SEVASTOPOL.
Road to Sevastopol from Baktchéserai—Conquest and
foundation of Sevastopol in 1783-84—Description of town and
fortress—“The Dvoretz”—Engineer buildings—Fort Alexander
and Fort Constantine—South Bay—The Hulks—Bay of Vessels,
now the Docks—Description of the barracks—Hospitals,
Slobodes—Colonel Upton and anecdotes of Russian
workmen—Sevastopol in 1834—Reservoir of Sevastopol—Sievarna
fort—The citadel—Observations of Sir Howard Douglas on the
siege—Military stores—Arsenals of Russia—Manufactories of
fire-arms—Cannon foundries—Stores come to Sevastopol by the Don
and the Azof—The road by the Arabate and Perecop—Fortifying of
Cape Kazantip—Undefended state of Kertch up to May last—Public
gardens—Haxthausen on the object of Sevastopol and the Black
Sea Fleet—Chopin on the Anglo-French alliance—Conclusion.
The high road from Baktchéserai to Sevastopol is carried entirely along
the terrace which separates the chalk from the tertiary ridges of the
Steppe. It passes along its whole length over a white clay soil, and in
summer is very dry and dusty, except in the valleys of the Katcha and
the Belbek. Here the eye is refreshed by the verdure of vineyards and
orchards, especially on the banks of the Belbek, where there are several
country houses belonging to the superior officers in Sevastopol, and the
little Tatar village of Douvankoi offers some charming points of view.
From Douvankoi[75] the road follows the valley of the Belbek till it
crosses the stream near the village of the same name, and then, after
skirting for a moment the sea, it turns again inland, and passing close
to Fort Constantine, arrives at Sievarna,[76] the citadel of Sevastopol,
on the north of the Great Bay, which must be crossed to enter the town.
From so important a place as Sevastopol it is a great inconvenience to be
obliged to cross the water to reach the high road leading to the interior
of the Crimea and Petersburg, but the country is so extremely cut up
with ravines to the east of the town, towards Inkerman, that no direct
communication by this the shortest route has yet been attempted.
Sevastopol has succeeded the ancient Greek colony of Kherson, with this
difference, that as the latter was a great commercial mart, so the former
is entirely devoted to warlike purposes, and no considerations of a
commercial or manufacturing nature ever entered into the mind of those
who founded it. It is in consequence entirely military, and contains
nothing but men-of-war, arsenals, barracks, and batteries.
When the conquest of the Crimea had been assured to Russia by the treaty
of Constantinople, of the 10th of June, 1783, the Russians found nothing
around the magnificent bay of Sevastopol except the little village of
Aktiar, placed at the extremity of the bay near Inkerman, under the
cliffs of white clay that border its steep shores. During all the time of
the Tatar possession of Crimea, this basin, which might have been made an
incomparable port, had been neglected. The Tatars called the Great Bay
Kadi Liman, and the more inland portion of it, including the careening
bay, Avlita.[77]
[Illustration: POSITIONS OF THE ALLIED ARMIES BEFORE SEVASTOPOL.]
No sooner were the Russians in possession of it, than within a year they
had made preparations for turning to account its natural advantages.
Already in the spring of 1784 they began to build houses for the invalids
of the fleet, placed near a beautiful spring of water at the extremity
of the Bay of Artillery. The fleet at that time consisted of fourteen
ships of war in the port, one of which had just brought a cargo of
colonists.[78] They were still uncertain where they should place the
town, but even then were inclined to its present position, and the
fanciful name of Sevastopol[79] was fixed upon, as they could not give
it that of Kherson,[80] which had already been misapplied. The old name
of Aktiar had a long struggle with the new name in public use, and I
find that in the Russian post map, of so late a date as 1825, Aktiar is
engraved and Sevastopol wholly omitted. Ten years later, in 1794, when
Pallas again visited this place, a great plan had been laid down, which
has been followed out in all its important details down to the present
day. Five batteries, those of Alexander and Constantine, which commanded
the entrance to the Great Bay, a third on the northern coast, and two
others opposite, on the point between South Bay and Artillery Bay, had
been built. The admiralty and its church, the arsenal, the Greek church
on the hill, the ports, and the quarantine already existed.
