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

by Astolphe De Custine

  ENTRANCE TO MOSCOW.287

  square as a die, which by no means renders its general effect more imposing. It is here that the sovereign stops, when he means to make a solemn entrance into Moscow. A summer theatre, a ballroom, and a garden have been established, so as to form a kind of public cafe, which I shall return to see, as it is the rendezvous of the city loungers during the summer season.

  After passing Petrowski, the enchantment gradually disperses, so that by the time of entering Moscow, we feel as if waking from a brilliant dream to a very dull and prosaic reality — a vast city without any real monuments of art, that is to say, without a single object worthy of a discriminative and thoughtful approbation. Before so heavy and awkward a copy of Europe, we ask, with wonder, what has become of the Asia whose apparition had struck us with admiration so shortly before ? Moscow, viewed from without and as a whole, is a creation of sylphs. a world of chimeras; when inspected close at hand and in detail, it is a vast trading city, without regularity, dusty, ill paved, ill built, thinly peopled; in short, though it unquestionably exhibits the work of a powerful hand, it betrays also the conceptions of a head whose idea of the beautiful has failed to produce one single chef-cVœuvre. The Russian people are strong in arms, that is, in numbers, but in the strength of imagination they are altogether deficient.

  Without genius for architecture, without taste for sculpture, they can heap together stones, and create objects enormous in dimension ; but they can produce nothing harmonious, notliing great in the perfection

  288ASPECT OF THE KREMLIN.

  of its proportions. Happy privilege of art! masterpieces survive themselves, subsisting in the memory of men ages after they have been devastated by time; they share, by the inspiration which they kindle, even in their latest ruin, the immortality of the minds that created them; whereas, shapeless masses are forgotten while yet untouched by time. Art, when in its perfection, gives a soul to stone; it is a mystic power. This we learn in Greece, where each fragment of sculpture conduces to the general effect of each monument. In architecture, as in the other arts, it is from the superior execution of the smallest details, and from their skilfully interwoven connection with the genera] plan, that the sentiment of the beautiful springs. Nothing in Russia inspires this sentiment.

  Nevertheless, amid the chaos of plaster, brick, and boards, that is called Moscow, two points never cease to attract the eye — the church of St. Basil, and the Kremlin, — the Kremlin, of which Napoleon himself was only able to disturb a few stones ! This prodigious fabric, with its white irregular walls, and its battlements rising above battlements, is in itself large as a city. At the close of day, when I first entered Moscow, the grotesque piles of churches and palaces embraced within the citadel rose in light against a dimly portrayed back-ground, poor in design and eold in colouring, though we are still burning with heat, suffocating with dust, and devoured by mosquitoes. It is the long continuance of the hot season which gives the colour to southern scenery; in the north we feel the effects of the summer, but we do not see it; in vain does the

  CHURCH OF SAINT BASIL.289

  air become heated for a moment, the earth remains always discoloured.

  I shall never forget the chilly shudder which came over me at the first sight of the cradle of the modern Russian empire: the Kremlin alone is worth the journey to Moscow.

  At the gate of this fortress, but beyond its precincts — at least, according to my feldjäger, for I have not yet been able to visit it — rises the church of St. Basil, Vassili Blagennoï; it is also known under the name of the Cathedral of the Protection of the Holy Virgin. In the Greek church they are lavish of the title of cathedral; every ward, every monastery has one of its own ; every city possesses several. That of Vassili is certainly the most singular, if it is not the most beautiful edifice in Russia. I have as yet only seen it at a distance. Thus viewed, it appears as an immense cluster of little turrets forming a bush, or rather giving the idea of some kind of tropical fruit all bristled over with excrescences, or a crystallisation of a thousand rays : the scales of a golden fish, the enamelled skin of a serpent, the changeful hues of the lizard, the glossy rose and azure of the pigeon's neck, would all, аз regards colour, serve as comparisons: above, rise minarets of a brownish red. The effect of the whole dazzles the eye, and fascinates the imagination. Surely, the land in which such a building is called a house of prayer is not Europe; it must be India, Persia, or China! —and the men who go to worship God in this box of confectionary work, can thev be Christians ? Such was the exclamation that escaped me at the first view of the church of Vassili. That

  VOL. II.О

  290THE FRENCH AT MOSCOW.

  building must indeed possess an extraordinary style of architecture to have drawn my attention, as it did, from the Kremlin, at the moment when the mighty castle for the first time met my eyes.

  Soon, however, my ideas tool·^another turn. Where is the Frenchman who coiúd resist an emotion of respect and of pride (for misfortune has its pride, and it is the most legitimate kind), on entering into the only city where, in our own times, took place a public event, a scene, as imposing as the most striking occurrences of ancient history ?

  The means that the Asiatic city took to repel its enemy was a sublime deed of despair ; and thenceforward the name of Moscow is fatally united with that of the greatest captain of modern times. The sacred bird of the Greeks consumed itself in order to escape the talons of the eagle, and, like the Phœnix, the mystic dove rises again from its ashes.

