, Jablo
nowski demanded that a member of the Russian soci
ety, resident at Warsaw, should be furnished by it with
full instructions to treat with the Patriotic Society.
Pestel consented to this, and Lieutenant-Colonel Mi-
* In 1840, the name of Peter Moszynski reappeared in a very honour
able manner, as member of a committee of provisional government, in the
events of Cracow.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 125
chael Lounine was to receive the necessary powers for
this purpose. This name, and those of Volkonski and
Schveikofski, were the only ones he mentioned at the
conference ; for he would not satisfy their desire of being
made acquainted with the names of the persons at the
head of the Russian association. Having also demanded
of Prince Jablonowski that the Patriotic Society should
make no attempt till he and his friends had begun the
revolution and given notice of it, he received the fol
lowing answer : The Polish society did not anticipate
the possibility of effecting its purpose in so short a
time, the less so that the present situation of Europe
seemed to be an obstacle to it ; it had therefore rested
content with preparing every thing for the moment
when they should desire to act, and by keeping alive
the national spirit in every part of ancient Poland.
Now, the political revolution which would soon burst
forth in Russia was an opportunity more favourable
than any other ; it would be absurd not to wait for it,
and not to seize such an opportunity. The interest of
the Patriotic Society was assuredly the best guarantee
that it could give to the Russian society, of the sin
cerity of its co-operation. Lastly, before the con
ference ended they agreed to meet again at the fairs of
1826, and Prince Jablonowski pledged his word that,
in case he should be personally prevented from being
present at that rendezvous, one of his colleagues of the
society should come in his place.
Towards the end of 1825 another secret society of
which Volhynia was the principal seat, was united to
the Patriotic Society of Warsaw : we mean that of the
Templars, formed in 1820 by one Maiewski, a captain

126 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
in the Prince of Orange's regiment of Hulans. Not
withstanding the pompous titles which its principal
members bestowed upon themselves,* it . had but a
very limited influence and insignificant resources :
accordingly, no sooner was Maiewski informed of the
existence of secret societies in the heart of the Russian
army, and of the conferences between them and the
society of Warsaw, than he studied how he might best
get for himself, by means of an amalgamation of his
own society with the other, that importance he lacked,
but of which he was covetous. He was fearful he
should remain a stranger to events, if he continued
confined to his own sphere. He therefore joined the
Patriotic Society, and, though the union of the Templars
with it met with a few unforeseen difficulties, yet it
was at length effected.
Such was the connection which Pestel, for the
prosecution of his enterprise, succeeded in establishing
with Poland. He neglected nothing that might be
useful to his cause, but he obtained no important
result. In that respect, all he received was vague
promises ; nothing was yet ready ; according to the
most favourable supposition, no efficacious co-operation
could be expected for several years. What a disap
pointment for the impatient Pestel ! Happily, aux
iliaries, less slow and cautious, presented themselves on
the side of the Russians, and in the midst of that
* Maiewski assumed the title of grand-master ; the following were
conferred by election : that of assistant to the grand-master, to Stanislaus
Karwicki ; that of grand orator, to a superior officer named Lagowski ;
that of grand-lieutenant, to Casimir Pulawski ; that of grand-judge, to
Ciszewski ; that of grand-marshal of the camp, to Zagorski ; that of
grand-secretary, to Karpinski.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 127
Society of United Sclavons with which we have said
that the committee of Vassilkoff, indefatigable in its
researches, was also the first to form a connexion.
This second alliance, doubtless less imposing than the
first, hut of more immediate and real utility, deserves
also one moment's attention.
The society of the United Sclavons, founded in Volhy
nia in the year 1823, by two brothers named Borissoff,
subalterns of artillery, and a Polish nobleman named
Lublinski, aimed, says the Russian "Report,"* at
uniting by a federative bond and by the community of
a republican government, but without prejudice to
their respective independence, eight Sclavonic countries
whose names were engraven on an octagon seal, namely :
Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia, Croatia,
Hungary with Transylvania,f and Servia with Moldavia
and Wallachia4 As we perceive, it was the first essay
of that pansclavonism since then so much extolled,
and interpreted, in a thousand different ways, now in
a Russian sense, then again in one entirely opposite,
long advocated even by a public professor in France,
and on which we have already given our opinion ; an
interesting dream, but without any possible application,
though it did, for a moment, alarm the Austrian
cabinet. § In the mind of Sub-lieutenant Borissoff's
* " Report of the Commission of Inquiry," p. 70.
t Which are only partially Sclavonic.
X The population of these last two principalities, vassals of Turkey,
has nothing in common with the Sclavons ; it is, as is well known, of
Roman or Romaic origin.
§ But for this transitory alarm, the Grand Duchess Ogla Nikolai'evna
would probably have become, in 1843, the wife of the Archduke Ste
phen, the son of the last Palatine of Hungary, to whom would have been
entrusted the administration of Bohemia.

128 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
brother, pansclavonism was perhaps no reality ; at all
events, he easily sacrificed it when, after two years'
existence, the association of which he was the author
was discovered by Bestoujeff-Rumine, ever upon the
watch for news, and ever eager for change. The latter
hastened to point out to him that the duty of a Russian
was to think of reforming Russia before he troubled his
mind about any other nation, though sprung from the
same stock. This association of United Sclavons was
at the time composed of thirty-six members,* mostly
young artillery officers, but some occupying the same
position in the infantry regiments of the third corps,
more particularly infected, as we have seen, with the
spirit of sedition.
During the summer of 1825 this corps occupied a
camp near the town of Leschtchin, in the district
of Jitomir in Volhynia. There those officers had an
opportunity of seeing every day, not only Sergius
Mouravieff-Apostol and Bestoujeff-Rumine, but many
other members of the society of the south, especially
colonels Schveikofski, Tiesenhausen, Artamon Moura
vieff, Vronitzki, and Major Spiridoff. The latter had
not much trouble in persuading Borissoff to make
common cause with them. Bestoujeff-Rumine was
charged to effect the union : he addressed the United
Sclavons " in the name of his numerous and powerful
* Of this number, twenty-three figure on the list of the accused
brought before the high criminal court ; four or five others were tried
and condemned apart, (not to mention Kouzmin, who blew his brains
out), making a total of twenty-seven or twenty-eight out of thirty-six.
This proportion, very different from that which relates either to the
society of the north, or to that of the south, proves that the govern
ment attached extreme importance to this branch of the conspiracy.

PUBLIC OPINION IN POLAND. 129
society which had extended its ramifications throughout
the empire ; in the name of its supreme government,
which an impenetrable mystery concealed even from
the eyes of a majority of its members," and soon they
all placed themselves under the authority of the com
mittee of Vassilkoff. In the ceremony of their
initiation, they took an oath and kissed an image
which Bestoujeff took from around his neck. He
divided them into sections, whose chiefs were named
intermediaries, because they were to form, together
with the two brothers Borissoff, the connecting link
between the committee and the society of the United
Sclavons. He likewise stimulated their zeal, inflamed
their imaginations, and so agitated their minds by his
furious speeches, that he converted them into real
assassins, ready to poniard whomever might be singled
out for their victim. Speaking of the treatment
reserved for the imperial family, " We must cast their
ashes to the wind," cried Bestoujeff. The new members
were assured that the explosion must shortly take
place; and they were advised to hold themselves in
readiness, and to gain over the greatest possible
number of the soldiers.
However, at the very time of these interviews with
the Sclavons, an event happened which proved to the
conspirators that the government, which had long been
warned by Sherwood's disclosures, was beginning to
distrust them. This event was the disgrace of Colonel
Schveikofski, one of their number, who was deprived
of the command of the Saratoff regiment. This event
fell upon them like a thunderbolt. " Schveikofski,"
says the Report, " was in despair ; and so were his
VOL. II. K

130 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
accomplices, as much from concern on his account
as because they saw the means at once annihilated
of securing the co-operation of the regiment of which
he was the chief." Besides, this measure taken by the
government might perhaps be a prelude to others
of the same kind ; all the regiments of which they
believed themselves to be nearly sure, such as the
Poltava, Kasan, Penza, Taroutino, Viatka, Ukraine,
Mohileff, Vitebsk, the hussars of Akhtyr, &c, might
thus be effectually withdrawn from their influence.
Such was the ferment of the conspirators at first, that
they resolved to raise a revolt immediately in the
third corps (the eighth and ninth divisions of infantry,
the third division of hussars and the artillery of these
divisions),* and to March on Kief, after having, of
course, solicited the advice and assistance of Pestel ;
next, to send assassms to Taganrog, in order to plunge
the empire into anarchy by the murder of Alexander,
and to take advantage of the diversion in their favour
which must then ensue. Artamon Mouravieff, the
colonel in the guards, a personage of a very bulky
body and of a levity of character unfavourable to the
proper discharge of the functions of a conspirator, — a
man moreover whom the benevolent monarch had
loaded with favours, offered, if we can credit the
report, to perform this horrible mission. "He shall
die by no hand but mine," cried he with the voice
of a fury.
* This was the state of the regiments, for we wish to be exact in
everything. 8th division : Tro'iitza, Penza, Tamboff, Saratoff, chasseurs
No. 15 and No. 16. 9th division : Tchernigoff, Poltava, Alexiopol,
Krementchong, chasseurs, No. 17 and No. 18 ; huzzars, Marioupol,
Prince of Orange, Alexander and Akhtyr.

PROPOSED ASSASSINATION OF ALEXANDER. 131
But they all replied to him : " We want you for your
regiment." Moreover, several among the United Scla
vons had already taken upon themselves the perform
ance of that hideous duty.* Bestoujeff-Rumine
claimed it for them, preferring to leave such a task to
men of meaner rank, who, if needful, might be dis
owned or put out of the way. But Artamon Moura
vieff, in an almost incredible fit of rage, and really, as
he was termed by the chiefs of the committee, rather
a boaster in crime than naturally wicked, persisted in
refusing to listen to reason. At length, however, they
pacified him, and agitation also gradually subsided
among his friends. Schveikofski himself, the first-
cause of this tumult, entreated them not to sacrifice
themselves on his account, but to wait for the favour
able moment, as had been agreed upon.
That moment was to be, when the troops were being
reviewed by the Emperor Alexander at Belai Tserkoff
(white church), which would probably take place in the
month of May, 1826. Till then everything was to
remain buried in the utmost secrecy, all meanwhile act
ing according to the extent of his power, or as occa
sion might serve. The essential point was to corrupt
secretly the fidelity of the soldiers, and the conspirators
expected to effect this, either by perplexing their minds
by frequent conversations, or by exciting their discon
tent by arbitrary treatment and unreasonable demands.
The artillery-officers set themselves to work with much
zeal ; but they were not very successful : the soldiers,
keen-sighted, in spite of their ignorance, wished to
know, before they make any promise, whether, in what
* Major Spiridoff, Gorbatchefski, and others.
k2

132 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
was required, there was anything contrary to their oaths
or against the will of the emperor.
What an affecting simplicity ! and how well it shews
the character of those men, who can be misled from.
their duty only by deception ! The diffusion of know
ledge has been regarded by many princes with an evil
eye ; but, as we see, the ignorance of the people is also
accompanied with danger ; and a question which still
remains for solution, is, to know which of the two is the
greater. Sergius Mouravieff-Apostol had become one of the ar
biters of the society of the south ; consequently, the di
rectory of Toultchina was acquainted with all the acts
of the committee of Vassilkoff. Pestel was perhaps not
very well pleased to see the committee acting on its
own authority in such serious circumstances ; but he
liked the impetuosity of his colleague, and, without
imagining the outbreak to be so near, he was prepar
ing for it, fearing a surprise. " H Mouravieff starts
successfully," said he, " I shall not be behind !"
Such was the disposition of the officers in the first
and the second army, at the time when Russia was
about to be thrown into mourning by the premature
death of the Emperor Alexander.
That monarch does not appear to have attached
much importance to the revelations already made by
Sherwood, as we have stated, as early as June, 1825 ;
but the news brought to Taganrog, after his return
from his journey to the Crimea, by Lieutenant-General
Count de Witt, plainly shewed the imminence of the
danger ; and the unfortunate prince was wounded to
the heart with grief, when the effects of an epidemic

PROPOSED ASSASSINATION OF ALEXANDER. 133
kindled a fever in his veins. His brain was affected
by debrium. He was not able to withstand so much
affliction ; neither had he any longer a wish to do so.
When the more explicit depositions of Captain Mai
boroda arrived, disclosing the mine which so many con
spirators had prepared under the feet of the monarch,
he had just expired, weary of so long a struggle against
insuperable difficulties, and broken-hearted at the sight
of the base ingratitude with which he had been re
warded by so many men whom he had loaded with
favours. His lifeless hands could not break the seal ;
but General Diebitsh tore it open, and a few moments
after, Tchernycheff received orders to depart for Toult
china and Kief.
The important news had arrived there before him ;
luckily it had found the conspirators unprepared, and
therefore they had not been able to make it serve them
for a signal. They required some time to recover from
their surprise, but they soon resolved upon their line of
conduct. On new-year's day, 1826 (January 13th,
according to the new style), the regiment of Viatka, of
which Pestel was the colonel, was to be at Toultchina
and to mount guard : it was resolved that they should
avail themselves of that opportunity to arrest Count de
Wittgenstein with Kisseleff the head of his staff, and
to set the troops the example of rebelbon. But the
measures of the government were well taken. Pestel,
prevented in the execution of his designs, was arrested
on the 26th of December, eighteen days before the
appointed time. This was a mortal blow to the
society of the south ; which was completely paralysed,
and could do nothing in support of the desperate en-

134 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
terprise of the agitators of the committee of Vas
silkoff. In the society of the north, likewise, everything was
ready for an insurrection, and this at least appeared to
have some chance of success, for the conspirators were
in possession of their leaders to the last. Ryleieff, as
we know, had succeeded Prince Troubetzkoi in the
directory ; and, from that moment, business was car
ried on there with the utmost activity. Ryleieff, who
was naturally enterprising and energetic, was moreover
efficiently seconded by his literary collaborateur and
bosom friend, Alexander Bestoujeff, whom he had initi
ated in the plot, and who had belonged to the section
of the believers ever since the month of April, 1825.
BestoujefFs brothers had been seduced by his example.
The affiliations, moreover, went on increasing among
their comrades in the different regiments of the guard,
among the literary men whom the two friends were in
the habit of seeing, and lastly, in the marine battalion
of the guard, which Arbousoff and Zavalichin had
already made the seat of a society rather private than
secret. As soon as the latter was brought into contact
with the greater society, it blended with it, and made
its own inclinations subordinate to its views, which
were directly in favour of a republican government.
Why must we add that they admitted assassination
with the same deplorable facility that we have al
ready found among the United Sclavons? The man
who knows anything of human nature may admit that
such a disposition is to be conceived in societies
where hatred has been for many years brooding in the
heart and oppression has overcome every resistance,

PROPOSED ASSASSINATION OF ALEXANDER. 135
foiled every manoeuvre, and stifled every complaint.
But, till that time, the Russian nobility had made
no attempt; resigned and servile, they had embraced
their destiny, and scarcely inquired whether the fate of
the lower classes were wretched or supportable. How
then, was it, that, from the very first, they were urged
towards recklessness, towards extreme measures, and,
in a word, towards crime ? What sort of society is
this in which such dreadful thoughts are generated
without any powerfully exciting motive and without
compunction? How long has liberty been .a thing to
be created at will ? And to pretend to it, ought we
not first to render ourselves worthy of it? Is it so
cheap a thing that it is rather to be given than pur
chased ; or is it not, on the contrary, a precious
triumph which can be obtained only by dint of per
severance and self-abnegation ?
However true these reflections may be, a recourse to
crime was preferred ; and to commit it, the society of
the north, like that of the south, found some very ready
instruments not immediately connected with its com
munity. So far as Zavalichin is concerned, a false
interpretation of the Holy Scriptures appears to have
been his leading error. During a long voyage, in which,
after visiting England and the United States, whose
liberties excited his admiration, he traversed the
boundless ocean as far as California, this officer in
dulged certain dreams begotten in a visionary mind,
and imagined an order of the restoration which, con
stituted like the order of Malta, should be charged
with the mission of restoring to the earth, and more
particularly to Russia, the reign of truth.

136 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
On his return home, his illusions were so far from
being dispelled, that he*did not hesitate to submit the
statutes of this order to his sovereign. The discourag
ing reply he received, appears to have soured his
temper ; in default of the monarch, thought he, the
designs of God shall be realized even without his assist
ance ; for the destiny of societies is not so bound up
with the kings who govern them that it is impossible
to act without them. How often, alas ! has wounded
pride inspired with guilty suggestions a heart formed
for virtue, and till then faithful to her dictates !
Once familiarised with the ideas of murder, the
members of the society of the north no longer halted
in that sanguinary and slippery path. Accordingly,
when Captain Iakoubovitch came from Georgia to St.
Petersburg, in the beginning of the summer, with the
resolution of at length gratifying the desire of ven
geance which he had entertained for eight years
against Alexander, he could not fail of meeting with a
good reception. His language, as rapid in its effect as
the torch of an incendiary, kindled the flame of malig
nant passions : the conspirators rejoiced in having at
their command a hardened ruffian whom they could
let loose upon any victim they chose to point out.
However, Iakoubovitch was impatient to begin ; he
wanted " to strike the blow " immediately, or at least
during the great summer reviews, and, at the latest, at
the festival of Peterhoff, in August.* They had the
greatest trouble to keep this madman within bounds ;
and Ryleieff was obliged to display all the energy of
* It was celebrated on the 22nd of July (old style), — the lite of the
Empress Maria,

PROPOSED ASSASSINATION OF ALEXANDER. 137
his character before he could succeed. Iakoubovitch
at length consented to wait till the month of May,
1826, a period appointed by the society of the south,
which appears to have given the word of command to
the society of the north. Ryleieff, on his part, had not
believed the time to be so near : he had been heard to
say that the society would act either at the death of
the emperor, or before that event, in case circumstances
should appear very favourable. But Pestel's will out
weighed his own; besides, we repeat, there was no
longer a scarcity of assassins, and they were thirsting
for blood.
One day, Iakoubovitch rushed into Ryleieff's apart
ment, shouting : " The Emperor is dead ! your fellows
have saved him from my clutches!" and he gnashed
his teeth with rage. That news had filled the capital
with consternation. It took everybody by surprise :
the society was not ready ; it remained inactive ; and
all its members swore fidelity to Constantine, pro
claimed emperor during his absence. But it was not
long before they perceived the advantage they might
derive from that oath. The whole town, nay, the
whole empire was perplexed with doubt : would Con
stantine accept the throne, or persist in his former
resolutions ? Every body was asking this question.
In the former case, as in the latter, there were chances
for the promoters of anarchy ; and moreover, Pestel
was to be ready no longer for the month of May, but
for new-year's-day. Li the second case, the more pro
bable of the two, the chances became infinitely more
favourable : they would invoke against Nicholas, who
was disliked by the soldiers, the oath taken to Constan-

138 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
tine ; they would raise a cry of usurpation, constitute
themselves the defenders of the sacred rights of primo
geniture, alarm the religious feelings of the nation,
fill every mind with doubt, and, favoured by the
ignorance of the greater number, and by the general
confusion, at length arrive at the goal proposed. Upon
this point they were all agreed. But the question was
to know to what form of government they should then
give the preference ; for Pestel's ideas, though secretly
shared by Ryleieff, had not yet prevailed in the north.
" How easy it is to effect a change in Russia ! " ex
claimed a newly-affiliated member in one of the meet
ings which were then held every day ; " to do it, you
have only to distribute a few printed copies of the
ukases of the senate. But no other form of govern
ment but monarchy is suited to Russia. Even the
prayers of the church (of which those for the royal
family form an integral part) render a republic impos
sible. A limited monarchy is absolutely necessary,
even though it be only by way of transition."
This new member was Lieutenant-Colonel Batenkoff,
with whom Ryleieff and Alexander Bestoujeff had
formed an acquaintance in the autumn. He was sup
posed to be a man of great influence ; for his pretensions
were extraordinary, and he had in fact occupied an
advantageous post in the council of the military colo
nies. " Hurried away in spite of himself," says the
" Report," " by an unexpected tide of events,* and yield
ing to the dictates of wounded pride," he listened to
the suggestions of the conspirators, whom he hoped to
outvie by his intelligence and the boldness of his con-
Thc " Report" docs not tell us what was the nature of these events.

CONSEQUENCES OF ALEXANDER'S DEATH. 139
ceptions. These men, taking advantage of his weak
point, were constantly flattering him : if they were to
be believed, he never uttered a word that was not im
pregnated with profound ideas. Batenkoff became
gradually a partner in their plans, especially when he
had made the acquaintance of Prince Troubetzkoi.
" He wished," says the Report, " to take advantage of
his connexion with the conspirators of St. Petersburg,
in order to reform the existing society according to his
own ideas, and, in case of ill success, to annihilate it, by
causing the secret of the plot to be divulged by his
acquaintances." We quote this passage to shew, by one
more example, the incredible levity with which, if the
Report is worthy of faith, several of these men, en
joying a more or less elevated rank in the association,
trifled with the laws of honour and the sacredness of an
oath. Besides, it is well known that, after their arrest,
they partly denounced one another ; and, what many
readers will consider no less astonishing, is, that among
their fathers, brothers, and relations, there were many
who accepted favours from the hands of the man who
had just signed the sentence of condemnation ; nay
more, their sisters and mothers glittered, a few days
afterwards, at the fStes of the coronation, and indulged
in the diversion of dancing before the face of the
emperor ! as if to testify, even in spite of nature, that
whatever he may do or command, he is always right,
and may rely on the obedience of all. Happily, with
these examples of profligate want of feeling, which our
own manners condemn, we shall have to contrast the
conduct of a few faithful and devoted wives, renouncing
all to follow their husbands, braving the misery of

140 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
exile and humiliations of every kind, in order that
they might never be separated from those unfortunate
men! Troubetzkoi, whose particularly conspicuous weak
ness of character obscured his few estimable qualities,
lost at first all his courage at the news of Alexander's
death and Constantine's accession. If the members
had listened to him they would have immediately voted
the suppression of the society till more favourable
times. But no sooner was he informed of the defini
tive resolutions of the caesarovitch, than hope out
weighed every consideration, and he allowed himself to
be appointed absolute chief or dictator. This perilous
post, for which he was so little qualified, was not con
ferred on him through any confidence the conspirators
had in him ; but, as we have stated, Ryleieff, the real
dictator, made use of his name to give a better appear
ance to the conspiracy ; besides, the prince's rank of
colonel would, at the moment of action, give him more
authority over the soldiers. Time pressed ; meetings
were now frequently called ; and it was agreed to lay
aside, for the present, the question as to the form of
government, by adopting a middle term, that is to say,
by proclaiming simply the constitution (meaning that
proposed by Nikita Mouravieff) and to establish a pro
visional government. They caused the regiments to be
tampered with more and more ; each accepted the part
he had to perform, and thus they waited for the day
which could not be very distant, when a new oath
would bo exacted in the name of Nicholas, — at length
proclaimed emperor. That day was the 26th of De
cember, and we already know its events.

CONSEQUENCES OF ALEXANDER'S DEATH. 141
" At least we shall have our page in history," said
Alexander Bestoujeff, a short time previously. "No
doubt," replied one of his accomplices ; " but that page
wiU defile it and overwhelm us with shame." Was he
mistaken ; and did not the greater part of the conspi
rators deserve this severe sentence ?
As to Poland, her day came five years later; *
though that day was more splendid and glorious, yet
its final result was nearly the same. Both enterprises
were equally abortive. But history will not confound
them in one and the same sentence of reprobation ; it
will not place on an equal footing the generous out
break of a nation jealous of its independence, and the
incoherent attempt of a few hundred giddy conspira
tors who, swayed by different passions or seduced by
vague theories, believed themselves called upon to take
in hand the interests of a community, doubtless suffer
ing, but by no means prepared for revolutions, and
whose wants they had not sufficiently studied. If that
community had serious causes of complaint, at least
before waging war to maintain them, these conspirators
ought to have endeavoured to remedy them by more
sure and less violent means ; and the statutes of the
earliest secret societies prove to us that those means
existed and were by no means unknown.
* The 19th of November, 1830.

142 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.

CHAPTER IV.
WANT OF LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORMS.  A STRUGGLE
AGAINST ABOBF.R.
The reader has now been made acquainted with the
whole of the conspiracy of 1825, to which history will
attach the names of Pestel and Ryleieff. We venture
to believe he no longer considers it an effect without a
cause, neither as one of those unimportant facts which,
exciting the sincere sympathy of some and the mali
cious curiosity of others, may indeed engage the atten
tion of contemporaries for a day, but which are after
wards consigned to oblivion, because they have only
skimmed over the surface of a country, without leaving
any lasting impression behind.
In whatever manner we judge the men who, instead
of devoting themselves to the slow and patient work of
regenerating a population corrupted with abuses, had,
so to speak, improvised this conspiracy, we must never
theless acknowledge that the real and fundamental
cause of that combination was the absence of all social
guarantees. Accordingly, the establishment of a sys
tem of legality was the only means of preventing the
recurrence of the same disorders, and such a system is
not incompatible, as is well known, with pure absolut
ism, the predominant principle in Russia, and, in our
opinion, a salutary predominant principle.

WANT OF REFORMS. 143
This truth did not escape the elevated mind of the
young emperor : we shall find him entering resolutely
into this career, fathoming the depth of abuses, ac
knowledging this serious evil, and making generous
efforts in the hope, if not of curing it entirely, at least
of arresting its disastrous progress, and of preventing
it from spreading over the most vital parts of the social
organization. It will be interesting to follow him in the accom
plishment of this laborious task ; but, first, we beg to
be allowed to make a few more critical remarks on
those two important documents the "Report of the Com
mission of Inquiry of St. Petersburg" and that of the
" Committee of Inquiry of Warsaw," of which we have
just presented an analysis, accompanied by a commen
tary. In relation to a country so chary as Russia of
giving publicity to matters of this nature, official docu
ments of this kind deserve the utmost attention ; and
in a sketch of Russian civilization at the period to
which they refer, they must necessarily be the object of
serious investigation.
We are, however, speaking of them before their
time ; for one of these documents was not signed till
the 11th of June (May 30th), 1826, and the other
much later, on the 3rd of January, 1827; but they
are the principal source whence we must derive the
knowledge of facts, and it was impossible to undertake
a statement of the latter without saying at once what
we think of the former.
Though modelled after each other and drawn up
with equal ability,* these two documents have not the
* The writer of the " Report of the Commission of Inquiry of St.

144 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
same value in the eyes of the historian ; accordingly,
we shall bestow our attention more particularly on the
" Report of the Commission of St. Petersburg." On the
one hand, the Polish conspiracy did not present so im
minent a danger as the Russian ; on the other, there,
was nothing in it unexpected or new ; it did not strike
at the root of Muscovite authority, neither did it place
the government in a very awkward position as to the
manner in which it should speak of it to Europe,
doubtless attentive but by no means astonished. In
the Russian conspiracy, on the contrary, all concerning
it was matter of astonishment to Europe, not less so
than that interregnum of twenty-four days so advan
tageous to her interests ; and the interest with which
the measures of the autocratical government were re
garded in the western countries of Europe, rendered
the task of the reporter extremely deUcate. Russia
could not disguise from herself this fact, that the crisis
in which she had just been placed, weakened her, if not
from the fact itself, at least in public opinion ; and
opinion, as is well known, is an essential element in
the appreciation of the power of a state. She fancied
she already heard the people of Europe exclaiming —
" This colossal empire, consumed by an inward and
secret malady, is not, after all, so formidable as we had
imagined. Poland is not the only point in which it is
Petersburg" was M. Dmitri Bloudoff, of whom we have already spoken.
This work, which forms 136 octavo pages in the French translation, was
the stepping-stone to the brilliant fortune that was in store for him. It
served as a model to the writer of the Polish Report, who, before accom
plishing his task, frequently conferred with M. Bloudoff about it. Baron
de Mohrenheim, now deceased, was mentioned as being the writer of this
latter document. Ho was the son of a German physician, and had
obtained the rank of actual councillor of stnto.

WANT OF REFORMS. 145
vulnerable ; in the event of war it no longer seems
quite impossible to effect, even in its bosom, a diversion
strong enough, perhaps, to paralyse its means and
appliances!" That was an opinion which Russia was
urgent to contradict at once, without, however, appear
ing to attach any importance to it ; accordingly, the
document in question was framed so as to palliate the
evil and to make foreign cabinets believe that they had
too hastily given credit to gratuitous suppositions, in
the newspapers and the diplomatic world, which had
originated in malevolence or jealousy.
What confirms our assertion, independently of the
framing of the document itself, is, that the " Report,"
though a mere indictment, a detached scrap of a
criminal procedure relating to domestic matters with
which foreigners had nothing to do, was officially com
municated to the Germanic confederation, and, doubt
less, to other governments. Baron Anstett,* envoy-
extraordinary, and minister-plenipotentiary of Russia
to the diet of Frankfort, transmitted a note on the
subject, dated July 15, 1826, to Baron de Munch-
Bellinghausen, the president of the diet.
The note was as follows : — " In consequence of the
principle adopted by his Imperial Majesty of giving
entire publicity to the results of the inquiries neces
sitated by the culpable enterprises and the still more
culpable projects of secret associations discovered in
Russia, the undersigned has been, at different times, in
a position to make communications on this subject to
the most serene Germanic Confederation ; communica
tions which will have proved that the Russian government
* He died at his residence at Frankfort on the Maine, in 1845.
VOL. II. L

146 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
would not deviate from that system of publicity which
exhibits justice in all the majesty of its independence.
Consequently, he tenders to it likewise a communica
tion of the final ' Report.' "
The diet received this document with gratitude, and
hastened to communicate it to the central commission
of inquiry at Mayence ;* as if, except a sbght imita
tion of the regulations of the Tugenbund, the troubles
in Russia had had the least connexion with those
popular secret plots of which the governments of
Germany had made bugbears. It moreover instructed
its president to reply to the note of the Russian
diplomatist, and that answer is so curious that we
must copy it here, omitting only the preamble. " H
a glorious and paternal government, like that of his
majesty the Emperor Alexander, of illustrious memory,
has been liable to criminal plots, like those described
by the commission of inquiry of St. Petersburg in its
"Report," written with as much calmness as precision, no
doubt can any longer be entertained as to the danger
which the false and perverse principles of a few men
may inflict on the tranquillity and welfare of the most
powerful empires. Nothing assuredly is more proper
to engage the attention of every government ; and the
diet performs a most sacred duty, in giving forthwith
to its high constituent authorities a full knowledge of
these communications, &c."
It was, perhaps, on the part of a government, a
step rather likely to compromise it, to share, by ap
proving it, the responsibility incurred by another
government in the exercise of its right of dispensing
* Suppressed in lSiS.

WANT OF REFORMS. 147
justice, especially when it was at home in the habit of
surrounding the exercise of this right with infinitely
more guarantees than it met with under an absolute
and arbitrary government. After all, as we have
already observed, the document communicated was
nothing but an indictment drawn up after a hasty
inquiry of five months ; a space of time zealously
employed, but very inadequate, when we take into
account the thousands of prisoners and witnesses,
brought from every part of the colossal empire, whom
it was necessary to examine. Setting aside the high
court of justice, charged to adjudicate according to this
instruction (and to deliberate with closed doors, in all
probability without any opposition of opinion, and
most certainly without admitting any advocates), this
document had in itself no virtue of proof belonging
to it ! It is true it bore the signatures of nine superior
functionaries, whose honourable characters we do not
call into question, and among whom figured the Grand-
Duke Michael, the emperor's brother, a prince more
inclined, as we have seen, to clemency than to severity ;
but these nine persons had been chosen solely on the
ground of their intimacy with the emperor, and
because of the particular confidence he placed in them.
Their independence of the czar was anything but
matter of proof.
But it would be a mistake if, because of these obser
vations on what might or might not have been the
most dignified course for the Germanic diet to have
pursued, people were to conclude that we dispute the
honesty of the commission of inquiry and the sincerity
of its " Report" It cannot be denied that the whole
L 2

148 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
procedure was conducted with much moderation, and
the " Report" bears the impress of this on every page;
the diet was right in remarking its calmness as well as
its precision. Far from magnifying the number of the
guilty, it endeavoured to reduce it ; and the avowed
crimes of the leaders were such that it could hardly
have exaggerated them, even though it had wished to
do so. The imperfections of the procedure are com
mon to everything of the kind in Russia ; never had
there been shewn, in that country, more forbearance,
indulgence, and generosity, in a cause of this nature.
We wish we could say also more impartiality ; but it
has not been proved to us that all the guilty were
treated by the same rule and with the same measure.
What means, for instance, in an indictment, that fre
quent and studied omission of the names of three
privileged individuals, members and founders of the
Union of Salvation, afterwards members of the new
secret society, which two of them, it is true, quitted
about the year 1821, but in which the third figured
still later 1* All three, especially the one who had
performed the functions of surveillant, were so com
promised, that some allusion ought to have been made
to them in three different parts of the " Report," and
yet they were left out of the prosecution. With them
it is said to have been a " momentary error ;" but did
several others among the accused who were severely
punished persevere in their error much longer ? It is
added, " The emperor has judged them worthy of a
* " Report,'' p. 31. — This reticence leaves room for conjectures, and
people hnvc not failed to indulge in a great number. Among the names
brought forward, (lure figured among the foremost that of « Prince
Didirorouki.

WANT OF REFORMS. 149
generous pardon : " this is all well and good ; but
Generals Orloff, Von Visin, and others, whom he
equally pardoned, figure nevertheless in the " Report."
In well organized societies, sovereign clemency begins
her part when justice has ended hers : was it neces
sary to deviate, thus publicly and exceptionally, from
this maxim, in such solemn circumstances, when a
whole people's eyes were fixed upon the government ?
With this exception, there prevails in the " Report "
a tone of propriety and dignity which cannot fail to
claim respect. " As far as it lay in the power of the
commission," says the preamble, " it has distinguished
between weakness or a momentary infatuation and
persevering malevolence ; it has almost always ground
ed its conclusions on the confessions of the accused
themselves, or on documents in their hand-writ
ing," and it has constantly borne in mind this
declaration of the monarch, that, "wishing to follow
the dictates of his heart and the example of his glori
ous ancestors, he would rather pardon ten of the guilty
than punish one of the innocent."
On the other hand, without losing sight of " the
obligation to strive to purify Russia from pernicious
principles, to secure tranquillity and good order, and to
assure peaceable citizens devoted to the throne and the
laws," the commission took care not to go beyond what
was commanded by imperative necessity. Severity,
carried to its utmost limits, would have been accom
panied with the twofold inconvenience of exposing too
many families to the resentment of those whose mem
bers, implicated in the conspiracy, it was impossible to
save, and to render foreign countries fully assured of

150 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the existence of an evil, as extensive as serious, the
discovery of which would not have been to them, as it
is to all good Russians, a subject of concern.
As we have said, the cleverness of the writer, in
this respect especially, was very conspicuous. After
having merely mentioned, in the preamble, troubles and
secret societies, avoiding the too alarming expressions
conspiracy, plot, revolt, he has been faithful, through
out, to this system of extenuating as much as possible
an event, in our opinion, of unprecedented gravity.
Although the dungeons in the citadel of St. Petersburg,
its casemates, the vaults at the head-quarters of the
staff, and several neighbouring fortresses in Finland
were thronged with prisoners, the commission reduced
the number of the accused, who were to appear before
the high criminal court, to one hundred and twenty
one ; and yet that court, far from seconding this sys
tem, had, on the contrary, been an obstacle to it.
Hoping to disarm justice, by terrifying her with the
multitude of guilty persons whom her sword would
have to reach, they had indulged in endless denuncia
tions to which it was difficult not to pay attention, but
which very often the emperor treated as they deserved,
on the arrival of the accused, by questioning them
suddenly and by combining the questions in such a
manner as to cause the persons interrogated either to
contradict themselves or to prove at once their sincerity
and innocence. With the same view the "Report" took
care to notice whatever was likely to cast ridicule on
the conspiracy and its members ; it dwells with com
placency on the Utopian, the extravagant ideas, the
ambitious dreams of some, the confusion of ideas of

WANT OF REFORMS. 151
others, the apparent contradictions observable between
different speeches often relating to different times and
circumstances, to the anarchy that reigned in the
society of the north, to the chaos of plans and propo
sals therein entertained, but which nevertheless did not
prevent the leaders, even amidst the general confusion,
from bringing their ideas to maturity or from advanc
ing perseveringly towards their designs. Moreover, the
reporter has not forgotten to record every word of re
gret uttered by several of those persons who were
guilty in different degrees, not in order to gain for
them that interest to which a sincere repentance is
entitled, but to proclaim publicly that, by their own
confession, they had prosecuted a scheme far more ex
travagant than criminal. Thus, this confession of
Ryleieff has been carefully recorded : "If any body
has deserved a punishment, which perhaps the future
welfare of Russia requires, it is myself, notwithstand
ing my repentance, and the absolute change that has
taken place in my own views." The reader is left to
conclude that this " absolute change " implies a con
demnation of the whole enterprise, when, on the con
trary, it referred only to the means adopted, the instru
ments employed, and the course pursued. Lastly,
finding it impossible to pass over in silence the design
of regicide, the resolution of so many men to imbrue
their hands in the blood of a sovereign full of benevo
lence and humanity, great stress is laid on the enormity
of this crime, on the perverse sentiments and atrocious
language of a few individuals, doubtless members of
the society, but who had meditated assassination of
their own accord and apart from others. No mean

152 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
term between the ridiculous and the atrocious ! What
ever belongs to these two extremes is faithfully related ;
but the depositions relative only to declared abuses,
projected reforms, and a moral regeneration, the prime
end and aim of the association, are generally put aside,
or else presented in so unfavourable a light, and with
such incoherence, that it is impossible to consider them
as the plans of sensible men, the lovers of virtue and
pretending to the name of patriots.
And yet the design of honest and able men, like
Alexander Mouravieff, Michael Orloff, Nicholas Tour
gueneff and others, though very culpable in a pobtical
point of view, did not deserve in reaUty to be branded
as an extravagant scheme without any plausible pre
tence or any definite practicable aim. And, among
others, Ryleieff, and the two brothers Bestoujeff, though
abjuring the intention of murder, in which several
among them had at last indulged, though acknowledg
ing themselves to be culpable in this respect before
God and man, and offering their guilty heads to the
just vengeance of the law, made many declarations be
fore the commission worthy of being recorded. They
spoke with frankness devoid of fear and every kind of
subterfuge ; they pointed out the sufferings of the
country, enumerated the abuses which infected it, the
absence of all law meriting such an appellation, the want
of every kind of guarantee for the people, the venality
of the judges and functionaries of every degree, the
frauds practised everywhere on the most extensive
scale, the refusal of justice grown into a custom, the
oppression of the poor by the great, and the servibty
of all. " I knew beforehand," said Ryleieff, " that

WANT OF REFORMS. 153
this enterprise would ruin me, but I was unable any
longer to behold my country under the yoke of despot
ism : the seed I have sown will take root, and do not
doubt but it will sooner or later bear its fruit." Michael
and Nicholas Bestoujeff spoke to the same effect : " I
repent of nothing," said one ; " I die content and
assured of being revenged ;" the other carried himself
before the commission just as he had before the empe
ror himself. Whilst the trial was pending, he had
spoken out freely on the whole subject to the monarch,
at an almost private interview, and the vigour, the
strength, the sarcasm of his language, the lucidity of
his ideas, the ardour of his sentiments, his patriotism,
extravagant perhaps but sincere, and his indignant
eloquence had made a strong impression on the sove
reign. He looked upon him with interest, felt com
passion for his fate, and at length said to him with
emotion : "I might pardon you, and, if I felt sure of
possessing henceforth in you a faithful subject, I would
do so." "Why, sire!" replied Nicholas Bestoujeff,
" this is precisely what we complain of : that the em
peror can do anything and that he is bound by no law.
In the name of God, allow justice to have free course,
and let the fate of your subjects no longer depend on
your caprice or your momentary impressions !"
Many other remarkable answers are quoted as having
been made either to the czar or before the commis
sion ;* but nothing of this sort, nor anything like it,
has been recorded in the " Report," for what the writer
avoided with the utmost care was, to let the accused
appear worthy of the interest of generous souls. We
* We have already given some in the First Volume.

154 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
do not blame him for it ; only, to do homage to truth,
we wished to shew that the Russian conspiracy, though
it was criminal, was not on that account entirely
absurd ; that the " Report" was drawn up to suit poli
tical views, after an arbitrary selection from some
thousands of interrogatories, and the omission of
whatever it was expedient to conceal from foreign
nations, or what the country itself was not to know.
As to the rest, I assure the reader, it is true and
sincere, and, we must confess, nothing more was re
quired to cause the legal condemnation of the principal
offenders. Before we take leave of this " Report," let us notice
one more particular which appears to us significant in
certain respects.
In this document, mention is made several times of
designs or acts to which a false interpretation of the
Bible had given rise. Here is one of the first instances :
the United Sclavonians, says the " Report," p. 73, in
sinuated at first, and afterwards declared in clear and
precise terms, the indispensable necessity of taking the
life of the Emperor Alexander, and of exterminating
all the royal family. " But that is against the
commandments of God and religion," said one of the
members of the society. " A mistake ! " exclaimed
Sergius Mouravieff; and he began to read extracts
from the Bible, by which he attempted to prove, by the
help of false interpretations, that the monarchical form
of government was not agreeable to God.* We read
afterwards (p. 134) that, in that catechism which a
* It was doubtless principally chapter viii. of the 1st book of Samuel
(or the 1st of Kings in reckoning four books of Kings).

WANT OF REFORMS. 155
venal priest consented to read to the troops urged into
rebellion, the same Mouravieff and his friend Bestoujeff-
Rumine, by giving an arbitrary interpretation to some
detached passages of the Old Testament, had sought to
demonstrate that democracy was the only form of go
vernment agreeable to God. Lastly, the third instance
(p. 81) relates to Zavalichin, the naval officer. This
person, from reading the Holy Scriptures from his
earliest youth, believed he had received mysterious
revelations calling upon him to bring back the reign of
truth on earth. Accordingly, from that moment he
indulged in projects the only aim of which at first had
been the triumph of the truth of the faith.
These facts seem to bear witness that the reading of
the Bible, that daily bread of pious families in Eng
land, Germany, and, generally speaking, throughout
Protestant countries, was then becoming more common
among the upper or wealthier classes in Russia than it
is even at the present day in most of the Catholic
countries. Assuredly, these facts prove nothing against
the utility of such reading among men who are not
quite devoid of instruction or intelligence, and espe
cially nothing against the intrinsic excellence of the
Book of books. All we can conclude is, that however
excellent a work may be, it is still subject to abuse,
and that sacred things are quite as liable to it as any
thing else : a truth illustrated, moreover, in every page
of ecclesiastical history. Nevertheless, these facts were
not entirely unconnected with the suppression of the
Bible Society of St. Petersburg, which was shortly after
commanded.* * The establishment of a Bible Society in a non-Protestant, country,

156 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
We have now said everything relating to the plot.
Leaving justice to perform her task, we will revert to
it further on for the last time, in order to see how she
understood it, and to introduce the reader to the pain
ful spectacle of an expiation due to the slighted laws
of the country, and to public tranquillity which had
been so seriously disturbed.
A spectacle no less painful was that of the moral
state of Russia, to which it was expedient for the
young emperor to apply a speedy remedy. This brings
us to the subject indicated as intended to form the
contents of this chapter.
It was no longer possible for Nicholas to be under a
delusion on this point. He had heard the language of
the conspirators, and received intelligence of the dis
coveries made by the " Commission of Inquiry ;" the
papers seized in the houses of the conspirators, and
unexpected disclosures arriving from all quarters, had
enabled him to measure the abyss undermining an
empire of sixty millions of souls, where the brilliant
exterior of civilization ill concealed the turpitude of a
vicious, corrupt, and craving bureaucracy, and the
degradation of morals which was at once its cause and
its effect. This degradation, common to every class of
the population, but appearing under another aspect in
each, and arising from a different source, was discoun
tenanced and arrested neither by the austere dignity
of the law, by beneficent examples of morality given by
and with the co-operation of a clergy not very friendly to knowledge, is a
rather curious fact. We have already seen to what cause this is to be
attributed; but the subject well deserves that we should revert to it, and,
consequently, we propose to make it the subject of Note (10), in the
Reflections, &c. of the present volume.

WANT OF REFORMS. 157
those who are its organ, nor by the influence of religion
exercised, in its name, by ministers with the authority
derived from a saintly life and an irreproachable conduct.
What struck the monarch the most, was the ineffi-
cacy of the law. Seeing it everywhere eluded, silenced,
sold, so to speak, to the highest bidder, he thought
that his first duty was to hasten to its assistance and
impart new strength to it. To do so, it was necessary, in
the first place, to rid it of the trammels of barbarism,
render it accessible to all, and facilitate the knowledge
of it, a task almost impracticable in the state of things
he found existing. To this end, Nicholas ventured to
follow the example which another crowned Sclavon,
Justinian,* had given him, and applied himself to the
work without delay. The performance of this im
portant task, doubtless, does not belong to the first
year of his reign ; but as it was even then his pre
dominant idea, we may, even at this early period, enter
upon this subject and take an ample view of it.
Let us first recall to mind a few historical facts.
Peter the Great, who is the commencement of every
thing in Russia, had already attempted (in 1700 and
subsequently) to introduce order into the chaos of laws,
statutes, and decisions of every nature which con
stituted the Muscovite legislation in conjunction with
the code of 1649,f due to his father Alexis Mikha'ilo-
* This Emperor of Byzantium was born on the confines of Illyria and
Thrace ; it is even affirmed that his primitive name was Ovpravda, of
which Justinian (jus, justitia) was the Latin translation.
* Sobordie Oulojenii Zakonn, that is to say, general code of laws.
Sobor is the same word as cathedral, but the adjective of the word above
does not appear to allude to that special meaning ; it designates only the
generality of its application.

158 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
vitch. But that was a work of patience, in which
energy of will and the impetuosity of genius, were not
sufficient to triumph over the innumerable difficulties
which presented themselves at every step. Accordingly,
the only result was a few books of ukases, which, even
with those of the following reigns, comprise a period
of only twenty-seven years out of the hundred and
eighty which had elapsed from the code of Alexis to
that of Nicholas. The work, having stopped short
on the accession of the Empress Anne, was not resumed
before 1760, and even during the reign of Catherine II.
it was continued only till 1770. This empress, greedy
of glory and the approbation of the encyclopedists,
made a great display of setting to work in earnest.
Deputies from every province in the empire, except the
most distant, which could not have sent them in time
were convoked at Moscow, and invested with legislative
powers by Catherine in person, at a solemn meeting on
the 30th of July, 1767. No important advantage
was to be expected from such an assembly, composed
of the most discordant elements, and in which civiliza
tion appeared in all its different degrees in the persons
of the representatives of the various provinces ; such
a congress was ill qualified to undertake the difficult
labour of studying and collating all the acts that had
emanated from public authority. It was, if the truth
must be told, rather a parade calculated to act on the
imagination of mankind and to excite abroad the
applause of a liberal age, than a sincere attempt at
improvement. This assembly, having been dissolved
at the end of five months, left behind, it is true, a new
commission of laws composed of enlightened men ;

WANT OF REFORMS. 159
and the empress herself drew up, for the direction of
its labours, that famous instruction (nakaz), signed on
the 8th of April, 1768, justly admired by Voltaire, in
many respects the greatest courtier among philosophers ;
but the work gained little by it, zeal soon subsided,
and shortly after the whole was again interrupted.
The collection, relating to a short space of eight or
nine years, the printing of which was finished, had not
even the merit of being complete.* The greatest part
of the ukases had never been published or made
known, so that the maxim of almost sacred obligation
among us, that nobody can plead ignorance of the law
as a pretext, was not applicable to Russia.
This state of things did not alter during the reign
of Alexander, notwithstanding the ukase of the 25th
of August, 1801, in which that enlightened and bene
volent prince solemnly promised his people to give
them a new code of laws and a revised judiciary constitu
tion. It is true, a commission was hastily formed once
more (in 1804), and charged to form into a code all
the parts of the general legislation, as well as provin
cial law ; but it knew not how to discover the secret
clue to guide it in the formidable labyrinth into which
it had to enter, and so the matter remained as it was.
It merely groped about from one thing to another.
* " The Commission, which never printed or published one line about
its labours, lasted, though considerably reduced in number, and at length
quite devoid of occupation, till the death of the empress, and even a short
time after." Reimers, " Saint-Petersburg am Ende seines ersten Jahr-
hunderts," t. i. p. 289, et seq., t. ii. p. 308. The principal act of legis
lation due to Catherine, is her organization of the governments, justly
admired by competent judges. For the works of Alexander's reign, see
Storeh, " Russland unter Alexander I.," t. iv., p. 202, et seq.

160 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
"In 1809," says the illustrious Speranski* in his
" Precis Historique," " the subjects of the labours of the
commission underwent another division, and its com
position was at the same time partially changed. In
1810, in consequence of a new organization of the
council of the empire, it was transformed into an
institution within its jurisdiction. Its council was
abolished, and a director, under whose presidency it
was placed, was to lay its labours immediately before
the council of the empire. In 1812 this order was
again changed. The director was replaced by a council
of three members with their eldest for president, and
under the authority of a superior director ; which
lasted till 1826. The labours of the commission did
not embrace the whole circle that had been sketched
out for it : they were confined to the civil, penal, and
commercial codes. In these three parts, betiveen 1804
and 1826, a few general heads were draivn up in the
shape of projects, and especially three of the civil
code, one of the commercial code, and three of the
penal code. The articles of the project of the civil
code were, at different intervals, carried for revision
before the council of the empire ; but this examination
was suspended, the first time, on the ground that the
third part of the project was not yet completed ; the
second time, in 1S15, the council found that it was
impossible to proceed to the revision of the new code,
without having determined the existing legislation by
a complete and systematic body of laws ; the third
time, in the course of the years 1821 and 1822, all
* " Precis des Notions historiqucs sur la Formation du Corps des Lois
Riisscb." French edition, p. 38.

WANT OF REFORMS. 161
that the commission presented was revised, but a great
many articles were sent back to be corrected and
remodelled." This quotation appeared to us worthy of attention.
Such, then, according to an official report, was the state
of progress of the undertaking so pompously announced
sixty years before. Commissions transformed into
councils, and councils into commissions, such and such
proper names substituted for others, supplements of
salaries, and perhaps ten millions of expenses, added to
the budget of expenditure, is as nearly as possible the
whole history of this enterprise.
One thing is clear, which is, that such men as
Portalis, Tronchet, Bigot de Preamenen, Treilhard,
Target, Berber, Merlin, and others, were wanting in
Russia ; the work miscarried for want of good work
men. Neither Prince Lapoukhin, nor his colleague,
Novociltsoff, was equal to such a task ; and, if both
had been, there was nobody qualified to second them
properly. The official reporter confesses this in obscure
language. " When the business is to render laws co
ordinate, and to reduce them to a system," says he
(p. 56), "it is necessary to be acquainted with their
origin, their different orders, their connexion, and
mutual relations : here it is requisite to join theory to
practice. Yet, from the march and period of progress
of our civilization, this union was very seldom to be
found in the commissions which preceded the year
1804 ;" neither, would we add, in those which fol
lowed, unless it be in the person of our reporter him
self.* " Almost all the commissions," continues the
* There has ever been an extreme lack of legists in Russia, where,
VOL. II. M

162 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
latter, " looked upon their task not only as urgent, but
also as easy to perform ; whence it happened that
almost all entered at once upon the last portion
of the work, without having prepared either the begin
ning or the middle."
There existed, therefore, no official collection of
Russian laws, and the private works* intended to fill
up this hiatus, had provided for it very imperfectly :
having been, for the most part, undertaken with a view
to speculation, they were incomplete and even inexact.
As soon as the Emperor Nicholas ascended the
throne, he resolved to remedy so serious an evil as a
disordered legislation, with which it was impossible to
make oneself acquainted, and whose insufficiency was
daily attested. Eager to arrive at a result, and ex
pecting only a very trifling one from the dilatoriness of
commissions, he took the business under his immediate
direction, and had the glory of forwarding it more in
five years than all his predecessors had done in one
hundred and eighty.
The commission instituted in IS 04, during the reign
of Alexander, had not ceased to exist, at least nominally :
its president was still Prince Peter Lapoukhin, of
whom we have already spoken.f Nicholas addressed
to speak truly, there is neither a magistracv nor a bar. We refer the
reader, for what concerns this subject, to Note (11,) in tlie Notes and
Explanations in this volume.
* Those of Tchoulkoff, Mnxiniovitoh, and others.
t After having been attorney-general under the Emperor Paul, he was
appointed, in ISOti, minister of justice in place of the poet Derjavin.
From that period, he was actual private counsellor, and, being afterwards
promoted to the first class of that grade, he was, with Prince Joussoupoff,
the most considerable man in the empire among civilians, having none
but field-marshals for equals among the military.

WANT OF REFORMS. 163
to this personage a decree, dated February 12th
(January 31st), 1826, by which the commission was
dissolved, and the course it had till then pursued rather
explicitly condemned, notwithstanding the respectful
language which propriety prescribed towards an old
man placed on the highest step of the social scale.
" At the first glance at the different branches of the.
administration of my empire," says that decree, "a
glance directed with special interest to the code of our
national legislation, I have seen that the efforts applied
to this subject for a great number of years have been
frequently interrupted, and, for this reason, the aim
has not been attained. Cordially wishing to secure the
progressive completion of this work, I have judged it
necessary to take it under my immediate inspection ,*
and I have consequently commanded a special section
to be assigned to it in my private chancery. . . You
know better than any person the importance of a good
and solid legislation. . . I am convinced that under
the present as the former organization your experience
and knowledge of all the different ramifications of state-
affairs, acquired in a service of so many years, will offer
me a useful co-operation ever characterised by the
same fidelity."
The emperor at the time thought that two years
* One would think that in Russia this is the indispensable condition
for any institution whatever to prosper : without the countenance of the
sovereign, it remains a dead letter, or completely loses its nature. Ac
cordingly, private chancery is increasing to an extraordinary extent : even
lately, by a ukase of the 5th of September, 1846, Nicholas has declared
that he takes under his immediate inspection the posts of civil function
aries. It is therefore, to that department of inspection that all petitions
for nomination, promotion, dismissal, rewards, &c. must be addressed
It is a very considerable ministry apart from the ordinary ones. m 2

164 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
would suffice for the completion of the code, and he
promised to look personally to the proper employment
of this period. The second section of his private
chancery devoted to the work received the name of
section of the laws, and was placed under the authority
of a functionary who had long been celebrated, to wit,
Michael Speranski, who, as president of the commission
of laws in 1808, had imparted life to it for a moment,
and to whom the council of the empire was bkewise
indebted for its reorganization. This man, of well-
tried merit, and invested with the entire confidence of
his master, was under his sole jurisdiction, without any
intermediacy, in the performance of this herculean task.
The emperor watched its progress with the most en
couraging interest ; and so vigorously was it carried
on, that as early as the month of July, 1827, Speranski
was able to lay at the foot of the throne the first half
of the historical expose' which was to precede the pub
lication of the code, and the remainder of which he
delivered in the year 1833. Nicholas, much pleased
with this first result of Spdranski's labours, testified his
gratitude to him by conferring on him the grand cross
of St. Alexander Newski set in diamonds, and by
expressing to him in a rescript that he was convinced
that the entire work would be executed by him " with
the .same intelligence, ability, learning, and zeal," as he
had just displayed. But a much longer time was con
sumed over it than they had calculated, and death (in
1 839)unfortunatelypreventcd Spei"anski*from realizing
completely this honourable expectation of his sovereign.
Nicholas did not the less pursue his aim, and to him
* Sec his biography in Note (13,) among the Notes and Explanations.

WANT OF REFORMS. 165
belongs personally the glory of having, at least in a
great measure, attained it.
Sp6ranski, among whose collaborateurs it is just to
mention Michael Balonghianski, the secretary of state,
not only performed the task of the historical work, but,
after having finished in 1830, the printing of the first
section (1649-1825) of the collection of laws (So-
brani& Zakonn), a section that comprises no less than
forty-five volumes quarto, he presided moreover, at
the compilation of the Digest (Svod Zakonn) intended
to furnish their concordance, and published as early
as 1832, eight codes, forming fifteen more quarto
volumes. This requires a few explanations :
The principal cause of the futility of the attempts of
so great a number of commissions, had been an inco
herence of views, and the absence of a wise, uniform
and methodical rule. They had to choose between
two systems : one consisted in undertaking the co
ordination of existing laws by order of matter, that is
to say, a Digest ; the other in composing a new 0odea
modifying, completing, and improving the previous
legislation, according to a philosophical plan, and being
guided rather by the light of reason than by the know
ledge of the legislative acts in force. In France, in the
formation of the codes, they had confined themselves
much more to the latter method than to the former,
without however disdaining the assistance of the Roman
law, or that of the previous national legislation. But,
in Russia, the legists found themselves on a very
different ground. "Almost every state, from their
earliest entrance into the career of their present civili-

160 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
zation," says the author of " Precis Historique " (p. 80),
"received their share of a rich inheritance, — the
Roman laws. It is proved that the use of that legisla
tion never ceased in the west of Europe ; but it acquired
new strength and became almost general at the com
mencement of the sixteenth century. And we must
observe here that this treasure was bequeathed to
modern nations, not in that state of disorder and
shapeless mass in which it existed even in Rome, but
in its integrity as a body of laws, first from Theodosius,
afterwards from Justinian. Providence has bestowed
on Russia a different fate. We have received no part
of the Roman inheritance. We have been obbged to
derive our whole legislation from our own national
sources, from our customs, traditions, and experience. . .
Civil laws, criminal laws, laws of administration and
interior police, everything had to be created and con
structed anew, and with our own materials." It was
natural to utilise whatever had been done in this
respect : consequently, the former system mentioned
was followed, the regeneration of the existing laws, or
what Bacon has termed with admirable precision,
structura nova veterum legum.
The former commissions did not know how to choose
between these two systems : they fluctuated between
them, and even when following the former, they had
not fulfilled the preliminary condition without which
it is impossible to realize it. This condition was the
previous formation of a complete collection of the
existing laws.
Nicholas, guided by Speranski, did not hesitate :
having to choose between a code of concordance and

WANT OF REFORMS. 167
a new code, he decided positively for the former, and,
consequently, commanded that the preparatory work
should be immediately begun. " We had prescribed
before everything else," says he in his manifesto of the
12th of February (January 31st), 1833; "to get
together all the laws and publish a complete collection
of them ; and We had stated Our will that from that
collection should be extracted all the laws now in force
in Our empire, to be united into a uniform and regular
body of laws, without in any way changing their spirit,
by following punctually, for this work, the bases traced
as early as the year 1700, by Peter the Great."
But in order thus to perform the task, it was neces
sary to undergo an immense labour, which was nothing
less than that of collecting every act, without exception,
that had emanated from the sovereign will since 1649.
And these acts, as we have said, were known only in
part. In fact, there were two kinds of ukases, those
called senate ukases, because the emperor addressed
them to that great body of the state, the depository of
the laws, for it to register and promulgate them, and
those termed nominal (irnSnitnu), addressed directly to
certain persons, and which the sovereign can enact
without the intervention of anybody. The authentic
collections of the ukases of the former kind were
incomplete ; the ukases of the second order remained
for the most part in manuscript, stowed away in private
archives : they formed, according to a just expression
of a young Russian of merit, an occult legislation,
tbough operative over the whole of the inhabitants.
All this was obliged to be brought to light, collected,
classed, submitted to a critical examination, and

168 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
printed. The printing began on the 1st of May, 1828,
and was finished on the 1st of April, 1830.
Thus was executed the collection of the laws
(Sobranie Zakonn). Besides the titles of the code of
1649, it was composed of 35,993 acts, of which 30,920
were anterior to the accession of Nicholas, whilst
5,073 (remark five thousand and seventy- three ! )
belonged to the seven years from 1825 to 1832.
They had been laboriously compiled from the civil,
military, judicial, and synodal archives, in the imperial
cabinet, the chapter of the orders, and the offices of a
great number of authorities of every description.
These acts, printed in double columns, filled, as we
have stated, forty-five quarto volumes, including the
five volumes of contents, different estimates and tariffs;
the supplements increased the collection to fifty-six
volumes, a number which will probably be increased.
But this first labour being finished, there ensued a
second, that of the co-ordination. It was scarcely less
difficult, but was nevertheless performed with the same
diligence. The following were the different elements
of their task : To restore with all speed the primitive
text, even at the expense of conciseness, to curtail the
preambles of every ukase and act whatever, to expunge
all the acts positively abrogated by subsequent enact
ments,* to avoid tautology, to arrange all the laws in
* In the introduction to the " Russian Civil Code," by M. Victor Foucher
(p. 4(1), we read : " To exclude from the body of laws such as had be
come obsolete." The last word is indeed to be found in the instructions
(" Precis," p. 1 02), but accompanied with explanations which shew that it
is not really desuetude that was intended to he indicated as a motive for
suppression ; for it was necessary that a law, or such a construction of a law
as was suppressed, should be directly or indirectly abrogated by subse
quent acts.

WANT OF REFORMS. 169
force in the order of subject-matter, methodically and
so as to form several codes, to give separately such as
govern certain provinces to the exclusion of others, and
thus to form codes of a local application apart ; and
lastly, to submit every part of the work to the revision
of competent authorities.
If, in proceeding thus, a very remarkable monument
of Russian civilization for the last two centuries was
constructed, it was clear that the production could not
be expected to be homogeneous, harmonious in all its
parts, and up to the standard of the present state of
civilization ; on the contrary, a somewhat discordant
pile was erected, attesting at one time the barbarism
of the age, at another the progress of a more civilized
society. By way of compensation, a solid historical basis was
thus obtained for future legislation ; for such a system
being once formed, and the whole of the laws distri
buted into codes, heads, and articles, according to the
subject-matter, it became easy to subject the whole,
whenever it should be requisite, to a new uniform re-
visal, governed by the same principles, and made in the
spirit of the ideas of the age to which it was required
to pay homage. Meanwhile, every day contributes to
a progressive improvement, which goes on partially in
proportion as necessity calls for it. *
Such is the concordance of the laws compiled in the
manner of Justinian's Digest, and termed, in Russia,
svod, which is but a translation of concordance, recon-
* This progressive method " guarantees the power and the execution
of the laws for the present, and lays a solid foundation for their gradual
progress in future." Extrait du " Manifeste Imperial de 1834."

170 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ciling, or collation of texts. A work of this nature
could not have been executed by a numerous commis
sion, useful doubtless for collecting together the fruits
of the experience of many men, for elucidating an
idea, or improving the expression of a thought, but a
less convenient instrument when the work is a matter
of erudition and patience, a laborious collation, the
first merit of which is minute exactness. The imperial
chancery, under the eye of a master, and directed by a
superior man was far better able to perform the task.
As early as February 12th, 1833, the imperial
manifesto already quoted solemnly announced that the
task was completed. It did not make the Svod imme
diately obbgatory, but it prescribed that it should come
into force on the 1st of January, 1835, and determined
at the same time in what its legal force should consist.
But the work of legislation was not to end here :
independently of its not yet being complete relatively
to the past, it was to be continued in the future. "As
the Body of laws (Svod) says the "Precis" (p. 109), in
determining legislation for the past, cannot render it
stationary for the future, and as, in presence of new
wants, new laws will always be necessary to meet them,
it is easy to foresee that, from the constant accession to
their number, legislation would soon be plunged again
into that confusion from which it has just been extri
cated. To prevent this serious inconvenience, it was
resolved to render the work of codification permanent,
to continue the body of laws, and, by a series of
annual labours, to bring the different legislative acts
successively enacted, to the same system of order and
uniformity."

WANT OF REFORMS. 171
The delay of two years, after the expiration of which,
and not till then, the Digest was to acquire the force
of law, was, in the opinion of the young Russian legist,
already quoted, a kind of appeal to a manifestation of
the judgment of the nation, a manifestation, however,
rather difficult in a country where the press is neither
authorized by its laws nor much patronised by the
people. " As far as we are able to conjecture," adds
this author,* "from data which we have gathered
among the public, we should be inclined to conclude
that the country has pronounced for it, and the tribe
of functionaries against it.f The criticism to which
the official proceedings exposed themselves, had, we
must confess, been rather iE-natured than impartial ;
the co-operation of the functionaries invited to the re
vision was never very sincere : it tended rather to im
pede the labour than to facilitate its progress. And
this we can easily believe. The state of confusion in
which legislation was plunged, had concentrated its
monopoly of speculation in the hands of a few adepts ;
the propagation of the knowledge of the laws, \ by
means of a clear and methodical arrangement, became
as formidable to them as had been the promulgation of
the solemn formulas to the patricians of Rome. Be
sides, we can easily conceive the instinctive repugnance
of functionaries bving comfortably in a bureaucratical
routine, to whatever resembles reform, improvement, or

* " Digeste de l'Empire de Russie," p. 14. (Paris, 1835, 8vo.; printed
apart from the " Revue Etrangere de Legislation.")
t What we have elsewhere termed bureaucracy.
X Let us add- the possibility of making them an object of serious study,
which did not exist before.

172 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
progress. Those petty interests, strengthened by petty
rivalries and rancour (for the task of codification ap
pertained to the legitimate functions of the department
of justice), formed a rather numerous and clamorous
league ; everything possible was done to bring the
Digest into disrepute ; volumes were written to point
out its mistakes ; much trouble was especiaUy taken to
give credit to the opinion that its authors, going beyond
their sphere, had encroached upon the jurisdiction of
the legislator, by substituting their own will for the
will of the law. But all these idle declamations fell
to the ground before the inflexible will of the emperor,
and the Digest, in its primitive state, is henceforth fuUy
binding. Indeed, against what could censure be di
rected \ Against the omissions or the innovations ?
We think the authors of the Digest will have the can
dour to allow that more than one precedent escaped
their notice, and that others have assumed, after being
remodelled, a new aspect. But can these inaccuracies,
even though they be admitted to exist, counterbalance
the immense advantages of a regular legislation %
Must we regret the old order of things and return to
that chaos in which, till very lately, memory and reason
were equally bewildered \ No one would venture to
express such a wish openly ; neither would he know
what to propose instead of it ; and doubtless these are
the considerations that have secured for the Digest
such a triumphant success. " What does it matter,"
says Justinian, in anticipation of similar objections,
" what does it matter whether anything useful has been
omitted, if, notwithstanding that omission, I have ridded
you of a heap of useless things ? "

WANT OF REFORMS. 173
These observations, though somewhat long, will not
appear superfluous : we repeat that we have to study
the civilization of a society still very little known ;
and the elements of such a study are too rare not to
bid us make the most of such as present themselves
to us.
The first publication of the Svod, at the end of
1832, was composed of fifteen quarto volumes, printed
in double columns, and embracing eight books or
codes ; 36,000 articles — br 42,198, if the additions be
included — are arranged therein in 1,499 chapters, and
a very detailed table of contents, in alphabetical order,
serves as a key and catalogue. These eight codes are
as follows — 1st, Organic Statutes, in 3 vols., containing
the fundamental laws of the empire, as also the regu
lations on the organization of the administrative and
judiciary order ; 2ndly, Regulations on prestations (re
cruiting, statute-labour, &c), in 1 vol. ; 3rdly, Regu
lations on the finances (divers imposts, custom-duties,
currency, mines, and salt-pits, forests, &c), in 4 vols. ;
4thly, Code of conditions (that is to say, classes of the
population) or laws on the state of persons, in 1 vol. :
5thly, Civil laws, including those on the boundary of
properties, in 1 vol. ; 6thly, Regulations of public eco
nomy (credit, commerce, industry, means of communi
cation, administration of towns and villages, fires, &c),
in 2 vols. ; 7thly, Regulations of interior police, in
2 vols. ; 8thly, Penal laws, with the laws on criminal
procedure, in 1 vol.
To give an idea of the perseverance of the legislator
and of the indefatigable activity with which he is per
forming his task, we may mention in this place that

174 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
this last code has already undergone a very essential
modification. A complete criminal and correctional
penal code, accompanied with a detailed list of regu
lations on the mode of transporting into Siberia, has
been promulgated by a ukase of the 27th of August,
1845. Forming a new volume of the Digest, it super
sedes the whole of the first book in the XV th, and
came into force on the 1st of May, 1846. By esta
blishing a rather less barbarous, and especially a less
undefined penalty, the positive inflictions of which
moreover it is now possible for every body to know, it
will be of invaluable benefit to the Russian nation.
The general codification is therefore rapidly ad
vancing;* since 1832, it has considerably exceeded
the limits of the fifteen volumes of the first publication.
Since then five others have expounded the laws con
cerning worship and pubbc instruction ; and the
military code, completed in 1839, has been in force
from the 1st of January, 1840. Moreover, a ukase of
the 13th of July, 1845, having decided that the pro
visional and local laws of the three Baltic governments
(Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland) should be united in
a particular digest, arranged according to the model of
the Svod of the general laws, two volumes more were
published in the same year, and they have been in
force from the 1st of January, 1846. Every other
edition has lost its official character ; for quotations
and applications must henceforth be made according to
• By a ukase of the 20th of April, 1S4G, the emperor promulgated,
under the form of a commercial code, a law on insolvency and bank
ruptcy, proposed by the council of the empire, and borrowed in a great
measure from book iii. of the " French Commercial Code."

WANT OF REFORMS. 175
the number of the volumes and the chapters adopted
in the printed code.
Such is the work of legislation commenced by
Nicholas at the very commencement of his reign, pro
secuted with zeal, and now very near its completion.
We have outstripped time that we might present it at
once in its whole extent, from the very moment it was
undertaken. Without doubt a great work of improve
ment still remains to be accomplished, but, in the mean
time, the Russian empire is in possession of a body of
laws which throws Justinian's into the shade ; for,
such is its extent that there does not perhaps exist a
single nation that can boast of possessing its equal.
By way of compensation, in most European states,
the law is milder, more deeply rooted in national man
ners, invested with more respect, and above all more
scrupulously applied. Surely these are compensations!
It is not enough to possess a written law, though it be
just, complete, and worthy of the intelligence of the
dge ; once rendered binding, it is necessary that it
should find everywhere the same obedience, that there
should be no possibility of eluding its application, and
that there should be no exception to its infliction.
The Emperor Nicholas yearned after legality and
justice ; but in order fully to gain his object ought he
not to have begun by renouncing, on his part, the ab
solutism contained in this fundamental principle of his
code : " The autocrat, from whom emanates every kind
of justice, is the only irrevocable judge ; his decisions
alone are definitive % " Ought he not to have consented
to the separation of the judicial from the adminis
trative power, without which there are really not

176 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
sufficient guarantees for justice 1 To establish the rule
of legality on a solid base, would it not have been as
well to be the first to follow his own precepts, to pro
hibit himself from using, in the nineteenth century,
the iron rod of Peter the Great, and to cast his own
personal weight into the scale of Themis ?
The following fact, however, reminds us, in the arbi
trariness by which it is characterized, of the time of
the extra-legal acts of violence of the great reformer
of Russia.
A law-suit was pending before the senate : as usual,
its progress was slow and impeded with difficulties ;
delays arising at every step did not allow the slightest
possible prospect of an early decision, unless, of course,
one of the parties consented to a sacrifice. This kind
of refusal of justice came to the knowledge of the em
peror, who had two ways of putting an end to it ; on
the one hand, he could command a prompt dispatch of
the business ; on the other, he had the power of
dismissing and disgracing the tedious or corrupt func
tionaries, who were the cause of the delay. He was
unwilling to carry his severity so far, and yet he
wished not only to suppress such scandalous proceed
ings, but also to set an example for the future. How
did he act 1 He did what nobody has a right to do
under a constitutional government : he imprisoned the
attorney-general of the department of the high court
to which the lawsuit belonged, as well as the chancellor
for twenty-four hours in the corps-de-garde of the
senate (July, 1827).
In relation to the second point, the personal inter
ference of the monarch with the course of ordinary

WANT OF REFORMS. 177
justice, it would be useless to quote examples : this in
terference is, so to speak, a matter of right, consecrated
by custom, and practised daily.* The power of the
imperial will is pushed so far as to annul the judgments
of the regular tribunals. This is a vital question,
which, for that reason, it is impossible to press too
strongly : accordingly, we shall do so with all the
energy of a firm and decided conviction.
In a strict sense, a country may, without being
reputed backward on that account, do without repre
sentative or deliberative assemblies : it may even (and
Prussia is a witness) do without a written constitution,
and some of those public bberties which nations that
have conquered them, after long and furious struggles,
would be unwilling to renounce, f But with ordinary
laws, the guardians of the Hie, safety, honour, and pos
sessions of every individual in the social body, a coun
try cannot dispense. That body is judged from the
character of its laws : it is impossible to acknowledge
it to be far advanced in civilization, when the law, still
barbarous in many respects, is at the same time applied
by ill-organized tribunals, devoid of moral force and
* This occurs much more frequently to aggravate the penalty than
to commute it. See the case of the cadet Angel or Engel, that of Prince
Sanguszko, of the woman Grascholk, and many others quoted hy M. Gol-
ovine; or in the " Mysteres de la Russie," that of Lacroix the biblio-
polist, &c, &c.
t The letters patent of the 3rd of February, 1847, do not make pre
tentions to anything like a written constitution, as the King of Prussia
clearly explained in his opening speech on the 11th of April. On the
contrary, they ostentatiously display their opposition to the constitutial-
ism of the states of the west of Europe, which call themselves the parti
sans of the past, and not of the present century, tainted as it is with certain
forms of representation, which they declare expressly they will not adopt.
VOL. II. N

178 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
independence ; when it is easy to lull the vigilance or
corrupt the equity of the members of those tribunals
when there exists a power superior to the law, invested
with the prerogative not only of mercy, which is inhe
rent in the crown, but of delaying or defying justice
wherever and in whatever manner it pleases.
An analysis of the Russian legislation, a body of
enactments belonging to different periods, and, for the
most part, bearing less the stamp of the milder man
ners of the present time than that of the inhuman
brutality of bygone ages, is beyond the plan of our
work, since it has not been the object of a revision
during the present reign, for the work undertaken by
the Emperor Nicholas was, as we have seen, almost
exclusively applied to. the form, to the collecting of
the laws and to their arrangement into codes and sec
tions of codes, and not in reality to the very spirit
of legislation. This labour has been sufficiently cha
racterized in the preceding pages, and the reader has
now, we hope, an exact idea of this system of legality
which the young monarch wanted, from the very first,
to establish in his dominions. But what remains to
us to make known, as an essential element of the pic
ture of civilization of Russia at the period now under
consideration, is the judicial organization, which like
wise called for reforms, and deserved to engage the
most serious attention of the sovereign. After having
examined the nature of the legal system determined
upon, there is no question more interesting to solve
than that of knowing in what degree each individual
is admitted to enjoy the benefits of the law.
We will take for guide in this matter a native

WANT OF REFORMS. 179
writer, a Russian, who loves his country and who, in a
book dedicated to the emperor himself, has not been
afraid to speak the truth, respectfully, no doubt, as is
proper when a man is speaking of his native country
to strangers, but also with frankness and sincerity.
The book in question is entitled " La Russie en
1844;"* it is unfortunately deficient in style, but in
other respects it has been dictated by an excellent
mind, and attests very extensive practical knowledge.
In the judicial organization of Russia, the ordinary
criminal procedure, that relating to theft, assassination,
and other crimes of this kind, is the least obnoxious to
criticism. Our author finds but little to say on the
subject: he merely states that it takes place without
the intervention of pleading, and perhaps the right of
defence in general is much too limited. So long as
crimes or offences of this nature are not allied to
pobtics, there is nothing to fear from the spirit which
presides over their repression ; but the danger begins
as soon as they approach this ground, — as soon as the
person accused is suspected of liberalism. Then,
thought and speech are watched with extreme care,
and the least equivocal expression may excite the
umbrage of the authorities.
* To this title is added : — " Systeme de Legislation, d' Administration
et de Politique de la Russie en 1844,. par un Homme d'etat," Paris,
1845, in 8vo. This statesman is really a Russian ; we could even mention
his name ; besides the whole work bears witness to the truth of this.
It is to be regretted that the work is not more extensive, as the matter
would have gained much by being more fully developed. The book is
throughout remarkable for its moderation and love of truth. It is with
this spirit that we could wish to see all those Russians inspired who,
writing in foreign countries, criticize the state of things at home. True
patriotism does not exclude censure, but it imparts to it a suitable tone
and manner.
n 2

180 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
What inspires the most lively apprehensions, is the
initiative constantly taken by the emperor in affairs
which concern the tribunals, and before the latter have
pronounced, — an initiative we have already mentioned
very lately as a serious fact. On the first report, some
times at the first insinuation, the autocrat, — taking
his title in the widest sense, — orders an inquiry and
names a special committee, either to examine the facts
or to pronounce a decision. The emperor's aides-de
camp are the instruments made use of for this service.
They receive their instructions from the monarch, and
if he seems persuaded beforehand of the culpability of
a person's act or conduct, how can the committee help
allowing him to be in the right, or not come to a
severe conclusion % The agents charged with the in
quiry and perquisition, therefore, enter upon their
labours already prepossessed and troubled by the fear
of contradicting their powerful master, the arbiter of
their fate as of that of all his subjects. Besides, being
educated in the military profession, and without ade
quate knowledge in matters of law, they are easily led
into error, and often discover a crime where there is
not even the vestige of one, where there is neither
proof nor even probability.
The report is made under this influence, and pre
sented to the emperor. Most assuredly, says the
Russian anonymous writer, the attainment of justice is
the monarch's chief aim ; but he allows himself, in his
turn, to be influenced by the opinion of the reporter,
by his apparent conviction, and the energy with which
he supports it. Thence proceed " acts merely of unll?
the emperor gives orders to have the business judged

WANT OF REFORMS. 181
by a special military committee, or else by a criminal
commission, when it ought, on the contrary, to be in
the jurisdiction of ordinary justice. Nor is this all :
" in consequence of the too visible bias, the order given
by the emperor to judge any affair whatever in a
criminal court is at once considered as a decree to
which the judges must blindly conform."
" It is impossible," adds the author, " not to feel ex
treme anxiety on seeing the demarcation between the
civil and the criminal often depending on chance."*
He afterwards reverts to the danger to which any
accused person is liable, on being suspected of liberalism.
In Russia, this is termed doukh, mind, and the arbitrary
range of meaning given to this word, and the inter
pretations to which the word gives rise, are enough to
make even the innocent tremble. This word, and a
few others, as we are informed, far from having the
same meaning and limitations in Russia as in consti
tutional countries, contain in themselves a sort of
discretionary power ; " they are understood ad libitum
by the authorities." No individual suspected of doukh
can ever sleep quietly ; he is either booked in the
grand register belonging to the head of the secret police,
that is to say, " a man forbid" (mis d Vindex), or im
mediately placed under the surveillance of the police ;
he runs the risk of being deprived of the civil laws of
the election of nobility; nay more, he may even be
transported.! And all this may happen without the
individual, upon whom one of these condemnations has
been inflicted, having the least notion of it : this is done
under the denomination of measures of precaution.
* Page 23. t Page 24. The author means transportation into Siberia.

