Russia ... Popular edition

Front matter

RUSSIA. E IT SSI A. BY D. MACKENZIE WALLACE, M.A Member of t/ie Imperial Russian Geographical Society. popular Coition. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited: LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK .0 MELBOURNE. [ALL UIUBTS RESE11VE1).] PKEFACE. TN March, 1870, I arrived for the first time in St. Petersburg. -1- My intention was to spend merely a few months in Russia, but I unexpectedly found so many interesting subjects of study that I remained for nearly sis years — till December, 1875. Dur ing that period my winters were spent for the most part in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Yaroslaff, whilst the summer months were generally devoted to wandering about the country and collecting information from the local authorities, landed proprie tors, merchants, priests, and peasantry. Since my return to England I have kept up a constant correspondence with numer ous Eussian friends, so that I have been able to follow closely what has taken place in the short interval.

Of the large mass of materials concerning the past history and present condition of the country, which accumulated in my hands during these six years, I have used in the present work merely those which seemed most likely to interest the general public. Special investigations regarding tho Eural Commune, various systems of Agriculture, the History of the Emancipation, the present economic condition of the Peasantry, the Financial System, Public Instruction, recent Intellectual Movements, and similar topics, I reserve for a future volume. If the work has any merits, they are to be attributed mainly to the assistance which was most liberally afforded me by Bussians of all classes. "Were I to give a list of those to whom I am indebted, it would fill many pages. I must, therefore, restrict PREEA CE.

IV myself to naming a few to whom I am under special obligations Much valuable service was rendered to me by Mr. Kapoustine, the learned and able Director of the School of Law in Yaroslaff, by Mr. Bolkashin, and by the other gentlemen connected with that admirable institution ; also by Mr. Tchaslavski, my traveling companion during two summers ; by Mr. A. N. Gontcharoff, who accompanied me in my journeys in the province of Samara ; and by the late Mr. Edward J. Morgan, well known to Englishmen who have visited St. Petersburg. I have likewise to express respectfully my gratitude to Ma-lame de Novikoff, nee de Kireeff, for assisting me in my efforts to reach the best living sources of information, and to Mr. E. I. Yakushkin, for placing at my disposal his vast stores of information regarding the Russian peasantry.

Chapter I. Travelling In Russia

PAG"3 Builways — State Interference — River Communications — Russian " Grand Tour" — The Volga — Kazau — Zhigulinskiya Gori — Finns and Tartars — The Don — Difficulties of Navigation — Discomforts— Rats — Hotels — Peculiar Customs — Roads — Hibernian Phraseology explained — Bridges — Posting — A Tarantass — Requisites for Travelling — Travelling in Winter — Frostbitten — Disagreeable Episodes — Scene at a Post-station 1

Chapter II. In The Northern Forests

Bird's-eye View of Russia — The Northern Forests — Purpose of my Journey — Negotiations — The Road — A Village— Peasant's House — Vapour-baths — Curious Custom — Arrival i7

Chapter III. Voluntary Exile

lvauofka — History of the Place — The Steward of the Estate — Slavonian and Teutonic Natures — A German's View of the Emancipation — Justices of the Peace — New School of Morals — The Russian Language — Linguistic Talent of the Russians — My Teacher — A Big Dose of Current History 36

Chapter IV. The Village Priest

Priests' Names — Clerical Marriages — The White and the Black Clergy — Why the People do not, respect the Parish Priests — History of the White Clergy — The Parish Priest and the Protestant Pastor — In what sense the Russian People are Religious — Icons — The Clergy und Popular Education — Ecclesiastical Reform CONTENTS. VI

Chapter V

A MEDICAL CONSULTATION. i*Aon Unexpected Illness — A Village Doctor — Siberian Plague — My Studies — Russian Historians — A Russian Imitator of Dickens — A ci-devant Domestic Serf — Medicine and Witchcraft — A Remnant of Paganism — Credulity of the Peasantry — Absurd Rumours — A Mysterious Visit from St. Barbara — Cholera on Board a Steamer — Hospitals — Lunatic Asylums — Amongst Maniacs 08

