Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus Part 38

At the period when the Russians appeared on the banks of the Dniestr, the Boudjiak steppes were occupied by Nogai Tatars, nomades for the most part, who after having been at first tributary to the khans of the Crimea, had placed themselves under the protection of the Porte; whilst the northern region was possessed by a numerous Moldavian population, essentially agricultural, subjected to the laws of serfdom, and acknowledging the authority of the hospodars of Ja.s.sy. The Ottoman power was represented solely by military garrisons holding peaceful possession of the two fortresses of Ismael and Kilia on the Danube, and those of Khotin, Bender, and Ackerman, on the Dniestr.

The fortress of Ismael is famous for the sieges sustained in it by the Turks against Souvarof. Its fortifications have not been much increased by Russia; she keeps in it a numerous garrison, and a considerable amount of artillery. The little flotilla of the Danube is stationed at the foot of the walls. The fort of Kilia is now quite abandoned.

The fortress of Khotin is half of Genoese, half of Turkish construction.

The citadel or castle is an irregular square, flanked by enormous towers. The Turks and the Russians have added new fortifications to the old works, without however increasing the strength of the position. In the present state of military art, Khotin is of no importance whatever.

Commanded on all sides by hills, and situated on the very edge of the Dniestr, it would not resist a regular siege of a few hours. The walls consist of courses of brick and cut stone, and bear numerous Genoese inscriptions. Over the princ.i.p.al gate are seen a lion and a leopard, chained beside an elephant bearing a tower. These figures are in the Eastern style, and date from the time of the Turks. The doors and the uprights of the windows are adorned with verses from the Koran. The great mosque of the fortress has unfortunately been demolished, and nothing remains of it but its minaret, which stands alone in the midst of the place, as if to protest against the vandalism of the conquerors.

On the other side of the Dniestr, at a short distance from the river, is Kaminietz, the capital of Podolia.

Bender and Ackerman likewise possess two castles of Genoese and Turkish construction: the latter situated on the liman of the Dniestr, has been abandoned; the former, which stands on the main road to Turkey, has a garrison. Between Bender and Khotin, on the banks of the Dniestr, are the ruins of a fourth fortress called Soroka, which merits a special description, inasmuch, as it is altogether different from the other edifices we have noticed in Southern Russia. It forms a circular enclosure of thirty-one metres, interior diameter. At four equidistant points of the circ.u.mference, stand as many towers, projecting externally in a semi-cylindrical form, whilst on the interior they are prismatic.

Between the two towers on the river side, there is a fifth which commands the single gate of the castle. The interior diameter of the towers is 5.5 metres; the thickness of the walls is 3.8 metres. They have embrasures in the upper parts, and a few openings at various heights. All round the walls in the inner court there is a circular range of apartments on the ground, in tolerable preservation, and consisting of ten casemates seven metres deep, lighted only from within.

They formed probably, the stables of the fortress. Above this range are the remains of an upper story, which, of course, served with the towers for lodging the garrison. The whole building exhibits the greatest solidity, and the mortar is wonderfully hard. But it is a bitter disappointment to the traveller that there are no inscriptions on the walls, or sculpture of any kind to fix the date of the edifice. The fortress never had ditches; its strength consists only in the height and thickness of its walls. The only entrance is towards the Dniestr, four or five yards from the scarp that flanks the river. This arrangement was probably adopted in order to secure a means of retreat, and of receiving provisions by way of the river.--The general appearance of the castle reminded me of the Roman fortresses erected against the barbarians, remains of which exist in many parts of Europe.

Bessarabia was justly considered, at the period referred to above, as one of the most fertile and productive provinces of the Black Sea.

Ismael and Remy were its two great export markets for corn; Ackerman sent numerous cargoes of fruit and provisions of all kinds yearly to Constantinople; the magazines of the fortresses were profusely filled with wheat and maize; the countless flocks of the Boudjiak steppes supplied wool to the East and to Italy; and Austria alone drew from them annually upwards of 60,000 heads of cattle. Such were the circ.u.mstances of Bessarabia at the time when the Russians, in the worst moment of their disasters, at the very time when Napoleon was entering their ancient capital, had the courageous cleverness to obtain the cession of that province, and advance their frontier to the Danube, at the same time securing the inestimable advantage of being free to withdraw their troops from it, and march them against the invader.

