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

by Astolphe De Custine

  This friendship lasted during the life of the Czar, who was even at one time on the point of contracting an eighth marriage with Mary Hastings, a relative of the Queen of England: but the reputation of Ivan IV. had not, for the imagination of the betrothed, the same fascination that it had for the masculine spirit of Elizabeth. Happily there are not many hearts that can be seduced by the attractions of barbarity.

  The negotiations connected with this project of marriage had been opened by Robert Jacobi, one of the physicians of the English court ,¢whom Elizabeth sent to her " beloved brother" together with surgeons and apothecaries, a little before his death. These relations suffice to exhibit the character of the feeling which the instinct of despotism and commercial interests, thenceforward the first for England, had established between the two tyrants. I must now finish the sketch of the tyranny of Ivan.

  One day he took it into his head to assume the habit of a monk, and clothed his companions in debauchery with the same dress. Disguised in this manner, he continued to horrify heaven and earth by his inhumanity and monstrous libertinism. He

  RELIGIOUS RESIGNATION.333

  tempted his people by driving them to despair, but it was in vain. To the insatiable cruelty of their master, the slaves continued to oppose an invincible resignation. Nothing could cmench their thirst for servitude. Obedience carried to such excess was not an exercise of patience, it was a passion; and this explains the enigma.

  Among nations yet young there exists so practical a faith in the universal presence of God, so strong a sense of his intervention in the smallest events of this world, that the march of human affairs is never viewed as caused or directed by man ; every thing that happens is the result of a decree of Heaven. Life seems nothing to those who aspire to the bliss of the elect. The hand that takes it docs good rather than evil. Little is lost, much is gained. What is the possession of the whole earth compared with the sure reward of virtue, that only good of which tyranny cannot deprive man ? The executioner only increases a hundred fold the treasures of the victims, by the means of sanc-tification which he offers to their pious resignation.

  Thus reason people smitten with the passion of unconditional submission : but never has this dangerous religion produced so many fanatics as have been, and still are to be seen in Russia.

  It is fearful to think of the uses which religious truth can be made to subserve here below. Had a man permission to kneel before God to ask for one, one only favour, it should be that he would be pleased to grant that the interpreters of his supreme wisdom might be always free men. A slavish priest is in-evitablv a liar, an apostate, and may also become an executioner. Every national church is schismatic,

  334THE ONLY INDEPENDENT CHURCH.

  and dependent. Every true priest is a citizen of the world and a pilgrim of heaven. Without placing himself beyond the laws of his country as a man, he has alone for the judge of his faith as an apostle, the bishop of bishops — the only independent pontiff that can be found upon earth. It is the independence of the visible head of the church that assures to all the Catholic priests their sacerdotal dignity: it is it also which promises to the Tope the perpetuity of power. All the other priests will return to the mother church when they recognise the sanctity of their missions, and they will then weep, with burning shame, for their apostacy. The temporal power will then no longer find preachers to justify its encroachments on the spiritual. Schism and heresy, those national religions, will give place to the Catholic Church—the religion of the human race: for, in the beautifully expressive words of M. de Chateaubriand, " Protestantism is the religion of princes."

  Nevertheless, it must be recorded that, despite the proverbial timidity of the Russian clergy, it was the religious power that, during the incomprehensible reign of Ivan IV., made the longest resistance. At an after-period, Peter I. and Catherine II. avenged their predecessor. The sacrifice is consummated; the Russian priest, impoverished, humiliated, degraded, married, deprived of his supreme spiritual head, divested of all spiritual influence, a mere thing of flesh and blood, follows the triumphal car of his enemy, whom he still calls his master. He has become, through the perseverance of Peter and of Catherine, the humblest slave of the autocracy ; and the spirit of Ivan is appeased. From one end of the empire to the other,

  NATIONAL AND UNIVERSAL RELIGION.335

  the voice of God can no longer rise above the voice of the emperor.