Chapter VI

A PEASANT FAMILY' OF THE OLD TYPE. Ivan Petroff — His Past Life — Co-operative Associations — Constitution of a Peasant Household — Predominance of Economic Conceptions over those of Blood-relationship— Peasant Marriages — Advantages of living in Large Families — Its Defects — Family Disruptions and their Consequences 83

Chapter VII. The Peasantry Of The North

Communal Land — System of Agriculture — Parish Fetes — Fasting — Winter Occupations— Yearly Migrations — Domestic Industries — Influence of Capital and Wholesale Enterprise — The State Peasants — Domestic Serfs and Serfs properly so-called — Serf-dues — Buckle's " History of Civilization " — " People who play Pranks " — The Far North 95

Chapter VIII. The Mir, Or Village Community

Social and Political Importance of the Mir — The Mir and the Family compared — Theory of the Communal System — Practical Deviations from the Theory — The Mir is a Good Specimen of Constitutional Government of the Extreme Democratic Type — The Village Assembly — Female Members — The Elections — Distribution of the Communal Land 118

Chapter IX

nOW THE COMMUNE HAS BEEN PRESERVED, AND WHAT IT IS TO EFFECT TN THE FUTURE. Sweeping Reforms at the Commencement of the Present Reign — Protest against the lausez faire Principle — Fear of the Proletariate — English and Russian Methods of Legislation contrasted — Sanguine Expectations — Evil Consequences of the Communal System — The Commune of the Future — Proletariate of the Towns — The present state of things merely temporary CONTENTS. VII

Chapter X. Finnish And Tartar Villages

PAOB A Finnish Tribe — Finnish Villages — Various Stages of Russification — Finnish Women — Finnish Religions — Method of " laying" Ghosts — Curious Mixture of Christianity and Paganism — Conversion of the Finns — A Tartar Village — A Russian Peasant's Conception of Mahometanism — A Mahometan's View of Christianity — Prcpaganda — The Russian Colonist — Migrations of Peoples during the Dark Ages.. 349

Chapter XI. The Towns And The Mercantile Classes

Novgorod — General Character of Russian Towns — Scarcity of Towns in Russia — Why the Urban Element in the Population is so small — History of Russian Municipal Institutions — Unsuccessful Efforts to create a Tiers-itat — Merchants, Burghers, and Artisans — Town Council — A Rich Merchant — His House — His Love of Ostentation — His Conception of Aristocracy — Official Decorations — Ignorance and Dishonesty of the Commercial Classes — Symptoms of Change 1G4

Chapter XII. Lord Novgorod The Great

The Eastern Half of the Town— The Kremlin— An Old Legend— The Armed Men of Rus — The Northmen — Popular Liberty in Novgorod — The Prince and the Popular Assembly — Civil Dissensions and Faction-fights — The Commercial Republic conquered by the Muscovite Tsars — Ivan the Terrible — Present Condition of the Town — Provincial Society — Card-playing — Periodicals — " Eternal Stillness " 183

Chapter XIII. The Imperial Administration And The Officials

The Officials in Novgorod, with the exception of the Vice-Governor, assist me in my Studies — The Modem Imperial Administration created by Peter the Great, and developed by his Successors — A Slavophil's View of the Administration — Tbe Administration briefly described— The Tchinovniks, or Officials— Official Titles and their real Significance — What the Administration has done for Russia in the Past— Its Character determined by the peculiar relation between the Government and the People — Its Radical Vices — Bureaucratic Remedies— Complicated Formal Procedure — The Gendarmerie : my Personal Relations with this Branch of the Administration ; Arrest and Release — A strong, healthy Public Opinion the only effectual Remedy for Bad Administration ; this Principle recently exemplified in Russia CONTENTS.

