Three Cities in Russia. Illustrated with maps, etc

Front matter

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. C. P. s. del. CONSECRATION OF THE ELEMENTS AT ST. ALEXANDER NEVSKI'S LAVRA. . See Vol. I., pp. 286, 287. THftEE CITIES IN RUSSIA. BY Professor C. PIAZZI SMYTH, F.R.SS.L.&E., ASTRONOMER EOVAL FOB SCOTLAND, AUTHOR OF 'TENERIFFE, AN ASTRONOMER'S EXPERIMENT,' ETC. ETC. Blushatrti Suits) fHaps anB 5EJDoS-Cngrabmgs. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : LOVELL REEVE, & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1862. [The right of Translation is reserved.'] ro R. M. SMITH, ESQ., F.R.S.E., MERCHANT, LEITH, WHOSE APPRECIATION OF SCIENCE IS EQUALLED BY FEW ; AND WHOSE WARM-HEARTED SYMPATHY, IN PROMOTING THE SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS OF OTHERS, IS SURPASSED BY NONE ; SJjis §aa\k, BOTH IN ITSELF ANL> ITS SUBJECT A MEMORIAL OF MANY KIND OFFICES RECEIVED, IS DEDICATED BY IIIS SINCERE FRIEND, C. PIAZZI SMYTH. Edinburgh, April, 1862.

Preface

. Having essayed a visit to Russia in the summer of 1859, chiefly on scientific business, and having been rather unexpectedly detained there, while waiting for its full accomplishment, I took some trouble to utilize the extra opportunities thus enjoyed, by in quiring into questions of local interest, and trying to gain some acquaintance with a few of the leading thoughts and ideas of the more numerous classes of the people. The result, though far from going deep, was often, as it would seem, of a novel character ; and gave so vividly the impression of a vast deal more having still to be written, before the feelings, traditions, and moving impulses of Russians, will ever be fully understood or sympathizingly appreciated by the British nation at large, — that I have since ventured on putting forth this humble contribution to wards so desirable an end. A considerable portion of the objects herein al luded to, can hardly fail of having been already well

PREFACE.

. discussed in older and standard works ; but inas much as my professional character of an astronomical observer has not been often occupied by writers on Russia, and as I have seldom gone out of the direct line of my own and my wife's experiences of actual travel and conversation, — there will generally be a new stand-point afforded for reviewing old subjects ; while some new ones may also appear, and of a by no-means uninteresting character. With the object too, of putting the reader into possession, with the least trouble to himself, — of whatever we heard or noticed in the great Slavonic Empire, I have endeavoured to write little beyond a mere journal ; only suppressing such account, when amongst private friends, and somewhat condensing it in public, when we paid several visits to the same place or had held repeated conversations on reite rated topics. ■ Even within that limited scope however, I feel it necessary to pray condonation for many small errors, which cannot but be found in the work of one so little acquainted after all, with either the Russian people or their language.

I have tried indeed as far as possible to be accurate, and trust that in every im.. portant matter I shall never be found far wrong ; but, in the English spelling of Russian words, if in no other subject, differences of opinion are already exist ing, and many mistakes may have been unwittingly

PREFACE.

. IX committed. In this question too, even as acknowledged in very learned quarters, little advance has been made since Dr. E. D. Clarke's day (1817), and he wrote,* "The unsettled state of English ortho " graphy, as far as it affects the introduction of Rus -' sian names, produces considerable embarrassment " to the writer who wishes to follow a fixed rule. " Upon this subject it not only happens, that no two " authors agree, but that the same author is incon " sistent." How many forms of rendering in English, one and the same Russian word, he could have collected, I do not know ; but the following have been culled from later works : — Isvostchik. Droschka. Isehvostehick. Droski. Istvosschik. Drotcliki. Izvoschcliik. Droskoi. Izvoschik. Drusschka. Yesvo8giek. Droschky. Drosky. Droschkii. Drojki.

Much of this contradiction arises of course from the Russian alphabet having thirty-six letters, against our twenty-six, and many of them being by no means exactly interchangeable. Add to this, that much ofthe orthography in a Latinized form, having been originally borrowed and accepted from Ger- * Clarke's Travels, fourth edition, preface, p. X

PREFACE.

