Russia on the Borders of Asia. Kazan, the ancient capital of the Tartar Khans: with an account of the province to which it belongs, the tribes and races which form its population

Front matter

KAZAN FEINTED BY JOHN EDWAHD TAYLOB, LITTLB QT7EEN STBEET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. HLdJmft/n.a.el. A Wsulto^litik. FmBTRF . .F KAZAN h, T Tur n.or elli.ilel EUSSIA ON THE BORDERS OP ASIA. KAZAN, THE ancient -Capital of the Tartar Jtijans ; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROVINCE TO WHICH IT BELONGS, THE TRIBES AND RACES WHICH FORM ITS POPULATION, ETC. BY EDWARD TRACY TURNERELLI. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : RICHAED BENTLEY, NEW BUELINGTON STREET, |3ubltsl)ft in ©rttnan* to 3§n* fHajrstg. 1854.. CONTENTS OP THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTEE I. PAGE THE AUTHOR TO HIS READERS . . . . 1 CHAPTEE II. TERRA INCOGNITA. WHY THE AUTHOR RESOLVED TO DESCRIBE IT. I. GENEEAL OPINIONS CONCERNING KAZAN. — II. AN AERIAL EXCURSION. — III. OPINIONS IN THE CAPITAL. — IV. MT ARRIVAL IN KAZAN, AND MT FIRST IMPRESSIONS. — V. A VOCATION ACCOMPLISHED. — VI.

AN EFFORT IN FAVOUR OF KAZAN 26 CHAPTEE III. FOUNDATION OF KAZAN, AND ITS FIRST MONARCHS. I. THE TOWN OF THE CAULDRON. — II. KAZAN SERPENTS. — III. OULOU MAKHMET. — IV. MAKHMET AMIN. — V. SCHIG ALEI AND SAPHA GHIREI ..'.... VI CONTENTS. I I I A I CHAPTEE IV. IVAN THE TERRIBLE, AND HIS WARRIORS. PAGE IVAN THE TERRIBLE. — II. SCHIG ALEI RECALLED TO THE THRONE. — III. DISASTROUS EXPEDITIONS. — IV. THIRD REIGN OF SCHIG ALEI . . . . ■ • .91 CHAPTEE V. THE SIEGE OF KAZAN. ITS TAKING AND DOWNFALL. MARCH TO KAZAN. — II. THE SIEGE OF KAZAN. — III. THE GRAND EXPLOIT. — IV. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS . . . 112 CHAPTEE VI. KAZAN AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. PRINCE KOURBSKT'S DESCRIPTION. — II. OLEARIUS IN KAZAN. — III. COMMERCE AND PRODUCTS OF KAZAN. — IV. THE INHABITANTS OF KAZAN. — V. AN EXTRAORDINARY SECT. — VI.

STATISTICAL GLANCE AT THE TOWN . . 150 CHAPTEE VII. PICTURESQUE STROLL THROUGH THE TOWN OF KAZAN. MT CICERONE. — II. THE GRUZINSKAYA STREET, AND THE BLACK LAKE. — III. THE VOSKRESENSKT AND THE PRO LOMN1A. — IV. THE BOULAC. — V. THE MONASTERY' OF ST. JOHN, AND THE GOSTINOI DVOR. VI. THE KREMLIN AND ITS MONUMENTS. — VII. THE CONVENT OF OUR LADT OF KAZAN. — VIII. A TRIBUTE TO THE BRAVE. — IX. MONAS- TERY' OF THE SERPENT'S MOUNT. — X. KYZTTCH MONAS- TERY AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS . : . . . .176 CONTENTS. VII PAGE 211 240 259 294 CHAPTEE VIII. MODE OF LIVING IN KAZAN. I. A WORD TO THE READER. — II. DANCING AND ITS JOTS. — III. DESCRIPTION OF A KAZAN BALL. — IV. VISITING, AND ITS PLEASURES. — V. DAILT ROUTINE. VI. CARD-PLATING, AND ITS JOTS. — VII. DRAMATIC PLEASURES. VIII. THE CARNIVAL AND EASTER. IX.

