CHAPTER X. ALEXANDER I, MYSTIC AND HUMANITARIAN

Heaven grant that we may one day attain our aim of making

Russia free and of preserving her from despotism and

tyranny. This is my unique desire, and I willingly sacrifice

all my labours and my life to the aim that is so dear to

me.--ALEXANDER I.

THE COMPLEX CHARACTER OF ALEXANDER I

[Sidenote: [1801-1825 A.D.]]

In the preceding chapter, we followed the history of the external affairs

of Russia during fourteen years of the reign of Alexander I. Now we shall

witness the incidents of that monarch’s later years, and, in particular,

shall consider the internal condition of Russia during the reign of

one of the most interesting of sovereigns. Clearly to appreciate the

complex character of the reigns, we may follow Shilder, partly by way of

recapitulation, in dividing it into three periods, each of which seems to

represent a phase of the mental evolution of Alexander.[a]

The first period embraces the time between the years 1801 and 1810, and

is usually designated as the epoch of reforms, but as we penetrate more

deeply into the spirit of that period, we come to the conclusion that

it might more justly be termed the epoch of vacillations. Actually, at

this time, that is from 1801 to 1810, ceaseless vacillations took place

in the governmental life of Russia, both in regard to the outward as

well as the inward policy of the empire; throughout every branch of the

administration of the state an entire instability of views and brusque

changes from one political system to another were to be observed. All

these manifestations were conditional exclusively on the personality

of the emperor Alexander, who possessed the characteristic of not

unfrequently vacillating at short intervals between two entirely opposed

frames of mind, without reference to the direction he had elected to

follow.

The second period is continued from 1810 to 1816 and in its inner

signification is entirely concentrated in the struggle with France. This

period in contrast to the preceding, is distinguished by the pursuit

of one ruling idea, carried out with remarkable consecutiveness to the

end, an instance which is almost unique in the whole reign of Alexander.

Unexpectedly to all, to the astonishment of the whole world, in 1812,

he showed himself immovable and decided to be or not to be. Meanwhile

Napoleon, preparing himself for the invasion of Russia, had based

his political and military calculations upon the imaginary weakness

of Alexander’s character, and in this respect the conqueror’s hidden

thoughts corresponded with the secret calculations of his allies,

Metternich and Hardenburg. All these three enemies of Russia were however

destined to experience complete disenchantment. The ruling idea of

Alexander, which he then steadfastly followed, consisted in the overthrow

of Napoleon. [These two periods we have covered in the preceding chapter,

but we shall have occasion to revert to certain phases and incidents of

their development.]

The third period, beginning from the year 1816, finishes with the death

of the emperor Alexander in 1825. Historians usually call it the period

of congresses and of the preservation of order in Europe established by

them. It would be more exact and nearer to the truth to call this last

decade the period of reaction.

After the overthrow of Napoleon the emperor Alexander appears as a weary

martyr, wavering between the growing influence of Araktcheiev and his

own personal convictions which he had adopted in the days of his youth.

Amongst the reactionary measures which commenced in 1816 there can still

be traced bright gleams of the enthusiasms and dreams of his youth. The

speech pronounced in 1818 by the emperor at the opening of the Polish

diet testifies to this. But from the year 1820 a complete vanishing of

all the previous ideals to the realisation of which he had once aspired

with sincere enthusiasm, is to be observed. To this moral condition

was also united an incurable weariness of life, the signs of which had

already been observed in the emperor Alexander by Metternich at the

congress of Verona in 1822.

As we enter upon a closer analysis of the three periods into which

we have divided this reign, we remark another curious feature in the

development of Alexander. Metternich calls this phenomenon that of the

periodic evolutions of the emperor’s mind (_les évolutions périodiques de

son esprit_). The phenomenon was repeated with striking regularity about

every five years of his reign. Assimilating to himself any idea with

which he was inspired, Alexander gave himself up to it, unhesitatingly

and with full enthusiasm. The incubation required about two years, during

which the idea acquired for him the importance of a system; the third

year he remained faithful to the system chosen, he became more and more

attached to it, he listened with real enthusiasm to its upholders and

at such a time was inaccessible to any influence that might shake the

justness of the views he had adopted. The fourth year he grew disturbed

at the consequences which might possibly arise; the fifth year there

became observable a medley of the old and vanishing system with some new

idea which was beginning to take birth in his mind. This idea was usually

diametrically opposed to the one that had left his horizon. After that,

when he had assimilated the new convictions, he did not preserve any

remembrance of the ideas he had abandoned, beyond the obligations which

bound him to the various representatives of the former views.[b]

MINISTERIAL INFLUENCES; SPERANSKI AND ARAKTCHEIEV

[Sidenote: [1801-1815 A.D.]]

From 1806 to 1812 the preponderating influence over Alexander I was

that of Speranski. Son of a village priest, educated in a seminary, and

afterwards professor of mathematics and philosophy in the seminary of

Alexander Nevski, Speranski became preceptor to the children of Alexis

Kurakin, thanks to whom he quitted the ecclesiastical for a civil

career, and became secretary to Trochtchinski, who was then chancellor

of the imperial council. Later, after he had become director of the

department of the interior under Prince Kotchubei, Speranski rose to

the position of secretary of state and gained the complete confidence

of the emperor. The favourites of the preceding period had all been

imbued with English ideas; Speranski, on the contrary, loved France

and manifested a particular admiration for Napoleon. These French

sympathies, shared at the time by Alexander I, formed a new bond between

the prince and the minister which was not severed until the rupture with

Napoleon. “We know,” said Monsieur Bogdanovitch, “Alexander’s fondness

for representative forms and a constitutional government, but this taste

resembles that of a dilettante who goes into ecstacies over a fine

painting. Alexander early convinced himself that neither Russia’s vast

extent nor the constitution of civil society would permit the realisation

of his dream. From day to day he deferred the execution of his utopian

ideas, but delighted to discourse with his intimates upon the projected

constitution and the disadvantages of absolutism. To please the emperor,

Speranski ardently defended the principles of liberty, and by so doing

exposed himself to accusations of anarchy and of having conceived

projects dangerous to institutions that had received the consecration

of time and custom.” Painstaking, learned, and profoundly patriotic and

humane, he was the man best able to realise all that was practicable in

the ideas of Alexander.

Speranski presented to the sovereign a systematic plan of reform. The

imperial council received an extension of privileges. Composed as it

was of the chief dignitaries of the state, it became in a measure the

legislative power, and had the duty of examining new laws, extraordinary

measures, and ministerial reports; it was in reality a sketch of a

representative government. After the interview at Erfurt, during which

Napoleon had showed him marked attention, Speranski entered into

relations with the French legal writers, Locré, Legras, Dupont de

Nemours, and made them correspondents of the legislative commission of

the imperial council. The Code Napoleon was not adapted to any but a

homogeneous nation emancipated from personal and feudal servitude, with a

population whose members all enjoyed a certain equality before the law.

Thus to Speranski the emancipation of the serfs was the corner-stone

of regeneration. He dreamed of instituting a third estate, of limiting

the number of privileged classes, and of forming the great aristocratic

families into a peerage similar to that of England. He encouraged Count

Stroinovski to publish his pamphlet, _Rules to be Observed between

Proprietors and Serfs_. As early as 1809 he had decided that the holders

of university degrees should have the advantage over all others in

attaining the degrees of the _tchin_. Thus a doctor would at once enter

the eighth rank, a master of arts the ninth, a candidate the tenth, and a

bachelor the twelfth.

Like Turgot, the minister of Louis XVIII, and the Prussian reformer,

Stein, Speranski had aroused the hostility of everyone. The nobility

of court and ante-chamber, and all the young officials who wished to

rise by favour alone were exasperated by the ukase of 1809; proprietors

were alarmed at Speranski’s project for the emancipation of the serfs;

the senators were irritated by his plans for reorganisation which would

reduce the first governing body of the empire to the position of a

supreme court of justice; and the high aristocracy was incensed at the

boldness of a man of low condition, the son of a village priest. The

people themselves complained at the increase in taxation, all those whose

interests had been set aside united against the upstart; he was accused

of despising the time-honoured institutions of Moscow and of having

presented as a model to the Russians the Code Napoleon when the country

was on the eve of war with France. The ministers Balachev, Armfelt,

Guriev, Count Rostoptchin, Araktcheiev, and the grand duchess Catherine

Pavlovna, sister of the emperor, influenced Alexander against him.

Karamzin, the historian, addressed to the emperor an impassioned memoir

on _New and Old Russia_, in which he stepped forth as the champion of

serfdom, of the old laws, and of autocracy. Speranski’s enemy even went

to the length of denouncing him as a traitor and an accomplice of France.

In March, 1812, he was suddenly sent from the capital to Nijni-Novgorod

and afterwards deported to a distant post where he was subjected to

close surveillance. He was recalled in 1819, when passions had somewhat

cooled, and was appointed governor of Siberia. In 1821 he returned to St.

Petersburg, but did not recover his former position.

A new epoch now set in. The adversaries of Speranski, Armfelt, Schichkov,

and Rostoptchin attained high positions, but the acknowledged favourite

was Araktcheiev, the rough “corporal of Gachina,” born enemy to progress

and reform and apostle of absolute dominion and passive obedience. He

gained the confidence of Alexander, first by his devotion to the memory

of Paul, next by his punctuality, his unquestioning obedience, his

disinterestedness and habits of industry, and lastly by his ingenuous

admiration for the “genius of the emperor.” He was the most trustworthy

of servitors, the most imperious of superiors, and the most perfect

instrument for a reaction. His influence was not at once exclusive. After

having conquered Napoleon, Alexander looked upon himself as the liberator

of nations. He had set Germany free; he dealt leniently with France and

obtained for it a charter; he granted a constitution to Poland, with the

intention of extending its benefit to Russia. Though the censorship of

the press had recently forbidden the _Viestnik slovesnosti_ to criticise,

“the servants of his majesty,” Alexander had not entirely renounced his

utopian ideas. English Protestant influence succeeded to the influence of

France; French theatres were closed and Bible societies opened.

Nevertheless, this first period of favour for Araktcheiev soon became an

epoch of sterility; though reaction had not yet set in there had at least

come a decided pause. The reforms interrupted by the war of 1812 were not

to be again resumed. The code of Speranski had come to an end and all

efforts to compile one better suited to Russian traditions were of no

avail.[f]

EDUCATIONAL ADVANCES; THE LYCÉE AND THE LIBRARY

On the 23rd of January of the year 1811 was promulgated the statute of

the lycée of Tsarskoi Selo, which had been definitely worked out by

secretary of state Speranski. The aim of the establishment of the lycée

was the education of young men, and chiefly of those who were destined

to fill the most important posts of the government service. The following

circumstance was the primary cause of the foundation of this higher

educational establishment: although the emperor did not interfere in the

matter of the education of his younger brothers, the grand dukes Nicholas

and Michael Pavlovitch, which was entirely left to the empress, Marie

Feodorovna, a case soon presented itself where the emperor recognised

the necessity of departing from the rule he had established. The widowed

empress desired to send her sons to the university of Leipsic for the

completion of their studies; this was, however, firmly opposed by the

emperor, and instead he had the idea of establishing a lycée at Tsarskoi

Selo, where his younger brothers could assist at the public lectures.

A wing of the palace connected by a gallery with the chief building,

was adapted to this purpose, and the solemn opening of the Tsarskoi

Selo lycée took place on the 31st of October, 1811, in the presence of

the emperor Alexander. It commenced with a thanksgiving service in the

court chapel of Tsarskoi Selo, after which those present accompanied

the clergy who made the tour of the edifice, sprinkling it with holy

water. At the conclusion of the ecclesiastical ceremony, the imperial

charter given to the lycée was read in the hall of the building, and

the speeches began. Amongst them that of the adjunct professor Kunitzin

earned the special approbation of the emperor for the art with which it

avoided generalisations and dwelt on the beneficence of the founder. In

conclusion, Alexander inspected the premises allotted to the students,

and was present at their dinner table.