182 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
" I shall abstain," continues the same author, " from
considering in this place instances of a measure so
arbitrarily employed : they are too unjust, too agonizing,
too numerous, and too deeply engraven on the memory
of every individual."*
Nevertheless, this is not the extent of the emperor's
interference in the exercise of justice, which, in countries
where civilization really reigns, the government allows
to take a free course. The council of the empire, the
jurisdiction of which was at first purely administrative
and legislative, ultimately became Hkewise a high
judiciary court, f and there, when opinions are divided
upon a cause, the sovereign can adopt and cause to be
executed the opinion of the minority, as well as that of
the majority, by which he is no ways bound.
This leads us to say a few words about the civil pro
cedure, which is tainted with similar abuses : we
shall still take for our guide the enlightened Russian,
* If we are well informed, the author was himself an innocent victim
of measures of this kind. We will mention another, Prince Peter Dol-
gorouki, a young scholar, who, under the fictitious name of Count d"Al-
magro, published in France, the " Notice sur les Priucipales Families de
la Russie," (Paris, 1843, 8vo.) which we have already quoted ; a very
useful and curious book, but very bold for a Russian who had not
settled his affairs before he left his country. Accordingly, the prince was
immediately recalled from Paris. On arriving at St. Petersburg, he
was obliged to consider it as an act of extreme clemency to be sent,
without any form of trial, to his own estates in the government of
Viatka, where he remained a year or two, waiting for a pardon, which
was granted him at the end of that period.
t The council of the empire is divided into five departments, namely:
1st, that of the laws ; 2ndly, of military affairs ; 3rdlv, of civil and
ecclesiastical affairs ; 4thly, of political economy ; 5thly, of the affairs of
the kingdom of Poland. It assembles in departments or in a general
assembly, and is composed of some thirty members.

WANT OF REFORMS. 183
who was the first to point out the reforms that most
urgently require to be undertaken.
There are in Russia, as everywhere else, several de
grees of jurisdiction. The inferior degree is the district
tribunal (puiezdnu soud), composed of a judge and four
assessors, two of whom are chosen among the inhabi
tants of the country, in order that every class of the
population may be judged by its equals. Catherine II.
had so willed it ; but her really liberal provision has
not perhaps produced, in practice, the effects she ex
pected from it. Seated beside an aristocratic judge,
who never ceases to make them perceive the enormous
difference which separates them from him, the rustic
assessors lack both dignity and independence. " The
only good they can do," says a traveller, in speaking of
them, " is to well warm the sanctuary of justice ;" and
though this expression be rather an exaggeration, it is
certainly not quite devoid of truth. In every district
or arrondissement (subdivision of government) there is
a tribunal of this kind, just as there is in France a
tribunal of an inferior court, or premiere instance ; and
at the chief seat of each government there are, besides,
tribunals of the second degree, one civil, the other
criminal, called chambers or tribunals of government,
and forming a court of appeal from the district tribunals.
Of all the courts, says the Russian statesman, these
chambers give us the best idea of a regular organization
of justice ; their members are elective.* " Here a
majority of votes has that value required by law, which
* The nobility choose them among themselves, or from the citizen-
class. An imperial manifesto, and a ukase of the 4th of December, 1835,
have regulated the elections of the nobility on a broader basis.

184 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
in all the superior courts, is eluded in so many ways."*
Yet even here arbitrariness is constantly perceptible,
for " on a simple request of one of the parties," adds
our author, " the department of the senate orders the
chamber of government to lay before it explanations on
the different articles of that request ; and often the
senate pronounces judgment, grounded on such a com
plaint of one party, in an affair that it has not yet
examined." The third court and that of general appeal is the
senate, divided, as we know, into departments, f private
assemblies having above them, as a superior court, the
full assembly of this same court, which can hardly be
termed a supreme court for the reasons about to be
stated. The judgments of the departments of the
senate, Uke those of the full assembly, are written in
the form of ukases ; but in this case, it is not the
mere majority that decides ; the law requires the una
nimity of the members present. After such a test, it
would seem that everything ought to be terminated,
* Page 12.
+ They are eleven in number, of which six are at St. Petersburg,
three at Moscow, and two at Warsaw. The first of these departments
is especially charged with the promulgation of the laws, the despatch
of them to the authorities, &c. It settles the conflicts which arise
between different tribunals, and takes cognizance of law-suits between
the crown and private individuals. Tlie second, third, and fourth de
partments at St. Petersburg, the seventh and eighth at Moscow, and the
ninth at Warsaw, arc courts of appeal for civil business ; the fifth at
St. Petersburg, the sixth at Moscow, and the tenth at Warsaw judge
also appeals in criminal mutters. The eleventh department is that of
surveying, and its jurisdiction extends throughout the empire. The
general or full assembly takes cognizance of all such business as has not
been able to be decided in the departments. The number of the senators
is unlimited ; hut it never far exceeds a hundred.

WANT OF REFORMS. 185
and that all that should remain would be to put judg
ment into execution. Not so ! The procedure must
first be submitted to the attorney-general attached to
the department which it concerns. Nothing can be
more absurdly astonishing ! for he is one of its secre
taries who read, in its presence, the business of the
tribunal ; he alone, however, did not pay attention to
it, his ministry beginning only after the tribunal had
discharged its duty. He then examines the bundle of
papers, and, if he be not of the same opinion as the
judges, he presents his objections to them. It fre
quently happens that the judges no longer remember
the business, for the papers have remained for months
in the cabinet of the attorney-general. No matter !
The examination must begin again, and if the sena
tors be not unanimously of the opinion of the court,
the judgment is null, and the decision then belongs to
the general assembly of the senate. In this assembly
a majority of two-thirds of the votes is required. This
is certainly a very great point ; and now at aU events
a judgment supported by such a guarantee will doubt
less be definitive \ By no means. Even though it had
been given unanimously, it would still be subject to
the control of the minister of justice, who can annul,
by his veto, the decision of that superior court. When,
by virtue of his office, he has the affair before him, he
causes it to be examined by one of his clerks, for he
has no time to apply himself to such finical labour.
This clerk draws up a report, stating the grounds on
which the opinion is founded, which often occasions a
loss of several months, according to the bulk of the
papers, which sometimes form a heap of a thousand

186 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
printed pages ; for the Russians are as fond of scrib
bling and making waste paper as anybody. Under the
authority of his superior, he next submits this report
to a discussion in the council of jurisconsults attached
to the ministry of justice, a certain number of its
functionaries sitting there also with the attorneys-
general of the senate. This council adds its own
opinion to the report, and the judgment arrives at the
minister's cabinet enlarged with all these commenta
ries. It then depends on the minister of justice to ap
prove or reject it : in the latter case, he makes known
his motives, draws his conclusions, and sends the busi
ness again to the senate. The latter repUes yes or no
to the propositions of the minister ; if it be yes, the
matter is ended ; but if no, the judgment pronounced
remains without effect, and the affair goes before the
council of the empire. Meanwhile, one may imagine
the anxiety of the parties interested, and the agitation
they make in consequence ; " they do not fail," says
our author, in his incorrect but natural language, " to
get to windward of the direction it has taken," * and
then everybody does the best he can to dispose in his
favour the inferior agents, whose opinion may counter
balance that of one of the greatest bodies of the state.
This is, we must confess, a very compUcated and con
fused machine ! and yet, besides the council of the
empire, of which we shall presently speak again, must
be added one not less likely to impede the progress of
affairs than this inconceivable interference of the minis
ter and the attorney-general : we mean the Commis
sion of requests, a true holy inquisition for legislation
* Page 7.

WANT OF REFORMS. 187
"x which it tortures as it pleases,"* says the statesman,
" \Vithout having, in its composition, the slightest cha
racter of a court of justice." From being at first a
simplfe- commission of petitions of complaints addressed
to the sovereign, it has extended its jurisdiction as far
as the faculty of annulling the judgments of the de
partments of the senate and of sending them before
the general assembly ; nay more, it can suspend the
execution of the judgments given by this assembly, and
propose that the affair be laid before the council of the
empire. The latter, whose jurisdiction ought to be
purely administrative and legislative, has thus become
a judiciary court : causes of great importance are
judged by it, but still not without appeal ; for, as we
have said, they must be submitted to the sanction of
the Emperor, who very often confirms the opinion of
the minority, and thus gives it the value of a judg
ment. The last and highest court is, therefore, the autocrat
in person ; and in Russia justice not only emanates
from the sovereign, but, in many cases, he dispenses it
personally. To sum up all, the judiciary organization in this
country comprises no less than eleven courts or diffe
rent degrees, which may be ranged in the following
order : first, the district tribunals ; secondly, the
chambers or tribunals of government ; thirdly, the de
partments of the senate ; fourthly, the attorneys-general
attached to each department ; fifthly, the commission of
requests (to transfer the affair to the general assembly
of the senate) ; sixthly, the general assembly of the
* Page 11.

188 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
senate ; seventhly, the minister of justice assisted by the
council of consultation ; eighthly, the commission of
requests a second time (to transfer the business to the
council of the empire) ; ninthly, the department of the
council of the empire ; tenthly, the general assembly of
the council of the empire ; eleventhly, the emperor
himself. From this multipbeity of shackles, the Russian who
serves us for a guide very properly concludes that
ordinary justice, being continually in contention with
the authorities arbitrarily interfering, "must necessarily
deviate from its legitimate path to yield to protec
tion, intrigue, corruption, and venabty," whilst the
obscurities, compbeations, and contradictions, still so
frequent in the laws of the Russian code, singularly
favour fraud or a false interpretation. He has no
hesitation in declaring that in any country, with this
justiciary mode, even adapted to the best of the codes
known in Europe, the free and impartial course of
justice would be merely a delusion.
We saw just now with what immense power the
minister of justice is invested, a power unequalled in
any country in Europe ; accordingly, it would be natu
ral to think that this post is never intrusted to any but
the highest talent, like that which distinguishes the
first legists of England, France, and some other states.
This would be a mistake. Among the latter heads of
the department of justice, two were poets of the first
order ; after them came an old general of infantry,
whose advanced age did not aUow him to study a
science so arduous as that of the law ; the last two
had been chosen in the diplomatic career ; the only

WANT OF REFORMS. 189
person wanting, says our author, was a real lawyer, a
jurisconsult by profession. He then adds : " It is not
difficult to foresee that this omnipotence of the
minister, shewing so little respect for the opinions of
the members of the general assembly of the senate, must
naturally have for its moral result indolence, and even a
contempt of duty and that individual zeal with which
every member of the general assembly ought to enter
upon the business submitted to him for examination.
Thus, instead of studying the matter himself, in order
to give his opinion, he leaves it to chance, as the
minister of justice will afterwards propose his yes or
no, and then he will have time to choose."
What justice and what judges!* It is true that
most of them are there only as a matter of form.
Chosen among the soldiers who have attained the grade
of lieutenant-general, or among civil functionaries
having the rank of privy councillors, they are generally
* Seeing such a state of things, is it possible not to censure severely
the following conceited language in the Pentarchie JEuropeenne ? " Rus
sia is an empire quite consolidated and complete in itself, having its par
ticular institutions (which foreigners, by the way, may consider defective
as long as they please, provided they remain salutary for Russia herself),
a nationality which little resembles that of Germany, a church with
which the west is unacquainted, manners that never belie their patriar
chal and oriental origin, a popular vigour, in short, on which the Capua
on the banks of the Seine has hardly yet exercised its influence. This
empire has but very little direct communication with the states of the
central association of Europe (Germany). It can remain an indifferent
spectator of whatever takes place at home, and has indeed ever been so
till the present day ; for what certain Russians have written about Ger
many can no more be regarded in this matter than the reasonings of
certain German or Dutch authors on Russia." After this passage, the
author of the " Pentarchie " returns to his idea of a Russian protec
tion exercised towards Germany, of which we have already spoken in
vol. i.

190 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of an advanced age when they come to take their
seats as senators ; and if they do not already possess a
few notions on the very complicated legislation of their
country, they have scarcely ever the time to acquire
them. In each department of the senate, all the real
work is done by the president, whilst the other mem
bers are asleep in their chairs. Accordingly, the dig
nity of senator is not accompanied with much con
sideration : to appoint a person to it is, in the eye of
the public, to give him " the InvaUds."*
Things being on such a footing, it is evident that the
Russian magistracy would need to be guided by an
enlightened and learned bar ; but no such bar exists.
A few advocates draw up memorials for their clients,
and point out to them the steps and the sacrifices
* The insignificance of the senators, or rather of their functions, has
become proverbial, just as that of the members of the imperial legislative
body, known by the denomination of mutes, formerly was in France.
Without taking literally all the jokes made about them, we may mention
that a manuscript has been found in the hand-writing of the Empress
Elizabeth Petrovna, in which she had taken notes of the names of the
officers of the guards, their term of service, their conduct, the distinctions
or the punishments awarded to them, &c, and in which this singular
note was found under one of the names : — " Dismissed from the guard
and sent to be a senator, on account of shallow intellect and improper
behaviour." We can likewise warrant the authenticity of the following
anecdote. In 1827, Cancrine, the minister of finance, presided in the
senate, at the adjudication of the farming of spirituous liquors. One of
his friends, seeing him there, asked him with a smile whether he had ever
encouraged the idea of being a senator : " Why not ?" replied that very sen
sible man, " when we become old, must we not expect to be again in the
company of children i" However, Nicholas has appointed as senators a
great many men still vigorous, and of whom great expectation may be
formed, such as the privy counsellors Ouvaroff and Baron Paul do Hahn,
Generals Kai'ssaroff, Gorgoli, Mordvinoff, &c. Among these appoint
ments, we have also remarked that of Prince Dagrath, csesarovitch of
(ieorgia and privy counsellor.

WANT OF REFORMS. 191
which prudence commands them to make to indulge in
the hope of obtaining justice.
" Russian pleading," says our statesman,* " is utterly
wanting in whatever characterizes pleading in the other
countries of Europe : it has no publicity nor oral ex
position. Everything is done in writings, which the
parties are bound to present, from the tribunal of the
inferior court, which is that of the districts, to the de
partment of the senate." When the business has reached
the general assembly of the senate, its papers will
perhaps be multiplied so far as to form eight thousand
written leaves, which is the maximum, the minimum
being two hundred. " What an embarrassment must
such a pile of papers inflict upon the judge, an old
decrepit senator, often unacquainted with his duty !
It is true a formality requires a second packet of
papers, an abridgment of the former, which is given to
the senator judges in order to guide them ; but the in
sufficiency of both is but too evident !" " Since there
is no oral pleading, there are consequently no advo
cates bred at the school of the bar or at the faculties
of law ; but notwithstanding this, everybody acts the
lawyer." . . . (We suppress the manner in which
ladies, " even of the most noble birth," very often per
form his duty.) " K corruption and venality can reach
persons of such high rank, how much more do they
influence and beset with all their influence the doors of
the tribunals and the judiciary chancery ? Neither are
we much at a loss to discover the sources and origin
of this corruption : they are in the secret, and under
stand the mystery of Russian pleading intrusted to the
* Page 31.

192 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
hands of the secretaries of the judiciary chanceries,
men whose skill cannot be divested of a vast influence
upon causes." "Even though they only told the
parties the actual state in which the affair may be,
what direction they might cause it to take, how their
minds or those of the judges might be disposed ; though
they took bribes from either party, warranting them
both success on condition of returning in the contrary-
case the bberal presents they had received, they would
stiU be sure of being the gainers by one of the parties,
but the adroit gain by both."*
Yet hitherto these scandalous proceedings have ex
isted without a remedy, notwithstanding the honest
intentions of the government, which has tried every
means. It has severely punished the functionaries
convicted of such shameful conduct, and has encouraged
honest men by rewards or an increase of salary. This
has produced no other result, says our author, than
that of " raising the tariff of illegal impositions, by im
proving the means of precaution to be taken."
With such instruments every thing naturally re
mains in a state of suspense and misery, for everybody
waits till he is urged to do his duty by the only motive
capable of overcoming his apathy. Accordingly, in
the year 1826, the first of the reign of Nicholas, there
were no less than 2,850,000 causes of every descrip
tion pending before the different tribunals of the
empire;f an(* 127,000 individuals were in a state of
arrest. • Pages 32 and 38.
t We are told that the senate pronounced judgment, in 1824, in 40,000
causes, and in 1825, in 60,000. As there are not 200 days of sitting in

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 193
The emperor, whose attention had been called to
this extreme dilatoriness of justice by the disclosure of
the conspirators, or by the examination of their papers,
gave imperative orders to the minister charged with
this department that more diligence should be em
ployed, and that business should be speedily and regu
larly dispatched. A circular enjoined the civil go
vernors to look to it in all the tribunals in their
jurisdiction, especially in what related to prisoners.
The attorneys-general received orders to give notice
of every omission and delay to the minister of justice,
on whom was imposed the obligation of submitting
every month to the emperor an extract of reports of
this kind. In fact, they got rid of those enormous
arrears ; and the monarch states, in a rescript
addressed on the 3rd (15th) of January, 1827,
to Prince Labanoff Rostofski, that at the end of
one year there remained no more than 4,900 per
sons detained in prison, and that there were but
very few cases that still remained unsettled. On tes
tifying to the minister his gratitude for the result, he
concluded his rescript,* benevolent in other respects,
with these words, in which severity is concealed under
the mild form of the language : " I hope that by new
and still more important successes, my fervent wishes
will be in future fulfilled ; that by the most speedy
possible dispatch of business, consistent with attention
and exactness, it will be prevented from accumulating;
a year, this makes more than 300 law-suits per day. And yet the senate
finds means to prolong a great number to such a degree, that parties are
often reduced to despair.
* See the " German Gazette of St. Petersburg," 1827, No. 3.
VOL. II. 0

194 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
that everywhere in the state, the security of person
and property, and all the rights of each of my well-
beloved subjects will be protected by an impartial
justice ; and that they who are constituted the guar
dians of the right, will be exclusively guided in all their
conduct by a sense of duty, by the respect due to the
sacredness of the laws, by their oaths taken to the
throne and by the principles of honour. And for this
purpose, may God who blesses all good resolutions come
to our aid."
This noble language did not fail to produce its effect.
However, according to an official report of the year 1842,
the number of causes judged by the different tribunals
of every degree was 3,292,691 ; an immense task
which one would think it would be impossible to per
form suitably in the space of a twelvemonth. Yet, of
this number, only 4,226, unsettled and forming the
whole of the arrears, passed on to the following year.
Law and justice were, as we have said, the prime
objects of the young emperor's sobcitude. But if
justice was not suitably dispensed to individuals, plead
ing against each other, it was frequently so much the
more slighted in the commerce between these same in
dividuals and the agents of government belonging to
the different branches of the administration.
We are aware that we are here on dangerous ground ;
we are handling one of the most painful wounds of
Russia, that wound which so many authors have lately
touched, for the most part, alas ! only to envenom or
irritate it. God forbid that this should be our inten
tion ! . The reader has already seen that we do not
deny the laudable endeavours that have been made to

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 195
cure it, but we know it is impossible to improvise a
remedy for a malady so deeply seated. Besides, have
we any right, at the present day, and in our own so
highly civilized countries, to be severe towards Russia,
. placed as she is in far less favourable circumstances \
Strictness of principles is the honour of governments
as of individuals : now, on both sides, even among us,
principles are fluctuating ; compromises are the order
of the day ; the highest interests are diurnally sacri
ficed to paltry calculations, corruption* is invading the
social body — in a particular form, it is true — but one
that makes no alteration in its nature. The observa
tion of such facts in a society in which honour seemed
to have firmly and conspicuously settled herself, in-
cbnes us towards indulgence when we have to judge
the moral condition of another society, more recently
civilized, less accessible to spiritual tendencies, and less
moulded to a dignity of character by the comfort
spread throughout every class and by the diffusion of
ideas ; a society lastly in which the restless ferment of
primitive barbarism is still in commotion, in which
even the patriarchal manners of the people are very
feebly impressed with that uprightness and probity
which have grown stronger in the West by a long
struggle against feudal oppression ;f and in which re-
* We will quote a few cases and make known some new facts in Note
(13) in the Notes and Explanations of the present volume.
t This idea would, perhaps, deserve to receive some development, if
our space permitted. We mean to say that, in our countries of ancient
feudal organization, the struggle against oppression, more personal and
more equal between the parties, has had more influence upon the cha
racter of each, instead of annihilating individuals, it has, on the contrary,
strengthened and aggrandized them. In Russia, direct and individual
o 2

196 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ligion, taught by ministers whom noble examples and
serious studies have not so well prepared for their
august mission, has been unable to exercise in the same
degree its civilizing and moral influence.
We wish not to exaggerate in the least ; and cer
tainly we are not influenced by a spirit of disparage
ment. The reader will do us the justice to believe
that our pen has never been characterized by bitter
ness. But what would be the use of dissembbng the
evil when our subject leads us naturally to measure its
extent \ Has not the grave Speranski himself, in
treating of Russian legislation in an official paper,
deprecated the vast field open "to fraud and chi
canery?"* A struggle against the abuses to which
¦their empire is a prey, is the most urgent duty of the
Russian emperors ; their security depends on it, and
the salvation of their people is to be purchased only at
this 'price ; and the other nations of Europe will sin
cerely open their arms to that people and consider
them as their equals only on condition of a regenera
tion, which they can alone expect from the honour,
courage, and perseverance of their sovereigns.
It is therefore important incessantly to remind these
sovereigns of the arduous but glorious task which is
in store for them. Instead of concealing the evil from
every eye, it is better, in our opinion, to expose it
oppression, the oppression exercised by the nobilitv was less, but the
public tyranny exercised cither by tbe victorious mongols, or by the
native czars, left no possibility of resistance: the result has been a uni
versal servitude the characters of which have indelibly remained. Sec, on
this subject, the judgment of Karamzin in the Notes and Explanations,
Note (14). * " Precis des Notions Historiqucs," &c, p, 89, note.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 197
before those whose duty it is to apply the remedy, and
whose attention it ought day and night to absorb.
Besides, we are composing history : our task compels
us to the relation of facts with minute exactness.
As early as one of the first weeks of the reign of
Nicholas, an extreme activity was imparted to- the de
partment of interior administration : the emperor was
desirous of knowing and seeing everything in person.
At a moment when he was the least expected, he
would visit the establishments of the crown ; almost
all of them were inspected by him during the earlier
months, excepting the senate, in which, at the time of
the coronation, he had not yet set his foot. Until he
could also visit the provinces, he sent inspectors into
all the different seats of government, and sad reports
were transmitted to him from every quarter. In six
teen regencies of the government, the execution of
2,749 ukases of the senate, decreed since the year
1821, had been neglected ; in the single government
of Koursk, 660 documents of this kind had remained
buried in portfolios. . Severe reprimands were address
ed to the governors ; they were summoned to send ex
planations, and the space of a year was fixed for them
to put their accounts in order. But this term, granted
by the ministers, appeared much too long to the em
peror : he not only reduced it to three months, but he
warned the negligent functionaries that, in case of a
relapse, they should be prosecuted before the criminal
court. Nor is this all. Some monstrous abuses came
to his knowledge, and we are assured that the most
serious charges were impending over the administrator
of one of the governments of which we have just

198 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
spoken. The first inspection commanded in his juris
diction, an inspection in which a prince Troubetzkoi
had been employed, having brought to bght no dis
covery, notwithstanding the probable evidence, Prince
Dolgorouki was sent with orders to recommence the
operation ; then extortion of every description, and
real acts of cruelty were disclosed. The governor was
instantly dismissed and degraded. Peter Poletika, an
honest senator,* was charged with a general inspection,
which the ministers themselves were unable to escape.
He found everywhere the greatest disorder, not omit
ting the regency of the government of St. Petersburg,
where no accounts had been verified for years together ;
accordingly, one of the cash-keepers took to flight on
this occasion, leaving a considerable deficit. In few
places had the books been kept conformably to the re
gulations ; and negligence was conspicuous everywhere.
In one place there were abuses of authority, in another
acts of venabty. In a severe report, addressed to the
emperor, Poletika testified his surprise that things
could have gone on till then on such a footing, and he
proposed different measures, several of which were
adopted. However, the inspection was not proceeded
with to its completion, and the courageous man who
had undertaken it was, perhaps, not always supported
as he might have expected to have been. A quarrel
between him and the civil governor of Moscow, an in-
* He was brother to Poletika the publicist, whose professor, De
Jakob, published at Halle, in 1813, the " Essais Philosophiques sur
1'Hoiiune," the fruits of a metaphysioal inquiry still too far advanced for
Russia, and whieh wore prohibited there. The same professor, L. H. de
Jacob, has also written on the finances of Russia, and drawn up a plan
for 'i eriniinal code for that country (Halle, 1818).

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 199
fluential man who had been brought up with the Em
peror Alexander, and whose pride was roused at the
idea of such a control, impeded its effects. There still
existed, it is true, a special commission, appointed in
June, 1826, for the purpose of considering the means
of putting an end to extortion, refusal of justice, and
prevarications of every kind ; but it cannot be said
any the more to have found a remedy for the frightful
evil by which Russia is consumed.
Being composed of very. honourable men, and having
for its president the worthy senator Engel, the object
of pubbc respect, this commission performed its equally
delicate and laborious task zealously and intelligently.
After long deliberation it proposed the following mea
sures : to abolish the secrecy of chancery courts, that
is to say, to introduce a certain publicity into the pro
ceedings ; to make the civil functionaries objects of
greater respect, and to found special preparatory
schools for those who proposed to enter upon this
career ; to increase the scale of salaries, an essential
point, but one abounding with difficulties, for the Rus
sian budget is not yet able to bestow a sufficient remu
neration on such a numerous army of functionaries of
different kinds ;* to separate the judiciary from the
administrative functions, and render the verdict of the
judges irrevocable. These proposals were wise, but
calculated to reform the future rather than the present ;

* As we have already seen, good judges are even of opinion that this
remedy would not be so efficacious as is expected ; a state of better for
tune, say they, far from suppressing the extortion of the functionaries,
would have only the effect of making them set a higher value on their
complaisance.

200 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
and the emperor was seeking an immediate remedy.
Perhaps, also, he had too many objections against the
members of the commission. What is certain is, that
he revoked it in May, 1827, at a moment when several
members had prepared speeches, in which it is said
they would have frankly proclaimed the whole extent
of the evil.
However, with facts attested by positive proofs be
fore him, Nicholas shewed himself inexorable on more
than one occasion. We will illustrate this by a few
examples. A councillor of state, and director of the chancery of
the minister of justice, in accepting, in the spring- of
1826, a sum offered by a person whose cause was
about to be tried, had done nothing more than what
had been practised from time immemorial in every
Russian chancery, without exception. Unfortunately
for him, the emperor was informed of it. Highly
exasperated, he ordered this functionary, so criminally
abusing his duty, to be put on his trial, and insisted
on the necessity of making an example of him by
transporting him to Siberia. Notwithstanding the
severity of this judgment, the senate would doubtless
have acceded to it ; but the business was carried before
the council of the empire, and a new trial took place.
Its president, Prince Lapoukhin, had just died, and his
successor was not yet appointed ; but Prince Alexis
Kourakin performed provisionally the functions belong
ing to that high post. In his report to the emperor,
Kourakin declared that, in the absence of positive proofs,
it had appeared to the council impossible to condemn
the prisoner ; but that serious probabibties were de-

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 201
posed against him, and that, in that state of suspicion,
he did not appear worthy to retain his place, nor to
occupy any other whatever in the public service. The
emperor, therefore, remained satisfied with his dis
missal. In another cause, he lent his support to a plaintiff,
even against the senate of Moscow. She was the wife
of a general, to whom a house had been sold, which
had been previously adjudged to another by contract.
She had been to much expense with the house, when
she was expelled by the lawful proprietor. She applied
to the tribunals, but in vain : she could not obtain re
dress. At length the business came before the council
of the empire, and the monarch confirmed the decision,
ordering that the lady should be indemnified out of the
salaries of the members of the departments of the
senate sitting at Moscow.
His injunctions to the president of the supreme
council were not less urgent than those to the minister
of justice. He likewise received towards the end of
1826 a rescript partly laudatory and partly calculated
to stimulate his zeal.* Prince Lapoukhin was too old
a servant, and occupied too high a place in the state,
for direct reproaches ; but the emperor engaged him to
increase his exertions " in order to aid me," said he,
"to bring to perfection the improvements which the
administration of the empire requires." He added :
" Neither you nor your colleagues are ignorant that the
object of all my cares and dearest wishes has hitherto
been, and will never cease to be, to establish a durable
* See "Journal de St. Petersbourg," 1827, No. 7.

202 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
system, that may guarantee the happiness of all and the
interests of each."
Ii, after all he had learned in the space of a few
months, Nicholas could still have entertained any
doubts on the dishonesty that prevailed in the ad
ministration, an event which happened at this very
period, and presenting that unheard-of instance of
degradation to which we have before alluded, would
have effectually dispelled them.
In April, 1826, there was a grand review of the
troops, the emperor being then at his magnificent
chateau of Tsarsko-Selo. At the moment that every
body was looking at the grand sight of the ranks of
men in briUiant uniforms, obeying the word of com
mand with a punctuabty and uniformity almost im
possible to attain elsewhere, four men of the class of
mougiks or peasants, with long beards, and wearing
caftans, made their appearance. They boldly marched
forward, spoke to the superior officers, and explained
their request, which was nothing less than to speak
with the monarch. A pretension of this kind is never
easily admitted anywhere, but with still more difficulty
in Russia, where classes are separated from one another
by often insurmountable barriers, and where, for that
very reason, whatever is unusual becomes a matter of
suspicion. H truth ever endeavours to reach the
throne, it is obbged to attempt to make its way by
some mysterious channel. In a country where every
body bves on abuses, each fears, by not discountenanc
ing officious communications, to draw upon himself the
difficulties which he would not have spared a colleague
or comrade. The peasants were, therefore, rather badly

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 203
received. The officers did not fail to tell them that
their request was absurd, and to command them to
state at once the business that had^iarought them.
Being cunning, like most of the lower class of Rus
sians, they were not to be caught by this snare ; they
declared that their business was of the utmost im
portance, and that they would communicate it to none
but his majesty himself. This conversation did not
escape the penetrating glance of the young czar : he
desired to know what was its subject, and ordered the
mougiks to be brought before him. They stood forth,
and bowed to the ground ; then looking fearlessly upon
him, whose humble slaves they acknowledge themselves
to be, yet whom they term their father (batouschka),
one of them boldly spoke and explained their business.
They had just discovered some incredible depredations
that had taken place at Kronstadt, in a manner of
speaking, before the very face of the director of the
marine, brother to the head of the general staff of the
fleet. The bazaar of the city (gastiwA-dvor),* said
they, is crowded with goods belonging to the crown,
and stolen from its stores, dock-yards, arsenals, and
ships : rigging, ironwork, copper lining, and a thousand
different things which serve for fitting up ships, are
heaped up in the shops behind false partitions, where
purchasers are introduced who come to make cheap
bargains. Anchors, cables, and even cannons are thus
gradually disposed of to foreign countries, to the detri-

* That is to say, court of foreign merchants. This vast bazaar has
sometimes been called the Palais Royal of Russia : in our opinion, these
two establishments resemble each other about as much as Russian does
French civilization.

204 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ment of the treasury. The emperor, in spite of his
acquired experience, refused to give credit to such
abominable practices ; but the peasants persisted, say
ing they were certain of what they stated, and their
language seemed to be dictated by truth. Then, with
a stern countenance, he called them to account for their
obstinate determination to see him, and for their
having disobeyed the officers by refusing to explain the
reason of their request. " If we had made these facts
known to any other than your imperial majesty," they
replied unhesitatingly, " you would never have known
anything about them, and the only persons punished
would have been ourselves." " Take care ! I consider
you responsible for your language," said the monarch,
putting an end to the conversation, but resolved to
clear up the affair.
By his orders, Michael Lasareff, one of his aides-de
camp, a captain in the navy (now vice-admiral), and
belonging to a rich Armenian family of Moscow,* took
immediately 300 men, repaired with all speed to Kron
stadt, and suddenly surrounded the gastinoi-dvor.
Having found therein a proof of all that the peasants
had stated, he set seals on the shops, left functionaries
there to guard them, and went back to give an account
of his mission. In a moment of vexation, Alexander
had once exclaimed, speaking of his subjects, " If they
* The first of that family, whose name has been immortalized by
scientific and beneficent institutions, as also by the founding of churches
of their religion, brought from Asia to Russia that large diamond, weigh
ing 193 carats, which adorns the imperial sceptre, and sold it to the
crown for 2,600,000 francs, besides a life annuity of nearly 100,000
francs (104,000/. and 4,000/.). This diamond is the largest known in
Europe j the Regent, in France, weighs only 137 carats, and the dia
mond in the crown of Austria only 139.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 205
knew where to put them, they would rob me of my
ships of war : " that exclamation was being realized
almost to the letter ; the emperor had certainly not
thought he was speaking so near the truth. Nicholas
was thunderstruck at the news of such a system
of robbery, and ordered the guilty to be prosecuted
with the utmost rigour of the law. But on the night
of the 21st of June following, the sky was illumined
with a red glare, that reached as far as the neighbour
hood of the capital, and the next day news was received
that a conflagration had destroyed the gastinoi-dvor of
Kronstadt, as well as immense stores of timber, ropes,
hemp, tar, &c. The " Journal de St. Petersburg " did
not even mention this disaster, and the real authors of
it were never known.
What a new light for the young sovereign ! What
a sad comment on the interior rottenness of that em
pire, outwardly tinselled with such a brilliant appear
ance of civilization ! Till then every day had brought
lessons of the same nature ; the most vexatious dis
coveries had happened in rapid succession ; and every
illusion must have been dispelled from the mind of
Nicholas. Perceiving that he was surrounded by
dangers, he felt the necessity of constant vigilance ;
accordingly, he directed his personal attention to every
branch of the administration, and worked day and night
to such a degree that he grew thin, and his eyes, red
with fatigue, assumed a dull leaden expression. " Mercy,
gentlemen," would the empress often say to the minis
ters, interposing with affectionate solicitude, " allow
my husband to repose a little, and come and take tea
with me !"

206 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
It was this need of vigilance which soon gave rise to
the institution of a superior police attached to the
private chancery of the sovereign. Till then, a section
of the ministry of the interior had been devoted to
that sort of inquisition, distinct from the ordinary
police, spreading like an immense network all over the
empire : Count Araktcheieff had, moreover, a special
pobce charged to watch over the bfe and to secure the
safety of the sovereign. But the disclosures of the
few last months had just given evident proof of the
insufficiency of this triple police. Moreover, the head
of the state now knew for certain that the persons
employed in the administration required to be watched
no less than the malevolent agitators, the enemies of
pubbc tranquillity. But who was to watch them \ To
whom could he confide that task ? So many men had
proved themselves unworthy of the confidence of the
monarch, that it began to be shaken ; and Nicholas no
longer trusted anybody but himself and a few intimate
friends by whom he was constantly surrounded.
Among this number was General Alexander de
Benkendorff, of whom we have already spoken, a man,
if not extremely moral, at least honest, besides being
active, enlightened, of uncommon inteUigence, and an
agreeable companion. Having long been general aide-
de-camp, and recently placed as commander at the
head of the 15 th division of cuirassiers, he was ap
pointed, at the end of June 1826, head of the gen
darmes, charged with the command of the head-quar
ters of the emperor, and was from that moment, till
his last illness,* inseparable from his person. To the '
* He died gencral-in-chief, count, &c, on the 23d of September,

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 207
private chancery, already increased by a second section,
was added a third,* destined to become the seat of
that incessant and general inquisition, which has its
agents less among the crowd and in vile neighbourhoods
than in salons and government offices, not only in Rus
sia, but in every part of Europe, in Paris, London,
Switzerland, and Belgium ; agents mixed up in every
business, present everywhere, invested in Russia with a
discretionary power, and the arbitrariness of which is
to a certain degree personified in general Doubbelt,
deputy or vice to Count de Benkendorff, and to
Count Orloff, his successor. "What are," exclaims
the Russian patriot already so often quoted, f " What
are the guarantees of the extreme honesty of the
agents of the gendarmerie'? Who would venture to
reply \ H they were in reality particularly honest and
upright men, it would be better to make them effective
leaders of some chambers, tribunals, or departments,
than to set them as guardians over other leaders, which
can tend only to shackle, business by multiplying
abuses. These abuses, we cannot repeat it too often,
proceed less from . the functionaries than from the de
fects of the institutions ; and the suppression of the
secret police or the gendarmerie is the fervent wish,
and the real interest of the state and the nation."
At the period now under our consideration, — an
1844, on board the Russian war-steamer, the Hercules, on his return
from Germany. For some time, religious ideas had had great dominion
over his mind.
* Since then, a fourth for administering the endowments of the late
Empress Maria Foedorovna, and a fifth for examining the titles of public
functionaries. t " La Russie en 1844," p. 129.

208 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
especially critical period, — circumstances justified per
haps the introduction into the government machine of
this new secret wheel, unfortunately necessary in cer
tain cases, but very difficult to preserve from every kind
of contamination. Even under an equitable govern
ment, the administration of the pobce is subject to
enormous abuses ; moreover, it cannot answer for aU
the acts of those instruments, for the most part equi
vocal, whom it is obliged to employ.
Doubtless, hoping to obtain an improvement in sala
ries, which he even hastened to effect immediately in a
few branches, Nicholas proclaimed likewise the need of
strict economy in public expenditure, and commenced
retrenchments in his own person and in his court.*
From 1823 to the end of 1825, Alexander had made,
although tardily, the first step which is always so diffi
cult in that direction ; Nicholas was determined that the
accounts of 1826 should shew a stiU lower figure, and
he accomplished his object by rigorously controlling in
person all the details of the accounts of his household.
The saving he effected amounted to the sum of
67,500,000 roubles in paper money. Accordingly,
from 1822 to 182S, the Russian government had not
to contract any new debt, and even in the latter year,
when it saw itself forced by the necessities of war to
have recourse to this means, it used it so sparingly,
that the general debt of the empire received but a very
trifling augmentation.* As to the reductions of 1826,
they were calculated especially to benefit, at least in
* To give an example : — the expenses of the kitchen and cellar were
reduced from GOO to 200 paper roubles per day.
t On tbe first of January, 1830, it formed a sum total of 1,300,000,000
francs.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 209
part, the unfortunate peasants overloaded with taxes,
and to whom it was urgent to grant relief.
We have already spoken of their mutinies in 1824.
That ferment still continued. The fate of that class of
the Russian population was deserving of pity. Over
whelmed by the burden of taxes and impositions of
every nature exacted from them, the agriculturists
found themselves in addition exposed to misery by the
languishing state of trade and the want of a market
for their corn, one of the principal products of their
agricultural industry. Before the establishment of
military colonies, the government had been in the
habit of purchasing vast quantities of the corn which
the peasants had much trouble to dispose of; but now
it was furnished by the colonist cultivators, and, to en
courage their labour, it naturally gave them the pre
ference over the other growers. By these means the
distress of the agricultural class was increased.
Besides, the Russian peasantry were not ignorant of
the great act of emancipation which had just taken
place, and was proceeding in the Letto or Estho-
German Baltic provinces.* False reports spread among
them the opinion that the serfs of the crown would be
relieved from the payment of the obrok, or annual rent
which was imposed on them, independently of the capi
tation tax, and that the serfs of private individuals, a
class far more numerous, and unfortunately also, more
oppressed,t would be freed from the yoke of their mas-
* The nobility of these provinces, as also the citizen class of the
towns, is, as we have stated, German ; the rural population is Lettonian
or Esthonian.
T In Russia, 45,000,000 of individuals are reckoned as belonging to
the class of serfs ; of this number, there existed in 1842, according to
VOL. II. P

210 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ters, to whom they should owe in future neither
statute-labour nor tributes. In Volhynia, Podolia,
and other provinces of the south, these rumours, which
were circulating in every part of the empire, had been
credited and envenomed by the conspirators. They
were eagerly listened to by the peasants, who were
groaning beneath the double yoke of their seigneurial
impositions, and the requisition for the subsistence of
the troops of the first and second armies quartered
on them for several years. When the accession of
Nicholas was known, it was imagined that the new
emperor had inaugurated his reign by this grand act of
enfranchisement ; and as their masters continued,
nevertheless, to apply the ancient system to them, the
serfs mutinied and refused obedience. The conse
quence was serious riots, which, spreading from one
government to another, at length reached the neigh
bourhood of St. Petersburg, for they broke out in a
violent manner about Gatchina, formerly the favourite
residence of the Emperor Paul, and which the empress,
his widow, had ever since inhabited during summer.
In a few places the peasants concerted together to ad
dress a collective petition to the czar, never apprehend
ing in the least the bad reception in store for these
proceedings, which considerations of interior policy
caused, however, to be declared inadmissible. All the
efforts of the provincial authorities were unavailing
against the obstinacy of those masses of mutineers : the
calling out of the troops appeared inevitable ; but, be
an official report of the minister of properties, 17,086,236 peasants of
the crown of both sexes ; leaving a remainder of about 28,000,000 serfs
of private individuals.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 211
fore having recourse to these means, the government
wished to try one last pacific measure. The emperor
published a manifesto, dated May 30th (18th), 1826,
in which the reports in circulation were declared to be
false and mabciously invented by people who were
deceiving the simple inhabitants of the rural districts,
hoping to make them the tools of their own designs.
Accordingly, it strictly called upon peasants of every
denomination for the strict fulfilment of their legal ob
ligations " without demur or equivocation." Governors
were ordered to look to the speedy execution of the
imperial will, and the manifesto was ordered to be read
for six months, on every Sunday and holiday, in the
churches, markets, and public squares. Nevertheless,
in many places, the peasants persisted in their disobe
dience, and it was necessary to send troops against
them. On the 5th (17th) of July, Mouravieff, the
secretary of state, presented to the senate a decree
from the emperor, enacting that, wherever it might be
necessary to employ force of arms to put down the
riots, the ordinary forms of procedure should be sus
pended, and the rioters judged according to martial
law. The civil governors received full power to con
firm on their own authority, and cause judgment to be
executed in every case where the number of criminals
did not exceed nine ; in case of a greater number of
offenders, they were to submit the decision of the judges
to the governor-general, or, if they had none above
them, to the committee of the ministers to whom those
superior functionaries were likewise bound to refer ;
the sentence of the committee afterwards required the
imperial sanction. p 2

212 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
But whilst taking these severe measures, the emperor
also directed his attention to the best means of de
stroying the evil at its source. Another ukase pre
scribed to the different local authorities that they
should see that masters did not exact anything unjustly
from their peasants, nor treat them with too much
severity ; and, should such a case occur, they were to
report it to the civil governor. Doubtless, humanity
had as great a share in this prescription as pobcy ;
however, it was, before long, found to be inadequate
to the fulfilment of the monarch's intentions ; besides,
it occasioned an intolerable system of espionage on the
part of the subaltern authorities authorized to interfere
in the seigneurial administration. It is true, the landed
proprietors had not to fear its consequences to them
selves, but they dealt one more blow to public mo
rality; for, in proportion as authorities are less ele
vated, the more liable they are to corruption, and the
lighter is often the sacrifice at which impunity is
purchased. At length order was restored.* But even in this
affair the young emperor must have seen alarming
symptoms : here, also, were more serious seeds of dis
sension, which an approaching future may develop. It
is evident that the strictest observance of legal measures
on the part of the masters can alone henceforward pre
vent the misfortunes with which the tottering edifice
of bondage threatens the state, on which it seems ready
to fall.
* If we arc to believe M. Custinc (vol. iv. p. 11), another revolt of the
peasants took place in 1839, at which period eighty villages were burnt
by the rural population in the government of Simbirsk.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 213
It is not foreign to our subject to examine this
question carefully.
Next to corruption, serfage is the most serious and
the most difficult to be cured of the evils which afflict
Russia. The reign of Nicholas seemed likely, in this
respect among others, to begin a new era ; there was
reason to hope it would be seen immortalizing itself by
the noble act of emancipating the serfs, a measure
which, as has been said, would be a sort of social con
summation for Russia.* Though this hope is still far
from being realized, it would nevertheless be unjust
not to acknowledge that attempts have been made
towards improvement ; moreover, obstacles difficult to
be overcome suspend the effects of the imperial will.
Serfage is not of such remote antiquity in Russia as
is generally imagined ; it was established there at a
period when the more civilized countries of Europe
were beginning to effect its abolition, and was only
completed in the time of our fathers or even in our
own. " We know," says Karamzin,-f- " that in Russia,
from time immemorial, the peasants have been in the
enjoyment of civil liberty, but without transmissible
property, — of the liberty, at least, of passing, at the
end of a legally determined period, from place to
place, from one proprietor to another, on condition of
cultivating the land, partly for the lord of the manor,
and partly on their own account, or of paying the tra-
* " La Russie s'est finalement formulee, elle s'est close vis-a-vis des
autres, et le moment est venu de s'ouvrir chez elle aux exigences et aux
garanties.de sa vive et croissante civilization." "De la Russie et de la
France," p. 306. See in the Notes and Explanations, Note (15), how this
author considers the great question of the emancipation of the serfs.
t "Histoire de la Russie," t. ix. ch. v.

214 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ditional rent." Doubtless the laws of Jaroslaff already
regulated the relations between the masters and the
serfs ; but they related to a kind of separate bondage,
and did not extend to the great mass of the rural popu
lation, which, generally speaking, was free even in the
time of Foedor Joannovitch, at the close of the six
teenth century.
There was, however, a distinction to be made : the
peasants were of two different classes, some being serfs
(khlop), and the others free (krestianine) . The serfs
were the less numerous class. They were either abso
lute and hereditary serfs (polnyie), or serfs by written
agreement (kabalnyie).* Both were, themselves and
families, the property of their lord ; only, the serfs, by
written agreement, recovered their bberty at their
lord's decease. The men of this class were called krepki,
the strong and hardy.
The simple peasant {krestianine) was free, but, as we
have said, without property. His existence was miser
able, and his position very often inferior to that of the
khlop, kept at his master's expense, when he was unable
to provide for his wants himself. Accordingly, the
krestianine was frequently reduced to part with his
liberty to secure a livebhood equal to that of the
khlop; in that case, he made with some proprietor,
either for himself alone, or for himself and his children,
an arrangement similar to that by which the khlop
was bound, the period of whicli was determined before
hand. At the end of that time he became master of
his person again, could remove to another village, and
from one establishment to another.
* From " kabala," a writing or contract.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 215
This right was annulled by laws, enacted during the
reign of Foedor, by Boris Godounoff, in 1592 and
1593 : peasants engaged by contract were declared to
be the perpetual property of their lords ; they were
compelled to remain for ever in the places for which
their names were set down in the registers of revision
or census; and in 1597 another ukase forbade those
who had engaged themselves for a term, to redeem
themselves by paying back the sum stipulated as the
price of their engagement. Nay, more, the peasants
who had disposed of their persons by contract were not
alone affected by these laws, dictated perhaps by good
intentions, but still iniquitous. They extended even
to free men, who, without having signed any engage
ment, happened to be in the service of the lord of the
manor. When they had been there more than six
months, they were obliged to remain for ever; and
when their period of service was shorter, all the advan
tage they obtained was, the permission of choosing
between their lord and another. They could lay no
claim to the right of being their own masters.
This measure produced extreme irritation among the
peasants : in several places they protested, by running
away, against the tyranny inflicted on them by the
government ; but misery shortly after drove most of
them back to their homes. Nevertheless, St. George's
day, the date when the new regulation was put into
execution, is still considered as unlucky among the in
habitants of the rural districts. Greedy, cunning, per
suasive, and remarkably eloquent, the Russian is born
for traffic ; among all the various callings, there is none
that pleases him better than that of a pedlar or re-

216 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
tail dealer in the streets ; he likes also that of coach
man or waggoner, and, in general, all those ways of bfe
in which much activity is combined with moderate
labour. Agriculture, a fatiguing, monotonous, and
rigid occupation, is but little to his taste ; it wearies
him, and he is ever ready to escape from it.
At the time of which we are speaking, discontent
was silenced by force of arms.* The new system was
continued, only a few modifications being made in it,
in 1601, relatively to peasants of the children of boiars
and other small proprietors.! In what related to great
properties, those of nobles, functionaries, or the clergy,
the measure was maintained. The die was cast ; and
the peasant was to remain rooted to, and, as it were, a
part of, the soil.J
* A remedy which it has been necessary to employ for the same pur
pose several times since, especially in our own time, as the reader may
have observed. The Russian peasant, though he may seem to be resigned
to bondage, entertains, nevertheless, a lasting rancour against his lords ;
and his feelings towards them were conspicuously displayed after the
departure of the French from Moscow in 1812. " There was," says an
eye-witness, "a singular inclination to do mischief, for mischief 's sake,
and a ferocious hatred displayed towards the nobilitv  The
Russian serfs made no more distinction than the French peasants had
done, during the revolution, between the good lords and the bad : they
committed horrible havoc in every castle without exception, imless
indeed the manager of the domain was esteemed, &c." " Histoire de la
Destruction de Aloscou, en 1812, trad, de 1'AUemand," p. 177 
" The insurrection likewise broke out on the estates of Prince Joussou-
poff. The peasants did not set fire to them, but they pillaged all the
goods, and broke to pieces the statues that ornamented the gardens. . . .
The peasants replied only by dreadful threats to every expostulation."
P. 178.
t See Karamzin, t. x. ch. 1.
X A ukase of Vassili Choui'ski (March 5th, 1607,) confirms the
measures taken by this czar's predecessors.
In Russia-Minor serfage did not exist any more than in Russia-Major :

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 217
This was a real revolution, strange in this respect,
that its direction was diametrically opposite to what
was being done in the rest of Europe, where authority
sided with the clown (manant) against the noble, his
lord, and inclined towards the emancipation of that
class, oppressed and overwhelmed with burdens of every
description. It arrested the progress of civilization,
which was everywhere else accelerated by the efforts of
the government, and it prepared serious difficulties for
the autocrat, now ashamed to behold his country so far
behind the age, without believing himself able, notwith
standing his power, to abolish suddenly the effects of a
legislation on which immense interests are founded.
What aim had Boris in view in enacting these laws 1
For they were not intended as an act of tyranny on his
part, proceeding from mere caprice. „
The power of the czar, and the whole military
system in force since Joann III. Vassilievitch, had for
its principal foundation the petty nobles and the chil
dren of the boiars. Parcels of lands had been allotted
to them, and, in return, they were obliged to take
up arms, in time of war, and join the forces of the
czar, attended by a few followers on foot or on horse
back.* The government, therefore, had need of them,
it was not introduced there till 1783, under Catherine II. Accordingly,
the peasants appear there to be still more disposed to revolt against their
lords. We had a terrible instance of this in 1845. Count Apraxin a
rich proprietor, had exasperated the peasants on his domains by the
harshness with which he treated them ; at length, being weary of this
oppression, they revolted and set fire to the castle. The count's unfortu
nate lady perished in the flames with all her family ; he himself ma
naged to escape at first, but the peasants, obstinate in their revenge
took him again and killed him.
* See Karamzin, t. vi. eh. vii.

218 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
and it was important to prevent their being im
poverished, if they were to remain in a condition
to fulfil their duties towards the crown. For this
reason, it was necessary to prevent their being deprived
of hands requisite for cultivating their lands, or their
paying for them at too high a price. Now, at the time
of the new laws, the peasants, urged by the desire
of improving their generally miserable condition, had
willingly decided to forsake their villages to go and
settle in countries recently conquered from the Kanats
of Kasan, Astracan, or others, — countries still thinly
populated, and where immense domains had been dis
posed of in favour of a few powerful personages, kniaz,
boiars, or members of the clergy. These great pro
prietors, to entice the peasants of the interior of the
country, promised them advantages which they could
not hope for from the petty nobles who were thus
in danger of being forsaken. Bondage was the means
devised to prevent this danger. But this enactment of
serfage mitigated the extreme misery of the population
in the rural districts ; for henceforward the lords were
bound to provide for their most pressing necessities.
The physical existence of the masses was thus better
insured, and this consideration would naturally have
some weight in the estimation of the government.
Such were the considerations by which Boris
Godounoff had been actuated. The bondage established
by his law was not immediately attended with the
severity of the present system. But when Peter I.
introduced the system of recruiting into Russia, he
made the nobles responsible for the impost in men,
as they already were for that in money : then it was

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 219
that the peasants were no longer allowed anything like
freedom of action ; they were entered on a list, like
the domestic serfs, and subjected to strict regulations.
From that time the rural serfs were completely assimi
lated to the domestic ones.
Unfortunately, the loss of personal liberty is attended
with that of independence of character : among the
Russian peasantry, the latter had scarcely had time for
development ; but it was destroyed in the bud, and the
servility of their vassals induced the masters to draw
closer and closer the bonds by which they secure the
obedience of men of this class. Bondage was also a pre
mium paid to idleness and indifference. Being sure of
not dying of hunger, possessing nothing of their own,
and careless about acquiring a comfort of which a caprice
of their master might deprive them, the serfs are not
over-fond of work, neither are they under the powerful
sway of emulation ; but, degraded by oppression, they
remain wedded to ignorance, chained to routine, and
incapable of making any generous effort to improve
their condition and share in the progress of civilization.
A few, indeed, are exceptions to this general rule ; and
in Russia such honourable exceptions have been not
unfrequently seen ; but it is the mass that we must
consider, and the mass remains in extreme abjection.
It delights in that condition and has novrish to emerge
from it, for then each would have to provide for
himself, and could no longer be, as to-day, careless
about the morrow. The Russian serfs, notwithstanding
the favourable qualities with which they are endowed
by nature, live from hand to mouth, working as little
as possible, and satisfying their physical wants as they

220 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
can. In case of scarcity, it is for the lord to provide
for their subsistence ; the lord also protects them
against the exactions of functionaries and the chicanery
of every kind to which they may be liable, for God is
above and the czar afar off* If they need consolation,
they seek it in drink ; the frequent use of brandy
exercises over them a pernicious influence, but it
deadens the sense of their sorrows, and imparts to
them that overflowing gaiety the sight of which has so
often rejoiced travellers, amid monotonous plains and
under the murky sky of a country which one would
think was devoted to melancholy.
However, we wbl not dwell upon the effects of ser
vitude ; they are well known, and we have no taste for
useless declamation. Even under good masters, this
situation, though more tolerable, is not free from serious
inconveniences : now, in no country are the good the
majority, and, as it has been said,f "in Russia there is
this circumstance in what relates to the possessors of
slaves, that, besides being exposed to all the tempta
tions of tyranny, they are themselves hardened by the
oppression they suffer from superior authorities."
Everybody will perceive that the emancipation of
the serfs is one of those cases of necessity for the Rus
sian government, which we may attempt to avoid, but
cannot ultimately elude. From the very commence
ment of this century, Alexander had shewn him
self convinced of this truth ; not only did he enact

* Bogb vyssoko, tsar daloko.
\ " Hevelations sur la Russie," t. i.p. 112. See also on the condition
>f the serfs, " (iolovin's La Russie sous Nicolas ler, p. 254, ct seq., as
well us l,e Clere, t'oxe, eic.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 221
several laws for the benefit of the serfs,* but he en
deavoured also to render some of the great proprietors
of his empire favourably disposed towards the work of
enfranchisement. Actuated by the desire of pleasing
him, or yielding to a transient enthusiasm, many sacri
ficed a part of their rights ; but these were only
isolated acts ; the emperor, according to his nature,
lacked perseverance, and his generous attempt produced
no remarkable result.f
To Nicholas was transmitted this important task,
among so many others : it was handed down to him
with all its difficulties, and, from the very first day of
his reign, these mutinies of the peasants, of which we
have just spoken, must have forced upon his mind the
urgency of a solution.
But great reforms are not the work of a day : in
that career, time is the necessary, the indispensable
auxiliary of even the most benevolent intentions. The
trumpeting forth of a law or an ordinance will not suf
fice to dissolve and renew relations between the culti
vator and the proprietor. A question which has often
been asked, is, what would Russia do the day after
her act of enfranchisement, with her 43,000,000 of
serfs, without either patrimony, capital, land, or imple
ments of labour, accustomed to the carelessness and
indifference of bondage, and now abandoned to inde
pendence, that is to say, to misery 1 " Though she
threw down every barrier," has ever been the reply, "the
* For instance, the ukase of the 20th of February, 1803.
f From the commencement of the century to the year 1830, only
24,344 serfs have received their liberty ; hut enfranchisement has taken
place completely in the Baltic provinces In Finland, serfage never existed.

222 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
new citizens could neither contribute to the general
wealth nor share in it ; these freed men would be ex
posed to wander about on the earth, like bands of
wolves over the snow, without knowing where, or how,
or at what hour they should find their subsistence."
But whatever could be immediately done, Nicholas
took care not to neglect ; and this was to improve the
condition of the peasants of the crown and its depen
dencies, to regulate it and render it as permanent as
possible. It is necessarily to this great division that
enfranchisement ought first to be applied : there it is
that the first example ought to be given, and there also
will doubtless be furnished the proof of the possibibty
and safety of such a measure.
This measure is being prosecuted, and with entire
success. In an official act, the peasants of the crown
have already been declared free people.* This appel
lation was perhaps premature ; however, being now
hereditary tenants of their huts and fields, the men of
this class participate in the advantages of property, and
are progressing steadily towards a complete emancipa
tion. Industry and commerce are contributing to im
prove their condition, which, generally speaking, can
no longer be termed unhappy. There are no field-la
bourers nor beggars among them ; each man cultivates
his own portion, and pays only his legal rent. He is
able to acquire property by his savings, and he co-ope
rates in the election of the chiefs charged with the
administration of the districts.
A numerous class of free agriculturists is gradually
forming, prepared for this condition by comfort and an
* South ludi volnii.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 223
elementary instruction received in popular schools.
This class comprises, as we have seen, about two-fifths
of the whole number of the serfs, and it is daily aug
menting by the reannexation to the estates of the
crown of lands that are mortgaged to it as loan secu
rities, and which their proprietors find themselves
obliged to abandon to it.*
It was with a view to effect this great result, and the
better to concert and carry out the measures that
would conduce to it, that a ukase of the 8 th of Janu
ary, 1838, as we shall presently see, created the " minis
try of the domains of the empire," separate from that
of the finances.
Moreover, Nicholas bestowed a bke serious attention
upon the general legislation respecting the serfs. We
shaU not speak here of the two ukases of the 2nd
(14th) of April, 1842, and the 12th (24th) of June,
1844, which establish a well-defined distinction be
tween the domestic serfs and the peasant serfs, protect
both the former and the latter against arbitrary treat
ment, prepare the transformation of the latter into
free peasants only, " with duties to fulfil," and give
their masters a salutary warning on the necessity of
regulating in a friendly spirit the condition of their
vassals before they escape from them by the very
nature of things. These two great legislative acts
which, united together, would almost deserve to be

* The ostentation of the families of the nobility makes them run into
debt. " Should a Russian noble be pressed for money, the government
accommodates him with it by accepting a mortgage, which his folly ge
nerally disables him from redeeming, so that the serfs escape from his
power." " Revelations sur la Russie." t. i. p. 134.

224 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
called a " charter for peasants," belong to a very recent
period, which we will not for the present consider.
But what proves the monarch's attention to have been
directed to the fundamental point as soon as he was
firmly seated upon his throne, is a ukase enacted in the
month of August, 1827, on which we must say one
word. Till then the proprietors had been allowed an exor
bitant privilege : whenever they wanted to get rid of
one or more of their serfs, they were able to transport
them into Siberia, without any other form of process
than an authorization obtained from the local adminis
tration. The emperor rightly judged this privilege to
be incompatible with a legal state, properly understood,
and limited it until it should be possible to suppress it
entirely. By virtue of a resolution of the council of
the empire, it was enacted that, in future, this privilege
could be exercised only on the following conditions : —
It must be requested of the governor-general by a
petition, accompanied with a certificate from the govern
ment-marshal of the nobility, who must attest that the
serf designed for transportation really belongs to the
master who wishes to inflict this punishment upon him ;
it may not be inflicted if the serf be more than fifty
years of age, lest his supposed faults be nothing more
than a pretext to get rid of him at a time when old
age and infirmities might cause him to be only a use
less burden ; he must not be separated from his wife,
nor from his children under five years of age ; the
master will also be obliged to furnish him with good
clothes for his journey, and to provide for his main
tenance till he arrives at the place of transportation.

STRUGGLE AGAINST ABUSES. 225
This resolution, dictated by a feeling of humanity,
was doubtless no great benefit ; but, as a simple pre
lude to a more extensive legislative work of a higher
aim, it signalizes the first steps of the monarch in the
very laborious and dangerous career upon which he has
since entered.
May he succeed in arriving at the goal proposed !
His contemporaries are there waiting to applaud him ;
and the Genius of civilization is standing ready to
adorn his brow with one of her most glorious crowns !
Law, regular justice, and the emancipation of the
serfs, such were the first wants of the country, and, as
we have just seen, they are far from being all satisfied,
for the task is immense ; and the longest, most active
and pacific reign might not be sufficient to complete it.
And yet it embraces only a part of the reforms upon
which it is urgent to enter, if there be any wish to
secure for Russia an honourable position among the
countries of Europe. In these, as with her, the wor
ship of the golden calf doubtless prevails at the present
day ; but the manners of the people have nevertheless
preserved a strong impression of morality ; a certain
decency still supports the efforts of integrity in its
struggle against evil temptations, and, in spite of the
contagion of the example given by the spirit of in
trigue, the love of riches, and the thirst for power,
individual dignity has not ceased to be an object of
admiration and respect to all. Consequently, it is still
permitted to propose those countries as models to
Russia. To the ulterior reforms desirable in that
country, next belongs a serious organization of public
instruction, substituting a modest reality, rich in re-
VOL. II. Q

226 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
sources, for the vain display of deceitful appearances ;
and the regeneration of the clergy, whose co-operation,
indispensable to the government in the task of popular
education, is almost totally wanting in the present state
of things. These two vital questions are most worthy
of being seriously examined, next to those which have
engaged our attention in this chapter ; but as they are
not directly connected with the facts of this first period
of the reign of which we are sketching the history, we
reserve the examination of them for another part of
these labours.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 227

CHAPTER V.
DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. — DEATH OF ELIZABETH.
Since the 5th of May 1821, that memorable day on
which the Emperor Napoleon ended his astounding and
eventful career, the death of no sovereign had caused
so much sensation as that of his rival in power, with
whom he had, for a moment, the idea of sharing the
world; a rival whom the French conqueror doubtless sur
passed in sublimity of genius, but who had an advantage
over him in amiable qualities, and that potent charm
which deep sensibility, sincere respect for human dig
nity, and a certain sentimentalism ever inspire, when
they are found united to majesty and power. His
death had been keenly felt in every quarter. The
grief of all the members of the imperial family of Rus
sia was especially shared by the two sovereigns, the
personal friends of the deceased ; but the other reign
ing families likewise manifested the utmost regret ;
nay, their very subjects, less unjust than they are com
monly supposed to be, shared also in this mourning of
the courts ; they did homage to Alexander's benevo
lence and suavity of manners, to his generous acts, and
to the noble part he had performed in the struggle be
tween Europe and a gigantic foe whom he, for his part,
would never have conceived the idea of chaining, after
q2

228 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
his defeat, to a miserable rock in the Atlantic Ocean.
In Europe, public opinion was unanimous in his praise,
and, among the French people, in spite of the fury of
party spirit, not one dissentient voice was heard when
Charles X., in opening the legislative session of 1826,
(January 31st), pronounced these words : "Death has
just arrested, in the middle of his career, one of our
most magnanimous allies ; my heart has been deeply
affected by that loss." Frederick Wilbam HI., older
by seven years than the friend of whom he had been
so suddenly deprived, had been overwhelmed with grief
on receiving the fatal news. He was beforehand with
all the other sovereigns in the manifestation of his sen
timents. By his order his second son, Prince WiUiam,
an intimate friend of the new autocrat,* departed im
mediately for St. Petersburg, and a rehgious ceremony
was celebrated at Berlin, with great pomp, in the pre
sence of the king, and the Prussian regiment that bore
the name of the Emperor of Russia. At this ceremony
they pronounced his funeral panegyric, and, a second
time, on another less direct occasion a few days later,
the following words were uttered from the pulpit :
" What a brilliant example, but now hidden from the
world, have we before us ! A great and powerful em
peror, a well-tried and humble Christian, the faith
ful ally and beloved friend of our king, the friend of
* Now known by the title of Prince of Prussia and heir presumptive
to the crown ; he has remained faithful to the same sentiments. He is
considered at the court of Berlin, as the head of the Russian party whose
cause his brother, King Frederick William IV., better inspired, has
often deserted, witliout, however, his daring to take any decisive step in
the matter, unless we consider as such the recent promulgation of a con
stitution of states.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 229
our nation, the benefactor of our country and of all
Europe, known to each of us, revered, beloved, and
now mourned, — mourned by the whole world ! "
Having arrived on the 17th of January, 1826, at
the winter palace, where his sister was henceforth to
reign as a sovereign, the Prussian prince received the
most fraternal welcome, and took his place in the inti
mate circle of the imperial couple. A few days after,
there arrived another member of the family, the here
ditary Grand-Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the hus
band of Alexandrina of Prussia, that sister of the
empress whom we have already mentioned ;* then, a
short time afterwards, the Margrave Leopold of Baden,
(now grand-duke,) a near relation to the Empress
Elizabeth, whom he had not the satisfaction of seeing,
for the severity of the season did not admit of his
going to visit her at the other extremity of the empire ;
next, the Prince of Orange, (now king of Holland,) the
husband of the Grand-Duchess Anna Paulovna, and the
Arch-Duke Ferdinand d'Este, one of the grandsons of
the Empress Maria Theresa, and brother of the last
duke of Modena, heir of the celebrated Italian family,
formerly in possession of the duchy of Ferrara. Fer
dinand d'Este, a man of merit, but more of an Austrian
than an Italian,t had formerly, under the orders of
General Mack, taken a considerable part in the cam
paign so disastrous to Austria, of 1805; and at the
* Her husband, since then the reigning grand-duke, died in 1842.
The brother of the Princess Helene, he is known to have been not very
favourably disposed towards her marriage with the late and much la
mented Duke of Orleans.
t He has just been the object of a hostile demonstration at Pisa,
(March, 1847.)

230 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
time of the surrender of Ulm, he had fought his way
through the French army. Next, in 1809, he had
struggled in Poland against Poniatowski and Dom-
browski ; and, lastly, he had had the superior command
of the Austrian reserve in the year 1815. At the
period to which our history relates, he held the rank of
general of cavalry ; but, since then, he has been pro
moted to that of field-marshal. On his arrival at St.
Petersburg he was received in the most distinguished
manner, as well on account of his personal qualities, as
of that illustrious court, which, by such a choice, de
sired to give to that of Russia a signal testimony of its
sympathy.* As to the heir to the throne of the
Netherlands, his own private feebngs, far more than
political decorum, had made him hasten to the spot
destined to receive the ashes of Alexander. These two
brothers-in-law had been united by the bonds of sincere
friendship. A former visit of the Prince of Orange
had caused him to be dearly remembered at St. Peters
burg; now everybody was affected at seeing him
again ; he was welcomed with every mark of affection,
and the exchange of mutual consolation divested of a
part of their sadness those early days of mourning, still
far distant from the day on which the interment was
to take place, but till which the prince was, neverthe
less, determined to remain.
At the same time, envoys extraordinary had arrived
from most of the courts of Europe : General Viscount
de Saint Priest, the French ambassador at Berbn, had
* Among other honours conferred upon the archduke, he was ap
pointed commander of the huzzars of Izouin, since then called Archduke
Ferdinand's.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 231
received orders to represent his country on that
occasion, and had repaired to the capital of the north
almost as soon as Prince William. The envoy of
Wiirtemburg, an allied court, was not behindhand on
his part, any more than the envoy of Bavaria, whose
choice had fallen upon Field-Marshal Prince Wrede,
the unfortunate hero of the battle of Hanau. The
young emperor shewed himself very sensible of these
universal testimonies of sympathy, earnestly and
gracefully expressed. " The albed courts," says an
article in the "French Gazette of St. Petersburg,"
" are now hastening to honour the memory of the
Emperor Alexander, who remained till his last moment
the depositary of their unbounded confidence, by the
unanimous expression of the most affectionate sen
timents towards his august successor."
"The British government," continued the semi
official journal, "has likewise shewn all the import
ance it attached to the choice of a representative on
this solemn occasion. It has chosen one of the heroes
of the age, the illustrious captain who completed the
destruction of Napoleon on the field of Waterloo, and
who thus rendered the name of Wellington for ever
inseparable, in the annals of history, from the name
of Alexander I, the principal author of European
deliverance.''''* The choice of the Whig cabinet of George IV. had
indeed fallen upon the most considerable man in the
three united kingdoms. The circumstance of his
being a Tory had not appeared to them any obstacle :
for, at that period, this party had not yet come to an
* "Journal de St. Petersburg," 1826, No. 13.

232 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
open rupture with Canning, a minister who was soon
to shew himself more liberal than his previous career
could have led people to presume. Having been
loaded with favours by the deceased emperor, Lord
Wellington was, at that moment, the only field-mar
shal of Russia :* nobody could be more acceptable
to the young czar.
As to the rest, this choice was not dictated solely
by courtesy. Like all the different cabinets, generally
speaking, that of St. James had received the most ami
cable overtures from Alexander's successor. Count Nes-
selrode's circular had informed it of the pacific inten
tions of the Emperor Nicholas. Nevertheless it felt
some alarm about the affairs of the east, to which
the attention of the whole world was turned, as the
difficult point of the great European questions, and at
that moment the only one that interested diplomacy ;
for the intervention of France in Spain to quell the
revolution, and restore to Ferdinand Vn. the free
exercise of his will, was an accomphshed fact, the
consequences of which were no longer to be dreaded.
It is well known with what unexpected forbearance
Alexander, restrained by Austria, had suffered the tar
diness of the Divan in giving satisfaction to his just
complaints concerning the principalities on the Danube
and the reparation due to the Russian commerce for the
losses it had suffered ; the czar must have needed great
self-possession to abstain from taking a part in the
deadly struggle commenced between the Greeks, weary
of their secular slavery, and the Ottomans, their op-
* Sacken and Wittgenstein, as wc have said, held at that time only
the rank of genoral-in-chicf.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 233
pressors, in whom the old Mussulman fanaticism had
revived. Under the new sovereign, young, energetic,
and perhaps ambitious, there was reason to fear lest the
season of concessions should appear to have passed
away, and that it would be impossible for the Holy
Alliance to check any longer the Russian colossus, im
patient to rush upon the South, where co-religionists,
abandoned to slaughter, were stretching forth their
supplicating hands towards him for succour. Indeed,
Nicholas was determined to cause his rights and the
christian name to be respected. England, therefore,
deemed it indispensable to enter into a serious negotia
tion with his cabinet, and, taking advantage of a mis
sion of condolence and ceremony, for this purpose,
Canning caused the mission of conveying to Russia the
expression of the regret of George IV. to devolve on the
Duke of Wellington, whom his high renown, his well-
established character, and his services — rendered not
only to the British empire but to all the powers for
merly allied against France— invested with a spell that
gave importance to every word he uttered. Canning
had wisely perceived that to put an end to a murderous
warfare which Europe was disgusted to see prolonged,
and to prevent Russia from taking her position, accord
ing to her well-known policy, as arbiter of Greece,
there was only one way left, which was, to recognize
the independence of that christian country, whose very
name, setting creeds aside, was already exciting the
sympathies of every nation. His arguments had over
come the scruples of the future head of the Tories, not
less familiarized at that time with parliamentary stra
tegy and diplomacy than with the operations of the

234 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
battle-field* He consented to lend his support to a
cabinet with the policy of which his own did not alto
gether agree, and repaired to the continent, accom
panied by his brother in arms Lord Fitzroy Somerset,
whom a cannon ball, by depriving him of one arm, in
the Spanish war, had forced to exchange the career of
arms for that of diplomacy.
All the newspapers of the. time spoke of the wel
come given at Berbn, not only by the king but by the
whole population, to the conqueror of Salamanca and
Vittoria, or, more properly speaking, to the man to
whom the Prussians were indebted for their share of
glory in the battle of Waterloo.
Frederick William HI. treated him as a friend, gave
sumptuous festivals in honour of him and loaded him
with presents. Field-Marshal Gneisenau, the governor
of Berlin, went to pay him a visit at his hotel, at the
head of the most celebrated Prussian generals. In
Russia, he was not received with less show of enthu
siasm : general officers, despatched as far as the fron
tier to meet him, conducted him on the 2nd of March
to St. Petersburg, where a mansion beside the palace of
the hermitage (in the street Milbonne) had been pre
pared for his reception. Nicholas and the imperial
family set no bounds to their pobteness towards him :
* As a general, Lord Wellington has just been estimated in a manner, in
our opinion, very exact in M. Charles Lacretellc's " Histoire du Consulat
ct de l'Empire." According to the estimation of that academician, the
hero of the Spanish war is " a general of excellent understanding, phleg
matic, and tenacious ; proceeding not by enthusiasm, but by order, disci
pline, and slow combinations ; trusting but little to chance, and employ
ing about him all the popular and vindictive passions from which he is
himself exempt."

