Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus Part 9

[9] See Appendix, p. 101.

[10] It is needless to say that our remarks do not apply to all the Russian engineers without exception, for we ourselves have known many upright and worthy men amongst them; and these men were the more deserving of esteem, as they always ended by being the victims of their own integrity.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIII.

"Count Cancrine was the only statesman in Russia who possessed some share of learning and general information, though somewhat deficient in the knowledge specially applicable to his own department. He was a very good bookkeeper; but chemistry, mechanics, and technology were quite unknown to him. His sense of duty overbore all feelings of German nationality; he really desired the good of Russia, while at the same time he did not neglect his own affairs, for the care of which his post afforded him peculiar facilities. Colbert's fortune was made matter of reproach to him; a similar reproach may be fairly made against M.

Cancrine, even though he leaves to his children the care of expending his wealth. He has ama.s.sed a yearly income of 400,000 rubles. 'It will all go,' he says, 'my children will take care of that.'

"He was the most ardent partisan both of the prohibitive and of the industrial system; and the feverish development he gave to manufactures does not redeem the distress of agriculture to which he denied his solicitude. A true Russian would never have fallen into this error, but would have comprehended that Russia is pre-eminently an agricultural country. The question of serfdom found this minister's knowledge at fault. His monetary measures were but gropings in the dark, with many an awkward fall, and sometimes a lucky hit. He deserves credit, however, for having opposed the emperor's wasteful profusion, with a perseverance which the tsar called wrongheadedness, though he did not venture to break with him. It was Mazarine's merit that he gave Colbert to Louis XIV. In appointing M. Vrontshenko as his successor, Count Cancrine has rendered a very ill service to Russia."--_Ivan Golovine, Russia under Nicholas I._

CHAPTER XIV.

THE DIFFERENT CONDITIONS OF MEN IN RUSSIA--THE n.o.bLES-- DISCONTENT OF THE OLD ARISTOCRACY--THE MERCHANT CLa.s.s-- SERFDOM.

The Russian nation is divided into two cla.s.ses: the aristocracy, who enjoy all the privileges; and the people who bear all the burdens of the state.

We must not, however, form to ourselves an idea of the Russian n.o.bility at all similar to those we entertain of the aristocracies of Germany, or of ante-revolutionary France. In Russia, n.o.bility is not exclusively conferred by birth, as in the other countries of Europe. There every freeman may become n.o.ble by serving the state either in a military or a civil capacity; with this difference only, that the son of a n.o.bleman is advanced one step shortly after he enters the service, whilst the son of a commoner must wait twelve years for his first promotion, unless he have an opportunity of distinguis.h.i.+ng himself in the meanwhile. Such opportunities indeed are easily found by all who have the inclination and the means to purchase them.

The first important modifications in the const.i.tution of the n.o.blesse were anterior to Peter the Great; and Feodor Alexievitch, by burning the charters of the aristocracy, made the first attempt towards destroying the distinction which the boyars wanted to establish between the great and the petty n.o.bles. It is a curious fact, that at the accession of the latter monarch to the throne, most offices of state were hereditary in Russia, and it was not an uncommon thing to forego the services of a man who would have made an excellent general, merely because his ancestors had not filled that high post, which men of no military talent obtained by right of birth. Frequent mention has of late been made of the celebrated phrase, _The boyars have been of opinion and the tzar has ordained_, and it has been made the theme of violent accusations against the usurpation of the Muscovite sovereigns. But historical facts demonstrate that the supposed power of the n.o.bility was always illusory, and that the so much vaunted and regretted inst.i.tution served, in reality, only to relieve the tzars from all personal responsibility. The spirit of resistance, whatever may be said to the contrary, was never a characteristic of the Russian n.o.bility. No doubt there have been frequent conspiracies in Russia; but they have always been directed against the life of the reigning sovereign, and never in any respect against existing inst.i.tutions. The facility with which Christianity was introduced into the country, affords a striking proof of the blind servility of the Russian people. Vladimir caused proclamation to be made one day in the town of Kiev, that all the inhabitants were to repair next day to the banks of the Dniepr and receive baptism; and accordingly at the appointed hour on the morrow, without the least tumult or show of force, all the inhabitants of Kiev were Christians.