[Illustration: TOWER OF IVAN VELIKA, MOSCOW]

The year 1811 was also signalised by the completion of the building

of the Kazan cathedral, the first stone of which had been laid by the

emperor Alexander on the 8th of September, 1801. The constructor of the

cathedral was the Russian architect Andrew Nikivorovitch Voroniknin.

The building committee was under the direction of the president of the

Academy of Arts, Count Alexander Stroganov. The building of the cathedral

took ten years, and on the 27th of September, 1811, on the anniversary of

the emperor’s coronation, the solemn consecration of the new cathedral

took place in the presence of the emperor. Count Stroganov was that day

elevated to the dignity of actual privy councillor of the first rank. He

was not destined to enjoy for long the completion of his work: ten days

later he died.

In the very thick of the preparations for war, and amidst such agitating

political circumstances as had been unknown till then, the emperor

Alexander continued to labour for the enlightenment of his subjects.

Notable among his acts at this time was the foundation of a public

library. Catherine II’s idea of founding in the capital a library for

general use, and of rendering it accessible to all, was only brought to

fulfilment by Alexander. A special edifice was built with this object;

its construction had been already commenced during Catherine’s reign.

By 1812 all the preliminary work in the building of this library was

completed, and on the 14th of January the emperor honoured the newly

constructed library with a visit, and examined in detail all its

curiosities. Following on this the “draft of detailed rules for the

administration of the Imperial Public Library” was ratified by his

majesty on the 7th of March.

The events of 1812, however, deferred the actual opening of the library:

soon measures had to be thought of to save its treasures. The opening

ceremony took place, therefore, two years later, in 1814, on the 14th

of January, the anniversary of the day on which the emperor Alexander

made his gracious visit to the library, on the memorable occasion of its

founding.

A great many festivities took place at the Russian court upon the

occasion of the marriage of the grand duke Nicholas Pavlovitch with the

princess Charlotte of Prussia (July 13th, 1817). About the same time

(July 31st, 1817), a modest festival was celebrated at Tsarskoi Selo--the

first distribution of prizes to students of the lycée. On that day the

emperor Alexander, accompanied by Prince A. N. Galitzin, was present

in the conference hall of the institution he had founded; he himself

distributed the prizes and certificates to the pupils, and after having

announced the awards to be given to them and their teachers he left,

bidding a fatherly farewell to all. The poet Pushkin was amongst the

students who took part in the festival.

EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM ST. PETERSBURG

The year 1815, which had been filled with a series of unexpected events,

terminated with an important administrative measure which no one had

foreseen. On the 18th of January, 1817, an imperial ukase was issued

ordering the immediate expulsion of all the monks of the order of Jesuits

from St. Petersburg, and at the same time forbidding their entry into

either of the two capitals. In the middle of the night they were provided

with fur cloaks, and warm boots, and despatched in carts to the residence

of their brethren at Polotsk.[60] It was enjoined in this ukase that the

Catholic church in St. Petersburg should be “placed on the same footing

that had been established during the reign of the empress Catherine

II and which had endured up to the year 1800.” This expulsion put an

end to the pedagogical activity of the Jesuits in St. Petersburg. The

words of N. J. Turgeniev, spoken in the year 1812 and addressed to his

successor Gruber, the Berezovski Jesuit, were, in fact, realised for

the order in the most unpleasant way. He said: “This is the beginning

of the end; you will now do so much that you will be sent away.” The

government was compelled to have recourse to decisive measures in view

of cases of conversion to Catholicism amongst the orthodox pupils of the

Jesuit school in St. Petersburg; besides which the influence of Jesuit

propaganda was spreading in a remarkable way amongst the ladies of the

high society of St. Petersburg.

This measure, however, did not put a limit to the misfortunes that

descended upon the Jesuits during the reign of Alexander. A few years

later (on the 25th of March, 1820) the order was given that the Jesuits

should be expelled finally from Russia, adding that they were not under

any aspect or denomination to be allowed to return; and at the same time

the Polotsk academy was suppressed, as well as all the schools depending

on it.

LIBERATION OF THE PEASANTS OF THE BALTIC PROVINCES (1816-1818 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1816-1818 A.D.]]

The nobility of Esthonia had in 1811 announced their desire of giving

up their rights of servitude over their peasants. In the year 1816

this intention led to the confirmation of the establishment of the

Esthonian peasants upon a new footing, according to which the individual

right of servitude was abolished. The nobility kept the land as their

property, and the relations between the peasants and the landowners were

from thenceforth based upon mutual agreement by free will contracts

conformable with rules determining essential conditions; a period of

transition was appointed for bringing in the new order of things. After

the first trial, the individual, landless liberation of the peasants

spread throughout the Baltic provinces and in other governments--namely,

in Courland in 1817 and in Livonia in 1819. The introduction of the

new order of things was everywhere accomplished without any particular

difficulty.

In expressing to the Livonian nobility his satisfaction upon the occasion

of the reform effectuated, the emperor Alexander said: “I rejoice that

the Livonian nobility has justified my expectations. Your example

deserves imitation. You have acted in accordance with the spirit of the

times and have understood that liberal principles alone can serve as

a basis for the happiness of nations.” From these words it is evident

that the emperor entertained, according to Shishkov’s expression, an

unfortunate prejudice against the right of servitude in Russia, and

it appeared to many that in other parts of the empire words would be

followed by deeds.[61]

From the year 1816, the peasant question began to occupy society. The

aide-de-camp of his majesty, Kisselev, even presented a memoir to the

emperor which bore the title _Of the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

in Russia_. The memoir began with the words: “Civic liberty is the

foundation of national prosperity. This truth is so undoubted that I

consider it superfluous here to explain how desirable it is that the

lawful independence of which serfs and agriculturists, are unjustly

deprived, should be established for them throughout the empire. I

consider this measure the more needful now that the progress of

enlightenment and our closer contact with Europe, which hourly increases

the fermentation of minds, indicate to the government the necessity of

averting the consequences which may follow, and whose menace it would be

already difficult or impossible to deny. The blood in which the French

Revolution was steeped bears witness to this.” In what manner the emperor

Alexander regarded the memoir presented by his aide-de-camp, and what

fate overtook this production of his pen has remained unknown.

P. D. Kisselev was not the only nobleman who recognised the urgent

necessity of the government’s occupying itself with the peasant question.

The following circumstance serves as a proof of this: in this same year,

1816, many of the richest landowners of the government of St. Petersburg,

knowing the emperor’s moral aspirations to better the lot of the peasant

serfs, decided to turn them into obligatory settlers upon the basis

of the then existing regulations. The act was drawn up and signed by

sixty-five landowners; it only remained to take it to be ratified by the

emperor, and for this purpose the general aide-de-camp J. V. Vasiltchikov

was chosen. Those who had taken part in the signature of the act supposed

that the emperor knew nothing of the meetings that had taken place on

the occasion and were convinced that he would receive graciously a

proposition, which was in accordance with his manner of thinking. But the

emperor Alexander was aware of the determination of the nobles and hardly

had Vasiltchikov, after requesting permission to present himself to his

majesty, begun to speak of the matter, when Alexander, interrupting

him, inquired: “To whom, in your opinion, does the legislative power

belong in Russia?” And when Vasiltchikov replied: “Without doubt to your

imperial majesty as an autocratic emperor,” Alexander, raising his voice,

said, “Then leave it to me to promulgate such laws as I consider most

beneficial to my subjects.”

The emperor’s reply gave little hope of a favourable solution of this

important question. In the then existing state of affairs, the matter

could not avoid passing through the hands of Araktcheiev. This indeed

actually happened. In February, 1818, before the departure of the emperor

Alexander from Moscow for Warsaw to open the first Polish diet, Count

Araktcheiev announced that his majesty had deigned to issue an edict for

the liberation of landowners’ peasants from the condition of serfdom,

with the stipulation that the edict should not in any of its measures be

oppressive to the landowners, and especially that it should not present

anything of a violent character in its accomplishment on the part of

the government: but, on the contrary, that it should be accompanied by

advantages for the landowners and awaken in them a desire to co-operate

with the government in the abolition of the conditions of serfdom in

Russia, an abolition corresponding to the spirit of the times and the

progress of education, and indispensable for the future tranquillity of

the possessors of serfs.

THE EMPEROR AND THE QUAKERS

In 1814, at the time of the emperor Alexander’s stay in London, the

famous philanthropist Quakers, De Grelle de Mobillier,[62] and Allen, had

been inspired with the idea of taking advantage of a favourable occasion,

and instilling into the minds of the allied sovereigns the conviction

that the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of justice and truth. With this

object they first set off to visit the king of Prussia, who received

them and praised the Quakers living in his dominions, but expressed his

conviction that war is indispensable for the attainment of peace. The

emperor Alexander showed them more sympathy; he visited a Quaker meeting

and received a deputation. The emperor assured the Quakers that he was in

agreement with the greater part of their opinions, and that although on

account of his exceptional position his mode of action must be other than

theirs, yet he was in union with them in the spiritual worship of Christ.

In taking leave of the Quakers, Alexander invited them to come to see him

in Russia and said: “I bid you farewell as a friend and brother.”

Grelle and Allen arrived in St. Petersburg in November, 1818, during

the emperor’s absence. They went to Prince A. N. Galitzin, of whom

Grelle wrote: “He is a man penetrated by a truly Christian spirit.”

Galitzin received the Quakers with an open heart and informed them that

the emperor had sent him a letter telling him of their coming to Russia

and requesting that they might be received as his friends. After various

questions upon religious matters the Quakers, together with Prince

Galitzin, gave themselves up to silent, inward meditation, and this

method, writes Grelle, “did not appear at all unknown to the prince.

Inspired by the love of Christ, we felt in ourselves, after silent,

heartfelt prayer, the beneficent moving of grace. In taking leave of the

prince, he offered us free access to all that could interest us--to the

prisons, to reformatory institutions, and to refuges for the poor.”

Their visit to the St. Petersburg prisons deeply agitated the pious

Quakers; according to Grelle’s observations, some of them were very

dirty and overrun with vermin; the odour was unbearable and the air

contaminated to such a degree that it affected the heads and lungs of the

visitors. The Quakers also inspected a few refuges and schools.

On a subsequent evening the emperor Alexander received the Quakers alone.

He called them his old friends, made them sit beside him on the sofa, and

called to mind with inward emotion their interview in London in 1814,

saying that it had given him the spirit of courage and firmness amidst

all the difficult circumstances in which he was then placed. “The emperor

then,” writes Grelle, “suggested to us some questions upon religious

matters, thus showing his sincere desire to progress in the saving

knowledge of truth. He further questioned us as to what we had seen and

done in Russia. We took advantage of the opportunity to relate to him

the distressing condition of the prisons; and in particular we directed

his attention to the wretched state of the prison in Åbo, and told him

about an unfortunate man who had been kept in irons there for nineteen

years. The emperor was touched by our narrative and said, ‘This ought not

to be; it shall not occur again.’” The Quakers also informed the emperor

how deeply grieved they had been to see, upon inspecting one of the

schools, that the pupils were given books to read that were pernicious

to their morals; after which they showed him a specimen of extracts they

had made from the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools. The emperor

remained wrapped in thought for a moment, and then turning to his

companions, he observed: “You have done precisely what I much desired. I

have often thought that schools might serve as a powerful instrument for

the furtherance of the kingdom of Christ, by leading the people to the

knowledge of the Saviour and the principles of true piety. Send me as

soon as possible all that you have succeeded in preparing.”

The conversation then touched on Daniel Villers, also a Quaker, whom the

emperor had called to St. Petersburg to drain the marshes; Alexander said

that he regarded his presence in Russia as a blessing to the people.