Since that time it has made gigantic progress, as may be seen by the
descriptions of the various travellers mentioned in the notes.[81] The
town is built in the shape of an amphitheatre, on the rise of a large
hill, flattened on its summit, between the Artillery Bay, which is the
merchant port, on the right of the town to a person looking at it from
the sea, and the South Bay, which is the port of war on the left.
Several wide unpaved streets, bordered by good houses, ascend the hill
from the water, up a steep incline. They open on a large empty square,
separating them from the fortifications, which consist of several
batteries placed on the point of the promontory. Here is hoisted the flag
of the admiralty, which is the residence of the commandant of Sevastopol.
The quay is a fine construction, paved with stone, and ornamented with
pillars of granite, which have been brought there down the Dniepr from
the interior of Russia.
The street which runs the nearest to the South Bay is the principal one
of the town, and between it and the bay are the Russian church and the
admiralty, with its tower for a gateway, and the arsenal. A prolongation
of the principal street between the batteries and the Admiralty leads to
the great Stairs which serve as the landing-place to cross the bay, and
here is passed on one side a house which has now a mean appearance in
Sevastopol, but which is still honoured with the name of Dvoretz, or the
Palace, because in 1787 it was the residence prepared for the reception
of Catherine II., who lodged here during her stay in the town, which
she had just founded. In the highest part of the town, the Greek church
is seen in a commanding position, in the wall of which is an old Greek
bas-relief, of no great value, according to Dubois, although much praised
by Clarke.
Farther on, at the height of 240 feet above the level of the sea, is the
telegraph, which naturally commands the whole town, and fourteen stations
establish a communication in two hours with Nicolaief, the head-quarters
of the fleet of the Black Sea.
Since the siege of the town commenced we have destroyed some of these
stations, and the telegraph is now carried by a different route through
the country in the possession of the Russians to Perecop.[82] A courier
with despatches would not take much more than a week to reach Petersburg
from Sevastopol in fine weather, as I remember that one arrived at Prince
Woronzof’s palace of Aloupka, on the southern coast of Crimea, by post,
in eight days from Petersburg, and I think the distance from Petersburg
to Tiflis has also been accomplished in the same time.
The merchant vessels which come to take in stores at Sevastopol all enter
Artillery Bay, along the furthest part of which are ranged the principal
shops of the town.
The rocks which border the western side of this bay were blown up and
allowed to fall into the sea in 1834, in order to form a platform large
enough to receive some important buildings required for the engineers.
On the flanks of the same rock, but looking to the entrance of the
Great Bay and the Quarantine Bay, are ranged, one above the other, the
formidable bastions of Fort Alexander, intended to cross their fire with
those of Fort Constantine opposite, in order to destroy any vessels which
should attempt to enter the bay. These two forts are armed with 320
cannon. The passage or entrance of the bay, narrowed by two reefs, is
shown at night by two lighthouses near Inkerman, at the end of the Great
Bay; and for ships to enter safely, these lights must be kept exactly on
the same line, one above the other. Behind Fort Alexander, on the top of
the hill to the right on entering, are the barracks of the land-forces;
and this is one of the points in which Sevastopol does not shine. They
are passed in going to the quarantine, which is at the extremity of the
bay of the same name, and are placed on the spot on which stood the
principal part of the ancient city of Kherson, to which the Tatars still
give the name of Tchortchoun.
The library and reading-rooms for the officers of the navy, which
I visited with one of the Messrs. Upton, who I think had been the
architect of them, were well furnished with valuable works and scientific
instruments. These stand, or stood, near the church, in the highest part
of the town, and command, from their fine spacious apartments, a splendid
view of the grand harbour and the open sea.
While the fleet is armed, it remains in the Great Bay, and when it is
laid up it is placed in the South Bay, which is a branch of the Great
Bay, about a mile and three quarters long, and 400 yards wide. The Tatars
call the South Bay Kartaly Kotche, or the Bay of the Vulture, and its
direction is from north to south. This interior port is so well defended
by the steep hills which close it in, that the water is never more
disturbed than in a pond, and it is so deep that the largest vessels can
almost lie close to its western shore.
There, in the furthest part of the bay, used to lie the old men-of-war,
used as hulks, in which the greater number of the convicts, who worked
by thousands in the dockyards, were shut up at night.[83] The continual
passage of these bands of bad characters through the town used to be
the great annoyance of the inhabitants of Sevastopol, who, like our
own colonists, could not see without dread this great accumulation
of criminals among them. Some, of course, occasionally escaped, and
immediately recommenced their lawless practices in all parts of the
Crimea.
