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

The courtier-like governor had the modesty to forbear adding a word in favour of his own good management; he equally avoided giving me any occasion to allude to what evil tongues are continually repeating to me in secret, namely, that every financial measure of the kind just taken by the Russian government, gives to the superior authority means of profit, which it well knows how to use, but of which no one dares openly to complain under autocratic rule. I am ignorant of the secret manoeuvres to which recourse has been had on this occasion; but to give myself an idea of them, I imagine the situation of a man who has deposited with another a considerable sum of money. If the receiver has the power to triple the value of each piece of coin of which the sum is composed, it is clear that he can return the deposit, and all the while retain two thirds of the amount deposited. I do not say that such has been the actual result of the measure ordained by the emperor, but I admit the supposition, among many others, to aid me in comprehending the insinuations, or, if you like, the calumnies of the malcontents. They, indeed, add that the profit of this so suddenly executed operation, which consists in depriving, by a decree, the paper-money of a part of its ancient value, to increase in the same proportion that of the silver rouble, is designed to compensate the private treasury of the sovereign for the sums which it was necessary to draw from it, in order to re-build, at his own cost, his winter-palace, and to refuse, with a magnanimity which Europe and Russia have admired, the offers of

210IMPKOVEMENTS AT NIJNI.

towns and of many private individuals, great merchants, and others, emulous of contributing to the re- construction of a national edifice which serves as habitation for the head of the empire.

The reader may judge, by the detail which I have deemed it my duty to give of this tyrannical charlatanism, of the value here attached to words, and of the real worth of the noblest sentiments and the finest phrases. He may judge also of the constraint imposed upon generous minds and independent spirits, obliged to live under a system in which peace and order are purchased by the sacrifice of truth—that most sacred of all the gifts of heaven to man. In other communities, it is the people who apply the whip, and the government which puts on the drag; here, it is the government which urges onward and the people who hold back: for if the political machine is to keep together at all, it is essential that the spirit of conservatism should exist in some part of it. The displacement of ideas which I here note is a political phenomenon, which I have never seen except in Russia. Under an absolute despotism it is the government which is revolutionary; for the word revolution signifies arbitrary system and violent power.

The governor has kept his promise. He has taken me to see and minutely examine the works ordered by the emperor, with the view of making Nijni all that it is capable of being made, and of repairing the errors of its founders. A superb road rises from the banks of the Oka to the high city, the precipices are filled up, the terraces are laid out, magnificent openings are eut even in the bosom of the mountain,

THE SERF AND THE LOEI>.211

where enormous substructures support squares, streets, and edifices ; bridges are constructed ; and all these works, worthy of a great commercial city, will soon change Nijni into one of the most beautiful in the empire. As his Majesty has taken it under his special protection, each time that any small difficulty rises as to the mode of carrying on the works commenced, or whenever the face of an old house is to be repaired or a new one to be built, the governor is instructed to cause a special plan to be made, and to submit the question of its adoption to the emperor. What a man ! exclaim the Russians .... What a country ! I should exclaim, if I dared to speak.

While on the road, M. Boutourline, whose obliging civility and hospitality I cannot sufficiently acknowledge, gave me some interesting explanations of the Russian system of administration, and of the improvement which the progress of manners is daily effecting in the condition of the peasants.

A serf may now become the proprietor even of lands, in the name of his lord, without the latter daring to violate the moral guarantee by which he is bound to his wealthy slave. To despoil this man of the fruit of his labour and industry would be an abuse of power which the most tyrannical boyard dare not permit himself under the reign of the Emperor Nicholas : but who shall assure me that he dare not do so under another sovereign ? Who shall assure me even, that, in spite of the return to equity which forms the glorious characteristic of the present reign, there may yet be no avaricious and needy lords, who, without openly robbing their vassals, know how skilfully, and by turns, to employ threats and kindness,

212 GOVERNOR OF NIJNl'S EXPLANATION

in order gradually to extract from the hands of the slave a portion of the wealth which they dare not carry away at one swoop ? It is difficult to believe in the duration of sueh relations between the master and the serf, and yet the institutions which produce this soeial singularity are stable.

In Russia nothing is defined by the proper words. In theory, every thing is precisely as is said; but under sueh a system, if carried out, life would be impossible: in practice there are so many exceptions, that we are ready to say, the confusion caused by customs and usages so contradictory must make all government impossible.

It is necessary to discover the solution of the double problem; the point, that is, where the principle and the application, the theory and the practice, accord, to form a just idea of the state of society in Russia.

If we are to believe the excellent governor of Nijni, nothing can be more simple: the habit of exercising the power renders the forms of command gentle and easy. Angry passions, ill treatment, the abuses of authority, are become extremely rare, precisely because soeial order is based upon extremely severe laws; every one feels that to preserve for such laws a respect without which the state would be overthrown, they should not be put in force frequently or rashly. It is requisite that the action of despotic government be observed close at hand to understand all its gentleness (it is the governor of Nijni who now speaks): if authority preserves any force in Russia, it is to be attributed to the moderation of the men who exercise it. Constantly placed between an aristocracy which the more easily abuses its power be-

0Г DESPOTIC ADMINISTRATION.213

cause its prerogatives are ill-defined, and a people who the more willingly misunderstand their duty because the obedience exacted n`om them is not ennobled by a moral feeling, the men who command can only preserve the prestige of sovereignty by using as rarely as possible violent means: these means would expose the measure of the government's strength ; and it judges it wiser to conceal than to unveil its resources. If a noble commits any reprehensible act, he would be several times warned in secret by the governor of the province before being admonished officially. If warnings and reprimands were not sufficient, the tribunal of the nobles would threaten to place him under guardianship; and if this had no good effect, the menace would be executed.

All this superabundance of precaution does not appear to me to be very consolatory to the serf, who, if he had as many lives, might die a hundred times under the knout of his master, before the latter, thus prudently warned and duly admonished, should be obliged to give account of his injustices or his atrocities. It is true that the day after, lord, governor, and judges might be all sent to Siberia; but this would be rather a consolation for the imagination of the poor peasants than a real protection from the arbitrary acts of subaltern authorities, who are ever disposed to abuse the power delegated to them.

The common people have very rarely recourse to the legal tribunals in their private disputes. This enlightened instinct appears to me a sure indication of want of equity in the judges. The infrequeney of litigation may have two causes—the spirit of justice in the subjects, or the spirit of iniquity in the judges.

214VALUE OF MERCHANDISE

In Russia, nearly every process is stifled by an administrative decision, which very often