We will not speak of the colleges of wards, the committees of the nobles

presided over by the marshals of the nobles, the courts of conscience

which try cases between parents and children, &c. The members of all

these institutions are elected, but their functions are too

insignificant to demand mention here.

One of the most influential personages in each government, is the

colonel of the gendarmerie, who is completely independent of the

governor. He is the head of the secret police, corresponds directly with

the minister, and has it in his power, if he is an honest man, to do

much good by the rigorous control he can exercise over all the

_employes_ of a province.

This justiciary scheme is in itself very liberal, and ought, one would

suppose, to satisfy the wants of the population; but like the governors,

the judges of the different tribunals are in fact but puppets, moved at

the discretion of the subordinate clerks, who alone are masters of the

tricks and quibbles of Russian jurisprudence, and legal practice. The

lowest clerk in a chancery has often more influence than the president

himself, and the suitor who refuses to be squeezed by him may be quite

certain that he will never see the termination of his cause. It is

impossible to imagine with what adroitness all these fellows, many of

whom receive for salary only sixty or a hundred rubles a year, manage to

sweat the purses of those who require their assistance. Justice is

continually violated in favour of the highest bidder, and thanks to the

number of contradictory ukases which pass for laws, the most audacious

robberies are unblushingly committed without the possibility of redress.

It may be asserted with truth, that the jurisdictional authority in

Russia resides in the offices of court rather than in the persons of the

judges. The secretary is the omnipotent arbiter of sentences, and

dictates them under the influence of money and the bureaucracy.

Nothing can give an idea of the arts of knavery and chicane put in

practice to fleece the unfortunates who have to do with the underlings

of justice. The rigorous stickling for forms, and the multitude of

papers, are a curse to the country; no business is done by word of mouth

in Russia.[12] All law proceedings are carried on in writing; the

slightest question and the most trivial explanation must be put down on

stamped paper according to the appointed forms. Hence it may be

conceived that with the horrible spirit of chicanery that characterises

the _employes_, and the readiness with which they can find a flaw (a

_krutchuk_ as they call it), in every paper, legal proceedings are spun

out to an indefinite length, and scarcely end until both parties are

ruined, or until the one prevails over the other by dint of money and

corruption. I have often known a document to be sent back from St.

Petersburg after a lapse of six months, merely because this or that

phrase was not written according to rule. The government of Bessarabia

alone paid 63,000_l._ for stamps, in the course of four years, and the

population of that province does not exceed 500,000. The want of

publicity, moreover, has the most pernicious influence on the

administration of justice. All judgments are made up in secret; there

are no open pleadings; law processes consist from first to last in piles

of paper, which enrich the judges and their subordinates, but in no-wise

affect their opinions, which are always based on the most advantageous

offers.

This woful state of things is further aggravated by the fact that the

judges are secure from all responsibility; in whatever manner they

decide a cause, they always do so in accordance with the laws, provided

they observe the due forms; but what is really incredible, is the

impudence with which the lowest tribunal of a district town presumes to

annul both the decrees of the emperor and those of the general assembly

of the senate. I will mention in illustration a certain suit brought

against the heirs of a rich landowner in Podolia, who was deeply

indebted at his death to the imperial bank of St. Petersburg and to

several foreign bankers. These latter having become creditors before the

bank, naturally claimed to be paid in the first instance. The

consequence was a suit, which had been going on for twelve years when I

arrived in Russia. The foreigners were defeated in the district court,

but they gained their cause successively in the governmental court and

the general assembly of the senate, and finally they obtained a decree

in their favour from the emperor himself; but the district tribunal,

under pretext that certain regulations had been violated, took upon

itself to annul all the decisions of the senate, and to make the whole

suit be begun over again.

It sometimes happens, however, that the imperial will is declared in so

positive a manner, that all the tricks and subterfuges of judges and

secretaries must give way to it. Here is an anecdote that conveys a

perfect notion of what law means in Russia. In Alexander's reign the

Jesuits had made themselves all-powerful in some parts of Poland. A rich

landowner and possessor of 6000 peasants at Poltzk, the Jesuit

head-quarters, was so wrought on by the artful assiduities of the

society that he bequeathed his whole fortune to it at his death, with

this stipulation, that the Jesuits should bring up his only son, and

afterwards give him whatever portion of the inheritance _they should

choose_. When the young man had reached the age of twenty, the Jesuits

bestowed on him 300 peasants. He protested vehemently against their

usurpation, and began a suit against the society; but his father's will

seemed clear and explicit, and after having consumed all his little

fortune, he found his claims disowned by every tribunal in the empire,

including even the general assembly of the senate. In this seemingly

hopeless extremity he applied to a certain attorney in St. Petersburg,

famous for his inexhaustible fertility of mind in matters of cunning and

chicanery. After having perused the will and the documents connected

with the suit, the lawyer said to his client, "Your business is done; if

you will promise me 10,000 rubles I will undertake to procure an

imperial ukase reinstating you in possession of all your father's

property." The young man readily agreed to the bargain, and in eight

days afterwards he was master of his patrimony. The decision which led

to this singular result rested solely on the interpretation of the

phrase _they shall give him whatever portion they shall choose_, which

plainly meant, as the lawyer maintained, that the young man was entitled

exclusively to such portion as the Jesuits _chose_, _i. e._, to that

which they chose and retained for themselves. The emperor admitted this

curious explanation; the son became proprietor of 5700 peasants, and the

Jesuits were obliged to content themselves with the 300 they had

bestowed on their ward in the first instance. Assuredly the most adroit

cadi in Turkey could not have decided the case better.

We have already seen that litigants can appeal to the governmental

court, and again to the general assembly of the senate, in all suits for

more than five hundred rubles. This privilege instead of being

advantageous, appears to us to be highly the reverse. In France, where

distances are short, and where justice is administered with a

promptitude and impartiality elsewhere unexampled, the appeal to the

court of cassation affords the most precious guarantee for the equitable

application of the laws. Besides this, it only gives occasions to a

revision of the documents in the case, and to a new trial before another

tribunal if there have been any error of form; but in Russia, where

distances are immense, and where all things conspire to render suits

interminable, litigants from the provinces can only ruin themselves by

using their right of recourse to the tribunals of St. Petersburg. I have

known landowners who spent twenty years of their lives in prosecuting a

suit in the capital, and who died without having obtained judgment. It

must be acknowledged, however, that appeals to St. Petersburg are

justified to a certain extent by the deplorable nature of governmental

justice.

The last radical vice we have to mention has its origin in the nobiliary

system of Peter the Great, in inadequate salaries and the want of a

special body of magistrates. We have seen the necessity entailed on all

freemen of entering the service of the state and acquiring a more or

less elevated rank, the consequence is, that all the public departments

are overburdened with _employes_; and as most of them have no patrimony

and are very scantily paid, sometimes not paid at all, they are of

course driven to dishonest shifts for their livelihood. Even the heads

of departments are not sufficiently remunerated to be safe from the many

temptations that beset them. The government has indeed augmented their

salaries at various times, but never in a sufficient degree to produce

any desirable reform in their conduct. The office of judge, too, is not

regarded with sufficient respect and consideration to make it an object

of ambition to the high nobility; it is filled in all instances by the

lowest privileged class in the empire, or bestowed as a recompense on

retired military men. This will no doubt appear extraordinary; but it

must be remembered that there exists as yet in Russia no distinct corps

of magistrates, nor any official class of lawyers; the members of the

several tribunals, whether elected by the nobles, or nominated by the

emperor, are by no means expected to be acquainted with jurisprudence

and the laws, and if any among them have studied law in the universities

this is a mere accident. Those of them who are honest, judge according

to their conscience and their common sense; the others give their voices

for those who have bought them.

It is the same with the senate, the supreme judicial court in the

empire. It consists only of military veterans, and superannuated

servants of the state; in a word, of men who know nothing whatever of

law. Hence it is easy to conceive the unlimited power exercised in all

these courts by the government secretaries, who, when they know by heart

the some thousands of ukases that form what is called the imperial code,

pass for eminent lawyers in the eyes of the Russians.

The same evil affects, to an equal degree, all the administrative

departments. In Russia, no calling or profession has its limits strictly

defined; a man passes indifferently from one service to another. A

cavalry officer, for instance, will be nominated as director of a high

school, an old colonel as head of a custom-house, and so forth.

In addition to the laws which are peculiar to it, Russian legislation

evidently comprises two foreign elements, the German and the Roman.

Germanic law was introduced into Russia by the Varengians, a branch of

the Northman stock. To the leaders of those warriors the country owes

the origin of its feudal system. Subsequently, when the Russians were

converted to Christianity, Vladimir adopted certain parts of the Roman

law as modified by the Byzantines. But if we may judge from the

documents furnished by the Nestorian chronicle, it would appear, that

previously to that epoch, the Russians had already borrowed some

particulars from the Roman code, and blended them with their customary

law of indigenous and German origin.

The first written code mentioned in Russian history, is that of

Jaroslav, who reigned in the beginning of the thirteenth century; from

that period the country remained quite stationary, in consequence of the

continual wars and troubles occasioned by its territorial division; and

more than a century of suffering and anarchy prepared the nation to

submit without resistance to a foreign yoke.

It was in 1218 that the Tatars crossed the Volga and seized the

dominions of the tzars; and whilst Europe, under the energetic influence

of the crusades and of the lights of the Lower Empire, was sapping the

edifice of feudalism, and labouring towards its future glorious

emancipation, Russia remained for more than 300 years in ignominious

thraldom, taking no part in the great intellectual movement of the

fifteenth century, retrograding rather than advancing, debasing its

national character day by day, and thus heaping up against the progress

of civilisation, obstacles which the genius of its modern sovereigns has

not yet been able to annihilate.

In the ever memorable reign of Ivan III. the Tatars were expelled from

the greater part of Russia, the dissensions caused by the parcelling out

of the empire were extinguished, the several principalities were united

into a single body, and legislative labours were resumed after four

hundred years of inaction.

Ivan III. had a collection made of all the old judicial constitutions,

and published, with the assistance of the metropolitan Jerome, a

collection of laws, which is not without merit, considering the period

when it was made. But this code allowed wager of battle; and murder,

arson, and highway robbery, continued to be judged in the lists.

About 1550, Ivan IV. surnamed the Terrible, completed the code of laws

promulgated by his grandfather, Ivan III. and put a check upon the

territorial aggrandisements of the clergy. The new code, known by the

name of _Sudebnick_, remained in force almost without any change, until

the accession of the tzar Alexis Michaelovitz (father of Peter the

Great), who, having collected the laws of the several provinces of the

empire, published them in 1649, under the title of _Ulogenie_. This

collection, the first printed in Russia, was begun and completed within

the space of two months and a half; but notwithstanding its

imperfection, it has nevertheless, served as the foundation on which all

subsequent improvements have been based.

Since the reign of Peter the Great, ten commissions have been

successively employed in the codification of the Russian laws. We will

not enter into the details of the changes introduced by them: on this

subject, the work published by M. Victor Foucher, and the "Coup d'oeil

sur la legislation Russe," by M. Tolstoi, may be consulted with

advantage. The tenth commission was appointed in 1804, and sat until

1826. It applied itself earnestly to the construction of the civil,

penal, and criminal codes; but numerous difficulties prevented it from

completing its task.

On his accession to the throne, the Emperor Nicholas promised at first a

new code which should correct and complete its predecessors. But the

difficulties were too great, and he ended by adopting a digest, which

merely classified according to their subjects all the existing laws

promulgated since the general regulation of 1649, effected by Alexis

Michaelovitz. In 1826, he laid down the following rules for this

revision.

1. Enactments fallen into desuetude to be excluded.

2. All repetitions to be suppressed, by choosing among statutes to the

same effect that one which is most complete.