Chapter I. The Author To His Readers

I. Among the works (and small is their number) which have hitherto been published in England concerning Russia, the greatest part have been almost exclusively devoted to the description of its two capitals, St. Petersburg and Mosfow. These works, with but few exceptions, have been written by travellers who, leaving their country in the spring, have em ployed the summer months in visiting the above named cities, and who, on the approach of the Russian winter, have hastened back to their homes to pen a superficial, and, too often, an incorrect account of what they had seen during their hurried and brief sojourn in the north. It is owing to this and other causes that the more remote provinces of the Russian empire have remained, even up to the VOL. i. b middle of the nineteenth century, almost as unex plored and as unknown to foreigners, as they were in the fourteenth century to the Arab literati, who were wont to designate these climes by the signifi cant title of the "Land of Darkness*."

And yet, to tell the honest truth, it is not the Russian capitals alone that can boast, as the Muscovite proverb remarks, of possessing "wax and tallow;" there are numerous other parts of this vast empire that are equally worthy of attention, and which would as amply repay the traveller for the tod and fatigue his journey thither might have forced him to un dergo. Such are the romantic and picturesque shores of the Crimea, surnamed by travellers " the Italy of Russia;" the grand and terrible mountains of the Caucasus ; the enchanting scenery of Little Russia ; Siberia, with its mines of gold ; and lastly, though not the least interesting, that section of Russia which lies on -the borders of Asia, from the first sources of the river Kama, in the govern ments of Perm and Viatka, to that interesting coimtry through which the majestic Volga poms * Ibn Batuta, who travelled in 1325, says, in nis work, "In Bolgary, I heard of the ' Land of Darkness,' " (he speaks of Si beria,) " and had a great desire to visit those climes.

The distance required a journey of forty days. I was diverted from the undertaking on account of its great danger and the difficulty of arriving at the spots in question." Might not the words of Ibn Batuta serve as a closing epigraph to the works of more than one traveller in Eussia at the present day ? its waters, and which constituted in days of yore the Tartar kingdoms of Kazan and Astrachan. Rich in historical associations, these regions, pro bably more than any other in the Russian empire, offer those charms of originality and novelty, which the traveller who roams to instruct his mind and gather stores for future meditation ever seeks to meet with in his peregrinations. The variety of strange nations that people the climes to which I refer, namely, the Russians, the Tartars, the Tchou vash, the Tcherimisse, the Mordvas, the Votiacks, the Kalmucks, the Kirgkise, the Bashkirs, the Nogais, and the Cossacks, each speaking a language peculiar to its own tribe, each possessing likewise its distinct habits, customs, manners, and superstitions, and the greatest part plunged in the rude state of primitive nature ; — here is fertile mat ter for the pen of an investigating author.

Add to this, the different religions that are to be met with among these races — the Christian, the Maho metan, even the Pagan — offering as many subjects of speculation to the theologian and the politician. And then, what can be more attractive, more rife in interest, than the antique and extraordinary cities which adorn the distant climes in which these various races lie scattered? Kazan, the ancient capital of the Tartar monarchs ; Astrachan, that bears the same name as the formidable Khanate of which it was the chief city ; Sarai, the residence b2 of the famous sovereigns of the Golden Horde; the province of Viatka, in former days a princi pality; the provinces of Orenburg, Pemi, Sim birsk, and Saratoff, with their flourishing towns, whose society possesses each its own peculiar and distinct characteristics, interesting unto him who seeks to study men and manners, and to observe the lights and shades of Russian life, not in the capital alone, but in its provincial features : all these spots abound with materials for historical, ethno graphical, and physiological researches.

And then the many monuments of antiquity that these regions furnish ; the many ruins, — ruins, not of solitary edifices alone, but of vast and opulent cities, which formerly flourished in these blood-stained plains, and which were, in gone-by days, the capi tals of once powerful nations, which, hke the Bol gars*, have been swept away from the face of the earth, leaving nought to speak of their existence save the venerable fragments of stone that rise from the scene of their desolation. And lastly, the na tural cmiosities which are to be found in this part of Russia, in the Oural mountains, in the deserts of Orenburg, along the banks of the Volga and the Kama, and in the steppes of the Caspian Sea. Yes ! unfrequented, unappreciated, and almost unknown * A chapter of the present work will be devoted to an historical account of this race and the ruins of its capital, Bolgary, such as it exists at the present day. as are these climes to foreigners, yet, I repeat, they can boast of charms, various and novel, which the traveller woidd in vain seek to meet with on the beaten paths and radway tracks of Western Europe ; and I cannot refrain from believing that a picturesque description of these strange lands — a kind of terra incognita to the many — will afford interest to my readers and countrymen, surfeited with an end less succession of works relative to countries, rivers, mountains, etc., which all the world has visited, and which are as familiar to the English tourist, as are, to the London peregrinator, the hallowed glades of Hyde Park, the meandering banks of the Ser pentine, the imposing upland which bears the name of Primrose-hill, and other remarkable spots of om great Metropolis.

