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diff --git a/56772-0.txt b/56772-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bae344 --- /dev/null +++ b/56772-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7859 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 56772 *** + + + + + + + + ++-------------------------------------------------+ +|Transcriber's note: | +| | +|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | +| | ++-------------------------------------------------+ + + +THE LAND OF RIDDLES + +(RUSSIA OF TO-DAY) + +BY +HUGO GANZ + +TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN +AND EDITED BY + +HERMAN ROSENTHAL + +[Illustration: Logo] + +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS +NEW YORK AND LONDON +1904 + + +Copyright, 1904, by HARPER & BROTHERS. + +_All rights reserved._ + +Published November, 1904. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + PREFACE v + +I. INTRODUCTION 1 + +II. WARSAW 8 + +III. WARSAW--_Continued_ 17 + +IV. ST. PETERSBURG 24 + +V. ST. PETERSBURG--_Continued_ 33 + +VI. ARTIST AND PROFESSOR--ILYA RYEPIN 44 + +VII. THE HERMITAGE 60 + +VIII. THE HERMITAGE--_Continued_ 69 + +IX. THE CAMORRA--A TALK WITH A RUSSIAN PRINCE 83 + +X. SÄNGER'S FALL 94 + +XI. THE PEOPLE'S PALACE OF ST. PETERSBURG (NARODNI DOM) 103 + +XII. RUSSIA'S FINANCIAL FUTURE 111 + +XIII. THE RUSSIAN FINANCES 123 + +XIV. A FUNERAL 133 + +XV. THE CHINOVNIK (THE RUSSIAN OFFICIAL) 144 + +XVI. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS 154 + +XVII. THE JEWISH QUESTION 167 + +XVIII. PLEHVE 173 + +XIX. THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 182 + +XX. THE IMPERIAL FAMILY AS THE PUBLIC SEES IT 196 + +XXI. PUBLIC OPINION AND THE PRESS 206 + +XXII. SOME REALITIES OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION 217 + +XXIII. THE STUDENT BODY IN RUSSIA 226 + +XXIV. BEFORE THE CATASTROPHE 235 + +XXV. SECTARIANS AND SOCIALISTS 245 + +XXVI. MOSCOW 257 + +XXVII. MOSCOW--_Continued_ 270 + +XXVIII. A VISIT TO TOLSTOÏ 285 + +XXIX. A VISIT TO TOLSTOÏ--_Continued_ 295 + +XXX. A VISIT TO TOLSTOÏ--_Continued_ 310 + + + + +PREFACE + + +In this volume is presented to American readers an unbiased description +of the real state of affairs in Russia to-day. The sketches here brought +together are the result of a special visit to Russia by Mr. Hugo Ganz, +the well-known writer of Vienna, who was furnished with the best of +introductions to the various circles of Russian society, and had thus +exceptional opportunities to acquire reliable information. + +Were not the reputation of the author and the standard of his informants +alike absolutely above suspicion, it would seem incredible that such +conditions as those depicted could exist in the twentieth century in a +country claiming a place among civilized nations. Indeed, whereas Japan +has incontestably proved that she is emerging from the darkness of +centuries, Russia is content to remain in a state of semi-barbarism +which might be looked for in the Middle Ages. + +Since the sketches were written, the birth of an heir to the imperial +throne and the assassination of Von Plehve have altered Russian +conditions to a certain extent. But though the appointment of +Svyatopolk-Mirski seems at first sight to afford ground for +congratulation, it is evident that even with the best intentions the new +minister of the interior will hardly be able to effect much amelioration +until the entire system of the Russian government is changed. + +Several of the articles in the following pages have appeared in the +Berlin _Nation_ and in the Frankfort _Zeitung_, and have received very +favorable notice in the German press. It is intended to publish an +edition of the book in German, but the present translation is the only +authorized one in the English language. + +HERMAN ROSENTHAL + +NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, +_October 1, 1904_. + + + + +THE LAND OF RIDDLES + +(RUSSIA OF TO-DAY) + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTION + + +Shortly before my departure from Vienna I chanced to meet an +acquaintance, a Viennese writer. + +"Are you really going to Russia?" said he. "I almost envy you, for it is +to us a land of riddles. It has great artists and writers and +undoubtedly a highly educated upper stratum of the nation; at the same +time it displays political conditions really barbarous in their +backwardness. How are these co-ordinated? How is the maintenance +possible, in the close proximity of comparatively free governments, of a +régime which knows no personal liberty, no privacy of the mails, and in +which there is but one master--namely, the absolute police?" + +"You are raising the very questions which lead me there," I replied. "We +do not know Russia. We wonder at its great writers, but we cannot +conceive how their greatness is possible under the existing conditions +of public life, which remind one of a penitentiary rather than of a +civilized state. And the question that persistently arises is whether +our conception of these conditions corresponds to reality, or whether we +are laboring under such a delusion as would befall one attempting to +judge public life in Germany from the speeches of Bebel and other +radicals. In truth, we know only the opposition or revolutionary +literature of Russia; and, as far as appearances go, it is hardly +credible that a system such as it describes and brands for its _inhuman_ +wickedness can long retain the ascendency." + +"You are going, then, without prejudices?" + +"I think I may say that I have none. We have long been cured of the +notion that one and the same form of government may be prescribed as the +only one leading to contentment in all times and in all countries. +Deductive philosophy in political science has been replaced by inductive +realistic philosophy, and a true understanding of existing conditions +appears now to us of greater moment than the most beautiful ideals. +Above all things, I feel myself free from the childish moral valuation +of different political beliefs. One person may be at the same time a +conservative and a gentleman or a radical and a knave. Should I come to +the conclusion that Russian absolutism is or can be defended in good +faith by upright Russian patriots there will be nothing to prevent my +freely admitting it. An unbiased observer should not be wedded to any +doctrine." + +"In that case I shall be doubly curious as to the results of your +studies." + +We parted. + +I have cited here this characteristic conversation because it +demonstrates better than any introduction what the intelligent European +is nowadays eager to discover about Russia, and what led me in the depth +of winter, at the critical moment before the outbreak of a great war, to +the northern empire. That this war was imminent was then (at the +beginning of January) apparent to every statesman free from official +bias. There was scarcely a foreboding of it in Russia itself. For me, +however, that particular moment was of value, for it offered an +opportunity to study for a short time Russian society, first in a state +of calm, and then in the excitement which naturally followed the +declaration of war. I made provision for both war and peace and set out +on my journey. + +To be sure, I was not as light of heart as if I had been preparing to +spend the winter on the Riviera or in Sicily. The climate had no terrors +for me, for I knew that nowhere is one so well protected from the +severity of the season as in the regions where ice and snow hold sway +for at least one-third of the year. But it was the gorgon-headed Russian +police that confronted me threateningly. My aim in travel was the study +of political conditions, the unreserved discussion with clear-sighted +and well-informed persons of the existing state of affairs. It was my +purpose to record carefully my impressions and observations, and to +report them to all who were interested in my studies. But we are told +that all political conversation is forbidden in Russia. One may subject +himself and his friends to great annoyance by allowing some meddling +ear-witness to catch accidentally a fragment of a political +conversation. Writing and note-taking are even more dangerous; for the +police open all letters, and they are not deterred by any conscientious +scruples from confiscating the notes even of foreigners when they appear +suspicious. Ambassadors and consuls are loath to engage in altercations +with the Russian police, for statesmanship enjoins friendly relations +with the government of the powerful Russian empire, and when an +inconvenient foreigner disappears somewhere in darkest Russia--as was +the case with a French engineer who came in conflict with the police in +a concert-hall and was never seen again--no one is disturbed by the +incident. All these reflections were not cheering to me, who, besides, +was unfamiliar with the language of the country. None the less was I +averse to returning home without my whole skin or with empty hands. + +Here I would state that I did not experience the slightest annoyance +throughout my entire journey. I was not subjected to police +surveillance, nor did I notice in my meagre correspondence the least +trace of police interference--the latter being probably due to the +extreme precautions taken by me in sending my mail in inconspicuous +envelopes. And yet what a condition of things for a great country--that +every traveller who wishes to enter its territory must arm himself with +precautionary measures, as if he were preparing to visit a robber's den! +Is it compatible with the usages of modern Europe, forsooth, that no +step may be taken in this country without one's being provided with +documents of identification; that one may not cross the boundary either +into or out of the country without the special permission of the +consulate or of the police? Is Russia a state or a prison? Is it a +modern Tauris full of terrors to the stranger? I am not now speaking of +the passport difficulties peculiar to Jews, who, generally speaking, can +hardly obtain entrance to holy Russia, and who, when they succeed in +gaining admission, must be in constant dread of unpleasantness in every +town and in every hotel. I merely ask whether it is compatible with the +good name of a state that still wishes to exchange courtesies with +neighboring states to appear in the popular imagination as a ferocious +monster ignoring right and without decency? How can trade and +intercourse develop; how can the unimpeded flow of the sap of culture, +the circulation of the national blood, take place in a land where terror +guards the boundaries and where the reputation of arbitrariness impedes +all progress? And what modern state or system of national economy may, +without the unimpeded circulation of the sap of culture, maintain itself +at a level corresponding to the modern requirements of its internal and +external productive capacity? Are the advantages of an all-controlling +police system in any degree proportionate to its innumerable economic +disadvantages? Is the occasional annoyance of a really objectionable +intruder sufficient compensation for the evil reputation which this +system attaches to the whole country? It is a sheer impossibility to +watch daily and hourly a hundred million people. Why are such enormous +sacrifices made at all for the sake of an undertaking injurious in +itself and, moreover, impossible of execution? + +Such are the thoughts that the traveller approaching the frontier cannot +escape. I may here say, in advance, that the police could not prevent my +holding conversations throughout Russia with men in various walks of +life on subjects very objectionable to the police officials. Is it worth +while, then, to bear the evil repute that Russia is a prison where no +man's life or property is secure? Apart from actual fact, the stranger +does not know, before crossing the boundary, whether the police tyranny +is really as inexorable as it is pictured and is believed abroad, but of +this he is certain, that such an evil reputation does the country +incalculable economic injury, and that a country with such an evil +repute can never be regarded as mature from the economic stand-point, to +say nothing of political honor, to which, perhaps, there is a +disposition to attach less value in the high places of autocratic rule. + + + + +II + +WARSAW + + +The express-train is nearing the frontier at dawn. We are greeted by the +sleeping-car conductor with the significant announcement, "We shall soon +be in Russia"--an announcement which, it must be confessed, produces a +slight palpitation of the heart. We are now at the gate of a mysterious +country, with passport and baggage in the best of order. A Russian +consulate had found us worthy to set foot upon the soil of holy Russia, +and had explicitly stated that fact in our passport. Travellers may +journey without this certificate through the five continents, but if +unprovided with it may not set foot on Russian soil. We have no weapons +save our five fingers, and, above all, not a single printed book or +newspaper that might cause trouble at the frontier, excepting the +invaluable _Baedeker_, for the importation of books, as we already knew +at home, is put under severe ban in the domain of the Holy Synod. None +the less, a slight palpitation of the heart, a slight anxiety, are felt +at the sight of a narrow bridge leading between two sentry-boxes over a +small stream separating two countries--nay, two civilizations. Shall we +find favor in the eyes of the almighty gendarme who enters our coupé +with a polite bow, as we approach the station, and asks for our +passport? May it not be that a secret police prohibition has preceded +us, notwithstanding the regularity of our passport, and that it now +precludes our entrance? Has not your pen sinned many a time against the +knout and autocracy, and are you not, after all, if carefully examined, +with all your scribbling, a thoroughly objectionable person in the eyes +of the police--at least, when seen with Russian eyes? + +But, thank Heaven, the world is great and I am insignificant; Russian +censorship has not yet taken notice of all the sins of my pen; hence the +same officer returns to me with the same bow my passport after the +customs inspection. The holy Russian empire, from Warsaw to Vladivostok, +is now exposed to my curious eyes. + +The customs inspection was in itself a peculiar experience. The porter, +a Pole with a good-natured, handsome face, takes our baggage and +baggage-certificate, and invites us with a friendly gesture to follow +him to the great inspection hall. The hall is scrupulously clean and no +loud talking is heard there. The passengers take their places on one +side of the inspection-table, the porters on the other, the latter in +orderly file with their caps in their hands. They communicate with one +another only with their eyes. _Silence_ has begun. I do not know +whether it is purposely so, or whether it is merely incidental to the +particularly strict local régime, that the implicit obedience, the +silent subjection, and the irresistible power of despotism are here +brought home so effectively to the stranger. But this impression remains +with the traveller throughout the entire journey: + + + "Be silent, restrain yourselves, + We are watched in word and look." + + +An empire of one hundred and thirty millions of prisoners and of one +million jailers--such is Russia; and these jailers understand no joke. +It is a terrible machinery, this despotism, with all its wheels working +one within the other. It is relentless and keen in all its mechanism, +henceforth no loud word shall be spoken. The official organs alone have +a voice; private persons may speak only in low tones. + +But how orderly, politely, and neatly do the officials and porters +execute the examination and forwarding of our baggage when despotism +wishes to reconcile people to its threatening silence. Only ten kopeks, +turned into the common treasury, are asked for the handling of our large +amount of baggage, and we are then led, together with the other +travellers, to the Russian exit of the customs inspection hall. After a +short wait there the gate is opened, and at a given signal we are +marched out of the hall in single file to refresh ourselves, before the +departure of the train, with a little breakfast. + +Scrupulous cleanliness reigns in the large, airy restaurant also. We +are in the land of caviar. Caviar sandwiches, appetizingly prepared, lie +on the buffet-table. "Caviar" may also be found in one or another of the +foreign papers offered for sale by the newsboys. When the censorship +finds it inconvenient to eliminate entire pages whose contents are +objectionable, it generously spreads printer's ink on the condemned +passages, scatters sand over them, and puts the whole in the press. The +result is a lattice-like pattern, not unlike in appearance to pressed +caviar, to which the Russian, with good-natured self-derision, applies +the term "press-caviar," an expression which has a two-fold meaning. +Caviar is admittedly regarded as an easily digestible food. The Russian +censor considers his caviar more useful and less harmful than that which +ill-advised men in foreign countries allow themselves to print. + +A few glasses of tea drawn from a samovar drive away the last traces of +the morning frost, and, wrapped in fur coats, and with a feeling like +that succeeding an adventure crowned with victory, we for the first time +stroll along a Russian railway platform. + +We again enter the coupé, now in charge of Russian attendants. + +A long, monotonous ride through level, swampy country, over which there +slowly floats the gray vapor of the locomotive, finally brings us at +dusk to Warsaw. + +Nothing oppresses the spirit more deeply than such a ten-hour monotony +of leaden-gray skies, dirty-gray snow, and a thick, gray, smoky mist. +The gendarmes in gray coats at the infrequent stations; the greasy Jews +with their long coats of uncertain color; the secret police with their +questionable gentility, never absent--all these are not calculated to +relieve the painful feeling of sadness and dreariness. We were out of +humor when we reached Warsaw. We believed that we had the right to +expect crisp winter weather in Russia and were disappointed to find only +mud and humidity. But perhaps Warsaw is not really Russia? Or are we +still in central Europe? The evening at the hotel and the following days +conclusively proved to us that Warsaw, indeed all Poland, with its +climate, its civilization, its religion, and--its ideas, does not +belong, in the real sense of the term, to Russia; that the isotherm +which connects Russia proper with other regions of the same mean +temperature runs considerably north of Poland. A Buckle would be puzzled +by this fact alone. The dwellers could not be of the same race here nor +the same system be possible. When, nevertheless, only one power rules +here, it does so by violence and in spite of natural laws; it must give +rise to resentment and can give no promise of permanence. + +On my return journey from the heart of Russia I purposely suppressed the +first impression gained by me in Warsaw, but when I was there again +this impression reasserted itself even more strongly. Warsaw is no more +Russia than Lemberg or Dresden, in spite of the overpowering Russian +churches, in spite of the innumerable Russian officers and soldiers, in +spite of the obligatory Russian signs on the stores, which, with some +experience, may be deciphered as "Chajim Berlinerblau," or something +similar. + +Aside from its jargon-speaking Jews, Warsaw is pre-eminently a Catholic +city, and its entire civilization is Roman Catholic. Its very situation +is striking. Approaching it from the Vistula, one may see where the city +had built its defences--towards the east! Thence came the enemy, the +Mongol, the Russian. From the east there came barbarism and oppression, +therefore the fortifications and walls were built on the river-bank +commanding the valley of the Vistula, through which alone an enemy could +come. From the west came only the blessings of civilization and +religion, with its messengers that once were harbingers of civilization, +and which, perhaps, still remain such in this region. + +Warsaw is a beautiful and fashionable city when considered apart from +the sections where the Jews are crowded together. The members of its +elegant society know how to live in spite of national misery and +oppression. Hotel Bristol, the finest hotel in the city, is their +rendezvous. Here they meet one another at breakfast, at dinner, in the +splendid English dining-room; men and women, guests from +Prussian-Poland and Galicia, noble families of the partitioned kingdom. +They are of one race, one class, one caste; they know one another, like +members of the same club, and all approximately the same type--somewhat +overslender forms, long, nervous hands, finely sculptured noses, sharply +chiselled temples, angular foreheads, the women supple and lissome, each +motion accompanied by a touch of polished affectation. When compared +with this Polish aristocracy, the Russian officers, who eat at separate +tables, leave the impression, with their German scholar-faces or Cossack +physiognomies, of provincial backwardness. They are merely bourgeois in +uniform even though they be real princes, while the Pole who has +graduated from that high-school of refinement, the Jesuit +boarding-school, is an aristocrat, a cavalier, from head to foot. They +remain separate like oil and water. The Russian, even though he is the +master, is of no consequence here. It is only necessary to observe for +the space of an hour from some corner of the elegant dining-room of +Hotel Bristol the behavior of the Polish society and the complete +isolation of the Russian officers or officials; it is only necessary to +be able to distinguish the groups from one another--the Baltic nobility +with their almost bourgeois families, merchants from all the principal +countries, Russian functionaries, and Polish society--and it will at +once become clear who is at home here, firmly rooted to the soil, so +that all others become strangers and intruders; it is the Poles and the +Poles alone. + +There is some talk of a change of relations that has been attempted with +the aid of the French ally through the Vatican, so as to array Poland +against Protestant Prussia and to reconcile it to orthodox Russia. +Indeed, the Russian government has found it necessary to allow religious +instructions in secondary schools to be given in the Polish +mother-tongue, just at the time when the German government had on its +hands the Wreschen trials. In fact, the more Prussian narrowness insults +and provokes the Poles the greater are the Russian efforts to win them +over. This, however, is only a political move, an attempt at bribery +that the Poles let pass because it suits them, though one, perhaps, that +the real go-betweens, the Jesuits, take in earnest, but the success of +which, after all, would be contrary to all known facts of history and +civilization, for it would be opposed to the national sentiment. In +Russia dwells the marrow of the Polish nation; in Russia dwell the +Polish aristocracy and that industrial middle class which has become +rich and Polish in spirit in so far as it was of foreign origin; and yet +in this homogeneous land of Poland the Polish language is interdicted, +so to speak, and tolerated everywhere only as a local dialect. +University, gymnasiums, courts, and administration are all Russian--a +Gessler hat, placed in the Russian sign of every store, on which the +Latin-Polish inscription may appear only in a secondary position--a +proceeding to which no self-respecting people will submit, and need not +submit, especially from a master whose so-called civilization is of far +more recent origin than its own. The German in America becomes +Americanized voluntarily and irresistibly, because the English language +is recognized as a more useful medium than his own, as the +world-language. The Pole will never become Russianized as long as he +remains on Polish soil; and no matter how significantly the +"Ausgleichspolen" (Polish compromise party) flirt with the Russian +régime, such an attitude hides a sense of annoyance and is not caused by +real fellow-feeling. For the Pole, Germanization is an ill-fitting +garment that only binds; Russianization is a thorn in the flesh, +producing pus and throwing the entire system into a fever. + + + + +III + +WARSAW--_CONTINUED_ + + +Political reflections force themselves on you in this subjugated but by +no means pacified country. It is in vain you tell yourself that the +constant factors of climate, soil, race, and religion are of greater +importance for the true understanding of a country, city, or people than +passing political incidents and systems. You cannot emancipate yourself +from politics in Poland. This is not a country like German Alsace, +where, according to Moltke, a guard must be kept for fifty years, after +which, like the German country it originally was, it will again become +and remain German. Poland is a country forcibly subjected and conquered, +and you feel it when walking the streets and in the fashionable hotel, +where the national sorrow is generously moistened with champagne at the +tables of the aristocracy even at the early breakfast hour. + +However, it is not necessary for us to be more passionately patriotic +and political than these champagne counts, and we must attempt to secure +something of the street scenes without becoming involved too deeply in +political problems. + +Whenever I come to a town I ask myself, Why was it built here and not +elsewhere? With the help of a little imagination one can understand even +to-day how Warsaw came into existence. It was at the head of a bridge. +The word "Warsaw" is believed to be derived from the word "Warszain" (on +the height). So the city lies at a height of about forty metres on the +bank of the Vistula, fully half a kilometre wide at this place. An +elevation of forty metres on the immediate bank of a broad stream +offered, at the time of its foundation in the twelfth century, a natural +fortification, and the merchants who came up from the sea to sell their +wares to the semi-barbarous inhabitants of the plain may have found +perhaps on this height a frequent protection from the attacks of the +plainsmen. Later the fort became a city and culture and luxury made +their appearance, offering to the tamed dwellers of the plains and to +the landed proprietors from far and near the opportunity to squander the +proceeds of their crops. The numerous churches did not fare badly in the +days of penitence then. + +To-day, Warsaw is still a fine city of broad streets paved with wooden +blocks, with rows of stores on both sides, prominent among which are the +richly equipped jewelry establishments. Carriage traffic is +considerable, even though it cannot compare with that in St. Petersburg. +Just now the main artery of the city, the Vistula, is closed. The stream +is frozen almost over its entire width and ravens croak on the snowy +shoals. But within the city there pass unceasingly modestly neat +cabriolets, fashionable cabs, and splendid private turnouts with Russian +harness and servants. The buildings are of little interest. A few +attempts in the Russian style, a few Polish shadings of quite modern +secession architecture strike the foreigner, but the deepest impression +is created by the feverish life on the streets and not by its ornamental +frame-work. From this should be excepted the pleasure Villa Lazienki and +its quaint park situated at the end of the avenue. Even snow and ice +cannot banish the spirits that possess one in these gardens. It is a +miniature Versailles. Here is a little castle within which is a +picture-gallery of aristocratic beauties, statues, and portraits of King +Stanislas Poniatowski represented mythologically as King Solomon +entering Jerusalem; without are enchanting villas scattered throughout +the park, in the centre of which is a little natural theatre built in +the open of stone, and arranged like an amphitheatre, the stage +separated from the rest by an arena of the wide lake, and constructed of +Corinthian columns and palisade of bushes. Plays were given here in the +times when the court and the "beauties" of the picture-gallery enjoyed +nature and art together. The moon in the sky was one of the requisites, +and fireworks were burned for the relaxation of the high and most high +lords. Meanwhile the kingdom hastened to its ruin; for a witty, +pleasure-loving court and an immoral oligarchy together are beyond the +endurance of one people, especially when it is surrounded by covetous +neighbors. One hundred years of slavery and three ruthlessly suppressed +revolutions are the historical penalty for the pleasures of Castle +Lazienki. There and on the broad election plane the "Pole Elekcji +Krolow," in the southern part of the town, where the "schlachtzitz" +(lordling) could deposit his "liberum veto" for a couple of rubles or +thalers, the kingdom was destroyed, and its resurrection is a pious wish +the fulfilment of which even our grandchildren will not live to see. + +I have no faith in a Polish kingdom. There may be a Polish revolution +to-morrow, perhaps, when the Russians shall meet defeat in eastern Asia, +as the Russian patriots hope, but a Polish kingdom there will never be. +It is quite apparent how the influence of the times is changing the +entire social structure of the people. No nation can maintain itself +without a middle class, and Poland still has no middle class. The +material for such a class, the strong Jewish population, has been so +ground down that a half-century would not be sufficient for its +restoration and the Russian régime of to-day is disposed to anything +rather than to the uplifting and the education of the Polish Jewry. It +is stated that there are in Warsaw a quarter of a million Jews, a few +well-to-do people among them, who have hastened, for the most part, to +transform themselves into "Poles of the Mosaic faith," without +disarming thereby the clerical anti-Semitism of the Polish people, and +innumerable beggars or half-beggars, who are designated in western +Europe as "schnorrer." And of these there are in Warsaw an unknown +number. It is hard to draw the line between the "schnorrer" and the +"Luftmensch" (a man without any certain source of income), who has not +yet resigned himself to beggary, and yet cannot tell in the morning +whence he is to draw his sustenance at noon. These include artisans, +sweat-shop workers, agents, and go-betweens, a city proletariat of the +very worst kind. I have seen no such shocking misery in the Jewish +quarters on the Moldau as I encountered in the brilliant capital Warsaw. +The Polish Jew, everywhere despised and unwelcome, is the wandering +poverty-witness of Polish mismanagement. A system that succeeds in +depraving the sober, pious, and sexually disciplined orthodox Jew to the +extent observed in a portion of the Jewish Polish proletariat should be +accorded recognition as the most useless system on the face of the +earth. In the last analysis it was the Polish "schlachtzitz," and the +Polish clerical going hand-in-hand with him, that constituted the prime +cause of all the miseries of the nineteenth century. + +And yet, to be just, one should compare this cheerless Polish-Jewish +proletariat with its immediate environment--the Polish peasants and the +common people. Here one would still find a plus of virtues on the Jewish +side. The wretched Polish peasant is not more cleanly than the Jew. On +the contrary, he lives in the same room with his pig, and no ritual +requirement compels him to wash his body at least once a week. The Jew, +under his patched garment, is for the most part comparatively clean, +only hopelessly stunted and emaciated. The Jew does not drink, while his +"master," the Pole, has a kindly disposition towards all sorts of +spirituous liquors. Also, the modesty of the Jewish women has yielded +but lately to the pressure of endless misery or the temptations of the +cities, while of the higher classes of Polish and Russian society but +little of an exemplary character has been told. And finally: + + + "Deutsche Redlichkeit suchst Du in allen Winkeln vergebens." + + +Goethe's verse applies not only to the Italians, for whom it was +intended; it applies also to Poland and Russia, where less faith is +attached to statements than is customary with us, and it applies, above +all, to the merchant classes of all nations who are wont to make their +living by overreaching their neighbors. There is a wide gulf between the +development of commercial ethics, as they are understood with us and in +England, and the tricks and devices of petty trade no matter of what +nation. But the Jew in Poland and in Russia has been and still is being +driven, in great measure, into a class of wretched petty traders; and +the law of the land forces back into the pale of settlement by drastic +regulations him who would escape from its cage and from an occupation of +dubious ethics. + +The Jewish section is the "partie Hortense" of the beautiful Polish +capital; the Jewish misery is a shameful stain on Polish rule and its +Nemesis. All the five continents must have their misery and toil, and +they need a firm, all-embracing humanity to relieve them of this +contagious wretchedness, this residue of centuries of depravity. But for +Poland and Russia the humane solution of the Jewish question is simply a +life-question. + + + + +IV + +ST. PETERSBURG + + +A hymn of praise to the Russian railroad! The Russian tracks begin at +Warsaw to have a considerably broader bed. This for a strategical +purpose, to render difficult the invasion by European armies. It is also +a benefit to the traveller, for the Russian coaches are wider and more +comfortable than the European, and the side-passages along the coupé are +very convenient for little walks during the journey. A separate heating +compartment and buffet, with the indispensable samovar, where one may +secure a glass of tea at any time, are situated in the centre of the +long car. The trains do not jolt, although they are almost as fast as +ours. The smoke and soot do not drive through the tightly closed double +windows. A twenty-four hour trip here tires one less than a six-hour +trip with us. Certainly there is more need of preparation for a +comfortable journey in Russia than in the West. The distances are +immense, a twenty-four hour journey creating no comments. The +Warsaw-Petersburg train was as well filled as the ordinary express-train +between Frankfort and Cologne. + +The run, which lasts from one morning to the next, is naturally not +very entertaining. The broad expanse of snowy plain, relieved only by +snow-breaks and frozen swamps, at every two miles a few wretched +half-Asiatic huts, and occasionally the dark profile of a forest, no +more to be seen, and a sea of unintelligible Slavic sounds, no more to +be heard. The feeling of loneliness grows upon one, and the impression +becomes constantly stronger that Russia is a world for itself. + +But there is an end to everything, even to a railroad journey without +books, without papers, and without conversation. At the dawn of the +clear, wintry day one may already distinguish the signs of a great city. +A station with magnificent buildings and a well-cared-for park +stretching almost to the tracks claims our attention after the many +unimpressive sights of the long road. We decipher the name "Gatschina," +and understand why there is such a strong police force on the platform. +This is the Winter Palace. Scarcely an hour later the gilded cupolas +stand out bright above the snow; the brakes are put on; we are in St. +Petersburg. + +It cannot be said that the city appears in a favorable light when viewed +from the railroad. The not over-elegant two-horse vehicle which takes us +and our baggage rattles over miserable pavements, dirty from the melting +snow, through broad, endless suburban streets. The houses on either side +are of only one story, built mostly of wood, their poverty-stricken +appearance being intensified here and there by three-storied barracks. +Liquor-shops, little second-hand stores, wooden huts, with putrid +garbage, follow one another in a variety by no means pleasing. The +passers-by, ill-clad, with the inevitable rubber shoes, shuffle along +the slushy sidewalks; trucks with two or sometimes three horses, their +necks bent under the brightly painted Russian "duga" (wooden yoke), a +truly Gorki atmosphere in its entirety. One can scarcely believe that he +is entering one of the most brilliant cities of the continent. The +endless rows of stores with their two-storied sheds, which one passes on +the way to the centre of the city, but slightly improve one's first +impression, for even they are far removed from the splendor of the +capital. + +We finally reach the hotel to which our mail has been addressed. It is +an enormous structure, more than two hundred metres long. Yet it has no +room for us. It is filled to overflowing. It is impossible to crowd in +one more soul. We again take our carriage. We drive from one hotel to +another, growing constantly more modest in our demands for lodging. But +our efforts are vain. Everything is occupied to the very gables. + +We were careless in coming to St. Petersburg in January. This is the +time of congresses, of business, of carnivals. All the provincial +officials are here to render their annual reports to their ministries. +Naturally, they bring with them their families, who wish to make their +important purchases here and to taste of the social season. Congresses +and conferences are held here not in the summer and vacation months as +with us, but shortly before the "butter-week," really a carnival, the +pleasure of which one may wish to take this opportunity to test. +Medical, teachers', and insurance congresses are held here at the same +time. Foreign merchants come here to complete their transactions. But +the great city of St. Petersburg is not adapted for foreign guests. + +The instincts of self-defence awake at the time of need. We do not +intend to camp to-night under the bridge arch. We make great efforts and +by the evening have secured a room, in spite of the "absolute +impossibility," in that large and only comfortable hotel in St. +Petersburg, which we shared with a friendly mouse, but which was free +from other objectionable tenants. Even the little mouse was deprived in +a base manner of its life and liberty the very next night. Once provided +with board and lodging, we decided to become acquainted with the better +side of St. Petersburg. What does a stranger usually do in the evening +when he visits a strange city? He goes to some theatre. + +There are plenty of hotel porters and agents to provide for the wishes +of the guests. "Hello, agent; get me tickets for the Imperial +Theatre"--where a ballet of Tschaikowski's is to be presented to-night +by first-class talent. The theatre programme, obligingly provided with a +French translation, informs us that among others, Kscheschinska will do +herself the honor to play the leading rôle. "But, honored sir, that is +quite impossible; first, because this is the carnival time; second, +because most of the seats are already subscribed for; and third, because +Kscheschinska dances to-night"--a sly closing of the left eye +accompanies the mention of the name--"and neither the Emperor nor the +court will be absent from the theatre. Unless you pay twenty to thirty +rubles to a speculator you will hardly get into the theatre." + +Since my passion for the ballet or for Kscheschinska does not attain the +proportions of a twenty-ruble investment, I find it preferable to devote +the evening to the always interesting and fruitful hotel studies. What +seething life in the numberless corridors, dining-halls, and vestibules +of the fashionable St. Petersburg Hotel! Governors in generals' +gold-braided uniforms, covered with so many orders and medals that it +makes one curious to find out about all the deeds of heroism for which +they were bestowed; chamberlains with refined elegance in their gala +dress, hiding the "beau restes" of the one-sided Adonis; tall, agile, +dark-eyed Circassians with the indispensable cartridge-pouch on the +breast region of their long coats, with the dagger hanging in its +massive gold sheath from the tightly drawn belt; Cossacks with fur caps +a foot high, made of white or black Angora skins, placed on their +bristly heads; a nimble Chinese man, or maid, servant, with long +pigtail, whose sex it is impossible to distinguish; a whole troop of +dark-eyed Khivanese squatting on their prayer-rugs before the apartment +of their khan, passing the nargile from hand to hand, and exchanging +witticisms about the passing Europeans; beardless Tatar waiters +shuffling by in their flat-soled shoes--a mixture of Europe and Asia +such as may hardly be seen at once in any other part of the world. The +west European merchants and other travellers, who throng the hotel, are +scarcely noted among the exotic appearances. In this hotel, as elsewhere +throughout St. Petersburg, the European, the civilian, is seemingly +merely tolerated. The city belongs to the functionaries, soldiers, +officials, and chamberlains, to the Cossacks, Circassians, and, above +all others, to the police. More intimate acquaintance reveals that a +goodly portion of the uniformed persons in St. Petersburg are ordinary +students, technologists, professors, etc., and that these uniformed +persons do not equally represent the state. On the contrary, the fight +of the state, or, to be more precise, of the police, against the free +professions, would not be so bitter if the members of the latter were +not entitled to wear uniforms. As it is, they also may appear to the +common people as representatives of the Czar's authority. + +We slept through the night. Kind fate had decreed for us snow and cold +in succession to the disagreeable thaw, and we availed ourselves of the +clear weather to become acquainted with the bright side of St. +Petersburg. And, first of all, the snow! It changes the entire +appearance of the city as if by a magic wand. The narrow, open carriages +where two persons can accommodate themselves only with difficulty, +especially when wrapped in fur coats, have disappeared. Their places +have been taken by small, low sleighs without backs. The "izwozchik" +(driver) in his blue, plaited Tatar fur coat and multicolored sash, with +fur-trimmed plush cap on his head, sits almost in the passenger's lap. +Yet there is compensation for the meagre dimensions of the sleigh. The +small, rugged horses speed along like arrows through the straight +streets, hastened on by the caressing words or the exclamations of the +bearded driver. Horse, driver, and sleigh are very essential figures in +the St. Petersburg street scenes. We at home cannot at all realize how +much driving is done in St. Petersburg. The distances are enormous; +streets five or six kilometres long are not unusual. There are almost no +streetcar lines, thanks to the selfishness of the town representatives, +composed of St. Petersburg house-owners, who do not care to see a +reduction in rents in the central portion of the town. The average city +inhabitant readily parts with the thirty, forty, or fifty kopeks +demanded by the "izwozchik," and thus everything is rushed along in an +unending race. The "pravo" (right) or "hei beregis!" (look out!), which +the drivers bawl to one another or to the pedestrians, resounds through +the streets, but they are not very effectual. One must open his eyes +more than his ears if he wishes to escape injury in the streets of St. +Petersburg. The constant racing often results in four or five rows of +speeding conveyances attempting to pass one another. The drivers with +their bearded, apostle faces, which appear lamblike when they +good-naturedly invite you to enter their conveyances, are like wild men +when they let loose. Their Cossack nature then asserts itself. On and +always on, and let the poor pedestrian take care of his bones. And +however much the little horse may pant and the flakes of foam may fly +from its sides, "his excellency," "the count," "his highness" (the +izwozchik is extremely generous with his titles), will surely add a few +kopeks when the driver has been very smart; and so the little horse must +run until the passenger, unaccustomed to such driving, loses his breath. + +But the Russian barbarian conception of wealth and fashion is to have +his driver race even when out for a pleasure drive, as if it were a +question of life or death. The numberless private turnouts, +distinguished by their greater elegance, their splendid horses, harness, +liveries, and carriages, have no less speed than the hackney-coachman, +but the reverse, at a still greater speed, thanks to the elasticity of +their high-stepping Arab trotters. And now imagine twenty-five thousand +such vehicles simultaneously in racing motion, with here and there a +jingling "troika," its two outer horses galloping madly and the middle +horse trotting furiously; imagine, at the same time, the bright colors +of the four-cornered plush caps on the heads of the stylish drivers, the +gay-colored rugs on the "troikas," the blue and green nets on the +galloping horses of the private sleighs, the glitter of the gold and +silver harness, the scarlet coats of the court coachmen and lackeys, +everything rushing along on a crisp winter day, over the glimmering, +freshly fallen snow, between the mighty façades of imposing structures, +flanked by an almost unbroken chain of tall policeman and gendarmes, and +you have the picture of the heart of St. Petersburg at the time of +social activity. Splendor, riches, wildness are all caricatured into +magnificence as if calculated to impress and to frighten. Woe to him +here who is not of the masters! + + + + +V + +ST. PETERSBURG--_CONTINUED_ + + +St. Petersburg is an act of violence. I have never received in any city +such an impression of the forced and the unnatural as in this colossal +prison or fortress of the Russia's mighty rule. The Neva, around whose +islands the city is clustered, is really not a stream. It comes from +nowhere and leads nowhere. It is the efflux of the Heaven-forsaken +Ladoga Lake, where no one has occasion to search for anything; and it +leads into the Bay of Finland, which is frozen throughout half of the +year. No commercial considerations, not even strategical reasons, can +justify the establishment of this capital at the mouth of the Neva. The +fact that St. Petersburg has none the less become a city of millions of +inhabitants is due entirely to the barbaric energy of its founder, Peter +the Great, an energy which still works in the plastic medium of Russian +national character. On the bank of the Neva stands the equestrian statue +of Peter, raised on a mighty block of granite, a notable work of the +Frenchman Falconet. The face of the Emperor as he ascends the rock is +turned to the northwest, where his most dangerous rival, the Swedish +Charles, lived. And just as his whole attitude expresses defiance and +self-conscious power, so his city, St. Petersburg, is only a monument of +the defiance and the iron will of its founder. The historians relate +that Peter intended, by removing his residence to St. Petersburg, to +facilitate the access of European civilization to the Russian people. If +this be true, Peter utterly failed in his purpose. The old commercial +city, Riga, would have answered the purpose much better. To be sure, +Riga did not come into Russian possession until eighteen years after the +founding of St. Petersburg. Yet what was there to prevent the despot +from abandoning the work that he had begun? But no, St. Petersburg was +to bid defiance to the contemporary might of Sweden, and so forty +thousand men had to work for years in the swamps of the Neva to build +the mighty tyrant's castles, the Peter-and-Paul fortress, an immense +stone block on the banks of the icy stream. Malarial fevers carried off +most of them; but the Russian people supplied more men, for such was the +will of the Czar. The drinking-water of St. Petersburg to-day is still a +yellow, filthy fluid, consumption of which is sure to bring on typhoid +fever; but the will of Peter still works, and St. Petersburg remains the +capital. + +Peter, with his peculiar blending of political supremacy and democratic +fancifulness, built for himself a little house on the fortress island, +where the furniture made by himself is still preserved by the side of +the miracle-working image of the Redeemer which the despot always +carried with him. His spirit soars over this city and this land. What he +did not entirely trust to his unscrupulous fist he left in honest +bigotry to the bones of the holy Alexander Nevski, which he had brought +to his capital soon after its establishment. Autocracy and popocracy +still reign in the Russian empire. The Peter-and-Paul fortress, in the +subterranean vaults of which many of the noblest hearts and heads of +Russia have found their grave, the Isaac cathedral, with its barbarian +pomp of gold and precious stones, and the mighty monoliths--these are +the symbols of the city of St. Petersburg and of its régime. If there is +in Russia, even among the enlightened minds, something like a fanatical +hatred of civilization and of the West, it is due to the manner in which +the half-barbarian Peter imposed Western ideas and civilization on a +harmless and good-natured people. + +What brutal power of will may do in defiance of unfriendly nature has +been done on the banks of the Neva. Indeed, its green waters are now +hidden by an ice-crust three feet thick, over which the sleighs run a +race with the little cars of the electrical railway. Yet even without +the restless shimmer of the water the view of the river-bank is still +very impressive. The golden glitter of the great cupolas of the Isaac +cathedral, the long red front of the Winter Palace, the pale yellow +columns of the admiralty, between Renaissance structures, stand out +from among the rest. + +Palaces and palaces stretch along the stream right up to the Field of +Mars. The gilded spire of the Peter-and-Paul cathedral pierces the +white-blue sky and greets, with its angel balanced on the extreme spire, +the equally grotesque high spire of the admiralty. Great stone and iron +bridges span the broad stream, its opposite shore almost faded in the +light mist of the wintry day. Walking towards the middle of the bridge, +whence a splendid view may be obtained, one sees the long row of +buildings on the farther islands standing out of the mist. One row of +columns is followed by another--the Academy of Arts, the Academy of +Sciences, the house of Menschikov, which Catherine built for her +favorite, come into view. Towards the west the hulls of vessels stand +out from among the docks. Still farther out the mist hides the shoals of +the Neva, together with those of the Gulf of Finland, in an impenetrable +gray. Towards the north stretch the endless lanes with their bare +branches which lead to the islands. This is the Bois de Boulogne of St. +Petersburg, where the gilded youth race in brightly decorated "troikas," +and hasten to squander in champagne, at cards, and in gypsy +entertainments, the wages of the starved muzhik. It is a magnificent +picture of power, of self-conscious riches, the better part of which is +furnished by the mighty stream itself. + +It is easy now to realize that St. Petersburg was originally planned +for a seaport, and that it therefore presents its glittering front to +the sea. The railroads which conduct the traffic to-day could no longer +penetrate with their stations into the city proper; hence the visitors +must first pass through the broad, melancholy suburban girdle which +gives one the impression of a giant village. When access to the city was +still by boat from the Gulf of Finland, the landing at the "English +quay," with its view of all these colossal structures, golden domes and +spires, must have created a powerful impression. Nothing less was +contemplated by this massing of palaces. The capital and residence city +was not intended to facilitate the access of the West but rather to +inspire it with awe. + +The splendor of the city naturally becomes gradually diminished from the +banks of the Neva towards the vast periphery. The main artery of traffic +in St. Petersburg, the "Nevski Prospect," and its continuation, the +"Bolshaya Morskaya," remain stately and impressive to their very end. A +peculiar feature of St. Petersburg is the numerous canals which begin +and end at the Neva, and which once served to drain the swampy soil of +the city. They are now to be filled, for they do not answer the purpose. +Nevertheless, they offer meanwhile an opportunity for pretty bridge +structures, as, for instance, the one leading over the Fontanka, +ornamented with the four groups of the horse-tamers by Baron Klodt. A +comparison with the lagoon city, Venice, would really be a flattering +hyperbole, for one does not get the impression here of being on the sea, +as in the case of the "Canal-Grande." The city rather reminds one of the +models that were nearer to its founder, the canal-furrowed cities of +Holland. Still, these canals are a pleasant diversion in the otherwise +monotonous pictures of the city streets. + +Should it be mentioned here that St. Petersburg has its "millionnaya" +(millionaire's street)? It is well known that hither and towards Moscow +flow the treasures of a country squeezed dry. The great wealth of the +one almost presupposes the nameless misery of the other. The +indifference with which the shocking famine conditions of entire +provinces and the threatening economic collapse of the whole empire are +regarded here finds its explanation only in the bearing of these +boyar-millionaires, who consider themselves Europeans because their +valets are shaved in the English fashion. + +The eye of the stranger who wishes to understand, and not merely to +gaze, will rather turn to other phenomena more characteristic than +splendid buildings of the country and its people. + +There is, in the first place, the pope (priest), and then the policeman. + +The priests and the policemen are the handsomest persons in St. +Petersburg. Although the flowing hair of the bearded priest, reaching to +his shoulders, is not to be regarded as a characteristic peculiarity, +since every third man in Russia displays long hair or profuse locks that +would undoubtedly draw to their fortunate possessor in our land the +attention of the street boys, still they are carefully chosen human +material, tall, graceful men with handsome heads and proud mien. +Notwithstanding this they are accorded but little reverence even among +the bigoted Russians, for no matter how often and copiously these may +cross themselves before every sacred image, they quite often experience, +behind the priest, a sort of salvation which compels them suddenly to +empty their mouths in a very demonstrative manner. This may be due to +various kinds of superstition, which regard the meeting with a priest as +very undesirable, but it finds its explanation also in the not always +exemplary life of this servant of the Lord. He is especially accredited +with a decided predilection for various distilled liquors that at times +exert a doubtful influence on a man's behavior. One may see in St. +Petersburg men wrapped in costly sable furs make the acquaintance of the +street pavements, especially during the "butter-week," yet for spiritual +garments the gutter is even less a place of legitimate rest, and, at any +rate, it is difficult to acknowledge as the appointed interpreter of +God's will a man whose mouth savors of an entirely different spirit than +the "spiritus sanctus." + +For all this, however, the Russian is filled, outwardly at least, and +during divine services, with a devotion which, to us, is scarcely +comprehensible. With fanatical fervor he kisses in church the hand of +the same priest behind whose back he spat at the church door. His body +never rests. As with the orthodox Jew and the howling dervish, his +praying consists in an almost unceasing bowing, and a not at all +inconsiderable application of gymnastics. He is perpetually crossing +himself. Particularly fervent suppliants, of the female gender +especially, can hardly satisfy themselves by kissing again and again the +stone flags of the floor, the hem of the priest's coat, the sacred +images, and the numberless relics. But how effective and mind-ensnaring +is the orthodox church service. The glimmer of the innumerable small and +large wax candles brought by most of the congregants fills the golden +mist of the place with an unearthly light. Rubies, emeralds, and +diamonds shine from the silver and gold crowns on the sacred images. The +gigantic priest in his gold-embroidered vestments lets sound his deep, +powerful, bass voice, and wonderful choirs answer him from both sides of +the "ikonostas." Clouds of incense float through the high nave. The +faithful, ranged one after another, intoxicate and carry one another by +their devotion--a huge