. mans, it was not discovered until lately, and on comparing the English pronunciation of such words at once with the Russian, that German orthography is peculiar. From this one trammel, therefore, at least, the combined authors* of the great work on ' The Geo logy of Russia in Europe,' resolutely endeavoured to free themselves so long ago as 1845. They write accordingly, at p. 658, " On this point we must ob " serve that we have everywhere endeavoured to " avoid the use of that method of writing Russian " names, which, through the authority of various Ger " man writers from the time of Pallas, has become "too prevalent;" again, "We write ' Yenesei/ like " all other Russian words, as it is pronounced. The " German J, as used by Pallas and the early Ger " man explorers of different parts of Russia, has "unluckily found its way into all English maps ;" and again, " In orthography we have usually en " deavoured so to write the words upon our maps, " that they may be correctly pronounced in the " English language."

Following this plain teaching, I have not hesitated to extract Germanisms when manifest ; and have therefore not allowed such would-be Cockneyfied forms as Wolodomir, Kiow, Suwarrow, or Wassali- Wassiliwitch to pervert for Englishmen the real Rus- * Murchison, Yerneuil, and Eeyserling.

PREFACE.

. XI sian names of Vladimir, Kiev, Suvorov, and Vassili- Vassilivitch ; but I hesitated much longer before venturing to restore "Moscow" to its rightful " Moskva." It is true that I had in 1 859, heard Russians in Russia, continually denounce the former word, as a harsh German invention which they utterly repudiated, which was odious to their ears, and alien and uncouth to all Slavonic tongues, — but then the barbarism was so long settled amongst us ! How ever, on finding presently that Sir John Bowring had boldly used the right word thirty-five years ago in his admirable little ' Russian Anthology ; ' and more recently, that the Smithsonian Institution of Ame rica had extensively employed the true and phonetic spelling for the English language of Shakespeare, or "Moskva," (the first syllable long and the second short, with a quality something between Mosskra and Mohshoa) in notices of scientific publications, — there seemed to be no longer any reason why Eng lishmen, any more than Americans, should continue to pain their Russian friends by applying to that sainted " Mother City" a foreign and fictitious name.

Among the illustrations of the present work, the four maps are chiefly compilations from known au thorities adapted to the occasion * but the six wood engravings are from sketches entirely original, taken by myself in Russia ; and looked after unceasingly PP.EFACE. since, to ensure the engraver giving a faithful repro duction of whatever I had been able in the drawings to transfer from the natural scene to paper. The gilt stamp on the boards, I may further add, is carefully copied from a photograph taken by my self in the Beloi Gorod of Moskva, and represents the very characteristic crosses of the church there dedicated to the "Birth of the Virgin Mary;" giving too, almost as exactly as the photograph, the beau tiful and characteristic filigree work ; the crescents under the crosses, which tell of labours and cala mities unspeakable, undergone by mediæval Russians for the saving of Western Christendom from Tahtar devastation ; and the picturesque chain-braces of long-looped golden wire.

Nor ought I to conclude without formally tender ing, as I am most hajjpy to have this opportunity of doing, my humble acknowledgments to the Right Honourable Earl Russell, Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well for his passport, as for his effective mediation with the Custom House authorities ; a mediation, which prevented either delay, or danger, to the several scientific instruments I was carrying with me. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST YOLUME. e>

Part I. St

PETERSBURG. CHAPTER PAGE 1. Set Sail for Russia 3 II. The Baltic Sea 22 III. Cronstadt from the Waterside .... 38 IT. First Impressions of St. Petersburg ... 60 Y. Pulkova Observatory in Summer ... 73 VI. Russian Astronomical Instruments 92 VII. Struve's Vertical Circle 109 VIII. The Predominating View 125 IX. Versts, JIiles, and Kilometres .... 141 X. A Military Distance-Measurer .... 156 XI. Commencement of Sight-seeing . . . .171 XII. Establish Ourselves in St. Petersburg . . 187 XIII. A Russian Sunday . . . . . .198 XIV. "Week-day Rambles 220 XV. Secrets CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XVI. Horses and Driving 261 XVII. Another Sunday 279 XVIII. Comfort and Delight . . . • • • 307