  Such is the inevitable final fate of national churches. The circumstances may vary, the moral abjectedness will be the same everywhere : whenever the priest abdicates, the state usurps. To make a sect, is to enslave the minister of Christ. In every church separated from the trunk, the conscience of the priest is an illusory power; thenceforward the purity of faith becomes adulterated, and charity, that fire of heaven with which the hearts of the saints burn, degenerates into mere humanity. Grace gives place to reason, which, in matters of faith, is only the hypocritical auxiliary of physical power. Hence the profound hatred of all ministers, of all sectarian teachers, towards the Catholic priest. All recognise him as their only enemy, for he alone is priest, he alone teaches; the others do but plead.

  To complete the portrait of Ivan Ave must again have recourse to Karamsin. I shall finish my sketch by some of the most characteristic passages in his history.

  After recounting that quarrels respecting preeminence still took place at court (etiquette in the den of a wild beast!), he observes : " But if the Czar shut his eyes to disputes about precedency that took place among the Vaivodes, he never pardoned faults in their military conduct: for example, Prince Michael Nozdrovoty, an officer of high rank, was whipped in the stables, for having ill-managed the siege of Milten."

  Such was a Czar's appreciation of the dignity of the nobles and the army.

  336 ANECDOTE OF CONSTANTINE.

  This fact, which occurred in 1577, reminds me of another, which belongs to the history of Russia in our days. There is less difference than some may think between the past and the present in this land. The event happened at Warsaw, under the Grand Duke Constantine, and in the reign of the Emperor Alexander, the most philanthropieal of the Czars.

  One day, Constantine was reviewing his guard, and desirous of proving to a foreignev the point to which discipline was carried in the Russian army, he descended from horseback, approached one of hisgeneraïs, and, without addressing him a word, quietly ran his sword into his foot. The general remained immoveable, and did not breathe a complaint. He was carried away after the Grand Duke had drawn back his sword. Such stoicism of the slave justifies the definition of the Abbé Galiani: " Courage," he said, " is nothing more than a very extreme fear! "

  The spectators remained silent witnesses of this scene, which took place in the public square of Warsaw, in the nineteenth century !

  The Russians, then, of our epoch, are worthy de

  scendants of the subjects of Ivan. Let it not be

  said, in excuse, that Constantine was mad. That

  madness, if real, must have been known ; for from

  his early youth his conduct had been marked by

  similar public acts of insanity. After so many

  proofs, then, of mental alienation, to give him the

  command of armies and the government of kingdoms,

  was to proclaim, in a manner the most revolting, con

  tempt for the human race. But I do not believe

  in this insanity of Constantine ; I see in his life the

  mad excesses only of cruelty,k

  a subject's devotion to the czar. 337

  It has often been repeated that madness is hereditary in the Imperial Russian family. This i^ flatter-in<7· them. I believe that the madness lies in the nature of the government, and not in the faulty organization of the individuals. Real absolute power must, in the long run, disturb the reason even of the most healthy faculties; despotism blinds both people and sovereign. This truth appears proved, even to demonstration, by the history of Russia. To continue our
extracts from Karamsin : we are next to see an ambassador avowing his concurrence in the disgraceful idolatry of tyranny.

  " Prince Sougorsky, sent as envoy to the Emperor Maximilian, in 1576, fell ill in travelling through Courland. Out of respect to the Czar, the duke sent a minister several times to inquire after his health. The sick man unceasingly repeated, ' My health is nothing, if only that of my sovereign pros-¡H rs.`` At length the astonished minister asked him, 1 How can you serve such a tyrant with so great a zeal?' 'We Russians,' responded Prince Sougorsky, ' are always devoted to our Czars, be they good or cruel.' In proof of his assertion the sick ambassador related that, a short time before, Ivan had caused one of his nobles to be impaled for a slight fault, and that the unhappy wretch lingered twenty-four hours in excritciating torments, conversing with his wife and children, and repeating incessantly, 'Great God, protect the Czar!' "*

  * This devotion of the victim to the tyrant is a species of

  fanaticism that seems peculiar to the people of Asia and of

  Russia. — Note of Author of Travels.