3. The spirit of the law to be preserved by expressing in a single rule

the substance of all those that treat of the same matter.

4. The acts from which each law is drawn are to be exactly set forth.

5. Between two contradictory laws, the preference to be given to the

more recent.

The design of the Emperor Nicholas was speedily carried into effect. The

complete collection of the laws of the empire was published in 1830; and

on the 31st of January, the tzar announced in a manifesto that the

classification of the law as a systematic body was terminated. The

matter was then spoken of in the Russian journals in 1830:

"The second section of the private chancery of his majesty the emperor

has just finished printing the first collection of the laws of the

Russian empire from 1649 to December 12, 1825 in forty-five volumes,

4to.

"This collection consists of four principal parts: 1, the text of the

laws from the general regulation of 1649 to the first manifesto of the

Emperor Nicholas (December 12, 1825), in forty volumes. This part

comprises 30,920 laws, rules, treaties, and acts of various kinds; 2, a

general index containing a chronological table, which is in some sort a

juridical dictionary for Russia; 3, a book of the appointments of civil

functionaries and of the administrative expenditure and the tariffs from

1711 to 1825, to the number of 1351; 4, a book of the plans and designs

pertaining to the several laws.

"The laws and acts belonging to the reign of his majesty the Emperor

Nicholas, will form the second collection beginning on the 12th of

December, 1825. The printing is already begun, and it will appear in the

course of the year. A supplement to it will afterwards be published

every year.

"The laws anterior to the year of 1649, which are generally considered

as obsolete, but which are nevertheless of high importance as regards,

history, will form a separate collection under the name of the ancient

laws.

"This first collection was begun in 1826, and finished on the 1st of

March, 1830. The printing began on the 21st of May, 1828, and ended on

the 1st of April last, at the press of the second section of his

majesty's chancery. For the composition of this collection, it has been

necessary to collate and extract from 3396 books of laws. The forty

volumes of the text, and the volume of the chronological index, contain

5284 printed sheets.

"This book will be ready for sale on the 1st of June at the

printing-office. The price of the forty-five volumes is 500 paper

rubles.

"By a rescript of the 5th of April last, addressed to the

privy-councillor Dashkof, adjunct of the minister of justice and

director of that ministry, his majesty the emperor notifies to him the

order he has given to furnish copies of the collection to all the

departments of the senate, and to all the tribunals and administrations

of the government, and directs him to concert with the ministers of

finance and of the interior for the prompt delivery of these books in

all the governments, so that they may be kept and employed in due

manner."

Thus the code of the Emperor Nicholas is, in fact, but a systematic

collection of all the laws promulgated within the last 200 years, or

thereabouts. It contains not one new idea, not one modification required

by the actual situation of the empire, not one thought for the future.

Now if we reflect that the study of 3396 books of laws, and the revision

of 50,000 laws or ukases, have taken place within the short period of

two years, and that the men who had to perform this task, were far from

being jurisconsults, we shall perceive that such a work must be very

imperfect, and that it must have been totally impossible to fulfil the

intentions of the tzar, as expressed in the instructions above cited.

The empire, indeed, possesses fifty-five bulky volumes of laws, but the

inconveniences resulting from the multiplicity of contradictory ukases,

and from others ill adapted to the necessities of the country, have been

retained in them to a great extent; and the experience of thirteen years

has shown the insufficiency of this collection, and its little influence

on the course and conduct of lawsuits. Another defective point in this

improvisated legislation, is its pretension to satisfy the requirements

of the future by admitting, as a complement to the body of the statutes,

all the ukases issued, or to be issued by the emperor. If to these

30,920 laws already existing, this palladium of justice already so

formidable, there be added every year a supplementary volume equal in

capacity to the average legislative contributions of the last 180 years,

every year will then supply its battalion of 172 new laws; and I am at a

loss to conceive where there will be found by-and-by a lawyer

sufficiently patient to study this new levy of justice, when with all

the good will imaginable the most indefatigable reader can hardly once

in his life pass in review the body of the veterans.

In the space of five years since the emperor's manifesto (January 31,

1833), five new volumes have been already added to the collection.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the emperor's performance is

extremely meritorious. To him belongs the honour of having been the

first to bestow a regular body of laws on his country. Before his time

Russia had but a confused and fluctuating legislation, encumbered with

an infinity of statutes, the study of which was the more difficult, as

no printed collection of them existed. At present it possesses at least

a complete digest, within reach of all, and which all may consult and

appeal to. Surely a man of the emperor's perseverance and great capacity

would not have shrunk from accomplishing a more perfect work, could he

have indulged the hope of being seconded by abler and better instructed

jurisconsults. But he was compelled of necessity to take the

consequences of the want of any thing like a corps of magistrature, and

finding he could not do any thing better, he resolved to make no change

in the spirit of the laws promulgated during the preceding 200 years,

and to follow exactly the course marked out in 1700 by Peter the Great.

In this way the codification of the laws became a mere effort of

compilation and arrangement, and setting aside the collation of the

ukases, the clerks of the second section of the imperial chancery were

quite competent to the task.

It will not be altogether uninteresting to place here a detailed table

of the population in a governmental chief town. An examination of such

documents may lead to very curious comparisons and reflections. The town

we have chosen is Kichinev, the capital of Bessarabia, and the figures

we give have been extracted directly from the books of the provincial

governor's chancery.

| Men. | Women.

