A Journey to St. Petersburg and Moscow Through Courland and Livonia

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Contents

Chapter Page

1. Entrance into Russia 1

2. Riga 20

Chapter I

Departure from Memel— frontiers of Prussia on the Baltic — entrance into Russia — douane — reflections preliminary to the inquiries that are to follow — Russian inns — change of climate — ^living on the road— amusements — scenery — peasantry—arrival at Mittau and detention there by the governor — the town and its inhabitants — Jew-smugglers — beards and costumes — departure.

In the middle of Aprils 1835^ I set out from Memely the last frontier town of Prussia on the Baltic^ with the intention of visiting St. Petersburg and Moscow^ and returning to England by the way of Warsaw^ Berlin^ and Hamburg.

At St. Petersburg I hoped to become acquainted with Modern Russia^ and to be enabled to form some idea of the real progress of her civilization^ in so far at least; as this is indicated in the manners of the

B

2 A JOURNRY IN RUSSIA.

people ; at Moscow, in the heretofore capital of the Tsars, I should find myself in the very heart of the ancient empire, where the tribes and nations of the distant dependencies still resort as to a common centre ; and in Poland an opportunity would present itself of studying the character of the most interesting of the conquered provinces, the preservation of which costs more in blood, and tears, and money than a whole continent is worth.

My carriage, the best I could obtain for hire in Memel, resembled a diligence, which, having fallen into superannuation and decay, had been cut down for private use; and this machine was drawn by three horses abreast, the leader being very well worthy of his dignity, by nearly two feet of advantage over the others in point of stature. The driver was a tall, hale, ruddy old man, with a physiognomy strongly expressive of the quiet good humour of the Prussians. Like the postillions of his country, he rarely used his whip, preferring to yield rather than resort to violence ; and as rarely did he give himself the trouble either of remonstrating or encouraging by words. In England this mode of government couJd not exist, for there the horses are only permitted to see straight forward ; and, to comprehend their master behind, they must be made both to hear and feel. In Prussia their eyes are uncovered, and it is curious to observe the anxious attention with which they watch the motions of the, to them, harmless whip.

The road, soon after leaving the town, conducted us into a wilderness of sand and water, where it

BXIT FROM PRUSSIA. 3

seemed^ by the wheel tracts^ that each carriage was in the habit of choosing its own way. Having traversed Prussia in its greatest length my eyes were not unaccustomed to scenery of the kind ; but I question whether even in the deserts of Brandenburg, in the midst of which stands the capital — like a city transported thither by enchantment from the habitable world — ^there can any thing be seen more dreary and desolate.

We at length reached a solitary habitation, apparently a toll-house. The bar, painted with the royal coloursj black and white, was raised. No one appeared either to exact dues^ or to question the passer, by as to his whereabout ; but the coachman stopped at the door, and took in my passport. In a minute or two he returned and we resumed our journey, and I found that I had passed through one of the entrance or exit gates of Prussia.

The desert became still more desolate, and the wind began to moan with that strange unearthly sound which it has in lonely places, over tracts of snow or sand. To the left, the wilderness was bound in by the distant Baltic as with a girdle, only distinguishable from the sky, with which it mingled, by its deeper blue. Every where else fields of sand and morass extended to the verge of the horizon. This apparently was a neutral ground between the two countries ; and it was with no smaU degree of curiosity that I awaited my introduction into Russia.

The gate at length appeared, and its stripes of

b2 black and white^ the former colour edged with red, 80 nearly resembled those of Prussia that I began to fancy I had been premature. The next moment, however, the ring of arms upon the pavement re« assured me. As the carriage entered, it was stopped by Cossacks with fixed bayonets ; and one mounting behind, I was thus driven like a prisoner of state, to the douane.

The door of this house was guarded by armed sentinels, and in a room opening into the one where my luggage was examined, a Cossack stood, like a wooden figure, with fixed bayonet. The examining ofiicers were in uniform, and wore swords ; but they were not otherwise different from their brethren of England or France, than by a gentlemanly courtesy, which in those countries appears to be considered out of the way of the profession. They exhibited none of the vulture-like eagerness about trifles which renders the customhouse even of London at once vexatious and ridiculous; and so far from turning over my things like Jew-clothesmen, they were only anxious to prevent the attendants from disturbing their arrangement.* I must add that of the few books I had, only one was opened.

My passport, however, was an affair not so easily managed. The questions they put were innumer.

* On thii tobject every traveller dilTera, not only from others bnt from himself. The conduct of the customhouse officers varies at every port and with every change or individuals ; and it may be well to remark that the last time I visited London (»ince willing the text) I had nothing whatever to complain of.

