[45] Characters in Gogol’s _Dead Souls_.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[46] Demontowicz, after prolonged arguments with Bakunin, said: ‘I
tell you what, gentlemen, hard as it may be for us with the Russian
Government, anyway our position under it is better than what these
Socialist fanatics are preparing for us.’—(_Author’s Note._)
[47] The ‘Dance of Death’ on the cloister walls of a convent in Basle,
attributed to Holbein.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[48] One of the members of the great German publishing firm of Cotta,
which brought out the works of Schiller, Goethe, Herder, Fichte,
Schelling, the Humboldts, etc., is meant. One of them was responsible for
the _Allgemeine Zeitung_, which first appeared in 1798, and he was also
the first Würtemberg landowner to abolish serfdom on his estates.
[49] Hoffmann, A. H. (commonly called Hoffmann von Fallersleben), the
poet and author of many philological and antiquarian works, is no doubt
referred to here, not the better-known musical composer and story-writer
of that name.
[50] Campe, J. H., was the author of works on education, a German
dictionary, and numerous stories for children, of which _Robinson der
Jüngere_ was the most popular.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[51] Did not the _kept_ genius of the Prussian King do the same? His
double personality drew down a biting sarcasm. After 1848 the Hanoverian
King, an ultra-conservative and feudalist, arrived in Potsdam. On the
palace staircase he met various courtiers, and among them Humboldt
in a livery dress-coat. The malicious king stopped and said to him,
smiling: ‘_Immer derselbe, immer Republikaner und immer im Vorzimmer des
Palastes._’—(_Author’s Note._)
[52] Pozzo di Borgo, C. A. (1764-1842), a Corsican, was a diplomat in the
Russian service and a privy councillor of Alexander I.—(_Translator’s
Note._)
[53] Suhozanet, a Russian general under Alexander I. and Nicholas. He
took a prominent part in the suppression of the Fourteenth of December
1825.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[54] ‘Fion’ is a colloquial word about equivalent to
‘esprit.’—(_Translator’s Note._)
[55] A year ago I saw the carnival in Nice. There is a fearful
difference; to say nothing of the soldiers fully armed and the gendarmes
and the commissaires of police with their scarves ... the conduct of the
people themselves, not of the tourists, amazed me. Drunken masqueraders
were swearing and fighting with people standing at their gates, white
pierrots were violently knocked down into the mud.—(_Author’s Note._)
[56] La Marmora, Alfonso Ferrero, Marquis of, was Italian Minister of War
in 1849, Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1861, and Prime Minister in
1864.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[57] Ricasoli, Baron Bettino, an Italian authority on agriculture, wrote
on the cultivation of the olive, the vine and the mulberry, and took
a leading part in the work of draining the Tuscan Maremma. In 1859 he
was dictator of Tuscany. He worked for the unity of Italy, and on the
accession of Victor Emmanuel was appointed governor-general of Tuscany.
[58] Cialdini, Enrico, took part in the insurrection of 1831, and escaped
to France; fought in Spain, first against the Miguelists and then against
the Carlists; fought in Italy in 1848, and fell wounded into the hands
of the Austrians. In the Crimean War he commanded a Sardinian division.
In the war of 1859 he gained the victory of Palestro. He was for a few
months governor of Naples, and it was there in 1862 that he acted against
Garibaldi in the second Sicilian expedition.
