Rusia

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

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PAINTED

TEXT BY

BY G.

F.

DE HAENEN

r^OBSON,

H.

M.

GROVE, AND H. STEWART PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, LONDON. MCMXIII .

'J

—

—

I

\

^4

Contents I.

II.

St.

First Impressions.

PE'jEiJsiiUHG

Ideological

and

Petersburg III.

I\'.

V^.

VI, VII. VIII.

IX.

X. XI. XII.

Political .

Aspects .

.

Site of St. Petersburg in the Past

ok .

,

1

St.

.15 .

29

The Swedes and Peter the Great on the Neva

46

...

59

St.

Petersburg

in

the Making

Imperial St. Petersburg St.

Petersburg Criticized

St. Petersburg Society St.

.

.

.... .... .

.

Petersburg 'hurrying up'

Types and Characteristics oe

84

.93 .

107

Petersburg

124

.

St.

.

74

.

Further Characteristics

.

.

.

.144

Environs of St. Petersburg

.

.

.

.152

XIII.

Moscow

— Historical

XIV.

Moscow

Historical

XV,

.

.

Impressions of

% %

..... .....

(conti)iued)

Moscow

}n

.

.

.

159 l64 l67

vi

List of Illustrations IN Sledging with the

COLOUR

Pristyazhka,' or Side- Horse

'

Frontispiece

...

FACING PAOB

The Emperor and Empress

in

The

late

One

of the Palace Grenadiers

Ancient Dress

The Members

leaving the

Ice-Cutting on the

Neva

of Peter

at St. Petersburg

I.

A A A

20 28

36

60 76

92

.

.

Day

100

Russian Wet-Nurse

,

Dish of Tea from a Samovar Russian Servant in

Palace

Quay

of the

St.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Summer Dress

The Frozen-Meat Market,

The

12

.

....

Cossacks of the Guard and Imperial Bodyguard

Easter

.

Dooma

Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul

Monument

4

...... ..... .......

Father John of Cronstadt in his Garden

Petersburg

.108 .116 .124 .140

Neva

148

156

Peterhoff

The

Saviour (Spassky)

Tower of the Kremlin, Moscow

The Kremlin, Moscow

A

.

.

.

.

.

.

'

'

Bell,

Moscow

l60

.164 170

Rich Merchant and his Wife

The Tsar

.

.

.

vii

ivi304(T>73

.

.

.

.178

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VIU

....

The Tsar Gun, Moscow '

'

The Coronation

of the

Emperor

.......

Heralds announcing the Coronation of Bell- Ringers

The Spassky The

FACING PAOe

Emperor

tlie

(Saviour) Gate of the Kremlin

.... ...

Moscow

Place Rouge,

Terrace of the Kremlin, Moscow In the Environs of

Peasants visiting

The Poor in

Moscow

....... ...... .... ........ ...... .... ....... .... ...... .... .....•• ....... ..... ...... Moscow warming Themselves

of

at Street Fires

Winter

The Imperial Opera House

A A

Awaiting the Postman

.....

Moscow

:

Toboggan

Turcoman and

Peasants

after a Gala Performance

Slide

his

Wife

Siberian Convict

The Trans-Siberian Railway

A A

Northern Fur Merchant

A

Summer's Day

Bear-Trap

in the

Country

Rafts on the Volga

A

Carpet Fair at Astrakhan

Rich Tartars

A A

Country Mayor of the Polish

Tea

A A

Jew

Sellers at a

Dance

'I'oula District

Country Railway Station

.

in Little Russia

Kirghiz

Wooing

Royal Palace, Livadia, Crimea

.

.

»

.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ix

AND WHITE

IN BLACK

VACINO PAGE

Easter Eve

A

9

.16

Troika

The

Dooma

State

The Tsar Reviewing Kazan Cathech'al

........ ..... ........ ... his Troops

Lake Ladoga

Schliisselberg Fortress, on

A

.

Droshky-Drivers' Tea-Stall

On

25 32

49 56 81

the Road to Execution in Former Days

.

.

.

.

.88

Court Ball

97

Coachman of Nevsky Prospect

.

.

.

.

.

The Outside Porter

.

.

.

.

.

.104 .113 .120 .129 .136 .145

.

.167

Blessing the

Neva

Nevsky Prospect

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Public Sledge, Halfpenny Fare Officer

and Sentinel

.

.

.

.

.

.

.,

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

152

Students

The Wedding

of a

The Small Golden

Nobleman

Scene

A

Droshky- Driver Kissing

Emperor

The Red Notre

A

Beggars

Moscow

his

.

.

.

Basil in the Place

Moscow

.

Horse Good-morning .

.

.

Kremlin .

.

.

174

.

.183 .190 .199

Vendor of

.

Salt Herrings

.

.

.215

Rouge on Christmas Eve .

.

.

206

.

.

222

.231

..... ..........

Fire Brigade,

Street

.

.

D'Iberie (The Iberian Virgin)

The Church of St.

The

.

(or Beautiful) Staircase of the

Dame

Kremlin

Kremlin during the Coronation of the

.

Petrovsky Palace,

.

.

Palata, or Tsaritsa's Hall, in the

A

in the

.

.

238 247

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS rACTNO PAOB

Refreshments Soldiers

...... ....... ......... Coffee and

Vodka

.

.

.

.

.

Dancing in Barracks

An Open-Air

A A

:

Kitchen

Middle-Class Funeral

254 263

270

279

Sleigh with Blue Silk Net, to prevent the Snow from Sj)raying the Occupants the Kremlin in the Back;

ground

New

A

Custom

Year's

Convent

in

:

Choosing a Bride

Novgorod

Selling the Sacred Fire

:

.

.

.

.

Nuns Making Hay

:

Pilgrim Returning from Jerusalem

28G 303

306 319

Convoy of Prisoners on Foot

322

Samoyedes

335

A

Wolf- Hunt

.... ....

Getting Caviare at Astrakhan Blessing the

Stage

in the

for Post-Horses in

Summer

351

354

Country

373

the Urals

380

Caravans

Blessing the

A

Water

338

.

Circassian

Ground before Sowing

....

Circassians Drilling

;

Little Russia

428 431

.

Returning from a Hunt in the Caucasus

The Hunt

for a Prisoner

421

Interior of a Siberian Prisoners'

434 439

.

Wagon

Sketch-Map of Russia at end of volume

442

PETERSBURG

ST.

CHAPTER

I

FIRST IMPRESSIONS Characteristics

— Spaciousness— Remoteness of Petersburg — surroundings— Approaches to St.

from other centres

Its

St.

Petersburg by land and water

In

— Contrast

with Germany.

starting to describe a foreign city, with

which

the author has long been perfectly familiar, pro-

bably the best method to adopt will be to recall his first impressions of

of some St.

thirty

Petersburg

Every

effort

outward

it.

Naturally, in the course

years the external character

has

undergone

many

of

changes.

has been made, as far as concerns

appearances, to place

it

as

nearly as

possible

on a

West.

Consequently, the visitor of to-day will

level

not meet with as the author did of the Neva.

with the great capitals of the

many

survivals of the past as

when he first landed on the banks The alterations that have since been 1

2

ST.

made must be

common

to

PETERSBURG

classed

The

of the present day. fore, will

his

own

ainoiigst

the development of

find repeated

all

great

cities

foreign visitor, there-

many

On

native capital.

improvements

of the features of

the otiier hand, St.

Petersburg exhibits features which are peculiarly

own, and which have remained unaltered not

its

only for the last thirty years, but from foundation. arities

A

of the city and

its locality

conveyed to the reader

if

may

very

perhaps be

the author points tlieni

out here in the light in which they

him many years

its

pretty good idea of these peculi-

interested

first

ago.

His attention was

first

of

all

struck

by the

spaciousness of the place, the extensive scale on

which the Imperial City had evidently been out,

and the immense waste of land

Peter the Great had planted his so-called

The author could not appearance

of

the

extreme lowness

in '

laid

which

Paradise.'

handsome buildings and the

help noticing the

principal

of the geographical

situation.

There was also a look of relative emptiness about

many

of the large, open squares and wide, long

thoroughfares, which at times seemed too big for

number of inhabitants straggling through After London and Paris, tliere was some-

the small

them.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

3

thing of the air of a provincial town in comparison, in

some

an enormous

places, of

one of palaces and

cathedrals.

village,

although

The largest

buildings

seemed dwarfed by the great open spaces surroundThe immediate neighbourhood of the ing them. celebrated St. Isaac Cathedral presented a strikingcontrast to that

hemmed

in

of

Paul's,

St.

so

disgracefully

by bricks and mortar on Ludgate

The houses

built

round

this magnificent

Hill.

Russian

temple were kept at a most respectful distance

from the very of which

Two

first.

left all

it,

and yet so much

round the sacred

free space

edifice that a

military review could be held in front of

out the least it

one

quite a park, were subsequently laid

is

out on two sides of has been

fine public gardens,

with-

In arrangement of streets

difficulty.

was easy to

it

town had not been left, make itself, but had been marked

see that the

so to speak, to

out on a regular plan of straight lines intersecting

one another plan

is

at

more

or less right angles.

This

best seen on the Vassili OstrofF, the largest

island of the

Neva

of St. Petersburg. this district

is

delta,

and a very important part

The most

peculiar feature of

the nomenclature of the streets.

inhabited area

is

The

divided into rectangular blocks

of buildings, which form a series of parallel avenues

4

PETERSBURG

ST.

at right

angles with

the

These avenues, or

river.

names or numbers,

1 to 27.

of the

have no separate

streets,

New

Quay

York, but each side

two each street, and these lines are numbered Cutting straight across them at consider-

of a street lines in

as in

Nichohis

is

called a

*

line,'

so that there are

able intervals of distance, and running parallel with

the Quay, are three very long thoroughfares called

This word

the Big, Middle, and Little Prospects. 'prospect'

many city,

is

applied instead of street or road to

other main thoroughfares in

the most important of them

being the Nevsky Prospect. this

all

regularity

parts of the

all,

of course,

For the most

of construction

part,

disturbed only

is

where rows of houses were made to follow the windings of natural streams, utilized to form the

network of

canals,

which run through the southern

part of the town.

Everything

at

first

seemed to

of newness and modernity. light-coloured

tints

of

the

houses,

which never get

general

use of wood

to

an exception

an

air

The whiteness and stuccoed

black,

fronts

thanks

to

of the

fuel instead of coal, helped

strengthen this impression.

remains of antiquity.

have

We

There were no

should perhaps

in this respect for the

make

two Egyptian

KMPRROK ANU of the

Tsar and

K.MPRES.s

'I">arit>a of thf old

costume

l.\

A.\t U..\

I

1jKI..-»

Muscovite Kmpire. as worn at an ball in the palace

liistorical

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

6

sphinxes, brought from ancient Thebes, and set

on the

river quay, opposite the Imperial

up

Academy

These Egyptian reHcs occupy a

of Fine Arts.

similar position to that of Cleopatra's

Needle on

Thames Embankment. Nothing outside of collections in museums and palaces dated back

the

Great and

farther than

the time of Peter the

the

Queen Anne in England. The rambles came upon no eyesores in

reign

of

author in his

the form of congested slums, and there appeared to

be no narrow, tortuous lanes and

way

obstructive blocks standing in the

requirements.

The

must have been projected to the future growth of its

and although

this has greatly increased

during the writer's experience, there

accommodation believe

there

no

city

with large ideas as street traffic,

alleys,

of modern

for

has

its

been

is still

ample

further development.

one

only

I

insignificant

example of the widening of thoroughfares in St. Petersburg to meet the necessities of increasing traffic in

the whole course of

occurred recently,

when two

its

history.

This

or three canal bridges

were widened to give more room

for

the

new

electric trams.

When

Peter

St. Petersburg,

the

Great

set

about

building

he was not content to construct the

ST.

6

nucleus of its

PETERSBURG

only in one particular spot, leaving

it

expansion to take place in the usual natural

He

way.

had various establishments placed on

both sides of the river at immense distances from

The Alexander Nevsky Monastery,

each other. for instance,

was

built at

one end of the Nevsky

Prospect, nearly three miles from the Admiralty at the other end,

to

fill

took more than a century

it

up the intervening

It has often

so

and

very remote from

Russia,

as

space.

been objected that

well

as

countries generally.

all

St.

Petersburg

is

other great centres of

from those of neighbouring It stands far aloof

from

all

other lines of communication, both in Russia and

on the

rest of the

European continent.

It lies

on

the road to nowhere in particular, except, perhaps, the Arctic Seas.

So much has

this

been

felt

to be

the case in recent years that the more direct

rail-

way

into

routes from the Baltic to

Moscow, and

the very heart of the country, have been assiduously exploited at the expense of the capital.

In short,

as far as regards land comnninication, St. Peters-

burg

is

landish

situated at the

most inconvenient and out-

end of Russia that could possibly have

been chosen for hankered after

'

it.

Peter the Great,

who

only

sea power,' cared nothing for land

FIRST IMPRESSIONS Although

routes.

scarcely at

all,

was

he

7

only

or

distantly,

who founded

related to the Vikings,

the older Russian dynasty of the Ruriks, he nevertheless

and

inherited

revived

remarkable

a

in

degree their peculiar predilection for boats and

waterways.

The inconveniences of

remote-

this

ness of St. Petersburg from the older centres of

own

'

hinterland

'

Russian writer Naryshkin in *

A

State which has

tremities

of of

is

its finger-tips,

its

It

its

by the the following manner:

capital at

an animal with

like

or

its

its

been referred to

has

its

one of

its

ex-

heart on one

stomach on the end of one

big toes.'

may

not be a matter of

much consequence

to-

day, in view of the prospects of racing motors and

our contempt for distance, and so probably in the near future,

comes into general use

;

still

less will it

when the

be

airship

but one cannot help think-

ing that, had the Russian capital been placed in a

somewhat more

accessible position,

it

would have

been better for the outside world as well as for Russia.

No

one

is

prepared to say where else

could have been put, but the inconvenience of

its

all

seem to agree

present position.

It

it

as to

might

have been more to the advantage of the inhabitants if

Peter had begun to build a mile or two

f;irther

8

ST.

up the Swedes

PETERSBURG

river at

Okhta, where he compelled the

to leave

off.

On

of St. Peters-

all sides

burg there are no other towns of any importance for

hundreds of miles, either on Russian territory

proper, or across the Russo-Finnish frontier in

Tver

vicinity

close

of Lithuania,

ward

300 miles and Moscow

is

400 miles south-eastward

Vilna, the former capital

;

more than 400 miles south-west-

is

and Helsingfors, the

;

its

capital of Finland,

nearly 300 miles to the north-west.

due north, there

is

If

we

is

turn

nothing in that direction but

Archangel, another 600 or 700 miles away, and the

North

The

Pole.

nearer towns

of No\'gorod,

Pskoft', and Narva, M^hich were once of such great

importance in Russian since

politics

sunk into provincial

and trade, have long

one time carried on an extensive the

western

world,

and

window

They at commerce with

insignificance.

in

truth

constituted

centuries Europe before Peter the Great opened his window on the Neva. The first two centres of early Russian selfgovernment, Novgorod and PskofF, of famous memory, were crushed and reduced by Ivan the Terrible for the benefit and aggrandisement of

Russia's

Moscow.

real

All

'

three

superseded by Peter's

into

towns

new

'

were

capital.

subsequently

KASTKR EVE I'riest blessing

the

food after tlie Lenten church on Kaster Eve first

fast outside

a

FIRST IMPRESSIONS St.

Petersburg thus stands, comparatively speakmidst of a wilderness, surrounded by

ing, in the

swamps and still '

9

Many

forests.

indicated on detailed

Round

Peter the

Great,

maps

as

'

BalakiriefF, the

Bog,' etc.

swamps

of these

described the

are

Nicholas Bog,'

Court jester of

position

of

his

master's

new

strain

N'a odnoi storonye more na dr'ougoi gore,

na

:

'

melancholy

capital in the following

traitye viokh,

na

chetvertoi okh

/'

(On one

side

the sea, on the other sorrow, on the third moss, on

At

the fourth a sigh).

standing

of the situation and un-

lowness

the

healthy condition of the

summer

the same time, notwith-

soil,

a

number

of beautiful

retreats are to be seen in the environs of

lished for

many of them having been estabmembers of the Imperial Family. There

are also

villas

St.

Petersburg,

citizens, as well

of the aristocracy and wealthier as

humbler wooden cottages

the poorer inhabitants. to go

among

If,

for

however, you venture

the rural population of the surround-

ing country, you

may

chance to come upon Russian,

Esthonian, and Firmish peasants

still

leading an

existence as primitive and cheerless as that of their ancestors ages ago.

of the chief

Empire seems to have had little or no over them for good. Of course, one must

city of the

influence

The proximity

10

ST.

PETERSBURG

be careful in drawing general conclusions, as extraordinary contrasts and exceptions are to be met

Considerable changes also in this respect

with. are

expected to result from the great

reforms of the

four years.

last

these very reforms only help to

political

For the present

make

the contrast

between the enlightenment of the better

and the degradation of the lower orders

more day,

Of

the

European countries of tothe only one in which we can

striking.

Russia

classes all

is

all

witness a struggle going on between the newest ideas of the

most modern

civilization

and such an

awful state of things as that depicted by Count

Power of Darkness,' and by JNlaxim

Tolstoy in his

'

Gorky

Creatures that once w^ere Men.'

in his

'

When the author made his first visit to burg by

sea,

he thought the latter part of the route

extremely uninteresting.

when one

St. Peters-

It

was particularly so

considered that the last portion of

it

for

more lay through the some places, I believe, is

a couple of hundred miles or

Finnish Gulf, which

in

not more than about thirty miles from one coast to the other.

rocks and

It

islets

one, but that

is

is

true the passage amongst the

of the Finnish side

is

a delightful

a dangerous coast, and the larger

steamers steer wide of

it,

far

out in the gulf

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

11

Therefore, there was nothing to attract attention,

and no coast scenery to Scandinavia.

What

there were no

admire, after

strange was

appeared

indications of our being

such a great city as a few miles only of

St.

its

leaving that

near to

Petersburg, even within

actual

After having

site.

seen the picturesque and charming view of the channel leading into Stockholm, the approach

The

to St. Petersburg was certainly not inviting.

only relief of the monotonous outlook was that of the warning lights at night, and an occasional

glimpse of low-lying shores in the day-time, until

we

neared the end of the voyage.

came

in sight of the

mid-water

Finally,

we

forts of Cronstadt,

stretching across the entrance to the

mouth

of the

Neva.

At

that time there was no sea canal to enable

deep draught to proceed up the river in

vessels of safety.

had either to tranship into

Passengers

Russian river boats, which landed them at the

quays of the town, or

else to cross over the channel

at Cronstadt to the small settlement of Oranien-

baum, whence they were able to reach St. Petersburg by train. The only change since made in these arrangements

may now come

is

that visitors,

if

they choose,

right into St. Petersburg port on

PETERSBURG

ST.

12

ocean-going steamers througli the sea or Cronstadt Canal.

After leaving Cronstadt, there was no sign of St.

Petersburg being immediately in front of us

until

we caught

sight of a brilliant glitter in the

we were dome of the

hazy distance, which,

from the gilded

told,

was a

reflection

St. Isaac Cathedral,

the Russian St. Paul's, and the highest building in the city.

As

the boat brought us nearer to this

luminous landmark, the to

rise

situation

out of

the water.

was afterwards

when we mounted St.

city itself

Isaac's,

seemed hterally

This aspect of the

fully

confirmed

to the top of the

to

dome

us of

and looked down upon the immense

volume of water

in

which the

city

seemed to

float.

On

a later occasion,

when

the author selected

the land route for his next trip to St. Petersburg,

he found the Russian

last half

territory,

of the journey to

even

less

inspiring

voyage through Russian waters.

it,

through

than

tlie

The most won-

was the glaring difference between Russia and Germany. The transition from the one country to the other was a revelation in itself.

derful sight of

all

Probably no other two neighbouring countries in the world ever exhibited such a distnict contrast on

'5^

,1? /

.

^V»^

TMK

l.A'I'K

KATMI-R jOM\

Ol-

CROXSTADT

I\ HIS (.\KI)!:.\

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

13

between different

states of

culture as that presented by Russia and

Germany

their very boundaries

near

the

frontier

On

Verjbolovo.

forming

stream

and

discipline,

stations

Eydtkuhnen and

of

the

German

side

of the small

the

frontier

line

strict

neatness,

well-tilled

fields,

order,

tidy

and homesteads, deer-stocked parks, and well-kept woods were the rule. The other side of

farms

the line

best described

is

just the reverse of

all this.

by saying that it exhibits Right up to St. Peters-

burg clusters of wretched wooden huts and logcabins,

many

of

and without the

them

in a

broken-down condition,

least traces of

gardens or comfort

of any kind, were passed in monotonous repetition,

A

one village being exactly

like

every other.

landscape.

hung over the dreary, flat Only near Vilna was there any enliven-

ment of the

scene,

poverty-stricken look

and

was actually

here, too, there

a railway-tunnel, a thing unheard of over thousands

of miles of Russian railway outside the Crimea and

the Caucasus.

The

arrival at St.