As a ramification of the South Bay, at its entrance there opens to the
south-east a little basin, which is a kind of inner port, the total
length of which is about half a mile. It is called the Bay of Vessels,
because a part of the laid-up vessels used to be placed here, and
remained in perfect security in all weathers. When the question was
raised about building the docks, no better position could be found than
the extremity of this little bay, in which a basin has been formed 400
feet broad, 300 feet long, and 24 feet deep, to receive the vessels which
require to be repaired. For this purpose five docks or reservoirs, made
independent one of the other by locks, have been made. The one at the
furthest extremity is destined for first rates; the two reservoirs which
flank it on the right and left are for second rates; and the two last at
the entrance of the basin are for frigates: the three principal locks are
58 feet wide. To feed these basins, they have fetched the water of the
Tchornaia Retchka[84] (Bouiouk Ouzéne) from Tchorgouna to the locks, and
have conducted it by a canal, overcoming difficulties which would have
seemed insurmountable to many governments. Although the Tchorgouna, in a
direct line, is only eight miles distant from the entrance of the docks,
it has been necessary, in order to avoid obstacles, to make a détour,
which has lengthened the canal by four miles, and it is therefore about
twelve miles long.
It passes Inkerman, and thence is carried along the Great Bay. The
deep ravines and the Careening Bay have here rendered necessary very
important works, including two tunnels, one of 800 feet in length, and
three aqueducts, embracing between them thirty-eight arches, 1000 feet in
length.
The point where the stream has been diverted is 62 feet above the level
of the Great Bay. The level of the docks is 30 feet above the bay; and
the fall of the canal in the twelve miles is 32 feet, or about one in
2000.
Mr. John Upton, the English engineer, who was employed in the
construction of the works, estimated the expenses at about two millions
and a half of roubles assignat (100,000_l._[85]); and calculated that the
work would be completed in five years if 1000 workmen were constantly
employed. But as is always the case, the estimates of the time and
expense were much too low, and the works, begun on the 17th June, 1832,
are not finished now, and the first ship was admitted into them in 1853.
Those who have visited these works will not be astonished at this delay
in completing them. Basins of a great size cut in the living rock, and
cased with English cement, with gigantic locks, and such a length of
aqueducts, tunnels, and other labours, both principal and accessory, are
a justification of the engineer, who received the full approbation of
the Emperor. The docks had only been completed a short time before the
present war began.
To protect the port and basins, there has been erected at Cape Paul
(Pavleski Missok), which commands the eastern entrance, a work called
Fort Nicholas, which has three ranges of bastions, one above the other,
and is mounted with 260 cannons, the fire of which crosses that of the
batteries of the admiralty.
This fort, which commands the entrance to the South Bay, had just been
completed at the time of my visit. I walked through the casemates with
Mr. Upton, the architect, who had witnessed their construction, and who
told me that he thought the masonry had been executed in an unworkmanlike
manner, and that he did not believe the fort would stand the shock of its
own fire. Such is also the opinion of the French engineer, M. Hommaire de
Hell, with regard to the casemated batteries at Sevastopol; he says that
in the first trial of Fort Constantine the walls cracked. The latter,
however, seems to have withstood the attack by our ships in December last
very successfully.
On the flanks of the hills which enclose the South Bay, on the eastern
side, are the barracks of the sailors, the hospitals of the fleet, and
the barracks of the artillery, and there extend also a part of the
slobodes, or faubourgs, inhabited by the married sailors, which are
composed of uniform lines of cottages built on a given plan.
I was shown over Sevastopol by Colonel Upton[86] and his sons, who
received me very kindly, and showed me everything I wished to see. They
had found things in a very barbarous state when they arrived—had had
great difficulty to break in their Russian workmen to European habits
of industry and carefulness, and they found that the Russian system,
by which, like our own in India, so much writing is required, greatly
impeded the prompt execution of work, and justified the observation
of the French traveller Jacquemont about the latter country, that a
government of stationery is in most things a stationary government.