  In this war of giants wherein all was glory, renown does not depend upon success. The fire under the ice, the weapons of the demons of Dante — such were the arms which God placed in the hands of the Russians to repel and to destroy us. An army must be honoured for having advanced so far, though it was only to die there.

  But who can excuse the chief whose want of foresight exposed it to such a struggle ? At Smolensk, Buonaparte refused the peace which they did not even deign to offer him at Moscow. He hoped for the offer, but he hoped in vain.

  It was a modification of that mania for forming collections, for completing catalogues, which narrowed the views of the great politician ; he sacrificed his

  ERROR OF NAPOLEON.291

  army to the puerile satisfaction of swelling the list of the capitals which he had occupied. Rejecting the wisest councils, he did violence also to his own judgment, in order to have the gratification of installing himself in the fortress of the Czars, and of sleeping-there, as he had done in the palaces of nearly all the other potentates of Europe ; and this vain triumph of the bold adventurer cost the emperor the sceptre of the world.

  A passion for capitals was the cause of the annihilation of the finest army that France and the world ever saw, and two years later, of the fall of the Empire.

  The following fact, furnishing one proof more of the unpardonable error committed by Napoleon when he marched upon Moscow, is unknown among us; I can answer for its authenticity.

  Smolensk was viewed by the Russians as the bulwark of their land ; they hoped that our army would be satisfied with occupying Poland and Lithuania, without venturing farther: but when they learnt the conquest of this city, the key of the empire, a cry of terror rose up from all quarters ; both court and country were in consternation, and Russia believed herself in the power of the conqueror. It was at Petersburg that the Emperor Alexander received this disastrous news.

  His minister of war partook of the general opinion; and wishing to place beyond the reach of the enemy his chief valuables, he put a considerable quantity of gold, papers, diamonds, and other jewels into a small chest, which he sent to Ladoga by one of his secretaries, the only man to whom he believed he might о 2

  292BATTLE OF MOSKOWA.

  safely confide such a trust. He directed him to wait at Ladoga for further instructions, announcing that he should probably send him an order to repair with the box to the port of Archangel, and afterwards, from thence to England. Several days elapsed witho
ut the further news which was most anxiously expected, being received. At last a courier brought the minister official information of the march of our army upon Moscow. Without hesitating a moment, he sent to Ladoga to order the return of his secretary and valuables, and repaired to the presence of the Emperor, whom he addressed with a triumphant air: wC Sire, your majesty is much indebted to Providence ; if you persist in following the plan laid down, Russia is saved : it is an expedition à la Charles XII.!"

  "But Moscow ?" responded the Emperor.

  •' It must be abandoned, Sire : to fight, would be to give away a chance ; to retreat, after laying waste the country, will be to destroy the enemy without risking any thing. Famine will begin the work of destruction, the winter and the fire will consummate it: let us burn Moscow, and save the world!"

  The Emperor Alexander modified this plan in the execution. He insisted on a last effort being made to save his capital.

  The courage with which the Russians fought at Moskowa is well known. That battle, which received from their master the name of Borodino, was glorious not only to them,'but to us; for, notwithstanding all their gallant efforts, they could not prevent our entrance into Moscow.

  God was willing to furnish the chroniclers of the age — an age the most prosaic that the world has ever

  ORIGIN OF THE WORD CZAR.293

  seen—with one epic story. Moscow was voluntarily sacrificed, and the flames of that sacred conflagration became the signal for the revolution of Germany and the deliverance of Europe. The nations felt at last that they would have no rest until they had annihilated that indefatigable conqueror who sought peace by means of perpetual Avar.

  Such were the recollections that absorbed my thoughts at the first view of the Kremlin. To have worthily recompensed Moscow, the Emperor of Russia ought to have re-established his residence in that twice holy city.

  The Kremlin is not like any other palace, it is a city in itself; a city that forms the root of Moscow, and that serves as the frontier fortress between two quarters of the world. Under the successors of Gengis-Khan, Asia made her last rush upon Europe : in turning to retreat, she struck the earth with her foot, and from thence rose the Kremlin !

  The princes who полу possess this sacred asylum of oriental despotism, call themselves Europeans, because they have chased the Calmucs, their brethren, their tyrants, and their instructors, out of Muscovy. None resemble the khans of Saraï so much as their antagonists, the czars of Moscoav, луЬо have borrowed from them even to their very title. The Russians gave the name of czars to the khans of the Tartars. Karamsin says, on this subject, vol. vi. page 438.: —

  " This Avord is not derived from the Latin Cœsar, as several learned men erroneously suppose. It is an ancient oriental Avord, as may be seen in the Slavonian translation of the Bible ; and it was first given by us to the emperors of the East, and afterwards to the

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  2 94AN ENGLISH HOTEL.