ATTEMPT AT EXTORTION. 5

able, and the entries made in consequence by the clerk, would have sufficed for a memoir. At length all was over; and willingly granting the request made openly by the attendants for a small gratuity, I pursued my journey, marvelling not a little at the complaints made by some former travellers of the hardships and indignities they had endured from the frontier police of Russia.

I was not destined, however, to escape with absolute ease myself. At a distance of two or three hundred yards, at the entrance of a small village, we were again stopped by soldiers with fixed bayonets, and my passport again demanded. I confess I gave it with reluctance, being unable to conceive what purpose all this could serve ; and when one of them coolly stepped into the carriage, and desired me to open my portmanteau for the second time, it was with a very bad grace indeed I obeyed. But when the fellow, after putting me to this unnecessary, and as I was convinced, unlawful trouble, demanded money, my trifling stock of patience failed me all on a sudden, and I ordered the coachman to drive on. The man hesitated, and looked, or affected to look alarmed, and the soldiers persisted more clamour, ously; but when I attempted to leap out of the carriage in order to return to the douane to complain, they raised the siege at once, and their curses, " not loud but deep," mingled with the rattle of the wheels as we drove on. I told this anecdote afterwards to the Chief of the Secret Police at St. Petersburg, and perhaps the nuisance exists no more; but in case it should still continue, I now relate the circumstance for the benefit of quietly disposed travellers. These persons should throw the beggarly ruffians a small silver coin on their passport being demanded^ and desire their coachman to proceed.

We speedily entered a forest^ in which we wandered the whole day^ and where I had nothing more amusing than my own reflections to beguile the time. These were naturally occupied with the country I had entered. It seemed to me that I was already able to account for the conflicting statements even of the most recent travellers^ and that at my first step into Russia, I had seen both sides of the medaL It would be illiberal and unbecoming to charge some of my predecessors with prejudice; for this, when applied to a traveller — to one who sees the world in its difiPerent forms, and mankind in their different phases, amounts to a charge of absolute stupidity ; but surely they have not weighed with due attention the remarkable circumstances in which this very remarkable nation has been placed.

M. Bachoutsky, a Russian author, gives himself the trouble of quoting an inquiry into the relative degree of civilization of the great nations of Europe at recent periods — but this is all in vain. The insulated facts from which he would reason, can no more be taken as evidences of the character of a people, than a stone as a sample of a building. No sophistry can conceal the truth that a century ago the old nations of Europe were not greatly different,

RUSSIAN CIVILIZATION. 7

in the moral features of civilization^ from what thej are now^ and that at the same period the Russians were in a state of the darkest barbarism. The boiars lived in their chateaux^ whether at Moscow or in the provinces^ plunged in all the ignorance of the feudal age. Their character was not elevated by a single trait even of that fantastic species of refinement which forms the poetical charm of the times of chivalry. Their women were at the same time secluded like Eastern slaves^ and insulted^ beaten^ and occasionally murdered with impunity^ like the wives of savages. Their religion was half paganism^ or more than half; and Panitsa^ the Venus of the heathen^ jostled the Virgin Mary even in the temples.

Such was the chaos in which the elements of a great people were plunged when the genius of Peter the Great first " moved upon the face of the waters." This man^ rude in his manners^ fierce in his passions^ and vulgar in his tastes and habits^ was in some respects no bad representative of his country; but in the finer part of his nature, he was one of those intellectual giants who appear at long intervals among meaner men^ like a comet among the stars. Nay» his very rudeness rendered him the better tamer of a rude people. No tricks of refinement^ no Machiavellian cunning would have had any effect in a case like this. Peter carried his purposes into execution by the strong hand. He compelled his subjects to assume the manners^ well knowing that this would bring about in time the reality, of civilization ; and rushing in upon the old boiar in his native woods> he shaved his beard by main force.

<f

And dragged the straggltng Mvage into day/

That absolute power is in itself a prodigious evil no one can deny, but in this case it was productive of positive good. At any rate^ when the creations of absolute power are beneficial to the people, they are necessarily destructive of itself — a fact which will probably receive some illustration in the course of this work. The successors of Peter » however, trod steadily in the same path. In particular his wife^ Catherine I., the licentious Catherine II., the late emperor Alexander, all pursued, and his present majesty still pursues, the wise plans of their great prototype. What have they effected ? Of that I hope to obtain some idea in the course of my tour ; but it is necessary, on setting out, to ascertain the time afforded for the ripening of these gigantic plans, and for the execution of their multitudinous details.