When the Russians took possession, the Nogais, many tribes of whom had previously emigrated, completely forsook their old possessions, and withdrew beyond the Danube, and thus there remained in Bessarabia only the Moldavian population, who were Greek Christians, like the Russians.

The conduct of the government towards the Bessarabians was at first as accommodating and liberal as possible. Official pledges were given them, that they should retain their own language, laws, tribunals, and administrative forms of all kinds. The governors of the country were chosen from among the natives, and the province remained in the full enjoyment of its commercial immunities and franchises, which were the grand bases of its agricultural prosperity. But these valuable privileges soon begot jealousies; the old administration fell into discredit through its own injudicious pretensions, and perhaps also in consequence of political intrigues against it, and it became exposed to the incessant hostility even of the boyars. The outcry was so great, that the Emperor Alexander, wis.h.i.+ng to satisfy the population, determined that a new const.i.tution should be framed, which should be more in harmony with the habits, the wants, and the state of civilisation of the country.

A committee of twenty-eight was appointed to draw up this const.i.tution, conspicuous among whom was M. p.r.o.nkoul, one of the most eminent boyars of the country. He had the chief hand in framing the const.i.tution, and he promoted the adoption of its most liberal articles, with a very laudable spirit and much cleverness, no doubt, but with by no means a just discernment of the state of things. As soon as the commission had completed its task, Alexander visited Bessarabia, in 1818, and was welcomed with the most cordial gladness, and the most sumptuous rejoicings. He received from the province a national present of 5000 horses, and was quite amazed at the prosperity and the inexhaustible resources of his new conquest. It was naturally desired to take the opportunity of his presence for the ratification of the new const.i.tution; but that was not to be had so readily, since it brought in question the principle of the political unity of the empire. It was rightly represented to Alexander that it would be imprudent and impolitic to give a final and decisive sanction to a system, the real value and fitness of which could only be made known by time. The emperor yielded to these considerations, and merely ordered that the const.i.tution should be put in force, without prejudice to the future.

The fundamental principles of this const.i.tution were as liberal as possible; too liberal, indeed, to have had the slightest chance of enduring. Bessarabia retained all its nationality; the governor and the vice-governor alone could be Russians, all the other functionaries were to be Moldavians; the province continued to enjoy all commercial immunities, and the finances, too, were under the immediate inspection and control of the natives. To any man of common sense and foresight, the maintenance of such a const.i.tution was a chimera. Was it to be imagined that Russia would allow the subsistence of a conquered province on its extreme frontiers, in contact with Turkey, governing itself by its own laws, and possessing an administration diametrically opposed to that which controls the other governments of the empire?

The Moldavian boyars nevertheless considered the promulgation of the const.i.tution as a victory, and thought in their infatuation they might defy all the chances of the future. But events soon undeceived them, and the mismanagement of their own inst.i.tutions provoked the first blow against their privileges. In accordance with old customs the government continued to sell the taxes by auction, and they were generally farmed by the great landowners of the province. This vicious system of finance, which had been practised under the Oriental regimen of the hospodars, could not fail to have fatal consequences under the new system of things. As we have already said, Bessarabia had retained her commercial freedom in its full extent after her union with Russia. It rapidly degenerated into an abuse, through the improvident prodigality of the Moldavians, and the extravagant ideas of civilisation and progress that fermented in all their brains; luxury increased beyond measure among the n.o.bles, and Kichinev, the capital, became famous through all the country for its sumptuous festivities, and the wealth of its ware-rooms.

The consequence was that the receipts of the treasury proceeded in the inverse ratio of the progress of luxury; and the farmers, whose expenses swallowed up more than the revenue, were last unable to pay the sums they had contracted for. The imperial government was of course indulgent during the first years, and had not recourse to any severe measures.