Part II. Moseva

I. Penetrating a Continent 339 II. Roaming through Moskva 364 III. First View of the Kremle 397 IV. More of the Kremle 421 V. Sunday in Moskva 450 Index to the First Volume 4S5 ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL.1. MAPS. NO. PAGE I. Physical Map of Route from Edinburgh to St. Petersburg, Moskva, and Novgorod . . . 1 II. Plan of the Centre of Moskva City . . . 408 III. Plan of the City and Suburbs of Moskva . . 456 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. I. Consecration of the Elements at St. Alexander Nevski's Lavra Frontispiece. II. Scene at the Mstava Railway Station . . . " It was thus that in the time of Pharaoh, Tsar of Egypt, when Moses was brought before him, the White-heads of the country said, ' 0 Tsar ! this man will one day subdue Egypt.' And that is in truth what took place ; for, in the end, the Egyptians were exterminated by Moses.

Similarly the Khozars at the first sub dued the Polaniens, but afterwards these brought the Khozars under their domination ; aud thence it is, how in the present day tlie Russians are found ruling over tlie Khozars." — Chronicles of Nestor, of Kiev, a.d. 1097. •I Page II. aft hi' ERRATA TO VOL. I. 18, line 13, for downright read down right. 30. line 10, for though read through. 60, line 3. insert a comma after " agreeable." 191, line 2, insert commas after " motion " and " that." 191. line 3. insert comma after " morning." 2*22, line 11. for calligraphy reael caligrapliy. 187, line 19. for unleavened read leavened. 288. last line but one, for Catherine I. read Catherine' 290. line 7, for ts read its. 298, line 24, for black read back. 362, fine 27, for liilgree read filigree. 115. line 26, for waters read water, and dele comma ! " continent." 437. line 9. for opposite read opposing. 482, foot note, for Bojici read Bojiei. THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

PART I. ST.

PETERSBURG. VOL. I. B " Toutefois il ne faut pas oublier que la population de la Russie a triple depuis un siecle ; quelques generations, et elle aura atteint le ehiffre de toute la population europeenne." Chopin, Russie : 1838. THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

PART I. ST.

PETERSBURG.

Chapter I. Set Sail For Russia

July. Amongst the many varied scenes of commercial activity presented by the docks of Leith in the spring and summer of 1859, there was one particular ship which far transcended all its neighbours in the en ergy of its proceedings, and the magnitude of the operations with which it was connected. On making inquiries, we ascertained this ship to be the after wards ill-fated 'Edinburgh/ a screw-steamer of Leith engaged in the Eussian trade. Then, the poor vessel was in the full heyday of youth and success, making quicker voyages than ever had been known before in these parts ; and by bringing the coast of Scotland within six days of so splendid a customer as St. Petersburg, was mateis rially promoting mutual knowledge, and giving rise to kindly sympathies between two great nations; but now she is lying at the bottom of the stormy North Sea, and her excellent captain and able crew are no more ; yet their memory lives behind them gratefully amid the scenes of their former toils ; and by no one are they held in more estimation than by my wife and self, for we learned twice over to value their many high qualities when voyaging with them on board their swift-sailing ship.

The ' Edinburgh' was not a passenger-steamer, and it was only by favour that we were allowed to enter her. How it came about, was something in this way : being intent on trying a new altitude measm*ing apparatus on board some ship or ships at sea, and wishing to apply its powers to the most ad vanced character, though perhaps the most difficult quality of modern sea-going vessels, we singled out the iron-built screw steamer ' Edinburgh/ as being closer to the desired ideal than anything else we could find. Her line of voyage would certainly not be over any track of actual ocean waves which might run moun tains high, but it would cross the North Sea, which is in itself pretty famous for having an ever unquiet surface, vexed with continued ground-swells, and that would do just as efficiently in the experiments contemplated.