The existing inst.i.tutions of the Russian n.o.blesse date from the reign of Peter the Great. The innovation of that sovereign excited violent dissatisfaction, and the n.o.bles, not yet broken into the yoke they now bear, caused their monarch much serious uneasiness. The means which appeared to Peter I. best adapted for cramping the old aristocracy, was to throw open the field of honours to all his subjects who were not serfs. But in order to avoid too rudely shocking established prejudices, he made a difference between n.o.bles and commoners as to the period of service, ent.i.tling them respectively to obtain that first step which was to place them both on the same level. Having then established the gradations of rank and the conditions of promotion, and desirous of ratifying his inst.i.tutions by his example, he feigned submission to them in his own person, and pa.s.sed successively through all the steps of the scale he had appointed.

The rank of officer in the military service makes the holder a gentleman in blood, that is, confers hereditary n.o.bility; but in the civil service, this quality is only personal up to the rank of college a.s.sessor, which corresponds to that of major.

The individual once admitted into the fourteenth or lowest cla.s.s, becomes n.o.ble, and enjoys all the privileges of n.o.bility as much as a count of the empire, with this exception only, that he cannot have slaves of his own before he has attained the grade of college a.s.sessor, unless he be n.o.ble born.

It results from this system that consideration is attached in Russia, not to birth, but merely to the grade occupied. As promotion from one rank to another is obtained after a period of service, specified by the statutes, or sooner through private interest, there is no college registrar (fourteenth cla.s.s) whatever be his parentage, but may aspire to attain precedence over the first families in the empire; and the examples of these elevations are not rare. It must be owned, however, that the old families have more chance of advancement than the others: but they owe this advantage to their wealth rather than to their personal influence.

With all the apparent liberality of this scheme of n.o.bility, it has, nevertheless, proved admirably subservient to the policy of the Muscovite sovereigns. The old aristocracy has lost every kind of influence, and its great families, most of them resident in Moscow, can now only protest by their inaction and their absence from court, against the state of insignificance to which they have been reduced, and from which they have no chance of recovery.

Had it been necessary for all aspirants to n.o.bility to pa.s.s through the wretched condition of the common soldier, it is evident that the empire would not possess one-tenth of its present number of n.o.bles.

Notwithstanding their abject and servile condition, very few commoners would have the courage to enn.o.ble themselves by undergoing such a novitiate, with the stick hanging over them for many years. But they have the alternative of the civil service, which leads to the same result by a less th.o.r.n.y path, and offers even comparatively many more advantages to them than to the n.o.bles by blood. Whereas the latter, on entering the military service, only appear for a brief while for form's sake in the ranks, become non-commissioned officers immediately, and officers in a few months; they are compelled in the civil service to act for two or three years as supernumeraries in some public office before being promoted to the first grade. It is true, the preliminary term of service is fixed for commoners at twelve years, but we have already spoken of the facilities they possess for abridging this apprentices.h.i.+p.

But this excessive facility for obtaining the privileges of n.o.bility has given rise to a subaltern aristocracy, the most insupportable and oppressive imaginable; and has enormously multiplied the number of _employes_ in the various departments. Every Russian, not a serf, takes service as a matter of course, were it only to obtain rank in the fourteenth cla.s.s; for otherwise he would fall back almost into the condition of the slaves, would be virtually unprotected, and would be exposed to the continual vexations of the n.o.bility and the public functionaries. Hence, many individuals gladly accept a salary of sixty francs a year, for the permission of acting as clerks in some department; and so it comes to pa.s.s that the subaltern _employes_ are obliged to rob for the means of subsistence. This is one of the chief causes of the venality and of the defective condition of the Russian administrative departments.