This conduct encouraged the defaulters, and the disorder of the finances at last reached such a pa.s.s as called indispensably for the strenuous intervention of the imperial government. The commercial franchises of the province were suppressed therefore in 1822, the prohibitive system of the imperial customs was introduced, and the payment of all arrears was rigorously exacted. This last measure of course gave occasion to endless suits and executions, and so the ruin of the princ.i.p.al families was accomplished at the same time as the destruction of all their political influence, and the government had then only to fix the day when its principles of political unity should have complete force in its new conquest.

The const.i.tution thus impaired, subsisted, however, until the death of Alexander; but on the accession of Nicholas it was completely suppressed; Bessarabia was deprived of all its privileges, and even of its language, and was a.s.similated in all points of administration to the other provinces of the empire; with the exception, however, that the government, in order to ensure the ulterior success of its measures, took from the inhabitants the right of electing their captain ispravniks, or officers of rural police.[85]

So radical a revolution could not be effected without bringing with it serious perturbations. It is enough to recollect what we have said of the venality of the public functionaries, in order to guess what the Bessarabians must have had to endure at the hands of that mult.i.tude of Russian _employes_ who took up their quarters in the towns and villages.

The intrigues and pettyfogging artifices of these men complicated more and more the already numerous lawsuits; and the daily increasing perplexities in the relations between the landowners, the freedmen, and the serfs, overthrew all the elements of the national wealth. To all these causes of disorganisation were added the military occupation of the country in the time of the Turkish war, and this was the more onerous because the rich procured themselves exemption for money, and the whole burden fell on the petty proprietors and the peasants.

When the country fell into this state of exhaustion, the boyars were not slow to remonstrate: and they did so with such vehemence, on the occasion of the journey of the Emperor Nicholas, in 1827, that he resolved to have a commission appointed, to report to him at St.

Petersburg, on the grievances of the province. The election of the commissioners took place immediately; but as the boyars revived their old pretensions, whilst the government strenuously adhered to its system of political unity, it was not possible to come to an understanding respecting the ameliorations to be introduced into the administrative regimen. The elections, after being frequently annulled and recommenced, produced no result, and the last commission named was finally dissolved without having been able to repair to St. Petersburg.

All these long altercations necessarily produced asperity in the relations of Bessarabia with the superior administration, and at last the imperial government, weary of these discussions, was ready to take any measure to reduce the Moldavians to the most absolute political and administrative nullity, even to the prejudice of the national prosperity. To this end it was determined to cut off the last means of influence which serfdom afforded to the boyars, by issuing an ukase, by virtue of which all serfs were declared free, with the right of residing where they pleased. The consequences of this abrupt emanc.i.p.ation were, of course, disastrous to agriculture. Urged by intrigues, or by the chimerical hope of bettering their physical condition, the serfs abandoned their old abodes to settle elsewhere, and chiefly on the lands recently acquired by the Russians. In this way many villages were left deserted, the lands remained untilled, and the landowners found themselves suddenly deprived of the hands necessary for their work.

Putting aside all political considerations, this measure of the government was unquestionably premature. Nothing in the moral or physical condition of the Bessarabians could as yet justify so radical a destruction of all that belonged to the old system. The state of the serfs was in fact very tolerable, and quite in harmony with the civilisation of the country. The peasants were no further bound to the soil, than inasmuch as a certain portion of it was placed at their disposal. Their duties to their lords were defined by rule, and consisted generally of eighteen days' labour in the year, some haulages, and the t.i.thes of their produce. The landowners, no doubt, occasionally abused their power in a cruel manner; but these abuses were not without remedy. A resolute and conscientious administration might easily have put an end to them. Under the present system, the peasants possessing no lands appeared to us in reality much more enslaved, and in a far less satisfactory physical condition. Formerly, the interests of the lords and the serfs were closely united, the prosperity of either necessarily inferred that of the others; but now that the emanc.i.p.ated serfs, possessing no means of subsistence of their own, cultivate the land only in virtue of a contract, the landowners think only how to get as much profit out of them as possible, during the time the engagement lasts, and care nothing what becomes of them afterwards. The peasants, it is true, have a right of appealing to the tribunals; but in consequence of the venality of the latter, their complaints generally serve only to put them to expense, and make their condition worse. A rich boyar said very navely to me on this subject, "How do you suppose the husbandman can obtain justice, when for every egg he gives we give a silver ruble?"