Petersburg by

rail

abrupt as the arrival there by boat.

no suburbs to serve

as

an introduction

was just

as

There were ;

no running

of the train between miles of houses on a level

with the

first-floor

windows.

The

railway-station

ST.

14

rETERSliUIlG

was right on the edge of the

where

city,

it

stands

at the present day.

The

general coup

cVccil

certainly a magnificent one

but

it

of

Petersburg

St.

when you get

cannot be said that the city

is

is

tliere,

located in the

midst of a rich and prosperous-looking part of liussia.

CHAPTER

II

IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF ST.

Struggle between old and

new

of

ideas

— Liberal Turkey

rHE

—The

reforms

PETERSBURG new

— Revolutionary influence — Cradle

Constitution

—

^Nihilists

—

— Slavophiles

St.

and Westerns

Petersburg, Persia, and

— Reaction —The Dooma.

subjects which

have always most interested

the author in his Russian studies are what

perhaps be aspects

of

called St.

the

Petersburg.

represents a long struggle

present day of the against Asia, position.

it

new

and

ideological

As

a

may

political

city

which

brought down to the

against the old, of

Europe

seems to occupy quite a unique

As everybody knows,

it

did not spring

from any national growth, but was the deliberate creation of one single mind in the person of the

most imperious of crowned revolutionists.'* The work of that one man eventually revolutionized '

Russia in a * "

way that he

UEmpire

des Tsars,"

could never have expected. by Anatole Leroy Beaulieu. 15

16

ST.

It

is

from

chapter

is

tliis

PETERSBURG

point of view

the present

that

written.

Six years ago, in 1903, St. Petersburg celebrated the two-liundredth anniversary of

foundation.

its

This year (1909) the whole of Russia celebrates the bicentennial jubilee of the great victory of

Great secured the

Poltava, by which Peter the

new

That crushing defeat of the Swedish enemy, whose one idea was to destroy Peter's work on the Neva, was safety

and the future of

him

by

called

the

'

his

resurrection

capital.

of

'

Russia.

Posterity has fully confirmed this opinion of the

immense importance of that shaping

From

the

moment

that

pursue unmolested

Russian

in

Empire.

Petersburg was free to

St.

the

battle

decisive

the

of

destinies

task

assigned

to

it

of

transforming and modernizing the old

Muscovite

aim ever

since with

system.

In following

more or

less

this

consistency,

it

has at last turned

Russia into a constitutional country. stitution far

it

may

The Con-

not be a perfect one, seeing that so

gives the

Dooma

control over legislation only,

without any real power over the administration,

but the establishment of the new stitutions direction.

is

It

an is

immense advance a result that

legislative inin

tlie

right

Peter himself could

«*r-

,

IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS

17

never have had the least notion of bringing about,

we know,

for, as

while in England he expressed

an unfavourable opinion on the limitation of royal

He

power by a parliament.

was not so much

interested in the inoculation of Russia with foreign

he was in the introduction rather

political ideas as

of

the

practical

European lished

and technical St.

civilization.

by the

sides

West

of

Petersburg was estab-

means

autocratic will of Peter as a

of reforming the Russian people, and gauiing the respect of foreign powers

reforming autocracy

burg

this

;

it

has

now

w

succeeded

Without

itself.

St.

Peters

could never have been done.

From the

first

days of its existence

became the centre of new

ideas

St.

Petersburg

in opposition to

the old order of things at Moscow.

All modern

tendencies have invariably penetrated into Russia

through

St.

Petersburg.

eighteenth century,

Going back

we know

as far as the

Catherine

that

11.

surrounded by her famous statesmen, contemplated a most thorough reorganization of Russian administration.

The

life

and

far-reaching natuie of

tlie

hopes of the great Empress in this respect are clearly

indicated

in

the well-known observation

which she made to Diderot, to the

was her intention to introduce the

effect that

tiers etat.

2

it

At

PETERSRUIIG

ST.

18

time there was no middle class in Russia.

that

The

population

was

divided

into

principally

peasantry and nobility, the merchants being merely trading peasants.

Although most of the reforms

which Catherine had realized, it

may

in

view were never practically

be safely asserted that no ideas of

the kind could have ever originated in the centre

of old JNIuscovy.

At St.

beginning

the

Petersburg was the cradle of

ideas.

This

time,

century

of the nineteenth all

new

political

however, they emanated not

from the Sovereign, but from the people, or rather from the

nobility.

This

Decembrist movement

refers,

in

of course, to the

1825, which

aimed at the liberation of the

serfs

distinctly

and the estab-

lishment of a constitutional form of government.

That movement engulfed a number of serving in the

representing

of

them

first

regiments of the guard, and

the best families in Russia.

lost

officers

their

lives

hundreds more perished

in

on

the

the

Some

scaffold,

and

mines and wilds

of Siberia.

Beginning with the Russian intellectual

two camps

:

thirties of the last century,

life

came

to

the Slavojihiles and

be divided into the

Westerns

The headquarters of the Westerns, led by Granofsky

IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS and Belinsky, was

in St. Petersburg.

of their teaching was to

The

The

19

essence

make Russia European.

Moscow, headed by Samarin, AksakofF, and Khomiakoff,

idea of the Slavophiles of

such

men

as

was to keep Russia as she was. Therefore, the ideals of the Westerns were in the future those ;

of the Slavophiles in the past.

The

saw the commencement of the

sixties

realization of the ideals of the Westerns.

the

accession

the

to

throne

of

many European

the

With

Emperor

Alexander

II.,

political life

began to be adopted, and history leaves

no room

for

principles

principles

of

doubt that the embodiment of those

met with the most stubborn

resistance

from the partisans of the old Russian system. It was only due to the magnanimous determination of Alexander

II.

that Russia was recast in moulds

borrowed from the West.

In that process

Petersburg was the laboratory of then introduced. the

serfs,

all

St.

the measures

Such were the emancipation of

the establishment of local self-government,

of county and municipal councils, the reform of the judicial institutions, press.

and a modified fi-eedom of the

It cannot be denied

that these measures

were radically new and uncongenial to the great

mass of the Russian people.

Many Russians,

there-

20

ST.

fore,

PETERSBURG

detested St. Petersburg, which,

it

is

true,

was

very far away from the Russia endeared to them

by history and

Subsequent experience,

tradition.

however, proved that these great reforms were gradually accepted by the people, and that tliey

contributed most powerfully towards the national progress in civilization. St.

Petersburg has been the centre of

movements.

all political

Right away from the commencement

of the sixties Nihilism and other forms of revolutionary activity,

which

in

many

respects

have

exercised such an

unhappy

ment of political

institutions in Russia,

have always

been centrahzed

in St. Petersburg.

Such move-

influence

on the develop-

ments were greatly checked at times, especially during the severe reign of Alexander

III.,

when

the revolutionists seemed to be completely suppressed

;

but discontent burst forth again with

renewed vigour during

Russia's

disastrous

war

with Japan, and culminated in the establishment of Russian representative government. It St.

is

not too

much

to say that revolutionary

Petersburg has also helped in no small degree

to revolutionize and 'constitutionalize* the countries

of the Near East. gi'eat

The

subtle influence of the

northern capital has penetrated far and wide

/^Kff „•.,,•*

ONE OF

tup:

i'.\i..\(

I-:

(;ri:.\auii:r.s

doing si-ntinel duty ;it the Alexander Column in front of tlie Winter Palace. Tlie men of the Palace drenadiers are tried veterans from the army, who do sentinel duty at the imperial monunuMits, and form a guard of honour in the palace on state occasions

IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS

21

through the Caucasus and the Transcaspian, where Russia

has

no

ethnographical

Western Europe, which cut her

as

frontiers,

in

from

off completely

her next-door neighbours. St.

Petersburg has thus been the inlet for

European culture required by Russia

tlie

in her civiliz-

ing mission in the East, and Turkey and Persia

with their newly established indirectly felt the effects of

have

constitutions

what has occurred on

the banks of the Neva.

Long after the original Slavophile opposition from Moscow had apparently died out, the baneful influence of St. Petersburg on Holy Russia was '

the

again

theme

of

'

reactionary

^vriters

Chauvinists in the Russian press.

and

In the very

mildest of their criticisms these journalists treated the St.

Petersburg period of reforms as having

been, at least, premature and

The

nation.

revival

of

disastrous

for

the

such an agitation was

favoured by the unfortunate circumstances attending the accession to the throne of the present

The

Emperor's father, Alexander III. father,

latter's

Alexander IT., had just been cruelly murdered

in the streets of St. Petersburg,

new Tsar

against

and

all liberal ideas.

well-known Russian

tastes

this set the

Moreover,

his

and anti-German feelings

ST.

22

created

the

PETERSBURG

an atmosphere extremely favourable to

Moscow

The prime mover

agitators.

new campaign

in this

modern capital was of the Moscow Gazette,

against the

Katkoff, the famous editor

the champion of Russian 'orthodoxy, autocracy,

and

nationality.'

He

or one of his colleagues raised

the cry in the press of

'

back to Moscow,' thereby

meaning a return to the old national ideals as distinguished from those of the West, to which they believed the Tsar Emancipator had fallen a victim.

Some

enthusiasts of that time,

who were

in

favour of re- Russianizing Russia, even went so far as to send their letters through the post addressed to

'Petrograd' instead of

St.

grad or town or the

Petersburg,

gm'od being the Slavonic word for German burg. The German names which Peter

the Great was so fond of giving to everything

were always an eyesore to the old-world Russian,

and are not altogether pleasing to the Russian The Emperor Alexander III. patriot of to-day. himself was influenced against this clature,

and although he did not change any of the

names adopted by to the university

name

German nomen-

of

Peter, he consented to give back

town of Dorpat

Yourieff,

its

old Slavonic

and to make corresponding

IDEOLOGICAL AND TOLITICAL ASPECTS names of

alterations in the

23

otlier places

several

in the Baltic provinces.

The

old

of the

Slavophiles

and the

thirties

Reactionaries under Alexander III. were in reality

working

for the

same old

ideals,

Petersburg had

of St.

orthodoxy

and

which the influence

rudely shaken.

Russian

had

greatly

nationality

been

weakened by Peter the Great's German bureaucracy, but there had been no apparent weakening of autocracy. That was no part of Peter's intention, for

he exercised

sistible

his

and brutal

autocratic function with irre-

As Alexander

effect.

II L pro-

claimed at the beginning of his reign, the autocratic

power was handed down his heirs

and

continued to strengthen

itself at

this fact

'

by Peter to

the expense of the

being clearly discerned

The most arbitrary were performed in the name of the

by the occupant of the and cruel acts

unimpaired

The Bureaucracy, however,

successors.

Autocracy, without

'

throne.

power without ever coming knowledge of the Emperor. It was, of

autocratic

to

the

course,

impossible for the Sovereign to control the legion of minor autocrats his

as

who

held undisputed sway in

name in all parts of his vast dominions. we have seen, the Autocrat of all the

had to

Finally,

Russias

call into existence representative institutions

ST.

24

PETERSBIIIIG This all-important

in order to save the situation.

step was, without any doubt, a gi-eat triumph for St.

Petersburg, and the legitimate outcome of

its

influence.

Until this establishment of a Russian constitution, the efforts of Slavophiles

and Reactionaries

above described against the progressive ideals of St. Petersburg were considered to be the last that

would ever be heard of the old opposition to Peter the Great's window into Europe.' Recent events '

have thoroughly proved the fallacy of

The assembling

of an elected

for the organization of

so-called

'

more

Dooma was the signal

Union of Russian

hirelings

This ultra-

People.'

an army of scouts

droozjeena)

{boyevaya

by the

violent reaction

patriotic association recruited

and

this forecast.

under

the

name of black gangs,' which showed that the old Adam of Russian home politics was still alive, '

only disporting

itself

noticeable

that

also

under a new guise. it

It

was again a rabid

actionary editor of the

Moscow

M. Gringmuth, who was

the soul of the

is

re-

Gazette, the late

movement

in the ancient capital.

The

leaders

these

'

black

gangs

'

even

mar the celebration of the great of Poltava by making a demonstration in

threatened to victory

of

Tilt:

A member

STAIK.

si>eakint;

DODMA from the tribune

IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS

25

town during the ceremonies and festivities in the presence of the Emperor and the Court, but their intentions were frustrated in time by ofiicial that

At

interference.

the

moment

chapter their late president

appear

Finnish

before a

of

writing

this

under citation to

is

court

of justice as a

suspected accomphce in the poHtical murder of a

n

Dooma named

ber of the

has so fav refused to obey the

ground that

as a

He

Herzenstein.

summons on

the

Russian he does not recognize

Finnish law, and there seems to be no authority strong enough to compel him. It will thus be seen that St. Petersburg

interesting

in

is

regard to the ideas which

richly it

has

always propagated, as also in regard to those with

which

it

has always been at war.

new

policy

and

it

in

still

was embodied represents

in

its

An

entirely

very buildings,

a great foreign influence

the country of which

it

is

the capital.

remains significant of the violent break with that

went before

was completely habits it

it,

all

and of the introduction of what

at variance with the deep-rooted

and traditions of the

remains

It

emblematic

of

In short,

p-^

the

Europeamzation

of Russia, the end of semi-Asiatic Muscovy, and the establishment of the

modern

State.

Even

to-

:

PETERSBURG

ST.

26

day

it

away

not typical of

is

main

off the

and

principal towns.

and most important creation of the

latest

forces

influence

of

it

by

spread

throughout the country

Dooma, and

Russian 'hinterland'

communication wliich

lines of

run through the few

The

tlie

Petersburg

St.

of course, the national

is,

the author ventures to spell the

in a different

way from

name

the usual one for the

following reason

which

word,

This

English

has

print,

comparatively

is

already,

however,

new

in

become

fashionable in a form that does not convey the

proper Russian sound of it

'

constantly hears

pronunced with the more usual sound of the

English is

One

it.

as in 'tune.'

II,

Its

proper pronunciation

exactly the same as that of the English

doom

'

with the addition of a short a sound at the

no mistake could possibly be

end.

In

made

in the pronunciation.

this spelling

than to write

therefore,

Duma

I

?

spelling of

it

'

What more natural, Dooma instead of '

venture to suggest this alteration in the

Duma

with considerable diffidence, not-

withstanding the obvious reason for

any

attempt

foreign

word

to

correct

the

it,

because

orthography of a

word which has already received general

currency

in

the

British

press

is

liable

to

be

IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS resented

as

27

pedantic interference with estab-

a

lished usage.

In the next place,

word 'Dooma,' is

called

in

it

may

be mentioned that the

meaning the llussian Parliament,

as

Russia the

'

With

darstvennaya Dooma).

Dooma

State

this qualification it

distinguished from a municipal

dooma

England has

{Gorodskaya Dooma).

make the acquaintance

(Gosoo-

'

also of these

or council

begun to

just

town doomas

Dooma

In the 'renovated' Russia of the

immediate future, these other doomas be heard of quite frequently.

will

The word

from a Russian root meaning thought,

From

interesting to note that the

term

'

probably

is

derived

reflection, etc.

the historical point of view

nifying an

'

'

in connection with a loan floated for the

of Moscow.

is

it

may

dooma,' as

be sig-

institution of the realm, did not appear

for the first time in 1906, or in connection with

of the

the establishment 1872.

back

Institutions as

centuries,

the

as

far

w^hen

called

municipal

by that

fourteenth

they exercised

councils in

name

and

date

fifteenth

most important

functions in the old system of Russian government.

The Dooma '

'

of those days was the Council of the

Russian Boyars, the Barons of Russia. old parhaments,

it

Like all was a mere consultative body.

28

ST.

PETKRSIWRG

but no measure of importance was ever passed into

law without the advice and consent of the Boyars. It

was only

of Ivan the

after the introduction

Terrible's policy of crushing all forces

which tended

to modify the autocracy that the old

the

began to

Boyars

eventually

it

lose

its

'

Dooma

'

of

importance, and

completely disappeared

about the

time when Peter the Great came to the throne.

Till-.

.MKMI5EKS I.KWIXC,

THE DOO.MA

—

CHAPTER

III

SITE OF ST. PETERSBURG IN History of the Neva region

THE PAST

— England's sea — Neva route

Finns and Novgorodians

trade with Russia

time of Saxon England Hanseatic league-^Slavs and Scandinavians Roman- Swedish crusade Victory of Alexander Nevsky Teutonic knights Swedish and Russian fortresses Civil war Treaty of Stolbovo.

—

—

—

—

—

The

in the

character and achievements of Peter the Great

quite ecHpsed the fame of his predecessors on the

Russian throne.

The new Russia which he

in-

augurated, and which he and his successors forced

upon the world's astonished

attention, soon caused

the old order of things at INloscow to be forgotten.

The

and policy made work with anything that

originality of Peter's genius

it difficult

to associate his

The old semi- Asiatic Russia into myth and legend in comparison.

had gone before

seemed to fade

it.

was so wonderful that it completely overshadowed everything that had led up to it, and Peter's reign

seemed to detach him the past.

T'his

entirely

from the history of

was particularly the case with regard S.9

30

ST.

PETERSBURG

to the antecedents of the region in which he established St. Petersburg.

The

position of affairs on the banks of the

Neva

prior to the period of Peter the Great attracted

attention in England, for obv^ious reasons.

question whether anything at

The

all

much

Baltic

as possible.

ancient

England's

is

a

was known about

was nearly a Swedish other seafaring nations were excluded it.

It

no

first

lake,

fi'om

and it

as

intercourse with

Russia and the Muscovite Government

was conducted almost exclusively through the more remote northern port of Archangel. It was at this place that Russia was accidentally discovered

when Richard Chancellor strayed into the White Sea while trying to make the north-eastern passage to China. Instead of a new by Englishmen

in 1553,

passage to China this unexpected discovery opened

up a new sea-route to Russia. The Swedes then held sway in the Baltic Sea, and tried to prevent us from trading direct with Russia through that

The commerce

channel. all

Poles, as well as the Swedes, opposed

— especially English

commerce— with

Russia in the Baltic and Gulf of Finland, while they at the same time endeavoured to prevent Russia's direction.

expansion towards open water in

that

Their policy was to repress their great

PETERSBURG

SITE OF ST.

IN

THE PAST

31

Muscovite neighbour, and keep him as much as out of touch with the Western world.

possible

The Kings

of

Sweden and Poland both became

exasperated against England, on account of advice

and

assistance

given

to

the

by

Tsar

Queen

Elizabeth's envoys and the English merchants at

Moscow. In 1569 the Poles seized some English ships on their way to Narva, and King Sigismund subsequently declared war against England for no

paying

heed

to

his

access to Russia through the Baltic

exceedingly

difficult

for

Thus

remonstrances.

was rendered 'merchant

the English

and

with

adventurers'

of those

IMoscow

therefore carried on almost entirely

M^as

days,

business

by way of the long and circuitous route round the North Cape. They never attempted apparently to penetrate farther into Russia by sea through the

Gulf of Finland,

for if the Baltic

Sea was nearly

a Swedish lake, the Finnish Gulf was probably quite one.

When

Peter the Great appeared on the Neva

and crippled the sea power of Sweden, as if the history of this almost

it

seemed

unknown

part of

Russia was only then beginning. tion

it

was generally believed that

In

this

St.

connec-

Petersburg

had been founded in the midst of quite uninhabit-

PETERSBURG

ST.

32 able

swamps and

This was true only as

forests.

swamps and

far PS concerns the existence of these forests,

but not as regards the absence of popula-

The

tion.

w^hole country hereabouts, covering an

area larger than that of the United

and

tlien,

have been

seems to

this

for

respect,

to a great extent,

still is

protected

an advantage in one

was the bogs and

it

Novgorod,

old

against

Petersburg,

St.

Kingdom, w^as swampy. And

120

south

miles

hordes

the

that

forests

of

Tartar

of

horsemen when they overran and devastated the

The

rest of Russia.

of Northern Russia

entire lake region of this part

is

essentially part

and parcel of

the adjoining 'land of the thousand lakes,' which is

the most w^atery country in the world.

Its

beautiful lake system fully answers to this poetical

native name, Sitomenmaa (the

appreciation, but

its

Swampy

alias

Region,

St.

the

swampy

Petersburg.

being a place of

Swedes or

One

But

character this did

here

Muscovites

in

of

very

the

not prevent

human abode long

of the hardiest of

settled

is

not

There can be no doubt, therefore,

so attractive.

about

Fenland or Finland),

it

of

from

before eitlier

appeared on

human

site

the

scene.

races, the Finns,

remote times,

Finnish names to every part of the

and gave

Neva

delta.

THE TSAR REVIEWING

HIS

TROOPS

SITE OF ST.

PETERSBURG

Peter the Great renamed their Finnish

names

all

did

first

swamp matter

This fact alone

into Russian.

Petersburg were

St.

What

dwellers on the Neva.

Finn

to the adamantine

very name, denizen of the

33

these places, or tinned

proves that the inhabitants of

by no means the

THE PAST

IN

swamp

?

His

{Suomalaine),

kind of seemed to argue His power of resistance to the unhealthy country. a

preference for this

effects of local conditions, whicli afterwards helped

to destroy so

was part of

many

other lives in St. Petersbm-g,

early

his

Eventually,

reputation.

notwithstanding these unfavourable conditions of the country, the Finn became one of the chief causes which induced the other races of Northern

Europe to endeavour to obtain a footing on the banks of the Neva.