Chapter XIV. The New Locax Self-government

I'.iu » Favourable Opportunity of studying the Zemstvo — Russian Self-criticism — Parliamentary Form of the Zemstvo — A District Assembly — Nobles and ci-devant Serfs — A Provincial Assembly — The Leading Members — Character of different Zemstvos — Origin and Purpose of the Institution — Bureaucratic Lawmaking — Inordinate Expectations — What the Zemstvo has done — Its Want of Vitality explained — British and Russian Methods of creating Institutions — A Characteristic Incident — Future of the Institution 213

Chapter XV. Landed Proprietors Of The Old School

tlussian Hospitality — A Country-house — Its Owner described — His Life, Past and Present — Winter Evenings — Books — Connection with tho Outer World — The Crimean War and the Emancipation — A Drunken, Dissolute Proprietor — An old General and his Wife — "Name-days" — A Legendary Monster — A Retired Judge — A Clever Scribe — Social Leniency — Causes of Demoralization 220

Chapter XVI. Proprietors Of The Modern School

A Russian petit maitre — His House and Surroundings — Abortive Attempts to improve Agriculture and the Condition of the Serfs — A Comparison — A "Liberal" Tchinovnik — His Idea of Progress — A Justice of the Peace — His Opinion of Russian Literature, Tchinovniks and petits mailres — His supposed and real Character — An Extreme Radical — Disorders in the Universities — Administrative Procedure — Russia's capacity for accomplishing Political and Social Evolutions — — A Court Dignitary in his Country-house 25G

Chapter XVII. The Noblesse

The Nobles in Early Times — The Tartar Domination — The Tsardom of Muscovy — Family Dignity — Reforms of Peter the Great — The Nobles adopt West-European Conceptions — Abolition of Obligatory Service — Influence of Catherine II. — The Russian Dvoryanstvo compared with the French Noblesse and the English Aristocracy — Russian Titles — Probable Future of the Russian Noblesse 26S* CONTENTS. IX

Chapter XVIII. Social Classes

PAGE Do Social Classes or Castes exist in Russia? — Well-marked Social Types — Classes recognized by the Legislation and the Official Statistics — Origin and gradual Formation of these Classes— Peculiarity in the Historical Development of Russia — Political Life and Political Parties 286

Chapter XIX. Among Tiie Heretics

The Volga — Samara — The Molokani — My Method of Investigation — Alexandrof-Hai — An Unexpected Theological Discussion — Doctrine and Ecclesiastical Organization of the Molokani — Moral Supervision and Mutual Assistance — History of the Sect— A False Prophet — Utilitarian Christianity — Classification of the Fantastic Sects — The Khlysti — Policy of the Government towards Sectarianism— Two Kinds of Heresy — Probable Future of the Heretical Sects — Political Disaffection 291

Chapter XX. The Dissenters

Dissenters not to be confounded with Heretics — Extreme Importance attached to Ritual Observances — The Raskol, or Great Schism in the Seventeenth Century — Antichrist appears ! — Policy of Peter the Great and Catherine II. — Present Ingenious Method of securing Religious Toleration— Internal Development of the Raskol — Schism among the Schismatics — The Old Ritualists — The Priestless People — Cooliug of the Fanatical Enthusiasm and Formation of New Sects — Recent Policy of the Government towards the Sectarians — Numeri- _al Force and Political Significance of Sectarianism 30G

Chapter XXI. The Pastoral Tribes Of

TnE STEPPE. Reasons for undertaking this Journey — Appearance of the Villages- Characteristic Incident — Peasant Mendacity — Explanation of tho Phenomenon— I awake in Asia — Bashkir Aoul — Diner Ala Tartare — Koomuiss — A Bashkir Troubadour — Honest Mehemet Ziiin — Actual Economic Condition of the Bashkirs throws Light on a well-known Philosophical Theory — Why a Pastoral Race adopts Agriculture — The Genuine Steppe — The Kirghis — Letter from Genghis Khan — The Kalmuks — Nogai Tartars — Struggle between Nomadic Hordes and Agricultural Colonists '.20 CONTENTS. X

Chapter XXII

TnE TARTAR DOMINATION. PAO"** The Conquest — Genghis Khan and his People — Creation and Rapid Disintegration of the Mongol Empire — The Golden Horde — The Real Character of the Tartar Domination — Religious Toleration — Tartar System of Government — Grand Princes — The Princes of Moscow — Influence of the Tartar Domination — Practical Importance of the Subject 313