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 235
not only were the honours due to his rank of Russian
field-marshal, with which he was invested, paid to him,
but he was placed on an equal footing with the princes,
and he was constantly seen by the side of the sovereign.
Nicholas feasted his guest as far as the general mourn
ing permitted ; he frequently appeared with him in
public, as if himself to present him to the inhabitants
of his capital ; he shewed him much confidence, and
wished to have his opinion on the great political ques
tions, perhaps even on some of those which concerned
the interior of his empire. The people, regulating
their conduct by their master's example, gave a no less
warm reception to the celebrated foreign general. Lord
Wellington could not appear in the streets of the town
without the crowd pressing around him to form a guard
of honour.
However, it cannot be said that his outward appear
ance produced a very favourable impression. Still
suffering from a late indisposition, he appeared thin ;
his extremely aquiline nose stood out far too promi
nently on his long and rather sunburnt face, and his
features, all strongly marked, were not devoid of a
certain air of pretension. On the whole, the person of
this celebrated man was anything but imposing; nor
was there the aid of a splendid military costume to
improve this appearance. In his promenades, where
he was seen most frequently on foot, in the manner of
a private individual without any kind of display, at
most being followed at a distance by an elegant
droschki driven by the emperor's second coachman,
he was constantly dressed in a black frock-coat, and
wearing a small round hat. On state occasions, instead

236 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of the English red coat worn by the officers of his suite,
he wore the grand uniform of Russian field-mar
shal, with the riband of the order of St. Andrew over
his right shoulder. Alexander had made him a pre
sent of a complete military uniform out of his own
wardrobe : whether out of respect for the memory of
that prince, or to pay his court to the new sovereign,
the duke had no alteration made in it, and the dress,
the dimensions of which had been taken for the full
figure of a fine man, made the spareness of his bmbs
still more conspicuous. Yet all this would perhaps
have passed unnoticed, or, at least, not have been
injurious to the impression which such a personage
would naturally produce, had it not been for a few
breaches of good behaviour, which he could not help
committing towards some of the members of the
higher nobility, and even, it is said, towards the empe
ror himself. Certain disobliging answers are quoted
as having been returned by him to the latter. On
the whole, there was no desire of pleasing in the lan
guage of this haughty Briton ; he was considered rather
morose than talkative ; with the ladies, he did not con
sider himself obliged to take the touble of acting the
gallant, and his offhand manner with everybody, not
excepting the most gracious princesses of the court,
appeared rude on more than one occasion.
If, for this reason, Lord Welhngton did not obtain
among the Russians all the success to which, with so
great a name, it is doubtless lawful, but always danger
ous, to lay claim, his self-love must nevertheless have
been satisfied with the tokens of esteem which he re
ceived from the imperial family during the whole time

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 237
of his residence at St. Petersburg. At the funeral of
Alexander, his rank was assigned immediately next to
the princes ; several grand reviews took place in hon
our of him, among others, that on the 31st of March,
the anniversary of the entrance of the Russian troops
into Paris, a review in which more than 35,000 men
of the guard, in admirable style* filed off before the
czar surrounded by his guests. Wellington stood near
the Princes of Orange and William of Prussia ; a little
furiJher off was seen the field-marshal of Bavaria, to
whom great honours were likewise shewn. On that day
Nicholas, fulfilling the intention of his deceased bro
ther, ordered a silver medal to be distributed, stamped
with that date (March 19th, according to the Julian
calendar), to all the soldiers who had belonged to the
Russian armies then in campaign;! and on returning
to his palace, he addressed to the duke, his field-
marshal-general, the following rescript : —
" In order to give you a token of my particular
esteem for your high qualities and the eminent services
you have rendered to all Europe, it will be very agree-
* The uniforms were superb, the ranks as if they had been drawn with
a line, and the manoeuvres of great precision. The cavalry distinguished
itself very particularly ; in few countries will any be found so well
mounted. All the horses of the same regiment were of the same colour,
and seemed to be of the same size. Those of the chevalier guards were
black, those of the horse-guards brown, whilst the huzzars were mounted
on some of a lighter brown. This equestrian splendour is not at the ex
pense of the government. The officers in the cavalry of the guard are
mostly very rich, and chosen precisely for this reason : they replace with
their own money the horses which the government furnishes to the
soldiers with finer ones, for which they often pay very dear. No other
country, unless it be Hungary, could shew such a spectacle.
t It is worn tied to a, riband with the colours of the orders of St.
Andrew and St. George.

238 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
able to me that one of the regiments of my army
should bear your name. Consequently, this very day,
the 19 th of March, which was signalized twelve years
ago, by the taking of Paris and the end of an ever-
memorable war, in which the good cause was Indebted
to you for such brilliant success, I have ordered that
the regiment of infantry of Smolensk, formed by Peter
the Great, one of the most distinguished in my army,
and which has already been under your orders in
France, be henceforth called the Duke of Wellington's
regiment, desiring thereby to give you a proof of my
constant and sincere well wishes."
Moreover, as a negotiator, the representative extra
ordinary of the court of St. James completely accom
plished his object.
It is too early yet to enter, in this work, upon the
Turkish question, to detail the complaints of Russia
against the Porte, or to recount the hesitating conduct
of the latter, and the different compbcated questions
arising from interests more especially relating to the
Christians. When the time comes to inquire into the
great question of the east, we shall see many principal
facts arising amidst the discussion : the consobdation
of the form of government adopted for the principabties
of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia ;* the formation of
a kingdom of Greece, guaranteed by three great powers ;+
a new war of the Muscovites, by whom the Balkan is
at length reduced, against the Ottomans, demoralized
* Treaty of Akcrman, October 7th, 1826.
\ Treaty of London, July 6th, 1827, between France, England, and
Russia. We will give, at the end of the text, Note (16), a few documents
relating to the intermediate negotiations between this treaty and that of
Akernnin.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 239
by the reform as much as by the incurable weakness of
the empire, and the reviving confidence of the rayahs,
still resisting without any great disadvantage during
the first campaign ;* next, after this war, which was
near setting all Europe in commotion, the establish
ment of a kind of Russian protectorship in Turkey, of
which the famous treaty of Unkiar Iskelessif will be
the natural consequence, but not very durable in its
effect, owing to the jealousy of the four other members
of the European pentarchy. All this will captivate our
attention in an extraordinary degree ; but at the period
now under consideration these facts were only about to
be prepared, and we should have abstained from thus
speaking of them beforehand, if the mission of the
Duke of WeUington had not been, as it were, their
starting point.
Conferences were opened between him and Count
Nesselrode. The ambassador proved himself a partisan
of the Greeks, for whom the British cabinet had till
then sehwed but little sympathy : he deplored the
devastation committed in the Morea by the army of
Ibrahim Pacha, landed by the Egyptian fleet, and took
the opportunity of offering to Russia the co-operation
of England, if the former had the intention of putting
an end to such a sad state of things. The British
squadron was ready, he said, to prevent the Pacha of
Egypt from sending fresh assistance to his suzerain, and
Sir Stratford Canning was to strive, in concert with
* The second brought about the treaty of Adrianople, concluded on
the 14th of September, 1829. See, on this subject, the notice on Count
Alexis Orloff in the Appendix to this volume, Note (2).
+ On the 8th of July, 1833.

240 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Russian diplomacy, to induce Mahmoud II. to consent
to an arrangement with his rebel subjects. In this
manner the war, the consequences of which it was im
possible to calculate, was once more avoided, and the
definitive solution of the question of the east, so full of
difficulties and fraught with events, postponed to another
period. These conferences were communicated by Count
Nesselrode to the emperor. The latter authorized his
minister to encourage the overtures of the British
cabinet, and had himself several conversations on this
subject with his illustrious guest. But he made a clear
distinction between the exclusively Russian question
and that which the great powers might be called upon
to settle in common, and thereby, without being aware
of it, he separated his pobcy from that of the Emperor
Alexander. His words were the programme of a new
policy, more firm, more national, and less subordinate
to that of the allied cabinets.*
Relatively, therefore, to the exclusively Russian
question, the emperor rejected all interference : the
point with him was to cause existing treaties to be exe
cuted, or to avenge his rights and interests, violated in
so many ways by the Turks. That was entirely his
own business, he said ; he was resolved not to suffer

* It afterwards occasioned the rupture between the Russians and the
Turks, and that war of 1S2S and 182!l, which gave so much displeasure to
Austria, and which was nearly causing a quarrel between her and the auto
crat. In one of his despatches of that time, Pozzo di Borgo speaks of the
"inconceivable conduct of M. dc Metternich ;" which, in his opinion, is cal
culated "' to pour upon Austria all the calamities of the war she was pro
voking against Russia, without sparing her any." But this belongs to
the sequel of the history of the reign of the Emperor Nicholas.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 241
them to trifle with him any longer ; he declared he
would get satisfaction immediately, even though he were
obliged to have recourse to arms. However, he pro
mised he would exact nothing beyond the treaties, nor
go to such extreme measures as would be likely to com
promise the existence of the Ottoman empire, which was
still considered necessary to the tranquillity of Europe.
Relatively to the second question, it was much less
difficult to come to a friendly understanding. Russia
appeared disposed to renounce the exclusive direction of
the affairs of the Greeks, provided that something were
at length done to prevent such disgraceful massacres,
that the devastations committed by the Arabs of Ibra
him were brought to an end, and that the Christian
name, disgraced and vilified by such culpable inaction,
were again restored to honour in the East.
On these conditions it was possible to establish an
alliance between the two courts : accordingly, the Duke
of Wellington laid the foundation of it, by signing
with the chief of the college of the empire, on the 4th
of April, two days before his departure,* a preliminary
protocol on Greece, an important act, which contained
the principle of the treaty of the 6th of July, 1827.
But this protocol, the effects of which went far beyond
the wishes of England, by no means prevented Russia
from prosecuting with the utmost vigour, as she had
announced, the redress of her private wrongs. She in
timated her ultimatum to the Porte, and at length ob-
* He departed on the 6th, after a stay of five weeks. The emperor
made him a present of a magnificent looking-glass, 170 inches high and
63 broad (Russian measure), one of the most remarkable products of the
manufactory of St. Petersburg.
VOL. II. R

242 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
tained the satisfaction required. The treaty of Aker-
man, of which we shall give an account in the sequel
of these Studies, by calming the apprehensions of Eng
land relatively to a rupture between the two powers,
moderated also her zeal for the cause of the Greeks, and
perhaps she would then no longer have remembered the
protocol of the 4th of April, if Russia, resolved on
carrying it out, had not taken care to assist the memory
of her ungrateful ally, whose foreign pobcy was still
directed by Mr. Canning and the Whigs.
It is to Russia that the honour of the memorable
treaty of London, the foundation and safeguard of
the independence of the modern Greeks, principally
belongs. France adhered to it with perfect good
faith. These diplomatic transactions, important, as we see,
on account of the events to which they gave rise,
took place very shortly after the funeral pomp, amid
which the mortal remains of the Emperor Alexander,
which at length reached his capital, were lowered into
the vault of St. Peter and St. Paul, to repose by the
side of his ancestors. At that moment, after having
been oppressed by long and painful expectation, the
court of Russia seemed to breathe more freely ;
returning security allowed them to think of another
ceremony of a more joyous nature that of the coro
nation at Moscow. But the state of the public mind,
during the previous period of mourning and anxiety,
is interesting to study, and even the particulars of the
funeral journey from Taganrog to the citadel of St.
Petersburg, though rather physical and minute, will
not perhaps appear unseasonable in the intimate his-

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 243
tory (which is at once a chronicle and a picture of
manners) of a country where men, customs, localities,
and everything else, still require to be shewn in their
proper light. Let us, therefore, step back for a
moment, in order to witness the mournful spectacle
of the imperial funeral, the imposing procession of
which cast its black veils on two different occasions
over the capital of the north, then buried in snow,
and deprived of the sight of its beautiful river, still
imprisoned under the ice.*
Everybody was waiting in the greatest anxiety for
the day on which that ceremony was to take place.
The government had surrounded itself with imposing
forces, and every measure of precaution had been
taken : the functionaries who had charge of the public
safety were strictly enjoined to be punctual at their
posts, and the governors of provinces not to quit
theirs. The public were no less a prey to extreme
uneasiness. To give an exact idea of these emotions —
in which the author himself participated — he asks
permission to introduce in this place a few pages from
his diary, written on the spot, and under the influence
of the general anxiety, f
" The carnival has been particularly dull this year,
and we are now at the first day of Lent, J to be fol
lowed by a seven weeks' abstinence, without there
* The ice of the Neva did not break up till the night of the 4th of
April. However, that winter was less severe than usual. In Note (17) of
these Studies, &c, in the volume, we shall say a few words about the
ceremony with which this breaking of the ice is accompanied.
t This extract is dated March 3rd (15th), 1826, Ash Wednesday.
X We shall speak further (in ch. vii.) of the four great periods of
fasting in Russia. a 2

244 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
having been any symptom of public recreation during
the butter week (syrnaia n4d6lya or maslianitsa), which
precedes this great fast, and which, with its Russian
mountains, its swings (katcheli), its shows of jugglers
and their exhibitions, its stalls for brandy and victuals,
in which the black people (tchornii narod) so debght,
and its horse-races on the frozen bed of the Neva, is
generally so noisy. Even in family circles the amuse
ments which this season of extravagant mirth is privi
leged to carry on every year, have been prohibited.
Among the upper and wealthier classes, everybody still
wears mourning ; the dismal dresses of the ladies, and
the black clothes and crape hat-bands of the men, both
masters and servants, together with the funeral hang
ings of the coaches, forming so strong a contrast with
the snow in the streets, diffuse here a sense of truly
overpowering sadness. Besides this, so many illus
trious or powerful families, wounded in their dearest
affections, are awaiting in agony the decision of the
destiny of one of their members ! Moreover, an inde
finable uneasiness, general, though without any certain
foundation, so keeps every mind in check, that not
only is joy banished from circles the most fond of
pleasure, but, in town, scarcely any business is attended
to ; trade is dull, the funds are declining, and a stag
nation, in short, is felt to be universally prevalent.
This uneasiness supplants every other feebng. Doubt
less a few devoted and faithful friends continue to
mourn for the late emperor ; but since the two-fold
revolt, and the arrests by which they have been fol
lowed, the manifestation of public mourning has been
declining. On one hand, people are turning towards

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 245
the new star rising in the horizon ; on the other, a
re-action of opinion is taking place relatively to the
prince under whose administration so many elements
of disorder had collected ; but the greatest preoccupa
tion in every mind is unquestionably the absence of
security. Awkward reports are in circulation, and the
most absurd stories invented : the public believe them
without investigation, communicate them to one ano
ther, augmented by some new and improbable additions
of their own, and everybody is waiting in evident trouble
and breathless anxiety for the day when the mortal
remains of Alexander are to arrive in this place. Some
are speaking of new attempts against the life of the
Emperor Nicholas ; others are reviving the false reports
that have been spread concerning Moscow, where pub
lic tranquillity has, nevertheless, not been troubled for
an instant; where the plot, if it be true that it was to
break out in that city, has been stifled at its birth ;
others, again, are imagining scenes of tumult and car
nage as about to take place on the day of the solemnity ;
even sensible persons cannot help fearing lest that
terrible day should afford the wicked an opportunity
for realizing their criminal designs, and lest the general
agitation should produce riots and commotion.
" There is, I hope, much exaggeration in all these
misgivings ; but if the people are already speaking of
fires, robberies, and depredations, who would venture
to affirm beforehand that such fears are absolutely un
founded % In this respect we find ourselves here on
dangerous ground. The populace is so numerous, so
miserable, and so devoid of instruction and principles
of morality, that it may well awaken the idea of dan-

246 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ger.* Assuredly, in critical times like these, it is
natural not to feel quite safe at the sight of such
crowds of idle men addicted to drunkenness, who, ill-
treated alike by foreigners and natives, entertain in
their breasts a secret fury against the former ; and
being dissatisfied with their condition, are little in
terested in a state of things in which there is no
acceptable room for themselves. The multitude of
crown serfs employed at St. Petersburg in the different
public services, in the works undertaken by the govern
ment, in mending and cleaning the streets, in the
speedy execution of so many measures invented every
moment by caprice in a country where the labour of
the lower class is reckoned of no value ; the infinite
number of pedlars, hawkers of bquors, cakes, ginger
bread, and bad fruit ; and the no less numerous class
of podriadjiks, or journeymen builders, of isvoschtchiks,
or waggoners and coachmen, of knife-grinders, labourers,
and stable-boys, are sources of impending danger to
which it is impossible to remain bbnd. Men of all
these classes flock hither ; for it is difficult to conceive
with what extreme facility their miserable existence is
provided for by these men of every age, whether serfs
or free peasants, attracted to St. Petersburg by the
hope of making some small profits, of practising some
trade, some productive calling, no matter whether
honourable or not, by the hope at all event of finding
an opportunity for the employment of their muscular
strength, or their natural aptitude for every kind of
work. Happily for them, these men have scarcely
any wants, and their coarse food occasions but a very
* See Lesur, " Des Progrcs dc la Puissance Russc," p. 446.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 247
slight expense. Black bread, half rye and half bran,
stale cabbages, sometimes bad fish, with a handful of
nuts, by way of dessert, is what composes their repast,
and, provided the small glass accompany it, and they
be not entirely without the dangerous stimulant of
that abominable brandy, which is their darling
passion,* nothing is wanting to complete their gaiety.
They sleep in porters' lodges, pestilential and unventi-
lated closets, in ante-rooms, stables, lofts, coach-houses,
and wherever they are allowed just room enough for
their bodies. Religion has done nothing to curb the
violence of the passions of these men, so little removed
above the brute creation ; we shudder when we reflect
on this total absence of principles joined to an extreme
natural avidity, and an unconquerable inclination for
intoxicating liquors. A second attempt like that
which has just failed might abandon to the brutality
of the mougik, the lives and fortunes of the peaceable
and industrious inhabitants of this great city. Woe
to them, if these wretches should ever burst the chains
in which they are still bound by their superstition,
their servile spirit, and their dread of the police, who
maintain order in their ranks by dint of blows ! Woe,
if, some day or other, they be inflamed with the desire
of revenging themselves for the harshness with which
they are treated, the mortifications inflicted upon them,
and the frequently systematical humiliation to which
they are subjected !
" Another circumstance increases still more this un
easiness : the boutotchniks f or soldiers of police, a vile
* " Nowhere is drunkenness so general as in Russia." — Golovin, p. 87.
t From boutka (boutique), a booth, shop or sentry-box.

248 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
and coarse set of men, are drawn from this class and
have all its vices. Often conniving with malefactors,
whom it is their duty to watch and give up to the
vengeance of the law, they share in their plunder and
nightly depredations ; pubbc tranquilbty is the least
object of their care ; like the others, they are champ
ing the bit, till the day of vengeance, when they hope
to settle accounts with their oppressors.
" Generally speaking, it is therefore not unreasonable
to be on one's guard, to keep close at home and to be
doubly vigilant. But the danger is increased by ima
ginary fears disseminated among the public. People
are speaking of political plots, riots, and revolutions ;
they deny that the flames of sedition are entirely ex
tinguished, or that its real stronghold is yet discovered ;
they still believe in the possibility of seeing realized
those odious projects of a general pillage ; they tremble
for the life of the emperor and his family, and torment
themselves in every possible way. The precautions
which the authorities have taken, though a very evi
dent, a praiseworthy condescension ; the mibtary forces
that have been assembled, on account of the approach
ing funeral, in the city and its environs ; 40,000 men
of a guard now purged of the disaffected, and whose
commanders, together with all they possess, belong to
the monarch, and the vigilance of the government
ought altogether tend, one would suppose, to tranquiUize
every mind. But to prove, on the contrary, in what
agitation they still remain, I will here record a fact
that has recently happened and which is a sort of
parody on the Gunpowder Plot.
" A report had spread throughout the city that the

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 249
cellars beneath the church of Notre-Dame de Kasan
were filled with barrels of this inflammable matter, and
that everything had been prepared to blow up the
emperor with his family, and the court, when they
should be collected round the coffin of the deceased
monarch ; that even the bridge of Kasan outside would
be blown up together with the crowd with which it
would, at that moment, be thronged. This absurd in
vention, which the multitude fully believed, came to
the knowledge of the autocrat who, very properly, did
not disdain to make every inquiry. The subterraneous
passages in question were let out to a merchant, who
had deposited therein a vast quantity of wine ; people
had been engaged to work there for the preservation of
the wine or for its removal, and this work was perhaps
done also in the night. This was the sole foundation
for all the stories that had been spread abroad. The
emperor ordered the police to visit these cellars openly,
to move the hogsheads and examine their contents.
Crowds of inquisitive persons instantly surrounded the
agents who, of course, found nothing but wine. They
caused several casks to be taken out of the vault and
rolled on the pavement, and they searched with much
eagerness every corner of the cellars. But it was in
vain for the police to pursue their labour : if a few
acknowledged their mistake, the crowd obstinately per
sisted in it. Those hogsheads were nothing but barrels
of gunpowder, they said ; they had perceived matches
and pieces of sulphur about them. By dint of repeat
ing a falsehood, a liar at length believes it himself ;
and the suggestions of fear are those which take the
firmest hold on the heart. The government had no

250 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
other course than to seal up the doors and windows of
the cellars, to station a sentinel at every entrance, and
to order that each end of the vaults of the bridge of
Kasan should be partitioned off ; yet, in spite of all
these concessions to fear, several days elapsed before
the reports subsided.
" Moreover, the emperor had been heard to say that
he was not sure of his life for a moment, but that this
consideration should not in the least alter his usual
habits. Indeed, he rides out every day without any
escort ; a single dentchik or lackey occupies the seat
behind his droschki. Nicholas is known every day
more and more to be a brave man, as intrepid as he is
wise ; and it is not his fault if the pubbc do not share
the confidence with which he appears to be ani
mated." Such was the state of the pubbc mind in the capital
during the latter months of winter.
Meanwhile the funeral procession of Alexander was
advancing from stage to stage throughout European
Russia.* The length of the route it had to perform
was, as we have said, 475 leagues. There had been
* We will trace its course, hoping, as we have said, that the reader
will pardon us for the dryness of certain particulars, in consideration of
the observations of manners attached to them, and of customs peculiar
to Russia which the description of tlie ceremony will make known.
Moreover, a few geographical and topographical notices will be found
connected with the subject. The picture of the civilization of a country
is founded on the union of elemcuts of every kind, and in what relates to
Russian civilization, we have considered it right to introduce into it cer
tain particulars whicli do not strictly belong to history. We shall,
therefore, describe in this place the funeral procession, just as we shall
further on call the reader's attention to all the ceremonies of the corona-
linn.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 251
scarcely any instance in history of such a funeral
procession. Frederick Barbarossa, St. Louis, a few
other kings, and Napoleon, in our own time, had met
their deaths in distant countries ; but the transfer of
their mortal remains, when it took place, was facilitated
by the proximity of the sea, comprehended for the
most part in the distance to be performed. In Russia,
most of the sovereigns ended their lives either in their
capital or its neighbourhood ; and for many ages there
was no instance to be quoted of any having died in a
remote part of their dominions.
Compelled to separate from the inanimate remains
of her husband, the Empress Elizabeth, who was un
able to intrust this precious deposit to Prince Volkon
ski, bound by a sacred promise to remain with her,
had chosen for its guard, Aide-de-camp-General Count
Vassib Orloff Denicoff, grandson and heir to that
General Denicoff, who was the companion in arms of
Suwarrow, and who, from being a private Cossack, had
risen to the rank of hetman of those warriors, and to
the rank of general-in-chief.* Orloff Denicofff had
distinguished himself in the campaigns from 1812 to
1814. He was a large proprietor on the banks of the
Don, and was adored by the military population settled
in that country. His merit rendered him worthy of
the honour to which he was called by the noble widow.
Under his orders, ten of the emperor's aides-de-camp
performed the service. The procession was escorted

* The same may be said of Count Platoff, of whom we shall speak a
little further.
f He died in February, 1843, having then the rank of general of
cavalry.

252 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
by detachments of troops, but its most glorious orna
ment was the population of the cities and country
places flocking from all quarters, on its passage, in
spite of the severity of the season, bowing respectfully
before the coffin, kissing it, requesting the favour, which
was granted, of drawing the car for a few minutes, and
joining fervently in the funeral prayers.
Having started on the 9th of January from the con
vent of Alexander Newski of Jerusalem, which our
readers may remember*, surprised at the very first
station by a violent hurricane blowing at 7\° R., and
stopped more than once in its progress by the intensity
of the cold, which, in the neighbourhood of Moscow,
was not less than twenty degrees, the procession ad
vanced slowly, at the rate of only thirty or forty verstes
a day. On the 21st of January it reached Kharkoff, a
town of Russia-Minor, known as the seat of a univer
sity ; eight days after it made its solemn entrance into
Koursk, and into Orel on the 2nd of February, the
chief towns of two of the most fertile and populous
governments in the interior of the empire ; on the 9 th
of the same month it reached Toula, another flourish
ing city, celebrated for its manufacture of arms and its
jewelry of steel inlaid with gold ; and on the 1 5th of
February, towards nightfall, it halted before the ca
thedral of the archangel Michael, at the Krembn of
Moscow. The order of the procession was invariably the same-
At night the body reposed generally in a simple village
church, the faithful kneeling respectfully around,
* Since then, a monument has been erected there : it is a plain white
marble sarcophagus, surmounted with a cross in black marble.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 253
whilst the officers who guarded it relieved one another
at stated intervals. In the cities it was received in
the cathedral, and placed upon a catafalco, amidst the
blaze of a thousand wax candles glittering upon the
black hangings which covered the walls. This pomp
had not been commanded by government ; the muni
cipal magistrates ordered it on their own authority,
without assigning any bounds to the expense. When
ever the body was about to enter the territory of a
government, it was received by the bishop or arch
bishop at the head of his clergy, by the governor-
general or civil governor, and by the marshal of the
nobibty, accompanied by a deputation. The marshals
of districts were likewise in attendance at their re
spective boundaries. The departure was ever accom
panied with the tears and lamentations of the people :
it grieved them to separate from those beloved remains,
and, for the purpose of consecrating the memory of
this mournful solemnity by acts of beneficence, alms
were distributed to the poor, and misery was relieved.
Thus, after having performed their last duty to their
beloved monarch, the nobility of the government of
Toula resolved to celebrate, apart from the general
commemoration, funeral services in their temples
during six weeks, and to distribute alms to the infirm
and indigent throughout that space of time. In the
town, the corporation of the citizens relinquished a
sum of more than thirty thousand francs (1200/.), of
arrears due by minors or poor fathers of large families;
lastly, the company of the workmen at the manufactory
of arms, by virtue of a resolution passed by its elders,
erased from its registers a sum of 150,000 roubles lent,

254 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
some time before, to necessitous brethren, out of the
200,000 forming their fund of mutual relief. At
Koursk, likewise, there had been, on the return of the
authorities, a second funeral service, at the end of
which a thousand poor people had been invited to a
dinner, the expenses of which were defrayed by the
governor and the nobility ; pecuniary assistance had
moreover been allotted to them. At Moscow, pubbc
charity was displayed in the same manner; besides
which, the company of merchants made to the troops
that were then escorting the procession, a present of a
sum of 600/., to better their maintenance.
The population of this ancient capital had gone forth
to meet the funeral, as far as the village of Kolomensk,
the birth-place of Peter the Great,* where they wit
nessed an imposing scene. At the approach of the
body, the authorities, generals, and the people, fell
upon their knees and remained for some time in silent
prayer. The entrance into the town was made with
much splendour, amid a prodigious concourse of people.
The traveUing car was replaced by a magnificent
hearse, which halted in front of every church it met on
its passage ; and the clergy, after reciting the funeral
prayers, approached and consecrated the coffin. This
had been adorned with the imperial crown, as also with
that of Poland, together with the old crowns of Siberia,
Kasan, Astrachan, Georgia, and the Crimea, which had
been brought from the Armoury-Palace (Oroujeinaia
Palata), a precious depository of national jewels and
antiquities. Having arrived before that cathedral of
* According to general opinion ; some authors, however, pretend that
he was born at Moscow, or at the castle of Isiiiai'loff.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 255
the Kremlin, in which repose all the ancient czars
before Peter the Great, as also Peter II. who died at
Moscow, and the youthful Dimitri Ioannovitch, the
innocent victim of Boris Godounoffs ambition, the
body was carried into that sanctuary, one of the most
revered in the holy citadel, by generals, and aides-de
camp, and placed upon a sumptuous catafalco. The
archbishop in his pontifical robes celebrated the funeral
service ; and the doors of the temple were opened to
admit the crowding multitude, which soon thronged the
narrow enclosure, but orderly, and in an attitude of deep
devotion.* " It is impossible," says a journal, " to de
scribe the innumerable crowds of people, during that day
and the two following, any more than the fervour and
piety with which every body approached to kiss the
coffin." It was easy to see on that occasion how the czar is
identified with religion in the minds of the people : the
honours done to his ashes call to mind the worship
of the saints, which is generally practised with extreme
devotion.f There was no perceptible difference : the
* The public authorities had not been without fear ; they had sent
out of the town a great number of izvoschtchiks, or street-coachmen, and
had requested the manufacturers not to allow their workmen to go out all
at the same time. The fire-engines were kept in readiness ; boutotchniks
were posted in many of the houses, and the town contained, moreover,
60,000 soldiers, with a park of artillery.
t Every Russian attached to his religion has generally in his house,
for the most part in a corner facing the door of his principal chamber, the
image of a saint, adorned with more or less costly materials, with a lamp,
always burning, suspended befoie it. They say their prayers before this
image every morning and evening, and after each meal. Nobody ever
enters the apartment without bowing before it, and making the sign of
the cross. To forget to pay this mark of respect to his saint, would be
an insult to the master of the house. The Russians give the name of
God (Bog) to their images of saints.

256 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
salvation of the soul of each appeared interested in the
manner in which he fulfilled the duties prescribed in
such cases. Besides, the spectacle of death is generally
imposing to those simple souls whose natural instincts
have not yet been weakened or subdued by the habit
of reasoning. Death seems to the crowd luce a door
opening to eternity, and the voice that issues thence
fills him with a salutary feebng of awe.
On the 18th of February, the funeral procession was
conducted, with the same pomp, as far as the gate of
Tver, so called from the name of the chief town of the
adjacent government, to which the car was proceeding.
At the moment of separation, the archbishop pro
nounced a few more edifying words. The most eager
of the rural population were allowed to draw the cata-
falco from that gate to the palace Petrofski ;* then
the coffin was replaced upon the travelling car, and
the march was resumed with the escort reduced to its
usual number.
On the 23rd they arrived at Tver, the ancient seat
of a principality, for some time the rival of Moscow,
and still one of the handsomest cities in the empire.
There they remained till the morrow. On the 25th
they entered Torjok. In commemoration of that day,
the trade and corporation of the citizens of that small
manufacturing town — where morocco is made in the
oriental style, in a thousand different ways — relin
quished to the poorer inhabitants a very considerable
* Petrofski Dvorctz, an imperial residence situated in a monotonous
plain about two miles from the city. In 1812, Napoleon took refuge
there on quitting the Kremlin to escape the conflagration. We shall
speak of it again in chapter vii.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 257
sum of arrears, and engaged themselves to relieve old
men and minors of their burdens, for a certain period,
by paying their part of the public expenses. One of
the following nights was passed at Vyschnii-Volotchok,
the central point of a hydraulic system which joins the
Neva to the Volga ; and, on the 7th of March, the
procession made its entrance into Novogorod, formerly
called the Great, but which is now only a vast mass of
huts grouped about a multitude of old churches, and
where only a small number of tolerable streets impart
to a few stone houses a certain appearance of pros
perity. Here religion displayed its pomp in the an
cient cathedral of St. Sophia.
Lastly, on the 10 th of March, they arrived at Tsars-
ko-Selo. There they were only five leagues and a half
from the capital. The supreme marshal of mourning
had come as far as that place to receive solemnly the
charge of the coffin ; he immediately placed on it the
imperial crown, which had been brought with him in a
carriage of state, and conducted the funeral as far as
the chapel of the palace, formerly the magnificent
abode of Catherine II.
The emperor and his mother, Maria Foedorovna, had
not waited at Tsarsko-Selo for the funeral procession,
which was bringing to one his brother, and to the other
her son, so lately their joy and pride ; they had gone
forward to meet it as far as the quiet village of Tossna,
the second stage beyond the town, in order to escape
the prying gaze of so many witnesses at the moment of
so melancholy a meeting. The coffin was opened
at their request, but the face of the deceased was
veiled, for it had already suffered much from the ra-
VOL. II. s

258 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
vages of death : they were, therefore, obliged to forego
the sad consolation of beholding once more those be
loved features before bidding them an eternal adieu.
Alexander's august mother seized one of his icy hands,
as though she would have warmed it in her own. This
scene of tears and sobs must be left to the imagination,
for we have not the courage to describe it.
Another and no less affecting scene took place on
the morrow, in the chapel of the castle of Tsarsko-Selo,
where the body remained some days, awaiting the final
preparations for interment. The crowds that had
flocked from the town and the neighbouring districts,
after having thronged aU day long about the estrade,
on which the coffin reposed, had ceased to be admitted ;
none remained in the sacred edifice but the soldiers on
duty, and a few persons of the court, when the im
perial family advanced hastily towards the catafalco.
They all cast themselves sobbing by the side of the
coffin, and for a moment there reigned an awful silence
of speechless grandeur. The unhappy mother of the
deceased emperor was leaning over the head of her son,
dumb, motionless, and absorbed in her grief ; and the
Empress Alexandra, almost fainting, was obbged to be
supported : Nicholas, though an affectionate husband,
scarcely perceived it ; his sorrowful features betokened
the depth of his emotion, which was shared by the
Grand-Duke Michael. The Prince of Orange, with one
hand on the coffin, stood gazing mournfully on the
ground ; soon a flood of tears, which he attempted
vainly to restrain, streamed from his eyes. All who
were present felt affected by the scene.
Meanwhile, the immense preparations made for the

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 259
solemn entrance into St. Petersburg were terminated.
A commission of mourning, appointed by the emperor,
had foreseen and arranged everything. We have
already mentioned its president invested with the
title of supreme marshal, — doubtless, flattering to
human vanity, but very presumptuous in presence of
so great an example of the perishableness of our
nature. This was Prince Alexis Kourakin,* one of
the most considerable men in the country, well versed
in the laws of etiquette, and very fond of pomp. The
commission had employed a vast number of workmen,
ordered buildings to be erected in the cathedrals and
in the streets, issued regulations concerning the duty
of the police, and published a long ceremonial in
which everything was minutely calculated, with an
infinite number of details and a geometrical symmetry,
and wherein different duties were allotted to several
thousand servants of the state, some of the most
eminent of whom had been summoned from a great
distance, f
* Brother of Prince Alexander Borissovitch, who was minister for
foreign affairs under the Emperor Paul, and, from 1808 to 1812, Rus
sian ambassador at Paris. The latter died in 1818 ; and his brother in
1829. Prince Alexis Borissovitch was, at the time of which we are
speaking, chancellor of the Russian orders. He had been attorney-
general (minister of justice and head of the cabinet) under Paul I., and
minister for the home department, and member of the council of the
empire under Alexander. He used to be quoted as the model of
courtiers. + The emperor took a part in all this ; indeed, nothing was done
without him ; and to see what desperately minute proceedings are occa
sioned hy such a regime, it is sufficient to glance over the pages of the
"Journal de St. Petersbourg" of 1826, from No. 27. "The public
ought not to he ignorant that the emperor has ordered the arrangements,
approved the designs, given the crown with his own hand, &c." We
will spare the reader an account of such minute trifles ; but thev are
s 2

260 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
For some days past, St. Petersburg had assumed an
aspect of a noisy, though, doubtless, funeral festival.
The streets, free from the thick coating of ice, were
cleaned and gravelled ; posts were erected at intervals
to mark the divisions of the procession ; the houses
were hung with black, the fringe forming white fes
toons beneath the windows ; numerous scaffoldings
were erected in front of the church porches before
which the procession was to pass ; the love of gain
caused also many to be erected for the public ; for, even
among those who did not mind the expense, several
could not find any room at the windows, balconies,
doors, and flights of steps, and these privileged places
were let out at exorbitant prices ; lastly, around the
cathedral of our Lady of Kasan, temporary guard
houses were erected, with a pavibon in the middle,
intended to shelter the magnificent car on which the
coffin was to repose, stiU conducted, as the travelling
car had been, by Alexander's confidential coachman,
the faithful Ilya (Elias), sad and melancholy on his
seat, but satisfied to remain there to the last, after
having endured, for the sake of his beloved master, the
severity of a pitiless climate all the way from Ta
ganrog.* The imagination was moreover struck,
characteristic, and, for this reason, we would not entirely pass them by in
silence. * As he wore a beard and the Russian costume, it had been at first
considered that propriety did not admit of his being allowed to perform
his vocation amid the ceremony displayed in the towns. It was said
that a coachman of state or ceremony would be more proper. Put Ilya,
in despair, was so earnest in his entreaties, and offered with so much
devotediicss to make the sacrifice of his beard — that ornament so dear
to Russians — in order to remain with his royal master's body, and to
convey it to St. Petersburg, that he at length received permission to do

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 261
during those days of preparation, by the strange spec
tacle of a cavalcade galloping through the streets of
the capital and halting in the public squares. The
riders were heralds, wearing over a singular costume
the distinctive emblems of mourning,* escorting
secretaries of the senate, charged to read a procla
mation relating to the funeral, and preceded by trum
peters, collecting the people in crowds by the sound
of their instruments.
The body had already been transferred from
Tsarsko-Selo to the chapel of the small chateau of
Tchesm^, the last station, whence it was to be con
veyed to the capital on the 18th of March.
It was placed upon the car of state as early as seven
o'clock in the morning, and the simple escort of Ta
ganrog received for its complement an immense pro
cession, covering a space of three miles. This proces
sion, composed of aU the public and municipal autho
rities, of different corporations, among which were seen
men wearing caftans of honour, of public functionaries
employed in every kind of administration, of pension
ers of the crown establishments, — this procession, we
say, thus composed, formed suddenly and by sections
issuing from houses, designated beforehand. At ten
o'clock, the emperor, in full uniform, mounted his
so. The King of Prussia honoured himself by decorating this faithful
servant with the civil medal.
* "Such as they have been determined by the ceremonial for the
great mourning, confirmed by H. M. the Emperor. . . . Horses equipped
with mourning hangings had been furnished to the heralds and secretaries
by the court stables." The semi-official French journal abounds with
details of this nature. One would suppose that in Russia the greatest
care is taken that the emperor and the court be not lost to view for a
single instant.

262 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
horse ; accompanied by his illustrious guests, sur
rounded by a brilliant staff, and followed by the prin
cesses and children of the imperial family in carriages,
he rode quickly, for the most part at a gallop, but
nevertheless in a majestic manner, throughout the im
mense line of road, protected on each side by regiments
of the imperial guard in magnificent costume and drawn
up three ranks deep. Without pausing, he saluted
these troops with his hand and his voice, addressing
them with that customary compbment we have men
tioned, to which a whole battalion responds, like one
man, and keeping true time. He rode along thus as
far as the barrier, where, like all his suite and every
person present, he muffled himself in a long black
cloak which, added to a large slouched hat, no longer
left any outward signs of imperial majesty.
The car was seen approaching, drawn by eight horses
caparisoned with black, and led by the hand by officers
of the stables likewise dressed in long traibng cloaks ;
and the dazzling white plumes with which it was sur
rounded, shone bright in the distance. It was sur
rounded by the generals and aides-de-camp of the de
ceased monarch or of his successor, and sixty pages,
bearing torches, walked on either side. It was pre
ceded by the clergy, forming a long procession behind
the choristers of St. Alexander Nevski and Our Lady
of Kasan. All these priests, with bushy beards, some
wearing mitres, and others their long flowing hair, clad
moreover in their richest mourning ornaments, held
lighted wax candles in their hands, or carried before
them their holy images which, plated with gold and
silver, here replace those that the Catholic Church dis-

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 263
plays on her banners or presents in embossed figures to
the respect of her faithful. The last of all was the
arch-priest F6odotoff, who had received the emperor's
confession at the point of death. At the sight of this
procession, the members of the holy synod, the clergy
of the court, the mibtary governor-general and the
commandant of the fortress of St. Petersburg, with the
suite, advanced to meet the imperial remains. It was
noon when a discharge of artillery announced that the
car had arrived at the gate of the city.
Nicholas received in a solemn manner the body of
his predecessor ; and, immediately commanding the
march to be continued, he followed the car throughout
the city as far as Our Lady of Kasan, accompanied
by the Grand Duke Michael, the Prince of Orange, and
Prince WiUiam of Prussia. The Duke of Wellington,
Count Peter Tolstoi the general-in-chief, and Lieu-
tenant-General Emanuel * walked in his suite as assist
ants. Next, came Duke Alexander of Wurtemburg
with the two young princes, his sons, who then held
only the rank of colonel, and the eldest of whom has
now the honour of being a son-in-law of the King of
the French ; a little further, near the minister of war
and the chief of the general staff, Field-Marshal Prince
de Wrede and several hundred generals were grouped
about them. The imperial family and that of Duke
* Intrusted a short time afterwards with a superior command in the
province of the Caucasus and over the Cossacks of the Black Sea, Gene
ral Emanuel was promoted, about the year 1830, to the rank of general
of infantry, and, in 1831, the emperor made him a present of an estate
containing 60,000 deciatines of land in the same province. (60,000
Russian deciatines are equal to 120,000 hectares, or 296,520 English
acres. — Transl.)

264 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Alexander followed in mourning coaches, behind which
the procession still continued till out of sight, arranged
in order, according to all the laws of etiquette, but
having a monotonous appearance, and owing the little
splendour it possessed solely to the uniforms of the
soldiers under arms who lined each side of the road.
The bells of every parish church were tolling their ab
rupt and discordant notes, varied every minute by the
report of a cannon from the ramparts of the fortress.
The finest weather had prevailed throughout the week ;
but, on that day (a Saturday) all nature seemed
gloomy and sad ; a recent heavy faU of snow covered
the ground, and flakes of it were whirling in the air
beneath the dark clouds which shrouded the vault of
heaven. At two o'clock, after having traversed all the south
western part of the town to reach the Perspective of
Nevski, and having halted before every church, whether
Greco-Russian or any other,* for the space of time
necessary for the reading of the prayers, during which
interval the bells and the artillery remained silent, the
car stopped in front of the cathedral. The archbishop,
surrounded by his clergy, was waiting upon the steps of
the peristyle, with which this fine temple, an imitation
in miniature of St. Peter's at Rome, is flanked on the
side facing the Perspective. The archbishop was Sera
phim, who had received the monarch's farewell at the
laura of St. Alexander Nevski, eight months before.
* In front of the Catholic church, all the clergy, having at their head
their venerable archbishop, Siestrzencewicz-Bohush (sec Note (18) of the
Appendix), an old man of ninety-five, were assembled on a platform and
celebrated a funeral service on the approach of the body.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 265
The old man introduced the lifeless remains into the
sacred inclosure, small, like most of the Russian
churches, on account of the severity of the climate, but
then narrowed still more by a chambre ardente of an
oval form, placed in front of the iconostase, near the
sumptuous silver balustrade which separates from the
nave the platform raised a few steps in front of the
altar, and where the priest performs the holy sacri
fice every day. Surrounded by a thousand lighted
wax-candles, and adorned with folds of costly stuffs,
the catafalco reached as high as the dome, surrounded
with a richly ornamented canopy. In the nave, the
numberless candles, of an enormous lustre, contended
in vain with the demi-obscurity that reigned through
out the temple ; but they cast a glittering ray on the
colossal silver crosses which gleamed forth from the
black hangings with which the walls were covered.
On these hangings were seen the armorial bearings of
all the governments or territorial divisions and those of
the principal cities, such as St. Petersburg, Moscow,
Novogorod, Kief, Riga, Kasan, Astrakhan, and others.
Piles of flags, taken in battle, were arranged as trophies
near the columns. The latter, cut out of one solid
block of blue polished granite, occupy, as is well
known, with the double row, the whole length of the
nave, and are, with the columns in the church of Isaac,
among the wonders of the capital of the North ; but
broad black bands, with alternate bands of silver, of
the same length, enveloped their graceful proportions,
which were now impervious to the reflection of innu
merable brilliant rays.
If, in the imposing spectacle of the nothingness of

266 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
human power, the sight of fallen fortunes, of an infe
rior order, could have claimed attention, one might
have observed in a gallery of that nave, a few women
interesting for their misfortunes. They were the two
queens of Imereth, one the wife and the other the mo
ther of the unfortunate Czar Solomon II. who died at
Trebisond about 1810, and Nina, the last Regent of
Mingreiia, the mother of the present prince, or dadian,
and daughter of George XI. the last King of Georgia.
Around them the diplomatic body, the ladies of the
highest rank, and such persons of distinction as had
been favoured with a special invitation, also occupied
reserved places.
When the generals and aides-de-camp had bfted off
the body, in order to intrust it to the twenty-four
under-officers, charged to carry it into the temple, and
when, amid a religious silence, the latter had placed it
upon the catafalco, the funeral service began.
The Greco-Russian church, in which this ceremonial
performs so important a part, displayed on this occasion
all its pomp, the splendour of its sacerdotal ornaments,
the impressive beauty of its singing, and the dignity
of its ancient customs. The archbishop officiated ; he
wore the riband of St. Andrew, cross-wise over his
rich chasuble. He saluted the holy images of the
iconostase, the royal doors, the emperor, and aU the
congregation. The censer, flung backwards and
forwards, spread abroad its perfumes, and filled the
temple with its mysterious clouds. Then began the
prayers of the holy liturgy,* and the chapel of the
court repeating in the form of response the Gospodi
* It comprises the immolation of the Lamb, and serves in lieu of mass.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 267
pomiloui ! (Kyrie eleison !) the magnificent accompani
ment of every prayer, chaunted in harmonious accents,
at once solemn and sweet, an admirable melody, so
full of heavenly peace, that every heart was affected,
and tears flowed from every eye. That fundamental
and daily duty of the Russian church was followed by
the funeral service, and next by the reading of the
Holy Gospels ; then, after having ended the prayers,
and given his benediction to the faithful, the arch
bishop dismissed the assembly.
When this first homage had been paid to the
deceased monarch, in his favourite city, to which a
gloomy foreboding had hinted to him that he would
never return alive, everybody seemed to be relieved
from an intense anxiety, and the general feeling was
energetically expressed in an article of the " Journal of
St. Petersburg" (Nos. 29 and SO of the year 1826),
which did not pass unnoticed. " The 6th of March
has at length passed away," says the " Journal," " that
terrible day which was to enlighten the solemn en
trance of the funeral procession of the late emperor
into St. Petersburg, and chastise us, so to speak, a
second time with the dreadful blow which has deprived
the august imperial family of its beloved chief, Russia
of a father and a benefactor, and Europe of her mag
nanimous peace-maker, and one of the firmest supports
of her tranquillity; a day of mourning and sorrow,
which all the population of the capital was expecting
The communion takes place under both forms, the bread being dipped in
the wine. Certain portions of the liturgy are attributed to St. Basil,
others to St, John Chrysostom. Other particulars will be presented fur
ther, in chapter vii.

268 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
with an anxiety increased to the utmost pitch by the
affecting particulars of the progress of the funeral-
procession from Taganrog, and of the touching cere
monies that had taken place at Tsarsko-S&o and
Tchesme' ; a day, in short, the memory of which will
remain engraven in imperishable characters in the
hearts of all the inhabitants."
The cathedral of Kasan preserved its precious de
posit for a whole week ; and, during almost all that
period, its doors remained open to the immense con
course of the population, eager to contemplate this
ceremony, or fervently desiring to go and pray by the
side of the coffin. Divine service was performed every
day ; the reading of the Holy Gospels took place even
during the night, and the funeral service was renewed
every night and morning, in presence of the head of
the state, his family, and the most considerable per
sonages. An imposing silence prevailed in that vaulted
edifice, so gloomy, notwithstanding so many lights.
The crowd, admitted and arranged in order, ascended
slowly the steps of the catafalco, from the lowest step,
where figures of kneeling angels, with outspread wings,
were placed upon pedestals. Around the coffin, the
head of which was turned towards the altar, was a
magnificent drapery of white and crimson silk, en
riched with galoon, fringe, and tassels of gold ; and the
rich brocade with which it was covered did not en
tirely conceal the work of the sculptor, or the
splendour of the gilding. Stools were placed around,
bearing the cushions of the different orders that had
been borne before the car ; and in the spaces between
the trophies and the small columns, as also upon the

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 269
steps, stood superior officers, charged alternately to
watch day and night. Clouds of incense were ever
rising towards the dome, the hangings of which, repre
senting the four Evangelists, were scarcely perceptible
through the mist. From time to time, voices, expres
sive of grief, but also of resignation, rising in delight
ful harmony behind the iconostase, caused the hearts of
ab the congregation to thrill, and added to their pious
edification. On arriving at the inner portico of the
chambre ardente, everybody paused and bowed before
the bier, which it is customary to kiss on such occasions.
The Russians piously observe all the practices of their
rebgion ; some, after kneeling, kissed the part next
the feet, then that next the hand or the heart ; they
all accompanied their genuflexions with frequent signs
of the cross, and murmured a prayer for the repose of
the soul of their sovereign.
The spectacle thus displayed in the interior of Our
Lady of Kasan was not devoid of grandeur, and yet that
which was preparing in the cathedral of St. Peter and
St. Paul, at the fortress, was destined to surpass it. We
shall not attempt to describe it, but confine ourselves to
a few general remarks.
This church, the Dutch tower of which — with its
pointed steeple, garnished with gilt copper, glittering in
the sun — is seen at a great distance from the city, has
been the St. Denis of the Russian emperors ever since
its founder, Peter the Great. That great man is the
first on the list. All his successors, except young
Peter II, who died at Moscow, and Joann Antonovitch,
the last Romanoff of the eldest branch,* repose by his
* Massacred at Schlusselburg on the night of the 4th of July, 1764,

270 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
side. - Above the nave, which is supported by twelve
large columns, rises the dome, resting upon four enor
mous pillars ; its meagre and angular exterior reminds
the beholder at first sight of the Batavian architecture,
which forms a strong contrast with the Greek or Roman
style of most of the other monuments in the capital of
the north. This dome casts a faint and mysterious
light upon the iconostase, ornamented with a number
of images, arranged on each side of the holy doors, by
which the minister of the altar communicates with the
congregation. In front of this iconostase are the sar
cophagi of the emperors and empresses, placed on the
right and left, with their feet towards the nave ; near
the sovereigns repose likewise the members of their
family. The walls around the church are ornamented
with trophies, consisting of flags, horse-tails of pachas,
keys of cities, &c. To receive the new guest, destined
to await beneath the sepulchral vaults the day of final
judgment, an imposing catafalco had been erected under
the dome : it filled up the whole space between the
four piUars against which it rested, and spread even be
yond it in the direction of the nave, the solemn deco
ration of which, being ab in black, harmonized admirably
with the style of the chapelle ardente. The dimensions
of this construction were astounding. Colossal figures
of angels in plaster, imitating bronze, together with
chandeliers and trophies, ornamented the base of the
platform. The whole length of the ceiling was orna
mented with caissons with white rosaces, in the centre,
on a black ground, edged with white. Nothing could
and buried at the convent of Tikhfina, about 23 miles from St. Peters
burg.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 271
be more solemn than the first sight of this temple of
death : it was truly the threshold of eternity.
The 25th of March had been fixed as the day when
the mortal remains of Alexander, which had been nearly
three months on their road, were at length to reach
their last asylum.* Two days before, the cathedral
of Kasan had been shut to the crowd : its doors no
longer opened but for the members of the imperial
family, whose devotions became still more frequent as
the time grew shorter, and for such persons of the
court as had been about the person of the deceased,
his old servants and his friends. A proclamation,
read with the same formalities, announced to the
public the day of the burial ; and when that day —
dismal, snowy, and tempestuous — at length arrived,
the whole city was again in motion, and the same
ceremony recommenced.
The distance, this time, was not so great : after
having returned by the Perspective of Nevski, as far as
the Imperial Library, the procession was to turn to the
left, through the grand street called Sadovaia, cross the
immense Field of Mars, and, by taking the Suwarrow
square, reach the quay of the Neva, opposite the fortress.
* Therefore it was not, as people have stated, the anniversary of the
death of the Emperor Paul, which happened on the night of the 23rd.
From the house named Ribas, in the Field of Mars, from which the
author witnessed the passing of the funeral, you perceive before you the
ancient palace Mikha'llofsld, which is so whimsically constructed, and
which the unfortunate monarch had in vain surrounded with moats and
bastions ; you can also plainly distinguish the window of the corner
chamber on the first floor, where the tragical scene of that horrible night
took place. What a morrow for the Empress Maria ! It was the
Countess de Lieven who went and informed her " that the emperor had
just expired from an attack of apoplexy."

272 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
The communication between the two banks of the river
was effected by means of a bridge of boats, generally
removed in winter. To replace it at that season, it had
been necessary to cut away the ice, which was several
feet thick, to make openings to receive the pontoons ;
but in this country, as was formerly the case in Egypt,
works of this kind cost nothing ; for the labour of man,
the vile mougik or clown, is reckoned of no value. The
emperor, on horseback, and surrounded as on the former
day, galloped again through the whole line, from the
famous gate of the Summer Garden on the quay, as far
as Our Lady of Kasan. He abghted at the porch, and
as soon as he had entered the temple the archbishop
began the liturgy. Next, the body, removed from the
catafalco, was replaced on the car of state drawn by
eight horses, the reins being held, for the last time, by
the faithful Ilya, now determined to forego henceforth
and for ever the service in which he had taken so much
delight during the life of his master. At noon the
procession began to move, and, notwithstanding the
snow-storm, everything was conducted with solemn
propriety. The emperor and the princes followed the
coffin on foot ; the empresses, with the youthful heir and
the Princess Maria of Wiirtemberg, in mourning coaches.
Among the aides-de-camp-general of the deceased, was
remarked Count (since Prince) Christopher de Lieven,
who had hastened from London to pay his last duties
to his indulgent master, to whose person he had been
attached from his youth.
At length, they arrived at the place of interment,
where the diplomatic body had assembled, together with
a few foreigners of distinction. In this place we will

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 273
borrow the following description from an official
document : —
"As admission into the church had been granted
only to the first two classes, the highest functionaries,
the persons employed about the court, and those who
had worn the insignia of the empire and the orders,
the congregation was reduced to a comparatively small
number of persons, most of whom had had the happi
ness of approaching the late emperor, and had been
loaded with his favours. In the church of Kasan,
public homage had been paid to the great monarch, the
lord of twenty different nations, united under one
sceptre, for their common happiness ; and the grief of
all, though deeply felt, was moderated in its demon
stration by the respect which sovereign majesty inspires
even though it be mute. In the cathedral of St. Peter
and St. Paul, the spectacle appeared more like a meet
ing of relations, weeping unrestrained for the beloved
head of the family. Let the reader imagine, if possible,
an august sovereign, a mother on whom heaven had
already inflicted more than once the severest trials,
prostrate motionless at the foot of her son's coffin, — a
son the glory and delight of mankind, who had repaid
her tenderness with the most constant and respectful
affection, and had inflicted no pang on her maternal
heart till the moment when his own had ceased to
beat. On the other hand, the Empress Alexandra,
trembling and almost overwhelmed with affliction ; the
youthful grand-duke, the hope of posterity, who seemed
to prove, by a sensibility beyond his age, that he fully
comprehended the immense loss of him whom he will
one day imitate ; Prince William of Prussia unable to
VOL. II. T

274 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
refrain from weeping ; the Prince of Orange, the model
of the most sincere friendship, yielding unreservedly to
his excessive grief ; the Grand-Duke Michael, himself
inconsolable, yet striving to support the drooping cou
rage of his relations ; and, lastly, the emperor over
whelmed with inexpressible grief, but soon obliged to
summon all the manly energy of his character and use
a kind of authority to induce his mother and his con
sort to leave the church, just as the coffin was about
to be bfted from the catafalco and lowered into the
tomb ! There was nobody in aU that congregation of
natives and foreigners, princes and subjects, who did
not shed tears and feel his heart wounded by that .
spectacle. A few old grenadiers, admitted into the
church to help in lifting the coffin, forgot the strictness
of behaviour which discipline imposes, and big tears
were seen robing from the eyes of these veterans who
had braved death in so many battles. Finally, shab
we omit to mention the faithful coachman Hya, who
was unwilling that any other should drive the funeral
car from Taganrog, and whom no persuasion could
induce to abandon the remains of his master till the
very last moment V
This description was by no means exaggerated ; it
was especially true in what relates to the empress-
mother, who, till then calm and resigned, could not
support the idea of separating from that coffin which
she still continued to embrace. She was led away
almost lifeless, a few moments before those precious
remains were lowered into the silent grave.
At three in the afternoon, the black flag, waving
from a tower between the cathedral and the rampart,

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 275
was suddenly lowered ; this signal, accompanied with a
salvo from three hundred cannon shot off from the
fortress and the Field of Mars, and followed by a
rolbng fire repeated three several times by the troops
stationed along the quays, announced that all was over,
and that the remains of the monarch had returned to
the bosom of the earth. The imperial crown, the
sceptre, and the globe were immediately carried back
to the Winter Palace, and the Count de Lieven was
personally charged to convey the sword of the deceased
to the empress-mother. This princess religiously pre
served it as a relic till her death.
Funeral service was likewise celebrated in every
part of the empire,* not only in the Christian churches
of different rituals, but also in the synagogues, in the
mosques, around the atesh-gah of the Parses, the fire-
worshippers, in the pagodas of the Lamaites, and in
the mysterious circles traced by the hand of the
chamane. All these forms of worship are tolerated
by the throne of the czars. The population of the
empire, as is well known, belongs to ten great ethno
graphical families ; and, if every variation of dialect
be taken into the calculation, the number of eighty
languages, commonly adopted, would be found to be
too low an estimate, f Let the reader judge from this,
* Special solemnities took place in the universities of the empire, in
those of the kingdom of Poland (the university of Warsaw then existed),
and of the grand principality of Finland. The speeches spoken at
Abo (then still in possession of its grand school, since transferred to
Helsingfors) in Swedish, by Professor Wallenius, and at Dorpat, in Ger
man, by Professor Morgenstern, were particularly remarked.
f See the ethnographical taible placed by M. de Koepin at the end of
his " Memoire sur la Population de la Russie en 1838." (An extract
t2

276 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of the diversity of these prayers addressed to heaven,
doubtless in the same spirit of fidelity and affection,
but by men of every degree in the scale of civilization,
belonging to races of mankind separated from one
another by immense distances, and yet united under
the same sceptre, and subject to one and the same
will. It will not be uninteresting to the reader to be in
troduced to one or other of these solemnities celebrated
far from the capital, in countries bttle known, and
among nations of diverse origins, like the Cossacks and
the Tartars. Let him, therefore, accompany us once
more from one extremity of the empire to the other,
into those vast regions watered by two great rivers, the
Don and the Wolga, stretching from the lower Dnieper
as far as the Caspian sea.
The name of Cossack or Kazak, well known in the
East, signifies a partisan, a warrior fighting on his own
account, followed by his men, fond of the adventurous
life of making incursions into foreign lands, and ever
ready for action.
Indeed, the Cossacks did not primitively form a dis
tinct ethnographical element : they were a discordant
mass of men of divers origins, Caucasian, Tartar, Rus
sian, Polish, and so forth. Even at the present day, a
Kasatchia orda, Cossack horde is found included among
the Kirghiz-kaissaks, tribes belonging to the Turkish
race. But the two principal establishments formed
by these warriors were that of the lower Dnieper and
that at the mouth of the Don. The former, in which
from the "Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburg," in the German
language.)

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 277
the blood of Russia-Minor prevailed, constituted the
warlike republic of the Zaporoghes, so formidable to
Poland under the hetman Khmielnitzki, and to the
Muscovites under Mazeppa, but ultimately dissolved
under Catherine II. ; the second, less celebrated, though
perhaps more ancient, is however known in history by
the revolt of Stenko Racine (1670), by that of the
hetman Boulavin (1708), and that of the famous Pou
gatcheff (1773). It is to these Cossacks of the Don
that we wish to introduce the reader.
They occupy a space of 142,000 square verstes* of
country, along the river, organized in a particular
manner, by virtue of their ancient privileges. The
population of this country exceeds 700,000 souls,
which number, however, gives only five souls to each
square verste. It is composed of none but free men ;
for the Cossacks of the Don, though admitting an in
equality of ranks, do not allow servitude. They are
generally robust, patient of fatigue, and full of energy.
Formerly, individual heroism imparted to this people a
peculiar physiognomy ; it was by no means uncommon
to find among them those Homeric types of warriors
thirsting for glory and rapine, acting independently of
others, and displaying superhuman strength and auda
city. But now, civilization, or at least its vices, its
debilitating principles, is reaching the inhabitants of
the cities and those who live on the banks of the
lower Don ; but the ancient manners are still pre
served in those monotonous plains watered by the Sal,
between the Don and the Manytch. That warlike
nation, the nursery of an excellent cavalry, and now
* According to the late calculations of M. de Koeppen (1845).

278 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
subject to an organization strictly maintained, is still
governed by its hetman, who, at the time of which we
are speaking, was General Tlovaiski, the successor of
Count Platoff.*
The chief town of the country is Novo-Tcherkask,
at a short distance from the Don, near its confluence
with the sea of Azof. In this town, which is stib
quite new, and has taken the place of the old Tcher-
kask, the warriors of the Don had had, a few months
previously, the satisfaction of offering to Alexander,
according to custom, the bread and salt of hospitabty.
Now, therefore, his death was a subject of universal
regret. A funeral service was announced for the 21st
of May, and at the same time the corps of grenadiers
was to receive a rescript sent by his successor. For
the purpose of rewarding the incorruptible fidebty of
the Cossacks, as also the late services rendered by
them in furnishing a guard for the sacred person of the
deceased monarch at Taganrog, the Emperor Nicholas
made them a present of the sabre which the latter used
to wear. " Let this sabre be added," he said, at the
end of his rescript, " to the other ensigns of those
troops ; let it be in future the trophy of their exploits
and services, and a pledge of the unalterable feeling of
solicitude which I entertain for their welfare."
Everything took place conformably to the ancient
customs. The army of the Don, being regularly con
voked, at Novo-Tcherkask, assembled before the local
* Count Platoff, rendered so celebrated by the war of 1813 and 1814,
and who, from being a private Cossack, became, like Denicoff, general-
in-chief and hetman of his ancient comrades, died on the 18th of July,
1818. His memory is still idolized by that tribe.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 279
seat of its chancery (voiskovaia Kantsellaria), a sort
of elective council of regency, charged under the pre
sidency of the hetman, with the administration of
affairs, and divided into three compartments, one mili
tary, another civil, and a third merely economical.
When the circle had been formed, the distinctive and
honorary ensigns peculiar to this corps were displayed :
the boulava, a bundle of arms serving the hetman for
a sceptre, the bountchouk, or horse-tail, carried before
him in the Turkish fashion, and which calls to mind
the ancient connexion between these warriors and the
East ; the standard, the ensigns of the stanitzas or
villages, the seal, and divers ornaments due to the
munificence of the Russian sovereigns.* Soon after,
the hetman appeared, accompanied by Major-General
Bogdanovitch, together with the emperor's quarter
master-general, and aU the generals and officers of the
corps. In repairing in procession to the cathedral, the
cortSge marched between two hedges formed by a
squadron of Cossacks of the guard,f a company of
artillery, three sotnes or companies of a hundred men
* Besides these marks of distinction and these political presents,
Clarke saw at the Old-Tcherkask, where the regalia were still kept in
his time, beautifully rich manuscripts, intended to attest the exploits of
this war-like people. Among the monuments which perpetuate the
remembrance of the gratitude of the czars, he says he saw some exces
sively rich standards, sent to them by the Empress Catherine. He was
also shewn a map of the Cossack territory, drawn by that sovereign's own
hand. " Travels," vol. ii. p. 27.
t It is one of the finest corps of this chosen troop, and, except that of
the Tcherkesses, the only one that presents the sight of a union of free
men ; for they have a proud mien, and their long hair, which they pre
serve uncut, gives them an appearance of dignity unknown in the army,
where the heads of the soldiers are shaved, and their faces all of a dark
brown colour are generally alike.

280 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of the hetman regiment, and by an ordinary regiment,
composed of Cossacks belonging to the adjacent villages.
This cathedral, like most of the Russian churches, is
small, and could not contain all that military assem
blage. The staff, accompanied by deputations of the
nobility of several districts, entered and laid the sabre
and the imperial rescript upon the table. The insignia
and the standards stib preserved the circle without,
and the Cossacks took up their position around the
square, occupied by a numerous multitude eager to
witness the sight ; whilst the children of the Cossacks
from ten to fifteen years of age, who had been brought
from the different villages for this purpose, were posted
in the middle in a manner that enabled them to see aU
at their ease. After divine service and the performance
of a funeral service for the repose of the soul of the
deceased emperor, a Te Deum was sung, and prayers
offered up for the preservation of the new emperor.
Then, the religious ceremony being ended, the hetman
and all the generals, officers, and pubbc functionaries,
together with the clergy, entered the circle where they
brought out the sabre and the imperial rescript which
a major-general, sent from St. Petersburg, then debvered
in a solemn manner to the hetman. This chief then
exhibited the sabre to the army, as the pledge of their
sovereign's benevolence, and ordered that the rescript
should be read aloud. The warriors responded with
hourras; and the hetman immediately addressed his
brethren and fellow-citizens in a speech, wherein he
proposed to celebrate annually the anniversary of that
day by a commemorative ceremony, in which the circle
of the army should meet according to ancient custom,

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 281
and march in the same order as on that day to the
cathedral, whilst there should be also private assemblies
held in the stanitzas where the rescript should likewise
be read ; to open a subscription in order to procure
the funds necessary for founding, at Novo-Tcherkask,
in memory of that day, a school for the education of
orphans that should be named after Alexander I., pro
vided all this met with the approval of their sovereign.
The assembly having received these proposals with ac
clamations, the hetman ended his speech with these
words : " Your applause, worthy citizens, justifies our
dearest hopes and is a new pledge of our devotion to
the throne and to our native land."
The subscription, begun immediately, was crowded
with signatures, and the list was afterwards forwarded
to the nobles of the rural districts. After another
speech of a simple and affecting nature, spoken by the
arch-priest in the interior of the circle, the procession
of the insignia returned in the same order to the chan
cery ; the Cossacks of the stanitzas and the people sat
down at tables prepared in the square, and all the offi
cers repaired to the house of the hetman, where healths
and toasts were proposed during the banquet, in honour
of the emperor and all his family, amid the roar of
artillery. The other fite, the memory of which we desire to pre
serve, was not a funeral ceremony ; but it relates also
to the change of reign, and will give some idea of the
worship of those 2,000,000 of Mussulmans, the re
mains of the ancient population of Kiptchak, formerly
more compact in the Crimea, along the Volga, from
Astrakhan to Kasan.

282 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
In the first fortnight of May, these Mussulmans used
to celebrate their festival of ouraza-bairam ; that of
1826 was at the same time a kind of inauguration of
the new sovereign.
The Tartars of Astrakhan chose for this purpose a
vast plain outside the town: the canopy of heaven
over reviving nature served them for their mosque.
They had been joined by many of their co-religionists
of the neighbouring governments, such as the Tartars
of the Crimea, of Orenburg, and Kasan, the inhabitants
of Chamachia, the mountaineers of the Caucasus ; as
also by many men belonging to the roaming tribes of
the East, such as the Boukhares, the inhabitants of
Taschkent and Khiva, and others ; to whom report
adds moreover, the Troukhmens, Kokans, Koschkars,
Kabouls, Chakims, and such like, making altogether an
assembly of 4,000 souls. These children of Islam,
clad in their most beautiful costumes, were seated,
with the utmost order, in long rows, perfectly silent,
and awaiting the commencement of divine service,
which was celebrated by their first mollah,* Akzal-
Kouznate-Kazi-Akhoundjane-Mazof, an inteUigent-
looking man, with a fine head, and of lofty stature.
Seated in a kind of pulpit (number), and surrounded
by subaltern mollahs, he chaunted at first a few verses
from the koran ; mollahs stationed at different inter
vals repeated after him the last word of each verse,
which was the signal of much agitation through all the
assembly. The uniformity and regularity of these
thousands of individuals, moving and uttering short
* The heads of the Mussulman religion in Russia are two Mufti, one
of Oufa and the other of the Crimea.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 283
exclamations, formed a strange spectacle. Afterwards,
the grand mollah offered up a prayer, of which we will
attempt to give a translation.
" 0 God, the Creator of the world ! Hallowed and
glorified be the reign of thine elect, the powerful lord,
illustrious emperor, and eminent czar, our august and
gracious autocrat, Nicholas Paulovitch ; exalt him, 0
God, by the plenitude of thy grace ; preserve him from
the evil eye, from slander, and from every inward and
outward malady. Amen.
" Impart to him thy glorious grace, and let him be
a merciful father to his subjects ; strengthen in virtue
all his doings and intentions; and make his august
reign both long and prosperous. Amen.
" Cause the heir of his throne, his children, his
august mother, his beloved consort, and his noble bro
thers, to enjoy an uninterrupted health and perpetual
joy ; and strengthen a lasting peace and concord
among them. Maintain in peace the sincere, faithful,
and eminent ministers and councillors, particularly the
director of the ecclesiastical affairs of foreign commu
nions, and every person about the throne ; may love
and friendship ever reign among them. Increase and
strengthen their fidelity and devotion to the lord our
emperor. Amen.
" Strengthen also in their power the commanders-
in-chief of the armies, by sea and land, and give them
the victory over wicked enemies, and such as are afraid
of truth. Amen.
" And impart thy grace to the superior authority in
every government, and let it be merciful and benefi
cent to the people. Amen.

284 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
" 0 God, almighty and invariably the same, for the
sake of this feast of ramazan, and of the upright and
pious persons here so numerously assembled, both
poor and rich, pour down prosperity, peace, and
plenty, and a pure and salubrious air throughout the
Russian empire, in every village, town, and plain, and
particularly in the governments of Kasan and As
trakhan ; and grant them a bountiful share of the
produce and fruits of the earth. Protect and preserve
both man and beast from all evil, from sad accidents,
diseases, and from aU kinds of calamities and crimes
among themselves, and guard the habitations of men
from the scourge of fire and flood. Amen."
Several Russian functionaries had come from the
town with their families, to witness this rebgious cere
mony, after which all the Mahometan clergy and the
most eminent of the Tartars were invited to a collation
at the house of one of the richest of the congregation.
At the request of the Mussulman community, the civil
governor repaired there likewise, accompanied by seve
ral other functionaries : they were offered tea and
preserves, and alms were, at the same time, distributed
to the poor *
Meanwhile, the capital was beginning to prepare for
an august and splendid ceremony, of which Moscow, the
mother of Russian cities, was to be the theatre ; a
Christian ceremony, but one that interested the whole
* It would be interesting to compare with these acts of the Christian
and Mussulman forms of worship, those of other religions, and, did we
not fear to weary the patience of the reader by a multiplicity of liturgic
details, we could have furnished a sketch of a ceremony of inauguration
which took place, in July, 1826, also at Astrakhan, and which belongs to
the Lnmaic woiship of the Calmucs subject to the Russian empire.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 285
empire, and in which the Mahometan nations them
selves were to be represented by their princes or their
deputies ; a ceremony of rejoicing, and not of mourning,
in which the autocrat would invoke upon himself and
his people the blessings of the Most High.
As early as the 21st of April (3rd of May), the
manifesto of the coronation had been signed and pub
lished ; and the Grand-Duchess Helen, then enceinte
with her second child, had departed a month before for
the ancient capital, where, as we shall presently see,
she was to be confined ; the empress-mother intended
to follow her thither, the more speedily as Elizabeth
had expressed a desire of meeting her at Kalonga ; the
imperial guard had likewise proceeded in that direc
tion, and had been obliged to make such forced
marches, that it is said to have shewn symptoms of dis
content. Everybody was weary of moral emotion, and
eager to introduce some variety to this long and
dismal mourning ; after so many months of anxiety,
men needed some recreation ; having been deprived for
four months of balls, theatres, and almost of assem
blies, everybody was now wishing to enjoy, if only for
a few days, the bustle of festivals and the pleasures of
social amusements. The announcement of the corona
tion was therefore hailed with a hearty welcome.
The tenor of the manifesto was as follows : 
" By our accession to the throne of our ancestors, we
have accepted the burden which it had pleased God to
impose on us, and looking to His omnipotence and
infinite mercy for our support and strength, we have
resolved, according to the example of our imperial
ancestors, to receive the sacred unction, to place the

286 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
crown on our brow, and to associate in this solemn act
our well-beloved spouse, the Empress Alexandra.
"In announcing this event, which, by God's help,
shall be accomplished in the month of June of the pre
sent year 1826, in our capital of Moscow, we call upon
all our faithful subjects to join their faithful prayers to
those which we offer up to the Most High, in order that
His ineffable grace may, with the holy oil, be shed
upon ourselves and our empire, and that this sacred act
may become the token and pledge of His supreme will
in our favour, and the seal of the affection which unites
us to our faithful servants, whose happiness is the only
aim of our thoughts, the fulfilment of all our desires,
the reward of all our labours, and tlie foremost of our
duties towards the King of kings."
On the same day, Nicholas appointed as supreme
marshal of the coronation Prince Nicholas Joussoupoff,
the actual privy councillor of the first class, one of the
richest proprietors in Russia, an old man infirm from
age, but who had formerly enjoyed a great reputation
for ability and intelligence. After having been, as far
back as the reign of Catherine II., ambassador to Turkey,
afterwards senator and member of the council of the
empire, and honoured with the most eminent titles, he
had retired to Moscow, of which city his father had been
governor.* To assist the prince in his duties, a com-
* lie possessed on the river Moskva, at 18 verstes from this capital,
the beautiful property of A rcbnnghclsk, with a dependency of five vil
lages. This property, enriched as it is with some of the scattered ruins
of (lorenti, the splendid creation of Rasoumoffski, deserves to be visited
by the traveller. Nothing is wanting in magnificence to complete the
idea of u nobleman of the highest rank ; considerable buildings, sumptu
ous apartments, a vast park, spacious green-houses, a theatre, a rich

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 287
mission was appointed, including the grand master of
the ceremonies and the senator Prince Ouroussoff,
descended, like Joussoupoff, from a family of Nogais
Mourzas, on which the title of Russian prince had been
conferred.* By another ukase, signed the same day as the mani
festo, the emperor ordered the senate to summon to
Moscow, in order to be present at the coronation, all
the marshals of the nobility of the different govern
ments, and all the mayors (golova) of the chief towns,
with the exception of eight or ten governments at too
great a distance from that capital.
Immediately after these publications, foreign poten
tates hastened to appoint ambassadors-extraordinary to
be their representatives at the solemnity of the corona
tion. The choice of Charles X. fell upon an old war
rior of the republic and the empire, a man of eminent
merit, often victorious on the battle-field, and covered
with wounds, yet now an exile from his native land,
by a fatality which, from the year 1814, seems ever to
have accompanied his destiny. But then, the Duke of
library, containing numerous chefs-d' auvre of typographic art, a gallery
of pictures in which are some of the" works of the greatest masters, anti
quities partly derived from the excavations of Herculaneum, productions
of modern statuary, among others the group of Cupid assisting Psyche,
by Canova (1796), curiosities of every kind, collections of arms, pikes,
&c. Prince Nicholas Borissovitch Joussoupoff died on the 27th of
July, 1831, aged 81, leaving as his only heir his son Boris, bom in
1794, and who has married a Naryschkin for his second wife, His in
heritance consisted principally of 25,000 serfs. His wife had 15,000.
* Ever since 1836, he has been grand-master of the court. Princess
Sophia Ouroussoff, whose beauty was so much remarked during the
coronation at Moscow, and who was named at that period lady of honour,
is one of his daughters, and now the wife of Prince Leon Radzivill, one
of the emperor's aides-de-camp.