II. Several years have now elapsed since the author of the present page, a solitary and humble pilgrim in search of literary lore, first wended his way to the climes to which he has been referring. To traverse the wdd and dreary steppes which seem to shut out this land from all communication with the civilized world ; to exchange the joys of home and kindred for an abode in distant regions, where a Siberian climate reigns in all its rigour, and on a soil where many a disease, engendered by the in salubrious vapours which issue from its marshes, hourly menace the incautious wanderer*; in fine, to quit the centre of European refinement and luxury, to sojourn among rude hordes and semi-barbarous nations f; — this will doubtless appear to the generality of foreigners as the very extreme of hu man tribulation.

This change, however, striking as were its contrasts, presented itself under a more favomable aspect to the author, who, after having traversed at an early age several other countries of Europe, felt an ardent desire to visit Russia. And when the means, so long wished for, were afforded him, of making a sojourn on the confines of Asia, with that lively joy which the youthful traveller ever experiences, he bent his steps to these remote regions, to him so attractive, yet so little known, even in the Russian capital. Fully able to appreciate and enjoy the pleasure which the amateur draughtsman derives from his pencil (the little in strument which had been on former occasions his unwearying companion in many a solitary and pedestrian ramble, o'er flood and field, through various countries of Europe), and ardently desirous to con secrate his time to some literary labour, whose no velty and utdity might earn for him the approbation of his fellow-countrymen, the author of these Sketches joyfully hailed these unexplored regions as * See the chapter entitled "Climate of Kazan and its Waters." t The province of Kazan is principally peopled by Pagan tribes : it is to these that allusion is here made. a beneficent sod, which promised to afford him the means of satisfying the ambition with wiiich he was animated.

And what a fertile field for research and observation he met with there ! what treasures lie buried in the most profound obscurity ! what mines to explore ! what riches to accumulate ! If the au thor, an Englishman and a stranger on the soil, has been able to glean so much (yet, alas, how httle !) what could not the Russian author, the Russian painter, gather in these climes so rife with lore un heeded and unknown ! His intention had been to have devoted a year to this new peregrination ; that space of time had appeared to him sufficient for the researches he purposed making : the year ghded quickly by, and a second, a third, and a fourth still found him lingering in these distant regions, which had a charm for him which time had rather increased than diminished : he would in all probability have made even a still longer sojourn, had not the uncontrollable hand of circumstance obliged him to bid an eternal adieu to the field of his peregrinations.

And now that the wanderer is far from the spots in which he late tarried, oft doth his memory revert to the scenes he witnessed, to the strange towns in which he sojourned, nay, even to the rude tribes, whose manners and customs afforded him such inexhaustible subjects of pleasurable observation. Unknown as are these matters to the generality of foreigners, it becomes a kind of duty SKETCHES OF KAZAN. to repay the debt of gratitude he has contracted, by striving to make this land better known, and its wonders better appreciated. How far his untutored pen is capable of the task, it remains for his countrymen to determine. Eor this reason he presents to their notice, by way of specimen, this first Series of his Sketches, written concerning the ancient capital of the Tartar Khans — Kazan, a town so remarkable from the associations connected with its history, — so interesting by the monuments it possesses, which speak of its former glory and former splendour, — and so attractive by the Asiatic scenes which it presents at every moment to the notice of the traveller.