Add to this, that the 'Edinburgh's' destination was Russia, — Russia, whose central observatory of Pulkova, the highest scientific authority in this country has stated that every astronomer should visit once in his life, — and then it is evident there were many attractions in the case. On mentioning some of these ideas, when they were still in a very half-formed condition, to my valued friend Mr. R. M. Smith, himself also a Russian merchant, and a little disappointed perhaps that one of his easy-going corn-ships had not been equally attractive and suitable, he applied straightway to the owners of the ' Edinburgh/ and they showed themselves so very liberally inclined, that he was soon able to bring us from them a flattering invita tion to take our passage on board their fine vessel, in any of its voyages to Cronstadt and back, as soon or as late during that season as we pleased.

Acting therefore on this most obliging intimation, we prepared to go out on the very next voyage, and conveyed ourselves accordingly on board the ' Edin burgh,' with all our traps, at six A.M., on the morning of July 23rd. The circumstances we found there were eminently characteristic, as well of North Sea sailing from the eastern coast of Scotland, as of the nature of the traffic between Great Britain and Rus sia. Mist, rain, and sharp-set wind represented the meteorology * iron in every conceivable bulky shape, and cotton bales, chiefly indicated the commercial materials concerned ; but before everything else this trade seemed to demand the most extraordinary vigour and astonishing dispatch. A whole ship had to be loaded within two days, and has now to be completed within one hour ; a strange scene there fore results.

The hosts of grimy porters who did not leave off work last night until nine p.m., were at it again at three a.m. this morning, and they are still clustering as busily as bees about every part of the great ship. On her off side tons upon tons of coal are being delivered and heaped up on deck six feet high, out of lighters lying three deep, while on her quay side where the chief mercantile operations are go ing on, the rattling of steam cranes is perpetually an nouncing that huge bundles of pig iron, or mighty cast-iron water-pipes, or overgrown gas-mains, are being whirled aloft and then lowered, first quickly and then gradually with gentleness, through the yawning hatch. There the porter-men who have run cleverly under cover at the first descent, as cleverly run out again .when the speed moderates, and wield and push about the monstrous hanging masses of metal until they are exactly lowered into their due positions.

Then other hands tumble in bales of cotton, which are rapidly being disposed as packings and wedges by the untiring crew below, when in a moment, with a clanking of chains and ringing echo of cast-iron tubing, another great gas-main appears hanging above their devoted heads, and away they all fly to their coverts again while the crushing load rushes terrifically through the first few feet of its de scent. Half past six a.m., and the work gets evidently more feverish, the men more energetically active. Steam and rain and Scottish mist mix up confusedly together. We catch one of the many clerks running about with umbrellas and note-books; demanding of him, with some hope of still being able to send to the post for our last letters, " When do you expect to be ready to sail?" "Well, really, I begin to fear," he replies, " that we shall not get loaded this tide, but I don't know;" and even while he speaks, more bundles of pig iron and more gas-mains and more bales of cotton appear thronging on the quay. 6.50 a.m. has arrived, and prodigies have been per formed; but the minute-hand of the clock seems progressing so quickly in its inevitable path, that the question will persist in proposing itself, Is Rus sian voyaging going to be proved absolutely punc tual, or only moderately so ?

Others see the crisis as well ; the word is passed amongst the men, the gas-pipes ring down one on the other, whole heaps of pig iron are transferred almost instantaneously, bales innumerable of cotton are wheeled up from all sorts of sheds, and tumbled on board in great heaps, and then — as punctual as any railway-train — the ' Edinburgh/ Captain David Steele, steams out of Leith Harbour, nearly as the clock strikes seven, and within, be it duly remembered, only three days of returning from her last voyage, a distance of sixteen hundred miles, and with a cargo of nine hundred tons of foreign goods. This first step, however, attained, and the tide saved, our progress was no further than to the 'roads/ for there the packing and fixing of the cargo had to be completed and made ship-shape and snug for sea by professional hands duty retained for the purpose.