general hypnosis in which education and priestly +art are equally concerned. The orthodox cult is not to be compared, at +least in my opinion, with that of the Roman Catholics in the depth and +nobility of the music and in the artistic arrangement of the service. +But in its archaic monotony, in its use of the coarsest material +stimuli, it is perhaps even more suggestive for the Eastern masses than +is the other for the civilized peoples of the West. The quantity of +gold, silver, and precious stones offered up, especially in the Isaac +cathedral and in the Kazan cathedral--fashioned after that of St. +Peter's in Rome--to give the faithful a conception of the just claims of +Heaven on treasure and reverence, is beyond the belief of Europeans. The +artistically excellent silver ornaments of the Isaac cathedral weigh not +less than eleven thousand kilograms. A single copy of the New Testament +is bound in twenty kilograms of gold. The sacred image made in +commemoration of the catastrophe of Borki is almost entirely covered +with diamonds. These endowments came, for the most part, from members of +the imperial house. The union of church and state is more intimate here +than elsewhere, and, apparently, even more profitable for the guardians +of the altar. Among all the sacred relics and trophies of the St. +Petersburg church, one impresses the foreigner above the others. It is a +collection of silver gifts from the French, ranged along the wall of the +Peter-and-Paul cathedral. By the side of the coffins of the Russian +emperors and empresses, from Peter the Great to Alexander III., which +one cannot pass without a peculiar feeling of historical respect, under +innumerable flags and war trophies, there stand, as the greatest triumph +that the despotic barbarian state has won from civilized Europe, the +silver crowns and the shields of honor which Félix Faure, +Casimir-Périer, the senate, the chamber, and the Parisian press +presented to the Russian ally of France. + +"You see here the greatest misfortune that has befallen us in this +century," said my companion, an orthodox Russian of nothing less than +radical views. "Until then, until this alliance, with all our +boastfulness we still felt some shame before Europe for our barbarous +and shameful rule. But since the most distinguished men and corporations +of the most enlightened republic have begun prostrating themselves +before us, the knout despotism has received the consecration of Europe +and has thrown all shame to the winds." + +"But the French have lent you eight milliards for it," I replied. + +"A part of which has gone into Heaven knows whose pockets; the other +supports our police against us, and the remainder was sunk in a +worthless railroad, while we, in order to provide the interest, must +take the horse from our peasant's plough and the cow from its stable, +until even that shall come to an end, for nothing else will be left for +the executor." + +"A Jesuit trick," I said. "You owe the alliance to the diplomacy of +Rampolla." + +"The sword and the holy-water sprinkler," answered the Russian, as he +pointed his hand in a circle from the war trophies to the "ikonostas," +"they go everywhere hand-in-hand and enslave and plunder the nations." + +The leaden, snowy skies looked down on us oppressively as with a deep +shudder at the prison gratings of the Peter-and-Paul fortress we +hastened back to the city. I heard in my mind the notes of the +"Marseillaise," and before my eyes there stood the gifts of honor from +the French nation brought to the despot of the fortress. They are very +near each other, cathedral and prison. In the still of the night the +watchman of the French offerings may often hear the groans and the +despairing cries of the poor souls who had dreamed of freedom and +brotherhood and had paid for their dreams behind the heavy iron bars, +deep under the mirror-like surface of the Neva, in the dungeons of the +Peter-and-Paul fortress. + + + + +VI + +ARTIST AND PROFESSOR--ILYA RYEPIN + + +Should some one assert that there is a great artist in a European +capital, honored by an entire nation as its very greatest master, yet, +nevertheless, not even known by name among the great European public, we +should shake our heads unbelievingly, for such a phenomenon is +impossible in our age of railroads and printer's-ink. And yet this +assertion would be literally true. There is such a great artist living +in a city of a million inhabitants, and recognized by millions, yet of +his works even art-students outside of Russia have seen but one or two. +To make this even more incomprehensible, it should be stated that this +artist had attained renown in his country not merely a few years ago, +but has created masterpiece after masterpiece for more than thirty +years; indeed, his first picture at the world's fair in Vienna in 1873 +was generally recognized as startling. Nevertheless, the name of the +master has long been forgotten on our side of the Vistula; it may be +because no one found it to his interest to advertise him and thus to +create competition for others, but more probably because Russia is a +separate world and isolates itself from the rest of Europe with almost +barbaric insolence. + +There is, however, some advantage for Russia in this isolation from the +"rotten West." They are not obliged to pass through all the various +phases of our so-called art movement, and therefore are not carried from +one extreme to the other, but calmly pursue their own quiet way. They +also had the good-fortune, while the rest of Europe was in a state of +conflict over unfruitful theories, to possess really great creative +artists, always the best antidote against doctrinarianism. When the +one-sided, methodically proletarian naturalism reigned in the West, +itself a protest against the shallow idealistic formalism of the +preceding decades, Russian literature possessed its greatest realistic +poets, Tolstoï, Turgenyev, Dostoyevski, who never overlooked the inner +process, the true themes of poetical creation, for the sake of outward +appearances, and have thereby created that incomparable, physiological +realism that we still lack. And because their great realists were poets, +great poets and geniuses, they felt no need of a new drawing-room art, +which of necessity goes to the other extreme, the romantic, +aristocratic, catholic. They had no Zola, and therefore they needed no +Maeterlinck. And it was exactly so with their painting. Their great +artists did not lose themselves, like Manet and his school, in problems +purely of light and air without poetical contents; hence to rediscover +poetry and to save it for art there was no need for Preraphaelites or +Decadents. The great painter is artist, man, and poet, a phenomenon like +Leo Tolstoï, therefore the few symbolists who believe they must imitate +European fashions make no headway against them. + +Imitators can only exist among imitators, by the side of nature's +imitators, imitators of Raphael's predecessors. + +A single true artist frightens away all the ghosts of the night, and +thus decadence plays an insignificant rôle alongside of Tolstoï and +Ryepin, whether it be the decadent literature of Huysmans and +Maeterlinck, or the decadence of the Neoromanticists and of the +Neoidealists. + +It is time, however, to speak of the artist himself, an artist of sixty, +still in the fulness of power, who, besides wielding the brush, occupies +a professor's chair at the St. Petersburg Academy. I have just called +him professor. He is more than that, he is, like Leo Tolstoï, a +revolutionist, the terrible accuser of the two diabolical forces that +keep the nation in its course, the church and the despotism of +government. But, to the honor of the Russian dynasty be it said, this +artist, acknowledged to be the greatest of his country, was never +"induced" to cast aside the criticism of the prevailing system he made +by his painting and to engage in the decorative court art. His so-called +nihilist pictures, reproduction of which has been prohibited by the +police, are for the most part in the possession of grand-dukes, and, +notwithstanding his undisguised opinions, he was intrusted with the +painting of the imperial council representing the Czar in the midst of +his councillors. The czars have always been more liberal than their +administrators. Nicholas I. prized Gogol's "Revizor" above all else, and +Nicholas II. is the greatest admirer of Tolstoï. And so Ryepin may paint +whatever and however he will. And we shall see that he makes proper use +of this opportunity. He is Russian, and nothing but Russian. At +twenty-two he received for his work, "The Awakening of Jairus's Little +Daughter," an academic prize and a travelling fellowship for a number of +years. But before the expiration of the appointed time spent by him in +Berlin and Paris he returned to Russia, and produced in 1873 his +"Burlaks" (barge-towers), which attracted great attention at the Vienna +exposition. The thirty years that have passed since then have detracted +nothing from the painting. How far surpassed do Manet's +"revolutionizing" works already appear to us, and still how indelibly +fresh these "barge-towers." That is so. The reason is simple--it is no +painting of theory but of nature represented as the individual sees it, +the masterly impression of an artist, the most concentrated effect of +landscape, light, and action. The purely technical problem is +subordinated to the whole, to the unity of action and mood, solved +naturally and easily. The problem of the artist to tell us what we +cannot forget, to give us something of his soul, his sentiments, his +thoughts, is of first importance, just as geniuses of all ages cared +less to be thought masters of technique than to win friends, +fellow-thinkers, and comrades, to share their joys and feelings. From +the purely technical stand-point, where is there a painting that +presents in a more masterly manner the glimmer of sunlight on the +surface of a broad stream--as in this case--and where, nevertheless, the +landscape is treated merely as the background? And again, where is the +action of twelve men wearily plodding onward, drawing with rhythmic step +the boat against the stream, seized more forcibly, more suggestively +than in this plaintive song of the Russian people's soul? + +The youth of barely twenty-four years had at one leap placed himself at +the head of all contemporary artists. Analogies between him and the +artistic career and method of Leo Tolstoï force themselves on us again +and again. Tolstoï's _Sketches from the Caucasus_, _Sevastopol_, +_Cossacks_, are his early works, yet they are the most wonderful that +the entire prose of all literature can show. And so it is in this +lifelike picture of a twenty-four-year-old youth. Had we no other work +of his than the "Barge-towers," we should yet see in him a great master. +It is but necessary to look at the feet of these twelve wretched toilers +to realize with wonder the characterization, the full measure of which +is given only to genius. How they strain against the ground and almost +dig into the rock! How the bodies are bent forward in the broad belt +that holds the tow-line! What an old, sad melody is this to which these +bare-footed men keep step as they struggle up along the stream? In all +his barefoot stories of the ancient sorrow of the steppe children, Gorki +has not painted with greater insight. A sorrowful picture for all its +sunshine, and the more sorrowful because no tendency is made evident. It +means seeing, seeing with the eyes and with the heart, and, therefore, +it is art. + +It would be wrong, however, to say that Ryepin--in his works as a whole +if not in a given instance--has introduced a "tendency" in his choice of +solely sorrowful subjects. Such is not the case. There is nothing more +exuberant, more convulsing than his large painting, "Cossacks Preparing +a Humorous Reply to a Threatening Letter of Mohammed III." The answer +could not have been very respectful. That may be seen from the sarcastic +expression of the intelligent scribe as well as from the effect that his +wit has on the martial environment. A be-mustached old fellow in a white +lamb-skin cap holds his big belly for laughing; another almost falls +over backward, his bald pate quite jumping out of the canvas. One snaps +his fingers; another, old and toothless, grins with joy; a third pounds +with clinched fist on the almost bare back of his neighbor; another +shuts his right eye as if perceiving a doubtful odor; one with a great +tooth-gap shouts aloud, while others smile in quiet joy through the +smoke of their short pipes. All these are crowded around a primitive +wooden table scarcely a metre wide; twenty figures, a natural group, one +head hiding another, and with all you have an unobstructed view of the +camp lying bright in the sunshine and dust and full of horses and men. +The effect of the picture is so overpowering that at the mere +recollection of it you can scarcely refrain from joining in the hearty +laughter of these sturdy, untutored natures. In the entire range of +modern painting there is no other picture so full of the strong joy of +living. + +"The Village Procession," preserved in the Tretyakov Gallery in +Moscow--the finest collection of the master's works--is not gloomy like +the mournful song of the "Barge-towers," nor exuberant with serf +arrogance and vitality like the Cossack camp, but a fragment of the +colorless Russian national life as it really is, a sorrowful human +document for the thoughtful observer alone. Tattered muzhiks in fur +coats are carrying on poles a heavy sacred image, and behind them crowds +the village populace with flags and crucifixes. I will not again +emphasize how masterfully everything is noted here, from the gold border +of the sacred image to the last bit of dusty sunshine on the village +street. Absolute mastery is self-evident in Ryepin's work. We are again +attracted in this picture by the great intensity of mood. What harmony +there is in it--the mounted gendarme who pitilessly strikes with his +knout into the peasant group to make room for the priests and the local +officials; the half-idiotic, greasy sexton; the well-fed, bearded +priest; the crowd of the abandoned, the crippled, and the maimed, the +brutalized peasants, the old women. A long procession of folly, +brutality, official darkness, ignorance; a chapter from the might of +darkness; the crucifix misused as an aid to the knout, a symbol of the +Russian régime that could not be held up to scorn more passionately by +any demagogue; and yet only a street-scene which would hardly strike the +Moscow merchant when strolling in the gallery of a Sunday, because of +its freedom from any "tendency." + +Then comes a work of an entirely different character, a tragedy of +Shakespearean force, a painting that is red on red. Ivan the Terrible +holds in his arms the son he has just stricken to death with his heavy +staff. It is a horrible scene from which one turns because of the almost +unbearable misery depicted there, and yet you return to it again and +again. So great is the conception, so wonderful the insight, so +incomparable the technique. The madman, whom a nation of slaves endures +as its master, is at last overtaken by Nemesis, and he is truly an +object for pity as he crouches on the ground with the body of his dying +son in his arms. He would stanch the blood that is streaming from the +gaping wound to the red carpet. He kisses the hair where but a moment +before his club had struck. The tears flow from his horrified eyes, and +their terror is augmented, for at this last and perhaps first caress of +the terrible father a happy smile plays on the face of the dying son. He +had killed his son! Nothing can save him! He the Czar of Moscow, the +master of the Kremlin, can do nothing. He draws his son to himself, +presses him to his breast, to his lips. What had he done in his anger, +that anger so often a source of joy to him when he struck others less +near to him and for which he had been lauded by his servile courtiers, +since the Czar must be stern, a terrible and unrelenting master? + +Shakespeare has nothing more thrilling than this single work, its effect +so tragic because the artist has succeeded in awakening our pity for +this fiend, pity which is the deliverance from hatred and resentment. +The pity that seizes us is identical with the awe of the deepest faith, +the feeling of Christian forgiveness. We can have no resentment towards +this sorrow-crushed old man with the torn, thin, white hair. And we can +never quite forget the look in these glassy old eyes from which the +bitter tears are gushing, the first that the monster had ever shed. And +how the picture is painted, the red of the blood contrasting with the +red of the Persian rug and the green-red of the tapestry. Nothing else +is seen on the floor except an overturned chair. The figures of the +father, and of the son raising himself for the last time, alone in all +the vast space, hold the gaze of the spectator. With this painting +hanging in the ruler's palace the death-sentence would never be signed +again. + +Still another ghastly picture shows that the artist, like all great +masters, is not held back by affectation and feels equal to any +emergency. It represents Sophia, the sister of Peter the Great, who from +her prison is made to witness the hanging of her faithful "streltzy" +(sharp-shooters) before her windows. It was a brotherly mark of +consideration shown her by the Czar. The resemblance of the princess to +her brother is striking; but the expression of pain, anger, and fear on +the stony face turned green and yellow is really terrifying. But it is +also characteristic of the great master to have chosen just that +incident in the life of the great Czar. + +In general it must be said that for a professor in the imperial academy +the choice of historical subjects is curious enough. It certainly does +not indicate loyalty. + +I could not if I would discuss in detail the fruits of thirty years of +the artist's activity. Besides, mere words cannot give an adequate idea +of the beauty of his works. But there is one thing that may be +accomplished by the description of his most important painting--namely, +the refutation of the absurd notion that the artist and his art can +become important only when they are entirely indifferent to the joys and +sorrows of their fellow-men and concern solely the solution of artistic +problems. The doctrine of art for art's sake has no more determined +opponents than the great artists of our time, and among them also Ryepin +in the front rank. He is willing to subscribe to it just as far as +every artist must seek to influence only by means of his own peculiar +art; yet he rejects the absurdity that it is immaterial for the +greatness of the artist whether he depicts the essence of a great, rich, +and deep mind or only that of a commonplace mind. According to him only +a great man that is a warm-hearted, upright, and courageous man can +become a great artist; and he regards it as the first duty of such to +share the life of their fellow-men, to honor the man even in the +humblest fellow-being, and to strengthen with all their might the call +for freedom and humanity as long as it remains unheeded by the powerful. +Just like Tolstoï, he has only a deep contempt for the exalted decadents +who, with their exclusive and affected morality, would attack nations +fighting for their freedom. Like every independent thinker, he is +disgusted with the modern epidemic of individualism, and his sympathies +belong to the progressive movement derided by the fools of fashion. To +be sure, that does not make him greater as artist, for artistic +greatness has absolutely nothing to do with party affiliations; neither +does it make him less, for his artistic achievements are not at all +lessened by his giving us sentiments as well as images. But if a humane, +altruistic, cultured man who finds joy in progress stands ethically +higher than the exclusive, narrow-minded reactionary or self-sufficient, +surfeited decadent, then Ryepin is worth more than the idols of snobs. +And not as man only; he also stands higher as artist, for he gives +expression with at least the same mastery, and, in truth, with an +incomparably greater mastery, to the ideals of a more noble, greater, +and richer mind. The belief that participation in the struggles and +movements of the day affects the artist unfavorably is ridiculed by him; +the contrary is true in his case. It has given him an abundance of +striking themes as well as the duel and nihilist cycles. + +I will pass by the duel cycle culminating in the powerfully portrayed +suffering of the repenting victor. For us the nihilist cycle is more +interesting, more Russian. "Nihilist" is, by-the-way, an abominable name +for those noble young men and women who, staking their lives, go out +among the common people to redeem them from their greatest +enemies--ignorance and immorality. The real nihilists in Russia are +those of the government who are not held back even by murder when it is +of service to the system, the cynics with the motto, "Après nous le +déluge"; surely not these noble-hearted dreamers who throw down the +gauntlet to the all-powerful Holy Synod and to the not less powerful +holy knout. + +At the time when the "well-disposed" portion of Russian society had +turned away in honor from the Russian youth because a few fanatics had +believed that they could more quickly attain their aims by the +propaganda of action than by the fully as dangerous and difficult work +among the people, Ryepin painted his cycle which explains why among the +young people there were a few who resorted to murder. Who does not know +from the Russian novels those meetings of youths who spent half the +night at the steaming samovar discussing the liberation of the people +and the struggle against despotism, in debates that have no other result +than a heavy head and an indefinite desire for self-sacrifice? The cycle +begins with such a discussion. Men and women students are gathered +together, unmistakably Russian, all of them, Slavic types, the women +with short hair, the men mostly bearded and with long hair. In the smoky +room, imperfectly lighted by the lamp, they are listening to a fiery +young orator. We find this young man again as village teacher in the +second picture. He had gone among the people. In one of the following +pictures he has already been informed against, and the police search +through his books and find forbidden literature. The police spy and +informer, who triumphantly brings the package to light, is pictured to +his very finger-tips as the gentleman that he is. In still another +picture the young martyr is already sitting between gendarmes on his way +to Siberia; and in the last he returns home old and broken, recognized +with difficulty by his family, whom he surprises in the simple room. One +may see this cycle in the Tretyakov Gallery, and copies of it in the +possession of a few private individuals, persons in high authority, who +are above fear of the police; and one is reminded of the saying so +often heard in Russia, "We are governed by the scoundrels, and our +upright men are languishing in the prisons." The nihilist has the +features of Dostoyevski who was so broken in Siberia that he thanked the +Czar, on his return, for his well-deserved punishment, and who had +become a mystic and a reactionary. In another picture a young nihilist +on his way to the scaffold is being offered the consolation of religion +by the priest, but he harshly motions him back. + +All these pictures are homely in their treatment. The poverty of the +interior, the inspired faces of the noble dreamers, and the brutal and +stupid faces of the authorities speak for themselves clearly enough, and +no theatrical effects of composition are necessary to impart the proper +mood to the observer. On the contrary, it is just this discretion, the +almost Uhde-like simplicity that is so effective. Yet Pobydonostzev and +Plehve will scarcely thank the artist for these works that for +generations will awaken hatred against the system among all +better-informed young men. However, their reproduction is prohibited. + +On the other hand, the drawings which Ryepin made for popular Russian +literature are circulated by hundreds of thousands among the people. It +is an undertaking initiated by Leo Tolstoï with the aid of several +philanthropists, for combating bad popular literature. It is under the +excellent management of Gorbunov in Moscow. There are annually placed +among the people about two millions of books, ranging in price from one +to twenty kopeks. It may be taken for granted that the men who enjoy +Tolstoï's confidence will not be a party to barbarism. The foremost +artists supply the sketches for the title-pages, among them Ryepin, the +fiery Tolstoïan. Ryepin's admiration for the great poet of the Russian +soil is also evident from his numerous pictures of Tolstoï. He has +painted the saint of Yasnaya Polyana at least a dozen times--at his +working-table; in the park reclining under a tree and reading after his +swim; a bare-footed disciple of Kneipp; or following the plough, with +flowing beard, his powerful hand resting on the plough-handle. All are +masterly portraits, and, above all things, they reflect the +all-embracing kindness that shines in the blue eyes of the poet--eyes +that one can never forget when their kindly light has once shone upon +him. + +Public opinion in Russia has been particularly engrossed with a recent +picture which furnishes much food for reflection. Two young people, a +student clad in the Russian student uniform and a young gentlewoman with +hat and muff, step out hand-in-hand from a rock right into the raging +sea. What is the meaning of it? The triumphant young faces, the +outstretched arms of the student exclude the thought of suicide. It has +been suggested that it is an illustration of the Russian saying, "To the +courageous the sea is only knee-deep." But in that case it would mean, +"Have courage, young people; do not fear the conflict; for you the sea +is only knee-deep." But it could also be interpreted, "Madmen, what are +you doing? Do you not see that this is the terrible, relentless sea into +which you would step?" In that case it would be a warning intended for +the Russian youth, revolutionary throughout, who would dare anything. +This much is certain: the greatest Russian painter, and one of the +greatest of contemporary painters, is on the side of these young people, +and his heart is with them even though he may doubt, as many another, +the success of the heroic self-sacrifice. The noble ideals of youth +cannot conquer this sea of ignorance and slave-misery. Great and +immeasurable as is the Russian nation, nothing can help the country. It +must and will collapse within itself, and then will come the hour of +release for all, whether noble or poor, to whom the Ryepins and the Leo +Tolstoïs have dedicated their incomparably great works. Perhaps this +hour is nearer than is suspected. Russian soil is already groaning under +the March storms which precede every spring. + + + + +VII + +THE HERMITAGE + + +The curious conception of Tolstoï's as to the severing and injurious +influence of art that does not strive directly to make people more +noble, can perhaps be understood only when the collections in the St. +Petersburg Hermitage and Alexander Museum are examined. Striking proof +will there be found that the enjoyment of art--nay, the understanding of +it--need not necessarily go hand-in-hand with humane and moral +sentiments. Antiquity and the Renaissance prove that, under certain +conditions, inhumanity and scandalous immorality can harmonize very well +with the understanding of art, or with, at least, a great readiness to +make sacrifices for the sake of it. The inference that the greater +refinement of the taste for art is the cause of moral degeneration is +not far from the truth. It is quite conceivable from the stand-point of +an essentially revolutionary philosophy, framed for the struggle against +the demoralizing, violent government of St. Petersburg, since everything +that is apparently entitled to respect in this St. Petersburg is +unveiled and damned in its nothingness. Thus it is with science--that +is to say, a university that does not begin its work by denouncing a +despotism only seemingly favorable to civilization; so it is with a +fancy for art, which possibly may convince czars and their servants that +they also have contributed their mite towards the welfare of mankind. + +The stranger who does not see things with the eyes of the passionate +philanthropist and patriot, and who when gazing at the master-works of +art, does not necessarily think of the depravity of the gatherers of +these works, is surely permitted to disregard the association of ideas +between art and morality, and to give himself over unconstrainedly to +the enjoyment of collections that can hold their own with the best +museums of the world. To be sure, Catherine II. was not an exemplary +empress or woman, yet by her purchases for the Hermitage she rendered a +real service to her country, a service that will ultimately plead for +her at the judgment-seat of the world's history. Alexander III. and his +house were misfortunes for his country, but the museum that bears his +name will keep alive his memory and will cast light of forgiveness on a +soul enshrouded in darkness. Besides, it has nowhere been shown that +without the diversion of expensive tastes for art, slovenly empresses +would have been less slovenly or dull despots less violent. But in the +Hermitage one may forget for a couple of hours that he is in the capital +of the most unfortunate and the most wretchedly governed of all +countries. + +On the whole, it is impossible to give in a mere description an +adequate conception of the great mass of masterpieces here gathered +together. I shall attempt, in the following, to seize only a few meagre +rays of the brightest solitaires. + +Borne by the one-story high--entirely too high--naked Atlas of polished +black granite, there rises the side roof of the Hermitage over a terrace +of the "millionnaya" (millionaires' street). We enter the dark, high +entrance-hall, from which a high marble staircase, between polished +walls, leads to a pillared hall, already seen from below. The +attendants, in scarlet uniforms, jokingly known at the court as +"lobsters," officiously relieve us of our fur coats, and we hasten into +the long ground floor, where await us the world-famous antiquities from +Kertch, in the Crimea. Unfortunately, there awaits us also a sad +disappointment. The high walls are so dark, even in the middle of the +gray winter day, that the beauty of the many charming miniatures must be +surmised rather than felt. We could see scarcely anything of the great +collection of vases. We breathe with relief when we at last enter a hall +that has light and air, now richly rewarded for our Tantalus-like +sufferings in the preceding rooms. Here glitter the gold laurel and +acorn crowns that once adorned proud Greek foreheads; there sparkles the +gold-braided border with which the Greek woman trimmed her garments, +representing in miniature relief lions' and rams' heads. The gold +bracelets and necklaces, ear-rings and brooches tell us that there is +nothing new under the sun. Before the birth of Christ there were worn in +Chersonesus the same patterns that are now designed anew by diligent +artistic craftsmen--nay, even vases and tumblers, the creations of the +most modern individualities, had already lain buried under the rubbish +of thousands of years. Our attention is drawn to a vase in a separate +case, which gives an excellent representation of the progress of a +bride's toilet from the bath to its finishing touches ready for the +bridegroom's reception. Who knows what scene of domestic happiness was +involved in the presentation of this gift thousands of years ago! +Sensations which one experiences only in the streets and houses of +Pompeii are renewed here while looking at the glass cases with their +collections of ornaments and of articles of utility that tell us of the +refined pleasures and the exquisite taste of times long gone by. The +waves of the Black Sea played about Greek patrician houses where to-day +the rugged Cossack rides with the knout in his hand. A great hall shows +us finally the Olympian Zeus with the eagles at his feet, also with the +soaring Nike in his right hand. Klinger's "Beethoven" reminds us +involuntarily of this lofty work without attaining its majesty. A +torch-bearer, a mighty caryatid of Praxiteles with a truly wonderful +draping of the garments, a Dionysus of the fourth century, an Omphale +clad in the attributes of Hercules, sarcophagi with masterly reliefs, a +divine Augustus, portrait busts of satyrs, entitle this collection to +rank with that of the Vatican, not in numbers, but in the great worth of +single works. But our wonder and admiration become greater when we enter +the splendid halls of the picture-gallery. We hasten past Canova and +Houdon, however; the graceful figures of the one and the characteristic +"Voltaire" of the other had attracted us at other times. On to Murillo, +Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, to be presented to us in unusual +completeness. Twenty-two Murillos, the finest of them carried away by +the French from Madrid, wrapped around flag-staffs. I must confess that +I had not hitherto fully comprehended Murillo's fame, for I am not +acquainted with the Spanish galleries. It was only in St. Petersburg +that the full greatness of the master dawned upon me. No description can +give an adequate idea of the charm of the Virgin Mother in the two +gray-walled pictures of "The Conception" and "The Assumption." What +distinguishes it from the famous Louvre picture is, above all, the +childlike expression of the sweet girl's head. A Mignon as Mary! The +dark eyes looking up to heaven with such inspired enthusiasm; the full +cheeks delicately tinted; the light garment of the maiden, almost a +child, enfolding it chastely; the entire figure, to the blue, loosely +fluttering cloak bathed in light; the cupids crowding about the knees +and carrying her heavenward; sweet rogues on the cloud wall, a part +still in the light radiated by her, and a part already immersed in the +deep darkness of space--the whole sublime, as on the first day of +creation, no note failing in the Spaniard's full glow of color. + +No less splendid and inspired is "Repose During the Flight to Egypt," +where the mother of the Lord again awakens the most fervent sensations. +She is no longer the half-childlike virgin of the Conception and the +Assumption; she is the mother, tenderly and rapturously gazing at the +sleeping child surrounded by a halo of heavenly light. Angels crowd +forward in naïve curiosity; the saintly Joseph looks with emotion on the +contented infant; the thick foliage gives to the entire group shade and +coolness. Even the ass looks comfortable and pious. The color and +composition are entirely beyond comparison. + +A painting brimful of roguishness is "Jacob's Ladder," where angels +ascending and descending, making up the dreams of the sleeper, amuse +themselves in most innocent fashion. Well known is the charming +Christ-Child in the painting of "St. Joseph," and the charming little +"John" often fondly painted by him, his arms entwined about his lambkin. +Hardy peasant types are not wanting; and that the inspiration of the +great Spaniard may not exceed all bounds, there are a few pictures +which, with all their artistic excellence make us realize what a chasm +separates us from the passionate Catholic Murillo. We believe that full +artistic justice may be done to the poetry of Biblical legend without +being obliged to glorify a Peter Aubry. However, other lands, other +customs! + +Of Velasquez's work there should be mentioned, in the first place, his +paintings of Philip IV. and the Duke of Olivarez, both of striking +characterization in their grotesque ugliness--the master will survive +even the one-sided and exclusive cult of which he has been made the +victim. We will not set our minds against Velasquez's or Leonardo's +"Mona Lisa" just because they are to be found in all the exercises of +enraptured modern goslings. + +I will not say anything about the "Madonna Conestabile," the "St. +George," and the wonderful "Madonna Alba" of Raphael, for I consider it +entirely superfluous to combat the affected underestimates of the master +of Urbino, which is insisted upon as a matter of party obligation by +every imitator of fashion. If Herr Muther prescribes the Botticelli cult +for the last years of one century, the rediscovery of the joyous Andrea +del Sarto for the first years of a new century, he will, if we live to +see the day, prescribe for the century noonday the return to the master +of perfection, Raffaelo Sanzio, as the inevitable requirement of +fashion, and his disciples will add here their solemn amen. But the +eternal masters are above the gossip of salons and fashions. + +Sebastiano del Piombo is represented here by a most extraordinary +"Descent from the Cross," Correggio by the "Madonna del Latte," +Leonardo da Vinci by the light blonde "Madonna Litta," which, like all +the works of this master, is questioned, but which bears his imprint as +much as any of his works. Of Botticelli there is a very well-preserved +"Adoration of the Magi," similar to the Florentine painting. Likewise, +here in all the minor figures of the kneeling kings and shepherds, and +even of the horses, there is a perfection in the mastery of drawing, the +Madonna archaically overslender, with the thin neck of the Primitivists, +which, out of respect for sacred tradition, the otherwise bold master +did not dare meddle with. Naturally, the modern art mockery sees in this +defect of Botticelli's, accounted for by respect for tradition, his +chief superiority, and goes into affected raptures at the sensitive +figures of his "Primavera," and imitates the studied gestures of those +foolish airs which our higher bourgeoisie affect in order to resemble +the decadent nobility. But Botticelli really deserves a better fate than +to be the fashion painter of the snobs. + +Bronzino's picture of a young woman, with quite modern bronze-colored +hair and exceptionally small hands, might well be substituted, if +fashion chose, for "Mona Lisa" in the modern feuilletons. A Renaissance +could easily dedicate a piquant novel to her dreamy, roguish eyes, her +soft chin, and her sensual mouth, which would not be contradicted by the +rich pearl ornaments in her hair and ears. There is a Judith by the +highly beloved master Giorgione, which is far superior in the majesty +of her bearing and the beauty of her head to her sisters of earlier and +later times. By the side of this noble and historical figure the other +Judith, the creation of the wanton and diseased fancy of Klimt--the +otherwise prominent but misguided master--appears absolutely odious. + + + + +VIII + +THE HERMITAGE--_CONTINUED_ + + +A crown of shining jewels is the Titian room, with the Christ, the +Cardinal Pallavicini, the Danaë, the Venus, Magdalene, and the Duchess +of Urbino. It is a small cabinet, scarcely measuring five square metres, +in which is gathered more shining beauty than in many an entire museum. +Prominent, however, is the fair daughter of Parma, forerunner of the +"Mona Vanna," as Venus dressed, or rather undressed, naked, in a velvet +cloak that kindly fulfils its duty only from the hips downward. The +goddess gazes at herself in a mirror held by a cupid, while another +chubby little fellow is trying to place a crown on her head. She +deserves it, this prize of beauty. There radiates from her eyes, her +mouth, her shoulders, arms, and hands a splendor such as even this +prince but seldom gave to his creations. The curves of the breast, only +half covered by the left hand, the navel, and the hips are as soft as if +painted with a caressing brush. The heavy velvet cloak intensifies even +the remarkable brightness of the body. The Danaë, languidly outstretched +on the cushions of her luxurious couch, shuddering under the golden +harvest that falls into her lap, is much superior to her rivals in +Naples and Vienna. It is the only original that does not disappoint the +expectations created by the widely distributed reproductions, for it +also is perfectly preserved. The line of the back from the shoulder to +the bent knee of the resting young body is of a unique softness; the +transition from the thigh to hip is like velvet in the softness of the +body; the feet and toes are of classic beauty. The Magdalene again is +all feeling. The tears flowing from her eyes, reddened by sorrow, are as +real as her contrition; the heavy braids, pressed with the right hand to +the full bosom, enable us to understand her sins; but the penitential +garment and the desert, where we find her alone with a human skull, +compel us to believe in her repentance. The artist's model was, as in +the similar work in Florence, his daughter Lavinia. + +The school of Leonardo da Vinci is not as well represented; but mention +should be made here of "St. Catherine of Luini," if only for the sake of +the saint herself, that is fashioned after the same model as "St. Anne," +by Leonardo. Somewhat better represented is the Venetian school with a +few Tintorettos and Paolo Veroneses. Of the later Italians, we find +especially of note, "Mary in the Sewing-School," "St. Joseph with the +Christ-Child," and "Cleopatra," by Guido Reni. + +But the pride of the collection is the Rembrandt gallery. The so-called +"Mother of Rembrandt" is somewhat inferior to the incomparable Vienna +painting. But, on the other hand, there are among the thirty-nine +authentic works of the master such gems as the "Descent from the Cross," +with its singular lights and shadows, and "David and Absalom," with +astonishing boldness of sketching and wonderful softness of coloring. +But far beyond the technique we are struck in this picture by the almost +tragic power of expression. It is the moment of conciliation between +father and son. How the young prince with luxurious hair hides his +trembling hand on his father's breast; how the father, who very +strangely has the features of the master himself, draws to his breast +the newly found son, and breathes to Jehovah a prayer for blessing. It +is treated with such overpowering mastery as dwells only in the greatest +scenes of fatherly passion in all literature and art. The second +treatment of the same theme, "The Prodigal Son," is transplanted from +the princely to the common. The returning son is not a prince; the +father is not a be-turbaned sultan; but the intensity of the embrace is +the same; the same thrill comes to us out of this as out of the +brilliant "Absalom" picture, the two songs of the forgiving father's +love. The counterpart of these two is the painting of the great father's +sorrow that seizes the old Jacob when his sons bring to him the bloody +garment of his beloved Joseph. The terror and amazement of the +patriarch, distinctly marked in the hands of the sage uplifted as if +warding off a blow, are strongly impressed on the mind of the beholder. +The famous "Sacrifice of Isaac" is to me of slighter value than the +preceding, notwithstanding all the dramatic force of the moment +depicted. It is really too difficult for us to look into the soul of an +old fanatic who is ready to slay his own son at the command of God; yet +the foreshortening of the recumbent Isaac, and the angel sweeping down +on him like a tempest, to seize just at the right moment the hand of the +old man, are brought out again with really wanton mastery. The so-called +Danaë is not to every one's taste, its universal fame notwithstanding. +Bode takes it as Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, awaiting her betrothed. +Its meaning might well be a subject of discussion. The old woman who +draws back the heavy drapery over the couch, with the honest +match-maker's joy on her face and the purse in her hand, indicates a +mythological incident and not the legitimate joys of Sarah. On the other +hand, there is lacking here the indispensable golden shower by which the +Danaë pictures are really characterized. Besides, the profile of the +joyously surprised naked dame is not all antique. I take the liberty +humbly to suggest that the young woman with the rather mature body is, +to judge by the ornaments on her arms and in her hair, as well as by the +attributes of her luxurious bed and the unceremoniousness with which she +allows the light to play on her naked body through the open portières +without making use of the cover lying near by, to be considered a +professional beauty, who is receiving with more than open arms some very +welcome and generous guest. When once freed from the not exactly +pleasing impression which the fidgety impatience produces on the none +too pretty face, we cannot but admire the play of light on the nude +body. Nothing is flattered in this painting, and that makes more +striking the indelible impression of the shimmering light in all the +depressions and curves of the not especially attractive figure. + +It would be much beyond the limits of the present sketch to mention even +by name the works of the first rank in the Rembrandt gallery. Suffice it +to state that there are among them a so-called Sobieski, the portrait of +the calligrapher Coppenol, almost breathing before one's eyes, the +"Parable of the Workmen in the Vineyard," "Abraham's Entertainment of +the Angels," a "Holy Family" of such loveliness as can scarcely be +accredited to the forceful realist, the "Workshop of Joseph," the +"Incredulity of St. Thomas," full of restless movement, a splendid +heroic "Pallas," portraits of men and women, all of them works of the +first rank, gems in the art of all time. To say anything of the master +himself is, thank Heaven, unnecessary. He has thus far escaped untouched +from the constant revolution of values, the propelling force of which is +usually unknown to its satellites. Of him alone can it be said, that +even an approximate conception of the range of his mastery is +impossible without familiarity with his paintings in the Hermitage. + +Rubens, too, is represented here in all his astonishing versatility. I +do not know what value is placed nowadays on this omniscience. Yet even +the termagant tongue of impotency must become dumb before this splendid +collection. Mythological and Biblical themes, portraits and landscapes, +are almost throughout of equal perfection and beauty. His exuberant +fancy is nowhere revealed to better advantage than in the fascinating +sketches in which the Hermitage is so rich. They must be termed +veritable orgies of the draughtsman and the colorist, and bear to a +certain extent the imprint of perennial genius and happy inspiration, +which the painting, often completed by his pupils, cannot quite show. +But where the master's own hand has worked it has given life to the +imperishable. If a prize were to be awarded to any one of the +forty-seven masterpieces it would surely belong to the portrait of +Helene Fourment, on which the artist worked with undivided love. The +roguish beauty is painted life-size. She is standing in a +flower-bedecked meadow, and in the background heavy clouds pass over the +landscape. But they serve only to bring out in greater relief the +delicate lace collar around the bare neck of the woman in a low-necked +gown. She has on her blond, curly head a black, soft, Rembrandt hat, +ornamented with feathers, and adorned with a violet-blue ribbon. Her +heavy, black satin dress with the airy white lace sleeves shows the +still youthful, slender figure in a swaying, graceful pose. The delicate +hands are crossed over the waist. The right is holding, fanlike and with +refined ease, a long, white heron's feather. The dress and ornaments, +the ear-rings and the bejewelled brooch and chain, are treated with such +care as was seldom shown by the busy master. The main charm of the +painting lies, however, in the roguish, spirited face with the large, +clever eyes and the smiling little mouth. The neck and bosom show, +however, that the name Helene is not inappropriate. + +Of the mythological pictures the "Drunken Silence," variations on which +in the Munich Pinakothek are well enough known to make a more detailed +description superfluous, is to my taste the most wonderful. But the St. +Petersburg original is, if possible, even richer in its coloring, and +the grotesque humor of the fine company is altogether irresistible. We +also find an excellent variation in "The Pert Lover's Happy Moments," +the brown shepherd attacking a young woman with the features of Helene +Fourment. The liberation of Andromeda by the victorious Perseus is a +work with all conceivable merits. The dead monster that had guarded the +brilliantly beautiful maid lies outstretched with gaping jaws; the +white-winged steed that had carried the victor is stamping the ground, +but easily held in check by a little cupid. The victor, still in his +glittering armor, with the gorgon shield in his left hand approaches +the fair maid and softly touches her. Another little cupid has removed +his helmet so that the emerging Fame may place the wreath on his locks. +But the youth sees only the glorious beauty at whose draperies three or +four little rogues are busily tugging to pull away from the white body +even the last vestige of covering. Of the splendid composition, "Venus +and Adonis," only the wonderful heads were drawn by the master; the rest +was done in his studio, but it is quite respectable. + +Of the religious works, the "Descent from the Cross" is akin to the +famous painting in the Dome of Antwerp. The large painting, "Christ +Visiting Simon the Pharisee," was completed with the aid of his pupils. +The figures of Christ and of Magdalene, who is drying the feet of the +Saviour with her hair, were drawn by the master himself. The head of the +penitent is particularly striking. It has something leonine in it, and +the fervor with which she seizes the foot and draws it to herself has +also something of the passion that may have led to her sin. + +Of Van Dyck, the cleverest and most prominent of Rubens's pupils, who +aspired to aristocratic refinement--perhaps only to free himself from +the overpowering influence of the robust genius of his teacher, perhaps +also because of his inherently more tenacious nature--the Hermitage +possesses the largest and most valuable collection. The "Holy Family" is +still influenced by Rubens, although it is somewhat softer. It is a +charming composition, full of peace and cheerfulness. Mary is sitting +under a shady tree holding the Christ-Child, who is standing on her lap +so that he may bend over to look at the dancing ring of little angels. +St. Joseph is comfortably seated in the background. The play of the +angels is unmistakably conceived after Rubens's festoon, and yet +possesses great beauty of its own. In its color effects the picture is +among the best. The artist is seen in complete self-dependence in the +numerous portraits of his English period as well as in the cabinet piece +of "The Snyder Family." The English impress us especially by the +expression of self-conscious gentility, aristocratic exclusiveness, +peculiar to themselves as well as to the master. We cannot escape the +charm of these somewhat decadent faces, just as we would enjoy equally a +Beethoven sonata and a Chopin nocturne. Without the exuberant +imagination and the universality of his teacher, Van Dyck possesses, +none the less, a personality of his own, shining with a light of its +own; he is one of the psychologists among the painters. + +Another psychologist, though not with delicate hands, but sturdy and +creative, with exuberant genius, is Franz Hals, who is represented here +by four strikingly lifelike portraits. Of him, too, nothing more need be +said, though one may add he is a splendid fellow. + +The Dutch miniature painters have here some dainty pieces. Of Van der +Helst's we see his renowned "Introduction of the Bride," a scene from +Dutch patrician life, with somewhat strongly exaggerated respectability +and affluence. The bridegroom's parents, themselves still young, are +seated on a garden terrace clad in their holiday attire, and with gloves +in their hands; the youngest son, stylishly dressed, with a parrot in +his hand, is looking with strained attention towards the bridal couple, +who are ceremoniously ascending the terrace; two greyhounds by the side +of the parents, a lap-dog by the bride's side, take part in the +performance; and loudest of all is the parrot, whom the master is +obliged to call to order by an indignant "Keep still!" Notwithstanding +its size (it has a width of more than three metres), the picture is +painted with a minuteness of detail, from the frills of the mother to +the rustling silk of the bride's dress and the thin foliage of the +poplars in the background of the garden, that would do honor to any +miniature painter. To be sure, our impressionist creed of the present +day does not allow the recognition of such painstaking elegance and +neatness in the execution of details. However, doctrines pass away, but, +thank Heaven, the pictures remain. + +The numerous domestic genre pictures, Terborch's famous "Glass of +Lemonade," Jan Steen's "Drunken Woman," held up to derision by her +husband, and the "Visits of the Physician," who is feeling the pulse of +a young woman, evidently embarrassed, while the doctor, with a +significant smile, is exchanging remarks with an old woman, by Metzu, +as well as certain physicians' examinations, by Gerhard Dou, that cannot +further be described, are all notable, not only for the execution of the +velvet and silk fabrics, of the glasses and the interiors, but even more +for the unfailing firmness of characterization in movement and +physiognomy. Certainly these are great painters, and their works are +true cabinet-pieces. Composition must always swing between painstaking +accuracy and bold impressionism. Yet nothing could be more foolish than +the contempt for miniaturists in a period of impressionism and the +contempt for impressionists in a period of painful detail. "In my +Father's house are many mansions." + +What shall we say of the works of Ostade, Teniers, Wouwerman, Pottes, +and Ruysdael? The Hermitage not only contains an inexhaustible abundance +of their productions, but includes their very best works. Potter has a +wolf-hound and dairy farm, an animal group of the highest plasticity, +and a quite modern transparency of atmosphere. Tenier has pieces that +show him to have been not only a grotesque humorist but also a great +landscape-painter; and of Ruysdael there are true pearls like the "Sand +Road" and the "Bay Lake." + +Rarities, valuable as such not alone to the art-lover, are the "Healing +of the Blind," by Lucas van Leyden, the "Maid under the Apple-Tree," by +Lucas Cranach, a triumphant Madonna, by Quentin Massys--faithful, +honest works which the pious masters laid with devotion on the golden +ground. No sensible person will deride them, for they are still governed +in their conceptions by the carefully obeyed rules of symmetry. In the +_attachement_ there is such depth of characterization, such affection +and warmth, that many a masterpiece must be placed much below them. For +enthusiasm of conception and conscientious execution are, after all, of +deciding moment in every unbiased judgment. But the technique belongs to +the time and not to the individual. + +The French of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries conclude the +group. The Germans have never succeeded in placing themselves in a true +relation to this art that is rhetorical and theatrical rather than +really poetical. Yet we shall never be wanting in respect to others, +especially to the masters Poussin and Claude Lorrain. The landscapes of +a heroic-mythological character that represent them in the Hermitage are +monuments of respectable ability. + +Of real charm, however, are the piquant genre masters Fragonard and +Watteau, who were held in such deep contempt in the virtuous years of +the Revolution, that no one dared to pay even fifty francs for their +frivolous paintings. They are represented by excellent pieces, as well +as the more serious master Greuze, whose "Death of an Old Man" would do +honor even to our good Knaus. Boucher and Lancret justly deserve our +attention. But Marguerite Gerard, the sister-in law of Fragonard, and +Jean B. Chardin, have quite inconspicuously realized a goodly portion of +the impressionist programme without devoting themselves merely to +problems of light and shade. The "Mother's Happiness" of the former does +full justice to the charming scene and easily solves a problem in +interiors. The same is true of Chardin's "Washerwomen." There is +positively nothing new under the sun. It is only the one or the other +side of the universal knowledge of the great masters acclaimed as an +entirely new discovery. Then follow actions and reactions, and thus the +so-called art history is formed, the rise and fall among a few high +peaks and nothing more. + +One day we found a whole row of rooms closed, just those that contained +our favorites of the Rembrandt gallery. What was the cause of it? +Preparations were being made for the Czar's dinner. A great court dinner +is given every Friday in the splendid halls of the Hermitage, and +suitable preparations are made on the previous day. Flowers are placed +everywhere, dishes and silver are brought and kept under special watch. +The Czar's table is placed in the large Italian hall; the courtier's +tables in the adjoining halls. The conservatories and prominent artists +have already petitioned for the abolition of this barbaric custom, for +the vapors from the viands do not in any wise contribute to the +preservation of the costly paintings. But how are exhortations of +warning to reach the Czar's ear? They are derided by the servile +courtiers, and held up to scorn as professional fancies of but little +significance when compared with the wish of princes to dine among the +finest works of art in the world. The consciousness that great works of +art are merely kept in trust by their passing owners, kept for their +true owner, progress-making humanity, has perhaps reached the better +class, but has not been awakened in the autocracy, where even the +conception of humanity has not yet been attained. They own pictures as +they own crown jewels, and consider themselves at liberty to treat them +as they please. But on such a matter the subject must remain silent; and +he does. It is the environment that influences princes, whether for good +or for evil. But the injury to a few paintings, however expensive, is +not the worst that rests on the conscience of the ring in the Czar's +court, just as the Hermitage is not the most objectionable feature of +St. Petersburg. When the Russian empire shall have overcome the phase of +barbarian mistrust for strangers and of oppressive police management, +when it shall have really opened its gates, the Hermitage will become a +true centre of attraction with few equals in the universe. Then will +become common property those wonder works that to-day are still beyond +the reach of common knowledge. In the Russia of to-day a treasury of +culture like the Hermitage is almost an anachronism. + + + + +IX + +THE CAMORRA--A TALK WITH A RUSSIAN PRINCE + + +Before I report here a significant conversation I had with a prince, the +friend and former confidant of the Czar, I would make an earnest appeal +to the public opinion of Europe, for which these lines are intended. I +have conversed with many men of the highest rank in Russia; I am +indebted to them for most valuable information about the land of +riddles, yet not a single interview was concluded without my informant +asking me to withhold his name. Only the prince whose views I report +here said to me, "If you need my name to prove the credibility of the +most incredible things I had to tell you, you may use it without +compunction. Possible suffering that may befall me because of this use +of my name is of no consideration where the enlightenment of Europe is +concerned." On mature deliberation I have preferred, however, not to +mention his name here. I thus renounce the weight of a name of European +repute and of unparalleled authority. Notwithstanding this, I still +consider it necessary to ask public opinion of Europe to watch with +redoubled care the fate of the few persons who have been my informants. +It would not be right for me to suppress this report, for I should thus +act in direct opposition to the wishes of the noble-minded prince. +Neither could I disguise him entirely, since there are, after all, but +few persons that could have made to me these disclosures on the +helplessness of even the eminent patriots. And so I must resort to an +appeal to the public opinion of Europe with proper caution. It can +protect the prince. For with all their wickedness the Russian rulers +still fear foreign public opinion. This and this alone has a certain +influence on the Czar. Let it be exerted in behalf of a man of the +greatest heroism, who makes appeal to it out of pure patriotism. + +"Does your highness think," I asked, in the interview I am about to +report here, "that the discontent everywhere noticeable in all classes +of society is real and of political significance?" + +"We must make distinctions," answered the prince; "of its reality there +is no doubt. But if you ask whether I consider it politically fruitful, +in the same sense that we may gain through this discontent some +necessary change in the present régime, I must answer, unfortunately, +no." + +"Is this, then, only the chronic discontent present in western Europe as +well as in Russia, or is it now acute?" + +"It is acute. As you have justly observed, the West has its discontented +element also; yet your Western discontent with all work of man may best +be compared with that frame of mind prevalent in our country, even under +a régime that is normal and well-intentioned, lacking only efficiency. +The restlessness that you, as a stranger, have noted here is quite +abnormal, and is due to the decided wickedness, not to say infamy, of +the existing system." + +"Then it is stronger than usual?" + +"Incomparably stronger. No entertainment however harmless, no scientific +congress, no meeting of any corporation can take place that will not end +in a political demonstration. All the prisons are filled with most +worthy people, deportations and banishments increase, yet other men and +women press onward to martyrdom." + +"I admire this spirit of sacrifice in your intelligent classes." + +"That is the difference between to-day and a few years ago. Ten years +ago our public opinion was weakened, resigned, crushed by the heavy hand +of Alexander III. and the serpent wiles of Pobydonostzev. With the +accession to the throne of the present Czar new hopes were awakened; but +now, thanks to the executioners Sipyagin and Plehve, disappointment and +exasperation have grown to such a vast extent that expression of them +can no longer be repressed, and thousands risk life and liberty unable +longer to bear this condition of grinding inward revolt." + +"I witnessed the funeral of Mikhailovski. I must say that my ear +detected revolutionary tones, and such a procession of five or six +thousand men and women from among the highest classes, surrounded by +Cossacks, among a listening police, singing songs, making fiery, +freedom-breathing speeches, impressed me of all things as a foreboding +of revolution. + +"Arrests in plenty were made among the participants in the funeral +celebration. But do not deceive yourself. There is no revolution with +us. Our country is too thinly populated. Let us say that ten, fifty, or +one hundred thousand inspired intellectuals would willingly sacrifice +themselves if they could help us thereby; how many Cossacks and +gendarmes would there be for each revolutionist, when we are spending +millions to maintain an army against the nation? There is only one +revolution that can be really dangerous, and I will not assert that such +a revolution could not break out if the present war should end +disastrously. That would be a peasant revolution, directed, not against +the régime itself, but against all property-owning and educated persons; +it would begin by all of us being killed and thrown into the river. And +the odds would be a hundred to one then that the police would not be +actively against this revolution, but secretly would be for it, in order +to rid themselves quickly and surely of their real antagonist, the +educated classes. A Kishinef may be arranged here at any day, not only +against the Jews, but against every one with whom the police wish to get +even." + +"Then your highness believes that the Kishinef massacres were arranged +by the police?" + +"This is not a mere belief; it is a proved fact. Their real authors, +Krushevan and Pronin, are the special protégés of Plehve; and Baron +Levendahl received a direct order from the higher authorities to refrain +from any intervention." + +"And what was the purpose of it?" + +"To intimidate the Jews, who, by their temperament, bring a little more +life to the radical parties, and to create the impression in the higher +circles that there is discontent in the country, not against the +government, but against the usurious Jews." + +"And is not that true?" + +"Usury with us is carried on by good, orthodox Christians much more +successfully than by the Jews, who are comparatively few in number, and, +besides, do not enjoy the protection of the authorities. No; the mob +massacres the Jews because in the name of the Czar they are proclaimed +outlaws. It is a kind of annual picnic. The Kishinef massacres are +condemned by the whole country, not only by the philo-Semites--to whom, +by-the-way, I do not belong. It has showed to all of us what may be done +in our land when an assumed purpose requires it. And for this reason the +entire public opinion takes sides with the Jews, who were merely +intended to serve as scapegoats for the educated and the discontented." + +"But in what respect is the present régime so essentially different from +the preceding ones that such a fermentation could arise? Surely the +people have not been spoiled by anything better?" + +"Now it is worse than ever before. There is perhaps an explanation for +this. Czar Nicholas is inspired by the best of motives. He is the first +of the malcontents. He would give his heart's blood to help his people. +The clique knows that, and is, therefore, risking everything on one +card, to prevent the Czar from drawing nearer to the people or creating +institutions that would put an end to bureaucratic omnipotence. The +terrors of revolution are painted on the wall, and the daily arrests are +intended to prove that it is only the mailed fist of the present +government that can curb a popular uprising." + +"I know from sources near the Czar's family that the Czar is again +finding threatening letters in his coat-pockets, under his pillow, and +elsewhere." + +"This is an old police trick. It was used to frighten Alexander III., +and it almost drove him insane. Naturally, it is only the police that +can carry out such devices, for others could not reach the Czar's room. +But Plehve retains his ascendency through the illusion that his +dismissal would mean the way to the scaffold for the Czar's family." + +"Has the Czar really anything to fear should the police relax its +vigilance?" + +"Heaven forbid! The Czar is a sort of deity to the people, and the +educated classes know only too well that no man is less responsible for +existing conditions than he, in whose name these conditions are +inflicted upon us. But the Czar is made to believe that every attempt to +free public opinion from its fetters would lead to popular +representation, to a constitution, and finally to the scaffold." + +"And all that is done by Plehve?" + +"By him alone. His predecessor, Sipyagin, was an honest, narrow +reactionary, who regarded the state as the private property of the +dynasty, something like a great estate with property in souls as well as +in inanimate things. The nation has no more right to complain against +the impositions of the master than the cattle on the estate to complain +about the methods of feeding. Plehve is of an entirely different +caliber. A political cheat, an intriguer, an unscrupulous cynic, the +playing on the key-board of power tickles his blunted nerves. He has as +much conscience, sympathy, and humanity as my tiger here. His talent +consists of cunning and the art of dealing with men. There is no one +with whom he has exchanged three words that he has not lied to. His +patriotic overzeal, however, as a non-Russian--he naturally overdoes his +patriotism--commends him to the 'camarilla,' and so he becomes +omnipotent." + +"You say that Plehve is not Russian?" + +"He is partly Lettish, partly Polish, partly Jewish. Men like this are +always the worst here; they must see that their non-Russian names are +forgotten." + +"And what do you mean by 'camarilla'?" + +"The servile courtiers, the high officials, but above all, the entire +system. Do not forget that we are being ruled by a Camorra of +bureaucrats, that have no interest at all in the real welfare of the +country, but have their primary interest in the uncurtailed maintenance +of their power. If the Czar wished to hear, to-day, the truth about the +condition and sentiments of the country, he would never succeed, because +they do not expose one another in the Camorra; for there is only one +god--the career with all its chances of legitimate and illegitimate +gain." + +"Your highness, I must allow myself an indiscreet question. It is said +that you are a friend of the Czar. You are surely not the only one. You +must have colleagues among the nobility, statesmen, and patriots who +cannot be prevented from being heard by the Emperor. Are you not in a +position to break through the iron ring of the bureaucrats, and to tell +the Czar the truth about the men who possess his confidence?" + +"I appreciate your question. But what could single individuals do +against the abuses of centuries? Something is being done in the +direction indicated by you. The Czar receives, often enough, honest and +unreserved statements. But a lasting effect from such occasional +impulses is out of the question. Moreover, one must know the spirit of +the antechamber, the slanders and suspicions, the burden of routine. It +would require the power of a Hercules to escape from the net of these +forces, and the Czar is of a timid, modest, kindly nature. And how +quickly is every suggestion or initiative paralyzed! And what influences +cross one another at such a court! Who is strong enough to oppose a +grand vizier who works with unscrupulous falsification, and weaves about +the sovereign an impenetrable fabric of false dangers by means of +documentary calumnies and misstatements?" + +"And so your highness can see no deliverance?" + +"Only when God in heaven shall decree it, not otherwise. We live between +the anarchists in office and the anarchists with dagger and revolver. +These are only active forces, the latter as the logical sequence of the +former, and more than once their tools as well. All else is inactive, +limited to dissipating demonstration. The fountain of public opinion is +not tolerated; the organization of a progressive party is prevented; the +system anxiously guards the people from any contact with the educated +classes. There is no room for sentimentality in repelling every attempt +to render the Camorra harmless. An unguarded word, a simple +denunciation, are sufficient to send honorable and respected men where +they lose all desire for criticism. Whence, then, can help come? And we +need it, for the war places before us entirely new problems, that may be +solved only by unshackling intelligence. But now our bankruptcy will +become evident to all the world." + +"And Witte! Has he no longer any influence?" + +"None whatever. He is not a convenient and acceptable minister, for he +has a statesman's ambition and political ideas. He could, perhaps, +inaugurate a new system, but this is not allowed. In this country there +rules only the ministry of the interior--that is, the secret police; the +other departments are merely figure-heads." + +"And a constitution would change nothing of this?" + +"The Liberals and Radicals believe so, but I do not. I am of a different +opinion. 'Men and not measures,' is my motto, especially in an +autocracy. You know my views on the war. I am convinced that our brave +army will win. That will only mean a greater strengthening of the +system, till the complete financial and economic, social and moral +collapse, or till the first collision with a real power like the United +States of America. I see no relief and no salvation, especially since +foreign public opinion also forsakes us. We are fawned upon for +political or commercial reasons. Tell them abroad that we deserve +something better than this contemptible, statesman-like reserve and +these affected expressions of respect before a régime that we ourselves +denounce without exception. We deserve honest sympathy, for no other +nation has yet been made to struggle for its civilization against so +pitiless an adversary. Europe must further distinguish between the +Russian nation and this adversary. Russian society is full of noble +impulses; it is generous, warm-hearted, capable of inspiration, and free +from odious prejudices. Our common oppressor, the danger to the world's +peace as well as the author of this unhappy war, I repeat it again, is +the Camorra of the officials, a thoroughly anarchistic class. I do not +know, I must admit, when and how our release will come. I fear that we +shall, ere that, pass through sad trials, and even more terrible misery +of our flayed and hunger-enfeebled people, before Heaven shall take pity +on us." + +I left the noble-minded prince with feelings that are usually awakened +in us only by tragedy. + + + + +X + +SÄNGER'S FALL + + +The sudden dismissal of the minister of public instruction, the former +university professor Sänger, led me to discuss it more exhaustively with +several high dignitaries who willingly gave me information during my +sojourn in St. Petersburg. I had the opportunity of conversing with +persons exceptionally well-informed, but, for reasons easily +conceivable, I am not permitted to mention their names. I report here, +from my notes, an interview with a person standing near to the retired +minister, and still in active government service, because it seems +interesting to me even now. + +"In the first place," said my informant, "you must not believe that +Sänger was dismissed. He himself insisted that his resignation, +repeatedly offered, be finally accepted. Scarcely two days ago the Czar +asked a general, highly esteemed by him, who came here from Warsaw, +where Sänger had formerly acted as curator of the university, as to his +opinion of Sänger, and the general answered that he considered Sänger a +very honest and learned man. 'I have just that opinion of him myself,' +said the Czar, complainingly, 'but he positively would not remain.'" + +"Why does your excellency believe that Sänger had become so tired of his +position?" + +"There are permanent and special reasons. The permanent ones are harder +to explain than the special ones. I therefore begin with the more +difficult. A minister of public instruction--'lucus a non lucendo'--has +here a very difficult post when he is an honest man and really desires +to live up to his duties. For what he is really asked to do is, that he +do _not_ enlighten the people, that he do _nothing_ for education, that +he merely pretend activity. We need no education; we need obedience. +That, of course, is not said to the Czar, who really believes that he is +being served honestly. But in the end it amounts to this, that only one +man rules here, the minister of the interior and chief of the secret +police, and that all the other ministers must dance to his music. I make +exception here, to a certain extent, of the ministers of war and of +finance. But if in any case there be a possibility of conflict between +any other department and the omnipotent police ministry, that other +department must subordinate itself to the rule of the latter. For von +Plehve stands guard over the security of the empire. You understand that +all other considerations are silenced here. The third division (the +secret police) and the Holy Synod are the pillars of our empire. Of what +importance is here an inoffensive minister of instruction, or culture, +as he is called in your country?" + +"I should be obliged to your excellency for concrete examples." + +"Here they are. There was, for instance, General Wannowski, a really +competent and influential man. While he was at the head of the +department of instruction he could not be so easily turned down at the +court as our ordinary university professor. Wannowski even effected some +reforms in our universities, but finally he, too, found it desirable to +retire from the field. Do you think it possible for a minister to remain +in office when a regulation prepared by him, approved by the Czar, and +made public, must next day be withdrawn because the minister of the +interior states in a special report that this regulation is in +opposition to the general government policy and is a danger to the +security of the country?" + +"And has that occurred?" + +"Something of that kind was a secondary cause also of Sänger's +resignation. As former curator of the University of Warsaw, he knew +Poland well. With the Czar's approval, he framed a regulation for +instruction in Poland that was pedagogically wise and politically +conciliating. Instantly Plehve made objection--for a relief of the +tension everywhere prevailing does not suit his system--and secured the +withdrawal of the regulation." + +"But could not Sänger defend his measures?" + +"His position was already weakened. Above all, his enemies succeeded in +placing him under suspicion as guilty of philo-Semitism. You know, or +perhaps do not know, that it is also a part of the system here to keep +the Jews--particularly the Jews--from higher education; and this higher +education in itself runs contrary to the desire of the dictator-general +of the Holy Synod and to that of the police. A minister of public +instruction, particularly when he hails from the learned professions, +may easily commit the error of making science readily accessible to all +properly qualified. Sänger granted some alleviation to the Jews, so that +the most gifted among them, especially when their academy professor had +already taken a warm interest in them, could enter the university +without great difficulty. He was reproached with that, and that would +have been sufficient to weaken the position of a stronger man." + +"I am not familiar with the disabilities of Jewish students." + +"A detailed description of these disabilities would carry you too far +afield. Suffice it to state that we possess a very complicated system, +particularly developed in Moscow, for the exclusion of Jewish children +from the schools. The ratio of three to one hundred must, however, be +conveniently tolerated. Now it happens quite frequently that, no matter +how strict the director at admission, on promotion from the lower to the +higher class this relation is shifted in favor of the Jews, because of +their diligence and sobriety in contrast to the characteristics of the +sons of the Russian officials. Then the trouble begins anew. Splendidly +qualified candidates cannot enter the university, since the prescribed +percentage has already been reached. The professors, however, who are +not pronounced anti-Semites really like these Jewish students who have +survived this process of selection, for they are really studious. But +that again is opposed to the principles of the accepted policy. And +whoever is inclined to take sides with the professors rather than with +the bulwarks of this general policy may easily find himself in the +toils, as it happened, for instance, in Sänger's case." + +"Who are these bulwarks of this general policy?" An involuntary glance +towards the door, as if to see whether some uninvited listener was not +accidentally near--a glance I have frequently seen only in Russia--was +the first answer. Then, even in lower tones than before, he proceeded. + +"That is still a portion of the legacy of Alexander III., rigidly +guarded by the dowager-empress, and particularly by the Grand-Duke +Sergius in Moscow. When in the Russo-Turkish war enormous peculations of +the military stores were discovered, the heir to the throne, then +commander of a corps in the reserve, was persuaded that the Jewish +contractors had defrauded the army, and the officer of the secret +police, Zhikharev, exerted himself to prove that two-thirds of all the +revolutionaries were Jews. That belief remained, just as a great portion +of the French still cling to the belief that Dreyfus is a traitor +because he is used as a scapegoat for the information-mongers of high +rank on the general staff. Something similar happened here. I really +have no desire to defend any Jewish contractor; but when there was in +our stores lime-dust instead of flour in the sacks, quite other people +than the Jews pocketed the difference. However, that is another story. +Grand-Duke Sergius, of Moscow, has among his other passions bigotry and +a fanatical hatred of Jews. And he is the uncle and brother-in-law of +the Czar." + +"Then Sänger found himself in a rather dubious position mainly as a +philo-Semite?" + +"At least as a man of not sufficiently pronounced anti-Semitism. But +also because he was not really the man to hold his own with the generals +and talents of the career-maker von Plehve. Finally, he was blamed for +adverse criticism of the general principles of the government expressed +at various conventions." + +"At what conventions?" + +"There was lately a convention of public-school teachers that presumed +to criticise by speaking the truth about an intimate of Plehve's, +Pronin, of Kishinef. I must emphasize here, by-the-way, that there was +only an insignificant minority of Jews at that convention. Then there +was a medical congress whose hygienic resolutions hid under a very thin +hygienic disguise an arraignment of the system of stupefying the +populace. The Lord knows Sänger had surely no premonition of these +occurrences. But they concerned his department; the spirit of his staff +was not right, and he alone was to blame for it, especially since von +Plehve knew very well what Sänger thought of him." + +"Always Plehve, and only Plehve!" + +"He is our little Metternich. A representative man, to quote Emerson. +The régime cannot be discussed without the mention of his name. Here is +another little sample of Plehve. There is a Professor Kuzmin-Karavayev +at the academy of military and international law. He was elected member +of the St. Petersburg city council, and is a member of the zemstvo of +Tver, a highly respected, upright man, interested in popular education. +But now he has been forbidden any public activity by the following +letter of von Plehve. Plehve wrote to Kuropatkin, the minister of war: +'By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Emperor on January 8, +1904, I would simply dismiss Professor Kuzmin-Karavayev as politically +inconvenient. But since he is in the government service I ask you to +insist that the aforesaid professor renounce all public activity.' This +is literally true. You see how the omnipotent Plehve treats even a +favorite like Kuropatkin, to say nothing of a timid, good professor like +our Sänger! You may rest assured that, with all his upright views, we +lost little in his resignation; he was without influence and too weak." + +"And who will succeed him?" + +"That is quite immaterial. Major-General Shilder, superintendent of the +cadet corps, has already been offered the position, but he declined it. +As long as Plehve's spirit and that of his minions is sweeping over the +waters nothing will happen save what favors the suppression of public +enlightenment and the prevention of revolution. The name is but an empty +sound." + +"Your excellency, should I commit an indiscretion by publishing our +conversation just as it took place?" + +"With the necessary precaution of leaving out my name, for I naturally +have no inclination to attract the especial anger of our +dictator-general. For the rest, I do not believe I have told you +anything that could not be said in almost the same words by any one at +all familiar with conditions as they are." + +"That, your excellency, I must confirm. One of the greatest riddles for +me is the formation of a public opinion in St. Petersburg, where the +papers dare not even hint of what is spoken in the circles of the +intelligent classes." + +"Russia also has its constitution," said he, rising, and smiling +significantly. "That constitution consists of the dissensions among the +ministers. And when among ourselves, a certain discretion assumed, we +do not stand on ceremony. Here you have the sources of public +opinion"--again the significant smile--"you will perhaps understand why +no minister fares well." + +"Hence also Plehve?" + +(A motion of despairing defence.) "He? No! speaking seriously. It is the +curse of our country. May the Lord save us!" + + + + +XI + +THE PEOPLE'S PALACE OF ST. PETERSBURG (NARODNI DOM) + + +In Potemkin's fatherland the art of government consists principally in +hiding the truth not only from the people, but also from the Czar, who +must be made to believe that he really strives for the welfare of the +people, and not only for that of the all-powerful bureaucracy. +Potemkin's art, as is well known, consisted in deceitfully showing to +his beloved Empress, in a long journey, prosperous peasant farms, where +in reality wretchedness and misery had established their permanent home. +What the all-powerful favorite had accomplished by means of pasteboard +and bushes, costs the modern Potemkins somewhat more comfort; but like +their predecessor, they are in a position to supply it from the richly +filled imperial treasury. The "Narodni Dom," the people's institute on +the St. Petersburg fortress, is utilized to persuade the philanthropic +Nicholas that in his paternally governed empire more ample provision is +made for the common people and their welfare than in the heartless, +civilized Western countries. + +To the eye of a well-meaning ruler or of a well-disposed globe-trotter +this is really a pleasant sight. Framed in alleys of tall trees, there +rises in the park a far-stretching stone structure, of St. Petersburg +dimensions, surmounted by a great cupola. On the payment of ten kopeks +at the entrance we walk into the well-heated central portion under the +dome, brightly illuminated by arc-lamps. Furs and overshoes are removed. +And now an exclamation of admiration escapes our lips. A well-dressed +crowd strolls naturally, without crowding and elbowing, towards a +platform rising at the farther end, on which, to judge at a distance, +Neapolitan folk-singers are performing. We join the procession, and when +scarcely in the middle of the immense hall supported by iron girders, +there resound behind us thundering notes that cause us to look upward. +An orchestra stationed on a one-story-high cross-gallery has begun a +Russian popular song. The singers before us stop for a while. The crowd +moves forward. A negro dandy with high, white standing collar and +patent-leather boots, proudly leads by the arm a voluptuous blonde of +the Orpheum type. He grimly shows his teeth and fists to the scoffers +who make fun of the unequal pair; but this does not end in a race +conflict, for it is not yet certain whether a negro boy is more in +sympathy with the Japanese or the Russians. We finally reach the +interesting side of the hall, and there opens before us a still more +enchanting picture. Behind long buffet-tables, kept scrupulously clean, +and laden with all the delicacies of Russian cookery, from caviar +sandwiches to the splendid mayonnaise of salmon, there bustle neat +waitresses in white caps and broad, white aprons. The prices are +maintained low throughout. The same is true of the warm dishes, the +preparation of which we could watch in the large, open kitchen. +Spirituous liquors are not sold, but in their place kvass, and tea from +the immense copper samovar blinking in the kitchen. The glasses are +continually washed by sparkling water on an automatically turning high +stand. The bright nickel, the reddish shimmer of the copper, the bluish +white tiles of the floor and walls, the snow-white garments of the +cooks, the white light of the arc-lamps could induce a Dutchman to +produce a very effective painting of neatness. We allow ourselves to be +crowded forward, and after a fruitful pilgrimage, pass the folk-singers, +where a part of the crowd is gathered, back towards the central hall, +which we now observe at our leisure. We are struck here, in the first +place, by the colossal portraits of the Emperor and Empress. They are +the hosts here; for the millions for the imposing structure came from +the Emperor's private purse. Then there is an immense map of the Russian +empire for stimulating patriotic sentiments. But there await us still +other pleasures. The entire left wing of the building is occupied by an +enormous popular theatre. To-night Tschaikowski's "Maid of Orleans" is +being played. We purchase tickets at the popular price of one ruble per +seat, whereby we secure a place at about the middle of the extensive +parterre, and are enabled to look over the public in front and at back +of us; and this is not less interesting than the play on the stage. The +seats in the rows ahead of us cost up to two rubles; in the rows at the +back of us up to sixty kopeks. On either side are galleries and standing +room that cost "only" from thirty to seventy kopeks. In comparison with +the prices in the other St. Petersburg theatres those of the "Narodni +Dom" must be considered decidedly popular, even though it is a peculiar +class of people that can spare thirty kopeks to two rubles for an +evening at the theatre, quite aside from the incidental expenses of an +evening drive, of admission, and of wardrobe. But of that later. + +We follow the play. The performance is decidedly respectable, from the +leader to the chorus. The setting is quite brilliant, and true to style, +the orchestra well trained, with some very excellent performers among +the soloists. We forget, for the time being, that we are in Russia, +notwithstanding the Russian language and the Russian music. It is +Schiller's heroic composition which has inspired the composer. Dunoi's +Lahire, Lionel, Raymond, Bertram, Agnes Sorel, Charles, the cardinal +appear before us in familiar scenes, and we experience at times quite +peculiar sensations when we again come across this northern night, the +images, the glowing rhetoric of which in the dear tongue of our own poet +had given us the first intoxication of patriotic enthusiasm. The +passionately warm music of Tschaikowski, and the swing of his choruses +intensify the effect of those reminiscences. + +But let us return to Russian reality. A thin, black-bearded young man +paces busily through the rows during one of the entr'actes. He exchanges +remarks here and there with the officers and officials, whom he leaves +with a smile. And in the second entr'acte it becomes evident what +preparations had been made here. War had just been declared; the +password had just been given out to arouse patriotic enthusiasm, or, at +least, to make the attempt. Already in one or another of the theatres +the public had thunderingly called for the national hymn. What is proper +in the Imperial Theatre must be acceptable in the popular theatre. The +curtain had fallen after the second act, when suddenly, from one of the +boxlike recesses on the left gallery was heard the call "Hymn! Hymn!" +Everybody looked curiously up. There were there a few uniformed young +men, as we found later, student-members of that patriotic secret +association organized under the patronage of the reactionaries--a stroke +of Suvorin--to watch the progressive students. The orchestra replied to +the call with remarkable alacrity, and the public rose dutifully smiling +and stood to the beautiful hymn. But new shouts were heard. The choir +must join in. The curtain rose obediently, and the entire cast of "The +Maid of Orleans," Charles, Agnes, Jean d'Arc, and Lionel, Burgundy and +England; the people and knights were already properly grouped and joined +in the hymn with the orchestra accompaniment. The public again arose +politely and listened standing. The demonstration was not yet at an end. +It was reported that the hymn was sung three times in the other +theatres, hence that should occur also here. And the public patiently +rises for the third time, and lets the song float over it. The thin, +black-bearded young man, however, rubs his hands with which he joined in +the applause but shortly before, throws a significant glance to his +neighbors, and hastens out. I do not know to this day whether he was an +entrepreneur of the public resort, or a penny-a-liner who had arranged +an interesting piece of local news. + +Thus I came to see the birth of one of those patriotic demonstrations of +which the papers were full in the following days. The impression was +anything but striking. The fine hand of the police could be detected in +the arrangement as well as in the audience. It was a forced +demonstration that no one could avoid. I remember from my boyhood the +explosive enthusiasm after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, and +the evening after the battle of Sedan. In man's estate I was a +non-participating observer of patriotic demonstrations in Hungary; my +heart beat fast at home as well as in Hungary under the stress of +sympathy. That was a real storm of feeling. Here--wet straw that would +not burn. Worse. An obedient participation--woe to him who did not +participate! and then a sarcastic wink felt as a compensation for the +coercion just experienced. + +The difference was never clearer to me between free citizens and Russian +subjects, between national sentiment and obedience, as at these +patriotic demonstrations under police supervision and inspiration. + +And now I looked at the public more carefully. Where was the "people" +among the thousands sitting in the theatre, or eddying up and down the +colossal halls? not one hundred, not fifty men or women in the dress of +the common people. All of it what is known in St. Petersburg as the +"gray public," officials, business-men, the class with an income of two +or three thousand rubles. I saw high-school instructors, students with +their girls, modistes, the good, small bourgeois, that often stand +morally and mentally high above the fashionable world; but the people, +in our sense of the term, the workingman, the peasant, for whom the +popular house was really built, in whose name the Czar was made to +contribute, and to whom the building is dedicated, these were absent, +and had to be absent, because they do not possess the schooling that +would enable them at all to enjoy the offerings of the "Narodni Dom." +The court may be persuaded that with such an institution they are +marching in the vanguard of civilization, and that something of the +future state has been realized with an institution that even the +republics of the West do not possess; but the Russian patriots who are +indeed living for their nation, and who would free it from the fetters +of ignorance and superstition, only shake their heads sadly at this +Potemkinism. Sand for the eyes of the philanthropic Czar, another winter +resort for the St. Petersburg middle class; for the people neither +"panem" nor "circenses," but for the paid eulogists a theme at which +enthusiasm may be kindled--that is the "Narodni Dom," the pride of St. +Petersburg. In Zurich, in Frankfort, in any place with real popular +education, this "Narodni Dom" would be an ideal people's house, adapted +to inspire sentiment of citizenship and patriotism, and to elevate the +general culture level. In St. Petersburg it only shows the good +intentions of the Czar and his consort, and the fundamental corruption +of the régime. A sober, enlightened, culture-loving people would not +submit to the autocracy of bureaucratic dictation shown above. It makes +ideal "people's houses," but takes care that as far as possible, this +house be kept free from the people. + + + + +XII + +RUSSIA'S FINANCIAL FUTURE + + +I had a long and exhaustive conversation about the material welfare of +the Russian people with a statesman to whose identity I am not at +liberty to furnish even the slightest clew, if I am faithfully to carry +out my promise to guard against his recognition as my informant. They +were several hours of searching criticism, such as I had never listened +to, from a man who through long years had himself been active in a +prominent position, an outpouring quite permeated by the most hopeless +pessimism, and stated with a passion that contrasted oddly with the gray +hair and deeply furrowed face of the speaker. My references to him were +of such a nature that he felt it safe to allow himself the most +uncompromising plainness of statement. But I carried away the impression +that it would be sufficient to give the Russian statesmen the +possibility to speak freely, and there would be left no stone unturned +in that wicked structure that is called "the Russian government," so +great is already the accumulation of bitter anger even among those of +whom it would be supposed that they are the real leaders of the state. +The autocracy cannot even utilize the forces that are at its disposal. + +"Yes, fate is cruelly upsetting all our calculations with this war," +said the statesman, in answer to my question as to the probable effect +of the war on the Russian economy. "No one even suspects what +catastrophe we are facing, thanks to the policy that is just now +celebrating its greatest triumph." + +"Is not that a paradox, your excellency?" + +"No, not at all. The triumph of our policy is the money reserve at our +disposal, which enables us to mobilize without borrowing. But only +nearsightedness can find therein additional justification of this +economic policy, which, on the contrary, receives with its triumph also +its death-blow." + +"May I have a fuller explanation?" + +"It may be easily given. Financial and fiscal considerations have +destroyed our economy. You are surprised at this statement. But one must +understand this system. The creation of a gold-reserve, the formation of +a fiscal balance even at the expense of the internal forces of the +nation, are, under certain conditions a necessity. For a backward +agrarian state it is necessary, before all else, to join the more +advanced countries in fiscal economy and guaranteed values, and if that +requires sacrifices, it pays, in the end, in the greater credit +facilities, I might say by the greater financial defense of the state." + +"And your excellency believes that the internal development of the +nation was thereby neglected, just as an athlete develops the muscles of +his limbs at the expense of his heart muscles?" + +"Certainly; I accept the analogy. We have increased our fighting +efficiency, and have paid for it by internal weakening. I repeat that +there was no other way, if we ever were to pass from the natural to the +money system. This would be the right time to employ the credit thus +secured for internal strengthening. But the war has upset our +calculations and not only has it consumed our cash reserves, but will +also compel us to make new sacrifices. We are in the position of a man +who is still out of breath from running, but must begin running anew in +order to save his life, and may only too easily get a stroke of +apoplexy." + +"Has not the industrial development in the western part of the country +strengthened the national finances?" + +"No; on the contrary, it has involved sacrifices. And we cannot expect +salvation from these either. We have a yearly increase of two million +souls, and our entire industry does not employ more than two million +workmen. Our national existence must still depend for a long time on our +agriculture, and this, so far from advancing, is becoming poorer from +year to year." + +"On account of the industrial policy?" + +"No; but you should not forget that this industrial policy has by no +means mastered the system. Nay, had the spirit whence our industrial +policy originated been the ruling spirit, our agriculture would also +have been in a better position; for that is the spirit of enlightenment. +But now the strength of the soil is decreasing; and the peasant has no +manure, nor is he acquainted with any system of cropping under changed +conditions of fertility." + +"And why is nothing done for the uplifting of his economic insight?" + +"You must ask that of the gentlemen of the almighty police and not of +me. I am of the humble opinion that hunger is beneficial neither to the +soul nor to the body; but in that department where there is more power +than in ours, it is believed that knowledge is under all conditions +injurious to the soul. Also, that too many people should not come +together and take counsel of one another; in the opinion of our +government, no good can come of it. We had appointed commissions for the +uplifting of the peasantry, for road-construction, for the regulation of +questions of credit; but always the results were only conflicts between +the provincial corporations, the zemstvos, and the government." + +"What was the cause of these conflicts?" + +"The tradition and the guiding principle of the present system, which I +can only designate as the principle of gagging. An administration that +does not oppress the peasantry is not yet to be thought of. Our peasant +needs nothing so much as travelling agricultural teachers. But what +would be the end of such teaching? To Siberia direct. Fear of the +intelligent classes has already become a mania. Intelligence, if it +pleases you, is revolution; only no contact with Liberal elements. The +salvation of our people lies in its isolation." + +"But that is the régime of a conquered country! Are not the rulers +themselves Russians? How can they be so cruel to their own flesh?" + +"The police official is no Russian. He is quite free from national +sentiment; he is only an oppressor, a detective. Our ministry of the +interior is merely a great detective bureau, a monstrous and costly +surveillance institution. When the notorious 'third division' was +abolished and subordinated to the ministry of the interior it was +considered a step in advance. But it was not the ministry of the +interior that absorbed the 'third division,' but the reverse. We no +longer have administration, but only surveillance, arrest, deportation. +Shall I tell you? Our commission worked honestly. It consisted of +noblemen, high-minded patriots, who took part in working out a project +for the improvement of economic conditions. Only three hundred copies of +the report were printed; it was not meant for general circulation. But +the result of the labors undertaken at our instance was the arrest of +the outspoken, upright critics. Do you consider that an encouragement +for patriotic endeavor? Our merchants and our zemstvos have opened, in +the last six years, one hundred and thirty-six schools without one kopek +of state aid, and with a yearly expenditure of four million rubles. The +instinct for what is necessary is therefore present. Our society should +only be let alone and we also might go through the same development, +perhaps in a slower measure, which Germany has passed through with such +momentous success in the last thirty years--from an agricultural state +dependent on the weather to a mighty industrial country. But Germany is +a constitutional state and we are a police state. Germany has a middle +class; we have none, and the formation of such a class is prevented by +every possible means. The commercial schools are subjected to annoying +conditions because they are under the jurisdiction of the ministry of +finance, where, naturally, a different spirit prevails. The commercial +guilds are making enormous material sacrifices, spending annually, +besides the four millions for maintenance, five additional millions on +buildings, only to retain their autonomy, to keep in their own hands the +staffs of instruction and inspection, and to possess a greater +elasticity of adaptation to local conditions. This sacrifice is +overlooked, and the slightest exhibition of free initiative is jealously +suppressed." + +"Your excellency, I find that one cannot discuss the least question of +pedagogy or economics in Russia without touching high politics." + +"Very true. You may see from that to what a pass we have come. We have +been going backward uninterruptedly for the last twenty years. The +nobility is losing its estates because it has not learned to manage +them, and has not recovered to this very day from the abolition of +serfdom. But the land does not fall into the hands of the peasants, who +need it, but into those of the merchants. The agricultural proletariat +remains unprovided for. The peasant cannot raise the taxes. The soil +here gives fourfold returns; in Germany eightfold returns. It pays at +the same time, this side of the Dnieper, ten to fifteen per cent. +annually for tenure; in England two to three per cent.; in France and +Germany four to five per cent.; and on the other side of the Dnieper, +where long tenures are in vogue, five to six per cent. Remember that +this is a yearly tenure. It is a premium on soil robbery. Sixty rubles +for the tenure of one desyatin. The peasant cannot raise that amount, +and yet he is compelled at the same time to pay taxes. Year after year +hunger visits entire governments, for the peasants are utterly +impoverished and have not even seed. With an empty stomach and a dark +mind the peasant must bear family, communal, and government burdens." + +"I read something similar two years ago in a book by an Englishman." + +"You mean _The Russian Conditions_, by Lanin, from the _Fortnightly +Review_." + +"Quite right, your excellency. But I considered the description +overdrawn. Moreover, I cannot conceive how abuses could be so clearly +painted as in that book, the statements of which your excellency now +confirms, without any prospects of redress." + +"Who is to give redress?" + +"The Czar." + +"The Czar is living behind a Wall of China. He has never visited a +'duma' (city council), never a zemstvo (district council), never a +village, never an industrial centre. He is kept by the camarilla in +constant dread, and is so closely watched that he sees not a +finger's-breadth of heaven, much less of earth. He rejoices when an +occasional quarrel breaks out among the ministers, for he then has the +opportunity to learn here and there a fragment of truth." + +"And does no one succeed in representing to him conditions as they are?" + +"I will make a confession to you. Not very long ago I myself prepared a +paper, not bearing my name--that would have offered certain +difficulties--but anonymous, and had it transmitted to the Czar by a +trustworthy person. For eight days there was great joy at the court. The +Emperor and the Empress were delighted to know where the trouble lay and +how it was to be remedied. Then the whole matter, as it were, vanished +and was forgotten." + +"Then that already is pathological." + +A shrug of the shoulders was his answer. "Above all things there is the +great anxiety and fear at the responsibility. There is also a weakness +on account of conscientious scruples. The Emperor knows nothing +thoroughly enough to enable him to overcome the arguments of a skilled +sophist, and he is too indulgent to say to one of his counsellors, 'Sir, +you are a cheat.' He hears in the reports only praise of somebody, never +any censure. For he has a great dread of intrigue, and not without good +reason. The atmosphere is a fearful one in the vicinity of every +autocrat. The Czar is pathetically well-meaning, and is modesty itself, +but he is not the autocrat for an autocracy, who must be equal to his +task." + +"And what, in your excellency's opinion, should be done to help the +country?" + +"No more than the rest of the world has already accomplished. Abolition +of the police system, security of personal freedom, abolition of the +censorship, discontinuance of the persecution of sectarians, who are our +best subjects, and--I say the word quietly--a constitution." + +"And would the country really be helped thereby?" + +"Unconditionally. With these little concessions to-day any political +convulsion could be avoided, and the intelligent class freed from its +fetters. No one knows what will be offered ten years from now." + +"Are there prospects of this concession?" + +"Not the slightest. On the contrary, whoever falls under the suspicion +of unconditional approval of the present system may be morally destroyed +at any time." + +"What will then be the end?" + +"That the terror from above will awaken the terror from below, that +peasant revolts will break out--even now the police must be augmented in +the interior--and assassination will increase." + +"And is there no possibility of organizing the revolution so that it +shall not rage senselessly?" + +"Impossible. Our rural nobleman is, to be sure, not a junker; but the +strength of the régime consists in the exclusion of any understanding +between the land-owners and the peasants because of the social and +intellectual chasm between them." + +"Your excellency, I remember a saying of Strousberg's, who was a good +business man, 'There is nowhere a hole where there once was land.' One +learns to doubt that here in Russia. There is not one with whom I have +spoken who would fail to paint the future of this country in the darkest +colors. Can there be no change of the fatal policy that is ruining the +country?" + +"Not before a great general catastrophe. When we shall be compelled, for +the first time, partly to repudiate our debts--and that may happen +sooner than we now believe--on that day, being no longer able to pay our +old debts with new ones--for we shall no longer be able to conceal our +internal bankruptcy from foreign countries and from the Emperor--steps +will be taken, perhaps, towards a general convention. No sooner." + +"Is there no mistake possible here?" + +"Martin Luther hesitated as long as he had not seen the pope, no longer +after that. Whoever, like myself, has known the state kitchen for the +last twenty-five years, doubts no longer. The autocracy is not equal to +the problems of a modern great power, and it would be against all +historical precedents to assume that it would voluntarily yield without +external pressure to a constitutional form of government." + +"We must wish, then, for Russia's sake, that the catastrophe come as +quickly as possible?" + +"I repeat to you that it is perhaps nearer than we all think or are +willing to admit. That is the hope; that is our secret consolation." + +Such was the substance of my long interview with one of the best judges +of present-day Russia, from which I have omitted only those places and +versions which would render their author easily recognizable. For the +rest, I must say here that, with slight variations, the statements of +all the other competent persons whom I had the opportunity to meet +agreed with those of my present informant. The unwritten public opinion +of Russia is absolutely of the same mind in its judgment of existing +conditions; it differs only as to the remedies. + +"We are near to collapse--an athlete with great muscles and perhaps +incurable heart weakness," repeated the statesman at parting. "We still +maintain ourselves upright by stimulants, by loans, which, like all +stimulants, only help to ruin the system more quickly. With that we are +a rich country with all conceivable natural resources, simply +ill-governed and prevented from unlocking its resources. But is this the +first time that quacks have ruined a Hercules that has fallen into their +hands? Whoever shall free us from these quacks will be our benefactor. +We need light and air, and we shall then surprise the world by our +abilities and achievements." + + + + +XIII + +THE RUSSIAN FINANCES + + +It was shortly after the Port Arthur naval catastrophe that I sought out +a bank director, with whom I had become acquainted, to talk with him +upon the financial effects of the war, that had had such noteworthy +results on the floors of European exchanges. To my astonishment, I found +the comfortable bank director very calm. + +"The system will still help us out," said he, evasively, to my question +whether Russia would have to face a financial crisis after the war. + +"What system?" said I. + +The bank director adjusted his eye-glasses and, with round eyes, gazed +at me for a while. Then, with that burst of candor which so often +surprises us in the Russians, he began: + +"We are not children, after all, and neither you nor I is dancing to the +government music to which others are keeping time. We may, therefore, +talk it over calmly. Well, we have a great drum, with which there can be +no marching out of line. It drums. We have never as yet stopped our +payments, like France, Austria, or Turkey. We are, therefore, punctual +payers, hence we shall again secure money." + +"Is this a serious argument?" I asked. + +"God forbid!" was the answer. "We have paid to secure future credit. But +it seems that this policy of honest debtor is wiser than the occasional +discontinuance of payment, which allows some advance but involves the +loss of credit. We can always repeat to the public that wishes to buy +our bonds, 'Russia is honest; Russia pays; you need have no fear here of +shrinkage.' And so the public buys." + +"But the banker must know that the liberality is not real," I rejoined. + +"And if he does know it? Is it the banker's business to initiate the +public into the secret sciences? Do not forget that no government pays +to the world such commissions for loans as we do. Prussia pays one-half +per cent., Austria