“It was not the draining of the marshes,” added the emperor, “nor any

other material necessity that was the cause of my inviting some of your

‘friends’ to come here; no, I was guided by the wish that their true

piety, their probity, and other virtues might serve as an example for my

people to imitate.”

In conclusion the emperor said, “Before we separate, let us try to spend

some time in common prayer.” “We willingly consented,” writes Grelle in

regard to this matter, “feeling that the Lord with his beneficent power

was near us. Some time passed in silent, inward contemplation; our souls

were humbled, and a little later I felt within me the heavenly breathing

of the spirit of prayer and compunction; enfolded by the spirit, I bent

my knees before the greatness of God; the emperor knelt beside me. Amidst

the inward outpourings of the soul we felt that the Lord had consented

to hear our prayers. After that we spent a little while longer in silence

and then withdrew. In bidding us farewell the emperor expressed the

desire to see us again before we left. We spent two hours with him.”

After this remarkable audience, which so graphically expresses the

religious-idealistic frame of mind of the emperor Alexander, the Quakers

visited under the patronage of the widowed empress the female educational

establishments, the young pupils of which aroused much sympathy in them.

Grelle found that some of them had hearts open for receiving evangelical

inspiration. These visits were followed by the reception of the Quakers

by the empress Marie Feodorovna. They told the empress that they were

much pleased at the condition of the institutions under her patronage,

but at the same time they could not be otherwise than grieved to see how

little attention was paid in St. Petersburg, and in general throughout

Russia, to the education of children of the lower classes; they also

spoke to the empress of the unsatisfactoriness of the then existing

prison accommodations for women, and indicated how advantageous it would

be if the prisons were visited by women capable of instructing and

consoling the unfortunate prisoners. The empress entirely agreed with

these ideas.

[Illustration: RUSSIAN PRIEST]

Soon the emperor again invited the Quakers to come and see him. “He again

received us in his private apartments,” writes Grelle, “to which we

were taken by a secret way, avoiding the guard and the court servants.

Nobody seemed surprised to see us keeping our heads covered. The emperor,

as before, received us with sincere affability. He began by informing

us that the chains in which we had seen the prisoners at Åbo had been

taken off, that the unfortunate man of whom we had told him had been

set at liberty, and that orders had been given that the other prisoners

were to be better treated. He then asked us to relate to him openly

all that we had noticed in the prisons during our stay in Russia. The

governor-general (Count Miloradovitch) had informed him of the changes

and improvements which he considered it advantageous to carry out in the

gaols, and the emperor entirely approved of the changes that had already

been made. He further told us that the widowed empress had spoken to

him with pleasure of our visit to her; that she had taken to heart what

we had said of the extreme neglect of the education of children of the

poorer classes, and that she was occupying herself in searching for the

most effectual measures of remedying this defect as soon as possible. The

emperor added that he had named a certain sum of money to be used for

the establishment of six schools for poor children in the capital, and

that the children were to receive there a religious and moral education.

He further told us that he had attentively perused the books we had

prepared and was delighted with them; that if we had only come to Russia

to do this, we had already accomplished a very important work, and that

he intended to bring our books into use throughout all the schools of his

empire.”

Before their departure for Moscow the emperor received his old friends

a third time, and on this occasion he related to them various details

of how he had himself been educated under the supervision of his

grandmother, the empress Catherine. “The persons attached to me,” said

he, “had some good qualities, but they were not believing Christians and

therefore my primary education was not united with any profound moral

impressions; in accordance with the customs of our church, I was taught

formally to repeat morning and evening certain prayers I had learned; but

this habit, which did not in any wise satisfy the inward requirements of

my religious feelings, soon wearied me. Meanwhile it happened more than

once that, when I lay down to rest, I had a lively feeling in my soul of

my sins, and of the various moral deficiencies of my mode of life; thus

penetrated by heartfelt repentance I was moved by a desire to rise from

my bed and in the silence of the night to throw myself upon my knees and

with tears ask God for forgiveness and for strength to preserve greater

watchfulness over myself in future. This contrition of heart continued

for some time; but little by little, in the absence of moral support

on the part of the persons who surrounded me, I began to feel more

seldom and more feebly these salutary movings of grace. Sin, together

with worldly distractions, began to reign more and more within my soul.

Finally, in 1812, the Lord in his love and mercy, again called to me, and

the former movings of grace were renewed with fresh strength in my heart.

At that period a certain pious person[63] advised me to take to reading

the Holy Scriptures and gave me a Bible, a book which until then I had

never had in my hands. I devoured the Bible finding that its words shed

a new and never previously experienced peace in my heart, and satisfied

the thirst of my soul. The Lord in his goodness granted me his Spirit to

understand what I read; and to this inward instruction and enlightenment

I owe all the spiritual good that I acquired by the reading of the divine

Word; this is why I look upon inward enlightenment or instruction from

the Holy Ghost as the firmest support in the soul--saving knowledge of

God.”

The emperor then related to his companions how deeply his soul was

penetrated with the desire to abolish forever wars and bloodshed upon

earth. “He said,” writes Grelle, “that he had passed many nights without

sleep in strained and intense deliberation as to how this sacred desire

could be realised, and in deep grief at the thought of the innumerable

calamities and misfortunes that are occasioned by war. At that time

when his soul was thus bowed down in ardent prayer to the Saviour the

idea arose in him of inviting the crowned heads to unite in one holy

alliance, before the tribunal of which all future disagreements that

should arise should be settled, instead of having recourse to the sword

and to bloodshed. This idea took such possession of him that he got up

from his bed, expounded his feelings and aspirations in writing with such

liveliness and ardour that his intentions were subjected on the part of

many to unmerited suspicion and misinterpretation--‘Although,’ added

he with a sigh, ‘ardent love for God and mankind was the sole motive

that governed me.’ Thoughts of the formation of the Holy Alliance again

arose in him during his stay in Paris. After we had spent some time in

conversing on this important subject, the emperor said to us: ‘And thus

we part, in this world, but I firmly trust that we, being separated by

space, will however remain by the goodness of the spirit of God forever

united through inward spiritual fellowship, for in the kingdom of God

there are no limitations of space. Now, before we part, I have one

request to make to you: let us join in silent prayer and see if the Lord

will not consent to manifest his gracious presence to us, as he did the

last time.’

“We gladly consented to fulfil his desire. A solemn silence followed

during which we felt that the Lord was amongst us; our souls were

reverently opened before him and he himself was working within us through

his grace. Somewhat later, I felt, through the breathing of the love of

Christ, the lively desire of saying a few words of approbation to our

beloved emperor in order to encourage him to walk with firm steps in

the Lord’s way and to put his whole trust, unto the end of his earthly

journeyings, in the efficaciousness of the divine grace; in general I

felt the necessity of guarding him from evil and strengthening him in his

good intention of ever following the path of truth and righteousness. The

words that I said produced a profound impression upon the emperor and

he shed burning tears. Then our dear Allen, kneeling, raised a fervent

prayer to God for the emperor and his people. The emperor himself fell

on his knees beside him and remained a long while with us in spiritual

outpourings before the Lord. Finally we solemnly and touchingly took

leave of each other.”

SECRET SOCIETIES UNDER ALEXANDER I

[Illustration: A VALDAI WOMAN]

After the year 1815, when the emperor Alexander already appeared as a

weary martyr, immersed in mystic contemplation and wavering between

the evergrowing influence of Count Araktcheiev and the convictions he

had himself formed in the days of his youth, the events of 1812 were

reflected in a totally different manner upon the movement of social ideas

in Russia. The war of the fatherland was accompanied in Russia by an

unusual rising of the spirit of the nation and a remarkable awakening of

the public conscience. The continuation of the struggle with Napoleon

beyond the frontiers of Russia had led Alexander’s troops to Paris. This

enforced military exploit widened the horizon of the Russian people; they

became acquainted with European manners and customs, were in closer

contact with the current of European thought, and felt drawn towards

political judgment. It was quite natural that the Russian people should

begin to compare the order of things in their own country with political

and public organisation abroad. An unrestrainable impulse to criticise

and compare was awakened; thenceforth it was difficult to become

reconciled to the former status of Russian life and the traditional order

of things.

It will be asked what abuses presented themselves to the gaze of the

Russian conquerors, who had liberated Europe, upon their return to their

country. An entire absence of respect for the rights of the individual

was patent; the forcible introduction of monstrous military settlements,

the exploits of Magnitski and others of his kind in the department of

public instruction were crying shames; and, finally, the cruelties

of serfdom were in full activity. The subtile exactions which then

prevailed in service at the front completed the development of general

dissatisfaction amongst military circles. There is, therefore, nothing

astonishing in the fact that the misfortunes which then weighed upon the

Russian people should have found an answering call in the hearts of men

who were at that time in the grip of a violent patriotic revival.

The natural consequence of this joyless condition of affairs in Russia

was a hidden protest, which led to the formation of secret societies.

Under the then existing conditions there was no possibility of carrying

on reformatory deliberations with the cognisance of the government. Thus

a remarkable phenomenon was accomplished; on the one hand Russian public

thought was seeking for itself an issue and solution of the questions

that oppressed it; while on the other the emperor Alexander, disenchanted

with his former political ideals and standing at the head of the European

reaction, had become the unexpected champion of aspirations which had

nothing in common with the ideas of which he had been the representative

during the best period of his life. This circumstance made a break in

the interior life of Russia, which imperceptibly prepared the ground for

events until then unprecedented in Russian history. “What has become of

liberalism?” is a question that one of the contemporaries of that epoch

sets himself. “It seems to have vanished, to have disappeared from the

face of the earth; everything is silent. And yet it is just at this

instant that its hidden forces have begun to grow dangerous.” The time

had come when secret societies were in full bloom. The masonic lodges,

which had been allowed by the government, had long since accustomed the

Russian nobility to the form of secret societies. Officers’ circles,

in which conversations were carried on about the wounds of Russia, the

obduracy of the people, the distressing position of the soldier, the

indifference of society to the affairs of the country, imperceptibly

changed into organised secret societies.

It happened that yet another time the emperor Alexander expressed the

conviction that the interior administration of Russia ought to be thought

of, that it was necessary that means should be taken for remedying the

evil; but the sovereign did not pass from words to deeds. In reference to

this, the ideas expressed by Alexander to the governor of Penza, T. P.

Lubianovski, on the occasion of his visit to that town in 1824 are worthy

of attention. The emperor had inspected the second infantry corps there

assembled; the manœuvres had deserved particular praise. Observing signs

of weariness on the emperor’s face, Lubianovski ventured to remark that

the empire had reason to complain of his majesty.

“Why?” “You will not take care of yourself.” “You mean to say that I am

tired?” replied the emperor. “It is impossible to look at the troops

without satisfaction; the men are good, faithful and excellently trained;

we have gained no little glory through them. Russia has enough glory; she

does not require more; it would be a mistake to require more. But when I

think how little has been as yet done in the interior of the empire, then

the thought lies on my heart like a ten-pound weight. That is what makes

me tired.”

The profoundly true thought that fell from the lips of the sovereign in

his conversation with Lubianovski was not, however, put into application.

At that period it was impossible to count upon the amendment of the state

edifice through the administrations of the government. The dim figure of

Araktcheiev had definitively succeeded in screening Russia from the gaze

of Alexander, and his evil influence was felt at every step. Therefore

in the main everything led to the sorrowful result that the emperor, as

Viguel expressed it, was like a gentleman who, having grown tired of

administering his own estate, had given it over entirely into the hands

of a stern steward, being thus sure that the peasants would not become

spoiled under him.

A few words remain to be said of the fate that overtook the secret

societies after the closing of the Alliance of the Public Good.

Benkendorf’s[64] supposition that a new and more secret society would be

formed after this, which would act under the veil of greater security,

was actually justified. The more zealous members of the alliance only

joined together more closely, and from its ruins arose two fresh

alliances--the Northern and the Southern.