| |

Monks | 16 |

Priests | 89 | 126

Servants | 114 | 59

Military officers[A] in active service | 139 | 53

Superior officers in the civil service, ditto | 339 | 236

Officers of the fourteenth class, ditto | 419 | 163

| |

_Military officers on leave._ | |

Generals | 1 | 1

Staff-officers of every grade | 42 | 31

| |

_Civil officers on leave._ | |

Generals | 2 | 2

Superior officers and others | 107 | 104

~~~~~~~~~~

| |

Persons employed in the theatre | 15 | 9

First guild merchants | 6 | 10

Second ditto | 35 | 31

Third ditto | 736 | 623

Foreigners | 194 | 144

Burghers | 18,092 | 15,973

Government employes of all kinds | 2,121 | 237

Young people reared at the expense of the crown | 32 |

Soldiers on furlough | 31 | 12

Workpeople | 415 | 511

Gipsy slaves | 54 | 63

German colonists | 37 | 24

Pupils of all kinds | 996 | 17

|--------|--------

Total | 24,032 | 18,429

[A: Neither the officers nor the soldiers of the garrison are included

in this list.]

FOOTNOTES:

[12] The official correspondence of the ministers, and of the civil and

military authorities, amounts annually to nearly 15,000,000 of letters,

whilst that of all private Russians does not exceed 7,000,000.

CHAPTER XV.

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION--CORPS OF CADETS--UNIVERSITIES AND

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS; ANECDOTE--PLAN OF EDUCATION--MOTIVES FOR

ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITIES--STATISTICS--PROFESSORS; THEIR

IGNORANCE--EXCLUSION OF FOREIGN PROFESSORS--ENGINEERING--

OBSTACLES TO INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT--CHARACTERISTICS OF

THE SCLAVONIC RACE.

In contemplating the development and organisation of public instruction

in Russia from the time of Peter the Great to these days, one cannot

help thinking that the Russians attach infinitely more value to the

appearance of progress, than to its real existence. One would say they

care very little about scientific and intellectual results, provided

their universities and schools be complete in all physical details, and

provided they have numerous educational halls graced with the names of

all the sciences professed in Europe.

Nevertheless, the sovereigns of Russia have all laboured more or less

actively for the propagation of public instruction. Unfortunately they

would never suffer themselves to admit that civilisation is a long and

difficult work; and incapable of forgetting, even amidst the liberal

ideas on which they based their projects, that they were before all

things absolute princes, they fancied they could civilise their nation

as they had disciplined their soldiers; and then, swayed by vanity and

self-conceit, they graciously suffered themselves to be deceived by all

the brilliant reports laid before them by the administrative

departments.

It was in the reign of Feodor Alexievitz that the first academy was

founded in Moscow. The Sclavonic, Greek, and Latin languages were taught

there. A university was afterwards established in the same city, and in

the reign of Catherine II. St. Petersburg possessed an academy of

sciences and the fine arts, and a society of rural economy. But even at

that period the spirit of ostentation, which forms the substratum of the

Russian character, already revealed itself; and while forming those

grand institutions, not a thought had been given to the opening of a

single elementary school in either capital. Some writers indeed allege

that Peter I. left behind him, at his death, fifty-one schools for the

people, and fifty-six for the military; but I have always been disposed

to think that those establishments existed but in name, and my

researches have but confirmed that opinion.

The first elementary institution of any importance founded in the new

capital, dates only from the beginning of the eighteenth century: it is

the school of the cadet corps, exclusively reserved for the young

nobility, and intended to form officers for the land and sea service,

and for the engineers. In order to judge of the instruction afforded in

it, one ought to be able at least to mention some of its pupils who have

been distinguished for their talents, and who have acquired a certain

degree of celebrity; but it is as difficult to name any such, as to

discover men of learning and science among the members of the various

academies mentioned above. Be this as it may, we cannot help

entertaining a very mean opinion of the spirit and organisation of all

these establishments founded by Peter the Great, and by the sovereigns

who succeeded him during the latter part of the eighteenth century.

The first institution in favour of the people was created in St.

Petersburg in 1764: it was an educational establishment for the

daughters of burghers and gentlemen of scanty fortune. It was founded by

Catherine II., who in taking measures by preference for the education of

women, seems to have intended to prepare them for usurping in their

domestic circle the same absolute sway which she was herself about to

exercise over the whole empire.

Elementary schools were not actually opened to the public until 1783,

and that only in some of the great towns of the empire. As all these

ill-contrived early institutions possess little interest, I will pass on

to the consideration of the present state of public instruction. The

existing system dates from Alexander's reign. The course adopted in the

beginning was on all points similar to that pursued by Peter the Great

and Catherine II. The first thing thought of was the establishment of

universities; those of Dorpat and Vilna were re-established; that of

Moscow was reformed, and new ones were founded in Kasan and Kharkof. As

for elementary schools, they were completely overlooked. The following

anecdote will give an idea of the primitive state of the great colleges

of the empire.

A German gentleman in the Russian service travelled in the Crimea, in

1803. On passing through Kharkof, curiosity induced him to visit the

university, which had been opened in the town about a year before. While

looking over the cabinet of natural philosophy, he perceived with

amazement that the professor of that branch of science did not even know

the names of the few instruments at his command. Unable to conceal his

surprise, he asked his guide where he had been professor before he

became attached to the university. "I never was a professor before," was

the reply. "Where did you study?" "I learned to read and write in

Moscow." "How did you obtain the rank of professor of natural

philosophy?" "I was an officer of police; my age no longer allowed me to

support the fatigues of my duty; so hearing that a place which would

suit me better was vacant in the academy, I applied for it. Thirty

years' service, good certificates, and the influence of a patron,

enabled me to obtain it." "And what are the duties belonging to your

place?" "I have to inspect the instruments, and keep them in order, and

I am directed to show them to such persons of distinction as may please

to visit the university."

This happened, it is true, in 1803, and I only mention the fact to show

the spirit that prevailed in the establishment of these learned

institutions. The university of Kharkof is now in a better condition,

and I know many professors there of real merit, distinguished among whom

are Doctor Vancetti, equally remarkable for his acquirements and his

philanthropy, and Professor Kalenitchikov, who devotes himself with

success to all branches of natural history.

At last, however, it was felt that universities were insufficient, and

could not exist without elementary schools. Some years after the

accession of Alexander, gymnasiums were therefore established in all the

governmental chief towns; and the district towns had their primary

institutions, in which were to be taught reading and writing, the

elements of grammar and arithmetic, the history of Russia, sacred

history, geography, geometry, and the rudiments of Latin.

The course of instruction in the gymnasia was more extensive, and

embraced special mathematics, logic, rhetoric, and physics. Lastly, the

pupil was advanced to the university, where he went through a complete

course of study, comprising the sciences, the liberal arts, literature.

At first sight it would appear that this well conceived plan of studies

ought to have had the most satisfactory results; but this was not

altogether the case. The nobiliary system of the empire, and certain

regulations of detail and discipline combined to destroy the reasonable

hopes founded on such liberal institutions.

The Russian universities unquestionably number among their professors

some distinguished men, equally devoted to science and to the duties of

their calling; but the social ideas prevalent in the country render

their efforts almost always unavailing, and they find themselves

compelled to restrict their course of instruction within the narrow

routine prescribed to them.

Now and always the universities and gymnasia are and have been for the

most part attended only by pupils of the class of petty nobles, or of

those of the priests and burghers. As for the sons of the aristocratic

families, they are generally educated at home by private tutors, and as

they are almost all intended for the army, they enter at once into the

corps of cadets established in St. Petersburg.

According to a table published by the ministry of the interior, all the

first class establishments for public instruction, that is to say the

universities, the two medico-chirurgical academies, the pedagogic

institute and the three lycea, contained in 1840 only 612 functionaries

and professors, and 3809 pupils, the numbers being thus made up:

| Functionaries |

| and Teachers. | Students.

| |

St. Petersburg | 59 | 433

Moscow | 82 | 932

Dorpat | 66 | 530

Kharkof | 79 | 468

Kasan | 74 | 237

St. Vladimir (Kiev) | 55 | 140

Richelieu Lyceum (Odessa) | 25 | 52

Demidof ditto | 20 | 33

Bezborodko ditto | 15 | 19

Medico-chirurgical academies of | |

Moscow and Vilna | 94 | 797

Pedagogic institute of St. Petersburg | 43 | 68

According to the same report the Russian empire possessed at the close

of the year 1840, 3230 establishments under the superior direction of

the ministry of public instruction, and containing 103,450 pupils.

The young men who attend the university courses, have all but one single

object in view, that of acquiring a grade of nobility; and the

examinations are too slight to make industry and proficiency in their

studies really requisite to the attainment of their purpose. Besides,

they are most of them educated at the cost of the government, and as the

latter does not like to lose its money, they must all enter the imperial

service, whether well taught or not. In this manner are formed all the

physicians, surgeons, and subordinate professors of gymnasia.

As for the civil departments the sole condition required for admission

into them, is the knowledge of writing and arithmetic; accordingly the

common class Russian thinks he has completed his education when he can

read, write, and cypher; and he is indeed sufficiently erudite to get a

footing in some chancery office, a common clerkship in which admits him

to the first grade as a civil officer, and from thence he may arrive at

the highest rank in the service.

Many young men on leaving the universities, are of course employed in

the public offices; but then, whatever talents they may possess, and

whatever fruit they may have gathered from their studies become utterly

useless to them. From the moment they enter any office whatever, they

perceive with astonishment that they know nothing of what it is

essential they should know. They have stepped into a new world of which

they do not even know the language. They hear nothing talked of around

them but forms, rules, tricks for evading the laws and ordinances,

artifices for giving a legal colouring to abuses and extortions, and all

sorts of inventions for squeezing money out of those who have the

misfortune to need the help of the _employes_.

They soon see that the greatest adepts in those frauds which are

conveniently styled office usages, the least scrupulous, or, in plain

terms, the greatest rogues, are considered clever fellows, and make

their way rapidly; whilst those who still retain some sense of honesty

and a lingering respect for the principles of morality, are laughed at

as fools. What then does the novice, who has perhaps carried off the

prize of eloquence at the university? Finding himself obliged to defer

to the lowest pupil of an elementary school, who has already gained some

knowledge of office practice, he tries to forget all he has learned, and

applies himself to a new course of study. His conscientious scruples are

soon silenced; prompted by emulation he gradually becomes as

accomplished as his mates, and by dint of this second education the

clever fellow at last quite effaces the honest man.

It is also from the universities that the young men are taken who are

designed for the business of public instruction; and as we have already

stated, they are for the most part educated at the expense of the state.

When their studies are completed they are appointed professors in the

gymnasia and other schools. The government has neglected no means of

making their calling as advantageous as possible, both as to salary and

honorary advancement. These encouragements would have the happiest

effect anywhere else than in Russia, but there they have quite the

contrary result. It follows from the existing system of nobility with

its graduated scale, the privileges it confers, and the means of fortune

its offers, that a man's whole status in life resolves itself into a

question of official rank. Now, as no calling presents a greater chance

of rapid advancement than that of the public instructor, in which

capacity a young man rarely fails to obtain the rank of major

(hereditary nobility) after five or six years' service, the consequence

is that all the sons of the petty nobles, burghers, and priests, eagerly

rush into this thriving profession. This, however, is not the real

mischief; on the contrary, the great number of competitors might produce

a very salutary rivalry; but unfortunately the little power and

influence exercised by the professors, who after all, can only command

boys, and still more than this, their want of opportunity to enrich

themselves under cover of their office, strip the business of public

instruction of all prestige, and cause it to be considered,

notwithstanding its high pay, as much less advantageous than many other

posts the fixed salary of which is almost nothing, but which enable the

holders to levy almost unlimited contributions on those who come under

their hands. What follows? As soon as the professors have obtained the

rank of major, they quit the universities and enter the civil

administrations, where they can fatten on law suits, chicanery, and

exactions, and all the countless means by which the law enables them to

make fraudulent fortunes. And here we may remark that this state of

things is another consequence of the want of definite callings and

professions in Russia. The career of official rank is the only one known

to the Russian; for him there exists none other.

We must not wonder, therefore, if the instruction given in the

elementary schools, and the gymnasia is incomplete and almost barren of

good effect. The teachers are almost always mere boys without experience

or sound knowledge. They content themselves with going through their

routine of business according to the letter of the rules, and the

military discipline imposed on them; but once escaped from their

classes, they think of nothing but enjoying themselves, eating,