Upon the manner in which this first effort will be viewed by his countrymen, depends whether the author finds courage to present to the public the continuation of his Sketches, or consigns the re mainder of his gleanings to oblivion. III. And now, gentle reader, ere you begin the pe rusal of the following pages, let me ask you a friendly question. Are you one of that numerous class of foreigners who, nurtured and bred from their very cradle with hereditary prejudices and unreasonable antipathies, have made up their minds to believe that Russia, its rulers, laws, institutions, customs, etc., are one entire mass of evd and iniquity, without (as you have been taught to believe) one solitary virtue, one fair feature to adorn the monstrous abortion ? Would you, were the sacred voice of Truth itself to ad dress you, — would you, I say, at the first sentence you heard in favour of this country, close your ears, revile the speaker, or at least slink away, muttering that her words were falsehood, her tale an imposture ?

If such you be (and I well know that there are many such), I prithee cast this book far from you, for its pages will furnish you with little to gratify your hate, or afford fresh food for your aversion. These un pretending Sketches are ■written by one who, after having made a long sojourn on the Russian soil, in various parts of this vast empire, has quitted it, perhaps for ever, bearing back with him however, to the land of his birth, in general, not only very favourable reminiscences of the country through which he travelled, but even respect and admiration for much that has hitherto been either wilfully con demned or malignantly ridiculed by other travellers. Yes ! he hesitates not to assert it, feeble though the voice be that utters the appeal, that Russia has been most unfairly dealt with by foreign writers, many of whom have employed their pens, not to describe this country, with its good and evil, such as they found it, but who, paid to calumniate and to censure, and led to believe that their pecuniary gain and literary notoriety would be in proportion b SKETCHES OF KAZAN. to the rancour of their abuse and the extent of their animosity, have resolved to turn to account the fa vourable opportunity of attaining this double end, which truth and impartiality, as matters stand, would certainly never have enabled them to accom plish.

Verily may it be said of these, that "they have dined upon calumny and supped upon slander !" The unprejudiced and impartial foreigner, who has made this land the subject of his researches, and who has perused the various works which have been written in various European languages con cerning it, literally grows sick at the almost endless groan of obloquy and hate of which it has been the object, and which has been uttered principally by authors who have made a flying visit to its capital, and whose end, we repeat, has not been to study the country nor to cull the sweeter flowers which its fields offer, but the sole object of whose journey has been to gather the filthiest weeds, the most disgusting plants, in order to form a captivating nosegay, which they subsequently offered as a ho mage to their fellow-countrymen.

Among these works, few, very few, can be found, in which their author has described the better side of the Russian character. Not but that many observed it, — but all preferred to pander to foreign prejudices and foreign hate, which promised success, favour, fame, honour, and encouragement to every author who made Russia the object of his abuse and invective. Let it not however be imagined that the writer of the present page is blind to the imperfections and those darker traits of Russian character which others have observed ; he wdl even go so far as to say that he has noticed in Russia, as in every other land he has visited, much which he hates as heartily and as sincerely as they who have shown such eager ness and joy in exposing the evd; but, while he confesses this, he has learned from a long experi ence, and considers himself bound to asssert it openly, that this country, with aU its faults, can boast of many national virtues, — many great, noble, and redeeming qualities, — qualities peculiar to its own race, which many other countries have never possessed, or which, in consequence of their dege neracy, have become extinct among them, giving way to vices of an opposite nature.

Courage, acknowledged by all, love of country, strong religious faith, unbounded devotion and attachment to the sovereign who rules over them ; filial affection and respect, carried to a degree that a Russian almost considers himself accursed if his parents die with out bestowing their blessing on him; hospitality, so general, so unlimited, that the races of Western Europe must blush when they hear it described by travellers who have visited the remoter parts of this empire ; charity, generosity, kindliness of character, good-humour; — such are a few of the predominating traits of the Russian people. All certainly who have travelled through Russia, even its bitterest enemies, have agreed in one point, namely, that in no part of God's earth can that noblest of virtues, hospitality, be found in a more unbounded degree than on the Russian soil.