Chapter XXIII. The Cossacks

Tartar Raids — Slave-markets of the Crimea — The Military Cordon and the Free Cossacks — " Beyond the Rapids " — The Zaporovian Commonwealth compared with Sparta and with the Mediæval Military Orders — The Cossacks of the Don, of the Volga, and of the Ural — Border Warfare — The Modern Cossacks— Land Tenure among the Cossacks of the Don — The Transition from Pastoral to Agricultural Life — " Universal Law " of Social Development — Communal versus Private Property — Flogging as a means of Land-registration 352

Chapter XXIV. Foreign Colonists On The Steppe

The Steppe — Variety of Races, Languages, and Religions — The German Colonists— In what sense the Russians are an Imitative People — The Menonites — Climate and Arboriculture — Bulgarian Colonists — Tartar-speaking Greeks — Jewish Agriculturists — Russification — A Circassian Scotchman — Numerical Strength of the Foreign Element — Its Social and Political Importance 368

Chapter XXV. St

PETERSBURG AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE. St. Petersburg and Berlin — Big Houses — Police — The "Lions" — Peter the Great — His Aims and Policy — The German Regime — Nationalist Reaction — French Influence — Consequent Intellectual Sterility — Influence of the Sentimental School — Hostility to Foreign Influences — A New Period of Literary Importation — Secret Societies — The Catastrophe — The Age of Nicholas — A Terrible War on Parnassus — Decline of Romanticism and Transcendentalism — Gogol — The Revolutionary Agitation of 1848 — New Reaction — Conclusion CONTENTS. XI

Chapter XXVI. Moscow And The Slavophils

rAOB The "Lions" of Moscow — Easter Eve in the Kremlin — Curious Custom — Anecdote of the Emperor Nicholas — Domiciliary Visits of the Iberian Madonna — The Streets of Moscow — Recent Changes in the Character of the City — Vulgar Conception of the Slavophils — Opinion founded on Personal Acquaintance — Slavophil Sentiment a Century ago — Origin and Development of tlie Slavophil Doctrine — Slavophilism essentially Moscovite — The Panslavist Element — The Slavophils and the Emancipation — The Moscow Gazette 404

Chapter XXVII. Church And State

St. Petersburg* and Moscow — Russia Outside of the Mediæval Papal Commonwealth — Influence of the Greek Church— Ecclesiastical History of Russia — Relations between Church and State — Eastern Orthodoxy and the Russian National Church — The Synod — Ecclesiastical Grumbling — Local Ecclesiastical Administration — The Black Clergy and the Monasteries — The Character of the Eastern Church reflected in the History of Religious Art — Practical Consequences — Tho Union Scheme 431

Chapter XXVIII. The Crimean War And Its Consequences

The Great Fair at Nizhni — The Crimea — Sebastopol — The Emperor Nicholas and his System — The Men with Aspirations and the Apathetically Contented — National Humiliation — Popular Discontent and the Manuscript Literature — Death of Nicholas — Alexander II. — New Spirits — Reform Enthusiasm— Change in the Periodical Literature — The Kolokol — The Conservatives — The Tchinovniks — First Specific Proposals — Joint Stock Companies — The Serf Question comes to the front 435

Chapter XXIX. The Serfs

The Rural Population in Ancient Times — The Peasantry iu the Eighteenth Century— How was this Change effected ?— The Common Explanation is Inaccurate— Serfage the Result of Permanent Economic and Political Causes — Origin of the Adscriptio Olebæ — Its Consequences—Serf Insurrection— Turning-point in the History of Serfage—Serfage in Russia and in Western Europe — State Peasants — Number*, and Geographical Distribution of the Serf Population — Serf Dues — Legal and Actual Power of the Proprietors — The Serfs' Means of Defense — Fugitives — Domestic Serfs — Moral Influence of Serfage 4sl0 CONTENTS.