The leaders of the Northern Alliance in the beginning were Muraviev and

Turgeniev. Later on, in 1823, Kondratz Bileiev entered the society, of

which he became the leader. The aspirations of the Northern Alliance

were of a constitutional-monarchic character. In the Southern Alliance,

chiefly composed of members of the second army, the principal leader was

the commander of the Viatka infantry regiment, Colonel Paul Pestel, son

of the former governor-general of Siberia. Thanks to Pestel’s influence

the Southern Alliance acquired a preponderating republican tendency; he

occupied himself with the composition of a work which he called _Russian

Truth_, in which he expounded his ideas on the reconstruction of Russia.

Many members of this society inclined to the conviction that the death of

the emperor Alexander and even the extermination of the entire imperial

family were indispensable to the successful realisation of their proposed

undertakings; at any rate there is no doubt that conversations to this

effect were carried on amongst the members of the secret societies.

Soon the active propaganda of the members of the Southern Society

called another society into existence--the Slavonic Alliance or the

United Slavonians. In it was chiefly concentrated the radical element

from the midst of the future Dekabrists. The members of this society

proposed insane and violent projects and insisted chiefly on the speedy

commencement of decisive action, giving only a secondary importance to

deliberations on the constitutional form of government. Sergei Nuraviev

Apostol called them mad dogs chained.

There yet remained a better means for strengthening the designs of the

secret societies--this was to enter into relations with the Polish secret

societies. Negotiations with the representative of the Polish patriotic

alliance, Prince Tablonovski, were personally carried on by Pestel; but

the details of this agreement are even now little known. Such was the

dangerous and fruitless path into which many of the best representatives

of thinking Russia were drawn: each year the crisis became more and

more inevitable; and meanwhile the government became more decisively

confirmed than ever in the pathway of reaction, thus indirectly giving

greater power to secret revolutionary propaganda.

_Closing of the Masonic Lodges_

In August, 1822, a rescript was issued in the name of the minister of the

interior, ordering the closing of all secret societies, under whatever

name they might exist--masonic lodges or others--and forbidding their

establishment in future. All members of these societies had to pledge

themselves not to form any masonic lodges or other secret societies in

the future; and a declaration was required from all ranks of the army

and from the civil service that neither soldiers nor officials should

thenceforth belong to such organisations: “If any person refuses to make

such a pledge, he shall no longer remain in the service.”

All the measures drawn up by the rescript of August were, however, put

into effect only with regard to the closing of the masonic lodges. As

to the secret societies, which had undoubtedly a political aim, they

continued to develop in all tranquillity. “At that time,” writes a

contemporary, “there was a triple police in St. Petersburg--namely, the

governor general, the minister of the interior, and Count Araktcheiev;

but that it did not bring forth any advantages is proved by the events of

1825.”

According to the remarks of the same contemporary, card-playing had then

spread in St. Petersburg society to an incredible degree. “Certainly

in ninety houses out of a hundred they play,” writes Danilevski, “and

although the circle of my acquaintances has become very vast this year

and I go out a great deal yet I never see people doing anything else

than playing at cards. If one is invited to an evening party, it means

cards, and I have hardly made my bow to the hostess before I find the

cards in my hand. When one is asked out to dinner one sits down to

whist before the meal is served. Card-playing occupies not only elderly

people but young ones also. I think this has arisen partly from a

defect in education which is in general observable in Russia--for when

education finishes at seventeen, what store of ideas and knowledge, what

passion for science can one expect to find in adults? This condition is

further exaggerated by the fact that all political matters are banished

from conversation: the government is suspicious, and spies are not

unfrequently to be met with in society. The greater part of them are,

however, known; some belong to old noble families, are decorated with

orders, and wear chamberlains’ keys.”

The closing of the masonic lodges called forth the following

deliberations from Danilevski: “As far as I know, masonry had no other

object in Russia beyond benevolence and providing an agreeable way of

passing time. The closing of the lodges deprived us of the only places

where we assembled for anything else besides card-playing, for we have

no society where cards do not constitute the principal or rather the

only occupation. We are as yet so unversed in political matters that it

is absurd for the government to fear that such subjects would furnish

conversation at the masonic lodges. With us, notable persons have rarely

been masons; at least none such have visited our lodge, which is usually

full of people of the middle class, officers, civil-service employees,

artists, a very few merchants, and a large percentage of literary men.”[b]

These of course are the words of a partisan and must be taken with

a certain allowance. The same remark applies with full force to the

testimony of the historian Turgeniev, whose association with the secret

unions has already been mentioned, and whose comments on the subject,

despite a certain bias, are full of interest. Turgeniev is speaking of

the period just following that in which the government had taken action

against the societies.[a]

_Turgeniev’s Comment on the Secret Societies._

The government contributed much [he declares] by its suspicions and

precautions, to strengthen the reports which were afloat concerning

secret societies: to them all was suspect. A species of insurrection

having broken out in a regiment of the guards, of which the emperor was

head, the government thought they could trace it to the action of some

society, whereas it was caused by the brutal and ridiculous conduct of a

new colonel they had placed in command. That such was their conviction

there was no doubt, because two of the officers of the insurrectionary

companies were traduced before a council of war, and condemned, not only

without any proof but with no specification of the crime or fault with

which they were charged, whereas in reality neither the one nor the other

officer had ever belonged to a secret society.

A rash Englishman took it into his head to go round the world and publish

an account of his travels. He arrived at St. Petersburg, went over

Russia, and thence to Siberia. There he was taken for a spy, and soon an

order came from St. Petersburg to conduct him to the frontier. Even pious

Protestant missionaries, propagating with their accustomed zeal Christian

morals among savage peoples, were suspected by the government. They were

hindered in the holy warfare they desired to carry on in the farthest

and least civilised regions of the empire. The powers only saw in them

emissaries of European liberalism.

The public for their part did not fail to take appearances for reality.

That is the common propensity of the crowd in every country. How many

times, before and after this epoch, might not men have been seen

addressing themselves to those who were supposed to be at the head of

such societies, and insistently asking to be admitted. In the army

subalterns thus addressed their chiefs, and old generals sought their

young subordinates to obtain the same favour. It might have been said

with equal truth to both parties that no secret societies existed. Men’s

minds, however, were all on the strain for political events. It was

thought that some great change was to come soon, and everyone wanted

to get an inkling of it. Restless curiosity was not the worst of the

inconveniences caused to such associations. Doubtless, the evil was less

due to societies than to persons who judged them after their deceitful

appearances. Perhaps it was the fault of the political order which made

secret societies necessary or, at any rate, inevitable; but it was

nevertheless a serious matter which only publicity could remedy. The

strong energy of a free man would advantageously replace the trickery and

restlessness of a slave.

However, at the epoch of which we now speak, individuals were able to

agitate in various ways, but without the least result. But if such a

thing as an organised secret society did exist, how is it I did not know

of it--I who knew many of those called liberals? I will give convincing

proof of what I here maintain; I quote the words of Pestel, a man sent

to the scaffold by the government not because he had committed some

political crime but because he was considered as the most influential of

those who were supposed to belong to secret associations. Pestel was in

St. Petersburg just as my departure was decided on. He came to see me

and spoke with regret of the dissolution of the Bien Public Society. “As

for us” (the 2nd army), he said, “we have not observed the dissolution.

It would be too disheartening. We are believed to be strong and numerous;

I encourage the delusion. What would be said were it known that we are

but five or six who form the association?” He ended by advising me to

renounce my journey, or, at any rate to return as soon as possible and

take up the abandoned work again. “I see quite well,” he said, “there is

absolutely nothing left here of the old society, but at your house and a

few others one can always believe in the existence of the society. Your

departure will weaken this belief.”

[Illustration: A TATAR WOMAN]

I explained that my health forced me to leave my affairs, and that,

furthermore, I had little faith in the efficacy of secret societies. He

seemed impressed by my reasoning and even agreed that I might be right on

this last point.

His attention was much occupied with certain social theories that he

and some of his friends had formulated. They thought to find in me one

proselyte more. But they were disappointed, and Pestel was much surprised

and disconcerted. These theories, which so many ardent imaginations had

adopted, were no doubt excellent in intention, but they hardly promised

great results. The genius, or something akin to it, in a Fourier, the

zeal of an Owen, the utopianism of many others, might make proselytes

and excite admiration; but the dreams of such men remained but dreams

although they sometimes touched on the sublime. Only, in default of

possible realisation, these theories might help humanity by directing the

attention and effort of serious men towards certain things of which they

had sufficiently appreciated the importance and utility. But to ensure

that result more imagination was required. One of the fundamental points

in the theory of Pestel and his friends was a universal distribution

of territory, its cultivation to be determined by a supreme authority.

At least they wanted to divide vast crown lands among those who had no

property. What Elizabeth had guaranteed to all Englishmen--the right

of being supported by the poor rates in default of other means of

subsistence--they wanted to guarantee by means of the possession or at

least the enjoyment of a certain quantity of land free for cultivation.

I tried to the best of my power to refute their arguments. It was not

easy. The refutation of certain theories is difficult, and there are some

whose very absurdity makes them unassailable. At last I came to think

that Pestel and his friends were far more discontented with my opposition

to their social theories than with my opinions on secret societies.[d]

LITERARY ACTIVITY OF THE PERIOD

The awakening of the Russian spirit was not manifested in political

conspiracies alone. In science, in letters, and in art the reign of

Alexander was an epoch of magnificent achievement. The intellectual like

the liberal movement no longer bore the exotic and superficial character

that had been apparent during the reign of Catherine; it penetrated to

the deepest layers of society, gained constantly in power and extent,

carried away the middle classes, and was propagated in the remotest

provinces. The movement started in 1801 had not yet ceased, although

the government failed to support the efforts it had itself aroused,

and Alexander, embittered and disillusioned, had come to mistrust all

intellectual manifestations. The increased severity of the censorship

had not availed to prevent the formation of learned societies; literary

journals and reviews continued to multiply.

During this period the Besieda, a literary club representing the

classical tendencies, was formed, and the romanticists, Jukovski,

Dachkov, Ouvarov, Pushkin, Bludov, and Prince Viazemski founded the

Arzamas. At St. Petersburg appeared the _Northern Post_, the _St.

Petersburg Messenger_, the _Northern Messenger_, the _Northern Mercury_,

the _Messenger of Zion_, the _Beehive_, and the _Democrat_, in which

latter Kropotkov inveighed against French customs and ideas, and in the

_Funeral Orison of my Dog Balabas_ congratulated the worthy animal on

never having studied in a university, or read Voltaire.

Literary activity was, as usual, greatest at Moscow, where Karamzine

was editing the _European Messenger_, Makarov the _Moscow Mercury_, and

Glinka the _Russian Messenger_. In his journal Glinka endeavoured to

excite a national feeling by first putting the people on their guard

against all foreign influence, but more particularly that of France,

and then arming them against Napoleon, teaching them the doctrine of

self-immolation, and letting loose the furies of the “patriotic war.”

When the _Russian Messenger_ went out of existence after the completion

of its task, the _Son of the Soil_, edited by de Gretch, took up the

same work and carried the war against Napoleon beyond the frontiers.

“Taste in advance,” it cried to the conqueror, “the immortality that you

deserve; learn now the curses that posterity will shower on your name!

You sit on your throne in the midst of thunder and flame as Satan sits in

hell surrounded by death, devastation, and fire!” The _Russian Invalide_

was founded in 1813 for the benefit of wounded and infirm soldiers.

Even after the war-fever had somewhat subsided, and considerations less

hostile to France were occupying the public mind, the literary movement

still continued.