drinking, and playing cards. I have visited many gymnasia in Russia, and

I have always seen in them the same effects flowing from the same

causes.

Besides the great universities and high schools, all the leading towns

of the empire formerly contained numerous boarding schools, most of them

kept by strangers; but these were suppressed by ukase in the year 1842.

The means of instruction are at present confined to the imperial

establishments, from which all foreigners not naturalised in Russia are

excluded. These new regulations dictated by false vanity, will

infallibly have a disastrous influence, and render the progress of

education more and more difficult.

There still exist in Russia several establishments for the education of

officers and civil and military engineers. The Institute of Ways and

Communications was established in the reign of Alexander, under the

superintendence of four pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique of France, MM.

Potier, Fabre, Destreme, and Bazain, who entered the service of Russia,

at the request to that effect preferred by the tzar to Napoleon. This

school (which I have not visited) might have rendered great service to

the empire, had the government been discreet enough to leave it its

foreign professors, and not subject it to the absurd interference of the

Russian military drill. Very few able men have issued from this

institution, and the profound ignorance I have seen exhibited in all the

great works executed at a distance from the capital, attests the decay

of a school which at first promised so fairly. Again, it must be owned,

that from the time when engineers enter on active service, they have no

leisure to complete their studies; as soon as they receive an

appointment, their whole time is taken up with reports, accounts,

writings without end, and all the countless formalities devised by the

quibbling and captious spirit of the Russians. I have known several

engineers at the head of important works; they had not a moment to

themselves, their whole day being spent in writing and signing heaps of

paper. The same observations apply to the military, for whom secondary

manoeuvres and minute costume observances form a never relaxing and

stultifying slavery. Under such a system, all the germs of instruction

implanted in the schools, soon disappear in service.

Besides, it must be admitted that the generality of Russians have a

natural indifference to the sciences and the arts, which will long

defeat the efforts of sovereigns desirous of effecting an intellectual

regeneration. Though I have gone over a large portion of the empire, I

have found very few persons, young or old, who were really studious and

well-informed, and too often I have met with nothing but the most utter

apathy, where I had a right to expect interest and enthusiasm. It

matters not that the emperor showers tokens of favour and respect on his

_savans_, the Russians themselves continue, notwithstanding, to treat

them with great disdain. The reason is, that the arts and sciences do

not lead to fortune in Russia, and as they fall exclusively to the lot

either of foreigners, or of the petty nobles, they cannot enjoy high

consideration in a form of society which respects only might and

authority, and consequently recognises but two vocations worthy of

ambition, viz., the military profession and the civil service.

But independently of the influence of a bad social organisation, the

Russians seem to me to be at this day the least apt by nature of all the

nations of Europe to receive solid instruction. The Sclavonic race may

be divided into two great branches: the first of these, which contains

the Poles among others, has felt the influence of the west, with which

it has been in long and immediate contact, and so enabled to adopt its

civilisation more or less closely; the second, on the contrary, has

acknowledged the paramount influence of Asia, and the Russians who

compose it, are still in our day under the action of the Mongol hordes,

to which they were enslaved for more than three centuries. Again, Russia

is absolutely and entirely a novice in civilisation; go over her whole

history, and you will not find a single page which gives proof of a

really progressive tendency. It is a very remarkable fact that her

political and commercial relations with the Lower Empire were entirely

barren of result upon her civilisation, which remained completely

stationary, even in circumstances most favourable to its development: it

is therefore by no means surprising, that despite all the efforts of her

sovereigns, she has been unable to place herself on the level of the

other nations of Europe within the space of a hundred years.

The results of our civilisation, more than twenty centuries old, are not

to be inculcated so rapidly: there needs we think, a long series of

progressive initiations, so that the moral constitution reacting on the

physical, may render the perceptions and the organs of the latter more

delicate, and more suited to intellectual development: and this period

of transition must necessarily be very long for a nation to which the

past has bequeathed only reminiscences of slavery and destruction. Look,

on the other hand, at Greece, Moldavia, and Wallachia, countries which

have all had glorious periods in history; they have made great strides

within ten years, and have in that short space of time established their

claim to rank as members of the European family of nations. To their

past history belongs in part the honour of their present advancement.

That thirst for instruction, that incredible aptitude to seize and

understand every thing, which is characteristic above all of the Greeks,

are evidently but old faculties long sunk in torpor under the pressure

of slavery, and which waited but for a little freedom to break forth

with new energy.

CHAPTER XVI.

ENTRY INTO THE COUNTRY OF THE DON COSSACKS--FEMALE PILGRIMS

OF KIEV; RELIGIOUS FERVOUR OF THE COSSACKS--NOVO TCHERKASK,

CAPITAL OF THE DON--STREET-LAMPS GUARDED BY SENTINELS--THE

STREETS ON SUNDAY--COSSACK HOSPITALITY AND GOOD

NATURE--THEIR VENERATION FOR NAPOLEON'S MEMORY.

Beyond Nakhitchevane, several valleys abutting on the basin of the Don,

isolated hamlets, and a few stanitzas, diversify the country, and make

one forget the sterility of the steppes, that spread out their gray and

scarcely undulating surface to the westward. The banks of the Don which

are seldom out of sight, are enlivened by clumps of trees, fishermen's

huts, and herds of horses that seek there a fresher pasture than the

desert affords. But except these animals, we saw not a single living

creature; the heat was so intense, and the country is still so little

inhabited, that most of the fields appeared to us in a state of wild

nature. Nothing around us indicated the presence of man. In the country

of the Don Cossacks, as elsewhere throughout Russia, the post road is

barely marked out by two ditches so called, which you often drive over

without perceiving them, and by distance posts two or three yards high.

This is all the outlay the government chooses to incur for the imperial

post roads leading to the principal towns of the empire.

Before arriving in Novo Tcherkask, the capital of the Cossacks, we

encountered another wandering party at least as curious as our gipsies.

Imagine our surprise when having passed through a wide ravine, which for

a long while shut in the road, we saw defiling over the steppes a

countless string of small cars, escorted by I know not how many hundreds

of women. We advanced, puzzled and curious to the last degree; and the

more we gazed the more the numbers of these women seemed to multiply.

They were everywhere, in the cars, on the road, and over the steppes; it

was like a swarm of locusts suddenly dropped from the sky. Most of them

walked barefoot, holding their shoes in one hand, and with the other

picking up fragments of wood and straw, for what purpose we could not

conceive. Their carts were just like barrels with two openings, and were

driven by themselves, for there was not the shadow of a beard among

them. They were all returning, as they told us, from the catacombs of

Kiev, to which they had been making a pilgrimage. Among them I remarked

some old women who had scarcely a breath of life remaining. They seemed

dreadfully fatigued, but at the same time very well pleased with their

pious expedition.

Further on we met another procession of the same kind, which had already

arranged its encampment for the night. Two fires, fed with those little

chips of wood that had so much perplexed us, served to prepare the

evening meal. All the pilgrims were busy, and formed the most varied

groups. Some were fetching water in earthen pitchers, which they

carried on their heads; others were kneeling devoutly, making the sign

of the cross; and the genuflexions so frequent among the Russians and

Cossacks; the oldest were feeding the fire and telling stories. It was

an indescribable scene of bustle and noise, displaying a variety of the

most picturesque attitudes and physiognomies.

All the women were of Cossack race. There is much more of pious fervour

in this nation than in the Muscovites. A slight difference of text

between the Bibles of the two people has occasioned a very great one in

their religious sentiments. The Cossacks call themselves the true

believers, and abstain on religious grounds from the pipe, and from many

other things which the Muscovites allow themselves without scruple. The

natural integrity of their character is rarely sullied by hypocrisy.

They love and believe with equal ardour and sincerity.

At the extremity of a plateau, on the verge of a wide and deep valley,

the town of Novo Tcherkask suddenly appeared to us, rising in an

amphitheatre, and embracing in its huge extent several hills, the broad

slopes of which descend to the bottom of the valley. All the towns we

had previously seen, and which had shocked us by the extravagant breadth

of their streets and their dearth of houses, were nothing in comparison

with what now met our eyes. Seen from the point where we then stood, the

whole town was like an enormous chess board, with the lines formed by

avenues broader than the Place du Carousel in Paris. These lines,

bordered at intervals by a few shabby dwellings, and separated from each

other by open spaces in which whole regiments might manoeuvre quite at

their ease, some churches, and a triumphal arch erected in 1815 in

honour of Alexander, are the only salient points of this desert which

they call a capital, and the superficial dimensions of which are,

without exaggeration, as great as those of Paris.

Novo Tcherkask, now the seat of all the public offices of the Don

country, was founded in 1806 by Count Platof, who became so celebrated

through the unfortunate French campaign of Moscow. Its very ill-chosen

position forbids all chance of future prosperity. It is situated nearly

eight miles from the Don, on a hill surrounded on all sides by the Axai

and the Touzlof, small confluents of the river from which it is so

fatally remote. Platof is said to have selected this site for the

purpose of building a fortress; but his intentions have not been

realised. Another most serious inconvenience for the town is the

absolute want of good water. Wealthy persons use melted ice to make tea.

In the great square there are two very large bazaars with wooden roofs,

in which are found all sorts of goods, and especially an abundant

collection of military equipments for the use of the Cossacks. There is

also a great arsenal, but quite destitute of arms. As for the other

edifices, they are not worth mentioning, notwithstanding all the fine

descriptions given of them by geographers.

But Novo Tcherkask has one precious thing to boast of--a thing unique in

Russia--and that is an excellent hotel kept by a Frenchman, in which the

traveller finds all the comforts he can desire. The nobility who have

strongly encouraged this establishment, have formed in it a casino, in

which many balls are given in the winter.

The Emperor Nicholas visited the Don Cossacks in 1837, and to this

auspicious event the capital owed the good fortune of being supplied

with lamps in the streets. But the lights went out when his majesty

departed; and it is said, that in order to save the lamps from being

stolen, the authorities had been obliged to make an armed Cossack stand

sentry over each of them.

The population of Novo Tcherkask, formed by the union of four stanitzas,

amounts to about 10,000. Staro Tcherkask, the old capital, now

abandoned, has nothing to attract the traveller's attention, though Dr.

Clarke has bestowed on it the pompous title of the Russian Venice.

Our arrival in the Cossack capital fell on a Sunday. As the windows of

our hotel looked full on the only promenade in the town, the greater

part of the population passed in review before us. Every thing here

bespeaks the nomade and warlike temper of the Cossacks. There is no

copying of European fashion, no Frank costumes, no mixed population;

every thing is Cossack, except a few Kalmuck figures, telling us of the

vicinity of the Volga.

The Cossacks we had seen at Taganrok, had given us but a poor opinion of

the beauty of the women of the country; we were, therefore, agreeably

surprised at the sight of all the pretty girls that passed continually

before our windows. Even their costume, which we had thought ugly, now

seemed not wanting in originality, and even in a certain piquancy. The

young girls let their braided hair fall on their shoulders, and usually

tie the braids with bright ribbons, that hang down to their heels. Some

of them confine their tresses in a long bag made of a silk handkerchief,

a style of head-dress by no means unbecoming.

It was really a very pretty sight to see the crowd of elegant officers

and young women in gala attire that filled the footways, exchanging

looks, smiles, and even soft discourse, as if they were in a ball-room.

The men are tall and handsome, and look remarkably well in uniform.

Bravery and noble pride are legible in their features and their eyes, as

if they were still those fiery children of the steppes, who, before the

days of Catherine II. acknowledged no other power than that of their

ataman, freely chosen by themselves. Arms are at this day their sole

occupation, just as they were a hundred years ago, and their

organisation is still altogether military, as we shall see by and by.

What erroneous notions are entertained in France, of these good-natured,

inoffensive, and hospitable Cossacks! The events of 1814 and 1815, have

left a deep repugnance towards them in all French minds, and indeed it

could hardly be expected it should be otherwise. But speaking of them as

we found them in their own land, they do not deserve the aversion with

which our countrymen regard them. There is no part of Russia where the

traveller is more safe than in their country, nor does he anywhere meet

with a more kindly welcome. The name of Frenchman, especially, is an

excellent recommendation there. The portrait of Napoleon is found in

every house, and sometimes it is placed above that of the great St.

Nicholas himself. All the old veterans who have survived the great wars

of the empire, profess the greatest veneration for the French emperor,

and these sentiments are fully shared by the present generation.

CHAPTER XVII.

ORIGIN OF THE DON COSSACKS--MEANING OF THE NAME--THE

KHIRGHIS COSSACKS--RACES ANTERIOR TO THE COSSACKS--SCLAVONIC

EMIGRATIONS TOWARDS THE EAST.

The origin of the Don Cossacks has, like that of the Tatars of Southern

Russia, given rise to interminable discussions. Some have represented