Chapter XXX

TnE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS. TAOB The Question raised — Chief Committee — The Nobles of the Lithuanian Provinces — The Tsar's Broad Hint to the Noblesse — Enthusiasm in the Press — The Proprietors — Political Aspirations — No Opposition — The Government — Public Opinion — Fear of the Proletariate — The Provincial Committees — The Elaboration Commission — The Question ripens — Provincial Deputies — Discontent and Demonstrations — The Manifesto — Fundamental Principles of the Law — Illusions and Disappointment of the Serfs — Arbiters of the Peace — A Characteristic Incident — Redemption — Who effected the Emancipation ? 485

Chapter XXXI. Consequences Of The Emancipation

A.— FOR THE LANDED PROPRIETORS. Difficulties — The Problem simplified — Direct Compensation — Indirect Compensation — One Good Result of the Emancipation — Four Systems of Farming with Free Labour — Which sSystems are adopted — Present Condition of Estates in the Northern and Southern Zones — Prince Victor Wassiltchikof — A Typical Instance — Southern Section of the Black-Earth Zone — Sheep-farming and Mercanti di Campagna — Aridity of the Climate — Scarcity of Good Labourers — "Peasant Laziness" — General Conclusion 510

Chapter XXXII. Consequences Of The Emancipation

B.— rOK THE rEASANTRT. A Simple Question — Difficulty of Answering It — Shattered Illusions — Pessimistic Views — Opinions of the Peasants themselves — Causes of Stagnation — Three Explanations and Three Panaceas — Tho Moral Remedy — Proposed Reform of the Communal Institutions — The Peasant Courts of Justice — Supposed Obstructive Influence of the Mir — Taxes and Land-dues — Disruption of Peasant Families — A Word as to the Future 533

Chapter XXXIII. The New Law Courts

Judicial Procedure in the Olden Time — Defects aud Abuses — Radical Reform — The New System — Justices of the Peace and Monthly Sessions — The Regular Tribunals — Court of Revision — Modification of the Original Plan — How does the System work? — Rapid Acclimatization — The Bench — The Bar— The Jury — Acquittal of Criminals who confess their Crimes — Peasants, Merchants, and Nobles as Jurymen — Independence and Political Significance of the New Courts. CONTENTS. XIII

Chapter XXXIV Territorial Expansion And The Eastern Question

PAUK Rapid Growth of Russia — Expansive Tendency of Agricultural Peoples — The Russo-Slavoniaus— The Northern Forest and the Steppe — Colonization— The Part of the Government in the Process of Expansion— Expansion towards the West — Growth of the Empire represented in a Tabular Form — Assimilation of Annexed Peoples— Russian View of English Policy — Subsidiary Incentives to Expansion — Protective Tariff — Analysis of the Expansive Tendency and Probable Expansion iu the Future — Russian Advance towards India — Aggressive Tendencies towards Coustautinople ; the Religious, Ethno- .entimcntal, and Political Factors— The Recent Movement in Russia —The Policy of the Russian Government — Conclusion RUSSIA.

Chapter I. Travelling In Russia

Hallways — State Interference — River Communications — Russian ''Grand Tour " — The Volga — Kazan — Zhigulinskiya Gori — Finns and Tartars — The Don — Difficulties of Navigation — Discomforts — Rats — Hotels — Peculiar Customs — Roads — Hibernian Phraseology Explained — Bridges — Posting — A Tarantass — Requisites for Travelling — Travelling in Winter — Frostbitten — Disagreeable Episodes — Scene at a Post-Station. OF course, travelling in Russia is no longer what it was. During the last quarter of a century a vast network of railways has been constructed, and one can now travel in a comfortable firstclass carriage from Berlin to St. Petersburg or Moscow, and thence to Odessa, Sebastopol, the lower Volga, or even tho foot of the Caucasus ; and, on the whole, it must be admitted that the railways are tolerably comfortable.