Again, the frequent changes of abode are very pernicious, from the loss of time and the expense they occasion. Other dwellings must be built, new habits must be contracted; the peasant is soon reduced to dest.i.tution, and finds himself obliged to accept whatever terms are offered him. In this way the dependence of the rural population is but the more grievous for being limited, and their situation towards the landlords is without security for the present, or guarantee for the future. Nor have their duty labours undergone any modification, and the abuses are exactly the same as under the old regime. Without exceeding the limits of the regulations, a peasant pays his master t.i.thes of all agricultural produce, besides 1^r.20 for every head of large cattle, 0.16 for each sheep, and one hive of honey out of every fifty he possesses. He takes upon himself, moreover, all repairs of buildings, enclosures, &c., supplies night watchers, executes annually at least three haulages over thirty-eight miles of ground, and seldom works less than twenty-eight or thirty days for his landlord, often as much as fifty or even sixty. In point of physical welfare, therefore, the results of emanc.i.p.ation are quite illusory, and the more so as the peasants enjoy no political rights, and support all the burdens and _corvees_. In fine, the new system has as yet produced only loss, trouble, and embarra.s.sment, both to large and small fortunes. As to hopes for the future, none can be seriously conceived, except for very distant times. It will require many years even for a wise and enlightened administration to rectify the state of a country whose population consists of a scanty body of landowners, and a ma.s.s of peasants without fixed domicile, possessing no other resources than the chance of a limited engagement, and the labour of their hands.

We will not go into details of all the measures adopted by the Russian government with reference to the agricultural and commercial affairs of Bessarabia: they were as contradictory and as irrational as those we have noticed in our account of the Crimea. The immigrations of the Bulgarians[86] and Germans,[87] it is true, were favoured, and they were granted the most fertile lands of the Boudjiak; several villages of Cossacks[88] and of Great Russians[89] were settled in the same regions; and attempts were even made with some success to colonise a few nomade tribes of gipsies.[90] But all these excellent creations, the first idea of which belongs to the head of the state, were largely counterbalanced by the mischievous measures of the local boards. Thus, for instance, in consequence of the division among the great landlords of all the immense meadows formerly possessed by the hospodars, and which they used to rent out in pasture, the national business of rearing zigai sheep was destroyed, and gave place to some ruinous attempts to introduce the merino breed. Extreme injury was done at the same time to the breeding of horses and horned cattle, a business which the government had already seriously damaged by forcing the proprietors of such stock to become Russian subjects or give up their employment, and by impeding by countless vexatious formalities the entrance of foreign merchants into the province, and their sojourn in it. In 1839, Bessarabia sold only 2365 horses, whereas formerly Austria alone drew from it from 12,000 to 15,000 every year for her cavalry.[91]

The following general table of the exports and imports of Bessarabia by the Danube and by land is drawn up from official doc.u.ments. It cannot, however, indicate precisely the commercial situation of Bessarabia, since a considerable portion of the goods declared in five places named belongs only to the transit trade through the province, which, moreover, receives a quant.i.ty of manufactured and other goods from Southern Russia that are not mentioned at all in the table. Our figures would require a certain reduction to make them accurately represent the true state of the case.

BY THE DANUBE.--IMPORTS.

-----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- 1838. 1839.

NAMES OF PLACES. +-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- Goods. Cash. Goods. Cash.

-----------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- rubles. rubles. rubles. rubles.

Ismael 253,697 1,632,996 238,996 820,035 Reny 50,193 797,497 85,429 553,174 +-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- Total 303,890 2,430,493 324,425 1,373,209

EXPORTS.

Ismael 3,913,494 9,915 2,793,244 Reny 718,040 50,773 609,541 77,745 +-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- Total 4,631,534 60,688 3,402,785 77,745

BY LAND.--IMPORTS.