[59] Depretis, Agostino (1813-1887), an Italian politician, took
a leading part in promoting the adhesion of Italy to the Triple
Alliance.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[60] Capo d’Istrias, Ioannos Antonios, Count of, was president of the
Greek Republic from 1828 to 1831, when he was assassinated.—(_Translator’s
Note._)
[61] Svyatoslav, prince of Kiev, is meant.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[62] John Zimisces became Emperor in 969 by marriage with Theophania,
widow of Romanus II., and reigned till 976. He was, as a fact, victorious
over the Russians.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[63] A very charming Hungarian, Count Sandor Téléki, who afterwards
served as a colonel of cavalry in Italy, said to me once, laughing at
the tawdry luxury of the Florentine dandies: ‘Do you remember a race or
a festival in Moscow?... It is silly, but it has character. The coachman
is primed with liquor, his cap is on one side, the horses are worth some
thousands of roubles, and the master lolls in bliss and in sables. Here
our gaunt Count So-and-so hires lean nags with rheumatic legs and nodding
heads, and the same thin, clumsy-looking Giacopo who is his cook and
gardener sits on the box, dressed in a livery not made for him, and tugs
at the reins, while the Count entreats him: “Giacopo, Giacopo, _fate una
grande e bella figura_.”’ I asked leave of Count Téléki to borrow this
expression.—(_Author’s Note._)
[64] The Dukes of Savoy were also Princes of Carignano, a little town of
Piedmont. Charles Albert of Savoy came to the throne of Piedmont in 1831,
and his son, Victor Emmanuel II., became in 1860 the first king of united
Italy.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[65] Leopold II., uncle of the present King of the Belgians, is
meant.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[66] Nulin is the hero of a poem by Pushkin.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[67] The second time was in 1853 on the occasion of the illness of Marya
Kasparovna Reihel. I received this permit at the request of Rothschild.
Marya Kasparovna recovered, and I did not make use of it. Two years later
I was informed at the French Consulate that since I had not made use of
it at the time, the permit was no longer valid.
[68] I have noted the word _Monsieur_ because when I was banished the
Prefecture invariably wrote _Sieur_, while Napoleon wrote _Monsieur_ with
his own hand in full.—(_Author’s Notes._)
[69] A phrase used by Gogol to describe the hero of _Dead
Souls_—(_Translator’s Note._)
[70] Laboulaye, E. R. de (1811-1883), was a French lawyer and journalist.
[71] Prévost-Paradol, L. A. (1829-1870), was a French critic and
journalist, author of _Études sur les Moralistes Français_.
[72] Mirès was a leading figure in the financial world, whose ruin
through speculation led to a famous trial.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[73] Espinasse, Charles, a French general, supported Louis Napoleon at
the Coup d’État of the 2nd of December, was Minister of the Interior in
1858, and killed at Magenta in 1859.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[74] Tyutchev, Fyodor (1803-1873), a minor poet, described as belonging
to the ‘Art for Art’s sake’ school, though of somewhat patriotic and
Slavophil tendency, wrote lyrics marked by a deep feeling for nature and
fine taste.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[75] Quoted from a poem of Pushkin’s.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[76] Reynaud, Jean (1806-1863), was a Utopian writer and follower of
Saint-Simon.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[77] A Benedictine order founded by St. Romuald at Camaldoli in Italy in
1009.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[78] Napoleon sent troops to Italy in 1861 to support the Pope, whose
temporal power was maintained by a French garrison in Rome from that date
to 1870.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[79] In my early youth I saw Vassily Nazarovitch Karazin two or three
times. I remember that my father used to talk of his letter to Alexander
I., of his close association with the Tsar, and of his rapid fall. In
1860 I read a remarkable life of the man in the _Northern Bee_. In the
impetuous, enterprising career of Karazin everything arrests attention,
most of all what was not in the _Northern Bee_, that is, what was left on
the other side of the censor’s shears. I happened to get hold of a letter
of Karazin’s to the Emperor (it was published in the _Russian Messenger_
in 1810) and some other documents. At first I only thought of publishing
the letter to complete the above-mentioned article. Then I felt inclined
to make a few general observations regarding Alexander I.’s attitude to
Karazin, and this I have done. The biography of V. N. Karazin is far from
being covered by the article in the _Northern Bee_ and these notes; they
are only materials for it. I have hardly touched upon Karazin’s life, I
have only tried to sketch the surroundings and block in the background
against which his figure stands out. This article was published in _The
Polar Star_, vol. vii. page 7.—(_Author’s Note._)
[80] Laharpe, F. C. de (1754-1838), a Swiss politician, was the tutor of
Alexander I.