In pursuit of this purpose, the

Novgorodian Russians and the Swedes followed

They

the Finns into these parts.

built here castles

and founded settlements, which changed hands between them several times over during the long struggle for permanent possession.

In the

earliest

times of which there

of this part of Russia, the

Neva

is

any record

served as an artery

of trade between Europe

and Asia.

region through which this

ri\'er

The whole

flows was part of

the territory of Novgorod called the

'

Vodsky

Fifth.'

ST.

34

The

city

PETERSBURG

of Novgorod was divided for adminis-

trative purposes into five sections, each of whicli

had outlying territory attached to it. The in question was called after one of the three of aboriginal inhabitants of Finnish stock, Izjora, Korelia,

of the Neva.

and Vod

fifth

tribes

named

—who dwelt along the banks

Their names were identical with those

of the districts which they inhabited, and these names, Izjoni

and Korelia,

Ladoga, along the

left

two of

exist at the present

This Vodsky Fifth extended from

day.

' '

Lake

bank of the Neva and the

shore of the Finnish Gulf in the direction of Revel,

and on the right bank of the river and northern shore of the gulf as far as the

which

is

now

watering-place

distinguished

named

little river

by

a

Sestra,

fashionable

Sestroretsk, about eighteen

or twenty miles from St. Petersburg.

According to Arabian and Persian chronicles, in the period of our Saxon Kings of England the Persians, and even the Hhidus, received wares from

the

West

along this trading-route.

These goods

at the mouth along the waterway now Novgorod brought to commanded by St. Petersburg, whence they were

were either landed

of the Dvina, or

conveyed down the \^olga to Eastern markets. Evidence of this ancient traffic between East and

SITE OF ST.

West

PETERSBURG

IN

THE PAST

35

has been brought to hght in discoveries of

large accumulations of

dug up

Saxon and Arabian

coins,

mouth

of the Neva,

and on the shores of Lake Ladoga.

Nestor, the

in several places at the

patriarch of Russian literature (eleventh century),

wrote that 'the Neva served as a means of com-

between peoples of the West and Novgorod through the VolkhofF; by the Neva they went into the Varangian Sea, and by that sea to Rome.' That was when the Russians were still munication

on good terms with the Varangians, or Scandinavians, whose Princes they had once invited to come and rule over them. Later on the Russians and Swedes began to quarrel, through the

efforts of

both peoples to secure the allegiance of the Finns.

The Novgorodians appear

to have

begun the con-

by making themselves masters of a part of Southern Finland. And thus it was that the

flict

Russians entered upon the long

series of hostilities

with the descendants of their former friends and helpers, the Variags, six

centuries.

In

which lasted

fact,

it

may

for

no

less

than

be said that the

great political struggle which Imperial Russia has

waged with the Finnish Constitutionalists for the last ten years or more down to the present moment is

essentially a

Swedish question.

Everything

in

36

ST.

the religion,

PETEKSBUJIG

culture,

laws,

Finland which goes to

make

of Swedish origin.

It

is,

and

political

of

lite

opposition to Russia

tlicretbre,

is

only natural thai

the Finns should be inspired by Swedish ideals in preference to dictation from St. Petersburg.

When

the Hanseatic League began to

'

a

worked up through the

considerable business was

channels of the

flourisli.

Neva and the

Volkhoff* with the

Sovereign Great Novgorod,' as that city was then

styled

by

its

independent

citizens.

This was facih-

by the Hanseatic towns having direct water communication with Novgorod through the Gulf of

tated

Finland, the

Neva, and the Ladoga Lake, into

which the VolkhofF empties of the

itself.

Volkhoflf with the

At

the junction

lake there appears to

have been a town or settlement, with guest-houses

and storage, belonging to Russian and German merchants.

A notable part in this trade between the and the Hansa towns was played by

Russians

tlie

ancient

city of Wisby, the capital of the island of Gotland, in the l^altic, near the Swedisli coast.

This rich

and important member of the great connnercial confederation

was

tlie

principal

depot and

dis-

tributing centre for the Oriental wares which were

brought to Europe along the

rivers of Russia.

It

had

ICK-CUTTI.\t;

ON

THP. \F.\A

PETERSBURG

SITE OF ST.

THE PAST

L\

37

representatives in Novgorod, and in a commercial

its

sense that Russian city has been called the daughter

of Wisby.

It

pretty certain that, through the

is

transactions of ^Visby and her neighbours with the

Europe

in those early

known

Western days than they were later

Russians, the latter were better

to

under the despotism of the Moscow Tsars. merchants

Wisby were renowned

of

wealth, and

shippers

its

for

their

for

The their

seamanship.

Their celebrated Water-recht, or Sea Code, passed into the maritime law of nations,

ballad

it

was

said that

'

and

in an old

the Gotlanders weighed

out gold with stone weights, and played with the choicest

jewels

troughs,

and

swine

the

;

the

ate

women spun

out

with

of

silver

distaffs

of

gold.'

This

profitable

commerce,

however,

suffered

considerably from the strife which gradually sprang

up

between Slavs

and Scandinavians

allegiance of the Finns

Neva.

over the

and the command of the

In 1143 the Swedes, assisted by the Finns,

attacked the Russians at Ladoga, and were pulsed.

From

serious, and,

that

time

the

contest

became

in spite of several treaties of peace,

went on intermittently for 600 long stop was finally put to it, once and for

it

re-

years. all,

A

by the

ST.

38

Abo

Peace of

PETERSBURG 1743, which

in

confirmed

finally

possession of the whole of the

lUissia

in

district

and the Gulf of Finland.

Neva

Besides the Swedes on the one hand, the Danes

began to approach through the Baltic provinces on In 1223 Pope Innocent III. persuaded the other.

Voldemar

II.

Denmark

of

to

lead

his

troops

through Esthonia, and build a castle at Narva, on the

River Narova.

Then came the Teutonic

Knights and Brothers of the Sword,

who

also tried

to extend their conquests into the region of the

Neva.

The

struggle with these

German

intruders

took place in the south-western part of the present province of years.

St.

Petersburg, and lasted about 400

In the end their possessions

in the Baltic

provinces were divided between the Swedes and the Poles.

The

ostensible

object

of

those

German and

Livonian Knights was to spread Christianity by

amongst the Baltic heathen and Russian schismatics,' and their example was followed

dint of the sword

'

with great enthusiasm by the Swedes. to think

It

is

strange

nowadays that Russia, who was the great

champion of Christianity against the savage pagans from Central Asia, was herself to be made the N'ictim of a religious

war

at the hands of

Western

SITE OF Christians.

PETERSBURG

ST.

A

IN

THE PAST

holy crusade was, in

taken against the

'

fact,

39

under-

heathen Russians at the behest '

of the Pope, conv^eyed in a Bull to the Archbishop of Upsala in 1237.

Pope Gregory IX. promised

absolution and eternal happiness to

part in this war, and great preparations for

during two years.

it

who took were made

all

Exciting sermons were

the churches, and the priests pointed

preached in

all

to a comet,

which appeared at the time to the east

of Sweden, as a sign from the

Almighty indicating

the direction to be taken by the crusaders.

I^arge

numbers of volunteers were recruited from all parts, and adventurers of all kinds were induced to join the ranks.

many

The Swedes took with them

also

many of The head of

Ts^orwegians and Finns, and a great

the clergy, including several l>ishops.

the expedition was the famous Jarl Birger, brotherin-law to

King Erick of Sweden.

were marching against the able

'

infidel

Just as

if

they

and 'unspeak

Turk, the Swedish regiments embarked with

the singing of hymns, while their priests held aloft

the cross and bestowed the blessing of the Church.

The Swedish capital

Abo, then the of Finland, and thence, up the Gulf of war-ships set

sail for

Finland, into the Neva. It

was the intention of Jarl Birger

first

to attack

ST.

40

Ladoga, and then

PETERSBLIHG Novgorod, and convert the

seize

He hmded

Russians to Latinisni.

his forces at the

moutli of the Izjora, a tributary of the Neva, where in ancient times there

connection witli the Hanseatic

or settlement in trade.

This spot

had been a prosperous town

is

River Neva above

only about fifteen miles up the

St.

From

Petersburg.

this halt-

ing-place Jarl Birger sent out an insolent challenge to the

Grand

Prince, or

Yaroslavovitch,

who was then

the elected Prince of

Prince Alexander at once gave orders

Novgorod. to muster

Grand Duke, Alexander

all

available troops,

and hastened to the

old Cathedral of St. Sophia, where he

was surrounded

by a crowd of alarmed and weeping front of the altar

this

campaign

patriotic sentiments

At

In

he prayed long and fervently

before setting out against the foe.

element in

citizens.

The

especially

religious

roused

the

and ardom* of the Russians.

Grand JJuke was greatly

the same time the

by an incident which occurred to a a sort of warden trusty servant of Novgorod of the marches in the Izjora territory named This man was a Finn, converted from Pelagoosy. impressed

—

—

paganism, and he was devoted to the Russians and

Eastern Orthodoxy. ing the

He

enemy day and

related how, while watch-

night, he

had once seen the

PETERSBURG

SITE OF ST.

IN

THE PAST

41

Russian saints Boris and Gleb standing in a boat

on the

and had heard them urge the boat-

Izjora,

men to row faster, as they wislied to help their kmsman the Grand Duke Alexander. This story, Grand Duke, helped to fire and was accepted as a presage of

told confidentially to the his pious ardour,

coming

victory.

The Russian

troops drew near to the

the Swedes at the

mouth

camp

of the Izjora without,

of it

seems, rousing the least suspicion of their approach.

There was no idea of the Russians moving so quickly, and Jarl Birger and after the long voyage.

his

men were

quietly resting

Their confidence was appar-

ently so great that they took no trouble to send

make

out scouts or

reconnaissances.

At any

rate,

the Swedes suddenly found themselves attacked in

the very midst of their tents, on the morning of

So sudden and so furious was the Russian onslaught that many of the crusaders had no time to recover themselves, and fled for refuge The Grand Duke himself tried to to their boats. engage Birger, and dealt him such a blow in the

July 15, 1240.

face that, according to the Russian chronicle, he 'set his seal

on the physiognomy of the Swedish

commander.'

Prodigies of valour are recorded of

the Russians on this occasion. History has preserved

ST.

42

the

PETERSBURG

names of many who phed

the axe, with awful effect others

who

their favourite

among

tlie

weapon,

foe,

and of

leapt into the water in pursuit of the

retreating Swedes, and killed them in their boats.

The Swedish and Norwegian

crusaders were com-

pletely routed.

The author has dwelt on some of the details

of this

important battle because of the great value attached to

by the Russians For Petersburg.

it

St.

in connection with the site of this exploit the

Grand Duke

was canonized under the name of St. Alexander Nevsky, or St. Alexander of the Neva. One of the it

first

his

St.

things which Peter the Great considered

duty to do, when he began the foundation of

Petersburg, was to have St. Alexander Nevsky

made

the

patron saint of his

new

capital,

and

cause a magnificent monastery to be built in his

name This

for

the reception

establishment,

the

of

the saint's remains.

well-known

Alexander

Nevsky Lavra, is conspicuously situated at one end of the Nevsky Prospect, near the left bank of the Neva, and only a few miles from the spot where the famous victory was gained. On receiving the good news, the Novgorodians joyfully

exclaimed that the

defeated and disgraced.'

By

'

Romans had been

this,

of course, they

SITE OF ST.

PETERSBURG

IN

THE PAST

referred to the part taken in the expedition

Roman

Catholic Church, and

43

by the

clearly

shows the

importance of the religious element on

this occa-

sion.

it

The Swedes and Germans

had, in fact,

now

Roman

undertaken to convert the Russians to Catholicism at the point of the sword.

This great victory, however, only checked the

Swedes

for a time.

Meanwhile the Russians were

beset by other enemies, the Teutonic Knights,

who

—the

Nov-

had captured Pskoff'

gorod"

—and

younger

'*

sister of

other places on Russian territory.

These crusaders would

also

soon have been on the

Neva had the Novgorodians not marched against them in 1284, and destroyed their fortress at Korporye.

In 1300 the Swedes,

who were then

strong in

Finland, established the castle of Viborg, and re-

appeared on the Neva.

This time they endeavoured

to establish a fortified position, which they

Landskron, or Crown of the Land, on the near the outlet of the small river Okhta.

named

riverside,

But the

work was not allowed to go on long, for the next it was completely destroyed by Prince Andre,

year

a son of Alexander Nevsky.

1'his

was the

first

attempt to establish a Swedish town within the limits of the present

Russian

capital.

44

ST.

PETEKSJ31JKG

In order to be able to offer greater resistance to these

encroachments, the Russians

continual

in

1323, built a fortress at I^adoga, on a small island at the

head of the Neva, where that river flows out

They

of the lake.

called

island, Oryekhoff', or

island

was shaped

it

name

after the

Oryeshek

(a nut),

like a hazel-nut.

of the

because the

This

fortiiica-

Neva somewhat troubled the Swedes, and King Magnus was induced to send ambassadors to conclude peace. But in 1384 that same King not only renewed the war, but he

tion of the source of the

himself sailed into the Neva, at the head of the

Swedish

fleet,

and summoned the

inliabitants of

the district to choose between death and acceptance of the

Roman

Catholic

off Birch Island,

now

faith.

After anchoring

the Petersburg side, where

Peter the Great, over three centuries foundation of his

new

city,

the Swedish King pro-

ceeded to Ladoga, and captured Oryekhofl".

name was then from

the

later, laid

The

translated into Swedish as Noteburg,

Not very long after the return of Sweden this fortress was retaken by

not, a nut.

the King to

the Novgorodians, and 800 of the Swedish garrison

were either

killed or

wounded.

In 1411 Oryekhoff,

alias

Noteburg, was seized

a .second time by the Swedes, and held by

them

for

SITE OF ST.

PETERSBURG

IN

THE TAST

Once again Russian, and then once more Swedish.

more than a hundred at the

years.

it

45

became

At

last,

end of the sixteenth and beginning of the

seventeenth centuries, circumstances became par-

Novgorod had lost its independence to Moscow, and Russia's national power was greatly weakened by sedition ticularly

favourable for the Swedes.

and rivalry

In

for possession of the throne.

state of things Charles

IX. of Sweden even

this

assisted

the Russians in their difficulties by sending an against the false Demetrius and the Poles

ported that pretender.

army who sup-

For this service the Russians

promised to accept the younger son of Charles as their Tsar, but the

During

honour was never conferred.

so-called

this

Smootnoe

Vremya,

or

period of troubles, the Swedes took advantage of

the opportunity to settle themselves firmly on the

Neva and Lake Ladoga.

After the

first

Romanoff

had been elected to the throne, they were confirmed in possession by the Treaty of Stolbova, a village

with

the

February

near Ladoga. first

27,

Tsar

1017.

This

treaty

was made

of the new dynasty on There was again war with

the Muscovites, but in the long run the Swedes

remained masters of the situation on the Neva

down

to the advent of Peter the Great.

CHAPTER

IV

THE SWEDES AND PETER THE GKEAT ON THE NEVA

—

Swedish proselytism Nyenskantz, the nucleus of St. Petersburg Trade under the Swedes Peter the Great's conquest of

—

—

the Neva.

After

the

unit, the

fall

of

Moscow

Novgorod

as

an independent

Tsars took measures to colonize

the old dependencies of that once Republican city.

The Swedes

did

the same,

Treaty of Stolbovo, M^hen

all

especially

after

the lands of the

the

Neva

and Izjora basins were formally incorporated into the Swedish province of Ingria, or Ingermanland.

By

that treaty,

Russian noblemen, monks, and

other subjects of the Tsar on the ceded territories,

were allowed to leave within a desired.

fortniglit if

they so

All Russians remaining after that short

came under the Swedish Crown. Nevertheless, large numbers continued to go over to Moscow long afterwards, and of this tlie Swedes complained. notice

Consequently, in October, 1049, the Tsar, Alexis 46

THE SWEDES AND PETER THE GREAT

47

Michailovitch, father of Peter the Great, undertook

pay Sweden

to

for

the runaway Russians, and

promised to receive no more of them. certain that religious dislike

with this

flight, for

It

is

pretty

had a good deal to do

Sweden did not

cease to pro-

she had given up crusading become the champion of Protestantism. The zeal of the King of Sweden for the cause of the Reformed Church expressed itself in

although

selytize,

proper, and had

the establishment of a Russian printing-press at

Stockholm, whence religious literature was issued for distribution

among

the orthodox Russians in

The same was done

Ingermanland and Korelia. for

the Finns, and

in this

way

the Swedish Church

taught every Finnish peasant to read the Bible. Its

chances of doing this for the Russians were

limited,

long

and the Russian Church

itself is

way from having accomplished

it

a very

even at the

present day. It

is

related that Gustavus

Adolphus had the

Mecklenburg peasants to colonize Korvu-saari, or Birch Island, on which Peter afterwards began the work of building the new city. idea of sending

This was suggested by one of the King's Generals,

who had taken Russians,

part in the long struggle with the

and who

knew

the

local

conditions.

ST.

48

Some

PKTEKSBUKG

of the Swedish

commanders had been

wai'ded with \'ahiable estates on

re-

Neva, and

the

they must liave been well aware of the importance of having a strong colony there.

no doubt a

feasible

Such a plan was

one during the Thirty Years'

War. In all probability, many Mecklenburgers would have then been found willing to leave their desolated homesteads and settle in a new country under the protection of the Protestant hero the

fall

Liitzen,

;

but

of Gustavus Adolphus, at the Battle of

put an end to the scheme.

The most important enterprise of the Swedes on the Neva at this time was undoubtedly the establishment of Nyenschantz, or Nyenskantz now Okhta at the mouth of the small tributary of the Neva

—

—

This took place at the sugges-

bearing that name.

of the well-known

tion

Swedish General l)e

la

Gardie, whose descendants eventually entered the

Russian

service.

A

small fortress was

on the right bank of the Neva but

first

built

and a small

in 1632,

town soon grew up in the neigliOn the same spot there had been a

flourisliing

bourliood.

Russian commercial settlement prior to 1521,

which year

much

it

earlier

was destroyed by sea-pirates.

date Landskron, the

Swedish settlement here, was

first

AX

in

a

attempt at a

also located in this

5 N

^ 2

THE SWEDES AND PETER THE GREAT To-day the same

vicinity.

site is

populous and important suburb of called left

Big and Little Okhta,

bank of the Neva,

occupied by a St.

Petersburg

Opposite to

it,

Smolny, with

is

49

on the fine

its

Cathedral by Count Rastrelli, and Institute for

Not

Daughters of the Nobility. Institute

far

from Smolny

the Taurid Palace, the seat of the

is

State Dooma, originally the mansion of Catherine's renowned favourite and General, Prince Potemkin, the conqueror of the Crimea.

In the seventeenth century Smolny was a colony of Russian

name

tar-distillers,

{smola, pitch).

from

it

it

derived

its

The colony was dependent

upon Nyenskantz, and an nection with

whom

interesting fact in con-

illustrates

the

of the

attitude

Swedes towards the Russian colonists in general at this

period.

The Russians

Smolny were

at

under the religious control of the authorities of the

The Chief Superintendent

Swedish Church. religious matters

in

Ingermanland was then the

Bishop of Narva, the learned Gezelius, studied

at

Oxford and Cambridge. to

the

Finnish clergy at Nyenskantz.

On

included

periodical

he inspected

tlieir

of

visits

who had

His duties Swedish

and

such occasions

churches and schools, and crossed

over to Smolny to hear the Russian priests put the 4

ST.

50

PETERSBURG

mem})ers of their flock through a catechism that

had been drawn up by the

ecclesiastical authorities

at Stockliolm.

not

This circumstance into the relations

only gives an insight

between Swedes and Russians

in

the flourishing period of Swedish rule on the Neva,

but also shows that skiya, or

'

ante-Peter

this locaHty in the dopetrof'

times,

came

to be something

more than the haunt of a few Finnish fishermen. Former writers who described it as such were apparently not acquainted with

data on the subject. folk here,

famous

;

it is

all

the historical

There was no lack of

evident,

fisher-

and the Neva salmon were

but there was also a prosperous com-

mercial body, carrying on a considerable trade with

Liibeck and Amsterdam. the

summer

For example, during

of 1691 over 100 foreign vessels dis-

charged their cargoes on the Neva, the goods being probably sent up the River Volkhoff' to Novgorod. 'J'here is also

evidence that the commercial com-

munity of Nyenskantz was a wealthy one, if we may judge by the fact that one of its merchants, by the name of Frelius, was able to lend a large sum of money to Charles XII. in his war against Russia.

The

floating traffic

between Smolnyand Okhta,

THE SWEDES AND PETER THE GREAT

51

two very important parts of St. Petersburg, has been on the increase ever since this period of Swedish rule. Its growing requirements have long demanded the

Neva at these two

construction of a bridge across the points,

where direct communication

on only by means of a

ferry

For many

steamboats.

is

carried

still

and a service of small

centuries boats and barges

have been used here to communicate between the

two banks.