this people as an offshoot of the great Sclavonic stock; others consider

it as only a medley of Turks, Tatars, and Circassians. Vsevolojsky

adopts the former of these opinions, in his Geographical and Historical

Dictionary of the Russian Empire. M. Schnitzler boldly decides the

question, in his Statistics of Russia, by declaring that the Cossacks of

the Don have proceeded from the Caucasus, and belong for the most part

to the Tcherkess or Circassian nation.

Constantino Porphyrogenitus, a writer of the ninth century, mentions a

country called _Kasachia_. "On the other side of the Papagian country,"

he says, "is Kasachia, and immediately afterwards are discovered the

tops of the Caucasus." The Russian chronicles likewise mention a

Circassian people subjugated in 1021 by Prince Mstizlav, of Tmoutarakan.

These, it must be owned, are very vague data, and the resemblance

between two names is not warrant for our concluding that the Cossacks of

our day and the Kasachians of the ninth century, are one and the same

nation. Except the few words we have just cited, we have no other

information respecting the latter people, and all the historical

researches hitherto made, have failed to determine the real situation of

Tmoutarakan. This town has been placed sometimes at Riazan, sometimes at

the mouth of the Volga, on the site of Astrakhan, sometimes on the

Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. A stone, with a Sclavonic inscription,

discovered at Taman, seemed for a while to have solved the problem. But

it was afterwards fully demonstrated, that this grand historical

discovery was only a hoax practised on the credulous antiquarians.

The Kasachia of the ninth century is thus but very imperfectly known to

us; even with the help of Constantino Porphyrogenitus, it would be

difficult to determine its position with any real precision; and when

the Cossacks, now known to us, appear for the first time, 600 years

afterwards, it would be rash and arbitrary in the extreme to declare

them the descendants of a people so briefly mentioned by the Byzantine

writer. This opinion will appear the less admissible, when it is

considered that the country of the Cossacks, situated around the Sea of

Azov, lay directly in the route of all those conquering hordes that

issued from Asia to overrun and ravage Europe, and afterwards

disappeared successively, without leaving any other trace of their

existence than their name in the pages of history.

Is it likely that Kasachia was more fortunate? Is there any probability

that its people, after 600 years of absolute obscurity, again arose out

of the chaos of all those revolutions, to produce the Cossacks of our

day? We cannot think so. Historical inquiries, and above all a knowledge

of the regions extending between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian, prove

beyond question that all those countries were never occupied by a nation

having fixed habitations. We have ourselves traversed those Russian

deserts, up to the northern foot of the Caucasus; and except the

somewhat modern remains of Madjar, on the borders of the Kouma, we

nowhere found any vestige of human occupancy, or any trace of

civilisation. It is, therefore, by no means likely, that amidst all the

convulsions of the Asiatic invasions, from the ninth to the fifteenth

century, whilst so many races were disappearing completely, that a

little remote nomade people shall have preserved for 600 years its

nationality and its territory, without being swept away and absorbed by

all those warlike hordes that must have passed over it in torrents. This

would be an historical fact perfectly unique in that part of the world;

to us it appears in flagrant contradiction with historical experience.

We are of opinion then, that the Cossacks of our day have nothing in

common with the Kasachia of Constantino Porphyrogenitus, and that we

must look elsewhere for their origin and for the reason of their

appellation.

Let us in the first place examine this word _Cossack_. According to the

use in which it was formerly and is still employed, it seems evidently

not to belong to a special people, but simply to express the generic

character of every nation, having certain distinct manners and customs.

Thus in Russia, at this day, the name of Cossacks is given to all those

persons who are under military organisation: there are Turcomans,

Kalmuks, and Tatars so called in the steppes of the Caspian; and in

Bessarabia, some gipsies and a medley of nondescript people constitute

the Cossacks of the Dniestr. The Don Cossacks, themselves, attach no

historical significance to their designation, which they seem to regard

merely as a by-name given to them in former times, and they readily

share it with the nomade tribes around them, whose organisation is the

same as their own. The only appellation they assume among themselves, is

that of true believers.

The existence of the Khirghis Kaissacks of our day, can be traced back

to more remote times; but there is certainly no analogy between this

Mussulman people and our Cossacks. Furthermore, it seems proved that the

Tatars before their invasions of Europe, used to give the appellation of

Cossacks to all those individuals of their own race, who, having no

property, were obliged to subsist by pillage, or to sell their services

to some military leader. _Cossack_ then, according to our apprehension,

signifies only a nomade and a vagabond people, and it is likely that the

Tatars on their arrival in Europe, gave that name to all the wandering

tribes they found in the steppes of Azov and of the Don. What tends

still more to confirm this opinion is, that no mention of Cossacks is

made by Rubruquis and Du Plan de Carpin, who traversed all the regions

of Southern Russia, on their embassy to the grand khan, in the beginning

of the thirteenth century.

And now let us ask whence came those nomade people that preceded the

modern Cossacks in the steppes of the Don and the Sea of Azov? Here

again we must dissent from the views of Dr. Edmund Clarke and Lesur

which have been generally adopted in Schnitzler's statistics.

According to the testimony of all historians the Slaves already occupied

various parts of Southern Russia, during the first period of the

decadence of the Lower Empire: every one knows indeed that the

descendants of Rurik often carried their attacks on the emperors of the

East up to the very gates of their capital. The annals of Russia also

demonstrate the existence of the Slaves at the same period, in all

Little Russia, and even in the country of the Don. This region was then

called Severa. Its inhabitants, after a long contest with the

Petchenegues, emigrated in part, and we now find their name attached to

one of the principalities of the Danube, viz., Servia.

Again, it is universally admitted even by the adversaries of our

opinions that the Don country was occupied previously to the Tatar

invasions by a nomade and warlike people, the Polovtzis, who, there is

every reason to think, were no other than Slaves.[13]

It may well be conceived that the dissensions and continual wars between

the numerous chieftains, among whom the Russian soil was formerly

parceled out, must naturally have produced numerous emigrations; and

these partial emigrations being too weak to act against the west, must

of course have turned eastward towards those remote regions of the

steppes where the fugitives might find freedom and independence. It

would be difficult then to disprove that a Slavic people existed on the

banks of the Don when the Tatars arrived; and that people was apparently

the Polovtzis, an agglomeration of fugitives and malcontents, who,

during the convulsions of the Russian empire, under Vladimir the Great's

successors, seem to have laid the first foundations of the Cossack power

in the steppes of the Sea of Azov and the Don.[14]

The name of the Polovtzis disappeared completely under the Tatar sway;

but it would be illogical thence to infer that the people itself utterly

perished, and did not share the destiny of the other Sclavonic tribes of

Russia. We agree, therefore, with some historians in thinking that the

Polovtzis merely exchanged their appellation for that of Cossacks,

imposed on them by the Tatars, and made permanent by a servitude of more

than three centuries. We have besides already remarked that the Tatars

used among themselves to call all adventurers and vagabonds Cossacks: it

is not, therefore, surprising that they should on their arrival in

Russia, have given this designation to the nomade hordes of the

Polovtzis. This historical version seems far more rational than the

supposition that the Polovtzis completely disappeared, and were entirely

supplanted by a Caucasian race, which had taken part in the expeditions

of Batou Khan.

The traveller, who has studied the Cossacks and the mountaineers of the

Caucasus, can never admit the doctrine that would make but one nation of

these two. Our notions on this subject are corroborated in every point

by physiological observations. In the first place, considerations

founded on religion and language, are not so lightly to be rejected as

Clarke and Lesur assert. The conversion of the Cossacks would not

certainly have been passed over unnoticed in the history of the Lower

Empire; the Byzantine writers would have been sure to record such a

triumph of their creed; but they say not a word about it; and every one

knows perfectly well in what manner Christianity was categorically

introduced into Russia. Moreover, if the Cossacks had been nothing but

Circassians at the beginning of the thirteenth century, it would be hard

to account for their ready adoption of a foreign language and religion,

at a time when that language and that religion were, if not proscribed,

at least much discredited under the Tatar sway. The last Russian

expeditions into the Caucasus, towards the sources of the Kouban, have,

it is true, given birth to new historical ideas as to that part of Asia.

Thus, there have been discovered two churches in a perfect state of

preservation, the origin of which is evidently Genoese or Venetian, and

we can scarcely fail to recognise in the Circassians some traces of

Christianity in the profound respect they bear to the cross. But, on the

other hand, nothing indicates that this people was ever Christian; on

the contrary, every thing proves that its primitive religion, if its

religious notions may be so called, has undergone no alteration. Those

Christian edifices, too, which we have alluded to, belong to a later

period than the inroads of the Tatar hordes, consequently they can only

testify in favour of our views.

No chronicle speaks of the emigration of a Tcherkess people in the

middle ages. The only tradition relating to any thing of the kind, is

that of a strong tribe from the Caucasus, which, after occupying the

plains of the Danube, is said to have settled at last in Pannonia. Every

one is aware that mountain tribes are the least migratory of all, and

the most attached to their native soil; it is, therefore, natural to

suppose that the Circassians, so proud of their independence and so

often ineffectually attacked, did not receive the warriors of Genghis

Khan as friends, or take part in their sanguinary expeditions.[15] Hence

M. Schnitzler appears to me to propound a more than questionable fact

when he alleges, following Karamsin, that the Circassians entered Russia

with Batou Khan, and so formed by degrees that new people, which, to

borrow the language of this statician, _on the breaking up of the Tatar

rule and the dispersion of the clouds, which till then had hung over

their country, appears to us as Russian and Christian, but with

Circassian features, with Tatar manners and customs, and hating the

Muscovites_.

How can we assign such an origin to the Don Cossacks when there exists

neither among them, nor among their supposed brethren, any tradition of

so modern a fact? Besides, if the Cossacks had really come from the

Caucasus, would they not have retained some neighbourly relations with

the mountaineers? Is it not a singular notion to take Circassians, the

most indomitable of all men, and the most attached to their hereditary

usages and manners, to subject them to the Tatars for more than 300

years, and then to transform them at once, and without transition, into

a people speaking pure unmixed Sclavonic, and professing the Greek

religion? This is certainly one of the most curious of metamorphoses;

before it could happen there must have been a combination of

circumstances exactly the reverse of those which have really existed.

The Circassians, one would think, would have been much more disposed to

adopt the religion of the victors, than of the vanquished, the more so

as islamism having already at that period made considerable progress in

Eastern Caucasus, would give them a much stronger bias towards the

Tatars, than towards the wandering hordes of the Polovtzis, from which

we derive the Cossacks.

Notwithstanding the assertions of Dr. Clarke, it is not easy to trace

much resemblance between the Circassians and the Cossacks. At present we

see all the people who dwell at the foot of the Caucasus, generally

adopting the habits of the mountain tribes. A great number of Nogai

Tatars have become completely blended with them. The Cossacks of the

Black Sea have borrowed from them their costume and their arms. The

Muscovites and the German colonists themselves have not escaped the

energetic influence of the Caucasian tribes; and yet some would have us

believe that the Don Cossacks, a Tcherkess tribe, separated from the

parent stock not more than 400 years, have undergone a contrary impulse

during all that time, and now present, in a manner, no resemblance to

their ancestors. The two peoples differ in costume, arms, industry, and

every other particular. The Circassians are extremely apt in

manufactures, and excel in all sorts of handicraft productions, to which

they give a very marked and original character. The Cossacks, on the

contrary, have little or no turn for manufactures; in this respect they

exhibit no trace of what characterises the Caucasian tribes in so high a

degree. As for the Tatar habits, of which M. Schnitzler speaks, I know

not where to look for them, unless they consist in the trousers

generally worn by the Cossack women. After all, the Tatars must

necessarily have left some traces of their habits in the countries over

which they ruled for so many centuries.

The real point of contact between the Cossacks and the Circassians,

consists in their love of freedom, and their intense hatred for every

thing Russian. But these sentiments evidently flow from their ancient

and primitive constitution; and if they detest the Russians, it is

because the Muscovite sovereigns, who have never ceased to attack their

privileges, have at last succeeded in annihilating their whole political

existence.

Undoubtedly the Cossacks are not pure Sclavonians, like the people of

Great Russia, but are mixed up with many other races. The Don country

long remained a soil of freedom, a real land of asylum for all refugees.

The Circassians have probably not been strangers to their past history,

and the adventurous life of the Cossack must have fascinated many a

mountain chief. History, too, informs us that the Sclavons of Poland

have mingled their blood with that of the inhabitants of the Don

country. It is this medley of races, and the combination of all these

various influences, added to the thoroughly republican character of

their primitive constitution, that give the Cossacks their intellectual

superiority, and make them a nation apart. But the principle stock is

nevertheless Sclavonic.

