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

historical truth any better respected than the sanctity of oaths: the authenticity of stones is as difficult to establish as that of words or of writings. Under each new reign the edifices are remodelled at the will of the sovereign : none remain where placed by their L б

228MODERN VANDALISM.

founders: the very tombs are not shielded from the tempest of imperial caprice: even the dead are exposed to the fantasies of him who rules the living. The Emperor Nicholas, who is now playing the architect in Moscow, and reconstructing the Kremlin, is not at his first attempt of the kind. Nijni has already seen him at work.

This morning, on entering the cathedral, I felt impressed by the ancient appearance of the edifice which contains the tomb of Minine: it, at least, has been respected for more than two hundred years, I thought to myself; and this conclusion caused me to find the aspect of the place the more august.

The governor led me to the sepulchre of the hero : it lies among the monuments of the ancient sovereigns of Nijni: and when the Emperor Nicholas visited it, he descended patriotically into the cave even where the body is deposited.

' This is one of the most beautiful and interesting of the churches that I have seen in your country,' I observed to the governor.

?f It was I who built it,' replied M. Boutourline.

' How ? . . . . You mean, doubtless, to say that you restored it ? '

' No; the ancient church was falling into ruins: the Emperor preferred its being reconstructed rather than repaired: it is only two years ago that it stood fifty paces further on, and formed a projection that interfered with the regularity of our Kremlin's interior.'

' But the corpse and bones of Minine ?' I exclaimed.

' They were disinterred with those of the grand

PETER THE GREAT.229

dukes : all are now placed in the new sepulchre, of which you see the stone.'

I could not have replied without causing an unpleasant commotion in the mind of a provincial governor as attached to the duties of his office as is the governor of iSajni: I therefore followed him, in silence, to the little obelisk of the square, and towards the immense ramparts of the Kremlin of Nijni.

We here see what is understood by veneration for the dead, and respect for historical monuments in Russia. The emperor, who knows that ancient things are venerable, desires that a church, built yesterday, should be honoured as old; and to produce this, he says that it is old, whereupon it becomes so. The new church of Minine is the ancient one: if you doubt this truth, you arc seditious.

Every where is to be seen the same system — that of Peter the Great—perpetuated by his successors. That man believed and proved that the will of a Muscovite czar might serve as a substitute for the laws of nature, for the rules of art, for truth, history, and humanity, for the ties of blood, and of religion. If the Russians still venerate him it is because their vanity outweighs their judgment. ?? Behold,' they say, ' what Russia was before the accession of that great prince, and what she has become after: see what a monarch of genius can do !' This is a false mode of appreciating the glory of a nation. I see, among the most civilised states in the world, some whose power extends to none except their own subjects; and these, even, are few in number. Such states have no influence in universal polities. It is not by the pride of conquest, nor by political tyranny

230FRENCH CHAEACTEE.

exercised over foreign interests, that their governments acquire a right to universal gratitude; it is by good examples, by wise laws, by an enlightened and beneficent administration. With such advantages a

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small nation may become—not conquerors, not oppressors, but lights of the world; and this is a hundred times preferable.

I cannot sufficiently grieve to see how far these ideas, so simple but so undoubtedly correct, are from influencing the best and most gifted minds, not only in Russia, but in every land, and above all, in France. Among us, the fascinations of war and conquest still survive, in spite of the lessons taught by the God of heaven, and by interest, that god of earth. Nevertheless, I still have hope, because, notwithstanding the deviations of our philosophers, notwithstanding the egotism of our language, notwithstanding our habit of calumniating ourselves, we are an essentially religious nation. Assuredly, this is no paradox; we devote ourselves to ideas with more generosity than any other people in the world : and are not ideas the idols of Christian communities ?

Unfortunately we lack discernment and independence in our choice : we do not distinguish between the idol of the day, which will be an object of contempt on the morrow, and the object which merits all our sacrifices. I hope yet to live long enough to see that bloody idol of war, brute force, shattered among us. A country is always powerful and extensive enough when its people limit their courage to a willingness to live and die for the truth, to shed their blood in a war with falsehood and injustice, and when they justly enjoy the renown of so lofty a devotion.

THE TRUE GLORY OF NATIONS.231

Athens was but a speck upon earth, yet it became the sun of ancient civilisation ; and while it shone in all its brightness, how many nations, powerful by their numbers and extensive territory, lived, fought, conquered, exhausted themselves, and died, uselessly and obscurely ! What would have become of Germany under the system of a conquering policy ? And yet, notwithstanding its divisions, notwithstanding the weakness, as regards physical resources, of the little states that compose it, Germany, with its poets, its thinkers, its learned men, its differing forms of government, its republics, and its princes, not rivals in power, but in mental culture, in moral elevation, in sagacity of thought, is, at least, on a level, in general civilisation, with the most advanced countries in the world.

It is not by covetously looking beyond themselves that a people acquire a right to the gratitude of mankind, but by turning their strength upon themselves in order to become all that they are capable of being, in the double relations of mental and physical regeneration. This species of merit is as superior to the propagandise of the sword as virtue is to glory.

A power of the first rank: that stale expression, applied to politics, will long continue to cause the misery of the world. Self-love is the most common principle in man: and for this very reason the God who founded his doctrine on humility is the only true God, considered even in the light of a sound policy; for he alone has foreseen the path of indefinite progress, of a progress altogether intellectual, or internal: and yet, for eighteen hundred years the world has doubted his words; but, doubted and discussed as they are,

232

THE KREMLIN OF NIJNI.

they constitute its hfe : what would they do then for this ungrateful world if they were universaUy received with faith ? The morals of the gospel applied to the policy of nations — this is the problem for the future ! Europe, with its ancient, thoroughly civilised people, is the sanctuary whence religious light will spread over the universe.