But by noon this was all accomplished ; the packers left in a tug, and the gallant ' Edinburgh ' steamed away for good on her Russian voyage, dashing for ward against a clear, swift north-east wind, and leaving both mist and rain to pass on behind her up the Firth of Forth, enveloping hill-tops and dark ening the plains on either shore. Our own route thus made visible before us, was now seen to he gloriously between the Bass Rock of many histories, with its high steep cliffs blossoming strangely with snow-white birds, on one side, and on the other the antique Isle of May, — that tall sentinel isle whose stupendous basaltic steeps and precipices, and Gothic caverns and temples shaped without hands, were all overlooked by that philo logic man who secundum artom deduced the island's name from "its extraordinary flatness," — and then we entered, without doubt, the much-desired North Sea. 0 classic Sea, in everything relating to the origin of our Scandinavian and Saxon races, and in thy classic weather too ; for were they not these same north-eastern gales which freshened the sinews and intensified the energies of our early ancestors, sending them forth conquering and to conquer, to ever more western and southern lands ?

Persistent gales ! All that evening, and all that night, and all the next day, were we battling with their obstinacy right in our teeth. The second evening brought no improvement. " Cold weather, cold weather this, oh, very cold," said the officer of the watch, with an unsuccessful effort at cheeriness ; for he could not say, after the custom of his country, "A fine grey day, Sir," as he paced backwards and forwards quickly and sharply, with his hands thrust far down into his pockets, and with his coat-collar turned up, and the flaps of his cap not only turned down, but buttoned fast under his chin. At the time, we thought him most abundantly correct ; for a stiff northern breeze was blowing as uncomfortable as if from an iceberg, and the surface of the sea was heaving convulsively with a low ground-swell, that tramped along powerfully from the north-west, but was yet broken into and often lumped up by the waves of the actual north-east wind.

Uneasily, therefore, the ship rolled and pitched, now 15° in two seconds, and anon only 2° b in seven seconds, thus varyingly but unceasingly. It was actually more than even the animals on board could resist, for the captain's milch-goat, though experienced through several voyages, was compelled at last to seek some sort of shelter behind the coal heap, after having been twice turned out of the cabin, and was presently reported sick ; while a Skye terrier, taking out as a passenger to St. Peters burg, in order that he may rejoice the remainder life of an old Scottish bachelor there, whose fortune is growing while his health is failing, disappeared gloomily into a partially canvas-protected nook, where he declined all play, under the oppressive leaden sky, in the sharp whistling wind, and amid the creaking and choruses of creaking of every timber in the ship.

Now all this, gentle reader, being in the height of summer, may give you a tolerable, or, according to your constitution, an intolerable idea of the sort of tossing on the restless North Sea wave, that was delight to the Vikings and Sea-kings in their frail little craft of a thousand years ago : stragglings those must have been, you would probably allow under the circumstances, requiring more valour, more endurance of hardship and scorning of con stant danger, than all the voyages since made by grand three-masted ships, amongst the coral islands of even a far-off tropical ocean. Yerily, thought we then, when steaming with difficulty over the Vikings' ancient track, verily, we of modern times may look on in amazement and admiration at those primitive North Sea heroes, whenever we attempt with our puny frames to re peat the least of their hardy exploits.

How little, too, of their vital character has any writer yet succeeded in worthily placing on paper. Literary ma terials, to be sure, have been almost entirely want ing, and until recently our antiquaries have rarely ventured to go far enough back into the dusk of the past. Did not a Scottish author of a ponderous quarto, some fifty years since, think that he had ascended to a sufficiently early time, and to a most glorious exploit, when he began his grand account of the saihngs on our coasts with the voyage of King James V., who in 1540, with a whole fleet of ships and no enemy to oppose him, sailed suc cessfully round his own kingdom, from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Solway ? Deeper research is now, we are happy to think, being customarily carried on in many quarters, and numerous ardent inquirers, no longer content with the orthodox Georgian-era histories, pursue their minute investigations up through the times of Nor man, Danish, and Saxon royalty, to earlier begin nings still.

Even the Laureate has followed in the same track, and given us an Arthurian epic. In those immortal 'Idylls/ who can fail to admire the ma jesty of the characters depicted by that master hand? — and yet, true to every epic since the age of Homer downwards, the hero is not the person age who most engages our attention or enlists our feelings ; for all the while that the poet is occupied in singing the Christian praises of " the blame less King," with all his courtly train, there is rising in our minds a strange longing to know something more of those whom he stigmatizes in occasional dark vistas of lurid words, as " the heathen of the Northern Sea;" i.e., if the truth were known, none other than those mighty men, our early ancestors, who came riding* on the wings of the storm, and before whose stalwart arms went down, in battle's fiercest fray, that " blameless King " and all the knighthood " of his table round," girt though it were with new-born chivalry, and with what power "the Roman left behind;" then on that ruin built those Northmen up a temple fair, which gilds the world e'en yet.