Only

Dooma

cipal

tliis

summer

Muni-

(1909) the

started the construction of a bridge,

after a discussion of the question

which had

lasted

for thirty years.

On

Swedish maps of the year 1670 some forty-

and farms are dotted over the area

five villages

now

occupied by

St.

There was good

Petersburg.

pasture-land, abundance of water-fowl, and plenty

of winged and four-footed

woods.

The

Swedes, as

it

elk is

game

surrounding

was then hunted here by the still

by the Russians,

immediate neighbourhood of extensive preserve,

in the

owned by

the

in

St. Petersburg.

One

a Swedish nobleman,

skirted that part of the river-side

which

is

now

the

Palace Quay, and the gamekeeper's lodge was not far

from Princess Soltykoff's mansion, now occupied

by the British Embassy.

Such was the

state of things

on the Neva when

ST.

52

PETERSBURG

Peter the Great began to turn his serious attention in that direction.

from

The

great reformer had returned

Enghmd and

his historical visits to

had put down rebellion

in

attempt to

unsuccessful

grasp of the Swedes.

Holland,

Moscow, and made an wrest Narva from the

He

was now resolved to

attack Noteburg and Nyenskantz, and get control

of the Neva.

Immediately after Peter's defeat at Narva, he about preparing for another campaign with

set

What

extraordinary energy and resource.

achieved and what he forced others to accom-

self

plish so rapidly

is

simply marvellous

sider the condition of the country

at

he him-

the time.

Narva were

The

con-

and the people

of the disaster at

rallied, fresh recruits

sides, ships built,

bells

survivors

when we

mustered from

all

hundreds of cannon cast out of

taken from churches and monasteries, and

religious services,

which took up so much time, were

suspended to enable priests and monks to take part in the this

one absorbing task of the hour.

was going on, the chief centres of

While

all

activity being

Moscow and Novgorod, Peter somewhat suddenly marched angel.

oft'

with

live battalions

of troops to Arch-

This expedition was supposed to be the

effect of a

rumour that the Swedes intended

to

THE SWEDES AND PETER THE GREAT assail

There

that port.

is

however, to

reason,

beheve that Peter availed himself of

tlie

diversion

to screen his plans against Noteburg, for

him sending

secret orders to

53

we

find

have the fact of

his

northern journey bruited about in the foreign press,

with the object of deceiving the Swedes.

It

was

even rumoured abroad that he had set out from

Archangel for the coast of Sweden.

On

arriving at Archangel, Peter witnessed the

named the Holy Spirit and the Courier. He then had them dragged overland from the Bay of Onega to the northern end of the Onega Lake, where they were relaunched, and sent on the River Svir into Lake launch of two small frigates, which he

For

Ladoga.

purpose

this

to be made, with

miles of road had

enormous labour, through thick and the work of moving these

forests

and swamps

vessels

on

rollers

many

;

placed under their keels as they

were drawn along, and prevented from exceedingly

In

difficult.

fact,

listing,

seeing the obstacles

naturally presented by the stumps of felled trees,

not easy to understand

Peter shared in

common all

this

it is

was accomplished.

manual toil much like a workman, sending out orders

all this

soldier or

the time to

how

was

Moscow and Novgorod.

Before Peter could get to Ladoga, the Swedish

54

ST.

PETERSBURG

squadron on that lake was defeated by Colonel Tirtoif'

with a

flotilla

Cossack

of

The

boats.

Swedish Admiral Numniers retreated to Viborg,

and 300 men, thus leaving

with a loss of

five ships

the waters of

Lake Ladoga

in the possession of the

Russians.

Peter reached Ladoga at the end of September, 1702, and there

met

Field- Marshal ShercmctiefF,

with an army of 12,000

men from Novgorod.

The

Noteburg on the ice in the preceding winter had been abandoned on account of a very unusual thaw. The town of Ladoga surrendered without any resistance, but Tsar's original plan of attacking

Noteburg fought a

the beleaguered garrison in

good

fight

under

its

Commandant, Schlippenberg.

The bombardment was eleven days. flagi'ation

On

-broke

carried

October

11,

out

the

in

on

when

fiercely

for

a great con-

fortress,

and

the

battered walls were being scaled by the besiegers,

the Swedes lowered their

flag,

and the Russians

were again masters of their old citadel of Oryeshek.

Only 83 Swedes were siege the Russians had

and 938 wounded.

them amounted

left

unwoimded.

5(34 officers

In this

and men

killed,

The ammunition expended by

to 15,196 cannon-shot, bombs, and

hand-grenades, and 72 tons of

gunpow der.

THE SWEDES ASD PETER THE GREAT

55

The key of the fortress, which was handed over by the Swedish Commandant, was nailed by Peter's of the principal bastion, and

orders to the top

Oryeshek,

burg, from

With

this

Noteburg, was renamed

alias

German word

the

Schliissel-

SchlUssel,

key Russia again unlocked

a key.

for herself

the door to the Baltic.

Peter went in triumph to

and returned to Ladoga

make preparations for At the end of April, Ladoga were enabled

Moscow for

the winter,

in the spring of 1703, to

the capture of Nyenskantz. SheremetiefF's troops

from

to get close to the fortress of

Nyenskantz, under cover of the intervening woods.

The Tsar himself passed with sixty boats

full

in front of

it

on the

river,

of soldiers, under a heavy

fire

from the ramparts.

His object was to intercept

any assistance

Swedes

for the

likely to arrive at the

mouth of the Neva from Viborg. troops

these

on

the

island

of

Peter landed Viti-saari,

now

Gootooefsky, and returned at once to Sheremetieff's

camp.

The reduction of Nyenskantz was not difficult. The garrison consisted of only about 800 men, and after one night's bombardment the Swedish ComOn mandant Apollof consented to negotiate.

May

1

he and

his

men were

permitted to retire to

ST.

56

and

Viborg,

PETERSBURG

Russians

tlie

entered

posses-

into

sion of what proved to be the nucleus of modern St.

Petersburg.

One

of the

rename

to

first

tlie

things which

place

Schlotburg, or Slottburg,

although the Russians had the

name

Peter did was

much

earlier

given

it

of Kantz, from the last part of the word

Peter had a mania for bestowing

Nyenskantz.

names in German, instead of Judging from specimens of

in his

own

new

language.

his composition, the

use of his native tongue, both as regards handwriting and style, was not one of his strong points.

His autograph often looks

as if

it

had been produced

under the influence of great nervous excitement. In

probability

all

the

constant

and

twitching

jerking of his face and limbs, reported of him by

many

of

his

contemporaries, had something to

do with the ugly scrawls which he has

left

to

posterity.

The

surrender of Nyenskantz

had

been effected when the Swedish Admiral

only just

Nummers

appeared at the mouth of the Neva with a squadron.

relief

Being quite unaware of the transfer of

the fortress, he signalled to

it

by

firing twice,

and

Peter ordered an ansM^er to be given in the same

manner.

Then, during the night, Peter

sallied

SCIILt'SSELBURG FORTRESS, ON LAKE The

LADOGA

object of centuries of strife between Russians and Swedes, and subsequently used as a prison for important political offenders down to 19uc

THE SWEDES AND PETER THE GREAT forth

from behind

flotilla

island of

tlie

57

Gootooefsky with a

of thirty boats, and surrounded and attacked

two of the Swedish

which had approached

ships

closer than the others.

After a

fierce struggle lie

captured them both, having killed or wounded

The Russians had

nearly everybody on board.

only small firearms and hand-grenades, and yet

they gained the mastery, in spite of the hail of shot poured into them, not only from the two ships actually being attacked, but also from the others,

which were obliged to account of low water.

lie

It

is

distance on

off at

a

strange

how

powerless

the Swedish war-vessels seem to have been against the Russian boat crews. said,

the

In

all

his hand.

the operations on Lake Ladoga and the

Neva, which Peter really conducted pleased

it is

to board one of the ships with a

first

grenade in

Peter himself was,

him to assume

Marshal, SheremetiefF.

inferior

the shipwright

;

in

rank under

When

he had himself called Miii

in person,

it

his Field-

he was in Holland

Her

conquering the

Peter site

JNIikhailofF,

of St. Peters-

burg he styled himself Mr. Bombardier Captain Peter.

There was

Swedes

still

some

fighting to be done with the

at various other points,

and the position on

ST.

68

the

Neva had yet

PETERSBUllG

to be rendered perfectly secure

by the subsequent capture of Narva and the defeat of Charles XII. at Poltava, but for

purposes

He

it

was now completely

was able to proceed

cherished ideas

all

in Peter's grasp.

at once

to

realize

of founding a European

making Russia a naval Power.

practical

city

his

and

—

CHAPTER V PETERSBURG IN THE MAKING

ST.

Foundation of St.

St.

— Attitude of Swedes — Cronstadt— — Beginning of trade — Opposition

Petersburg

Petersburg fortress

Compulsory settlement.

After lost

the capture of Nyenskantz, Peter the Great

no time

in setting to

work

to carry out his

town in connection with the utilization of the mouth of the Neva. Nyenskantz itself was unsuited to the purpose, being situated a Httle too far up the river, where the latter makes a sharp bend towards the project of estabhshing a commercial

It

south.

War

to

was therefore decided at a Council of

select a

spot nearer to the sea.

After

upon the point where the Neva, before entering the Gulf of Finland, branches into three main channels, with choice

careful

exploration, Peter's

several

minor ramifications, which form a number

of islands of different shapes and first

of these islands

the Finnish

name

of

—a '

fell

sizes.

very small one,

Yanni-saari 59

'

On

the

known by

(Janni-saari) or

rETEKSIiURG

ST.

60

Hare Island

— reter

the

started

of the

Immediately behind

Petersburg.

fortress of St.

buildin^,'

Yanni-saari, across a narrow watercourse forming

moat

natural

a

at the back of the fortress,

the large island called in or Birch Island,

the

first

the Petersburg

was

Koivu-saari,'

side,

on which

buildings outside the fortress were erected.

On May by

now

Finnish

'

IG, 1703,

his officers

Peter the Great, surrounded

friends, cut the first turf in the

and

centre of Yanni-saari, and buried a stone casket

containing

few gold with a in the

the Apostle, and a

Having turned up

coins.

soldier's spade,

form of a

to be

Andrew

relics of St.

cross,

a couple of sods

he placed one on the other

and commanded a cathedral

built here, within the

walls of a

dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul. salutes

were

fired,

Artillery

and Peter received the congratu-

lations of the assembled

Tradition

fortress,

company.

states that durhig the

ceremony an

was observed soaring over the head of the Tsar, attention ha\ing been directed towards it by the noise of its wings, which was distinctly audible.

eagle

Shortly afterwards

it

settled

upon a rough kind of

triumphal arch marking the position of the future gate of the fortress, and which was

stems of two

tall

made by

the

birch saplings bent towards each

ST.

PETERSBURG

IN

THE MAKING

61

The bird was brought to the ground, and taken aUve. The record of what took place is somewhat confusing, but the eagle was apparently shot at and wounded by

other and tied together at the top.

one of the attendant

In any case, the

soldiers.

incident greatly delighted Peter,

an augury of future success.

who

regarded

it

as

He had the eagle's legs

bound together with a handkerchief, held it perched on his gloved hand while the clergy performed the rite

of consecrating the improvised gateway, and

then took skantz.

and was

It

with him in his yacht back to Nyenbecame a tame favourite in the palace,

it

finally

kept by Peter's orders in the guard-

room of the fortress at Cronstadt, under the name of The Commandant.' Peter seems to have had '

a liking for birds and animals, for besides favourite

dogs he subsequently kept various other four-footed creatures and a large aviary in the garden attached

to his summer-house on the southern side of the river.

Wooden

barracks and houses were rapidly put

up to accommodate the troops from Nyenskantz, and the chief

officers

and

civil

officials.

Russia

being essentially a country of wood, this building material was naturally the himself,

first

to be used.

For

Peter had a small hut with only three

ST.

62

PETERSBURG

rooms, built of logs and roofed over with shingles,

on the adjoining island of the and later on he had it enclosed in

just outside the fortress

Petersburg

side,

it

against the weather.

this that

he intended to pre-

a second building to protect

We

may

serve

from

infer

for the edification of future

it

more than modest abode for mighty a monarch still exists as an object of

and accordingly so

generations,

this

and a depository of various

curiosity,

founder of

relics

of the

His bedroom here has

St. Petersburg.

been turned into a chapel, where prayers are

fre-

up accompanied him

in all

that of Poltava.

Peter disliked large and lofty

quently

offe'*ed

in front of the holy

The

his

image which

campaigns, including

relative smallness

and rather

cramped appearance of the apartments

in the old

dwelli

.:

:-ooms.

palace at

^t>w

\(\j

had not spoifed him

so-called

respect.

T',,

built

hunself on the

first

l^j*r

l|ut

standmg bassy

;

palaces

Neva

near the fortress in the

even the

—were

all

;

his

'

in this

which he

—that

is

first

first

to say, the

summer-house

garden close to the British

pavilion at Peterhoff, stadt

'

still

Em-

winter palace, the JNlonplaisir

and another house

at Cron-

mere cottages or shanties

in

com-

parison with the magnificent structures raised by his

luxurious successors.

James Keith, afterwards the

ST.

PETERSBURG

IN

THE MAKING

famous Prussian Marshal, who entered

tlie

63

Russian

service for a time, after Peter's death wrote of

him

:

He loved more to employ his money on ships and regiments than sumptuous buildings, and was '

always content with

from

his fleet

The work

his

his

when

lodging

lie

could see

window.'

of founding St. Petersburg w^s carried

on almost under the eyes and guns of the Swedes,

who

threatened to interfere

and

sea.

Two months

all

the time by land

only after beginning the

Peter sent General Chambers with a force

fortress

to repel the

enemy under General Kronhjort on

the old Finnish border at the River Sestra, whilst

Admiral Nummers, with nine Swedish men-of-war, lay anchored

off"

summer

of

the

shown great

have

When

They

at

s

much

str

at first to take Peter'"

At Stockholm

Among

joking.

juncture.

little

on the Neva was too

failed

here seriously. of

indecision

they did take the offensive,

Peter's position

them.

mouth of the Neva d' /^irough 1703. The Swedes appear to

the

it

later,

ag

for

work

was the subject

other criticism or satire,

was proposed that the Tsar should call his new town not Petropolis, after himself, but Leperopolis, it

after

the

which the

name

of the island

fortress

(Hare Island) on

was begun, and

in

malicious

PETERSBUliG

ST.

64

allusion to the first battle of Narva, wlien the liiissians

were reported to have run away

like hares.

Council of State prophesied that

When

destroyed by the floods. ceived the said

:

'

iu a panic

Some of the members of the Swedish

news of

first

l^et the

Tsar

its

it

would soon be

Charles XII. re-

foundation, he merely

himself with the useless

tire

work of founding new towns

;

we

shall reserve to

ourselves the glory of taking them.' Peter's energy

prodigious.

and

activity at this period

In October of the same year, when

the ice had already begun to float

and

squadron

Swedish

the

were

had

down

the Neva,

withdrawn to

Finnish waters, he sailed eighteen miles out fi'om the

mouth of the

river to Kotlin,

now

Cronstadt,

where he took soundings, and resolved at once to fortify that island

and construct a midwater

fort,

which he named Kronslot (again a Swedish name, be

it

observed, instead of a Russian one), to protect

the navigable passage.

This fort was built with

great labour and difficulty in smking the submarine

foundation during the ensumg winter

Cronstadt was

fortified,

burg became

practically

Schuyler fortress,

states '

in

his

;

and once

the fortress at St. Petersuseless. '

Peter the

As Eugene Great,'

this

on which so much money and so much

— PETERSBURG

ST. life

IN

THE MAKING

was spent, protected nothing.

65

could

Its ginis

enemy unless the town had been taken. It now protects nothing but the

never reach the previously ISIint

and the cathedral containing the Imperial

tombs.

During the reigns of

Peter's successors its

walls were used as a suitable background for

works and illuminations, and

fire-

casemates have

its

always been found convenient for the reception of Strategically

political prisoners.

necessary to protect the this

mouth

of the Neva, but

At

was done by Cronstadt.'

may have been

it

first

some of

its

casemates were placed at the disposal of traders for storing wine and other wares

and one of the

;

first

political prisoners to

be incarcerated here, and done

way

that has always remained a

to death in a

mystery, was Peter the Great's Nevertheless,

structed in

all

this

useless

six bastions

were at

son, Alexis.

fortress

seriousness with

some six or seven years

own

more Its

later.

first built

of

was

recon-

solid material

ramparts and

wood and

earth,

which was subsequently replaced by stone revet-

ments and masonry.

Of the

work

six bastions, the

on one was superintended by the Tsar himself that on each of the other five respectively by Men;

shikofF (the

first

Governor- General of

burg), and the other principal

Peters-

St.

men round

Peter 5

PETEUSBUKG

ST.

66

Zotoif,

Goloviii,

Troubetskoy,

and

Naryshkin.

There were four rows of wooden buildings within the walls, and opposite to the guard-house stood a

wooden horse with a very sharp back, on which delinquents from the army were forced to sit for hours

;

and

also a post

surrounded with spikes in the

where similar offenders were made to stand or walk, attached by a chain fastened on one arm. In the immediate vicinity of these instruments of

gi'ound,

torture, so characteristic of

Russian conditions at

the time, was the house of the

first

Ober-Com-

Jacob Bruce, one of the

mandant of the fortress, many Scotchmen then in the service of Russia. Next to the fortress, Peter gave the greatest attention to the building of the Admiralty and

shipbuilding

yards on the

opposite side of the

Neva, where the Tsar's favourite work was soon going on at a rapid pace.

In

fact,

the left bank of

the Neva, on which the principal quarter of the

was partly peopled in Dutch and other instance by shipwrights

city eventually developed,

the

first

foreign

—

experts in naval

construction

— together

with great numbers of workmen.

In November of the existence

Peter was

first

year of St. Petersburg's

immensely pleased

at

the

arrival of the first foreign merchant-vessel in front

ST.

of his

PETERSBURG

embryo

THE MAKING

67

This was a Dutch boat,

fortress.

laden with wines and

IN

salt,

from one of Peter's old

acquaintances at Zaandam.

It has

been said that

Peter himself went out to meet this vessel, and personally acted the pilot in guiding

but

this has since

who

At any

river,

been contradicted by BozjerianofF,

states that Peter

time.

up the

it

rate,

had gone to Moscow

at the

Peter gave orders that this

lucky vessel, which was named the

Petersburg^

St.

should be allowed ever afterwards to bring goods into the

Neva

this occasion its

and dues and on skipper, Auke Wybes, was feasted

free of all taxes

;

by MenshikofF, and presented with 500 gold ducats. The men of his crew also received 30 thalers.

The next

ships to arrive,

one English and another

from Holland, were treated

in a similar

manner,

the gratuities to their captains being 300 and 150

ducats respectively.

By means

of these and other

encouragements Peter soon attracted foreign trade to

St.

Petersburg, and ruined the prospects of

Archangel

— that

adventurers

creation

of

British

merchant

— for many years to come.

Nothing has yet been said about the employment of labour by Peter in his gigantic enterprise. brilliancy of his genius

was such that

throw a glamour over the brutality of

The

it

tends to

his

methods.

ST.

68

and seems to

PETEUSBITHG

palliate the terrible suffering

which

the execution of his high designs inflicted upon vast

numbers of his long-suffering subjects. And yet this is the most painfully interesting detail of Peter's work. Although he assumed the European title of Emperor, he Muscovy.

still

The

remained a

real autocratic

Tsar of

slavery of ancient Egypt, which

produced the pyramids, could not have been worse than that which produced

St.

Petersburg.

The

whole of Russia was compelled to take part in the

making of

it,

and

it

has been estimated that over

100,000 persons perished in course of the opera-

Some even put the number. Twenty thousand tions.

figure at double this

navvies, including the

Swedish prisoners, were engaged only on the construction of the fortress, and, as far as concerns the

Russians, their primitive habits were such that, in the absence of a proper supply of implements, they

raked the it

soil

up with

their hands,

and carried

to the ramparts in pieces of matting, and even

in the tails of their shirts.

against their will from

only Russians, other Asiatics.

all

Men

were driven here

parts of the Empire, not

but also Tartars, Calnmcks, and

There

was

frightful

mortality

amongst them, owing to the severity of the climate and the unhealthy conditions in which they were

PETERSBURG

ST.

THE MAKING

IN

Those who

69

simply dropped

forced to

live.

down on

the ground and obstinately refused

fell

ill

medical assistance, preferring to

which

capital

very

first,

and

them out of

upon

Peter forced

Russia began by

filling

The new

an unwilling

cemeteries from the

its

evil reputation for

its

proportion to

all

die.

all

its

overcrowding

population has

been steadily maintained down to the present time. In

its

and the death-rate were

early days sickness

greatly

increased

Peter's reign there

by

frequent

were no

less serious inundations,

less

and

the towTi was not washed

it

floods.