288 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Ragusa (for he is the person we mean) was in high
favour at the court of the Tuileries, and was reckoned
among the few general officers to whom the command
of the king's military estabbshment was confided. The
marshal's title as duke was entirely personal and
recent ; but that nothing might be wanting in this
solemn embassy, — that it might worthily represent the
most-christian king, the descendant of St. Louis, and
flatter the pride of a court with which France was then
on terms of great intimacy, he had received for his suite
men who, though young for the most part, belonged to
the oldest famibes in France, and whose names recaUed
to mind her glories of every period. There were first
three lieutenant-generals (mare'chaux de camp), Vis
count Talon, Count de Brogbe, and Count Denis Dan-
re*mont, the same who perished in the breach at Con
stantine in 1837, when on the point of receiving the
staff of marshal of France ; next the colonels, Marquis
de Castries, Count de Caraman, and Marquis de Po-
denas ; the marshal's suite was moreover composed of
Count Alfred de Damas, a chef-descadron ; of captains
Count de ViUefranche, Count de Caumont-Laforce,
Count de Br6ze" ; and of subalterns, Marquis de Vogud,
Count de Biron, and Viscount de La Feronnays. son of
the ordinary ambassador. Other historical names, such
as Maille and Guise, also figured among the aides-de
camp or the simple ordnance officers of the marshal.
This brilliant embassy, well worthy of the most
polished and warlike nation in Europe, arrived at
St. Petersburg on the 13th of May* On the 19th
* The 1st of May according to the Russian calendar, being the day of
the promenade, of Catlicriiieuhoff, which is the Russian Longchamp.

DIPLOMACY AND FUNERAL POMP. 289
the Duke of Ragusa had his audience, and remained
for a long time alone with the emperor, who received
him with marks of particular distinction. The next
day Nicholas paid him the honours of his guard, by
commanding in person the regiment of Pre'obrajensk,
which was that day on duty, and whose uniform he
wore. He appeared eager to make the old French
warrior admire that extreme precision in the handling
of arms, and that incredible exactness in evolutions,
of which the Russian army in Europe can alone furnish
an example. The Duke de San-Carlos, sent by Spain,
arrived a few days after Marmont ; then, in the com
mencement of June, they were joined by Field-Marshal
Count de Stedingk, ambassador-extraordinary from
Sweden, accompanied by General Stiermcroma, first
aide-de-camp to the king, by Lieutenant-Colonel Baron
de Stedingk, chamberlain to the prince-royal, and by
several other gentlemen having the rank of superior
officers. The baron, a little grey-headed old man, with
a worthy, open, smiling countenance, nevertheless re
minded one of the distinguished cavalier who had
formerly represented Gustavus III. at the court of
Catherine II. It was to him, when interceding for
Prince Dolgorouki, that Paul I. addressed those words,
unheard of in the annals even of absolute courts : —
" Know, Sir Count, that there are no great lords in
Russia but those to whom I speak, and as long as
I choose to speak."*
The thoughts of all were therefore turned towards
the grand national solemnity so impatiently expected,
* According to Count de Segur (" Memoires ou Souvenirs," t. iii.
p. 533) this reprimand was addressed to General Dumouriez.
VOL. II. U

290 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
and from which everybody hoped to derive either posi
tive advantages, or, at least, those pleasures of which
he was fond, strong emotions, captivating spectacles,
and the no less desired opportunity of exhibiting his
person to advantage. The mourning had been fo*<
gotten, and everybody was eager to enjoy all the
blessings of life, when Death, returning, once more
inflicted one of those blows which annihilate the idle
projects of men. On the 21st of May, news was
received at St. Petersburg of the death of the Empress
Elizabeth. The noble widow of Alexander had entertained but
one wish since her bereavement, and that was to rejoin
the imperial family, and to die. In such a frame of
mind, what signified to her the state of her health,
which was becoming more alarming every day 1 Ail
she required of her expiring strength was that it should
not forsake her before she had completed the journey,
and seen once more the mother of her husband. In
the first fortnight of March she was ready to depart ;
but she was dissuaded from going, and reports from
the governors of Kharkoff and Jekaterinoslaff as to the
state of the roads, caused the departure to be post
poned to the foUowiug month. Meanwhile, Nicholas
was anxiously providing for the future existence of
this " excellent woman, whom twenty-five years of
virtuous actions were unable to protect from afflic
tion."* The palace of Oranienbaum, situated opposite
to the Gulf of Finland, far from the noisy bustle of the
capital, had ever been the favourite residence of Eliza
beth. As early as the 21st of January, the emperor
* Ancelot, "Six Mois en Russie." p. 106.

DEATH OF ELIZABETH. 291
ordered that this palace, with all its dependencies,
villages, farms, and other places which had formed the
personal property of the Emperor Alexander, should
thenceforth belong entirely to his widow. Kamennoii-
Ostroff, one of those elegant small islands, which, divid
ing the Neva on the north of the capital, have adorned
it on that side with the most charming gardens, toge
ther with the palace so finely situated at the end of
the bridge of communication, and all the edifices and
establishments belonging to it, were to remain likewise
her property, and afford her the means of varying her
residence during the summer season. In short, the
monarch provided for all the wants of his brother's
widow, and evinced his respect for her by the most
delicate attentions. Elizabeth gratefully accepted
Oranienbaum ; but, as other estates would have ap
peared to her a useless burden, she wrote to the em
peror to entreat him to transfer the property of Ka-
mennoii-Ostroff to the Grand-Duke Michael and his
descendants. On the 8th of May she departed from Taganrog.
This departure was the occasion of a touching scene :
the whole population crowded about her, accompany
ing her a great distance from the town, unable to lose
sight of the woman whose angelic resignation and noble
fortitude th'ey now admired, after having witnessed
her conjugal devotion and the loving tenderness of her
heart towards her dying husband. But Elizabeth tore
herself away from their demonstrations of affection,
feeling that it was necessary to make all speed to avail
herself of what strength remained to her. She hoped
to be able to reach Kalouga, where she had entreated u 2

292 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the empress-mother to come to meet her. " My sole
desire here on earth," said she in her letter, " is to see
once more the mother of the angel who has gone before
me ! " Thence, it seems, she was to have gone to the
estate of Prince Volkonski, her faithful companion,*
and to have remained there till after the coronation.
These ulterior projects were made for Elizabeth ; for
she herself had no wish beyond that expressed in her
letter ; neither did she deceive herself as to her condi
tion, or to the few days she had to bve. " The pro
digious effort," says an official article, " which the
empress made on her own feelings to temper her resig
nation to the extent of her misfortune, had appeared
to impart to her delicate constitution some of the
energy of her magnanimous soul. She had endured
with the fortitude of a heroine and the piety of a saint,
the inexpressible loss which made the future a misery
which could only be ended with her life ; but this
misery had destroyed a constitution to which even now
the remembrance of her husband and of the sacrifice
she made to his memory, was able to give a momen
tary animation. For the last two months it had been
evident that her strength was rapidly declining ; and
at every stage during the journey it was visibly de
creasing more and more. Yet her courage was constant
to her. Elizabeth persisted in her journey, in spite of
the opinion of the physicians, and the most urgent
entreaties of the persons of her suite, who conjured
her to halt. At length, however, the prostration of
* The Princess Sophia, the prince's wife, and their daughter Alex
andria, lady of honour to the empress, as also her relation the Princess
H.iibu Volkonski, likewise accompanied Kli/nbeth on this last journey.

DEATH OF ELIZABETH. 293
her strength was such, that a courier was despatched
in all haste to the empress-mother, who had arrived at
Kalouga, to inform her of the danger of her daughter,
and to engage her on the part of the august patient, —
for she was too feeble to write, — to advance as far as
Beleff, a small town in the government of Toula, half
way between Orel and Kalouga.
Providence did not grant the unfortunate princess
the fulfilment of her last desire.
On arriving at Beleff, her debility was extreme. She
retired to rest before night, but was unwilling that her
ladies, or even her worthy Doctor Stoffregen, should be
deprived of sleep on her account : only one of her at
tendants was to remain near her, that she might hear
her voice in case she should call her. The utmost
tranquillity prevailed in the house ; and everybody was
beginning to feel more assured, for Elizabeth was able
to conceal the imminent danger of her indisposition
from all about her. She seemed to be enjoying a
tranquil slumber. But, about four in the morning, the
silence continuing longer than usual, the person ap
pointed to watch approached the bed of the patient,
and immediately perceived a change in her features.
Being frightened, she called up the physician and the
ladies of honour. The death of the righteous is a
glorification of God : and happy is he who witnesses it !
Hardly had the persons who had been summoned sur
rounded the bed of the patient when she quietly sur
rendered her soul to her Creator. A moment before,
the blood, rushing back to her pale cheeks, once more
enlivened her sweet countenance : about to appear
before the Eternal Being, Elizabeth had recovered the

204 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
beauty that had adorned her youth, but which the
climate of Russia had, soon after her arrival, deterio
rated. It was like the reflection of a heavenly ray.
After that transitory glow of nature, her lips gently
opened and the breath of bfe escaped. It was the
1 G th of May, and shortly after four in the morning.
The countenance of the empress remained impressed
with that serenity and unalterable calmness which the
remembrance of her whole life and the consciousness of
having honoured the throne by the practice of the
highest virtues, ought naturally to produce. " Was
not that strong-minded woman," (says an article pub
lished in honour of her and from which we borrow
these lines) " about to receive from the hands of her
husband a stib more glorious crown than the diadem
she wore on earth, which shone but seldom amid the
pomps of the age, but the reflection of which ever
cheered the refuge of indigence and misfortune, as also
those pious institutions in which young girls of obscure
condition were brought up to the duties of their sex,
from the example set by a sovereign who was at once
their honour and their model."
Elizabeth was in the 48 th year of her age, and had
not survived her husband five months.
The Empress Mary, having left Kalouga in haste,
was at Peremyschl when she received the fatal news.
Two hours later, she was once more in the presence of
death, but of a death, the image of the sleep of the
righteous (beaming of the joys of paradise.
" I myself know that august couple," says a Russian
j met, whom direful misfortunes have endowed with in
spiration : " he wtts as charming as hope ; she as

DEATH OF ELIZABETH. 295
delightful as felicity. It seems but yesterday when
Catherine adorned their youthful brows with nuptial
crowns of roses, soon to be succeeded by diadems ; but
alas ! much too soon did the genius of death crown
their pale brows with poppies ! What then is life !"
After having given free vent to her grief and per
formed the duties of religion towards the departed,
Maria Foedorovna again set out for Moscow, where she
had other duties to fulfil towards another daughter-in-
law. On the 26th of May, Helen Paulovna gave birth
to a grand-duchess ; at the end of a month, this infant,
on being presented for baptism in the church of the
convent of Miracles (Tchoudoff) by the empress-mother,
received the name of Elizabeth. Her excellent mother
taught her afterwards how to be worthy of so great
a name : but she has been summoned by her Creator
into the presence of her model. Having become
Duchess of Nassau, she died in her first confinement in
1844, and two years afterwards her elder sister fol
lowed her into a better world.*
After receiving this new message of death, long
foreseen yet unexpected at the moment, the emperor
immediately ordered all the preparations for the fes^
tivals to be discontinued, forbade every kind of amuse
ment, and ordered again a strict mourning, which was
to last six months from the 16th of May. A minute
ceremonial assigned their respective costume to all the

* The Grand-Duchess Maria Mikha'ilovna died at Vienna towards
the end of 1846. The death of Elizabeth was followed at a short
interval by that of the celebrated historian Karamzin. We shall speak
of him, as also of some other remarkable persons who died in the course
of the year 1826, in Note (1 9) of the Appendix in the present volume.

29G SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
persons composing the court, or likely to appear there
under any title whatsoever ;* the mourning dresses,
the crapes, hatbands, the black hangings for the coaches,
and those already prescribed, to the first two classes
after tbe death of Alexander, for a private room in
their mansions, appeared again in every respect as it
had been five months before, and the coronation was
provisionally adjourned. It seemed to be a decree of
Providence that this period of painful trials should be
prolonged that, being fruitful in salutary reflections, it
might leave a more lasting impression.
From Beleff to St. Petersburg, the funeral procession
had tu travel 257 leagues. This journey was per
formed in twenty-four days ; but we wiU omit the
description, as the scenes already depicted on the
occasion of the funeral <>f Alexander were for the most
part repeated, accompanied by a manifestation of grief
no less sincere.
The house at Beleff where the empress had breathed
her la.-t, was purchased by the government : it is
henceforth to be an asylum for twenty-four poor
widows, supported at the expense of the treasury, and
under the special protection of the reigning empress.
On the 2Gth of June, the funeral procession entered
* Tho form of the dres- is prescribed in every particular, varied ac
cording to ib,. lour periods of mourning ; nay, the government measures
'"it to the different closes the length of the hatbands, and the length of
the skirts of i|„. robes; it chouses, also, the stuff, not forgetting the
hIioos, gloves, and finis. Tlie „,;,. „f ,M,„der is declared lawful, and,
moreover, die regulation of niourniin; contains the following still more
singular article :-•• I, ;s |„„m| for ^^ of vi,,,or sox „l1Btl.vor be
l" ,.""'l.,,,  "' "•'¦'"¦ '"din.iry black dresses throughout the period of
 '""«• S  ''"""'"' ''" *<¦ IWho„,v.- Ks2,i; No. 59 These

DEATH OF ELIZABETH. 297
the capital. Throughout its course, the bells of the
churches of ten different forms of worship tolled the
funeral knells, and minute guns shook with their
thundering explosion that light soil derived from the
marshes of Ingria. The body reclined upon the same car
of ceremony that had transported the mortal remains
of Alexander. Ladies decorated with the order of
St. Catherine, and the maids of honour who had
accompanied the empress in her last journey, walked
on each side of the coffin, between two rows of sixty
pages, chosen from the highest nobility, and bearing
torches. Behind the car walked the emperor, having
on one hand his brother-in-law, Prince Charles of
Prussia, who had lately arrived on the part of the
king of that monarchy, to represent him in the cere
mony of the coronation, and on the other the Duke
and the two Princes of Wurtemberg. His supporters
were on this occasion Count de Langeron, general-in-
chief, a French emigrant who was numbered among
the successors of the noble Duke de Richelieu in the
general government of New-Russia,* and Count Tolstoi,
commander-in-chief of the 5th corps of the army,
whom we have seen performing the same duty at the
funeral of Alexander. Near them was Prince Peter
Volkonski, who had now fulfilled his mission. Then
came a long line of carriages : first, the empress, with
serious enactments occupy pages in the newspapers, the first column of
which is generally found more than sufficient to contain all the news
about Russia.
* He died lately in France, and is said to have left some memoirs
whieh appear to have been consulted by M. Thiers when he wrote the
battle of Austerlitz, where Langeron had commanded a division of the
Russian army.

298 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the hereditary grand-duke, and the princess Mary of
Wurtemberg; next, the two dethroned queens of
Imereth and the queen-regent of Mingrelia, who like
wise lived in private retirement ; after them the first
ladies in attendance on the empress, the Countess de
Litta and the Princess Lapoukhin ; behind them were
the damsels of honour a portrait, of whom there were
three at that period, Catherine Xebdoff, Countess Anne
Orloff Tchesmenski, and Catherine Yalouieff, the two
former being ladies of the 2nd class of the order of
St. Catherine, and the third adorned only with the
memory of the confidence with which Ebzabeth, whom
she had accompanied to Taganrog, had always ho
noured her ; lastly, the maids of honour,* and aU the
ladies of the first four classes.f

* They were about a hundred in number, and among them were seve-
rl daughters of king*, for instance, — the Princesses Thamar, Helen, and
Salome' of Georgia.
t For the tchinn, see vol. i. In the first class there are seldom more
than two or three persons at once ; however, at that period, besides the
Princess Lapoukhin, lady of honour, there were several widows of field-
inarshnls. One, the Countess Prascovic Moussine-Pouschkin, was then
on her death-bed, and died oil the Sib of July, ls2<i. aged 73. She was
lady of honour to the empresses and lady of the order of St. Catherine,
being the daughter of Prince Vassili Dolgorouki-Krymski, general-in-
ehicf, and widow of Field-Marshal Count Valentine Moussinc-rouschkin,
who « as descended from an ancient family of bolars and died in 1804,
Tlie Princess Koutousotf had also just died, and the pension of 96,000
mnlile... which she hnd enjoyed, had been continued to her five daughters.
Hut it is snnl that the widows of Count Nicholas Karacnski (who died in
1811), or Prince Alexander Prosorolski (who died in 1809), of Prince
Barclay ,le Tolly (who died in 1M», ana even of Count Tchcrnvcheff
(«ho died in ITS J), were still I,v„v. Tbe latter, who had been god
mother to the Emperor Alexander, was still lady of honour <• portrait in
IH2!>, and lady of the first class of the order of S, Catherine It is
Muled that her husband the licld-marshal, «I,„ had left her a widow verv

DEATH OF ELIZABETH. 299
The car halted before the cathedral of St. Peter and
St. Paul at half-past seven : under the porch stood the
archbishop and other members of the holy synod, and
the higher clergy, behind whom were all the clergy of
the court, waiting for the body to conduct it to the
church, where it was placed upon the catafalco. The
emperor, the empress, the prince and princesses in the
procession, and, after them, the whole court followed in
their train. The funeral service then began. Amid
so many painful impressions, thus continued and re
newed, the Empress Alexandra felt her strength forsake
her : she was unable to remain to the end of the
solemn ceremony ; and the emperor himself retired
shortly afterwards. The jGospels were read after their
departure; but they were continued to be read day
and night throughout the week that the body remained
lying in state ; and the emperor and the empress re
turned more than once to join in the morning and
evening prayers. The whole population attended, and
nobody approached that bier without paying homage
in his heart to the virtues of the noble woman whose
life had been to all a lesson of self-abnegation and
devotion. The 3rd of July, the day appointed for the burial,
summoned once more to the sanctuary of death the
imperial couple, together with the whole court, the
great authorities of the state, the principal civil and
military functionaries, and the corps diplomatique, to
which the arrival of so many extraordinary embassies
had given an aspect of imposing grandeur. The pupils
young, was related to Peter the Great, and that he resembled him ; the
same thing, however, is said of Field-Marshal Roumantsoff.

300 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of the Patriotic Society of Ladies, and those of the
House of Industry (Troudoloublc), together with those
of their schools, accompanied by the governesses and
inspectrcsses, stood in the nave, ready to shower upon
the coffin of their benefactress the homage of well-
deserved gratitude. The last prayers were offered up,
and ab murmured a final farewell ;* then utter silence
prevailed, which the melodious and thribing voices of
the choir around the altar no longer interrupted. The
emperor and the empress went for the last time and
kissed the coffin, which was immediately lifted up and
borne towards the tomb, preceded by the archbishop
and the clergy. An open sarcophagus by the side of
Alexander's was in readiness for the mortal remains of
Elizabeth. The narrow tomb received her, and soon a
cold stone closed over her, henceforth shielded from the
tumult of a world she had never loved, and from its
frivolous magnificence, to which she had been always
indifferent. This pomp, this grand display of power, even on the
very threshold of eternity, is pleasing to the multitude ;
by striking their imagination, it enables royalty to pre
serve its fascinating spell ; but true royalty, — that
which consists in a virtuous life. — has no need of such
idle parade ; and it is not to this, nor to tlie splendour
of a crown that the memory of Ebzabeth, deeply en
graven mi every heart of sensibility, wiU owe its wcll-
carued immortality.
* "I lust to diisi,' snys the officiating minister; and, at the end, lie
adds, in the name of all the congregation, •¦ eternally remembered I"

THE EXPIATION. 301

CHAPTER VI.

THE EXPIATION.

When Nicholas, in the manifesto touching his coro
nation, signed in the beginning of May, fixed the
celebration of this august ceremony to take place on
some day or other in the month of June, not then
determined, he calculated that at that period a pain
ful duty, the agonizing expectation of which it was
inexpedient to prolong amid a population invited to
partake a joyous festival, would have been completed ;
he had presumed that justice would have been executed
on the authors and abettors of the conspiracy who
were at that time crowding every prison of state,
and that the fate of those unfortunate men, thus re
moved at once from public attention, would not inter
rupt the pubbc rejoicings, in a country where people
soon forget, and every emotion is entirely superficial.
Indeed, the critical moment was fast approaching.
The commission of inquiry was urging forward as
fast as possible the colossal proceedings with which it
was charged, and which, relating to several hundreds of
individuals, either prisoners or witnesses, had, in the
short space of five or six months, to investigate an
event the different ramifications of which extended over
a period of about fifteen years. " The commission had
been enjoined," says the emperor himself in a mani-

302 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
festo, " to inquire into the whole of the business, to
get at the very root of the evil, to discover its origin,
to follow all its ramifications, to state its progress and
extent, and lastly to ground the results of the inquiry,
not upon suspicions or probabilities, but upon certain5
peremptory, and incontestable proofs." The commis
sion had done all in its power to fulfil the monarch's
intentions. It had made every possible investigation,
hastened its labours, unfolded the whole plot, con
ducted the proceedings of justice with much modera
tion towards the most guilty parties, and made the
strictness of principle subordinate to reasons of state
towards certain men whose transgressions were perhaps
no less great, but whose position did not admit of their
being mixed up in such a cause, without creating
powerful enemies ; for fear also of making some new
and still more painful discoveries, of recognising for
instance, in the actions the suggestions of his father,
mother, or some other near relation whom it would
have hesitated to include in the prosecution, or again
of divulging to all the spirit prevaibng in certain loca
lities, among certain classes, and in a whole division of
the army. " After more than five months' labour con
tinued every day with indefatigable zeal," says the
same manifesto, " having duly weighed and carefully
verified every circumstance, deposition, and fact, re
moving every conjecture and bare suspicion, grounding
opinion only on the evidence, on the very declarations
of the accused, or on means of conviction which no
longer left even the shadow of a doubt, and in short
allowing the accused every latitude and facility that
they needed for their defence, the commission has

THE EXPIATION. 303
completed the task it had to perform ; it has just laid
before us a definitive report on the whole of its investi
gations, accompanied with all the original documents
on which it is grounded."
These original documents, a precious source of inti
mate information for the judges, will remain buried in
the mysterious archives of the Russian chanceries, if
they have not been already removed for ever from the
indiscreet investigations of history. By way of com
pensation, the " Report of the Commission of Inquiry,"
signed and presented to the autocrat on the 11th of
June, received the publicity for which it had doubtless
been purposely written, but not before undergoing, at
least it is natural to suppose so, the previous censor
ship of the government and the head of the state.
The reader knows, from what we have related, all the
contents of this "Report."
Nicholas appeared to be satisfied with it, and pro
claimed the results of the inquiry in a manifesto
signed on the 13th of June, 1826.
We may just state, in passing, that this was the eve
of a day on which a neighbouring empire, a long time
its rival, effected a revolution in a direction inverse to
that which had been planned by the Russian conspi
rators, — a revolution which strengthened that empire,
and for that very reason appeared contrary to the
interests of the cabinet bf St. Petersburg ; accordingly,
it was not devoid of influence on the warlike deter
minations which were afterwards displayed.*
The Russian revolt had been a badly devised and
* We shall say a few words on this subject in Note (20) among the
Notes and Explanations in this volume.

304 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
unseasonable attempt, made in the spirit and under
the inspiration of modern liberalism : that of which
the capital of the Ottomans was in its turn the scene,
and which occasioned the dissolution of the militia of
the janissaries, was a desperate effort in favour of old
abuses, under the influence of which the Turkish
empire incapable of supporting the struggle with the
military organization of the European powers, was
falling completely into dissolution. In 1826, this
empire was stiU at the point where Russia had been
100 years before, under a monarch whom the energetic
Mahmoud II. in many respects resembled. Just as
Peter I., to be master of his own kingdom, annihilated
for ever the unruly corps of the strelitz, obstinately
attached to their privileges and all the ancient usages,
but seldom disposed to leave their wives and families
to support the interests of their native land in the
battle-field ; even so the padicha resolved to rid himself
of those insolent janissaries, who, formidable to the
sovereign alone, did nothing to preserve the integrity
of the empire, which, for five years, had been kept
in check by the petty nation of Greece. If he did
not, like the Muscovite czar, seize the axe with his
own hand to chop off the heads of ab the offenders on
the block, he nevertheless opened the war in person,
and stopped its effects only when it had produced the
desired result. He, himself, carried to the grand vizier
the sand-jacchrrif. the sacred standard, made of a
piece! of the prophet's garments, the appearance of
whicli announced a deadly struggle, and the imminent
danger of the country ; he caused the Atmeidan to be
besieged by his new troops of topchi (artillerymen)

THE EXPIATION. 305
and of kumbaradji (bombardiers), and, after a battle
in which more than 3,000 officers and soldiers of the
militia were killed, he gave the atrocious, but perhaps
necessary order, to set fire to the barracks of the
janissaries, and to put to the sword all who were
found. Mahmoud afterwards devolved on the terrible
Hussein pacha the office of executing justice on the
rebels who had escaped from that massacre,4' and it is
well known with what horrible energy the latter per
formed his task. Seated beneath a tent, in the front
court of the seraglio, whither the sad remainder of the
ortas were brought, he indicated to the executioners
with a mere nod the victims that were to be sacrificed.
The example set at Constantinople was imitated
throughout the provinces of the empire : it is stated
that 15,000 of the janissaries lost their lives, and that
20,000 more were exiled into Asia.
But, after this digression, justified, we think, by the
coincidence of events, let us return to Russia, where
there was no longer any question of janissaries, for
the militia of the strelitz had been annihilated a
century before ; where, far from still defending old
abuses, people had been, on the contrary, conspiring to
gain institutions and to put the country on a level
with the states in the West, which were more advanced
in civilization.
The manifesto with which the emperor accompanied
* The rebellion was quelled, and the corps of janissaries destroyed for
ever. But the terrible conflagration which burst out at Constantinople,
on the 19th of August following, and which consumed more than 5,000
houses, was a manifest symptom of the popular fury and the thirst of
vengeance by which the remnants of the janissaries were actuated.
VOL. II. X

306 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the publication of the " Report of the Commission of
Inquiry," deserves to engage our attention for one
moment longer* " When in the very first days of
our reign," says this document, "the impenetrable
decrees of the Most High had revealed to us a horrible
design, which had been already going on for ten years
in the dark, we perceived the finger of God invisibly
tracing out our conduct and our duties ; we compre
hended the more fuUy the sacredness of these duties,
that the origin of the plot took place long before our
accession to the throne, and that it did not endanger
our person alone but the whole of Russia."
The first step was taken : the charges impending
over each individual were clearly defined, and the
guilty were no longer able to escape the vengeance of
the laws. Yet aU did not deserve this appeUation in
the same degree. " From the examination of the 'Re
port' and the vouchers," continues the manifesto, " there
result two evidently distinct species of accusations :
the former of the most serious character, belong to
crimes of high treason, long premeditated projects,
maintained and brought to maturity with an obstinate
determination, constantly and invariably directed to
ward the criminal end proposed ; the latter relate to
errors arising either from weakness of character, or
blind confidence, a want of penetration sufficient to
discover the secret of the real conspirators, a momen
tary impulse of the passions, foUowed by repentance,
and, in general, wavering intentions, without any fixed
object, and which especially cannot be charged with any
* It is to be found in the "Journal de St. Petersbourg," 1826,
No. (HI.

THE EXPIATION. 307
participation in overt acts of rebellion. It is clear from
the very nature of the offence that the culprits of this
class incur the application of merely correctional penal
ties ; but as to the individuals charged with the former
offences, who, more or less connected with the main
spring of this plot, have been acquainted with its real
intentions, they shall all be included in the same
judgment, though they be not all guilty in the same
degree." We underbne a few words at the end of this passage
because they are not quite in accordance with the
manner in which things reaUy took place. Thus, Cap
tain Maiefski, the head of the Templars, Baron Solo-
' vieff and several of his brethren of the association of
the United Sclavons, were not included in the first
judgment. Their condemnation is of later date ; and
the sentence which overtook Captain Igelstrem, Lieu
tenant Wasgelin, and a few of their accomplices, was
not even pronounced till June 1827, a few months
before the end of the Polish trial.
As to the substance of the paragraph, it is clear that
it was the emperor who arranged the accused parties in
the two categories laid down : some amenable to the
criminal law, others to the correctional. Doubtless he
did so in accordance with the conclusions, — unknown
however, — of the Commission of Inquiry ; but having
been appointed by himself on a special occasion, this
commission could not be considered as an independent
judicial authority. In countries where justice is sur
rounded with all its dignity, the regulations of judges
belong only to them, the proper organs of the law :
any kind of tribunal, once regularly in possession of a
x 2

308 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
cause, either keeps it or else sends it before other
judges, according to the manner in which it determines
upon the accusation. It is thus, for instance, that the
court of peers proceeds in France : it exercises its
right of instituting the preliminary proceedings con
currently with the attorney-general (chef du parquet),
and proceeds to judgment only when on the one hand it
acknowledges itself to be competent, and, on the other,
when the accusation appears to be weU founded. Should
it decline, it is by no means the government that inter
feres : justice, in that case, follows its ordinary course,
and the accused parties are sent before such as have
the legal power to try them. In Russia the regulations
of the judges belong, generally speaking, to the senate
in pleno, but the autocrat has not abandoned this
right ; he exercises it without either control or pub
licity. In the case before us, the fate of a considerable
number of officers was decided by orders of the day
given in the name of the emperor, at the end of July
or in the beginning of August, and which scarcely came
to the knowledge of the pubbc* Imprisonment from
one to six months in a fortress ; removal from the
corps of the imperial guard to the army, from one regi
ment to another, or from one of the two capitals into a
distant garrison, without loss of nobibty or of any ac
quired rights, — such were the correctional penalties in
flicted by these special measures; measures of clemency
they doubtless were, but arbitrary, and depriving the
justest penalties of that sanction of law which alone
can acquire for them the respect of mankind.
* At the very utmost, they were inserted in the " Senate Gazette,"
published in Russian and in German.

THE EXPIATION. 309
Acts of this nature could only relate to military
men ; and yet, among the persons who underwent cor
rectional penalties, there were doubtless many belong
ing to other classes.* The order of the day of the
28th of July, related to General Michael Orloff : he
was restored to liberty and to the enjoyment of his
rank and honours, but incapacitated thenceforth from
being again admitted into the service, and from inha
biting either of the two capitals. Those of the first
days of August decided the fate of thirty-three indi
viduals,! of whom five were colonels, three beutenant-
colonels, and several inferior officers, among whom
figured three princes, a count of an illustrious name,
and several other members of families known to history.
* Of this number was the Councillor Paul K  , member of the
council of regency in the government of Moscow. A decree given in his
case on the 30th of July, 1826, stated that he was dismissed and could
never be readmitted into any branch of the public service. The priest
compromised in the revolt of Vassilkoff is mentioned in no act either
judicial or extrajudicial. His fate was doubtless referred to the decision
of the ecclesiastical authority which, probably, caused him to be confined
in some distant convent for the rest of his life.
t We know their names, but think we ought to suppress them, in
order not to subject them to a notoriety from which they have been saved
by the clemency of the emperor. If we make an exception with respect to
Colonel Foedor Glinka, already mentioned, it is because the name of this
officer, formerly aide-de-camp to General Miloradovitch, and a distin
guished author, is too much esteemed to have anything to dread from
the remembrance of the trials of 1826 ; moreover, the penalty inflicted
upon him was trifling. Being at that time colonel of the Izmai'loff regi
ment and attached to the staff, he was dismissed, hut was afterwards per
mitted to return to the service with the rank of college councillor. The
town of Petrozavodsk (in the government of Olentz) was appointed pro
visionally, as the place of his retirement. As to the names implicated in
the criminal procedure, they have received too much publicity from the
documents of that trial, and by their being inserted in the newspapers,
for us to have any scruple about publishing them in full.

310 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
The rest of the accused were given over to the criminal
court ; but we shaU nevertheless see that imperial ab
solutism did not completely abstain from all interfer
ence in the definitive disposal of them.
Under ordinary circumstances, every criminal process
in which a certain number of accused persons are in
cluded, ought to be judged by the acting senate. But,
in cases of high treason, this rule has at all tunes been
infringed by the estabbshment of a special tribunal, of
which the senate formed only the foundation. Thus it
was that, in 1764, in the trial of Mirovitch and his ac
complices, who had endeavoured to put an end to the
captivity of the young czar, Ioann Antonovitch, Ca
therine H. had added to this supreme court, the holy
synod, the first three classes, and the presidents of all
the colleges.* In the present trial, by virtue of the
sovereign will, from which everything emanates in Rus
sia, the tribunal was composed of the first three orders
of the state, — the council of the empire, the acting
senate, and the holy synod, and fifteen persons chosen
out of the superior ranks of the army, and high civil
functionaries were moreover called upon to sit
there.f Thus composed, the high court offered, we must con
fess, every kind of guarantee, both from the great
number of its members (about eighty), and from the
character of the most eminent among them. The
name of Admiral Mordvinoff, nearly eighty years of
age, but a man of indefatigable activity, that of the
Senator Engel, an incorruptible magistrate, and several
* Ukase of tho 17th of August, 1T64.
t Wc will give the list of them in our Notes and Explanations, Note
(21).

THE EXPIATION. 311
others generally and deservedly esteemed, called to
mind the most elevated sentiments and the practice of
every virtue. The priestly members of the holy synod,
as ministers of a God of mercy, would naturally be
inclined towards clemency. Several of the councillors
of the empire were no less favourably disposed, on be
holding members of famibes, related to them either by
ties of kindred or friendship, seated on the benches of
the accused, on thinking especially of their own sons,
several of whom had narrowly escaped occupying that
fatal seat. Lastly, as to the senators, exposed to the
influence of social relations, entreated by common
friends, and also in a better position than any beside
to appreciate the justness of some of the griefs of the
conspirators, there was far less reason to believe that
they would be pitiless, as the example of indulgence
had been set from the throne, and expressed in lan
guage in which savage passions or abject servility found
not the slightest encouragement. The reader may
judge of this from the following extract towards the
end of the manifesto, the most remarkable of the
other paragraphs of which have already been given.
" By such an organization of the tribunal, it has
been our desire not only to maintain the authority of
ancient usages, but to shew likewise that we have never
ceased to consider this matter as the cause of every
Russian inspired with the love of his native land, in
other words, as the cause of the whole empire.
" In confiding the fate of the accused to this supreme
court, we expect from it, and demand of it nothing
but impartial justice, strictly founded upon the laws
and the strength and clearness of the evidence.

312 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
" When judgment has been pronounced, and after an
account thereof has been given to us, the decree shall
be published, together with all the particulars of the
procedure."* The presidency of the high court was conferred, at
least nominally, on old Prince Lapoukhin, the president
of the council of the empire ; and Prince Labanoff
Rostofski, the minister of justice, was entrusted with
the performance of the functions incident to his office
as attorney-general. The court, thus constituted, met on the 15th of
June, at the palace of the senate, under the protection
of a guard of honour, furnished, over and above the
ordinary grand post, by the imperial guard. The regi
ment of the chevaber-guards mounted first. The sit
tings in pleno were not very numerous, for the court
devolved all the preparatory labour on a commission
appointed among its members ; the judgment was
signed in that of the 20th of July, and the last as
sembly took place on the 24th, when it received a
communication of the monarch's will in relation to the
report that had been laid before him.
It was no easy task to pronounce judgment in a
political cause, in which the accused parties, to the
number of 121, belonged to the greatest famibes of
the empire, to the highest functionaries, to the nobility
on duty, as well as to the hereditary nobles, and among
whom were numbered seven princes, two counts, three
barons, two generals, thirteen colonels, ten lieutenant-
colonels, etc. In appearance, at least, the preliminary
* These words were not followed to the letter. Notices on each of
the licensed parties were not published,

THE EXPIATION. 313
proceedings left scarcely any room for complant: to
judge of them by the contents of the " Report," in which
nothing seemed to indicate an extravagant inquisitorial
severity on the part of the Commission of Inquiry, this
first operation seems to have been made with care, and
it was affirmed that a complete avowal of their guilt
had been obtained from all the prisoners, excepting
four* But were not these appearances fallacious?
Was it possible to put entire confidence in them, or
was it not lawful to entertain some doubts on the
nature of the confessions that were elicited ? Had
those avowals been made freely, without any intimida
tion, violence, or moral torture (for we banish the very
idea of physical torture being employed)'? f Were the
written interrogatories always conformable to the
verbal declarations, and did the prisoners sign nothing
but what was the sincere expression of their thoughts
and words? We acknowledge that on these serious
questions we can give no positive answer. Everything
took place secretly, in the silence of dungeons, with
out any protective control, or without the accused
parties having the liberty of making themselves heard,
in order to repel gratuitous suppositions, or to correct
perverted statements. We would gladly believe in the
perfect fairness of the proceedings, but we must not
conceal the fact, that we have no other security than the
character of the men who had been charged to under
take them.
* Nicholas Tourgueneff, absent, Prince Chakhofskoi, Lieutenant
Tsebrikoff, and Gorski.
t The imperial manifesto of the 25th of July, affirms that " the Com
mission of Inquiry succeeded, by the effect of its zeal, exactness, and im-

314 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
However, tiU the present time, nobody, as far as we
know, has brought any charge against their good faith ;
we do not speak of the victims themselves, sequestered
from the world ever since their condemnation ; but
none of their relations or friends have ever protested
on their account. And yet a free press in foreign
countries would have afforded them the means of un
dertaking the defence of oppressed innocence, and of
repelbng the calumnious imputations founded upon
pretended confessions or false depositions. If such had
reaUy been the character of the interrogatories, what
must one think of a nation that would accept in silence
the decisions of justice transacted in such a manner,
and where, out of the famibes of a hundred and
twenty-one condemned individuals, some of whom were
near relations of ministers and other personages of high
station,* not one had had the courage to renounce his
country to go and pay free homage to truth, and to
unmask fraud and hypocrisy ?
Whatever may have been the nature of the preb-
minary proceedings, they ought not to have imposed
themselves as a law upon the conscience of the judges.
The court ought Jo have investigated everything itself,
weighed scrupulously the charges, and the depositions
of the witnesses, the means of defence of the accused,
and even their confessions, which, in strict justice, are
valid only as far as they are confirmed by proof. In a
word, its duty was to examine thoroughly into the
partiality, and by employing the means of persuasion, in moving the
hearts of the most hardened criminals, in awakening remorse, and in
inducing them to make/he and sincere avowals."
* And consequently well informed of all tfiat had happened.

THE EXPIATION. 315
affair, independently of the preparatory labours of the
Commission, by which nothing ought to have been pre
judiced. Unfortunately, this duty was not perhaps entirely
fulfiUed. We are assured that the necessary calmness
did not prevail in the assembly. It represented old
Russia with her servile customs, her stationary spirit,
and her prejudices. hostile to liberal ideas ; and in pre
sence of men who had wished to change everything,
who represented in their persons young Russia, actu
ated with very different sentiments, it did not guard
itself sufficiently from a certain irritation of temper,
incompatible with that imperturbability of a judge,
without which justice is but an idle word. It is an
established fact that, the court did not accept all the
consequences of its mandate : it durst not summon the
accused into its presence to give a solemn hearing to
their declarations and means of defence. It was with
held from doing so by fears which are not very credi
table. Being brought before a tribunal composed of
so many functionaries, all of whom were doubtless not
irreproachable, and whose career afforded acts which
might become texts upon which the accused might
make all sorts of comments ; or else, — and this was
the very least that could happen, — being placed upon
an exalted theatre before a numerous court, whose
members belonged partly to persons who were in con
stant communication with the emperor, and where the
slightest word might acquire the greatest notoriety, it
was thought ttiat the leaders of the conspiracy would
seek to avail themselves of this circumstance, not to
exculpate themselves, — for they had sacrificed their

316 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
lives,— but to play out their part to the last, in order
to proclaim their wrongs in public, and to stand forth
as heroes before the country, and before posterity.
The court expected there would be some furious decla
mation which it might be difficult to restrain. More
over, being exasperated against one another, after
mutual denunciations, it was perhaps dangerous to
confront them ab with each other. Such were the
fears of the court. Consequently, it refused to admit
the prisoners into its presence, and it delegated a com
mission, chosen out of its own body, to repair to their
dungeons, question each separately, confront their lan
guage with their depositions and confessions, and
present to the court the result of this new inquiry,
which, like the former, remained, therefore, secret.
Thus, whoever would form a conscientious idea of the
facts of this trial, finds himself without any means of
arriving at it.
As to aUowing the prisoners to have counsel, it was
a question that could not be entertained. We have
already mentioned that in Russia justice does not admit
any oral defence, and that even a written defence
scarcely ever meets any attention in trials at the
criminal court. Doubtless, the custom was not until of
late years very different in England ; but in that coun
try, where legality is deeply rooted, the judge is the
natural defender of the accused, and reports with equal
care the facts which bear against him and those which
are favourable to him. In England, everything is a
guarantee for the man who is overtaken by the arm of
the law ; in Russia, everything depends on the caprice
of sovereign authority, reputed infabible, and which,

THE EXPIATION. 317
whenever it directs a prosecution against a person, is
supposed to be always proceeding on good grounds.
By this manner of conducting it, the trial became
singularly simplified. But what penalties will be ap
plied ? The old Russian laws, generally like those of
Draco, are particularly ruthless in what relates to crimes
against the state. In every act of high treason, lege-
majest6, military rebellion, or taking up arms, both
principals and abettors, real accomplices and the merely
initiated, are alike liable to suffer death — a death ac
companied with a variety of tortures, worthy of the
worst days of the middle ages. These penal enactments
were not abolished, nor have they been even since the
publication of the new code ; accordingly it would be
wrong to consider the Russian penal legislation as
sparing of human blood. It preserves the lives of
brigands and assassins, because the empire possesses
mines to be turned to account, into which the free
workman refuses to descend ; and because there are,
beyond the confines of Europe, immense wildernesses to
be peopled, boundless regions to be cultivated, in cli
mates to which the most magnificent promises would
not entice the simple colonists. It grants such offenders
their lives, but on this awful contingency, that an iron
constitution prevent them from expiring beneath the
fifty or the hundred lashes inflicted with the knout
upon their bare backs.
Though the law does not mention death, it is never
theless frequently given by the knout : we must, there
fore, not laud too highly the pretended sensibility of
Elizabeth Petrovna, who, in abolishing capital punish
ments in ordinary criminal cases, allowed this other

318 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
punishment, which is much more barbarous, and often
followed by the same effect, to subsist. In what relates
to political crimes, the pain of death is expressly main
tained : people may still be torn in quarters in Russia,
even as they may be impaled at Constantinople, and
broken alive on the wheel even in Prussia, an en
lightened country, where the most solid civibzation has
penetrated into every class. Let us hasten to add that
the barbarity of the laws has ever found a counterpoise
in the humanity of princes, and that, in pobtical cases,
commutation of punishment is the more readily prac
tised, as Europe is naturaby on the watch : it is for
none but obscure criminals that the atrocious chastise
ments of the old Muscovite legislation are reserved : for
instance, that of running the gauntlet, where honest
soldiers are transformed into ignoble executioners, and
blood runs no less plentifully than beneath the iron
thongs of the knout.*
We shall presently see the high court proclaiming
this excessive severity of the Russian law to be salutary,
and perhaps it is not altogether unjustifiable. It is a
sad thing to say, but in a country constituted like
Russia, whose population is composed of men with
strong passions and hard-skinned bodies, in whom the
principles of morality are far from having any per
manent foundation ; in a country, moreover, boundless,
difficult to keep an eye upon, and where crime has
greater facilities than elsewhere to escape from public
vengeance, it is perhaps salutary to inculcate in all
men the terror of chastisement, in order that no one
* The sufferer has to walk five or ten times through the open ranks of
a thousand soldiers.

THE EXPIATION. 319
may easily give way to the temptation of despising the
threats of the law. However this may be, upon the first
glance at the legislation in force, the high court per
ceived and declared unanimously, " that the crimes spe
cified in the indictments, and confirmed two several
times by the confessions of the accused themselves, in
curred, without any exception, the penalty of death."*
" In the precise terms of the law," adds the court, in its
report, "this single and unanimous decree terminated
the trial. In such cases, the severity of our penal code
admits of no variation  This salutary ri
gour of our legislation can be tempered only by the
clemency of the sovereign ;f but these modifications
can constitute only a special exception in a known
and determined case, and not the universal rule, which
is immutable, and uniform in its principle and in
its effects."
The emperor considered it in the same light ; the
language of the court was only the echo of his own
sentiments. He stood ready to interpose and com
mute the penalties, for he knew that the whole world
was regarding him narrowly ; besides which, being
really inclined towards clemency, he was loath to
inaugurate his reign by the sanguinary execution of
121 miserable beings; he was unwiUing to receive
the holy unction under the weight of the maledictions
of so many decimated families. On this occasion,
therefore, humanity had reason to rejoice in the
boundless power possessed by the sovereign in Russia;
* See the " Report " addressed to the emperor by the high court of
justice. " Journal de St. Petersbourg," 1826, No. 86.
t Which is not here the right of pardoning.

320 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
but the further progress of this procedure, neverthe
less, presents a very strange spectacle. Nicholas had
caused to be framed " a series of additional rules based
on the general order of juridical procedure," — rules
which were rather substituted for the ancient laws
than added to them. It is by these rules that we
must explain that passage in the " Report" in which the
imperial clemency and right of pardon are mentioned,
without these terms signifying one and the same thing.
To lay down a gradation of penalties by categories,
says this " Report," in terms somewhat more diffuse than
ours, cannot be a deed of the law ; by so doing,
nevertheless, the court conforms to an express mani
festation of the imperial will ; it acts by virtue of an
exception commanded, but confined to this single case.
Indeed, the additional rules prescribed " that the high
court had to determine how far circumstances particular
to each of the accused parties were calculated to ag
gravate or extenuate their participation in the crime
common to ab ; that it should undertake to form
categories corresponding to the different degrees of
culpability ; that it should pronounce penalties pro
portioned to each of these degrees ; and, lastly, that
it should distribute the prisoners among the different
categories, according to the degree of their respective
culpability." On account of the defectiveness of the
laws, the court was, therefore, invested with a discre
tionary power delegated to it by the imperial autho
rity, and which it might exercise without any scruple,
since it emanated from an honourable source, — from
motives of moderation and clemency.
Thus the task of the court consisted of two essential

THE EXPIATION. 321
points : first, to graduate culpability by establishing
a certain number of categories ; and, secondly, to place
in the same each of the persons accused.
To form the categories, a second commission was
appointed by the court from among its members. It
was to take for the basis of its operations, not only
the " Report of the Commission of Inquiry," but also the
vouchers with which it was accompanied, and which
contained substantiated notices on each of the pri
soners. These notices, drawn up according to the
depositions of the witnesses for the prosecution, or
from the interrogatories undergone by the prisoners,
and from the confessions obtained from them, formed
a part of the examination, and we have already seen
that a former commission was considered to have veri
fied its exactness contradictorily with the accused ; this
commission declared it had by these means ascertained
the inquiry had been made with scrupulous exactness.
Now the inspection of these fresh documents led the
new commission to lay down first of all three principal
kinds of crimes : 1st, a regicide plot ; 2ndly, plotting
by means of secret societies aiming at a general re
volt ; 3rdly, a military insurrection. In each kind,
the degrees were marked, according as the person
accused had taken a part in the execution of the plot,
had only adhered to its intentions, or had simply had
knowledge of it without denouncing it. In these
degrees again, note was taken of shades of difference,
such as these : had there been a spontaneous offer to
commit an act of conspiracy, or only an instigation
to do so ? Was the attempt intended against the life
of members of the imperial family, or against their
VOL. II. y

322 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
liberty? Had the person co-operated in establishing
and directing secret societies, or had he only partici
pated actively in their views previously determined \
Had there been any participation in the military in
surrection, with or without bloodshed, with or without
entire knowledge of the secret aim, &c, &c. 1 This
classification being once determined, the categories
were deduced according to the foUowing manner of
reasoning : the prisoner convicted of all three kinds
of crimes, and whose offences, moreover, in each kind
bore the most serious character, was, incontestably, to
occupy the first rank. After him would come those
who, being found guilty of two kinds of crimes, pre
sented themselves under the weight of those charges
with the most serious characters in either, but whose
culpability in the third kind was of an inferior degree,
or even altogether nub. In the manner of acting of
the commission, there was also occasion to admit
aggravating or extenuating circumstances. They found
aggravating circumstances in the fatal consequences
which criminal examples might have occasioned by the
annihilation of mibtary discipbne, or by sanguinary
acts inspired by atrocious ferocity ; and this latter
kind of aggravation appeared to the commission so
decisive that they considered it their duty to make
it the basis of a rubric apart from every category.
The extenuating circumstances which they wished to
take into consideration were symptoms of repentance,
such as the forsaking the secret societies, the desire
the prisoners had shewn of changing their views, and
the disavowal of whatever was horrible in their pro
jects ; individual acts proper to the accused, bkely

THE EXPIATION. 323
to extenuate their transgressions ; the promptitude
and sincerity with which they had given their depo
sitions during the course of the inquiry ; and, lastly,
extreme youth, which accounted for the deplorable
facility with which certain of the accused parties had
aUowed themselves to be enticed into factious asso
ciations. When the commission had caused these different
considerations to be admitted by the court, it laid
down according to them a scale of penalty, composed
of eleven categories, independently of the one which
remained apart on account of the enormity of the
crimes. The court acknowledged and repeated that to
be included in any one of them, even though it were
the last, was to have incurred capital punishment, ac
cording to the rigour of the law ; however, the wib
of the sovereign having declared itself averse to the
strict enforcement of those Draconic laws, it reserved
the penalty of death, and moreover the penalty of
simple death, by decapitation, only for the first cate
gory, so that it was obliged to reduce gradually the
penalty from that degree downwards. Yet, being in
formed of the emperor's incbnations, it seemed to fear
lest he should carry his clemency too far : at all events,
this apprehension is expressed in the following lines of
its report. " Doubtless the law cannot set bounds to
this clemency (this time the court probably means the
right of pardon) which forms the noblest privilege of
supreme authority. The court ventures nevertheless
to observe in this place, that, among the crimes it has
noted, there are some of such an atrocious nature and
so nearly connected with the safety of the state, that
Y 2

324 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
they seem to be interdicted from even the hope of
clemency from the sovereign."
It cannot be denied that equity guided the court in
these decisions, yet one is astonished to see the exorbi
tant importance which it attaches to the fact of a
culprit having been a member of a secret association.
Ought this count of the indictment to have been put
on a level with that of having entered into a regicide
plot, or with that of having taken part in a mibtary
insurrection, especially when this matter was traced
back as far as 1816, a period when those associations,
having become almost an affair of fashion, were in
general inoffensive, and when the emperor, on being
informed of their existence, seemed inclined to tolerate
them ? In the opinion of more independent judges,
perhaps this fact would have been only an accessory
consideration, acquiring importance only from the par
ticular circumstances with which it might have been
accompanied. However this may be, the categories having been
once determined, the next question was the distribu
tion of the prisoners under them. Before laying the
classification before the court, the commission had con
vinced themselves by an experiment, that the distinc
tions made by them were sufficient, and that Gorski
was the only person among the accused to whom they
were not exactly applicable. The court adopted the
classification proposed, confirming it by a special decree
relatively to each of the prisoners ; it included also in
the categories to which they were to belong, Nicholas
Tourgueneff, Prince Chakhofsko'i, and Lieutenant Tse-
brikoff, on whose cases the commission had been un-

THE EXPIATION. 325
decided, the testimony of the facts against them not
being supported by their own avowal ;* and, what will
appear strange, it abstained completely in what related
to Gorski, as being unable to include him in any of the
eleven categories, and yet he was in the very same
position. It merely laid the sobtary case of this ac
cused party before the sovereign, in an extract of the
proces-verbal relating to his person.-f-
The court directed therefore a list containing the
names of the hundred and twenty other prisoners
arranged in twelve classes according to the penalty to
which they were condemned, and with an indication of
the principal characters of their crimes. This cata
logue, laid before the supreme judge, was printed in
every newspaper.^ It may be summed up as follows.
Out of a hundred and twenty- one persons accused,
and brought to judgment, the court condemns : five
individuals, apart from every category, to the pain of
death and to be quartered ; thirty-one individuals, com
posing the 1st category to the pain of death, by de
capitation ; seventeen individuals, forming the 2nd
category, to a political death and to be sent to hard
labour for bfe§ (after laying their heads upon the
* We have before said that M. Tourgueneff had left Russia twenty
months before. He has protested, from abroad, against most of the im
putations laid to his charge.
f He is the same of whom we have spoken in a note. M. Erman
terms him a general ; but he was in the civil service, and had the rank of
councillor of state. We are not aware what judgment was passed on
him ; but we shall see later that he was brought before a special commis
sion ; and M. Erman met with him in Siberia.
% " Journal de St. Petersbourg," 1826, No. 87,
§ Termed in Russian katorjenaia rabota or katorga, a word derived
from Kcirepyov, which among the Greeks on the shores of the Black Sea,

326 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
block) ; two individuals, forming the 3rd category, to
be sent to hard labour for life ; thirty-eight individuals,
of whom the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th categories were
composed, to hard labour for a limited term, and after
wards to perpetual exile in Siberia;* fifteen individuals,
included in the 8th category, to perpetual exile in
Siberia, and to be first deprived of their grade and
nobility (like those of the preceding categories) ; three
individuals, composing the 9th category, to be trans
ported into Siberia (sylka v'Sibir) for life, with pre
vious degradation and deprivation of nobibty ; one
individual, constituting alone the 10th category, to
serve in the ranks as a common soldier, with previous
degradation and deprivation of nobibty, but with the
power of being promoted ; eight individuals, composing
the 11th and last category, to serve as common soldiers
but without being deprived of their nobibty, and with
the same faculty of being promoted.
It would not be unimportant to know by what ma
jority each question was decided ; but this is all that
as also among the authors of the Byzantine collection, signified a ship
with oars. The Russians themselves give the name of kater to the long
boat in every ship. Thus, in Russian as in French, the man condemned
to hard labour, continues to be designated by the denomination of
galerien, or galley-slave, and his punishment by that of galtres, or
galleys. In fact, the latter is now in Russia what the ancients used to
call damnatio ad metalla: it is suffered in the mines of the Ural moun
tains, in those of Nertchinsk, or in some of the metallurgic factories
situated in other parts of the empire.
* In Russian, na pocclenic, for colonization, from c'clo or silo, estab
lishment, habitation. In fact, condemned persons belonging to the
labouring class or to that of agriculturists, are employed in cultivating
new lands ; but it was impossible to assign this kind of work to men
who were unneeiistonied to hard labour and unacquainted with agri
culture.

THE EXPIATION. 327
we can find on that head in the " Report" of the high
court, an important document, the framing of which
is attributed to Speranski : " The resolutions and de
crees, specified above, have been carried either by the
absolute plurality of the votes of the whole court, or
by the relative majority of opinions in favour of one
and the same vote." This explanation is not very
clear; but we conclude from it, that for a declaration to
be valid, it was sufficient that there should be a simple
majority of votes, that is, the half plus one of the
members of the court then present ; and that in cases
of a division only, an absolute majority was required,
that is, the votes of the half plus one of all the
members of the court. Perhaps, also, the relative majo
rity decided the questions relating to the categories,
and gave afterwards a stronger authority to the resolu
tions concerning personal questions by taking them
only with an absolute majority, which is itself barely
deemed sufficient in our countries of liberty to offer a
complete guarantee. Doubtless the additional rules
above-mentioned, would clear up those doubts, if they
had reached the knowledge of the public.
A circumstance worthy of remark is moreover re
corded in the " Report." " The members of the holy
synod," says that document, " summoned to sit in the
high court, at the time of the closing of the process,
have, conformably to the spirit of their ministry and to
ancient precedents,* given their votes in the following
terms : " After having heard, in the high court, the
* An example of this kind was given by the members of the holy
synod in that trial of Mirovitch and his accomplices which we have
mentioned.

328 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
reading of the acts of the process relative to the state
criminals, Pestel, Ryleieff, and their accomplices, who
have framed a regicide plot and the introduction into
Russia of a republican form of government ; after having
seen their offences stated with the utmost clearness, and
corroborated by their own avowals, we acknowledge that
these state criminals deserve capital punishment. Con
sequently, we do not oppose the sentence which wiU
be pronounced against them ; but, considering our sa
cerdotal function, we cannot furnish the said sentence
with our signature."
To acquire the force of judgment, this sentence stiU
needed the Byt po cemou or So be it of the sovereign.
It was not only just in the opinion of everybody, but
also moderate, saving the restriction we have made
above : we have no hesitation in saying, in no country
would the same crimes have been visited with less
penalties. But if, in giving it his approbation, the
monarch declared it to be, moreover, conformable to the
text of existing laws, these terms must not be too
strictly understood, since the additional regulation
formed no part of the legislation in force. But then,
again, in Russia, is not the sovereign the bving law,
and is not his wiU its constant and unexceptionable
source 1
Although acknowledging it to be just, Nicholas did
not admit the judgment given without modifying it.
" Anxiously desiring," says he, in a ukase addressed to
the high court, and dated from Tsarsko-Selo, July 12th,
" to reconcile the text of the laws and the duties of
strict justice with the sentiments of clemency by which
we are actuated, we have resolved to commute the

THE EXPIATION. 329
chastisements and penalties pronounced against the
guilty, by means of the fobowing dispositions."
In copying here these dispositions, we will not crowd
our pages with the long list of the culprits, for fear of
fatiguing the patience of our reader, or of awakening a
deep commiseration in those whose souls are sensitive to
strong emotions. For, most of those unfortunate men had
acted under the influence of extreme levity rather than
with reaUy criminal intentions. The emperor was con
vinced of this himself, and accordingly did not confine
his clemency to the first abeviation he granted to the
fate of most of the sufferers : we are happy to be able
to state that scarcely had two months elapsed since the
judgment, before he extended his clemency to them
once more, on the occasion of his coronation. Other com
mutations were then pronounced, and if they were not
more extensive, it is said that it is to be attributed to the
scandalous scenes which took place whilst these unfor
tunate men were being transported, — scenes for the
most part dictated probably by despair.* At the end
of each class we will place a few proper names ; but
only when they have a special character, or give rise to
particular observations.
1. To the state criminals, placed by the court in the
first category, and condemned to the pain of death, the
emperor granted their lives; he ordered that they
should be sent to hard labour for bfe, after being
degraded and deprived of their title of nobility.
To this class belonged Prince Troubetzkoi, to whom
* It was especially at Jaroslavl that scenes of this kind took place.
We suppress the details for reasons which the reader will properly
appreciate.

330 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the emperor had already promised to grant his life ;
Prince Obolenski, for whom there was no additional
severity of punishment, though the monarch had had
reason to complain of him personally, even before he
had been acquainted with the plot ; Captain Iakoubo
vitch and Prince Chtchepine-Rostofski, both among the
principal actors in the sanguinary affair on the 26 th of
December. After the last commutation, they remained
condemned to twenty years of hard labour, together
with exile for life in Siberia. This was the most severe
penalty after that of the convicts placed apart from
every category ; a dreadful chastisement, however, to
which the pain of death, reserved for the superior degree
of guilt, must have appeared trifling. We shudder at
the thought of what these men must have suffered, ac
customed as they were, for the most part, to all the
comforts of bfe, and to all the enjoyments of the most
refined luxury ; we need to recaU to mind at once, that
at the present day the term of hard labour has expired
for them ab ; they remain in exile ; but a less rigorous
fate allows them to await with resignation that hour of
deliverance which wbl strike for them as well as for aU
miserable creatures.
2. To six other criminals of the first category, con
demned by the court to the pain of death, the emperor
likewise granted their lives, and a still more favourable
commutation of punishment. He ordered that, after
being degraded and deprived of their titles of nobility,
they should be sent to hard labour for twenty years, at
the expiration of which term they should remain in
exile in Siberia. These twenty years were afterwards
reduced to fifteen. The reasons being added to every

THE EXPIATION. 331
name, excepting Prince Volkonski's, we think we ought
to copy the enumeration : " The retired Lieutenant-
Colonel Matthew Mouravieff Apostol, in consideration
of his deep repentance ; the Cobege Assessor Kuchel-
becker, on account of the intercession of the Grand-
Duke Michael, at whom he had aimed ; second Captain
Alexander Bestoujeff, in consideration of his having
presented himself of his own accord before the emperor
to confess his crime ; Captain Nic6tas Mouravieff, in
consideration of the frankness of his confessions ;
Major-General Prince Sergius Volkonski ; retired Cap
tain Jakouschkin, likewise in consideration of his
repentance." 3. Out of the individuals condemned by the court
to lay their heads upon the block, and to hard labour
for life, the emperor made three categories. With re
gard to two of them, he did not commute the punish
ment, but merely suppressed the mock political death,
— a severity occasioned, doubtless, by the violation of
discipline, and the pernicious example given to the
troops by officers in the exercise of their duties. These
persons were Nicholas Bestoujeff, lieutenant-captain in
the navy, and second Captain Michael Bestoujeff. They
shared the fate of the convicts of the first class. As to
most of the others, the autocrat ordered them to be
degraded, deprived of their titles of nobibty, sent to
hard labour for twenty years, and afterwards exiled
into Siberia ; this period was ultimately reduced to
fifteen and to ten years.
4. Those of the third category, condemned by the
court to hard labour for life (but without political
death), were to be degraded, deprived of their titles of

332 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
nobility, sent to hard labour for twenty years, and
afterwards exiled into Siberia ; the twenty years were
reduced to fifteen.
5. The culprits of the fourth category, sentenced to
hard labour for fifteen years, and afterwards exiled
into Siberia, were to be degraded, deprived of their
titles of nobility, and sent to hard labour for twelve
years, after which period they were to remain in exile.
These men had altogether only eight years of hard
labour. 6. In the fifth category, which consisted of persons
condemned to hard labour for ten years, followed by
exile in Siberia, the emperor made again certain dis
tinctions, by maintaining with respect to some the
penalty already pronounced, and reducing it for others,
so that he seemed to fix a different order of culpa
bility. Lieutenant Baron de Rosen, and another in
dividual of this class, were the objects of great severity.
According to the tenor of the decree, the emperor
ordered them to be sent to hard labour for ten years,
and afterwards exiled into Siberia ; whereas a third,
Bodisco, an ensign in the navy, remained condemned
only to public works in a fortress (Bobrouisk) for a
space of time ultimately reduced to five years.
7. Of the criminals in the sixth category, con
demned by the high court to hard labour for six years,
fobowed by exile in Siberia, one, Colonel Alexander
Mouravieff, in consideration of the sincerity of his
repentance, was to be simply transported, without the
number of years being specified, into Siberia, without
being either degraded or deprived of his nobility ; the
other, the nobleman Lublinski, was to be deprived of

THE EXPIATION. 333
nobility, sent to hard labour for five years, afterwards
reduced to three, and then exiled into Siberia.
8. The individuals placed in the seventh category
had been condemned to four years of hard labour, fol
lowed by exile in Siberia ; the emperor reduced the
penalty for some to two years (later to one) of hard
labour, and for others to two years (later to one also)
of hard ' labour in a fortress. With respect to the
latter, exile was suppressed.
9. The penalty of hard labour did not extend so far
as to the individuals in the 8th category : the court
had simply condemned them to be degraded, deprived
of nobbity, and exiled into Siberia for an unlimited
period. This decree was maintained, except for Bo-
disco, No. 1 (the brother of the man in the sixth class,
who was also treated with favour) : the latter was
merely to be inscribed on the books, by way of
punishment, as a common sailor. However, the un
limited period of exUe pronounced against the others
was soon after converted into an exile of twenty years.
10. Degradation, deprivation of nobility, and trans
portation into Siberia, such was the penalty pro
nounced against the three individuals composing the
ninth category of the high court. They were relieved
from transportation, and merely inscribed as common
soldiers in distant garrisons, with the prospect of
promotion, earned by " eminent services."
11. The latter sentence was pronounced upon a
convict forming alone the tenth category of the court :
it was maintained. Like the preceding, this culprit
was transferred to the army of the Caucasus.
12. The same punishment was pronounced by the

334 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
high court for the eleventh category, but without depri
vation of nobibty. This part of the sentence was main
tained, except for Lieutenant Tse'brikoff, with respect
to whom imperial caprice, impossible to exist in this
shape anywhere but in Russia, went so far as to aug
ment the penalty which the tribunal had deemed
sufficient. The question here is doubtless not about a capital
condemnation, or one of those overwhelming sentences
which human justice pronounces only with a shudder,
and under the influence of a feebng, whether true or
false, of an absolute necessity ; but the case was no
less serious on that account, and it characterizes too
distinctly the peculiar situation of things in Russia for
it not to claim our attention for one moment. We
have, moreover, mentioned it already as a deplorable
derogation from that spirit of moderation and clemency
with which this procedure is in its other parts visibly
impressed. Lieutenant Ts6brikoff, placed by the high court in
the eleventh category, ought to have shared the fate of
the convicts of the foregoing class ; like them he was
not to lose his nobibty, and to have the faculty of re
covering rank by his service. The autocrat refused
him these two concessions. " Having become unworthy
of the title of noble," proclaims he on his own autho
rity, " from the serious consequences of the pernicious
example he has given by standing amidst the crowd of
rebels, in sight of his regiment, he shall be deprived of
his nobility and inscribed as a private soldier for the
rest of his bfe." Thus, not only was there no com
mutation for Tsebrikoff, as for most of his companions

THE EXPIATION. 335
in misfortune, but there was in his case a manifest
increase of punishment. Had there been a mistake,
then, in the sentence pronounced upon him by the
court ? For that sentence the monarch substitutes an
other. What then, we naturaUy inquire, becomes of
all those guarantees, so solemnly promised at the open
ing of the trial 1 If the infirmity of our nature be
such that our best resolutions do not hold good against
a caprice, how much ought we not to distrust an un-
bmited power intrusted to the hands of a single man,
even though he be, like Alexander, a fortunate phe
nomenon 1 How much ought we not to approve of
nations when they raise their voices for the attain
ment of a constitutional law to protect them against
the abuse of this power ! What becomes of justice
itself, when he from whom its decisions emanate, is at
the same time judge and client? What shelter has
the prisoner against his anger ? And even in cases of
simple error, where will be the remedy? What
resource is there against the sovereign will? The
question is here one of vital importance to every com
munity : we bebeve it was slighted on this occasion ;
but as to the rest, we wib be just : the imperial
decision was not, at all events, an act dictated by
anger or vengeance ; for, by virtue of the manifesto of
pardon, Tsebrikoff, like Bodisco, Konovnitsyn, and
others, was soon transferred, to the detached army of
the Caucasus, with the ability to acquire promotion.
13. "Lastly," said the judgment,. " as to the crimi
nals of state whose names are not mentioned in the
present ukase, and who, by the enormity of their
crimes, have been left out. of the categories and apart

33G SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
from all comparison with the others, we abandon their
fate to the decision of the high national court, for the
definite decree, which it will pronounce upon them, to
be executed."
We shall presently see who are these criminals
set apart as superlatively guilty, and condemned by
the high court to the pain of death and to be quar
tered ; but even in this particular, one is struck with
the arbitrariness of the decision adopted. The court
had pronounced, and pronounced, moreover, less ac
cording to the text of the laws, than from special
instructions drawn up, for this purpose, by order of
the sovereign. Its part was completely ended : it was
merely waiting for its judgment to be returned to
it, furnished with the imperial signature, to have it
executed. Now the emperor does not admit this judg
ment as definitive : by his own authority, he subjects it
to amendments. The most indispensable of ab the
amendments to be introduced into it, consisted in
sparing the culprits the torments of a barbarous
punishment whilst they underwent their sentence of
death, judged necessary by the court. But, like the
holy synod, the emperor was loath to pronounce
the capital penalty himself, even in a case of commu
tation ; and, as the court required it, notwithstanding
this aversion, he " devolved on it this responsibility."
In consequence of this, the court was obbged to meet
again and modify its decree, although, in its own
opinion, it had been definitive.
Lastly, the ukase of which we have just given an
analysis, concluded with the two fobowing dispositions,
of which we give the tenor : —

THE EXPIATION. 337
" The high court of justice, assembled with the full
complement of its members, is charged to announce to
the culprits the decree which it has given against them,
as also the commutations which we have granted them :
it will afterwards send the whole to those to whom
it belongs to put the judgment into execution.
" The report of the high court, as also the present
decisions by which it has been followed, will receive
entire publicity through the medium of the directing
senate." This ukase is dated, as we have said, the 22nd of
July. On the morrow, the court met once more to
pronounce definitively upon the fate of the individuals
who were not designated therein by name, and whom
the emperor abandoned to its decision. The conclusion
of its decree is as fobows.
" The high court of justice, guided by that clemency
of which his imperial majesty has given so splendid a
testimony, by the commutation of the punishments and
penalties pronounced against the other criminals, and
using the discretionary power with which it is invested,
decrees : that, instead of being quartered, to which
Paul Pestel, Conrad Ryleieff, Sergius Mouravieff-Apostol,
Michael Bestoujeff Rumine, and Peter Kakhofski, were
to be subjected, by virtue of the first decree of the
court, these criminals are condemned to be hanged, as
a punishment for their horrible crimes."
These five unfortunate convicts expected to have
been shot ; moreover, death by the gibbet was unusual
in Russia. It was incontestably merited, and no par
ticular cruelty attended it; but the prejudices of noble
men and officers caused them to consider it as a brand
voi. n. z

338 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of dishonour. Vengeance alone, they said unjustly,
could have suggested the idea of thus adding humilia
tion to the agony of capital punishment.
If it be true, as some persons have stated, that a
few of these men had shewn symptoms of weakness
before the Commission of Inquiry, they nevertheless all
now awaited their death with courage. It was neces
sary that the sentence should be read to them, and, for
this purpose, they were brought out of their dungeons
and escorted to the habitation of the commander of the
fortress, whither the high court with a fub complement
of its members repaired also in procession. No inci
dent interrupted the majestic solemnity of this painful
scene. One day was abowed for final meditation, for that
examination of the conscience so natural to man when
standing on the threshold of eternity. The convicts
were not deprived of rebgious consolation at that awful
moment ; very few among them refused it, and almost
all derived from it fresh strength and fortitude. Ry
leieff, especially, gladly accepted this divine comfort.
This man, who was really the chief of the association
of the North, acknowledged that, according to the exist
ing laws, the sentence, by which he was condemned*
was just ; the ardour of his patriotism had deceived
him, he said, but as patriotism had been the only
motive of his actions, he awaited his death without
fear. " It will be," he continued, " an expiation perhaps
due to society" for which doubtless he had acted, but
without its consent. A few hours more, and that ex
piation would be completed. He then seized a pen to
write to his young wife for the last time. In an affect-

THE EXPIATION. 339
ing letter, he bade her adieu, entreated her earnestly
not to give way to despair, and exhorted her as a
Christian not to murmur either against the decrees of
providence or against the justice of the emperor. He
recommended her to leave St. Petersburg as soon as
possible, and to return to her native province (she was
from Novogorod) ; but first to receive the priest who
had assisted him at the point of death, and who would
impart to her his last words and requests. Ryleieff
reserved for this worthy confessor a token of his grati
tude and affection : he charged his wife to give to that
person one of his gold snuff-boxes. Hardly had he
concluded this letter which was blotted with his tears,
when he received notice to prepare for his departure.
On his part, Pestel, the dictator of the South, was
ready to die ; his firmness was unalterable, and he is
said to have remained to the last convinced of the
wisdom and fitness of the principles set down by him
in his Russian law.
For the last eighty years, St. Petersburg had not
witnessed a capital punishment,* and even throughout
all Russia, the scaffold had been erected but seldom,
and only for extraordinary occasions, ever since the
reign of Elizabeth.
On the 25th of July, workmen were employed, as
early as two o'clock in the morning, to erect a gibbet,
large enough to contain five bodies in a row, on the
* We know of no other than that of Arthemius Petrovitch Volynski,
on the 27th of June, 1740, who had besides his tongue torn out and his
right hand cut off. This barbarous punishment, to which the Empress
Anne subjected one of her ministers, who was probably innocent, filled
her with*irerrible remorse on her death-bed. She imagined she saw the
mutilated body of the unhappy sufferer always standing before her.
z 2

340 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
rampart of the fortress opposite the small decayed
wooden church dedicated to the Trinity, situated on
the banks of the Neva, at the entrance of the quarter
of the town called old St. Petersburg. In this season,
night, in that northern latitude, is, as the reader knows,
only twilight prolonged tbl the dawn of morning,
which is much less backward than in our regions.
Every object therefore was, even at that early hour,
perfectly distinguishable. A faint rolling of drums
and the distant notes of a few trumpets were heard in
several distinct parts of the town, for each regiment of
the garrison was to send a single company to witness
the dismal scene that was to take place at sun-rise.
The hour of execution had been intentionally left in
uncertainty. Accordingly, the city was stib buried in
sleep : a few spectators had arrived one after the other,
but, even at the end of an hour, their number was
hardly sufficient to line the mihtary cordon which
was placed between them and the actors in this
terrible drama. Deep silence prevabed everywhere ;
and when the robing of the drums of all the assembled
detachments was at length heard, the rumbling sound
died away without interrupting the tranquilhty of the
night or awakening a single echo.
About three o'clock, the same drums announced
the arrival of those among the culprits whose bves
had been granted. After being stationed in groups
in front of the rather extensive circle which covered
tho glacis, before the rampart on which the gibbet
was erected, and placed each in face of the corps
to which he belonged, they were obliged to kneel
down, after hearing the reading of their sentence.