Novo Selitza, Austrian frontier 221,324 1,939,604 245,198 3,048,064 Skouleni on the Pruth 222,507 497,209 195,088 721,015 Leovo on the Pruth 52,336 29,932 55,664 26,291 +-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- Total 496,167 2,466,745 495,950 3,795,370

EXPORTS.

Novo Selitza 1,978,172 163,868 3,277,660 81,868 Skouleni 829,692 525,638 737,462 540,618 Leovo 96,832 60,537 59,906 36,709 +-----------+-----------+-----------+----------- Total 2,904,696 750,043 4,075,028 659,195 -----------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

Total of the customs and other duties realised in 1838, in the five localities above-named, 360,332 rubles, and in 1839, 319,134 rubles.

From some scattered details we have already given, the reader may conjecture that the population of Bessarabia is exceedingly mixed. The Boudjiak numbers among its inhabitants, Great Russians, Cossacks, Germans, Bulgarians, Swiss vine-dressers, gipsies, and Greek and Armenian merchants. The northern part of the province, on the contrary, is occupied almost exclusively by the Moldavian race, whose villages extend even along the Dniestr to the vicinity of Ackerman. Jews abound in the northern part; there are very few in the towns of the Boudjiak; leaving them out of the account the Bessarabian population may be divided into four great cla.s.ses: the n.o.bles, the free peasants who possess lands, the newly emanc.i.p.ated peasants, and the gipsies. The n.o.bles consist of the ancient Moldavian aristocracy, the public functionaries, retired officers, and a great number of Russians, who have become landowners in the province. To this cla.s.s we must join the Mazils, who are descendants of the ancient boyars, but whom war and the numerous revolutions that have desolated the land have reduced to penury. They form at present an intermediate cla.s.s between the new n.o.bles and the peasantry, and differ from the aristocracy only in not taking part in the elections of the judges and marshals of the n.o.bles.

The free peasants are those, who, having been emanc.i.p.ated in times more or less remote, possess lands, and depend neither on the great landlords nor on the crown, though subject to ordinary imposts and _corvees_. The newly liberated peasants consist of those who are settled, by virtue of a contract or agreement, on lands belonging to individuals or to the crown; they form the majority of the population. The Bohemians are still subjected to the laws of slavery. Some of them, to the number of 900 families, belong to the crown, and the rest to Moldavian landowners, who usually employ them as servants, workmen, and musicians.

In Bessarabia, as throughout Russia and the princ.i.p.alities of the Danube, the new generation of n.o.bles have completely renounced the habits of former days. They have of course adopted the straight coat, trousers, cravat, and all the rest of our Western costume; there is nothing striking in their outward appearance. The old boyars alone adhere to their ancestral customs; a broad divan, pipes, coffee, dolces, and the kieff after dinner, are indispensable for them; and to some of them shampooing is a delicious necessity. I know a certain n.o.bleman who cannot fall asleep without having his feet rubbed by his Bohemian. But what above all strikes and delights every stranger, especially a Frenchman, is the eager and cordial hospitality and kindness he encounters in every Moldavian house. One is sure of meeting everywhere with men who sympathise heartily with every thing great and useful to mankind which our civilisation and our efforts have produced in these latter times. It is only to be regretted that these brilliant qualities are often tarnished by the corruption which administrative venality and rapacity, supervening upon long military occupations, have insensibly diffused through all cla.s.ses of the population.

The Bessarabian of the lower cla.s.s is by nature a husbandman; he very rarely plies a trade. To know his real worth he must be seen in the interior of the country, far from the towns. The Moldavian peasant is brave, gay, and hospitable; he delights to welcome the stranger, and generally would be ashamed to receive the slightest present from him.

The Russians accuse him of excessive sloth, but the charge appears unfounded. The Moldavian peasant seldom, indeed, thinks of acc.u.mulating money, but he always works with zeal until he has attained the position he had aspired to, the amount of comfort he had set his heart on; and, in reality, it is not until after the fulfilment of his desires that he becomes lazy, and that his efforts are generally limited to procuring his family the few sacks of maize necessary for its subsistence. But increase his wants, make him understand that there are other enjoyments than those in which he indulges so cheaply, and you will infallibly see him shake off his natural apathy, and rise to the level of the new ideas he has adopted.