Peter the Great's regulations were excellent no doubt in the beginning, and hardly could that sovereign have devised a more efficacious means of mastering the n.o.bility, and prostrating them at his feet. But now that the intended result has been amply obtained, these inst.i.tutions require to be modified; for, under the greatly altered circ.u.mstances of the country, they only serve to augment beyond measure the numbers of a pernicious bureaucracy, and to impede the development of the middle cla.s.s. To obtain admission into the fourteenth cla.s.s, and become a n.o.ble, is the sole ambition of a priest's or merchant's son, an ambition fully justified by the unhappy condition of all but the privileged orders. There is no country in which persons engaged in trade are held in lower esteem than in Russia. They are daily subjected to the insults of the lowest clerks, and it is only by dint of bribery they can obtain the smallest act of justice. How often have I seen in the post stations, unfortunate merchants, who had been waiting for forty-eight hours and more, for the good pleasure of the clerk, without daring to complain. It mattered nothing that their papers were quite regular, the n.o.ble of the fourteenth cla.s.s did not care for that, nor would he give them horses until he had squeezed a good sum out of the _particularnii tchelovieks_, as he called them in his aristocratic pride. The same annoyances await the foreigner, who, on the strength of his pa.s.sport, undertakes a journey without a decoration at his b.u.t.tonhole, or any t.i.tle to give him importance. I speak from experience: for more than two years spent in traversing Russia as a private individual, enabled me fully to appreciate the obliging disposition of the fourteenth cla.s.s n.o.bles. At a later period, being employed on a scientific mission by the government, I held successively the rank of major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel; and then I had nothing to complain of; the posting-clerks, and the other _employes_ received me with all the politeness imaginable. I never had to wait for horses, and as the t.i.tle with which I was decked authorised me to distribute a few cuts of the whip with impunity, my orders were fulfilled with quite magical prompt.i.tude.

Under such a system, the aristocracy would increase without end in a free country. But it is not so in Russia, where the number of those who can arrive at a grade is extremely limited, the vast majority of the population being slaves. Thus the hereditary and personal n.o.bility comprise no more than 563,653 males; though all free-born Russians enter the military or civil service, and remain at their posts as long as possible; for once they have returned into private life they sink into mere oblivion. From the moment he has put on plain clothes, the most deserving functionary is exposed to the vexations of the lowest subalterns, who then omit no opportunity of lording over their former superior.

Such social inst.i.tutions have fatally contributed to excite a most decided antipathy between the old and the new aristocracy; and the emperor naturally accords his preference and his favours to those who owe him every thing, and from whom he has nothing to fear. In this way the new n.o.bles have insensibly supplanted the old boyars. But their places and pecuniary gains naturally attach them to the established government, and consequently they are quite devoid of all revolutionary tendencies. Equally disliked by the old aristocracy whom they have supplanted, and by the peasants whom they oppress, they are, moreover, too few in numbers to be able to act by themselves; and, in addition to this, the high importance attached to the distinctions of rank, prevent all real union or sympathy between the members of this branch of Russian society. The tzar, who perfectly understands the character of this body, is fully aware of its venality and corruption; and if he honours it with his special favour, this is only because he finds in it a more absolute and blind submission than in the old aristocracy, whose ambitious yearnings after their ancient prerogatives cannot but be at variance with the imperial will. As for any revolutions which could possibly arise out of the discontent of this latter order, we may be a.s.sured they will never be directed against the political and moral system of the country; they will always be, as they have always been, aimed solely against the individual at the head of the government. Conspiracies of this kind are the only ones now possible in Russia; and what proves this fact is, the impotence of that resentment the tzars have provoked on the part of the old aristocracy, whenever they have touched on the question of emanc.i.p.ating the serfs.

The tzars have shown no less dexterity than the kings of France in their struggles against the aristocracy, and they have been much more favoured by circ.u.mstances. We see the Russian sovereigns bent, like Louis XI., on prostrating the great feudatories of the realm; but there was this difference between their respective tasks, that the French n.o.bles could bring armies into the field, and often did so, whereas the Russian n.o.bles can only counteract the power of their ruler by secret conspiracies, and will never succeed in stirring up their peasants against the imperial authority.