In such frame of mind did we ruminate, as we stood there on the steamer's upper deck, until long after sunset. We say sunset, not that we had seen the solar orb descend, but because the air was evi dently growing darker, and an angry red hue, which for a time suflhsed the lower surfaces of the clouds, had departed, and left nothing behind to replace it, when lo, a picture — and something more than a picture — is enacted before our eyes. First, a small speck appears at intervals on the horizon, ahead of the steamer. Sensibly the speck enlarges, and in a quarter of an hour, over the tumultuous and raging waves, we see a frail little galliot under close-reefed sails ; sails which are all drenched with brine ; and, like the ropes, bowed almost double with the vio lence of the wind ! We are struggling on in our eastward career, while she passes by our side, in her parallel but opposite progress to the west.

And what a pro gress ! for with all our troubles, we are yet a levia than in size and power, compared to her mere min now proportions. It is fearful to watch her. Now the crazy craft mounts high up on a long wave, head erect and side Over; then in a second she plunges violently downwards stern uppermost and nearly disappears behind a watery surface, so that for some moments we see only the upper parts of her tiny masts and mainsail. Then again up she rises on the next wave, but deluged with spray, and only to sink once more below the flying deep blue waters, a sort of continual foundering. And does the little galliot ask for assistance ? Not she, we trow; nor the men aboard. They, three perhaps in all, pass the big steamer with no more notice [■ THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. than if she were a mere seagull skimming idly along.

A man at the tiller is the only one visible on deck; and he, instead of calling for help, or being paralyzed by fear, is smoking his pipe quite unconcernedly. Thus do they pass us by ; and so long as we can continue to see anything of this mere shallop of the seas, it holds on its course with out the smallest interruption, until at length it dis appears beneath that already dark and indistinct line, where the western waves fret against the west ern sky. Now, could we only enter into the minds of those humble men in that galliot of the North Sea, — hardy men with scanty education, holding their way not only fearlessly, but joyously, among the waves of a sea wintry even at midsummer, — might we not find some of the elements still of the Viking soul of old ? But then again, though we question them, who shall succeed in discovering those men's inner thoughts, or rather, their latent faculties ? — faculties that are latent in a great measure on account of the restric tive bonds of our most artificial social system, and of the trammels which legal theory and class legislation have been spinning around the working man in this country for the last seven hundred years.

All well enough, with some, to lament that these men are of the same drunken class as too many of the sailors of any of our seaports ; men who need societies of good lady-folk to point out to them what to eat, drink, and avoid, and the way they should go. But, just as the labourer most reckless of his wages when in England, becomes a saver and a com mercialist in America, the moment that he finds the high Transatlantic rate of interest to repay the trouble of looking after what accrues from a small portion of money, so who can tell what opportunity may do, and with gentle as well as simple ? How httle any one dreamed of the capacity of the Emperor of the French, until his occasion came ! It seems but the other day when I had the chance to witness in London how, soon after the discovery of the use of ether in surgery, a worthy old gentleman, lately deceased, entertained a dinner-party of the Philosophical Club with a jeremiade on a scene he had been present at only the previous evening.

How sad to think"' ejaculated he, "there's that stupid young fellow, Louis Napoleon, been making such a fool of himself; he has been taking this new anæsthetic at an evening party, and before all the ladies ; and oh ! he kicked up his heels, and talked such nonsense ! Is it not lamentable to think that he must have forgotten the proper respect due to his ancestors and existing relatives, as well as to himself?" " Oh ! yes, indeed, sad ! sad !" exclaimed a chorus of wise heads that gravely shook as they declared that Louis Napoleon must have become perfectly oblivious of his being a Napoleon and a prince ; and that they, the philosophers, could teach him so well how he ought to acquit himself in his behaviour, so as to be an honour to his family, and a creditable young man to all about him !