Almost all the writers of the day took part in the crusade against

Gallomania and the belief in Napoleon’s omnipotence. Some had fought

in the war against France and their writings were deeply tinged with

patriotic feeling. Krilov, whose fables rank him not far below La

Fontaine, wrote comedies also. In the _School for Young Ladies_ and the

_Milliner’s Shop_ he ridiculed the exaggerated taste for everything

French. Besides his classical tragedies Ozerov wrote _Dmitri Donskoi_,

in which he recalled the struggles of Russia against the Tatars, and in

a measure foretold the approaching conflict with a new invader. In the

tragedy named after Pojarski, the hero of 1812, Kriukovski made allusions

of the same order. The poet Jukovski put in verse the exploits of the

Russians against Napoleon in 1806 and 1812, and Rostoptchin did not await

the great crisis before opening out on the French the vials of his wrath.

Viewed in general, the literature of Alexander’s period marked the

passage from the imitation of ancient writers and French classicists to

the imitation of French and English masterpieces. The Besieda and the

Arzamas were the headquarters of two rival armies which carried on in

Russia a war similar to that waged in Paris by romantic and classical

schools. Schiller, Goethe, Byron, and Shakespeare were as much the

fashion in Russia as in France, and created there as close an approach

to a literary scandal. While Ozerov, Batiuchkov, and Derjavine upheld

the traditions of the old school, Jukovski gave to Russia a translation

of Schiller’s _Joan of Arc_ and of Byron’s _Prisoner of Chillon_; and

Pushkin published _Ruslan and Liudmilla_, _The Prisoner of the Caucasus_,

_Eugene Oniegin_, the poem _Poltava_, and the tragedy _Boris Godunov_.

As in France the romantic movement had been accompanied by a brilliant

revival of historical studies, so in Russia a fresh impulse was given

to letters, and dramatists and novelists were inspired with a taste for

national subjects by Karamzin’s _History of the Russian Empire_, a work

remarkable for eloquence and charm [as our various extracts testify]

though deficient in critical insight. Schlötzer had recently edited

Nestor, the old annalist of Kiev and father of Russian history.[f]

_Alexander I as a Patron of Literature_

Protection and encouragement were shown to literature by Alexander

I. Storck[i] writes as follows: “Rarely has any ruler shown such

encouragement to literature as Alexander I. The remarkable literary

merits of persons in the government service are rewarded by rises in the

official ranks, by orders and pensions, whilst writers who are not in the

government service and whose literary productions come to the knowledge

of the emperor not unfrequently receive presents of considerable value.

Under the existing conditions of the book trade, Russian authors cannot

always count on a fitting recompense for large scientific works, and in

such cases the emperor, having regard to these circumstances, sometimes

grants the authors large sums for the publication of their works. Many

writers send their manuscripts to the emperor, and if only they have

a useful tendency he orders them to be printed at the expense of the

cabinet and then usually gives the whole edition to the author.”

In view of the desire manifested by Karamzin to devote his labours to

the composition of a full history of the Russian Empire, the emperor by

a ukase of the 31st of October, 1803, bestowed upon him the title of

historiographer and a yearly pension of 2,000 rubles.

During the reign of the emperor Paul, Alexander, in a letter to Laharpe

dated September 27th, 1797, expressed his conviction of the necessity

of translating useful books into the Russian language, in order “to

lay a foundation by spreading knowledge and enlightenment in the minds

of the people.” When he came to the throne, Alexander did not delay in

accomplishing the intention he had already formed when he was czarevitch,

and actually during the epoch of reforms a multitude of translations of

works appeared, which had the evident object of inspiring interest in

social, economic, and political questions and of communicating to Russian

society the latest word of western science upon such questions.

In the establishment of the ministries the question of censorship was not

overlooked; it was transferred to the ministry of public instruction.

In consequence of this arrangement a special statute was issued (July

9th, 1804), “not in order to place any restraint,” as is stated in

the minister’s report, “upon the freedom of thought and of writing,

but solely so as to take requisite measures against the abuse of such

freedom.” The entire statute contained forty-seven paragraphs--a

circumstance worthy of attention if we take into consideration the fact

that the censorship statute presented in the year 1826 by A. S. Shishkov

had grown to 230 paragraphs. According to the statute of Alexander I the

censorship was designed chiefly to “furnish society with books and works

contributing to the true enlightenment of minds and to the formation of

moral qualities, and to remove books and works of contrary tendencies.”

The censorship was entrusted to the university, constituting in its

general jurisdiction the then newly organised department of the ministry

of public instruction, which had the chief direction of schools. The

basis of the functions of the censorship thus constituted was found in

the three provisions following:

(1) Watchfulness that in the books and periodicals published, and in

the pieces represented on the stage “there shall be nothing against

religion, the government, morality, or the personal honour of any

citizen.” (2) Care that in the prohibition of the publication or issue

of books and works the committee shall be “guided by a wise indulgence,

setting aside all biased interpretation of the works or of any part of

them which might seem to merit prohibition; and wisdom to remember that

when such parts seem subject to any doubt or have a double meaning, it

is better to interpret them in the manner most favourable to the author

than to prosecute him.” (3) “A discreet and wise investigation of truths

concerning faith, mankind, the position of the citizen, the law, and

all branches of the administration, are to be treated by the censorship

not only in the most lenient manner, but should enjoy entire liberty of

publication, as contributing to the progress of enlightenment.”

Such was the aspect of the censorship and statute which remained

unchanged for more than twenty years, that is during the whole reign

of the emperor Alexander. It was only from the year 1817, from

the establishment of the ministry of public worship and of public

instruction, that the censorship acquired a particularly irksome tendency

which was in opposition to the liberal spirit of the statute: the most

complete intolerance, fanaticism, and captiousness, which had been absent

at the commencement of Alexander’s reign, then made their appearance.

In January, 1818 the emperor Alexander came for a short time to St.

Petersburg, and Karamzin took advantage of his stay in order to present

to him the eight volumes of the _History of the Russian Empire_ which he

had just published. “He received me in his private apartments, and I had

the happiness of dining with him,” wrote Karamzin to his friend I. I.

Dmitriev. “On the 1st of February my _History of the Russian Empire_ was

on sale; the edition was of three thousand copies, and in spite of the

high price at which the work was sold (55 rubles, paper money, per copy),

a month later not a copy was left at the booksellers.”[b]

FAILURE OF THE POLISH EXPERIMENT

The constitution granted to Poland in 1815, based the government on a

tripartite division of power; the three estates of the realm being the

king, a senate, and a house of representatives--the latter two being

comprehended under the name of a diet. The executive was vested in the

king, and in functionaries by him appointed. The crown was hereditary;

it was the prerogative of the king to declare war, convoke, prorogue, or

dissolve the diet. He was empowered to appoint a viceroy, who, unless a

member of the royal family, was to be a Pole. The king or viceroy was

assisted by a council of state and five responsible ministers, their

several departments being instruction, justice, interior and police, war,

finance. These five ministers were subordinate to the president of the

council. Considering the exhaustion, humiliation, and misery to which

Poland had been reduced, such a constitution was apparently a great boon,

for it guaranteed civil, political, and religious freedom; but by the

very nature of things it was foredoomed to destruction.

The first Polish diet assembled at Warsaw on the 27th of March, 1818.

The grand duke Constantine, commander-in-chief of the Polish army, was

elected a deputy by the faubourg of Praga, and during the session was

obliged to renounce his privilege as a senator, because, by the terms of

the constitution, no person could sit in both houses. He was elected by

a majority of 103 votes to 6, an evident proof that the new reign had

excited the liveliest hopes. The emperor arrived at Warsaw on the 13th

of March; he devoted himself laboriously to the examination of state

affairs, and on the 27th he opened the diet in person with a speech in

the French language. He said, “the organisation which existed in vigorous

maturity in your country permitted the instant establishment of what I

have given you, by putting into operation the principles of those liberal

institutions which have never ceased to be the object of my solicitude,

and whose salutary influence I hope by the aid of God to disseminate

through all the countries which He has confided to my care. Thus you

have afforded me the means of showing my country what I had long since

prepared for her, and what she shall obtain when the elements of a work

so important shall have attained their necessary development.”

[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE ROMANOV CZARS]

There is no reason to doubt that Alexander cherished these intentions in

his own sanguine but impractical way. The enfranchisement of the serfs

of Esthonia, undertaken in 1802 and completed in 1816, and that of the

serfs of Courland in 1817, exhibit the same principles. And when in 1819

the deputies of the Livonian nobility submitted to the approbation of

the emperor a plan to pursue the same course with the serfs of their

province, the following was his remarkable reply: “I am delighted to see

that the nobility of Livonia have fulfilled my expectations. You have set

an example that ought to be imitated. You have acted in the spirit of our

age, and have felt that liberal principles alone can form the basis of

the people’s happiness.”

“Such,” says Schnitzler, “was constantly, during nearly twenty years,

the language of Alexander. He deeply mourned the entire absence of all

guarantees for the social well-being of the empire. His regret was

marked in his reply to Madame de Staël, when she complimented him on the

happiness of his people, who, without a constitution, were blessed with

such a sovereign: ‘I am but a lucky accident.’” After 1815 he was no

longer even that.

A year had hardly elapsed from the time when Alexander had addressed

the words we have quoted to the diet at Warsaw, ere the Poles began

to complain that the constitution was not observed in its essential

provisions; that their viceroy Zaionczek had but the semblance of

authority, whilst all the real power was in the hands of the grand

duke Constantine, and of Novosiltzov the Russian commissioner. The

bitterness of their discontent was in proportion with the ardour of their

short-lived joy. Russian despotism reverted to its essential conditions;

the liberty of the press was suspended; and in 1819 the national army was

dissolved. On the other hand, the spirit of opposition became so strong

in the diet, that in 1820, a measure relating to criminal procedure,

which was pressed forward with all the force of government influence, was

rejected by a majority of 120 to 3. Thenceforth there was nothing but

mutual distrust between Poland and Russia.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROJECTS

The institutions which Alexander had given to Poland worked no happy

results, and those which he designed for Russia would have been little

better. He failed to accomplish even the good which he might have

effected without organic changes. But he felt himself arrested by

innumerable difficulties. He often wanted instruments to carry out his

will, oftener still the firmness to support them against court cabals.

The immense distances to be traversed, which, according to Custine, the

emperor Nicholas feels to be one of the plagues of his empire, presented

the same obstacle to Alexander. Again, his desire to exercise European

influence distracted his attention from his proper work at home, and the

empire sank back into its old routine. Discouraged at last, and awakening

as he grew older from some of the illusions of his youth, he gave way to

indolence more and more. He saw himself alone, standing opposed to an

immense festering corruption; in despair he ceased to struggle against

it; and in the latter portion of his reign he grievously neglected the

care of his government.

The helm thus deserted by the pilot passed into the hands of General

Araktcheiev, a shrewd, active man, devoted to business, perhaps also

well-intentioned, but a Russian of the old school, without the necessary

enlightenment, without political probity--arbitrary, imperious, and

enthralled by qualities and notions inimical to progress; governed,

moreover, by unworthy connections of a particular kind. Under the rule

of Araktcheiev the censorship became more severe than ever. Foreign

books were admitted with difficulty, and were subject to tyrannical

restrictions; many professors of the new university of St. Petersburg

were subjected to a despotic and galling inquisition; others were

required most rigidly to base their course of instructions upon a

programme printed and issued by the supreme authority. Freemasonry

was suppressed. Foreign travellers were surrounded with troublesome

and vexatious formalities. Many rigorous regulations, which had been

long disused and almost forgotten, were revived. In short, Araktcheiev

exercised with intolerable severity a power which he derived from a

master who carried gentleness to an extreme of weakness--who loved to

discuss the rights of humanity, and whose heart bled for its sufferings.

THE MILITARY COLONIES (1819 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1819 A.D.]]