It is true that the £mperor Alexis laid the first step, the vantage ground, from which his son was one day to take his magnificent flight; but with Peter himself commenced the real civilization of the Russians. Since his death there have elapsed one hundred and ten years; but of these only seventy have been occupied by the above-mentioned princes, while the remainder is divided among the comparatively unproductive reigns of Peter II., Anne, Ivan, Elizabeth, Peter III., and the unhappy Paul.

FORE8T-INN8. 9

We thus arrive at the true data on which to proceed^ and the only one which will enable the traveller to form a correct estimate of the character of the Russian nation^ and of the present condition and prospects of the country. With these data in his mind^ the stranger will either exclaim conscientiously against the ignorance and stupidity of the people in having effected so little; or he wiU inquire in astonishment, how they could have done so much in so short a period. What a pity it is that philosophers so rarely travel ; or, at least, in sending us of the staff and wallet to fetch materials, that they do not lend us their own spectacles !

About mid-day we halted for dinner at an inn in the middle of the forest. The inns on this road are all of the same construction ; and, although very unlike such places in France or England, are by no means uncomfortable. The coachman knocks at an immense door, and horses, carriage, and all, are driven into the house. The traveller finds himself in a vast oblong hall, surrounded by the equipages of other travellers, and at the further end of which there is another door for his exit. The postillions are mending their tackle, the horses feeding, and flights of fowls fluttering and screaming around as they contest with one another the scattered grains of com. Confused by the noise and darkness visible of the place, he is guided by his coachman to a side door, which opens into the portion of the house destined for the reception of two-legged guests; and here he finds a suite, generally of three or four large roomsj in any one of which he may establish himself for his meal.

The furniture of these rooms^ although cheap, is extremely handsome; the chairs and tables being made of birch brilliantly polished^ and, when new, bearing a strong resemblance to satin-wood. The walls are covered with bad prints^ chiefly £nglish, and the window-sills with flowering plants, even in the depth of winter. During that season, and, indeed, for eight months of the year, every apartment is a true hot-house, the atmosphere being kept up to a certain high temperature by stoves. The windows are double — that is to say, there are two glazed window-frames in each aperture, a single pane of which is made to open, so as to render a change of atmosphere in the room at least possible ; while every other joint or seam is carefully pasted over with paper. In each apartment, it must be added, there are three or four beds ; but these, being extremely narrow, take up no more room than a sofa, as it is not the custom here for the husband and wife to occupy the same couch.

My dinner consisted of a white soup, made of milk, butter, vegetables, and sucking pig, together with a portion of roasted turkey. The meal upon the whole, notwithstanding the blackness and sour, ness of the bread, was very acceptable to a hungry traveller : but, alas ! with me it was *' toujours perdrix !" — for five consecutive days I could get nothing else to eat than white soup and roasted turkey.

CHANOK OF CLIMATB. 11

At the inn where I slept I found a clean and comfortable bed^ although the chambermaid had the atrocity almost to insist upon my sleeping in one close to the hot stove ; and I was lulled to sleep by the songs of a large company of peasants assembled in the kitchen. Some of them sung in parts, while the others contributed the chorus. The music was in general simple and mournful, and many of the voices were singularly sweet.

In the morning as we resumed our journey, I felt very sensibly that I had been travelling northward for some weeks. When I left Paris the weather was almost disagreeably warm ; while here, the pools by the road side were covered with ice, and the trees clothed in their winter finery of hoarfrost. As the beams of the early sun slanted through the branches, the effect was the most beautiful imaginable. The fable of the Magician's garden seemed to be realized, for every leaf was hung with sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. The trees were chiefly pines, with here and there a few birches, gleaming with a spectral whiteness through the mysterious gloom ; and below there was almost always an underwood of juniper, and a rich green carpet of blaeberry bushes.

We at length emerged from this seemingly interminable forest, and the view opened suddenly, disclosing numerous farmsteads and cottages scattered over the face of rather a picturesque country. The road led across a rapid stream, somewhat violent in winter, if one may judge by the strength of the breakwaters. These did not form a part of the bridge; but^ as is customary in Russia^ were constructed at a distance of a good many feet. This description of view was closed by the first country seat I had seen since passing the frontiers. The ground story of the building was white, and the upper red, but notwithstanding, the effect was far from being disagreeable. Beyond this, the scene changed into a most desolate heath, interspersed with small pools, with woods and hills in the distance.

