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

Russia ought not only to stop, but to begin anew: is such an effort possible ? can so vast an edifice be taken to pieces and reconstructed ? The too recent civilisation of the empire, entirely artificial as it is, has already produced real results — results which no human power can annul: it appears to me impossible to controul the future of a people without considering the present. But the present, when it has been violently separated from the past, bodes only evil: to avert that evil from Russia, by obliging it to take into account its ancient history, which was the result only of its primitive character, will be henceforward the ungrateful task, more useful than brilliant, of the men called to govern this land,

The altogether national and highly practical genius of the Emperor Nicholas has perceived the problem : can he resolve it ? I do not think so ; he does not let enough be done — he trusts too much to himself and too little to others to succeed ; for in Russia, the most absolute will is not powerful enough to accomplish good.

It is not against a tyrant, but against tyranny, that the friends of man have here to struggle. There would be injustice in accusing the emperor of the miseries of the empire and the vices of the government : the powers of a man are not equal to the task imposed upon the sovereign who would suddenly seek to reign by humanity over an inhuman people.

He only who has been in Russia, who has seen

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close at hand how things are there conducted, can understand how little the man can do, who is reputed capable of doing every thing; and how more especially his power is limited, when it is good that he would accomplish.

The unhappy consequences of the work of Peter I. have been still further aggravated under the great, or rather the long reign of a woman who only governed her people to amuse herself and to astonish Europe — Europe, always Europe! — never Russia!

Peter I. and Catherine II. have given to the world a great and useful lesson, for which Russia has had to pay: they have shown to us that despotism is never so much to be dreaded as when it pretends to do good, for then it thinks the most revolting acts may be excused by the intention; and the evil that is applied as a remedy has no longer any bounds. Crime exposed to view can triumph only for a day ; but false virtues for ever lead astray the minds of nations. People, dazzled by the brilliant accessories of crime, by the greatness of certain delinquencies justified by the event, believe at last that there are two kinds of villany, two classes of morals, and that necessity, or reasons of state, as they were formerly called, exculpate criminals of high lineage, provided they have so managed that their excesses should be in accord with the passions of the country.

Avowed, open tyranny would little terrify me after having seen oppression disguised as love of order. The strength of despotism lies in the mask of the despot. When the sovei`eign can no longer lie, the people are free; thus I see no other evil in this world except that of falsehood. If you dread only violent

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and avowed arbitrary power, go to Russia; there you will learn to fear above all things the tyranny of hypocrisy. I cannot deny it; I bring back with me from my journey ideas which I did not own when I undertook it. I therefore would not have been spared for any thing in the world the trouble which it has cost me : if I print the relation of it, I do so precisely because it lias modified my opinions upon several points. They are known by all who have read me : my disappointment is not: it is a duty to publish it.

On setting out, I did not intend writing this my last journey : my method is fatiguing, because it consists in reviewing for my friends, during the night, the recollections of the day. Whilst occupied with this labour, which bears the character of confidential communications, the public appeared to my thoughts in only a dim and vapoury distance — so vapoury that I scarcely yet realise its presence ; and this will account for the familiar tone of an intimate correspondence being preserved in my printed letters.

I pleased myself with thinking that I should this time be able to travel for myself alone, which, would have been a means of observing with tranquillity; but the ideas with which I found the Russians prepossessed with regard to me, from the greatest personages down to the smallest private individuals, gave me to see the measure of my importance, at least of that which I could acquire in Petersburg. ' What do you think, or rather, what shall you say of us?' This was at the bottom of every conversation held with me. They drew me from my inaction: I was playing a modest part through apathy, or perhaps cowardice; for Paris renders those humble whom it does not render exces-

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sively presumptuous; but the restless self-love of the Russians restored to me my own.

I was sustained in my new resolution by a continual and visible dispersion of illusion. Assuredly the cause of the disappointment must have been strong and active to have allowed disgust to take possession of me in the midst of the most brilliant fetes that I have ever seen in my life, and in spite of the dazzling hospitality of the Russians. But I recognised at the first glance, that in the demonstrations of interest which they lavish upon us, there is more of the desire to appear engaging, than of true cordiality. Cordiality is unknown to the Russians: it is one of those things which they have not borrowed from their German neighbours. They occupy your every moment ; they distract your thoughts; they engross your attention; they tyrannise over you by means of officious politeness; they inquire how you pass your days; they question you with an importunity known only to themselves, and by fete after fete they prevent you seeing their country. They have even coined a French word enguirlander les etrangers] by which to express these falsely polite tactics. Unhappily they have chanced to fall upon a man whom fetes have always more fatigued than diverted. But when they perceive that their direct attempts upon the mind of a stranger fail, they have recourse to indirect means to discredit his statements among enlightened readers: they can lead him astray with marvellous dexterity. Thus, still to prevent him from seeing things under their true colour, they will falsely depreciate when they can no longer reckon upon his benevolent credulity to permit them falsely to extol. p 4

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Often have I, in the same conversation, surprised the ?me person changing his tactics two or three times towards me. I do not always flatter myself with having discerned the truth, but I have discerned that it was concealed from me, and it is always something to know that we are deceived; if not enlightened, we are then at least armed.

All courts are deficient in life and gaiety; but at that of Petersburg one has not even the permission to be weary. The emperor, whose eye is on every thing, takes the affectation of enjoyment as a homage, which reminds me of the observation of M. de Talleyrand upon Napoleon: ' L'Empereur ne plaisante pas ; il veut qu'on s'anmse.'

I shall wound self-love: my incorruptible honesty will draw upon me reproaches; but is it my fault if, in applying to an absolute government for new arguments against the despot that reigns at home, against disorder baptized with the name of liberty, I have been struck only with the abuses of autoeraey, in other words, of tyranny designated good order: Russian despotism is a false order, as our republicanism is a false liberty. I make war with falsehood wherever I discover it; but there is more than one kind of lie : I had forgotten those of absolute power; I now recount them in detail, because in relating my travels I describe without reserve all that I see.

I hate pretexts: I have seen that in Russia, order serves as a pretext for oppression, as in France, liberty does for envy. In a word, I love real liberty — all liberty that is possible in a society from whence elegance is not excluded; I am therefore neither de-