THE EXPIATION. 341
Their epaulets, badges, and uniforms were then taken
from them, and a sword was broken above the head
of each as a token of degradation ; after which, being
dressed in common grey capotes, they filed off before
the gibbet, whilst a brasier, kindled close by, consumed
their uniforms, the ensigns of their rank, and their
badges of honour.
Scarcely had they re-entered the fortress, by the
usual door of communication, near which the instru
ment of death had been erected, when the five con
demned criminals made their appearance upon the
rampart. At the distance at which the public were
placed,* it would have been difficult to distinguish
their features ; besides which, they were muffled in
grey capotes, the hoods of which concealed their faces.
They ascended the platform and the benches, placed
in front under the gibbet, one by one, in the order
allotted to them by their sentence : Pestel first, occu
pying the right side, and Kakhofski the left.f The
fatal noose was then passed round their necks, and
no sooner had the executioner stood aside than the
platform fob from under their feet. Pestel and Kak
hofski were strangled immediately, but death refused,
as it were, to reach the three others placed between
them. The spectators then beheld a horrible scene :
the rope, being badly adjusted, slid over the hoods
of those unfortunate men, who fell altogether into
* The author himself was among the spectators ; he is, therefore, fur
nishing the reader with a description taken by an eye-witness on the spot :
accordingly, he can answer for every detail being exact.
t To the spectator, it was the reverse : he had Pestel on the left, and
Kakhofski on the right*

342 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the hole under the scaffold, peb-mell with the trap
door and the benches. Horrible contusions must have
been the consequence ; but as this lamentable accident
caused no alteration in their fate, for the emperor was
absent at Tsarsko-Selo, and nobody ventured to grant
a respite,* they had to suffer the agony of death a
second time. As soon as the platform was replaced,
they were again brought under the gibbet. Although
stunned at first by his fall Ryleieff walked with a firm
step, but could not help uttering this painful exclama
tion : " Must it be said that nothing succeeds with me,
not even death !" According to some witnesses, he
also exclaimed : " Accursed country, where they know
neither how to plot, to judge, nor to hang!"t but
others attribute these words to Sergius Mouravieff-
Apostol, who, like Ryleieff, courageously reascended the
scaffold. Bestoujeff Rumine, doubtless more injured
than the others, had not strength enough to support
himself. It was necessary to carry him under the
gibbet. A second time the fatal noose was placed
round their necks, and this time without slipping.
After a few seconds, a rob of the drums announced that
human justice had been satisfied. Ab was over before
five o'clock. The troops and the other spectators of
this terrible sacrifice silently dispersed. One hour
later ab the apparatus of death had disappeared : the
crowd that continued to assemble all day long on the
* Consequently, the statement is not true that the emperor, on being
consulted as to what was to be done, replied with barbarous brevity : —
"Hang them again !"
-(¦ These two expressions were both more worthy of Ryleieff, than the
poor witticism repeated in the book of a French traveller : — " I did not
expect to be hanged twice.''

THE EXPIATION. 343
glacis, found no longer any vestige of it ; the people
made no display of any kind, but remained perfectly
quiet. On occasions of this kind, nobody ventures,
even among friends, to give utterance to his feelings
without extreme precaution, and in whispers.
Thus perished, in the prime of life, men who, for
the most part, might have done eminent service to
their country. They had ill appreciated its situation,
and had not properly acquainted themselves with its
real wants. To transform Russia into a republic, even '
of a federal form, was a dream impossible to be
reabzed ; and to rely on the people or the army for
such an enterprise, was an evidence of gross ignorance
of the state of manners in that country. Besides,
not to mention that private interest, ambition, and un
governable passion are too often concealed under the
cloak of patriotism, there is one point on which too
much stress cannot be laid, which is, that to serve
our country worthily, to have a right to support its
holy cause, our hands must be pure: murder and
regicide are not means for its service ; on the contrary,
a nation reproves them, and, for the most part, such
as have used them, have been disavowed even by the
leaders at whose instigation they had acted. In a
country where prejudices stib pervade every class,
where the most reasonable attempts at reform — for
instance, the enfranchisement of the serfs and the
morabzation of public functionaries — meet with such
powerful obstacles independent of the sovereign will,
secret societies, supposing the government had tolerated
them, might perhaps have been a benefit, as they have
been in other countries; but it would have been

344 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
necessary both to allow them space to act, and to put
faith in the power of public opinion and in the irre
sistible influence of time. Besides, ought there to
have been recourse to force before all other means had
been tried and pursued with perseverance ? Happy
would it have been for Ryleieff had he remembered
those ideas which he had lately expressed in his re
markable poem of Voinarofski, in which appears a sort
of second-sight revealing to him less his own fate than
that of his friend Alexander Bestoujeff, who was
doomed to a cruel exile, like the friend of Mazeppa,
but fortunately for a less considerable space of time, in
the distant city of Jakoutsk. Ryleieff, investing that
Hetman of the Cossacks with the feebngs of his own
heart, makes him utter the following words : —
" What our dreams shewed us as a decree of heaven,
was not yet resolved on high. Be patient ! Let us
wait a little longer, tib the colossus has fibed up the
measure of our wrongs ; till, by hastening to grow strong,
he has weakened himself, endeavouring to embrace the
half of the universe. Let us abow that proud heart to
display its vanity in the sun. Patience ! the wrath of
heaven will yet crush him to dust. In history, God is
remuneration: he will take care that the seed of sin
shall bear its fruit."*
However, as we have said, the conspirators who ex
piated their crimes by receiving death on the scaffold,
were not those who were the most to be pitied. Was
not the most dreadful exile reserved for all the others ?
Stowed four together in tcleghes or two-wheeled carts,
* Sec, Tor what concerns Ryleieff, Note (21), in Notes and Explana
tions.

THE EXPIATION. 345
without any other seat than bundles of straw, fifty-two
of them were immediately sent on their long and pain
ful journey,* and, in the most humble conveyance,
passed through Novogorod, Tver, Moscow, Vladimir,
Nyni-Novogorod, Kasan, Jekate'rinenburg, and Tobolsk,f
often hooted by the people, against whose indignation
the Cossacks, who escorted them, were even obliged
sometimes to defend them. It was on the 5th of August
that Troubetzkoi's family and that of Sergius Volkonski
took a painful leave of these unfortunate men at the
first stage beyond St. Petersburg, where the emperor
had permitted the interview to take place. Troubetzkoi
was ill ; but he departed at least with the consolatory
certainty of being soon rejoined by his heroic wife, who
was resolved not to forsake him in his misfortune, to share
the ignominy and privations of his exile, and to undergo
all the consequences of her resolution, whatever they
might be. Madame Alexander Mouravieff, Madame
Nice'tas Mouravieff (whose maiden name was Tcherny
cheff), Madame Naryschkin (whose maiden name was
Konovnitsyn),| bkewise understood their duty as faith
ful companions ; and it is well known that Prince
Sergius Volkonski's charming wife (whose maiden name
was Raiefski) deceived her parents, whom she adored,
to perform it likewise. So joyfully did these noble
women sacrifice themselves, that a foreigner, a travelling
companion of one of them, heard this strange threat
* In January, 1827, there still remained in the fortress of St. Peters
burg more than thirty of those who had been condemned to hard labour.
t This last town is more than 750 leagues from St. Petersburg.
X Probably the sister of the person of whom we have before spoken.
Their father, General Konovnitsyn, had been highly esteemed. In 1812,
he was head of the staff of the army of Koutosoff.

346 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
uttered by a mother in speaking to her somewhat petu
lant daughter : " Sophia, if you do not behave well, you
shab not go to Siberia !"*
It is the duty of history to preserve the names of
these voluntary exiles, for examples of self-abnegation
becoming less and less common every day, exalt noble
sentiments in the souls of youth, and guard them from
the cold shafts of selfishness, that almost universal
disease of our age. In order to become inured to ad
versity, these ladies began, a few weeks before their
departure, to accustom their delicate soft hands to the
task of the most humble menials in their opulent
establishments ; laying aside their silks and velvet, they
wore dresses of the most common materials, habituated
their palate to the food of the people, and, in one word,
renounced completely the comforts and luxury to which
they had been accustomed ever since their chbdhood.
" In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," was
* This travelling companion was M. Vaucher, of Geneva, who had
been tutor in the Laval family, and was affectionately attached to all
its members. He offered to accompany the Princess Troubetzkoi on
her joumey, and obtained the permission of the government. It is
said that he went as far as Nertchinsk. Ou his return, the government
did not lose sight of him. It made him depart from Moscow for St.
Petersburg, where General Diebitsch himself wanted to question him.
Others say that he was not allowed to enter the city : when he had
arrived within three versts of the town, he was obliged to stop, and soon
after he reached the frontier, doubtless glad to find it between him and
the distrustful police of that country. But even in Paris, he was not
allowed to remain quiet : the police of Charles X. kept watch over him ;
and he was recommended to be careful of what he said. He departed for
Marseilles, but a description of his person, sent hy telegraph, arrived
there before him ; and, on alighting from the diligence, he received
orders to repair to the residence of the pn let. M. Viuicher felt himself
obliged to hasten his departure once more even from this kingdom ; and
yet France was considered e\en then a free country.

THE EXPIATION. 347
henceforth to be the lot of these virtuous women : they
knew it, but their resolution never relaxed. They
were informed that when once they had passed Irkoutsk
they would be no longer in free possession of their
baggage ; that they would have nobody to wait upon
them ; that, at the utmost, they would be allowed to
engage one or two old convicts, male or female, who
would consent to serve them for wages ; that they could
not return to Europe without the emperor's permission;
and that shame and degradation would ever prevent
their children from quitting the land of exile. They
knew ab this, and yet they remained perfectly re
signed.* Let us, however, hasten to add that we must not
exaggerate the dreadful condition of the convicts.
After ab, they were guilty men punished by the law
of their country which they had trodden under foot.
Their misfortune was certainly great ; but, far from
aggravating it in any particular, the government did,
on the contrary, all that was possible to alleviate it.
After being transported beyond the lake Baikal, they
were cobected together in the vibage of Tchita, on the
Ingoda and on the road between Verkhnii-Oudinsk and
Nertchinsk. In that place there are no mines ; the
climate is rather less rigorous than in other countries
of Siberia;! and the solitude of this immense region,
abandoned, so to speak, by heaven and man, is rather
less absolute in the district of the lake and for a
* We have already spoken of the noble devotedness which was shewn
to the convicts Ivacheff and Bassarghin by two French women, who
likewise followed them into Siberia.
+ The temperature seems inclined to rise in Siberia. Since 1830, the
maximum of cold has not exceeded 28° Reaumur. The maximum of

348 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
certain space about Irkoutsk, especially towards the
confines of China. Moreover, it must have appeared
less burdensome for such an assemblage of companions
in misfortune, nearly all having the resources of educa
tion and intellect. Every one found means to obtain
some slight concession from the kindness of the local
authorities, who connived at more than one contraven
tion ; and books and necessary objects, which they ab
enjoyed in common, were graduaby smuggled into their
community. Tchita became a kind of bttle oasis of
civilization in the middle of an immense desert : this
village had its library composed of books all marked
with a special stamp. The " hard labour " to which
these exceptional convicts were subjected, was rather
nominal than real ; but, that the law might not be
infringed, nor any reason given to convicts of an
inferior condition to reproach justice with having two
weights and measures, a mill, a pretended work-shop,
for grinding corn a second time, had been erected,
where these pobtical convicts were obliged to spend a
few hours of the day.
As to their families, they incurred no kind of re
sponsibility. On the contrary, the emperor, desirous
of saving them from the influence of prejudices and of
performing an act of that enlightened justice whicli
considers that the consequences of a crime ought to
reach only those who have committed it, shewed an
example of benevolence towards them. He caused
assistance and consolation to be given to several among
hcitt in summer has declined ; however, in 1S43, it rose once more to
31° (!' R. in the shade. The fertility of these countries is increasing in
proportion.

THE EXPIATION. 349
them : besides a sum of 50,000 roubles which he gave
to Pestel's father, to assist him in the wretched state
in which his affairs then were, he made him a present
of several years of unpaid rent of an estate belonging
to the crown, situated in the government of Pskoff, and
of which Alexander had granted him the enjoyment
for twelve years ; nay more, he caused Pestel's brother,
a colonel in the chevalier-guards, to be about his own
person, by appointing him his aide-de-camp. We can
well appreciate the magnanimity of this act : it seemed
to say, " although one brother was a conspirator, that is
no reason to distrust the other ; there is no villain so
abandoned but he may have a virtuous brother." To
extend the crime of one individual to a whole family,
would be going back to the middle ages, and dispensing
justice in the manner of barbarians. Nicholas shewed
himself deeply affected by the grief of those incon
solable fambies, and sent especially several different
times to RyleiefFs widow to inquire about her wel
fare and to offer her assistance. The terrible blow
the poor woman had suffered had deranged her mind;
it was only occasionaby that it was possible to speak
with her during her lucid intervals. The monarch
caused an inquiry to be made about ab her necessi
ties ; he promised her that he would take charge of
the future welfare of her children, still quite young,
and, in the meantime, he ordered a sum to be for
warded to her sufficient to save her from want. But
the noble widow, absorbed by her grief, refused these
liberal proposals : " the only favour I ask of the
emperor," she said, " is to have me shot like my
husband " (for she stbl believed that to have been the

350 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
form of his punishment). Nicholas respected her
despair, the affecting result of conjugal fidelity, and
even the imputation of injustice which it seemed to
convey ; he did not, on that account, withdraw his
protection from the unfortunate young woman, hoping
she would remember her children as soon as her
poignant grief for the loss of her husband had some
what subsided.
So this gigantic trial was at length ended, and with
out any new commotion, after keeping all minds in
suspense and rendering them unable to divest them
selves of alarm ; " a process," says the learned and
impartial Lesur,* "wherein one may regret the absence
of those judicial forms which are observed in countries
subject to a constitutional form of government, the
want of counsel, the secrecy of the audiences, debates,
and proceedings ; but wherein we must nevertheless
acknowledge the decent and regular progress of the
proceedings, the judicial precautions, the scrupulous
exactness of the inquiry, the clearness of the proofs
obtained, and the eminent precision of the judgments
pronounced. . . . This deserves to be remarked as a
homage paid by a despotic but enbghtened government,
to the rights of humanity, in a country stib devoid of
the light of civibzation."
All Europe had been attentive to these proceedings ;
accordingly, the Russian government considered itself
bound to lay aside its systematic silence, and to take a
part in the discussions of the periodical press, in order
to furnish a few explanations and to answer malevolent
commentaries. The remarkable article published by
* " Annuairc pour 1820," p. 345.

THE EXPIATION. 351
the Paris newspaper, " La Quotidienne," in its number
of the 18th of August, and copied by the Russian jour
nals, was supposed to have been composed by General
Pozzo di Borgo, the Russian ambassador at Paris.*
But even at that moment all was not yet finished.
The Polish trial, of which we have given an analysis
beforehand, and which, on account of the protecting
forms with which that country, more advanced in civili
zation, surrounds those whom justice pursues, was then
only in preparation, and remained more than a year
longer without ending in a decision, f Even in Russia,
partial prosecutions were continuing, and new arrests
taking place. First, Gorski, the councillor of state}
who had been left out of the eleven categories, was
taken before a special commission. Next, a prior sup
plementary judgment was given in the month of August,
by the department of the auditorial, and promulgated
by the senate of Moscow, against divers accomplices of
Sergius Mouravieff-Apostol, such as Baron Solovieff,
captain of the staff, and his accomplices, to the number
of about fifteen, among whom figure, besides a second
Captain Maiefski, a Prince Meschtcherski, and a Prince
Korybouth-Voronejski. We have said that several sen
tences of death, hard labour, exile in Siberia, &c, were
stib pronounced. No execution took place ; but the
culprits were placed under the gibbet, and afterwards
degraded. In relation to the rebels killed in the skir
mish near Oustinofka, the sentence enacted that, in-
* " Journal de St. Petersbourg," 1826, No. 109. We shall give the
principal passage, — a kind of official apology for Russian justice — in
Note (22) of the Appendix.
t See the "Report" in the "Journal de St. Pe'tershourg," 1837,
No 73.

352 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
stead of crosses or other Christian emblems, gibbets,
with names, should be engraved on their tombs. Another
supplementary judgment, which we have already men
tioned, was given in July, 1827, at which period the
fifth department of the senate had stbl to decide upon
the fate of a certain number of the accused. But as
the charges were not very serious, the penalties were
generaby mild. Compared with the great process of
the hundred and twenty-one, these partial affairs passed
unnoticed ; they did not interrupt the apathy into
which the nation had again subsided, after having
passed, almost without any transition, from the most
terrible emotions to the joy of the most noisy festivals.
Therefore, as early as the 25th of July, 1S26, the
emperor, being firmly seated on his throne, was able to
proclaim that pubbc vengeance had been accomplished.
The feeling of being at length rebeved from an immense
burden revealed itself on that day in a manifesto rather
lengthy, but in many respects remarkable. M. Bloudoff
was said to be the author of this document.
"The criminals," says the manifesto in substance,*
" have received the punishment they had deserved, and
thus has ended a process in which the emperor has
never ceased to behold the cause of ab Russia. A
handful of wretches, aided by auxiliaries, few in num
ber, but persevering in their endeavours, formed a con
spiracy. The country was suffering from a wound,
which was dangerous because it was concealed, but
which has not readied the heart of the nation. It was
a foreign contagion, from which a loyal population has
known how to keep free." " The Russian name,"
* See " Journal de St. Pctersbourg,'* 1820, No 80.

THE EXPIATION. 353
said the monarch, " could never be branded by treason
towards the throne and the state. So far is this from
being the case, that in these same conjunctures we have
received affecting proofs of boundless devotion. We
have seen fathers assume an inflexible severity towards
their criminal chbdren ; we have beheld the nearest
relations deny and deliver to justice the miserable
men suspected of complicity ; lastly, we have seen all
classes of our subjects — actuated by one and the same
thought, the self-same wish — demand only judgment
and chastisement for the guilty."
This conspiracy was suited neither to the character
nor to the manners of the Russian nation. In a coun
try " where love for the sovereign and devotion to the
throne are for the people a want and an hereditary
sentiment ; where the vigour of the administration is
allied to the nationality of the laws," such an attempt
is necessarily sterile and branded with universal repro
bation. It is not by the help of crime that good can
be brought about : " it is from above, and by degrees,
that real improvements are effected, omissions filled up,
and abuses reformed. The emperor never thought of
opposing any reasonable desire for a gradual improve
ment : when communicated in the legal way open to
all, they will be welcomed by him with gratitude ; for
he forms no other wish than that of seeing his country
attain the highest degree of prosperity and glory that
has been designed for it by divine providence." " These
sad events," continues he, " ought to be a lesson to
everybody. May fathers now bestow all their atten
tion on the moral education of their children ! It is
certainly not to the progress of civilization, but to
VOL. II. a A

354 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
vanity, which produces only idleness and a vacuum in
the mind, and to a want of real instruction, that we
must attribute that licentiousness of the intellect, that
impetuosity of the passions, that very confused and
fatal smattering of knowledge, that inclination for
extreme theories and political visions, which begin by
demoralizing and end by destroying. In vain wib the
government generously exert itself, and make every
sacrifice, if domestic education do not back its en
deavours and its views ; — if it do not infuse into every
heart the principles of morality"
In this, as in everything else, the nobibty, "that
bulwark of the throne and of national honour," ought
to serve as a model ; every career is open before it :
justice, arms, the different branches of national admi
nistration, all require zealous and capable agents, and
everything depends on the choice it makes. Ab the
efforts it will employ for improving " indigenous educa
tion devoted to Russia, and given to her children," will
be an object of satisfaction and gratitude to the sove
reign. Moreover, these well-founded and most prudent
observations are not addressed by the czar to the nobi
lity alone : he is the father of all his subjects, and
claims the confidence of every class of citizens.
Lastly, he declares that one final obligation is im
posed upon him. " In the place," says he, " where,
seven months ago, the outbreak of a sudden revolt re
vealed to us unexpectedly the dreadful secret of an
evil that had already existed for ten years, it is neces
sary that one final act of commemoration — an expiatory
sacrifice — should consecrate the memory of the Russian
blood shed in that same place for religion, the sove-

THE EXPIATION. 355
reign, 'and the native land ; it is necessary that so
lemn prayers be offered up to the Lord. We perceived
His almighty hand when it tore away the veil that
concealed this horrible mystery ; and we perceived it
when, in permitting crime to arm itself, it secured its
destruction. Like a momentary storm, the revolt
seems to have burst forth only to annihilate the
conspiracy which had given it birth."
Conformably to this imperial will, the whole garrison
of St. Petersburg was drawn up at seven in the morn
ing of the 26th, on the Isaac plain, forming a vast
square about an altar raised upon a lofty platform, at
the very spot where the impious fight on the 26th of
December had taken place. On a sudden, the people
who had collected in crowds, saw the emperor come
forth from the church of the admiralty, which is the
most central monument of St. Petersburg, in the very
middle of the town. The monarch was led forth by
the old Archbishop, arrayed in his pontifical robes.
They advanced together towards the altar, and, at the
same moment, there appeared a carriage of state con
taining the empress and her brother, Prince Charles of
Prussia. A solemn service immediately began. God
had stretched forth his hand over the country and pre
served it from destruction : thanksgivings were offered
up, and prayers said for the repose of the souls of the
men who had perished in defending the throne and
pubbc tranquilbty ; and the present reign which had
begun under such serious auspices, and been from its
earliest days subjected to such formidable trials, was
recommended to the divine protection. Then descend
ing the steps of the altar, the priests advanced towards
A A 2

356 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the troops and the people ; they sprinkled over them
the lustral water as an emblem of purification, and
watered the ground with it as with a beneficent
shower. At eight o'clock in the morning the thunder of a
hundred and one cannons proclaimed the end of the
ceremony. The expiation was complete, and every
vestige of the crime had disappeared.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 357

CHAPTER VII.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION.

The real capital of Russia is Moscow.
In giving this opinion, we are far from disputing
the importance of St. Petersburg in past times,— an
importance which this magnificent residence, according
to many, still preserves at the present day. On this
latter point we are of a different opinion ; according
to our way of thinking, the present capital has had its
day ; but, in what relates to the past, it would be to
deny all the evidence of history not to allow that the
foundation of the city by Peter the Great had an
immense share in regenerating the empire and working
out those new destinies which the reforming czar had
planned for his country.
At Moscow he felt ill at ease, thwarted in his plans
and shackled in his movements. He was there in
presence of a church very much attached to ancient
traditions, secretly hostile to the ideas of reform im
ported from abroad, servile doubtless towards the
throne, but yet powerful, and possessing too fully the
affection of the people not to make it necessary to
come to terms with it. Moreover, he was there re
strained by a numerous and compact court, composed
of all the eminent persons in the country, and of the

358 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
most wealthy territorial proprietors; though unen
lightened in other respects, bebeving nothing to be
superior to Russia, to her manners, her strength, and
her riches ; jealous of their sovereign's favour, and ib
disposed to share it with foreign adventurers. Lastly,
he had in that city to keep fair even with the
people, trained to the yoke, it is true, but obstinately
attached to their habits, detesting civibzation as a
foreign product, judging of everything in a rebgious
point of view, and beholding a heresy in the least
innovation ; moreover, envenomed by the arrogance of
those foreign guests who were arriving from all
quarters, and fub of sympathy for their natural guides
in the two upper classes, faithful like them to the
national feebng, and, bke them, discontented.
Thus surrounded, perhaps Peter I. would have been
disabled from executing his projects ; being always
before the face of malevolent or morose spectators,
perhaps his courage would have given way, and weari
ness overpowered his energy. On the other hand, the
foreign auxiliaries of whom the czar made use, would
not have had free scope for their powers ; amidst the
numerous population of a secular capital, their smab
colony would have felt too weak, being overawed by an
opposition that was able to reduce them to insignifi
cance. Mutual jealousy would have given rise to
annoying conflicts every day, and disgust would ulti
mately have dispersed these useful auxiliaries, deterred
by idle contention from the end which, with their
assistance, the czar had hoped to obtain.
To this wc must add that under Peter the Great,
Russia was no longer a purely Muscovite empire : after

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 359
the conquests made along the Baltic, the southern
frontiers of Livonia, and even in Finland, it was neces
sary that the common metropolis and the court should
find room for this newly conquered German nobility,
who, being much more advanced in civilization than
the Russian, would not have endured their haughti
ness and ought not to be sacrificed to their exclusive
spirit. It was necessary that these new Russian sub
jects should have churches for their own form of wor
ship, and the clergy of Moscow would not have seen
any built in the " holy city," in the shadow of the
principal sanctuaries of the " orthodox people," with
out raising an outcry of profanation, and groaning
over the affliction of the church, besieged by " the
schisms of Latins," or defiled by a contact with " the
sacrilegious faith of the Lutherans."
Being resolved to let every one enjoy his rights, and
to attract about his person all the powers of civiliza
tion, Peter wanted a neutral ground, where different
elements might meet without contention, and learn to
know and bear with one another, and whence the ex
ample of this tolerance might exercise its influence over
every portion of the empire.
This is not ab. He was determined that this em
pire should become a European state, cost what it
would : it was therefore necessary to form a commu
nication not only by means of a port, which might
serve as a medium, but with the seat of his power,
whence he would have only to extend his arm to take
a share in the business of the world, and to cast the
weight of a great nation into the scale of general in
terests. Foreigners were little disposed to seek the

360 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
road to Moscow through the immense wildernesses
which separate the capital of the czars from the sea ;
it was expedient that they should find Russia as soon
as they entered the mouth of the Neva. There, the)
would form a favourable opinion of her, in a city
created in the likeness of the great cities of Europe ;
there, he would find, instead of Muscovite barbarity,
the reflection of his own manners, and of that civiliza
tion to which he was accustomed ; there, he would
become famibar with the use of an unknown language ;
with people who spoke his own ; and thus every barrier
would be removed between the great famby of the
Christian nations and the last comer among its
members. As the connecting bnk of a vast chain, St. Peters
burg has admirably performed its intended mission.
The junction has long been perfect ; nothing can dis
solve it ; and there is no longer any necessity for the
government to lean ab its power on that side where
Russia has not her real centre of gravity.
M. de Custine is right : " Either Russia wbT not
accomplish what appears to us her destiny, or Moscow
wiU become again one day the capital of the empire ;
for that city alone possesses the principle of Russian
independence and originabty. The root of the tree
is there, and there it is that it must bear its fruits ;
never does a graft acquire the vigour of the seed."*
The translation of the seat of the empire to St.
Petersburg was a necessary but only transitory mea
sure, the object of which is uoav obtained. At the
present day, in the point of view of European policy,
" La Russie en 183!>," t. iii. 273.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 361
it is doubtless no longer that corner of Ingria that
would be chosen, but rather Warsaw, a city nearer the
heart of Europe, closer to Germany and the two great
courts of Vienna and Berlin. Once stationed at War
saw, the Russian government would cast all the weight
of its power upon the West ; it would be omnipotent,
and the independence of most of the states would be
seriously compromised. But, in the position in which
things are at present, for Warsaw to become the impe
rial residence many changes must first take place : it
would be necessary, before everything else, for the
fusion of Poland with Russia to be accomplished, and
for the former to sacrifice to the latter its particular
nationality, for the benefit of that empire of the
Sclavons, of which we have spoken : it would be
necessary for the jealousy and national animosities be
tween the two rivals to have completely subsided — in
other words, it would require a miracle, — one of those
unexpected caprices of fortune which deceive all our
calculations, and give a new aspect to the affairs of the
world. The Russians have sometimes dreamed of another
capital, and perhaps, in certain social regions, this
ibusion is still fondly entertained. From the extreme
north, their imagination has wandered to the extremity
of the south, where, instead of the sombre landscape of
pining nature and a freezing climate, it beheld the
bribiant spectacle of a magnificent site, enlivened by a
sun of unsullied splendour, whose genial warmth dilates
the heart, which, on the contrary, shrinks under the
northern sky. This capital is Constantinople, the key
of the East, and destined to become, some time or

362 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
other, one of the richest marts of the commerce of the
world. Like St. Petersburg, it is in communication
with Europe by the seas, and with the interior of
Russia by great rivers. The mouths of these rivers
are turned in the direction of the Ottoman capital,
which commands the outlet of the Black Sea, as also
the entrance of that Mediterranean where the greatest
interests of civibzation are now concentrated, and
where the quarrels between the first powers of Chris
tendom wib henceforth be settled. But Constantinople,
on becoming the capital of the Muscovite empire,
would not only occasion a new phasis in the affairs of
the world, but become also the cause of a complete
overthrow in the interior condition of that empire.
According to ab probabibty, the North would detach
itself from the South ; new states would be formed ;
and the future prospects of the Sclavonic race would
assume a very different aspect.
As to the rest, let us leave these questions in their
present obscurity, and not give to chimeras an import
ance which they cannot claim.
The true capital of Russia, we repeat, is Moscow : in
a national point of view, no other is seen ; and this
very view is doubtless the one which the czars will
ultimately take.
Undoubtedly, Moscow is not the most ancient of the
Russian cities. Its first foundation does not date ear
lier than the year 1147 ; and it was not till the thir
teenth century, that it became the residence of princes
sprung from the family of Rurik. Daniel Alexandro-
vitch was the first who was buried there (1304) : he
had already assumed the title of grand-prince of Mos-

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 363
cow (1295) ; but the seat of the grand-principality
was not durably established in this town before Joann
Danilovitch, surnamed Kalita, or the Purse (1328-
1340).* Formerly, Vladimir had enjoyed this honour.
Novogorod and Kief are of far more ancient origin ;
for the former of these towns was the cradle of the
empire, and the latter — the residence of St. Vladimir,
the equal of the apostles — was the first to receive the
deposit of the faith already professed by St. Olga. As
early as 1035, we find at Kief an archbishop the head
of the Russian church, under the authority of the
patriarch of Byzantium. The town contains the oldest
sanctuaries of the nation : at the present day there are
only a few ruins to be seen of the church of the
Nativity of the Virgin, surnamed " of the Tithes,"
the most ancient of ab, but the monastery of the Vaults
(Petcherskaia lavra), stib in existence, is not of much
more recent date.f Novogorod the Greater, having
escaped the Mongol invasion, had, for two centuries, a
destiny very different from that of the rest of Russia :
being devoted to commerce, and endowed with muni
cipal institutions, it governed itself as a repubbc,
though for the most part placing its increasing pros
perity under the auspices of a prince of the house of
Rurik. The latter was the only tie that united that
powerful city to the inheritance of the successors of
* The metropolitan see was transferred thither in 1326, by Arch
bishop Peter, who quitted Vladimir on the Kliasma, whither this see
had been transferred from Kief about 1285. Peter is revered by
the Russian Church as one of her greatest saints ; his shrine, in the
Ouspenski cathedral at Moscow, is the object of frequent and fervent
homage. t It was founded about 1055.

364 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Monomachus* and Alexander Nevski, till the day
when the force of arms incorporated it again and for
ever. The two ancient metropobtan towns had, in this
respect, almost the same fate ; for, having been rescued
from the hordes of Tartars by the warbke valour of
the Lithuanians, and soon after transmitted by them
to Poland, Kief found itself equaby isolated from the
mass of the orthodox population, carried into a different
policy, converted to other principles, and even forced
to abjure schism to enter into communion with the
Latin Church, when archbishop Isidorus signed the
canons of the council of Florence, and accepted the
Roman purple in 1438. The union, indeed, lasted
only for a time, and was by no means general ; but
since that period, the ancient residence of St. Vladimir
remained only the capital of Russia-Minor, separated
from the Major, where other manners prevailed, where
the language even was slightly different, and where a
population more accustomed to obedience, more faith
fully attached to the old traditions, more robust in
body, but less advantageously endowed with intellec
tual blessings, and less advanced in civilization, gathered
around the throne of Rurik, doubtless then abased,
but destined to revive with fresh splendour.
The Russia-Major of which we are speaking was
Muscovy, so called from Moscow, its capital. From the
fourteenth century ab the most remarkable events in
the national history are connected with this town,
then become, as we have said, the residence of the
grand-prince and the archbishop, the father of the
v Vladimir 11., called Monomachus, the twelfth grand-duke, died in
I J :!!>.- Triuisl.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 365
faithful. It became the centre of the contest which
soon took place with the Mongols. It was there that
Dimitri Joannovitch displayed his black banner when
he went to prepare, in the fields of Koubkoff (1380),
the deliverance of his native land, and to earn the
glorious surname of Conqueror of the Don (Donskoi).
Olghero, the warlike Grand-Prince of the Lithuanians,
was stopped under the walls of the Kremlin;* the
Khan Toktamysch, with better fortune, entered it, and
laid everything waste with fire and sword. But the
blood of the martyrs was like a baptism for the new
capital ; thus sanctified, it appeared venerable in the
eyes of all; rebgion multiplied there the number of
its miracles, and the glory of the thaumaturgic saints
of Moscow made every heart beat from one extremity
of the country to the other. The picture of the Virgin
of VIadimir,f painted by Saint Luke, is said to have
preserved the city from the fury of Timour; but
Jedighei, his brother in arms, occasioned once more a
dreadful devastation, from which the unfortunate city
had much ado to recover. Nevertheless, the faith of
the people never wavered for an instant. After so
many fires and devastations, preceded moreover by the
plague and divers afflictions, every one rebuilt his
dwebing, and laid, also, his offering on the altar to
repair the havoc committed in the temples, to embel
lish those asylums and increase their number. This
* We have given the etymology of this word (vol. i. p. 9). How
ever, we may here add that in every Turkish dialect, krym, kurum,
kerman, signify a fortress ; in Mongol, kerem means a wall or an enclosure.
Kara-Korum, or the black fortress, was the residence of Tchinghiz
Khan. t We shall speak of her more fully in the course of this chapter.

(JGQ SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
number was soon expressed by the formula of "forty
times forty" (sorok sorokof), which must doubtless not
be taken in a literal meaning.* Moscow enriched herself
with the spoils of Novogorod the Great and with those
of Kasan, the capital of the principal remnant of the
Tribe of Gold, henceforth tributary to the Russians; and
from that moment the chroniclers speak of its opulence
with no less admiration than their predecessors had
shewn for Kief, according to them a second Byzantium.
Under Joann III., the Cathedral of the Assumption in
the Krembn,f in which the miraculous picture of the
Virgin of Vladimir was deposited, received its present
form; almost by its side another was constructed,
dedicated to St. John the Baptist, surmounted with
a lofty toWer, that very Ivan Veliki t. whose brilbant
golden cross is saluted, for several leagues around, by
the pious son of the church, who uncovers and crosses
himself before he begins his daily labour in the fields.
But the mother of the Russian cities was destined to
undergo new trials, and became only the more dear to
the inhabitants. In 1547, a fire, communicating from
street to street by the wood pavement, once more
almost totally consumed it; the stone houses, then
few in number, alone remained; and the flames espe
cially respected the picture of the queen of the angels,
over which, say the chroniclers, they had no power.
• As it has been by Storch, who speaks of 1000 steeples. '' Russland
unter Alexander I.," t. i. p. 91.
f In Russian, Ouspcnski Subor: literally, ouspenie is not assuniptio,
but dormitin.
X Literally, the Great John. It is known that Napoleon had the
cross tnken down, which was supposed to be of solid gold. This was a
mistake, and the French did not carry off their trophy.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 367
Thirty years later the Crimean Tartars, who alone
remained formidable of all the scattered tribes of the
Tribe of Gold, came and burnt Moscow once more;
next, at the commencement of the seventeenth century,
the Kremlin was the theatre of a terrible and pro
longed contest between the true sons of the country
and the foreign invasion — between the orthodox church
and the Latin schism. Moscow was transformed into
a real- field of battle. The humiliation of their reli
gion, a heart-breaking spectacle for a pious people,
nerved the strength of all, and again engendered mira
cles. It was religion, also, that gave the signal of
resistance : the patriarch Hermogenes called the people
to arms, and the laura* of Saint Sergius was covered
with culverins and other cannons. All the efforts of
the Poles were powerless against its walls ; and girded
with the sword of Gideon the Russians ran to assist in
delivering the Kremlin, where, shortly afterwards, the
representatives of the nation, raising the house of
Romanoff to the throne, hailed with unbounded enthu
siasm the accession of a new race of orthodox czars and
the triumph of the national cause.
Such is the tale which the name of Moscow suggests
to every Russian ; such is the history inscribed upon
the walls of the Kremlin, the emblem of the eternal
duration of the empire. What a magic charm for a
capital, and what a title of glory in the eyes of a
people! Is there any tradition of this kind connected
with the handsome foreign city so coquettishly seated
* We have already used several times this word, borrowed from the
Greek \avpa, which means a street or a quarter. None but the greatest
monasteries received this appellation.

368 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
on the banks of the Neva \ No ; religion has owed no
new splendour to St. Petersburg; never did the whole
country take refuge under the ramparts of her citadel :
and, even in our own time, when, after an age of
security, which had never been interrupted since
Charles XII., a foreign invasion once more brought the
torch of war among the Russian cities, was it St.
Petersburg that stopped it? Was the city founded by
Peter the expiatory victim'? Was it thence that arose
from the ashes of an immense brazier a phoenix, the
symbol of imperishable existence % By no means ; it
was Moscow that received the palm of martyrdom and
the laurels of victory.
Undoubtedly, Moscow has always preserved the title
of first capital ;* but a title is not a reality, and it is
to be a real capital that Moscow aspires. Her rights
in this respect are incontestable and above ab rivalry;
they belong to her from the nature of things as web as
from history,
This requires a few explanations.
Moscow is in the centre of the empire, in the midst
of the principal element of its population, the basis of
its nationality. The Moskva, a river that flows at the
foot of the Kremlin, is made, by the Oka, to communi
cate with the Volga. Now, this majestic river, which
passes through a great portion of European Russia, in
its course of nearly a thousand leagues, forms, as is
well known, the junction between the seas of the
north and those of the south, between the Baltic and
the Caspian. A railroad, moreover, is about to connect
Moscow directly with St. Petersburg, that is to say,
* Pcrooprestomi i stolitchnii gorod.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 369
with the Baltic, independently of a magnificent road,
constructed by the army twenty years ago, and which
afforded a great facility of communication. All the
roads of the interior of the country either end or touch
at Moscow.. People pass through this town in going
from the capital of the north to the Crimea or to the
Caucasus; it is the same in travelling towards Kasan
and Siberia, or when they repair to the populous fair
of Nijni-Novogorod, where the east and the west seem
to give each other a rendezvous every year in the
month of July.*
The real power of Russia is there, in the centre.
The government of Moscow is the best peopled of all :
there each square verste is computed to contain forty-
eight inhabitants ; whereas,' in that of St. Petersburg,
the density of the population is only from sixteen to
seventeen souls, in the same space ; in that of Novo
gorod, it is less; than nine; in that of Archangel,f
there is but one inhabitant in three square verstes ;
and at the other end of the empire, in the government
of Astrakhan, each, verste contains but two at the
utmost. The greater number of the governments
grouped about that of Moscow are likewise among
those which are the best peopled : that of Toula
reckons forty-six souls to the square verste, that of
Riaisan nearly thirty-seven, that of Kalouga thirty-six,
that of Vladimir about thirty; that of Smolensk
is reckoned at about twenty-four, and that of Tver
at from twenty-two to twenty-three. A little further,
* Business is done annually at this fair to the amount of 120 or 130
millions of francs. t In Russian, Arkhanghelsk.
VOL. II. B B

370 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Koursk has from forty-two to forty-three, Orel thirty-
six, and Jaroslavl nearly thirty-two. By adding
together the fourteen governments of the centre,
comprised for the most part within ancient Russia-
Major, we find a group of seventeen mibions of souls,
concentrated on a space of about 600,000 square
verstes, or a space equal in extent to France, Belgium,
and the Netherlands taken together, whereas ab Euro
pean Russia, on a superficies of nearly five mibions of
square verstes, that is to say, eight times greater, has
scarcely more than three times this population.
This is not all. This agglomeration of men, more
compact than elsewhere, is also by far the most indus
trious, and, consequently, the richest and the least
ignorant. Of about 7,000 .establishments of factories
and manufactories that Russia possessed in 1842, more
than a thousand, or one seventh, belonged to the go
vernment of Moscow, where nearly 100,000 workmen
were employed out of about 420,000 men devoted to
the industrious arts throughout the empire. Vladimir,
whose rich village, the property of the Counts Chere-
metieff, is well known, shares also this prosperity, con
centrated in the heart of the state ; but Moscow is its
principal source. Manufacture is there rapidly pro
gressing, as a few figures will prove. In 1820 this
town received only 100,000 pouds* of cotton ; but it
received 450,000 in 1842.
Finally, the very aspect of Moscow proclaims it to
be the capital of the empire. At St. Petersburg, when
tho whole town is not shrouded in snow, you might
believe yourself to be in one of the capitals of Western
* The pond is 40 Russian pounds, or about 30lhs. English weight.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 371
Europe ; except the beards and caftans, you perceive
nothing particular, — no different civilization. The
bustle in the streets is such as is seen in every large
town, and the architecture, far from being characteris
tic, reminds you at one time of Rome and Greece, at
another of Holland or modern Italy.* At Moscow,
although the town is bkewise modern in general, a
stamp of nationality is perceptible, both on the per
sons of the population and on the walls of the ancient
buildings. The conflagration of 1812 has given
Moscow a more modern appearance ; but the Kremlin
remains with its peculiar character and strange style,
with its massy, white-washed, and uneven walls, em
battled, and pierced with loop-holes, surmounted with
towers of every style imaginable, Gothic or Byzantine,
and displaying in its interior a whimsical assemblage
of churches, monasteries, and palaces, crowded to
gether in a narrow space. This ensemble, which calls
to mind the intimate union of rebgion and polity, and
of a religion apart— different from that of the West,
which is stiff and formal — appeals strongly to the
imagination. A vast number of domes, mostly covered
with gilded sheet-iron, surmounts this multitude of
churches, and on their summits rise innumerable
crosses, like a forest of spears, the highest of which,
that of Ivan Veliki, seems to be summoning the
whole country to prayer. You imagine yourself to be
in an immense convent.
* M. de Custine, with his usual exaggeration, calls St. Petersburg
"a parody on Greece and Italy, minus marble and sunshine" (t. ii.
p. 336). And yet, adds he, " if they had thought of the climate of the
country, instead of the Greeks and Romans, the Russian architects
should have taken moles and ants for their models." (t. iii. p. 249.)
b b 2

372 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
All this is national ; and what is more, it is grand.
On approaching Moscow by the road from St. Peters
burg, the capital does not display itself to the travel
ler. Without Ivan Veliki, which is perceived in the
distance with its gilded balloon* towering above a vast
group of similar balls, no one would imagine he was in
the vicinity of so large a town ; neither does the nar
row and confined suburb by which you enter prepare
you, by any picturesque effect, for the imposing spec
tacle which shortly unfolds before you. But when, on
arriving from the south by the road from Kalouga, as
our brave countrymen did, after gaining the battle of
Borodino, f you stop on the brow of the hbl, where it
declines towards the bed of the Moskva ; or when,
choosing the most advantageous view, you take your
stand on the Sparrow mountain,;]; above the river, at a
place where a magnificent temple of the Saviour ought
to be raised, in memory of the events of 1812, then
the wonderful panorama displayed before you excites
an involuntary exclamation of astonishment, and the
grandeur of this sight seems to you in keeping with
the glory of Peter the Great and Catherine H.
At your feet meanders the Moskva ; and the angle
it makes before entering the town forms a boundary to
gardens, meadows, and that immense plain, devoted to
popular festivals, whicli owes its name of DeVitche-
Pole (the plain of nuns) to the convent Novo-Devitchei,
* We hardly know how to term these little domes or cupolas, shaped
like an inverted onion or turnip, which surmount the roofs of the churches
here, nr crown the steeples, like that of Ivan Veliki.
t A inline given by the Russians to the battle of the Moskva.
X Varolii i fskii Gory.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 373
situated at its extremity. This peaceful retreat of
women consecrated to religion is more like a citadel
than a place of prayer and meditation. On the out
side of this angle, on your right, rising above the
Moskva, are those charming woody hills, dotted with
country-houses, where the Neskouscha* attracts the
merry-making crowd, and the Hospital Gabtsin opens
its gates to sick paupers. Further, and close to the
wall of the enclosure, is a large monastery, also
with embattled walls : this is the revered sanctuary of
Our Lady of the Gift. That of St. Daniel is on the
bank of the river, which returns back to you after
making, in entering Moscow and in leaving it, another
angle opposite to the former. Then again, on the
other bank, there are also eminences laid out partly
in gardens, and partly covered with religious monu
ments. It is to the heights (kroutitsy) that the first
episcopal see established at Moscow owed its name.
There, not far from the wall of the enclosure, stands
the vast monastery of St. Simon, one of the most
remarkable places in the town, and Novospasskoii
already described, as also Pakrofsko'i and Andronieff,
and other convents or groups of churches with bulbous
cupolas and their pointed spires. These are so many
fortresses, ever ready formerly to repel the attacks of
the infidel Tartars or the schismatic Lithuanians ' and
Liekhs. Other hills are on your left. But what an
enormous mass of houses, some of wood, others of
stone, is displayed before you ; the latter surmounted
with sheet-iron roofs, painted red or green, and the
former overshadowed by them or by tufted trees ; all
* Close by stands the new palace of the Empress Alexandra.

374 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
having wide open spaces between them, filled with
gardens, and commanded, here and there, by some
church of that Muscovite type in which four smaU
bulbous cupolas are grouped about the principal dome,
so scanty yet so ponderous ! Let the reader judge of
the effect of the whole, when he is informed that he
has before him 400 churches, 21 convents, 640 chapels,
besides 12,000 houses, of which 3,500 only are of
stone, the others being made of wood ! Among the
stone edifices there is an abundance of sumptuous
palaces ; they occupy a great space, captivate the eye
at once, and form the striking parts of the picture.
In the middle rises the hib of the Krembn, abrupt on
the side of the river facing the spectator, and shelving
on the opposite side towards the White-Town (Beloi
Gorod), which forms a semicircle round the Kremlin
and the Chinese City (Kital Gorod), an interior quarter
from which, on the east, it is separated by its walls
and a large open space. Ab around this hib wind
the embattled wabs of which we have spoken, with
their whimsical towers belonging to every style imagin
able ; and above the ramparts stand forth, in an order
more apparent than real, clusters of those churches,
convents, and palaces, of no less fantastical and diver
sified forms than those to which we have already
abuded. Beholding this, Europe is forgotten : this
heterogeneous mixture of donjons of the middle ages, of
Moorish minarets and Indian pagodas, hovering like an
aerial city above the town kneeling at its feet, per
plexes the senses and confounds the imagination of the
spectator, dazzled, moreover, by the sparkling rays
with which the reflection of the sun surrounds all

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 375
these richly gilded and brilliantly polished metallic
cupolas. In the 26th bulletin of the grand army, dated Oc
tober, 23rd, 1812, we read the following lines : " The
emperor caused the Kremlin to be undermined ; it was
blown up by the Duke of Treviso on the 23rd, at two
o'clock in the morning. The whole was destroyed ;
that ancient citadel and the first palace of the czars are
no more."
Luckily, it is no such thing. The first palace of the
czars has, it is true, been transformed ; but above the
new constructions still rises the old tirem, an upper
story appropriated to the gynaceum, and reminding the
beholder, by the shape of its roof, of the usual style of
the Russian houses. The diamond-shaped palace
(Granovitdia Palata) is adjacent to it, as it was
formerly ; and at the coronation of Nicholas, the im
perial banquet-table was placed, as in the time of
Joann the Terrible, beneath the heavy ogives in its
spacious hab. Whether standing on the steps of the
palace or descending the red staircase (krassnoie
kryltso), the spectator is ever amid sanctuaries adored
by the nation, the master-pieces of Aleviso and Fiora-
vanti-Aristotele of Bologna. Two portions of the wall
of the enclosure, two smab towns, one steeple, and a
quarter of the arsenal were blown up ;* but all the
other buildings remained uninjured ; the Kremlin has
not changed its appearance ; and, lucky would it have
been if the bubdings undertaken by the present so-
* See the pamphlet by Count Rostoptchin, entitled " La Verite
sur l'Incendie de Moscou," p. 41. The author assures us that the re
pairs cost at most only 500,000 francs (20,000^.).

376 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
vereign had not done more harm than the wrath of
the foreign conqueror to its interior arrangement.
As to the conflagration, it destroyed, according to
the report of the governor-general, three-fourths of the
houses.* Rostoptchin has endeavoured to throw the
responsibility of it upon the French ; but time has
already redressed this accusation ; we have said to
what that catastrophe is to be attributed, which in
a Russian point of view cannot be cabed a misfortune,
and we believe this to be the " truth on the con
flagration." The calamity was particularly disastrous to the
Beloi Gorod, the Zemlianoi Gorod (the earthen city)
and the outward faubourgs : there, an immense fire,
the first heat of which forced Napoleon to retreat with
all speed from the Krembn, to gain the palace of
Petrofski outside the town, left only the most sobd
edifices standing ; about a thousand mansions, a few
hundred churches, and a small number of public
buildings scattered in those quarters, as the Orphan
Asylum, an edifice that covers an immense space of
ground, or like the tower of Soukhareff, the last pro
duct of ancient days, the last link by which the
Emperor Peter I., who caused it to be finished, con
nected the productions of his reign with those of his
predecessors. However, Moscow arose triumphant from this visita-
• Nevertheless, " according to calculations made by a commission, the
damngc occasioned by the fire and warfare, both in the city and in the go
vernment of Moscow, amounted to only 321,000,000 of roubles." — Ros
toptchin, " La Verite sur l'lnccndie de Moscou," p. 34. This docs not
give a \ei v high idea of the immovable effects existing in Russian cities-
The bulletin spoke of " several billions."

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 377
tion ; all the other towns hastened to contribute to
its assistance; and all its wealthy inhabitants were
lavish of their treasures in order to raise it from its
ashes, in greater beauty, regularity, and splendour than
before. Ten years had hardly elapsed before it
was rebuilt; merely a few ruins scattered here and
there, in the most remote quarters, still bore witness
to the terrible catastrophe which destroyed the power
of the dominator of the west. The wooden huts were
only to be seen at the extremities of the town, the
space they had occupied being replaced by brick
houses in the interior parishes ; new palaces were
erected ; the streets assumed more regularity ; and
promenades and magnificent squares left a more
free access to the citadel.
The character of the town has little altered ; for
that character arises from the diversified irregularities
of an undulating ground, and from the manners of the
principal inhabitants, accustomed to an Asiatic pomp,
followed by a train of a legion of servants, and who
would be stifled in their opulent mansions were space
measured out to them too parsimoniously. Moscow is
no longer the great village of former days, though
kitchen-gardens still occupy a great portion of the
ground ; extensive gardens and spacious courts still
separate the houses from each other ; and verdant
trees, which form a strong contrast with the red roofs
which they surround, have not ceased to enliven the
landscape, one of the most picturesque that it is pos
sible to imagine.-'- Still irregular, even in its new ar
rangement, this city does not possess the monotonous
beauty of its rival ; in beu of the cold symmetry of the

378 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
latter, and its endless straight rows of houses, it presents
the capricious variety of its undulating ground, which
affords at every step some new surprise to the tra
veller, and it unites moreover to the charms of nature,
whose freedom it respects, the interest of historical
monuments, so dear to patriotism and rebgion.
Such is Moscow, the motJier of the Russian cities,
the ancient seat — and the future seat we must hope —
of a power that sways the destiny of more than half
Europe. About the beginning of August, 1826, its streets
assumed a singularly animated appearance, although its
population, in disproportion to the vast extent of the
city, was, even then less than 250,000 souls.* But the
works in preparation for the festivals, the temporary
buildings erected in every quarter, especiaby about the
Krembn, the scaffolding with which the ground and
even the wabs were covered ; in one word, the need of a
greater number of working men, had made it necessary
to send for a multitude of labourers, and the peasants of
the adjacent governments, attracted by the prospect of
abundant wages or some considerable benefit attached to
extraordinary exertion, and enticed bkewise by curiosity
and their taste for rebgious ceremonies, crowded thi
ther of their own accord. Moreover, the nobility and
landed proprietors were leaving their estates to return
to town, fobowed by their usual train of equipages,
horses, and servants. Then- extravagance in the last-
mentioned particular is well known. Certain great
lords maintain in their castles from three to four
* It iiow exceeds 350,000 souls ; and the population of St. Petersburg
amounts to more than -170,000.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 379
hundred of their serfs ; and more than fifty are some
times attached to their personal service. They take a
great number with them on their journeys, and when
they go to pass the winter season in the towns, they
thus add a third or a quarter to the usual population.
At Moscow, these fluctuations are renewed every year ;
but in the summer season, the mansions of the rich,
till then crowded, are generally abandoned ; and the
streets are empty, excepting during the hours when the
numerous factory workmen are discharged from their
labour. At the time of which we are speaking, these abler
bodied men, whose rude unceremonious manners form
a contrast with the humble behaviour of their country
men in the northern capital, added their boisterous
numbers to the crowds which thronged the country
around. St. Petersburg also sent there a choice portion of its
inhabitants : on the road between the two capitals,
eight hundred horses of iamtchiks* at every stage,
were barely sufficient for the service of the travellers.
All the great families caused themselves to be repre
sented at Moscow by some of their members ; travel
lers and tourists were arriving from every quarter of
Europe, and the diplomatic corps, augmented by em
bassies extraordinary, which abounded with eminent
personages, formed alone, with the servants whom each
person brought with him, a smab army, thirsting, not
for combat, but for intrigues, fine sights, and amuse
ments. As soon as they arrived, the representatives of
* Men who let out carriages and horses, and form a particular corpo
ration.

380 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
France and England vied with each other in luxury
and elegance ; and, being unable to imitate their exam
ple, the envoys of the other courts helped at least to
increase the brilliancy of the festivals and the pomp of
the processions by their personal splendour and the
outward show of their sumptuous liveries.
Every state, great and smab, had put itself to extra
ordinary expense : the pope himself, then still on
friendly terms with Russia, was represented by a nun
cio.* Turkey and Persia alone had not sent any ambassa
dors : peace was not yet concluded with the former,
and the latter had been meditating ever since the ac
cession of Nicholas, an aggression which she soon
expiated by the loss of several provinces and by a
heavy contribution for the expense of the war which
the conqueror imposed on her treasury. The news of
the first hostilities and the advantages gained by sur
prise at the extreme frontier, arrived at Moscow at the
very time when all was in preparation for the festivals ;
it caused a momentary astonishment, but made no
alteration in the arrangements, and was soon forgotten.
However, in the absence of the two principal powers
of the East, Asia was not without representatives at
Moscow. Besides Taimouray, the Tsarevitch of Grousia,
Prince Tariel, Dadian of Mingreba, Prince Matchou-
tadz£, the minister of Gouriel Mamia, the same who a
few years later became the favourite of his master's
widow, and advised her to embrace the cause of the
Turks against Russia — these Christian representatives
* This nuncio was Hei net ti, soon after made a cardinal. The Car
dinal of Littn was likewise present.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 381
of the old Georgian nation of the Caucasus had sent
a crowd of its warlike sons, for the most part fol
lowers of islamism. The Chamkhal, the semi-sove
reign Prince, of Tarkou,* had commissioned his son,
Haider-Bek, to compliment the great Muscovite empe
ror in his name ; another petty sovereign, Achmet
Khan, of Mekhtoulin, in Daghestan, had come in per
son, accompanied by the son of the first Kadi of Ak-
kouchin, a territory in the same province. The
Khanats of Chirvan and Cheki, on the extreme frontier
of Persia, had also appointed deputies, as also had the
greater and the lesser Cabardah, situated on this side
of the mountains towards the north. From this coun
try of the Tcherkesses, then quiet, but destined soon
to become the scene of the heroic efforts of Chamyl,
(or Shamyl) the Abd-el-Kader of the Caucasus, had
come several ouzdens or noble warriors whose fine ap
pearance, martial mien, picturesque costume, and richly
jeweUed arms, which they wore ostentatiously in their
girdle or hanging by their side, were the subject of ad
miration. Among these mountaineers, a Prince Beko-
vitch TcherkasskoV, of the Lesser Kabardahre, called to
mind, by his name, an ibustrious Muscovite family,
* The Chamkhal of Tarkou or Tarki, in Daghestan, has long been
connected with the history of Russia, first as a dangerous enemy, and
afterwards as a useful ally. Nevertheless the newspapers of the capital
were, even in 1826, utterly ignorant respecting him. On the occasion of
his son being present at the coronation, the " Journal de St. Petersbourg"
(No. 104), speaks of the Schakhmal of Tarkhousk, and the " German
Gazette" (No. 70), still more faithful to the Russian original, terms this
prince the Schachmala-Targowsku. Yet chamkhal and chefkhal are titles
very anciently known. The present chamkhal is Souleiman-Khan, privy-
councillor of Russia, with which title he was invested as prince on the
1st of July, 1833.

382 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
originally from the same province. Several held the
rank of officers in the imperial army ; a few even
adorned themselves with the grand ribands of the
orders of Russia ; but among them there were also
some who dressed in skins of animals, wearing hairy
caps, and — armed to the teeth — looked bke real savages.
The same may be said of a few Baschkir deputies.
These costumes, either fantastical or agreeable to
the eye, but fub of originabty, with the high fur-
caps of the Boukhars, the turbans and wide Turkish
dresses of the Moldavians and Valakians, the strictly
plain garments of the Armenians, and the more pic
turesque and elegant ones of the Georgians and Per
sians, added considerably to the interest of the spec
tacle which the streets of the ancient capital then
presented, and occasioned, of course, extreme diversity.
But among the guests who had come from the frontiers
of Asia, there were yet two others who deserved to
attract the attention of the beholder. They were
Khans or sultans of Kirghises-Ka'issaks. This tribe,
whose Turkish blood is mingled with the Mongol,
occupy the immense steppes around the Caspian sea
and that of Aral : bving a wandering life, they obey
their own chiefs, and acknowledge, — nominaby, at the
utmost, — the supremacy of Russia or that of China.
It is divided into two sections, the Kirghises of the
East and those the West ; the former have no con
nexion with Europe, but the others, being divided into
three hordes or ordes, are beginning to form with her
relations of commerce, friendship, and even of sub
jection. The one of their princes present at Moscow was

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. . 383
Sartai Tchinghissoff, a sultan of the middle horde,
settled between the Upper-Irtysch and the sea of Aral.
He was a true child of Asia, a stranger to European
manners, being ignorant of history and doubtless in
wardly full of disdain for our pretended superiority ;
perhaps the blood of Tchinghiz-Khan still flowed in
his veins. He wore an oriental costume, half Turkish
and half Mongol ; and his turban ending in a conical
point, like those of the people of Morocco, recalled to
mind the head-dress of the kings of the East in our
oldest paintings.
The other Kirghis prince, likewise dressed in the
oriental style, was Djanghir Boukeieff or the son
of Boukei'. Being the chief of that portion of the
smab horde settled on the territory of Russia, in the
government of Astrakhan at the east of the Volga,
he acknowledged himself the vassal of that power.
Compared with his coUeague of the steppe, Djanghir
might be considered as a civilized person. He was
mostly seen accompanied by his wife, the sultana,
veiled from head to foot, yet proving by her single
presence that the seclusion of the harem had lost the
obbgatory character of ancient custom. She was pre
sent, moreover, at every festival, whether at the court
or in public. The son of Boukei, on his part, had
long quitted the kibitka* the singular dwelling of his
fathers, as also of all the Kirghise-Kaissak people, to live
in the European manner in solid and commodious
mansions, where he displayed a magnificent hospitality.
His table, on those occasions, was sumptuous, and
served with every delicacy ; and goblets were filled
* A waggon covered over with a tent of felt, like those of the Kalmucks.

384 . SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
with the best wines of France. But he himself, faith
ful to the precepts of the Koran, drank only koumiss,
the usual beverage made of mare's milk fermented.
The emperor had bestowed upon him the grade of
major-general and the riband of one of his orders.
His sons received, like the sons of Chamyl, the Murid,
a superior education in the establishment for pages at
St. Petersburg. In his own person, the Khan Djan
ghir* had the manners of a web-bred man : he was
polite, engaging, and most attentive to his guests.
Accordingly, he was treated with distinction, and
styled Vache stepenstvo or VacM Vysokostepenstro,
" Your Lordship of the Steppe." This steppe was, in
fact, his usual residence, and he commanded there
about 16,000 kibitkas, to which belonged more than
100,000 persons, 500,000 horses, 100,000 camels, and
about 1,000,000 of animals of the sheep species.
Thus, even the sons of the steppe are becoming
transformed, and consenting to adopt some of the
manners and customs of Europe. Our civilization is
extending to Asia ; nevertheless, she stib preserves her
own particular character ; and, on beholding several
of the men whose portraits we are sketching, you
would imagine yourself transported into a new world,
known only by the wonderful accounts of travebers.
* The election of these khans takes place at Orenburg under the
auspices of the Russian government. Bmikci had been elected in 1SI2,
and Djanghir, in 1823. The latter died on the 23rd of August, lS4/>,
and was succeeded hy his eldest son, Sahcb-Ghirni. The son was ex
pected to return from St. Petersburg, and a grand festival was in pre
paration for tho occasion in the encampment of the horde on the Tor-
goun ; all the people wen- invited ; races with horses and camels were to
take place with other amusements, when the news of the khan's death
was spread abroad and put an end to all these preparations.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 385
But in Moscow, the city of contrasts, their appear
ance, perhaps, was less striking than it would have
been in any other place : so far from seeming out of
character, these biblical types seemed, on the contrary,
in harmony with some of those monuments which had
stood for ages in a transformed and renovated city,
particularly with that extremely original church of
Vassili Blagennoi* which terminates the magnificent
Red Market (Krassnaia Ploschtchad) on the south, at
a few steps only from the Saviour's Gate, that principal
entrance to the Kremlin, where nobody passes without
uncovering his head. Next to the Kremlin itself,
Vassib Blagennoi is the most wonderful monument in
Moscow ; like the former, it is one of the last wit
nesses of another period and of a different civilization.
Every part of this masterpiece of the fantastic style is
new and unexpected ; it is truly, what it has been called
— a colossal crystallization. The bulk of the edifice,
which is heavy, low, and devoid of symmetry, and
everything that can be called a facade, is surmounted
with sixteen towers or cupolas, variegated with a
thousand colours, and overloaded with eccentric orna
ments, which remind one of the Chinese imitations
on Saxon porcelain. Above this multitude of domes,
some bulbous in the Russian fashion, others pointed
and of a Gothic appearance, but no two of them alike*
rises a pyramidal spire, which, offering the same variety
of colours and sculptural ornaments, ends in a small
dome of the same character. At the sight of this
strange production of a fanciful and wild imagination,
* Dedicated to the protection or intercession of the Virgin, and, for
this reason, termed in Russian, Pukrofski Subor.
VOL. II. C C

386 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the spectator finds himself disconcerted, and naturaby
turns about to see whether the whole scene has not
changed its aspect : everything is found to be perma
nent, however, and there is nothing about you to
harmonize with this sudden revelation of an art in
which every style is confounded, and which, by
an incredible abuse of colours and mouldings, has
only struck you with astonishment, without reaching
the sublime or producing any grand effect.
Besides, though this picture is unquestionably beau
tiful, there is in reabty a medley in every part : the
stiff lines of the embattled walls of the Kremlin, toge
ther with its menacing turrets, have no architectural
connexion with the immense Gastinoi-Dvor or bazaar
which forms the opposite side ; and the Grecian style of
the bronze statues of the Minine and Pojarski monu
ments form -a contrast with the shapeless mass of stone
called Lobnoie' Mesto,* which is often mentioned in
the history of Russia, and was at once a kind of forum
and a place of execution.
But to return to the bustle, becoming daily more
considerable, occasioned by the approaching festivities,
in the streets of Moscow ; — we may web imagine that
the army had bkewise a full share of it. A numerous
detachment of the guard, to which most of the regi
ments had furnished their contingent, had arrived
from St. Petersburg ; to the 5th corps of infantry,
long quartered in that government, had been added
several divisions of grenadiers and one of hulans. The
whole of these forces could not be estimated at less than
* Chief place or capitol.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 387
50,000 men, 24,000 of whom occupied a camp in the
vicinity of the palace Petrofski.
It was at this palace, a large brick rotunda, sur
rounded by walls, surmounted with towers and Gothic
donjons, that the emperor had at first alighted. The
road from St. Petersburg passes in front of the edifice,
which is only three verstes from Moscow. A few days
were passed in reviews and evolutions ; but, on the 6 th
of August (July 25th), the solemn entrance took place.
The troops formed a double line from Petrofski to the
Kremlin, and the procession was prolonged to an im
mense extent. Nicholas was on horseback, accompa
nied by the Grand-Duke Michael and Prince Charles
of Prussia ; the empress followed him in a state-car
riage, having by her side the youthful heir to the
throne. The sound of the bells was mingled with the
roar of the cannon, but the voices of the people, louder
than either, drowned them with their continual hourras,
The resolute air of the monarch, his regular features,
majestic deportment, and the activity of his move
ments overawed the crowd. In their estimation he
appeared the true elect of God coming to receive the
sacred oil upon his brow : he seemed like David
ascending to Sion. They welcomed him with trans
ports of joy, and turned their eyes from him only to con
template his young and handsome, though still sickly
consort, a devotion which, together with the affec
tionate solicitude testified towards her by her husband,
added to the interest which her presence inspired.
Nature had lavished her gifts upon that imperial
couple. It was not the style of beauty of Alexander
and Elizabeth, that affecting expression of gentleness
cc 2

388 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of character, and the most exquisite sensibility ; that
of Nicholas and Alexandra, on the one hand, more
regular and faultless, was, on the other, more firm and
commanding ; it was rather dazzbng than charming.
The emperor and the empress reminded one of nearly
the same type of physiognomy, rather Germanic than
Russian : excepting the shade of difference natural be
tween two sexes of which one represents especiaby
strength, and the other especially grace, there was a
singular exterior uniformity in their persons. As we
have said, at that period the correct and noble features
of the czar, animated by that sense of superiority
which proceeds from the right of command, stib re
quired to dilate and become softened by an habitual
commerce with mankind, and his body had not yet that
fulness which it afterwards assumed. Alexandra, on
her side, was tall, web made, graceful, and, at the
same time, commanding. She had fine and debcate
features ; her form was rather elegant than rich ; she
did not possess that style of beauty which the people
in Russia prize above everything else, — a high colour,*
and a firmness of flesh, together with a certain plump
ness ; but the rather cool and haughty expression of
her physiognomy, the dignity of her deportment, and
her slightest action, proclaimed her to be born for a
throne. Some persons have imagined they perceived a
degree of timidity in her occasionally scrutinizing and
sometimes undecided look ; but more skilful observers!
have considered this as nothing more than the expres
sion of that reserve which is constantly circumspect, and
* In Russian, krassno, red, is synonimous with beautiful, prikassno.
Iu iissuuia ploschtchad means either a red or a beautiful square.
t Fur instance, Prince Koz.lofski.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 389
needs also to observe others, a disposition very natural
in the sphere in which the princess is placed. Charlotte
of Prussia shewed this kind of reserve even in her
childhood, even as she gave promise, at that early age,
of a superior mind and the love of command. When
she was only ten years of age, her mother, Queen
Louisa, wrote to her father, the Duke of Mecklenburg-
Strelitz, the fobowing lines respecting her : —
" Our daughter Charlotte gives me greater satisfac
tion every day : although she is rather reserved than
communicative, she conceals, like her father, under a
cool outward behaviour, a warm heart which can sym
pathize with every kind of affliction. She abounds
with love and sensibility ; yet her manner would seem
to shew indifference. Hence proceeds that statebness
which is so remarkable in her behaviour.* If God
should preserve her life, I have a presentiment that a
brilliant destiny awaits her."
This prognostic of a clear-sighted mother was no
chimera : it has been confirmed by time, in the moral
point of view, as well as in what relates to her outward
position. The imperial couple, welcomed with continual shouts
of joyous enthusiasm, thus advanced through the wind
ing and uneven streets of Arbate, a quarter terminated
on either hand by broad boulevards. The houses were
hung with cloth of velvet, and ab the windows were
thronged with spectators. After passing the boulevard
of Tver, a very agreeable promenade, frequented by
* Scheinbar gleichgiiltig geht sie einher, hat aber viele Liebe und
Theilnahme. Daher kommt es dass sie etwas Vornehmes in ihrem Wesen
hat.

390 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
people of fashion, the procession entered the quarter
called Tverskaia, and soon after, issuing out of a street
of the same name, it passed before the walls of the
Kremlin, the foot of which is adorned on that side
with gardens, laid out with art, and affording a cool
shade, very agreeable in a season when the thermome
ter shewed more than 25° R. for whole weeks together *
The Red-Market, which was thronged with a dense
crowd, and where every roof around was loaded with
spectators, presented a magnificent spectacle. They
had now passed the chapel of the miraculous virgin of
Iveria, adjacent to the gates of Vosskrecensk, and were
in front of Vassib Blagennoi, that incredible produc
tion of an architecture at once learned and barbarous.
Then, turning to the right, they passed under the
arches of the Saviour's gate, surmounted with his holy
image before which everybody uncovers. The emperor
gave the example of this pious practice. On arriving
at the Kremlin, he had the most picturesque tableait
before him. On his right was the elegant monastery of
Voznecensk, an asylum for pious women weary of the
tumult of the world ; next, the ancient palace Nicholas,
the projecting wing of which conceals the convent of
Tchoudoff, or the Miracles ; beyond, was the gigantic
Ivan Veliki towering above the whole ; then, still
further, were domes of different cathedrals, and the new
palace, the residence of the emperors. On the left, at
the foot of the ramparts, was the whole of the southern
part of the town, as far as the hills by which it is
* The heat was extreme for nearly a month ; however, during the
night of the 19th of August, a slight frost was perceptible. The weather,
whieh had been beautiful till the day of the coronation, changed soon
after ; and rain soon brought on the frost.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 391
bounded, — a vast mass of houses with red or green
roofs, separated from one another by gardens ; above
which appeared a vast number of steeples and domes
of the most fantastic forms. After a few steps across
this beautiful esplanade, the effect of which would be
unrivabed, if the river, better imbanked, had a more
pure and abundant stream, they at length reached the
porch of the Cathedral of the Assumption (Ouspenski
Sabor), where the clergy were awaiting the arrival
of the august visitors. The emperor and the empress
then alighted ; and, after having kissed the cross, pre
sented to them by the archbishop, they entered the
temple, bowed before the images of Christ and the
Virgin of Vladimir, and remained buried for a short
time in silent prayer. Deputations of the nobility and
citizens came, according to ancient custom, and offered
them bread and salt on magnificent silver trays, as an
emblem of hospitality. It was late when they retired
to the palace, where they were to take up their tempo
rary abode.
The coronation, postponed from one week to another
for all sorts of reasons, was ultimately fixed to take
place on Sunday the 3rd of September, which was the
22nd of August, according to the Russian calendar.
It could not have taken place on the preceding Sunday,
as that day was devoted to the festival of the Assump
tion,* which was celebrated with much pomp in the
cathedral, dedicated to it ; and the two previous weeks
had been a season of fasting, with which public festi
vities would be incompatible.
The Russians have four periods of fasting in the
* Ouspinie Bngoroditsy.

392 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
year. The longest is that before Easter, commemora
tive of the Passion ; it lasts seven weeks, and admits
the use of but few species of nourishment. That of
Christmas continues for forty days, beginning on the
15th of November (old style). The fast in June, the
second in point of date, lasts also for several weeks.
That of August is the shortest; it begins on the 1st of
that month, a day on which that consecration of the
waters is renewed, which is celebrated with so much
pomp at the Epiphany (the 6 th of January), and
which for this reason is called the feast of the Jordan.
Let us say a few words, in passing, about this festi
val, celebrated in commemoration of the baptism of
Jesus Christ. The solemnities of religious worship
occupy so great a portion of the bves of the Russians,
who are generally devout, that it is impossible to pass
them by in silence in a faithful account of their man
ners and civilization. They compensate the people for
the privations they endure, make them forget for a
moment the hardships of life, and contribute to enter
tain in them that imperturbable gaiety, the offspring of
recklessness and courage, which characterizes the Rus
sian moajik, who is so remarkable, likewise, for the
divers faculties with which nature has richly endowed
him. At St. Petersburg the consecration of the waters
takes place on the Neva, in presence of the emperor,
the whole court, the guard, and the clergy of the
various parishes. A large opening is made in the ice
on the river, under a pavilion magnificently decorated.
At the moment the archbishop plunges into the waves
tho " vivifying cross," a flourish of trumpets is heard,
answered by the roar of artillery. Tho pontiff then

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 393
dips into this consecrated water the end of a branch of
sweet basil with which he makes the sign of the cross
on the foreheads of the principal persons present. On
the 1st of August a similar pavilion was constructed
at Moscow on the bank of the Moskva. About nine
o'clock the procession of the cross, consisting of more
than four hundred prelates, priests, chief deacons, and
deacons, issued forth from the convent of miracles and
walked towards the river, escorting all the royal family.
This procession took almost the same road as that on
Palm Sunday, by which, formerly, they represented, in
ancient Muscovy, the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Many a traveller has given us an account of this
triumphal march of the church. The Saviour was
there represented by the patriarch, who, cross in hand,
was seated on a mare, whose bridle was held by the
czar himself, supported by his principal ministers. The
procession used to go from the Kremlin to the church
of Vassib-Blagennoi, and then to the Lobnoid-Mesto,
situated in the same place.* But this relates to the
past; let us return to the period now under our
consideration. The procession of the Jordan turned
round the church and descended towards the river,
where the consecration of the waters was made with
much pomp and in presence of the whole population.
After the ceremony the faithful rushed in crowds
towards the pavilion, and to draw some of this conse
crated water in small vessels for the use of their
domestic worship.
* For what relates to the procession, the reader may consult, among
other works, Adelung's " Meyerberg und seine Reise nach Russland,"
p. 200, et seq. This scholar, so worthy of regret, has left some very
curious works in MS.