During

than seven more or

seems a marvel that

away

in its infancy.

was only the tenacity of Peter himself that saved

At one

at this early stage. '

It it

of the Tsar's parties, or

assemblies,' as he called his first social gatherings,

the water suddenly invaded the rooms of the palace,

and Peter and through

it

his guests

had to escape by wading

The one or two available town were strewn with decay-

ankle-deep.

routes leading to the

ing carcasses of horses and cattle, sunk deep in the

mire of numerous bogs.

Everybody, nobleman and

peasant alike, hated the place, while Peter loved to write about soldiers

it

as

his

'

paradise.'

Many

of the

and workmen ran away whenever they

could get the chance, but most of

them were soon

ST.

70

PETERSBURG Deserters from their

caught and brought back. regiments

who

voluntarily gave themselves

up were

ordered, as a special act of clemency in consideration of their repentance, to be thrashed with the

knout and sent to hard labour

Although

Petersburg.

building St.

in

governors

the

of

the

provinces had a very hard time under Peter, not

one

of

them,

it

was

by Prince Gregory

said

Dolgorooky, cared to come to

The

live

on the Neva.

Princess Mary, half-sister to Peter, remarked

to an intimate friend after

No

our time.

May

:

*

it

Petersi)urg will not endure

remain a desert

I'

volunteers could be found, either for

work or

Peter therefore had

residence, in St. Petersburg.

to contend against the opposition of his people as

well as natural difficulties.

made

Such a

state of things

progress too slow for this headlong reformer,

and he soon resolved to measures of compulsion. ordered 40,000

be sent to

St.

workmen

resort to the

most

drastic

Accordingly, in 1710, he a year for three years to

Petersburg from the provinces, and

with a view of attracting masons, he further com-

manded

that no stone buildings should be erected

any part of the Russian Empire outside of St. Petersburg under penalty of banishment to Siberia in

and confiscation of property.

Is it surprising

if,

ST.

PETERSBURG

after this, the

of

wood

71

Russian interior continued to be built

By

?

THE MAKING

IN

another ukase the Tsar ordered that

everybody entering

St.

Petersburg should bring

with them a certain quantity of stone.

In 1714

the authorities of the province of Archangel were

ordered to send 3,000

men

All

tions at Cronstadt.

owners possessing not

to

work on the nobles,

officials,

less

fortifica-

and land-

than thirty families of

peasant serfs were obliged to settle in St. Petersburg, and build for themselves houses either of

wood

One

or stone, according to their means.

Peter's

follows

:

May

dated

decrees,

One thousand

'1.

of the nobility,

26,

reads

1712,

of as

of the best families

are riequired to build houses

etc.,

of beams, with lath and plaster, in the old English style,

along

the

bank of the Neva from the

Imperial palace to the point opposite Nyenskantz. 2.

Five

families,

hundred and

must build

five

of

the

best-known merchant

hundred traders

for themselves

less distinguished,

wooden houses on the

other side of the river, opposite to the dwellings of

the nobility, until the

Government can provide them

with stone houses and shops. artisans

of every kind

blacksmiths, etc.

same

3.

—painters,

—must

settle

side of the river, right

up

Two

thousand

tailors,

joiners,

themselves on the to Nyenskantz.'

In

72

ST.

PETERSBURG

way the young city of making was built up in an incredibly short this

autocratic

time.

Its durability,

Very few of

its

piles of brick

I*eter'.s

space of

however, was not very great.

among

buildings remain

and stone as well

the great

wooden houses

as

which constitute the Petersburg of to-day.

and

Peter

unable to

liis

fix

advisers

definitely

seem

to

have

upon any one spot

been as a

The extremely unfavourable conditions of made this impossible. The consequence was that a great many persons had to continually shift their homes in centre.

the geographical situation probably

accordance with Peter's frequent changes of plan,

and

this

only increased the general discontent.

The

first

settlement was near the fortress, where

stood the

Government

offices,

the

wooden Church

of the Trinity, and the famous tavern called the '

Osteria,' at

which Peter and

used to take their drams. settled

down

in that

to build houses

At one

his

boon-companions

After

many persons had

neighbourhood they were made

on the opposite

time the Tsar wished to

side of the river.

make Cronstadt

a

commercial town, and compelled the provinces to put up large buildings there, which were never

Then he had a special plan for making regular Dutch town, or a second Venice, of the

used.

a

ST.

PETERSIJURG IN THE MAKING

Vasili Ostroff (in Finnish,

Elk

Island,

73

where that

animal was hunted in the times of the Finns and Swedes), with canals running through

The

nobility

all

the streets.

were consequently ordered to erect

expensive houses in that quarter, but they soon had

abandon them, owing to the discovery that the lowness of the situation, and the difficulties of comto

municating with the mainland during the seasons of floating ice

on the

impracticable.

river,

At

rendered the scheme quite

the same time there was long a

lingering doubt as to the

new

city being

made

the

would appear that only after the victory at Poltava, in 1709, Peter finally made up his mind to make it the permanent capital, and actual capital.

had

all

It

Government

Moscow

institutions

still

remaining at

transferred to the banks of the Neva.

'

CHAPTER IMPERIAL

ST.

VI

PETERSBURG

Under Peter I.— Death of Peter I.— Peter II.— Catherine II.— Paul I. Expenditure of Grand Dukes.

Succeeding Monarchs

For more

—

—

than twenty years Peter the Great was

enamoured of the building up of capital.

serious

his

new European

Even when the calls of war and other matters demanded his presence elsewhere, he

never forgot the interests of his beloved

on the Neva. on the night

Apraxin

:

*

From

'

paradise

the battle-field of Poltava,

after the great victory,

Now, with God's

he wrote to

help, the last stone

has been laid of the foundation of St. Petersburg.'

At

the same time, while opening up a

into Europe, this

new

window

position in the north, far

removed from the trammels of old Muscovite influence, enabled him to enforce those extraordinary changes in Russian life and government which he carried

out in the teeth of so

resistance.

much

obstinate

There was naturally an intimate con-

nection between the

work of creating the 74

first

IMPERIAL European

ST.

city of Russia

PETEIISBURG

75

and the introduction of

European methods and customs. Foreigners were amazed at the wonderful and rapid transformation of old Muscovite dress and manners into the ways and fashions of Europe which took place in St. Petersburg under Peter's dictation.

He made

in-

novations everywhere, and such innovations affected private

life

as well as every

department of Church

Not only were the long beards and

and

State.

still

longer skirts of his ultra-conservative subjects

clipped short at the

such a

trivial

word of command, but even

in

matter as the soles of their boots they

did not escape the interference of this revolutionary

For some reason or other he objected, it seems, to the use of hob-nails and iron boot-protectors. Accordingly, in 1715, a ukase was issued reformer.

forbidding the wearing of boots and shoes with these additions, and threatening in

all

persons dealing

such articles with hard labour and confiscation

of property.

Peter's

favourite governor of

St.

Petersburg, Prince Menshikoff, even went farther

than his Imperial master.

On

one occasion,

in

order to please the Tsar, he invited a whole batch of Russians to his palace, and compelled

them then

and there to throw off their Asiatic garb and put on ready-made

suits of

European

clothing.

They

I'ETKRSlUntG

ST.

76

naturally protested, but this had been provided for in antieipation

;

number of

a

drawn

sledges were

in front of the street-door, ready to take

up

off to Siberia without

more

them

In such circum-

ado.

stances, of course, they reluctantly submitted to be

turned externally into Europeans.

And

not only in externals such as these did

Peter exercise his zeal in reforming his unprogressive subjects.

His

rooting out

corruption were not to be mis-

official

directions, for instance, for

understood or evaded like the orders of some of his

more

The

successors.

lenient

leading func-

tionary of the Senate, which Peter established to control the administration, once read a report to the

Tsar on the discovery of a whole

by Government

officials,

perusal he asked,

'

Shall

and I

series of robberies

in

concluding the branches

lop off the

only, or lay the axe to the root of the evil V

instantaneous reply was,

*

Hack

out

e\

Peter's

erything to

the very core.'

Peter also introduced a totally

among free

his

new

social

people in St. Petersburg, while his

life

own

and easy manners must have been quite shock-

ing in comparison with the secluded grandeur in

which the old Russian Tsars had been wont to and

rule.

He

started theatres

;

live

organized social

M().\UMi:.\ I'.rected liy

CatlitTMic

II.

r

A

OF HKTIIK celebrated

I.

work

of Falconet

IMPERIAL

PETERSBURG

ST.

gatherings, which he called

'

77

assemblies,' in French,

because he said there was no suitable word for them in

Kussian arranged pyrotechnical displays, of which ;

he was very fond, and even played the role of a Sherlock

Holmes

in detecting plots

He also

conspirators.

and surprising

frequented taverns, and often

took his one-rouble dinner

like

any ordinary customer

German, who of the garrison. His other

at Felton's, the eating-house of a

catered for the officers

favourite occupations of ship-building, forging iron bars, filling fireworks, drinking heavily,

and other-

wise enjoying his intervals of relaxation, are they not

recorded in the history of this great Russian Sovereign ?

And

taken up it

it

a fascinating history

cannot easily be

must be by anyone who

An account of the Russian to the genius

who

created

be worse than omitting '

Hamlet.

'

it

fact,

down

laid aside,

When

once

and taken up

treats of St. Petersburg.

capital without reference it

and

set it

going would

mention of the ghost

the ghost of Peter the Great

in

still

modern Petersburg, followed poor Evjenie on the Neva Quay in

follows one as

In

all

it is.

the years into

Pooshkin's celebrated description of the great inundation of 1824.

Of late

years Peter and his exploits

have frequently been the subject of national brations and

new monuments.

cele-

There are now four

ST.

78

statues erected to hoflf

St.

PETERSBURG

him

one at Peter-

in the capital,

Two

and another at Cronstadt.

of those in

Petersburg are equestrian, with the great Tsar

attired as a

Roman, one of them being the

cele-

brated work of Falconet. figure of Peter in built

Another is a standing front of the old wooden churcli

by him on the Samson Prospect to commemo-

The

rate the victory of Poltava.

fourth statue,

up on the Admiralty Quay, represents Peter rescuing drowning sailors at the mouth That heroic of the river in the autumn of 1724. deed gave him a severe cold, which helped to bring recently set

about

his

As

death in the following January.

Winter Palace,

lay dying in the old

he

only

re-

corded utterance was the sad remark made to

his

weeping Empress, Catherine

me what

a poor creature

I. is

'

:

his

You now The

man.'

see

by

fittest

memorial to this extraordinary Russian monarch and reformer would be a repetition in some conspicuous part of St. Petersburg of Sir Christopher AVren's

epitaph in St. Paul's Cathedral requiris, circumspice

—

'

If

:

you seek

*SV

monumenUun monument,

his

look around.'

The

progress of the infant city of St. Petersburg

under the personal guidance of such a

was naturally very

rapid.

A\^ithin

man as Peter eight

or ten

IMPERIAL years of

its

and about

1

PETERSBURG

ST.

79

foundation there were a dozen streets

The paving of the

,000 houses.

was begun

and

in 1717,

1725 Peter ordered

in

There

lamps to be put up.

streets

not

is

much

left intact

to-day of the building work of Peter's time, but the chief point on each side of the Neva, whence

the city still

developed under Peter's

first

initiative, is

marked by two of the most conspicuous

in St.

Petersburg.

spires

that

These are the

crown

Cathedral in the

the

tall

objects

needle-like

Admiralty and the

old

In sunhght and clear

fortress.

frosty weather these gilded spires shine like shafts

of

fire

the

shooting upward to the sky, and they are

more

striking

inasmuch

as they bear

semblance to the cupolas and sian churches

the old

around them.

no

belfries of the

all

re-

Rus-

The mellow tone of

Dutch chimes beneath the one on the

Fortress Cathedral

is

a pleasant relief from the

discordant style of Russian bell -ringing, and

reminds

one

irresistibly

of

old

Holland

it

and

Germany. After Peter's death, his widowed Empress and his grandson,

Peter

vancement of

St.

Peter

II.

II.,

did nothing for the ad-

On

the contrary,

transferred his Court to

Moscow, and

Petersburg.

entertained the idea of divesting Petersburg of

its

ST. Pl-rrKUSliUUG

80

The mere

rank as the capital of the Empire.

attempt was immediately disastrous.

Houses were

deserted, and thousands of persons left this hated spot.

Before the reinstallation of the

Imperial

Court on the Neva, under the Empress Anne, recourse was again had to compulsory measures to

bring back the deserters.

decree ordered

all

In

1729 an Imperial

merchants, artisans, and drivers,

with their families, to be sent back at once, under pain of severe punishment.

Then came an

epi-

demic of incendiarism, from which it was evident that many of those obHged against their will to remain in

this detested

city

were determined to it down to number of men were

revenge themselves by trying to burn the ground.

In one case a

hanged at the four corners of a block of buildings to which they had set light only a few hours before. In 1737 over 1,000 houses were destroyed by

and many hundred persons perished.

fire,

Neverthe-

in spite of popular aversion, arson, floods,

less,

and

and

disease, the

Russian nation was forced by the

iron will of autocracy to conquer

Petersburg.

Finally,

utmost repulsion

it

its dislike

of St.

from being an object of the

gradually became a place of

the greatest attraction, and estates in the provinces

were kept going only

for the

purpose of providing

A

DRosnK^ nnivERs

tea-stai.l

IMPERIAL money

PETERSBURG

ST.

by

to be squandered

dissipations of the

The

new

81

owners

their

in the

Uiissian capital.

Peter the Great, as far as

real successor to

concerns the continuation of his work on the Neva,

was Catherine

made

during whose reign the city

II.,

Many handsome

great progress.

buildings

and useful institutions established under that great

Empress are

among

still

Succeeding

monarchs

flexible wills

'

embellishments.

its finest

exercised

also

their

in-

'

in such a

way

that no other

country possesses a capital the

rise

of which has

upon

it

been to the same extent the result of the wants

and

wislies of its Sovereigns

Vienna

is

and

their relatives.

If

a real Kaiserstadt, as the Austrians were

proudly wont to apply the

title

call

of

'

it,

there

is

more reason

far

Imperial City

'

to

to St. Peters-

burg, which in the very nature of things Russian

has been so completely identified

with the

perors and Empresses of Russia from ception. like a

its

Em-

very

in-

It never could have attained to anything

prominent position had the Imperial Family

not continued to maintain

it

as the residential city

of the Sovereign and the seat of the Imperial

Government.

must have

\Vithout this powerful support

fallen into decay,

and

in the long

it

run

the waves of the Finnish Gulf would have doubt6

88

ST.

less

completed

its

PETERSBURG final ruin.

A

dozen Imperial

autocrats since Peter have therefore kept

above water, and

St.

much what they have

An

Petersburg of to-day caused

it

in order to

is

very

to be made.

interesting fact in this connection

mentioned

head

its

may

be

show how the Grand Dukes

House have contributed towards this The Emperor Paul established an institu-

of the Imperial result.

tion called the Imperial Appanages, for the purpose

of providing for the minor

members of the

reigning

However mad Paul may have been

dynasty.

in

some respects, he certainly showed great practical wisdom in looking after the material interests of his relatives and descendants. He started the Appanages Department as a special fund, which has now become a rich source of revenue derivable from

many

kinds

of agricultural, industrial, and commercial operations.

From this source the numerous Grand Dukes

means of maintaining their Emperor and his positions. heir- apparent do not draw upon this fund, as and Duchesses draw

tlie

Only the reigning

they have the Treasury, the State domains, and other sources of income.

ago

it

was

About

officially calculated that

thirteen

years

the Imperial

Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses — and it must be remembered that their nimiber has been continually

on the increase

— had received

from these

IMPERIAL

ST.

PETERSBURG

83

during the course of a century alto-

appanages

gether more than 236,000,000 roubles, or about

The

£23,600,000.

expended

course,

greater part of this

sum

was, of

in St. Petersburg, including nearly

57,000,000 roubles exclusively laid out in erecting

and keeping up Grand Ducal palaces. There are now at least twenty palaces in St. Petersburg and the surrounding districts belonging to different members

been

have

them

museums and

other

a remarkable fact that

many

converted

institutions, while

it is

Two

or three of

of the Imperial Family.

into

of the fine mansions of Russia's ancient but im-

poverished aristocracy have

of

years been

late

acquired by the Grand Dukes.

We

thus see that even the collateral branches of

the Imperial dynasty have been greatly instrumental in building

present

is

up

Their position at

St. Petersburg.

naturally very different from

before the State

Dooma

what

it

was

declared that none of the

Grand Dukes should any longer hold any responsible posts under the Government. But before that they were all-powerful.

were

first

Their convenience and pleasure

considered in

owes many of

its

that they were

all cases,

and

St.

Petersburg

public improvements to the fact

first

introduced for the benefit of

members of the Imperial Family.

CHAPTER

VII

pi:tersijurg criticized

ST.

Russian, English, and other foreign criticism

—The poet

Pooshkin's description.

No

otlier capital city in tlie

criticized

much

as

as

world has ever been

Petersburg.

St.

themselves have always complained of

and not without good reason. have given

often been predicted.

and other foreign

defects,

wTiters, however,

ruin has

its

Its depreciation

fashion wlieii Russophobia

its

Foreigners also

a bad reputation, and

it

Russians

by

Englisli

was more

was rampant.

in

Russian

constitutional reform and popular liberty, although as yet existing

have taken the

more

in principle

political sting

than in practice,

out of foreign criticism.

T' e evil spoken and written of St. Petersburg to»-.vy is

chiefly in reference to its inherent failings,

^l^iiich

it

must be admitted

spite of all its

be

known

capital in

are very great.

external splendour,

as the unhealthicst

Europe.

has

come

In to

and most expensive

It stands first

84

it

among

the large

ST.

PETERSBURG CRITICIZED

of Europe,

cities

85

and even of Russia, both

as

regards the rate of mortahty in general and the

Typhoid

high death-rate from infectious diseases.

and cholera are the periodical scourges of

its

popu-

Since the thirties of the last century there

lation.

have been seven outbreaks of cholera, and the epidemic has prevailed

no

altogether

than

less

twenty-five years.

The foundations

of public health have been too

long neglected in favour of the outside glitter of

modern

Although

civilization.

the

subject

sanitation has been under discussion

quarter of a century at least, there

is

now

the

capitals of

fifth in

St.

no proper

Petersburg

among

the great

Europe, with nearly 2,000,000 inhabi-

and yet

tants,

point of size

for the last

is still

drainage and no pure water-supply.

of

this

mass of humanity,

in addition to

the rigours of the climate and the insalubrity of the situation,

ments

is

obliged to put up with primitive arrange-

for the disposal of

constitute nothing

less

These arrangements as a

of

system of

all

sewage which

may

be briefly referred

filthy cesspools in the

contents

at

days

than a national scan^M.

houses, with rough

away the

in these

wooden

night

atmosphere by the operation.

yai.'

carts to carry

and

At

back

t'^

pollute

the

the same time,

86

ST.

PETERS lUTRG

were not enough, the

as thoutrh this

citizens are

suppHed with water which nobody valuing her

dares to drink unboiled, and which

life

from a

river

contaminated by

human

is

his or

drawn and

dirt

teeming with bacteria and the vibrion of cholera. This ful,

is

the Russian scientific opinion of the beauti-

and limpid stream of the Neva

fast- running,

What

during the cholera epidemic of 1909.

a

contrast with the opinion enunciated eighty years

ago

by a distinguished English physician (Dr.

Granville),

burg

:

*

who

After

grateful, the

wrote, after a visit to St. Peters-

all,

the best, the purest, the most

most healthy, the most

delightful

and

really national beverage of the inhabitants of St.

Petersburg

now

is

the water of the Neva.'

This praise

reads like satire, for, in order to avoid

water altogether,

many persons

Neva

are paying a shilling

a bottle for ordinary spring w^ater, brought from

Duderhoff, twenty miles outside the

Russian and foreign criticism of

city.

St.

Petersburg

has also proceeded from other points of view.

It

is

curious that formerly the Muscovite Slavophile and

the English Russophobe unconsciously joined hands

from very different motives.

in reviling

it

disliked

because

it

it

The one

stood for everything foreign,

and did not represent the

real

Russia

;

the other

ST.

abused

it

PETERSBURG CRITICIZED

because

87

represented Autocratic Russia

it

and the supposed enemy of British rule In

early

its

days

it

was so

in India.

cordially hated

by

Russians themselves, especially by the priesthood,

who regarded Peter

the Great as Antichrist, that

they loudly prophesied for Nineveh,

and

it

the fate of Babylon,

During the

Gomorrah.

inundation in the reign of Alexander fanatics of this class,

ment cells

1.,

several

who were undergoing imprisonwere drowned

for their opposition, in

terrible

the fortress.

Even Karamzin,

Russian historian, called

its

in their

the great

foundation 'the im-

mortal mistake of the great reformer.'

In order to show what kind of views were held by English and other foreign authors in the last half of the nineteenth century,

it

may

be interesting to

quote two or three passages.

About the time

War, considerable importance was attached to a work called Revelations of Russia,' by an anonymous Englishman, long of the Crimean

'

resident

on the banks of the Neva.

wrote that

and

St.