Shame, therefore, be to those who have traitorously clasped the extended hand of the host who stood at the road-side inviting them to enter, — who have feasted at the board on which the fatted calf has been placed in then honour,— who have reposed and dwelt beneath the kindly roof that was proud and happy to receive the soli tary and unbefriended traveUer; shame, I repeat, be to those who, on then return home, have not had one kind word to say in favour of the cordial hearts that welcomed them, and greater shame be to him who has requited friendship with premedi tated abuse, hospitality with anticipated obloquy. With friendship, hospitality, was the author of the present page, like those who preceded him, un varyingly treated during his sojourn in Russia : better therefore that his countrymen in his person should be accused (if fault there be) of speaking too kindly of those whose love and respect for English men is well known, than that they sliould bear in his person the brand of churl and ingrate.

Besides, if his pen should be found too favourably disposed towards the country he is describing, the harm will not be great on that account ; for really so much ill has been laid to the charge of the Russians, so unceasingly have their failings and imperfections been exposed to the public eye, and exposed in the darkest colours and under the most hideous aspect, that not only would it be useless to repeat what hundreds have said before him, and which by this time must have heartdy tired and disgusted the reader, but it wid be new (and novelty is ever pleasing, and profitable too, if truth be found com bined with it,) to speak a little good of men and places which have hitherto been reckoned as en tirely wortldess. But while the author frankly owns that he is disposed to view and speak too of the Russians in a friendly manner, he trusts, ne vertheless, that no one who reads his work will have to accuse him either of blind predilection or deliberate partiality, and that it will be seen that he has neither concealed the evil when he has felt it a duty to mention it, nor suppressed an honest thrill of regret as he penned it.

In a word, he firmly believes that his book wdl be found, by those who are able to judge it, en connaissance de cause, to be a friendly narrative, but at the same time a true and impartial one. And he ready believes that none are better able to judge this people pro perly, or are more capable of giving a correct ac count of aU that struck his notice, than he is ; for he speaks their language, has sojourned for years among them, has travelled in various parts of their almost boundless country, and has studied their manners, customs, habits, and prejudices, not in their capital alone, but in many a distant and isolated vdlage, nay, even in their steppes and deserts ; and, mortal as the sin may seem to many, he has no hesitation in acknowledging that, in his rambles, his peregrinations, and his researches, he found more to please than to displease him, more to love than to hate, more to praise than to cen sure.

It is true, in his character of amateur-artist and picturesque writer, wherever he went he ever sought rather to discover the good than the evd, the bright than the dismal, the cheering than the dreary. He frankly owns (egotist as he was) that he often turned aside and avoided the beaten road, that seemed to him over-muddy or over-dusty, and wended his way along some unfrequented path way, where he hoped to discover some enlivening floweret, some pretty shrub or plant, which others had never beheld, or at least never deigned to no tice. He confesses likewise (forgive his partiality!) that he never was fond, in his rambles and excursions, of poking his nose into every putrid pond, every filthy gutter, every loathsome sewer, he ob served on his way: he preferred pleasant smells and fragrant perfumes, — it was to find them he traveded, to enjoy them he wandered ; and he wid not conceal from Ids readers, that humble as were the two companions of his rambles, Ids pen and his pencd, he had the vanity to believe that they were worthy of something better than to be devoted to rancorous invective and grotesque caricature.

Let this therefore be his apology (if such be requd'ed) to those of his readers who may find the author too disposed to be pleased with all that struck his notice,— -too much inclined to enjoy himself, as he traveded along, by drawing, bee-like, a little honey from the pleasant flowers he noticed, and, leaving the noxious weeds and fulsome plants to be courted by the wasp and the hornet, who might buzz about them to their heart's content, without exciting, on his part, the smallest feeling of envy or the least wash to share their society. And if this does not suffice, he wdl say to them what Sherlock once said, under somewhat similar circumstances, of our neighbours the French, who at that time were about as much the objects of hate and misrepre sentation of English travellers, as are the Russians at the present day; though, thanks to the inter course now established between us, our antipathies and prejudices have been gradually removed in pro portion as we have learned to know them, which we need not prophesy will be likewise the case with our northern bretlnen, when national and less con flicting interests, which blind us at present, shad have given way to less opposite policies and less rancorous passions.