  VOL. II.Q

  338CORRESPONDENCE OF IVAN

  Karamsin himself adds, " The Russians gloried in the very thing for which they were reproached by foreigners — a blind and unbounded devotion to the will of the monarch, even when, in his most insensate vagaries, he trampled all the laws of justice and humanity under his feet."

  I am sorry I must not venture to multiply these curious quotations. I will, however, give one more illustration, in the correspondence of the Czar with one of his creatures.

  " The Khan of the Crimea had taken prisoner a favourite of Ivan, Vassili Griaznoï, whom he offered to exchange for Mouzza Divy, a proposal which the Czar would not accept, although he lamented the fate of Griaznoï, and wrote him friendly letters, in which, as was his wont, he ridiculed the services of his unlucky favourite. 'You fancied,' he said, 'that it was as easy to make war with the Tartars as to make jokes at my table. They are very different people from you Russians. They do not go to sleep in the enemy's country; they do not constantly repeat to themselves, It is time to return home! What a droll idea came into your head when you thought you could make yourself pass for a great man ! It is true that, obliged to keep at a distance the perfidious boyards who surround us, we call near to our person slaves of low extraction like yourself, yet you must not forget your father and your grandfather. Do you dare to put yourself on a par with Divy ? Liberty would restore you to a voluptuous life, at the same time that it would put a sword into his hand against the Christians. It must suffice that, willing to protect such of our

  WITH GRIAZNOÏ.

  339

  slaves as serve us with zeal, we are ready to pay a ransom for you.'"

  The answer of the slave is worthy of the letter of the master. It not only depicts a vile heart, but also gives an idea of the espionnage exercised by the Russians in foreign lands. It is as follows: —

  " My lord, I have not slept in this land of the enemy. I have executed your orders; Iltave gathered information valuable to the safety of the empire ; trusting in nobody, and watching night and day. I was taken, covered with wounds, and abandoned by my cowardly companions in arms. I slew in battle the enemies of the Christian name; and, during my captivity, I have killed the Russian traitors who sought your ruin. They have been secretly destroyed by my hand, and not a single one remains in this place now alive.* I jested at the table of my sovereign only to amuse him; now, I die for GOD and for HIM. It is by special merey of the Most High that I yet breathe; the ardour of my zeal for your service supports me in the hope that I shall return to Russia, in order again to minister to the amusements of my prince. My body is in the Crimea, but my soul is with God and your Majesty. I do not fear death, I fear only your displeasure."

  Such is the amicable correspondence of the Czar and his ereature.

  But all the events of this monstrous reign, monstrous especially in its length and its security, are effaced by the crowning crime.

  * At the ccrart of the Emperor Nicholas a great nobleman may be seen daily, who is called, privately, the Poisoner. Q 2

  340

  LIVONIA CEDED.

  We have already said that, crouching and trembling at the very name of Poland, Ivan yielded to Batori, almost without striking a blow, the province of Livonia, a province furiously contested for ages with the Swedes, the Poles, and its own inhabitants. Livonia was, to Eussia, the gate of Europe, the means of communication with the civilised world. It had been from time immemorial the object of the covetousness of the Czars, and of the efforts of ^he Muscovites. In an unaccountable fit of terror, the most arrogant, and, at the same time, the most cowardly of princes, abandoned this prey to the enemy; not in consequence of any disastrous battle, but spontaneously, with a stroke of his pen, and when in the possession of an innumerable army and an inexhaustible treasure.

  The Czarewitch, the beloved son of Ivan IV., on whom he lavished all his tenderness, whom he brought up in his own image, in the exercise of his own crimes and most scandalous debaucheries, felt some shame in contemplating the unmanly conduct of his father and sovereign. He ventured no remonstrance, for he knew Ivan too well; but, carefully avoiding every word that might sound like a reproach, he confined himself to asking permission to go and fight the Poles. " Ah ! you find fault with my political acts ! this is treason ! " responded the Czar; " ЛУю knows if you have not already conceived the design of raising the standard of revolt against me !"