one and a half per cent., we pay three per cent.; +and, confidentially, it does not end with that, but the issuing banks +also get their six per cent., especially when they appear reluctant at +first. For what reason should a commission of three to six per cent. be +paid where the business is as bad as it is? It was Offenheim who said, +'You don't build railroads by moral maxims.' And high finance says that +dividends and bonuses are not paid with moral maxims." + +"According to my perhaps unbusiness-like opinion, this is not much +better than stealing." + +"Very unbusiness-like, indeed, my friend. The banking world needs no +Nietzsche to stand on the other side of good and evil. Ethics, like +religion, is only for the masses. Just calculate what a commission of +three to six per cent. means on a loan of five hundred to a thousand +million rubles that we shall surely need in this war. Let us say only +three per cent., officially. That means thirty millions--more than sixty +million marks. Do you then think that the banks belong to the Salvation +Army, to imagine that they should renounce such a transaction?" + +"Slowly, slowly. You said at first that Russia will need in this war +about a milliard rubles. That would be contrary to what I have heard +from other very reliable sources--namely, that the cash reserve is +supposedly equal to about a milliard rubles." + +"I will bet you that in three months we shall not have left a single +kopek of this milliard, assuming that it exists. In agreement with +military experts, who, between ourselves, are not at all optimistic, I +estimate the duration of this war at twelve to eighteen months at least. +With our management, every month costs us at least a hundred million +rubles. Thus you see that a milliard will not be sufficient." + +"Well, let us say that the banks cannot reject the business, still they +must, in the first place, dispose of the securities, which will not be +so easy, since the French are thoroughly satiated with the bonds, and, +as the fall in the rate of exchange has recently shown, confidence in +these bonds is no longer any too great." + +"They may drop still further," said the banker, smiling. "The fall in +the rate of exchange would have been still worse had not our banks +received a strict order not to turn over the deposited bonds to their +owners during these days of convulsion." + +"How? I do not understand this. The issue of the deposited securities to +their owners is delayed?" + +"Yes, my friend, that is being done. You again do me the honor to forget +in my office that we are in Russia. Even worse things are done here. At +the order of the minister of finance, the owners of the bonds who wish +to withdraw their deposits are given only a few hundreds or thousands of +rubles for the most pressing needs, but they do not get their bonds. +This is in order to prevent, by all means, the bonds being thrown on the +market and thus increasing the panic." + +"But that can be done only here. You have no such power abroad." + +"Well, the first alarm did cost a respectable sum. Then the foreign +bondholders came to the rescue and intervened for their own interest. +The price of the bonds was maintained, especially in Germany." + +"Why particularly in Germany?" + +"Because it fluctuates less in France. There it is in the hands of small +investors who do not run to the treasury at the first opportunity. It is +not as strongly intrenched in Germany, and must be supported there." + +"Very well, then, you support my reasoning, and you say that the bond +values are maintained artificially alone. How can you say, then, that +they may be augmented at will by new issues?" + +"I say that, because the buyers are an amorphous mass that crystallizes +just as little as a combination of producers is met by a combination of +consumers. The masses may be frightened for a while, but in the long run +they are irresistibly led to spoliation by the great combinations of +capital, and the act of creating current opinion is well known in high +financial circles." + +"You forget the independent press." + +The banker made a very peculiar grimace. Then he said: "That is not nice +of you. I am speaking to you as if to a member of the profession--like +one augur to another. And when we come to speak of your own profession, +you turn out to be a simpleton. How can you speak of an independent +press, when under the pressure of the high finance of the Russian and +German governments?" + +"You will pardon me. I honor your uprightness equally with that of the +greatest of my profession. But I must stop at that. Newspapers are still +guided by morality. And I am willing to bet anything that among our +German papers only a vanishing fraction is susceptible to the arguments +of Witte and his associates." + +"And what becomes, then, of the millions that our ministry of finance +is spending to secure good will in the papers towards our finances?" + +"I do not want to suspect any one; but the German papers that I know +well are incorruptible." + +"Well, let us say that the radical or socialistic press is inaccessible, +and cannot be bought either by our ministry of finance or by the German +bank combinations. There still remains the influence of the German +government, that has its reasons for not allowing the weakening of +Russia to too great an extent. For this is still the keystone of the +conservative system in Europe, and this influence suffices to keep the +unfriendly critics of our financial conditions from all the leading +German papers. That is not even an official favor. I consider it quite +logical for serious papers not to play mean tricks on their foreign +office. But as to the other, the extremely radical writings, they have +no significance for the financial world; and you will not doubt, at this +day, that Germany is doing her best to keep us in good humor." + +"Yes, I see with shame and resentment how the German government has been +transformed into something akin to a Russian police ally, with the +blessing of Count Bülow." + +"Who surely knows what he is doing." + +"Perhaps I myself do not believe that Germany has reason to seek Russian +security, even though there be certain limits even for friendly +services; which limits have long been passed, to the detriment of the +dignity of the German empire." + +"I am also willing to believe all that you have told me about the +influence of the high finance, the Russian noble, and German diplomacy. +Yet I cannot conceive how the mass of investors--and after all it is +they who are to be considered--will permanently pay a much higher price +for securities than corresponds to their intrinsic value, as is the case +with the Russian securities, according to the information given me by +Russian statesmen." + +"Permanently? Some day it will stop. But when? Even the autocracy or the +social structure will not maintain itself permanently. But meanwhile +there is no power on earth to prevent the great banking institutions +from earning thirty million rubles or more, when there is a chance. +There will be a great bargaining, especially since the French government +will exert itself strenuously to prevent future issue of Russian bonds; +for every new issue depresses the value of former issues, and in these a +great portion of the French national wealth is invested. In the end, +however, German influence will prevail. Germany will advance us the new +funds, because Germany wishes to render us a service; for Germany feels +itself from day to day more and more isolated in Europe, and we are +still not to be despised, either as friends or enemies, in spite of Port +Arthur. Hence the German investor must help out; and, after all, he is +not making a bad transaction when he buys a four-per-cent. bond at let +us say ninety." + +"How so?" + +"Well, the bank interest is now three per cent. When four rubles are +paid on an investment of ninety rubles having a par value of one hundred +rubles, then the valuation of Russian government securities is not quite +seventy. And that may continue for a long time." + +"Do you consider that the real, intrinsic value?" + +"The stock exchange knows no intrinsic value. It only knows tendencies. +One hundred rubles' worth of Russian government securities can always be +disposed of at seventy, if all the strings do not break." + +"You are evading me. I asked for your personal opinion on the intrinsic +value of the Russian bonds." + +"I will give you an answer. As long as our Russian peasant is able to +starve and to sell his grain, as long as there are gendarmes to aid the +tax-collector, and people who are willing to make further loans to us, +so long is the payment of coupons assured. Beyond that the foreign +bondholder has no right to inquire." + +"Please tell me whether in your opinion there is a hidden deficit in the +Russian budget, or whether there is none." + +"I am telling you that as long as there are people who are willing to +make further loans to us we shall pay the interest. Were our budget a +real one, we should not need to contract new debts in order to pay the +interest on the old ones." + +"That is what I wanted to know. And do you consider Russia a really +insolvent country, that cannot really pay its debts, and cannot bear the +burdens of modern national life?" + +"On the contrary, Russia is intrinsically so rich a land in uncovered +treasures that it only needs another and a just régime to pay its debts +and to assume still further burdens." + +"And this other régime?" + +The banker pointed to the east. "Our future is being decided there. If +it goes hard with us there, it may become better here more quickly than +is suspected." + +"Hence, worse for the bankers," said I, jokingly. + +"People accustom themselves to honesty when there is no other way," +answered the banker, also jokingly. "And when universal honesty comes +into vogue, it will no longer be a shame to be honest." + +With this I parted from the banker, whose pleasing cynicism always +amused me, the more so since I recognized in him the essence of +sterling, honorable views. Later interviews with other members of the +financial world showed me that my first informant conveyed the generally +accepted opinion. Isolated Germany will, for political reasons, and as a +favor to the Russian régime, support Russian credit; the great German +banks will not renounce the splendid loan-issuing business; and the +German investor will permit the imposition upon him of the Russian +bonds. "Sheep must be shorn," coolly said one of the brokers to me, when +I expressed a doubt that the German imperial government would pay for +its political business with the hard-earned pennies of its investors. +Your Bismarck did not hesitate for a moment to throw Russian values into +the street, and to destroy thereby milliards of German property, when it +suited his political convenience. Your present government will not be at +all embarrassed in sacrificing again milliards of German property to +place us under obligation. And, finally, no one is compelled to it. +Whoever is not able to figure sufficiently to see how Wishnegradski +prepared the balances to deceive the eye had better keep his money in +his stocking and not buy securities. If he does buy them, let him bleed. +Another explained, however: "The Germans will buy our bonds. When no +other bait is attractive there is still one left to us. When the +landowner sells his crops, and is thinking of investing his proceeds, +the banker will say to him, 'How about a little of the Russian +securities?' 'But those are supposed to be insecure,' answers the good +fellow. 'The idea! This is only a Jewish trick. Probably on account of +Kishinef.' And the good fellow will hand over his shekels, for he cannot +be fooled about Kishinef." + + + + +XIV + +A FUNERAL + + +"You are here at an opportune moment," said one of my St. Petersburg +friends, who had rendered me important services in my studies. +"Mikhailovski died suddenly, and will be buried to-morrow." + +"Mikhailovski?" I was almost ashamed to admit that I was entirely +ignorant of the services of this man, and did not understand what +interest his funeral could have for me. My friend had pronounced the +name as if no tolerably well-educated person in all the wide world could +have the least doubt as to its significance. I had to acknowledge again +how little we, in the West, know of Russian life. I am not of the people +who have read least about Russia, but Mikhailovski's name was as +unfamiliar to me as that of Julius Rodenberg to a Chinaman. + +My friend enlightened me. Mikhailovski was the editor of the most widely +read Russian monthly, _Ruskoye Bogatstvo_ (Russian Wealth), a +sociologist, and the recognized intellectual leader of radical young +Russia. Nowhere in the world do the weekly and monthly magazines play +such a rôle in the intellectual life of a nation as in the great Slavic +empire. This may be accounted for, on the one hand, by the meagre +development of the daily press, existing under strict censorship, and on +the other by the high degree of scientific and practical development. +The nation is still in a state of nature, and for such a nation there is +really but one vocation--that of general education. This need of general +culture is in accordance with the general modelling of Russian social +life. There is very extensive and fruitful social intercourse; visitors +on estates remain for weeks. This requires a periodically renewed supply +of topics for conversation. And, finally, the nation is in a state of +high political tension. Parliamentary debates wherein this political +tension may be discharged are entirely lacking. Thus there remains only +the home-bred discussions, which, again, are fed only by the reviews. +Thus it happens that the weekly and monthly publications serve at once +as books, newspapers, and parliaments, and that the greatest writers are +enrolled either as contributors or editors on the staffs of the reviews. +Mikhailovski, however, was jointly with the writer Korolenko the editor +of the greatest radical monthly; a man who was the object of a reverence +such as is only accorded in the West to a great orator or party leader. + +"Plehve is a lucky dog," continued my friend. "The outbreak of the war +has forced the entire Russian opposition camp into an armistice. It +would be considered unpatriotic to create internal difficulties for the +government, that needs all its power for an external conflict. It is at +least intended to see whether there would be any new provocations on +Plehve's part before further steps are taken in the organization of the +opposition. At any other time an occasion like Mikhailovski's funeral +would lead to great demonstrations and collisions with the Cossacks. Now +it will only amount to expressions of devotion; and it is quite probable +also that the police will avoid a collision. Hence, you may take part +without danger in a demonstration by intellectual St. Petersburg, where, +at any other time, you would be exposed at least to a few blows of the +knout or a temporary arrest at the police station." + +"Why do you speak of the knout and the Cossacks?" I asked. "Are not the +police sufficient to maintain order?" + +"They are not sufficient in mass-demonstrations, especially where these +are participated in by the student body. Formerly use was made of the +"dvorniks" (janitors) and butchers' clerks to bring the students to +reason. But that is no longer practicable. The "dvorniks" and butchers' +clerks have hesitated of late to come out against the students. They +have discovered that these persons really take their lives in their +hands for the people's sake, and, therefore, are no longer willing to do +the jailer's work. And so the Cossacks must hold forth; and they know no +pity." + +We therefore agreed to meet in front of the deceased publicist's house. +Such a Russian funeral is a full day's work. It begins early in the +forenoon, and it is dark when you return home. In front of +Mikhailovski's house I saw Korolenko--a still robust man, with very +curly gray hair and beard--and almost all the master-minds of the +intellectual life of St. Petersburg. Even the recently retired minister, +Sänger, showed himself. Many a man was named to me with great reverence. +The foreign public knows not one of them, and so I may forego the +repetition of their names. It should be mentioned here, however, that in +Russia a distinguished man tries to show his distinction by his dress +and appearance, as far as possible. Here an original way of dressing the +hair is one of the marks of distinction, and so one sees many striking +heads. There is no getting along without some posing. I noticed, too, +that scarcely one of the forty or fifty men I had become acquainted with +was absent from the funeral. Now, these forty or fifty persons belong to +most widely different social and political groups, so that the radical +publicist could not have possibly had the same significance for each of +them. But every one was present and was noticed. In fact, every new +appearance was noted by the crowd. Most of them knew one another. The +loose but yet effective organization of opposition in Russia had never +been so clear to me as now. The unwritten public opinion, I had +frequently noted, orders every intellectual to take part in this mute +demonstration against the régime; and this dictation is more readily +submitted to than the legitimate one. I do not believe our newspapers in +the West could even approximately replace this intimate contact +established day by day among these thousands in a manner mysterious to +me. It is as if St. Petersburg were fermented by some medium in which +every impulse is propagated with furious speed. And people have an +incredible amount of time for politics in St. Petersburg. People in +Russia have in general more time than we hurrying Westerners can +conceive. + +The coffin was carried from the house, where a religious service had +already taken place, to the church across the street, and there a new +service was begun. The church was so quickly filled that hundreds had to +remain outside. But I was advised by my companion to go to the cemetery; +for the funeral proper takes place only there, and it is of importance +to secure a good place. We attended to various matters in the city, and +reached, after more than a half-hour's ride in the sleigh, the cemetery +where rest the city's celebrities. Names are again mentioned to me with +respect and reverence. What an unsubstantial thing is fame, after all. +The few sounds that fill one with awe fall on the unheeding ear of +another. Another sphere, and nothing remains of the words that are +esteemed in the first. + +We stamp through the snow along the narrow paths between the +gravestones towards the spot where the deceased is to find his last +resting-place. A densely packed multitude is already pushing towards the +newly dug grave. Near-by a mausoleum, with open portico, is already +entirely occupied by women. We attempt to find a place there. We are met +by hostile glances. Then one of the ladies approaches me and says +something in Russian, which, of course, I do not understand. I express +my regrets in German and French. She now excuses herself, declaring that +she had made a mistake. A word from my companion, and the excitement is +at once allayed. + +"It was nothing," he explained to me. "They did not know whether you +were a spy or a foreigner. They know it now, and are no longer uneasy. +People know one another in this circle. But you are an entirely new +person that must first be classified." Evidently my companion played a +prominent part in this society without statutes, for a place was made +for me with the greatest readiness; so that I found myself among none +but celebrities, whose names were mentioned by the young ladies standing +near in respectful whispers. They were mostly writers, scholars, and +professors; among them was also the author of a work on Siberia, which I +had read with horror years ago. He had already spent twelve years of his +life in exile, and now he was again exposing himself to oppression by +the authorities. Although the police were still out of sight, it would +have hardly been advisable for a spy to appear here. Among the thousands +of men, women, and girls who were already densely crowded about the +grave, there was not a single person that was not acquainted with at +least a part of those present. Suddenly there was a commotion in the +crowd. A name is mentioned and repeated resentfully. Suvorin. Who is +Suvorin? The editor of the _Novoye Vremya_. He was supposedly seen by +some one. What impudence! Where is he? He shall at once leave the +cemetery! But it was only a false alarm. Suvorin would not dare to come +here; and why not? I inquire about the nature of his paper. Is it a +_Libre Parole_ or _Intransigeant_? Is it nationalistic or clerical? An +old gentleman who hears my question replies, turning towards me: +"No-ism, scoundrelism." I see how the word is winged and is approvingly +repeated in a widening circle. Yes, the most widely circulated sheet in +Russia, which enjoys government patronage and the best and most +authentic news from all the departments, is branded here with the +deepest contempt by the flower of Russian intelligence as a +well-poisoner, a worthless cynic. Russia is surely a remarkable land, it +does not grant a license for baseness even to anti-Semitism. The hours +follow one another. The snow under our feet had turned to water, and +then again to ice, but it is no longer possible to leave one's place. We +are ranged shoulder to shoulder, the men scarcely able to make room +enough for the women to keep them from being crushed against the trees +and gravestones. An elderly woman, with remarkably delicate features, +and wrapped in a thin cloak, is standing quite near me. She has been +here since ten o'clock this morning--that is, more than four hours. I +feel almost ashamed of my fur coat and my felt overshoes when I see that +bit of intelligent poverty standing near me. My neighbor and myself +succeed, without her noticing it, in placing her between our coats, so +that she might feel somewhat warmer. And thus thousands of women and +girls are standing, old and young, down to the unsophisticated +school-girl, pretty and homely, all of them patient and orderly; and +what impressed me especially was the absence of the least trace of +flirting between the men and women students. All of them were possessed +by one sentiment--by political passion and the yearning for freedom. I +am not foolish enough to think that in Russia erotic tendencies are +eliminated in the intercourse between the youth of the opposite sexes, +but nothing of it is noticeable here, and I must assume from this that +frivolity and cynicism have no abode in this generation. All those who +are standing here run the gantlet of imprisonment and deportation, and +frivolous thoughts have no room here. + +We hear, at last, the indistinct noise that heralds the approach of a +great crowd of people. Then the noise becomes more differentiated--it +changes into song. It is the student body following the coffin with +songs of mourning over the miles of road. They sing beautifully, in +wonderful polyphonic choirs, do the Russians; even envy must follow the +song. They have a perfect ear. After the long waiting the final +deliverance through its solemn notes affects the heart strangely. And +now a new wave of approaching humanity. The impossible becomes possible, +the students crowd past us and gather about the grave. The coffin is +lifted over our heads and into the noose of the dull gravedigger. A +moment of silence. Then the pope reads a short prayer and gives a short +funeral sermon on the departed brother in Christ. Then only does the +funeral ceremony proper begin. The pope steps aside. A white-haired man, +a university professor, whose name passes from mouth to mouth, extols +the departed champion of freedom. He is followed by a poet speaking in +swinging verse. Then a woman. Then a student. Then a woman again, in +irregular, improvised order. Then my neighbor, the man from Siberia, +calls out to the students. Then begins a song full of fervor and +passion. Then a woman speaks again, and after her a young girl. The +police, hundreds of them, with many officers, are crowded quite into the +background. It is better so. For of all the speeches I distinguished but +one word, spoken in passionate tones, "Svoboda! Svoboda!" (Liberty! +Liberty!). And, as if that word were a signal, it calls forth sighs and +weeping and the gnashing of teeth. It is an indescribable drama, a +terribly exciting scene. I cannot control myself, and cry out to my +neighbor, "Make the poor girl keep still," and I point towards the +police, but I am not understood. They have all been seized by a +religious fanaticism that makes martyrdom bliss. How truly lovable they +are, these educated people that still have an ideal and are strange to +the base satiety that so sadly deforms our Western youth! And how the +heart contracts at the thought that all this beautiful enthusiasm must +vanish without result; that the longing and inspiration are helplessly +shivered against the brutality of the Cossacks and gendarmes! + +We left the consecrated ground in a strange intoxication after a tiring +struggle with the densely packed crowd that would move neither forward +nor backward. "It is not the business of the police to maintain order, +but only to keep people under surveillance." I have been astonished to +this very day that no one was trampled to death in the crowd. + +I heard a few days later that the statistician Annenski, an old man of +sixty-five, was arrested for having delivered one of those impassioned +speeches at the grave. A number of men of irreproachable character, +among them the historian who was the first speaker there, testified that +Annenski was not one of the speakers. I could have testified to that +myself, for I stood among the speakers, and each one was named to me. +But the police would not give up its victim. Annenski was still in +confinement when I left Russia. Now he is banished to Reval for four +years, because they had found in his house a few numbers of Struve's +periodical. + +I, however, carried away with me from Mikhailovski's grave the certainty +that the coming generation is lost to the reaction. Young Russia, in so +far as it possesses an academic education, is liberal, both the men and +the women. And thus that funeral day was for me the most hopeful day +that I had lived in Russia. + + + + +XV + +THE CHINOVNIK (THE RUSSIAN OFFICIAL) + + +Czar Nicholas I. is known to have been a great admirer of Gogol's +"Revizor." Yet a more bitter satire on Russian officialdom than this +realistic comedy does not exist. Plenty of utterances of the czars who +have followed Nicholas are quoted to show that none of the supposedly +unlimited monarchs of Russia has been in the least hazy as to the +qualities of his most trustworthy servants. When, nevertheless, fifty +years after the death of Nicholas I., the camorra of officials makes +more havoc than ever, and obstructs all development of the Russian +nation with the close meshes of its organization, as with a net of steel +wire, this strange phenomenon is to be explained only in two ways. +Either the czars who so clearly recognized the evil must have been +unscrupulous cynics, who only laughed at corruption and had no feeling +for the sufferings of their people, or else their power was not +sufficient to break that of their servants. The omnipotence of autocracy +must have found its limits in the omnipotence of the oligarchy of +functionaries. The first of the possible explanations may be set aside +without further consideration. The autocrats, without exception, have +desired the good of their people, and have been personally upright men +and lovers of justice. If they had been strong enough to create a +trustworthy and industrious official service, instead of their idle and +corrupt one, they would certainly have done so. Only the second +explanation, then, is possible. The power of the czardom has had to +capitulate to that of the oligarchy of officials. + +This explanation, however, requires a further one. What wrecked the +attempts of well-intentioned autocrats at reform? These men did not +understand joking; and open opposition to orders of the Czar is +absolutely unthinkable, when punishments such as exile to Siberia are +given for much slighter offences. Is it possible that the Russian nation +stands morally so much lower than all others that honest and industrious +servants of the state are not to be found at all? That would be hard to +believe. For if men are approximately alike in any one particular it is +in average morality. The Russian is not more immoral or dishonorable +than the German or the Frenchman. Fifty years ago the officials in +Austria and Hungary also were still very corrupt, and Frederick William +I. was obliged, even in morally strict Prussia, to use all his energy in +taking steps against the state officials, who acted on the principle of +the proverb, "Give me the sausage, and I'll quench your thirst" (Gibst +du mich die Wurscht, lösch ich dich den Durscht). Besides, the +experiment of regenerating the official service with foreigners has +also been tried in Russia, especially by Alexander II. In the imperial +library at St. Petersburg I came upon a little French pamphlet in which +a Russian patriot laments in the most passionate terms because Czar +Alexander II. was surrounded by an impenetrable wall of officials from +the Baltic provinces, who let no one but their congeners rise on the +rounds of the official ladder. The complaints made of the dictatorship +of officials were, however, the same, although it was not denied that in +industry and honesty the Germans from the Baltic provinces surpassed the +native Russians. Under Alexander III. unmistakable orthodox opinions and +the purest possible Russian descent were necessary in order to gain the +good-will of the omnipotent Pobydonostzev and of the Slavophils. The +misery, however, remained the same, except that it was in some degree +relieved by the greater corruptibility of the native Russians. For--to +show the utter preposterousness of the whole system--the Russian people +find it much pleasanter to deal with bribe-taking officials than with +honest ones. You may hear it said often enough in Russia, "The Russian +autocracy is alleviated by the ruble; without the ruble life would not +be at all endurable." There must, therefore, exist some fatal cause +which prevents any improvement of conditions. Even evils do not grow old +without some necessary reason for their existence. + +In order to explain this it must be clearly understood what the +Russians really complain of in their officials. They thought themselves +no better off under the system of Alexander II., with the infusion into +the service of more honest and industrious elements. Hence it appears +not to be primarily the dishonesty or idleness of the bureaucracy which +provokes the most complaints. This is, indeed, the fact. What drives the +Russians to despair, and what they feel to be the grossest evil of the +country, much more than the domination of the Czar alone, is the tyranny +of the official caste, which forms a state within the state, and has set +up a special code of official morality quite peculiar to itself. As to +how far the possibility of such a class development is consistent with +the autocracy as such will be inquired into below. A ring of officials +is not absolutely excluded even in republics, as is shown by Tammany +Hall in New York. Only in constitutional states it rests with the people +to put an end to evil once recognized, but in an autocracy it does not. +Before going further, however, it is necessary to make clear to the +foreign reader what is meant in general by such a tyranny. + +Therefore, let us say, for example, that you have been seen on the +street with a person who, for some reason, and naturally without knowing +it himself, is under police surveillance. Of course you yourself are +from this moment under suspicion, and therewith delivered up to the +official zeal of the whole, widely ramified organization, for the +protection of the holy order. From that time forth letters directed to +you do not reach you, or else bear a mark showing that by a remarkable +accident they were found open in the letter-box and had to be officially +sealed. You are surprised some night by the visit of an officer and of a +dozen sturdy police officials, who rouse your children from their beds +and search through your house from garret to cellar. If there should +happen to be found in your possession a German translation of a novel of +Tolstoï's, or any book or newspaper which stands on the police index, +with which you naturally are not acquainted, off you go to prison with +the agents of the law. Here you remain, well taken care of, pending a +thorough-going investigation of the facts of the case. This lasts from +three days to six months, as the case may be, according to your +popularity or to the influence which your friends are able to bring to +bear. It is not the slightest protection for you that you are a +well-known householder, a busy physician or lawyer, of whom it might be +assumed that even without imprisonment he would not immediately turn his +back on the place of his profession. To prevent the danger of collusion, +so that you may not hide the traces of your crime, you remain to the end +under lock and key, with the invaluable right to maintain yourself +meanwhile at your own expense. You will endure this little inconvenience +calmly, as becomes a man, hoping that your friends will take care of +your wife and children during this time and not let them actually +starve. It is certainly unpleasant if your pretty daughter, who is +studying history or art or philology, attracts the eye of the sacred +"hermandad" and is carried off some night as a political suspect, and +you can find by no pleading in what prison she is kept pending +investigation. It is still more vexatious for you to know that your +young son, a student, is in the hands of the police, since this young +man has not yet learned self-control, and may possibly come to blows +with his tormentors, who drive him so far that, finally, in order to put +an end to his sufferings, he sets himself on fire with his own kerosene +lamp and ends his life. I cite here only facts which came to my +knowledge from the circle of highly respected families which I met +during my stay of barely seven weeks. You yourself are, according to the +degree of your offence, expelled for several years from the place of +your profession or, at the worst, exiled to Archangel or Siberia. +Finally, a crime on your part is not necessary. It is sufficient that +you are not found loyal and respectful to the police. + +These evidently are little unpleasantnesses which do not sweeten life +for the citizen or greatly increase his loyal sentiments. They exert, +however, a much more injurious effect on those who are in a position to +inflict such torments on people who are to any extent in their disfavor. +Travellers tell of tropical madness which seizes Europeans in the +torrid zone. Since my experiences in Russia I am no longer inclined to +regard this phenomenon as climatic. There is only one madness, that is +the frenzy of domination to which every morally weak person is exposed +when his lust for power meets with little or no opposition. This +phenomenon is not less well known in our barrack-rooms, where discipline +breaks down all opposition, than in prisons. Non-commissioned officers, +and also many officers and prison officials, are easily seized with this +madness, which is nothing but the spirit of the Prætorian Guard on a +small scale. The German abroad, especially the young German noble, is +most easily susceptible to it. He even likes to make up to himself a +little in the primitive East for the strict provincial training to which +he was subjected among the loyal and more moral ideas of his home. Hence +the preference of Alexander II. for German officials caused no +improvement in this respect. + +In addition to the madness of power, which in itself is bad enough, +there is, however, still another thing. The best elements in Russia do +not select the political or police services. The pay is wretched, and +can only be supplemented by illicit revenues. These illicit revenues +arise from prompt releases from formalities, for which the interested +persons show themselves grateful, and from carrying into effect orders +against the Jews, who, for this very reason indeed, cannot be better +established legally, because if they were a great part of the official +service would lose a principal source of revenue from toleration-money. +Men of the better class turn away as a matter of course from a career +which depends upon such revenues. Hence it is not exactly the best who +serve as executives of the power of the state. In official service there +is also another aim--namely, to rise constantly to higher and more +lucrative positions. For this there is only one rule, that of +maintaining absolute good conduct in the eyes of the higher authorities. +The higher authorities, however, consist of chinovniks, who have only +one interest, that of the supremacy of their class and the prevention of +anything that could injure its omnipotence. So it goes on up to the +highest oracle; to the man to whom primarily is intrusted the protection +of the Czar and of the autocracy; to the minister of the interior. +Imagine this office held by a man like Plehve, and you will understand +what spirit rules under the pashas of sleepy villages down to the last +provincial hamlet. Cæsarian madness, aspiration for higher positions, +class interest, all work together to produce entirely conscienceless +libertines and barbarians, against whom there is no protection whatever. +In a land without a parliament or a free press every complaint has only +the effect of a denunciation of the devil to his grandmother. The +complainant can by no means reckon the consequences, even if, indeed, +the culprit is not especially rewarded for his official zeal. It is +much better to stand in with the authorities, not to kick against the +pricks, but to pay. + +And the Czar? Either he hears nothing of all these things or they are +represented to him as indispensable for the preservation of order. If it +is hard to make a successful stand even in constitutional states with +parliament and press, in the rare enough cases of despotic justice, it +is immensely harder where the protection of authority is the highest +principle of government, and where no institution whatever exists for +the protection of the subject. It should not be at all surprising, then, +that the reign of terror from above tries to countermine the terror from +below. Indeed, it is only a proof of the patience and gentleness of the +Russian people that attempts upon official criminals are so rare. I was +the more ashamed when, during my stay in Russia, I read that German +statesmen were hurling words of condemnation against Russian patriots +who, careless of their own lives, had declared war against the brutal +officials. However far the desire to preserve a good-neighborly +relationship may go, a German politician does not need to ingratiate +himself with the Russian régime. In doing so he exposes himself to the +condemnation which that régime invariably calls forth when people know +its administrative methods. German authorities ought not to lend their +assistance to a body which a patriot and strong monarchist like Prince +Ukhtomsky, the friend of the Czar, called a Camorra, a band of +anarchists in office. Our sympathies ought rather to go out to those who +strive to gain for Russia also a court where the shackled nation can +bring its cry for help to a hearing--a parliament, however modest; a +press not subjugated by the tyranny of the police. Only by these means +can a nation full of good qualities be freed from the reign of terror of +the chinovniks, from the Camorra of officials. + + + + +XVI + +THE SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS + + +The brutal persecutions of the Jews under Plehve have involved +unspeakable misery; but a beneficial effect also, not to be +underestimated. The entire public sentiment of Russian society has +become friendly to the Jews. In numerous conversations with inhabitants +of the Russian capitals, including people from all strata of society, +only once have I heard a word expressing ill-feeling towards the Jews. +The speaker in this instance was a colonel of Cossacks, on his way to +the front, who assured me in all sincerity that the English are a "vile +Jew-nation"! With this exception, all protested against regarding the +Russians as enemies of the Jews. The Jews are victims of the murderous +Russian politics, like the Poles, the Ruthenians, and the Liberals. This +appeared to be the generally accepted idea. The natural consequence of +this idea is that the Jews have the sympathy of all parties opposed to +the government. While the officials are bringing deliberately false +accusations against the Jews, unofficial Russia sides with the latter. +The situation is similar to that which existed in the West before the +emancipation of the Jews, when Liberal political doctrine was directly +inculcating philo-Semitism; the only difference being that among the +people of Russia no anti-Semitic feeling whatever exists. Therefore, +during any crisis of assimilation consequent upon emancipation, there +would be little fear of an anti-Semitic reaction such as that +experienced in the West. + +There is one class which is pleased by the perpetual hunting-down of the +Jews by the _Novoye Vremya_ and its offshoots in anti-Semitism. This is +the class of small tradesmen, notorious for their dishonesty, who are +thankful that they are protected from Jewish competition. For the rest, +all Russia wishes the repeal of the laws enacted in restriction of the +Jews. + +The government, of course, endeavors to persuade foreigners that to +permit the Jews to settle beyond the pale would mean the Judaization, +and the consequent ruin, of all Russia. This assertion is made in spite +of their knowledge that the contrary is true. A memorial in regard to +the Jews, written in 1884 by Ivan Blioch, and published by the ministry +of the interior--_The Jewish Question in Russia_--shows by statistics +that the greatest percentage of pauper peasants is found in the Jewless +governments of Moscow, Tula, Orel, and Kursk; that the prosperity of the +peasantry in the governments within the pale is incomparably higher than +in the territory from which the Jews are excluded. The arrears of +revenue in districts in which there are no Jews are three times as great +as in the pale. As a result, the land purchased by peasants by means of +the peasants' banks is much greater in extent in the latter than in the +former districts. The usurers who advance money to the peasants at from +three hundred to two thousand per cent. are without exception +Christians. The assertion that the Jews tempt the people to drunkenness +stands morally upon about the same level as the statement that the Jews +are never found engaged in agriculture. The latter statement is true, +but only because the Jews are not allowed to live in the open country. +The government has now monopolized the retail sale of spirits, thus +driving out of the business thousands of Jewish tavern-keepers. This +measure, however severe, is viewed with satisfaction by intelligent Jews +as tending to improve the morals of the Jewish masses. + +All these are only idle excuses in justification of the policy of +extermination of the Jews, which policy has in reality a quite different +cause. Three conditions have already been cited, any one of which is +alone sufficient to place the unhappy Jews of the great prison state in +an especially bad situation, and also to expose the régime in all its +depravity--a depravity almost incomprehensible to western Europeans. + +The first is the great influence which the rich Russian usurers possess +with the authorities. If Shylock is angry with the merchant prince of +Venice because the latter lends money without interest, in Russia the +rôles of the contestants are reversed. The Jew also exacts usury where +he can--no one in seriousness pretends to be surprised at this, in view +of the deliberate demoralization of the pale--but in comparison with his +Russian colleague he keeps within modest limits, being indeed compelled +to do so by his circumstances. He necessarily prefers to keep the debtor +solvent rather than to drive him out of house and home, which he, the +Jew, moreover, cannot buy in. The Russian usurer, on the other hand, is +accustomed to show no mercy, because he calmly seizes the land of his +victim, and either leases it or sells it at a profit or adds it to his +own property. For a great part of the Russian usurers belong to the +guild of village usurers. These people influence the under authorities +with bribes, while the great speculators, the millionaire usurers of +Moscow and St. Petersburg, who likewise would have to fear the milder +methods of their Jewish competitors, are powerful enough to influence +senators and ministers according to their wishes. The Russian usurer, +therefore, is the first complainant and enemy of the Jews. + +The second and more powerful cause is the spirit of Pobydonostzev, the +fanatic of uniformity. Combining in himself the qualities of jurist, +theologian, and scholastic, he is too barren in mental powers to master +the conception of a state which should take into account any diversity +of creed or race. Above all, however, any toleration would undermine the +three pillars upon which alone his conception of the Russian empire can +rest--autocracy, orthodoxy, and Russianism. For the preservation of this +Asiatic, uniform, absolutist régime, or, better, of the omnipotence of +hierarchy, it is above all necessary to keep the people in absolute +subjection. This, again, is possible only when every chance of learning +anything else than their own condition is closed to them. A prisoner who +endangered the spirit of blind obedience by a tendency to dispute orders +could not be tolerated in a prison. As little can the great Russian +prison state endure men who might lead the prisoner to think whether he +must be absolutely a prisoner. Of such thoughts, however, the Jews, who +are subject to special taxation, are suspected above all others. Their +criminality is certainly of the smallest; they are the most punctilious +of tax-payers, and, moreover, the best-conducted citizens in the world. +But they are--Heaven knows why--perhaps because of their +Talmudic-dialectic occupation, perhaps also because as pariahs they have +little cause to be enthusiastic over the ruling order--they are +inexorably subtle critics of all existing things, and so could easily +upset the simple minds of the Russian lower classes. That is the chief +reason why they are surrounded by a cordon of plagues. The paternal +precaution of the Russian government is of course not much wiser than +the conviction so many mothers entertain of the unshaken faith of their +children in the story that the stork brought the baby. Quite without +Jewish criticism the Russian peasant, under the never-resting lash of +hunger, begins to think and to grumble; and although his unruly +sentiments express themselves chiefly in the specifically Russian form +of the organization of religious sects, nevertheless each new sectarian +shows a new desertion from Pobyedonostzev's ideal of a Russian subject. +Upon the organization of sects, however, the Jews have of course no +direct influence whatever. + +The third cause of the persecution of the Jews is to be found in the +Satanic brain of Plehve, who wishes to furnish to the humane Czar, and +perhaps still more to the Czaritza, who has western European ways of +thinking, an indication that without the Jews there would be no +opposition whatever in Russia. For this purpose he not only has the Jews +entered more strictly on the police-registers, if they are guilty of any +political offence, such as being present in a forbidden assemblage, but +he also directly provokes them, in order to drive them into the ranks of +the revolutionaries and thereby to compromise the latter. In Hungary and +Bohemia ritual murder cases were incited in order to give the Jews a +lesson to remember, and to make them national--_i. e._, more Magyar or +Czechic--in feeling, since they stubbornly persisted in remaining +German. In Russia, however, they are driven into the camp of the +revolutionaries, in order to extirpate the former and to cast suspicion +upon the latter. Nevertheless, some governors, who in other respects +readily comply with the directions given from above, yet dare to step in +in behalf of the Jews, contrary to the measures appointed by higher +authorities, as for example, Prince Urussoff, governor of Bessarabia, +who is to be thanked that in spite of all the efforts of Krushevan, the +creature of Plehve, no outbreaks of the mob against the Jews took place +in Kishinef recently. + +As personal but nevertheless effectual causes of the persecution of the +Jews, the anti-Semitism of the dowager Empress and of the Grand-Duke +Sergius, governor-general of Moscow, must be mentioned. Respectively +brother and wife of Alexander III., they conservatively hold to his +opinions. This unfortunate and narrow-minded man had been persuaded by +conscience-smitten persons that Jewish army-contractors were the cause +of the defeat of the Russians in the Turkish war; and it was as hard to +get an idea out of his head as to get one in. The inclination of the +Grand-Duke Sergius to torture human beings amounts to a disease. He can +satisfy it most easily upon the defenceless Jews. + +The final cause of the persecution of the Jews, and one which is +regarded by many people as the weightiest, is the certain income which +legislation against the Jews means for every unscrupulous official. +Most of the laws passed against the Jews are quite impossible of +execution, or are executed only in a very imperfect way, thanks to the +corruptibility of the Russian officials. "Absolutism palliated by +corruption"--this bitter saying fits the case of the Jews best. Yet what +relieves the situation for them in a certain way renders it worse for +them in another. It certainly is a question whether the ransom-money of +one generation will not become the purchase-money of the next. The +Russian bureaucracy will not be willing to renounce its income from +bribes and extortions. Thus it prevents all legislative decrees in favor +of the Jews. These poorly paid, much feared, but still despised +officials are, in the inclined plane of their evil consciences, quite as +much victims of the system as the Jews, but in a different way. We are +all human, whether Christian or Jew, and in the long run, under the +operation of the most depraved of all rules, neither the one nor the +other can keep himself pure. The worst thing that has happened to the +Jews, however, is not, as can well be understood, an occasional "pogrom" +(riot), in which, to the indignation of all civilized mankind, +defenceless people are slain and plundered by command of the +authorities. The worst is the restriction to particular zones and to +particular callings. That is systematic massacre, a deliberate policy of +destruction and extirpation. Even if the misery of the ghetto has, +thanks to the strict abstemiousness of the Jews, failed as yet to kill +them in the way that the peasantry, weakened by alcoholism, are killed +in the famine provinces, nevertheless the moral result is frightful. +Even the iron family morality of the Jews is shaken in the western +governments. A deplorable percentage of prostitutes is made up of +Jewesses. Experience shows that sexual deprivation is the beginning of +every other form of degeneration. Moreover, the matter does not +generally end with the individual who sinks into prostitution. The +ethical ideas of such a morally defective person spread contagion in a +wide circle. Families are broken up, or unchastity makes its way into +them. The whole conception of life becomes different when the chastity +of women becomes an article of trade or an object of ironical +scepticism. Still, in comparison with their environment even these Jews +may be called chaste, for they are merely stained by the barbarism of +the Orient. But it is, nevertheless, monstrous that in a Christian +country the hard-won sexual morality of a part of the population, once +gained, must be endangered only because malevolent politics will have it +so. The moral purity of the Jews and of the Teutonic races has redeemed +the world from the deep depravity of the Roman decadence. Now a +Christian state policy destroys a part of the iron stability of this +moral acquisition of humanity. + +It is self-evident that whoever can tries to free himself from the +misery of the ghetto. Even Russian legislation has left some small +gates open, and through these the struggling Jews squeeze themselves +with every exertion of strength and cunning. Then there ensues a battle +between brutality and artfulness--one not lacking in elements of humor. +The authorities, hostile to the Jews, try of course to prevent too many +of them from escaping from the ghetto and from settling in cities which +it is desired to keep as free from Jews as possible. The Jews, however, +try again and again to evade the prohibitions and the illegally +interpreted ordinances and to settle where there is a possibility of a +means of livelihood. Such cities are, for example, St. Petersburg and +Moscow. The martyrdom which Jews and Jewesses undergo in order to gain +the right to stay in these cities borders on the tragic. A non-resident +Jewess is not allowed to study in these places, but may live there as a +prostitute. An innocent young girl wished to have herself registered as +a prostitute, so that she might attend the university, never suspecting +what formalities she would have to undergo in consequence. In course of +the medical examination, however, the circumstances of the case were +immediately discovered, and the young girl was punished for the +attempted deception and sent away. + +A well-known Orientalist, a man of seventy years, had business to +execute in Moscow which he did not succeed in finishing before night. No +hotel would have taken him in; and he could not endanger any of his +friends, for if in the frequent nocturnal rangings of the police in +Jewish dwellings a Jewish guest without a passport should be taken, the +host would lose his right of residence. In his difficulty the old man +asked a railroad official how he could pass the icy-cold night. The man +gave him the good advice that he should seek out the only place where a +man is permitted to take a room and spend the night without a +passport--a brothel. Accordingly, this man of seventy, in order not to +freeze, was obliged to pass the night in a room with a drunken +prostitute, and sat until morning in a chair, praying. The man who +related these facts to me was a Russian author widely known and honored. + +A Jew who for five years has paid the taxes of the first guild in a +municipality of the pale receives permission to leave the pale and +settle elsewhere. He must, however, gain permission for each member of +his family through the strictest formalities. Woe to him if a child has +been born to him during that time! It cannot qualify, and it may easily +happen that the father must return to the pale. A Jewish merchant of the +first guild in Moscow tried to obtain permission to send such a child to +school. Admission was refused, because he did not possess the necessary +papers. The father appealed to the senate in St. Petersburg, and asked +for provisional permission for attendance of his child at school until +the passing of a judgment in that place. The minister of justice, +Muraviev, however, entered a protest against this. Therefore the father +was obliged either to employ private tutors or to let the child grow up +without instruction. + +Whoever works as assistant to a dentist, and has obtained a certificate, +may open an office for himself. The only requirement for this is that it +shall be well fitted up and that nobody shall sleep in it. This +facilitation is granted because of the fact that in Russia there is a +great lack of dentists. Yet a Jewish dentist went to a lawyer and +complained that he had fitted up his office and had handed in to the +police his request for leave to practise. The police waited three +months, then came and explained that, since he had not practised his +profession for three months, he must immediately leave Moscow. He was +obliged to leave his house immediately, and wander about all night, +because he could nowhere find lodging. + +Another Jewish dentist, a woman, wished to take her examination. A +certificate was demanded testifying to her political blamelessness. When +she tried to obtain this it was refused her, since she had no right of +residence there, and therefore could not demand a certificate! + +The Jews meet these tricks of the authorities with tricks of their own. +They pay for a dentist's certificate, fit up an office, and then go into +trade in bed-feathers or calico. The police official who wishes to prove +whether the dentist's profession is really practised has some ruble +notes slipped into his hand. Very recently the Jews have found a means +to become known as Christians without baptism, which they shun. +Good-natured priests, who receive nothing at all for a baptism but a +large price for a written declaration that X. Y. is an orthodox +Christian, draw up such declarations. The unbaptized Hebrew comes as an +orthodox Christian to Great Russia and carries on business, while the +helpful priest receives a little income from him. + +In general, the Jew must be able to pay; in that case life is not hard +for him in Russia, where, as I have said, no anti-Semitic feeling +whatever exists among the people, and the national characteristics of +good-nature, of heartiness, helpfulness, and politeness make life easy +and pleasant. But woe to the poor wretch who cannot pay at every step! +Woe to the struggler who wishes to better his lot! Woe to the lover of +justice who dares to fight for his rights or even for the public +welfare! One of the special laws for the Jews is that any one may +trample him and injure him unpunished. Of all the unfortunate subjects +of the Czar, he is the most unfortunate. His intelligence, his sense of +justice are offences against the sacred order of things, which demands +stupidity and obedience. Thus exists the entirely incomprehensible +condition that a great realm steers towards inevitable economic ruin for +lack of economic intelligence, while it possesses five million born +financiers, who in the lifetime of a man could change Russia into an +economic world-power. + + + + +XVII + +THE JEWISH QUESTION + + +A visit to Russia offers opportunity for an extremely interesting study. +One may become acquainted with a rapid succession of towns where the +population is almost entirely Jewish, or half Jewish, or to a large +extent Jewish, and also with others in which residence is practically +prohibited to Jews, which, therefore, to speak in anti-Semitic jargon, +are almost "clean of Jews." In western Europe there is neither the one +nor the other. It would be strange, indeed, if such ethnologically +unique conditions offered to the observant spectator no disclosures +which he seeks elsewhere in vain. In fact, I made in the cities free of +Jews an observation which seems to me well worth imparting. The Jewish +problem is nothing but a problem of relative overpopulation. The Jews +are unendurable only where they are forced to compete with each other. + +I made this observation in the following way: The Jewish proletarians of +Poland impressed me as extremely repulsive. Their laziness, their filth, +their craftiness, their perpetual readiness to cheat cannot help but +fill the western European with very painful feelings and unedifying +thoughts, in spite of all the teachings of history and all desire to be +just. The evil wish arises that in some painless way the world might be +rid of these disagreeable objects, or the equally inhuman thought that +it would really be no great pity if this part of the Polish population +did not exist at all. One is ashamed of such thoughts; nevertheless, +that does not rid one's mind of them. Either we must renounce our ideas +of cleanliness and honesty or find a great part of the Eastern Hebrews +altogether unpleasant. Since the former is impossible, the latter will +always be the case. Comparison with the still dirtier, still more +immoral, still more neglected Polish proletariat does not drive away +these thoughts. The Jew has, besides his filth and his craftiness in +business, something else which calls to mind a nobility of civilization, +so that he cannot be confused with any chance "lazzarone" or vagabond. +He is not himself, but the caricature of a man of culture, and as such +he produces an irritating effect. + +In the cities free of Jews all this suddenly disappears. The Jews whom +one has opportunity to meet there, well educated merchants of the first +guild, incorporated artisans, and descendants of the Jewish soldiers of +Nicholas I., are of quite another caliber from their Polish brothers. +They are in no way to be distinguished from the Russians. One is +continually prone to take the bearded Russian driver or merchant for a +Jew and the intelligently keen Jew for a European. Then one learns that +these Jewish lawyers, physicians, merchants, and artisans are treated by +the Russians themselves as their equals in every respect; indeed, that +the Jews enjoy a certain priority as being relatively more honest in +their dealings. On the contrary, the Russians, when large numbers of +them follow a single calling, as, say, in the great mercantile houses or +the ranks of trade, show all the qualities which, to our Western minds, +are stamped as specifically Jewish. They are outrageously obtrusive, and +unreliable to the point of open deception. The German Hanse towns +strictly forbade their merchants to give Russian Jews goods on credit, +to lend them money, or to borrow from them, under penalty of immediate +punishment.