  Tartar khans. It* signifies, in Persic, a throne, or supreme authority ; and it is to be traced in the termination of the names of the Assyrian and Babylonish kings, as Phalassar, ]N¡"abonassar, &c." He adds, in a note, " In our translation of the Holy Scriptures, Kessar is written for Cæsar; but tzar, or czar, is altogether a different word."

  On first entering the city of Moscow, I forgot poetry, and even history; I thought only of what I saw, which was not very striking, for I found myself in streets similar to those in the outskirts of all great cities: I crossed a boulevard which resembled other boulevards, and then, after driving down a gentle descent, found myself among straight and handsome lines of houses biiilt of stone. At last I reached the Dmitriskoï-street, where a handsome and comfortable chamber had been engaged for me in an excellent English hotel. I had, at Petersburg, been commended to Madame Howard, who without this introduction would not have received me into her hotise. I took care not to reproach her for being so scrupulous, for it is owing to this precaution that one can sleep comfortably in her establishment. The means by which she has succeeded in maintaining in it a cleanliness rarely seen any where, and which is an absolute miracle in Russia, is the having had erected, in her court-yard, a separate building, in which the Russian servants are obliged to sleep. These men never enter the principal edifice except to wait upon their masters. In her judicious precautions, Madame Howard goes yet further. She will scarcely admit any Russian guest: consequently, neither my feld-jäger nor coachman knew her house, and Ave had some

  THE CITY BY MOONLIGHT.295

  chfficulty in finding it; although it is, notwithstanding its want of a sign, the best inn in Moscow and in Russia. Immediately on being installed I sat down to write. ITight is now approaching, and as there is a bright moon, I lay down my pen in order to take a ramble over the city, which promenade I will describe on my return.

  I commenced my perambulations at about ten o'clock, without guide or companion, and strolled at hazard from street to street, according to my usual custom. I first traversed several Ì0n2` and wide

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  streets, more hilly than most of those in Russia, but laid out with equal -regularity. There can be no complaint of the want of straight lines in the architecture of this country, nevertheless, the line and rule have less spoiled Moscow than Petersburg. There, the imbecile tyrants of modern cities found a level surface ready prepared for them; here, they had to struggle with the inequalities of the soil, and with the ancient national edifices. Thanks to these invincible obstacles presented by nature and history, the aspect of Moscow is still that of an ancient city. It is more picturesque than any other in the empire, which continues to recognise it as its capital, in spite of the almost supernatural efforts of the Czar Peter and his successors: so strong is the law of circumstances against the will of men—men even the most powerful. Despoiled of its religious honours, deprived of its patriarch, abandoned by its sovereign, and by the most courtly of its ancient boyards, without any other attractive association than that of a heroic event, too modern to be as yet duly appre-o 4

  296THE CITY BY MOONLIGHT.

  eiated, Moscow has been obliged to have recourse to commerce and industry. They boast of its silk manufactories. But the history and the architecture are still here to preserve its imprescriptible rights to political supremacy. The Russian government favours the pursuits of industry: being unable altogether to stem the torrent of the age, it prefers enriching the people to enfranchising them.

  This evening, towards ten o'clock, the sun sank, and the moon rose. The turrets of the convents, the spires of the chapels, the towers, the battlements, the palaces, and all the irregular and frowning masses of buildings that form the Kremlin, were here and there swathed with wreaths of light as resplendent as golden fringes, while the body of the city was seen only by the remaining beams of day. which momentarily faded on the painted tiles, the copper cupolas, the gilded chains, and the metallic roofs, that make the firmament of Moscow. These edifices, the
  The most numerous were the truly national drow-skas, those tiny summer sledges, which being unable conveniently to carry more than one person at a time, are multiplied to infinity in order to meet the

  POPULATION OF MOSCOW.297

  wants of an active population, numerous, but lost in the circuit of so immense a city. The dust of Moscow is excessively troublesome, being fine as the lightest ashes. We have still a burning temperature. The Russians are astonished at the intensity and duration of the heat of this summer.

  The Slavonian Empire — that rising sun of the political world towards which all the earth i
s turning its eyes — is it also to be blessed with the sun of heaven ? The natives pretend, and often repeat, that the climate is ameliorating. Wonderful power of human civilisation, whose progress is to change even the temperature of the globe ! Whatever may be the winters of Moscow and Petersburg, I know few climates more disagreeable than that of these two cities during the summer. It is the fine season which should be called the bad weather of northern lands.

  The first thing that struck me in the streets of Moscow was the more lively, free, and careless bearing of the population as compared with that of Petersburg. An air of liberty is here breathed that is unknown to the rest of the empire. It is this which explains to me the secret aversion of the sovereigns to the old city, which they flatter, fear, and fly. The Emperor Nicholas, who is a good Russian, says he is very fond of it; but I cannot see that he resides in it more than did his predecessors, who detested it.