  Whereupon, inflamed with sudden rage, he seized a baton bound with iron, and violently struck the bead of his son with it: a favourite endeavoured tc

  MURDER OP THE CZAREWITCII.341

  stay the hand of the tyrant; Ivan redoubled his blow. and the Czarewitch fell mortally wounded.

  Here commences the only affecting scene in the life of Ivan.

  The prince lay in agonies for more than one day. As soon as the Czar saw that he had destroyed with his own hand the object that was most dear to him in the world, he fell into a despair as wild and violent as his anger had been terrible: he rolled in the dust, uttering the most horrid howls; he mixed his tears with the blood of his unhappy son, kissing his wounds, invoking heaven and earth to spare to him the life which he had himself destroyed, calling surgeons and sorcerers, and promising treasures and titles to whoever would restore the heir of his throne, the only object of his tenderness—the tenderness of Ivan IV.J!

  All was in vain! Inevitable death drew on. . God had judged the father and the son: the son was ordained to die. But his torments were lon¤·; Ivan learnt for onee to feel for the pain of another. For four days the victim struggled with his agony.

  But how think you these four days were employed ? how would you expect this son, first perverted by his father, and afterwards unjustly suspected, insulted, and killed by him, to avenge himself ? He passed his time of trial in praying to God for that father, in consoling him, in excusing him, in repeating to him, with a delicacy of feeling worthy the son of the best of men, that his punishment, severe as it might be, was not unjust: for a son who blames, even in the secret of his heart, a crowned father, deseryes to perish.

  Q 3

  342DEATH-BED OF THE CZAREWITCH.

  When the last struggle approached, the unhappy son thought only of hiding the agonies of his death from the eyes of his assassin, whom he venerated as much as if he had been the best of parents and the greatest of kings: he entreated the Czar to retire.

  When, instead of yielding to the request of the dying man, Ivan, in the delirium of remorse, first threw himself upon the bed, and then fell on his knees before his victim to ask his pardon, this hero of filial piety regained, under the inspiration of a sentiment of duty, a supernatural energy; already in the clutch of death, he struggled with the power that was dragging him away, and gathered a miraculous strength to repeat, with deep solemnity, that he was guilty, that his death was just, and that it was too gentle. He succeeded in disguising his anguish by force of soul
, filial love, and respect for the sovereign; he concealed from his father the agonies of a body in which the vigour of youth struggled terribly against destruction. The gladiator fell with grace; supported, not by a base pride, but by an effort of charity, of which the sole aim was to mitigate the remorse of a guilty parent. He protested to his last gasp, that he was faithful to the legitimate sovereign of Russia; and he died at length, kissing the hand that slew him, and blessing God, his country, and his father.

  Here all my indignation turns into a devout astonishment. I admire the marvellous resources of the human soul, which can fulfil its divine calling in all places, and in spite of the most vicious habits and institutions.—Yet I pause, fearful lest the servility

  DEATH OF IVAN.

  343

  of the slave may not have followed the martyr in his triumph, even to the gates of heaven.

  No! it cannot be: death is not a flatterer, not even in Russia. This example then of supernatural virtue proves to us the beautiful and desirable truth, that the action of the most corrupted society is insufficient to subvert the primitive plans of Providence; and that man, who, according to Plato, is a fallen angel, may always become an exalted saint.

  What a tragedy was this! Never has Rome, either Pagan or Christian, produced any thing more noble than these long adieus of the son of Ivan IV. to his father.

  If the Russians do not know how to be humane, they know sometimes how to soar above humanity.

  Karamsin doubts the sincerity of the grief of the Czar. It is true it lasted only a short time, but I believe it was genuine.