394 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
The other festival, that of the 15th, or rather of the
27th, according to our Gregorian style, put an end to
the fast, a period of devotion, interrupted this time by
the noise of the preparations making on every side,
and by the bustle inseparable from so numerous a
gathering of people. An unexpected event which
diffused great joy in the imperial abode, electrified the
population on that day from one end of the town to
the other.
The festival of the patron-saint was just beginning;
and the people were crowding about the guard drawn
up on parade before the palace. Suddenly they saw
the emperor appear at the entrance, having on his left
the Grand-Duke Michael, and on his right the Grand-
Duke Constantine. The three brothers were clasping
each other by the hand, and their countenances were
beaming with joy. Immediately the crowd was trans
ported with incredible enthusiasm ; their felt caps were
flung into the air, a thunder of applause burst forth,
and the whole citadel resounded with prolonged shouts
of Hourra the Emperor ! Hourra Constantine ! But
soon the latter cry alone was heard, and the emperor s
look of complacency shewed that he understood and
approved the general acclamation. But the earnest
and open expression of his joy contrasted with the em
barrassed countenance of the cassaro vitch, astonished at
this outburst of popular enthusiasm, and attempting in
vain to attribute it to the emperor. He knitted his
long bushy white e}rebrows, and his small piercing blue
eyes assumed for a moment a savage expression, which,
however, soon gave way to a dignified and modest
calmness, a sign of his inward satisfaction. The

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 395
applause was repeated with twofold energy, and lasted
till the voice of the czar, commanding the troops,
imposed silence on the multitude.
Constantine had arrived from Warsaw the day
before. Believing the coronation to be fixed for the
15th, he had made his arrangements so as to be at
Moscow on the 14th, but without giving notice to any
body, wishing to afford his brother an agreeable surprise.
Indeed, he was by no means expected, when he pre
sented himself at the palace. Since the death of Alex
ander, and the generous contention of which that death
had been the occasion, the two brothers had not met.
An aide-de-camp hastened to announce Constantine to
the emperor. At the words " The Grand-Duke ! " the
latter, being still occupied in dressing, thought it was
his brother Michael, and was sending word to excuse
himself for a moment. But the aide-de-camp hesi
tated, and, on being questioned with a look by the
monarch, he added with emotion, " the csesarovitch ! "
Nicholas immediately uttering an exclamation of joy,
rushed out to meet his brother. Constantine seized
his hand and kissed it, with a low bow ;* but Nicholas
embraced him, lavished upon him every proof of grati
tude and respect, and wept for joy upon his breast.
What a moment was that for those two brothers !
One coming to crown his work of reconciliation and to
convert a sacrifice into a free and cordial homage ; the
other accepting, with as much gratitude as humility,
that sacrifice which he had allowed to have all the
merit of being spontaneous, and — happy in the consola
tion which his conscience afforded him on this head —
* It is said that he presented himself with the report in his hand.

396 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
abandoning himself unreservedly to the dictates of his
heart. This event occasioned extreme delight throughout
the palace : the court was for a moment in an ecstacy
of joy, which was soon shared abroad by everybody
who was informed of the auspicious news.
For several days the enthusiasm of the people knew
no bounds. Scarcely could the caesarovitch appear be
fore they surrounded him, and testified by their almost
frantic acclamations, what pleasure they had in behold
ing him on such an occasion. They crowded about
him to such a degree, that it was necessary to keep his
horses at a foot pace ; and mothers would bft their
chbdren above the heads of the people to shew them
the prince, the object of this universal ovation. Con
stantine bowed to them calmly, and his Polish uniform
seemed to bespeak him to be nothing more than the
czar's lieutenant in one of his distant provinces, his
first subject, ready to set everybody an example of
fidelity and devotion.
Military fStes fibed up the interval till the third of
September. In one of them, Nicholas perceived Gene
ral Paskevitsch on the very spot where that distin
guished officer had presumed, some years before, to ad
dress him in severe language in presence of a whole
regiment. Assuming immediately a solemn counte
nance : " Do you remember," said he, " how you once
treated me here 1 Now the wind has changed ; take
care I do not repay you with interest ! " A few days
after, ho appointed him general-in-chief. Such was the
vengeance of the emperor ; and soon that warrior
shewed hiinsolf worthy of such generous conduct by

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 397
gaining victories over those Persians who, at the very
time the words we have just related were pronounced,
had dared to violate the frontier of the empire.*
On the 31st of August (new style) a fantastical
cavalcade passed through the streets of Moscow : it
consisted of grand-masters and masters of the ceremo-
niesf in full dress, who announced to the people the
day on which the coronation was to take place. They
marched to the sound of trumpets and kettle-drums,
escorted by two squadrons of the guard on horseback,
carrying banners, followed by lackeys, and preceded by
two heralds at arms, distinguished by their Gothic
dress, copied from the middle ages. This cavalcade
stopped at every cross-road, and in the public squares.
Functionaries of an inferior rank, by whom the masters
of the ceremonies were accompanied, read a proclama
tion, copies of which they distributed among the crowd,
who had been attracted by this spectacle.
On the eve of the day appointed, a preparatory ser
vice was celebrated in every church ; and the imperial
family attended that of the old palace of the czars,
called the Saviour behind the golden grate,! the extent
* See for what concerns the early hostilities, begun in the beginning of
August, 1825, Nos. 101 and 121 of the "Journal de St. Petersbourg."
.Matters were arranged for a short time with the Turks. Paskevitch,
crowned with laurels in the war against Persia, and afterwards in those
against Turkey and Poland, was again promoted to the rank of field-
marshal, and successively named Count d'Erivan and Prince of Warsaw.
As Viceroy of Poland, it is said that he is soon to receive for his suc
cessor the Grand-Duke Michael, and to take the place of Prince Vas-
siltchkoff, who died this year (1847), as president of the council of the
empire. t Headed by General Count de Lambert.
X Spass za zoloto'iou rechotko'iou..

398 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of which is shewn on the outside by nine small cupolas
surmounting the roof of the palace, not far from the
belvedere (terem). Every access to this ancient abode
of the sovereigns was thronged with the people, who,
as long as the prayers lasted, remained bare-headed, at
tending mentally to the progress of the service, inces
santly bowing and making the sign of the cross.
At length the sun shone bright on the 3rd of Sep
tember (August 22nd), and its vivid rays enbvened the
splendour of an extraordinary pomp such as had not
been witnessed for the last twenty-five years.
This pomp was confined to the Krembn, where no
body was admitted on that day without tickets ; even
there it had but a very narrow stage, being bmited on
all sides by churches, palaces, and scaffoldings. But
owing to the latter, and to the benches and amphi
theatres which, filbng every empty space and occupying
every wall, scaled even the tower of Ivan Veliki to
half its height, room had been afforded to some five or
six thousand persons ; they, with the troops, were the
only witnesses of this solemnity, the multitude, or
black people being kept at a distance. The monoto
nous tolling* of the bells had been heard from break of
day, and every minute discharges of artillery shook
the earth, and provoked hourras from the soldiers, whose
presence in such numbers, with or without arms, gave
this enclosure the look of a fortress.
As early as seven o'clock, the raised seats in the nar
row cathedral reserved for ladies and a few privileged
individuals, were occupied, and the amphitheatres, on
* In Hussia the bells are not rung ; the consequence is an unmusical
tolling, whicli sounds like an alarm of fire.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 399
the outside, were crowded with those, who, less lucky,
had been obliged to pay rather dearly to the sextons
for the right of sitting there. Pent up, as it were, in a
vestibule of the temple, these spectators could see only
the procession ; but they could breathe more at their
ease, and had before their eyes the remarkable sight of
those animated walls, those thousands of heads one above
the other, that prodigious concourse of men and women
in holiday attire, braving the heat of a scorching sun,
which shewed in a bribiant light the diversity of the
costumes and the splendour of the apparel.
In the centre of this temporary enclosure, occupied
by that elegant concourse, was the edifice cabed St.
John's Church, of which Ivan Veliki is the aerial
steeple, but which itself contains, at several of its
stories, as many as thirty-two bells, amongst which
figures the ancient belfry of Novogorod* This build
ing lacks the esplanade of the Kremlin, the platform
whence that beautiful view is enjoyed which we have
already described ; aud there stands, on a pedestal, the
largest bell in Europe — till lately buried in the ground —
where it fob during a conflagration. In front of the
church, near the enclosure, the scene of that day's
pomp, is the grand post of honour ; and, opposite, the
palaces, with the three cathedrals which are contiguous
to it, describe a kind of semicircle. The usually open
space on each side of the church, was now, as we have
said, closed up by scaffoldings, covered with red cloth
festooned in front. The ancient patriarchal palace, the
seat of the holy synod, completed the enclosure on the
northern side. * Vetchivo'ii kolokol.

400 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Facing St. John's, the three imperial palaces touch
each other at their extreme points ; in the middle is
the old palace of the czars ; on the south, the new
palace ; and on the north, the angular palace (Granovi-
taia Palata). The broad red staircase (krassnoie kryltso)
connected them all with the enclosure ; and it was
thence that the procession was to descend. At the
bottom of the stairs arose a platform, raised about half
a yard above the pavement, and about three yards
broad. It was bkewise covered with red cloth, and
furnished with a balustrade, which a rank of chevaber-
guards bned on either side ; whilst, on the ground be
yond, different chosen detachments, several ranks deep,
were drawn up, and behind them were the bands of the
two regiments. Ab the officers stood together about
the grand post.
This raised platform described two principal parabel
bnes in the enclosure. One united the cathedral,
where the coronation was to take place, to that of
the Annunciation ; it ended at the southern side door
of Ouspenski, and communicated, by the interior of
the church, with another platform which began at the
northern door. This other platform was connected
by an angle with the second line, which reached from
the patriarchal palace, to the church of the Archangel
Michael. From the Red Stairs, a short platform came
forth perpendicularly on the first line, and completed
the communication between ab the edifices surround
ing the enclosure.
Thus, on descending those stairs, the procession had
only to walk for a short distance on the perpendicular
platform to enter upon the first of the two parallel

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 401
lines. Then, leaving on the right the cathedral of the
Annunciation, with its nine gilt cupolas, adjacent to
the palace, and that of the Archangel, where the old
czars lie buried, it was to turn off to the left towards
the Cathedral of the Assumption, and enter it by the
southern door.*
At ten o'clock, the first procession, that of the
empress-mother, began to move. With a crown on
her brow, and robed in the imperial purple, that
princess advanced under a magnificent canopy, and
went to take her place in the temple, where the corps
diplomatique had joined the other spectators, and the
clergy, at prayers, dressed in their richest apparel,
were awaiting the autocrat and his family. Maria
Foedorovna was followed by the Grand-Duchess Helena,
like herself arrayed in great state. She was covered
with sparkbng jewels ; but the splendour of her
beauty and the gracefulness of her person outshone
those costly ornaments, and caused them to be un
noticed. Next came Prince Charles of Prussia, leading
by the hand the youthful Grand-Duke Alexander
Nikolaievitch, the heir to the throne ; then came all
the Wurtemburg family, and, after them, Prince Philip
de Hesse-Hombourg, the Austrian ambassador-extra
ordinary^ * To form an exact idea of this ground, as also of the interior of the
church, one cannot do better than consult the beautiful work published
under the following title : — " Vues des Ceremonies les plus Interessantes
du Couronnement de LL. MM. II. l'Empereur Nicolas I., et l'lmpera-
trice Alexandra," Paris, 1828, in folio. The text is only a copy of a
few articles from the " Journal de Saint Petersbourg ;" but the coloured
engravings perfectly represent the festivals and the localities where they
took place.
VOL. II. D D

402 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
In the second procession were seen, as in the time of
the ancient czars, the insignia of sovereign authority,
the crowns, the sceptre, the globe, the standard,* the
imperial purple, the mantle, and the other ornaments
intended for the empress, borne in procession to the
temple, where the holy bturgy had just been con
cluded. The clergy received these ornaments at the
entrance, enveloped them in clouds of incense, conse
crated them, and then bore them to the place where
they were to be employed.
At length, about eleven o'clock, the principal pro
cession issued forth from the palace, and was hailed
with the most enthusiastic acclamations. The em
peror, in a bribiant uniform, walked in front of a
magnificent canopy, borne by sixteen generals, whbst
sixteen others of superior rank held the bands. Ni
cholas was bare-headed, and had, on either side, his
two brothers, whose respectful bearing shewed to stbl
greater advantage the air of majesty that pervaded
his whole person. Behind him fobowed Baron de
Diebitsch, general-in-chief of the staff, Count Zakrefski,
general aide-de-camp on duty, and Count Orloff, colonel
in the cuirassiers of the guard. The latter walked
sword in hand. Under the canopy appeared the
Empress Alexandra ; she was dressed in a robe of
silver gauze, but, in other respects, wore no ornaments
but her natural charms ; yet her deportment pro
claimed her to be a sovereign. She was followed by
her first ladies of honour, and eminent personages of
* It is of yellow satin embroidered with gold lace and fringe. In the
middle, is the imperial eagle of Russia, and all around are the arms of
the ancient kingdoms and the different provinces belonging to the
empire.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 403
the state : the old General Count de Sacken, Count
Kotchoubei and Prince Peter Volkonski served to sup
port her. The council of the empire, the ministers,
the senators of highest rank, the generals-in-chief, the
general. aides-de-camp, and the whole court, with the
supreme marshal of the coronation at their head,*
preceded or fobowed the imperial personages ; whilst
the marshals of the nobility of every government, some
of whom were in Tartar costumes, the mayors or
golova of the principal towns, the university of Mos
cow, the elders of the corporations of merchants, a
deputation of the warriors of the Don conducted by
their hetman, functionaries of every administration,
and officers of every rank, completed the procession,
of which only a part could find room in the church,
the others merely passing through it, and immediately
issuing forth by the northern door.
The clergy advanced to meet the monarch as far as
the entrance porch. f At their head was the venerable
Seraphim, arrayed entirely in gold ; his beard, as
white as snow, descended upon his breast, which,
like his mitre, sparkled with jewels. Over his rich
chasuble he wore the episcopal stole,;); and from his
neck was suspended a medallion of great value.§ The
cross, which he held in his hand, was remarkable as
an object of art, and valuable on account of the jewels
* This was old Prince Joussoupoff, as wc have before stated.
t Na papcrth.
X In Russia, omofore, from the Greek, apotpopwv. The priest's stole
is called epitrakhil, from Imrpaxrjkiov.
§ A medallion in enamel representing an image of a saint, and for the
most part enriched with jewels. This medallion or panagie, a distinc
tive ornament of bishops, is worn on a gold chain. d n 2

404 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
with which it was inlaid. On his right stood the most
learned of all the Russian priests, Eugene, the metro
politan of Kief, and the second in rank among the
members of the holy synod ; he was dressed no less
richly than the former, and bore the vessel full of
lustral water.* On the left of Seraphim, stood Arch
bishop Philaretes, the first pastor of the diocese, an
eloquent, learned, and enbghtened priest whom his
independent character rendered worthy of occupying
the pulpit formerly dignified by St. Philip and other
courageous prelates. Philaretes, the successor of Au-
gustin, was then in the prime of life ; his long black
hair and majestic beard set off to advantage his digni
fied features, beaming with evangelical benevolence.
He was already invested with the archiepiscopal dig
nity of Moscow and Kolomna, and was, on that very
day, to be honoured with the title of metropolitan,
which the emperor confers, at wib, on the most emi
nent members of the holy synod.
Seraphim presented the " vivifying cross " to the
monarch and his august consort, who, after touching
it devoutly with her lips, kissed also the hands of the
venerable pontiff. The metropolitan of Kief sprinkled
holy water on the ground where they were about to
place their feet, and the Archbishop of Moscow, raising
his firm and sonorous voice, complimented the czar in
a short speech, of which we will translate the principal
passages, t
* Lustral water had been sprinkled along the platform ; and the
metropolitan watered the pavement in the same way before the feet of
the monarch.
t We will translate it as literally as possible, in order that these words,
and others that we shall copy, may lose no part of their peculiar
character.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 405
" Most pious emperor, —
"At length the expectation of Russia is fulfilled;
for thou art arrived at the gates of the sanctuary
to which the deposit of the hereditary consecration has
been intrusted for ages.
" Perhaps the impatience of a faithful and submis
sive people would venture to inquire : Why hast thou
delayed so long 1 if we did not know that even as thy
present solemn coming is a source of joy to us, so also
has the delay, continued to the present day, been a
benefit. Thou didst not hasten to manifest thy glory
to us, because thy great desire was first to provide for
our security. But now thou dost advance towards
these holy places, czar of an empire which thou pos-
sessest not only by right of inheritance, but which is
thine because thou hast saved it.
"Ought these words to recall painful thoughts to
thy mind \ No, let it not be so. If the meekness of
David could not preserve him from Joab and Shimei,
must we be surprised if such men rebelled against the
sanctified Alexander? That accursed race pestered
the reign of David, but it was given to his successor to
purge the land of Israel. And was not the part of
Solomon in store for Alexander's successor ! The diffi
culties which beset him in the beginning, only served
to shew to the people more clearly what a benefit God
had bestowed on them in Solomon.
" May nothing, therefore, trouble thy holy joy and
our own.
" Enter, 0 lord, our emperor, thou whom God has
elected, and to whom He has allotted this inheritance.
In adorning thyself with the symbols of majesty, invest

406 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
thyself also with the characters of true grandeur ; and
may the holy unction impress upon it the stamp of
consecration, both inwardly and visibly, — that consecra
tion which is durable and everlasting."
Advancing into the temple, where the chanting of
psalms* immediately began, the emperor and the em
press went up to the holy doors of the iconostase,
bowed thrice before the holy of holies, and kissed the
picture of the Saviour on the right, and that of the
Virgin of Vladimir on the left. Then they ascended
the stairs which led from the steps of the sanctuary to
the top of the platform, where the two thrones were
placed beneath a rich canopy. That of the empress-
mother was a little further to the right beneath
another canopy, and, close by, a smab but richly deco
rated gallery was occupied by the princes and prin
cesses. The Cathedral of the Assumption does not deserve
the appellation of a fine temple any more than the
other churches of the Krembn. Its exterior is simple
and plain, without any definable style of architecture ;
we should call it almost insignificant, were it not for
the roof with its five rather elegant cupolas covered
with sheet-iron richly gilt. Fioravanti, named Aris-
totele, had built this edifice on the model of the
cathedral of Vladimir in 1475. Its interior is a long
rectangle, augmented on the eastern side, where the
holy of holies is situated, by a few tambour projec
tions. Four columns or pillars, the enormous quad
rangular bases of which encumber the middle of the
* Milosth i soiul vospoiou tebe. Gospodi ! That is to sav, Ckmentiam
it indicium cuntabo tibi, Dominc !

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 407
nave, support, with two others, concealed by tho ico
nostase, the elevated vaulted roof diversified by five
cupolas, on the summit of which are perceived figures
of Jesus Christ. The faint light which gleams down
from those cupolas is augmented by the still more
scanty rays admitted through narrow windows at the
top of the walls. The latter, like the pillars, are
covered with colossal paintings in fresco, on a gold
ground; they comprise more than 2,000 figures, which
are mostly isolated, but others, forming a vast picture,
represent the day of judgement. In front of the holy
of holies rises the iconostase, the lower parts of which
are of silver gilt. On the left of the czarian or regal
doors is that palladium of Russia, of which we have
spoken, the picture of the Virgin of Ephesus, painted,
according to tradition, by St. Luke, and brought, says
the same authority, from Constantinople by the grand-
duke Jowrii Dolgorouki, in the twelfth century. The
emperor Emmanuel Comnenus* and the oecumenical
patriarch had given it as a present to the Princess
Eudoxia. This precious picture, after having been
preserved at first in southern Russia, was transferred,
in 1154, to Vladimir on the Kliazma, where a cathe
dral was built to receive it. But, on the approach of
Tamerlane, about the year 1400, the city of Moscow
was filled with consternation; not knowing how to
save themselves from that calamity, the inhabitants im
plored the succour of the queen of the angels, and the
Grand-Prince Vassili Dimitrievitch sent to Vladimir to
bring away the holy relic. The whole population of
this town wept on beholding themselves deprived of it ;
* Monk in 1180.

408 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
they accompanied it on its departure, and could hardly
be induced to separate from it. The Muscovites, on
the other hand, received the madonna with transports
of joy ; they ran forth to meet her, fob on .their faces
before her, and kissed the ground over which she had
passed. " Mother of God ! Mother of God ! " cried
they, " save Russia." On the very day when St. Luke's
work was deposited at the Krembn, in the first cathe
dral Ouspenski, founded in 1326 by Archbishop St.
Peter, Timour, turning away from the road to Moscow,
commenced his retreat. An invisible power had pre
vented him from passing beyond. Since then there
has been an abundance of miracles; as we have seen,
everything about the picture was consumed by fire,
but the picture itself remained uninjured. This paint
ing, blackened by age, is covered all around with an
incredible profusion of riches.
On the right of the holy doors is a large picture,
likewise reputed miraculous : it represents the Saviour,
seated upon a throne, and holding the Gospel in his
hand. The same Emperor Emmanuel had made a pre
sent of it to Novogorod, where this painting had re
mained, in the cathedral of St. Sophia, till 1570.
Objects of great value are preserved in the sanc
tuary ; the most precious of all are a piece and a nail
of the true cross, a fragment of the stone rolled against
the sepulchre, the Saviour's robe, brought from the
East during the patriarchship of Philaretes, and, finally,
relics of Mary Magdaleu. On each side of the icono
stase, are still seen the two thrones which were formerly
occupied by the czar and the head of the clergy : the
latter is made of stone ; the former, of carved wood,

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 409
is decayed by time and falling to pieces. It is said
that Vladimir II. surnamed Monomachus, had sat upon
it. On the side of the northern door is the silver
shrine of the saintly Archbishop Peter, who was the
first that quitted Vladimir to fix his see at Moscow ;
by his side repose other saints or heads of the church,
and the coffins of the patriarchs and their successors
ornament, with their long row, the wabs of the sacred
enclosure. Although, on the accession of a new grand prince or
czar, a ceremony of inauguration had been celebrated
from time immemorial, the custom of crowning him
does not appear to date much further back than the
sixteenth century ; and previous to 1547, the insignia
of royalty, the crown, the breast-cross, in which a
fragment of the Saviour's cross was enshrined, and the
holy barms,* were preserved in the Cathedral of the
Annunciation. They were transferred to that of the
Assumption for the coronation of Joann IV. Vassilie-
vitch ; and, since that time, this church has remained

* Among the regal ornaments of Constantine Monomachus (who died
in 1054), which the emperor Alexis Comnenus sent to the Grand-Prince
Vladimir II. Vsevolodovitch, in 1116, was a cumail, or collar, in gold
brocade and silver, loaded with pearls and jewels, and adorned with
enamel of costly workmanship, on which were represented scenes taken
from sacred history. This collar, which the czars, especially on the day
of coronation', put over the purple, was called in Russian, barmy, from the
Greek word, j3dpnp.a, which means a load, a burden, and doubtless was
an emblem of the weight of care imposed on royalty. These barms,
venerable for their antiquity, consecrated by the Church, and preserved
in one of the principal cathedrals, were termed holy. In French, this
word has sometimes been rendered by dulmatique, from a regal and pon
tifical garment thus named, and which, first worn long like a mantle,
assumed, by degrees, the narrower proportions of a collar,

410 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
in possession of the privilege of performing the service
in the ceremony.*
At the moment when we paused to enter into these
details, the temple presented an imposing spectacle.
A numerous body of clergy, covered with gold and
divers ornaments, were surrounding the altar or drawn
up on either side of the open holy doors ; about six
hundred persons, the men distinguished by their cos
tumes and the ensigns of their dignities, the women,
resplendent with jewels, thronged about a high estrade
covered with scarlet velvet, with gold-lace and fringe,
and surrounded by a balustrade which glowed with the
same metal.f No vacant space could be seen in that
crowded nave ; and above the heads of the spectators
hovered the colossal figures in fresco. The space
around the ambon\ and all the middle of the church
were taken up by the estrade, supported by the bases
* Foedor Joannovitch, his son, was also solemnly crowned, and the
ceremonial then adopted seems to be the one that still serves as a model.
For the coronation of Joann and Peter Alexei'evitch, see " Sanct Peters-
burgisches Journal," 1779, t. vii. p. 43, et seq. A few details on ancient
customs arc to be found in the " Chronique de Nestor," by M. Louis
Paris, t. ii., " Table des Origincs," p. 64.
t " If the proportions of our (French) cathedrals, and the pomp of
our religious ceremonies allow a more majestic development to be given
to the coronation of our kings, it nevertheless does not afford this diver
sity of costumes, faces, and expressions, the picturesque effect of which
will be for ever engraven upon my memory." — Ancelot, " Six Mois en
Russie," p. 350.
X The ambon is a kind of pulpit or rostrum, where the priest ascends
to preach, and where the ceremony of the coronation was likewise cele
brated. In the Greek church, the grand ambon, or episcopal ambon, is
in the middle of the cathedral, and represents the stone of the sepulchre ;
the smnll ambon, or deacon's ambun, is in front of the holy doors. The
priest ascends it to read the liospcl and to pleach, that is to say, to read
a sermon.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 411
of the four pillars ; there, Nicholas Paulovitch was
seated upon a throne, called the throne of diamonds,
which the Armenians of Ispahan had formerly offered
as a present to the Czar Alexis Mikhailovitch : it is
adorned with a profusion of fine pearls and precious
stones. On his right was seated the empress, of whom
it has somewhere been said that God had given her to
Nicholas in order that his subjects might learn to seek
an example of domestic virtues where they had found
the supreme model of their duties towards the state.
Alexandra's throne was of gold, and inlaid with 1,500
rubies and 8,000 turquoises and fine pearls : it had
been used by Mikhail Foedorovitch,* the first of the
Romanoffs. The two seats, raised one step higher on
the platform of the estrade, were surmounted by an
ample canopy, the scarlet ground of which was not to
be seen under the profusion of gold embroidery. The
top was ornamented with large bunches of white fea
thers ; and the inside embroidered with the imperial
eagle, surrounded by the escutcheons of Kief, Vladimir,
Kasan, Astrakhan, Siberia, and Tauris. Close by the
thrones were the imperial insignia displayed upon a
table; and behind the two thrones, the court and a
select number of generals formed picturesque groups.
Twelve steps, interrupted by two platforms, led from
the top of the estrade to the czarian doors. There
stood the supreme marshal and the marshals of the
coronation, the masters of the ceremonies and other
dignitaries, the heralds-at-arms occupying the lower
steps. Their Gothic costume, surcharged with details,
* The throne on which the empress-mother was seated was also very
valuable. It was a gift from Schah Abbas, in 1605, to Boris Godounoff.

412 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
which our serious age considers puerile, formed a strong
contrast with the monotony of the uniforms and the
symmetrical cut of the court dresses. From this point
to the holy doors, beneath the enormous chandelier of
solid silver suspended before the iconostase, the metro
politans, archbishops, bishops, and archmandrits, were
standing in rows on either side. By the magnificence
of their apparel, their thick beards hanging down upon
their breasts, and the precious mitres which adorned
their brows, some of them reminded the spectator of
the old kings of the east, others of the most ancient
pontiffs of Italy, such as St. Ambrosius and St. Leo.
Lastly, on the top of the estrade, at the right and the
left of the thrones, officers of the chevalier-guards,
with their swords drawn, added to all this display of
imperial majesty the idea of the power of the sword,
and the security found under its protection.
The most perfect order reigned throughout that
immense assemblage, and the lofty vaulted roof of
the church, terminated by the broad cupola in the
middle, alone left free space for the sonorous vibra
tions of those harmonious voices which soon mingled
with the solemn and contrite accents of the Gospodi
pomiloui, the sweet expression of the heavenly joys
and raptures of the Hallelujah.
The clergy were concluding the chanting of the
psalms.* When it was ended, and perfect silence
pervaded the temple, Seraphim advanced towards the
steps of the throne, and said :
* The reader will allow u.-. lo insert here an extract of the ritual of coro
nation, translated from the Russian or Sclavonic language of the Church.
W'e believe it to be the first tunc it has appeared in any French work.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 413
" Most pious and great lord, our Emperor and Au
tocrat of all Russia ! *
" Since, according to the will of God, by the efficacy
of the Holy Ghost, and by virtue of your command,
the coronation of your imperial majesty and the
anointing with the holy oilf is now to be performed
in this temple of the first capital, does it please your
majesty to make a profession, in presence of your
faithful subjects, of the catholic orthodox faith,} which
is your belief, conformably to the custom of ancient
Christian monarchs and your predecessors glorified by
God V
At the same time, the old man presented the Apos
tle's Creed to the czar, who read it aloud, and, after
thus reading, he said to him : " May the grace of the
Holy Ghost be with thee, amen ! "
A moment after, the voice of the proto-deacon was
heard, reminding the officiating pontiff, according to
ancient custom, of the order of the holy proceeding,
saying, " Lord, give thy benediction." Then the me
tropolitan gave the blessing in these words : " Blessed
be the empire, &c," the clergy responded, "Amen,"
and the singers chanted the hymn, " To the King of
heaven."1^ Then the proto-deacon continued : " Let us pray

* We prefer this translation to that of all the Russias, and have given
our reasons in a note in vol. i. t Svito'ie myro.
X The three great divisions of Christendom, the Roman Church, the
Greek Church, and the Protestant Church pretend equally to the title
of Catliolic: they all believe themselves called to become universal.
(The Protestant Church claims to be, not the Catholic Church, but a
portion of the Catholic or Universal Church of Christ. — Translator.)
§ Tsarou nibesnyi.

414 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
to God to give us His peace ;" which words were suc
ceeded by a long litany,* followed by the chant,
" Lord God, Thou declarest Thyself also to us," which
was given out by the proto-deacon, and afterwards
sung by the clergy. This singing was fobowed by
lessons, concluding with the gospel.
Then the emperor ordered the imperial ornaments
to be brought. The first pastor, assisted by the me
tropolitan of Kief and the archbishop of Moscow, took
the purple from the golden table, where it was lying
on a cushion, surrounded with the crowns and the
sceptre, and presented it to the monarch, saying : " In
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
amen ! "
Prayers, intermingled with the Gospodi pomiloui,
were immediately recited.
When the czar, with the help of his assistants, had
clothed himself with the imperial mantle, he remained
standing and bowed his head before the pontiff. The
latter touched it with the cross, placed his hand upon
it, and uttered a prayer. " May peace be with you
ab,"f added he afterwards, and the choir responded,
" And with thy spirit." After these words everybody
knelt down, and Seraphim prayed once more aloud for
the safety of the czar.
At that moment the latter ordered the crown to
* It is called in Russian, detenu, extended, that is to say fervent
prayer. The response, or refrain, is always pomolitnsa, we pray. Prayers
were said particularly for the peace of the world, and the prosperity of
the holy churches, for the holy temple (khratn) where they then were,
and for the faith, for the directing of the holy synod, for the emperor,
the empicss, etc. + Mir vtcm.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 415
be brought to him ; and, on receiving it from the
hands of the metropolitan, he placed it upon his head,
and the old man blessed it. After an instant he
raised his voice, and pronounced the following speech :
" Most pious and most potent* autocrat, Emperor of
all Russia !
" This visible and outward ornament which adorns
thy brow is the symbol of the mysterious act by which
Jesus Christ, the King of gloryf crowns thee at this
moment, thee the chief of the people of all Russia,
by means of His holy blessing, confirming thee in thy
absolute } and supreme authority over thy sub
jects." §
He then placed in his right hand the sceptre, and
in his left the globe,|| and, having blessed him, he
continued :
" 0 thou crowned of God, thou whom He has fa
voured with His gifts, and adorned with His grace,
most potent autocrat, Emperor of all Russia, receive
the sceptre and the globe : they are the symbols of
the supreme power which the Most High has given
thee over thy people, to govern them and to secure
for them every desirable happiness."
These emblems of power thus committed to him,
the czar sat upon his throne. Presently he laid the
sceptre and the globe upon cushions presented to him
* Samoderjavneichu, which means possessing all power in himself and
by his own right.
t Tsar slavy. % Priderjaschtchu. § Nad ludmi svoimi.
|| There is still preserved in the armoury palace (Oroujeinaia Palata)
of Moscow the globe (derjava) which the Greek Emperor Alexis Com
nenus gave as a present to the Grand-Prince Vladimir II. Monomachus,
in 1116.

416 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA
by high functionaries, and beckoned to the empress
to approach. Alexandra Foedorovna knelt down be
fore him. The emperor, taking the crown from his
head, held it upon the brow of his spouse, and then
replaced it upon his own. The small crown intended
for the empress was then brought ; the emperor placed
it upon her head, and the ladies of honour* drew near
to fasten it there. Alexandra was next arrayed with
the imperial mantle and the collar of St. Andrew.
When the august couple, thus adorned with the en
signs of sovereign dignity, had retaken their places upon
their thrones, the proto-deacon, proclaiming the im
perial title in full, gave out the Domine, salvum fac
imperatorem,\ which was sung by a double choir, and
was repeated for the empress. Then the coronation
was ended. The great bell of Ivan Veliki, which is
rung only thrice a year, gave the signal to ab the other
bells in the town, the vibrating sounds of which arrived
from all quarters to the heights of the Kremlin. " One
would have thought," according to an official expression,
" that the great voice of the nation was raising afar a
concert of prayers and homage to heaven." At the
same instant the roar of 101 cannons thundered from
the Red Market, outside the citadel ; and the people
responded with their houira.
Whilst the singing continued, the emperor and the
empress received the homage and congratulations of the
princes and princesses of their family, the high clergy,
* They were as follow : — the lady of Field-Marshal Kamenski, the
Princess Lnpimkhin, the Princess Voldemar Galitsin Glcboff, and the
Countess Orloff Tehcsmcnski.
t Sokhrani icvo na mnoga lita, prolong his life many years.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 417
and the principal personages of their court. The august
mother of the czar was the first who would have ap
proached ; but he prevented her, and, hastening forwards,
he embraced her, and received her blessing. Maria con
cealed her tears on the breast of her son. She was, doubt
less, thinking of the coronation of that other son, so fondly
loved, of whom death had bereaved her. Then also,
overcome by her emotion, she had cast herself, almost
fainting, into the arms of the crowned monarch.
Nicholas well comprehended the grief of her heart, and
sympathised with it. It excited also the sympathy of
all the congregation. But a scene perhaps still more
affecting soon excited the attention of all, and raised
their emotion to enthusiasm. Hardly had the empress-
mother torn herself from her son's embrace, when Con
stantine was seen bending the knee before him, before
that younger brother who had replaced him on a
throne to which, by birth, he himself had been called.
Nicholas immediately fell upon his neck, and leaning,
like him, towards the ground, he embraced him, pressed
him to his heart, and forgot for a moment his part as a
crowned king' to obey the impulse of nature. The
august mother of the princes returned and blessed
them. No one among the numerous spectators could
behold that affecting scene unmoved. Constantine was
crowning the glorious act of abnegation, the effects
of which we have already made known : he was hum
bling himself in presence of all before a throne
which he might have ascended, and did so with fer
vour and enthusiasm, in a way that removed every
doubt as to his candid and free determination. This
was the most striking scene in all that imposing
VOL. II. E e

418 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
drama ; compared with it, ab the rest was formal and
languid. Meanwhile, the Grand-Duke Michael, Helena Paulovna,
his consort, a queen in loveliness, the youthful heir to
the throne, and the foreign princes, went successively
to present their congratulations ; and the clergy, with
out leaving their places, bowed low three times before
the consecrated couple.
The cannons had ceased to roar, the bells no longer
resounded under the blows of their ponderous clappers,
and the chanting of Mnogala leta* was dying away
under the vaulted cupola. The metropobtan of Novo
gorod then, beginning the ceremony of the anointing,
presented a missal to the monarch ; the latter arose,
laid aside the sceptre and the globe, bent his knees, and
read the fobowing prayer : —
"0 Lord God of our fathers, King of kings, Thou
who didst create everything by Thy word, Thou whose
wisdom enlightens man, and who dost govern the
world according to holiness and justice, Thou hast
chosen me to be the czar and arbiter of the most
illustrious empire of ab Russia. I acknowledge Thy
impenetrable designs towards me, and I offer up my
thanks unto Thee, thus prostrate before Thy Majesty.
0 Lord, my Master,f enable me to fulfil the mission
which Thou hast intrusted to me, and enlighten and
guide me in the performance of this great task. May
the wisdom which emanates from Thy throne be ever
with me ; send me the assistance of Thy saints from
heaven, that I may learn what is agreeable in Thy
sight and just according to Thy commandments. May
* Le., per plurunos annos. t Vladyko i gospodi mo'i.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 419
my heart be in Thy hand, that it may inspire me
with nothing that is not for Thy glory and the ad
vantage of the people intrusted to my care ; and
may I, in Thy day of judgment, fearlessly render
Thee an account, through the grace and merits of
Thy only Son! With whom, and Thy most holy,
good, and vivifying Spirit, be habowed for ever and
ever. Amen."
Then the metropolitan replied, " May peace be with
you ab !" and the choir responded, " And with thy
spirit." The voice of the proto-deacon was then heard,
" Once more, once more, let us kneel and pray to the
Lord I"
The pontiff then knelt to offer up a prayer in the
name of ab the people, and the whole congregation
followed his example. When he arose, he turned to
wards the emperor, and pronounced a speech.* Then
the Te Beum \ was sung, accompanied with the ringing
of all the bells.
The time had now come to celebrate the holy
bturgy.J The emperor removed the crown from his
head, and handed it to the officers in waiting. After
the reading of the Gospel, the sacred volume was
offered to the august couple to kiss. Next, a crimson
velvet carpet embroidered with gold, and covered with
* This speech is too long to be copied here. It much resembles, espe
cially in the beginning, that which the eloquent metropolitan Plato pro
nounced, on the 15th of September, 1801, after the coronation of the
Emperor Alexander, a ceremony from which the coronation of the Em
peror Nicholas seems to have been copied in every particular.
t Tibi Boga khvalim.
X Bogestvennaia litourghia, which is, as we have stated, equivalent to
the holy mass among Roman Catholics. e e 2

420 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
another of gold brocade, was laid down from the foot
stool of the throne as far as the holy doors, for the
passage of their imperial majesties.
The canon of the mass was sung ; * and the metro
politans, archbishops, and the other priests were taking
the communion in the sanctuary. Soon the doors were
opened, and two mitred prelates t quitted the altar,
followed by proto-deacons, to announce to the czar
that the ceremony of anointing \ was about to com
mence. He descended in grand procession the steps of the
throne, followed by the empress, and placed himself
opposite the open holy doors, the threshold of which
it was lawful for him alone to cross, by virtue of his
supreme dignity.§ The metropobtan of Novogorod
took the precious vase containing the holy chrism, and
dipped into it a golden branch with which he touched
the brow, the eyebds, the nostril, the bps, and the ears
of the czar, as also the palm and the upper part of his
hands, saying, " This is the mark of the gift of the
Holy Ghost. ||" The metropolitan of Kief then ap
proached and wiped away the marks of the sacred oil.1T
Again the tolling of the bells was renewed, and again
* Kinonik.
t Arkhiiraa.
X Tsarsko'ic myropomasanii.
§ The emperor has not this privilege till after he has received the
sacred unction. Even females, when invested with the sovereign power,
appear to enjoy it on this occasion. Accordingly, we read in the coro
nation ceremonial of Catherine II., that she entered alone the holy of
holies. She received the communion, iz potira, in the chalice.
|| Pctchath data poukha svetago.
f Formerly, it was not lawful for the prince to wash the parts anointed
with the sacred oil before seven days.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 421
101 cannons fired a salute. Escorted by the first
pastor, the monarch then entered the Holy of holies
by the royal doors, and placed himself by the sacred
table * on a carpet of gold. Assisted by the metropo
litan and by Eugene and Philaretes, who supported the
weight of the imperial mantle, he bowed before the
altar, and partook of the " holy mystery of the body
and blood of Jesus Christ." According to his privilege
as czar,f he received the communion in both kinds,
" the body and the blood separately." Then a bishop
handed to him the antidoron J and the wine ; and
another the linen to wipe his lips and hands.§ The
monarch afterwards returned to his throne, preceded
by his cortige, the dignitaries of his court bearing be
fore him the attributes of royalty. The empress, stand
ing without the czarian doors, received in her turn the
holy unction, 'but only on the forehead, and the com
munion in the ordinary manner. Bishops presented to
her the consecrated bread -and the tepid water ; after
which she returned to her place with the same pomp.
* Sveta'ia trapiza.
t Potchinou tsarskomou. It is the manner in which the priests take
the communion.
X The antidoron is what remains, after the communion, of the conse
crated bread, of which only a part called the lamb is used in the sacra
ment. This part, stamped with the name of Jesus, is cut out of loaves,
on a particular table placed in the sanctuary and called prothese. The
remains of the bread, distributed among the faithful after mass, is to
remind them of the agapa (love-feasts) of the primitive Christians. The
antidoron was anciently included in the denomination of eulogies.
§ Relatively to the emperor, the ceremonial uses the word oumovinii,
ablution ; for the empress, it mentions besides the tiplota, or tepid water
poured into the cup ; but we believe the custom of wiping the lips and
hands was observed on this occasion, as it is performed for all the faith
ful in the communion.

422 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
The emperor adorned himself again with ab his
insignia. When the thanksgivings had been offered up by a
high priest,* the holy liturgy was ended ; Seraphim
gave the benediction with the cross, and a proto-dea
con gave out the Vivat, which was re-echoed on ab
sides : " 0 Lord," cried he, " grant a happy and peace
ful life, health of body and salvation of soul, Thy good
help in all things, success and victory over the wicked,
to our orthodox, most glorious, and most Christian
monarchy our great lord, crowned, raised to the supreme
rank,t; and anointed with holy oil, Nicholas Paulovitch,
the Emperor and Autocrat of ab Russia ; and to his
orthodox and most glorious spouse, the Empress Alex
andra Foedorovna, crowned, raised to supreme rank,
and anointed with holy ob ; and preserve them both
for many years." And the choir repeated the final
invocation by chanting Mnogala leta.
Whilst these last and debghtfuby harmonious accents
were ascending towards the sky, the clergy, the court,
and all the persons of the cortege passed in front of the
throne and bowed ; and the ceremony being ended, the
metropolitan went and presented to the monarch and
his consort the vivifying cross, which they kissed.
It was noon when the procession, after having formed
again behind the cathedral, re-appeared in the exterior
enclosure, amid the ringing of bebs and the roaring of
cannon. The emperor had gone forth from the temple
by the northern door. All eyes were turned in that
direction ; and the multitude, impatient to contemplate
* I'rotohicni. t Khristoloubioii, loving Christ.
I Privoznictnnii.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 423
the anointed of the Lord in the full array of majesty,
could pay no longer any attention to the procession
that preceded him. But when the deputations of the
Cossacks and Tartars, together with the marshals of the
nobility of every government, had once more filed be
fore them, and the imperial canopy at length was visible,
the whole mass became animated, and enthusiastic
shouts burst forth from the delighted multitude. The
emperor was walking in front of his canopy. His
grand uniform of Russian general was covered with the
imperial mantle ; his head was adorned with the crown,
and in his hands he bore the sceptre and the globe.
Ab these symbols were thickly inlaid with precious
stones. The crown, tastefully composed of the finest
diamonds set with large fine pearls, reminded the spec
tator, by its shape, of the cap of Alexander Nevski,
preserved in the treasury of the monastery of that name
at St. Petersburg ;* its bribiant diamonds sparkled in
the sun, which, then in its meridian glory, shed an ex
traordinary splendour on the whole person of the
monarch, and surrounded his head with a glowing halo.
It was a wonderful sight ; and far from being eclipsed
by the splendour of these ornaments, the mascubne
beauty of Nicholas was even increased by it.
Constantine was walking with a grave and respectful
air on his right, and Michael on his left. We are told
that the csesarovitch, struck with the clearness of the
sky and the bribiant sunshine which enlivened the
procession, exclaimed, "Brother, what a beautiful day!
* The ancient grand-princes wore not a crown but a round cap
(rolbok), ornamented with pearls and precious stones. The crown of the
czars, on the contrary, was of a conical shape.

424 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
— not a cloud to be seen!" "Why, what had I to
fear V returned Nicholas ; " had I not my conductor
by my side?" This gracious reply, dictated by the
heart, was a delightful recompense to Constantine for
his noble conduct.*
The empress was beneath the canopy, richly adorned
with purple, and wearing a smab crown of brilbants in
her hair.
According to the custom of the ancient czars to halt
after the coronation in the different sanctuaries of the
Kremlin,! they then repaired to the cathedral of the
Archangel, where the emperor, after kissing the images
of an iconostase not less rich than that of Ouspenski
Sabor, bowed before the long row of sarcophagi con
taining the remains of his ancestors or predecessors,
and before the miraculous shrine of St. Dimitri, the
youthful son of Joann IV. Vassibevitch, the last scion
of the dynasty of Rurik, who perished at Ougbtch by
the daggers of assassins. A proto-deacon read a prayer
for the long life of the monarch, and the choir chanted
Mnogaia leta. The same ceremony and the same
chants were repeated in the cathedral of the Annun
ciation, where the emperor, attended by the clergy,
having at their head a bishop who presented him the
cross to kiss, went to bow to the holy relics. ;f This
small temple, encumbered with rich offerings, is pro
tected by a pronaos or gallery which encloses it on
two sides : the procession stopped there, and only a
• Constantino departed on the 5th of September for Warsaw, where
he arrived on the 11th.
t On such occasions a protopope used formerly to sprinkle gold dust
nn the head of the czar. X Moschtchi, bodies of saints.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 425
few persons could follow the emperor into the interior,
which is lighted by a faint uncertain light descending
from the cupola, around which eight other smab domes
adorn the roof. The iconostase is of silver gilt, and
the pavement inlaid with agate ; ab the walls are
covered with old fresco paintings blackened by age ;
and the throne of the czars still indicates the place
where the ancient sovereigns sat during divine service.
Fresco paintings abound also in the galleries of the
vestibule ; and on the outer wall facing the Red Stair
case is an old painting under cover, representing the
Virgin Mary sitting near a well and receiving the
salutation of the angel.
A few minutes afterwards Nicholas reappeared at
the entrance, ascended the Red Stairs, and withdrew
to his apartments. The different stations had been
visited, or there remained at most but one, intended
for another day, on account of the distance. It was
the visit to the relics of St. Sergius, the thaumatur-
gus, — the pilgrimage to Troi'tza, that sacred laura so
celebrated in the history of Muscovy,* and which every
prince has enriched with his gifts.
On the very day of consecration, the ancient czars
used to give, in the Granovitaia Palata adjoining the
Red Stairs, a grand feast to the patriarchs and the
* This pilgrimage took place on the 25th of September. Philaretes
received the emperor at Troi'tza, who accepted, for one night, the hospi
tality of the monks. At that period, the archmandrid of the convent
was the reverend Father Eulampus (Jevlampu), a learned, amiable and
pious man. His long hair parted on his forehead and his rich auburn
beard reminded the beholder of the finest portraits of the Saviour. We
shall ever remember with the greatest pleasure the hours we spent with
this dignitary in the library of his convent.

426 SECRET HISTORY .OF RUSSIA.
other principal members of the clergy, as also to the
most important lords of their court. Nicholas con
formed to this custom. The old banqueting hab was
sumptuously adorned ; the crimson velvet of its hang
ing was resplendent with gold ; and around the
enormous pillar which, situated in the middle, sup
ports the ogive arches of the roof, was displayed the
rich plate of the czars, covered with embossed figures,
which is usually preserved in the Oroujeinaia Palata.
In one of the angles was the throne, surmounted with
a canopy, the interior of which was ornamented with
the imperial eagle ; on each side was a smab throne,
one for the reigning empress and the other for the
mother of the emperor ; several tables were also spread
for personages of the first two classes and the councb
of the empire. In the angle opposite to the throne
stood the orchestra ; whbe the corps diplomatique
were waiting to offer their congratulations to the
emperor, and afterwards to withdraw.
Before entering the hab, the monarch shewed himself
to his people from the steps, and was saluted with
deafening acclamations. Afterwards, he received the
felicitations of the clergy, the court, and the represen
tatives of the sovereigns of Europe, and went and sat
upon his throne alone at the imperial table with the
two empresses. They were attended by the highest
dignitaries of the crown : the grand-marshal, the grand-
huntsman, the grand-cup-bearer, and the imperial
carver, were all at their posts, according to the ancient
ceremonial. General aides-de-camp brought in the
dishes, escorted by officers of the guards sword in hand,
and presented them bending the knee. The feast was

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 427
blessed by the metropolitan, and the spectators re
mained standing. But when the emperor had asked
to drink, they were permitted to sit down. After they
had all bowed, they took their places at the tables
prepared for them, those belonging to the first two
classes in the same banqueting-room, and the others
in an adjoining hall, where the Grand-Duchess Helena
and the princes presided over the feast. Coronation
medals, presented to the emperor by the minister of
the finances, were then distributed, as handfuls of com
mon ones had already been flung among the people.
The orchestra filled the old palace with its harmonious
strains, instrumental music, and melodious voices
alternately vying with each other.
Thus ended that day, and when night had come, a
splendid illumination, repeated on the two following days,
set the whole town in a blaze of light, and kept up the
noisy festivities of the population. The white walls of
the Kremlin, adorned with stars and luminous festoons,
the towers by which they are surmounted displaying
their varied contours by rows of fire, the garden in the
English style, with its trees and fountains ab illumi
nated, the immense hall of exercise covered all over
with lamps, and, lastly, Ivan Veliki, with its brilliant
cross resting upon a fiery crown, fashioned bke the
monarch's, and which was decked out at every story
with red, blue, and yellow, the colours of the empire ;
all this had a magical, startling, and novel effect, and
acted so powerfully upon the imagination of the mul
titude, that they seemed to be intoxicated by it, and
set no bounds to their clownish vivacity.
The coronation day was moreover illustrated by

428 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
numberless acts of favour, munificence, and clemency.
The emperor conferred the staff of field-marshal on
Generals Count de Wittgenstein and Osten -Sacken ; he
raised the Archbishop of Moscow to the rank of metro
politan, conferred the title of princess on the Countess
de Lieven, and that of count on several ambassadors,
high functionaries, or generals. Some were created
chevaliers of St. Andrew;* others, in greater number,
knights grand-cross of St. Vladimir, St. Alexander
Nevski, or St. Anne. A munificent donation of lands
was made in favour of a select few, in the first rank of
whom was Count Nesselrode ; and portrait medallions,
boxes and rings set with diamonds, were likewise dis
tributed. Every kind of recompense was practised on
a very large scale, of which the people about the court
received an ample share. The army especiaby was
not forgotten : in the lower ranks, cloth for uniforms
was ordered to be distributed among the soldiers, and
high pay was likewise granted ; all the non-commis
sioned officers and soldiers who had served honourably
for twenty years in the guard, or for twenty-two in the
army and garrison, were to obtain their discharge. A
vast plan of promotion was carried out in favour of the
officers, and several hundred generalsf and colonels were
promoted to a superior rank. A second plan of pro
motion concerned the civb service. Ab the titular
councibors or employe's of the ninth class of the tchinn,

* Among them was Count de la Fcrronnays, the French ambassador.
t Among the lieutenants-general promoted to the grade of general-in-
chief, weie the general aides-de-camp, Baron de Diebitsch, Prince Chak-
hofskni', Dopreiadovitch, Golenitchcf-Kontousoff, Prince Troubetzkoi',
Count Orloff-Dcnicof, Paskevitch, Baron dc Toll, and Baron Jomini.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 429
all the college councibors or functionaries of the sixth
class, who had enjoyed that grade for the requisite
period, were promoted en masse to the upper class, and
exempted from the examination prescribed by the ukase
of the 6th of August, 1809. Certain sums owing to
the state, unpaid taxes, and penalties incurred, were
remitted;* a very extensive amnesty was granted to
numerous classes of prisoners awaiting their sentence ;
many of the condemned were reprieved from punish
ment, and the effects of the imperial clemency reached
also those culprits of the great political trial, the history
of which we have traced. The sentence awarded to
them by the emperor was mitigated by a final and
definitive commutation.
Lastly, on the same day was also published a mani
festo, signed as early as February 9 th (January 28 th),
1826, by virtue of which the emperor, warned by the
sanguinary catastrophe he had witnessed, wished to
provide against ab similar casualties in future. Con
firming the order of succession then in force, Nicholas,
" with the approbation" of his mother and the grand-
duke Constantine, declared by this act that, in case it
should please God to cab him to Himself before the
* "In granting the exemptions, immunities, and favours here de
tailed," says the manifesto, " we follow with pleasure the impulse of our
heart. May they be a guarantee of our constant solicitude for our faith
ful subjects ! May justice and impartiality reign in the tribunals ; order
and disinterestedness in the territorial and municipal administrations,
and freedom in trade : may industry acquire twofold emulation, and
agriculture activity ; may honesty be the guarantee of engagements ;
may the inviolability of property be respected ; but, above all, may the
fear of God and a solid and patriotic education of youth be the basis of
all hopes of improvement, and the first duty of every class." — See
"Journal de Saint Petersbourg," 1826, No. 106.

430 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
legal majority of his heir, the grand-duke Alexander
Nikolaidvitch,* the regency of the empire, as also of the
kingdom of Poland, and the grand principality of Fin
land, " which are inseparable from it," should belong to
the Grand-Duke Michael. H it should please God, after
the decease of the emperor, to cab also his successor
before he had attained his majority, the crown was to
pass by right to the second son, should there be one,f
and the same grand-duke was stib to be regent.
Lastly, if there should not exist any son of the emperor,
but his spouse should be enceinte, the regency should
be the same till the moment the empress was debvered.
If then a son were born, the crown would belong to
him by right, and the Grand-Duke Michael was stib to
be regent till the majority of the young prince ; but
should a grand-duchess be born, the crown was to de
volve immediately on the head of the regent. The
guardianship of all the chbdren of the Emperor Nicholas
was intrusted to the Empress Alexandra Foedorovna.
This most provident act has not been applied : the
czar still enjoys ab the vigour of a powerful constitu
tion, and around his throne are already grouped two
generations of princes of the greatest promise. But
this act was called for by circumstances ; it contributed
to restore confidence, which the cannon that was thun
dering on the south-eastern frontier had not the power
to disturb for a single moment.

* According to the pragmatic sanction of the 16th (5th) of April,
1707, the age of majority for the heir to the throne, is sixteen vears :
the Grand-Duke Alexander, born in 181 S, attained it in 1834. Other
grand-dukes do not attain their minority till twentv.
t At that period the Grand-Duke Constantine was not bom.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 431
For fifteen days all Moscow was occupied entirely
with festivities, which absorbed the city and the court ;
and ab classes of the population were in raptures of
delight, and on foot from morning till evening. The
multitude used to throng about the palace, where
audiences of state, continued for whole days, caused a
concourse of the gayest equipages, in which an extra
ordinary pomp of liveries was displayed. The upper
clergy, the court, the highest functionaries, the deputies
of the nobility and citizens, the generals and the supe
rior officers of the guard ascended into the palace by
turn ; but nothing could equal the splendour displayed
at the grand reception of the diplomatic body. There,
Asia met Europe, and it was forced to acknowledge on
this occasion that the latter also possesses wonders of
her own. A sumptuous banquet united the members
of the holy synod with the first two classes of the civil
service : it was like a signal given by the monarch for
all the rejoicings which were to follow each other in
the city for a whole month. During this period, there
was nothing but a succession of balls, masquerades,
theatrical representations, hunts, parades, and military
evolutions ; the body of the nobility, the board of
trade, the corporation of citizens, a few high dignita
ries, and the foreign ambassadors had the honour of
feasting the emperor and his family.* The monarch
himself treated, with royal profusion, the whole of the
* Moscow will long remember the entertainments given by the Duke
of Devonshire, the Duke of Ragusa, and old Prince Joussoupoff. The
ball of the Countess Orloff Tchesmenski is also not yet forgotten. A
description of these fites may be seen in M. Ancelot's " Six Mois en
Russie," p. 375, et seq.

432 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
people of Moscow, on the 28 th of September, in the
immense plain called Devitche-Pol4 where 240 tables,
each twenty yards long, were loaded with viands,
pastry, fruits, and large bowls of quass, the national
beverage of the Russians,* and surrounded with six
teen fountains flowing with wine and beer. Around
these tables, and between them, extended a whole city
of ephemeral constructions, ornamented with the most
fantastical and lively colours, Chinese pavilions, Turkish
kiosks, outlandish theatres, mountebank shows, many a
circus for riding or rope-dancing, seats and amphi
theatres covered with red cloth, besides swings and
Russian-mountains. The imperial pavbion, a large
glazed rotunda, commanded a view of ab these vast
preparations ; and at a short distance were raised seats
for the diplomatic body. More than 100,000 men,
dressed in the picturesque summer costume of the
mougik, with their fine thick-bearded countenances,
animated with eager desire, were forming an immense
ring around this banqueting-hab, in the open air,
ready to rush forward, and with great difficulty kept
within bounds, during the tedious hours of expectation,
by a long line of Cossacks armed with their nagaika,
and actively employed in using them. Impatience was
at its utmost, when, as twelve o'clock struck, the im
perial standard was hoisted on the centre pavbion : the
emperor had just arrived. On horseback, surrounded
by the princes, and fobowed by state carriages, in which
* Besides the roasted sheep, with gilt horns and silvered heads, and
the poultry and other viands, there was a profusion of dainty dishes on
every table, with 100 loaves of white bread (kalatchi) and 40 smaller
loaves of brown.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 433
were Alexandra Foedorovna and the whole of the im
perial family, Nicholas was received with a deafening
hourra. He rode through the long alleys which
separated those tables that seemed lost in the distance,
and, when he had reached his pavilion, the multitude
had already begun to break into the enclosure. But
as soon as he had uttered the words, " My children, all
this is your own !" the crowds broke loose : they threw
themselves furiously upon the tables, or rushed towards
the cascades and fountains, and in less than five minutes
not a vestige remained either of the latter or of the
tables. The table-cloths disappeared in a twinkling, as
well as the dishes : nay, the very amphitheatres were
stripped of their hangings of red cloth before the spec
tators had quitted them. The people had taken the
emperor at his word,
Several weeks had already passed since the day
of coronation, yet the festivities went on increas
ing; but their magic illusion was exhausted by their
very duration. At last, on the 4th of October, grand
fireworks, followed by a final general illumination, was
to denote the close of the festivities. The Grand-Duke
Michael, as grand-master of the artillery, gave them at
his own expense, and they were erected opposite to the
establishment of the pages, the vast halls of which
were filled with trophies and piles of arms. All classes
of the population assembled to witness this fSte. The
earth shot forth towards the sky myriads of new stars
and flaming comets; fiery suns burst forth rushing
furiously round and parching the atmosphere in their
rapid evolution, and the explosion of a mass of 52,000
rockets changed night into day, and filled the horizon
VOL. II. F F

434 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
with the magnificent spectacle of a universal shower of
fire. A moment before, a triumphal arch composed of
flaming meteors had appeared before the eyes of the
spectators, and upon its broad cornice they had read
the following inscription : —
" To Nicholas I. the Restorer of public Tranquillity.*"
A terrible detonation was then heard, fobowed by the
uninterrupted silence of night. This was the last act
of this long and noisy inauguration of a new reign.
This reign has been destined by Providence to un
dergo other trials; but, at that moment, nobody
thought of troubbng himself about unknown casualties.
The misfortunes which had darkened the early days of
the accession of Nicholas were entirely forgotten. Con
fidence generally restored had enabled everybody to
indulge in hilarity. Eager to partake of amusements,
by way of compensation for their long anxiety, the
people had rushed into the vortex of pleasure. Every
thing had been crowned with success. The festivities
and spectacles had been splendid in the extreme ; and
favours and recompenses had been abundantly lavished
upon all ranks of society. The memory of these things
would naturally be durable ; that of calamities was
obliterated ; and such has been the silence kept ever
since by the Russians relative to the events of 1S25,
that one is tempted at the present day to inquire
whether it be indeed true that they then narrowly
escaped one of the most imminent dangers to which an
empire can possibly be exposed.
We have given a faitliful account of all the particulars
* Nikotaiou pervomou, ouspokoitelyou Otetchesiva.

MOSCOW AND THE CORONATION. 435
of that crisis, adding to our narrative a description of
the state of the public mind, likely to enable it to be
the better understood, and to permit the sagacious
reader to calculate the chances of the future destiny of
a monarchy on which the attention of Europe is fixed,
with less hope perhaps than apprehension. May the
latter be proved, by the event, to be unfounded ; and
may the reign of tBb Emperor Nicholas become, after a
few years of preparation for it, what it gave promise to
be at its commencement, a period of interior organiza
tion and moral improvement !

F F 2

APPENDIX.

STUDIES, NOTES, AND EXPLANATIONS.
Note (1.) Page 98.
THE FAMILY OF THE PBINCES GALITSIN.
The nobility of the Russian empire, like its population in gene
ral, is composed of families of divers origins, Eussian, Polish,
Lithuanian, German, Swedish, Tartar, Georgian, Armenian,
Tcherkess, &c.
Among the Polish nobility, historical names are so very nume
rous that we cannot undertake to give a list of them ; but to the
higher aristocracy of the provinces now Russian* belong principally
the following : — Princes Radzivill, Sapieha, Sanguszko, Tablonow-
ski, Lubomirski, Droucki, Czetwertinski, &c. ; Counts Potocki,
Branicki, Grabowski, Wielhorski, &c.
Princes Giedroyc (pronounced Ghiedroitz), the descendants of the
Jagellons, more particularly represent Lithuania, properly so called,
of which they have remained, with Princes and Counts Oginski
and a few others, one of the most important families.
At the head of the German nobility of the Baltic provinces are
the families of Lieven, Medem, Sacken, Tiesenhausen, Essen, Toll,
Stackelberg, Budberg, Buxhcevden, Benkendorff, Ungern-Sternberg,
Sievers, Korff, Pahlen, Kayserlingk, and many others. The
Wittgensteins, Nesselrodes, and Munnichs belong to Germany,
properly so called.
Among the Swedish families, we may mention the Steinbocks,
Fersens, and Armfelds.
Princes Joussoupoff, Ouroussoff, Meschtcherski, and Doundoukoff
are of Tartar origin ; but their union with Russia is of such ancient
date that these families ought to be considered as entirely mingled
with the Russian nobility, properly so called. The case is not the
same with the Ghirai and a few other illustrious Mussulman
families ; the latter, dispossessed of the countries under their do-
* We do not speak of those who, like Prince Czartoryiski, have sepa
rated from Russia.

438 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
minion at a still recent period, have remained true to their
nationality. The Ghira'i, as is well known, are of the dynasty
that formerly reigned in the Crimea.
The countries where the Georgian language is spoken furnish a
considerable number to the higher nobility of the empire ; we may
mention the Czarevitch of Grousia and other members of the family
of Bagrath, the Dadianoffs of Mingrelia, and Princes Cherva-
chidze, Tchevtchevadze, Orbelianoff, Eristoff, Bagrathion, and
Tsitsianoff. The Lasareffs and a few more ancient families belong
to Armenia.
The Princes Tcherkasskoi settled in Russia several centuries,
having come from the country of the Tcherkesses, a few pchi or
princes of whom even now remaining in that country, might like
wise be reckoned among the nobility of the empire.
As to the Russian families properly so called, the essentially
national aristocracy, the case is the same as with the Polish
families ; and we should be led too far if we were to recount all
their illustrious names. The most important of these families,
and those which history has had to quote the most frequently, are
the following:— First, Princes Dolgorouki, Galitsin, Troubetzkoi',
Kourakin, and others of the race of Rurik; next, Counts and
Princes Saltikoff, Princes Lapoukhin, Cheremetieff, Tolstoi, Go-
lovin, Wormzom, Moussine-Pouschkin, Boutourlin, Naryschkirj,
Tchernycheff, Apraxin, Stroganoff, Roumantsoff, Panin, &c. Other
families, now very important, or who have been during the last
century, "such as Chouvaloff, Rasoumofski, Potemlrin, Orloff, and
Zouboff, are of much more recent celebrity.
Several of the families comprised in this still very imperfect
enumeration are subjects of short notices in the present work, and
it is our intention to give an account of the others hereafter in our
future publications on Russia.
We have mentioned at the head of all, those of Princes Dolgo
rouki and Galitsin : in fact, none are more important. To the
former, one of its members, Prince Peter Dolgorouki, has devoted a
learned monography in the Russian language. Without being able
to enter into such extensive details on the latter, we will attempt,
in our turn, to sketch its genealogy and history, in a notice whose
only merit will be that of a conscientious research, but which will
at least serve, we hope, to throw a light upon many points of the
general history of Russia.

The name of this family, which has long been well known in
our western part of Europe, is generally written GallUriii, but our
orthography is more in accordance with pronunciation. In Russia
il is written (•'u/i/syne ; for it is derived from golitsa, a long glove

APPENDIX. 439
or gauntlet, a surname borne by the first ancestor of this race, now
so numerous, and divided into so great a number of branches.
Like Princes Khavanski,* Koretzki, and Kourakin, the Galitsins
are descended from Narimund, the second son of Ghedimin, the
grand-prince of Lithuania in the fourteenth century ; t and again,
like the Kourakins, they consider themselves as sprung from Prince
George, great-grandson to Narimund, and son of Patrick, prince of
Zvenigorod, in Volhynia. This Prince George is said to have
taken to wife Anne, the sister of the Grand-Prince Vassili Vassi
lievitch Temnoi (The Blind).
But without going back to an origin so remote, and too much
obscured, perhaps, by the mists of time, we may consider Michael
Ivanovitch Boulgakoff, surnamed Golitsa on account of the kind of
skin mittens which he used to wear over his woollen gloves, as the
real ancestor of the family, — the common trunk to which all the
branches of his genealogical tree are attached. After being bo'iar
(in 1510) of the Grand-Prince Vassili Joannovitch, and voivode in
the war against the Crim Tartars, he next made a campaign
against the Poles, but was beaten, in 1514, by Prince Constantine
of Ostrog in the battle of Orcha. Being taken prisoner with his
brother Andrew, he was conducted to Wilna, where he remained
for a space of thirty-seven years in strict confinement, from which
he was at length liberated, being sent back in 1552, "out of re
spect for his loyalty and stoical firmness," according to the expression
used by the King of Poland in a letter to Joann IV. Vassilievitch ;
but on condition of returning to his confinement, should the peace
which the king was negotiating at Moscow not be concluded. In
fact it was not, and then Joann Vassilievitch permitted Michael
to fulfil his promise. It is stated that the boiar, wishing to devote
the remainder of his days to God, had become a monk at the
celebrated convent of Troitza, founded by St. Sergius. However
this may be, he set out on his journey back; but he died in 1556,
before he reached the King of Poland.
He left an only son, George Mikhailovitch, who had two sons.
Of the latter, the eldest, Ivan, was bo'iar and had a numerous line of
descendants, as we shall presently see ; the second son, Vassili,
was the father of an illustrious man ; but the latter died without
issue. This man is that Prince Vassili Vassilievitch Galitsin, of whom
we have spoken on several occasions in the preceding volume,
* In Russian it is likewise written, Khovanski.
t See '^Me'moires surl'Origine et la Ge'ne'alogie delaMaison des Princes
Gahtsin," with four genealogical tables, Frankfort and Leipsic, 1767,
32 pages, quarto. To the copy in the public library of Strasburg, is
annexed a MS. copy-book of corrections and additions, attributed to
Miiller, the historiographer of Russia during the reign of Catherine II.

440 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
and who was very near being raised to the throne of the czars.
After being voivode and bo'iar under Boris Godounoff, he was
defeated in 1604, with other Russian generals, by the army of
Demetrius, the impostor, at Novogorod-Severskoi. He then em
braced the cause of the impostor, who named him grand-master
of his court (vilikii dvoretzkii). He served also the Czar
Vassili Chouiski. After the dethronement of the latter in 1610,
the patriarch proposed Prince Galitsin to the choice of the council
that was again to provide for the vacant throne. But the dread
of the Poles, whose army, commanded by the famous Zolkiewiski,
was before the walls of the Kremlin, determined the election of
Vladislas Wasa, the king's son ; and Galitsin was one of the am
bassadors commissioned to proceed to him to announce this news.
Like Philaretes Romanoff, he was cast into a dungeon when
Cracow had been informed of the events that had taken place at
Moscow after their departure ; but, less happy than he, he never
recovered his liberty ; for he died in 1 6 1 9, a few months only
before the conclusion of the peace.
The race was, as we have said, continued by his uncle, Ivan
Iourievitch. The latter had two sons, Ivan and Andrew Ivano-
vitch, both boiars under Boris Godounoff. The second had also
two sons, bearing the same names, and both likewise boiars. The
younger, Andrew Andr6ievitch, the governor of Pskoff in 1598,
was declared boiar in 1638, and died in the month of October of
that year. He it was who, through his four sons, Vassili, Ivan,
Alexis, and Michael, became the stock of so many branches of the
family Galitsin, which, for the sake of perspicuity, we must trace
separately. FIBST BRANCH, CALLED VASSILI.
We know nothing about Vassili Andreievitch, except that he
died in 1 652, and was the father of the great Galitsin, the favourite
of the Tsarevne Sophia. As the latter performed an important
part in history, we ought to enter into a few particulars respecting
him. Vassili Vassilievitch, Prince Galitsin, was born in 1633, and re
ceived an education — at that period very uncommon, in his own
country and even elsewhere — for it comprised the study of Greek,
Latin, and German ; and if French did not also form a part, it is
because it was then only beginning to assume the character of a
universal language, being recommended to the attention of all men
by numerous fine works. Galitsin passed his youth at court, but
did not neglect to become perfect in martial exercises. At the
time of the accession of the Czar Fiiedor III. Alexeieviuh (1676),
Russia was at war with the Turks and the Criin Tartars respecting
the Cot-sacks of the Dnieper. The latter, after having submitted

APPENDIX. 441
to her dominion, had revolted at the instigation of Dorochenko, and
invoked the assistance of the Mussulmans. This war, the manage
ment of which was entrusted to Prince Romodanofski, was, for the
most part, concentrated about the city of Tchighirin. Here Galitsin
took an active part ; he contributed to bring the war to a happy
conclusion, and to secure the tranquillity of Lesser Russia. The
czar was grateful : he conferred on the prince the command of the
Cossacks, raised him to the dignity of bo'iar, and placed much con
fidence in him on every occasion. Galitsin sat among the lords
(velmoja) at first charged to direct the business of state in the
name of his youthful sovereign. The reign of the latter was agi
tated by the quarrels between the Miloslafskis and the Naryschkins :
he sided with the former, and was one of the chief instruments of
the downfall of the wise Matveieff, who was sent into exile.
Foedor charged Galitsin with the reorganization of the army,
where the pretensions of the nobles, by opposing their genealogy
and the list of the services of the members of their families at dif
ferent periods, to the exigencies of the military hierarchy, had in
troduced insubordination and confusion. Then it was that this
prince did a signal service to his country, by advising his master
to abolish for ever the hierarchy of ranks such as it was consecrated
under the name of mestnichestvo (state of places), and to commit to
the flames the registers called the books of the razriad (razriad kia
knighi). Before putting this important measure into execution, he
submitted it to the sanction of the prelates of the highest rank, the
natural councillors of the prince at that period, as also to that of
the principal boiars, and succeeded in this negotiation. The holo
caust took place on the 12th of January, 1682 (old style*), and
Galitsin persevering in the path of reforms, then prosecuted that of
the army.
Foedor died in the same year (1682) ; and then the quarrel be
tween the families of his father's two wives openly burst forth.
Jourii Miloslafski had no trouble in gaining over to his party the
Tsarevne Sophia, an ambitious, energetic, and highly intelligent
woman,t then twenty-four years of age, who was indignant at the
idea that young Peter, the son of Natalia Naryschkin, Alexis's
second wife, should be preferred to her half-brother Joann, who
was incapable of reigning by himself. Galitsin, devoted to the
same party, became councillor to the tsarevne, and was not a
stranger to the sanguinary revolt of the strelitz, which lasted three
days, from the 15th to the 18th of May, 1682. Nearly seventy
persons, among whom were two Naryschkins, brothers of the
* Throughout this work, the dates relate to the old style, unless when
the contrary is expressly mentioned.
t An original portrait of her exists in the museum of Versailles.

442 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Czarina Natalia, and the boiar Matveieff perished in that massacre.
Joann and Peter Alexei'evitch were placed together upon the
throne, and the regency was intrusted to Sophia, who kept it for
seven years.
All her actions were guided by the counsels of Galitsin, who was
called to the post of prime minister. The following were then his
official titles : keeper (ob&regatel) of the grand czarian seal, of the
great affairs of the empire and of embassies, intimate bo'iar (blijenii
boiarine), and governor of Novogorod the Great. His power was
immense ; but his hopes went still further : being the favourite of
the regent, he ventured to pretend to her hand, and, if his ambi
tious projects had been realized, he would have sat with her upon
the throne of Monomachus.* Circumstances were not favourable
to these designs. The strelitz were not yet appeased ; and soon
the murder of Khavanski, their leader, rekindled among them the
flames of insurrection. By the advice of her minister, Sophia and
her whole court took refuge in the monastery of Troitza, and her
firmness triumphed over the sedition of the militia. Nevertheless
she could not think of such a marriage : the prince was detested
by the strelitz as much as by the boiars ; besides which, he was
not the only one who enjoyed the favour of the regent.
On the 24th of April, 1 686, he signed, at Moscow, a very ad
vantageous treaty of peace with Poland : the latter renounced defi
nitively all the possessions she had already ceded to the predeces
sors of the two czars, and an alliance was agreed to between her,
Russia, the court of Vienna, and the republic of Venice, against
the Turks.
By virtue of this treaty war recommenced the very next year :
Galitsin, at the head of an army of 200,000 men, marched in per
son against the Crimea ; but he was not happy in two successive
campaigns, and returned without having obtained any signal result.
In 1689, that new revolution took place which wrested the
sway out of the hands of Sophia to bestow it at length upon the
youthful Peter, who was destined to use it in so remarkable a man
ner. In vain had Galitsin advised the regent to take refuge in
Poland : she was confined in a convent, and the favourite, after
striving in vain to move the young monarch, was himself cast into
prison. He was accused of having given Sophia the title of auto
crat, which she had indeed usurped, of having yielded blindly to
her orders, and of having occasioned serious losses to the country
in the last campaign in the Crimea. Being brought to trial in the
month of September, he was exiled, together with his son Alexis,
to Jarensk, a town in the northern government of Vologda : he
* Wo him' already seen that the Oalitsins had long befoie been
very ncai UM-cndiiig it. A no less brilliant prospect presented itself to
l he Dolgoroukis during the reimi of Peter 11.

APPENDIX. 443
was deprived of all his titles and honours, and all his wealth was
confiscated. A complaint, imprudently uttered, aggravated his
condition still more : being denounced by a monk, he was removed
in 1 693, to the fort of Poustozersk, in the frozen district of Mezen
(in the government of Archangel), whence he was allowed to re
turn no further than Pinega. There it was that the unfortunate
exile, then eighty years of age, ended his career on the 13th of
March, 1713.
In foreign countries he was called the Great Galitsin : he pos
sessed much intelligence and talent, and had established a regular
correspondence with almost all the courts of Europe ; his envoys
had been everywhere well received, and, during his administration,
the importance of Russia abroad was rapidly increasing. Nor
were his services at home less beneficial: he beautified Moscow,
where he caused numerous edifices to be constructed, among others
that of the stone bridge' over the Moskva; he invited thither
learned men, encouraged commerce and the importation of foreign
books, persuaded the nobles to send their sons to Poland or other
countries to familiarize them a little with the advantages of Euro
pean civilization, and seconded the endeavours of the regent, who
herself cultivated literature, to cause the arts and sciences to
flourish in a country where, in their absence, life had been till then
entirely material, dull, and monotonous.
Prince Vassili Vassilievitch left two sons ; the second, Michael
Vassilievitch did not long survive him, but Alexis, the elder, who,
during the time of his father's power, had been his coadjutor, and
whom Sophia had raised to the dignity of bo'iar, prolonged his
career till 1 734. Not only were the two brothers allowed to re
turn from exile, but Peter restored to Alexis a part of his inherit
ance, and the Empress Anne gave back to him at a later period
whatever still remained in the possession of the exchequer. Alexis
had children ; and the branch to which he belonged is still flourish
ing at the present day. Among his descendants we may mention
Prince Alexander Nikolaievitch, born in 1773, who became chan
cellor of the Russian orders.
SECOND BRANCH, CALLED IVAN.
This was the least flourishing of the four, and shortly became
extinct. Its founder, Ivan Andreievitch, had a son, Andre
Ivanovitch, a boi'ar like himself; but no other member of this
branch deserves to be mentioned.
THIRD BRANCH, CALLED ALEXIS.
It is this branch of the family Galitsin, as also the following one,
which has produced the greatest number of celebrated men.

