Appearance of the Country.--Character of the Russians.
I was always advancing nearer to Moscow, but nothing yet indicated
the approach to a capital. The wooden villages were equally distant
from each other, we saw no greater movement upon the immense plains
which are called high roads; you heard no more noise; the country
houses were not more numerous: there is so much space in Russia that
every thing is lost in it, even the chateaux, even the population.
You might suppose you were travelling through a country from which
the people had just taken their departure. The absence of birds adds
to this silence; cattle also are rare, or at least they are placed
at a great distance from the road. Extent makes every thing
disappear, except extent itself, like certain ideas in metaphysics,
of which the mind can never get rid, when it has once seized them.
On the eve of my arrival at Moscow, I stopped in the evening of a
very hot day, in a pleasant meadow: the female peasants, in
picturesque dresses, according to the custom of the country, were
returning from their labour, singing those airs of the Ukraine, the
words of which, in praise of love and liberty, breathe a sort of
melancholy approaching to regret. I requested them to dance, and
they consented. I know nothing more graceful than these dances of
the country, which have all the originality which nature gives to
the fine arts; a certain modest voluptuousness was remarkable in
them; the Indian bayaderes should have something analogous to that
mixture of indolence and vivacity which forms the charm of the
Russian dance. This indolence and vivacity are indicative of reverie
and passion, two elements of character which civilization has yet
neither formed nor subdued. I was struck with the mild gaiety of
these female peasants, as I had been, in different degrees, with
that of the greater part of the common people with whom I had come
in contact in Russia. I can readily believe that they are terrible
when their passions are provoked; and as they have no education,
they know not how to curb their violence. As another result of this
ignorance, they have few principles of morality, and theft is very
frequent in Russia as well as hospitality; they give as they take,
according as their imagination is acted upon by cunning or
generosity, both of which excite the admiration of this people. In
this mode of life there is a little resemblance to savages; but it
strikes me that at present there are no European nations who have
much vigor but those who are what is called barbarous, in other
words, unenlightened, or those who are free: but the nations which
have only acquired from civilization an indifference for this or
that yoke, provided their own fire-side is not disturbed: those
nations, which have only learned from civilization the art of
explaining power and of reasoning servitude, are made to be
vanquished. I frequently imagine to myself what may now be the
situation of the places which I have seen so tranquil, of those
amiable young girls, of those long bearded peasants, who followed so
peaceably the lot which providence had traced for them; they have
perished or fled, for not one of them entered into the service of
the victor.
A thing worthy of remark, is the extent to which public spirit is
displayed in Russia. The reputation of invincible which their
multiplied successes have given to this nation, the natural pride of
the nobility, the devotedness inherent in the character of the
people, the profound influence of religion, the hatred of
foreigners, which Peter I. endeavoured to destroy in order to
enlighten and civilize his country, but which is not less settled in
the blood of the Russians, and is occasionally roused, all these
causes combined make them a most energetic people. Some bad
anecdotes of the preceding reigns, some Russians who have contracted
debts with the Parisian shopkeepers, and some bon-mots of Diderot,
have put it into the heads of the French, that Russia consisted only
of a corrupt court, military chamberlains, and a people of slaves.
This is a great mistake. This nation it is true requires a long
examination to know it thoroughly, but in the circumstances in which
I observed it, every thing was salient, and a country can never be
seen to greater advantage than at a period of misfortune and
courage. It cannot be too often repeated, this nation is composed of
the most striking contrasts. Perhaps the mixture of European
civilization and of Asiatic character is the cause.
The manner of the Russians is so obliging that you might imagine
yourself, the very first day, intimate with them, and probably at
the end of ten years you would not be so!
The silence of a Russian is altogether extraordinary; this silence
is solely occasioned by what he takes a deep interest in. In other
respects, they talk as much as you will; but their conversation
teaches you nothing but their politeness; it betrays neither their
feelings nor opinions. They have been frequently compared to the
French, in my opinion with the least justice in the world. The
flexibility of their organs makes imitation in all things a matter
of ease to them; they are English, French, or German in their
manners, according to circumstances; but they never cease to be
Russians, that is to say uniting impetuosity and reserve, more
capable of passion than friendship, more bold than delicate, more
devout than virtuous, more brave than chivalrous, and so violent in
their desires that nothing can stop them, when their gratification
is in question. They are much more hospitable than the French; but
society does not with them, as with us, consist of a circle of
clever people of both sexes, who take pleasure in talking together.
They meet, as we go to a fete, to see a great deal of company, to
have fruits and rare productions from Asia or Europe; to hear music,
to play; in short to receive vivid emotions from external objects,
rather than from the heart or understanding, both of which they
reserve for actions and not for company. Besides, as they are in
general very ignorant, they find very little pleasure in serious
conversation, and do not at all pique themselves on shining by the
wit they can exhibit in it. Poetry, eloquence and literature are not
yet to be found in Russia; luxury, power, and courage are the
principal objects of pride and ambition; all other methods of
acquiring distinction appear as yet effeminate and vain to this
nation.
But the people are slaves, it will be said: what character therefore
can they be supposed to have? It is not certainly necessary for me
to say that all enlightened people wish to see the Russian people
freed from this state, and probably no one wishes it more strongly
than the Emperor Alexander: but the Russian slavery has no
resemblance in its effects to that of which we form the idea in the
West; it is not as under the feudal system, victors who have imposed
severe laws on the vanquished; the ties which connect the grandees
with the people resemble rather what was called a family of slaves
among the ancients, than the state of serfs among the moderns. There
is no middling class in Russia, which is a great drawback on the
progress of literature and the arts; for it is generally in that
class that knowledge is developed: but the want of any intermedium
between the nobility and the people creates a greater affection
between them both. The distance between the two classes appears
greater, because there are no steps between these two extremities,
which in fact border very nearly on each other, not being separated
by a middling class. This is a state of social organization quite
unfavorable to the knowledge of the higher classes, but not
so to the happiness of the lower. Besides, where there is no
representative government, that is to say, in countries where the
sovereign still promulgates the law which he is to execute, men are
frequently more degraded by the very sacrifice of their reason and
character, than they are in this vast empire, in which a few simple
ideas of religion and country serve to lead the great mass under the
guidance of a few heads. The immense extent of the Russian empire
also prevents the despotism of the great from pressing heavily in
detail upon the people; and finally, above all, the religious and
military spirit is so predominant in the nation, that allowance may
be made for a great many errors, in favor of those two great sources
of noble actions. A person of fine intellect said, that Russia
resembled the plays of Shakspeare, in which all that is not faulty
is sublime, and all that is not sublime is faulty; an observation of
remarkable justice. But in the great crisis in which Russia was
placed when I passed through it, it was impossible not to admire the
energetic resistance, and resignation to sacrifices exhibited by
that nation; and one could not almost dare, at the contemplation of
such virtues, to allow one's self even to notice what at other times
one would have censured.