What may we conclude are the destinies in store for the Russian n.o.bility, and what part will it play in the future history of the country? It seems to us to possess little inherent vigour and vitality, and we doubt that a radical regeneration of the empire is ever to be expected at its hands. The influence of Europe has been fatal to it. It has sought to a.s.similate itself too rapidly with our modern civilisation, and to place itself too suddenly on a level with the nations of the west. Its efforts have necessarily produced only corruption and demoralisation, which, by b.a.s.t.a.r.dising the country, have deprived it of whatever natural strength it once possessed.

No doubt there are in Russia as elsewhere, men of n.o.ble and patriotic sentiments, who feel a lively interest in the greatness and the future destinies of their native land; but they are, perhaps, committed to an erroneous course; and it is to be feared that by adopting our liberal principles in their full extent, and seeking to apply them at home, they will do still more mischief than the obstinate conservatives who suffer themselves to be borne along pa.s.sively by the current of time and circ.u.mstances.

Hence, after having studied the influence of European civilisation on Russia, we are fully prepared to understand the efforts which the Emperor Nicholas is making to isolate his empire as much as possible, and to restore its primitive nationality. Despairing of the destinies of his aristocracy, he, no doubt, wishes to preserve the middle cla.s.s (whose development will infallibly be effected sooner or later) from the rock on which the former cla.s.s have made s.h.i.+pwreck of their hopes. And certainly it is not among a few thousand n.o.bles he can hope to find sufficient elements of greatness and prosperity for the present and for future times.

After the n.o.bles come the merchants and burghers, about a million and a half in number, and now const.i.tuting the first nucleus of a middle cla.s.s. They are wholly engrossed with commerce and their pecuniary interests. Among them there are some very wealthy men, and they are allowed to discharge the inoffensive functions of mayors in the towns.

The n.o.bility profess almost as much contempt for this cla.s.s as for the slaves, and are not sparing towards it of injustice and extortion. But the Russian merchant is the calmest and most patient being imaginable, and in comparison with slavery and the sad condition of the soldier, he regards his own lot as the very ideal of good fortune. Down to the reign of Ivan IV., merchants enjoyed tolerably extensive privileges in Russia.

They were, it is true, placed below the lowest cla.s.s of the n.o.bility, just as in our days; but they were considered as a const.i.tuent part of the government, were summoned to the great a.s.semblies of the nation, and voted in them like the boyars.

The Emperor Nicholas has sought of late years to raise their body in public estimation, by granting them many prerogatives of n.o.bility; but his efforts have hitherto not been very successful. The only means of giving outward respectability to this important cla.s.s, would be to afford it admission into the body of the n.o.bles without compelling it to enter the government service. And surely an individual who contributes to develop the trade and commerce of the land, has as strong claims to honorary distinctions as a petty clerk, whose whole life is pa.s.sed in cheating his superiors, and robbing those who are so unfortunate as to have any dealings with him. Should the emperor ever adopt such a course, there would follow from it another advantage still more important, namely, that it would gradually extinguish the abuses of the present n.o.biliary system, and would immediately rid the public departments of all those useless underlings, who now enc.u.mber the various offices solely with a view to acquire a footing among the privileged orders.

The Russian and foreign merchants, established in the country, are divided into three cla.s.ses, or guilds. Those of the first guild must give proof of possessing a capital of 50,000 rubles. They have a right to own manufactories, town and country houses, and gardens. They may trade with the interior of the empire, and with foreign countries; they are exempt from corporal punishments, and are privileged like the hereditary n.o.bility to drive four horses in their carriages; but they must pay 3000 rubles for their licence.

Those of the second guild are required to prove only a capital of 20,000 rubles, and their trade is confined to the interior of the empire. They may be proprietors of factories, hotels and boats; but they are not allowed to have more than two horses to their carriages.

The third guild merchants, whose capital needs not exceed 8000 rubles, are the retail dealers of the towns and villages, they keep inns and workshops, and hold booths in the fairs.

The peasants who engage in trade, are not required to prove any capital.