444 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Prince Alexis Andrei'evitch, born in 1622, died in 1694: he
was governor successively at Kief and at Tobolsk, and obtained
the dignity of boiar. He left six sons and several daughters. The
most remarkable of his sons was the second, named Boris Alexeie-
vitch, born in 1641. After being grand cup-bearer during the
regency of Sophia, he was invested with the dignity of boiar, and,
soon after, the Czarina Natalia appointed him tutor (diadka) to
her son, on whom the licentious morals of the court had already
exercised their pernicious influence. According to certain versions
of Strahlenheim,* but we do not wish to be answerable for them,
Prince Boris, who is also described as learned, was "a lord of
much wit, but young and debauched." Here is certainly an error
as to age, and doubtless the case is the same as to morals ; for
Bergmann, an honest and indefatigable biographer of Peter the
Great, terms the governor of the young czar an honest man,t and
Prince Dolgorouki carries this praise still further.^ The versions
related by Strahlenheim are generally malevolent and exaggerated :
an opinion of them may be formed from those concerning Lefort
the Genoese.§ The same author relates how Prince Boris cured
his pupil of his antipathy to water ; but this anecdote is likewise
suspected. What is more certain is, that the tutor had great
influence over his pupil, and that the latter remained constantly
attached to him. At the time of his first journey abroad (1697),
he named him member of the council of the Five charged with
the government during his absence, and, in 1 700, he intrusted to
him the administration of the provinces of Kasan and Astrakhan.
Towards the close of his life, Boris resolved to devote himself to
God : he became a monk at Frolitcheff, near Gorokhovetz (Vladi
mir), and died soon after, in 1713. Boris left three sons and
several daughters.
His brother, Prince Peter Alexe'ievitch, was ambassador at
Vienna till 1705, and one of the first senators named in 1711.
Being appointed governor successively of Archangel, Riga, and
Kief, he regulated the organization of these different governments,
and was rewarded with the order of St. Andrew. He died at
* " Description Historiquc de l'Empire Russien,'' t. 1, p. 132.
t Nebst dcm rccht lichen Boris, &C. See " lVter der Grossc," &c,
t. 1, p. 169.
X Sbornick, or " Rccueil GOne'alogiquc Russc," li v. iii. p. 112.
§ See a notice of him in the " Encyclopedic des Gens du Monde."
Strahlenheim (t. i. p. 218) knew already, but less exactly, the story of
the little boat at Izinailoff, the starting point of the Russian navy. This
story was related hy Peter the Great himself in a kind of historical ac
count, written in Russian by his own hand, a document on which M.
Onstrialoff bus Intel v discoursed in the Academv of Sciences of St.
IVtcr.-dmrg (lecture oi the 16th of February, 1844).

APPENDIX. 445
Kief in 1 722. One of his daughters, Elizabeth Petrovna, married
general-in-chief Prince Alexander Alexandrovitch Menchikoff, who
died in 1764 ; a second was married to a dadian (of Mingrelia ?),
&c. ,
Another brother was Ivan Alexeie vitch, who died likewise in
1722. Like Boris and Peter, he left several children.
We have said that Prince Boris Alexeievitch Galitsin left a great
number of children. One of them, Vassili Borissovitch, who, born
in 1681, died in 1710, had in his turn a numerous posterity :
among his sons we may note Admiral Prince Boris Vassilievitch,
bom in 1705, and who died in 1768; and among the sons of the
latter, Vladimir Borissovitch, who was a brigadier in the army,*
and married, in 1766, Countess Natalia Tchernycheff, whose
father was ambassador to France in the reign of Catherine II.
This distinguished woman, born in 1741, refined by her long
residence abroad, and who attained the age of 96, was commonly
called the Princess Voldemar (Vladimir). Being lady of honour
d portrait to the present empress, honoured with the order of St.
Catherine of the first class, she enjoyed the entire confidence of
the imperial family, and her house was frequented by the most
select company of St. Petersburg. Although eighty years of age at
the time of the coronation of Nicholas, she performed the functions
of her office on that occasion, and her career was prolonged to the
20th of December (old style), 1837, two days after the burning of
the Winter Palace, the first stone of which she had seen laid in
the reign of the Empress Elizabeth.t
Among their children, Prince Dmitri Vladimirovitch, long go
vernor-general of Moscow, where he will ever be fondly remem
bered, deserves particular notice. He was born on the 29th of
October, 1771, entered the horse-guards, and, in 1794, served in
the campaign of Poland. His promotion was rapid. Being made
major-general in 1798, and lieutenant-general in 1802, he com
manded a division in the war against France from 1 806 to 1 807,
and another in the war against Sweden in 1 808. He then retired
from the service; but he re-entered it in 1812 to command the
heavy cavalry, distinguished himself at the battle of Leipsic, and
was promoted, at the time the allies entered Paris, to the rank of
general-in-chief. For some time he had the command of the first
corps of cavalry; but, in January, 1820, he was appointed to the
post of governor-general of Moscow, which he enjoyed till his
death. Moreover, he was called, in 1821, to sit in the council of
the empire. Honours of every kind were conferred on him : thus,
* It was a rank immediately next below that of major-general ; but
it has been abolished.
t It is well known that this palace was rebuilt in a year.

44G SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
as we have stated in vol. i., Nicholas bestowed on him, after his
accession, the grand riband of St. Andrew; in 1837, he gave him
his portrait, and his wife (whose maiden name was Vassiltchikoff)
was made a lady of honour. The following is the opinion formed
of him by one of his countrymen : " Prince Dmitri," says Count
d'Almagro,* " a loyal man of a chivalrous character, who com
manded with distinction different divisions of the army in the wars
of the Emperor Alexander, and has now been governor-general of
Moscow for twenty-three years, is the object of general veneration
there — to such a degree, that Moscow is the only capital in Europe
where the appearance of the cholera has not been signalized by
troubles, owing to the unlimited confidence which the inhabitants
of this city put in the prince." Being afflicted with a long and
painful illness, the general went to Paris in order to be treated by
the most skilful physicians ; he died there on the 8th of April,
1844 (new style).
Foedor Sergheievitch, another of the grandsons of Boris Alexeie
vitch, married also a Countess Tchernycheff (Anne), daughter of
the general-in-chief of that name. Their son Sergius Foedorovitch,
born in 1748, distinguished himself under Catherine IL by his
military achievements, which obtained for him the order of St.
George of the second class, and reached the rank of general of in
fantry. At the commencement of Alexander's reign he was mili
tary governor of Livonia. In 1802 he received the riband of St.
Andrew, and, in 1810, he was occupying Gallicia in the name of
Russia, when he died, leaving seven sons, one of whom, Vassili
Sergheievitch, became the second husband of the Princess Helena
of Italy, of whom we have already spoken.
Prince Alexander Nikolaievitch Galitsin, the friend of Alexander,
and minister of worship during his reign, is likewise one of the de
scendants of Boris Alexeievitch. He was born in 1 773, and when
still very young, was attached to the court ; after fulfilling for some
time the duties of attorney-general in the holy synod, he was called
by Alexander, in 1810, to the recently organized council of the
empire. Notwithstanding the liveliness of his character, he shared
the sentiments of his master, who, after the two campaigns in
France, indulged in those evangelical opinions (pietisme) which we
have mentioned in the preceding volume Notes (11) and (13).
After uniting public worship and public instruction in a single mi
nistry, Alexander intrusted it, in 1816, to Prince Galitsin, who
applied himself to the task of making religion flourish in the em
pire. But, by favouring the Bible societies, and prosecuting a
work of evangelization, on the basis of the Bible, he displeased tlie
* Prince P. Dolgorouki, " Notice sur les Piineipales Families de la
Knssie," p. 2S.

APPENDIX. 447
clergy, who went so far as to make remonstrances several times to
the emperor, and whose influence at length gained the upper hand.
The Bible Society,* founded in 1812, fell into disrepute; the
cause of the Greeks, of which the prince had been also a zealous
promoter, was likewise abandoned, and on the 27th of May, 1824,
he lost his double portfolio, soon replaced, however, by that of the
general direction of the posts, which allowed him to preserve his
seat in the council of ministers. He had attained the rank of
actual privy councillor ; and the Emperor Nicholas, who had con
ferred on him the grand riband of St. Andrew, and given him his
portrait, appointed him chancellor of the Russian orders, confirming
him in his other duties. The prince performed them all till the
year 1842 ; then his still increasing weakness of sight obliged him
to give in his resignation, and he withdrew to his estates in the
Crimea, where he died, almost blind, on the 4th of December,
1844 (new style).
To the branch of Alexis, but not to the line of Boris,t belonged
also Prince Dmitri Alexeievitch, who, in 1768, married the
daughter of Count Schmettau, a Prussian general. He cultivated
the arts and sciences, was a learned mineralogist, in correspondence
with Voltaire, a member of several academies, and the author of
several works. | Keralio, a contemporary, says of him : § "He
combines very extensive knowledge with the most simple manners,
the most obliging disposition, and the most polite and humane sen
timents." He was born in 1734, became actual chamberlain to
the Empress Elizabeth, was appointed minister plenipotentiary in
France in 1764, afterwards to the States-General at the Hague, and
died at Brunswick in 1803. His wife, the Princess Amelia
Galitsin, made herself celebrated in Germany by her love of litera
ture, and by her piety, which she carried to excess. She mainly
contributed to the conversion of Count de Stolberg, and determined
that of her son Dmitri, as also his voyage to America, where he
became a priest and missionary. Hemsterhuys, Hamann, Jacobi,
and Goethe were among her friends, and the former addressed to
her, in 1785, his Letter on Atheism. The French revolution
having put an end to the mission of her husband, she withdrew
with him to Germany. After the death of the prince, his widow,
who lived in retirement at Munster, died near that city, in 1806.||
* See further Note (10). t To that of Ivan Alexeievitch.
X See an article on him by M. Weiss, in the "Biographie Univer-
selle," and another in Sneghireff's " Dictionary of Profane Russian
Authors," (in Russian) t. i. p. 319.
§ " Histoire de la Derniere Guerre entre les Russes et les Tuics,"
t. ii. p. 150.
|| See, for an account of her, memoirs ( Denkwurdigkeiten) published
by Dr. T. Katerkamp, new ed., Munster, 1838, 8vo.

448 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Their son, Dmitri Dmitrievitch, born at the Hague, in 1770, ab
jured the schism,* as we have just said. His mother sent him to
America, where he entered the seminary of St. Mary at Baltimore,
and was consecrated a priest, on the 19th of March, 1795. Being
charged with the curacy of Conwago, in the province of Cambria,
he performed those humble duties with uncommon devotion till his
death, which happened on the 6th of May, 1840. Several other
princes Galitsin have changed their religion : we will mention first
the one whom the Empress Anne, by way of punishing him for his
abjuration, appointed, notwithstanding his being forty years of age,
page and court fool. It was for him, on the occasion of her second
marriage, celebrated with burlesque festivities (in 1739) that the
empress caused that palace of ice to be constructed, which, accord
ing to Manstein and others, occasioned so much surmise. We may
mention, moreover, Prince Peter Alexeievitch, born in 1 792, who
died in Paris in 1842.
Lastly, to the branch of Alexis belong also the two brothers, Paul
and Voldemar (Vladimir) Vassilievitch Princes Galitsin, who are
at this moment, — one grand-chamberlain and adjutant-general to
the Emperor Nicholas, and the other grand equerry to the empress.
FOUBTH BRANCH, CALLED MICHAEL.
Michael Andreievitch, the ancestor of this branch, who was born
in 1630, and died in 1687, was boiar and viovode of Koursk. He
had seven children, of whom four were sons, who are now succes
sively to engage our attention.
Dmitri Mikhailovitch, the eldest, born on the 3rd of June, 1665,
was bo'iar under Foedor Alexeievitch, and afterwards under Peter
the Great (1700-1702), ambassador at Constantinople, governor of
Kief and senator, with the rank of actual privy councillor. After
the death of this emperor, he was member of the privy council of
state, where his influence was very great. In 1727 he was
honoured with the riband of St. Andrew. " He was an eminent
statesman," says Count d'Almagro ; " he directed the finances of
the empire, and was the leader of that party which, having at its
head the two families Galitsin and Dolgorouki, wanted, at the

* Wo make use of the customary terms, without any intention of
censure. Abjuration has just been again prohibited in Russia, under
severe penalties, whicli apply to anybody who may have contributed to
such an act ; it is allowed only for embracing the orthodox Greek reli
gion. The ancient Russian toleration — to which, however, the clergy
never yielded hut hy compulsion — disappears now-a-days before the
system of unity, the realization of whieh the Emperor Nicholas pursues
by every possible means, both spiritual and political.

APPENDIX. 449
death of Peter II. in 1730, to place limits to the imperial power.*
This enterprise having failed, the two families that had conducted
it were exiled, and Prince Dmitri was confined in the fortress of
Schlusselbourg." The disgrace of the Galitsin family lasted through
out the reign of the Empress Anne. Dmitri, an old Russian,
averse to all the innovations successively taking place, easily re
signed himself to the hardships of captivity, and, says Manstein,
supported adversity with dignity. He died in confinement in
1 738 ; but his children were shortly after put into possession of all
the honours then become almost hereditary in their family.
His brother, Michael Mikha'ilovitch, was the famous field-mar
shal, companion in arms of Peter the Great, and one of his lieu
tenants at the battle of Pultava. This Prince Galitsin, who was
born on the 1st of November, 1675, and died on the 10th of
December, 1730, is the most illustrious of the members of this
family. His life is well known,f therefore we need not copy it
here. " As loyal and magnanimous as he was valiant," says
Prince Dolgorouki, " he won the esteem both of his fellow-country
men and of his enemies." He left seventeen children : we shall
presently advert to a few of his sons ; and as to his daughters, we
may mention at once that one of them hecame the wife of Field-
Marshal Count Roumantsoff.
The third son of Michael Andreievitch was a lieutenant-general.
The fourth, born in 1685, was, like the second, named Michael
Mikha'ilovitch, to which is added the epithet of the younger.
Being intended for the navy, he went to qualify himself for this
career in Holland and England. After having fought for the first
time under Peter the Great, he was promoted by Catherine I. to
the rank of rear-admiral. This princess employed him, moreover,
in high political functions ; she appointed him senator and member
of the privy council of state. In this last capacity he was the
second of the plenipotentiaries sent to Mitau to offer the imperial
crown to the Duchess-Dowager of Courland, Anna Jvannovna.
Under this princess of the elder branch he became president of the
college of justice and member of the high administration of the
navy. During the following reign, after having been (in 1740)
governor of Astrakhan, he was sent, with the title of grand-ambas
sador, into Persia, where he remained four years. His recompense
was the riband of St. Andrew. Lastly, in 1756, he was again
appointed, by the Empress Elizabeth, general admiral and president
of the college of the admiralty. Prince Michael Mikbailovitch
Galitsin died on the 23rd of May, 1 764, leaving several sons, the
* This again would be a curious point to clear up, and we will do so
on the first opportunity : there is an abundance of matter.
t See Bantysch-Kamensky's " Siecle de Pierre le Grand," French
transl., Paris, 1826, 8vo., p. 115-197.
VOL. II. 6 a

450 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
eldest of whom, Alexander Mikha'ilovitch, who, born in 1723, died
in 1807, was successively minister-plenipotentiary at London and
vice-chancellor of the empire ; whilst the fourth, Peter Mikha'ilo
vitch, born in 1738, served with distinction in the war of Poland,
and in that against Pougatcheff. After attaining the rank of
brigadier-general, he was killed in a duel in 1575. The third son,
Michael Mikha'ilovitch, born in 1731, and chamberlain to the em
press, had twelve children, of whom five were sons ; among the
latter, we will mention Sergius Mikha'ilovitch the youngest of all.
But let us now come to the sons of the celebrated companion in
arms of Peter the Great. We pass by the two elder, of whom one
was a lieutenant-general, to bestow our attention immediately on
the one who, like his father, received the staff of marshal. Alex
ander Mikha'ilovitch was born on the 17th of November, 1718;
his mother was a princess of the Kourakin family. When still
very young he entered the military career, and made his first
appearance in arms, as a volunteer, in the army of Prince Eugene,
when, in 1733, that great captain, then very old, once more left
his retirement to command an imperial army on the Rhine, in the
war concerning the succession in Poland. However, peace was
concluded as early as 1735; then the young Russian officer, in
order to make his leisure of some use, turned his attention to
diplomacy. In 1740 he formed a part of the embassy to Constan
tinople, the head of which was Alexander Ivanovitch Roumantsoff ;
he was appointed, a few years afterwards, plenipotentiary at
Dresden, and received also the title of chamberlain. However,
his first inclination, a military life, having again become predomi
nant, he re-entered the army, with the rank of brigadier-general
(1740), and served successively under Marshals Munnich and
Lascy. He was made lieutenant-general at the commencement of
the Seven Years' war, where he distinguished himself, received a
wound, and was rewarded with the rank of general-in-chief
(ghenfaal point i) : Elizabeth conferred on him moreover, in 1759,
the riband of St. Alexander Nevski.
After the death of this empress, Prince Alexander Galitsin had
the command of the united army in Livonia; he did not hesitate
to declare for Catherine II. as soon as the revolution of 1762 had
placed her upon the throne ; accordingly he was in great favour
with her for the rest of his life. On the day of her coronation she
created him a knight of St. Andrew, and in 1768, when, after
thirty years' peace, Russia was obliged to take up arms against
the Turks, she intrusted to him the command of the army en
camped on this side of the Dniester.
It was Poland, us everybody knows, that occasioned the rupture
between the two powers. Catherine, not satisfied with placing
hor former lover, Stanislaus Poniatowski, upon the throne of the

APPENDIX. 451
republic, oppressed the unhappy country where her representative,
Prince Nicholas Repnin, exercised an absolute authority. The
confederation of Bar having formed itself to defend the national
independence, Russia sent immediately her troops against it ; the
Porte, on its part, jealous of the influence of the Russians, which
was almost exclusive of every other, sided with the confederates,
whose precipitate retreat occasioned a violation of their frontier.
Catherine II., writing to the philosopher of Ferney (Voltaire),
gave an account of this war in a somewhat burlesque manner. " In
the month of October (1768)," says she, " Mustapha thought
proper to declare war against Russia ; he was no better prepared
for it than we were. When he was informed that we were de
fending ourselves vigorously, he was quite astonished, for he had
been led to expect* many things that did not come to pass. Then
he ordered that one million one hundred thousand men should
repair from the different provinces of his empire to Adrianople to
take Kiovie (Kief), winter at Moscow, and overwhelm Russia.
" Moldavia alone received orders to furnish a million of bushels
of corn for the innumerable army of Mussulmans. The hospodar
replied that Moldavia did not gather so much even in the most
fertile year, and that it was impossible. But he received a second
command to execute the orders given, and he was promised some
money. " The train of artillery for this army was in proportion to the
multitude. It was to consist of 600 pieces of cannon, which were
assigned from the arsenals ; but when the time came to put them
in motion, the greater number was left behind, and about sixty
pieces only were carried off.
" At length, in the month of March (1669), more than 600,000
men were assembled at Adrianople. But as they were absolutely
in want of everything, they soon began to desert. However, the
vizier crossed the Danube with 400,000 men. There were 180,000
of them before Choczim (Khotin) on the 28th of August. You
know the rest. But what you do not know, perhaps, is, that the
vizier was the seventh who passed back over the bridge on the
Danube, and that he had not 5,000 men when he retreated to
Balada. So this was all that he had left of that prodigious army.
Those who had not perished had fled."
For our readers, who are doubtless not so familiar with these
events as a contemporary might be, who was attentive to all that
was passing, it will be proper to add a few explanations, borrowed
from serious history.
The empress had caused two principal armies to be assembled ;
one, called the first army, on the Dniester, to prevent the Turks
* The empress doubtless means the French ambassador. gg2

452 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
from joining the Polish confederates ; and the other, called the
second army, on the frontier of the Khanat of the Crimea, in order
to oppose the incursions of the Tartars ; bodies of troops, were
moreover, sent on the Kouban and into the isthmus of the
Caucasus. The first army was intrusted to the command of
Prince Galitsin, and the second to that of Count Roumantsoff,
who, like him, then held only the rank of general-in-chief.
The campaign of 1769 was not decisive. The vizier sought to
penetrate into Podolia, but Galitsin blocked up his road near
Khotin.* He crossed the Dniester in April, attacked the Turkish
outposts almost under the fire of the fortress, and gained an advan
tage which seemed propitious for the sequel of events. Khotin
was immediately invested ; but in the beginning of August, the
prince abandoned the blockade and repassed the Dniester. Cathe
rine II., in her letters to Voltaire, alleges the want of forage as the
motive for this step ; others have thought that the prince, although
a good soldier on the whole, and full of courage and honour, was
nevertheless wanting perhaps in energy at that moment, and too
much inclined to yield to difficulties. Soon afterwards the fortress,
abandoned by its commandant, was taken by the Russians ; but
this did not prevent Galitsin from receiving an order to give up
the command of his army to Roumantsoff. Perhaps the reports of
Potemkin, one of his generals, and the enmity of Orloff, contributed
somewhat to this disgrace ;+ but the great success of the Russians
in the following campaign, the victories gained by Roumantsoff on
the Larga and the Kagoul, justified the measure taken by the
empress. Till then, the war had been but feebly conducted : to
form a true idea of it, said Frederick the Great, " we must imagine
a set of one-eyed men thrashing a number of blind men, and at
length mastering them completely."
However, the prince did not the less enjoy the esteem of his
sovereign. In writing to him her letter of recall, she took the
greatest care to remove every idea of humiliation : she wanted him
* Choczym in Polish.
t Wo read in the " Vie du Prince Potemkine," p. 23, that this future
favourite "affected, in his private correspondence with Gregory Orloff,
to depreciate this estimable general and to blame his operations. Per
haps his aim was twofold : to please Orloff and obtain the recall of
Galitsin, whom he would have replaced for the rest of the campaign."
The author adds : " Marshal Giililsin was not onlv an excellent general,
but a man of well-tried honesty, whose loyalty did not allow him to mix
himself up in court intrigues. His wife, a Princess Gagarin by birth, was
the real cause of the quarrel that existed between her husband and the
Orloffs. She was equally endowed with intelligence and virtue. Never
fearing to tell her opinion to the court with a firmness and freedom whicli
caused her to be respected and dreaded, she had displeased the Orloffs
by her noble candour.

APPENDIX. 453
about her person, she said;* and when he arrived at her court,
the empress handed to the conqueror of Khotin the staff of field-
marshal, which Roumantsoff did not receive till the year following.
She promised him he should be actively employed again, and
appointed him in the meantime governor-general of St. Petersburg.
She included him also among the first knights grand-cross of the
order of St. Vladimir, which she had founded. The Princess
Galitsin, who had been lady of honour ever since 1773, was much
esteemed at court, where her husband himself never ceased to
receive the most gracious welcome.
The field-marshal died on the 11th of October, 1783, leaving be
hind him a well-merited reputation, which, however, did not equal
his father's.
The first Field-Marshal Galitsin had had other sons, among
whom Dmitri Mikhailo vitch, the fourth, deserves to engage, for a
moment, our attention. Born in 1721, and married to a Princess
Kantemir, the daughter of the hispodar of Wallachia, -r he devoted
himself to diplomacy, after having been promoted in the military
career to the rank of major-general, and represented for thirty years
(from 1761 to 1792) his court at Vienna, where he acquired a re
putation for ability and the most loyal character. He negotiated
with Austria concerning the first partition of Poland, and put his
signature to several important treaties. He was esteemed by
Prince de Kaunitz, and enjoyed also the entire confidence of
Catherine II., who loaded him with honours, raised him to the
rank of actual privy councillor, and conferred on him successively
the grand riband of St. Vladimir, and that of St. Andrew. As old
age approached, Prince Dmitri demanded to be superseded ; but he
remained at Vienna, where he died on the 1 9th of September,
1793. In his will he left a sum of 850,000 roubles for the foun
dation of an hospital at Moscow, which was to be constantly under
the management of a member of his family. This vast mansion,
open to the sick ever since 1802, bears his name, and is reckoned
among the most curious monuments of the old capital of Russia.
Of the two younger sons of the first Field-Marshal Galitsin, one,
Nicolas Mikha'ilovitch was grand-marshal of the court ; and the
other, Andre Mikha'ilovitch, major-general. They both left
children. To the Michael branch lastly belongs Prince Sergius Mikhailo-
vitch Galitsin, the son of Michael Mikhailovitch, as we have
already stated. He was born in 1774, and has arrived at the
highest offices of government under the Emperor Nicholas, who
* See Bantysch-Kamenski, " Dictionnaire," &c, t. ii. p. 49.
T She died at Paris in 1761. She was sister to the celebrated Prince
Antiochus Kantemir.

454 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
conferred on him, in 1829, the rank of actual privy councillor,
raised him to the council of the empire in 1837, and made him,
the following year, knight of St. Andrew. " He is at this mo
ment," says Count d'Almagro, " the last specimen of that race of
great lords which is gradually disappearing, and which will soon
exist only in the traditions of Russia."

Note (2), Page 67.
THE FAMILY OF ORLOFF AND THE CONSPIRACY OF 1762.
The terrible rebellion of the Strelitz, which took place in Mos
cow in 1698, during the absence of Peter I. is well known. That
desperate attempt, made at the instigation of the priests against
the reforms of the youthful czar, was very similar to the insurrec
tion of the janissaries, at Constantinople, which, in 1826, occa.
sioned the destruction of that turbulent militia. False reports had
been circulated. "The czar," it was said, ''is approaching the
frontiers with an army recruited from abroad ; he wants to insure
the success of his innovations by force of arms ; there will be a total
change ; it will no longer be lawful to wear beards ; the odious
practice of tobacco will infest the whole country ; and the nation
will have to submit to other commands no less contrary than these
to reason, conscience, and holy religion." In a short space of time,
20,000 men, preferring death to what they called heresy, had risen
in arms,

*

However, Generals Gordon and Schein crushed the rebellion, and
a terrible chastisement awaited the conquered. Sophia, the former
regent, had a narrow escape from the scaffold ; but several priests
suffered this punishment, and hundreds of the unfortunate strelitz,
likewise condemned to death, perished by the axe of the execu
tioner, or were hung on a long line of gibbets in the plain of Pre-
obrajensk. Most of them met their death with courage : they
were convinced they had fought the good fight; the priests had
consecrated their arms and urged them to battle. Therefore, they
died contented, sure of finding their reward among the joys of
paradise. Peter had just arrived at Moscow, on his return from his long
journey. Yielding to the impulse of his violent character, and
determined moreover, to prevent all chance of a reaction, he shewed
himself implacable, hastened on the sentences, and increased the
* See Kurb's " Duirium ltinciis in Moscoviam," Vienna, 1700, folio.

APPENDIX. 455
number of the victims. In his opinion, it was necessary to make
a terrible example. In vain did the patriarch, holding a holy
image in his hands, come to implore his clemency. " What do you
want ? What means this image ?" exclaimed the angry czar.
" Go, and put it back in its place ! I revere the holy Mother of
God perhaps more fervently than you do ; but I know also my
duty, which teaches me to watch over the safety of my people, and
to punish the audacious, whoever they be, who revolt against the
order established in my empire."*
Vengeance, therefore, took its course, and the work of the exe
cutioner lasted for whole weeks. Not satisfied with being a spec
tator, Peter took his share of the sanguinary task, and cut off heads
with his own hand.
But even when under the axe, the strelitz would still protest
their innocence. Peter heard them. " Die, villain !" said he to
one of these brave men ; " if you be not guilty, may your blood be
on my head !"
They laid their heads on long beams, which served as a block
for whole ranks. One of the culprits, who was drawing near, find
ing the czar in his way : " Room, lord," cried he, " I must lay my
head there !" This unhappy man lost his life ; but another owed
his salvation to a proof of similar sang froid.
This was a young strelitz. Just as he was going to kneel down
before the fatal block, he saw it was encumbered with the head of
one of his companions. He is said to have kicked it away, saying,
" This is my place I it must be clear." Peter observed the act,
and, being struck with the young man's calmness, granted him a
pardon ; afterwards he placed him in a regiment of the line, where
the strelitz shortly so distinguished himself that he acquired the
rank of officer, and consequently the title of noble.
This strelitz was named Ivan, and surnamed Orel,f that is to
say "the eagle." He was the author of the family Orloff.
His son Gregory Ivanovitch rose to the rank of major-general,
and was intrusted with the administration of the government of
Novogorod. He had five sons, two of whom especially acquired
great celebrity. "It would be difficult," says the Empress
Catherine II., in a letter to Voltaire,! " to decide which of them
has the higher merit, or to find a more united family." This was
said, it is true, at the time when Gregory Orloff, whom she names
in another letter,§ was in very high favour : " that hero," she says,
"who resembles the ancient Romans in the best days of the
* Korb, " Diarium," p. 112.
t Pronounced Areol. The word Orloff is pronounced Arhff.
X No. xxix. in the " Recueil."
§ No. xvi. in the " Recueil."

456 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
republic, and who is endowed with their courage and generosity."
Doubtless, gratitude and passion contributed to the dictation of this
magnificent eulogy, which we must not understand too literally.
The education of the Orloffs does not appear to have been bril
liant ; for not one of them was completely master of the French
language, which was almost exclusively in use at the court of St.
Petersburg during a considerable period of the last century. How
ever, neither of them was entirely devoid of merit ; several, and
especially the youngest, had a taste for study ; most of them were
remarkable for amiable qualities, and an unaffected cordiality,
allied, nevertheless, to a certain dignity of manner.
The eldest, Ivan Grigorievitch, a man without ambition, was
little dazzled by the sudden elevation of his family, and remained
always far away from court ; accordingly, his brothers surnamed
him the philosopher. Catherine II., on her accession to the throne,
made him a senator. This is all we know about him.
The real founder of the fortune of the Orloffs was the second
brother, Gregory Grigorievitch, the only one among them who
was invested with the title of prince ; whereas they all received
at once, in 17 02, the title of count.
He was born in 1734, and was remarkable for his manly
beauty. Like his father he embraced the military career, and on
leaving the corps of cadets, entered the guard with the grade of
lieutenant. Having been named aide-de-camp to Count Peter
Chouvaloff,* grand-master of the artillery and the inventor of a
kind of shell which bore his name, Orloff devoted himseK entirely
to this branch of the service. But his studies did not take him
from the pleasures of the world ; and the Seven Years' war had
not the power to keep him long away from the brilliant society of
St. Petersburg. He was fond of displaying there his physical
advantages ; accordingly his handsome countenance was what
contributed chiefly to his success. Chouvaloff very soon re
pented of the choice he had made in taking him for his aide-de
camp ; he discovered an intrigue between him and his own mis
tress^ and, in his anger, vowed the ruin of the young officer.
Meanwhile, this affair made so much noise that it drew upon
Orloff tho attention of the grand-duchess, the consort of Peter
Fiieilorovitch, the heir of the Empress Elizabeth.
At that period morals were generally loose, and libertinism in
high favour ; throughout Europe the most deplorable examples
were given to tlie people from the throne, and the immodesty of
the women was unbounded. Catherine, who had, at first, been
* He died in 1762, a few months after being appointed field-marshal
by Pel ei III.
t A Princess Kmuakin, the sister of the minister Panin.

APPENDIX. 457
attached to her duties, had allowed herself to be seduced by the
conduct of her husband towards her: after having had a first
lover, she had become passionately enamoured of Stanislaus
Poniatowski. It was at the time of her intimacy with him, that
Orloff had appeared before her for the first time, bringing from
Germany a prisoner of note, Count de Schwerin, aide-de-camp to
the King of Prussia.* She had scarcely noticed him ; for the
youthful Pole then held possession of her heart. But the latter
was removed from her, and, after a short time, forgotten. Then,
dazzled by Orloffs handsome mien, elegant dress, and martial air,
she testified extreme benevolence towards him, and sought imme
diately to have him about her person. The gallant aide-de-camp
was admitted to the intimacy of the princess, but, under the veil
of secrecy, and succeeded completely in gaining her affections.
She caused him to be appointed treasurer of the artillery, by
Villebois, grand-master of that branch of service, and successor of
Chouvaloff, who had died shortly before.
At the moment of the revolution of 1762, Gregory Orloff, then
twenty-eight years of age, had not yet any other rank ; his in
fluence over the guard could not therefore be very great ; besides
which, he had not the support of a rich and powerful family in
his favour. But he was ambitious, and supported by three of his
brothers, who were no less so ; altogether they possessed numerous
friends, especially in the artillery corps ; and among these friends,
Potemkin, a young officer in the guards, was of great use to them,
from his connection with the popes or priests. Gregory was,
moreover, among the intimate friends of a young lady of elegant
manners and well informed, connected with the highest nobility
and intimate with all the most influential men at the court and
in the cabinet of the Empress Elizabeth, but, at the same time,
intriguing, of strong passions, and capable of sacrificing every
thing to her offended dignity.
This young woman was the Princess Catherine Daschkoff,t by
birth Countess Woronzow. Being the friend of the grand-duchess
(Catherine), and the confidant of all her plans, and, on the other
hand, the sworn enemy of the grand-duke, through her jealousy
of her sister Elizabeth Woronzow, Peter's mistress, who, it was
said, would one day be raised to the throne, the princess had long
been meditating the destruction of the imprudent heir to the
empire, who was, at the same time, hostile to the clergy, disdain
ful towards the army, partial to none but Prussians, and, in a
word, averse to everything national. She became the soul of a
plot framed for this purpose, and Orloff was her principal instru-
* Taken at the battle of Zomdorf, in 1758.
t See our article on her in the " Encyclopedic des Gens du Monde."

458 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ment. She had, moreover, found auxiliaries in every quarter :
we read in a diplomatic despatch of the time, that there was
scarcely any distinguished statesman at St. Petersburg who was
not implicated, to a certain degree, in this conspiracy. Panin,
the minister of foreign affairs, loved the Princess Daschkoff as his
own daughter, and felt only contempt for the ineptitude of Peter :
Count Cyril Rasoumofski, the hetman of the Cossacks, likewise
entered into the views of the friend of the grand-duchess, and the
same may be said of the two Counts Tchernycheff, Prince
Volkonski, Baron Stroganoff, Count de Bruce, and several other
personages of the court.
During a reign of six months, Peter III. had set a great part
of the nation against him ; he had hardly any other supporters
than Field-Marshal Munnich, and a few thousand men forming
his own corps of Holstein troops. Whilst he was shutting him
self up at Oranienbaum, deliberating with a few friends on the
means of appeasing the storm which he perceived to be brewing,
the Princess Daschkoff was actively prosecuting her designs.
Peter had just caused Passek, an officer in the guards, to be
arrested, for having uttered suspicious language ; this measure
made the conspirators understand the necessity of preventing
other arrests that might be taken against them. They assembled
at the house of the princess, and it was decided that the insurrec
tion should begin immediately.
On the 8th of July (June -7th), 1762, a post-chaise departed
from the capital at eleven o'clock at night for the palace of Peter-
hoff, where Catherine resided.* The traveller was a man in dis
guise, and no other than Gregory Orloff, t who, being acquainted
with the most secret parts of that residence, was able to enter it
without exciting attention. He alighted at a private spot, and
hastened to the empress to inform her of what was passing, and
to assure her that everything was ripe for a revolution. At this
news Catherine did not hesitate an instant ; she disguised herself
in her turn, ordered her confidential waiting-woman to follow
her, descended with the young Grand-Duke Paul by a secret
staircase, and entered the chaise, which instantly returned by the
same road to St. Petersburg, where OrlofFs brothers and the other
* Independently of Rulhierc and different histoiies of Peter III., the
reader may consult, on this head, Castera's " Histoire de Catherine II.,"
t. i. p. 312, et seq.
\ According to other accounts, especially those of Rulhierc and Ca*-
te'ra, it was Alexis Orloff. Gregory, according to them, had passed the
night in lulling into security the vigilance of Peter's agent charged to
keep watch over the conspiiatms, and had remained playing and drinking
with him till after midnight. After which he had gone to meet the
grand-duchess.

APPENDIX. 459
conspirators came forth to meet her. It was seven o'clock in the
morning when they entered the town.
Handfuls of gold had been distributed among the different
regiments of the guard, and copious draughts of brandy had
bound the soldiers more firmly to their commanders. The first
visit was paid to the quarters of the regiment of Izmailoff, of
which Count Rasoumofski was colonel, and whither the Princess
Daschkoff had repaired, on her side, surrounded by her partisans.
The example of the companies that they had already gained over,
and the voice of the priest who received their oath, prevailed
upon the entire corps, which was shortly joined by other regi
ments of the guard. Villebois, uncertain at first, finally declared,
also, for Catherine. The inhabitants of the town were awakened
by the report of a revolution. Rasoumofski conducted Catherine
to the cathedral of Our Lady of Kasan, where the clergy were
desirous of a change. The Archbishop of Novogorod seconded
the enterprise; arrayed in his sacerdotal robes and surrounded
by priests, he welcomed the grand-duchess, proclaimed her em
press-regent, and her son Paul heir to the throne ; after which he
gave out the Te Deum* Catherine was accompanied by an
applauding multitude as far as the palace, where she immediately
received the homage of the court, the functionaries, and the
leaders of the army then present in the citadel. They published
in the streets of the town that the emperor had been killed
accidentally, and that his widow would assume the reins of
government, as the guardian of her son. She, however, was fully
resolved to reign on her own account, and notwithstanding the
state of her figure,t she mounted on horseback, after having
dressed herself in the uniform of the chevalier-guards. Followed
by a brilliant escort she then presented herself boldly before the
troops, by whom she was received with loud and continual hourras,
in which the people joined.
Her party increased every hour, and regiments arrived from
without, declaring in her favour. The abdication of the em
peror was announced in a manifesto j and a party of troops was
sent to Oranienbaum in order to arrest that unfortunate prince,
who was incapable of saving himself by any energetic resolution.
It is well known that he was put to a cruel death a few days after
wards. This audacious enterprise, almost unparalleled in history, on
account of the two principal personages of this sanguinary drama
being so closely connected, had just been crowned with the most
* Bqje tsara khrani.
t The child to which she gave birth, and of which Orloff was the
father, received later the title of Count Bobrinski. See Castera, t. ii.
p. 231, and t. iii. p. 104.

460 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
complete success. A proclamation, of which nobody was the
dupe, says a contemporary, the Count de Segur,* attributed the
violent death of Peter III. to the decrees of Providence, and to an
illness of which he was said to have had frequent attacks.
" It was by this strange concurrence of events," adds the
French diplomatist, " that the daughter of a petty German prince
became the sovereign of a great empire. Catherine II. escaping a
divorce and a prison, and reaching the throne by the address of
an acute mind and the efforts of a few bold conspirators, managed
to maintain herself upon that dangerous throne, by displaying
the prudence of an enlightened genius, and the firmness of a
superior character."
Next to the empress, it was the Orloff family that derived the
greatest advantages from the change. Catherine, prodigal in
rewarding all those by whose help she had gained the throne,t was
especially so towards the man whom she loved. Gregory Orloff,
already honoured with the riband of St. Alexander Nevski, was
at once promoted to the rank of major-general, and, at the same
time, appointed to the dignity of chamberlain : the empress made
him, as also his brothers, a present of several hundreds of serfs,
and, on the 22nd of September, she conferred on them all the
title of count. With respect to Gregory, she went still further,
naming him successively her general aide-de-camp, commander of
the chevalier-guards and lieutenant-colonel of the horse-guards,
general-in-chief and grand master of the artillery. £ Being an
acknowledged favourite, he had a residence close to the palace,
and his seat on the steps of the throne. She caused the marble
palace to be built for him, and bestowed on him the entire pro
perty of the castle of Ropcha with 4000 peasants ; besides which,
he alone, at that period, had the right of wearing the portrait of
Catherine on his breast.
Thus loaded with dignities and riches, and consulted by the em
press on every important occasion, Gregory was the second person
in the empire. Then, perceiving how incomplete his education
had been, he endeavoured to remedy it by every kind of study.
He had much talent ; but, being naturally frivolous, he could not
endure any long application ; he had but little taste for business,
and was devoid of that well-regulated mind which its manage
ment requires. As to the rest, he was polite, benevolent, and
* " Memoires on Souvenirs et Anecdotes," t. ii. p. 207.
t The Princess Daschkoff was honoured with the riband of St. Ciithc-
riuc ; hut she wanted also to be named colonel of the Prcubrajensk
regiment. Being vexed at the refusal she receiied on this point, she
was offended witli the empiess, and withdrov to Moscow.
X In 17<il>, in place of Villebois

APPENDIX. 461
affable to everybody ; and his gentle, good-natured, easy disposi
tion was calculated to make him beloved by the court.
His connexion with the empress lasted a long time. Seriously
enamoured of him, she had some idea of consecrating this attach
ment by a secret union. But being more ambitious on this
point than he was covetous of power, the grand-master of the artil
lery is said not to have accepted the proposal that was made to him.
Believing himself sure of Catherine's affections, and relying on
the attachment of the guard ; supported moreover by his brothers,
who had likewise a powerful party, he raised his views as high as
the throne, and ventured to demand that the marriage should be
made known. Perhaps he would have obtained his object, had it
not been for the constant opposition of Catherine's principal
councillors, Panin, Tchernycheff, Rasoumofski, and Woronzow,
but especially had it not been for certain acts of misconduct
which a woman, even though not of supreme rank, can scarcely
forgive. Catherine was keenly alive to this ; and Orloffs ene
mies, who noticed it, took advantage of this state of her feelings
to give him a rival.
After eight years of happiness, sometimes interrupted by
quarrels — wounded pride, perhaps, lassitude also — Catherine gra
dually estranged herself from her too confident favourite ; and, in
spite of the empire which events had given him over her, she
ultimately thought of removing him.
Though disappointed in his hopes, Gregory Orloff did not
renounce that of adorning his brow with a crown. He conceived
at first the project of creating a kingdom for himself on the
shores of. the Caspian Sea ; next, he meditated raising Greece into
an independent state for his own profit, and, for this purpose,
turned all the efforts of Russian policy against Turkey.
Gregory's noble conduct, when the plague was desolating Moscow,
in 1771, rekindled for a moment in the heart of Catherine the
tender passion which she had formerly entertained. The duty he
was then performing was not free from danger : not only was the
distemper contagious and spreading further and further with
frightful rapidity, without the physicians being able to find any
remedy, but it had also excited violent feelings among the people
and inspired them with the most superstitious fears. Orloff,
naturally kind-hearted,* had also the courage to go and brave both
the plague and the superstition.t He arrived too late at Moscow

* " He hated nobody, though he was much hated." — Castera, t. ii.
p. 233.
t In one of Catherine's letters to Voltaire (xciv.), she assures him
that the grand-master had entreated, as a favour, to be sent to Moscow,
in order to see on the spot what were the most suitable arrangements

462 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
to save the life of the worthy Archbishop Ambrosius,* but he
immediately took the wisest measures. " He prohibited," says
Castera,t " and prevented every kind of meeting. He visited him
self those who were attacked by the malady, procured them the
assistance they needed, and took especial care to order the sur
geons and officers by whom he was seconded, to cause the clothes
of the patients, who died victims of this terrible scourge, to be
burnt in their presence. The malady yielded at length to
Gregory Orloff's unremitting care and to the cold of winter ; but
it had already destroyed nearly 100,000 of the inhabitants of
Moscow. When Count Orloff returned to St. Petersburg he was received
with enthusiasm. Catherine caused a medal to be struck in
honour of him, and a triumphal arch to be erected at Tsarko-Selo ;
she loaded him with favours as a sovereign, and became for a
moment once more the most tender mistress. Being reinstated
in all his rights as favourite, Gregory was in a position again to
indulge his ambitious dreams.
However, his embassy to Wallachia, in 1772, to attempt to
conclude, conjointly with Oberskoff, a peace with the Turks, was
again the cause of another coolness. The negotiations at the con
gress of Fokchani were but very slowly progressing, on account of
the basis adopted by the Russians and rejected by the Turks,?
when Orloff, hearing that the Empress had replaced him by a new
favourite, hastened to break them off, and departed immediately
for St. Petersburg, where his absence had given his adversaries
the advantage. But, before he arrived, he received orders to
retire directly to his estate at Gatchina.§ He obeyed, in an agony
of vexation. However, at the end of a few months, the repre
sentations made to him by his ancient mistress, and the presents
with which she accompanied them, appeased his anger. Catherine
sent him the diploma of Prince of the Holy Empire, which she
had obtained for him from the Emperor Joseph II.,|| and added
to this title the designation of Highness (Svttiosh) ; moreover, she
made him a present of 10,000 peasants and settled upon him a
pension of 1.10,000 roubles.
For some time all went on well ; Orloff even returned to the
capital without the repose of the empress, then enamoured of
to be made to stop that disorder. " I have consented to this most noble
and zealous action on his part," says she, " but not without feelmg very-
anxious concerning the danger he is about to encounter."
• See further, Note (7).
t T. ii. p. 221.
J The independence of the Crim Tartar*.
$ See Castera, t. ii. p 23(>,
ft It is dated the 4th of October, 1772.

APPENDIX. 463
Vassiltchikoff, appearing to be troubled by it. But new difficul
ties shortly arose, and the prince received a hint to go and fix his
residence at RSvel. He did not remain there long. Ennui made
him desire to visit foreign lands. He travelled throughout Germany
and France ; but his restless mind soon after induced him to
return to Russia, where Catherine, then wavering between dif
ferent interests, gave him an eager welcome. She seemed over
joyed to behold him again, revived her ancient intimacy with
him, and withstood the advice of Panin, who was obstinately bent
on removing the favourite.
Catherine, who was so great as a sovereign, by her wonderful
energy, her superior understanding, her vast conceptions, her
skill in conducting business and managing men, was, as a woman,
the slave of the senses. To enable her to surmount the remains
of an attachment which was for ever leading her back to her
former lover, the surest way was to make her forget him in the
arms of another. Her shrewd minister felt this, and had recourse
to these means. He had already contributed to raise Vassiltchikoff
into favour ; but that connexion did not last two years. Another
attachment, of far greater stability, was destined to break it off ;
and Panin did not fail to abet it.
Ever since her accession to the throne, the empress had not lost
sight of a handsome officer, who, as a member of the conspiracy,
had been able to approach her on the very day when she was dis
puting the crown with her husband : seeing the sword of the
princess was without its ornamental knot, he had hastened to offer
her his own, and had been detained for a moment by her side in
consequence of the obstinacy of his horse. This officer was
Potemkin,* one of OrloflTs companions, but younger than he by
two or three years. Owing to the care of Gregory's enemies,
Catherine had again lately seen this young man, whose handsome
countenance and dignified carriage had formerly engaged her
attention ; and this time he had produced upon her the most
favourable impression. For some time Orloff contended advan
tageously against this formidable rival ; and Potemkin, though
supported by the minister, was, for a moment, dismissed ; but at
length he gained the upper hand. During the absence of the
prince, Potemkin was installed in the palace and publicly acknow
ledged as favourite, in 1774. The ascendency he acquired over
his imperial mistress and the extraordinary degree of power to
which he rose, are well known.
Prom that moment Orloff found his residence at St. Petersburg
insupportable. He withdrew from court, as did also his brother
Alexis ; after which, he espoused his young cousin Tsinovieff, and
* See, for an account of him, Segur, t. iii. p. 343, et seq.

464 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
again set out on his travels. After visiting France and Italy,
he stopped at Lausanne, where he had the misfortune to lose his
wife (in 1782), by whom he had no children. This loss occasioned
a fit of melancholy, which grew into insanity. " At one time,"
says Castera,* " he would indulge in extravagant levity, which
excited the mirth of the courtiers ; at another, he would utter
such reproaches against the empress, that all those who heard
them shuddered, and she herself was overcome with confusion and
sorrow." He was prevailed upon' to retire to Moscow, where he
lived a few months longer, tormented by the phantoms of his
imagination, and by vexatious thoughts which he in vain endea
voured to banish. At length, after a long and painful agony,
death put an end to his sufferings in the month of April,
1785. After having given these particulars about Gregory Orloff, we
may be allowed to be more brief in what relates to the other
brothers. Alexis Grigorievitch, the third, was remarkable for his lofty
stature, athletic form, muscular power, and surprising agility. An
enormous gash, which he had received in the face during a quarrel,
had not completely effaced the primitive beauty of his features ;
in other respects, he was simple and kind in his manners, and,
like his brother, extremely polite and benevolent in social inter
course. Having been born in 1737, he was nearly twenty-six years old
when Peter III. ascended the throne, but he was then only subal
tern in a regiment of the guard. We have already seen what
part he played in the revolution of 1762 : according to some
authors, it was he, and not his brother Gregory, who went to fetch
Catherine at Peterhoff ; it is certain, at all events, that nobody
shewed, on that occasion, more audacity and guilty eagerness.
The emperor, being incapable of following the advice of Munnich,
attempted to fly ; but he fell into the hands of his enemies. Alexis
Orloff was appointed to guard him, and, according to all pro
bability, it was he, in concert with two of his fellow officers,
T6ploff and Prince Foedor Bariatinski, who put an end to his life,
in the Castle of Ropcha, we would fain believe without the know
ledge of the empress, but, at all eveDts. without incurring her dis
grace by this ferocious deed, the particulars of which are said to
have been horrible.
The young sovereign loaded him, on the contrary, with honours
and riches. Alexis Orloff, from being merely an under-officer, was
named count, honoured with the order of St. Alexander Nevski,
and became major-general and second major of the guard of
" T. ii. p. 149.

APPENDIX. 465
Preobrajensk. His brother's high fortune contributed, moreover,
to his own : he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general,
and chosen for general aide-de-camp ; at the same time he received
the key as chamberlain, and, in 1768, the riband of St. Andrew,
the highest order in the empire.
The war against the Turks, which broke out in that same year,
furnished him an opportunity of justifying such an extraordinary
promotion.* However, Count Alexis had never been in battle ;
he possessed neither the experience nor the knowledge necessary
for directing the operations of an army. On the other hand, his
pride did not allow him to serve under the orders of another. So
he submitted to Catherine the plan of a naval expedition in the
Archipelago. Two squadrons were, accordingly, sent thither, one
under Admiral Spiridoff, and the other under John Elphinstone,
an English naval officer of great merit. Furnished with full
powers, though he had never commanded a ship, Alexis Orloff was,
rf necessary, to unite them both under his own command ; however,
his official title was only that of general of the land forces. f He
had the good sense to listen to the advice of his English lieutenant ;
and, although he failed for the most part in his attempts against
the Morea, where his brother Foedor, another upstart general,
whom he had taken in his company, was beaten more than once,
the expedition succeeded, on the whole, beyond all hope. The
Turks were vanquished in a naval battle ; and their admiral had
the imprudence to take refuge with his fleet in the shallow and
narrow strait of Tchesme, on the coast of Asia-Minor, opposite the
island of Chios. Elphinstone and Greig pursued him there ; and
a third Englishman, Dugdale, had the courage to conduct a fire-
ship into the very middle of the hostile squadron, which was com
pletely destroyed by fire in the night of the 6th of July, 1770.
This naval achievement, unheard of in Russian annals, acquired
immense fame throughout Europe, and covered the name of Orloff
with glory. Catherine loaded the conqueror with rewards : she
ordered him to assume the surname of Tchesmenskoi, conferred on
him the grand-cross of the military order of St. George, the only
distinction that has never been lavished in Russia, and offered him
a present of 100,000 roubles.
But she sent him orders, at the same time, not to leave the

* The Russian biographers, Bantysch-Kamenski, for instance, do not
hesitate, in their incredible servility, to attribute this fortune to Orloff's
own merit, and pass over all the rest in silence.
t See Catherine II.'s correspondence with Voltaire (Letter lvii.).
The empress gives therein many particulars about the battle of Tchesme.
She also takes pleasure in relating whatever does honour to the character
of Orloff. See, also, Letter Ixxii. i-
VOL. II. H H

466 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Archipelago without her express permission.* She was afraid of
the enterprising spirit of Alexis at a time when she was beginning
to break off her intimacy with his brother, and thinking of taking
a new favourite. Alexis, therefore, remained, employed himself
with the blockade of the Dardanelles, made himself master of
Beveral islands, but failed before Lemnos, which was assisted by
the Ottoman fleet under Hassan Bey. Then leaving the command
with Admiral Spiridoff, he went into Italy on a secret mission.
At Leghorn, the Princess Tarakanoff, the daughter of the Empress
Elizabeth Petrovna and Count Alexis Rasoumofski, fell into his
power by a perfidious abuse of confidence ; that unfortunate lady,
taken in a snare, was carried off to Russia, where she passed the
remainder of her days in prison. Orloff returned to the Archi
pelago ; but the campaign of 1771 ended without any remarkable
result, and the following occurrences were still less important.
Notwithstanding this insignificant termination of a war which
had cast so much momentary glory upon Russia, Count Orloff re
ceived the most brilliant welcome at St. Petersburg, when he
returned after the conclusion of the peace (in 1774). The
empress, who had already promoted him to the rank of general-
in-chief, loaded him with wealth ; all the arts had to contribute
to celebrate his name, and we may see even now in the park of
Tsarsko-Seio the rostral column raised in his honour.
However, Orloff Tchesmenskoi, being a witness of the coolness
of the empress towards his brother, was keenly affected by it. He
was unable to conceal his hatred towards Potemkin, Prince
Gregory's happy rival, and it is even stated that he had so violent
a quarrel with him, that the new favourite lost an eye in the
scuffle. After Gregory's disgrace, Alexis, like him, found a residence at
court insupportable. He withdrew to Moscow, where he lived in
great style, displaying a magnificent hospitality,t and attending
especially to his haras, where he raised a numerous breed of horses,
still in great repute in Russia. After his brother's death, the
empress, as a final favour, bestowed upon Alexis her portrait, that
Gregory had worn, a special distinction, which none other but
Potemkin enjoyed.
From that time the conqueror of Tchesm6 had scarcely ever
left his retirement, when, after the death of Catherine in 1796, he
suddenly received an order to repair to St. Petersburg. Having
* Castera (t. ii. p. 10f.) nevertheless states that Orloff went to enjoy
his triumph at St. Petersburg, and that he arrived there on the 15th of
March, 1771; that he went afterwards to Leghorn, passing through
Vienna. + Which Coxe the traveller enjoyed in 1782.

APPENDIX. 467
decided to have his father's remains removed from the convent of
St. Alexander Nevski to the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul,
the new emperor was determined that such of Peter's murderers
as were alive at that period, Alexis Orloff and Prince Bariatinski,*
should figure in the expiatory ceremony. They supported each a
corner of the pall that covered the body of their victim, and their
countenances are said to have borne witness to that eternal justice
whose hand, though sometimes invisible, nevertheless leaves no
crime unpunished.
On returning home, the count found an order which forbade
him to prolong his residence in the capital. With some difficulty
he obtained permission to travel, and went to pass some time in
Germany. After the death of Paul, he returned to his native
land, and again inhabited his mansion at Moscow, which is situ
ated on the charming hills bordering the Moskva, in the suburb
called Serpoukhofskaia, where he terminated his career in January
1808, leaving his only daughter a colossal fortune.t This daugh
ter, Countess Anne Alexlievna Orloff Tchesmensko'f, has never
been married. Honoured with the friendship of the present em
peror and empress, we have seen her fulfilling the functions of
maid of honour during the coronation ; and her extreme piety
did not prevent her from giving, on that occasion, one of the
most brilliant fetes that the city of Moscow ever witnessed.
The fourth brother of the Orloffs was Foedor Grigori6vitch,
born on the 8th of February, 1741 (old style). He is said to
have been superior to Alexis and Gregory in his education and
learning. He was indebted to the revolution of 1762 for his
rank of captain in the Semenoff regiment ; however, he after
wards entered the civil career where he rose to the grade of chief-
attorney to the senate. But when Count Alexis departed for
Greece and the Archipelago, Foedor desired to accompany him.
Reinstated at that time in the army with the rank of general, he
commanded the troops landed in the peninsula of the Morea, in
1770. At first he gained a few advantages ; but afterwards the
resistance he met with from the garrisons of Coron, Modon, and
Tripolitza, arrested his progress ; and, being ill-supported by the
Greeks serving under his flag, he was beaten on several occasions.
At length he found himself obliged to re-embark his soldiers, and
he thus abandoned the unfortunate rebels to all the vengeance of

* He died at Moscow on the 4th of June, 1814, after having been
grand-master of the court under Catherine II. He was brother to Prince
Ivan Sergheievitch Bariatinski, a clever diplomatist, and Russian ambas
sador at Paris, from 1773 to 1785.
t Stated to be 5,000,000 of roubles in specie, independently of 32,000
peasants. H h 2

468 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the Turks. Notwithstanding this ill-success, he was promoted to
the rank of lieutenant-general, and honoured with the order of
St. George (2nd class). He died at Moscow on the 17th of May,
1796, without leaving any legitimate children; but we shall have
to speak further of the natural sons to whom he transmitted his
name. Lastly, the fifth brother, Vladimir Grigorievitch, studied at
Leipsic, and served at first in the guard, in which he attained the
rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1766, his love of literature caused
him to be appointed director of the Academy of Sciences at St.
Petersburg, which honourable post he occupied till 1774. Ac
cording to Count d'Almagro, he lived till the year 1832 ; but we
are entirely without any particulars relating to the rest of his
career. Besides a daughter, married to a Count Panin,* he had
a son who was known as an author, and about whom we must say
a few words.
Count Gregory Vladimirovitch Orloff was born at St. Peters
burg, in 1777. The state of his health obliging him to seek a
milder climate than that of this capital, he passed a great portion
of his life in foreign countries. He cultivated literature and the
fine arts in Paris, and also at Naples and in other towns of Italy,
where he surrounded himself with distinguished authors, artists,
scholars and others, and was received member of different acade
mies and learned societies. In 1812, he was appointed senator,
but could not resolve to fix his residence in Russia. However, he
returned thither after the accession of Nicholas, and died a short
time afterwards, of a violent attack of apoplexv, on the 4th of
July 182G.
Aided by different writers, Count Orloff, who wrote French
with much facility, and had adorned his mind with various know
ledge, published the following works : " Memoires historiques,
politiques, et litteraires sur le Royaume de Naples," with notes
and additions by D'Amaury Duval, 2nd edition, Paris, 1825, 5 vols.
8vo. ; "Essai sur l'Histoire de la Musique en Italie," ibid., 1822,
2 vols., 8vo. ; " Essai sur l'Histoire de la Peinture en Italie," ibid.,
1823, 2 vols. 8vo. ; " Voyage dans une partie de la France," ibid.,
1824, 3 vols. 8vo. ; and, lastly, " Fables Russes," translated from
Kryloff into French and Italian, Paris, 1S25, 2 vols. 8vo. Count
Orloff's wife, by birth Countess Saltikoff, an amateur, like him, of
literature and the arts, had a great share in this last publication.
Count Gregory Vladimirovitch was himself the last legitimate
male descendant of the Orloffs, and he left no posterity. The
family was, therefore, on the point of becoming extinct ; " how-
* We know not whether this he the lady whom they have made the
St. Catherine of Russia.

APPENDIX. 469
ever," says Prince Peter Dolgorouki, " Count Foedor left several
natural children, on whom Catherine II. conferred nobility and
the name of Orloff." Among them are men of great distinction.
Michael Foedoro vitch Orloff, born about 1785, early embraced
the career of arms, and had the rank of colonel when he arrived
with the first Russian bodies of troops before Paris in 1814. The
fight which his father-in-law, General Raiefski, had to maintain
to get possession of the heights of Belleville, is well known. The
capitulation of Paris was the fatal consequence of the 30th of
March, and the name of Michael Orloff figures among the signa
tures on that act signed on the 31st. Afterwards he returned to
France (in 1815,) and remained a long time at Nancy as head of
the staff of the Russian army encamped in the neighbourhood.
Alexander had appointed him to be his aide-de-camp, and he was
later promoted to the rank of major-general.
Orloff, endowed with intelligence, education, and noble senti
ments, and gifted, moreover, with a fervent character, was keenly
struck with the vicious condition of his country. He ventured
more than once to speak of it to the Emperor Alexander, pointed
out to him the numerous abuses committed in the administration,
and went so far as to represent to him the necessity of giving a
constitution to his empire. However, being a somewhat exclu
sive patriot, he did not see without jealousy the Poles put in pos
session of a part of their ancient liberties, and is said to have
opposed the monarch's favourable inclinations towards them, in a
kind of protest to which he obtained the signatures of several
.generals and other men of distinction ; for, in Russia, this inclin
ation of Alexander's was generally disapproved, especially on
account of the intention which the emperor had announced of
restoring to the kingdom of Poland several of her ancient pro
vinces that had long been united to the empire, and some of which,
moreover, had formerly been dismembered from it.
On his return to Moscow, General Orloff made the acquaint
ance of Count Mamonoff, an estimable patriot, who, in 1812, had
given an example of sacrifices, and put a great portion of his
fortune at the emperor's disposal. Mamonoff had belonged, in
his youth, to the ancient freemasonry, which was much in vogue
in the reign of Catherine II. : he imparted the knowledge of its
organization and principles to Orloff, who, being of an enthusi
astic disposition, thought soon of nothing but secret associa
tions and political reforms. As we have said, he endeavoured
to found at St. Petersburg, with M. Nicholas Tourgueneff, who,
relates to us this fact,* the Society of Russian Knights, and both
* "La Russie el les Russes," t. i. p. 223. This work of M. Tourguc-

470 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of them afterwards entered the union of public welfare, from
which, however, they withdrew a few years afterwards.
The general's frequent observations had at length become im
portunate to the emperor, and he had appointed him to the com
mand of a division in the second army (that of the south).
There, Orloff was far from losing sight of his projects of reform.
He strove hard and made great pecuniary sacrifices to propagate
mutual instruction, according to the Lancastrian system, not only
among the children of the troops and the soldiers of his divi
sion, but also among the youth of the towns where this division
was quartered. " His endeavours," says M. Tourgueneff, " soon
produced very satisfactory results ; but they turned ultimately to
his detriment, as also to the detriment of those in favour of whom
those noble efforts had been made."
We have already related what was the fate of General Michael
Orloff after the discovery of the conspiracy. Since then, a report
of his death had been spread ; but in M. Tourgueneff's book,
published a few weeks ago, we read these words : " At present,
the general is occupied with material interests, with manufactories ;
he is writing books on finance. . . As to the rest, I like to
picture him in my mind such as I knew him formerly, noble,
generous, and devoted to the public welfare."
Count Alexis Foedorovitch Orloff, now general-in-chief, member
of the council of the empire, and the confidant of the Emperor
Nicholas, is brother to the preceding. He was born in 1787,
entered the guard early in life,* and having reached the rank of
colonel, which, in this chosen troop, gives the grade of major-
general, he had, in 1825, the command of the five regiments of
the horse-guards, with which he was the first to hasten to the
Place of the Winter Palace, at the moment of the revolt on the
26th of December. This was a service of immense importance
to the new sovereign, and, as we have said, it occasioned the very
special favour he afterwards enjoyed.
Being created count of the empire a few days afterwards, and
nicff's, mentioned before, has at length appeared, We shall say a few
words about it in Note (23), at the end of this volume.
* According to M. Capctigue ("Les Diplomatcs et Hommes d'etat
Europeans," t. iii.), he served in Platoff's light cavalry, and, in 1815,
had been sent on a delicate mission relative to the execution of the treaty
of Kiel. But that intelligent author, often well-informed, in this in
stance confounds on every occasion Alexis Orloff with his brother
Michael ; most of the facts attributed to the former relate, on the con
trary, to the latter. In the same book (t. iii. p. 308) we read this
strange line : — " With his own hands (Count A. Orloff, Gregory's bro
ther) strangled the young Emperor Alexis, in his prison :" but this can
be only an inadvertence of the moment.

APPENDIX. 471
chosen as general aide-de-camp, he was shortly promoted to the
rank of lieutenant-general ; later, he was called to the council of
the empire, placed at the head of a division of the guard, ap
pointed successor to Count de Benkendorff, as commander of the
gendarmes, intrusted with the command of the emperor's head
quarters, and lastly, promoted still further to the grade of
general-in-chief of the cavalry.
This rapid career is thus accounted for: Count Orloff had
become one of the intimate circle in the palace, and Nicholas
made him the principal instrument of his personal policy.
Whenever he was unwilling to leave a delicate business to his
ordinary diplomatic agents, the monarch intrusted it to the care
of this devoted servant, of whom it has justly been said that he
sees questions less with his own eyes than with his master's.
" He carries obedience to its extreme limits,'' adds a writer ; " he
executes just as thought reveals itself, quickly and well."* He
combines moreover with a superior intelligence a great firmness
of mind and the most honourable character.
It would be too tedious to enter into a detail of the particular
missions already intrusted to Count Orloff : let us confine our
selves to a few notices.
In leaving this faithful servant with the army acting against
the Turks, the emperor commissioned him beforehand to effect,
conjointly with Diebitsch, the general-in-chief, and Count Frede
rick de Pahlen,f the privy councillor, the negotiations of peace
when the proper moment of entering into them should arrive.
The conference began at Adrianople, on the 30 th of August,
1829, and the treaty, more glorious for Russia than the earlier
operations of the war had seemed to warrant, was signed on the
14th of September following. Soon after, Orloff was employed to
carry to the Sultan an autograph letter from the czar, and re
newed the diplomatic relations between the two powers. In
1831, he was sent by his sovereign to the army of Poland.
There, the beginning of the campaign was not more brilliant than
that of 1828. In spite of the victory of Ostrolenka, the Russians
were still far from Warsaw, and serious complaints arose on all
sides against Field-Marshal Diebitsch, whose German origin
caused him to be looked upon with distrust by an army asto
nished at his ill success. The emperor, in order to obtain an
exact account of the position of things, sent his confidential aide-
de-camp to the spot ; but a few days after the count's arrival,
Diebitsch died. Some attributed this event to an attack of
cholera ; according to others, the health of the field-marshal,
* Capefigue, " Les Diplomates," t. iii. p. 306.
t An honest man, and justly esteemed.

472 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
being already worn out by immoderate drinking and extreme
fatigue, could not withstand the mortification he felt at this inter
ference of the chief of the empire in the operations of war.
Perhaps also Orloff had the task of announcing to Diebitsch that
he was shortly to be superseded. Whatever may have been the
true cause of this sudden death, it gave rise to absurd reports
against Orloff, which gained, however, the greater credit, that the
Grand-duke Constantine died likewise a few days afterwards.
This coincidence appeared suspicious; unworthy surmises arose
even against the head of the empire, and especially against his
emissary ; but the well-known characters of both ought to have
sheltered them from such gratuitously odious imputations.* For
the rest, we are assured that neither Orloff nor his master was
affected by them : the former used to laugh about them among
his intimate friends, and jocularly apply to himself the title of
poisoner, which slander had attempted to attach to his name.
From the camp of Pultusk, the general aide-de-camp repaired
to Berlin, passing through the sanitary posts which were to pro
tect Prussia against the approach of the cholera. A short time
afterwards, he gave his master a new proof of absolute devotion,
by accompanying him to the military colonies, where the soldiers,
in open rebellion, had massacred their commanders, and were ca
pable of carrying things to extremity against the emperor him
self. This danger did not daunt the courageous sovereign : ac
companied by his faithful Orloff, he appeared suddenly before the
rebels, spoke to them authoritatively, intimidated them by his
boldness, obtained their submission, and inflicted a severe chastise
ment upon the guilty.
In 1833, the Eastern question, as is well known, suddenly
assumed immense importance by the revolt of the Pacha of Egypt
against his sovereign lord the Sultan. Ibrahim, the son of Mehe-
met-Ali, crossed the Taurus at the head of an army, and marched
upon Constantinople. Without losing an instant,t the Russian
* The author of the " Revelations," nevertheless, repeats them very
seriously (French tiansl., t. i. p. 39). After speaking of the death of
the Grand-Duke Constantine (June 27th, 1831) and that of Diebitsch
(June 10th), he expresses himself as follows: — "There exists an indi
vidual whom the public voice stigmatizes as the instrument of those dark
events. His visit to certain persons, or his arrival at the place where
they were, was indeed almost always the forerunner of their sudden dis
appearance !" M. de Custine (t.'iii. p. 216) seems likewise to have
seriou.dy attended to these preposterous reports, accredited by blind
malevolence or unexampled levity. In hiving as true the most evidently
false rumours to the account of Russia, are "not judicious readers com
pelled to doubt of all, and to consider as idle tale's whatever may appear
lo llicm extraordinary in the facts related concerning this empire ?
|- The Russiun government was unwilling that there should be a rcno-

APPENDIX. 473
government sent with all speed a preliminary corps of 5,000 men
to protect the Porte ; and the general command of these troops,
as also of the fleet, was intrusted to Count Orloff, who arrived on
the 5th of May in the Ottoman capital, with the title of ambas
sador extraordinary, furnished with the most- extensive powers.
Owing to the efforts of the European powers, this Russian inter
vention was useless : the pacha yielded to the remonstrances that
were made to him, and the Egyptian army withdrew. The czar,
on his side, immediately recalled his auxiliary corps. On this
occasion he wrote to Orloff the following remarkable lines : " When
Divine Providence has placed a man at the head of 60,000,000
of his fellow-creatures, it is in order that he may give a higher
example of fidelity in keeping his word, and of a scrupulous per
formance of his promises." Indeed, the speedy retreat of the
Russians cut short all the protests suggested by political jealousies.
However, the ambassador did not withdraw before he had bound
Turkey in an alliance with Russia, by the famous treaty of Un-
kiar-Iskelessi (July 8th, 1833), against which the maritime
powers immediately protested, and which the protocol of the 13th
of July, 1841, at length reduced to nothing.
General Orloff moreover performed many other special missions,
especially at the Hague and in London, whither he was drawn by
the Holland and Belgian question. After the death of Prince
Christopher de Lieven (1839), he replaced him in his duties as
travelling companion to the grand-duke and heir, who, then very
near attaining his majority, terminated his travels under the pro
tection of the general. The latter afterwards accompanied his
master in his visit to London, in June, 1844 ; and, towards the
end of 1845, went with him to Palermo, whence he departed
to prepare the way for him to the capital of the Christian world.*
Lastly, being the faithful companion of the czar in all his
travels, Orloff was again by his side on the day when Nicholas
was for a moment in danger of losing his life, on passing the
Niemen. The monarch wished to go and rejoin his brother, the
Grand-Duke Michael, and conduct him to Warsaw. On the
9th of December, 1846, he quitted Kovno during the night, and
approached the river, then covered half across with a thin coat of
vation of the Ottoman empire effected hy the Egyptians ; with respect to
the Turks, her maxim appears to us to be expressed by the words u Sint
ut sunt, out non sint."
* The interview between the czar and Pope Gregory XVI. took
place on the 13th of December. The dignified attitude which the pon
tiff assumed before him is well known. Nicholas retired from the inter
view in much emotion. The following words relating to him are attri
buted to Cardinal Lambruschini : — "Ha negato molto, promesso poco,
e fara nulla."

474 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ice. To facilitate the passage, two lines of planks had been laid
down on the ice as far as the ferry-boat, which the travellers were
afterwards to enter. The scene was lighted by a number of
torches from the banks of the Niemen. The emperor was in his
carriage with the count : he had been advised to remain there
quietly. But in descending from the top *>f the high bank, the
berlin broke through the ice with its fore wheels, and seemed
likely to fall headlong into the river. With one bound, the aide-
de-camp was upon his feet ; but, whilst the emperor was preparing
to follow his example, the carriage sank lower and lower. Nicholas
was obliged to take refuge upon the coach-box, from which he
mounted upon the shoulders of the commandant of the town,
who was up to his middle in water ; then, taking a spring, he
leaped to land, and escaped the danger.
Being inseparable from his person, and connected with the
memory of past events, Count Alexis Orloff is a true friend to
him; the monarch treats him as such, and testifies the utmost
confidence towards him in every circumstance. He has seen him
by his side in the most critical moments of his life, never failing
him for an instant, devoting himself to peril to think only of his
master, and combining, it is said, with this uncommon devotion,
the merit, still more rare in Russia, of exemplary probity and the
most noble disinterestedness. Founded on such titles, the favour
which the count enjoys ought to be safe from court intrigues and
from the effects of that inconstancy of the human heart, against
which, however, the firmest characters are not always sufficiently
guarded.

Note (3), Page 5.
FIELD-MARSHAL PRISCE OF WITTGENSTEIN.
The illustrious family of Sayn-Wittgenstein, which, formerly
immediately subject to the Holy Empire, now occupies a dis
tinguished rank in the order of the lords of the Prussian pro
vince of Westphalia, is divided into two branches, one termed
Wittgensteiu-Berlebourg, and the other Wittgenstein-Wittgen
stein, or Hohenstein. The heads of these two branches are in
vested with the title of prince.
Louis-Adolphus-Teter, Count Wittgenstein-Berlebourg, be
longed to a particular line (that of Louisbourg) issuing from the
former branch. Ho was born on the 6th of January, 1769,
entered tho Russian service at an early age, following his father's
example, and was promoted in 1806 to tho rank of general; at

APPENDIX. 475
the same time he was named commander of the regiment of the
Marioupol huzzars. Being charged with the command of the
vanguard of a division, in the campaign of 1807, he supported
with some advantage, a skirmish with the French on the 30th
of April. In 1812, being invested with the grade of lieutenant-
general, he was placed at the head of the first corps of the army
of the West under Barclay de Tolly, who, encamped on the Duna,
was to cover St. Petersburg. In the presence of skilful and expe
rienced generals, such as the Duke de Reggio and Gouvion St.
Cyr, he proved himself worthy of such adversaries : the resistance
he opposed to them in a battle at Kliastitsy, near Polotsk, which
lasted three days, (August 18th, 19th, and 20th) forced them to
abandon the road to St. Petersburg. St. Cyr found himself ob
liged to repass the Duna. Wittgenstein advanced in the direction
of Vitebsk, and, though attacked in his position of Smolnia, by
Marshal Victor, on the 15th of November, maintained his ground
with energy and drove back the French troops.
These glprious services acquired for Count Wittgenstein the
rank of geheral-in-chief of the cavalry. After the death of Kou
tosoff, he was invested provisionally with the command of the
Russian and Prussian armies : it was under his auspices that
General York fought the battle of Moeckern (Saxony) with the
French on the 5th of April, 1813 ; and it was also he who com
manded the allies in the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, where
Napoleon remained conqueror.
In the following month of June, an armistice suspended hosti
lities for a short time. When they were resumed, the count, still
at the head of the Russian army, was placed under the command
of Prince Schwarzenberg. He assisted at the battles of Dresden,
Nollendorf, and Leipsic, maintaining every where the honour of
the Russian troops, as also his own reputation of a brave and
skilful general. After crossing the Rhine near St. Louis, on the
2nd of January, 1814, he took a no less glorious part in the
campaign of France which led the armies of the allied powers
into Paris.
To testify to Wittgenstein their gratitude for the eminent ser
vice he had done them in covering St. Petersburg, the inhabi
tants of that city made him a present of an estate in its vicinity,
and the general erected it into a majorat in order to preserve in
his family the memory of this national reward.
After the restoration of peace in Europe, the Count remained
at the head of a division of the army, and had his head-quarters
successively at Mitau and at Toultchina. We have made known
in this history, the secret plots of which the army of the South,
intrusted to his keeping, was the theatre during the latter years
of Alexander's reign. Nicholas had no inclination to make him

476 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
answerable for them. On the occasion of his coronation, he pro
moted him to the rank of field-marshal-general, and in 1828
intrusted to him the command of the Russian army intended to
act against the Turks. It is well known that the beginning of
that war was unsuccessful. Wittgenstein, whose energy was
declining, did not act with the requisite vigour. After having
advanced as far as Choumla, he was obliged to retrograde towards
Wallachia. Being recalled from the command on the 18th of
February of the following year, he gave it up to Baron Diebitsch,
who caused the Russian flag to be again victorious. '
Wittgenstein retired to his estate of Kamenka in Podolia,
where he gave himself up to agriculture and the task of improv
ing the condition of his peasants. However, the emperor made
him a member of the council of the empire, and, in June, 1834,
the King of Prussia conferred on him the title of prince.
The field-marshal was on his way to the waters of Wiesbaden
when he died on the 11th of June, 1843. By his marriage with
a Princess RadziviU, he left several sons, engaged, like their father,
in the military career.
Prince Wittgenstein had merited universal esteem by his ser
vices, his loyalty, and his chivalrous character. His great capacity
was equalled by his modesty ; he had shewn brilliant courage in
the field of battle, and his military talents had caused him to be
consulted by his sovereign on several important occasions.