[81] Where Paul I. was murdered.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[82] The Empress Elizabeth is meant.
[83] English in the original.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[84] Peter III., who was murdered, possibly with the connivance of
Catherine II., is meant.
[85] Paul I. and his assassination is meant.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[86] See Vol. II. page 202.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[87] Count Alexey Orlov was the murderer of Peter III.—(_Translator’s
Note._)
[88] He dreamed of abdication up to the time of his death.—(_Author’s
Note._)
[89] Quotation from Schiller’s tragedy, _Don Carlos_.—(_Translator’s
Note._)
[90] It happened that the 11th of March 1801 was a most unpleasant wintry
day in Petersburg; on the 12th the weather turned mild, warm and bright,
as though the spring had suddenly come.—(_Author’s Note._)
[91] How glad we should be to see these notes. Such historical materials
should not be kept under lock and key.—(_Author’s Note._)
[92] A decree of Peter III. relieved the nobles from the obligations to
serve the State introduced by Peter the Great.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[93] The reference is to the phrase ‘word and deed,’ which was the
accepted form of denunciation to the police, introduced by Peter the
Great.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[94] Lyapunov was one of the national heroes who fought against the
Poles in 1610. The Rurik dynasty became extinct on the death of Fyodor,
son of Ivan the Terrible, and Boris Godunov was elected Tsar by the
people of Moscow. At his death, after a reign of eight years, a time of
anarchy followed, when many pretenders claimed the throne. The Poles
took advantage of this ‘Time of Trouble,’ as it is called by Russian
historians, to attempt to annex Russia.
[95] Minin was a meat-merchant of Nizhni-Novgorod who roused the people
to form a national army, deliver Russia from the Poles and elect a Tsar.
At his suggestion the command of the army, to which men flocked from
all parts of Russia, was entrusted to Pozharsky, a nobleman of good
reputation and great military ability. Under his command the Russians
succeeded in driving the Poles out of Moscow, and eventually out of
Russia. A _zemsky sobor_ was summoned which elected Michael Romanov as
Tsar.
[96] Hmyelnitsky was a Hetman of Little Russia who, seeing the only
chance of peace and safety lay in union with Russia, secured the
allegiance of the Little Russians to the Tsar Alexey (father of Peter the
Great) in 1654.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[97] Ivan the Sixth was in 1740 proclaimed Tsar as a baby, and after a
reign of six months was incarcerated in the Schlüsselburg till, in 1764,
Mirovitch attempted to release him and he was shot by his guards.
[98] Princess Tarakanov, the morganatic daughter of the Empress
Elizabeth, was living abroad when Count Orlov, at Catherine’s
instigation, succeeded in decoying her to Russia, where she was put in
prison and there died.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[99] The name given to Catherine II. by the court poet, Derzhavin.