Petersburg was

palaces, a vast

encampment

'

This author

a city of barracks

of lath and plaster,

the stuccoed walls of the buildings always peeling in the gi'ipe of the keen frost of winter and blistering

sun of summer, a city which each successive genera-

88

ST.

tion of

inhabitants had to build afresh by instal-

its

ments of annual again take

the walls

PETEltSliUHG

repairs, otherwise the

marsh would

the stucco would

become dust, the mud, and

its place,

it

covers ruins imbedded in

the cold, spongy moss of this northern climate

would again creep over winds such

The prevalence

it.

as, if rare, will

of west

probably occur once in a

century or two, would suffice to raise the waters of the

Gulf high enough to sweep away the devoted It will be

remembered how nearly

the reign of the

first

Custrine wrote

'

granite,

is

a

:

Alexander."

This

marvel,

this

city,

city.

happened

in

The Marquis

with

its

quays of

but the palace of ice

in

which the Empress Elizabeth held a banquet was

no

less

flakes

a M^onder, and lasted as long as the snow-

—those roses

of Siberia.

The

ancients built

with indestructible materials beneath a conservative

sky

;

here,

are raised

where the climate destroys everything,

up palaces of wood, houses of planks, and

temples of stucco. lives

in

remaking during the summer what the

winter has undone.'

Saxon Charge '

Russian workmen spend their

According to Count \'itzthum,

d affaires

in

Petersburg in 1853,

the city, as seen from the majestic Neva, presents

an imposing aspect when the golden domes of the Isaac

Church are

glittering brightly

through the

ON THE UOAD TO EXECUTION

IN

KOKMEK DAYS

These public processions to the gallows liave been suiipressed for

many

years past

:

ST.

morning

mist.

vanishes,

for

PETERSHURG CRITICIZED The

impression, however, soon

first

Petersburg,

St.

summer, notwithstanding squares, and

at

streets, bears, or

events

all

in

spacious but desolate

its

interminable, broad,

its

89

but empty

then bore, in comparison with

Paris and London, the stamp of a provincial town.

In that sea of houses, raised by the will of a powerful ruler

out of a bottomless morass,

that soil and ground, as well as

it is

human

evident

life,

have

not yet the same value as in older capitals of natural gi'owth.'

Less unfavourable views may, perhaps, be found in

more recent

descriptions

;

but, as a rule, both

native and foreign critics have been far from com'

Palmyra of the North.'

all

adverse criticism of St.

plimentary towards the

The

best antidote to

Petersburg has been given by Russia's greatest poet, Pooshkin.

to his

'

It

is

to be found in the prologue

Bronze Cavalier,' and

it

is

here offered to

the reader in the excellent rendering into English

made by the late Mr. Charles Turner, who was for many years English Lector at the University of St.

Petersburg, and a friend of the author of these

chapters '

He

On

the waste shore of raving; waves

stood, with high

and dread thoughts

filled,

;

And The

gazed

;

Before liim rolled

afar.

river wide,

Its tortuous

:

PETERSBURG

ST.

90

;

a fragile barcjue

path slow making.

Upon

the uioss-grown banks and

Stood

far

swamps

asunder smoky huts,

The homes

of Finnish fishers poor

Whilst

around, a forest wild,

all

Unpierced by misty-circled sun,

Murmured

loud. '

Gazing

From hence we can

far,

he thought

the Swede best threat

Here must I found a city strong, That shall our haughty foe bring ill It is by Nature's law decreed, That here we break a window through, And boldly into Europe look, ;

And on

the sea with sure foot stand

By water path

as yet

unknown,

Shall ships from distant ports arrive,

And *

far

and wide our reign extend.

A hundred

years have passed, and now,

In place of forests dark and swamps,

A city new, in pomp unmatched. Of Northern lands the pride and gem. Where Finnish fisher once at eve. Harsh Nature's poor abandoned

child.

From low-sunk boat was wont his net With patient toil to cast, and drag The stream, now stretch long lines of quays, Of richest granite formed, and rows Of buildings huge and lordly domes

;

;

;; ;

PETERSBURG CRITICIZED

ST.

The river front whilst laden ships From distant quarters of the world Our hungry wharves fresh spoils sup])ly ;

And needful bridge its span extends, To join the stream's opposing shores And islets gay, in verdure clad,

;

Beneath the shade of gardens laugh. Before the youthful

city's

charms

Her head proud Moscow jealous bends. As when the new Tsaritza young The widowed Empress lowly greets. work of Peter's hand symmetric form The Neva's calm and queenly flow '

I love thee,

I love thy stern

!

;

Betwixt her quays of granite stone,

With iron tracings richly wrought Thy nights so soft with pensive thought. Their moonless glow, in bright obscure.

When

I alone, in

cosy room.

Or write or read, night's lamp unlit The sleeping piles that clear stand out In lonely streets, and needle bright

That crowns the Admiralty's

When,

spire

;

chasing far the shades of night,

In cloudless sky of golden pure,

Dawn quick usurps the pale twilight. And brings to end her half-hour reign. I love

Thy The

thy winters, bleak and harsh

stirless air fast

bound by frosts Neva wide.

;

flight of sledge o'er

That glows the cheeks of maidens gay. I love

the noise and chat of balls

91

;;

;

92

ST.

A baiujuet Where

free

;;

PETERSBURG from

wife's control,

goblets foam, and briglit blue flame

Darts round the brimming punch-bowTs edge. I love

to watch the martial troops

The spacious Field of Mars fast scour The squadrons spruce of foot and horse The nicely chosen race of steeds, As gaily housed they stand in line, Whilst

o'er

them

float the tattered flags

The gleaming helmets of the men That bear the marks of battle-shot. I love thee when with pomp of war The cannons roar from fortress -tower

When

Empress-Queen of

all

the North

Hath given birth to royal heir Or when the people celebrate Some conquest fresh on battle-field Or when her bonds of ice once more The Neva, rushing free, upheaves, The herald sure of spring's rebirth,

;

'

Fair city of the hero, hail!

Like Russia, stand unmoved and firm

And let the elements subdued Make lasting peace with thee and

!

thine.

Let angry Finnish waves forget Their bondage ancient and their feud Nor let them.with their idle hate Disturb great Peter's deathless sleep!'

)

tT-j^

(

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—

CHAPTER

PETERSBURG SOCIETY

ST.

Peter the Great's bureaucracy

departments and Social

and

VIII

official

political life

The development

— Foreign influence — Government — Merchants — Hospitality titles

— Court balls and ceremonies.

of St. Petersburg society has

been so powerfully influenced by the stamp of officialdom and

bureaucracy

first

set

upon

it

Peter the Great, that, in order to understand real character,

we must

the great reformer. all

by its

again invoke the shade of

His famous ukase compelling

persons of noble or gentle birth to serve the

State,

had very far-reaching

in general,

effects

on Russian

life

and particularly on the formation of

society in St. Petersburg,

superior classes

Those members of the

who were unable

to join the

army

were called upon to enter the Civil Service, which Peter organized on the plan suggested to him by the

German

this

system the government of the country was

not carried

philosopher Leibnitz.

on by individual 93

According to

ministers,

but by

94

ST.

colleges

PETERSBURG

boards

or

transformation

into

of

administrators,

modern

the

The

fully effected only in 1802.

and

ministries

present

their

was

home

of

the University on the Vasiliefsky Ostroff was the original head-quarters of this organization,

long red front of that building architectural distinctions,

the

number of the

still

and the

shows the twelve

which corresponded with

so-called colleges.

Peter employed the most drastic measures against those

who attempted

tchinovniks*

He

to avoid

officers or

far as to threaten

The consequence was

them with branding. all

becoming

even went so

that

the gentry, who, until quite recent years, repre-

sented the one intelligent element of the population,

were marshalled into the ranks of the Government service,

and taken away from private

It is true that,

under Peter

enterprise.

III. or Catherine II.,

the compulsion in this matter was abolished, but

what had once been a law had now become a fashion,

and any other callings than those of an

officer or

an

official

came

to be looked

unbecoming the position of a gentleman.

upon This

as is

the case, to a great extent, even at the present day.

It

is

impossible to estimate the evil done by

Peter in thus checking the development of the *

J'67ij;i

= raiik, grade.

ST.

PETERSBURG SOCIETY

95

natural resources of the Empire, for Russia then

had no

class

of merchants to speak

were

peasantry

a

in

serfdom, which

of

state

and the

of,

precluded them from following any other career

than that of

tilling the

land of their masters.

system determined

This

manner the aspect of developing

on quite

it

St.

unmistakable

an

in

Petersburg

different lines

society,

from those

followed by the evolution of society in Moscow.

There has always been a striking contrast between

and other respects

the

old

in this

and

new

Moscow

is

Russia's commercial centre,

and the merchant

is

a characteristic type of

capitals.

leading

ment

St.

class.

Petersburg

servants, civil

cratic

and

is

a city of Govern-

military, the great bureau-

chancery of the Empire.

a street in

it

its

There

is

hardly

of any size or importance that does

not contain one or more Government buildings or regimental barracks.

The

influence of foreigners,

who were

the

allies

of the great Tsar in recasting Russia, has given to

St.

city.

Petersburg the appearance Until

quite

recently

the

of

a foreign

principal

com-

mercial firms were foreign, and the real Russian

merchant scarcely penetrated to the banks of the Neva.

Owing

to the impetus given

by Peter the

ST.

96

PETERSIJURG Empire was

Great, and to the fact that the

ruled

through a great part of the eighteentli century by sovereigns of

foreign

birth

and

upper classes of society became '

foreignized

habits.

Few

'

in

their

extraction,

in a

great measure

predilections

and outward

Everything was placed on a foreign

other

cities

the

basis.

in the world could vie witli St.

Petersburg in the matter of foreign institutions.

The

Press and the

Drama were

also established

under alien influence, which has not even yet appeared.

There

is

still

dis-

a French theatre, main-

tained out of the funds of the Imperial Court, and

two foreign daily newspapers supported by the The Journal de St. PetersImperial Government. hourg, in French, Russian Foreign

is

Office,

Zeitung, in German,

on

its

the semi-official organ of the

title-page, in

still

and the

St.

Petersburger

bears the Imperial

token of

its

official

Arms origin.

Both journals have the privilege of drawing revenue from the publication of judicial notices and ad^'ertisements. In spite of a repeatedly professed resolve to introduce measures of decentralization, the Govern-

become more and more centralized, and the number of officials has in consequence been increased. It would probably

ment

has,

nevertheless,

ST.

PETERSBURG SOCIETY

be no exaggeration to say that they

very St.

many

Petersburg society

is

class of

'

is

deeply interested in

attaches if

performance of

man

This

official titles.

manifested in the existence of a numerous

occupation,

a

now number

thousands.

Government departments and interest

97

to

'

different

may

any,

education

does not possess some Civil Service rank.

Englishman's dream

is

a

title,

the

One seldom meets and position who

official duties.

of moderate

but

anything

be

whose

ministries,

If an

a Frenchman's the

red ribbon of the Legion d'Honneur,

it

may

be

said that the ambition of a Petersburgian Russian is

to obtain the rank of Actual State Councillor,

which confers upon him the privileges of hereditary nobility,

and

'Excellency.'

the right

of

being

has become

It

addressed

common

to

as

meet

merchants, traders, directors of banks, and industrial

managers with the

Civil Service titles of

secretary,' or councillor,

table of ranks.

'

and other grades of Peter's

This feature pertains, more or

to a degree

The

it

pervades

unknown

St.

sented, as a rule,

Petersburg society

in other parts of the

great merchant families of

less,

humble

to all classes of Russians, excepting the

peasantry, but

college

Moscow

Empire.

are repre-

by men who remain true to the 7

;

ST.

98

PETERSBURG

original calling of their fathers.

In

Petersburg,

St.

on the contrary, the sons of considerable merchants are pretty sure to be found abandoning the business of their sires in order to take to scribbling in

some

Government department. Russian bureaucracy, be

Among

cratic.

the actual bureaucrats

employed

say, the officials actually

departments

highly demo-

it said, is

—are

to be

— that

is

to

in the various

met Princes and Counts

belonging to the best families of the realm side

by side with the sons of the humblest class of the community. These latter are the sons of cooks,' '

whose accession

much

so

to the privileges of education gave

uneasiness to the late

M.

KatkofF, the

famous editor of the 3Ioscow Gazette.

As

already indicated, the type of a St. Petersburg

merchant alien race.

OstrofF

by

a foreigner, or a Russian subject of

is

In

fact, a

great part of the \^asiliefsky

— Vasili, or Basil Island —

foreigners

engaged

in

is

populated chiefly

commerce, and foreign

German, may be heard on all sides. This important district abounds in many other speech, mostly

details of foreign

houses, and

and

if it

urban

German

were not

life,

such as

German

beer-

shops of every description

for the majestic buildings of the

Academies of Science and Arts, and the

historical

ST.

PETERSBURG SOCIETY

99

mansion of Prince Menshikoff, the present location of the Cadet Corps, on the one hand, and the

man

labourers and droshky drivers on the other, a

of vivid imagination might easily fancy that he was in a

German town.

There are not many very wealthy people St.

in

Petersburg, judging according to English ideas.

Circumstances and conditions do not favour the

accumulation of riches on any very extensive

The remuneration of high,

and

life

social

economy and

to

usages

adopted in of

them

Russian

have,

v^ery

visits,

Many of

Russian

course,

been

most agreeable

generous hospitahty.

therefore,

without

Absence of

life.

keynote among the middle of view there

and

is

social

classes.

A Im-

any previous

form one of the most characteristic

of Russian

general.

will

and he strongly

Petersburg, the

being a

Russian

always glad to entertain a guest.

is

invitation,

society,

the

cost, thrift.

general

in

St.

all

provised

any

not very

in the capital are

Nevertheless,

his pleasures at

objects

official is

and amusements

very expensive.

have

a Russian

scale.

ceremony

From this

traits is

the

point

great freedom in St. Petersburg

for that

Russian

matter in Russian society in

social life has liitherto

and unconventional inversely to

its

been free

want of political

ST.

100

Having been debarred from

liberty. life,

PETERSBURG political

all

the Russians have devoted their best energies

The author

to really enjoying themselves socially. hesitates to

may

consider the possible changes which

eventually result from the present transitory

period of dawning political freedom

Russia has

now been

;

but although

placed in a very

fair

way

towards coming up level with Western nations in the matter of political institutions, yet one can

go to a theatre

still

Petersburg in a morning coat

in St.

or any other decent attire and present tickets for

boxes or

away

stalls

without any

at the doors.

And

if

risk

of being turned

you are invited to an

ordinary dinner and omit to put on evening dress,

your host and hostess, as well as any other guests, will

probably be

all

on that very account.

the more pleased with you This, of course,

would not

apply to comparatively small aristocratic

circles,

where foreign manners and customs have become a second nature. for dinner

may

The English custom

of dressing

also be gradually spreading,

the ordinary educated Russian evening dress

more a visits,

civilian's

is still

official

generally early in the morning, attend great

ceremonies, and

New

uniform in which to pay

but to

make formal

Year's Day.

calls at

Easter and on

/^-''

'^

„

I'rcscntiiitr K;i>tcr c-fus

ST.

PETERSBURG SOCIETY

101

The events of 1905 and the two following have had their

effect

on the

life

years

of St. Petersburg.

A unanimous outcry for reform has been the result, and the

'

renovation

watchword of a new

'

become the

of Russia has

era.

All classes

now

under-

stand the power and the methods of organization.

New

parties

up both

and

factions are constantly springing

and outside of the Dooma. If it the severe restrictions put upon trade

inside

were not for

and professional unions, St. Petersburg, as well as the country at large, would swarm with these and

The normal articles of association allowed by the Government for all such bodies debar them from touching on politics Unfortunately, few of them in the remotest way. combinations.

similar

are able to avoid altogether this forbidden ground,

and the

least thing

which can be construed into a

tendency in the wrong direction

upon

is

immediately

as

a justification for cutting short

their existence.

The well-known Literary Fund

seized

of

St.

Petersburg,

for

example,

was

recently

suppressed simply for having given alms or a small

pension to the distressed families of one or two Socialists.

Public attention, which was

formerly almost

entirely engrossed in social scandal

and

gossip,

is

102

ST.

now kept intrigues,

in a

rETERSBUllG by

occupied

and

quarrels.

new way during

Social

duels,

political

politics,

life is

also enlivened

the winter months by parlia-

mentary receptions and

political

Even

dinners.

the droshky driver and the moozhik have begun to

read their daily paper.

The newspaper

press

and

publishers generally have not been slow in taking

advantage of the altered situation to deluge the cheap and sensational

city with

now

is

a

popular

Kopeck, which, as for the

political

name

its

literature.

journal

implies,

is

There

called

the

being sold

amazingly low price of a kopeck, or one

farthing, per

number.

Its

increasing circulation

has already reached a quarter of a million copies

This probably beats the world's record of

daily.

cheap and enterprising journalism.

Another very remarkable change has come over the scene in regard to the Imperial Grand Dukes,

who have

quite lost their former predominance,

and

completely

have

On

view.

disappeared

from

public

the other hand, the agrarian disorders

and plundering of provincial mansions have the

to

the

sale

of

settlement

estates

of

many

in

the

former

interior,

landlords

led

and in

St. Petersburg.

The prolonged absence

of the Imperial Court

PETERSBURG SOCIETY

ST.

from

St.

and

trade.

brilliant

Petersburg has been a great

One almost

Court

begins

ceremonies

which used to be the

and

chief

103

loss to society

to

forget

the

entertainments of

attraction

fashionable season in the Russian capital.

the

These,

however, will soon be resumed on their traditional

when the Imperial up residence in town again,

scale of magnificence,

Family-

return to take

instead

of continuing to pass the winters in retirement at

Tsarskoe Selo. It

is

the custom of the Tsar to open the season

January by a grand ball in the great halls of the Winter Palace. This first ball is generally attended

in

by some 2,000

men

All the

persons.

present,

with perhaps one or two exceptions, display the

most gorgeous and varied uniforms, which

glitter

with a dazzling assortment of orders and decorations, while the ladies

wear on

their heads the old

Russian kokoshnik, ornamented with is

no Court

and a

dress for civilians

solitary

pearls.

who have no

There rank,

example of black evening dress

the midst of such a showy multitude

Then

very conspicuous object. period beginning with the

with Lent, a whole each of which there

series is

is

in

at once a

follow, during the

New

Year and ending of Court festivities, at

a diminished

number of

104

ST.

The

PETERSBURG made by

confining

tlie

invitations each time to officials of higher rank

and

guests.

selection

is

position, until only the very highest dignitaries are,

as a rule, asked to the last parties of the season.

On

all

these occasions, and especially at the great

Imperial Majesties lead off the dancing

balls, their

in

a

stately

manner, as shown

illustrations in this

time,

when

modated

in

in

one of the

volume. Afterwards, at supper-

the great assembly has been accom-

groups at round tables

a profusion of palms leaves the table, at

and

midst of

in the

flowers, the

Emperor

which His Majesty sups with

the Empress and other

members of walks through the immense halls to

his family,

see that all his

guests are comfortably seated and served. the vast

company

and

When many

disperses after midnight,

of the departing guests pluck flowers from the tables as souvenirs of the c\ ening.

These

festive

gatherings round the Imperial Family, as well as the different

soi'ties

and military parades inside and

outside the palace, are magnificent spectacles.

One is

of the most picturesque of such ceremonies

that of the Blessing of the

Waters on January

6,

the Feast of the Epiphany, which takes place in a temporary pavilion, erected on the edge of the

Neva, right in front of the Winter Palace.

Here,

^^

BLESSING Emperor and Metropolitan

iJ^.'^^"-'-

THE NEVA

at the blessinj,' of the water of the

Feast of the

Eiiii)han.v,

January

r>

(old style)

Neva on the

ST.

PETERSBURG SOCIETY

surrounded by white-robed all

priests,

and

105

soldiers with

the colours of the regiments in garrison, the

Tsar witnesses the immersion of the Metropolitan's cross in the river ice.

His Majesty

through a hole cut is

in the thick

then supposed to take a drop

of the water thus consecrated.

Many

years ago,

when

Nicholas

apparent, his English tutor, the late

II.

was

JNIr.

heir-

Charles

Heath, ventured to remonstrate with His Imperial

Highness for wishing to drink raw water on one of these occasions, in view of the contamination of the

Neva, in the opinion of Russian doctors. is

But there

another danger connected with this ceremony, and

on account of long exposure, without movement, to the extreme cold, which nearly always Everybody prevails at this time of the winter. that

is

present, including the Sovereign

and the crowds

kept at a distance by the police, have to remain bareheaded the whole time. long one, and if possible,

full

The ceremonial

is

a

parade uniform has to be worn,

For these reasons

without overcoats.

the Imperial ladies and foreign diplomatists look

on from behind double windows

in the comfortable

warmth of the Winter Palace, Some persons have been known to wear wigs on this occasion as a substitute for their caps.

It

was

at

one of these

106

ST.

PETERSBURG

ceremonies that Peter the Great caught the cold

which

brought on

his

The

death.

reformer had already contracted a severe rescuing drowning sailors at the

and yet with sisted

his

and never got up

his bed,

functions

certainly are

it

may

in-

again.

some of the hfe

be truly said that

ceremony and

provided on a lavish and gigantic setting of luxury and

to

sum up

but, to

;

of the Court as a whole,

Imperial

of the river,

that he immediately after-

Such drawbacks there

Russian

while

chill

to the Blessing of the Waters.