The partisans of the Circassian origin have also dwelt on the

resemblance between the name of the capital of the Don country, and

that of a Caucasian tribe. But really when a historical question of this

importance is under discussion, such a resemblance cannot be of much

weight. We know that some fugitives from the Boristhenes, about the

year 1569, fell in with Cossacks on the Don, and joined with them in an

attack on Azov, which then belonged to the Turks. It was just about this

period, 1570, that Staro Tcherkask was founded. We should hence be

disposed to believe that the fugitives from the Ukraine had a great

share in the creation of that town, and that they called it Tcherkask,

in memory of the name of the old capital of their native land.

The Don Cossacks appear to us for the first time in the thirteenth

century, on the ruins of the Tatar empire. Not till then did they begin

to make a certain figure in the history of the Muscovite empire. In the

reign of Ivan IV. the Terrible, they put themselves under the protection

of Russia. From that time until near the end of the last century, we see

them sometimes marching under the banners of the Muscovite sovereigns,

sometimes rising against them, and often bringing the empire to the very

verge of ruin. Their political condition was in those days a real

republic, founded on a basis of absolute equality. The head of the

government, styled ataman, was selected by the whole assembled nation,

and retained his office but for five years; but his power was

dictatorial, and no one could call him to account for his acts, even

after the expiration of his office. All the subaltern leaders were

likewise elected, and retained their posts for a greater or less time,

according to circumstances. Equality, however, resumed its sway at the

end of each military campaign; each officer, on returning into private

life, enjoyed only the rights common to all; and the colonel or

starshine often made the ensuing campaign as a private soldier.

Aristocracy was totally unknown to the Don Cossacks in those days; if

some families were distinguished from the rest by their greater

influence, they owed this solely to their courage and their exploits. So

strong was then the sense of independence, that the Cossacks despised as

vile mercenaries those who took permanent service under the Russian

sovereigns. As for the imperial suzerainty, it was limited to the right

of calling for a military contingent in case of war, and of disposing of

a small body of troops to defend the frontiers against the nomades of

the steppes.

Cossack freedom was doomed to perish when brought into collision with

the principles of absolutism and servitude which rule in the Russian

empire; accordingly, as soon as the Empress Catherine II. felt strong

enough to make the attempt, she decided on a radical change in the

political constitution of the Don country.

The first of her ukases to this effect enacted that all the Cossack

officers in the service of Russia should retain their rank and

privileges on their return to their own country; a regulation directly

opposed to the habits and usages of that republican people. How,

indeed, could that haughty soldiery have endured that slave-officers,

as it called them, should be put on the same footing with its own,

elected by the acclamations of the nation? A revolt ensued, but it was

promptly put down. The illustrious Potemkin could not understand that

insurrection, for it seemed to him incredible that the Cossacks should

rebel because they were granted almost all the privileges of Russian

officers. After these unhappy troubles, their elections were abolished,

and their political system was gradually changed, until it came to

resemble that of a Russian government. Count Platof was the last ataman

of the Cossacks, and he owed the authority he was allowed to enjoy, in a

great measure to the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed by

the wars of the empire.

The Don country continued through the last century as before, to be a

land of asylum and freedom for all refugees. This led to the settlement

of a great number of Russians among the Cossacks. The Emperor Paul took

advantage of this circumstance to secure the attachment of the principal

families by publishing an ukase, in which he at once, and without

warning, declared all the Russian fugitives slaves of the landowners,

whose patronage they had accepted. This first partition of the people

was not the last; another ukase of the same sovereign completed the work

of Catherine II., abolished equality, and constituted an aristocracy by

ennobling all the officers and _employes_ of the government. The

nobility at present amount to a considerable number, and all the

officers are taken from that body. The young Cossacks, like the

Russians, enter the St. Petersburg corps as cadets, at ten or twelve

years of age; after some years they join a regiment as _junker_, and two

or three months afterwards they become officers.

The political power of the Cossacks being annihilated, active means were

taken to deprive them of all military strength, by dispersing them all

over the empire, and stationing them wherever there were quarantines,

custom-house lines, and hostile frontiers to guard. Cossack posts were

simultaneously established on the frontiers of Poland, and at the foot

of the Caucasus. Lastly, every means of enfeeblement was largely

employed, and after the death of Platof, under pretext of rewarding the

nation for its devotedness during the campaign of Moscow, the functions

of ataman-in-chief were suppressed, and the title was conferred on the

heir-apparent.

All these arbitrary measures, which, after all cannot be blamed, have

naturally excited the most violent discontent in the country of the Don,

and the Cossacks would undoubtedly cause the empire serious uneasiness

in case of war. The government is not ignorant of this hostile temper.

In recent times it did not dare to trust the Cossacks with real pieces

of artillery, and the regiments were compelled to exercise with wooden

cannons. It is certain that the campaign of 1812 would not have been so

disastrous for France, if Napoleon had taken care to send emissaries

among the inhabitants of the Don with promises to re-establish their

ancient political constitution. I have questioned a great number of

military men on this subject, and all were unanimous in assuring me of

the alacrity with which the Cossacks would then have joined the French

army. Nothing can give an idea of the antipathy they cherish to their

masters; the feeling pervades all classes, in spite of every effort of

the government. The Russians affect so much disdain for the Cossack

nobles, that the latter, notwithstanding their epaulettes and their

decorations, cannot but bitterly regret the old republican constitution.

Furthermore, the military service is so onerous, that it checks all

agricultural and industrial activity; for be it observed, that the

Cossacks of the present day are far from being the plunderers they were

in former times. The service is to them but a profitless task, and they

all long eagerly for a sedentary life, which would allow them to attend

to rural occupations, and to trade.

The country of the Don Cossacks is now definitively a Russian

government. All the laws of the empire are there in full force, and the

administrative forms are the same, under other names. Nevertheless, the

still free attitude of the Cossacks has not hitherto permitted the

installation of the Russian _employes_ among them. Within the last three

years only, the government has succeeded in having itself represented at

Novo Tcherkask, by a general placed at the head of the military staff of

the country. The Cossacks regard this innovation with dislike, and spare

their new military superior no annoyance. The following is the present

organisation of the Don Cossacks:--

The ataman (_locum tenens_) holding the grade of lieutenant-general, is

the military and civil head of the government, and at the same time the

president of the various tribunals of the capital. The functions of

vice-president having been conferred since 1841 on the general of the

staff before mentioned, the latter is in fact the sole influential

authority in the country.

The province of the Don Cossacks is divided into seven civil and four

military districts; the courts are similar to those of the other

governments.

The army amounts at present, to fifty-four regiments, of 850 men each

(not including the two regiments of the emperor and the grand duke) and

nine companies of artillery, having each eight pieces of cannon. In

1840, there were twenty-eight regiments in active service, fifteen of

them in the Caucasus, with three companies of artillery. At the same

time, nine other regiments were under orders to march for the lines of

the Kouban.

All the Cossacks are soldiers born: their legal term of service is

twenty years abroad, or twenty-five at home. But no regard is paid to

this regulation, for most of them remain in active service for thirty or

even forty years. They pay no taxes, but are obliged to equip themselves

at their own expense, and receive the ordinary pay of Russian troops

only from the day they cross their native frontiers.[16]

The organisation of the regiments is effected in rather a curious

manner. When a regiment is to be sent to the Caucasus, each district

receives notice how many soldiers and officers it is to supply, and then

the first names on the military books are taken without distinction. The

place of muster is usually near the frontier, and every one arrives

there as he pleases, without concerning himself about others. When all

the men are assembled, they are classed by squadrons, the requisite

officers are set over them, and the detachment begins its march. Hence

we see there is nothing fixed in the composition of the regiments. The

Cossacks are subjected nevertheless to the European discipline, and

formed into regular corps; but this innovation seems likely to be fatal

to them, by completely destroying their valuable aptitude for acting as

skirmishers. The Emperor Nicholas visited the Don country in 1837, and

reviewed the Cossack troops at Novo Tcherkask, but it appears that he

was exceedingly displeased with the condition of the regulars.

Accordingly, that he might not expose them to the criticism of

foreigners, he took care not to be accompanied by the brilliant cortege

of European officers who had been present at the grand military parades

of Vosnecensk.

The population of the Don Cossacks amounts to about 600,000, occupying

14,000,000 hectares of land, and divided into four very distinct

classes: 1. The aristocracy founded by the Emperor Paul; 2. The free

Cossacks; 3. The merchants; 4. The slaves. The free Cossacks form the

mass of the population, and furnish the horse soldiers; they have

however the opportunity of acquiring nobility by military service, but

to this end, they must serve for twelve years as non-commissioned

officers.

The merchants form a peculiar class, which can hardly exceed 500 in

number. They are not bound to do military service, but in lieu of this,

they pay taxes to the government. The slaves, whose origin we have

described, amount to about 85,000 souls.

The revenues of the government of the Cossacks, are about 2,000,000

rubles, more than sufficient for the expenditure, that is to say, for

the payment of the _employes_. The spirit duties produce 1,500,000

rubles, the rest is made up by the salt works of the Manitch, and the

pasturage dues.

The country of the Don Cossacks is bounded on the north by the two

governments of Voroneje and Saratof; on the east by the latter, and that

of Astrakhan; on the south by the government of the Caucasus, the

country of the Cossacks of the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azov; on the

west, by the governments of Voroneje and Iekaterinoslav and the Ukraine

slobodes. All this territory forms a vast extent, no part of which is

detached as M. Schnitzler asserts; on the contrary, the regency of

Taganrok is completely encompassed by it.

The country of the Cossacks may be divided into two very distinct parts:

that situated to the north and west, presenting lofty plains intersected

by many rivers and ravines, is admirably adapted for agriculture, and

possesses excellent pastures. Among its numerous rivers, are the Donetz,

the Mious, and the Kalmious, which marks its frontier on the west, and

the Khoper and the Medveditza on the north-east. It is principally along

the two latter streams, that the Cossacks have established their most

celebrated studs, among the foremost of which, are those of Count

Platof. The second division of the country, consists of all the steppes

that extend along the left bank of the Don, to the confines of the

government of the Caucasus, and along the Manitch to the frontier of

Astrakhan. The soil is here unvaried; it is the Russian desert in all

its uniformity, and the basin of the muddy and brackish Manitch, is

perfectly in harmony with the regions it traverses. But those monotonous

plains are a source of wealth to the Cossacks, who rear vast herds of

horses and other cattle; several thousands of Kalmucks too find

subsistence in them.

Until 1841, the government of the Cossacks exhibited one very singular

peculiarity. Its whole territory formed but one vast communal domain,

without any individual owners or ownership. After several fruitless

attempts, the Russian government finally determined on dividing the

lands, and the work must by this time have been completed. Besides the

new arrangements adopted, there have been granted to each family thirty

hectares of land for each male, and fifteen additional for each slave.

After this distribution, there will remain to the government, 2,000,000

hectares of land, on which it will no doubt establish Muscovite

colonies. This division of the land is a final blow to the old Cossack

institutions, and ere long the population will consist only of nobles

and peasants, just as in the rest of Russia. The peasants are free it is

true, but their properties will soon be absorbed by the wealthier and

more powerful: and then an ukase will do the work of establishing

slavery in the country. The community of landed property was hitherto

the only obstacle to a complete severance between the new nobles and the

other Cossacks. It was another remnant of the old republican equality,

and was naturally doomed to fall before the principles of unity and

centralisation of the Russian government. When we see Russia laying her

hand on all the free populations of the southern part of the empire, and

bringing them gradually under the yoke of serfdom, we cannot but be

struck with astonishment, and compare the revolution it is now effecting

before our eyes, with that which so deplorably signalised the Roman

sway.

It may easily be conceived how fatal the military organisation of the

Cossacks must be to their prosperity and well-being. Never sure of what

the morrow may bring forth, and liable at any moment to be called to

arms, they have of necessity fallen into indifference and sloth. Their

domestic ties are broken, for they are often many years without seeing

their wives and children. Under such a system, all intellectual

improvement becomes impossible; and there has also resulted from it an

incipient demoralisation, compressed as yet by the force of primitive

manners, but which will not fail at last to spread over the whole

population. Yet the Cossacks are eminently intelligent. I saw thirty

young men at Novo Tcherkask execute topographical plans extremely well,

after a few weeks' study. The Russian generals themselves could not