The absence of common mechanical contrivances was so great among the
Russians, that almost up to the period of my visit wheelbarrows were
unknown, and the troops and serfs employed in the great public works used
to pick up the earth with their hands and carry it in bags upon their
shoulders, so that, particularly in wet weather, vast numbers were always
laid up in the hospital with sore backs, and the works progressed very
slowly.
The serfs were said to do so little work, that Colonel Upton, as well
as all other Englishmen that I have known employed by the Russian
Government, were of opinion that it would be far more economical to pay
free labourers than to feed and keep the serfs for their gratuitous
services. The Russian workmen quickly catch an imperfect way of doing
what they are told, but like children, want constant watching, and never
can be taught the value of accuracy. They execute their tasks because
they are ordered to do so, and never reason on the object to which their
work is to be applied.
As an instance of this, Colonel Upton said, while he was building the
dock-gates at Sevastopol, when the stone-work was prepared for the wood,
he found to his astonishment that the parts did not fit, although he
was certain that his calculations were right, and the work apparently
correctly executed. At length he thought of measuring his gauge, and then
he found that his Russian workmen, having done their work wrong, cut his
gauge to make it appear right, and never thought that there were other
parts of the work which must fit in with theirs, and consequently make
their error appear.
Sevastopol has naturally a very fluctuating population, almost entirely
composed of sailors, soldiers, employés, and convicts. It was estimated
at 15,000 souls in 1834, although Mr. Tegoborski, writing in 1852,
declines to make any estimate of it, from the want of any reliable
data. The non-official inhabitants are composed of a mixture of Russian
tradesmen, Polish Jews, who are barely tolerated by the police, and
Germans of the colony of Kronenthal, who are established here as bakers,
brewers, and artisans of different kinds.
Sevastopol in 1834, although so strongly fortified on the side of
the sea, had not the smallest defence on the land side against a
coup-de-main. The town in all its circumference was completely open,
and there was not even a gate or the smallest rampart. All the streets
debouched on an immense open place in the upper part of the town, or
rather one might say into the Steppe itself, whence roads and paths led
in every direction to Balaclava, Tchorgouna, and the monastery of St.
George. To one standing in the open place and looking down on the town,
there is to the left the newly-established reservoir for the fountains
of Sevastopol, from springs which have been already mentioned. This
reservoir is placed against the wall of the public garden, called the
Boulevart, which has been made on the heights which terminate the South
Bay. The view from hence down upon the bay, filled with men-of-war,
is very extraordinary, as the ships seem to have arrived there by
enchantment, and nobody would conceive that this long lake could have any
communication with the sea. Opposite the garden, a little to the right,
is the vineyard of Bardac.
At a later period, after the discussions occasioned by the capture of
the Vixen in 1837, when war was supposed imminent between Russia and
England, the Cabinet of St. Petersburg grew frightened at the possibility
of the English in case of war making a descent upon some point of the
Heracleotic Chersonese, and defences were then ordered to be constructed
on the land side of Sevastopol.
The ground on the north side of Sevastopol is much higher than on the
south side, and consequently the citadel of the place, an octagonal
fortress, called the Sievarna, or Northern, Fort, which is erected
there, commands the whole town, bay, and docks. It has been greatly
strengthened of late years, as the most important position for the
defence or attack of the town. For itself it can only be attacked on the
land side, as its height above the water would render ineffective the
fire of ships, and its precipitous shores both on the side of the Great
Bay and the sea would make a landing very difficult for troops. This is
the fortress which Sir Howard Douglas calls “the key of Sevastopol,”
until we secure which we can never hope to take the place. “But this
taken,” says Sir Howard Douglas, “the Telegraph and Wasp batteries on the
northern heights, Fort Constantine and the forts below, being commanded
and attacked in reverse, must soon fall; while the town, docks, arsenal,
and barracks on the south side of the harbour would be at the mercy of
the allies, who, by the fire of their batteries, might entirely destroy
them all. On the contrary, by attacking the place from the south, the
enemy holding the northern heights, although the works on the crest of
the southern heights should be breached and taken, the town, the body
of the place, with its docks and arsenals, will not be tenable by the
besiegers till the great work on the northern side, and all its defensive
dependencies, shall have been captured. These, no doubt, will have been
greatly strengthened before the allies are in a condition to direct their
attacks against them.”[87]
The fortifications then which render Sevastopol so very strong are the
important works on the northern side, for there is no use in taking the
town, even if it could be done, as the strongest part of the fortress
would yet remain. At the same time, if an army were brought sufficiently
large to invest it completely, the place must fall, because the supplies
of food, ammunition, and especially of water, would quickly fail. In
water the place is very deficient, as there are no springs in the town,
and only two sources out of the town by which it is supplied. One of
these is the river which supplies the docks, through the tunnel which
has been described, as reaching from near Inkerman to the town. This
tunnel was recently (January 26) stated to be now used, not only as a
passage for the water, but as a safe road by which the Russians introduce
supplies into the town, and this is highly probable, as there is a
foot-path on each side of the conduit. The old town of Kherson, as will
be stated afterwards, was taken by the Russians in the tenth century by
cutting off the water-pipes which supplied the town, and perhaps this
may be the way in which the modern representative of old Kherson will
ultimately fall.