At the inn where we dined this day the room was hung with living ivy, festooned with great regularity. It grew in little pots placed on the sills of the numerous windows. Having desired to taste at dinner some London porter of which the hostess boasted, it was set before me with sugar and a spoon ; and, seeing me reject these appendages, the good woman lingered in the room with evident curiosity to watch how the nasty foreigner could otherwise swallow such a potion. This mode of serving English porter I afterwards found to be customary even in the larger towns.

The scenery now improved every step we advanced till it became absolutely picturesque, exhi. biting all the varieties of hill and valley, wood and lake, with here and there patches of cultivated ground. At every house we passed there was one unfailing appendage — a swing ; and the peasantry might be correctly described as being divided into two classes, those who were swinging, and those who were waiting for a swing. I observed a mother

SWING. 13

passing by with her child at her breast eye long, ingly the tempting apparatus. At that moment the seat became vacant, and, giving the baby to another to hold, she ran to indulge herself in a swing. The girl who waited at dinner, when standing by the window, saw the swing unoccupied; and, pretending to be called, immediately left the room. I saw her dart across the road, and into the swing ; and, when she had made three or four aerial courses, she came back satisfied. The men swing standing upon the seat, sometimes several at a time; the women in a sitting posture.

This machine is occasionally made of hewn wood, in the form of a gallows ; but, in general, it consists of a branch of a tree fastened transversely between two pines near the top, with two slender trees hanging down from it instead of ropes, connected at the bottom by what serves for the seat. Neither hemp nor iron enters into the construction, the fastenings being all of tough roots and lichens.

The next day the scenery was strangely diversified, now exhibiting a desert of sand, and now a rich and picturesque country. We passed another rapid stream, by a flying bridge, leaving behind a village and chateau near the bank. As yet the Russian villages consisted merely of isolated dwellings, widely scattered, without any attempt at a general plan ; arising, as it would seem, partly from the cheapness of land, and partly from the difficulty of finding an area of productive ground sufficiently large for the whole community. In a picturesque

14 A JOURNET IN RUSSIA.

spot like this they are always a deformity. Their white walls and fiery red roofis give them the ap. pearance of the houses we see in a child's picturebook. Neither are the rural churches in this part of the country very poetical objects. They are surmounted by a shorty sturdy^ peremptory-looking cone, sheathed with tin or copper ; and are usually seen in isolated situations, where they serve as a common rendezvous for several villages. Glens, and woods, and vales, now opened and shut around us as we rolled past, with swelling hills in the distance, or dark forests bounding the horizon.

The peasants as yet were still in European costume. They wore a kind of tunic, chiefly of blue or grey cloth, and not unlike an English frock coat. Sometimes this was lined with sheep fur. The women exhibited little peculiarity in dress, and were inferior to the men in personal appearance. The men appear fond of the inn kitchen, answering to the tap-room of London ; but I did not observe a single instance of intoxication. At the bar, which is generally a little room adjoining the kitchen, while waiting to be served, they stood round the landlord, hat in hand, exchanging their remarks only in a whisper. The publicans here appear to be personages of great importance, or else the peasants are very far down indeed in the scale of being. When making my way the next evening through the kitchen, ushered by a pretty young creature, the daughter of the landlord, she pushed through the crowd as if it consisted of cattle.

STRAY ENGLISHMAN. 15

thrusting her customers aside with a gesture of angry contempt. I have repeatedly observed the same things however, in Ireland. I have repeatedly seen a merchant's clerk, when tormented by the voices of the peasants who had come to be settled with for the butter they had sold him in the market, snatch up a stick, leap across the counter, and drive them out with blows, like a herd of oxen.

In the inn I allude to, I met, for the first time in this country, with a stray Englishman. I could not tell what he was, nor whither he was going, nor do I think he knew himself. He was a citizen of the world, but unacquainted with the individual countries which compose it. He spoke all languages with equal fluency, and all equally badly ; now snuffling French, now expectorating German, and now lubricating his mouth with Italian as one greases a coach-wheel. If this is what we English gain by travelling, we had better stay at home. The next morning the scenery was still picturesque, with spaces of waste land between. We passed a ruined castle to the right, apparently of no great antiquity, about which I could learn nothing; and soon after arrived at Mittau, the capital of Courland.

As it was my intention to remain only a few hours in this little city, I left the carriage at the inn, and went to the police to get my passport vised. Some detention occurred owing to the principal functionary being asleep; but, at length, he condescended to awake, and I learnt that I must

J 6 A JOURNEY IN RUSSIA.

here give up my old passport^ and obtain a new one. This did not surprise me^ being accustomed to see the same kind of foolish and clumsy machinery in operation at Calais, for the purpose of putting a couple of francs into the pockets of the King of the French ; and in due time all was arranged, and I was sent with a messenger to the Chancellerie of the Governor. At the chancellerie I was desired to call the next day.