The carriages are decidedly better than in England, and in winter they are kept warm by small iron stoves, such as we sometimes see in steamers, assisted by double windows and double doors — a very necessary precaution in a land where the thermometer often descends to 30° below zero. Tho trains never attain, it is true, a high rate of speed — so at least English and Americans think — but then we must remember that Russians are rarely in a hurry, and like to have frequent opportunities of eating and drinking. In Russia time is not money ; if it were, nearly all the subjects of the Tsar would always have a large stock of ready money on hand, and would often have great difficulty in spending it. In reality, be it parenthetically remarked, a Russian with a superabundance of ready money is a phenomenon rarely met with in real life.

In conveying passengers at the rate of from fifteen to thirty BUSSIA. miles an hour, the railway companies do at least all that they prom ise ; but in one very important respect they do not always strictly fulfil their engagements. The traveller takes a ticket for a certain town, and on arriving at what he imagines to be his destination, he may find merely a railway-station surrounded by fields. On making inquiries, he finds, to his disappointment, that the station is by no means identical with the town bearing the same name, and that the railway has fallen several miles short of fulfilling the bargain, as he understood the terms of the contract. Indeed, it might almost be said that as a general rule railways in Russia, like camel-drivers in certain Eastern countries, studiously avoid the towns.

This seems at first a strange fact. It is possible to conceive that the Bedouin is so enamoured of tent life and nomadic habits, that he shuns a town as he would a man-trap ; but surely civil engineers and railway contractors have no such dread of brick and mortar. The true reason, I suspect, is that land within or immediately without the municipal barrier is relatively dear, and that the railways, being completely beyond the invigorating influence of healthy competition, can afford to look upon the comfort and convenience of passengers as a secondary considera tion. It is but fair to state that in one celebrated instance neither engineers nor railway contractors were to blame. Erom St. Petersburg to Moscow the locomotive runs for a distance of 400 miles, almost as " the crow " is supposed to fly, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left.

For fifteen weary hours the passen ger in the express train looks out on forest and morass, and rarely catches sight of human habitation. Only once he perceives in the distance what may be called a town ; it is Tver which has been thus favoured, not because it is a place of importance, but simply because it happened to be near the straight line. Aud why was the railway constructed in this extraordinary fashion ? For the best of all reasons — because the Tsar so ordered it. When the preliminary survey was being made, Nicholas learned that the officers intrusted with the task — and the Minister of Ways and Roads in the number — were being influenced more by personal than technical considerations, and he determined to cut the Gordian knot in true Imperial style. When the Minister laid before him the map with the intention of explaining the proposed route, he took a ruler, drew a straight line from the one terminus to the other, and remarked in a tone that precluded all discussion, " You will construct the line so."

And the line was so con structed — remaining to all future ages, like St. Petersburg and the Pyramids, a magnificent monument of autocratic power. Formerly this well-known incident was often cited in whispered philippics to illustrate the evils of the autocratic form of govern ment. Imperial whims, it was said, over-ride grave economic considerations. In recent years, however, a change seems" to have taken place in public opinion, and some people now venture to assert that this so-called Imperial whim was au act of far-seeing policy. As by far the greater part of the goods and passengers are carried the whole length of the line, it is well that the line should be as short as possible, and that branch lines should be constructed to the towns lying to the right and left. Apart from political considerations, it must be admitted that a good deal may be said in support of this view.

In the development of the railway system there has been another disturbing cause, which is not likely to occur to the English mind. In England, individuals and companies habitually act according to their private interests, and the State interferes as little as possible ; private initiative acts as it pleases, unless the authorities can prove that important bad consequences will necessarily result. In Russia, the onus probandi lies on the other side ; private initia tive is allowed to do nothing until it gives guarantees against all possible bad consequences. When any great enterprise is pro jected, the first question is — " How will this new scheme affect the interests of the State ? " Thus, when the course of a new railway has to be determined, the military authorities are always consulted, and their opinion has a great influence on the ultimate decision.