We have found to our cost how inexhaustible are the stores of Sevastopol,
and yet it is said that a still greater amount is laid up in the chain
of fortresses that have been erected during the last twenty years on the
German, and particularly on the Prussian, frontier.
As the nations of Europe are fully occupied in their own affairs, and as
Russia is peculiarly inaccessible by nature, she never could fear an
invasion, and her armaments must therefore be looked upon as threatening
her neighbours. Besides, as will afterwards be seen, her army for the
internal service of the country is totally distinct from the immense mass
of men called the Grand Army, kept hovering for many years past on the
frontiers of Germany, in a mobilized state, and ready to pour down its
legions upon any point at a moment’s notice.
Let us shortly inquire where these great military stores are laid up, and
in what establishments they are prepared. Arsenals in Russia are divided
into permanent and temporary: the first are at Petersburg, Bransk, Toola,
and Kief; and the second at Petersburg, Tyraspol, and, since the Polish
war, at Modlin. The arsenals of Petersburg, Toola, and Kief, are vast and
elegant edifices, each of which can contain 100,000 small arms, and where
carriages and other material for the artillery are made. The others are
only dépôts. Up to the commencement of the seventeenth century there were
no manufactories of iron or foundries in Russia, and the Government was
obliged to buy all arms abroad. A Dutchman, named Andrew Vinius, was the
first to establish foundries, which were worked by water-power. The first
establishment of this kind was founded in the year 1632, on the little
river of Toulitza, at fifteen versts from Toola. Since that time several
others have been formed in the governments of Toola, Kalouga, and Moscow.
In 1764, a Hamburger raised the first manufactories of steel at Olonetz.
The first hydraulic manufactory for muskets was built in 1648, at Moscow,
on the Taouza; in 1653, another was established in the village of
Tchentsof, on the Skniga; and in 1700, Nikita Demidoff Antonief carried
the arts of founding and making fire-arms to the Neva in Siberia.
The principal manufactories of fire-arms are now at Toola, Votka,
Sesterbeck, and Zlatoust. The manufactory of Toola,[88] founded in
1712, by Peter the Great, has been much increased; and its flourishing
period dates from 1817, when an Englishman, John Jones, undertook its
management. Some years ago it furnished each year 50,000 muskets, and
25,000 sabres, besides carbines, pistols, bayonets, and pikes. Seven
thousand men, and nearly 10,000 women, are employed in it; besides 3500
peasants, belonging to the establishment. It costs 124,000 roubles a
year, or about 20,000_l._; and it consumes yearly 70,000 pounds of
Siberian iron, and 10,000 of steel. The manufactory of Votka is situated
on the little river Isch, in the district of Sarapoul, in the government
of Viatka; and some years ago it employed 3000 workmen, and produced
annually about 14,000 muskets.
The manufactory of Sesterbeck is near Petersburg, and is modelled on that
of Toola. It produced some years ago yearly 12,000 muskets, and the same
number of sabres. Zlatoust, in Siberia, furnishes most of the sabres for
the cavalry and pioneers, to the annual number of about 50,000.