This was '' too bad." I travelled with a passport from the English government, signed by all the ambassadors and other competent functionaries of Russia I had met on my way ; and in this dirty little town I was now to be laid hold of like a male, factor, and imprisoned in it for a day and a night ! I immediately waited upon the Governor to represent my case. He at first appeared unwilling to listen ; but I insisted doggedly that my horses were waiting, and that I had at least a right to know of what crime I was suspected, in order to justify my detention. The governor appeared embarrassed, but at length vented his displeasure in some angry exclamations against his clerks, to whom he sent to know the cause of their conduct, retiring in the meantime himself into the next room. In a few minutes he re-entered, and with many polite apologies informed me, that to-day it was a holiday in his chancellerie, and that, therefore, I must absolutely remain in the town till next morning. This holiday, I afterwards learnt, takes place invariably on the arrival of a stranger at Mittau, even when he presents himself

MITTAU. ]7

at the chateau early in the morning : but it is only justice to the present governor to say that he has made himself obnoxious to the townspeople by the reformation of various other abuses^ introduced^ or protected^ by his predecessor.

Disorders^ as annoying as the above^ are observable in all the great continental governments^ with one exception. In Prussia they are fully sensible of the inestimable value of Public Opinion ; and^ perhaps^ to this cause alone may be attributed the enduring tranquillity of a country where the citizen-soldiers are superior^ both in numbers and military experi. ence^ to the standing army.

Mittau is built of wood^ with the exception of the governor's chateau^ which is a large square buildings with a good deal of the air of a royal palace. ThiSy it will be recollected^ was for some time the asylum of Louis XVIII. Some of the other houses are sufficiently handsome^ and several of the streets clean and genteeUlooking. The shop doors are usually decorated with representations of the articles sold^ even the minutest^ — such as pins and needles^ — and all very accurately executed. I was in particular amused by the painting on a barber's shop which exhibited the operation performed within, in figures nearly as large as life. The zeal of the operator, and the heroic resignation of the unhappy shavee, are depicted with a spirit that is truly edifying. These pictures are on the outer doors, which fold back against the wall. The inner, which are partly glazed, open into the shop.

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The principal inhabitants of Mittau are noble families of small incomes^ whose numerous equipages give an aristocratic air to the place. These are attracted hither^ I presume, by the extreme cheapness of the necessaries, and some of the luxuries, of life. Meat is only two pence an English pound ; a pair of chickens may be bought for eight pence; a turkey, in high condition, for sixteen pence; and a large brown loaf, weighing between three and four pounds, costs only a penny. Their servants, therefore, can be cheaply supported; and, as the wages of a man are seldom higher than six pounds a year, they may easily gratify the national propensity for the display of a numerous retinue. As for articles of foreign produce, they are supplied at comparatively little cost, by Jew-smugglers. The town absolutely swarms with these desperadoes ; and, even in the courts of gentlemen's houses, if there is a nook at all capable of affording shelter, you see a Hebrew family nestling like a colony of mice. They are, of course, tolerated by the nobles, who by their means are able to enjoy various little luxuries, which their pride would otherwise demand in vain of their poverty: but the government, whose interest is quite on the other side, has sometimes the cruelty to send them in whole gangs to Siberia. Money, however, like Pierre's mistress, is a Jew's religion ; and the instances of martyrdom they witness around them only serve to animate their zeal.

Almost all the lower classes wear their beards

BEARDS. 19

uncut^ and often untrimmed. These appendages^ however must not be judged of by the Jewish beards we see in London ; for a London Jew so adorned always looks filthy and unapproachable. In Russia they are absolutely ornamental ; and the peasants more especially derive from them a certain manliness of air which is highly interesting. I saw at Mittau some truly noble-looking figures^ tall and athletic^ with uncovered heads, and their magnificent beards appearing in well-defined relief against their bare necks. The men were usually clothed in a sheepskin tunic^ with the wool inside, and boots reaching to the knees. The women are good, looking, not to say handsome; and the Jewesses, with a shawl-turban round their head, look picturesque and oriental.

The next day I was detained two hours at the governor's chancelleries but, at length, being permitted to depart, we set out for Riga, where my engagement with the coachman and his horses was to terminate; and where we arrived after a few hours' ride through a flat, uninteresting country. This is, upon the whole, the worst avenue into Russia that could be chosen, for there is really little to be seen. I would advise travellers, even from France, to proceed to Lubeck, and take a passage in the steam vessel to Riga.