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

mustachios, an aquiline nose, small grey eyes, but formerly bright and piercing, and in all respects a countenance that had once been pleasing : but at this period it was so changed as to be scarcely recognised. A sombre ferocity was depicted on his deformed features. His eye was dull, his head nearly bald, and only a few hairs remained on his chin — inexplicable effect of the fury that devoured his soul! After a fresh enumeration of the faults committed by the boyards, he repeated his consent to keep the crown, dwelt at great length on the obligation imposed upon princes of preserving tranquillity in their territories, and of taking, with this object, all the measures they may judge necessary ; expatiated on the nothingness of human life; the necessity of man carrying his thoughts beyond the tomb ; and finally he proposed the establishment of the Opritchnina, a name until then unknown.

' The Czar announced that he should choose a thousand satellites among the princes, the gentlemen,

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and the boyard children*, and that he should give them in his territories, fiefs, the actual proprietors of which would be transferred to other places.

' He took possession, in Moscow itself, of several streets, whence he drove the gentlemen and official persons whose names were not written among the thousand of the Czar. *

' As though he had conceived a hatred for the august associations of the Kremlin and for the tombs of his ancestors, he refused to inhabit the magnificent abode of Ivan III.; beyond the Avails of the citadel, he built another palace, fortified with strong ramparts. This new abode was peopled with the thousand of the Czar, who formed a court, peculiar to Ivan IV., that received the name of Opritchnina.'

Further on, Ave come to the re-commencement of the murders of the boyards.

ee On the fourth of February, Moscow witnessed the fulfilment of the conditions announced by the Czar in the town of Alexandrowsky. They began with the executions of the pretended traitors accused of having conspired, with Kourbsky, against the life of the monarch, of the Czarina Anastasia and their children. The first victim was the celebrated Vaivode, Prince Alexander Gorbati-Schouisky, descendant of Saint Vladimir, of Vsevolod the Great, and the ancient princes of Souzdal. This man, who possessed a superior genius, military skill, and an equal love of religion and his country, and who had powerfully aided in

* Les enfants boyards, a corps of 500,000 men, tenants of the crown, instituted as an order of inferior noblesse b7 Ivan III., grandfather of Ivan IV.

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the reduction of the kingdom of Kazan, was condemned to death, together with his son Peter, a young man of seventeen.* They arrived at the place of execution with fearless, calm, dignified countenances, and holding each other by the hand. That he might not witness the death of the author of his life, the youthful noble first offered his neck to the sword, but his father withheld him, ejaculating with emotion,? Nay, my son, I will not see thee die !' The young man yielded, and immediately the head of the prince was severed from the body: his son took it in his hands, covered it with kisses, and, lifting his eyes to heaven, submitted himself, with serene composure, to the stroke of the headsman. Numerous other nobles suffered at the same time. The Prince She-viref was impaled. It is said the victim lingered for a whole day under his horrible tortures, but that, supported by religion, he forgot them in singing the praises of Jesus. * * A vast number of other gentlemen had their estates confiscated and suffered exile.'

In the same volume Karamsin describes the manner in which the Czar formed his new guard, which was not long restricted to the number of a thousand, nor selected only from among the higher classes.

c? They sought for young men whose only qualification was an audacity and corruption, as proved by their debaucheries, which rendered them ready to undertake anything. Ivan questioned them regarding their birth, their friends, and their patrons. It was

* The execution of these parties was unattended with torture, a mercy envied by multitudes in this reign. — Note of the Author of the Travels.

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especially required that they should have no kind of connection with the great boyards; obscurity, and even meanness of extraction, was a recommendation. The Czar increased their number to 6000 men, who took oath to serve him in all things, and against all persons; to denounce traitors ; to have no connection with the citizens of the commonalty, that is, with none who were not enrolled in the legion of the elect; and to recognise neither relationship nor family when serving the sovereign. In return, the Czar bestowed upon them, not only the lands, but also the houses and goods, of twelve thousand proprietors, who were driven from their possessions, destitute: so that many of them, among whom were men distinguished for their services, and covered with honourable wounds, were obliged to depart on foot, and during the winter, with their wives and children, for other far distant and desert abodes,' &c. &c.

It is also in Karamsin that we may read the results of this infernal institution. But the present sketch is too confined for the filling up of the picture with the details furnished by history.

The horde of banditti once let loose upon the land, and nothing but murder and rapine were to be seen. Merchants and burghers, boyards and peasants — all, in short, who were not of the elect, belonged to the elect. That terrible guard was like a single man, of whom the emperor was the soul. Merit, birth, fortune, beauty, every kind of advantage, brought evil on its possessor. The young females who had personal charms, and were so unfortunate as to be considered virtuous, were carried away to serve as toys for the Czar and his brutal favourites. That prince

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retained them in his den until tired of them, when they were either despatched by tortures invented expressly for them, or sent back to die of shame among their husbands and families. Nor was this all. The instigator of such abominations obliged his own sons to take part in the orgies of his crimes, by which refinement of tyranny he robbed his besotted subjects of even the future.

To hope for a better reign would have been to conspire against the sovereign; besides — to sound in its profoundcst depths this abyss of corruption — Ivan, in inciting to debauchery, was inflicting another kind of death. In destroying souls he found relief from the fatigue of destroying bodies, while he yet continued to destroy. Such was the tyrant in his hours of relaxation.

In the conduct of public affairs, the life of the monster was an inexplicable mixture of energy and cowardice. He menaced his enemies so long as he felt the strongest; but, when vancµiished, he wept, prayed, cringed, and degraded himself and his people. But even this, even public shame, that last chastisement of nations who fail in their duty to themselves, did not open the eyes of the Russians.

The Khan of the Crimea burnt Moscow; the Czar fled : he returned when his capital was a heap of ashes; his presence produced more terror among the remaining inhabitants than had been caused by the enemy. Yet not a