It was by the advice of Araktcheiev that military colonies were

established in Russia in 1819. The system was not new, for Austria had

already adopted it on some of her frontiers; but its introduction into

Russia was a novelty from which great results were expected, and which

neighbouring states regarded with much uneasiness. The plan was to

quarter the soldiers upon the crown-peasants, build military villages

according to a fixed plan, apportion a certain quantity of field to every

house, and form a statute-book, according to which these new colonies

should be governed. The plan at once received the approbation of the

czar. It was the intention of Araktcheiev, by means of these colonies,

to reduce the expense entailed by the subsistence of the army, and to

compel the soldier to contribute to his own maintenance by cultivating

the soil; to strengthen the ranks by a reserve picked from among the

crown-peasants, equal in number to the colony of soldiers; to furnish

the soldier with a home, in which his wife and children might continue

to dwell when the exigencies of war called him away; and to increase the

population, and with it the cultivation of the soil, in a land where

hands only are wanting to change many a steppe into a garden, many a

scattered village into a thriving town.

Russian colonies were thus established in the governments of Novgorod,

Mohilev, Kharkov, Kiev, Podolia, and Kherson; that is to say, in the

neighbourhood of Poland, Austria, and Turkey. Political and military

considerations had combined to fix the choice of localities for these

colonies. In consequence of the vast dimensions of the Russian Empire,

troops raised in the north and west can only reach the southern provinces

after long intervals; and if, on any emergency, Russia should wish to

concentrate a large part of her forces in the neighbourhood of the

southern and western frontiers, such a concentration, it was thought,

would be greatly facilitated by the fact of military colonies, with

a large population, being already on the spot. The villages destined

for the reception of military colonies were all to be inhabited by

crown-peasants; these people were now relieved from the duties they had

been accustomed to pay to the government, in consideration of their

quartering men in their houses. All peasants more than fifty years of

age were selected to be so-called head colonists, or master-colonists.

Every master-colonist received forty acres of land, for which he had to

maintain a soldier and his family, and to find fodder for a horse, if a

corps of cavalry happened to be quartered in the village. The soldier,

on his part, was bound to assist the colonist in the cultivation of

his field and the farm labours generally, whenever his military duties

did not occupy the whole day. The soldier, who in this way became

domiciliated in the family, received the name “military peasant.” The

officers had the power of choosing the soldiers who were to be quartered

upon the master-colonists. If the colonist had several sons, the oldest

became his adjunct; the second was enrolled among the reserve; the third

might become a military peasant; the others were enrolled as colonists

or pupils. Thus, in the new arrangements, two entirely different elements

were fused together, and one population was, so to speak, engrafted upon

another.

The labour of these agricultural soldiers is of course dependent upon

the will of the officers, for they can only attend to agricultural work

when freed from military duty. The man himself continues half peasant,

half soldier, until he has served for five-and-twenty years, if he be

a Russian, or twenty years if he be a Pole. At the expiration of this

time he is at liberty to quit the service, and his place is filled

up from the reserve. Beside the house of each master-colonist stands

another dwelling constructed in exactly the same manner, and occupied by

the reserve-man, who may be regarded as a double of the soldier. He is

selected by the colonel of the regiment from among the peasants, and is

generally a son or relation of the master-colonist. The reserve-man is

instructed in all the duties appertaining to the soldier’s profession,

and is educated in every particular, so that he may be an efficient

substitute. If the agricultural soldier dies, or falls in battle, his

reserve-man immediately takes his place. The colonist now takes the

place of the reserve-man, who in his turn is succeeded by the pupil.

The master-colonist, peasant-soldier, and reserve-man, may all choose

their wives at pleasure, and they are encouraged to marry. The women,

on the other hand, are allowed to marry within the limits of their

colony, but not beyond it. The sons of the master-colonists, soldiers,

or reserve-men, between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, are called

“cantonists.” They are drilled like soldiers, and occasionally attend

schools. The children between the ages of eight and thirteen visit the

school of the village in which their parents dwell, and are exercised

in the use of arms on alternate days. Like the cantonists, they wear

uniforms, and are looked upon as future soldiers. All male children

are sent to school, where, by the method of reciprocal education, they

are taught to read, write, and cipher, alternately with their military

studies. They are taught to recite a kind of catechism, setting forth the

duties of the soldier; they learn the use of the sabre; are practised

in riding, and, when they have attained the age of seventeen years, are

mustered in the headquarters of the regiment, and divided into corps,

those who distinguish themselves by attention and diligence being

appointed officers. The several component parts of a colony are as

follows:

1. The head colonist--the master of the house and possessor of the

estate. 2. His assistant, who joins him in the cultivation of his farm.

3. The military peasant, who likewise takes part in agricultural labour.

4. The reserve-man, who supplies the place of the soldier in case of

need. 5. The cantonist, between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. 6.

The boys, from eight to thirteen years old. 7. Male children under the

age of eight years. 8. The female population. 9. The invalids.

The colonies in the south of Russia comprise 380 villages in the

provinces of Kherson, Kharkov, and Iekaterainoslav. The crown has here

30,000 peasants. Every village contains two or three squadrons, according

to its size; thus they contain altogether 80,000 men. These military

districts, as the regions are called in which the colonies occur, are so

strictly divided from the remaining portions of the provinces, that no

man can enter them without a special passport, granted by the military

authorities. Their constitution is entirely military, even the postal

service being executed by soldiers. At every station a subaltern receives

the order for post-horses and inspects it; another soldier harnesses

the horses; a third greases the wheels; and a fourth mounts the box as

coachman. As soon as the military coat appears in sight, every peasant

on the high-road stops, plants his hands stiffly against his sides, and

stands in a military attitude of “attention.”

The laws are administered in the first instance by a detachment from

every squadron, one of the officers acting as president. From the

decision of this tribunal an appeal can be made to the regimental

council, which is composed of the colonel, two captains, and six deputies

from among the colonists. The judgments of this court are laid before

the commandant-in-chief of the colonies, against whose decision neither

soldiers nor colonists may protest, officers alone having the privilege

of appealing to the emperor. In the headquarters of every regiment a

copy of the code of laws is kept, and in most military villages churches

are to be found, where a priest, who belonged to the church before the

village was transformed into a military colony, performs the service.

The success of the military colonies in Russia fell far short of the

expectations of their founders. To the unfortunate crown serfs they

brought an intolerable aggravation of their wretchedness, by making them

feel their slavery even in their homes and their domestic affections. The

consequence was seen in the madness of their revenge on several occasions

when they broke out into rebellion, as for instance at Novgorod, in 1832.

“Nothing,” says Dr. Lee, “could be sold without the knowledge of the

officers in these military colonies. It is said that when a hen lays an

egg, it is necessary to make an entry of the fact in a register kept for

this and other equally important purposes. I was told that when a priest

was speaking to some of these peasants about the punishments of hell,

they answered they dreaded them not, because a worse hell than that in

which they were doomed to pass their whole lives here, could not possibly

exist.

“The military colonies,” Lee continues, “please one at first sight from

the order and cleanliness everywhere prevailing in them; but their

population is said to be wretched in the highest degree. When the emperor

Alexander was here, some years ago, he went round visiting every house;

and on every table he found a dinner prepared, one of the principal

articles of which consisted of a young pig roasted. The prince Volkhonski

suspected there was some trick, and cut off the tail of the pig and put

in his pocket. On entering the next house the pig was presented, but

without the tail, upon which Prince Volkhonski said to the emperor, ‘I

think this is an old friend.’ The emperor demanded his meaning, when

he took out the tail from his pocket and applied it to the part from

which it had been removed. The emperor did not relish the jest, and

it was supposed this piece of pleasantry led to his disgrace. A more

effectual, though bold and dangerous method of exposing to the emperor

the deceptions carried on throughout the military colonies under Count

Araktcheiev could not have been adopted than that which Prince Volkhonski

had recourse to on this occasion. From that time Count Araktcheiev became

his bitter enemy.”

ALEXANDER AND THE GREEK UPRISING

[Sidenote: [1822 A.D.]]

We have now touched upon all that is worthy of note in Alexander’s home

policy during the last ten years of his reign. That portion of his life

was spent in perpetual motion and perpetual agitation to little or

no good purpose, whilst his proper functions were delegated to Count

Araktcheiev, whose name was a word of terror to everyone in Russia.

Absorbed by affairs foreign to the interests of his empire, Alexander

was consistent or persevering in nothing but his efforts to enforce the

dark, stagnant policy of Austria, which had become that of the Holy

Alliance. He was present at the congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle, Troppau,

Laibach, and Verona, and zealously participated in all the repressive

measures concerted there. He was the soul of the deliberations held at

the latter place in 1822, and whilst he refused aid to the Greeks in

their rebellion against their “legitimate sovereign,” the sultan, he was

all but inclined to use constraint to his ally, France, to compel her, in

spite of the opposition of England, to take upon herself the execution

of the violent measures resolved on in behalf of the execrable Ferdinand

of Spain. A speech made at this congress to Châteaubriand, the French

plenipotentiary, has been praised by some of the emperor’s biographers

for its “noble sentiments.” To us it seems well worthy of record for its

unconscious sophistry and signal display of self-delusion.

“I am very happy,” said the emperor to Châteaubriand, “that you came to

Verona, because you may now bear witness to the truth. Would you have

believed, as our enemies are so fond of asserting, that the alliance is

only a word intended to cover ambition? That might have received a colour

of truth under the old order of things, but now all private interests

disappear when the civilisation of the world is imperilled. Henceforward

there can be no English, French, Russian, Prussian, or Austrian policy;

there can only be a general policy, involving the salvation of all,

admitted in common by kings and peoples. It is for me, the first of

all, to declare my appreciation of the principles on which I founded

the Holy Alliance. An opportunity presents itself; it is the Greek

insurrection. Certainly no event appeared more adapted to my personal

interests, to those of my subjects, and to the feelings and prejudices of

the Russians, than a religious war against Turkey; but in the troubles

of the Peloponnesus I saw revolutionary symptoms, and from that moment

I held aloof. What has not been done to dissolve the alliance? Attempts

have been made by turns to excite my cupidity, or to wound my self-love;

I have been openly outraged; the world understood me very badly if it

supposes that my principles could be shaken by vanities, or could give

way before resentment. No, no; I will never separate myself from the

monarchs with whom I am united. It should be permitted to kings to form

public alliances, to protect themselves against secret associations.

What temptations can be offered to me? What need have I to extend my

empire? Providence has not placed under my command eight hundred thousand

soldiers to satisfy my ambition, and to conserve those principles of

order on which society must repose.”

This was not the language of “noble sentiment,” but of an intellect

narrowed by sinister influences, perverted to the views of a most sordid

policy, and flattering itself on its own debasement with the maudlin cant

of philanthropy.

We may well conceive that it was not without inward pain and

self-reproach that the benevolent Alexander stifled in his heart the

voice that rose in favour of the Greeks, and resisted the wishes of his

people, who were animated by a lively sympathy for their co-religionists.

That sympathy was manifested as strongly as it could be under this

despotic government, where every outward demonstration is interdicted,

unless when specially commanded or permitted by authority. They could not

see without surprise the head of the so-styled orthodox church enduring

the outrages of the infidels, and looking on unmoved whilst one of her

chief pastors was hung at the porch of his church, and multitudes of

her children were massacred. These Greeks had of late been regarded

as under the protection of Russia; she was their old ally--nay, more,

their accomplice, who had more than once instigated them to break their

chains. The supineness of the emperor under such circumstances mortified

the nobility, shocked the clergy, and was a subject of sincere affliction

to the people, for whom, in their debased condition, religious sentiments

held the place of political emotions.

High and low obeyed, however; murmurs were suppressed; but the Russians

failed not to attribute to the wrath of God the misfortunes which befel

Alexander, amongst which was the malady with which he was afflicted in

1824. It began with erysipelas in the leg, which soon spread upwards,

and was accompanied with fever and delirium. For a time his life was in

danger, and the people, who sincerely loved him, believed that they saw

in this a punishment from on high because he had abandoned an orthodox

nation.

