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

guides, as their scruples, reserve, and tergiversations appeared to me.

The engineer answered in a low voice that they could not show the chamber of Ivan, because it lay

190ANGER OF THE COMMANDANT.

in a part of the fortress then occupied by state prisoners.

The excuse was legitimate; I had expected it; but what surprised me was the wrath of the commandant. Whether it was that he understood French better than he spoke it, or that he had only feigned ignorance of our language, he severely reprimanded my guide, whose indiscretion, he added, would some day ruin him. This, the latter, annoyed with the lecture he had received, found a favourable opportunity of telling me, stating also that the governor had warned him, in a very significant manner, to abstain henceforward from speaking of public affairs, and from introducing foreigners into state prisons. This engineer has all the equalities necessary to constitute a good Russian ; but he is young, and does not yet understand the mysteries of his trade — it is not of his profession as an engineer that I speak.

I found it was necessary to yield; I was the weakest, and therefore, owning myself vanquished, I renounced the hope of visiting the room where the unhappy heir of the throne of Russia died imbecile, because it was found more convenient to make him an idiot than an emperor. I cannot sufficiently express my astonishment at the manner in which the Russian government is served by its agents. I remember the countenance of the minister of Avar, the first time that I ventured to testify a wish to visit a castle that had become historical by a crime committed in the times of the Empress Elizabeth ; and I compare, with a wonder mixed with fear, the disorder of ideas that reigns among us, with the absence of all private views, of all personal opinion — the blind

RUSSIAN FORTRESS.

191

submission, in short, which forms the rule of conduct among all, whether heads or subordinates, who carry on the administration of affairs in Russia. The unity of action observable in this government astounds me. I admire while I shudder, in noticing the tacit accord with which both superior and inferior employes act in making war against ideas and even events. At the time, this sentiment made me as impatient to leave the fortress of Schlusselburg as I had been eager to enter it. I began to fear lest I should become by force one of the inmates of that abode of secret tears and unknown sorrows. In my ever-increasing sense of its oppressive influence, I longed only for the physical pleasure of walking and breathing beyond its limits. I forgot that the country into which I should return was in itself a prison ; a prison whose vast size only makes it the more formidable.

A Russian fortress ! — this word produces on the imagination an impression very different to that which is felt in visiting the strongholds of people really civilised, sincerely humane. The puerile precautions taken in Russia to hide what are called secrets of state confirms me, more than would open acts of barbarity, in the idea that this government is nothing more than a hypocritical tyranny.

After having myself penetrated into a Russian state prison, and found there the impossibility of speaking of things which every stranger would naturally inquire about in such a place, I argue with mvsclf that such dissimulation must serve as mask to a profound inhumanity : it is not that which is commendable that people conceal with so much care.

I am assured, on good authority, that the sub-

192

STATE PEISONEES.

marine dungeons of Kronstadt contain, among other state prisoners, miserable beings who were placed there in the reign of Alexander. These unhappy creatures are reduced to a state below that of the brute, by a punishment the atrocity of which nothing can justify. Could they now come forth out of the earth, they would rise like so many avenging spectres, whose appearance would make the despot himself recoil with horror, and shake the fabric of despotism to its centre. Every thing may be defended by plausible words, and even by good reasons: not any one of the opinions that divide the political, the literary, or the religious world, lacks argument by which to maintain itself: but, let them say what they please, a system, the violence of which requires such means of support, must be radically and intensely vicious.

The victims of this odious policy are no longer men. Those unfortunate beings, denied the commonest rights, cut off from the world, forgotten by every one, abandoned to themselves in the night of their captivity, during which imbecility becomes the fruit, and the only remaining consolation of their never-ending misery, have lost all memory, as well as all that gift of reason, that light of humanity, which no one has a right to extinguish in the breast of his fellow-being. They have even forgotten their own names, which the keepers amuse themselves by asking with a brutal derision, for which there is none to call them to account; for there reigns such confusion in the depths of these abysses of inicµiity, the shades are so thick, that all traces of justice are effaced.

Even the crimes of some of the prisoners are not

A DINNER WITH THE MIDDLE CLASS.193

recollected; they are, therefore, retained for ever, because it is not known to whom they should be delivered, and it is deemed less inconvenient to perpetuate the mistake than to publish it. The bad effect of so tardy a justice is feared, and thus the evil is aggravated, that its excess may not require to be justified. Infamous pusillanimity, which is called expediency, respect .for appearances, prudence, obedience, wisdom, a sacrifice to the public good, a reason of state ! Words are never wanted by oppressors; and are there not two names for everything that exists under the sun ? Ve are unceasingly told that there is no punishment of death in Russia. To bury alive is not to kill! In reflecting on so many miseries on one side, and so much injustice and hypocrisy on the other, the guilt of the prisoners is lost sight of, the judge alone seems criminal. My indignation is at its height, when I consider that this iniquitous judge is not cruel by choice. To such extent may a bad government pervert men interested in its duration! But Russia, marches in advance of her destiny. This must explain all. If we are to measure the greatness of the end by the extent of the sacrifices, we must, without doubt, prognosticate for this nation the empire of the world.

On returning from my melancholy visit, a new labour awaited me at the engineer's : a ceremonious dinner with persons of the middle classes. The engineer had gathered around him, in order to do me honor, Ms wife's relations and a few of the neighbouring landholders. This society would have interested me as an observer, had I not at the first moment perceived that it would furnish me with no new ideas.

VOL. II.К

194THE RUSSIAN MIDDLE CLASS.

There is no citizen class in Russia, but the petty employes and the small, though ennobled, landed proprietors, represent there the middle orders of other lands. Envying the great, and themselves envied by the little,