Germany is at present witnessing the accomplishment of a masterpiece of critical art—one of its cities is being learnedly transformed into a city of ancient Greece or Italy. But New Munich wants an ancient population; Petersburg was wanted by the modern Russians.
IJirEEIAL TOMBS.159
On leaving the house of Peter the Great, I again passed before the bridge of the Neva (which leads to the Islands), and entered the celebrated fortress of Petersburg.
I have already remarked that this edifice, of which the name alone inspires fear, has twice had its ramparts and its granite foundations undermined, although it is not yet 140 years old. What a struggle ! The stones here seem to suffer violence like the men.
I was not permitted to see the prisons : there are dungeons under the water, and there are others under the roofs, all of which are full of human beings. I was only allowed to inspect the church, which incloses the tombs of the reigning family. ]Iy eyes were on these tombs while I was yet searching for them, so difficult was it to imagine that a square stone, of about the length and l)readth of a bed, newly covered with a green cloth embroidered with the imperial arms, could be the cemetery of the Empress Catherine I., of Peter I., Catherine II., and of so many other princes, down to the Emperor Alexander.
The Greek religion banishes sculpture from its churches, by which they lose in pomp and religious magnificence more than they gain in mystical character *; while at the same time it accommodates itself to gilt work, chasings, and to pictures which do not show a very pure taste. The Greeks are the children of the Iconoclasts.† In Russia they have ventured to mitigate the doctrine of their fathers ; but they might have gone further than they have done.
* En mysticité.† Destroyers of images.
160RUSSIAN PRISONERS.
In this funereal citadel, the dead appeared to me more free than the living. If it had been a philosophical idea which suggested the inclosing in the same tomb the prisoners of the emperor and the prisoners of death —the conspirators and the monarchs against whom they conspired — I should respect it; but I see in it nothing more than the cynicism of absolute power — the brutal security of a desjiotism which feels itself safe. Strong in its superhuman power, it rises above the little humane delicacies, the observance of which is advisable in common governments. A Russian emperor is so full of what is due to himself, that he cannot afford to have his justice lost sight of in that of God's. We royalist revolutionaries of Western Europe see only in a prisoner of state at Petersburg an innocent victim of despotism; the Russians view him as a reprobate. Every sound appeared to me a complaint; the stones groaned beneath my feet. Oh, how I pity the prisoners of this fortress ! If the existence of the Russians confined under the earth, is to be judged of by inferences drawn from the existence of the Russians who live above, thei`e is, indeed, eause to shudder ! A thrill of horror passed through me as I thought that the most stedfast fidelity, the most scrupulous probity, could secure no man from the subterranean prisons of the citadel of Petersburg, and my heart dilated, and my respiration came more freely, as I repassed the moats which defend this gloomy abode, and separate it from the rest of the world.
Who would not pity this people ? The Russians, I speak now of the higher classes, are living under the influences of an ignorance and of prejudices which
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
161
they themselves no longer possess. The affectation of resignation appears to me the lowest depth of abjectness into which an enslaved nation can fall: revolt or despair would be doubtless more terrible, but less ignominious. Weakness so degraded that it dare not indulge itself even in complaint, that consolation of the lower animal creation fear calmed by its own excess — this is a moral phenomenon which cannot be witnessed without calling forth tears of horror.
After visiting the sepulchre of the Russian sovereigns, I proceeded to the Catholic church, the services of which are conducted by Dominican monks. I went there to demand a mass for an anniversary which none of my travels have hitherto prevented my commemorating in a Catholic church. The Dominican convent is situated in the Perspective Newski, the finest street in Petersburg. The church is not magnificent, but decent; the cloisters are solitary, the courts encumbered with rubbish of mason work. An air of gloom reigns throughout the community, which, notwithstanding the toleration it enjoys, appears to possess little wealth, and still less sense of security. In Russia toleration has no guarantee, either in public opinion, or in the constitution of the state : like every thiii£ else it is a favour conceded by one man ; and that man may withdraw to-morrow what he has granted to-day.
While waiting for the prior in the church, I saw beneath my feet a stone on which was inscribed a name that awoke in me some emotion—Poniatowski ! the royal victim of folly. This too credulous lover of Catherine II. is buried here without any mark of
162 TOMBS OF PONIATOWSKI AND MOREAU.
distinction ; but though despoiled of the majesty of the throne, there remains for him the majesty of misfortune. The troubles of this prince, his blind fatuity punished so cruelly, and the perfidious policy of his enemies, attract the attention of all Christians and of all travellers to his obscure tomb.
Near to the exiled king has been placed the mutilated body of Moreau. The Emperor Alexander caused it to be brought there from Dresden. The idea of placing together the remains of two men so greatly to be pitied, in order to unite in the same prayer the memory of their disappointed destiny, appears to me one of the greatest conceptions of this prince, who, be it remembered, was truly great when he entered a city from whence Napoleon was flying.
Towards four o'clock in the evening I began, for the first time, to recollect that I had not come to Russia merely to inspect curious monuments of art, and to enter into the reflections, more or less philosophical, which they might suggest; and I hastened to the French ambassador's.