Note (4), Page 6.
THE POTOCKI FAMILY.
It would be making, in a manner of speaking, a whole history
of Poland, if anything like a complete notice were to be devoted to
this great family, which has been so engaged in all the events of
its country. In the last two centuries, at least, hardly any eon-
federation* was formed in which the name of I'otockit did not
appear. We should not have room for even a mere genealogical
study ; so we are obliged to confine ourselves to a few hasty notes.
Like most of the formerly most influential Polish magnates, the
Potocki possess estates in all the provinces of the ancient republic;
tho consequence is, that Russia, Austria, and Prussia, reckon
thorn equally among their subjects ; but the principal possessions
* The peculiar signification of this word in the political vocabulary
of the Poles is well known. t 1'ionounced PotolAi.

APPENDIX. 477
of this family are in Podolia and the government of Kief ; and it
is from a small place on the confines of Podolia and Gallicia that
it derived its name.
Count Stanislaus Felix, the husband of the beautiful Sophia,
whom we have mentioned in this history, and the grand-master of
the Polish artillery, was, in the latter years of the republic, one of
the richest and most powerful lords. Being a proud aristocrat,
and jealous of the very great influence of the family of Czartoryiski
during the reign of the last king, he was induced by ambition to
become a partisan of Russia. He therefore raised an opposition
to the constitution of the 3rd of May, 1791, and occasioned new
convulsions to his unfortunate country, as leader of the confedera
tion of Targovitza. Loaded with favours by Catherine II., but
disappointed in his hopes of dominion, he withdrew from politics
a short time afterwards, and died at his estate in 1805. Most of
the numerous sons he left behind him entered the Russian service.
Count Ignatius Potocki, cousin to Felix, was, on the contrary,
like his brother Stanislaus-Kotska, an ardent patriot. In concert
with Malachowski, Kollontay, and the Abbe Piatoli,* he drew up
the famous constitution of the 3rd of May, which was to put an
end to a secular anarchy. He did, moreover, all in his power to
defend Poland against her foreign enemies, and, during the latter
years of independence, performed the most eminent functions.
Unfortunately, all these noble efforts failed, and Ignatius Potocki
died in 1809, just as Napoleon's victories were rekindling in the
hearts of patriots the hope of restoring Poland under his auspices.
Count John Potocki, who was born in 1761, and died in 1816,
was an indefatigable traveller. As a scholar, he caused his name
to be known by a great number of works, doubtless full of para
doxes, but the fruit of laborious research. Some of them have
been reprinted under the editorship of Klaproth. Like his brother
Severin, he sided with the party of Ignatius against Felix.
We need not mention Count Venceslaus Potocki, who erected a
monument on his estate to Howard, the philanthropist, nor Count
Protus, and a few other members of the family, the contemporaries
of Count Felix.
The latter created the magnificent gardens of Sofiofka, near
Ouman. We have already mentioned his immense riches : he
possessed 165,000 male serfs. Now, if it be true, as Count de
Lagardef affirms, that every thousand peasants is worth as much
as a million of florins, this constituted a fortune of 165,000,000
* This Italian priest, at first a preceptor in the Potocki family, exer
cised in Poland, and afterwards at St. Petersburg, a fascinating influ
ence over the most distinguished men.
t " Voyage de Moscou a Vienne," p. 66. .

478 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of florins, or nearly 100,000,000 of francs (4,000,000Z. sterling)'
reckoning the florin at sixty centimes. " His revenue," adds the
same French author, "exceeds 8,000,000 of florins, and the
administration of his estates is like a little kingdom."
As to the children of Count Felix, we have spoken in our nar
rative of the young Countess Sophia, who, according to Count
Lagarde, was much like her mother, and married General Paul
Kisseleff. A part of their father's fortune, valued at 60,000,000
of florins, passed into the hands of Count Miecislaus (Mietchislaff),
whom his wife, if the newspapers are to be believed, caused to be
arrested in July, 1845, for acts of violence against his young son.
Count Alexander, his brother, figures on the list of the Poles
whose estates were sequestrated in 1832. He is doubtless the
person who had become the proprietor of Sofiofka, which, as we
have said, having been confiscated to the crown, changed its name,
so celebrated by poets, for that of Tsaritsyn-Sad (the emperor's
garden). As to several other Counts Potocki, who have distinguished
themselves in the Russian service, we must confine ourselves to a
simple enumeration. One of them was reckoned, in Alexander's
reign, among the most enlightened and active members in the
council of the empire ; another, Count Stanislaus, was grand
master of the ceremonies, and figured as such in the coronation
ceremony at Moscow ; his son Jaroslaff is marshal of the court,
and Francis, the son of Vincent, is also master of the ceremonies.
The latter, like Count Boleslaus, the brother of Miecislaus and^
Alexander, have abandoned the cause of a country which, more
over, has ceased to exist ; others, with a religious memory of the
past, have remained faithful to it, and the late rising in 1846 did
not find them indifferent.

Note (5), Page 8.
TnE SALTIKOFF FAMILY.
This name, better known under the form of So/tikoff, is very
ancient in the annals of Russia ; and seems to Have the same
origin as that of Soltyk, which is no less illustrious in Poland.
Of all the noble families, says Prince Peter Dolgorouki, that of
Salt ik off reckoned the greatest number of boiars among its mem
bers. Like those of Naryschkin, Lapoukhin, and others, it gave
a czarina to Russia ; for Joann Alexeievitch, the brother of
Peter tho Groat, married Prascovie Saltikoff, who was the mother

APPENDIX. 479
of the Empress Anne, and grandmother of the unfortunate Joann
Antonovitch. Three of its members rose to the grade of field-
marshal. The first was Count Peter Shnfnovitch, who commanded
the Russian army in the Seven Years' war, and, with the help of
Loudon, was victorious over the troops of Frederick the Great in
the battle of Kunersdorff, in 1759. The second was his son, Ivan
PHrovUch, like himself, governor-general of Moscow. The third
is he of whom we have spoken in the text, and the first who bore
the title of prince. We add a few lines respecting him.
Nicholas Ivanovitch Saltikoff, born in 1734, was the son of
Count Ivan Saltikoff, who died general-in-chief in 1773. He had
himself attained this high rank, when he was chosen in 1783 to
direct the education of the Grand-Dukes Alexander and Constan
tine Paulovitch. It was owing to these duties, and also to the
friendship of the Emperor Paul, that he was invested with the
dignity of field-marshal in 1796. At the same time he was
appointed senator and president of the college of war, that is to
say, minister of that department. Being constantly in favour
during the reign of his pupil Alexander, he obtained in 1812 the
presidency of the council of the empire, and in the years 1813,
1814, and 1815, he was, says M. Tourgueneff,* lieutenant,
and a sort of regent of the empire during the absence of the
sovereign. Lastly, after his first return, Alexander conferred
upon him the title of prince. This third field-marshal of the
name of Saltikoff died on the 28th of May, 1816.
Two of his sons sat in the council of the empire. One of them,
Prince Alexander Nikolatevitch, was for a very short time minis*
ter for foreign affairs. In the opinion of the author just quoted,
he was a man remarkable for intelligence, talent, and noble cha
racter, but, being made nervous by the neglect he experienced
from the Emperor Alexander, he began to be doubtful of his own
superiority, and no longer performed, from that time, the services
which might naturally have been expected from him. He died
in 1837. The other, Sergius Nikoldievitch, was reckoned one of
the best senators of his time, and was actual privy councillor
when he died in 1828.

Note (6), Page 30.
MORAL STATE OF THE RUSSIAN CLERGY.
During the last century the morals of the French clergy were,
as is well known, excessively corrupt; but the evil, though very
* Vol. i. p. 567.

480 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
serious among the upper ranks, had not infected the majority of
the cures, or officiating ministers of parishes. The conduct of
the latter was generally satisfactory, and many among them
furnished examples of the most virtuous conduct.
In Russia we remark the very reverse. The upper clergy are
in general irreproachable and worthy of esteem ; in their ranks
there are, and have been at all times, very honourable, learned,
enlightened, and pious men — in short, men every way qualified for
their duty.* But the case is not the same with the lower clergy,
who, with a few exceptions, are still in a deplorable state of
degradation. Everybody is of the same opinion on this subject. " The
parish curates," says Coxe in his " Travels,"t " who ought to be
the most useful members in the social body, are in Russia gene
rally the very refuse of the people." Most of the French authors
express themselves to the same effect,! and an enlightened and
patriotic Russian § has just described to us once more the state
of the clergy as " next to degradation." " In general the Russian
clergy," says he, " are far from being equal to the importance of
their mission. He who is in daily and permanent contact with
the lowest orders of the people, is found to be in such a state of
inferiority and insignificance, that he is scarcely sufficient to the
performance of the material part of his duties. His position does
not allow him ever to acquire the least moral influence over his
flock, still less to direct their consciences."'
However, to be just, we must say that a great improvement is
beginning to be perceptible, since the young priests have been
made to study more generally and more regularly in their semi
naries. As we stated a few years ago,|| it is upon these schools
that the government must operate to obtain real reforms, and
afterwards it must improve the physical condition of the clergy,
which is now truly miserable.
" Nowhere," says M. Golovin^ " is drunkenness so generally
* There arc also instances of independent character to be found
among them. Sec what we have said of Philaretes, Archbishop of Mos
cow. For what relates to Plato, one of his predecessors, the reader
may consult Lcsur's " Des Progres de la Puissance Russe," p. 437.
See, also further, p. 500.
t " Travels," vol. ii. chap. v.
X See Fortia de Piles' " Voyage de Deux Frampais dans le Nord,"
t. iv. p. 7"J ; Lcsur's " Des Progres dc la Puissance Russe," p. 435, &c.
§ N. Tourgueneff's " La Russie et les Russes," t. ii. p. 35. See also,
t. iii. p. -I'M)
|| "Encyclopedic des Gens du Monde," article "Russie," t. xx.
p. 60S. IF "La Russie sous Nicolas I," p. 87.

APPENDIX. 481
prevalent as in Russia." Formerly the clergy themselves set the
example of it, as may be seen from the following passage in the
" Travels of Olearius : "
"Being at Novogorod, at the time of our second embassy, I
saw a priest come out of a tavern, who, on approaching our lodg
ings, wanted to give his benediction to the strelitz who were on
guard before the door. But on raising his hand and bowing, his
head was so heavy with the fumes of wine, that it overbalanced
his body, and the poor priest tumbled into the mud. Our strelitz
lifted him up respectfully, and received all the same this muddy
benediction, as a thing of common occurrence among tliem." *
Thanks be to God, things are no longer in so bad a state. How
ever, the love of drink is said to be still very prevalent among
the lower clergy. Let us, nevertheless, hope that the anxious
care of the government, and a few severe examples made by the
Holy-Synod, will ultimately eradicate the evil.

Note (7), Page 44.
THE TRAGICAL DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP AMBROSIT/S.
We have spoken of the dreadful ravage made by the plague in
1771, at Moscow, where it had been brought by the troops of
Catherine II. from the camp of the Turks.
The lower orders of the people, being horribly decimated by
this malady, beset the temples and invoked the protection of the
saints, with a fervour that assumed the outward form of a furious
fanaticism. This fervour was combined with great exasperation
against the physicians, and an extreme distrust of the government
and the upper classes.
At the entrance of the Red-Market, that large square in front
of the Kremlin, may still be seen, adjoining the, pillars of the
Gate of Vosskrecensk, a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin of
Iveria (Iverskia Bojimater), whose image, formerly brought from
Georgia, or, according to others, from Mount Athos, is there ex
posed to the veneration of the faithful. This image is considered
to have the gift of performing miracles : the most wonderful cures
are attributed to it, and in cases of serious sickness, such as are
able to pay for its visit, cause it to be brought to them. The
Madonna has, for this purpose, her own private coach, conducted
by a coachman, bare-headed, and by a postilion, mounted upon one
* "Liv. iii. trad, de Wicquefort," t. i. p. 216.
VOL. II. I I

482 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
of the front horses.* Everybody bows down before her on her
passage ; nay the men will often throw themselves on the ground
in such a manner that the holy image shall pass over them : they
are then convinced that they are " armed in proof" against the
attacks of disease. We have said that this interference of the
Virgin is not given gratis ; besides which, being constantly be
sieged by the crowd, and respectfully saluted by every passenger,
her altar is daily loaded with offerings, where the mite of the
poor is often seen mixed with the magnificent liberalities of some
noble or even powerful family. Accordingly, the image is richly
adorned : on one of the fingers of the Virgin shines a large
diamond of considerable value, and her aureola is composed of fine
pearls, surrounded with the most precious stones.
At the disastrous period of which we are speaking, the people
of Moscow no longer expected any salvation but from this image ;
they used to rush in a kind of fury to the little chapel, and the
dense crowd became wedged in the then narrow space before the
doors. In that multitude, of which even the nobility formed a
part, there were naturally many sick persons : being huddled
together on all sides by the crowd, they served to spread the con
tagion ; and the evil went on increasing every day.
Ambrosius, the worthy archbishop of Moscow, an enlightened
member of the Holy Synod, and estimable for the practice of
every virtue.t was frightened by the danger to which he saw his
flock exposed, and considered it his duty to take measures for their
preservation. But it is a dangerous enterprise to meddle with the
objects adored by a fanatical population : it occasioned the death
of the worthy prelate,
Catherine II. herself relates this tragical event to Voltaire in
the following rather unfeeling and ironical terms : — J
" Ambrosius, a sensible, worthy man, having heard that there
had been for several days a great concourse of people before an
image, which they pretended could cure the sick (who were ex
piring at the feet of the holy Virgin), and that much money had
been brought there, sent to have the chest sealed, in order to
employ it afterwards in pious works, an economical arrangement
which every bishop has a right to make in his own diocese. It
is to be presumed that his intention was to take away the image
(as that has been done more than once), and that this was only
a preliminary proceeding. Indeed, this crowding together of the
* This species of Russian jockey is called in the language of tlie
countrv Fallciter, a word derived from the German 1'orreiter.
i His real name was Andrew Scrtis-Kamenski. We have devoted a
biographical notice to him in the "Encyclopedic des Qens du Monde,"
article " Ambrosius," t. i. p. 661 (12.
t " Conespondence,'' Letter xciv., dated 17th (6th) October, 1771.

APPENDIX. 483
people during a season of epidemic, could only tend to increase it.
But hear what happened.
" A part of the populace began shouting : ' The archbishop
wants to rob the holy Virgin of her treasures ; he must be
killed !' Others took the part of the archbishop. From words
they came to blows. The police wanted to separate them, but
the ordinary police was not sufficient ; for Moscow is not a town,
but a world in itself. The most furious set off running towards
the Kremlin ; they broke open the gates of the convent where
the archbishop resides, pillaged that convent, and got drunk in the
cellars, where many merchants keep their wines ;* but not find
ing the person whom they sought, a party of them ran off to the
convent, called Donskoi,+ whence they dragged out that respecta
ble old man,J whom they inhumanly massacred ; the others re
mained to fight over their booty."
Finding the church-gates shut, the multitude had indeed burst
them open. Then the unfortunate prelate concealed himself in
the sanctuary where the priests alone have the right to enter ; but
a child shewed the way to the furious crowd, whom even their
superstition, on this occasion, was unable to check. They found
the archbishop at prayers at the foot of the altar, seized and
dragged him as far as the door of the temple, and were preparing
to slaughter him, when he entreated them to allow him time to
prepare for appearing before God, by celebrating once more the
holy communion. The tigers could not refuse him this request :
being by habit minute observers of all the practices of religious
worship,^ they remained during that time patient spectators of
the ceremony of the sacrament. But as soon as it was finished,
they dragged Ambrosius out of the church and massacred him
without pity. When the guard at length arrived, it was too late
to save the saintly prelate ; he had breathed his last ; but they
arrested the principal guilty parties, some of whom were con
demned to be impaled alive.
This tragical death of the Archbishop of Moscow took place on
the 16th of September, 1771.
* This is a very friendly explanation, for which the clergy must have
felt much obliged to the empress.
t Our Lady of the Gift.
X Ambrosius was then 63 years old.
§ See Clarke's " Travels," vol. i. p. 109 ; Golovin, p. 90, &c.

i i 2

484 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
Note (8), Page 102.
THE UNION OF POLAND WITH RUSSIA.
An English newspaper, " The Times," has lately printed an un
published correspondence between the Emperor Alexander and
Lord Castlereagh,* then plenipotentiary of Great Britain at the
Congress of Vienna. At the time of that congress, England saw
with displeasure the aggrandizement of Russia in the direction of
Poland ; she was afraid lest the czar should take the lion's share,
and in contempt of the treaties which had stipulated the sharing
of the Polish provinces among three, he should seize upon the
whole for himself This dread gave rise to the correspondence
in question.
It has been partially copied into the " Journal des Debats,''
(January, 1847,) where, at the head of the first article, we read
the following notice : — ¦
" These documents have been published for the first time by
' The Times ' newspaper. It would appear that they have not
been communicated in the original, but must have been trans
lated from French into English, and the passages we give have
been obliged to be translated back again into French : this has
been done as literally as possible. The authenticity of this cor
respondence, moreover, cannot be doubted, having been publicly
acknowledged by Lord Palmerston."
We first meet with this declaration of Lord Castlereagh, which
is a cry of alarm uttered as early as 1814, a warning given at
that time to Europe : — " The conquest of Poland was effected
principally to bring the Russian nation into closer communication
with the rest of Europe, and to open a vast field and a higher
and more striking theatre for the exercise of her strength and
talents, and for the satisfaction of her pride, her passionsj and her
interests." This idea receives afterwards a greater development in a memo
randum (dated October 12th, 1814), addressed to the cabinet
of St. Petersburg, and especially in the following passage : —
" The reflections to which this measure gives rise, must neces
sarily have inspired the utmost alarm, filled the courts of Austria
and Prussia with the greatest consternation, and spread general
terror among all the states of Europe. The forced union of a
country so important and populous as the duchy of Warsaw,
which contains more than 1,000,000 of inhabitants, to the empire
of Russia, so recently aggrandized by the conquest of Finland,
" Since then, Marquis of Londonderry and prime minister.

APPENDIX. 485
her acquisitions in Moldavia, and her late addition on tho side of
Prussia ; her progressive march from tho Nicmen towards the
centre of Germany ; her occupation of all the fortresses of the
duchy, which exposes the capitals of Austria and Prussia to her
attacks, without leaving them any line of defence on the frontier ;
the invitation given to the Poles to rally round the standards of
the Emperor of Russia for the regeneration of their kingdom ;
the new hopes and encouragements given, and the new scenes
opened to the activity and intrigues of this frivolous and turbu
lent people ; the prospect of witnessing a revival of those tu
multuous discussions with which the Poles have so long enveloped
their own country and their neighbours ; the fear which this
measure inspires, as the cause of a new and approaching war ;
the loss of every reasonable hope of enjoying present peace and
tranquillity ; all these considerations, and many others, now
present themselves to general attention, and justify the alarm con
ceived by the whole of Europe."
England was therefore unwilling that Austria and Prussia
should be excluded from the partition, and that Russia should
obtain at once Cracow and Thorn : she pleaded the cause of these
two powers very warmly. " How can it be supposed," continued
her principal representative at the congress of Vienna, " that in
stipulating the dissolution of the duchy of Warsaw, they could
have consented to the far more dangerous reconstitution of a
kingdom of Poland dependent on the crown of Russia ; an ar
rangement ten times more menacing and alarming for their re
spective states ? Even though the terms of the treaty were as
ambiguous as they are clear and conclusive, nobody could in
terpret them so as to imply that the two powers that entered into
an engagement for the deliverance of Europe, were induced to
embrace this noble cause by signing their own ruin, and exposing
themselves, in a military point of view, to the attack of a
powerful neighbour."
Alexander, under the influence of Prince Czartoryiski's ideas,
and more disposed perhaps, from his taste of courting the applause
of Europe, to play the part of constitutional King of Poland than
that of autocrat of Russia, represented the necessity of restoring
a country to the Poles, and of remedying the sad fate which the
three-fold partition had inflicted on them. But the British ne
gotiator shewed himself to be little affected by the czar's poli
tical sensibility ; he remained inflexible upon the point in
dispute, and the remonstrances which he returns are not devoid
of a certain shade of irony.
" If a moral power," says he, " require that the situation of the
Poles be ameliorated by so decisive a change as the re-establish
ment of their monarchy would be, then, let this measure be

486 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
executed on the broad and liberal principle of rendering them
really independent as a nation, instead of making of the two-
thirds of their country a formidable military weapon in the hands
of a single power. So liberal a measure would be applauded by
all Europe ; Austria and Prussia, far from opposing it, would
acquiesce in it with pleasure. This would be, it is true, a sacri
fice on the part of Russia, according to the usual calculation of
states ; but unless your imperial majesty be disposed to make
these sacrifices to your moral duty at the expense of your empire,
you have no moral right to make such experiments to the detri
ment of your allies and your neighbours."
The emperor took the trouble to reply in person to the memo
randum ; he did so, on the 30th of October, with moderation,
endeavouring to extenuate the importance of the territories
obtained or claimed, but also complaining of the bitter terms
which had been used towards him, and without dissembling that
he should have expected more justice on the part of his allies, in
return for his efforts and the great resources devoted by him to the
war which had emancipated Europe ; an emancipation of which
he attributes a large share to himself.
" It is not doubtful," says he, " that on the issue of the present
struggle depends the future destiny of the states of Europe, and
the object of all my endeavours and sacrifices has been to see the
members of our alliance recover or acquire an extent of territory
likely to maintain the general equilibrium. Therefore, I do not
see how, with such principles, the present congress could become
a centre of intrigues and animosity, a theatre of unjust efforts to
acquire more power. I refrain from turning this phrase against
any one of my allies, how extraordinary soever it may have ap
peared to me to find it in your letter. It is for the world that
has witnessed the principles of my conduct, from the passage of
the Vistula to that of the Seine, to judge whether the desire of
acquiring a population of one million of souls more, or of arro
gating any preponderance to myself, was capable of directing any
one of my acts.
" The purity of my intentions renders me strong. If I persist
in the order of things that I would wish to establish in Poland, it
is because I am intimately convinced in my conscience that it
would bo an act more useful to the general good than to my own
private interest.
" As to the care of my own subjects,"* adds he, with dignity,
" and to my duties towards them, ii i-s for me to hioio t/iem ; and
* Lord Castlereagh had insinuated that the experiment which Alex
ander meditated relatively to Poland, might perhaps excite in his own
slates a political ferment .

APPENDIX. 487
nothing but the uprightness of your intentions could have made
me revert to the impression which the reading of this paragraph
in your letter had produced upon me."
The emperor endeavours afterwards to tranquillize Lord
Castlereagh's fears, by representing the danger as merely ima
ginary. He allows with a good grace that in case of any undue
ambition on the part of Russia, every body would be against her.
" Since this system," he replies, " is, as the memorandum affirms,
contrary to that of Austria, Prussia, France, and the English
ministry, the slightest attempt would reunite all these powers,
which Turkey would eagerly join, against Russia alone, and
abandoned." This avowal is doubtless one of the first of the
kind that have ever been made in diplomacy, but it is worthy of
the purity of the emperor's intentions.
Lord Castlereagh, however, would not give up the point ; but
replied in another memorandum.
This therefore was the aspect which the question of the union
of Poland with Russia presented as early as 1814 ; it was seen to
be fraught with real danger to Europe. This apprehension has
since become weaker ; for our part, we have never ceased to be
free from it, as anybody may convince himself by referring to our
pamphlet, published in 1831, with the title of "La Pologne et
la Russie." There it will be seen (especiaUy in pages 18-22),
that our language about the empire of the czars has ever been the
same, and that we have never shewn that complacency towards it
of which a well known biographical work has ventured to accuse
us unfairly, on a bare suspicion which it would have been very
easy to dissipate.

Note (9), Page 106.
STATE OF GALLICIA TOWARDS THE END OF 1846.
The " Augsburg Gazette " has copied, in its number of the 25th
of November, 1846, the following correspondence from Vienna,
first published by the " Messenger of the Frontier" (Grenzbote): —
" The news which reaches us from Gallicia is extremely alarm
ing. If anything in the world be able to save us, this winter,
from a sudden commotion, it is the want of specie and the scarcity
of provisions which prevail in that country. Scarcity and bad
crops, which have already been the scourge of unhappy Gallicia
for two years, have been still further aggravated by the much
increased burden of quartering the military ; and this burden

488 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
will become still more oppressive, since three new regiments have
just received orders to enter Gallicia. The occupation of the
country is thus become as complete as possible. The troops are
shared throughout the rural districts, in small sections, according
to the size of the villages. Perhaps things will be carried so far
as to oblige the peasant by force to cultivate his field ; but, when
yielding to force, he ill performs his work and prefers to let a
field be spoilt to giving proper care to the land of the nobles,
which, in his opinion, belongs by right to himself alone. Among
a part of the rural populations of Gallicia, all notions of property,
and those of right and wrong have been confounded by the late
revolution (of February 1846) : the peasant demands boldly that
all he has stolen and pillaged during that period shall be given
up to him, as his own property ; the reward he claims to-day, for
having assassinated his masters, is nothing less than their inherit
ance. Our journal has lately expressed this opinion, that, in
Gallicia, the government had to choose between two determina
tions only : one, that of completely enfranchising the peasant, and
thus securing for itself his support for ever ; the other, of keeping
the whole country, both nobles and cultivators, under a rod of
iron. Hitherto, the government has done neither. It has endea
voured to find out an exact middle course, which, however, has
not been of much advantage. . . . Whoever is acquainted wrth the
Gallician peasant, knows that he is at a very low degree of civili
zation, in fact, next to a state of brutishness ; he also knows how
difficult it is to inculcate ideas ever so little above the vulgar
in the minds of these men stultified and debased by brandy,
superstition, and filthiness. And whilst the spirit of resistance
is propagated on that side under the most disgusting form, it is
kept awake in the circles of polite society by the most formidable
enemies imaginable,— by the women. All the emissaries of the
propaganda together have not effected on& tenth of what has been
done by the Polish women ; and even if Poland should desire to
remain quiet, the fervent mind of the women would never consent
to it. This is one of the most prominent features in the Polish
character. Lastly, what proves that there is greater reason than
ever to be alarmed about Gallicia at the present moment, is this
very simple fact, that, during the insurrection, a state of siege,
with military law,* was published in three districts, and that
now it is in twelve." * Das Standrccht.

APPENDIX. 489
Note (10), Page 155.
THE RUSSIAN BIBLE SOCIETY.
As we have seen in the former volume, Notes (11) and (13), the
religious exaltation which was produced in the mind of Alexander
by the serious circumstances attending the French invasion, and
especially by the terrible conflagration of Moscow, had led him
to read the Bible, with which he had been till then almost unac
quainted. Struck with the salutary consequences derived from
this study, he immediately resolved to secure the benefit for his
people by propagating the holy volume throughout his empire.
Doubtless the Russian church, being stationary, perverted by
its spirit of formality, and deprived of every principle of liberty,
needed to return to the Bible, the source of real religious life.
But she was far from being disposed to do so of her own accord ;
she cherished her old routine, — that immobility which goes so far
as to retrench, for the most part, sermons from the Christian form
of worship.* However, she did not resist the will of the em
peror, who had resolved to civilize his people by the Gospel ; and
enthusiasm, the natural consequence of a great commotion, dis
posed her favourably to this important task. The worthy metro
politan, Seraphim, appears especially to have entered into the
views of the monarch without any repugnance ; for a speech made
by him, in the last general Biblical assembly that was held,
breathes truly the spirit of the Gospel, which is a spirit of liberty,
charity, and infinite hope. The example of this first pastor pre
vailed with aU that portion of the Russian clergy which was not
under the exclusive sway of ancient prejudices. They decided,
therefore, that they would try the influence of the British and
Foreign Bible Society. On the 1 8th of December (new style),
an association, on the model of the latter, was founded at St.
Petersburg ; it bore at first only the name of the capital ; but
soon after it assumed that of the Russian Bible Society. It was
* We well know that she had, and still has, a small number of eccle
siastical orators, almost all of whom are mitred prelates, Plato, Phi
laretes, and Innocent, and that only a few years ago the Bishop of
Koursk, like several other pastors of his rank, was authorized to print a
collection of his sermons. But these exceptions are no answer to the
rule ; ordinary priests, strictly speaking, do not preach ; at the utmost,
they read occasionally some short printed homily to the people. Even
the office of court preacher was suppressed in 1824, in consequence of a
rather severe sermon preached by Philaretes, since metropolitan of
Moscow.

490 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
definitively constituted on the 23rd of January, 1813, and had
for its president, under the protectorship of the emperor, Prince
Alexander Galitsin, minister of religious worship and public
instruction. One of its most zealous agents was another good
man, of whom we have already spoken, M. Alexander Tourgueneff,
brother to Nicholas ; like him an enlightened patriot, and con
vinced, like him, of the necessity of a regeneration for Russia.
Besides being member of the commission of laws and secretary of
state in the council of the empire, M. Tourgueneff* was also
charged with the department of foreign worship, in the ministry
of which Prince Galitsin was the head. He entered ardently
upon the new path of improvement which Alexander wanted to
open for his people.
Notwithstanding its short duration, the activity of this Bible
society was very great ; indeed, no other, unless it be the British,
the parent of all these societies, ever displayed more. Its seat
was at St. Petersburg ; but it had, mpreover, throughout the whole
extent of the empire, 289 committees or auxiliary societies. Owing
to the donations of the faithful, it gradually collected a sum of
3,711,376 roubles. It caused the Scriptures to be translated and
printed, or at least to be circulated, in 41 idioms, of those which
are spoken in Russia, apart from the national Sclavonic language,
especially by the numerous Finnish and Ural tribes. It distri
buted 448,109 copies of the sacred volume, invaluable in them
selves, but often precious indeed in the distant countries where
they were circulated, as the only books that could possibly be
procured, or as a means of study to the linguist ; for, opposite the
Touvach, the Tcheremis, or the Ostiac, <fcc, the text was printed
in Russian, just as the old Sclavonic church language was found
opposite the Russian, in the copies intended for the prevailing
race. Towards the close of Alexander's reign, the activity of this
society gradually diminished ; yet in the year 182.) it caused
70,000 more copies of the Scriptures to be printed in different
languages, and 31,161 copies to be distributed. Not the slight
est suspicion of occasioning conspiracies against public order or
the unity of the church could be brought against it : if there
* He was born in 1 784, of an ancient and very honourable family in
the government of Simbirsk, had studied at Gottin^cn, and had after
wards entered the service of the state under the auspices of Novociltsoff,
one of the emperor's friends. The emancipation of the serfs was one of
his principal preoccupations, but he took, also, a part in every attempt to
awaken in his country that intellectual life which would strengthen and
enrich the numerous elements of its strength and grandeur. We are
indebted to M. Alexander Tourgueneff for a learned collection intitled
"Monumcnla Historic Patrirc," St. Petersburg, 1840 and 1843, two
vols, quarto. A third volume is about to be published.

APPENDIX. 491
were at that time a few conversions to Catholicism, and if the
ancient sects of doukhobortses (enemies of the Holy Ghost) or
other raskolniks (heretics) recommenced their agitation, as they
have since done, it could not reasonably be imputed to the Bible.
But Prince Galitsin, the president of the society, following the
monarch's example, was inclining towards pietism, and this ten
dency, becoming perhaps rather a matter of fashion, spread from
one to another among the upper classes. Then the Holy Synod,
no doubt little pleased to see the emperor acquiring a taste for
the preaching of Madame Krudener, and frequenting with her
adepts the conventicles of the dissenters, began to shew some
uneasiness ; a few fanatical priests raised a commotion, and the
archmandrid Photius, a saintly man whom our readers have not
forgotten, went straightway to the emperor. He appeared before
him, uninvited, and communicated to him the fears of the church.
A short time afterwards, Prince Galitsin was deprived of a part
of the powers he exercised over the church, and of his office of
president of the Bible Society.* Having then become an entirely
ecclesiastical business, it was placed under the direction of the
metropolitan of Novogorod and St. Petersburg, the first minister
of the Holy Synod. Such was the state of things when the
government drew up the " Report of the Commission of Inquiry."
A few isolated individuals had just been making a criminal
use of the Bible. This circumstance turned the scale in favour
of the numerous enemies of its propagation ; as early as the 6th
of May (April 24th) 1826, a ukase, enacting the suppression of
the Russian Bible Society, proceeded from the supreme authority.
It was merely allowed to dispose, by auction, of the copies of the
sacred volumes which it still retained in its depositories. Its
accounts were, moreover, to be made up and settled. From that
time, a general immobility has prevailed, from which a momen
tary enthusiasm, by means of this society, seemed likely to have
extricated the Russian church.

Note (11), Page 161.
SCARCITY OP LEGISTS.
" The lawyers, I mean those of the Russian courts, are the
most ignorant that exist," had already been said by Williams, the
English author, f
* M, Alexander Tourgueneff retired from it at the same time, and
likewise gave in his resignation of the post he occupied in the ministry
of public worship.
f " The Rise, Progress, and Present State," &c, t. n. p. 307.

492 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
An opinion of a greater authority in these matters is that of
M. Nicholas Tourgueneff, himself among the few who would have
a right to claim for themselves the appellation of legist. He
refrains, he says,* from entering into many particulars about the
organization and the exercise of the administrative and the judi
ciary powers, as this would be of no interest. " First, there can
not be in Russia any kind of independence for the judicial power,
by the side of that immense absolute power which is the attri
bute of the monarch, and which embraces and absorbs every-
thing.f Then, again, in a country where there are neither advo
cates, jurisconsults, legists, nor administrators by profession, and
where everybody does everything, what would be the use of giving
a different sphere of action to the different powers?"
In Russia there exist no real jurisconsults but among the Ger
mans of the Baltic provinces : the latter can invoke confidently
the names of Ewers, Rentz, Broecker, and a few others of more
ancient date ; and there alone are to be found advocates worthy
of this appellation.

Note (12), Page 164.
COUNT SPERA-NSKI.
The Romish clergy, abounding with men of superior minds,
and formerly, in times of less general civilization, at the head of
the intellectual progress of mankind, has long been in a condition
to furnish all our countries of western Europe, and even Poland,
with some of their most distinguished statesmen. But the case
has not been the same with the Russian clergy : never has that
body produced a Richelieu or a Mazarin. This is, doubtless, no
great harm ; but that is not the question at this moment : what
we mean is, that this fact is easily accounted for. Whilst the
upper prelacy, in France and other countries, was reserved partly
for the younger sons of great families, the Russian clergy has
scarcely ever been recruited but from the ranks of the people,
with whom it was principally in contact ; and to arrive at the
superior dignities it was necessary to' come from a convent, that
is to say, to have turned monk at an early age, or else, after
* " La Russie et les Russes," t. ii. p. 306.
t As to the value of ukases, sec ibid., t. ii. 305, and Golovin, p. 119.
Some are enacted every moment infringing the law, with this express re
servation : — JVr v'primere drougnim, without making a precedent for
others.

APPENDIX. 493
having been a secular priest, to have been urged into that retire
ment by the loss of a wife on whose existence the ordinary func
tions of clerkship are dependent.*
And not only have the Russian clergy, with a few rare excep
tions, not produced any politicians, but their children have never
been seen distinguishing themselves in this career and arriving at
eminent posts in the state. Ostermann, the vice-chancellor of
the empire under the empress Anne, was the son of a Lutheran
pastor of Westphalia ; but scarcely could any son of a priest
(pope) be quoted as having risen to so high a rank ; and it is
once more easy to tell the reason. On one hand, the sons of the
lower clergy do not receive a sufficient education to prepare them
for filling such a post ; and on the other, it seldom happens that
the members of the upper clergy, who alone could push their sons
into the superior offices, have left the class of hieromonacs, that is
to say, of monks formerly married when they were priests and in
the world. The sons of priests, therefore, belong generally to
an obscure sphere from which it is very difficult for them to
emerge. The man whose name is placed at the head of this notice is
one of the few who form the exception to this rule.
Michael Sp6ranski, the son of a priest (pope), was born in 1771,
at a village in the government of Vladimir. His real name was
Nadejeda (hope) ; and some have pretended that he was of Chi
nese extraction. His father placed him at an early age in a
seminary ; and the young Michael f afterwards finished his
studies at the ecclesiastical academy of St. Petersburg. He
shewed so much taste for the mathematics, and studied them with
such evident success, that he was admitted at the age of twenty-
one to teach the exact and physical sciences in that superior
academy, established at the convent of St. Alexander Nevski. At
the same time, he gave lessons in the family of Prince Alexis
Kourakin, the brother of the chancellor at that period.
The support of this powerful family enabled Speranski, in 1797,
to change the ecclesiastical career for that of the service of the
state, for which he felt a greater vocation. Being backed by the
prince, and recommended moreover by his own talents, the clear
ness of his intelligence, and his love of occupation, he rapidly
traversed the scale of the bureau cratical hierarchy, was called to the
chancery of the privy council,! and promoted in 1 801, that is to say,

* The Russian priest cannot marry a second time, remaining pope ;
neither can he continue his functions. When he loses his wife, he
enters a convent.
t Mikhail Mikha'ilovitch.
± The denomination of Council of the Empire was not yet adopted.

494 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
at the age of thirty, to the rather elevated post of secretary of
state attached to this same council. There he displayed great
activity : the most important official writings of that period,
drawn up in Russia, especially the ministerial returns, published
by Storch in his collection already frequently quoted,* are due to
the pen of Speranski.
The whole frame-work of the superior administration was, as is
well known, remodelled in 1802 : t the post of attorney-general,
a kind of prime minister, through whose hands most of the busi
ness used to pass, was suppressed, and in its place ministerial
departments like those of other countries, were created. Spe
ranski had no direct hand in the establishing of this new form of
administration ; but, in the foUowing year, he was charged with
the organization of the ministry of the interior by Count Kotchou-
be'i who was then at its head. Being considered from that time
as the most proper person for the task of codifying the Russian
laws, he was called, in 1808, to the commission already instituted
by Catherine II. and renewed in 1804, but which had remained
almost entirely inactive ; and the direction of the chancery of
this commission was entrusted to his care. Being given later as a
colleague to the minister of justice, he was charged, after the con
quest of Finland, with the provisional administration of that
grand-principality, subjected to a special government ; and the
guardianship of the University of Abo formed also a part of his
prerogatives. At that period, Speranski, being promoted to the rank of
privy councillor, began to have frequent intercourse with the
emperor Alexander, who was fond of consulting him, and listened
gladly to his suggestions. It is well known that this prince had
many praiseworthy inclinations. Discontented with the existing
state of things, and convinced of the necessity of introducing new
changes into the mechanism of the administration, he was capti
vated by Speranski's arguments and noble views, which he con
veyed to him in extremely eloquent language. He granted him
an almost unlimited confidence. Every kind of reform was then
undertaken, and every part of the government was revised, but
perhaps, according to ideas too systematical, and without having
always sufficiently perfected the projects of improvement.
At Speranski's suggestion, the methods of teaching followed in
the schools of the clergy were improved, and the funds assigned
to them augmented. The old privy council, the name of which
had been converted by Alexander into that of council of t/te
* " Russland untcr Alexander I."
f See the two ukases of the 8th of September of that year, and
Bredow, p. 3HM.

APPENDIX. 495
re, was re-organised and put on its present footing;* every
branch of the public administration was to end there as in a
common centre ; it was especially desired that it should have the
control of all the financial operations ; but no law in general was
to be established in future till after it had been submitted to a
deliberation in that assembly. Everything became centralized in
this great body of the state ; and Speranski, who was its soul, and
formed the connecting link between it and the monarch, found
himself invested with great power; nor has any one of his suc
cessors in the post of secretary of the council or secretary of the
empire, equalled him in this particular. A few months later t
he also remodelled the ministers, applying to all the principles of
organization which he had succeeded in getting adopted in 1803,
for that of the interior. He next turned his attention to the
finances, in consideration of which most of these innovations had
been undertaken. The continual issue of paper-money had occa
sioned its depreciation, and, an annual deficit staring it in the
face, the government was seriously embarrassed. The system of
taxation was modified, a sinking fund instituted, a part of the
bank assignats was withdrawn from circulation, a new monetary
system introduced, and a better calculated tariff put in operation.
All these measures were perhaps not equally worthy of praise ;
for it was soon necessary to alter some of them, and Speranski's
financial capacity was said to have been limited; but they bear
witness, at all events, to his zeal, his fervent desire to extricate
Russia from the old routine in which she had remained buried,
and to the extreme activity of his mind.
A projected civil code, drawn up by him, was already being
discussed in the council of the empire ; and he was also sketching
the plan of a commercial and a penal code, and it was his inten
tion to extend his labours of reform to the whole legislation;
moreover, he had proposed a plan for re-organizing the senate,
another great wheel in the machinery of the state that did not
work in a satisfactory manner, In a word, he was striving in
every possible way to prepare a better future for his country.
" M. Speranski's project," says M. Tourgueneff,! " has been
very little known in Russia. I have read it attentively. It pro
poses different institutions which were to lead the Russians to
the legal r'egime, — to a constitutional representative government.
The language is candid, and occasions an agreeable surprise to a
patriotic reader. When we remember that this work was com-
* Ukase of the 1st (13th) of January, 1810.
t Ukase of the 21st of July (August 2nd), 1810.
X "La Russie et les Russes," t. i. p. 573. See also t. in. p. 423,
et seq.

496 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
posed before 1812, we cannot help acknowledging that Speranski
was one of the most forward men of his time, not only of Russia,
but also of continental Europe."
" If ever Russia can have an impartial history,'' adds the same
writer, " the name of Speranski will figure in it with some
honour."* The emperor rewarded his councillor for his zeal by conferring
on him the grand riband of St. Alexander-Nevski.
But Speranski's plan, which was successively unfolded, piece by
piece, was not comprehended by the public. They were asto
nished, perhaps frightened, at these innovations which followed
each other in rapid succession : some considered them uncon
nected, others were startled by the rashness of the undertaking.
The new financial measures, which, moreover, had not remedied
the penury of the treasury, were considered as connected with the
continental system, generally detested in Russia, and contrary to
the interests of the territorial property. The changes introduced
into the ministerial departments, by molesting many old func
tionaries in their routine, had also raised up numerous enemies
against the secretary of the empire, and his high fortune had
occasioned much envy ; the aristocracy was jealous of this pope's
son being the emperor's private adviser, and modelling the state
with so much assurance, according to his own inspiration. A
storm soon gathered around him; and the commotion occasioned
in Russia by the danger of a French invasion, contributed to make
it burst forth.
Speranski owed his downfall to an intrigue, the principal
leader of which is said to have been General Armfeld, a Swedish
deserter. The autocrat sacrificed his councillor at a moment
when it was essential to appease every kind of distrust, and \o
avert from his own person the unpopularity with which he was
menaced by the reforms of his minister.
The disgrace of the secretary of the empire was sudden; on
leaving the Winter Palace, after being employed with his sovereign,
in March, 1812, he found himself under arrest. A carriage was
waiting for him at the gate ; he was obliged to enter it, and, with
out being allowed time even to go and embrace his daughter,
still very young, he was conducted under a strong escort to
Nijni-Novogorod, where he was at first permitted to reside. Six
* However, M. Tourgueneff is not prejudiced in his favour, but, on
the contrary, judges him severely. "Posterity," he says, "will forget,
or will never know the little worth of the moral man." He reproaches
him, moreover, with having been too much attached to the form, and
not enough to the reality, the essence of things. Can it then be true
that Russia cannot shew a single truly superior man, a single really
complete organization ?

APPENDIX. 497
months afterwards, the French having arrived at Moscow, this
neighbourhood was considered dangerous, and the exile was
transferred to Perm, a town situated about 1,000 kilometers (613
English miles) farther, in the direction of Asia. Thus did the
enemies of Speranski triumph; and the most extraordinary ru
mours were spread among the public, as usually happens in such
cases, on " the odious treachery," the effects of which had just
been prevented.
Speranski was a great admirer of our country (France), and he
was the more fond of keeping up a correspondence with it, as he
meditated introducing into Russia the code of Napoleon, inclusive
of the law of divorce. Calumny took advantage of these facts to
accuse him of a secret correspondence with the French, at the very
moment when they were marching towards the Niemen. Such
was the explanation given to the act of severity practised against
a man, who, till then, had been so influential ; and however ab
surd these rumours may have been, they gained credit, when the
first chief of division in the ministry of justice and the director
of the cypher office for foreign affairs* were seen involved in the
same disgrace.
Speranski justified himself in the opinion of the emperor
from all these imputations in a memorial he addressed to him
from Perm, in the beginning of the year 1813. Having no per
sonal property, he was in a state of great destitution ; but Alex
ander at length allowed him a suitable pension. Two years later
the exile obtained permission to retire to a small estate which he
possessed in the neighbourhood of Novogorod, at 1 80 verstes from
St. Petersburg. There he passed many happy days, occupied with
agriculture, his studies, and the education of his daughter : it
was doubtless at this period that he made his translation of " The
Imitation of Jesus Christ," published a short time afterwards at
St. Petersburg (in 1819). However, as early as 1816, the em
peror, by a ukase, in which he made him a kind of reparation,!
appointed him to the post of civil governor of Penza ; and,
although this office might appear of a subaltern kind in compa
rison with that which Speranski had formerly occupied, he ac
cepted it. In fact this nomination was only a stepping-stone to
new honours ; and it was moreover accompanied with a gift of
* Beck, the councillor of state, an honourable man, of solid learning.
t He says in this ukase of the 30th of August, 1816, that having re
ceived a serious denunciation against Speranski, just as he was departing
for the army, he had been unable to examine it closely ; but that the
facts alleged were nevertheless so serious that the immediate removal
of the accused from affairs seemed to be a measure dictated by pru
dence ; but that having since made inquiry, he had not considered the
reasons for the suspicion well founded.
VOL. II. K K

498 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
7,000 deciatines of land, offered by the emperor by way of com
pensation. Next, in June, 1819, Speranski was invested with the
functions of Governor- General of Siberia. Then he devoted more
than a year to visit, amid incredible difficulties, every part of the
immense territory intrusted to his care, where everything had to
be created, but where a judicious administration may secure in
future unexpected resources to the state. He drew up a plan of
organization,* in which no real interest was forgotten ; that of the
savage who had only the produce of his hunting for subsistence,
no more than that of the merchant engaged in the trade with
China, and often worth millions of money.
Lastly, in the month of March, 1821, he appeared again at St.
Petersburg, after an absence of nine years. The old calumnious
reports were forgotten ; the emperor received him with extreme
kindness, and made him sit in that same council of the empire
of which he had been equally the oracle as the secretary. The
plan proposed by him was adopted in whatever was most essential,
and soon after put into execution. Speranski, being member of
the committees of legislation and of finances, resumed his labours
relative to the code of laws, and, still full of activity, exercised
once more a preponderating influence over the deliberations of the
council. But it was especially under Alexander's successor that Speran
ski's great talents found an employment useful to his country.
Nicholas had recourse to them in the serious difficulties in which
he found himself situated at the commencement of his reign.
Not only he acted according to the advice of this counsellor
throughout the duration of the grand trial, but he also enlightened
himself, in frequent conversations with him on the state of the legis
lation of the empire, and the means of emerging at length from
the chaos by terminating the task of codification. The young
autocrat entered upon that work himself with resolution, and chose
Speranski for his principal auxiliary, " the only legist in Russia,"
according to the opinion of M. Golovin.t We have related in our
narrative how Speranski acquitted himself of his task ; we have
followed the progress of the work, by the help of the indications
which he himself has afforded in the Russian original, termed
" Compendium of Historical Notions on the Formation of the body
of Russian Laws" (St. Petersburg, 1833, 8vo.), and we have made
known its result, — that Srod or Digest, which is now the law of the
country, a law still susceptible of great improvements, but which
has at least inaugurated the legal regime, and put an end to the
anarchy which, in this respect, had so long prevailed.
* Printed with the title of" Sihirskoi'e Outehrejedenie."
-|- " La Russie sous Nicolas 1.," p. 233. See Note (11), p. 491.

APPENDIX. 499
The Svod is Speranski's chief title to the gratitude of his fel
low-countrymen, which was anticipated by that of the emperor.
If he did not perfect it, at all events he executed its most essen
tial parts, after having sketched out the basis of the whole work.
Thus, there was no honour that he did not enjoy. After being
promoted to the rank of actual privy-councillor, adorned with
the riband of St. Andrew, the highest order in the empire, he
received, moreover, in the last year of his life, the title of count,
and to these merely honorary distinctions, bestowed by the muni
ficence of the emperor, were added most solid advantages. But
the most glorious reward of Speranski's labours was the universal
esteem of which he was the object at that period, and the satis
faction he experienced at having rendered the most urgent service
to his prince and his country.
Notwithstanding the obstacles he had to surmount, this son of
a priest has done more for his country than many members of
aristocratic families, proud of their hereditary glory, and strong
in their powerful connexions. He died in January, 1839, nearly
seventy years of age.
He was one of those men who are never forgotten when seen,
though only for once. His high forehead and serene countenance
betokened intellect and goodness ; and one seemed to read in his
expressive physiognomy, the whole history of a life characterized
hy so many different labours, courageous attempts, and glorious
successes.

Note (13), Page 195.
STILL MOKE CORRUPTION.
On this head authors can never exhaust their subject, and the
assertions of the Russians in this respect are no less formal and
condemnatory.* In every age the vice of corruption has been
stigmatized even from the throne and the pulpit. Catherine II.,
in the very year of her accession (July 18, 1762), published a
ukase in order to put a stop to this evil. In that act, expressly
* See, in the text, those of the statesman ; see also, Golovin, p. 121,
368, et seq., &c. Among foreign writers, we will merely mention the
author of the "Revelations," t. i. p. 68, 149, 161, &c., also tbe author
(far more favourable towards Russia) of the work intitled " De la Russie
et de la France," p. 33 ; Marmier, in his " Letters sur la Russie, la Fin-
lande, et la Pologne," t. ii. p. 96, et seq. ; Custine, in twenty different
parts of his book, &c. K K 2

500 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
entitled " against corruption,"* we find the following passage : —
" We had heard to satiety, and we now see ourselves how far this
insatiable thirst for gifts and presents has extended in our empire ;
so far, that scarcely could the least magisterial seat be found
where the exercise of justice is not infected with this contagion."
So much for the throne. As to the church, she has uttered her
protestations by the lips of the eloquent Plato, the metropolitan of
Moscow. In his address to Alexander, during the coronation we
remark these two passages : — " Thou wilt see flocking to thy
throne widows, orphans, paupers, the victims of the abuse of power,
of partiality, and corruption. Thou wilt hear their prayers !"
. . " Corruption and partiality will raise their hideous heads
and endeavour to turn the scale of justice on their side."
Our own travelling-journal, which has remained intact up to
the present time, as we have stated, is full of examples where
proper names are set down with the facts ; our intention was to
deliver them to the public ; but on beholding what is passing at
the present day in our own country, we pause, and though one
may, at all events, be comforted by the assurance that there are
judges at Berlin, we have no longer the courage to proceed.

Note (14), Page 195.
KARAMZIN's OPINION OF THE SERVILITY OV THE RUSSIANS.
After having spoken of the oppression under which the Russians,
enslaved by the Mongols, groaned for two hundred years, the en
lightened historian, whose name is at the head of this note, ex
presses himself as follows :-—
" What must be the consequence of this state of things 1 The
moral abasement of men. Laying aside all national pride, we
learned the vile artifices of slavery, to which the weak have recourse
to serve them in lieu of strength. Iu deceiving the Tartars, we
acquired the habit of cheating one another also. By purchasing-
safety from the violence of the barbarians with money, we became
more avaricious, and, by boiug exposed to the indignities of foreign
tyrants, we were soon less sensible of insult and infamy."
'' Perhaps the Russian character. even now shews blemishes which
it has received from Mongol barbarity." — " Histoire de l'Empire
de Russie," vol. v. chap. iv.
The whole of this chapter, in which the author gives the history
* Likhoimstvo.

APPENDIX. 501
of autocracy, and shews it ridding itself of every kind of counter
poise, is worthy of the closest attention.
"Joann III.," says he, in another chapter, "introduced the
custom of kissing the hand of the sovereign : he made it a flatter
ing proof of his benevolence. In divining the secrets of autocracy,
he became, in a manner of speaking, the terrestrial god of the
Russians, who began, at that period, to astonish all other nations by
their boundless devotion to the monarch's will." ..." The
highest functionaries, whether secular or ecclesiastical, when de
clared to have forfeited their dignity on account of crime, were by
no means safe from the terrible penalty of the knout." Vol. vi.
chap. vii.
The historian does not appear less liberal in several of the fol
lowing chapters, especially in the second of the ninth volume.
But we have not been able to find, in this same volume, the history
of Prince Sougorski, the ambassador of the czar Joann the Terrible
to the Emperor Maximilian II., which is the subject of an extract
from Karamzin, quoted by the author of "La Russie en 1839,"*
and which the Russian historian is said to have terminated with
the following observation : —
" That is to say, the Russians gloried in what they were re
proached with by foreigners ; — a blind and boundless devotion
to the monarch's will, even when, in his most violent fits of
caprice, he trampled upon every law of justice and humanity."

Note (15), Page 72.
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS.
We wish we could copy the whole of the note devoted to this
vital question in the volume entitled " De la Russie et de la
France," p. 305 — 313 ; but the reader will prefer to consult the
original, and we must confine ourselves here to a short quotation.
" The serf, the man-glebe," says the anonymous author, " is be
come the standard of value, the common measure by which pro
perty and riches are estimated ; he has been looked upon as the
assessment of taxation, and the pledge of credit; Russia has
reckoned by human heads just as other countries do by acres ; the
exchequer has laid its taxes in proportion to the population ; the
proprietor has borrowed on his slaves ; and the individual has re
mained a mortgage. For this reason, the question of emancipa-
* Vol. iii. p. 214.

502 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
tion is not only a difficulty in the moral order, but also a settling
of accounts, a vexatious question of interest and useful right.
" The minds of men in general, even among the interested, may
be believed to be at the present day disposed in favour of emanci
pation ; common reason considers it as a necessity of the times,
and, on principle, everybody consents to the measure, and desires
it ; but, in entering upon it positively, people perceive that they
must have some security against possible ill consequences.
This question is like the holy arc : everybody approaches it, but
nobody ventures to touch it.
" To meddle with slavery, you must have unshackled powers,
and financial resources at your disposal ; you must be free from
uneasiness abroad and from inconvenience at home. Money is the
oil of the social mechanism ; it smoothes every part ; and there
are situations which you must be able to pay for, if you would
remain master of them."
Notwithstanding his restrictions, the author considers the en
franchisement of the serfs as a task imposed by Providence upon
the present emperor. " The life of the Emperor Nicholas," says
he, " would present a painful void, and leave a regret without
compensation, if he happened not to reach the culminating point
in his destiny. From the day when he assumed the sceptre, he
has been the necessary man for his empire," <fec.
The question of slavery and the emancipation of the serfs has
just been examined more thoroughly by a man. who has made it
the study of his whole life;* and his work releases us from saying
more here on a matter which could not be fully treated without
entering into many particulars. An opportunity of reverting to
this subject will no doubt occur at some future time, and then we
will eagerly embrace it.

Note (16), Page 238.
NEGOTIATIONS AND SECRET VIEWS OF RUSSIA CONCERNING THE
OTTOMAN EMPIRE.
Two diplomatic despatches, one from Count Nesselrode to Prince
Lieven, and the other from the same to the actual privy councillor
do Ribeaupiorre, would deserve to figure here at full length. Our
want of space prevents us from copying them as we intended; but
we will quote a short paragraph from each.
* M. Nicholas Tourgueneff. See his book, "La Russie et les
RllSSCS."

APPENDIX. 503
In the first despatch, dated January 9th, 1827, the question is
the negotiations which preceded the conclusion of the treaty of
London (July 6th, 1827). Ever since the peace of Akerman,
England seemed to have entirely forgotten the protocol of the 4th
of April, (March 23rd), signed at her instigation ; but Russia
had not forgotten it. She was determined to have either a war
with Turkey, or the pacification of Greece, together with the re-
establishment of her own ascendency at Constantinople ; and the
minister charges the ambassador to declare this distinctly to the
British cabinet.
" Experience has proved to us," says he, " that the only argu
ment that makes any impression upon the other cabinets, is, in
reality, the fear of seeing the pacification of Greece effected by the
sole ascendency of Russia. To bring them to the alternative of
leaving us absolute masters of the ground, or to associate with us
to direct that work of pacification in concert, is to assure to us
the best means of obtaining their co-operation in the execution of
the protocol of the 23rd of March, 1826. . . .
" To avoid the reproach of declining a proposal provoked by
the English ministry, the emperor accepts that of France, and
consents to the conversion of the protocol of the 23rd of March
into a formal treaty. He consents to that treaty being concluded
between all the powers that may be willing to sign it  ;
but the condition on which he makes it depend, is one sine qua
non. The real coercive measure which we point out, is the junc
tion of the squadrons, for the purpose of preventing every succour,
Turkish or Egyptian, of men, arms, vessels, and ammunition . . ."
Finally, the minister declares that Mr. Canning's refusal should
not prevent the emperor from going on and fulfilling, separately,
the obligations he has contracted by the protocol. " It would be
easy for you," adds he, " to hint to the ministry of his Britannic
majesty the numerous and powerful means which Russia possesses
for obtaining the consent of the Turks," &c.
In the other despatch, dated January 11th, 1827, Russia for-
sees the likelihood of a reaction against Mahmoud II., whose
means of action were " terror or death." According to Count
Nesselrode, this reaction would have brought about the extermi
nation of the reigning dynasty. " If we reflect," says he, " that
the reforms have been begun with shattered finances, amid symp
toms of gradual decay, and that the grand-signior is drowning in
the blood of his subjects their projects of rebellion, which seem,
nevertheless, to revive every day, it is difficult to expect a long
duration of his reign and government.
"Russia cannot, in any contingency, look upon this vast enter
prise with indifference . . . Should it fail, it may occasion the
fall of the Ottoman empire. . . .

504 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
" It is most important that such a revolution should not find
us unprepared ; and you will have deserved well, sir, of your
sovereign and your country, if you make us acquainted with the
precursory symptoms of this catastrophe sufficiently in time for
the emperor to be able to prepare his measures, and exercise an
influence suitable to the dignity and necessities of Russia, over
the political combinations which may replace the empire of the
crescent."* Such words need no commentary. Until an opportunity occurs
for us to assign to them their proper place in the history of the
reign of the Emperor Nicholas, we recommend them to the serious
meditation of the Turks.

Note (17), Page 243.
THE BREAKING OF THE ICE ON THE NEVA.
When the fields of ice which imprison the waters of the Neva
during five months of the year, begin to break, the bridge of boats
is immediately taken away, and all communication between the
two banks of that broad river remains intercepted for several
days. During that time, the blocks of ice are roiled away by the
stream, and when tbey have disappeared, the commandant of the
fortress opens the navigation by repairing in a barge to the
palace, and almost immediately afterwards, the bridge is replaced.
However, it is often necessary to remove it a second time, in order
to give a free passage to the masses of ice that come down from
the Lake Ladoga.
The commandant of the fortress crosses the river with much
solemnity, and amid the roar of artillery. His barge is armed
with a few pieces of cannon, and followed by a procession com
posed of smaller boats. He goes to offer to the head of the state
a goblet filled with water from the river, which goblet was
formerly given back to him full of silver coin. Next, a festivity
is celebrated, called Priplavlinie (the crossing of the river) : we
find it described with all its particulars in our travelling journal,
but we restrict ourselves to saying that the people, dressed in
holiday attire, throng the quays of the Neva, cross the river in
small boats, and go to walk upon the ramparts of the fortress.
* We have seen in vol. i., that, at the interview at Erfurt, there had
already been sonic conversation between Alexander and Napoleon, relat
ing to a division of Turkey.

APPENDIX. 505
This custom is peculiar to St. Petersburg, and is traced back
to the time of Peter the Great. Doubtless, that monarch
thought proper to employ this popular means to make his sub
jects comprehend the great advantage they derived from this fine
river which, when it breaks its icy bonds, gives life to the city
and animates also all the empire, since it is, in a manner of
speaking, the common conductor of all its water-courses into the
Baltic.

Note (18), Page 295.
DEATH OF KARAMZIN.
The celebrated Russian historian terminated his noble career
on the 3rd of June (May 22nd), 1826, at the palace of Tauris, in
which the emperor had assigned him an apartment, in order that
he might enjoy the fine garden of that imperial residence formerly
built for Potemkin.
Nicholas Mikhailovitch Karamzin, (born at Simbirsk, on the
1st of December, 1765,) was then but sixty years old, but. labour
and a long illness had undermined his strength. He had en
joyed high favour with Alexander, who, in 1803, had made him
historiographer of Russia.
Alexander's successor was not less sensible than his brother of
the merit of the man who had endowed the literature of his
country with a national monument ; accordingly, never was an
historian treated more magnificently. During his illness,
Nicholas not only lodged him in one of his palaces, and often
sent to inquire after his health, but he presented him with
50,000 roubles in order that he might repair, as soon as his
strength permitted, to the south of France, whither a frigate of
the imperial navy was to transport him ; and, in order to set
him completely at his ease as to the fortune of his family, in
case his illness should terminate fatally, he allowed him an annual
pension of 50,000 roubles, revertible to his wife, and, after her,
to her children, until the sons entered the public service, and the
daughters were married.*
In the " Encyclopedic des Gens du Monde," (article, Karamzin})
will be found a short appreciation of the historian ; and in our
preceding note (14,) we have given a few extracts from his great
* See the imperial rescript of the 25th (13th) of May, 1826, in the
"Journal de St. Petersbourg, ' 1826, No. 64.

506 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
work, which prove that he wrote as a patriot rather than as
a courtier. To judge of Karamzin as a politician, one should
read his pamphlet " On ancient and modern Russia, in her poli
tical and civil Relations," presented in 1810, to the Emperor
Alexander. The year 1826, deprived Russia of several other celebrated
men. First she lost, on the 15th of January, Count Nicholas
Roumantsoff, the chancellor of the empire, a rich and powerful
man, a true Mecajnas to writers and artists ; next, Alexander
Naryschkin, the grand chamberlain, the king of theatricals, a
famous punster, better known for his sallies and freaks than for
serious services, but who was nevertheless beloved by Alexander,
who was ever willing to pay the debts of this most prodigal great
lord ; then again, in February, the famous Count Peter de
Pahlen, an old man who had long withdrawn from affairs, but
who was full of life and gaiety to the last, and by no means
tormented in conscience by the recollection of the terrible deed
wherein he had played a principal part, on the night of the 23rd
of March, 1801. He was blessed with a numerous progeny, who
have also enjoyed honours of every description. His death was
followed closely by that of General Benningsen, (October 4th),
another actor in the same tragical scene. In the month of June,
Count Gregory Orloff had died of an attack of apoplexy in the
open senate ; and, at the end of the year, (December 1st,) Russia
had to deplore the loss of the venerable Catholic archbishop,
Stanislaus Siestrzencewicz-Bohusz, the metropolitan of aU Russia,
an enlightened and tolerant prelate, and one of the most laborious
and learned men who have investigated the origin of Russia and
Poland.* His benevolent career extended to ninety-six years.
A fanatical ultramontane author has been so bold as to say of
him that he had been for fifty -four years the scourge of his native
land. An outrage like this needs no refutation.

Note (19), Page 303.
INFLUENCE OF THE TURKISH REFORMS UPON THE HOSTILE DETER
MINATIONS OF RUSSIA.
The speedy success of Mahmoud the Second's military reforms
ongrossed all the attention of the Russian cabinet, as Prince Met-
ternich could perceive from the communications made to him by
* See u notice of him in the Ci erman "Gazette of St. Peteisburg,"
1826, No. 101.

APPENDIX. 507
General Vincent Krasinski, in May, 1829. This aide-de-camp
general to the autocrat concealed neither from the chancellor of
court and state, nor from the Emperor Francis, how muoh he was
struck by this fact, that the Turkish prisoners who had been sol
diers for only six weeks, were, nevertheless, as well disciplined as
the old warriors to whom the Grand-Duke Constantine had de
voted all his time ; " their intense hatred," adds he, " their en
thusiasm and fanaticism, together with the order which the sultan
introduces, and European tactics, may render them dangerous for
the future."
And what proves that this was no transient impression or
momentary fear, is that we read in Count Nesselrode's despatch
to M. de Ribeaupierre, dated January 11th, 1827, the following
words : " Should it (the enterprise of reforming the Ottoman
empire) succeed, this success may renovate, so to speak, the Turk
ish government, and inspire it with a confidence in its strength,
the consequences of which would be felt also by Russia."

Note (20), Page 310.
ADDITIONS MADE TO THE HIGH NATIONAL COURT.
We have said that fifteen persons, appointed by the emperor
by name, were added to the members of the three great bodies of
the state. The following is a list of these persons : the actual
privy councillor, Count Jourii Alexandrovitch Golovkin, formerly
ambassador in China and at Vienna, the last scion of a family
illustrious in the eighteenth eentury, an old man eighty years of
age, .but who, nevertheless, still performs the duties of grand-
chamberlain and member of the council of the empire ; general-
in-chief Count de Langeron, of whom we have already spoken ;
actual privy-councillor, Baron (and, since the coronation, Count)
Gregory Stroganoff, that Russian ambassador at Constantinople
who, being urged beyond all bearing by the arrogance of the
Porte, demanded his passports in 1821, but was not afterwards
received by his sovereign in the manner that he naturally ex
pected ; Aide-de-camp-general Voinoff, already mentioned ; Charles
Oppermann, general-in-chief of engineers (who was made count in
1829, but died a few years ago); Aide-de-camp-general Count de
Lambert (since then a senator and general in the cavalry), Vice-
admiral (since Admiral) Siniavine, Borozdin (since made a sena
tor) and Pask6vitch (since Field-Marshal and Prince of Warsaw) ;
Lieutenant-General Emanuel, already mentioned; Aides-de-camp-

508 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
general Count Kamarofski, Bachoutzki, Zakrefski and Bistrom ;
and, lastly, Privy-Councillor Kouschnikoff, the senator for the
departments of Moscow.

Note (21), Page 344.
CONRAD RVLEIEFF'S PROPHETIC POETRT.
The poem Voinarofski, dedicated by Ryleieff to his friend
Alexander Bestoujeff, whose fate he predicts, was printed at St.
Petersburg in 1825, before the outbreak of the conspiracy. Ano
ther poem, " The Confession of Nalivaiko," has remained unpub
lished ; and, judging of it from the fragment which M. Ancelot
gives as a translation in his " Six Mois en Russie" (p. 179), it
permits us to behold still nearer the soul of the unfortunate poet,
who, warned by a secret presentiment of his future destiny, felt
urged to record his own history in that of his heroes.
Nalivaiko, a young Cossack, had undertaken to deliver the
Ukaine from the oppression of the Poles; he confides his design
to a pious anchorite.
" In vain do the people groan in their chains," says he; " their
lamentations are unheard. 0 my father ! my hatred of the Poles
has made me mad. My eyes are sad and thoughtful, but wild.
My soul is pining under the burden of servitude ; and one thought
haunts me, day and night, like a phantom. It fires my brain in
the tranquil fields of my father, in the noisy caravan, in the
fierce struggle of battle, nay during my prayers at the foot of the
holy altars ; and a secret voice is ever whispering ' now is the
time — it is time to sacrifice all the tyrants of the Ukaine.'
" Well do I know that a gulf is yawning to swallow up the
first who rises against a nation's oppressors. Fate has chosen me.
But, tell me, in what country, in what age, has independence
been won without victims t I shall die for the country of my
birth ! I know it, I feel it, and it is with joy, 0 father, that I
bless my approaching doom ! "

APPENDIX. 509

Note (22), Page 351.
ARTICLE IN THE " QUOTIDIENNE " (NEWSPAPER) ON THE RUSSIAN
CONSPIRACY.
The following is the principal passage of those explanations
given by the Russian government. "But, since the liberal jour
nals reason thus before a listening public, let us endeavour to
reply to them in a few words.
" Every country has its own laws and customs, formed by time ;
I can easily conceive that a government may be accused of having
slighted them, but I do not know whether it be equally reason
able to ask it to reform them immediately, in order to adopt,
brought about by conspiracy, certain forms which some two or
three legislations of Europe have received after long efforts, and
which depend perhaps on circumstances peculiar to them. The
question is not to make in this place either a criticism or a
eulogy on our own judicial institutions ; they are fine and grand
like all that our kings have done; but this is no reason why
they should be applied to Russia, any more than it would be to
apply the conditions of the Russian monarchy to the representa
tive forms of our own government. To be good, the legislation
of a country ought to be proper to it; a law that would be fit for
all times and every place, would be good for no time nor for any
country; now, all who are acquainted with the legislation of
Russia, her history and traditions, know all that her sovereigns
were able to do and can still do : and certainly they must allow
that the trial which has just taken place, shews a perceptible im
provement in the exercise of the judicial power. Less than a cen
tury ago, the will of the sovereign in Russia was sufficient to put
to death the most powerful of his subjects ; the sword was in the
hands of the prince, together with the scales of justice, and several
examples prove to us that Peter, and his immediate successors,
used without control the violent power which custom had placed
in their hands. In the present procedure, men of the highest
intellect have been summoned together; amidst public passions
and the most difficult circumstances, the court has proceeded with
that calmness and circumspection so very uncommon in stormy
periods. The liberal journals would doubtless have demanded a
jury and publicity of proceedings, but the constitution of the
state does not admit these forms which belong to other countries,
and the Emperor Nicholas could not lay down for the present
case of conspiracy, forms that had been rejected by the Emperor
Alexander himself at the time of the last diet of Poland. We

510 SECRET HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
ought also to observe, that the trial related to a military con
spiracy, which even our own laws refer to a special tribunal, that
this conspiracy burst forth in a stormy period, that there were
confessions, the being taken in flagrante delicto, and a sore of civil
war; that publicity might be a ferment of discord and might
have rendered clemency impossible, by revealing in all their
odious light (odieux*) certain degrees of culpability which it
would no longer have been possible to pardon."

Note (23), Page viii. (Preface).
M. NICHOLAS TOURGUENEFF's BOOK, " LA RUSSIE ET LES BUSSES.''
The text of our work was completely finished and sent to press
when we heard, from the lips of M. Tourgueneff himself, with
whom we had just had the honour of becoming acquainted, that
his own memoirs, relating to the same period of the history of
Russia, were in the press. We had only just time to insert the
note which the reader has seen in Vol. II., p. 70, and as the
advertised work appeared within a month with the title of " La
Russie et les Russes," it was impossible for us to make it useful
for this publication, excepting from page 443 of the same
volume. We much regret that we were deprived, during the course
of our labours, of the information afforded by such an excellent
author, a worthy pupil of the school of Stein, that equally wise
and enlightened patriot. What we have said in the note of page
179 in the present volume, relative to the Russian statesman — the
author of the pamphlet entitled " La Russie en 1844" — applies
still more particularly to M. Tourgueneff. We should have found
in his book much precious information which we might have
advantageously employed.
But, after expressing this regret, let us also say, with the same
candour, that we have been completely disappointed in our ex
pectation of finding in this book a narrative of the events in
which the author had been momentarily implicated. He enters
into the question of the conspiracy only to refute the " Report of the
Commission of Inquiry ;" and, in our opinion, he does not always
do so successfully. As to the rest, there is neither any detail nor any
historical statement. M. Tourgueneff, who had been absent from
* This single expression would prove that the article was not penned
by any one of the usual writers of tho " Quotidienne."

APPENDIX. 511
Russia twenty months at the time of the revolt of 1825, devotes
at most but a few lines to the facts which form the principal subject
of our narrative. It is not a history that he wanted to give
to the public, but first a justificatory memorial in his own cause,
and next a collection of considerations and doctrines. On reading
it, most readers will inquire : " What then is this conspiracy of
which people speak so much, without making us acquainted with
it ]" And their excited curiosity will seek for further information,
which we have endeavoured to afford. In this respect, therefore,
the publication in question would have told us nothing new,
whatever be its merit in other particulars.
Then again, there is a difference of opinion between ourselves
and the honourable author of this publication. " If there were
any societies," says he (vol. i. p. 344), " those societies remained
powerless to do either good or evil : they did nothing, produced
nothing ; the men who afterwards did act, obeyed only their own
individual will, and their participation, whether present or past,
in any kind of society, had nothing to do with their conduct or
their determination. Instead of connecting the insurrection
with the existence of secret societies," he adds subsequently,
" everything, on the contrary, inclines one to say, parodying a
celebrated phrase, that it took place not because there were, but
although there were secret societies."
This opinion, the principal basis of M. Tourgueneff 's line of
argument, we do not share, though we acknowledge the im
portance of testimony derived from personal experience. The
participation of Pestel, Troubetzkoi, and others, in the secret
societies, as also in the insurrection, does not allow us to admit it ;
the reader will moreover find a development of our reasons in
vol. ii. chaps, ii. and vi. Nevertheless, we are very far from con
founding the first founders of the secret societies with the conspir
ators of 1825; not only we are convinced that they had very
different intentions, but we are even inclined to believe that the
latter concealed their real projects in their presence, and that in
what relates to secret societies, many things took place of which
M. Tourgueneff, notwithstanding his being a member, had no
knowledge. On the whole, therefore, the book on Russia and the Russians,
even if we had been able to avail ourselves of it, would not, by
any means, have modified our opinions ; and as to the esteem due
to its author, the reader can see in our narrative that he was in
full possession of ours before he had published any kind of
justification. THE END.

LONDON ;
Printed by S. & J. Bkktlby, Wilson, and Fley,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

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