The consequence of this is that the railway-map of Russia presents to the eye of the tactician much that is quite unintelligible to the ordinary observer— a fact that will becomo apparent to the uninitiated as soon as a war breaks out in Eastern Europe. Russia is no longer what she was in the days of the Crimean War, when troops and stores had to be conveyed hun dreds of miles by the most primitive means of transport. At that time she had only about 750 miles of railway; now she has more than 11,000 miles, and every year new lines are constructed. The water-communication has likewise in recent years beer. greatly improved. On all the principal rivers there are now tol- RUSSIA. 4 erably good steamers. Unfortunately, the climate puts serious obstructions in the way of navigation. For nearly half of the year the rivers are covered with ice, and during a great part of the open season navigation is difficult.

When the ice and snow melt, the rivers overflow their banks and lay a great part of the low-lying country under water, so that many villages can only be approached in boats ; but very soon the flood subsides, and the water falls so rapidly, that by midsummer the larger steamers have great difficulty in picking their way among the sand-banks. The Neva alone — that queen of northern rivers — has at all times a plentiful supply of water. Besides the Neva, the rivers commonly visited by the tourist are the Volga and the Don, which form part of what may be called the Russian grand tour. Englishmen who wish to see something more than St. Petersburg and Moscow generally go by rail to Nizhni-Novgorod, where they visit the great fair, and then get on board one of the Volga steamers. For those who have mastered the important fact that there is no fine scenery in Rus sia, the voyage down the river is pleasant enough.

The left bank is as flat as the banks of the Rhine below Cologne, but the right bank is high, occasionally well wooded, and not devoid of a certain tame picturesqueness. Early on the second day the steamer reaches Kazan, once the capital of an independent Tartar khanate, and still containing a considerable Tartar population. Several "metchets" (as the Mahometan houses of prayer are here termed) with their diminutive minarets in the lower part of the town, show that Islamism still survives, though the khanate was annexed to Muscovy more than three centuries ago ; but the town, as a whole, has a European rather than an Asiatic character. If any one visits it in the hope of getting " a glimpse of the East," he will be grievously disappointed, unless, indeed, lie happens to be one of those imaginative tourists who always discover what they wish to see, especially when it can be made the subject of an effective chapter in their ''Impressions de Voyage."

And yet it must be admitted that, of all the towns on the route, Kazan is the most interesting. Though not Oriental, it has a peculiar character of its own, whilst all the others — Simbirsk, Samara, Saratof — are as uninteresting as Russian provincial towns com monly are. The full force and solemnity of that expression will be explained in the sequel. Probably about sunrise on the third day something like a range of mountains will appear on the horizon. It may be well to say ut once, to prevent disappointment, that in reality nothing worthy of the name of mountain is to be found in that part of the country. The nearest mountain-range in that direction is the Caucasus, which is several hundred miles distant, and conse quently cannot by any possibility be seen from the deck of a steamer. The elevations in question are simply a low range of hills, called the Zhigulinskiya Gori.

In Western Europe they would not attract much attention, but " in the kingdom of the blind," as the French proverb has it, "the one-eyed man is king ; " and in a flat region like Eastern Russia these hills form a prominent feature. Though they have nothing of Alpine gran deur, yet their well-wooded slopes, coming down to the water's edge — especially when covered with the delicate tints of early spring, or the rich yellow and red of autumnal foliage — leave an impression on the memory not easily effaced. On the whole — with all due deference to the opinions of my patriotic Russian friends — I must say that Volga scenery does not repay the time, trouble, and expense which a voyage from Nizhni to Tsaritsin demands. There are some pretty bits here and there, but they are "few and far between."

A glass of the most exquisite wine diluted with twenty gallons of water makes a very insipid beverage. The deck of the steamer is generally much more interesting than the banks of the river. There one meets with curious travelling companions. The majority of the passen gers are probably Russian peasants, who are always ready to chat freely without demanding a formal introduction, and to relate to a new acquaintance the simple story of their lives. Often I have thus whiled away the weary hours both pleasantly and profitably, and have always been impressed with the peasants' homely common sense, good-natured kindliness, half-fatalistic resignation, and strong desire to learn something about foreign countries. This last peculiarity makes him question as well as communicate, and his questions, though sometimes apparently childish, are generally to the point.