There I found my oversight had been great. The marriage of the Grand Duchess Marie was to take place on the day after the morrow, and I had arrived too late to be presented previously. To miss this ceremony of the court, in a land where the court is every thing, would be to lose my journey.
VISIT TO THE ISLANDS.163
CHAP. X,
VISIT TO THE ISLANDS. CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY". ARTI
FICIAL BEAUTIES.COMPARISON BETWEEN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH
TASTE.AIM AND CHARACTERISTICS OF RUSSIAN CIVILISATION.
HAPPINESS IMPOSSIBLE IN RUSSIA.FASHIONABLE LIFE IN ST.
PETERSBURG. EQUALITY UNDER DESPOTISM.CHARACTERISTIC
TRAITS OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY.ABSOLUTE POWER.PAVILION
OF THE EMPRESS. VERMIN IN THE HOUSES AND PALACES OF
ST. PETERSBURG. —COSTUME OF THE LOWER ORDERS. BEAUTY
OF THE MEN WHEN OF PURE SLAVONIAN RACE. THE WOMEN.
CONDITION OF THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY.THE SALE OF SERFS.
COMMERCE CAN ALONE ALTER THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS.
CARE TAKEN TO CONCEAL THE TRUTH FROM FOREIGNERS.
RELIGIOUS USURPATION OF PETER THE GREAT. HIS CHARACTER
AND MONSTROUS CRUELTIES. — CULPABILITY OF THE ARISTO
CRACY. THE AUTHOR SUSPECTED.STATE OF MEDICAL ART IN
RUSSIA. — UNIVERSAL MYSTERY. PERMISSION TO BE PRESENT
AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE GRAND DUCHESS.
I am just returned from visiting the Islands. They form an agreeable marsh ; never was the vase better concealed by the flowers. A shallow, left dry during the summer, owing to the channels that intersect it serving as drains to the soil, planted with superb groves of birch, and covered with numerous charming villas—such is the tract called the Islands. The avenues of birch, which, together with pines, are the only trees indigenous to these icy plains, create an illusion that might lead the traveller to imagine him-
164VISIT TO THE ISLANDS:
self in an English park. This vast garden overspread with "villas" and cccottages"* serves instead of the country to the inhabitants of Petersburg: it is the camp of the courtiers, thickly i
nhabited during я brief portion of the year, and totally deserted during the remainder.
The district of the Islands is reached by various excellent carriage roads, connected with bridges thrown over the different arms of the sea.
In wandering among its shady alleys, it is not difficult to imagine one's self in the country, but it is a monotonous and artificial country. No undulations of the ground, always the same kind of trees, — how is it possible to produce pictorial effect from such materials ! Under this zone the plants of the hot-house, the fruits of the tropics, and even the gold and precious stones of the mines, are less rare than our commonest forest trees. With wealth every thing may be procured here that can exist under glass, and this is much towards furnishing the scenery of a fairy tale, but it is not sufficient to make a park. One of the groves of chestnut or beech which beautify our hills would be a marvel in Petersburg. Italian houses surrounded by Laponian trees, and filled with the flowers of all countries, form a contrast which is singular rather than agreeable.
The Parisians, who never forget Paris, call the tract of the Islands the Russian Champs Elysées, but it is larger, more rural, and yet more adorned and more artificial, than our Parisian promenade. It is
* The allusion here is evidently made to a London rather than to an " English" park. — Trans.
CHARACTER OF THEIR SCENERY.165
also farther distant from the fashionable quarters, and includes both town and country. At one moment you may suppose yourself looking upon real woods, fields, and villages; in the next, the view of houses in the shape of temples, of pilasters forming the framework of hot-houses, of colonnaded palaces, of theatres with antique peristyles, prove that you have not left the city.
The Russians are rightly proud of this garden raised at so much expence on the spongy soil of Petersburg. But if Nature is conquered, she remembers her defeat, and submits with bad grace. Happy the lands where heaven and earth unite and mutually vie in embellishing the abodes of man, and in rendering his life pleasant and easy !
I should insist less on the disadvantages of this unfavoured land, I should not regret so greatly, while travelling in the north, the sun of the south, if the Russians affected less to undervalue, the gifts of which their country is deprived. Their perfect content extends even to the climate and the soil; naturally given to boasting, they have the folly to glory even in the physical as well as the social aspect which surrounds them. These pretensions prevent my bearing so resignedly as I ought to do, and as I had intended, with all the inconveniences of northern countries.