refrain from expressing their surprise to me at so rapid a progress. Let

Russia renounce the oppressive system she is forcing on the Cossacks;

let the latter, on their part, make up their mind to admit that their

ancient constitution is in our day become an utopia; and the Don country

will soon make rapid advances in colonisation, and exhibit all that

constitutes the prosperity and wealth of a nation.

The means of instruction enjoyed by the Cossacks are still extremely

limited. In the whole country there is but one gymnasium, very recently

established in Novo Tcherkask; but the wealthier Cossacks have long been

used to have their children educated in the neighbouring governments,

particularly in Taganrok, where the private schools kept by foreigners

afford them great advantages.

The rearing of cattle, especially of horses, is now the chief source of

gain to the Cossacks. Count Platof's studs, as we have already said, are

reputed the best: they are descended from the trans-Kouban races,

crossed by Persian and Khivian stallions, procured by the late count

during the war of 1796 with Persia. Very good cavalry horses are also

produced by Platof's stallions out of Tatar and Kalmuck mares. Count

Platof's horses fetch from 250 to 350 rubles; but in the steppes of the

Manitch, where there are very extensive herds, the price seldom exceeds

150. The care of the herds is chiefly committed to Kalmucks; usually 100

horses are kept by one family, five hundred by three, a thousand by

five, and from 1500 to 2000 by six. Except a few proprietors, who are

careful about the improvement of the breed, the Cossacks allow their

vast herds to wander about the steppes without any care or

superintendence. The horses of the Don never enter a stable; summer and

winter they are in the open air, and must procure their own food, for

which they have often to strive against the snow; hence they become

extremely vigorous, and support the most trying campaigns with

remarkable hardiness. Nothing can be more simple and expeditious than

the way in which they are broken in. The horse selected is caught with a

noose; he is saddled and bridled; the rider mounts him, and he is

allowed to gallop over the steppe until he falls exhausted. From that

moment he is almost always perfectly tamed, and may be used without

danger. I rode a mare thus broken, in one of my longest journeys on

horseback. Six days before my departure she was completely free; yet I

never rode a more docile animal.

The Cossacks have three sorts of horned cattle, the Kalmuck, the

Hungarian, and the Dutch breeds. The first is generally preferred

because it does not require to be stalled either winter or summer, or to

receive any particular care, and always can pick up its feed in the

steppes. At the same time the loss of cattle is enormous in long and

severe winters, for the proprietors can never procure hay for more than

six weeks' consumption, on account of the great numbers of their herds.

At the end of the year 1839, the Don country possessed in cattle:

Horned cattle 1,013,106

Sheep 2,310,445

Goats 53,221

Camels 1,692

Horses 326,788

---------

Total 3,705,252

In that year the sheep produced 5,698,000 kilogrammes of wool, which was

exported. Of the above number of sheep, only 308,652 are merinos. The

wool of the latter fetched 156 rubles the 100 kilogrammes, whilst that

of the native sheep did not sell for more than 58 to 62. But the merinos

require too much care, and I much doubt that they will ever be reared on

a large scale by the Cossacks. Besides, as we have already seen, the

breeding of merinos is far from being as profitable at this day as it

was formerly.

Agriculture, properly so called, must naturally be in a depressed

condition in a country of which the tenth part of the population is

continually either in active service, or in readiness to be called out.

No more corn is cultivated than is sufficient for the subsistence of the

inhabitants. The crop of 1839 was 6,953,814 hectolitres, a quantity

considerably too small for seed, and for the consumption of a nation

that annually consumes 6.18 hectolitres per head. The Cossacks were,

therefore, obliged to draw on the reserved stores and on the

neighbouring governments. In general, whatever M. Schnitzler may say to

the contrary, their agriculture produces no more than is barely

necessary; notwithstanding the advantages of a great navigable river,

and its position on the Sea of Azov, the Don country has not yet been

able to export any corn.

The cultivation of the vine is the only one that has prospered in any

remarkable degree among the Cossacks; it prevails in the southern

regions on the banks of the Don and of the Axai. They now reckon 4514

vineyards, yielding annually, on an average, from 20,000 to 25,000

hectolitres of wine, and 300 to 400 of brandy. In 1841, the production

amounted to nearly 62,500; and when I was in Novo Tcherkask, grapes were

selling there for three rubles the 100 kilogrammes. Sparkling wines are

made, of which the Don country now exports more than a million of

bottles yearly. The best wine of a certain Abrahamof is usually charged

for at the rate of six rubles in the inns of Novo Tcherkask. The reader

will, no doubt, be surprised to hear of such quantities of sparkling

wines; but Russia is unquestionably the country in which that sort of

beverage is most esteemed; and as the petty nobles and the _employes_

cannot afford to drink champagne, they have recourse to the Cossack

vintage. The latter is consumed in incredible quantity, principally in

the fairs, where no bargain can be concluded without a case of Don wine.

It is very agreeable, and is much liked, even by foreigners. It is to

Frenchmen the Cossacks owe this branch of industry.

Fishing also forms an important source of income for the Cossacks. It is

carried on chiefly at the mouths of the Don. In 1838, it produced

304,000 kilogrammes of sturgeons yielding caviare, and more than

20,000,000 of fish of different kinds, which they salt and send to the

neighbouring governments. Bees must also be enumerated among the sources

of wealth in the country. The Mious district, which possesses nearly

31,000 hives, produced in 1839, 124,336 kilogrammes of honey, and 21,056

kilogrammes of wax.

From these hints it will be seen how rich is the country of the

Cossacks, and how high a degree of prosperity it might reach under an

enlightened and liberal administration. Manufacturing industry is the

only one that, as yet, has made no progress in it. It is said not to

possess a single manufactory, which is natural enough, considering the

military organisation of the nation. There is an extreme want of

workmen; the few found in the country, who come from the neighbouring

governments, demand very high pay, as much as two rubles and a half a

day, which is exorbitant in Russia. As for mineral wealth, the Don

country possesses abundance of coal and anthracite, the latter of which

is worked in the neighbourhood of Novo Tcherkask.

Among the tribes incorporated with the Don Cossacks, the Kalmucks demand

especial mention. In the reign of the Emperor Paul, an ukase was issued,

commanding a census to be taken of all the nomade tribes subject to

Russia. This certain presage of some tax or other, spread consternation

among the Kalmucks; their hordes began to break up, and great numbers of

them took refuge with the Cossacks. But the fatal ukase soon pursued

them to their new asylum, whereupon some returned to the steppes of the

Caspian, whilst the rest being retained by the Cossacks, were put under

the same military and civil system of administration as the inhabitants

of the Don. These Kalmucks now form a population of about 15,000, and

encamp on both banks of the Manitch, about 100 miles from the confluence

with the Don. In order to give some notion of the manners and customs of

this people, I will here copy some fragments from an account of a

scientific journey I made along the Manitch, to determine the difference

of level between the Black Sea and the Caspian.

It was towards the end of May, 1841, I set out from Novo Tcherkask, to

explore the Manitch, a paltry stream, but which, nevertheless, had for a

long while the honour of marking the boundary between Europe and Asia. I

was accompanied by my friend, Baron Kloch, a German by birth, and a most

agreeable man, lately arrived for the first time in Russia. His

intelligent conversation was a great source of enjoyment to me. Six

hours' travel brought us to Axai, a charming stanitza, built like an

amphitheatre on the right bank of the Don. It is the great trading place

of the Cossacks, and but for the vicinity of Rostof, a Russian, and of

course a privileged town, it would have been made the capital of the Don

country, and the general entrepot of all the traffic from the north of

the empire. The project was even entertained at first, but it was

defeated partly by intrigue, and partly I believe by the obstinacy of

Count Platof. Axai is, nevertheless, the handsomest stanitza in the

country. Its balconied houses, painted in different colours, its port,

the activity prevailing in it, its lively and bustling population, all

excite the traveller's attention and curiosity. When I arrived in the

town the inundations of the Don were at their height, and as far as the

eye could reach the waters covered the low plain that stretches along

its left bank. We were soon furnished with a boat having on board a

pilot and four excellent rowers, and at nine in the evening, we embarked

to cross the river. The evening was perfectly calm and beautiful; and I

shall never forget the lodkas with bellied sails, gliding down with the

current, the melancholy songs of the Russian boatmen, the sounds from

Axai gradually dying away in the distance, and our boat skimming across

the smooth surface of the water, which broke in thousands of sparks from

the oars. At midnight we landed before Makinskaia, where we passed the

remainder of the night on heaps of hay, in the court-yard of a paltry

inn.

At daybreak next morning, the saddle horses were ready, and we started

for Manitchkaia on the confluence of the Manitch with the Don. After

some hours' riding we were brought to a halt by the overflow of the

latter river; and for want of a better road to reach the stanitza, we

were obliged to betake ourselves to wading through the temporary lake.

This was the most unpleasant part of our journey. For a distance of more

than four leagues our horses plodded on through thick mud with the water

up to their bellies; and sometimes they were forced to swim. Besides

this, we were tormented by clouds of gnats. At last our situation became

quite intolerable; for in the very middle of this passage we were

assailed by a violent hurricane, the rain came down in torrents; our

baggage waggon broke down, and we very nearly lost all its contents. The

whole day was consumed in making the six leagues to Manitchkaia. Our

Kalmucks only succeeded in extricating the waggon from the hole in which

it was stuck fast, by yoking one of their horses to it by the tail. This

is an infallible means as we often found by experience; nothing can

resist the violent efforts of the unfortunate horse when he finds

himself in that predicament.

Leaving Manitchkaia, we skirted along the basin of the Manitch. The

first dwellings we descried were some miserable Tatar cabins, surrounded

with brambles and thistles. We found in them an old Tatar captain, a

relic of the French campaign. He amused us a good deal by his pompous

encomiums on the valour and tall stature of the Prussians. A Frenchman,

said he, does not fear ten Russians, but a Prussian would settle at

least ten Frenchmen.

For three days our journey was without interest. No traces of buildings

were to be seen; at intervals there appeared in the middle of the

steppes, a Kalmuck tent, the inhabitants of which kept a large herd of

horses; then here and there some strayed camels, and these were the only

objects that broke the dreary monotony of the wilderness. But on the

fourth day, we reached the vicinity of the great Khouroul of the

Kalmucks, the residence of their high priest. One of our Cossacks was

sent forward to announce our visit, and an hour after his departure two

priests came galloping up to us. After complimenting us in the name of

the grand Lama, they presented us with brandy distilled from mare's

milk, in token of welcome, and fell in to line with our party. Some

minutes afterwards we descried the white tents of the Khouroul. Our

party was every moment swelled by fresh reinforcements, and we had soon

fifty horsemen caracoling by our sides. Having reached the centre of the

Khouroul, we alighted, and then walking between two lines of priests

dressed in garments of the most glaring colours, we were conducted to

the high priest's tent. This venerable representative of the great Dalai

Lama, was an old man upwards of seventy, entirely bald, and with

features of a much less Kalmuck cast than his countrymen. He was wrapped

in a wide tunic of yellow brocade, lined with cherry red silk, and his

fingers were busy with the beads of his chaplet. After many salutations

on both sides we sat down on a sofa, and then, according to the

invariable Kalmuck usage, we were helped to brandy and koumis, a

beverage at which my friend Kloch made very queer faces. Next, I

presented the high priest with two pounds of bad tobacco, purchased at

Novo Tcherkask, which I passed off as genuine Latakieh. He was so

delighted with my present that he did honour to it on the spot, with

every mark of extreme satisfaction. This high priest will have the

honour to be burned after his death, and his ashes, formed into a paste

with a certain ingredient, will be worked into a little statue, which

will adorn the temple to be erected to his memory. His successor is

already nominated; he looks like a stupid fanatic, puffed up with the

importance of his future dignity; we afterwards saw him acquit himself

of his religious duties, with a conscientiousness quite rare among the

Cossack Kalmucks. All the priests of this khouroul, appeared to us

incomparably less devout than those of the Volga and the Caspian. They

have very little reverence for their spiritual chief; they seem fully

aware of the absurdities of their religious notions and ceremonies, and

if they set any value by their functions, it is because they enable them

to lead a life of indolence and sensuality, and exempt them from

military service. The laity seems to be very indifferent as to religious

matters. The women alone seem attached to their ancient principles; one

of them burst into a fury because her husband allowed us to see and

touch the leaves of her prayer-book. It is to their intercourse with the

Cossacks that we must attribute the lapse of these Kalmucks from the

strictness of the primitive rule, which has been preserved almost

unimpaired among the Kalmucks of the Caspian.

After leaving the high priest's tent we attended the religious

ceremonies, in which there was nothing very striking. A sheep was

afterwards killed in honour of our visit, and was served up, cut into

small pieces, in a huge cast-iron pan. The ragout was black and

detestable, but hunger made it seem delicious.

The women of the vicinity arrived in the evening, and began to sing in

chorus, parading round the khouroul. Their strains were profoundly

melancholy; nothing like them had ever yet struck my ears. Their voices

were so sonorous and vibrating, that the sound was like that of brazen

instruments; and heard in that vast solemn wilderness, it produced the

most singular impression. After walking half-a-dozen times round the

khouroul the singers halted, and forming line with their faces towards