[1] In making the smallest purchase one finds that there is +no question of a mercantile reality; that there is no fixed price, no +keeping one's word, nothing that to us in the West has long seemed a +matter of course. Just as in the Orient the Spanish Jews seem much more +reliable and sterling than the rascally Greeks and Armenians, the Jews, +when thinly scattered, gain by comparison with the native Russians. Now +the Russian Jew is no Spaniard, with a proud Western past. He is +altogether identical with the Polish Jew. His higher development cannot +be accounted for by any ethnological difference. It is simply that under +quite different economic conditions of existence he has become a quite +different person. Dr. Polyakoff, of Moscow, is, in fact, another man +from, say, his grandfather, Pollak, of Poland. + +With these facts we now approach the real problem. The overcrowding of a +calling engenders a competition in squalor among Christians as well as +Jews, Aryans as well as Semites. The Jews, however, live in overcrowded +callings all over the world, obeying historic laws of adaptation even +where other callings, not overcrowded, are not closed to them. Hence we +have the disagreeable phenomenon of the handing over of certain +vocations to the Jews, which means nothing else than the injury of these +callings by the trickery of the competition of squalor. Where no fetters +are placed on the economic life, the healthy organism, in time, +overcomes these local inflammations, as we may designate, by an +expression taken from pathology, the influx of an abnormal number of +cells of a certain sort to a place not intended for them. The crowding +of the callings until self-support is impossible, the sinking of +endurance in the overcrowded vocation, lead to a flowing off of the +superfluous elements, and finally the whole organism has overcome the +crisis of assimilation by forcing each particle where it is economically +most valuable. In Germany the adjustment cannot be far away. The fact +of the unheard-of economic growth during the past fifteen years, and the +unusual increase of prosperity in all branches, show at least that +Germany in its bare fifty years of Jewish emancipation has been in no +way injured economically. + +In Russia, also, the most expedient thing would evidently be simply to +declare the removal of all restrictive laws, and to open to the Jews the +interior of the country, as well as all occupations which they might +wish to enter. The blessing to Russia would be immense, for the Jews, as +thinking men and members of a race of ancient civilization, would bring +to the Russian nation just what it lacks, an intelligent middle class +capable of culture. The percentage of Jews would not be at all too high +for Russia to carry without danger to the national character of society. +To about one hundred and thirty million Russians there are about five +million Jews--that is, barely four per cent. The "Jew-free" cities of +Moscow and St. Petersburg show approximately this proportion, without +the Jews being perceptible there. (It must be admitted that one of the +comforts of these cities is that they are not, like Warsaw, for +instance, overwhelmed with greasy, caftaned Jews.) If it could be +brought about, therefore, that the Jews could be scattered throughout +the whole kingdom in the ratio of four per cent., it would be an +incalculable gain for all parties, and mankind would be rid of a problem +which threatens the condition of our ethics and humanity the more the +longer it exists. + +Nevertheless, this is not to be thought of as an immediate possibility. +The Russian government is not in the least gifted with magnanimity and +farsighted patience, though the contrary is true of the Russian people, +who are entirely free from anti-Semitic prejudice. For this reason any +enlargement of Jewish rights of residence and vocation is prevented by +the pointing out of the infection which would then threaten all cities +and all lucrative occupations. The Jewish question will long remain +unsolved, for whom could the Russian officials bleed if not the +tormented, worried, defenceless Jews? + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] _Book of Documents of Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland_, Reval, +1852-64, Nos. 576-588, and _Documentary Business of the Origin of the +German Hanse_, Hamburg, 1830, ii., No. ix., p. 27; both cited in Lanin +_Russian Characteristics_, German edition, i., 142. + + + + +XVIII + +PLEHVE + + +In the winter of 1881 there took place in Cracow one of those great +socialistic trials with which in those days it was hoped in Austria to +smother the socialistic movements which were imported by unscrupulous +agitators. The trial is known in the annals of social-democracy as the +proceedings against Warnynski and his accomplices. Thirty-five men were +indicted, among them twenty Russians from Volhynia, mostly students of +the Polytechnic Institute in St. Petersburg, who had been arrested in +the work of agitation in Galicia. The prisoners noticed during the +proceedings that they were conducted one at a time, under one pretext or +another, out through a special door of the courtroom, and they could +discover no explanation of this queer course of action. Finally, one of +them, in passing through the door, found the reason. It was a double +door provided with a deep niche. In this niche was a Russian functionary +acting as a voluntary menial to the Austrian police, and at the same +time as a spy in the Russian service, who took this opportunity of +taking cognizance of his own people among those who were led by. Of +course the matter was not closed without the gravest insults to those +caught, who could only be protected against further abuse by the court +constabulary. And this police devotee, who showed such zeal in putting +down international revolution, was no one else than the present +all-powerful figure in Russia, his excellency the minister of the +interior, M. von Plehve, at that time states-attorney in Warsaw. With +this bit of sleuthing, which the Poles very well remember to this day, +this fortune-favored statesman made his début in the world outside of +Russia. He has remained true to his character. He is to-day, at the head +of the greatest state in the world, nothing else but the greatest police +spy in the world. His politics are stamped with all the characteristics +of a police origin, police in the Machiavellian sense--_i. e._, crime in +the service of order. In all Russia I spoke to no one who would have +chosen for the description of Plehve's character any other expressions +than those which serve for the delineation of the lowest level of moral +existence. I shall here try to make a sketch of Plehve in accordance +with the statements about him which were made to me with perfectly +astonishing unanimity. + +Justice must be done even the basest. It should be mentioned at the +outset that in a land of universal venality the reputation of Plehve had +this considerable advantage, he was said to be absolutely unbribable. +That is a great deal, a very great deal, when one considers that in +Russia certain legislative acts are quite openly traceable to the +payment of this or that high functionary. Suspicion, which as a rule +does not even spare princes, never once tainted him. But little account +do the Russians take of this characteristic. Probably they would prefer +it if his other evil traits were a bit softened by the vice of venality. +For Plehve passes for something far worse than a spendthrift or a +wasteling. He is a rascal without scruples, a political Sadist, a +bloodhound, an accomplished deceiver; at the same time, a cynic entirely +without heart, a "va banque,"[2] a swindler to whom a political career +or the playing with human lives means nothing more than a pleasant nerve +stimulant--in short, a tiger clothed in a human form. At the same time, +he has the most charming manners, is delightful and entertaining, and +possesses the most true-hearted face possible. His unbelievable +falseness is the next thing about which all complain who have had doings +with him. "Every word that he speaks is a lie," is the assertion which +one oftenest hears about him. The criminal element in his tactics +consists not only in the fact that he persuades the Czar that revolution +is at hand, and keeps him in continual, nerve-killing anxiety by means +of threatening letters, proclamations, and so forth, which he causes to +be smuggled into the Emperor's pockets, but still more in the fact that +he actually provokes disorders, in order to be able to use them as +arguments and to strengthen his position, and in the further fact that +he is continually discovering conspiracies and handling the supposed +members in the most fearful way in order to prove his indispensability. +The whole store of police tricks which have been played on despots in +order to turn autocrats into willing tools of their Prætorians has been +pillaged by Plehve in order to bring his system to a state of +perfection. In particular the Jews and the Poles must suffer in order to +contribute to the danger of the situation--_i. e._, the indispensability +of Plehve. Not a soul in Russia doubts that the Kishinef massacres were +the direct result of his commands; the cynicism with which he rewarded +Krushevan, the leading agitator from Bessarabia, with which he took +under his protection the agitator Pronin, who had been insulted by a +congress of teachers, is a shameless acknowledgment of his deed, which, +to say more, he only repudiates before foreign countries, not, however, +before his confidants. He seizes upon every little thing in order to +make some big affair out of it. In Warsaw the widows of the members of a +committee which had collected money for a Polish hospital corps were +stoned by students. Immediately was sent the telegraphic order to +investigate the thing most thoroughly, and if those who were the +sufferers had not refused all assistance to the police another couple of +dozen would-be rioters would have been sent to Siberia, in order that +the existence of a Polish revolution might be proved. A Russian editor, +whose paper had been suppressed because of the publication of a +revolutionary poem, sought audience of the head of the censorship at the +ministry of the interior, in order to obtain permission for the +reappearance of the paper. The chief of the department explained to the +editor, according to a Russian nobleman, that if he should simply +declare to the minister that the revolutionary poem had been smuggled +into the paper by Jews, he would immediately obtain permission to +publish his paper again! From a source whence I never should have +expected such a statement, from a highly conservative aristocrat, an +"excellency" in the service of the state, I received in all seriousness +the information that only Plehve, in league with Alexeyev, had conjured +up the war by holding off the Japanese, simply because in this way he +would become so much the more indispensable. Nay, more, it was even +indicated to me that the nihilists, who killed Alexander II. at the very +moment when the proclamation of a constitution lay upon the table +awaiting his signature, could not have found their way to the imperial +carriage without help from the police. And the ally of Loris-Melikov, +the man who had drawn up the plan, and who best of all knew how near its +signature, which must be avoided, the proclamation was, was none other +than Plehve! His instinct drove him to the ranks of the reactionaries, +for there is little use for people of his caliber in a constitutional +state. His anti-Semitic tendencies, which he naturally disavows to every +Jewish visitor, are only assumed because people high in position and +influence, like the empress dowager, Prince Sergius, and others of the +generation of Alexander III., are fanatically anti-Semitic. So even this +is not genuine in him. Nothing is but his theatrical ambition to assert +himself as long as possible, and to have the nerve-tickling of a +tight-rope walker who balances on his wire rope over fixed bayonets. + +That is the picture of the minister of the interior as public opinion in +Russia paints it. I must confess that the picture is as little to my +taste as is the man. While the great Russian novelists are, above all, +masters in the use of shades, political public opinion likes to work +with the strongest colors, with bloody superlatives. Suspicious as the +circumstances may be that not a soul in the broad Russian empire is +inclined to say a friendly word for the ruling power of the time, yet +the unprejudiced observer must reckon with the circumstance that even +without a free press in Russia there is a certain uniformity of +political opinion which can only be explained on the hypothesis of a +certain uniform centre of opinion, many of whose statements are taken on +faith by every one. I imagine that this centre is situated pretty high, +perhaps in the immediate neighborhood of the Czar, and that the picture +of each minister is sketched by his rivals, but, like every article for +the masses, only in poster style, in striking words, very white or, +oftener, very black. He, not a Russian and not a rival, who has not the +same burning interest in getting rid of Plehve, will therefore do well +to transpose this rascal from his supernatural atmosphere into an +every-day one, and a somewhat different picture will result. + +I think of it in this light: Plehve comes from a states-attorney and a +police career. Some traces of this origin cleave to every one of like +training. Judges who have been states-attorney are the terror of +lawyers, because of their inquisitorial manner, and because of their +inclination to see in every defendant a person already condemned. +Furthermore, dealings with police agents are least of all fitted to +cultivate scrupulousness. Let only Puttkammer's words be recalled, +"Gentlemen do not volunteer for such services."[3] The continual fear of +assassination, which is well founded in the case of the head of the +Russian police--Plehve allows his expenditures for the guarding of his +person to amount as high as eight hundred thousand rubles a year--does +not conduce to making a man human; and, finally, all bearers of honors +in Russia are cynics, because their existence is founded only on the +mood of a single person, and their whole career is a game of hazard. In +the case of Plehve and others there is this additional evil influence, +that not being Russians--Plehve is a Pole, of Lettish-Jewish +origin--they must distinguish themselves by special Russian Chauvinism +in order to avoid suspicion. Plehve is not a great man, his whole +ministerial career being devoid of a single noteworthy act. He is a +successful official, who intends by every means to make himself felt in +high circles, and who considers himself justified in countering the +intriguing of his rivals by any or all the means customary in the land, +and "Voilà tout." But, in general, love of truth is not a characteristic +of so-called public life in Russia. Hence it would be unjust to count as +a special crime Plehve's special falseness. + +It must be conceded that even this picture is far from being a pleasing +one. If to these features the proved fact is added that Plehve denounced +to the governor-general, Count Muraviev, his own Polish foster-parents, +who picked him up, so to speak, in the very street and raised him +(Plehve was originally a Catholic), so that they were sent to Siberia in +return for their kindness; that Plehve, therefore, began his career with +a deed of infamous ingratitude and treachery,[4] then the black will be +black enough to allow of passing over the remaining smirches in the +picture of a monster. + +But the most pitiful of all that I heard about Plehve's régime was the +answer I received when I asked a man in a very responsible position +whether better things might be expected when Plehve should be overtaken +by his inevitable fate. + +"No," the answer was; "deserved as such a fate will be, for us it will +bring no help. Another man, that is all. Plehve is only the ideal +required by the régime. A police state needs police natures, and always +finds them. He has all the vices save that of corruptibility, but is by +no means unique in the hierarchy of Russian officials. And it is far +from probable that anything better would succeed him. If all Russia +hopes [_sic_] that he will soon be annihilated, it is not because an +amelioration of things is hoped for, but because some satisfaction is +felt when one of these beasts meets his due. But a philanthropist and a +friend of justice will be just as unlikely to be minister of the +interior under an absolutism as he is to desire to be an executioner. +Only another system can bring us other men. A reign of terror tolerates +only hangmen." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] One who risks everything on one card. + +[3] "Gentlemen geben sich für diese Dienste nicht her." + +[4] See Struve's _Oswobozhdenie_. + + + + +XIX + +THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE + + +It was perhaps not altogether accidental that one evening at a social +gathering I was introduced to one of the foremost lawyers of St. +Petersburg, whose biting sarcasm in discussing the events of the day +immediately struck me, and aroused in me the desire to have a more +serious talk with him. This was immediately granted with that amiability +which is never wanting in the intercourse of Russians with foreigners. +Subsequently I learned that I might congratulate myself, for that +particular lawyer was said to be not only one of the keenest minds in +Russia, but one of the men best acquainted with his country. Moreover, +he was so overwhelmed with work that even greater men were often obliged +to wait by the hour in his antechamber before they were able to gain +admission. Indeed, the time fixed for our interview, near midnight, +showed this to be the case. The conversation lasted until long after +that hour, but I had no cause to regret the loss of several hours of +sleep. + +My host rose immediately and gave the inevitable order to bring tea and +cigarettes. In a few minutes we were discussing the question which +interested me most, as being the key to an understanding of all the +other economic conditions of the country--namely, the question of the +administration of justice in Russia. + +"One circumstance makes it uncommonly difficult here to obtain justice," +began the lawyer. "I refer to the strained relations between the bench +and the bar. Here the judge is more hostile to counsel than is the case +in other countries, and often enough he is inclined to make them feel +his power. This is less serious in civil suits--in which the judge, +after all, merely has to do with the parties in the case--than in +criminal cases, in which the judge represents the authority of the realm +towards the accused and his advocate. In such cases the defendant may +easily pay the penalty of the animosity which the judge feels towards +his counsel." + +"What is the cause of this?" + +"It has only too human a cause. It is not unheard of for a busy lawyer +of reputation and good connections to earn thirty or forty thousand +rubles a year, or more. Compare with that the wretched salaries of the +judges; consider how costly living is here; imagine the continuous +over-burden of work of the bench and the lack of public appreciation, +and you will comprehend why our judges do not look at the world in +general through rose-colored glasses, and particularly at the +prosperous, well-situated lawyer." + +"You say lack of public appreciation. Is the position of judge not an +honorable one?" + +"On the whole, no official in Russia is much respected. At the most he +is feared. The most lucrative positions, however, are those of the +administrative department and the police. In these branches are to be +found the most rapid and brilliant careers, and therefore the sons of +great families, in so far as they become officials, prefer them. The +judge must work hard, and has small thanks." + +"Does not this evil have a moral effect on the impartial administration +of justice also?" + +"You mean, in plain speech, are not our judges to be bought? Well, I +must say, to the honor of these functionaries, that relatively speaking +they constitute the most honorable class of all our officials, and that +the majority of them are superior to bribery. To be frank, there is +professional ambition enough; and the effort to please superiors is +almost a matter of course, since the independence of the judges, which +had brought us extraordinary improvement in the candidates for the +office, has been set aside again." + +"Your judges are not, then, independent and irremovable?" + +"What are you thinking of--under our present régime? We do not wish +independent judges. A minister of justice like Muraviev, who certainly +constitutes the supreme type of all that is meant by the expression, 'A +man of no honor,' is the strongest hinderance to justice. Therefore, a +monetary acknowledgment to the whole senate is expected for each +satisfactory judgment. We have such a case just now. Here you have a +list of names of seven judges who were promoted out of turn by Minister +Muraviev on consideration of the kind support which they gave to the +Ryaboushinskys, the Moscow millionaires, against the Bank of Kharkov, +which was their debtor." + +"Will you permit me to make a note of this list?" + +"Certainly. I am not the only man who has it." + +I noted down the names Davidov, Sokalski, Vishnevsky, Laiming, Delyanov, +Dublyavski, Podgurski. They were entered on a type-written sheet with +the distinction and encouragement they had respectively received after a +suit which brought a considerable profit to a Moscow millionaire firm. + +"But you said," I objected, "that the judges are not open to bribery. +Yet they performed an illegitimate service to millionaires." + +"Certainly I said the judges are not open to bribery; but I did not say +that of the minister of justice. On the contrary, I called him a man +without honor in a place of the highest power." + +"You mean, then, that he was paid for the judgment that was given in the +interest of the millionaires?" + +"Your astonishment only betrays the foreigner. Only the little debts of +the honorable minister were paid off--good Heavens!" + +"It is incomprehensible." + +"On the other hand, the judge has everything to fear when he is not +compliant. Do you suppose that a comedy of justice like that of Kishinef +can be played with independent judges? And yet there are always heroes +to be found who fear no measures, but administer justice according to +their convictions. That is the astonishing thing, not the opposite, +under a Muraviev-Plehve régime." + +"Was it better, then, formerly?" + +"It was, and would have become better still if our authorities had +remained true to their mission of uplifting the altogether immoral +people instead of corrupting them still further. In the system of +Pobydonostzev, in which politics take the place of morality, no +improvement is to be expected. You might as well expect fair play from +the Spaniards of the Inquisition as here, where premiums are set upon +all sorts of unwise actions, if only they seem to lead to the levelling +of the masses, who are to be kept unthinking." + +"You say the people are immoral?" + +"They lack--above all things, the sense of justice. No one here has +rights. No one thinks he has. The natural state of things is that +everything is forbidden. A privilege is a favor to which no one has any +claim. To win a lawsuit is a matter of luck, not the result of a +definite state of justice. One has no right to gain his cause simply +because he is in the right. As a consequence of this, it is neither +discreditable nor disgraceful to be in the wrong. You win or lose +according as the die falls. I will illustrate from your own experience. +You were to-day in the Hermitage. At a certain door, before which stood +a servant, you asked whether people were permitted to enter. The answer +was not 'yes' or 'no,' but 'Admittance is commanded,' or 'Admittance is +not commanded.' This spirit extends to the smallest things. That you +keep your child with you and bring it up is not a matter of course, but +you are permitted to have children and to bring them up--the latter, be +it noted, only in so far as the police allow. If you should to-day +suffer heavy loss by robbery or burglary, what should you do?" + +"I should report the matter, of course." + +"You say of course, because it is a matter of course to you that a crime +reported should become characterized as a crime, because in a certain +way you feel the duty of personally upholding law and order. When the +same thing happens to me, a Russian, I must first conquer my natural +tendency, and then after a long struggle I, too, will report the matter, +because--well, because I, as a lawyer and a representative of justice, +am no longer a naïve Russian, but am infused with the usual ideas of +justice. The normal Russian exceedingly seldom reports a case to the +police, because he absolutely lacks the conviction of the necessity of +justice. When he says of anybody that he is a clever rascal, his +emphasis is laid on the word clever, which expresses unlimited +appreciation." + +"That must make general intercourse exceedingly difficult." + +"Certainly. To live in Russia means to use a thousand arts in keeping +one's head above water. One never has a sure ground of law under his +feet. Property both public and private is perhaps not less safe in +Turkey than here. Have you heard of the great steel affair?" + +"No." + +"It is no wonder, for we do not make much ado about a little mischance +of this sort. In that affair a capital of eight million rubles +disappeared without a trace. It was invested in the coal and steel +works. A grand-duke, moreover, was interested in the enterprise, +Grand-Duke Peter Nikolaievitch. A license to mine iron ore on a certain +territory for ninety-nine years had been obtained. A company was formed +with a capital of ten million rubles. The grand-duke took shares to the +amount of a million rubles. The enormously rich Chludoff put eight +million rubles into the concern. French and Belgian experts were brought +on special steamers; champagne flowed in streams. Of course the reports +of the experts were glowing ones. But after three years there was of the +eight million rubles, barely paid in, not a kopek more to be found. It +had all been stolen. Likewise there was no ore or coal on the territory, +nor had there ever been. No one went to law about the affair, so little +sensation did it cause." + +"When did this affair take place?" + +"Between 1898 and 1901." + +"And can your press do nothing to better this general corruption?" + +"We have a saying, 'It is hard to dig with a broken shovel.' Talented +people like ourselves soon learned from abroad the little art of +corrupting the press. With a fettered press like ours, this is less +difficult here than in other countries, where a paper respecting public +opinion might under some circumstances be unreservedly outspoken. But +why should a press with Suvorin and the _Novoye Vremya_ at the head, +surpassing absolutely all records of baseness--why should such a press +run the risk of bankruptcy? Moreover, you must always keep one thing in +mind: a press may exert tremendous power by publishing a man's +worthlessness, until he is made powerless in society; but since here +notorious sharpers are readily accepted in the highest ranks of society, +and even grand-dukes do not escape the suspicion of corruption, it does +no one any harm to be reported as having dexterously spirited away a few +hundred thousands." + +"You say even grand-dukes?" + +"--Are not safe from suspicion. I can personally testify that not one of +them takes a ruble himself. But the persons who live by obtaining +concessions for joint-stock companies, etc., know how to represent that +they need considerable sums for the purpose of influencing the highest +persons, the minister and grand-dukes. Hence arises this idea." + +"And intelligent business men believe that?" + +"Believe it? No one would understand the opposite. Imagine a scene in my +office. A business man comes to me with a case. He inquires my fee. I +say five hundred rubles. He asks what will be the expenses. I say a few +rubles for stamp duties, etc. Then he becomes more definite. He means +the _charges_. 'There are none,' I answer. The man of business rises, +disappointed. 'Ah! so you have no influential connections?' I will not +say that this happens very often with me; for the men who come to me +once know what I can do, and what not, and what my practice is. The case +is, however, characteristic. Outside the legal profession, which still +lives on the tradition of the time of its independence, every one is +open to bribery; and every one reckons with the fact." + +"And no one is angry at open injustice?" + +"What is injustice? Despotism of the great. We have been used to that +for thousands of years and accept it like the caprices of fortune. The +peasant makes no distinction between a hail-storm which ruins his crop +and an authority who oppresses or injures him. There is no way of +resisting either; for when one curses God, He sends greater misfortune; +and when one disputes with the authorities, one is absolutely lost. +'Duck, little brother; everything passes'; that is the final conclusion +of our wisdom. We are educated to it by inhuman despots and by an +official service of thieves and debauchees. We lack, too, the sharply +defined idea of ownership, in which the sense of justice, considered +psychologically, has its root. You know that here the peasants own their +own land only to an extremely small extent. The individual is merged and +lost in the 'mir' (village community), where the trustee, the 'zemski +nachnalnik,'[5] the village elder, and liquor rule. This _obshtchina_, +communism, is the strongest fortress of reaction. No ray of +enlightenment penetrates it. At the utmost, misery and ever-returning +hunger produce finally a condition of despair in which the peasant is +capable of anything except an action which might advance him in +civilization. In the census of 1898 there were found villages where no +one had any idea what paper is, and peasants who did not know the name +of the Emperor. The 'mir,' moreover, is in its nature opposed to private +ownership, and every discussion between the member of the village +communism and the property-holder is artfully prevented by the +scattering about of compulsory peasants. For property-owners are at +present for the most part Liberal. The régime, however, stands or falls +with the isolation of the peasantry from Liberal influences. For the +peasant is not unintelligent by nature, and, if he is not prevented, he +learns very quickly." + +"That is also, then, one of the causes of the ill-treatment of the +Jews?" + +"It is _the_ cause. Do not suppose that the Holy Synod alone has power +to influence legislation in favor of orthodoxy. Sectarians and Jews are +demonstrably the only people who have a moral code of their own, and, +therefore, know how to distinguish justice from injustice. They are also +the only ones who criticise the actions of the authorities. They were, +therefore, a dangerous leaven in the community, otherwise slipping off +to sleep in a body. Therefore, it was a matter of self-preservation for +the autocracy to isolate the Jews and make them harmless. Do not suppose +that any anti-Semitic feeling is prevalent among us. The autocrats are +trying artfully to implant it by means of such people as Plehve's +intimate, Krushevan, of the 'Bessarabetz.' But the effect does not go +deep, thanks to the same circumstance which makes the progress of +civilization difficult; the peasant cannot read, and does not in the +least believe the priest. The massacres of Kishinef were directly +commanded. Every man was killed by order of the Czar. No anti-Semitism +exists among the people. Whatever anti-Semitism there is is sown by the +government for the purpose of isolating the peasants in order that 'the +urchins may grow up stupid.'" + +"Ought not the Jews to take that into account and not meddle with +politics?" + +"In the first place, I see no reason why the Jews should become +accomplices of this formidable and soul-killing régime of ours. They +will be oppressed all the same, whether meek or unruly. They will remain +under special legislation, simply because no one can stop the flow of +the official's unfailing spring of revenue--the ravaging of the Jews. +Moreover, the Jews have never received so much sympathy from us as since +they began to place themselves on the defensive and to make common cause +with our Radicals. Now for the first time they belong to us, and yet +really only those who actually fight with us and for us. This matter, +too, is misrepresented. Statistics, which show a percentage of +eighty-five Jews in every hundred revolutionaries, are falsified, +because gentiles are allowed to slip through in order to injure the +Radical--_i. e._, the constitutional--movement by representing it as +un-Russian and Jewish, and to mobilize foreign anti-Semitism against us. +But the Jews ought to be grateful to Plehve, for, thanks to his +machinations, all the intelligent opinion among us has become favorable +to the Jews, and recognizes the solidarity of its interest and those of +the Jews. The struggle conduces much, however, to the assimilation of +the Jews. They are our brothers; they suffer with us and for us, even if +also for themselves; for our whole Jewish legislation for twenty years +past has consisted only in the curtailing of the rights accorded them +under Alexander II. Why should they not become revolutionaries? But they +are enemies of the administration merely, not of the state; therefore, +we find ourselves on the same footing." + +I closed my interview, as in all cases, with the question, "What hope is +there for the future?" and received the same answer as in all other +cases: + +"Everything depends upon how this war ends. If God helps us and we lose +the war, improvement is possible; for then ruin, above all, the chronic +bankruptcy of the nation, can no longer be concealed. If a man should +enter my room now--at this hour only respectable persons enter my +room--and I should say to him, 'What do you hope and wish in regard to +the war?' his answer would be, 'Defeat; the only means to save us.' If +we calculate how many men are shot and exiled and how many families are +ruined every year by absolutism, the total equals the losses in war--a +more terrible one, however, for only a catastrophe can make an end of +this war, which has long been destroying us. Therefore, I say again, if +God helps us we shall lose the war in the East. Do not allow yourself to +be deceived by any official preparations. Every good Russian prays, 'God +help us and permit us to be beaten!'" + +When I left the brilliant lawyer it was, as I have said, long after +midnight. It was "butter-week,"[6] and my sleigh had trouble in avoiding +the drunken men who staggered across our way, and the shrieking hussies, +who, with their companions with or without uniforms, carried on pastimes +suitable to the season. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Chief of the county council.--TRANSLATOR. + +[6] "Butter-week" (maslyanitza) is in Russia the week preceding Lent. +Meat is forbidden, but milk, butter, and eggs are allowed as food. Like +the carnival, it is celebrated with popular amusements.--TRANSLATOR. + + + + +XX + +THE IMPERIAL FAMILY AS THE PUBLIC SEES IT + + +"In no constitutional state is the practical influence of the head of +the government so slight as in the autocracy of Russia," was one of the +sayings I heard most often in St. Petersburg, when I endeavored to +inform myself in regard to the personality and the acts of the reigning +Czar. There are, to be sure, individual opinions to the contrary. +According to these it depends entirely upon the personality of the +autocrat whether he exerts a strong influence or not. The Conservatives +incline to the latter view. Prince Esper Ukhtomski held it; so did a +former high functionary in the department of finance, as well as a +conservative aristocrat in another department, all of whom I questioned +on this point. One of them said in so many words that the Czar needs +only to lift a finger to banish all the evil spirits which now rule the +land. The aristocrat believed the country might be delivered by an +emperor better trained for his functions. Prince Ukhtomski ascribes to +the leading statesmen, at least, influence enough to do good and to +prevent evil, and, therefore, to do the contrary, as has been done for +twenty years, especially under the régime of Plehve. The Liberals and +Radicals, however, who form the greater part of the so-called +"Intelligence," leave the personality of the ruler entirely out of the +question, perhaps from a premature comparison with their constitutional +model. They declare a change of conditions without a change of the +system to be impossible. To be sure, they say, if a suspicious, +inhumane, reactionary Czar like Alexander III. is on the throne, the +domination of the camorra of officials is made more oppressive. Yet the +present mild and benevolent autocrat cannot prevent the existence of +conditions which are more insupportable than ever. Only the press and a +parliament could amend matters, not the good intentions of a single man. + +I do not undertake to judge which of the two parties is right. In any +case it seems worth while to sketch the Czar's personality, which is +certainly an element in the fate of Russia and of Europe. The portrait +is drawn from the reports of people who have had sufficient opportunity +to form a conception of him from their personal observation. It is, of +course, impossible for me to name my authorities, or to indicate them in +any but the most distant way. It must suffice to say that among them +were people who have known not only the present rulers, but also their +parents and grandparents, from intimate association. I myself have seen +the Czar only once. The current portraits of him are very good. The +only striking and noteworthy thing in the handsome and sympathetic face +is the expression of melancholy resignation. One authority alone--whose +statements on other matters I have found to be invariably careful and +accurate--expressed doubts of the good-nature of the Czar, and accused +him of designing and of rather petty malevolence. All others, including +Prince Ukhtomski, who had been the companion of the Czar for years, +agree in emphasizing the extraordinary, almost childlike lovableness and +kindliness of the Emperor, who is said to be actually fascinating in +personal intercourse. This agrees with the fact, which I know from one +unquestionably trustworthy source, that the Czar is intentionally deaf +to everything in the reports of his counsellors likely to disparage or +cast suspicion upon a colleague, while he immediately listens and asks +for details when he hears from one of his ministers a word favorable to +the action of another. It is an absolute necessity for him to do good, +and it is a constant source of fresh pain to him that he cannot prevent +the great amount of existing evil. Again, while the single authority +says he has found in the Czar indications of a subtle if not powerful +intellect, the others, while they praise his goodness of heart, do not +conceal the weakness of his judgment, which, according to them, +certainly has something pathological about it. Prince Ukhtomski alone +speaks of the Emperor with invariable respect and sympathy, without +limiting each hearty statement with an immediate "but." All others, +without exceptions, explain the Prætorian rule of Plehve by the mental +and moral helplessness of the Emperor, who is entirely uninformed, and +is treated by those about him in the most abominable way--under cover of +all outward signs of devotion. The things that people dare do to him, +presuming upon this helplessness, border upon the inconceivable. That +threatening letters can constantly be smuggled into the Czar's pockets, +and even into his bed, without his finally hitting upon the idea of +seizing his body-servant by the cravat, is a very strong proof of his +mental inactivity; the more so, incidentally, because he hears himself +ridiculed outside his own door. This police canard is told, moreover, of +Alexander III., who was a dreaded despot. The rôle, too, which Plehve +played, although the Czar did not esteem him in the least, shows how +successfully the latter has been intimidated and persuaded into the +entirely mistaken belief that Plehve alone could avert the threatening +revolution. + +At the same time the Czar is said to be anything but confiding in regard +to his nearest counsellors. When a report is made to him he sits in the +shadow; the man who makes the report sits in the light. He tries to +decipher the man's expression and to control him, a thing which is, of +course, impossible, since a good Russian physiognomy is more +impenetrable than a Russian iron-clad. His lack of knowledge of affairs +is as marked as his lack of judgment. I will give an instance of this. +In the provinces a quarrel had broken out between the self-governing +corporation, the "zemstvos," and the governors. This difference between +self-government and autocracy was presented to the Czar as turning +merely on the question of centralization or decentralization, and as if +it were a matter for disagreement between the governors and the minister +of the interior, the governors striving against the same full authority +that is held by the ministers of the Czar. In this way the Czar was +successfully deceived in regard to the nature of the quarrel; he did not +learn at all that the provinces were making a demonstration against +autocracy. The result of the deception was, of course, that the Czar +declared himself for the ministry of the interior--that is, for Plehve, +the increase of whose power he by no means wished. + +The rôle which certain adventurers like the hypnotist Philippe and the +promoter Bezobrazov are able to play at court is also certainly a +notable symptom. The former was to suggest to the Czaritza the birth of +a boy, while otherwise he carried through whatever he wished, since he +used the spirit of Alexander III. to secure a hearing for his +suggestions. His departure from court followed upon his impudently +having the spirits recommend a specific firm of contractors for the +building of a bridge. Bezobrazov, one of the agents who have the +Asiatic war on their consciences, is now living somewhere abroad, and +does not dare return, at least while the war lasts. + +Still more significant, it seems to me, is the authenticated statement +that the Emperor has many times received publications upon the condition +of his empire, has carefully read them, and has praised them, without +taking the slightest step towards carrying out the reforms recommended +to him; indeed, after the lapse of a few days, he has ceased even to +refer in conversation to the suggestions. This would seem to indicate an +almost abnormal weakness of will, which makes it easy for a gifted, +inconsiderate, and self-confident reactionary like the Grand-Duke +Alexander Mikhailovitch to carry out his own ideas in everything. + +According to these statements, which come directly in every case from +original sources, the Czar is to be regarded as a man upon the whole +good-natured and lovable, who is, perhaps, too modest and too conscious +of his insufficient knowledge to have the full courage of +responsibility, without which an autocrat is the least able of leaders +to endure his great burden. Inconsiderate and crafty people, who profit +by his weakness, govern him, and he may even be glad of this. In his +perplexity and helplessness, which are due to his human sympathy and +modesty, he is obliged to submit to others with whom he can at least +leave the responsibility for affairs, which in general, as in the +specific case of the war in eastern Asia, go contrary to his wishes. + +His timid temperament is shown especially in his relations with his +mother, the dowager empress, who even now, supported by the reactionary +members of the family, plays the part of the actual empress, and cruelly +mortifies the young consort of the Czar. It is an open secret that the +relations between the two women are anything but untroubled, a condition +which reacts upon the relations of the imperial pair themselves. The +dowager empress has renounced none of her prerogatives in favor of her +daughter-in-law, who consequently feels herself in a very false +position, and complains bitterly of it. People assured me, moreover, +that according to Russian ideas none of the rights claimed by the young +Czaritza belong to her so long as the empress-mother lives. Hence it +vexes the Czaritza that she cannot curb her so-called ambition. The +empress-mother, however, is not at all popular, at least in Liberal +circles, where she is held responsible for the fact that her son cannot +free himself from the evil traditions of his father, who was a strictly +upright, but relentless and brutal despot. The young Czaritza was blamed +among the common people because she had borne no prince in spite of the +prayers of the archbishop John; she is blamed at court also because she +does not conceal her English sympathies. + +One old friend of the imperial family, however, assured me that there +is no more charming, upright, and affectionate woman living than this +young Hessian princess. She is, he said, completely intimidated by the +enemies who surround her and shows them a lowering face. Where she feels +herself secure, however, her merry South-German nature comes to the top, +and she can even now romp like a little child. It speaks for the +innocence of her nature that she is prouder of nothing than of her +potato-salad. For the rest, the same authority asserts, she has a mind +of her own, and may be not always the most comfortable companion for a +husband. + +Among the other members of the family the Grand-Duke Constantine is +called the poet. His interest in art and science is said to be sincere. +He has also great personal attractiveness. In sharp contrast with him +stands the Grand-Duke Sergius, governor-general of Moscow, and +brother-in-law and uncle of the Czar. The things commonly reported of +his private life are unsuitable for repetition here, since in general I +avoid giving space to scandal in a chronicle of important matters. The +things worthy of publicity and important for the weal or woe of +population are the opinions and abilities of princes, not their +liaisons. It is difficult, however, not to speak of the passions of the +Grand-Duke Sergius, since they form such a violent contrast to his +former bigotry. He is unanimously pronounced an unprincipled man with a +black record--a man whose pleasure consists in the sufferings of +others. His influence at court is second only to that of the Grand-Duke +Alexander Mikhailovitch. + +I found in all Russia no trace of a dynastic sentiment. The loyalty to +the House of the Hohenzollerns in Prussia, or to the House of the +Hapsburgs in Austria has no counterpart in Russia. If the personal +influence of the occupants of the throne may be estimated, the Czar +means to the masses of the people the essence of temporal and spiritual +power, to the intelligent class an element of fate. The grand-dukes are +people who can aid and harm, and who are therefore persons of importance +for all Russians. The bond of loyalty between dynasty and people, +however, which in the West has assured the safe existence of the royal +houses through all revolutionary convulsions, does not exist in Russia. +On the contrary, people speak freely in private of the "Saltikov +dynasty," in unmistakable allusion to the well-known first lover of the +Empress Catherine II. Thus the many murders in the imperial house are +received by the people without great excitement. Only the inhabitants of +the Baltic provinces are faithful to the dynasty; the spirit of feudal +loyalty runs in their German blood. Even there, however, it is being +slowly but resolutely destroyed by the ruling anarchists. + +In contemporary opinion Alexander II. and Alexander III. still live, +while Nicholas I. is practically forgotten. Alexander II. is surrounded +with the martyr's halo, and is thought of only as the emancipating Czar +who was got out of the way before he could sign the liberty-giving bill +for a constitution. Public opinion will not be dissuaded from finding +the fact remarkable that the nihilists succeeded for the first time in +reaching the Czar at the moment when all the privileges of the reigning +oligarchy were threatened. Therefore people will not remember any traits +in him except good ones, a thing not altogether consistent with the +picture of him left by Kropotkin in his memoirs. Of Alexander III., on +the contrary, only evil is heard, which I, however, must doubt for many +reasons. For I have been told little incidents of his most private life, +incidents which I cannot repeat, out of consideration for the incognito +of my informant, but which show a certain knightliness and uprightness, +and a truly princely kindness to the weak. Another man is answerable for +the pitilessness of his fatal policy--Pobydonostzev, the Torquemada of +Russia. It is, however, inevitable that history should preserve only +that picture which expresses the sum total of the effect of a +personality. Therefore the memory of Alexander III. is certainly +overloaded with sins of omission. + + + + +XXI + +PUBLIC OPINION AND THE PRESS + + +The fine imperial library in St. Petersburg, which I was permitted +through the kindness of our legation to use, possesses a specialty in a +particular class of works, the collection of so-called "Russica"--_i. +e._, everything that has been written in foreign languages about Russia. +Polite attendants, speaking various languages, assist the visitor. One +learns from them that it is the business of special agents abroad to +report on publications which relate to Russia, and to send them in. So +it happens that probably nowhere in the world is there such an +accumulation of revolutionary literature as in this imperial collection. +For patriotic writings are for the most part in Russian, so that they +may be appreciated and quickly rewarded. The semi-official literature in +foreign languages is not to be compared in quantity or importance with +that which true patriots are forced to their sorrow to write in foreign +languages. I looked through piles of this forbidden literature. The +impression I received was desperately disheartening. There is nothing +which has not been said about Russia. The severest and best-attested +attacks on the régime, on persons, on conditions, stand there quietly, +volume by volume, in the imperial library, and have had exactly as much +effect as whip-strokes on water. The Russian political writer who wishes +to war upon the present system with the weapon of reckless criticism +must lose all hope in face of this library. What more can be said than +has already been said by Milyukov, by Lanin, by Leroy-Beaulieu? The +voice of the prophets does not penetrate to the ears of the rulers, or, +if it does, it is drowned by the whispers of parasites who know how to +protect their own interests, or it finds no echo in the too weak or too +hardened hearts of the rulers. + +I had the same sensation when, in the course of my conversations with +leading persons in the service of the state, and with members of the +"Intelligence," I was more and more struck with the fact that in Russia +there is an unusually strong public opinion, which in its criticisms far +transcends anything that can be said in foreign papers about Russian +conditions, and that this criticism makes no impression whatever upon +the authorities. I was, of