There are five cannon foundries in Russia, at Petersburg, Moscow, Riga,
Kief, and Kazan. A Scotchman, Gascoigne, sixty years ago introduced as
much improvement in the founding of cannon as Jones in the manufacture
of fire-arms. There are two powder manufactories, one at Ochta, near
Petersburg, and the other at Tchotersk, near Gloukhow.[89]
The military stores and provisions for Sevastopol come from the interior
of Great Russia and Siberia, down the Volga and Don to Rostof, on the
Sea of Azof, whence in peace they were shipped, and passed through the
straits of Kertch, the whole way by sea to Sevastopol and the other
fortresses on the Black Sea. Since the war began, they have come, as
usual, down the Don and across the Sea of Azof; but instead of passing
through the straits of Kertch they have been landed near Cape Kazantip,
on the coast of Crimea, within the Sea of Azof, and thence were carried
across Crimea, about 100 miles to Sevastopol, during the whole time of
the siege, till the Sea of Azof froze in November last. Cape Kazantip was
fortified by the Russians last summer, and wharves erected near it for
the landing of the goods, and a regular transport service arranged across
the peninsula of Crimea.
This is probably the new road to which allusion has been lately made
in ‘The Times.’ The facts I have stated were communicated to me by
Mr. Lander, an English merchant at Taganrok, and Mr. Carruthers, late
Consul at that place. These gentlemen passed over the strip of land by
the side of the Putrid Sea, called the Arabate, to Kertch, in May last,
and saw the military stores at Rostof, and the wharves just erected on
the Crimean coast, and the fortifications of Kazantip. The late English
Consul at Kertch, Mr. Cattley, is now interpreter to Lord Raglan; and he
also passed by this route last summer, and therefore neither Lord Raglan
nor the Ministry ought to have been ignorant of these facts.
Thus continual supplies were poured into Sevastopol up to last November,
the period of the freezing of the Sea of Azof; and since that time the
stores for Sevastopol have probably been carried across the ice to some
point on the northern shore of the Azof, and thence by land over the
Isthmus of Perecop. Had the latter place been occupied, it would have
been easy to have taken possession of the Strait of Yénitchi, and to have
commanded the tongue of Arabate. Indeed, as I have mentioned in another
place, there is deep water (24 feet) along the Arabate, on the side of
the Azof, and a few gun-boats in the Sea of Azof would have rendered the
Arabate impassable to the Russians. The straits of Kertch were undefended
up to May last; and had possession of them been taken by our Government,
and a very small force of gun-boats been placed in the Sea of Azof, the
supplies might have been stopped, and the Russians in Sevastopol reduced
by this measure alone to great difficulties.
Not only the military stores but also the rye-flour, for the troops at
Sevastopol, is furnished from Rostof. M. Hagemeister, in the Russian
official report on the commerce of the Black Sea, says: “All the
rye-flour which annually arrives at Rostof from Voronetz, by the Don, is
purchased by the government for the use of the army and navy; and thus
the navy at Sevastopol and Nicolaief draw considerable quantities of rye
from New Russia.” These provisions were lying ready for shipment with the
military stores at Rostof in last May, and yet we made not the slightest
efforts to intercept these supplies, which have been regularly poured
into Sevastopol since that time, and without which the siege could not
have been carried on. Merchants in England have informed me that the very
lead which has formed the bullets that have killed our brave soldiers
has been imported into Russia since the beginning of the siege, in
consequence of there being no blockade in the Black Sea and the Azof; and
large reinforcements which have been sent from the Caucasus to Sevastopol
would also have been cut off.
Such is a short account of Sevastopol, which is alone remarkable for its
admirable natural situation, and its immense fortifications towards the
sea. Although so much labour has been expended upon it, the place is so
vast that the works of man look pigmy. The impression on the beholder is,
how much has nature done for this place, compared with which the efforts
of man appear as mere specks.
The group of safe and commodious harbours which it presents, stretching
out like the fingers of the human hand from the wrist, which may be
supposed to represent the entrance to Sevastopol, between Forts Alexander
and Constantine, contain so vast an area that all the navies of the world
might ride securely in them. They are the only really good harbours in
the Black Sea, with the exception of the adjoining ones between them and
Balaclava, which, however, are greatly inferior both in size and security
to those of Sevastopol.
The latter, since the Russians have possessed them, have been closed
against commercial vessels,[90] and every effort has for many years been
made to accumulate here a vast amount of warlike stores, and to keep up
an enormous fleet, although Russia has no mercantile marine to protect,
and, as the event has proved, dares not risk a battle with any of the
great naval powers.