The delta formed between the city and one of the embouchures of the Neva, is now entirely covered by this species of park; it is nevertheless included within the precincts of Petersburg: the Russian cities embrace the country also. This tract would have become one of (he most populous quar-
1GGRUSSIAN AND ENGLISH TASTE.
ters of the new city, had the plan of the founder been more exactly followed. But, little by little, Petersburg receded from the river, southward, in the hope of escaping the inundations; and the marshy isles have been reserved exclusively for the summer residences of the most distinguished courtiers. These houses are half-concealed by water and snow for nine months of the year, during which time the wolves roam freely round the pavilion of the Empress ; but during the remaining three months, nothing can exceed the profusion of flowers which the houses display. Nevertheless, under all this factitious elegance, the character of the people betrays itself; a passion for display is the ruling passion of the Russians: thus, in their drawing-rooms, the flowers are not placed in such manner as may render the interior of the apartment more agreeable, but so as to attract admiration from without; precisely the contrary of what we see in England, where, above all things, people shrink from hanging out a sign in the streets. The English are, of all the people on the earth, those who have best known how to substitute taste for style : their public buildings arc cliefs~cVœuvre of the ridiculous; their private houses are models of elegance and good sense.
Among the Islands, all the houses and all the roads resemble each other. The shade of the birch trees is transparent, but under the sun of the North a very thick foliage is not required. Canals, lakes, meadows, groves, cottages, villas and alleys, follow each other in constant succession. This dreamy landscape pleases without interesting, without piquing the curiosity; but it gives the idea of repose, and repose is a
CHARACTER OF RUSSIAN CIVILISATION. 167
precious thing at the Court of Russia, even though it be not valued there as it ought to be.
A distant pine forest rears at intervals its thin and spiry foliage above the roofs of some villas, built of planks and painted. These remembrances of solitude pierce through the ephemeral gaiety of the gardens, as though to witness to the rigour of winter, and the neighbourhood of Finland.
The aim of civilisation in the North is serious. There, society is the fruit, not of human pleasures, not of interests and passions easily satisfied, but of a will ever persisting and ever thwarted, which urges the people to incomprehensible efforts. There, if individuals unite together, it is to struggle with a rebellious nature, which unwillingly responds to the demands made upon her.
This duhiess and stubbornness in the external world engender a gloom which accounts to me for the tragedies in the political world so frequent at this court. Here the drama is enacted in actual life, whilst the theatre is occupied with farce. Empty amusements are those alone permitted in Russia. Under such an order of things, real life is too serious an affair to admit a grave and thoughtful literature. Low comedy, the idyll, and the apologue well veiled, can alone flourish in presence of so terrible a reality. If in this inhospitable clime the precautions of despotism shall yet further increase the difficulties of existence, all happiness will be taken from man, — repose will become impossible. Peace, felicity—these words here are as vague as is that of Paradise. Idleness without ease, inertia without quiet—such are the inevitable results of the Boreal Autocracy.
168 FASHIONABLE LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG.
The Eussians enjoy but very little of the country which they have created at the gate of their city. The women pass the summer at the Islands, and the winter at Petersburg. They rise late, spend the day at their toilets, the evening in visits, and the night at play. To forget themselves, to lose themselves in a round of excitement, such is the apparent end of their existence.
The summer of the Islands commences in the middle of June and lasts till the end of August. During these two months there is not generally (though with the exception of the present year) more than a week of hot weather. The evenings are damp, the night atmosphere clear, but cloudy above, the days grey and misty. Life would here become insnpportably dull and melancholy to the individual who should allow himself to reflect. In Russia, to converse is to conspire, to think is to revolt: thought is not merely a crime, it is a misfortune also.
Man thinks only with a view of ameliorating his lot and that of his fellows, but when he can do nothing and change nothing, thought does but prey upon and envenom the mind, for lack of other employment. This is the reason why, in the Eussian world of fashion, people of all ages join in the dance.
As soon as the summer is over, a rain, fine as the points of needles, falls for weeks without any cessation. In two days the birch trees of the isles may be seen 6tript of their leaves, the houses of their flowers and their inhabitants, and the roads and bridges crowded with carriages, drowskas, and carts engaged in the removal of furniture, all the different kinds of which
REMARKS ON PETERSBURG.169
are heaped together with a slovenliness and disorder natural to the Slavonian race. It is thus that the rich man of the North, awaking from the too fleeting illusions of Iris summer, flies before the north-east wind, leaving the bears and wolves to re-enter into possession of their legitimate domain. Silence resumes its ancient rights over these icy swamps, and for nine months, the frivolous society of the city of wood take refuge in the city of st
one. From this chauge of season they experience little inconvenience; for in Petersburg the snows of the winter nights reflect almost as much light as is shed by the summer sun, and the Russian stoves give more heat than its oblicµxcly falling rays.
That which yearly occurs in the islands will be the fate one day of the entire city. Should this capital, without roots in history, be forgotten for even a brief space by the sovereign, should a new policy direct his attention elsewhere, the granite hid under the water would crumble away, the inundated low lands would return to their natural state, and the guests of solitude would again take possession of their lair.
These ideas occupy the mind of every foreigner who traverses the streets of Petersburg; no one believes in the duration of the marvellous city. But little meditation (and what traveller worthy of his occupation does not meditate ?) enables the mind to prefigure such a war, such a change in the course of policy, as would cause this creation of Peter I. to disappear like a soap bubble in the air.
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 17