The consequence was

the outdoor

great

customary determination he

upon going out

wards took to

mouth

final

hospitality scale,

and

are in a

splendour such as cannot

be surpassed, or perhaps even equalled, by any other Court in Europe.

—

'

CHAPTER IX PETERSBURG

ST.

'

HURRYING UP

— Impending sanitation — Contaminated — Electric trams— Police and Changes and improvements — Shops — Sports.

insalubrity

Its

Increased

activity

water traffic

For reasons mentioned in the preceding chapter, many changes have been going on in St. Petersburg since the beginning of the new century. Russia's breakdowiN in the Far East, and her 'hberating

movement'

home, imparted a stimulus to developments which were previously held in check,

and the

at

effects of these are

now becoming more

and more manifest.

But of

all

the changes

to come, none can St.

now

compare

taking place, or yet

in vital importance for

Petersburg with the proposed work of sanita-

tion,

which

is

the one thing above

in the interest of public health

Neva.

At

last the city

all

others needed

on the banks of the

of Peter the Great

is

really

endowed with the advantages of an up-to-date system of drainage and a good supply destined to be

107

ST.

108

PETERSBURG

Since reference was

of pure water.

made

to this

subject in Chapter VII., and while this book has

been passing through the

press, the

Russian Cabinet

of Ministers have introduced a Bill into the State

Dooma

for obtaining

compulsory powers to compel

the adoption of these two indispensable require-

ments of every great modern aggregation of human The preamble of the measure constitutes beings. a severe condemnation of the existing state of things,

City

and an indictment equally severe of the

Dooma

having so long

for

For

a remedy.

instance,

it is

failed to establish

pointed out that in

1908 the mortality (44,311) exceeded the births (44,133)

by 178

cases,

and that no

less

than 19,487

children died under the age of five, or 44 per cent,

of the total

number of deaths.

The very complexion

of the great bulk of the

hihabitants of St. Petersburg points to unhealthy

conditions of existence.

How

can a robust look

be expected from a population brought up on a

swampy, often inundated above sea-level in past

200

years

saturation with

the winter year,

when

is

many

has

all

soil,

only three or four feet

places,

and which

for the

been gradually undergoing

kinds of

filth.

P'or this reason

regarded as the healthiest time of the

the surface of land and water

is

frozen

M/ /"

A RUSSIAN-

\VI-:r

\URSK

*

/,'

PETERSBURG 'HURRYING UP'

ST.

109

The

hard, and the microbes are rendered less active.

case

is

made worse by

the fact of the water-supply

being contaminated at to understand

how

it

its

One

very source.

posed that the water would be anything

contaminated

if

taken out, as

a part of the River

where the villages,

dirt

it is

Neva within

the city bounds, mills, factories,

down

cemeteries, and barges are floated

from up-stream, right over the intake Besides

but

else

at present, fi-om

and refuse from

of the waterworks.

fails

could ever have been sup-

this,

the

front

in

filters

con-

structed in recent years have turned out defective

and inadequate, so that they,

more than the

polluted even

too,

it

seems, are

now

river itself.

Confronted with ugly facts

like

these,

which

have been forced home by the lingering cholera epidemic

new

1908-1909, the

of

Government has been roused bility for the

constitutional

to a sense of responsi-

health of the Imperial Metropolis,

and thanks to the Prime Minister Stolypin the sanitary reform '

beyond the

it

of

hills,'

St.

as the

Petersburg

is

no longer

Russian expression goes

;

has been raised fi'om the level of merely local

interest

to

the

higher

national importance.

prospect

is

the

plane

of

questions

The only drawback

enormous

expense

of

to the

which

the

— PETERSBURG

ST.

110

work

To

will entail.

100,000,000 roubles

begin with, a small loan of

—about

three and

a quarter

times more than the annual municipal budget

which

will be required,

will

have to be paid off by

the citizens in the shape of fresh and increased taxation,

and

this

can only tend to make living

the Russian capital St.

Petersburg

is

more expensive than

in

ever.

probably the only city in Europe,

or perhaps in the world, where danger-signals in the

form of placards with glaring red

up on

posted

letters are

most

house-fronts, mside tramcars, and in

places of public resort, warning

drinking raw water.

and sundry against

There must be thousands of

who have

the inhabitants

all

never in their lives tasted

ordinary water in a natural state, and never for

when they

the water still

take

and

fear.

perfectly pure

is it

find themselves in localities

and wholesome, they

The samovar and

to wash

till

night,

kettle are in request

and many persons are

their faces in water not first boiled.

In cholera times free drinks of boiled water

had from huge

and from

where

only boiled from sheer force of habit

from morning afraid

will,

boilers

wheeled about the

cans, barrels, etc., placed inside

may

be

streets

and out-

side certain shops, institutions, at railway-stations,

and so

forth.

In

fact,

when

there

is

more than

ST.

TETERSBUllG 'HURRYING UP'

111

the usual danger from cholera and typhoid, a great deal of the time and energy of the local authorities is

expended

make

in trying to

boiled water,

the inhabitants drink

and keep themselves

theless, the lowest

clean.

and most ignorant

Never-

class of the

coming from the provinces, have the greatest contempt for cholera and for all people, especially those

it.

In their humble opinion

else

but the infernal doings

precautions taken against

the scourge

is

nothing

of the devil, or the diabolical

A

work of the

doctors.

sprinkling of chloride of lime for disinfecting

purposes has been taken by Russians of this sort for

the cholera in

And

its

and tangible form.

visible

the author has seen dirty

workmen

slake

their thirst with water dipped out in their greasy

caps from the foulest canals of the city, while

them Only educa-

cautionary notices just described were staring full in

the face only a few yards

off.

tion can, of course, gradually change the uncultured

habits of the lower orders, but

meanwhile to minimize the

much can

evils

be done

of their present

by the introduction of such sanitary measures as those now decided upon by the Central Government. state

of ignorance

Down

to the time

when

the Japanese struck the

blow which gave Russia the

gi'catest

shock since

'

PETERSBURG

ST.

112

the onslaught of the Tartars under Chengis Khan, or the invasion

by Napoleon,

St.

Petersburg con-

thiued to go on as usual, lagging far behind

all

Western contemporaries. Foreign crazes like bridge, diabolo, and American jig-saw puzzles,

its

caught on fast enough, but the adoption of serious

improvements and conveniences of

One had

been a terribly slow process. Berlin

to

get

civilization has

touch with the real

into

go to

to

life

of

Western Europe. St. Petersburg has always had to yield the palm in this respect to the German everybody by its capital, which so astonished rapid and marvellous transformation after the Unfortunately, Russia, unFranco-Prussian War. like Germany, has never received any milliards of money to spend on the needs of her Northern capital, not even as the result of her most successful St.

campaigns

Petersburg

have

successfully with difficult

behalf

all

the

from the very

'

City Fathers

may be advanced on authority lost

'chief

of the

of

their

nerve,

its

under the overruling influence

of the all-powerful Gradonatchalnik,* the or

'

been able to cope

the difficulties of a rather

civic

first,

the

never

It

situation.

that

and

;

who,

city,'

* Gorod, gr(id= town, city

;

according

'

head

to

mUckahii/c = chietj priucipal.

old

a

O

->^'--

"v

ST.

PETERSBURG 'HURRYING UP'

autocratic regulations,

veto and

sequence

he considers that

The cona mayor of St.

call for his interference.

that the position of

is

when viewed English Lord ]\Tayor, or Petersburg,

is

exercise the right of

whenever

dictation

circumstances

may

113

in

a

the light of that of an

German

Burgomeister,

a relatively insignificant one, and the prestige of

Under

the municipal body suffers accordingly. the so-called tions

'

temporary

'

administrative regula-

Gradonat-

for preserving public order, the

chalnik

still

powers, but

possesses very considerable arbitrary it

is

hoped that

as soon as the

state of things introduced theoretically

constitutional

reforms

is

allowed

full

new

by recent scope of

action, Russian municipal institutions will be able

to play a

the

life

more independent and important part

in

of the nation.

Apart from the energetic steps taken by the Imperial Government to urge on the City Corporation in the matter of sanitation,

St.

Petersburg,

since the beginning of the latest reform period in

many other ways Persons who have watched it for many years past are conscious that its pulse now beats far quicker 1905, has been 'hurrying up' in

than ever

it

did before.

establishment in

its

There

is

no doubt that the

midst of a legislative assembly 8

114

PETERSBURG

ST.

of representatives from

Empire

diversified

added to the

life

all

parts of such a vast and

as that of Russia has greatly

and animation of the

city.

W^'ithin

the last decade, nay, even within the last five years, great changes have in the streets.

the

Neva

since

aspect of things

Any observer who remembers what

capital

cannot

come over the

was

like only a very

to be

fail

struck with the evident

increase of population and activity.

years ago

it

could

still

few years

Less than ten

be said with a certam amount

of truth that St. Petersburg consisted of only two

main avenues, towards which everybody seemed to gravitate the Nevsky Prospect and Great Morskaia Street the Oxford and Regent Streets of the Russian capital. To-day many other important thoroughfares, such as the Sadovaya and Gorokhovaya Streets, and the Litainy, Soovorofsky and Voznesensky Prospects, are equally busy and

—

—

crowded

arteries of traffic.

considerably

mended

The crowds

their pace,

also

have

which was formerly

a crawling one in comparison with

the bustling

throngs in other European capitals.

The most remarkable outdoor

life

in St.

of the

new

features of

Petersburg are those resulting

from the successful operation of the new

electric

trams, which, since they began to replace the old

ST.

PETERSBURG 'HURRYING UP'

115

horse traction at the end of 1907, have accelerated

locomotion to a degree a revolution

lated the

life

short of producing

amongst easy-going pedestrians and

droshky

careless

little

drivers.

They seem

of the city in general.

to have stimu-

They

are also

enabling the population to spread out wider

afield,

aw^ay from the congested and expensive centre, for

the sake of cheaper house accommodation.

which, without

its

suburbs, covers an area of about

forty square miles of land and water,

supplied in

all

The city,

directions with

is

now

being

neatly appointed

Only a few of the old horse tramrunning, while on the lines extending

electric trams.

cars are

still

to the remoter outskirts of the city steam-traction

The public are taking the the new method, for it offers

has long been in use. fullest

advantage of

the only expeditious means of locomotion com-

bined with cheapness, with the exception of about a

dozen motor-buses, there

being

no overhead

metropolitan railway, and, considering the nature of the ground,

it is

not likely there will ever be any

twopenny tubes. During the busy hours of the day the new cars are everywhere overcrowded with strap-hangers, and it is not unusual to see as many as fifty or sixty tramcars at

one time along the

Nevsky Prospect, a thoroughfare

as

wide as Portland

no

ST.

PETERSBURG

Place, running right through the heart of the capital lor over

was

It fice

two

of

miles.

not, however, without considerable sacri-

and limb that

life

improvement in the Petersburg was effected,

this

means of getting about St. for people were knocked down and killed or injured every day for many months until the population had been

drilled into the

The

up.'

drivers of the

new system new electric

of

'

cars

hurrying

had

also

to be trained not to endanger the lives of the public

by giving too much

ment

for

rein to the national tempera-

indulging in extremes.

Finding that

instead of the former exertion of whipping

up jaded

mere touch of a small handle sufficed to produce the necessary movement, these men began horses, the

new

to send their

electric cars

whizzing through the

streets at the speed of express trains,

and

m

trying

to stop short in front of a droshky or lomovoi across

the track the passengers inside the car were generally

thrown

The

all

of a heap, or jerked right off their seats.

casualties

and confusion resulting from

this

innovation led to another novel arrangement, which

had never before been seen

on Russian trafhc

streets

by the

London

in systematic operation

—namely, the

police.

The

regulation of the

universal

constable's uplifted

renown of the

hand had, of course.

..

iinovar

i>

isi'd

.'-!! ill

•

n

,

!.

\

I

KO.M A sA.MON AK and never for workmen

private houses only,

or tea«liops of St. Petersburg,'

in tlie Inikti

ST.

reached

PETERSBURG 'HURRYING UP'

St.

Petersburg, and

117

was resolved to

it

attempt something of the kind with the Russian policeman, who, with

away

to turn

of

traffic,

all his

good

qualities,

was apt

from any entanglement

in disgust

leaving the drivers of colliding vehicles to

curse and swear at one another to their hearts'

But no

content.

policeman in

mere hand of a Russia could be expected from a respect for the

people whose endless struggles against oppressive officialism

have taught them to regard

sentatives as natural enemies.

alone

enough to account

is

state of feeling.

Any

The

its

repre-

passport system

for this unfortunate

police force in the world

having to administer such a system of annoyances, cruelties,

would

of the public upon

whom

not to say

it

was decided to give the

standing

at

important

symbol of authority

in

infallibly incur the

they were St.

odium

inflicted.

So

Petersburg policeman

street

crossings

another

addition to the arsenal

of weapons which he already carries on his person.

wooden truncheon painted white, of the kind used, the author believes, by the French police in Paris, but first brought out by the old London This

is

a

police as organized in the days of Sir

The Russian gorodovoi

is

now

Robert Peel.

being trained to

overawe reckless drivers and chauffisurs by holding

118

PETERSBITRG

ST.

this staff

up before

of joining them,

astonished gaze instead

tlieir

was formerly

as

gesticulating and swearing,

nobody

and occasionally, when

was looking

in particular

in his direction,

giving a very impertinent izvostchik a ribs

with the

'

hilt

of his sword.

it

latter

being

able at close

way without taking it out But the new duty is not yet

congenial to him, and he

is

performing

officer close

it

in a

some-

In most cases, how-

what perfunctory manner. an

is

dig in the

in this

of the scabbard.

ever,

'

The

loosely slung from the shoulder, he

quarters to use

wont, in

his

by has got him under

control,

and, with the adaptability of Russian nature, he will

soon get accustomed to the innovation.

the same time, this

not

is

to put order into the

the streets.

And

all

new

here

At

that had to be done

evolution of things on

came

into operation

the

paramount authority of the Gradonatchalnik, who happened to be the present energetic and capable holder of that his

office.

name imperious

General Dratchefsky.

instructions, threats

dign punishment, orders fines,

of arrest,

and

In

of conlists

often amounting in the aggregate to

of

many

thousands of roubles a week, were launched forth

from the Prefecture

daily.

Only

proper respect be secured for

in this

new

way can

regulations in

'

PETERSBURG IIURRYLNG UP'

ST.

A

Russia.

119

'

simple police notice with

'

By

order

written at the bottom would produce no eifect

whatever.

Other remarkable changes and improvements have signahzed the first few years of the new political

For one

era.

thing, there has been a great

extension of electric lighting and the use of other bright illuminants, although in the suburbs and

the edges of the city kerosene

of the streets.

now

is still

many

used in

All the principal thoroughfares are

brilliantly lighted at night, and,

mitting, present a very

In winter the

on

effect

is

gay and

weather per-

lively appearance.

heightened by the reflection

from the snow and the frequent flashing of blue sparks from the overhead conductors as the contact rods of the tramcars slide along them.

On

the

other hand, the character of winter locomotion has

been modified in another way not so pleasing. Petersburg has been the

of great European

be invaded on an extensive scale by motor

cities to

carriages, taxi-cabs,

together

mth

transformed a noisy

last

St.

city.

it

and other motor vehicles, which,

the electric tramways, have simply in the cold season

from a quiet into

Formerly every kind of conveyance,

with few exceptions, was put upon runners in the winter,

and not a sound was to be heard

as the

120

ST.

sledges

glided

covered

noiselessly

being rapidly

latest application of

modern motive

Unfortunately

this

is

it is

not possible to

motor sledge without wheels, and even

we

should

make

if it

a

were,

have the noise of the other appli-

still

ances of the motor vehicle.

and rushing of

snow-

over the hard

now

All

roads.

changed by the power.

PETERSBURG

In short, the buzzing

electric tramcars, the

throbbing of

motors and snorting and piping of motor-horns and have become almost as great a nuisance in

whistles, St.

Petersburg as they are in the older

cities

of the

\\^est.

Another notable development, adding to the architectural embellishment of the two principal streets and to the advantage of the community in other respects, has taken place of late in the in-

surance and banking businesses of St. Petersburg, the increasing prosperity of which

from the

construction of

palatial buildings for office

of

revolutionary troubles

may

be inferred

many handsome and accommodation,

and

in spite

" expropriations."

town numbers of

Nevertheless, as the outlying portions of the are approached,

we may

still

see large

wretched old wooden houses of 100 years ago,

jammed

in, as it

were, between the larger

buildings of brick and stucco.

modern

PUBLIC sled(;e, halfpenny fare

PETERSBURG 'HURRYING UP'

ST.

A

varijition has also

begun to show

peculiar tendency of St. indefinitely the

much below

itself in

the

Petersburg to multiply

enormous number of

badly aired shops,

121

its

many of them having

small and

their floors

the level of the pavement.

Nothing

good idea of the addictedness of the Russians to small trading, and of their lack of the

gives such a

up

enterprise necessary to build

large retail busi-

nesses, as the great extent of the petty

carried

still

on

in St, Petersburg.

shopkeeping

Had

it

for Imperial prohibitions against trading in

the

more

days of

some of

aristocratic parts of the city in the early

its

would probably not be to-day without some kind

existence, there

a single house or street of small shop. streets

not been

As

it is,

without them.

there are few houses and

One

or

two big

firms, like

Elisayeff Brothers and TcherepenikofF, have long

been famous fruit

as very large dealers in all kinds of

and native and foreign

dainties,

but the crea-

Shoolbred, Waring, or

tion of a Russian Maple,

Peter Robinson, seems at present to be rather a

remote

possibility.

there are

already mentioned,

signs of a change in this

would seem that

way

as

Still,

capital

is

into retail trading, as a

estabhshments, and one or

respect.

beginning to find

It its

number of large stylish two huge stores, espe-

ST.

122

PETERSBURG

Army

one belonging to the

cially

and Navy Co-

operative Society, have lately sprung into existence.

A

v^^alk

in the streets, after an absence of about

five years, discloses also

an extraordinary develop-

ment of much-patronized cinematograph shows and cafes,

the latter being a business in which

St.

Petersburg was, until quite recently, very deficient.

There

is,

furthermore,

English system of the posters

models, which

the

evidently printed is

is

still

in

of

wqth

after

a novelty for St.

where public advertising St.

introduction

of pictorial bill-posting,

the

many

English

Petersburg, its

infjincy.

Petersburg has also only just made acquaint-

ance with the " sandwich-man

"

and the shoeblack,

the latter plying his craft only during the

summer

months, as boots are kept clean in winter by the wearing of goloshes.

For some reason or other, before the

revolutionary outbreak, every attempt to establish these

two

street occupations

ended

Last, but not least, reference to the great

growth of

in failure.

must not be omitted

interest in gymnastics

and

outdoor sport, taking into account, of course, the difficulties St.

of climate and the long northern winters.

Petersburg has been inoculated with

terest chiefly

this in-

by Enghshmen and Swedes, and only

persons intimately acquainted with Russian

life

can

ST.

PETERSBURG 'HURRYING UP'

understand what

among

habits

it

spells in the

the younger

way

123

of change of

generation

in

such

enervating conditions as those prevailing in St. Petersburg. tants

A

number of the

certain

have always been partial to

inhabi-

hunting and

shooting in a very comfortable fashion over the

surrounding country, being cordially joined in this

by

the

German

numerous

and snow-shoeing have

Skating

residents.

also increased,

but the

St.

Petersburg Russian has generally been averse to unnecessary exertion of any kind.

It

is

not a

little

surprising, therefore, to see great excitement over

football

matches between the large number of clubs

and school teams organized

for this

game which

have lately come into existence, and the great attention given to their doings

by the native

press.

In fact most British games, except cricket, are

now coming into fashion. This is all remarkable when it is remembered that

the more

not

many

years since football and cricket matches played

members of the

by

British colony in St. Petersburg

were regarded with astonishment, and referred to with derision by Russian parents and schoolboys.

The war with Japan and titioners of jiu-jitsu

ling

matches are

contact with the prac-

have changed

now

all that.

very popular.

Wrest-

CHAPTER X TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF

ST.

PETERSBURG

— Migration into and out of the city — Summer — Barracks and Government buiklings — Working population — Loinovoi — Izvostchik — Dvornik — Policeman.

Peasant element

workmen

The

great capitals of

much ahke life

Europe have now become

so

in all the chief manifestations of city

and activity that the foreign

traveller

from one

to the other, once he has noticed the racial differ-

ences between their respective inhabitants,

is

rarely

struck by any other remarkable peculiarities.

He

finds similar fashions in dress, similar vehicles,

and

much the same manners and customs them.

St.

in all

o^

Petersburg, however, has not yet gone

quite as far as this uniformity.

