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

that it would be pure silliness to spare the self-love of people who are themselves so little merciful : susceptibility is not delicacy. It is time that these men who discern with so much sagacity the vices and the follies of our society, should accustom themselves to bear with our sincerity. The official silence which is maintained among them deceives them: it enervates their in-tellect: if they wish to be recognised by the European nations, and treated as equals, they must begin by submitting to hear themselves judged. All the nations have had to undergo this kind of process. When did the Germans refuse to receive the English, except on condition that the latter should speak well

ТПЕ TASK OF ТПЕ AUTHOE.331

of Germany ? Nations have always good reasons for being what they are, and the best of all is that they cannot be otherwise.

This excuse could not indeed be pleaded by the Russians, at least not by those who read. As they ape every thing, they might be otherwise; and it is just the consciousness of this possibility which renders their government gloomy, even to ferocity ! That government knows too well that it can be sure of nothing with characters which are mere reflections.

A more powerful motive might have checked my candour — the fear of being accused of apostasy. ?? He has long protested,' it will be said, ' against liberal declamations ; here behold him ceding to the torrent, and seeking false popularity after having disdained it.'

Perhaps I deceive myself; but the more I reflect, the less I believe that this reproach can reach me, or even that it will be addressed to me.

It is not only in the present day that a fear of being blamed by foreigners has occupied the minds of the Russians. That strange people unite an extremely boasting spirit with an excessive distrust of self; self-sufficiency without, uncomfortable humility within, are traits which I have observed in the greater number of Russians. Their vanity, which never rests, is, like English pride, always suffering. They also lack simplicity. Naivete, that French word of which no other language can render the exact sense, because the thing it describes is peculiar to ourselves, naivete, that simplicity which can become pointedly witty, that gift of disposition which can produce laughter without ever wounding the heart, that for-

332ГНЕ TASK OF THE AUTHOR.

getfulness of oratorical precautions which goes so far as to lend arms against itself to those with whom the individual converses, that fairness of judgment, that altogether involuntary truthfulness of expression, in one word, that Gallic simplicity, is unknown to the Russians. A race of imitators will never be naif; calculation will, with them, always destroy sincerity.

I have found in the will of Monomaehus, prudent and curious counsels addressed to his children : the following is a passage which has particularly struck me, and I have therefore taken it as a motto for my book, for it contains an important avowal: ' Above all, respect foreigners, of whatever quality, of whatever rank they may be, and if you cannot load them with presents, at least lavish upon them tokens of good will, for, on the manner in which they are treated in a country depends the good and the evil which they will say of it when they return to their own.' . (From the advice of Vladimir Monomaehus to his children, in 1126.)

Such a refinement of self-love, it must be owned, takes from hospitality much of its worth. It is a charity founded on calculation, of which I have, in spite of myself, been more than once reminded during my journey. Men ought not to be deprived of the recompense of their good actions, but it is immoral to make this recompense the primum mobile of virtue.

Karamsin himself, from whom the above is cited, speaks of the unfortunate results of the Mongol invasion, in its effect upon the character of the Russian people : if I am found severe in my judgments, it may be seen that they are justified by a grave historian who yet was disposed to be indulgent.

THE TASK OF THE AUTHOR.333

The following is an instance:— 'National pride was lost among the Russians: they had recourse to artifices which supply the want of strength among a people condemned to servile obedience : skilful in deceiving the Tartars, they became also proficient in the art of mutually deceiving each other. Buying from barbarians their personal security, they became more greedy of money, and less sensitive to lui`ongs and to shame, while exposed unceasingfy to the insolence of foreign tyrants.' Further on he says, —

' It may be that the present character of the Russians preserves some of the stains with which the barbarity of the Mongols soiled it.'

In 2`ivino; a resume of the c`lorious reimi of the «`reat and good prince, Ivan III., he says, ' Having at last penetrated the secret of autocracy, he (Ivan) became a terrestrial god in the eyes of the Russians, who thenceforward began to astonish all other people by a blind submission to the will of their sovereign.''''

These admissions appear to me as doubly significant, coming from the mouth of a historian as courtier-like and as timid as Ivaramsin. I might have multiplied the citations, but I believe the above are sufficient to show my right openly to express my views, thus justified by the opinions of an author accused of partiality.

In a country where minds are, from the cradle, fashioned in the dissimulation and finesse of Oriental policy, natural sentiment must be more rare than elsewhere; and, consequently, when it is discovered it has a peculiar charm. I have met in Russia some men who blush to feel themselves oppressed by the

334GENERAL CHARACTER

stern system under which they are obliged to live without daring to complain: these men are only free in the face of the enemy; they go to make war in the Caucasus, that they may get rid of the yoke imposed upon them at home. The sorrows of such a life imprint prematurely on their faces a seal of melancholy, which strikingly contrasts with their military habits and the heedlessness of their age: the wrinkles of youth reveal profound griefs, and inspire deep pity. These young men have borrowed from the East their gravity, and from the North their vague imaginative reverie : they are very unhappy and very amiable: no inhabitants of any other land resemble them.

Since the Russians possess grace, they must necessarily have some kind of natural sentiment in their character, though I have not been able to discern it. It is, perhaps, impossible for a stranger travelling through Russia as rapidly as I have done to grasp it. No character is so difficult to define as that of this people.

Without a middle age—without ancient associations—without Catholicism—without chivalry to look back upon—without respect for their word *—always Greeks of the Lower Empire — polished, like the Chinese, by set forms — coarse, or at least indelicate, like the Calimics—dirty like the Laplanders — beautiful as the angels — ignorant as savages (I except the women and a few diplomatists) — cunning as the Jews — intriguing as freedmen —gentle and grave in their manners as the Orientals — cruel in their sentiments as

* Notwithstanding all that has been already said, it may be proper here to repeat, that this applies only to the mass, who, in Russia, are led solely by fear and force.

OF THE RUSSIANS.

335