[100] Beccaria, Cesare de (1738-1794), an Italian philosopher, was the
author of a celebrated work on criminal law.—(_Translator’s Notes._)
[101] A character in Gogol’s _Dead Souls_.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[102] The reference is to the punishment known as the ‘Green Street,’
in which the condemned man walked between two rows of soldiers, each of
whom dealt him a blow. It was the favourite form of torture of Nicholas
I. (hence nicknamed ‘the Stick’), and numbers of men died under it in his
reign.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[103] Radishtchev, author of the famous _Journey from Petersburg to
Moscow_, is meant.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[104] Novikov, one of the most learned and cultured men of Catherine’s
reign, published satirical sketches and then historical researches,
and did much for the promotion of education. He was a freemason and a
mystic. Catherine, towards the end of her reign—frightened by the French
Revolution—imprisoned him in the Schlüsselburg because he was opposed to
serfdom. Paul released him.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[105] _I.e._ Kotchubey.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[106] Las Cases, Emmanuel, Comte de (1766-1842), a French historian
who went with Napoleon to St. Helena and published the _Mémorial de
Sainte-Hélène_.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[107] Yeropkin was a general who put down the mutiny in Moscow during
the plague in 1776, when the people rose in revolt against the sanitary
measures imposed by the Government. Catherine rewarded him with the
ribbon of Saint Andrew and four thousand peasants. He accepted the ribbon
but refused the peasants.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[108] Nicholas in his simplicity did not share Karazin’s opinion. This
is how the Governor of Harkov informed the latter on November 24, 1826,
of the Most High’s permission to leave his estate: ‘His Excellency, the
commanding officer of the Chief Staff, has informed me that His Majesty
the Emperor graciously grants you full right to live where you choose,
with sanction to stay even in Moscow, saving, however, Saint Petersburg,
until further commands, and with the condition that you refrain from
every sort of opinion not concerning you!’—What a jargon and what a
brain!—(_Author’s Note._)
[109] Struensee, Johann Friedrich, Count, was court physician to
Christian VII. of Denmark and gained complete ascendancy over that
monarch and his wife Caroline, sister of George III. of England. He used
his power for the advancement of liberty and enlightenment and succeeded
to some extent in abolishing serfdom (1771). Offending the nobility and
clergy by his liberalism, he was accused of adultery with the Queen, and
in 1772 he was beheaded.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[110] Vanka Kain (equivalent to Jack Cain—from Cain of the Bible)
is a slang term of abuse for a desperate fellow, ready for
anything.—(_Translator’s Note._)
[111] The Old Believers of the English school, bound by their creed to
preserve all the historical gains of the ages, even indeed when they are
pernicious, do not agree with this. They think that every sort of right,
however wrongly obtained, must be preserved and others grafted on to it.
For instance, instead of depriving the nobles of the right of flogging
and beating the peasants, the same right should be given to the peasants.
In old days they used to say it would be a good thing to promote all the
common people into the fourteenth[*] grade so that they should not be
beaten; would it not be better to promote them straight away to being
captains in the guards or hereditary noblemen, since heredity among us is
reckoned in opposite direction?[†] Yet the Ukrainians in the seventeenth
century did not reason like that when there was a plan of ennobling them,
and a plan not suggested by bookish scholars, but by the brilliant,
gorgeous, exuberant nobility of Poland. They thought it better to remain
Cossacks. There is something like that Cossack principle in organic
development generally (which our doctrinaires are very fond of taking as
an example). One side of the organism can under certain circumstances
develop specially and get the upper hand, always to the detriment of all
the rest. In itself the organ may be well developed, but it becomes a
deformity which one cannot get rid of in the organism by artificially
developing the remaining parts to the point of grotesqueness.
This reminds us of a remarkable instance from the religious-surgical
practice of Prince Hohenlohe. Prince Hohenlohe was one of the last
mortals endowed with miraculous powers. This was in those blessed days
of our century when everything feudal and clerical was rising up again
with powder and incense on the ruins of the French Revolution. The
Prince was summoned to an invalid, one of whose legs was too short; his
relations had failed to grasp that in fact the other leg was too long.
The miracle-working Prince set to work praying ... the leg grew, but the
Prince did not know where to stop and prayed too excessively—the short
leg overdid it—how annoying; he began praying for the other and then that
outdid the other—he went back to the first ... and it ended in the Prince
leaving his patient still with legs of unequal length and both of them as
long as living stilts.—(_Author’s Note._)
[*] The fourteenth is the lowest grade in the government table of ranks.
[†] In Russia an ‘hereditary nobleman’ (so-called) is one who has not
inherited his noble rank, but whose heirs will inherit it. (_Translator’s
Notes._)
[112] Susanin, a peasant, saved the elected Tsar Michael Romanov from the
Poles who sought to assassinate him. Susanin undertook to lead them to
the monastery in which the Tsar was concealed, but led them instead into
the forest, where they killed him but were themselves frozen to death.
It is the subject of Glinka’s opera, ‘Life for the Tsar.’—(_Translator’s
Note._)