The statistics of these several cla.s.ses, in 1839, were as follows:--

First guild merchants 889 Second " 1,874 Third " 33,808 Peasants having permission to trade 5,299 Clerks 8,345 ------ Total 50,215

The slaves form by far the most considerable part of the population; their numbers, exclusive of those belonging to the crown and to private proprietors, exceed 45,000,000; an enormous amount in comparison with the numbers of the n.o.bles.

We will not enter into any historical details respecting the origin of serfdom in Russia; every one knows that the inst.i.tution is one of somewhat modern date, and that servitude, though long existing virtually, was established legally in the empire only by an ukase of Boris G.o.dounof. We will confine our remarks to the inst.i.tution as it exists at the present day.

The slaves are divided into two cla.s.ses, those belonging respectively to the crown, and to private individuals. The former are under the control of the ministry of the domains of the crown, a special board created January 1st, 1838, and presided over by General Count Kizelev. By law they are required to pay to the crown a capitation tax of fifteen rubles yearly for every male, but this tax is almost always raised to thirty or thirty-five rubles by the rapacity of the government servants. Besides these money contributions, they are subjected to _corvees_ for the repair of the roads and public works, and they may also be required to furnish means of conveyance and food for the troops. For these latter services, it is true, they receive a nominal compensation in the shape of orders payable by treasury, but these are never cashed. Lastly, they are liable to military recruitment, which of late years has annually taken off six out of every 1000 male inhabitants in the governments of New Russia.

In exchange for all these burdens, the peasant receives from the crown the land necessary for his subsistence, the quant.i.ty of which varies from ten or eleven deciatines, to one or two, according to the density of the population. Whatever may have been said on the subject, the condition of the crown serf is neither miserable nor dest.i.tute, and his slavery cannot but be favourable to physical and animal life, the only life as yet understood by the bulk of the Russian people. Except in years of great dearth, such as often desolate the country, the peasant has his means of existence secured; his dwelling, his cattle, and his little field of buckwheat; and as far as freedom from moral and physical sufferings const.i.tute happiness, he may be considered much better off than the free peasants of the other European states. With plenty of food, his dwelling well warmed in winter, his mind disenc.u.mbered of all those anxieties for the future that hara.s.s our labouring poor; and endowed by nature with a vigorous const.i.tution, he possesses all the elements of that negative happiness which is founded on ignorance and the want of all awakened sense of man's dignity. The slave besides is so frugal, he needs so little to live, his wants and desires are so circ.u.mscribed, that poverty, as it exists in our civilised lands, is one of the rarest exceptions in Russia. But all these conditions of existence const.i.tute a life essentially brutish; and the most wretched being in France would certainly not exchange his lot for that of the Muscovite peasant.

It cannot, however, be questioned that the crown serfs enjoy almost complete liberty. Simply attached to the soil, they are masters of their own time, and may even obtain permission to go and seek employment in the towns, or on the estates of private landowners. Hence, were it not for the difficulties connected with the emanc.i.p.ation of the private serfs, the crown peasants might be declared independent to-morrow, without any sort of danger to the empire. Their physical condition is in perfect harmony with the present state of civilisation, and in this respect the system established by the crown, does not deserve the outcry raised against it. The penury and distress in which the imperial serfs are plunged in some districts, are ascribable solely to the cupidity and corruption of the public functionaries, or to the want of outlets for the produce of the soil, and not to the laws regulating serfdom.

The condition of the slaves on seignorial lands is both morally and physically less satisfactory than that of the crown serfs. They are subject to arbitrary caprice, and to countless vexations, particularly when they belong to small proprietors, or are immediately dependant on stewards. There exist, indeed, very strict regulations for their protection against the undue exactions of their lords; but the latter are, nevertheless, all-powerful through their social position and the posts they fill, and however they may abuse their authority, they are always sure of impunity. Thanks to judicial venality, they know that all appeals to justice against them are futile. There is only one case in which the peasant can hope for a favourable hearing, namely, where there is any ill-will between his master and the higher powers; but his wrongs must be very cruel indeed if they goad him to seek legal redress, for he well knows that sooner or later he will be made to pay dearly for his rebellion. We are bound, however, to acknowledge that the lords often act with the greatest humanity towards the serfs, and they have at last come to understand that in caring for the welfare of their peasants, they are taking the best means to augment their own fortunes. It is only to be regretted that their benevolent efforts are almost constantly paralysed by the rapine and insatiable cupidity of their stewards and agents.

