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

to be satisfactory to him : in fact, I did my best to resist the influence of his attractions. I am certainly any thing but revolutionary, still I am revolutionised : such is the consequence of being born in France, and of living there. But I have a yet better reason to give in explanation of my endeavour to resist the influence of the emperor over me. Aristocrat, both from character and conviction, I feel that the aristocracy alone can resist either the seductions or the abuses of absolute power. Without an aristocracy, there would be nothing but tyranny both in monarchies and in democracies. The sight of despotism is revolting to me in spite of myself: it offends all the ideas of liberty which spring alike from my natural feelings and my political creed. No aristocrat can submit without repugnance to see the levelling hand of despotism laid upon the people. This however happens in pure democracies as much as in absolute monarchical governments.

It appears to me, that if I were a sovereign I should like the society of those who would recognise

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in me the fellow-being as well as the prince, especially if, when viewed apart from my titles, and reduced to myself, I should still have a right to the title of a sincere, firm, and upright man.

Let the reader seriously ask himself, if that which I have recounted of the Emperor Nicholas, since my arrival in Russia places this prince lower in his opinion than before he had read these chapters.

Our frequent communications in public gained me numerous acquaintances, as well as renewal of acquaintances. Many.persons whom I had met elsewhere cast themselves in my way, though only after they had observed that I was the object of this particular good-wiH on the part of the sovereign. These men were the most exalted persons at court; but it is the custom of people of the world, and especially of placemen, to be sparing of every thing except ambitious schemes. To preserve at court sentiments above the vulgar range, requires the endowment of a very lofty mind, and lofty minds are rare.

It cannot be too often repeated, that there are no great noblemen in Russia, because there are no independent characters, with the exception, at least, of those superior minds, which are too few in number to exercise any general influence on society. It is the pride inspired by high birth, which, far more than riches or rank acquired by industry, renders man independent.

This country, in many respects so different from France, still resembles it in one — it is without any social hierarchy. By reason of this gap in the body politic, universal equality reigns in Russia as in France, and therefore, in both countries, the minds of

284:PAliALLEL BETAVEEN

men are restless and unquiet: with us this is demonstrated by visible agitations and explosions, in Russia, political passions are concentrated. In France every one can arrive at his object, by setting out from the tribune, in Russia, by setting out at court. The lowest of men, if he can discover how to please his sovereign, may become to-morrow second only to the emperor. The favour of that god is the prize which produces as many prodigies of effort, and miraculous metamorphoses, as the desire of popularity among us. A profound flatterer in Petersburg is the same as a sublime orator in Paris. What a talent of observation must not that have been in the Russian courtiers, which enabled them to discover that a means of pleasing the emperor was to walk in winter without a great coat in the streets of Petersburg. This flattery of the climate has cost the life of more than one ambitious individual. Under a despotism which is without limits, minds are as much agitated and tormented as under a republic; but with this difference, the agitation of the subjects of an autocracy is more painful on account of the silence and concealment that ambition has to impose upon itself in order to succeed. With us, sacrifices, to be profitable, have to be public; here, on the contrary, they must be secret. The unlimited monarch dislikes no one so much as a subject ¦publicly devoted. All zeal that exceeds a blind and servile obedience is felt by him as both troublesome and suspicious: exceptions open the door to pretensions, pretensions assume the shape of rights, and under a despot, a subject who fancies that he has rights is a rebel.

Marshal Paskiewitch can attest the truth of these

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remarks: they do not dare to ruin him, but they do all that is possible to make him a cipher. Before this journey, my ideas of despotism were suggested by my study of society in Austria and Prussia. I had forgotten that those states are despotic only in name, and that manners and customs there serve to correct institutions. In Germany, the people despotically governed appeared to me the happiest upon earth : a despotism thus mitigated by the mildness of its customs caused me to think that despotism was not after all so detestable a thing as our philosophers had pretended. I did not then know what absolute government was among a nation of slaves.

It is to Russia that we must go in order to see the results of this terriljle combination of the mind and science of Europe with the genius of Asia — a combination which is so much the more formidable as it is likely to last; for ambition and fear, passions which elsewhere ruin men by causing them to speak too much, here engender silence. This forced silence produces a forced calm, an apparent order, more strong and more frightful than anarchy itself. I admit but few fundamental rules in politics, because in the art of government I believe more in the efficacy of circumstances than of principles, but my indifference does not go so far as to tolerate institutions which necessarily exclude all dignity of human character in their objects.

Perhaps an independent judiciary and a powerful aristocracy would instil a calm and an elevation into the Russian character, and render the land happy ; but I do not believe the emperor dreams of such modes

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of ameliorating the condition of his people. However superior a man may be, he does not voluntarily renounee his own way of doing good to others.

But what right have we to reproach the Emperor of Russia with his love of authority ? Is not the genius of revolution as tyrannical at Paris as the genius of despotism at Petersburg ?

At the same time, we owe it to ourselves to make here a restriction that will show the difference between the social state of the two countries. In France, revolutionary tyranny is an evil belonging to a state of transition ; in Russia, despotic tyranny is permanent.

It is fortunate for the reader that I have wandered from the subject with which I commenced my chapter, namely, the illuminated theatre, the gala representation, and the translated pantomime (a Russian expression) of a French ballet. Had I continued my description, he might have experienced a little of the ennui with which this dramatic solemnity inspired me ; for the dancing at the Opera of Petersburg, without ]Iadamoiselle Taglioni, is as cold and stiff as the dances of all European theatres when they are not executed by the first talents in the world ; and the presence of the court encourages neither actors nor audience, for, before the sovereign, it is not permitted to applaud. The arts, disciplined as they are in Russia, produce interludes which do very well to amuse soldiers during the intervals of military command. They are magnificent, royal, imperial— but they are not really amusing. Here the artistes obtain wealth, but they do not draw inspiration:

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