" Let every one," says Sherlock (I quote from memory, and will not be answerable for the exact words), "let every one speak of this people as they appeared to him. If he found them unpolished, ungenerous, inhospitable, unfriendly, uncourteous, let him speak his mind. I quarrel with no man's opinion, however opposed it may be to mine. But let the same liberty be accorded to me. I found this nation polite, generous, hospitable, friendly, and courteous; and I must say so, even though a thousand voices wrere raised to condemn me for the opinion." What our countryman said of the French, so say I of the Russians ; nor will the generous reader be a jot less pleased with the work, or hke, I am sure, its author an atom the less, for not having aspersed the character of the friend who took him to his bosom, or thrown mud, as he rode away, on the abode which offered him a shelter.

IV. One word more. As every work has its imperfections, and as, certainly, none that has ever been published wdl be found to possess so many as this, it behoves the author to acquaint his readers with the circumstances under which it was written, — which, duly considered, may probably induce them to be somewhat less critical and censorious than they would otherwise have a right to be. About the beginning of the month of October, of the gone-by year, the author— one of those everailing, ever-complaining beings, who imagine them selves afflicted at once with ad the ills and maladies that human nature is subject to, was pondering and planning where he should pass the winter, and had almost settled on the south of France, when chance brought him in contact with an evil genius, who urged him to employ the winter in giving a shape and a body to the loose notes he had collected during his sojourn on the confines of Asiatic Russia.

The tempter pressed his point so well and so suc cessfully, that the author consented. In spite of the warnings of his medical adviser, the journey to the south of France was postponed ; and so strong is the cacoethes scribendi, that he set to work with a zeal and pleasure which made him almost forget his adments. The author begs his readers to remember that he offers these volumes, not as studied essays, but, as he called them on the title-page, as mere un finished " Sketches ;" a style of writing which may displease the learned geographer, but which, he knows from experience, has a charm for many readers, who peruse with pleasure the page which bears the stamp of an author's impressions and feelings. Indeed, it is his belief, that had the works which have hitherto been published on Russia been of a less scientific and statistical nature, the climes he is describing would have been better known to the reading public.

Not a single work, nay, not even a passing sketch, has ever been printed, either in the Russian or a foreign tongue, in which Kazan and its province have been described in a picturesque, lively, and pleasing manner. Scientific works and studied ethnogra phical essays resemble geographical maps or geo metrical charts, — they are employed as subjects of study and reference, but never as a means of recreation or amusement. And who are the principal readers of these pro found and very learned productions ? Few others, to say the honest truth, save the scholar, the student, the compder, the concocter of volumes. And the light works of literature, do they enjoy a greater share of popularity, or can they boast of a wider circle of readers ? Ask the sad, who seek to banish the gnawing worm which preys upon then heart, — the indolent, who would feign chive away a tedious horn, — the man of business, who has but a brief period to devote to literature, — the man of the world, who dady seeks a fresh and in teresting subject of conversation ; ask the female sex of every class, and of every age ; ask even those serious spirits, who seek for something to cri ticize and condemn.

In fine, of what nature are the works which make the strongest impression on our minds and memories ? Without a shadow of doubt, those which have the most strongly excited our interest, and afforded us the greatest pleasure in their perusal. It consequently appeared to the author of these Sketches, that a description of the land wdiich con stituted in former days the Kingdom of Kazan, if written in a light and lively manner, would find more readers than a dry, pedantic, and tedious narrative. His object was to make known these distant locali ties ; he therefore adopted the means which seemed the most likely to forward his end. Besides, to ted the honest truth, obliged as he was to combat with sickness and anxiety while penning his thoughts and impressions, he naturally sought to derive himself some amusement, some solace, from Ids literary la bours.

This he certainly would never have enjoyed, had he been forced to pen a dud prosaic statement, arranged in mathematical order and statistical ac curacy. The idea likewise struck him, that the book which had wearied its author in waiting, would be very likely to weary the reader who perused it ; and neither of these achievements appeared to him by any means advisable or advantageous. As others have done, nothing however would have been easier than to swell out and emblazon his unpretending essays with statistical compdations and learned ex tracts, which many, doubtless, whde turning over the pages, would have considered exceedingly pro found, but which, to a certainty, nobody would have read. He preferred trusting to his own impressions, such as they were at the moment he wrote. He recodected the remark which the celebrated Dr. Goldsmith once made, "that a book may be amus ing with a thousand frivolities and blemishes, or it may be dull and insipid without a single imperfec tion."