The private slaves, who number about 23,000,000, pay a poll tax of eight rubles for every male to the crown, and must give half their time to their masters. They usually work three days in the week for the latter, and the other three for themselves. Their lord grants them five or six hectares of land, and often more, and all the produce they raise from them is their own. They are required furthermore to supply out of their numbers all the domestic servants requisite for their master's establishment, and to do extra duty labour of various kinds, dependent solely on the caprice of the latter. A peasant cannot quit his village without his master's permission, and if he exercises any handicraft trade whatever, he is bound to pay an annual sum proportioned to his presumed profits. This sum is called his _obrok_, and is often very considerable; in the case of agricultural and other peasants, it averages fifty rubles. But whatever be the position the serf may have attained to by his talents and his skill, he never shakes off his absolute dependence on his master, one word from whom may compel him to abandon all his business and his prospects, and return to his village.

Many of the wealthiest merchants of Moscow have been named to me, who are slaves by birth, and who have in vain offered hundreds of thousands of rubles for their freedom. It flatters the pride of the great patrician families to have men of merit among their serfs, and many of them send young slaves into the towns, and supply them with all the means necessary for pursuing a creditable and lucrative calling.

All the hawkers and pedlars that go from village to village, and from mansion to mansion, from the banks of the Neva to the extremity of Siberia, are slaves, who bring in large profits to their masters; it frequently happens that a _pometchik_ has no other income than that which he thus derives from his peasants.

Marriages between serfs can only take place with the consent of the lord. They are usually consummated at a very early age, and are arranged by the steward, who never consults the parties, and whose sole object is to effect a rapid increase in the population of his village. The average price of a whole family is estimated as ranging from 25_l._ to 40_l._

A great deal has been often said of the boundless attachment of the serfs to their lords; I doubt that it ever existed; at any rate, it exists no longer. The slaves no longer regard with the same resignation and apathy the low estate which Providence has a.s.signed them in this world; the more liberal treatment enjoyed by the imperial serfs, has inoculated them with ideas of independence, and they are all now ambitious of pa.s.sing into the domain of the crown--a good fortune, which in their eyes is equivalent to emanc.i.p.ation. This tendency of the serfs to detach themselves from the aristocracy is a most important fact, and if the emperor succeeds in regulating this great social movement so that it may be effected without turbulence, he will have rendered a signal service to Russia, and have mightily contributed to the regeneration and future welfare of her people.

Every village has its mayor, called _golova_, and its _starosts_, whose number depends on that of the population, there being usually one for every ten families. They are all elected by the community, and to them it belongs to regulate the various labours performed by it, and to apportion and collect the taxes. Whatever petty differences may arise between the peasants, are settled before the _starosts_ or council of elders, whose decisions are always received with blind submission.

Military service is the only _corvee_ which the Russian peasants regard with real horror. Their antipathy to it is universal, and the regiments can only be recruited by main force. There is no conscription in Russia, but whenever men are wanted, an imperial ukase is issued, commanding a certain number to be raised in such or such a government. In the crown lands, it is the head man of the village aided by the district authorities, who selects the future heroes, and this is usually done in secret, in order to prevent desertion. The young men chosen are forthwith arrested, generally in the middle of the night, and remain fettered until they have been inspected by the surgeon, after which they are sent off in small detachments to the regiments, under the guard of armed soldiers. In the seignorial villages, the selection is made by the steward. But the business is here of more difficult execution than in the domains of the crown, and the unfortunate recruit is often chained to an aged peasant, who acts as his keeper, and cannot quit him day or night. I saw two young peasants thus chained to two old men, in a village belonging to General Papof; they spent their time quietly in drinking in the dram-shops, without exciting any surprise in the spectators. When we reflect on the privations and sufferings that await the Muscovite soldier, we cannot wonder at the intense repugnance the peasants entertain for the service.