course, interested next in the problem as to +how it could be possible without newspapers--the Russian press is under +the most barbarous censorship--to disseminate from St. Petersburg to +Odessa with a truly uncanny rapidity, an almost monotonously uniform +idea of all the events and personalities of the day. I confess I have +not yet solved the riddle. It is only a hypothesis of mine to suppose +that there are three or four centres for the formation of opinion in +Russia, one of which is undoubtedly to be found in the ministry itself, +and another, perhaps, in the Noblemen's Club, or in other clubs of the +intelligent classes in Moscow, and that through the abundance of time +which every Russian allows himself for recreation, every newly coined +saying or opinion is spread throughout the whole realm by letters or by +word of mouth. I have heard from the lips of statesmen high in office +literally the same words I have heard at the table of Leo Tolstoï, in +Yasnaya Polyana, or in the study of the lawyer who gave me an interview. +After I had come to terms with this fact of the absolute uniformity of +public opinion, a fact not altogether gratifying to the collector of +information, it was no longer possible to ignore the question as to how +it is possible that such a unison of wishes and opinions meets only deaf +ears in the highest circles, although it has already become a historic +legend that Alexander II. was forced into the war with Turkey against +his will by public opinion. If public opinion at that time had so much +power for evil, why does it not have power now, and power for good? + +An annoying question sooner or later finds an answer--whether a correct +one or not remains to be seen--no doubt because the mind does not rest +until it has found something plausible wherewith to quiet itself. I +finally explained the matter to myself in the following way. The husband +is the last to hear of the shame that his consort brings upon him. +People point at him, the servants snicker, even anonymous letters +flutter on his table, and still he is unsuspecting, or, at the most, is +disturbed without definitely knowing why. There is, except in the case +of treachery, which is extremely rare, or the taking in the act, which +is still rarer, only one possibility of enlightenment for him--namely, +that a very intimate friend or a near relative shall play the part of +the ruthless physician, and supply evidences which are irrefutable. An +autocrat is hardly less interested in the credit of his system than a +husband in the reputation of his wife. This system is apparently +identical with his personality. He bears all the responsibility. He has +reason for the most far-reaching suspicion of all who approach him, +because he seldom sees any one who does not wish something of him. Who, +then, has the courage, the credit, and the means to approach the Czar, +and to tell him the truth concerning what goes on about him and is done +in his name? A near friend? That would have to be a foreign monarch. It +is well known how carefully kings avoid seeming to advise, especially +when the excessively proud Russian dynasty is in question. What other +monarch, moreover, must not consider his own interests, which cannot be +identical with those of Russia? the German Emperor perhaps least of +all. Unfortunately, however, the relations between William II. and +Nicholas II. are none of the most intimate. Indeed, Nicholas openly +shuns too frequent intercourse with Emperor William, and prefers when he +is in Germany to play tennis with his brother-in-law of Hesse. There +remains, then, only near relatives. They, indeed, are much in evidence, +and they have the Czar entirely under their influence. They are public +opinion for him; and as long as they have no interest in placing +themselves on the side of the opposition, so long, according to +physico-psychological laws, will the voice of the real public opinion +decrease in proportion to the square of the approach to the Czar; and +all anonymous or unauthorized enlightenments and memorials by patriots +who willingly make themselves victims will make no more than a momentary +impression. The public opinion which forced the Czar Alexander II. into +the war with Turkey was the opinion of the belligerent grand-dukes; the +public opinion which rules the present Czar and thereby prevents the +counsels of the opposition from having a hearing is again that of the +grand-dukes, who move only in the narrowest court circles and in those +of the reactionary bureaucracy. The Czar knows this, but he cannot help +himself. He has just now had a new experience of it, when those about +him made him firmly believe that the Japanese affair was well on the way +towards a peaceful settlement, while at the same time, by dilatory +tactics and constant preparations, they provoked the Japanese to declare +war. + +There is only one possible position for an intelligent ruler who seeks +to secure veracious information. That is to institute a free press and +an independent parliament. To be sure, both press and parliament may be +led astray, and lead astray. It is unquestionably easier to find one's +way in a few reports of the highest counsellors than in the chaotic +confusion of voices of unmuzzled newspaper writers and members of +parliament, among whom, it cannot be denied, conscienceless demagogues +find place only too quickly. But he who bears such heavy responsibility +should not avoid difficulties; and there is absolutely no other means of +gaining a hearing for the truth than by the free utterance of every +criticism. Finally, one learns to read and to hear, and comes to +distinguish between real arguments and those of demagogues. No one +outside the country can form a conception of how the Russian press and +the elements of parliamentary institutions are oppressed by the camorra +of officials. The zemstvo of the province of Tver, which had the +effrontery to entertain wishes for a constitution, was dissolved; and +this is the least that happens in such cases. The persecution of the +persons who are under suspicion of exerting especial influence upon +their fellows--this is the evil. They are surprised by night, and in the +most fortunate cases are held in prison for months during +investigations. In other cases, when the search shows that the smallest +bit of forbidden literature was in the hands of the suspected man, his +exile to a distant province or to Siberia is a matter of course. These +things, however, are unfortunately only too well known. What is not so +well known is the way editors are treated who presume to wish to edit a +sheet or who draw upon themselves as editors the displeasure of the +police. The head censor in St. Petersburg, chief of the highest bureau +of the press, is a certain Zvyerev, a former Liberal professor in the +University of Moscow. Renegades are always the worst. Since Zvyerev has +been censor the restrictions of the Russian press have been severer than +ever. I became acquainted with the former editor-in-chief of a great +paper, who sketched for me the examination he underwent before +permission was granted him to edit a paper under censorship. There are, +I should explain, two sorts of papers in Russia. The first are those +which appear ostensibly without censorship, at their own risk, and at +the slightest slip are simply suppressed. It is easy to guess how ready +people are to invest in such enterprises. Those of the second sort are +papers under censorship, which are submitted to the censor before they +appear, and through his oversight receive a certain protection, not, to +be sure, of a very far-reaching kind. This, however, is the only method +by which any capital can be secured; and without capital to-day the +founding of a paper is an impossibility. + +Ivan Mikhailitch Golitzyn, then, wishes to start a paper, has taken all +preparatory steps, has procured capital and valuable testimonials, and +appears now before the mighty Zvyerev to request the final license. + +Zvyerev is a snob and bows to a great name. Therefore he cannot +immediately say no, for the candidate has taken care to obtain +testimonials from the most prominent people. Therefore the following +dialogue ensues: + +"Ivan Mikhailitch, I know you and your family. You are a Russian noble, +and as such are called upon to protect the interests of our Emperor and +of the church. There is also nothing to be said against your patrons. +But you yourself, ever since your student days, have been under +suspicion of harboring Western ideas. Your associations also are not +entirely above suspicion. I am informed that you associate with Jews." + +"Your excellency knows that my paper is to stand for progress, which +certainly is not forbidden, and if Jews are among my acquaintances, it +would be unchristian to insult them by turning my back on them." + +"Yes, that is all very well. But I should like to know whether you will +oppose the impertinences of the Jews with the necessary vigor?" + +"Your excellency will perceive that a paper which stands for progress +cannot attack the Jews without good reason. But, on the other hand, it +cannot be philo-Semitic, for our mercantile class would not advertise, +on account of their anti-Semitic feeling, and the paper could not +continue." + +"Will your paper support the absurd efforts which are being made towards +the introduction of a constitution?" + +"We will concern ourselves only with practical questions. The +introduction of a constitution does not belong to these." + +"But if one of your editors should make an attempt to enter upon the +discussion of this question, would you permit it?" + +"My editors know the programme and will not attempt any disloyalty to +it. But should the case occur, it would be my duty to protect the +integrity of the programme." + +"Ivan Mikhailitch, you are a clever man and know how to make evasive +answers. I cannot refuse you a license. But I warn you! And beware of +the Jews. That is the first duty of a Russian nobleman to-day." + +That is the conversation which has certainly been carried on more than +once in Zvyerev's office before the founding of a paper. In striking +agreement with it is the scene which Struve reports in his +_Osvobozhdenie_, when, after the suppression of a paper, the editor +presents himself because his license has been taken away unjustly. + +Again, take the case of a Moscow paper which has published a poem +delivered at the time of a public festival, but in which the author had +afterwards made some changes. The paper--I do not remember its name--was +suppressed. The publisher or the editor, who is likewise said to have +been a Russian noble, went to St. Petersburg, and objected that, as his +paper appeared under censorship, if any one was to blame it was the +censor who had let this poem pass. Zvyerev, however, showed plainly that +latter-day tendencies did not please him, and that he only wanted an +excuse for taking measures against the paper. Of course such measures +mean, under some circumstances, financial ruin; in any case, severe +injury to all the contributors. Therefore suppression of the license is +an unusually effective means of pressure to bring to bear against the +convictions of editors. In this case pressure of such a monstrous kind +was attempted as it is to be hoped stands alone in the chapter of +censor-tyranny. The editor was told in plain words, by Zvyerev, that he +might permit it to be stated that the poem had been smuggled into the +paper behind his back by the Jews, and that the minister of the interior +would at once grant a license for the reappearance of the paper. The +editor, of course, refused the demand, and a new page was added to the +book of Russian infamy. Zvyerev is still in office as a worthy assistant +to his minister, Plehve. + +The oppression of independent-minded organs is, however, not the only +expedient of Russian policy in regard to the press. Its antithesis is +not absent--official support of the revolutionary and provincial press. +Russia rejoices in one journal which has not its equal in untruthfulness +and diabolical baseness in the whole world, the _Novoye Vremya_. This +Panslavic sheet, which is ready to eat all Germans and Jews alive, and +which finds no lie too infamous, no invention too childish to serve up +to its readers, if only their prejudices are tickled, is openly +supported by the Russian government. It therefore contains an +incomparably greater amount of news than any other, has consequently the +most subscribers, and can pay its contributors and correspondents the +best, so that every one who wants to read a paper with plenty of news +has to take this noble organ. I found it everywhere in Russian houses, +and if I asked the master of the house his opinion of it, the answer was +everywhere the same: "Infamous, but indispensable." + +It is, then, carefully seen that in Russia, as elsewhere, emperors--and +other people--do not hear the truth. The autocracy, or rather +bureaucracy, surrounds itself with bulwarks which nothing can penetrate. +It will need an earthquake to make a breach. This earthquake is, indeed, +according to the common opinion of all thinking Russians, nearer than is +generally supposed. It is the financial breaking-up of a system now held +together only by foreign loans. + + + + +XXII + +SOME REALITIES OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION + + +At a social gathering which I must not describe because I do not wish to +make it recognizable, I had an unusual privilege. We were drinking tea +and talking--politics, of course, for no one any longer talks of +anything else in Russia--when the door opened and a tall and very +stately couple entered. A general exclamation hailed the new arrivals. +They were welcomed with striking heartiness and invited to the table, as +people who had returned from a long journey. When introduced to them I, +of course, did not understand their names, and contented myself with +enjoying the handsome appearance and elegance of the gentleman as well +as of the lady until I could ask my neighbor at table why these people +were welcomed with such surprising warmth. + +"He has just come out of prison," was the hastily whispered reply. + +The communication had such an effect that I was unable to finish the +meal. It is not a usual thing for a western European to sit among the +guests of a prominent family with people who have just been discharged +from prison. Moreover, among us, culprits do not look like this +uncommonly handsome pair. Finally, it is not customary with us to +receive with such heartiness people who have just discarded prison +shackles. I therefore asked for the name and crime of the new-comer. I +was told, and at once I understood everything. + +This courtly gentleman was a Russian noble and a prominent lawyer. At my +request he related in German his prison experiences. He had, it seems, +been arrested at night and immediately incarcerated. His wife had taken +the children out of bed, because even the beds had to be searched for +forbidden literature, and the like. The pretext for this night visit of +the police had been that the lawyer had been informed against as having +given shelter to a political fugitive. For this reason search was made +even in the cradle of the smallest child, in order to make sure that the +criminal was not hidden there. The true ground, however, was that Mr. +von X----, as a lawyer, defended political criminals and must be dealt +with accordingly. Eleven days were spent in examining him. The search of +the house revealed nothing; for only the most reckless have a trace of +forbidden literature in their houses, although Struve's +_Osvobozhdenie_[7] is read almost everywhere. No other accusation could +be brought against a man so highly honored. He was also not altogether +without means of defence in his large clientage. His case had caused a +great sensation. The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war had, however, +caused the authorities to content themselves with treating him to the +pleasures of a short residence in a police hole, and they refrained for +the time being from exiling or banishing him from the place of his +practice--an experience which might easily enough happen after a much +longer investigation to lawyers less noted or of lower rank. + +After this little incident, noteworthy enough to a foreigner, I became +much interested in the troubles of lawyers, and obtained the amplest +information on the subject. I even incidentally made the acquaintance of +one of the officially disciplined lawyers of Kishinef, but was unable to +converse with him, as he spoke no language other than Russian. He was a +vigorous man, rather young, with heavy, dark hair and beard, and of a +distinctively Russian type. As the son of a priest, he ought to have +had, according to the ideas of people of discretion, something better to +do than to interfere with the programme of the government. But Dr. +Lokoloff, the lawyer in question, is a remarkable man. He believes it to +be an advocate's duty to uphold justice; and he absolutely refused to +admit that justice in Russia is a matter of politics. I managed to learn +more about the proceedings against Dr. Lokoloff from a well-informed +colleague of his whose name I, of course, may not disclose. Since the +simple recital of such a case is more instructive than whole volumes of +generalizations, I will give it in detail as related to me. I may, +however, promise that the case is by no means the worst I have heard of, +as the government takes much severer measures to terrorize lawyers and +to prevent them from defending "politically inconvenient" persons. The +case of Lokoloff, moreover, calls for more detailed treatment because +the massacre perpetrated at Kishinef, in the name of the Czar, has at +last drawn public attention to the conditions in his dominions. + +The participation of the government organs in the "pogrom" of Kishinef +was exposed by another lawyer, Dr. Paul N. von Pereverseff, who expiated +his accusation with exile to Archangel, where he and his wife now live +in a village, while his children are being sheltered by relatives. +Pereverseff had gone to Kishinef after the disturbances, and had there +made the acquaintance of Pronin, Krushevan, Stefanoff, and Baron +Levendahl, at that time in command of the gendarmes at Kishinef. Since +he came as counsel for the accused, and was a Russian nobleman above +suspicion, he at once enjoyed the confidence of these honest men. Thus +he learned that Pronin, the colleague of Krushevan and the protégé of +Plehve, in his character of member of the committee for poor culprits, +gave exact instructions to the prisoners how they should speak in the +legal proceedings. Pereverseff soon became convinced that the chief +culprit--namely, Plehve, who had planned to administer punishment to the +Jews, and to present a new accusation against them to the Czar, would +not appear at the bar. Instead there would appear only the poor wretches +who had been directed to plunder and kill the Jews by order of the Czar. + +Dr. Lokoloff arrived at Kishinef in May, 1903, as advocate for the +injured parties, and learned there from Pereverseff what the latter had +already discovered. He then made a personal investigation extending over +several months, in the course of which he discovered also that the +"pogrom" of the police and of Baron Levendahl had been instigated by +direct orders from higher authorities. He gave expression to this +conviction in the course of the proceedings, and was, in consequence, +imprisoned on an order telegraphed direct from the minister of the +interior to Prince Urussoff, the governor, on December 9, 1903. + +On the day following the despatch of the telegram a letter from Plehve +reached Prince Urussoff, in which the former desired that the +proceedings of Lokoloff in Kishinef be immediately reported and his +exile to the north decreed. Prince Urussoff himself visited Lokoloff in +prison, and made him acquainted with Plehve's message, whereupon +Lokoloff wrote a protocol in answer to four charges based upon data +furnished by the gendarmes, as follows (the accusation is given first +and is followed by Lokoloff's answer): + + + "I. It is asserted that you have come to Kishinef in a + professional capacity, with the ostensible purpose of affording + legal assistance to the injured parties, but in reality to carry + on, in conjunction with other persons whose activity in opposition + to the government is well known, a private investigation parallel + with the legal one, to incite the Jews to make biased statements, + serviceable to the purposes of the opposition, and to bring forward + groundless complaints. + + "_Answer._ Yes, I have carried on an investigation, and in so doing + have only discharged my duty. It is not forbidden in our country to + conduct investigation openly or secretly. My course of action was + dictated solely by the interests of my clients and the inadequate + official investigation. Very rich men took part in the + disturbances; but the official investigation detected only _poor_ + ones as the accused. The interests of the injured persons, however, + demand that the _rich_ culprits also be brought to justice. The + investigation made by me was no secret. The governor, the state + attorney, the court of appeal, and the county court knew of it; and + I received my information in regard to the disturbances from + inhabitants of the city. In order to secure this information, I + questioned many hundreds of people who had been witnesses of the + disturbances. My offices were in special rooms, which were known to + the police. The assertion that the testimony was biased and false + is itself false. + + "II. You have deliberately spread false assertions in order to + discredit the local authorities in the eyes of the government. + + "_Answer._ I have never deliberately spread false assertions in + order to discredit the local authorities in the eyes of the + government. + + "III. You have made use of your official position as counsel to + publish information concerning proceedings in closed sessions, + including the deliberately false assertion that in the legal + process the connivance of the authorities in the organization of + the disturbances, with the help of the authorities and of the + troops, was proved. + + "_Answer._ I have never said that the disturbances were organized + by the government. But from very exact statements of witnesses, I + consider it proved that the disturbances were organized with the + help of very many official persons--as, for instance, Baron + Levendahl. [Here followed an exact statement of the details of the + action of Levendahl, which space will not permit me to give.] The + judge during the investigation, Freynat, himself acknowledged to me + that the leaders of the incendiaries were agents of Levendahl. I + myself demanded the attendance of Judge Freynat as a witness to + this. He was called, but not until after all the lawyers had been + excluded! + + "The agents of Levendahl, who were imprisoned with the murderers, + were set free in the course of a few days, as is testified to by + witnesses. + + "IV. You are in very intimate relations with persons who belong to + the radical opposition. These persons are Dr. Doroshevsky and Miss + Nemtzeva. + + "_Answer._ Relations are not forbidden. I made the acquaintance of + Dr. Doroshevsky and Miss Nemtzeva only because they took part in + the 'pogrom,' to the extent of saving many Jews. Miss Vera Nemtzeva + is, moreover, the daughter of a respected proprietor." + + +Lokoloff wrote to the governor from prison to the effect that the +accusations were groundless, and that he was not guilty. On the receipt +of this letter Prince Urussoff visited him in his cell and admitted +that, in his judgment, Lokoloff was, in fact, wrongfully imprisoned. The +imprisonment, however, had been in obedience to an order from the +minister of the interior. The prince showed Lokoloff a copy of a letter +which he had sent to Plehve. This letter stated that according to +Prince Urussoff's interpretation of the law the action of Lokoloff did +not constitute a crime, and that therefore he could not order his +banishment to the north, but that Lokoloff was "fanatically convinced" +that the "pogrom" had been organized with the connivance of the +authorities, and that he had unconsciously imparted this conviction to +those with whom he came in contact. Therefore his residence in Kishinef +must be considered dangerous. + +After some days Urussoff received a telegram from Plehve directing that +Lokoloff be liberated and that he be expelled from Kishinef. + +Plehve's order was communicated by the governor to Lokoloff, who +expressed his astonishment that he should be expelled from Kishinef, +while Pronin, who in Urussoff's own opinion was one of the chief +offenders, was allowed to remain. This order, he added, would not tend +to a feeling of confidence in justice in Bessarabia. + +As a matter of fact, the expulsion of Lokoloff was generally looked upon +as fresh evidence of the complicity of the government in the +disturbances. + +No one in Kishinef now knows anything more about the affair. +Pereverseff, who had directly attacked the government, was severely +punished and banished; Lokoloff was expelled. "All quiet in Schepko +Street." + +Of course the members of the legal profession in Russia do not regard +the matter with indifference. At a meeting of the Association of +Lawyers' Assistants the sympathy of those present was extended to +Lokoloff; and at the monthly banquet of the Literary Alliance at St. +Petersburg the members even went so far as to express its disapprobation +of the action of the government in the affair. + +The minister of justice, Muraviev, however, the worthy colleague of +Plehve, explained to a deputation of lawyers which congratulated him on +his jubilee in January last, that he was favorably disposed towards the +profession, but that advocates would do well to _avoid "pleading +politically," since it was very prejudicial, indeed dangerous, to the +profession, which might easily suffer for its independence._ A word to +the wise, etc. + +Such are the joys of the legal profession in Russia, and such is the +fate of those who speak in defence of the right. The people of other +countries will appreciate the services to truth and justice which, in +spite of all obstacles, the undaunted advocate performs. + +Such are some of the stern realities of an advocate's life in Russia, +and such the possible, nay probable, fate of any one who "pleads +politically" in defence of the right. It will be apparent to the +citizens of other countries at what a cost the conscientious members of +the legal profession discharge, in spite of endless obstacles, their +duty to truth and justice. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] Liberation. + + + + +XXIII + +THE STUDENT BODY IN RUSSIA + + +Not very long after the dismissal of the former minister of education, +Sänger, I sought out a certain university professor who had been +mentioned to me as being accurately informed about university affairs. +Of course, my visit to him had been carefully planned, for it is not +possible in Russia for a person--least of all if he be an official--to +express himself freely to strangers. + +The information which I received from this authority on the general +political and economic position of Russia agreed with the discussions I +had heard on every side. Misery, despair, inevitable collapse, these +were the words which were most noticeable in his description, too, and +it would be almost superfluous for one to reproduce the conversation +unless certain additional details had been brought out which are +particularly characteristic of the intense ferment in which intellectual +Russia is at just this time involved. + +Just previously several students had been arrested. I asked about the +cause of the arrest and the probable fate of the young folks. A +demonstration in favor of the Japanese had been held by the students, +and had been reported. This was the cause of the arrest. "As yet nothing +can be said about the fate of the incautious young men," the professor +answered. + +"You say that the students held a demonstration for the Japanese? It is +scarcely credible!" + +"And yet it is true. All enlightened people, and accordingly the +students, too, regard the Japanese as an unexpected ally in their fight +against the existing conditions, and so sympathy for them is not +concealed. And, besides, aversion to them as a nation does not exist." + +"But it is the very brothers and fellow-countrymen of the students who +must pay for it with their own blood if the Japanese retain the upper +hand!" + +"That is partially true. But, first of all, Poles, Jews, and Armenians +have been sent to the seat of war, so that the Russian families do not +as yet feel the war so keenly; and then the Russian is used to the idea +that there must be bloody sacrifices for the cause of freedom. At any +rate, those who were arrested are much nearer the other students than +the troops who have gone to the front." + +"But they challenged their fate!" + +"That is a part of the fight against the régime. They seek martyrdom, +since they have become convinced that nothing can be attained by bare +protests and petitions. Perhaps a trace of Asiatic fatalism, and a lower +valuation upon life than is given it in the West, plays a part in their +acts, but, more powerful than all else probably, their conviction that +public opinion appreciates their sacrifices and approves of their +conduct." + +"Then ambition is also an influence?" + +"If you care to call it so. There is a little ambition in every +martyrdom. But the strongest motive is that youthful self-sacrifice, and +the belief that something can be attained for the cause by their +offering themselves up--in short, fanaticism. In this way some of the +most incredible things occur; for example, a student in prison emptied +an oil lamp over his body and set fire to it only in order to protest +against absolutism." + +"I have heard this horrible story." + +"Those who are now under arrest," the professor continued, "will +probably most of them soon be let free, for I do not believe that the +authorities have at present any desire to raise much of a storm. But as +many of them as are Jews will in all probability be more severely +punished, if only for statistical reasons." + +"I understand." + +"Oh yes. You know that the police have their special code for the Jews, +so as to prove that the discontent is entirely due to them. Plehve +asserts that he has forty thousand political indictments, eighty per +cent. of the indicted being Jews. That is made up to suit themselves, +and has nothing to do with turbulence. On the other hand, I dare say, +that quite often just for this statistical reason, and because the Jews +are punished quite differently from the sons of distinguished families, +the Jews are urged by their congeners not to expose themselves; but +they, too, are of course infected by the general fanaticism of +self-sacrifice." + +"But from what do the special student disturbances about which we hear +so much proceed? Are they not caused by troubles in the universities?" + +"Only in the very rarest cases. It is occurrences of general politics +which find a particularly lively echo among the students; the reforms +which are demanded for the university by us, the professors, are even +repudiated by the students, because they do not wish to let the causes +of their discontent be removed." + +"What is the nature of the reforms in question?" + +"General Wannowski, former minister of education, was perhaps a man of +limited capacity, who considered the university a barracks, the +professors colonels and other officers, the students privates, and +explained that the only thing lacking was non-commissioned officers to +keep their respective squads in order. Still he showed us the +consideration of asking us eighteen questions which were to be answered +by the faculties. Look here"--the professor pointed to a heavy bundle of +printed matter--"here you have the results of our inquest." + +"And what is the substance of your wishes, to put it into a very few +words?" + +"One word is sufficient, 'Autonomy.' We want independence in teaching, +'Lehrfreiheit' as it is in Germany, independent regulation of our own +affairs, and liberation from the direction of another department which +has neither interest in us nor understanding of us. This demand was +unanimously expressed by all the universities; in Moscow only two +professors in the whole faculty declared themselves for the prevalent +system." + +"Was anything accomplished by this inquest?" + +"To a slight extent. We obtained a university court, constituted of +professors, and the permission to form scientific societies among the +students." + +"That is not so bad. And you say that the students are not in sympathy +with that?" + +"No, they are afraid that discontent may be lessened by these +concessions, and they wish to be discontented until they have +accomplished everything." + +"What do you mean by 'everything'?" + +"A constitution and freedom of the press. They do not even use the right +to form scientific societies. _At present there is no studying done at +our universities_; politics have swallowed up everything, and the +radical element has seized the leadership completely. They hope in a few +months, by means of demonstrations, and Heaven knows what fateful +resources, to attain a constitution, and after that there will always be +time enough for study. At present, study, too, would be treason against +the cause of freedom. The universities are only political camps +awaiting the call to arms and nothing more." + +"But in this respect, at least, they must be glad of their independent +university courts--that is, that at any rate they punish their youthful +misdeeds more leniently than the police." + +"No. In the first place, it is only disciplinary matters over which our +court has jurisdiction; and then, in the second place, you forget that +the students do not at all want to be mildly treated, but to be +sacrificed." + +"Of course. It is hard to reckon with motives that one scarcely +understands. But one thing is still unintelligible to me. It cannot +exactly be said that Russia is a radical country in the sense that the +whole upper stratum is radical. How is it that the student body, which +comes principally from this upper stratum, is so laden with +revolutionary tendencies?" + +"I might answer you in a French phrase, although it is not particularly +flattering to us, 'Le Russe est liberal jusqu'à trente ans, et +après--canaille.'[8] The Russian is absolutely _not_ conservative, not +even the official. He can mock conservatism while seeking office, but in +his own house he remains a free-thinker, and youth, which has not yet +learned to cringe and hedge, blushes at the two-facedness of its +parentage, and continually reveals the true attitude of the house. Then, +with the exception of the high nobility, our whole landowner class is +more than liberal. Moreover, from two to three hundred conservative +students are to be found at each of the great universities, and they +have formed a secret association for the protection of the _sacred +régime_--and it is characteristic that the _Novoye Vremya_ was allowed +to print the call to form this secret society, although here in Russia +all secret societies are illegal." + +"And are not these conservative students dangerous to their fellows?" + +"Up to the present they have confined themselves to patriotic +demonstrations. They might become dangerous if they once decided to go +to lectures--not even then to their fellow-students, but to the +professors, who have greater doctrinal freedom, and who also make use of +the right to express their opinions, of course within the limits of +their special subjects. [Shortly after this interview a professor in +Kharkov who had expressed sympathy for the Japanese was actually +informed against by the conservative students and disciplined by the +authorities, a thing which led to great student demonstrations.] +Moreover, there are special spies which keep watch over the professors +and students, but luckily they are too illiterate to understand the +import of what is said, and therefore can do little damage." + +"Are the professors sufficiently in sympathy with each other for the +formation of a university esprit de corps?" + +"Most certainly. The common suffering, the fact that they are forbidden +to take open part in politics draw them together. Where in other places +rivalries and differences of opinion occasion dissensions, here there is +to be found only one solid whole--oppression is the firm cement. And +only in this way is it possible to make some resistance to the +absolutism of the police. In _open_ resistance we are quite weak, yes, +even defenceless, against the brutality of the régime, but in _passive_ +resistance we are almost unconquerable because of our close contact with +each other." + +"Ah! And so here there is brought to my attention one of those +subterranean sources of public opinion in Russia, which I have so long +sought." + +"Of course. The universities form at least one of the main channels." + +"And you consider the next generation to be thoroughly impregnated with +ideas of independence?" + +"Thoroughly." + +To the question with which I always parted from my authorities--that is, +what he believed the immediate future contained for Russia--this +professor, whose department I am not at liberty to indicate, but of whom +I can say that he is particularly well informed, gave the following +answer: + +"We are exhausted. The transition to the financing of railroads, tariff +legislation, the tightening of screws of taxation bring in money for a +while, but no real power. We are on the brink of a crisis. I believe +that the war will greatly accelerate and force us to discount our +coupons.[9] Then, in my opinion, it cannot be long before a sort of +national assembly is called. This is my belief and my hope. Conditions +of excitement like the present ones at our universities cannot be long +endured under any circumstances. In one way or another a change must +take place, and we must hold fast to the hope of better things." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] The Russian is liberal until his thirtieth year--and then he joins +the rabble. + +[9] Den Coupon zu kürzen. + + + + +XXIV + +BEFORE THE CATASTROPHE[10] + + +"If you wish to have a striking evidence of the worth of our government, +you need notice only one thing," said an entirely unprejudiced Russian +to me one day. "We have as many questions as we have classes of +population. We have a Finnish question, a Polish, a Jewish, a Ruthenian, +and a Caucasian question. We have, besides, a peasant question, a labor +question, and a sectarian question, and, moreover, a student question +also. Wherever you cut into the conglomerate of the Russian population, +lengthwise or crosswise, everywhere you strike conflicts, combustibles, +and tension. Not a single one of the problems which may exist in +organized states in general is solved, but every one has been made +burning and dangerous through unskilful, brutal, and even malicious +handling." + +The man who spoke in this way was not a Liberal, but a Conservative +aristocrat in the state service. I had reserved him for the end in my +journey of research. After I had had conversations with high officials +in the departments of education and of finance, with men like Prince +Ukhtomski, with bankers and with lawyers, and had heard always the same +story of the instability of things and the worthlessness of the régime, +I turned to the friends who by their influence had smoothed the way for +me everywhere, and said to them: "This cannot go on. I did not come to +Russia merely to be shot, as it were, out of a pneumatic tube through a +collection of Liberal and Radical malcontents. I do not wish to hear +merely the opposition in Russia. You must gain access for me to some +prominent Conservative also, one who stands on the basis of the present +system, and who honestly and in good faith defends it. It need not be +Suvorin or any other man of questionable honor, for I myself can apply +Stahl's theories to Russian conditions. It must be a sincere, reputable, +and sensible man with whom I can discuss the most widely different +questions with or without an interpreter; either is the same to me." + +My request was readily granted. A scholar admired almost to the point of +worship, in whose house I had been entertained, gave me a letter to the +Conservative aristocrat whose words I have quoted at the beginning of +this paper. This letter I forwarded to the honorable gentleman in +question, asking for an interview, and by return mail I received a reply +stating that he would expect me that same afternoon. + +I must confess that I anticipated this interview with some qualms. It +was towards the end of my visit. The results hitherto obtained had the +disadvantage of a certain monotony of sombreness, with, however, the +advantage also that each succeeding interview only strengthened the +impression gained from previous ones. Thus by degrees I had formed a +very sharply defined image of Russian conditions--such an image as is +pictured in the mind of the thinking Russian. Was this clear and +distinct image now to be dispelled by the lye of this Conservative +critic, and was I to lose the chief result of my journey, a confidence +in the trustworthiness of the data hitherto accumulated? + +I met the gentleman at his house at the appointed time, and learned at +once that I had been especially commended to him. I therefore entered +without hesitation upon the matter in which I was interested. + +"I do not wish," I began, "to go through Russia in blinders. If your +excellency, as a Conservative, will have the goodness to refute what I +have heard hitherto, and will give me more accurate information, I shall +be under great obligation." + +"What have you heard?" asked the count. + +"That Russia is starving, while the papers report a surplus in the +treasury." + +"That, unfortunately, is true." + +"That your thinking people are in despair." + +"Also true." + +"That a revival of the Reign of Terror is to be feared." + +"Equally true." + +"That all Russia hopes the war will be lost, because only in that way +can the present state of things be brought to an end." + +"True again." + +"That the present régime passes all bounds of depravity, and can be +compared only with the Prætorian rule in the period of the decline of +Rome." + +"That understates the truth." + +My face must have taken on a very strange expression during this brisk +play of question and answer, for the count now took the initiative, and +said: + +"You are, I can see, surprised that I, as a Conservative and a state +official, should answer in this way; but I hope you do not consider +'conservative' and 'infamous' synonymous terms. If you do not, you will +not expect me to approve the régime of Plehve. That is not a +Conservative régime. It is the régime of hell founded by a devil at the +head of the most important department." (Here came the speech with which +this paper began.) The count then proceeded: "Do not suppose that Russia +is of necessity smitten with such serious problems. These questions are +nowhere simpler than with us. We have no national problems like those of +Prussia, for instance, or of Austria-Hungary, which are complicated by +the fact that majorities and minorities are mixed together almost beyond +separation. We have even in Poland almost no national aspirations +regarding which we could not come to a peaceable understanding. Our +nationalities live almost entirely distinct, in compact bodies side by +side; even the Finns are politically separate. It would be an easy thing +to make them all contented under just maintenance of the supremacy of +the Czar. But the priestlike intolerance of Pobydonostzev has spread the +idea in the world that all diversities of religion and speech must be +ironed out with a hot flat-iron, even at the risk of singeing heads. +Since then it is considered patriotic to repress men and convictions. +For this business unclean creatures are to be found who make careers for +themselves in this way; and their prototype is the tenfold renegade +Plehve." + +"Yet I cannot conceal my astonishment, your excellency, that you, as a +Conservative, have this opinion of the system of Pobydonostzev." + +"Why is that so illogical? Conservative thought is, above all, that of +organic development. All violence is revolutionary in its essence, +whether it serves reactionary or republican tendencies. The system of +Pobydonostzev is revolutionary and reactionary. In his fashion Plehve, +however, is simply a monstrous bill of extortion against the Czar as +well as against the shackled nation." + +"Your excellency of course refers to the idea that Plehve intimidates +the Czar by threats of revolution?" + +"That is not an idea simply; it is a fact, of which we have very +definite information. But what not every one knows is the fact that we +have no one but Plehve to thank for this war, which may be a +catastrophe. He had a finger in all the manoeuvres of delay which +provoked the Japanese to war, because he believed that he could no +longer preserve himself in any other way than by diverting public +attention from conditions in the interior, and by ridding himself of +those who were dissatisfied with him into the bargain." + +"How the latter?" + +"You do not know? It is very simple. The first men who were sent to Asia +were the Poles, the Jews, and the Armenians. Among our troops the Poles +were five times as largely represented, and the Jews even more so, than +they should have been according to their census number. And you must +search to discover a Christian among the reserve surgeons. Why is this +the case? To get rid of the most important elements of the malcontents +for years, perhaps forever. Of course, the Poles, the Jews, and the +Ruthenians have the most cause for discontent. Meanwhile there is peace +at home." + +"Not to a remarkable extent, I observe." + +"Wait. The students, who are so incautious in airing their ideas, will +come to know the East." + +"Your excellency, no Radical has spoken like this." + +"I can well understand that. The honorable Radicals have much less +cause to be dissatisfied with this rule of banditti, for it sends the +water to their mills. But a Conservative like myself sees with horror +that all the foundations of the Conservative order of things are +undermined, and that we are approaching exactly the same convulsions +that France experienced after the spontaneous downfall of her absolute +monarchy." + +"In what respect, then, does your excellency distinguish yourself as a +Conservative from the so-called Liberals? Certainly not in criticism?" + +"I will explain. The Liberals are Girondists, with their ideas adopted +from Cahier and Rousseau. Minister Turgot was a Conservative, who wished +to save the monarchy by trying to make an end of the loose management of +favorites. We Conservatives do not believe in a constitution or a +parliament as the only means of salvation. We Russians are anything but +ripe for that. It is a question if any people of the Continent, +untrained in English self-government, are ripe for it. We look to the +Czar for salvation, and to the Czar alone." + +"Prince Ukhtomski says much the same thing. He does not speak of Liberal +or Conservative, but only of an intelligent party in Russia, and he +believes that an able minister could save the whole situation." + +"I do not believe that for an instant. For, under the present +circumstances, an able and honest minister cannot remain at court. There +is only one salvation--a czar who is so educated for his task of ruling +that he is not the plaything of a circle of courtiers, like our present +good Emperor." + +"I have heard a saying of Pobydonostzev, 'Autocracy is good, but it +involves an autocrat.'" + +"Certainly; even if it were not Pobydonostzev's opinion. For brutality +alone certainly will not do. We must have knowledge of the subject and +strength of will." + +"Then the future must look very black to your excellency, if you await +salvation from a new and better-trained czar. At present there is not +even a prospect of a successor to the throne." + +"It looks black enough. I have no hope at all. For what is hope to +others is to me new ground for sorrow. We shall be defeated in Asia. We +shall have a financial crash--_i. e._, our long-existent bankruptcy can +no longer be veiled by juggling with the budget; and then we shall have +a repetition of the old game of revolutions and constitutions. Some +Western ideas on constitution-making will be imported and will not work. +There will come a reaction, and the hand of every man will be against +every other...." + +"Then your excellency is opposed to the freedom of the press?" + +"God forbid! A Conservative régime is far from being a police régime. We +must have a public opinion and a respectable press, and a press without +freedom cannot be respectable. A press which is under strict laws but +not under police tyranny, and an honorable government, can both be +brought about more easily under an absolute monarchy than under +parliamentary rule; but there will be no question of all this." + +"I find hardly any essential difference between the ideas your +excellency represents and those I have been hearing for months in +Russia." + +"You cannot wonder at that. If you should ask me whether the snow +out-of-doors is white or green, I also, as a Conservative, can only +answer that it is white. We are in a bad way; our peasantry is starving, +our thinking class is in despair, our finances are ravaged. Yet I +believe that far more evil days are before us, and I thank God that I am +an old man who has seen the worst." + +So ended my interview with the Conservative, whom I had sought out for +the correction of the Radical views I had heard. In the evening I had to +make a report to my friends, who had waited it in suspense. My +information created an immense sensation. Something entirely different +from the interview had been expected, and there was astonishment at +hearing views as bitter as any one present could have formulated. Had he +permitted me to publish the conversation with his name? + +"The conversation, but not his name," I answered. + +A general "Aha!" went up from all present. + +"That is the way with our chinovniks," remarked some one; "in a +tête-à-tête they are all Liberal, and as soon as they are on the retired +list they are all Radical." + +"I beg pardon. Count X---- spoke with decision against a constitution, +therefore he is not a Liberal." + +"We must beg of you," came in an almost unanimous chorus, "for Heaven's +sake, not to adopt this view and represent it abroad. It would be the +greatest misfortune that could happen to us if the outer world should +believe that we really are not ripe for a constitution. We do not need +an English or a Belgian constitution, to be sure, but a free parliament +and a free press we do need. Otherwise there is no reliance to be placed +upon any reform, and the farther from the centre the more Asiatic will +be the rule of the satraps." + +"My duty is to report and not to judge," said I, dryly. "I owe it to my +authority to reproduce his views as he gave them to me. The only thing +that I can do is to add your criticism to my report." + +They were satisfied with this offer; and in accordance therewith I have +reproduced the interview. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[10] An interview with a Russian Conservative. + + + + +XXV + +SECTARIANS AND SOCIALISTS + + +I was taken one day to see a young Russian nobleman who was making a +special study of the nature of sects. We drove to the outermost skirts +of Moscow and stopped before a small palace. My companion, another young +boyar, spoke to the servants, and after a few minutes we were conducted +up a broad marble staircase to the first floor, where a suite of rooms +furnished in extremely modern style opened out before us. I remarked to +my companion that, after all, there really are no boundaries between +countries, for this little palace with its very modern interior might +just as well have been in Paris or London as here in Moscow. Instead of +answering, the boyar motioned towards the ikon which hung in a corner. +Modern furnishings, a bookcase filled with the most modern philosophical +literature, and above it the orthodox ikon--we were in Moscow, after +all. + +The master of the house came in and embraced and kissed his friend. I +was introduced, and we shook hands. Cigarettes were lighted, and without +further formalities the young host took some manuscripts from a shelf +and began to give me a private reading. My companion helped out when the +reader's vocabulary failed him. It is thus that I am in a position to +give from my notes the following excerpts from a work which cannot be +printed in Russia, because it deals with the forbidden subject of the +character of sects in a fashion not entirely acceptable to the censor. + +The significance of sects in the inner structure of Russian life is best +shown by some figures which give approximately their membership. In the +year 1860 about ten million Raskolniks (non-conformists) were counted; +in 1878, fourteen million; in 1897, twenty million; and to-day they +number thirty million. These non-conformists not only do not belong to +the orthodox church, but stand in hostility to the state, which +identifies itself with the orthodox church. The sects are constantly +increasing in number, and there is no doubt whatever that they answer +much better to the religious needs of the Russian people than the state +church, just as they already comprise what is morally the best part of +the nation. + +The sects interested me less in themselves--although every expression of +the human instinct of faith is of psychological interest--than in their +bearing on the question as to how far they are united to form a +revolutionary army which could disarm and overthrow the autocracy and +then take in hand the new order of things. I tried to inform myself on +this point from my attractive host's reading. I also asked about it +directly. The answers I received have no room for expectation of a +revolutionary organization in the near future. According to them +deliverance cannot come from below. Absolution no longer has the masses +in hand, but it is at least able to prevent any general, all-inclusive +organization of the dissatisfied; and the thinking class in the +opposition to the government did not find the way to the people until +the most recent times. Only within the last few years has it been +reported that the peasantry is beginning to show symptoms of unusual +fermentation, the authors of which are unknown. The government does what +it can. It has spent nine million rubles for the strengthening of the +provincial mounted police. According to the accepted view the sects +arose because Patriarch Nikon wished to have the sacred writings and +books of ritual then in use, in which textual errors were to be found, +replaced by texts carefully revised according to the originals. The +clergy, however, clinging to the old routine, opposed this. When the +great council of May 13, 1667, declared itself in favor of Nikon's +proposed reform, the division became complete. From that time forward +the opposition of "Old Believers" (Starovertzy) became the heart of all +popular movements against the imperial power. My host represented a +different shade of opinion. According to his idea, the sects arose with +the introduction of Christianity, and they represent the opposition of +the simple paganism of the people to the complicated casuistry of the +Byzantine Church. Until the fourteenth century, he thinks, the church +tried to keep with the sectarians, and suffered the procession to go +according to the old pagan usage, with the sun instead of against it. +Since the fourteenth century, however, the church has identified itself +with the power of the state. From this time dates the hostility of the +sects to the government. Nevertheless, until the seventeenth century, +local gods were tolerated as patron saints. But when Bishop Mascarius +issued a list of the saints recognized by the state, the quarrel with +sects which clung to their own saints was made eternal. Since that time +the sectarians have not troubled themselves at all with the official +religious literature. They print their own books on secret presses. + +Sectarianism really represents, therefore, in the first place, the +national opposition of the Russians to Byzantium; next, the opposition +to St. Petersburg, and especially to Peter the Great, who was and is +regarded as antichrist. But side by side with these nationalistic +religious sects, and far in advance of them, have grown up mystically +rationalistic ones also. Some of these, going back to early Christian +ideas, refuse to bear arms and to take oath in court, like the German +Anabaptists, Nazarenes, and Baptists. Others oppose the church on mere +grounds of judgment, and lead a life regulated according to the +teachings of pure reason. The Old Believers, after long and terrible +martyrdoms in which their priests were burned or otherwise executed, and +after a sort of recantation, finally came to an understanding with the +state and are at present in part tolerated. + +The great majority of rationalistic--mystic--sects, however, have +remained hostile to the government, and are persecuted on all sides by +the state, although a great part of their members lead much more moral +lives than the orthodox Russians. + +They are to be distinguished at present--sects with priests ("Popovtzy") +and sects without priests ("Bezpopovtzy"). The first are the Old +Believers, who are especially well represented in the rich merchant +class in Moscow and are recognized by the state. They may be +distinguished by their uncut beards, by their mode of crossing +themselves, and by their great piety. + +The sects without priests are, however, the most interesting. The most +characteristic among them are the Self-burners, or Danielites, the +Beguny, or Pilgrims, the Khlysty, or Scourgers, the Skoptzy and Skakuny, +or Jumpers.