THE GREAT INUNDATION OF 1824

[Sidenote: [1824 A.D.]]

Another misfortune was a frightful calamity which befel St. Petersburg

in 1824. The mouth of the Neva, opening westward into the gulf of

Finland, is exposed to the violent storms that often accompany the

autumnal equinox. They suddenly drive the waters of the gulf into the

bed of the river, which then casts forth its accumulated floods upon

the low quarters on both its banks. It may be conceived how terrible is

the destruction which the unchained waters make in a city built upon a

drained marsh, on the eve of a northern winter of seven months’ duration.

There were terrific inundations in 1728, 1729, 1735, 1740, 1742, and in

1777, a few days before the birth of Alexander; but the worst of all was

that which occurred on the 19th of November, 1824, a year before his

death. A storm blowing from the west and southwest with extreme violence,

forced back the waters of the Neva, and drove those of the gulf into

it.[e]

At eight o’clock in the morning the waters began to rise rapidly and had

soon submerged all the lower parts of the town. On the Nevski Prospect

the water had reached the Troitski Perenlok, and by twelve three parts

of the town were submerged, owing to a southwesterly wind which rose

to a violent tempest. At a quarter to three the waters began suddenly

to subside. The emperor was profoundly moved by the awful calamity

which took place before his eyes, and in the gloomy frame of mind that

had possession of him he regarded it as a punishment for his sins. As

soon as the water had so far subsided as to make it possible to drive

through the streets he set off for the Galernaia (in the lower part of

the town). There a terrible picture of destruction was unfolded before

him. Visibly affected he stopped and got out of the carriage; he stood

for a few moments without speaking, the tears flowing down his cheeks:

the people, sobbing and weeping, surrounded him: “God is punishing us

for our sins,” said someone in the crowd. “No, for mine,” answered the

emperor sorrowfully, and he himself began to give orders about arranging

temporary refuge and affording assistance to the sufferers. On the

next day, the 8th (20th) of November, Count Araktcheiev, Alexander’s

favourite, wrote the following letter to the emperor:

“I could not sleep all night, knowing what your state of mind must be,

for I am convinced how much your majesty must be now suffering from the

calamity of yesterday. But God certainly sometimes sends such misfortunes

in order that His chosen ones may show in an unusual degree their

compassionate care for the unfortunate. Your majesty will of course do so

in the present case. For this money is necessary and money without delay,

in order to give assistance, not to the well-to-do but to the poorest.

Your subjects must help you, and therefore I venture to submit my idea to

you.

“The wise dispositions that you made, _batushka_,[65] with regard to my

insignificant labours have constituted a tolerably considerable capital.

In my position I have not required to use any of this capital even as

table money, and now I ask as a reward that a million may be separated

from the capital and employed in assisting the poor people. God will

certainly give his help in this matter to the benefit of the country

and the glory of your majesty, and bring about a still better means

for its accomplishment. Batushka, order that a committee may be formed

of compassionate people, in order that they may without delay occupy

themselves with the relief of the poorest. They will glorify your name,

and I, hearing it, shall thus enjoy the greatest pleasure on earth.”

The emperor answered Count Araktcheiev the same day in a few gracious

lines, full of heartfelt gratitude: “We are in complete agreement

in our ideas, dear Alexis Andreivitch. Your letter has comforted me

inexpressibly, for it is impossible that I should not be deeply grieved

at the calamity of yesterday, and especially at the thought of those who

have perished or who mourn for relatives. Come to me to-morrow so that we

may arrange everything. Ever your sincerely affectionate Alexander.”

The emperor sent a note of the following content to Adjutant-General

Diebitsch: “In order to afford effectual relief to the sufferers from

the inundation of the 7th of November, and on account of the destruction

of the bridges and the difficulties of communication between the various

parts of the town, the following military governors are temporarily

appointed under the direction of the military governor-general, Count

Miloradovitch: for Vasili Oetroo, Adjutant-General Benkendorv; for the

St. Petersburg side, Adjutant-General Komarovski; and for the Viboz side,

Adjutant-General Depreradovitch.”

[Illustration: TVERSKI GATE, MOSCOW]

On the 8th of November the emperor sent for the newly appointed military

governors and declared his will to them--that the most speedy and

effectual assistance should be given to the unfortunate sufferers from

the awful catastrophe. Count Komarovski, in describing the reception

given to him and the other military governors, says that tears were

observed in the emperor’s eyes. “I am sure that you share my feelings

of compassion,” continued Alexander; “here are your instructions, which

have been hastily drawn up--your hearts will complete them. Go from here

straight to the minister of finance who has orders to give each of you

100,000 rubles to begin with.” According to Komarovski the emperor spoke

with such feeling and eloquence that all the assembled governors were

deeply touched.

At the time of the inundation in a space of five hours about 5,000

persons perished and 3,609 domestic animals; 324 houses were destroyed

or carried away, and 3,581 damaged; besides this pavements, foot ways,

quays, bridges, etc., were either destroyed or damaged. Considerable

destruction and damage was also occasioned in the environs of the

capital, on the Petershov road, in old Petershov, Oranienbaum, and

Kronstadt, along the northern shore. More than 100 persons perished in

these places, while 114 buildings were destroyed and 187 damaged.

On the 22nd of November the emperor assisted at a requiem service in the

Kazan cathedral for those who had perished during the inundation. The

historian Karamzin writes that the people as they listened to the requiem

wept and gazed at the czar.[b]

THE CLOSE OF ALEXANDER’S REIGN

The czar, deeply affected by the sad spectacles he had witnessed, never

recovered from the shock. This increased his disgust of life and the

heavy melancholy that had of late being growing upon him. The whole

aspect of Europe gave fearful tokens that the policy of the Holy Alliance

was false and untenable; it was everywhere the subject of execration, and

its destruction was the aim of an almost universal conspiracy, extending

even into Alexander’s own dominions. Poland inspired him with deep alarm,

and his native country, notwithstanding her habits of immobility, seemed

ripe for convulsions. Thus his public life was filled with disappointment

and care, and his private life was deeply clouded with horrors.

The diet of Warsaw had become so refractory, that in 1820 Alexander had

found it necessary to suspend it, in violation of the constitution given

by himself; and though he opened a new diet in 1824, he did so under such

restrictions, that the Poles rightly considered it a mere mockery of

representative forms.

Russia herself was by no means tranquil. In the year 1824 insurrections

of the peasants occurred in several governments, and especially in that

of Novgorod, in dangerous vicinity to the first-founded of the military

colonies. The latter themselves shared the general discontent, and

threatened to become a fearful focus of rebellion, as was actually the

case in 1832. There existed also in Russia other centres of disaffection,

the existence of which might have been long before known to Alexander,

but for his culpable habit of allowing petitions to collect in heaps in

his cabinet without even breaking their seals. He, however, learned the

fact on his last journey into Poland in June, 1825, or immediately after

his return.[66] He then received the first intimation of the conspiracy

which had for many years been plotting against himself and against

the existing order of things in Russia--a conspiracy which, as many

believe, involved the perpetration of regicide. It is a curious fact,

but one by no means unparalleled, that in a country where the police is

so active, such a plot should have remained for years undetected. In

1816, several young Russians who had served in the European campaigns of

the three preceding years, and who had directed their attention to the

secret associations which had so greatly contributed to the liberation

of Germany, conceived the idea of establishing similar associations in

Russia; and this was the origin of that abortive insurrection which broke

out in St. Petersburg on the day when the troops were required to take

the oath of allegiance to Alexander’s successor.

These details would be sufficient of themselves to account for the

melancholy that haunted Alexander in the later years of his reign, and

which was painfully manifest in his countenance. But he had to undergo

other sufferings.

[Sidenote: [1825 A.D.]]

He was not more than sixteen years of age when his grandmother, Catherine

II, had married him to the amiable and beautiful princess Maria of Baden,

then scarcely fifteen.[67] The match was better assorted than is usually

the case in the highest conditions of life, but it was not a happy one.

It might have been so if it had been delayed until the young couple

were of more mature years, and had not the empress unwisely restricted

their freedom after marriage, and spoiled her grandson as a husband by

attempting to make him a good one in obedience to her orders. Moreover,

the tie of offspring was wanting which might have drawn the parents’

hearts together, for two daughters, born in the first two years of their

union, died early. Alexander formed other attachments, one of which with

the countess Narishkin, lasted eleven years, until it was dissolved by

her inconstancy. She had borne him three children; only one was left,

a girl as beautiful as her mother, who was now the sole joy of her

father’s sad heart. But the health of Sophia Narishkin was delicate, and

he was compelled to part with her, that she might be removed to a milder

climate. She returned too soon, and died on the eve of her marriage, in

her eighteenth year. The news was communicated to Alexander one morning

when he was reviewing his guard. “I receive the reward of my deeds,” were

the first words that escaped from his agonised heart.

Elizabeth, whose love had survived long years of neglect, had tears to

shed for the daughter of her rival, and none sympathised more deeply than

she with the suffering father. He began to see in her what his people

had long seen, an angel of goodness and resignation; his affection for

her revived, and he strove to wean her from the bitter recollections

of the past by his constant and devoted attention. But long-continued

sorrows had undermined Elizabeth’s health, and her physicians ordered

that she should be removed to her native air. She refused, however, to

comply with this advice, declaring that the wife of the emperor of Russia

should die nowhere else than in his dominions. It was then proposed to

try the southern provinces of the empire, and Alexander selected for her

residence the little town of Taganrog, on the sea of Azov, resolving

himself to make all the arrangements for her reception in that remote

and little frequented spot. A journey of 1800 versts, after the many

other journeys he had already made since the opening of the year, was

a fatigue too great for him to sustain without injury, suffering as he

still was from erysipelas; but he was accustomed to listen to no advice

on the subject of his movements, and two or three thousand versts were

nothing in his estimation; besides, on this occasion, in the very fatigue

of travelling he sought his repose: he would fulfil a duty which was to

appease his conscience. He quitted St. Petersburg in the beginning of

September, 1825, preceding the empress by several days. His principal

travelling companions were Prince Volkhonski, one of the friends of his

youth of whom we have already heard; his aide-de-camp general, Baron

Diebitsch, a distinguished military man who had been made over to him

by the king of Prussia; and his physician, Sir James Wylie, who had

been about his person for thirty years, and was at the head of the army

medical department.

The journey was prosperous, and was accomplished with Alexander’s

usual rapidity in twelve days, the travellers passing over 150 versts

a day; but his mind was oppressed with gloomy forebodings, and these

were strengthened by the sight of a comet; for though brought up by a

philosophic grandmother, and by a free-thinking tutor, he was by no

means exempt from superstition. “Ilia,” he called out to his old and

faithful coachman, “have you seen the new star? Do you know that a comet

always presages misfortune? But God’s will be done!” A very favourable

change having taken place in the empress’s health in Taganrog, Alexander

ventured to leave her early in October, for a short excursion through

the Crimea. On the 26th of that month Dr. Robert Lee, family physician

to Count Vorontzov was one of the emperor’s guests at Alupka. He relates

that at dinner Alexander repeatedly expressed how much he was pleased

with Orianda, where he had been that day, and stated that it was his

determination to have a palace built there as expeditiously as possible.

“To my amazement,” says Dr. Lee, “he said after a pause, ‘When I give

in my demission, I shall return and fix myself at Orianda, and wear the

costume of the Taurida.’ Not a word was uttered when this extraordinary

resolution was announced, and I thought that I must have misunderstood

the emperor; but this could not have been, for in a short time, when

Count Vorontzov proposed that the large open flat space of ground to

the westward of Orianda should be converted into pleasure-grounds for

his majesty, he replied: ‘I wish this to be purchased for General

Diebitsch, as it is right that the chief of my état-major and I should be

neighbours.’”