The object, therefore, of the fleet, to carry an invading force to the
shores of the Bosphorus, and, under the guise of religion, to carry out
schemes of ambition, has always been obvious, and, indeed, not denied by
the friends of Russia.
M. Haxthausen, the able author of an admirable work on Russia, to
complete which every facility was given him by the Russian Government,
and who, having familiar access to the leading statesmen of Russia,
probably echoes the opinions which he has constantly heard put forth at
Petersburg, has the following remarkable passage upon the real objects
of the fleet and arsenals of Sevastopol: “The object of the fleet,” he
says, “is to secure the dominion of Russia in the Black Sea, and this is
still further assured by the construction at Sevastopol—at the present
moment[91]—of a fortified port of war, which, according to the accounts
of competent persons, will not have its equal in the world. When Europe
shall have a moment of feebleness—and we may fairly expect this to come
to pass after what we have seen to happen in 1848, and when she shall
think the time arrived for conquests—then the establishment of Sevastopol
will allow this power to take the offensive against Constantinople with
equal energy and safety, by making use of the fleet, either to disembark
her troops behind the lines of mountains and rivers which perpendicularly
on the western shore of the Black Sea cut at a right angle the line of
approach on Constantinople, or to strengthen the base of operations of a
grand army, by supporting it wherever there are ports along the Euxine.
It is impossible that the Turkish fleet, either present or future, could
stop this result, for whatever may be done to improve it, its best
sailors are always Greeks. Up to the battle of Navarino the case was very
different, for till that event some confidence might still be placed by
the Porte in the Greek sailors.”
Then M. Haxthausen, a Russian in feeling, though a German by birth,
gets quite nettled at what he calls the low, feeble policy of England
and France, in preventing the extension of Russia. He continues: “Let
us remark now, the strange change which has taken place in the affairs
of the East. Formerly Christian Europe exhausted herself in efforts to
drive back the crescent to the deserts whence it came. The noblest blood
of Christendom had been shed before the crescent was allowed to surmount
the cross at Jerusalem. But now it is only the Christians who prevent the
fall of the crescent, or at least the re-appearance of the cross on the
domes of Constantinople. In the same manner as the _social licence_ of
Switzerland is sheltered, not behind impregnable mountain defiles, but
simply behind the rivality of the great powers, so the anti-Christian
empire established on the borders of the Sea of Marmora depends not
on the force of the Mussulman, enervated by vices which belong to
the country—not on its number, which in Turkey in Europe has always
been inferior to that of the Rayahs—not on the fortified rocks of the
Hellespont, which the military science of the Christians would soon have
overturned, but solely on the fact that the Christians of the West find
it convenient to preserve Turkey as a barrier between themselves and the
East.”
“When, in the time of the Crusades, they were fighting for Jerusalem,
the policy of the Byzantine empire led the Greeks to aid the Saracens
against the Roman Catholic armies. This was a policy as _mesquine_, as
feeble, as _tracassière_ as that observed for the last eighty years with
regard to the Turks by those Christian nations who are the inheritors of
the Byzantine policy in the West, namely, the French and the English.
This _mesquine_ policy of to-day, are we to consider it as one of the
quiverings which announce the imminent dissolution of the Romano-German
states, as it formerly preceded that of the last Roman empire?”[92]
Thus this honest, patriotic German, who hates Switzerland, as is natural
with an admirer of the Czar, is actually provoked with us for preventing
Russian extension not only over Turkey, but over a part of his own
country, namely, Austria, or the Romano-German states, as he calls that
empire, whose fall he thinks imminent. A Frenchman, who knew Russia as
well as M. Haxthausen, and whom a long residence in the country had not
deprived either of his common sense or his patriotism, writing long
before the present crisis, thus judiciously speaks of Russian aggression,
and the true policy of the Western Powers:—
“There are only two independent powers which draw other states into
their sphere of action,” says M. Chopin, writing in 1838, “and those
are Russia and England. It is plain that of these two rival forces
the first has every chance in its favour: numerical preponderance,
military organization, unity of will without any possible control in
the execution, firm alliances; all these are on the side of the North.
