Whether the fortress be viewed under a purely historical, or a poetical and picturesque aspect, it is the most national monument in Russia, and consequently the most interesting both for Russians and for foreigners.
This sanctuary of despotism was re-constructed in stone for Ivan III., in 1485, by two Italian architects, Marco and Pietro Antonio, who were invited to Moscow by the
* The title then given to the grand dukes of Moscow.
308INTRODUCTION TO THE
again rear the ramparts, formerly wooden, of the fortress more anciently founded under Dmitri Donskoi. But if this palace was not built by Ivan IV., it was built for him. It was by a spirit of prophecy that the great king, his grandfather, constructed the palace of the tyrant. Italian architects may be found every where, but in no other place have they produced a work similar to that which they raised at Moscow. I may add that there have been elsewhere absolute, unjust, arbitrary, and capricious sovereigns, and yet, that the reign of none of these monsters has resembled that of Ivan IV. The same seed springing under different climates and in different soils, produces plants of the same species, but of many varieties. The earth will never see two masterpieces of despotism similar to the Kremlin, nor two nations as superstitiously patient as was the Muscovite nation under the monstrous reign of its greatest tyrant.
The consequences of that reign are felt even in our days. Had the reader accompanied me in this journey, he would have discovered, as I have done, in the inner depths of the Russian character, the inevitable injuries produced by arbitrary power carried to its last excess; first, namely, a careless indifference to the sanctity of truth in speech, of candour in sentiment, and of justice in acts ; and afterwards, falsehood rampant in all its forms, fraud triumphant, and the moral sense, in fact, wholly destroyed.
I could fancy I saw a procession of vices pouring forth from all the gates of the Kremlin to inundate Russia.
Other nations have supported oppression, the Russian nation has loved it: it loves it still. Is not
HISTORY OF IVAN IV.309
such fanaticism of obedience characteristic ? It may not, however, be denied that this popular mania has here sometimes become the principle of sublime actions. In this inhuman land, if society has depraved the individual, it has not enervated him : he is not good, but he is also not contemptible. The same may be said of the Kremlin : it is not pleasant to behold, but it inspires awe. It is not beautiful, but it is terrible — terrible as the reign of Ivan IV.
Such a reign blinds to the latest generations the minds of a nation which submitted to it patiently : the crime of treason against humanity attaints the blood of a people even in its most distant posterity. This crime consists not only in exercising injustice, but likewise in tolerating it; a nation whieh, under the pretext that obedience is the chief virtue, bequeaths tyranny to its children, both mistakes its interests and neglects its duty. Blind endurance, fidelity to insane masters, are contemptible virtues; submission is only praiseworthy, sovereignty is only venerable, when they become the means of insuring the rights of mankind. When kings forget the conditions on which a man is permitted to reign over his fellow-men, the citizens have to look to God, their eternal o·overnor, who absolves them from their oath of fidelity to their temporal master.
Such restrictions the Russians have neither admitted nor understood ; yet they are essential to the development of true civilisation : without them circumstances will arise under which the social state becomes more injurious than beneficial to mankind, and when the sophists would be right in sending man back again to the woods.
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REASONS FOR
Nevertheless this doctrine, with whatever moderation it be propounded, passes for seditious in Petersburg;. The Russians of our times are therefore the worthy children of the subjects of Ivan IV. This is one of the reasons which induce me to present a short summary of his reign. The reader need not fear being wearied : never was there a stranger history. That madman may be said to have overstepped the limits of the sphere wherein the creature lias received from God, under the name of free will, ii permission to do evil; never has the arm of man stretched so far. The brutal ferocity of Ivan IV. would chill Tiberius, Nero, Caracalla, Louis XI., Peter the Cruel, Richard III., Henry VIII., and all other tyrants, ancient or modern, together with their most impartial judges, Tacitus at their head, with horror.
Before describing some of the details of his incredible excesses, I feel, therefore, the more called upon to assert my accuracy. I shall cite nothing from memory, for, in commencing this journey, I filled my carriage with the books that will aid my task ; and the principal source whence I have drawn is Karamsin, an author who cannot be objected to by the Russians, for he is reproached with having softened rather than exaggerated the facts unfavourable to the renown of his nation. A prudence so extreme as to approach to partiality is the fault of this author. Every Russian writer is a courtier: Karamsin was one. Of this I find the proof in a little pamphlet, published by another courtier, Prince Wiasemski, and describing the conflagration of the winter-palace at Petersburg—a description which forms one continued eulogy
CREDITING KARAMSIN.311
on the sovereign, who, on this occasion, deserved the praises addressed to him. The following passage occurs in the pamphlet:
' Which is the noble family in Eussia that has not some glorious association to claim with these walls ? Our fathers, our ancestors, all our political and warlike achievements, there received from the hands of the sovereign, and in the name of the country, the brilliant testimonies of their labours or their valour. There LomonoslofF and Dcrjavine struck their national lyre ; there
Credence may be therefore safely given to Karamsin when he recounts the enormities of the life of Ivan.
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IVAN IV.
CHAP. XXVI.
HISTORY OF IVAN IV. COMMENCEMENT OF HIS REIGN. — EFFECTS
OF HIS TYRANNY. —ONE OF ITS CAUSES.— HIS MARRIAGES.HIS
CRUELTIES.FATE OF NOVGOROD ABDICATION. — THE SECRET