During the latter part of his tour in the Crimea, Alexander had some

threatenings of illness, but peremptorily refused all medical treatment.

He returned to Taganrog on the 17th of November, with evident symptoms

of a severe attack of the bilious remittent fever of the Crimea. He

persisted in rejecting medical aid until it was too late, and died on the

1st of December. For a long time the belief prevailed throughout Europe

that he had been assassinated; but it is now established beyond question

that his death was a natural one. The empress survived him but five

months.

Alexander’s last days were embittered by fresh disclosures brought to

him by General Count de Witt, respecting the conspiracy by which, if

the official report is to be believed, he was doomed to assassination.

From that time he declared himself disgusted with life. Once when Sir

James Wylie was pressing him to take some medicine, “My friend,” said

Alexander, “it is the state of my nerves to which you must attend; they

are in frightful disorder.”--“Alas!” rejoined the physician, “that

happens more frequently to kings than to ordinary men.”--“Yes,” said

the emperor, with animation, “but with me in particular there are many

special reasons, and at the present hour more so than ever.” Some days

afterwards, when his brain was almost delirious, the czar gazed intently

on the doctor, his whole countenance manifesting intense fear. “Oh, my

friend,” he exclaimed, “what an act, what a horrible act! The monsters!

the ungrateful monsters! I designed nothing but their happiness.”[e]

“It is difficult to represent the condition of St. Petersburg during the

last years of the reign of the emperor Alexander,” writes a contemporary.

“It was as though enveloped in a moral fog; Alexander’s gloomy views,

more sad than stern, were reflected in its inhabitants. Many people

said: What does he want more? He stands at the zenith of power. Each one

explained after his own fashion the inconsolable grief of the emperor.

For a man who must live to all eternity, who was famed as the friend

of liberty, and who had out of necessity become her oppressor, it was

grievous to think that he must renounce the love of his contemporaries

and the praise of posterity. Many other circumstances and some family

ones also weighed on his soul. The last years of Alexander’s life,”

writes in conclusion the eye-witness of these sorrowful days, “may be

termed a prolonged eclipse.”

_The Death of Alexander I_

On the 1st of December, 1825, a truly great misfortune fell upon Russia:

the best of European sovereigns had ceased to exist. When he vanished

from the political arena, only the finer side of his life came into view;

the remainder was given over to oblivion. A contemporary who was at the

same time a poet writes: “You see arising before you that beautiful

spirit that was welcomed with such joy in 1801; you see that glorious

czar to whom Russia owes the years 1813 and 1814; you see the comforter

of the people after last year’s inundation; you see that gracious,

benevolent man who was so amiable in personal intercourse,” and who, in

the words of Speranski, will ever remain a true charmer. There was much

that was ideally beautiful in his soul, he sincerely loved and desired

good, and attained to it. There was indeed cause for grief, particularly

in view of the uncertainty of the future that awaited Russia, which,

according to the picturesque expression of a Russian writer after the

death of Alexander, had, as it were, to enter a cold, uninviting passage

to a long dark tunnel. This was a feeling that was shared by many

contemporaries.

Independently of the grief which fell upon all Russia, for the persons

who had surrounded the deceased monarch at his death a truly tragic

moment had approached. Far from the capital and from all the members

of the imperial family, in an isolated town (Taganrog) of the Russian

empire, at two thousand versts from the centre of government the

terrible question arose: Who would now be emperor, to whom was the oath

of allegiance to be taken, and by whom in future would orders issue?

Moreover, it was amidst the ramifications of a vast conspiracy and a

universal fermentation that these questions presented themselves.

“The sphinx, undivined even to the grave,” as the poet justly called

Alexander, had not revealed his royal will, and even in view of the

inevitable end he had not considered it necessary to refer by a single

word or hint to the question that was of such crucial interest to the

welfare of Russia. On the contrary, during the last days of his life

Alexander had as though consciously set aside all earthly matters and

died like a private individual who has closed his accounts with the

world. Therefore it is not surprising that he failed to indicate the

successor he had chosen; being satisfied with the dispositions he had

previously made in secret, he seemed to think: “After my death they will

open my will and testament and will learn to whom Russia belongs.”

During the life of Alexander no one knew of the existence of the act

naming the grand duke Nicholas Pavlovitch heir to the throne except three

state dignitaries: Count Araktcheiev, Prince A. N. Galitzin, and the

archbishop of Moscow, Philaret. By a fatal concurrence of circumstances,

not one of them was present at the decease of the emperor at Taganrog. Of

the three persons of confidence who were with Alexander, Adjutant-general

Prince Volkonski, Baron Diebitsch, and Tchernichev, not one was aware

that the elder brother’s right to the succession of the throne had been

transferred to the second. Adjutant-general Diebitsch afterwards said to

Danilevski: “The emperor, who had confided many secrets to me, never,

however, told me a word of this. Once we were together at the settlement,

and he, directing the conversation to the grand duke Nicholas Pavlovitch,

said, “You must support him.” I concluded from these words only that,

judging from the age of the grand duke, he might be expected to outlive

the emperor and the czarevitch, in which case he would naturally be their

successor.”

Such were the limits of the knowledge that Diebitsch had at his disposal

in Taganrog as the question of the succession. Nor did Prince Volkonski

know anything about the matter. Even the empress Elizabeth Alexievna

was in the same ignorance regarding the rejection of the grand duke

Constantine Pavlovitch.

“When the illness of Alexander at Taganrog no longer gave any hopes

of recovery,” relates Diebitsch, “Prince Volkonski advised me to ask

the empress to whom, in case of the emperor’s death, I as chief of his

majesty’s general staff must address myself, for my position was one

of very great difficulty; I was left chief of the army at a time when

instances of a conspiracy were being disclosed. I could not decide upon

personally proposing such a question to the empress, fearing to distress

her, besides which, although I enjoyed her favour, yet it was not to such

a degree as Prince Volkonski, who was the friend of the imperial family;

therefore I urgently requested him to take upon himself this explanation

with the empress. He only consented under the condition that I should

be present. We went together into the room where the emperor was lying

unconscious, and Prince Volkonski, going up to Elizabeth Alexievna said

to her that I, as chief of the staff, requested her to say to whom, in

case of misfortune, I was to address myself? ‘Is the emperor then so ill

that there is no hope?’ asked the empress. ‘God alone can help and save

the emperor: only the tranquillity and security of Russia demand that the

traditional forms should be observed,’ answered the prince Volkonski.

“‘Of course in case of an unhappy event the grand duke Constantine

Pavlovitch must be referred to,’ said the empress. The words plainly

proved the empress’ ignorance as to who was named heir to the throne.

Prince Volkonski and I supposed that the late emperor Alexander had

made a will, for he had an envelope with a paper in it always with him,

which never left him. When we opened it after his death we found that it

contained some written-out prayers.”

Such being the position of affairs it only remained for Adjutant-general

Diebitsch to inform the czarevitch Constantine Pavlovitch in Warsaw

of the melancholy event, as the person who, according to the law of

succession, had become emperor of all the Russias. It was then that

Diebitsch wrote a letter to the empress Marie Feodorovna in which he

said in conclusion: “I humbly await the commands of our new lawful

sovereign, the emperor Constantine Pavlovitch.” The act of the decease

of the emperor Alexander was drawn up in Taganrog, annexed to the report

of Baron Diebitsch, dated December 1st, 1825, and sent to the emperor

Constantine.[b]

ALISON’S ESTIMATE OF ALEXANDER I

Majestic in figure, a benevolent expression of countenance, gave

Alexander I that sway over the multitude which ever belongs to physical

advantages in youthful princes; while the qualities of his understanding

and the feelings of his heart secured the admiration of all whose talents

fitted them to judge of the affairs of nations. Misunderstood by those

who formed their opinion only from the ease and occasional levity of his

manner, he was early formed to great determinations, and evinced in the

most trying circumstances, during the French invasion and the congress

of Vienna, a solidity of judgment equalled only by the strength of his

resolution. He had formed, early in life, an intimacy with the Polish

prince, Czartorinski, and another attachment, of a more tender nature,

to a lady of the same nation; and in consequence he considered the

Poles so dear to him, that many of the best informed patriots in that

country hailed his accession to the throne as the first step towards

the restoration of its nationality. A disposition naturally generous

and philanthropic, moulded by precepts of Laharpe, had strongly imbued

his mind with liberal principles, which shone forth in full and perhaps

dangerous lustre when he was called on to act as the pacificator of the

world after the fall of Paris. But subsequent experience convinced him

of the extreme danger of prematurely transplanting the institutions of

one country into another in a different stage of civilisation; and his

later years were chiefly directed to objects of practical improvement,

and the preparation of his subjects, by the extension of knowledge and

the firmness of government, for those privileges which, if suddenly

conferred, would have involved in equal ruin his empire and himself.[g]

SKRINE’S ESTIMATE OF ALEXANDER I

Of Alexander I it may be truly said that no monarch ever wielded

unlimited power with a loftier resolve to promote the happiness of his

people. And not theirs alone; for he sympathised with all the myriads

doomed to suffering by false ideals and effete institutions. In him men

saw the long-expected Messiah who was to give peace to a distracted

world. But his nature had an alloy of feminine weakness, unfitting him to

bear the reformer’s cross. He was too sensitive of impressions derived

from without; too easily led by counsellors who gained his confidence

but were not always worthy of it. In youth he was swayed by noble

infatuations and enamoured of the most diverse ideas in turn. But when he

stood confronted with a crisis in his country’s fortunes he rose superior

to vacillation and kept a great design steadily in view. The will-power

thus developed, and the resources at his command, made him for a brief

period the leading figure in the civilised world. Despondency came with

the inevitable reaction which followed the effort. He was drawn into the

mazes of German illuminism, which lessened his capacity for persistent

resolve. Its effect was heightened by his failure to pierce the dense

phalanxes of ignorance around him, and by the unvarying ingratitude which

requited his efforts for the public weal. Increasing physical weakness

hastened the death of his generous illusions. An excessive devotion to

duty exhausted his flagging powers and he became unequal to the task of

governing all the Russias. As a dying tree is strangled by parasitical

growths, so was Alexander in his decadence attacked by the enemies of

human progress. When Metternich and Araktcheiev gained the mastery, all

hope of domestic reform and consistent foreign policy disappeared. But

despite the shadows which darkened his declining years, Alexander I of

Russia will stand out in history as one of the few men born in the purple

who rightly appraised the accident of birth and the externals of imperial

rank; who held opinions far in advance of his age, and never wittingly

abused his limitless powers; who displayed equal firmness in danger and

magnanimity in the hour of triumph.[h]

FOOTNOTES

[60] In the year 1812 Alexander had granted a charter to the Jesuit

College of Polotsk, raising it to the rank of an “academy” and giving

it rights and privileges equal to those of the university; he was then

probably governed by political considerations concerning Poland, and

in the charter he refers to the college as “affording great advantages

for the education of youth” and trusts that the “Jesuits will labour in

Poland _dans le bon sens_” (along the right lines.)

[61] Much earlier, in 1807, the emperor had expressed himself to General

Savari upon this question in the following words: “I want to bring the

country out of the state of barbarism in which this traffic in men leaves

it. I will say more--if civilisation were more advanced, I would abolish

this slavery even if it were to cost me my head.”

[62] Étienne de Grelle Mobillier was born in France in 1760 and was

brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. At the beginning of the French

Revolution he went to America and there entered the society of Friends

or Quakers. He subsequently repeatedly visited Europe with various

philanthropic aims, mainly in order to strengthen the principles of a

morally religious life amongst mankind.

[63] [Prince A. N. Galitzin.]

[64] General-adjutant, chief of the guards staff.

[65] [“Little father,” a title sometimes given to the Russian sovereigns

by their subjects.]

[66] The informer was an inferior officer of lancers. His name was

Sherwood, and he was of English origin.

[67] She took the name of Elizabeth Alexievna.

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