Russia finds in the simplicity of her government a great compensation for
the vices of her interior administration; a profound secrecy covers her
faults; she knows how to act at an opportune time, but she knows likewise
how to wait. When Europe has leisure to occupy herself seriously with
the present danger, Russia seems only to be pursuing plans of interior
improvement, but this repose is but a preparation for other conquests,
and thanks to the little agreement that generally reigns between rival
Cabinets, some new question of difference continually arises in which the
activity of a rival diplomacy is expended, and then Russia marches some
steps in advance—but they are giant steps which crush empires, and the
effect of which is like an actual seizure. Each of her successes adds to
her resources in diminishing to an equal extent the resources of rival
powers.
“Nevertheless, despite this constant aggressive march, the position of
Russia becomes more difficult than formerly, as the end and aim of all
her efforts, the possession of the Dardanelles, becomes more clearly
defined, and it is a spectacle full of political instruction to watch all
the springs she puts in action to bring about the great _dénouement_.
Sometimes she covers Turkey with her protection. According to her, it
is France and England who meditate the ruin of the Ottoman empire, but
thanks to the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, Turkey, if she remains faithful
to the stipulations which Muscovite forethought has imposed upon her,
will have nothing to fear from foreign aggression. In the mean time
Russia habituates the fatalism of the Turks to the sight of her flag and
her uniforms, and the zeal of her alliance even goes so far, that she
distributes her decorations among the Ottoman soldiers. There is always
the same system of dissolving corruption on one hand, and intimidation on
the other.
“It is always the history of Poland, of Georgia, of Finland, of the
Baltic provinces, of the Crimea, of Moldavia, of Wallachia, of Greece,
of Persia,—_and Russia, from the midst of all these conquered states,
dismembered already, or on the eve of being so, Russia dares to declare
to Europe that she has only views of order, and justice, and moderation_.
Europe does not believe this, but is dependent, egoist, and divided; and
she has repeated for years past, in the official discourses of princes,
that the general peace is not threatened, while this precious peace is
only the result of culpable connivance.
“Russia turns to her profit all these elements of feebleness and
division; she skilfully and resolutely pursues her work, and, organised
for conquest, she will never stop until her principle of activity,
which is the condition of her existence, shall, from want of other
objects, re-act on herself,—that is, until Europe and Asia become really
Russian (Russe de fait). Mons. de Talleyrand, who had deeply studied
the resources and spirit of Russian policy in the great phases of the
hostility and alliance of that state with Imperial France, reduced the
problem of the struggle against Muscovite influence to its simplest
expression, when he concluded the treaty of the quadruple alliance, the
vital principle of which was the Anglo-French alliance. The peril was
then great for Russia, and she hastened, at the first cry of alarm from
her diplomatists, to rouse the national susceptibilities of each country,
and even to range party against party in the bosom of the two rival
states.
“Dynastic interests, constitutional opposition, radical and legitimist
principles,—she employed all these levers; she exhausted all these
combinations of calculations and politics, to arrive at the result she
proposed to herself, namely, the separation of France and England. She
succeeded, and they avowed that they dared not interfere in European
politics from fear of Russia. These two richest and most powerful
kingdoms of the globe, whose united population amounts to sixty millions
of souls, these two crowns, which can dispose, the one of the military
forces which have conquered Europe, and the other of a navy without
a rival in the world, accepted an affront, and the responsibility of
showing a humility more dangerous than war itself.
“In good sooth, can we attribute as a crime to Russia her skill in
profiting by the chances offered her by the faults of rival cabinets?
With her, is not ambition confounded with the supreme law of her own
preservation? Without the empire of the Mediterranean, which renders her
mistress of the treasures of Asia and the principal markets of Europe,
she must renounce entertaining an army of 800,000 men, and once disarmed,
once the prestige of her omnipotence destroyed, her forced alliances will
escape her, and in a few years she will have retrograded two centuries.
But if Russia obeys a necessity in accomplishing her aggressive march,
do not England and France, who possess the means of curbing the Russian
power, commit a more palpable crime in knowingly running onwards to their
discredit, and ultimately to their ruin?”[93]
The spirit of the English people and the intelligence of the French
Emperor have brought about that very alliance which the acute and
far-seeing French writer wished without expecting, and which it is to
be hoped will have the effect of putting a stop to Russian conquests,
and rendering useless the enormous aggressive preparations which she has
been making for the last twenty years at Sevastopol and other fortresses,
in order to increase her own territory at the expense of that of her
neighbours.