The most charming thing in the Moldavian villages is the extreme cleanliness of the houses, which are generally surrounded by gardens and thriving orchards. Enter the forest dwelling, and you will almost always find a small room perfectly clean, furnished with a bed, and broad wooden divans covered with thick woollen stuffs. Bright parti-coloured carpets, piles of cus.h.i.+ons, with open work embroideries, long red and blue napkins, often interwoven with gold and silver thread, are essential requisites in every household, and form a princ.i.p.al portion of the dowery of young women.

In general, the women take little part in field labours, but they are exceedingly industrious housewives. They are all clever weavers, and display great art and taste in making carpets, articles of dress, and linen. The great object of emulation among the women of every village, is to have the neatest and most comfortable house, and the best supplied with linen and household utensils.

Such was Bessarabia, when I visited it in detail, on my return from my long journeys in the steppes of the Caspian. I visited it a second time when about to quit Russia for the princ.i.p.alities of the Danube; and when I crossed the Pruth, I could not help reiterating my earnest prayers that the inexhaustible resources of this province may at last be duly appreciated, and that effectual measures may be taken to put an end to that languor and depression in which it has been sunk for so many years.

FOOTNOTES:

[85] Bessarabia now includes nine districts, the capitals of which, beginning from the south, are Ismael, Ackerman, Kahoul, Bender, Kichinev, Orgeiev, Beltz, Soroka, and Khotin. Kichinev is the capital of the government; it was formerly a poor borough on the Bouik, a little river that falls into the Dniestr; the preference was given it on account of its central position. Its population is now 42,636, of whom from 15,000 to 18,000 are Jews. It is to the administration of Lieutenant-general Foederof that the town owes the numerous embellishments, and the princ.i.p.al public edifices it presents to the traveller's view.

[86] The Bulgarian colonies, the most prosperous of all those that have been established in the Boudjiak, numbered in 1840, 10,153 families, comprising 32,916 males, and 29,314 females. The surface of their lands has been estimated at 585,463 hectares, of which 527,590 are fit for tillage and hay crops, and 57,873 are waste. The Bulgarian colonists pay the crown 50 rubles per family. The corn harvest amounted, in 1839, to 211,337 tchetverts. They have contrived to preserve among them the breed of zigai sheep, the long strong wool of which is in demand in the East, and formed, previously to the Russian occupation, the chief wealth of the Bessarabians: they now possess about 343,479.

[87] The German colonies include nineteen villages and 1736 families.

They are in a very backward condition.

[88] After the destruction of the celebrated Setcha of Dniepr, the Zaporogue Cossacks withdrew in great numbers beyond the Danube, and settled with the permission of the Turks on that secondary branch of the Balkan which runs between Isaktchy and Toultcha. During the wars of 1828 and 1829, the Russian government contrived to gain the allegiance of many of the descendants of these Zaporogues who served it as spies.

Their number was so considerable that after the campaign Russia formed them into military colonies in the Boudjiak. These colonies increased greatly in consequence of the asylum they afforded to all the refugees and vagabonds of Russia, and presented, in 1840, an effective of two regiments of cavalry of 600 men each, with a total population of 3000 families, having eight villages and 50,000 hectares of land.

[89] We have no exact data respecting these villages, the situation of which is wretched enough. Their population consists entirely of fugitives, to whom the government had for many years granted an asylum in Bessarabia to the detriment of the neighbouring government.

[90] The gipsies have three villages containing 900 families. The establishment of these colonies was not effected without difficulty, and it required all the severity of a military administration to make them sow their grounds.

[91] Since our departure, the Russian government seems disposed to interest itself on behalf of Bessarabia. We are informed that it is at present turning its attention to the navigation of the Dniestr, a matter of the more importance since the Dniestr washes Bessarabia throughout its whole length, and there is not yet in that province any means of communication practicable at all seasons.