[11] Their customs show what psychology knows +already--namely, that religious emotion leads easily to sexual, and then +both tend to revel in bloody ideas. One is led, indeed, to question +whether the fascinating effect of so many of the stories of saints must +not be traced back to that psychological connection in the +subconsciousness. With the Danielites voluntary death by fire is +considered meritorious. The Beguny are vagabonds, "without passport," an +unheard-of thing according to Russian ideas, without name, without +proper institutions. In this sect men and women live together +promiscuously. They are supported by secret members of the sect who live +in towns, and who do not, like the regular Beguny, expose themselves to +the standing curse of antichrist--_i. e._, the state. The Khlysty have +direct revelations from heaven in the state of ecstasy which they +experience at their devotional meetings. They are flagellants, dance in +rings until they are exhausted, and then sink all together in a general +orgy. The Skoptzy castrate themselves in such circumstances. The +Skakuny, or Jumpers, dance in pairs in the woods with frightfully +dislocated limbs until they sink down exhausted. All these sects are +accused of child murder. They are said to wish to send children +unspotted to the kingdom of heaven. It is to be noted that all these +data are unreliable, because no stranger is admitted to the secret +devotions, while the imaginations of the denouncers have just as much +tendency to revel in sexual and sanguinary ideas as that of the exalted +devotees. The persecution of these sects by the government is easy to +understand. Spiritual epidemics must be fought as much as physical +disease. + +The persecution of the rationalistic sects is quite unjustifiable. They +do not deserve the name of sects at all, for in other countries similar +ones form simply free political, ethical, or philosophical societies. +Certainly they can only benefit the communities in which they exist by +their high ideal of integrity and strict morality. Count Leo Tolstoï has +already made the banishment of the Doukhobors known to all the world as +an infamous proceeding, and has thereby raised large contributions for +their settlement in Canada. The Shaloputy and the Malevents, for the +most part Ruthenians, have a really ideal character, free from the +narrowness and superstition of the church, without ritual, industrious, +helpful, peaceful, and kindly. They live together in a state of +free-love marriages, without constraint of church or state, neither lie +nor swear, and do good even to their enemies. The Stundists, who are +said to have originated with the German pastor Bonekemper, in the +Rohrbach colony near Odessa, are similarly virtuous communists, who do +not trouble themselves about the state, hold all property in common, +adjust all quarrels among themselves, and harm nobody. The formula of +the report with which the gendarmes are accustomed to give notice of the +discovery of a Stundist is characteristic: "I was passing the house of +Farmer X---- and his son and saw them both reading in a book. I entered +and ascertained that this book is the Gospel. Farmer X---- and his son +are therefore Stundists, and as such are most respectfully reported to +the authorities." Russian nobles have been exiled to Siberia for the +crime of reading the Gospel to their servants. A former officer of the +guards, Vassili Alexandrovitch Pashkov, who dedicated all his means to +philanthropy and held religious exercises, was expelled from St. +Petersburg and the movement named for him was suppressed. + +Why is all this? The narrow-mindedness of Pobydonostzev's system permits +no falling-away from the official church. The police state tolerates no +suspicious morality. The thinking class in Russia quote with bitterness +Aksakov's saying, "Be a rascal, but be correct in your politics" ("Bud, +razvraten, no bud, blagonamyeren"). Debauchery is directly commended to +young men of good family because it prevents intense absorption in +politics. The crime of the Stundists, Doukhobors, and Malevents consists +in their wishing to be Christians in the spirit of Christ, and in being +disaffected towards that diabolical machine the Russian state. For this +they are persecuted in the name of Christ and of the state, but, as the +above-quoted figures show, without result. Sectarianism grows +continuously. Thus Leo Tolstoï's religious anarchy is in a certain way +comprehensible. Whoever looks about him sees good people who, without +making any disturbance, simply turn away from the state as something +unchristian and inhuman; and he may easily fall into the delusion that +it will some time be possible to found the kingdom of heaven upon the +earth through the spreading of these teachings. Their rise, however, is +only too comprehensible in a state which has never pretended to +represent the general welfare and justice--means by which even +conscienceless conquerors and despots have spread civilization. + +All these sects are limited to the peasantry. The sectarianism of the +cities is called socialism. Here, too, one must use the word +"sectarianism." For even the little bands of organized labor split +immediately, after the Russian fashion, into smaller groups; and even +the intelligent upper classes form just as many little circles, each +with its own doctrine and its own organ. In spite of all efforts I did +not succeed in getting approximately reliable figures for the strength +of the separate socialistic groups. The estimates varied from forty +thousand to two hundred thousand, and are, therefore, entirely +worthless. In regard to the nature of the groups, both in general and in +particular, there is much more definite information. + +After the assassination of the Czar Alexander II., which no one in +Russia will believe was committed without the help of these groups, who +knew definitely that the Emperor intended to sign an order for arrest, +the small and entirely isolated group of perhaps a hundred and fifty +desperadoes was simply exterminated, and several thousand people were +exiled to Siberia. With that the so-called aggression of nihilism came +to an end. Malicious persons, however, think it ended with the deed +which was most in the interest of the omnipotent police--namely, the +assassination of Alexander II. In any case, the police was not at all +severe in getting rid of this definitely recognized band. At that time +the doctrine of Marx was beginning to spread in Russia. This doctrine +was looked upon by the authorities as an antidote for the terrorism of +anarchy. The Marxists, whose organ is the _Iskra_ (Ray, or Spark), are +doctrinaires here as everywhere, swear--at least so the Revisionists +declare--by the theory that the poor are growing poorer, and wish the +peasants to abandon their land and to become a wandering proletariat +according to the catechism of Marx. They were opposed by the late +Mikhailovski, who knew Russia better than the founders of the _Iskra_. +To-day the Marxists are supposed to be suppressed. Besides these there +is the league with the two Parisian organs, the _Revolutionary Russia_, +a monthly printed in Russian, and the _Russian Tribune_, the real +monitor of the socialistic movement, and, next to Struve's +_Oswobozhdenie_, the best source of information upon Russian conditions. +The leaguers are former followers of Lasalle. They are exceedingly +troublesome to the police on account of their close organization. + +For a while the police cherished the hope of being able to seize the +labor movement for their own purposes. A certain Subatov invented a plan +by which the police were to give financial support to the organization +of labor, and in exchange to require the political good conduct of the +organization. The industrial barons, however, at whose expense this +treaty of peace was to be brought about, put themselves on the +defensive. Gouyon in particular, a manufacturer of Moscow, who employs +over five thousand persons, simply threatened to close his factory if +the inspectors were not withdrawn. So fell Subatov, leaving only his +name behind to designate those who still put in a good word for police +socialism. They are called "Subatovists." With this exception, no one +has thought of an honest factory inspection as an effectual help for the +workmen. + +The socialistic movement is seizing not only the working classes, but +also the universities, almost all of which to-day embrace a radicalism +certainly related to socialism. No sharp distinction can be made, +indeed, between these two stages in the general dissatisfaction and +fermentation. The police keeps its strictest guard upon the universities +and all the thinking classes. In the province of Irkutsk there are at +present no fewer than three thousand political exiles. How many are +lashed to death with knouts in police prisons no man knows. The answer, +however, is found in those unplanned outrages which are beginning to +occur again, and to which a governor or a minister falls victim, now in +one place, now in another. An outbreak of many of these is generally +expected in the near future. + +There is still, however, a conservative element in Russia. I asked a +well-fed Russian tradesman, a representative "kupetz" (small dealer) of +Moscow, what he thought about the war and the conditions in the country. +His answer was so characteristic that I must give it: "It is not +anybody's business to think, but to obey God and the Czar." The present +order of things in Russia rests on this principle and on the stupidity +of the half-savage Cossacks. Therefore, no one must be deceived by the +symptoms of bitter feeling. A revolution under organized leadership and +with a definite object is impossible. At the most, single nationalities +and the starving peasantry may rise up, to suffer a sanguinary +overthrow. Deliverance is not yet within sight for these most +unfortunate of all men. National bankruptcy, which no one doubts is +imminent, will perhaps bring an improvement. Therefore the Russians +pray, desirous to hasten it, "God help us so that we may be defeated." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[11] A kind of Shakers. + + + + +XXVI + +MOSCOW + + +Blue heavens, golden cupolas, green towers, red houses, pealing bells +above, sleigh-bells on the streets, praying muzhiks before images of the +saints, beautiful women in costly furs--when I wish to reconstruct from +my recollections the picture of Moscow, these are the elements which at +first mingle, charming, chaotic, like the colors in Caucasian +gold-enamel. How beautiful a city this! How often have I stood upon the +tower of the Ivan Veliky and looked down on this endless sea of shining +cupolas and gay roofs crowded upon gently rising hills far into the blue +haze of the distance! Never was the Russian love of home so intelligible +to me as there in the heart of Russia, upon the battlements of the +Kremlin, high above the bank of the Moskva! And involuntarily I +wondered, as, indeed, would any one not a subject of the imperator, who +has looked down from such battlements upon all the subject masses of +Russians, whether he has really subjugated them or whether they have +only been brought to a death-bringing hibernation. Æsthetic, +ethnological, historical, and political suggestions swarm to the mind +of the thoughtful observer in this place. What wonder if the Russian +feels himself here on holy ground and would prefer to put off his shoes +when he treads it? + +The tongue of the people has a kindly word for St. Petersburg and a pet +name for Moscow--"Little Mother Moscow," it is called, the real capital +of Russiandom. And even the stranger must remark this difference of +treatment. St. Petersburg astonishes, awes, frightens. Moscow +ingratiates herself at first sight and wins each day a firmer hold on +our hearts. One thinks with a certain tenderness of one's stay in +Moscow, and in spite of unbelief predicts to himself another visit. But +not with faith. For unless business calls him there he is not likely to +make a second visit to Moscow in a lifetime. But one longs to pass many +a pleasant day in this city, so curious and yet so homely, with her +kindly inhabitants. Why? It would be hard to say in a few words. The +city is in too strong a contrast to the forced founding of St. +Petersburg. There the hand of man is all in evidence; nothing is +refreshing. A great prison fortress of granite blocks surrounded by huts +and barracks. Moscow is a product of nature, founded with enthusiasm by +its dwellers in response to the open invitation of nature, and adored +even with devotion. Even the stranger feels this, even though there is +nothing to which he is unaccustomed except the devotion and tenderness +of a people to whom he is bound by not a single tie of common +association. With what shudders one wanders through Rome, from Mont +Pincio to the Vatican! how one is carried on by the ocean of world +history upon the Capitoline, among the excavations of the Forum, among +the palace walls of the Palatine! What is to us, in contrast, the +Kremlin, this sanctuary of half-Asiatic barbarians? Yes, an exoteric +delicacy, nothing else! One cannot free one's self from the charm of +these places. Here a good-natured folk has created a jewel-box, gay and +dazzlingly ornamented, careless of what the culture of the West has +declared beautiful and holy; hither gravitate all the national feelings +of a hundred million people; and, finally, all this is created to the +harm of no one, to frighten no one, to oppress no one. Here the Czar is +not the general-in-chief of so many million bayonets, but "Little Father +Czar," who yields the countless holy images and chapels just the same +devotion as his lowest muzhik. And here is the past--not alone the +brazen, threatening present--the past of a strange people, but a people +of lovable individuals, who, besides, are brought nearer to us than many +of our nearest neighbors by a literature of unparalleled fidelity to +life. One must grow to love this childlike, slow-blooded, and yet +care-free people, with their irresistible heartiness. And he who has +learned to love the Russians must love their Little Mother Moscow, in +spite of, or just on account of, her quietness. + +From St. Petersburg an express train brings us to Moscow in thirteen +hours. It is always a night train that disposes of this traffic, for the +Russian likes to sleep in his comfortable berth. And so we arrive in +Moscow in the morning, ready at once to assimilate the first impressions +of the enormous city. Our expectancy is great, of course. Moscow, the +object of all most Russian! It must differ, at first sight, from all we +have as yet seen. But while the hotel omnibus rattles through the +streets from the depot but little that is peculiar is to be seen. An +affable fellow-passenger explains to us that that is only the foreign +business quarter. But now one after another the church cupolas appear, +one after another in increasing brightness and variety. At our "Ah!" in +expression of our satisfaction, we are instructed that we had better be +more sparing of that vowel sound or we might soon become hoarse. Moscow +has no less than four hundred and fifty such churches and twenty +cloisters in addition. So let us be sparing. But the resolution is hard +to keep. A long and mighty wall suddenly rises before us with countless +angles, towers, and turrets. The wall is white, the towers are green, +and through the gate we see long streets and buildings in all possible +colors, dark included. It is Kitay-Gorod, the inner city, with the +bazars. Bokhara cannot appear more Asiatic. Now we feel already all that +we are about to see. A giant modern hotel almost destroys for us the +ensemble. Look quickly to your lodgings and then out again! + +We are nicely located. From our windows we see the towers of the +Kremlin, which rise above the nearest roofs. Let him who will endure +remaining behind double windows! After washing and having some tea we +are at the door again, and quickly make a bargain with the "izwozchik" +who is to drive us over the outlined tour of the city. Horse and sleigh +are a bit smaller than in St. Petersburg, but still very good. And so we +are out in the sunshine, off into the snowy landscape, to gain a hurried +general conception of the endless city. + +For two hours our good little horse draws us, gliding over bridges and +pikes, up and down hill, and when we return half frozen to the hotel we +have seen scarce a fraction of the periphery, but a thousand teams, with +shaggy muzhiks in wicker sleighs, and, still more, little country-houses +of wood, which might serve in the West for summer cottages, but which +offer an inviting shelter even here in the icy winter. The whole of +Moscow is a complex of official municipal buildings which are crowded +together into the narrowest space, of churches and palaces narrowly +crowded about the Kremlin, and of immense suburbs which lie in rings +about the inner town. But these suburbs have a half-country +character--broad, uneven streets and low, villa-like houses, with little +gardens. Little Mother Moscow gives her children room. They do not have +to crowd together in usuriously paying tenements, and houses of more +than one story are quite the exception. Even in the shadow of the +Kremlin a parterre for the stores and a single story above it are +sufficient. Really, only the hotels stretch with three or four stories +heavenward. The impression is ever recurring that Moscow has no desire +to be a city, and only quite unwillingly yields to the necessity of a +crowded existence. + +The Kremlin, which we did not lose sight of once on our whole trip, +entices us strongly. It lies before us; so let us enter. + +Yes, if it were as easily done as said! We cross a broad square, across +which lean little horses draw a horse-car high as the first story of a +house, and then we stand before buildings which allow us to go no +farther. It is the Duma, the city hall, on the left, and the historical +museum on the right, both dark-red in color; on the latter the façade is +built entirely of darkened stone, so that it gives the impression of the +whole being incrusted. The style is to be met with frequently. It +belongs to the sixteenth century and is now being revived. The idea of +using a coating of Russian enamel as an element of architectural style +is a brilliant one. We reach a gate of the high wall surrounding the +inner city Kitay-Gorod. But before we pass the gate let us cast a glance +at the peculiar doings in the little chapel, scarcely bigger than a +room, which is built on its left side. It is the Iberian chapel, with +the famed image of the Virgin to which the Czar pays his devotions +before he enters the Kremlin. The original, with its genuine precious +stones, is now in the city, where for a fee it is brought to sick +people. In the mean time a copy takes its place. At the time of the +daily excursions of the Virgin the governor-general, Prince Sergius, +does not allow the Jews to remain on the streets. The Blessed Virgin may +not see upon her way the traces of Jewish feet. Every one crosses +himself before her. But most climb the few steps to her and cross +themselves again, with deep bendings of the upper body; but some, men as +well as women, throw themselves full length upon the ground and touch +the earth with their foreheads. The candle trade flourishes; scarcely a +soul enters who does not buy a candle and light it before some image. No +difference of station can be recognized. The great lady, the high +official, the dirty muzhik, all are the same in their worship. Their +caps are continually removed, and the rather time-consuming Russian +ceremony of making the sign of the cross is performed. But the really +pious ones do not content themselves with worshipping before the gate. +They do the same thing again when inside. + +We reach, finally, the "Red Square," so called because of the red +Kremlin wall and the red group of houses at the entrance. We notice +again that astonishment does not exactly make one brilliant. An "Ah!" in +unison is all that escapes our lips. I believe that then I cried out +with enthusiasm, and I should have liked to take by the coat-lapels the +people who, used to the scene, were indifferently going their ways, and +to say to them: "Look, you barbarians! Do you not know what you have +here?" Vasili Blazhenny (the Basilius Cathedral)! Many times as one may +have seen the curious bit of architecture depicted and dissected, yet +when one finally stands before it and allows the gay towers, with their +green, red, blue, and yellow cupolas to make their impression, he seems +to have entered quite another world, which no longer has a single thing +in common with our Western one. A sovereign, glorying fantasy has here +been formed and created, apparently without rule, led only by the law of +variety; has made wings, doors, and windings, and in the narrowest space +unfolded a richness which strikes us dumb, much as our feeling for style +struggles against the reversal of all our national laws. One's whole +architectural sense leans towards clear relationship of parts, towards +rhythm and proportion; the artist of the Basilius Cathedral leans +towards intricacy, lack of rhythm, disproportion. He is a colorist, and +but a colorist, in contrast to our Renaissance artists, to whom the +color seems almost an injury to the delicate line. And yet in all this +gay confusion he has held fast to a fundamental feeling which in all the +variations keeps returning, as in a joint--yes, just as in the wildest +dream some guiding idea like a red thread follows through it all. This +motive--I could not help always calling it to myself the Tschibuk +motive, after the winding, pearl-set tubes of a Turkish pipe--is +carried out with every possible Indian, Persian, and Roman ingredient, +and still retains the characteristic Byzantine style. A person would +show great partiality to call this building a mad-house, as many an +artist has done. One must only be able to free himself for an hour from +the dictator of the old taste in order to be able to comprehend the +delight of Ivan the Terrible at sight of this architectural orgy. (He +gave expression to this delight by having the eyes of the architect put +out in order that he might build no second masterpiece like it.) And +then again it must be confessed that the task of uniting in narrow space +thirteen chapels with thirteen towers could not well have been solved in +any other way than in this apparently most untrammelled, fantastic one. +If this proposition be accepted, the master of Vasili Blazhenny can only +be the object of wonder. + +Now Vasili Blazhenny is typical of all Moscow, the Kremlin included. It +is the spirit of curious variety, of rich fantasy, the spirit of the +South and the East which rules here. The snow one feels to be almost out +of place, so Southern is the character of the city. The Kremlin, too, +before which we now stand, is a "free-act" work of art, a piece +something like the San Marco quarter in Venice, if one thinks of the sea +as removed. For the Kremlin must not be thought of as a palace is; it is +a whole part of a city, surrounded by a wall twenty metres high, two +kilometres long, enclosing an irregular pentagon. It lies on a rather +steeply rising hill on the bank of the Moskva, and commands the whole +region round about. Its beauty is not to be enjoyed in the interior of +the many churches, palaces, and barracks, although there is enough worth +seeing there, too. It only opens up from the balcony of the Ivan Veliky +tower, or from the bastion where the colossal monument of Alexander +stands. But the most beautiful view of the whole complex is from the far +bank of the Moskva, where the high wall, with its countless towers and +cupolas, seems like the birth of an Oriental dream-fantasy. It shines +and lightens in all colors, looks into the air, and speaks kindly +greetings to all below; one could simply sit and clap one's hands for +joy. But to the Russian this little jewel-box is by no means a +plaything. On the contrary, he very respectfully bares his head and +ceases not to cross himself. For "above Moscow is only the Kremlin, and +above the Kremlin is only heaven." Within, however, the muzhik regains +his childlikeness, and when he stands before the enormous cannon--"the +Czar of Cannon," an old bronze gun--he invariably climbs upon the +pyramid of giant balls which stands before it, climbs aloft and gapes +into the yard-wide mouth of the gun. And under no circumstances does he +neglect to creep into the hole of the "Queen of the Bells," which is in +front of the Ivan Veliky, in which there is room for two hundred people. + +We who are not childlike muzhiks may not allow ourselves such +diversions; we must conscientiously see all the wonders of this greatest +of all rarities, a thing which will consume at least a day. We spare the +reader our experiences. Even the treasure-chamber with the coronation +insignia and jewels big as one's fist cannot inveigle us into a +description--all that could be seen in Berlin or Vienna. + +Finally, the wonderful beauty of the colossal Church of the Deliverer +must here be spoken of. The work is too unique in its nature to allow of +being passed over in silence. The church is built apart, is visible +afar, and forms the glorious completion of the Kremlin picture seen from +the Moskva. In its mighty height, with its colossal, gilded domes, of +which the middle one measures thirty metres in diameter, it lightens +like a promise of the light the gay, romantic air of the Kremlin. +Fifty-eight high reliefs in marble ornament the façade, sixty windows +give bright light to the interior, colored still more golden by the +light of countless candles. The magnificence of the central nave, +entirely of gold and marble, is simply overpowering, and the golden and +silver garments of the patriarchs would be quite unnecessary in giving +us the strongest impression of the enormous riches of the Russian +Church. Together with the Cathedral of Isaac, in St. Petersburg, this +church is well calculated to compete with St. Peter's, in Rome. But I +believe that one should refrain from the comparison. The expression +"Roma tatae!" comes from Madame de Staël, and was, within certain +bounds, approved by Moltke, who would call Moscow a Russian Rome. But I +must, with all due modesty, demur. Too many undertones vibrate in our +souls at the word "Rome" to allow us to consider any sort of comparison. +But for a Russian? Who knows where the awe of eternity touches him +deeper, before St. Peter's or before this Church of the Deliverer? + +But no, such a question may not be put. Muzhik and kupetz, farmer and +small merchant, have absolutely no understanding of Rome--no beauty +impresses them, only the barbaric pomp with the costliness of the +materials. But the cultured Russian feels just as we do, and will not +seek the elements which make mighty the word "Rome" anywhere else on +earth. And those that I spoke to in Moscow itself would have given a +good deal of the peculiarity of their country for a breath of European +atmosphere. Continuity between the time of Ivan the Terrible and the +present does not exist for these nobles, lawyers, and journalists of +Moscow. They endure with polite but painful resignation our delight in +the fantasticness of their Kremlin, their churches and cloisters. It +does not flatter them in the least that they are curiosities for Western +people, like the Baschkirs and Tatars, for instance; and they will not +hear of their being condemned to continue a life in Russian style, +apart from Europe. This extreme enthusiasm for the autochthonous, which +is often enough only an antiquated product of chance, is, after all, a +romantic reaction and nothing else. It has long been proved that the +Gothic which awakened such exclusive enthusiasm in the days of the +Germanic Romance is not Gothic at all, but French. And so Russia has no +reason at all for considering her style, which is really Byzantine, +all-sufficient. Byzantine, however, is the contrast to Europe, whose +past has led by way of Rome and Wittenberg to the Paris of 1789. And so +progressive Moscow seeks freedom from Byzantium. While I was pretty +deeply imbued with things Russian, it was suggested to me to see a play +in the "Artists' Theatre," and then to say whether Moscow was really +quite Russian and Asiatic. I followed this advice and had no reason to +regret it. + + + + +XXVII + +MOSCOW--_CONTINUED_ + + +They were right in advising me to go to the theatre in order to correct +my impression that Moscow was a thorough-going Russian city. A hotel, +for instance, proves nothing at all concerning the character of a town. +It betrays at most the year of its erection, for to-day, the world over, +building is done in the recognized "modern style."[12] Even this or that +elegant street indicates nothing. There the imitation of patterns seen +elsewhere plays too great a rôle. But the theatre which is to survive +must adapt itself to the ruling taste to such an extent that it can be +considered really characteristic of it. + +Now the "Artists' Theatre"--or, as it is called because of the +"secessionistic"[12] arrangement, the "Decadent Theatre"--of Moscow is +really unique, and by the preferences of the theatre public one can very +well recognize the quality and quantity of the intelligence of a city. +With respect to picturesqueness of staging, it is distinctly the +superior of the Meininger Theatre; and, as far as scenery and purity of +style are concerned, it can well compare with the most up-to-date +stages. To be sure, inquiry should not be made into the distribution of +the individual rôles; to some extent this is worse than mediocre. I saw +"Julius Cæsar" played where the conspirators seemed to feel it necessary +to yell out their plans in the night with all their might. But, in +contrast to this, the palace of the emperor was represented with a +fidelity which could not have been exceeded in Rome itself; and the same +with the Forum, and with the generals' tent at Philippi. The choruses +were simply captivating in their execution. + +But more interesting to me than the play was the audience. And the +audience, composed entirely of the educated middle class, knew quite as +well how to judge what was success and what failure in the performance +as any of the better audiences of a Vienna or a Berlin theatre. And the +foyer, very appealingly decorated by the simplest artistic means with +scenes from the history of the Russian drama and with many portraits of +writers and actors, was visited and enjoyed by the audience in the +intermission. If I had not continually heard about me the sounds of a +strange speech, and had not seen here and there a Russian student +uniform, it never would have occurred to me that I was in the very heart +of Russia, so far as culture was concerned. + +It was the same, too, in the families with which I spent my evenings. +If anything, only the heartiness with which one is received is +gratefully at variance with our habits of careful reserve towards +strangers. But these hearty and hospitable people who at once lead us to +the samovar are by no means backwoodsmen, but are most intimately in +touch with all the advantages of the world, and they have uncommonly +keen powers of observation. The visiting European who might think +himself in a position to act among them would quickly become aware that +the Russian writers, who astonish us by their deep psychological +insight, have not picked up their art by the wayside. It is hidden in +the most charming little formalities, which in Moscow, in particular, +simply charmed me. Nowhere the slightest cant, nowhere the slightest +false display, nowhere the forced enthusiasm for culture which makes +certain circles of our great cities so repulsive to us. Naturalness is +the pervading note in Moscow social life. But literary and art interests +are a matter of course in a society which is scarcely paralleled by the +English in its demand for reviews. To-day, of course, every other +interest is forced to the wall by politics. I have been present at +gatherings in the best circles of people of culture at which even the +young had scarcely any interest save in political questions. Even little +declamations with which the individual guests distinguished themselves +were spiced with political allusions, and were enjoyed by young and old +just because of this spice. + +Yet Moscowism has, in a sense, a bad reputation. It is held to be the +embodiment of the Russian reaction against every attempt of a civilizing +nature which emanates from St. Petersburg. Of the lesser citizens, or +the old-fashioned merchants at times, this may even to-day be true. The +nobility in the Moscow government, however, the university, and the +members of the few professions such as medicine and the law, are much +less circumspect and free-minded in their political criticism than their +contemporaries in St. Petersburg, for instance. Such an opposition organ +as the _Russkiya Vyedomosti_ does not exist in St. Petersburg. There is +also, to be sure, a sharp contrast between the intelligence of Moscow +and that of official St. Petersburg; but this contrast is anything but +one between reaction and progress. It is worth while to examine it more +closely. + +The present Russian régime has preserved only the despotism of the +enlightened despotism of Peter; the enlightenment has vanished. The +wisdom of the government consists solely in the obstruction of popular +education. The means to this end is the police, with their relentless +crusade against any intelligence of a trend not quite orthodox in its +attitude towards the state and the ruling spirit of the old régime in +the corruption of all the elements of the higher strata of society. +Demoralization is encouraged, so to say, by official circles. Just as +among the peasants a man caught reading his Bible is held in suspicion, +so in St. Petersburg a young man makes himself subject to the +displeasure of the authorities if he does not take his part in the +"diversions of youth." A lordly contempt for humanity is accordingly the +prerequisite for every career in that Northern Paris. The pursuit of +fortune has never a conscience, least of all where it appears in +military form. There _esprit de corps_ and dignity of position displace +to a degree of absolute hostility all morality. Elegantly and +fashionably clothed, one is always ready to wager one's life, or rather +to throw it into the balance, for the most valueless stake. One is +irreligious and anti-moral on principle, but of the strictest outward +orthodoxy and monarchical to the very marrow. + +It is to this anti-moral (anti-democratic) superficial +superciliousness[13] that Moscow forms a contrast in each and every +particular. Here one is benevolent, democratic, hearty, and +intentionally modest in appearance. Here, too, there appears to be less +struggling. The kupetz (small merchant) is rich as can be, but he +lingers in his little store with narrow entrances, and never has a +thought of laying aside his caftan, the ancestral overcoat, or his high +boots, into which are stuffed the ends of his trousers. But it is not +exactly this merchant whom I should like to cite as an example of my +point, for it is just he who has brought upon Moscow the reputation for +being hostile to progress. But there is probably some connection between +the resistance which the nobility of Moscow offers to St. Petersburg +customs and the obstinate self-sufficiency of the merchant with his +old-fashioned views. Just as this kupetz does not allow himself to be +dazzled by the elegant-looking clerk of the St. Petersburg merchant, but +clings to his ancestral ways, so the Moscow nobleman is not dazzled by +the elegance of the dressy St. Petersburg officer of the guards. People +dress elegantly in Moscow, too--yes, even in the Parisian style. But the +contemptible inhumanity of the struggling official of St. Petersburg +does not appeal to the Moscowite as civilizational progress, but as a +metropolitan degeneracy to be despised. And so among the bright people +of Moscow patriarchal heartiness is preserved. It was not a matter of +pure chance that Leo Tolstoï spent so many winters in Moscow society. In +St. Petersburg he would not have stayed. + + +The most beautiful creation of this conscious devotion to Moscow is the +donation of a simple merchant, the possession of which any city of the +world might envy--the Tretyakov Gallery, the largest and most valuable +private collection that exists anywhere. A knowledge of it is absolutely +indispensable to the historian of modern Russian painting. The Alexander +Museum of St. Petersburg has isolated magnificent pieces of Ryepin, +Aiwasowsky, and the most beautiful sculptures of Antokolski; but it +cannot be compared with the two thousand pieces of the Tretyakov +Gallery. The founder gave, besides this invaluable collection, a +building for it, and a fund, from the interest of which, even after his +death, the collection might be augmented. Admission, of course, is free +to all; even fees for coat checks may not be collected of its visitors. + +In this gallery one realizes for the first time that Russian painting is +about at par with Russian literature, that it also has its Tolstoïs, +Turgenyevs, and Dostoyevskys. Above all, there is Ilya Ryepin with a +whole collection of portraits and large genre pictures. I have tried to +sketch some of those works of art elsewhere in a special article devoted +to this greatest of Russian artists, and will not repeat myself here. +Let me only mention the portraits of Leo Tolstoï, copies of which can +now be found in the West. The poet is here depicted once behind the +plough and again barefoot in his garden, his hands in his belt, his head +thoughtfully sunk upon his breast. It is the best picture of Tolstoï +that exists. Once, while I was walking up and down in conversation with +the poet in his room at Yasnaya Polyana, I had to bite my tongue in +order to suppress the remark, "Now you look as if you had been cut from +the canvas of Ryepin." Ryepin may be compared as a portrait-painter with +the very foremost artists of all times. The strength of his characters +is simply unequalled. + +But the Russians appear to me particularly great in the field of +realistic genre and of landscape painting, just as in their literature, +which never leaves the firm ground of observation; and just for that +reason it is perfectly unique in the catching of every little event, of +every feeling and atmosphere peculiar to the landscape. Among the +painters of the last quarter of the nineteenth century who already have +worked under Ryepin's influence, there is no longer any insidiousness of +coloring. Everything is seen clearly and strongly reproduced. No +Düsseldorferie and no anecdote painting. Of course, they did not shun a +subject useful in itself, and they by no means avoid a slight political +tendency. But they are no less artists because they disdain to beg of +the fanatics of "art for art's sake" the right to the name of artists by +an exclusion of all but purely neutral subjects. On the contrary, in the +naïveté in which they show themselves in their art as human beings of +their time, they let it be known that the problem "art for art's sake" +is for them without any meaning, since with them it is an axiom that +they desire to influence only through the medium of their art; and yet +they judge every work of art first of all in accordance with its +artistic qualities. Only they do not allow themselves by an apparently +neutral, but in reality a reactionary, doctrine to be hindered from the +expression of their sympathy for everything liberal, free, and human. + +There is, for instance, a picture there by Doroschenko which bears the +harmless title "Everywhere is life." It might, yes, it ought really to +hang in the gallery of the Parisian, for it is a work of Christian +spirit. Convicts are feeding doves from the railroad car which is +carrying them into exile. As a painting it is excellent. The light falls +full upon the whirring pigeons in the foreground and upon the convicts +pressing their faces against the iron bars of the window of the car. One +sees through the window, and notices on the far side of the car another +barred window at which a man is standing and looking out. The interior +of the car is almost dark. The group of convicts in the foreground +consists of a young man, evidently the guilty one, and his wife, who is +following him into exile with their year-old child on her bosom. For the +sake of the child, and to please him, they are feeding the doves. A +bearded old man looks on pleased, and a dark-bearded younger man, too, +whom one might sooner believe guilty of some slight misdeed. But upon +the face of all these exiles lies so childlike a brightness, so evident +a sympathetic pleasure in the joy of the child, that one rather doubts +their guilt than the fact that they are still capable of good-natured +human feelings. And yet this picture of Christian pity has not been +bought for the Parisian. For it is well understood, in spite of its +harmless title, what its meaning is. "Everywhere is life" should read, +"Everywhere is pity, everywhere humanity, except among the police, in +the state, and in an autocracy." What guilt can these good little folk +have committed--looking there so kindly at a child that cooingly feeds +the doves--that they should be torn from their native hearth and be sent +to the icy deserts of Siberia? The young father--perhaps he went among +the people teaching that a farmer was a man as well as the policeman +(pristav). And one thinks with a shudder of the two thousand political +convicts of the year before that were sent into the department of +Irkutsk.... + +Such is the Russian genre. It is full of references, but is never a mere +illustration of some tendency or other. The painter does not make the +solution of his problem easy, and does not speculate on the cooperative +comprehension of the observer, who is satisfied if he finds his thoughts +indicated. No, such a Russian genre picture is perfect in the +characteristic of the heads, in perspective, in the distribution of +light and atmosphere. The purely picturesque, to be sure, is more +evident in the landscape. And in this the Russians do astonishing work. +They have the eye of the child of nature for the peculiarities of the +landscape--an eye which we in the West must train again. What west +European writer could have been in a position to write nature studies +like Leo Tolstoï's _Cossacks_, or like the "Hay Harvest" from _Anna +Karenina_? And one might also ask, What west European has so studied the +forest like Schischkin, the sea like Aiwasowsky, the river and the wind +like Levitan? There is a picture of Schischkin's in the Tretyakov +Gallery, "Morning in the Pine Forest." A family of bears busy themselves +about an enormous fallen, splintered pine. Everything is alive; the +comical little brown fellows are quite as true to nature as the moss in +the foreground and the veil of mist before the trees in the background. + +Strange to say, Schischkin is stronger in his etchings than in his +oil-paintings, the colors of which are always a little too dry. But his +etchings, which I could enjoy in their first prints, thanks to the +goodness of the senator Reutern in St. Petersburg, are real treasures in +sentiment and character. He is, if one may express it so, the +psychologist of the trees. A tree on the dunes is a whole tragedy from +the lives of the pines. + +Aiwasowsky, the virtuoso of the troubled sea, is more effective than the +quiet Schischkin. His storms at sea, with their transparent waves, +actually drive terror into the onlooker. The Black Sea has been the +favorite object of his pictures. There all the furies seem to be let +loose in order to frighten fisher and sailor. And these floods shine and +shimmer; they are as if covered with a transparent light. Levitan, +again, has understood the charm of the calm surface of a small body of +water as no one else. His brush is dipped in feeling. The beauty of his +pictures cannot be reproduced in words. He seems to have a special +sense-organ for the shades of the atmosphere. It is a pity that he died +so very young. + +The collection of Vereschtschagin has now obtained a particularly +enhanced value because of the awful death of the master. The Tretyakov +Gallery has, with the exception of the Napoleonic pictures which +ornament the Alexander Museum, almost the whole life-work of the artist. +His work has only recently been universally appreciated. The power of +the versatile man was astonishing; his philanthropic turn of mind and +his epigrammatic spirit give spice to his pictures; but of him, first of +all, perhaps, it might be said that he used his art for purposes foreign +to it in spite of all artistic treatment. For it was seldom the artistic +problem that charmed him. Only his Oriental color studies are to a +certain extent free from ulterior purposes. + +It is difficult to choose from this abundance of good masters, and +particularly to name those whom one should know above the others. +Pictures cannot easily be made so accessible as books, and the contents +of a picture does not permit of being told at all. And so I content +myself with mentioning again the names of Ryepin, Schischkin, Levitan, +and Aiwasowsky, and then those of the portrait-painter Kramskoi, the +landscape-painter Gay, and the master of genre painting, Makowski. And +to any one whose path ever leads him to Moscow, a visit to the Tretyakov +Gallery is most urgently recommended. A people which produces such +artists in every field as the Russian has not only the right to the +strongest self-consciousness, and to the general sympathy of people of +culture, but, above all, it has the right to be respected by its rulers +and not to be handled like a horde of slaves. + +But, in spite of it all, light has not dawned upon those in power. You +may resolve as often as you will in Russia not to bother, for the space +of a day, with the everlasting police, but, in spite of all, you will be +continually coming into contact with them. Our path from the Tretyakov +Gallery to the hotel leads past a long, barrack-like building. We ask +our companion its object. He at once tells us something of interest. +First, the giant building is the manége, the drill-room for the soldiers +in bad weather. Its arched roof lies upon the walls without any interior +support. The weight of the roof is so great that already the walls in +many places have sagged and have had to be reinforced. Architects had +suggested alterations, which, however, would have cost countless +thousands. Such an expenditure could not be tolerated, and in the mean +time the evil increased. Already they were about to take a costly bite +from the sour apple, when a small peasant appeared and promised for a +hundred rubles to arrange matters in a single night. He simply bored, in +the top of the leaden roof, a hole, through which the air could +circulate, and immediately the roof lay like a feather upon the walls +without endangering them any longer by its weight. Such is the story of +the Moskvich. Whether or not it is true, or is held to be so by people +who know about such things, I do not venture to judge. But it seemed to +me interesting enough to be told. But what interested me still more was +the subsidiary use to which the building is put. It is near the +university. Now if a student disorder arises, they manage to surround +the students by Cossacks and drive them into this manége, where they are +held behind lock and key, by thousands, until the worshipful officials +have sought out those which may most to their purpose be called +revolutionists. Chance wills that generally the Jews are held, since +Herr von Plehve needs statistical proof for his theory of a purely +Jewish opposition. + +His accusations may have served him among those above him, but not among +those below him. I found that in Moscow itself dealings between the +intelligent Christians and the few Jews who are allowed upon the street +were most hearty. The political bitterness, the desperate fight against +the régime, unites them all; after the Russian custom they exchange, +embrace, and kiss at every meeting, Jew or Christian, provided they only +be friends. It was for me, a Westerner, an interesting and mortifying +sight to see how young Russian nobles with world-famous names kissed on +the mouth and cheek in welcome and in farewell their Jewish friends. +With this impression I took my departure from Moscow. Terrible as the +political pressure may be, the people have preserved one thing in this +prison--their humanity. And thus they will one day attain happiness, +just as they are in many things already happier than we, because they +have remained human. For a well-known authoress, who begged me to write +a few words in her album, I wrote the words which I shall here repeat, +because they contain the sum of my Russian impressions, particularly +after the pleasing days in Moscow: "Russia is a sack, but it is +inhabited by human beings. The West is free, but it knows almost none +but business-men. I often almost believe that we ought to envy them...." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Referring to a modern independent art movement in Europe. + +[13] Ubermenschenthum. Cf. philosophy of Nietzsche + + + + +XXVIII + +A VISIT TO TOLSTOÏ + + +From Moscow an accommodation train goes in one night to Tula, capital of +the government of the same name. The infallible _Baedeker_ advises the +traveller to leave the train there, because it is hard to get a team at +the next station, Kozlovka, though Kozlovka is nearer to Yasnaya +Polyana, the estate of the poet, than is Tula. I follow my _Baedeker_ +blindly, because I have always had to repent when I departed from its +advice. The German _Baedeker_ deserves the highest credit for taking the +trouble to give this information to the few travellers that make the +pilgrimage to Leo Tolstoï. For it is not to be supposed that Tolstoï is +overrun. His family guard his retirement, and do not grant admittance to +every one. I was, in fact, the only stranger who found his way there +during the entire week. It was, indeed, a very special introduction +which opened the gates to me. + +The train reaches Tula at eight in the morning. Thoughtful friends had +given me a card in Russian to the station-master to help me to find a +driver who knew the way. The station-master could not, however, +decipher the card, and did not understand my French. A colonel of +Cossacks then helped me out. He had already been talking with the +official, and now asked me if I could not speak German a little. When I +assented he immediately played the interpreter. In a few minutes a +muzhik was found who, with his small sleigh and shaggy, big-boned pony, +had made the journey many times. The amiable Cossack then accepted an +invitation to breakfast in the clean station, and we chatted for a while +over our tea. He was a tall, fair-haired man, with kindly blue eyes and +the short Slavonic nose. His conversation, however, emphatically +contradicted his appearance. He was on his way to the Ural, where he was +to meet his regiment, and talked about the bayonets of his Cossacks +being bent because the men spit the "Kakamakis" (Japanese) and threw +them over their shoulders. He was delighted that I was a German, for the +Russians think the Germans very good fellows at present. Only the +English are a bad lot--"Jew Englishmen!" Leo Tolstoï, he said, was a man +of great genius, but it wasn't nice that he was an atheist. I +interrupted him, laughing: + +"I don't wish to be personal, colonel, but Leo Tolstoï is a much better +Christian than you." + +"How's that?" + +I explained to him that Tolstoï wishes to reestablish the primitive +Christianity and is the enemy only of the church and of the priests. The +good fellow was immediately satisfied. If it were nothing worse than +that--no Russian could endure the priests. They were all rascals. The +missionaries in China had turned all their girls' schools into harems. +Only the dissenting priests led a moral life. + +It was the talk of a big, thoroughly lovable child, in whom even the +thirst for fighting was not unbecoming. Who knows whether the bullets of +the "Kakamakis" have not already found him out! I spoke later to the +good Tolstoï of this conversation. He also is persuaded that only right +teaching is needed to turn these essentially good-hearted people from +the business of murder. At present war is merely a hunting adventure for +them. They form no conception of the sufferings of the defeated. + + +Deeply buried in furs and robes, we glided at last over the glittering +snow. The city of Tula, which would have been interesting at another +time on account of its metal industry, was a matter of indifference at +the moment. We quitted it on the left and struck at once into the road +to Yasnaya Polyana. The distance before us was almost fifteen versts +(ten miles); our pony had, therefore, to make good time if it was to +bring us, over all the hills covered with soft snow, to our destination +before noon. A Russian horse, however, can stand a good deal, so I did +not need to interrupt by inopportune consideration for animals the +thoughts which surged through my brain more and more as we came near +the end of the journey. A meeting with Tolstoï is such an incomparable +privilege for me--will fate permit me thoroughly to enjoy the moments? +And if he is not the man I expect to find, if one of the great again +unmasks before me as a _poseur_--who appears great and admirable only at +a distance--how many illusions have I still to lose? May not his +apostleship be merely a self-suggested idea obstinately clung to? Is not +his tardy religious bent, perhaps, mere hypochondria, fear of the next +world, preparation for death? A look with his eyes must show me. I must +learn from the sound of his voice whether my inner ear deceives me when +I hear the ring of sincerity in the primeval force of his diction. I +know I cannot deceive myself. If the concept I have formed of him is +corrected even in the least point by the reality, that is the end of my +secret worship. + +We turned in at last between two stone pillars at the park of Yasnaya +Polyana. Below, beside the frozen pond, we saw a youthful figure +advancing with the light step of an officer surrounded by a pack of +baying and leaping dogs. Yet, if my eyes did not deceive me, a gray +beard flowed over the breast of this slender, boyish figure. He stopped, +shaded his eyes with his hand, and looked towards our sleigh. Then he +turned back. It was he. + +We had hardly reached the house and been unwrapped from our furs and +overshoes by the servants, when the door of the low vestibule opened, +and there, in muzhik smock and fur, high boots and tall fur cap, as we +knew him from a thousand pictures, Leo Tolstoï stood before us and held +out a friendly hand. + +While he, motioning away the servants, pulled off his knee-high felt +overshoes, I had opportunity to look at him. That is to say, my eyes at +first were held by the head alone, with its softly curling gray hair, +which flows, parted, to the neck. Thick, bushy, gray brows shade the +deep-set, blue eyes and sharply define an angular, self-willed forehead. +The nose is strong, slender above, broad and finely modelled in the +nostrils. The long, gray mustache completely covers the mobile mouth. A +waving white beard, parted in the middle, flows from the hoary cheeks to +the shoulders. The head is not broad--rather, it might be called +narrow--wholly unslavonic, and is well poised. The broad, strongly built +shoulders have a military erectness. The powerful body is set on slender +hips. A narrow foot is hidden in the high Russian boot and moves +elastically. The step and carriage are youthful. An irony of fate will +have it that the bitterest foe of militarism betrays in his whole +appearance the former officer. The man in the peasant's dress is in +every movement the _grand seigneur_. + +We were still standing in the vestibule, which serves also as a +cloak-room. The count thrust both hands in his belt--well-shaped, +powerful hands--and asked in faultless German my plan for the day. I +felt the gentle eyes on my face as he spoke. The look is beaming and +kindly. One is not pierced, only illuminated. Yet one feels distinctly +that nothing is hidden from those quiet, kindly eyes. I answered that I +should return to Moscow at midnight, and until then would under no +consideration disturb him in his work. He told me, thereupon, to send +back my sleigh, since he would have us driven at night to the station in +his own. He would have no refusal to our eating breakfast before we +withdrew to the room assigned us. The countess, he said, was in Moscow +at the time, but the youngest daughter would soon return from the +village school, where she taught. He would leave her to entertain us +until luncheon. I should say here that my wife accompanied me on this +wintry journey, as on the whole journey of investigation. Tolstoï +himself would keep to his usual programme--would look over his mail, +write a promised article, rest a little in the afternoon, then ride, and +from dinner--that is, from six o'clock--until midnight would be at my +disposal. Then he led us to a large room on the first floor. Here stood +a long table, which remains spread all day. Tea and eggs were brought. +Before withdrawing, however, the count sat with us awhile, asked with +the tact of a man of the world about personal matters--the number of our +children and how they were cared for in our absence, and the friends in +Moscow who had introduced us to him--all in a low, musical voice which +banished all embarrassment. Then he rose with a slight bow and walked to +his room. At the door, however, he turned and came back to ask whether +we brought any news of the war. It was just in the pause after the first +catastrophe at Port Arthur. We were obliged, therefore, to say no. Then +the servant appeared and led us back to the ground floor, where we were +shown into two connecting rooms. We had time to record our first +impressions. + +The worst was over. There was no fear of disillusion. That was gone like +a cloud of smoke. The infinite kindliness of his eyes, the gentleness of +his hand-shake, the beauty of the silvery head exert a fascination. +There can be no doubt of his complete sincerity. The mind is filled with +an entirely new feeling, that of astonishment at the unpretentious +peacefulness of this fighter, who, from the stern seriousness of his +latest writings, and from his current portraits, might be taken for a +philosophizing pessimist. Whatever titanic thoughts may work in this +head, which looks like one of Michael Angelo's, all that is visible is a +glow of serene and holy peace, which gently relaxes the tension of our +own souls also. The ever-disturbing thought that we might find in the +count a recluse and an eccentric--if one may use such profane +expressions in connection with this illustrious man--a fanatic on the +subject of woollen underclothing and a return to nature in foods, was +set at rest from the first moment of meeting. The count is no eccentric, +but a polished man in spite of the convenient dress of the muzhik. The +peasant dress is simply the one that has proved best for his intercourse +with the country people. Moreover, there is a noticeable difference +between the well-cut and well-fitting coat of Tolstoï and that of the +ragged peasant. I must confess that the setting at rest of even this +little misgiving was of value to me. For, as people are in this world, +they will not take even a saint seriously if he wraps himself in +external eccentricities--if he has not good taste. Leo Tolstoï decidedly +has good taste. Only he is great enough and strong enough not to submit +to the tyranny of fashion. I should like, however, to see the man who +felt the least suggestion of worldly superiority in talking with him. +Truly the count is not the man whom any fop in the consciousness of his +English tailor would presume to patronize. Perhaps, unconsciously to +himself, and certainly against his will, it is unmistakably to be seen +in him that he once had the idea of being _comme il faut_, as he tells +in his _Childhood and Youth_. However insignificant this circumstance +may be in the worldwide fame of Leo Tolstoï, it must be mentioned, +simply because the legend of the muzhik's smock may too easily create an +entirely false impression of the personality of the poet. In spite of +all the kindly simplicity of his bearing, no one can for a moment +escape the impression that here speaks a distinguished man in every +sense of the term. + +The rooms allotted to us were parts of his large library. On a shelf I +found the carefully kept catalogue of the fourteen cases, with each book +on a separate slip. A glance through one of the glass doors showed me +English, French, German, and Russian books; my eye even fell on a Danish +grammar. There stood side by side a work on Leonardo da Vinci, +Björnson's _Über unsere Kraft_, Marcel Prévost's _Vierges Fortes_, Jules +Verne's _Journey to the Centre of the Earth_, Spinoza, Renan, a book of +travel by Vámbéry, a book of entomology, Buffon--the most different +sorts of books, and obviously much used. The count is able to accomplish +such an achievement in reading only by a careful division of the day, +not to say a military exactness and thoroughness, pushed perhaps to +pedantry, in all his doings. Later, in speaking with me, he used the +familiar phrase, "Genius is eternal patience." He has this patience. It +is well known how he works--that he has his first conception copied on +the type-writer, then corrected, then copied again, and so on until the +work satisfies him. On the day of my visit this man of seventy-five took +an early morning walk of an hour and a half, looked over his large mail, +wrote an English article upon the war, rode two full hours in the +afternoon with the thermometer at six, worked again, and remained in +almost uninterrupted conversation with us from six o'clock until +midnight. He spoke German most of the time, rarely French. At the end of +the exceedingly intense conversation he was just as youthfully elastic +as at the beginning; indeed, in the late night hours his eyes first +began to glow with a light of inspiration which no one who has once seen +it can ever forget. In addition to the great thoroughness of all his +action and the strict division of the day, a vital energy which must be +called truly phenomenal is also most essentially characteristic of his +personality. Leo Tolstoï is a giant in psychical and intellectual +strength, as he must once have been in physical strength also. It is not +purely accidental that the two heroes in whom he has pictured himself +most unmistakably--Peter, in _War and Peace_, and Levin, in _Anna +Karenina_--are large, strong men of unusual productive capacity. + + + + +XXIX + +A VISIT TO TOLSTOÏ--_CONTINUED_ + + +It was not yet noon when the door opened and a supple, laughing creature +burst in like a whirlwind and ran up the stairs, filling the house with +music. Soon afterwards the servant summoned us to luncheon. When we went +up-stairs the laughing singer with the voice like a silver bell met us +at the door of the dining-room. It was the Countess Alexandra Lvovna, +or, as she is known in the house, Sasha, a blooming, beautiful blonde, +with her father's brows above great, wide-open, blue eyes. The Countess +Sasha does not speak German. She did the honors of the luncheon in the +absence of her father, who did not appear, since it is his custom not to +interrupt his work at this time. Therefore another inmate of the house +was present, a Circassian, a talented artist who had nursed the count in +the Crimea and since then has remained in the family. She makes herself +useful now by filing the count's correspondence. She speaks only +Russian, however, so that she could take no part in the conversation. + +Naturally, we spoke only of the countess's father. His health the +preceding year had been very weak from attacks of malaria and typhus, +and even now the family were constantly anxious about him. For he does +not spare himself in the least, and will not take his advanced years +into consideration at all. For twenty years he has not eaten a morsel of +meat. What appeared to be cutlets, which I saw him eat later, were made +of baked rice. I cautiously led the conversation to a former inmate of +the house, who, in an indiscreet book upon the family of the count, made +the assertion that the count was only nominally a vegetarian, but +occasionally made up for his abstinence by secretly eating tender +beefsteaks. It would mean nothing in and of itself if a habitual +meat-eater, after going over to vegetarianism in a general way, should +now and then indulge the craving for meat. The secrecy of the +indulgence, however, would be a piece of that hypocrisy of which the +count is accused by his most obstinate enemies. We received from the +countess, however, an explanation of the circumstances in regard to the +German woman's book. Since the Tolstoï family, however, have long since +pardoned the repentant authoress, it would be indelicate of me to +publish the ancient history. Leo Tolstoï is no hypocrite. He does not +even consider it a duty to be a vegetarian. All the rest of his family, +including the Countess Sasha, eat meat. Tolstoï finds, however, that a +vegetable diet agrees with him, and he therefore adheres to it without +wishing to convert anybody else to the same belief, as vegetarians are +accustomed to do. The count, in general, does not try to make any +converts, brings no pressure to bear on any one. Everybody may live +exactly as he chooses, even in the bosom of the count's family. The +Countess Sasha said, touchingly, "The only thing we can learn from him +is whether a thing pleases him or not. That is enough, however, at least +for me." + +Nothing could be more touching than the relations between this last +child remaining at home and her father. She hangs on his words. Every +wish of his, spoken half aloud, is quickly and silently fulfilled by +her. Since the marriage of the Countess Tatyana she has been his +secretary, and her white hands operate the typewriter like those of the +oldest amanuensis. She trills a little French song at the same time, and +blushes to the neck when any one catches her at it and speaks of her +sweet voice and accurate ear. Work for her father is a higher +satisfaction to her. She subordinates herself completely to his +thoughts. She used to be, like every one else, a lover of Shakespeare, +but since she copied the latest work of her father upon, or rather +against, Shakespeare, she has been convinced and converted by his +arguments. She said this without any affectation, with the sincerity of +a child. It is to be seen that the deep tenderness of her love for her +father springs from her care of him. She trembles for him. Perhaps she +exerts herself, too, to replace all the brothers and sisters who have +gone out from the home. Of nine living children--there were originally +thirteen--she is the last. It is easy to see, too, how much the careful +precautions of this daughter please the count. When his eyes rest on her +face, beautiful with the distinction of race and maidenhood, it is as if +a ray of light passed over his face. He does this, however, as if by +stealth. His love is shy, as is hers. + +Soon after luncheon the count sent me an invitation to join him. He had +paused in his work to eat a few mouthfuls. Meanwhile we might chat. We +again sat at the same table. The talk turned on the war, against which +the count was just writing an article. He made the observation that the +right-minded Russian was in a remarkable position. He contradicted all +human feelings in wishing a defeat for his own nation. The bitterest +misfortune that Russia could meet, however, would be the continuance of +the present criminal régime, which demands so many victims, inflicts so +much suffering upon Russia, and which, in case of victory, would only be +strengthened. Quite recently he had received a letter from a highly +gifted writer, a certain Semionov, whom he himself had discovered and +taught. Semionov, a peasant, had been a janitor in Moscow, but on +Tolstoï's advice had returned to his father, and had written a little +volume of stories, which Tolstoï rates higher than those of Gorki. Now +the gendarmes have confiscated everything he has, and, if I am not +mistaken, have even arrested the writer. The pressure, the count says, +is unendurable. I told him of my meeting with the Cossack colonel in +Tula and of the hotel servants in Moscow, who one and all wished to go +to the scene of war for the sake of plunder. "Certainly," answered the +count. "The soldier must rejoice over every war, for war gives him for +the first time a kind of title to existence in his own eyes. As to these +house-servants and waiters, however, who are so ready to take part in +the war, their love of fighting is nothing but common love of stealing. +The Europeans have rioted and plundered shamefully in China. The people +of the lower classes suffer from these things, and thus all their evil +instincts are awakened." + +I told the count of the officially arranged patriotic demonstrations in +St. Petersburg, of which I had been a witness, and in which alcohol had +played its part. + +"Yes, intoxication!" said the count; "they need that to make people +forget that killing, robbery, and plunder are sins. If people only came +to their senses they could no longer do these things; for nineteen +hundred years of Christianity, however falsified, leave their trail in +the consciousness of man, and make it impossible for him to rage like +the heathen. But everything is done to suppress religion. Our upper +classes have already completely lost religious consciousness. They +either say 'Away with this nonsense!' and become gross materialists, or +they remain orthodox and do not themselves know what they +believe--stupid stuff about the world's being created in six days and +lasting only six thousand years. This trash, which is taught the people +as religion--that is to say, belief in the schools--is just as much a +means of hindering religion as a superficial knowledge of science. Yet +religion alone can free us from our evils, from war and violence, and +bring men together again. Religion is at present in a latent condition +in every one, and needs only to be developed. And this religion is the +same for all, for the native religious consciousness is quite the same +in all men. But the churches prevent this unity, and bury this religious +consciousness under forms and dogmas which produce a sort of +stupefaction instead of satisfying the religious hunger." + +I repeated the amusing remark of the Cossack colonel of Tula, that +Tolstoï was a great man, only that it was a pity that he was an atheist. + +The poet laughed, with something like pain in the laugh. + +"There is always a certain amount of truth in which people believe, only +it is misunderstood. To that good Cossack faith and orthodoxy are +identical. My own sister, who is in a convent, laments that her brother +asserts that the Gospel is the worst book that has ever been written. +The truth is that I made this assertion about the legends of the saints, +but it is misquoted. The authorities know what I think of the Gospel. +They have even struck out of the Sermon on the Mount two verses which I +put into an alphabet for the people." + +"Who struck them out?" I asked. + +"The censor, to be sure. An orthodox Christian censorship strikes out of +the Sermon on the Mount two verses which do not suit it. This is called +Christianity." + +The authorities give the Tolstoï family the greatest difficulty in its +work of educating the people. The village school was suppressed, because +reading and writing were taught there and not orthodoxy. The instruction +which the Countess Sasha now gives is quite unsystematic. Five children +come to her at the old manor, and are taught the black arts of reading, +writing, arithmetic, and manual training, in constant danger that some +high authority will interfere to ward off this injury to the state. + +"It is quite probable that we shall all be officially disciplined when +my father is no longer living," the Countess Sasha said to us, with that +calmness with which every one in Russia sacrifices himself to his +convictions. + +There was nothing pastoral, likewise nothing exalted, in Tolstoï's +manner during this conversation. After finishing his luncheon he rose +and walked up and down the long dining-room with me, both hands in his +belt, as he is painted by Ryepin. He spoke conversationally, with no +especial emphasis on any word, as to one whom there is no need of +convincing. It was the afternoon conversation of an intelligent country +gentleman with his guest--the easy, matter-of-course talking in a minute +of resting--talk that is not meant to go deep or to philosophize. To me +it proved only the lively interest taken by Tolstoï in all the events of +the day. He was not at all the hermit, merely preparing himself by holy +deeds for heavenly glory, but an alert, vigorous, elderly man who +watches events without eagerness or passion, yet with sufficient +sympathy--an apostle unanointed, literally or figuratively. + +A half-hour's siesta was a necessity after the night spent in travel and +the excitements of the morning. We rested, as did the whole house, in +which at this time there was scarcely a sound. I do not know whether +such stillness reigns in summer in the park, which now lay buried deep +in snow. The house is very quiet now because it has become too large for +the remaining occupants. A whole suite of simply furnished rooms on the +ground floor stands entirely empty, and is awakened to life only when +the married children come to visit. In the first floor, also, where the +study and reception-room are, everything has become too large. After we +had settled for our nap we heard only the click of the typewriter, on +which the Countess Sasha was copying the manuscript her father had +written in the morning, and the low song with which she accompanied her +work. Then the house awoke again. The count was about to take his ride. +A fine black horse was led to the door, and the old count descended the +stairs with his light, quick step. He now had the Russian shawl around +his neck and a broad woollen scarf belted about his body. He drew on his +high felt overshoes and thick mittens, put the lambskin cap on his head, +seized his riding-whip, and went out. A strange muzhik was waiting for +him before the door. He had come from a distance to lay his case before +the count. Tolstoï listened to him, questioned him, and then called the +servant. As he was not at hand, the count asked me to tell him to give +the muzhik some money. Then a foot in the stirrup, and, with the swing +of a youth, the man of seventy-five seated himself in the saddle. It is +easy to see, even now, that he must once have been a notable horseman +and athlete. For, though strength of passion abates in an elderly man, +he who has once had muscular training does not lose the effects of it. + +With a nod of the head the rider rapidly disappeared in the lane that +leads to the main road. It was already growing dark when he returned, +chilled through, and now noticeably altered. The cold had pinched his +face; his eyelids were slightly reddened; eyebrows, mustache, and beard +were thickly frosted. The change was only superficial, however. An hour +later he was more fresh and vigorous than before, held himself erect, +and spoke with ever-increasing animation. + +We, however, spent the afternoon in a walk in the village with the +Countess Sasha. We had accepted her invitation with pleasure. She now +appeared, humming, in a lively mood, slipped on a light gray Circassian +mantle and her little high overshoes, wound a long, red scarf about her, +and put a gray Circassian cap on her thick hair. Nothing was ever more +beautiful than this creature, so full of health and strength. She took a +stout stick from the wall for protection from dogs, and then led us out +into the deep snow, in which only a narrow path was trodden. + +Even the deepest reverence does not require uncritical adoration. +Moreover, Tolstoï is of such phenomenal importance for us all that the +narrator who can communicate his own perceptions is bound to reproduce +them with the most absolute fidelity. Therefore, I believe I ought not +to conceal the thoughts which refused to leave me during the walk +through this village. I had to admire once more the deep humanity of the +Tolstoïs when I saw the Countess Sasha, in her beauty and purity, go +into the damp, dirty hovels of the peasants, and caress the ragged and +filthy children, just as Katyusha, in _The Resurrection_, kissed a +deformed beggar on the mouth in Easter greeting after the Easter mass. +This absolute Christian brotherliness receives expression also in the +whole attitude of the family. Countess Sasha says, quite in the spirit +of her father: "The industrious peasant stands much higher morally than +we who own the land and do not work it. Otherwise he differs in no way +from us in his virtues and vices." This brotherliness, however, has this +shortcoming, that it leaves the brother where it finds him, and does not +compel him to conform to different and more refined ways of living. The +Tolstoï family teaches the village children. It has established a little +clinic in the village. But it does not make its influence felt in +teaching the villagers personal cleanliness, taking, say, the German +colonists in the south as a model. I cannot conceive of the peasants of +Yasnaya Polyana looking as they would if the landlord were an English or +Dutch philanthropist instead of a Russian; and I cannot believe, either, +that the simplicity of manners or the warmth of brotherly love would +suffer if the village looked, for instance, like those of the Moravians, +which shine with cleanliness. To be sure, the count refrains from any +pressure on the people about him, and if his muzhik feels better +unwashed, as his fathers were before him, and prefers a dirty, unaired +room, shared with the dear cattle, to one in which he would have to take +off his shoes to prevent soiling the floor, the count will not exhort +him to change into a Swabian or a Dutchman. Æsthetic demands do not form +any part of the Tolstoï view of life--I believe that for this reason it +will find slow acceptance in the West. + +There is the meekness and "lowliness" of early Christianity, there is +an anti-Hellenic principle in the village dirt of Yasnaya Polyana. It is +true that Hellenism leads in its final outcome to the abominable +"Herrenmenschenthüm"[14] of Nietzsche, to Nero's hatred of the "many too +many." A predominant æsthetic valuation of the good things of life leads +in a negative way to the immoral in conduct. Every final consequence, +however--that is, every extreme--is absurd; even absolute spirituality, +indifferent to all outward things, as well as the heartless cult of mere +external beauty. If we may learn from the muzhik patience in misfortune, +we have also something to offer him in return for this in ideas of how +to care for the body and of æsthetically refined ways of living. But Leo +Tolstoï is an enemy of all compromise, and perhaps must be so. If the +impulse towards the spiritualizing of our life, towards brotherly +kindness and holiness, which goes out from him, is to work in its full +force, it must be free from any foreign admixture, at least in him, its +source. In the actual world counteracting forces are not wanting, +moreover, and in some way the balance is always struck. The synthesis of +Nietzsche and Tolstoï is really not so very hard to find. It was given +long ago in the "kaho-kayadin" (beauty and goodness) of the ancients as +well as in the rightly understood conception of the gentleman. If +Tolstoï's human ideal wears the form of the muzhik and flatly rejects +every concession to the claims of an æsthetic culture, the fact leads +back ultimately to the repulsion which the St. Petersburg type of +civilization must awaken in every unspoiled mind. One perceives there +that luxury cannot uplift man. Indeed, it is easy to come to the Tolstoï +conviction that it ruins instead of ennobling him. An isolated thinker +like Tolstoï reaches in this revulsion very extreme consequences. In any +case the bodily uncleanness of the peasants is less unpleasant to him +and his daughter than the moral impurity of the town dwellers. The dirt +of the peasants is for him nature, like the clinging clay of the field. + +Suppressing our thoughts, we followed our brave guide into the houses of +the village. With a few blows of her stick she put to flight the +snarling curs that stood in her way. In the first house there was great +wretchedness. The muzhik lay sick on the oven, beside him a stunted, +hunchback child. The wife sat at the loom, surrounded by a heap of other +children, flaxen-haired and unspeakably filthy. Half a dozen lambs +shared the room and its frightful air with the peasants, sick and well. +The young countess had a friendly word for each. One of the children was +a pupil of hers, and was at that very time working at her writing +lesson. This, of course, was praised. There was, however, something +obsequiously cringing about the peasant woman I did not like. It was +all quite different in the next house, which belonged to a rich muzhik. +He likewise lay on the oven. The room was lighter, thanks to a larger +window, but the floor was equally dirty, and the inevitable lambs were +pushing each other about in the straw in the same way. At our entrance +the muzhik awoke and got up. His mighty brown beard almost covered his +breast, which showed through his open shirt, and was covered with a +thick crust. This peasant, however, read the paper, spoke of the war, +and put a very interesting question. A little while before the Countess +Sasha had been at his house with Bryan, who had visited her father. The +muzhik and his visitor had become rather friendly. Now the muzhik read +in the paper that the Americans are enemies of Russia. How about his +friend Bryan? The countess, therefore, had to tell him whether Bryan had +now become his personal enemy. She reassured him, laughing. The peasant +woman accompanied us out of the house, and made the characteristic +speech: "I am ashamed; we live here like pigs; but what is any one to +do? We are so, and can't help it!" + +In the same house is the little village hospital, which for the present +is only a movable affair. This is kept really clean. The amount of +illness is large. The peasants from the surrounding country come also, +and the doctor often has to treat forty patients in a single office +hour. He is said to be an able man and a good one--a matter of course +in Tolstoï's vicinity. Whether one wishes it or not, one is drawn out +here in the atmosphere of pure kindliness. When I came back from the +village I was almost ashamed that I had held my breath in the peasant's +room. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] The theory that the elect few alone deserve to live and that the +masses are superfluous. + + + + +XXX + +A VISIT TO TOLSTOÏ--_CONTINUED_ + + +At six o'clock we were summoned to dinner, at which the count appeared. +As entrée there were baked fish--for the count, rice cutlets--then a +roast and vegetables, of which the count took only the latter; then +dessert and black coffee. We drank kvass, later tea, with cakes. +Everything was very well prepared. A man-servant waited at table. It is +by no means petty to tell all this. The Tolstoïs do not live on locusts +and wild honey, but like other good families in Russia. We have, thank +Heaven, outgrown the days when genius had to assert itself by +extravagant conduct. Brilliant originality is entirely compatible with +conformity to custom in all every-day usages, according to our way of +thinking. Conversely, all originality immediately becomes suspicious in +our eyes when it labors to assert itself in trifles. "A wise man behaves +like other people." The individuality of Tolstoï shows in no way the +stamp of the idle wish to differentiate itself in each and every +particular from other people. + +No one will expect me to reproduce every detail of the conversation, +which began at dinner and ended almost six hours later at the house +door. I certainly have not forgotten a word of it, but I cannot answer +for the order of succession of subjects, nor even for every expression +and every turn of speech. I therefore reconstruct from memory only what +seems to me the most important, and ask every indulgence for this +report. It is as faithful as is possible to human inadequacy after such +fatigues and excitements, and with rather tardy notes. + +"I am now under the influence of two Germans," began the count. "I am +reading Kant and Lichtenberg--selections, to be sure, for I do not +possess an original edition. I am fascinated by the clearness and grace +of their style, and in particular by Lichtenberg's keen wit." + +"Goethe says, 'When Lichtenberg makes a jest, a whole system is hidden +behind it,'" I threw in. + +"I do not understand how the Germans of to-day can so neglect their +writer and go so mad over a coquettish feuilletonist like Nietzsche. He +is no philosopher, and has no honest purpose of seeking and speaking the +truth." + +"But he has an unprecedented polish of style, and an endless amount of +temperament." + +"Schopenhauer seems to me greater as a stylist. Still, I agree with you +that he has a glittering polish, though it is only the facile grace of +the feuilletonist, which does not entitle him to a place among the great +thinkers and teachers of humanity." + +"He flatters, however, the aristocratic instincts of the new-Germans, +who have attained power and honor, and he works against the evils of +socialism." + +"What is the condition of socialism in Germany?" asked the count, +immediately, with great interest. + +"I fear it has lost in depth and strength what it has gained in +breadth." + +"You may be right," he answered. "I have the same impression. The belief +in its invincibility is broken, and its internal strength of conviction +begins to weaken. It had to be so. Socialism cannot free humanity. No +system and no doctrine can do that--nothing but religion." + +"The Church says that, too." + +"But she teaches it falsely. What is religion? The striving of each +individual soul towards perfection; the subordination to an ideal. As +long as a man has that he feels a purpose in life, can endure all +sufferings, and is capable of any strain. It does not need necessarily +to be a lofty ideal. A man may have an ambition to develop his biceps to +an uncommon degree. If he takes this as his particular purpose in life +this aim carries him along completely. To be sure, a man's choice of an +ideal can be only apparently capricious. In reality we are all products +of our environment; and after nineteen hundred years of Christianity we +cannot with any true conviction set up ideals which contradict the real +Christianity. We can make ourselves believe something else for a while. +But the conscience will not submit to be silenced. Peace is attained +only by the religious ideal of perfection and of love of humanity. +Nothing is deadly except cynicism and nihilism." + +"I remember your metaphor, comparing a society without religion or moral +enthusiasm to an orchestra that has lost its leader. It keeps in time +for a while, then come the discords." + +"We are now in the first measure after his departure. All will go well +for a while, but then every one will get out of time; the leaders first, +because they are most exposed to temptation; then, class by class, the +lower ones also." + +"I believe a state is like a magnet, in which every smallest particle +must have its direction, or else the whole loses its strength and +cohesion." + +"Exactly. A state or a society, like the individual, is fit for life +only so long as it feels as a whole a reason for being. This life +principle of totality is, however, identical with the idea of the +individual. It is the stream that encircles each particle and brings it +into polarity." + +"People try to reach it by the ideal of nationalism and patriotism." + +"That is no ideal. It is an absurd idea, which immediately comes into +irreconcilable conflict with our better feelings. An ideal that can and +does require me to kill my neighbor in order to gain an advantage for +the group to which I belong is criminal." + +"Yet it is dangerous to stand out against it. You had a controversy on +that point with Spielhagen, who cast it up to you that you incline +people to fling themselves under the wheels of a flying express-train." + +"I remember. But Spielhagen does not know how many people already comply +with the requirements of the gospel. The Doukhobors are such people." + +"But they were obliged to leave the country." + +"What difference does that make? They were able to remain true to +themselves. That is better than remaining at home. And when we have once +changed education, and have taken the sinful glorification of deeds of +murder out of the hands of our children, then there will be not merely +thousands, but millions, who will refuse to sacrifice themselves, or +have themselves murdered for the ambition or the material advantage of a +few individuals. And then this chapter of world-history will end." + +"But the school is a matter of politics, and the state or the +influential classes will be careful not to permit an education that will +make their lower classes unavailable for purposes of war." + +"Certainly. And as long as there is a church which by its fundamental +teaching delivers itself over as an assistant to the state, and which +blesses weapons of murder, so long will it be hard to fight against the +evil instincts thus aroused. But school, of course, does not end man's +education. Later reading is much more important. We have, therefore, +created something that might well be imitated abroad also, our +'Posrednik,' books for the people. The thing that suppresses bad reading +among the people is good books, especially stories. The books are sold +very cheaply. Our artists design frontispieces for them. You must look +at them in Moscow. I will give you a letter to the publisher, my friend +Ivan Ivanovitch Gorbunov, who can tell you the details." + +He did so. With his kind letter I afterwards looked up Gorbunov in +Moscow. Under the pressure of the Russian censorship he accomplishes the +immense work of spreading among the people every year several million +good books at a cost of a few kopeks each, without having needed to add +to his original capital of thirty thousand rubles. I fulfil a duty, and +at the same time a wish of Tolstoï's, in here calling attention most +emphatically to this magnificent Russian enterprise, which should be an +example for all other nations. + +I took up the subject of socialism again, and said, "In the West, Social +Democracy is trying to solve the problem of educating the masses and to +emancipate them." + +"This is certainly meritorious," replied the count. "The mistake lies in +the teaching of the Social Democrats that some other organization of +society will automatically abolish evil from the world. The principal +thing, however, is always to raise the individual to better morals and +better ways of thinking. Without this no system can be permanent. Each +leads only to new violence. People ought not to wish to better the +world, but to better themselves." + +"In that you agree essentially with our Moderns, who likewise take a +stand against socialism and preach an extreme individualism. I see in +that only a reactionary manoeuvre, however." + +"How so?" asked the count. + +"I believe that all wars for culture are always fought in a small class +of thinking people. For the masses, provision for material needs is +really the principal thing. In the thinking class, however, there are +two parties: one, consisting of the feudalists, the plutocrats, and +university-bred business men, fortune-hunters, seeks for itself the +privilege of exploiting others; the other consists of the idealists, who +desire progress--that is, the education and freeing of the masses. +Sometimes the one class, with its aristocratic philosophy of profit, +wins the upper hand, sometimes the other. We do not yet know in what +Hellenic or Sidonian laws the spiritual ebb and flow will find its +consummation. It is certain, however, that each party uses as a means of +attraction the declaration that its point of view is the more +progressive and that the opposite is the losing side. The +individualists, in their scorn of socialism, render the most valuable +service towards fundamental and complete reaction to the +aristocratic-plutocratic party of exploitation, because they spread +confusion in the ranks of the idealists by discrediting their +solidarity. Nevertheless, they call themselves "the Moderns," and dub +the advocates of solidarity 'old fogies.' The most modern thing in the +West is a vile cult of the Uebermensch (over-man) Renaissance +sentimentalism and the cult of beauty in bearing--æsthetic snobism." + +"All that originates with Nietzsche. The mistake, however, does not lie +in the principle of individualism, which does not exclude solidarity, +but, on the contrary, advances it. For the individual unquestionably +attains solidarity in the very struggle towards his own perfection. The +mistake lies in the æstheticism, in the basing of life on externals and +on enjoyment. Connected with this is the strangest thing of all, that +this resurrection of the madness of the Renaissance has not made use of +art. For all that is produced is nothing but pure silliness. I have not +laughed so much for years as at an entirely serious account of the +contents of _Mona Vanna_, or at the poems which our æsthete and decadent +Balmont read to me. None of those things are to be taken seriously as +art. They will only confuse people through their absurdity, which could +not exist if the healthy human understanding had not been brought into +discredit. It is no better with you in Germany. Why is your literary +product so low?" + +"Who knows, count? It has already been asserted that since 1870 the +gifted minds have turned to more serious and more lucrative callings +than literature. But I do not believe it. The sciences show at present +just as few geniuses as the arts. It seems as if there were laws of ebb +and flow here, too. Sometimes a whole billow of inspired intellects is +flung upon the earth, and then there is long drought. We have had no +great writers since Gottfried Keller." + +"Gottfried Keller? I have never heard the name before. Who was he? What +did he write?" + +"He was a Swiss who inherited Goethe's free outlook on life, and wrote +the best German novels, full of creative art, of racy humor, and of +almost uncanny knowledge of human nature. He would give you much +pleasure." + +"How? You say he inherits to some degree from Goethe. In that case my +enthusiasm would be doubtful, for I cannot say I especially love that +Goethe of yours." + +"Is it possible?" + +"There are some of his works I admire without reserve, which stand among +the finest things that have ever been written: _Hermann and Dorothea_, +for instance. I once knew his dedication by heart. Yet the lyrics of +Heine, for instance, make a deeper impression upon me than Goethe's." + +"Pardon the remark, count, but in that case your knowledge of the German +language is not sufficient for you to notice the difference in quality. +Heine is a virtuoso, who plays with form. With Goethe, every word +breathes the deepest spiritual experience and is uttered from inward +necessity." + +"The same thing is said here of Pushkin--that his greatness can be +appreciated only by those who are most deeply imbued with the spirit of +the language. I haven't any too much faith in all that, however. To be +sure, a translation is only the wrong side of the carpet; yet I believe +really great works hold their own in translation, so the form of phrase +cannot be the only test for the value of a writing. But what repels me +in Goethe is precisely that play on form of which you accuse Heine. +Goethe and Shakespeare are both artists in the sense in which you +reproach the Moderns. They are bent only upon æsthetic play, and create +only for enjoyment, and not with the heart's blood." + +"I could not admit that, count, without repudiating everything I have +ever thought and felt. Not for Shakespeare, in whom, through all the +dramatic conventions of the greater part, we hear the heartbeat often +enough. As for Goethe, whose poems are partly painful confessions, +written only for the reason he himself gives, + + + "Warum sucht' ich den Weg so sehnsuchtsvoll + Wenn ich ihn nicht den Brüdern zeigen soll?"[15] + + +"I find much more of this feeling for humanity in Schiller." + +"He is more rhetorical, appeals more directly to the middle class and +contemporaries. But, like the overbearing political tribune he was, he +has hardly entered into the joy and sorrow of the human soul." + +"And it is exactly this that brings him nearer to me than Goethe and +Shakespeare. He is filled with a sacred sense of purpose in his work. He +had not the cold ambition of the artist to be merely faithful to his +model. He was full of longing that we should be carried away with him. +Of the three requirements I make of the great artist--technical +perfection, worthiness of subject, and self-identification with the +matter--the last is the most important. One may be a great writer even +when technical perfection, complete mastery of the tricks of the trade, +is lacking, as, for instance, in the case of Dostoyevski. But unless a +man writes with his heart's blood he cannot be a great artist." + +"I believe the heart's-blood doctrine would rule out all cheerful +_genre_, and that meets perhaps best of all the fundamental purpose of +art." + +"You say that because you yourself see in art only a means of enjoyment, +only play." + +I could not have denied that this is really my conception, and should, +therewith, have hit upon the fundamental opposition between our Western +conception of life, as expressed by Goethe, and the exclusively +religio-moral one of Tolstoï. I could not, however, compel myself to +fill with a fruitless argument the few hours I had to spend with the +honored man. I should have been as little able to convince the apostle +of seventy-five, whose ascetic philosophy is the product of definite +conditions of civilization, as he to convince me, the west-German, whose +light-heartedness and confident belief in culture had ripened in the +sunshine of the Rhine bank. I therefore evaded the point, and said: + +"I have hitherto not taken your rigorous demands upon art as well as +upon life quite literally, count. I thought to myself that when one +pulls up a horse suddenly he does not wish it to turn around, but only +to stop. I supposed that you wished merely to counteract other powerful +impulses." + +"No," said the count, after a moment's reflection. "That is not so. I +believe in the absolute correctness of my demands. I myself, however, +was too weakly or too badly trained to submit to them altogether. I +cannot, for instance, keep from enjoying Chopin, although I condemn his +music as exclusive art, which addresses itself to the understanding and +feelings only of the aristocratically cultivated few." + +"It seems to me an unattainable ideal that all men should share in +enjoyment of art; and the requirement that the artist shall refrain from +all work that could be enjoyed only by a limited number of especially +cultivated men is impossible and even harmful. It would deprive us of +the finest works we possess." + +"If the requirement is justified in and of itself, it is quite +immaterial what sacrifices must be made to it. Nothing is to be +considered in comparison with truth." + +I could go no further here, again. For I was talking with the man who +repudiates his own immortal works because they are beyond the +comprehension of most people, and therefore help to widen the gulf +between the educated and the uneducated. I could not even make the +objection that almost all learning must be condemned on the same ground, +for it is well known that Tolstoï does not shrink from even this +conclusion. + +It is not, however, a matter of indifference to him whether people +consider his views to be scientifically founded--_i. e._, correctly +reasoned out or not. He said to me in the course of the conversation: + +"I often laugh, and I also often grow angry, when people cast it in my +face that my studies are not scientific. I assert in return that the +whole of positivism and materialism is unscientific. If I seek a science +by which I can _live_, I seek it only logically and steadfastly, or +scientifically, with no contradiction within itself from its premises to +its final conclusion. Scepticism, on the other hand, completely denies +every concept of life. And yet the sceptic wishes to live, otherwise he +would kill himself. He admits, therefore, by the mere fact that he is +alive that his whole philosophy is nothing for him but an idle exercise +of the intellect which has no bearing on his life. That means that it is +not in the least _true_ for him. I, however, seek the premise from which +I can not only live, but live peacefully and cheerfully. This premise is +God, and the duty for us that of perfecting ourselves. I follow the +consequence of that premise to the end, and feel that I am right not +only in words but also in deeds." + +No truly scientific thinker needs to be reminded that Tolstoï here, in +the _a priori_ assumption that life must have a meaning, departs from +the fundamental principle of all scientific reasoning--namely, the +starting without a hypothesis, and, like Kant, to whom he feels drawn +not without reason, works with postulates instead of with conclusions. +But who will not rejoice that the poet, who above all things was and is +a passionate human creature, has saved himself from the despair of +agnosticism by a bold leap to the rock of faith, which lies beyond all +science, and can neither be supported nor shaken by it? How many of the +proud agnostics do not secretly cast furtive glances at that rock, where +they would like to reserve themselves a place against emergencies? While +Tolstoï sincerely acknowledges that without this foundation under his +feet he would no longer be able to live. He needed this quieting as to +the outcome of things to be able to follow his poetic impulse to look +at the world as it is. Only entirely barren, abstract natures find their +satisfaction in the voluntarily limited logical sequence of science, +confined as it is to the empirical. All men of imagination, including +Goethe and Bismarck, have had their share of mystic confidence in that +beneficent course of the universe which in popular language is called +God or Providence. This poetic faith has, of course, nothing whatever to +do with science. + +Undervaluation of one's own qualities, however, and enthusiasm for the +complementary ones, is a familiar psychological fact. The poet Tolstoï +wishes to be a cut-and-dried philosopher. He repudiates his poetry, and +likewise speaks coldly--indeed, even with hostility--of the spirits akin +to him, of Goethe and Shakespeare. There is only one opinion among +lovers of art, and that is that Tolstoï, in the natural spontaneity of +his characters and incidents, is to be compared with these two alone, +and in the abundance of his psychological traits with Shakespeare only. +Yet at present Tolstoï is engaged in writing a book, soon to appear, +against Shakespeare and the study of Shakespeare. In our conversation he +came back to the indefensible over-estimation of this artist. + +"If people were capable of approaching Shakespeare impartially they +would lose their unreasonable reverence for this writer. He is crude, +immoral, a toady to the great, an arrogant despiser of the small, a +slanderer of the common people. He lacks good taste in his jests, is +unjust in his sympathies, ignoble, intoxicated with the acquaintance +with which a few aristocrats honored him. Even his art is +over-estimated, for in every case the best comes from his predecessors +or his sources. But people are quite blind. They are under the spell of +the consensus of opinion handed down for centuries. It is truly +incredible what ideas can be awakened in the human mind by consecutive +treatments of one and the same theme." + +I believe that one will not go astray in finding in the above-mentioned +book against Shakespeare a prosecution at the same time of Tolstoï's +campaign against the æsthetic-artistic view of life in general. His +purpose is to overthrow one of the chief idols of the æsthetic cult. As +far as the arguments on the moral side are concerned, he will certainly +have a following. The son of a tavern-keeper, himself an actor, +Shakespeare was certainly not the ideal of a gentleman. Tolstoï will, +however, have difficulty in abolishing wonder at the artistic power of +this most sumptuous of all geniuses. + +Tolstoï dealt with the influence of general opinion again in another +connection. He was speaking of the mischief that the newspapers do in +the world, but chose, in my opinion, a very inappropriate example of +this. + +"During the Dreyfus case," said he, "I received at least a thousand +letters from all parts of the world asking me to express an opinion. +How could I have responded? Here I am in Russia; the transaction was in +France. It was absolutely impossible to get a correct idea of the +proceedings, for every paper reported it differently. In and of itself, +what was the thing that had happened? An innocent officer had been +condemned. That was an unimportant occurrence. There were much greater +crimes committed by those in power. But the whole world took the alarm. +Everybody had an incontrovertible conviction as to the guilt or the +innocence of a man whom nobody knew, and whose judges nobody knew. A +thing like that is an epidemic, not thinking." + +One must certainly travel a very strange and lonely road to fail to +appreciate that in this very instance the press accomplished an enormous +work in arousing mankind, and in showing them the danger threatening +from the Jesuits. The Dreyfus affair belongs to world-history as an +epoch-making event. Perhaps the deliverance of the whole white race from +the octopus-like embrace of clericalism and militarism is its work. And +Count Tolstoï, who regards it as his mission to fight militarism, lives +through the chief battle and does not suspect it! One certainly ought +not to forget that he is in Russia, where the incarceration of innocent +men is an every-day affair, and that the Russian papers think they +fulfil their duty to an allied nation by treating the matter from the +stand-point of Méline and Marcier. + +Tolstoï's antipathy to this affair does not come at all from any +possible anti-Semitic feeling. He does not love the mercantile Jews, who +have not the slightest trace of Christian spirit. He condemns +anti-Semitism, however, in the most emphatic way. "Anti-Semitism," he +said, "is not a misfortune for the Jews, for he who suffers wrong is not +to be pitied, but he who does wrong. Anti-Semitism demoralizes society. +It is the worst evil of our time, for it poisons whole generations. It +makes them blind to right and wrong, and kills all moral feeling. It +changes the soul into a place of desolation in which all goodness and +nobility are swept away." + +In regard to other matters, Tolstoï does not use strong expressions. He +parries them good-humoredly but decisively. When we were talking of the +new romanticists, I used some severe language. I explained the +uproarious applause of certain gifted but degenerate and perverse +artists as a cynical attack on the inborn moral sense, and said, +speaking from my own experience, that I had yet to meet one of those +devotees of immorality whom I had not found on closer acquaintance to be +morally deficient. When, however, I spoke of literary support of vice, +the count raised his hand to stop me, and said: + +"Let us be gentle in our judgment of our fellow-men." Then he added, "Go +on." + +I had, however, gained command of myself and begged pardon for my +vehemence. I could not go on, however, for what had been on my tongue +was only more bitter words. + +He looked at me kindly, and merely said, "Thank you." + +It is self-evident that Tolstoï did not mean by this to express sympathy +with the Diabolics and other eccentrics. Moreover, he spoke flatly +against art for art's sake, which he calls tiresome more than anything +else. "Agonized productions of the search for originality, welcomed by +idleness, and intended for the applause of the critics of so-called fine +taste." He shrugged his shoulders over the fact that a monument had been +erected to Baudelaire. He agreed with me, however, when I traced the +interest in exotic suggestion in the creative arts, as for everything +eccentric and bizarre, back to the tendency towards an entirely external +naturalism, which would completely rule out from art the personality of +the artist. He returned again to his text. + +"Without the deepest sympathy and complete identification with the +subject no work of art can ever be produced." + +He does not admit, however, that this identification with the subject is +found in the experiments of these latter-day writers. He sees in them +only a sudden change from the fashion for objectivity to the fashion for +subjectivity. When, however, I spoke of the good-fortune of the Russian +in not being obliged to take part in all these fashions, because he had +already showed in his deep-hearted realism that it is possible to be +true to reality, and yet be full of warmth and meaning, he again raised +his hand to stop me, and blushed. I could not tell whether it was from +modesty or whether he does not wish any longer to hear of the works of +his "literary" period. I believe, however, that the noise of all this no +longer reaches his ear. When I spoke with warm enthusiasm of the debt we +all owe him, said that his art was a revelation to us, that through him +we had first learned what poetic power lies in the simplest and deepest +fidelity to nature, he stopped me in his gentle way. Only philanthropy +is now a matter of any importance for him. Everything else is empty +trifling. He said to me: + +"You are still buried deep in materialism. You must see that you free +yourself from that." + +Nevertheless, he was good enough to recognize my honest purpose of +seeking the truth, even though I do not succeed in finding it in all +points as he believes he has found it. + +I must certainly admit that in the late hours of the night, as he sat +opposite me, his fine head leaning far back and resting on one hand, his +glowing eyes making him seem as it were transparent, I had great +difficulty in preserving a conventional bearing. Here was one of the +greatest men of all times, who had risen out of the purely human and had +become a saint upon whom rests the divine light. The kindness and +tenderness of his voice and the gentleness of his words are +indescribable. He has the love and the dauntless courage of the prophet +and the apostle without their passion and wrath. It is doubtful whether +any mortal has ever had more understanding of human weakness than he. He +combats only institutions, never men. And yet no other man has had such +influence upon our consciences as he, most compassionate of all judges +in spite of the pitiless keenness of his vision. + +It was midnight when the count's sleigh took us to Kozlovka, the nearest +station to the estate. In leaving I could not conceal the extent to +which I was moved. When I think of the final moments, when the count +stood at the head of the stairs and called a last word after me, while I +turned to him to say good-bye once more and forever, it seems to me that +I never in my life experienced anything more overwhelming. I carried +away an impression that the whole hall was filled with the light of his +eyes. Yet it was only a prosaic bit of advice for our return trip to +Moscow, to give which he had hurried after us after the adieus in his +study. The Countess Sasha, however, stood in the starlight by the door, +lovely as a goddess of hospitality. It was gratifying to know that the +saintly old man was in the care of this lovely creature. + +Under the twinkling stars we sped at a brisk trot past black forests and +over the silent, deep-buried fields. Within us re-echoed the saying of +Kant, "Two things there are that always fill me with reverent awe: the +starry heavens above me and the moral consciousness within." The man +whose hand I had just grasped embodies the moral consciousness of our +century. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[15] "Why do I seek the way so ardently, if not that I might show it to +my brothers?" + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Riddles, by Hugo Ganz + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 56772 *** |