the temple, they stretched out their arms and prostrated themselves

repeatedly. The women having ended, next came the mandjis or musicians,

who made the air resound with the braying of their trumpets at the

moment when the sun was descending below the horizon.

Next day we left the khouroul to return to the banks of the Manitch; I

then continued my levelling along the course of that stream up to the

point, where eighteen months before, on my way back from the Caspian, I

had been stopped by want of water and pasture. In our return journey we

passed through numerous Kalmuck camps on the right bank of the Manitch,

and were everywhere received with the liveliest delight. As all these

nomades are exclusively engaged in rearing cattle, our curiosity was

greatly excited by the prodigious herds of camels, horses, and oxen that

covered the plain.

Before we reached the Don we spent the last two nights in the lonely

steppe, under the open sky. But six hours afterwards we were in

Taganrok, in the drawing-room of the amiable English consul, surrounded

by all the comforts of civilised life.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] We are quite convinced that the Comans mentioned by the Byzantine

writers, are identical with the Kaptschaks of the Oriental historians.

Rubruck's narrative supplies proof of this; moreover both peoples spoke

Turkish. But in spite of all Klaproth's assertions, we do not believe

that the Polovtzis of the Slavic chroniclers were Comans; for it seems

to us far more rational to look for the descendants of the Comans among

the Mussulman inhabitants of the south of the empire, who, as we learn

from historic records, were already established in the same regions

under the name of Kaptschak, at the arrival of Genghis Khan's Mongols.

[14] Note that in our day the Cossack population though augmented during

a succession of ages, by numerous emigrations, does not exceed 600,000

souls; it must, therefore, in all probability, have been much less

considerable in the fifteenth century, a supposition which further

confirms our opinion that the Cossacks never formed a distinct nation.

[15] According to Du Plan de Carpin, the Circassians do not appear to

have escaped unscathed from the attacks of the Mongols; but there seems

no reason to think that they were really subjugated.

[16] Since we left Russia it has been proposed to equip the Cossack

regiments at the cost of the government. The country would, of course,

in that case be taxed, and would cease to differ in any respect from the

other provinces.

CHAPTER XVIII.

JOURNEY FROM NOVO TCHERKASK ALONG THE DON--ANOTHER KNAVISH

POSTMASTER--MUSCOVITE MERCHANTS--COSSACK STANITZAS.

Beyond Novo Tcherkask the road to Astrakhan runs northward along the

right bank of the Don; the country still continuing the same naked and

monotonous appearance; it is only in the neighbourhood of the river that

its desolation is here and there relieved by a few clumps of trees in

the ravines.

It is certainly not without reason that the Russians boast of the rapid

travelling in their country; its posts would be unrivalled in Europe

were it not for the vexations practised by the _employes_ at the

stations. On the whole we had hitherto had no great reason to complain;

the official papers with which we were furnished smoothed many

difficulties; but at the first station beyond Novo Tcherkask we endured

the common fate of all who travel without titular grade or decoration,

and were mercilessly fleeced. We arrived towards evening followed by

another carriage of which we were but a few minutes in advance. A

caleche without horses seemed a bad omen to us as we entered the

court-yard; and the first answer given to our Cossack was, that we could

not have horses until the next morning. The prospect of passing the

night in a miserable hovel was disagreeable enough; but what remedy had

we with a postmaster, who opening all his stables, showed that he had no

horses? After waiting a full half hour to no purpose our interpreter

explored the vicinity of the station, and on his return, some rubles

bestowed on the head of the establishment procured us all the horses we

wanted. We put to and started immediately, leaving our companions behind

us; but they overtook us an hour afterwards, having done like ourselves;

and so it appeared at last, that there were horses enough for us all.

The travellers who followed us were young Muscovite merchants returning

from some fair in the Caucasus. They amused themselves all night with

letting off rockets and all kinds of fireworks, the sudden flash of

which, lighting up the deep darkness of the steppes, produced a most

striking effect.

We passed on the following day through several stanitzas. These Cossack

hamlets have a far more pleasing appearance than the Russian villages.

The houses of which they consist are small, almost all of them built of

painted wood, with green window-shutters. They have only a ground-floor,

surrounded by a miniature gallery, and look as if they were merely

intended for pretty toys. The interiors are extremely neat, and show an

appreciation of domestic comfort of which the Russians betray no trace.

You find in them table-linen, delf plates, forks, and all the most

necessary utensils. The Cossacks have usually two dwellings adjoining

each other. One of these, that which we have been speaking of, is

occupied in summer, and almost always contains one handsome apartment,

adorned with stained paper, images, flowers, and groups of arms; it is

the room used on grand occasions, and for the accommodation of

strangers. The other dwelling is built of earth, and resembles the

_kates_ of the Muscovite peasants; it contains but one room, in which

the whole family huddle themselves together in winter for the more

warmth.

In general, only women and children are to be seen in the stanitzas. The

whole male population is under arms, with the exception of some veterans

who have purchased, by forty years' service, the right of returning home

to die. All the burden of labour falls on the women; it is they who must

repair the houses, whitewash them, dress the furs, take care of the

children, and tend the cattle. It is really inconceivable how they can

accomplish so many laborious tasks.

At Piatisbanskaia, a charming stanitza, shaded by handsome trees, and

rising in an amphitheatre on the banks of the Don, we turned off from

the post-road, and after crossing the river, entered on a sea of sand,

through which we worked our way with immense difficulty. The peasants'

horses are less used than those of the post to such toilsome marches,

and it was really piteous to see their panting distress. The reflected

glare of the sun, and the absence of any breath of wind, made this day's

journey one of the most oppressive we encountered. It took us four hours

to get over nine versts (less than six English miles). Though I wore a

thick veil and blue spectacles, my eyelids were so swollen I could

scarcely open them. Towards noon we at last reached a poor lonely

village, where we rested until nightfall.

The country from Piatisbanskaia is dreary, and void of vegetation. The

stanitzas are few and far between, the land lies waste, and the

sand-hills and hot winds betoken the approach to the deserts of the

Caspian. Nothing is more saddening to the imagination, than the lifeless

aspect and uniform hues of these endless plains. One is surprised to

meet in them, from time to time, some miserable Cossack villages, and

cannot tell how the inhabitants can exist amidst such desolation. This

sad sterility is the work of men, rather than of nature. The present

system of government of the Don Cossacks is an insuperable bar to

agricultural improvement; and so long as it exists, the land must remain

uncultivated.

But, as we have already remarked, all is contrast in Russia. Extremes of

all kinds meet there without any transition: from a desert you pass into

a populous town, from a cabin to a palace, from a Tatar mosque into an

ancient Christian cathedral, from an arid plain into the cheerful German

colonies. Surprises follow one upon the other without end, and give a

peculiar zest to travelling, scarcely to be experienced in any other

part of Europe.

It is particularly in approaching Sarepta that one feels the force of

these reflections: the novel impressions that there await the traveller

who arrives benumbed in soul from the dreary wilderness, come upon him

with the bewildering effect of a marvellous dream. Even were Sarepta

whisked away, and set down in the middle of Switzerland, one could not

fail to be delighted with so charming a place; but to feel all its real

excellence, one should come to it weary and worn as we were, one should

have known what it was to long for a little shade and water, as for

manna from the skies, and have plodded on for many days through a

country like that we have described, under the unmitigating rays of a

roasting sun.

Picture to yourself a pretty little German town, with its high gabled

houses, its fruit trees, fountains, and promenades, its scrupulous

neatness, and its comfortable and happy people, and you will have an

idea of Sarepta: industry, the fine arts, morality, sociability,

commerce, are all combined in that favoured spot.

The Moravian colony, shut in within a bend of the Volga, in the midst of

the Kalmuck hordes, eloquently demonstrates what miracles decision and

perseverance can effect. It is the first shoot planted by Europe in that

remote region, amidst those pastoral tribes so jealous of their

independence; and the changes wrought by the Moravian brethren on the

rude soil they have fertilised, and on the still ruder character of the

inhabitants, give striking evidence of the benefits of our civilisation.

Every thing breathes of peace and contentment in this little town, on

which rests the blessing of God. It is the only place I know in Russia

in which the eye is never saddened by the sight of miserable penury. No

bitter thought mingles there with the interesting observations gleaned

by curiosity. Every house is a workshop, every individual a workman.

During the day every one is busy; but in the evening the thriving and

cheerful population throng the walks and the square, and give a most

pleasing air of animation to the town.

Like most Germans, the Moravian brethren are passionately fond of music.

The piano, heard at evening in almost every house, reminds them of their

fatherland, and consoles them for the vicinity of the Kalmucks.

We visited the establishments of the Moravian sisters, where, by a

fortunate chance, we met a German lady who spoke French very well. The

life of the sisters is tranquil, humble, and accordant with the purest

principles of morality and religion. They are forty in number, and

appear happy, as much so at least as it is possible to be in a perfectly

monastic state of existence. Consummate order, commodious apartments,

and a handsome garden, make the current of their lives flow with

unruffled smoothness, as far as outward things are concerned. Music,

too, is a great resource for them. We observed in the prayer-room three

pianos, with which they accompany the hymns they sing in chorus. They

execute very pretty work in pearls and tapestry, which they sell for the

benefit of the community. There would be nothing very extraordinary in

these details, if any other country were in question; we are afraid

they will even be thought too commonplace; but if the reader will only

reflect for a moment on the position of this oasis of civilisation on

the far verge of Europe, in the midst of the Kalmucks and on the

confines of the country of the Khirghis, he will think our enthusiasm

very natural and excusable.

The only thing that rather offended our eyes was the would-be finery of

the women's dress. Would any one imagine that in this remote little

corner of the earth they should be ridiculous enough to ape French

fashions and wear bonnets with flowers? How preferable are the simple

demure costume of the Mennonite women and their little Alsacian caps, to

the mingled elegance and shabbiness of the Moravian sisters. Their dress

is quite out of character, and makes them look like street

ballad-singers.

To give an idea of it, here follows an exact description of the costume

of a fashionably-dressed young lady of Sarepta (our host's

daughter.):--A flowered muslin gown, short and narrow; a black apron; a

large Madras handkerchief on the neck; a patch-work ridicule carried in

the hand; thick-soled shoes, bare arms, and a pink bonnet with flowers.

To complete the portrait, we must add a very pretty face, and plump,

well-rounded arms. The women here are much handsomer than in any other

part of Russia; many of them are remarkable specimens of the North

German style of beauty.

On the evening of our arrival we were advised to attend the funeral

music performed as a last honour to one of the principal inhabitants of

Sarepta. The body was laid out in a mortuary chapel, with the family and

numerous friends around it, and was not to be removed to the cemetery

until the fourth day; an excellent custom, which may prevent horrible

accidents.

It would be difficult to imagine any thing more melancholy than the

harmony produced by the voices and the brass instruments that

alternately answered each other, and seemed the echoes of the saddest

and most profound emotions of the heart. A great number of persons were

present, and all the solemnity of the occasion did not hinder those

worthy Germans from gathering round us with the liveliest curiosity, and

putting a thousand questions to us about the purport of our travels.

The association of the Moravian brethren dates from the celebrated John

Huss, who was burnt at Constance, in 1419. Their history is but a long

series of persecutions. The issue of the Thirty Years' War, so

disastrous for Frederick, the elector palatine, and king of Bohemia, was

particularly fatal to them. At that period most of the Protestants of

Bohemia fled their country, and spread themselves through Saxony,

Brandenburg, Poland, and Hungary. The vengeance of the Emperor Frederick

II. pursued them without ceasing, and great numbers of them perished in

want and wretchedness. In 1722, Christian David, a carpenter, and some

others of the proscribed, obtained permission from the Count of

Zinzendorf, in Lusace, to settle on his lands. They reached their place

of refuge in secret, with their wives and children, and David struck his

axe into a tree, exclaiming: "Here shall the bird find a dwelling, and

the swallow a nest." His hopes were not disappointed. The new

establishment assumed the name of _Herrenhut_ (The Lord's Keeping), and

its members were soon known in Germany only by that appellation. Such

was the beginning of the new evangelical society of the Brethren of the

Unity of the Confession of Augsburg. Herrenhut, the central

establishment, throve rapidly, and became known all over Europe for its

industry and its manufactures; and by and by, when the proselytising

spirit had possessed the brethren, they extended their relations over

all parts of the world.

Shortly after the Empress Catherine II. had made known to Europe that

Russia was open to foreigners, and that she would bestow lands the

immigrants, a deputation from Herrenhut to St. Petersburg decided on the

formation of a Moravian colony in the government of Astrakhan. Five of

the brethren visited the banks of the Volga in 1769, and on the 3rd of

September of the same year, the colony was settled at the confluence of

the Sarpa with the Volga, and consisted at that time of thirty persons

of both sexes. Its name was borrowed from the Bible, and an olive and a

wheatsheaf were chosen for its arms.