It

still

along the lines of modern exhibits

characteristics

of

another world existing outside, although the immediate

aim of

precisely to

through vi\'als

its

of a

its

foundation over 200 years ago was

make

it

a model

European

city,

influence to Europeanize Russia.

more remote and ruder 124

and Sur-

state of things

l\

%•'

A RUSSIAN

S1.R\

ANT

l.\

SU.M.MKK DRKSS

>^*^

;

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS have not gress

125

been swept away by the spurt of pro-

all

and improvement during the

The immense

inert

last

mass of peasantry

few

years.

in the far-

reaching provinces, from which the strength of St.

Petersburg

is

continually recruited, were too

for the enterprise of a single reformer,

man

much

although

commanding genius and energy as Peter the Great. The drastic measures and expeditious methods which that great sovereign employed to make his subjects look and act like other Europeans had no effect upon the conservative

a

of such

peasant.

and

Peter was only able to cut off the beards

trailing skirts of his courtiers

in general to

He

and

officials,

and

remodel the manners of the old boyars.

did this pretty effectually for the upper classes,

because they were too small in number and too closely interested to offer

any

effective resistance

but he was naturally quite unable to reform the millions

of stolid

peasantry,

whose descendants

to-day continue to leaven the results of his work in St.

of

Petersburg by constituting over 60 per cent, its total

The number

population.

of inhabitants

of the peasant category in 1900, at the time of the last census, visit

was 61 per

cent.

People of

this class

the city for temporary employment, or they

settle there as traders,

petty shopkeepers, salesmen.

126

ST.

PETERSBURG

domestic servants (the latter alone

drivers, carters,

being computed at about 200,000 persons), porters, dockers,

workmen and

labourers of

all

kinds,

and

also beggars.

A great

change has come over the predilections

of this class of Russians since the results of their

emancipation began to induce them to desert their w^retched villages in favour of St. Petersburg, where

many

so

them

of

In the

find early graves.

first

years of the capital the severest pains and penalties

had to be enforced to deter them from running

away

after

they had been brought into the city

under compulsion

;

now nothing can keep them

from gravitating towards

The

numbers. St.

Petersburg

it

ever

in

increasing

rapid growth of the population of is

mainly due to

this influx of the

According to the municipal census

rural element.

ten years ago, the inhabitants

who had come from

the provinces constituted 69 per cent, of the population, so that less

than one third of the citizens

were native born.

There

is

also

an annual migratory movement in

connection with It

is

St.

calculated that

peasant class spring,

come

and leave

it

Petersburg which

is

peculiar.

some 100,000 workmen of the into

the city regularly every

every autumn.

These are the

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS masons,

bricklayers,

carpenters,

other

handicraftsmen,

trades,

who come

repair old ones,

from the

may

mostly

127

plasterers,

in

the

and

building

work on new houses and

to

which

in

many

to

cases have suffered

severities of the northern winters.

They

be seen any summer evening tramping

in

along the main thoroughfares,

straggling crowds

going to their short night's rest in holes and corners

which serve them

lodgings

as

in

the

densely

populated Alexander Nevsky and Rozjdestvensky wards.

Or glimpses

of

them may be had through

the windows of traktirs^ or tea-houses, where these

workmen phone.

sip

As

weak

tea

and

listen to the

gramo-

them

to the

a rule, the police keep

roadways, when they appear in any numbers, on

account of their clothes, which are often mere rags covered with the dirt of their work, and perhaps also because of the unpleasant

of this class.

It occasionally

odour from Russians

happens that perfumes

have to be used after them in rooms and palaces, especially in winter,

when

it is

too cold outside to

by opening the windows. And yet the Russian workman, in one respect, is very clean. He generally goes once a week to a public air

the apartments

bath,

where he scalds himself

in

the steaming

may

his

body thrashed

chamber, and he

also

have

128

ST.

PETERSBURG

with birch twigs until his skin becomes the colour This

of a boiled lobster.

is

very ancient origin, and

a kind of massage, of

peculiar

Russia in

to

The only

combination with the popular bath. objectionable circumstance

is

that the peasant or

labourer wears the same clothes until they get too dirty,

and somehow or other he cannot be induced

them the least bit clean. As the workmen trudge to and from their occupations many of them may be seen carrying to keep

in their girdles

Russian

their beloved axes,

the favourite

implement, with which a peasant

make almost

can

wood without any other tool, from a log hut down to a child's toy. Being a denizen of a woody country, the Russian is

naturally

wood-work.

anything

skilful

The

in

in

all

wi'iter

manner of

practical

seen

perfectly

has

a

going wooden watch made by a Russian peasant, with the mechanism

all

of

wood excepting

the

springs.

'

The nomadic character of a great many of these hewers of wood and drawers of water may be

verified

'

by a

way stations

visit to

any one of the four big

late in the

rail-

autumn, when large crowds

of rough and grimy peasants day after day besiege the ticket

offices,

and

sit

about

for

hours on their

.

OFFICER AND SENTINEL

._

^

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS

129

them

dirty bundles, waiting for cheap trains to take

back to their

An

villages.

event contributing towards this

and out of the capital

into

is

movement

the annual gathering

The

of recruits at the different military stations. conscripts of St. Petersburg city

sorted out every

and

riding-schools,

chalked

November

in the large

having had

after

many

so

like

and province are

cattle,

to

mihtary

their backs

indicate

the

regiments to which they have been allotted, they are

marched

to

their

military

The

off*

triumphantly through the streets barracks,

respective

headed by

lively

Petersburg,

some

music large

garrison

of

St.

20,000 or 30,000 strong, has recently been the subject

of

discussion

the native Press with

in

regard to the advisability of removing the barracks, which occupy so

some

much

many

valuable space, to

This would

suitable locality outside the city.

allow of cheap and decent housing accommodation

being provided for the poorer classes,

much

in need of

it.

military schools in nearly

burg.

Many

by them.

streets are

In one

part

who

are very

There are barracks all

and

parts of St. Peters-

almost entirely taken up of the city,

where the

Izmailofsky guards are quartered, a whole series of 9

PETERSBURG

ST.

180

named

are

streets

and numbered

roti,*

how

give the reader an idea as to

view that

justification for the •

In order to

companies of that regiment.

different

quote the following

there

far

Petersburg

and Government

city of barracks

suffice to

St.

after the

is

a

is

offices,' it will

figures,

showing the

estimated value of house property on the banks

Government and

of the Neva. are

valued

altogether

private buildings

at

at

876

936 million, and municipal Therefore the

value of buildings belonging to the

over 45 per cent, of the

workers

other

into

If these

their

snowed-up

Petersburg

St. it

men remained

villages,

all

there

is

likewise

a

men whom use *

of,

the

in ill -

mills

little else

home.

permanent is

and

fated priest.

Of

factory

now one

largest industrial cities in the world.

manent workers

winter

the time in

they would do

population, for St. Petersburg

made

hands and for

again in spring for field

but sleep on their brick stoves at course,

is

total.

employment, and out of labour.

Government

also a migration of factory

is

roubles,

million

buildings at 140 million roubles.

There

buildings

official

of the

These per-

factories

Father

are the

Gapon,

and who helped the revolutionists to

liuti

= companies

or squads of soldiers.

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS bring matters to a political

crisis

131

Their

in 1905.

places of abode are principally along the banks of

among

the upper stream of the Neva, large mills

and works

many

the

in the outskirts of the city.

They present a very ugly and forbidding appearance when seen in large crowds, and they continue to give the authorities no

The

the future.

in St. Petersburg

far short of 200,000,

anxiety in regard to

number

total

and

little

its

of factory workers

surroundings cannot be

and with

their families there

are probably about 400,000 persons,

which

is

about

one-fifth of the entire population.

The St.

industrial

and

Petersburg being such as it

of

quite

transport,

motorization

European

'

of

cities.

it

importance is,

apart

its traffic in

As

the

fi'om

common

of

one would

furnished with the best

expect to find

'

trading

means gradual

with other

a matter of fact, leaving out

of account a few commercial motor vans and lorries recently introduced, the conveyances

still

widely

used for the carriage of heavy goods are of the

most nondescript and antediluvian kind. Some of them look as though they might have been introduced by the Huns, or any other barbarian invaders

of

the

early

centuries.

They

are

all

inseparably associated with one of the four principal

ST.

132

PETERSBURG

street types of St. Petersburg

The other

chik, or carter.

izvostchik, or

porter,

droshky

—the lomovoi

izvost-

three types, the legkovoi

driver, the dvornik, or

and the gorodovoi, or poHceman,

yard

will

be

referred to subsequently.

The lomovoi izvostchik is not much seen in places like the Nevsky Prospect, or the Palace Quay, for in such fashionable quarters he

but off the central thoroughfares you

nuisance

;

may

any number of

see

loads

prohibited as a

is

his class

with their small

on very strange and dirty wheeled

trivances,

slowly wending their

way

con-

Eastern

in

caravan fashion, and interfering considerably with the rest of the

Their

hurry. dignified

beams

traffic, especially

telyegi,

or carts,

with anybody in a if

they

may

be

Math the name, consist of one or two

laid across a

couple of axletrees fitted with

two small and two larger wheels. Goods are roped straight on to this primitive conveyance, or it supports a detached and very rough sort of receptacle like a trough,

or a box, which

over into the road unloaded.

On

is

simply pushed

when the contents have

to be

sledge roads in winter these super-

structures are simply

placed

on runners.

Like

other Russian vehicles of peasant origin, the shafts are fastened or lashed to the axles or boxes of the

TYPES AND CHARACTP:1USTICS

133

made

wheels, and the otlier ends of the shafts are fast to the inevitable

There

horse's head.

doogd, which arches over the is

no seat

for the driver,

either walks at the side, or else lies

load and often sleeps on

down on

As

villages,

Russians colonize

com-

its

only in

whole

never as isolated individuals, so also the

moves alone

lomovoi, with his cart, never

possibly help

and

his

while his miserable-

it,

looking horse instinctively follows behind panions.

who

it.

of

safety

He

he can

believes strongly in the virtue

numbers, and

streets, as a rule, in

if

one long

goes through the file

of fifty or more

together.

These Russian carters present a typical scene

when they

stop

half-pint bottles

Government drink

it

m

some

by-street

of vodka, or gin, at one of the

Not being allowed

spirit stores.

on the premises, they

in the street,

shopman.

to get their

toss off the

to

vodka

and return the empty bottles to the first removed the sealing-wax

Having

from the cork, the smart rap with the

flat

made

by a of the hand on the bottom

latter

is

to fly out

of the bottle, and the contents are then poured

down

the gullet with the head held back without

once pausing to take breath. educated classes

Russians of the

also have a peculiar way of taking

184

PETERSBURG

ST.

vodka, which

they

throw

hterally

down

their

throats out of small liqueur glasses, in order to

enjoy the effects of

it

without having the

The most conspicuous life

Petersburg

in St.

of

He

the types of street-

all

the legkovoi izvostchik*

is

the Russian cabman, more izvostchik.

commonly

generally the

is

taste.

first

called simply

to attract the

new-

stranger's attention, for he Hes in wait for all

comers at every available point, and thrusts the offer of his services

upon them with persevering

Formerly he and

insistence.

used

his competitors

you at railway stations, theatres, etc., your coat-sleeves, and argue with you in

to surround pull at

the most persuasive manner.

This habit of pester-

ing foot passengers at such close quarters

seldom indulged

in, as

is

now

the police regulations warn

the izvostchik off the pavements, and compel him to

keep to

The droshky, on which he

his seat.

and waits

in every street (there being

cab-ranks),

is

sits

no regular

a small barouche, or victoria, with

more of a pony than a horse

in the shafts.

In

its

present form, with rubber tyres and lifting hood for rainy weather,

on what

it

it

presents a great improvement

was twenty-five years ago, when George

Augustus Sala described * Ly()gki = \\^i,

esisy.

it

as a perambulator

Vozeet

= to

cous&y, caxry.

on

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS

136

four wheels, built for one and a half, and licensed for two, with a moojick

on the box driving

London costermonger.

But although the droshky

is

like a

thus being gradually modernized, thanks to con-

tinual

presssure from the police authorities,

driver, the izvostchik,

the country,

utterly

More change

its

remains a peasant fi'om

still

indifferent

to

all

progress.

has taken place in his droshky in the

course of a few years than in the whole race of izvostchiks

the past century or more.

The

reforms which have bestirred other classes

political

have

for

left

him unmoved, and he seems

to be resign-

ing himself to the prospect of being superseded by electric trams, taxi-cabs,

At

vehicles.

go back to

and other self-propelling

the worst, however, he will simply

his fields, for, like

most other members

of the working-classes in St. Petersburg, he keeps

up

his

connection with the land, and probably

sends a part of his earnings to his family in the village.

As

regards outward appearance, he con-

wrap himself from head to foot, over and above his other clothes, in the same kind oiarmyak*

tinues to

of dark blue cloth that was in the earliest years of the

worn by

Russian

* Jrm«/aA;= very long, wide-skirted,

overcoat.

his predecessors

capital,

and

with a red

collarless peasant's

ST PETPmSBURG

136

or green band round the waist, and his legs and

swathed

feet are so completely

in the

of this strange garment that he

is

ample

folds

quite incapable

of exercising any agility in case of danger. is

He

a still more difficult position if his horse away while he is sitting with one or both of

in

runs

his legs in the well of his sledge,

which takes the

But this applies coachman, whose splendid far more likely to bolt than

place of the di'oshky in winter.

more to the private high mettled trotter is

the weakly, jaded horse of the public tzvostchik.

And

then,

the coachman of a rich master,

by

reason of the traditional ideal, according to which

he

generally selected and to which he endeavours

is

to conform, gi'cat

is

much

too bulky to be capable of any

exertion on an emergency.

that the perfect Russian

This ideal requires

coachman should be very

stout and massive, with a fine full beard, and a v^ery

broad

back to shelter the persons sitting

behind him in the sledge from wind and snow.

He

is

also

swaddled in the armyak, and when

wearing fur beneath

it

in

winter his portly form

assumes enormous proportions.

The

only change in the original costume of both

coachman and

izvostchik in

modern times has been

in their headgear, their present

summer

hat resem-

COACHMEN ON NEVSIvV Izvostckiks soliciting fares on tlie

PItOSI'ECT

Nevsky Prospect

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS

Yeomen of the Guard, or

bling that of the

137

Beefeaters,

minus the trimmings, and with the brims very much curled up at the sides. In the case of the ordinary izvostchik this hat

is

generally

somewhat

battered,

and, like the rest of his dress, rather dirty.

only wonder

worse

state,

tion in

is

that his whole turn-out

is

The

not in a

considering the horribly squalid condi-

which he

He

lives.

is

a careless and some-

times reckless driver, and occasionally slashes the

passenger behind him across the face with the

ends of his reins or the thong of his short whip, in the one or

throwing

the

other

back

over his

shoulder so as to take a better aim at his horse.

He

also

is

an

inveterate

bargainer,

and

feels

you refuse to go beyond the tax fixed by the police. The Emperor Paul once had all droshky drivers expelled from St. Petersburg on offended

if

account of some important person having been run over.

On

the whole, however, the izvostchik^ with

all his faiUngs, is

a good-humoured, unsophisticated

Russian, and one

who

is

exposed to more rigours

of climate and weather, probably, than any other

member

A

of his calling in the world.

more curious factor of Russian life on the banks of the Neva has now to be described. You

may

still

stay in any of the half-dozen cosmopolitan

138

ST.

PETERSBURG

hotels of St. Petersburg,

you are

living in

and hardly be aware that

Russia, but

if

you lodge

in a

house or hired apartment, the dvornik

private

is

pretty sure to remind you sooner or later of the

You

country in which you are residing. get

away from the

dvornik^

who

is

carmot

a type quite

unique, not as a man, or a Russian, for he belongs to the same great peasant class as the izvostchik and

the carter, but he

altogether peculiar with regard

strange combination of duties which he

the

to

is

undertakes to perform.

Every house must have head dvornik has, at

As

least,

its

dvornik, and every

one or two

the word imphes, the dvornik*

house-yard

in

;

reality

house as well, and

man.

There

is,

is

assistants.

keeper of the

he looks after the entire

in fact, a sort of

house police-

no house without one or more of

is

these court-yards, where the contents of cesspools (as

long as there

removed

in

carts,

no drainage) are periodically and logs of firewood are daily

is

chopped up to be delivered to the occupants of the different

flats.

The dvornik

attends to

all this,

and

much more besides. He not only does the dirty work of the house, being paid therefor by a monthly wage

exacted from each of the tenants, but he does the *

Z)z>ar

= yard,

court.

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS dirty

work

who

also of the police,

and absolute masters.

139

are his immediate

All passports of the inmates

of the house must pass through his hands to the poUce, and he *

constantly

is

'

writing you in

and

'

writing you out at the police-station, and claiming '

various small gratuities for the trouble and

Early every morning he

that he gives.

annoyance

bound

is

to

report personally to the chief police officer of his district,

and woe betide him

if

he

fails

to disclose

anything suspicious or unlawful about the behaviour or doings of the lodgers which subsequently turns

Of

out to be serious.

course, a dvornik,

suppose, can hardly be blamed

if

we may

the head of the

Russian detective force gets blown to pieces in a private lodging

by a man

whom

he deliberately

knowing that his host is connected with the revolutionists, and with the purpose of trying to use him as a cat's-paw to catch other conspirators. visits,

In addition to

all this,

the dvornik

study of the policeman in the constable never takes anyone

the police-station

always

duty

calls

if

an under-

A

Russian

he arrests to

he can possibly help

up a dvornik

for him, so as not to

The dvornik and

street.

whom

is

it

;

he

to do that unpleasant

be absent from

his assistants

his post.

have also to take

turns in standing or sitting at the gateway of the

— 140

PPriEHSBURG

ST.

yard and in front of the house day and night, especially at night, ^vith brass badges

on

their breasts,

in

and

and watching everybody who goes

On

out.

and numbers

occasions of crowds in the

all

streets the dvorniks

have to render assistance to

the police, and obey the latter's orders. further, to

keep the roadway clean in front of their

make themselves

domicile, and

The dens in

or

—for

which they quite,

They have,

generally useful.

they can be called nothing live in the yards

underground.

It

else

are mostly half,

is

calculated

that,

with more than 30,000 houses in

St.

Petersburg,

besides mills, factories, etc., there

is

an army of

about 90,000 of these uncouth peasants, who, without any training whatever, virtually control the indoor organization of the Russian capital.

The or

dvornik's immediate superior, thQ gorodovoi*

policeman, deserves

honourable mention

on

account of the great dangers which he bra\'ed during the extraordinary outbreak of 'expropriation,'

indiscriminate murder, and hooliganism three

years ago.

men

all

Hundreds,

if

not thousands, of police-

over Russia were then killed and injured,

and those of

Petersburg came in for their

St.

share of suitering. *

One

full

of the surviving eliects of

From gorod = \,oyin.

THK FROZEX-MKAT MAKKKl

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS that period of jacquerie

money

may

14]

be seen when

still

being conveyed from the State Bank or

is

A

the Mint.

troop of cavalry with drawn swords

and armed policemen on bicycles surround the waggons carrying the coins or notes, and no one is

allowed to come within reach of the sabres of

swung about in a menacing any attempt is made to approach too

the escort, which are

manner

if

near to the treasure thus being carted through the

And

streets.

yet the St. Petersburg constable has

not been more brutalized, as might be expected,

by

all

On

that he has had to go through since 1904.

the contrary, he

more

attentive

hesitates to

to

is

much

show

rough, and far

the general public.

provoke retaliation by too

ness towards the lower orders, to

less

who

He now

much

rude-

are beginning

signs of a nascent self-respect.

It

must

be admitted in this connection that the police have

been severely taught to be

civil to

the public by

the present Gradonatchalnik.

With

all this

training into civil

however, the gorodovoi

than a policemen.

still

ways and

habits,

remains more a soldier

His appearance

is

now more

than ever that of a corporal or sergeant in

marching

full

order, with sword, revolver, truncheon,

whistle, and, in the case of the police at Tsarskoe

ST.

142

PETERSBURG

Selo, also with a telephone apparatus in a metal

communicating

case slung over one shoulder for

with headquarters over the telephone-wires in the streets.

Some

made

years ago an attempt was

the St. Petersburg policeman

more

to

make

like a civilian

guardian of the peace by abolishing the obligation to give the military salute to passing officers,

appear on the streets at almost every step.

who

So much

of his attention was taken up by paying this respect to rank

and uniform that

liable to

be neglected at the most

The

his

proper duties were critical

moments.

inbred instinct was so powerful that, although

an imminent danger to himself or

some other

person might be averted by promptness of action, the St. Petersburg policeman would nevertlieless

stand to attention and salute before attending to

anything officer.

else,

as soon as he

It is impossible to

caught sight of an

turn him into a servant

of the public, especially as long as the latter entertain so little respect for the law

which he represents perversion of the

:

and the system

that would be a complete

Russian idea of a policeman.

His functions have been nmch narrowed down since the great

development of the detective force

and the secret pohce, combined with the gendarmes

'

TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS

143

—a small army themselves, and a much-dreaded body of men —who are the executive police in

in

political

matters.

At

ordinary

pohce

appears

present the to

work of the

consist

entirely

in

worrying people about passports, regulating the in

street-traffic

the daytime,

and

*

running

in

drunkards and dissolute females at night.

The

St.

Petersburg policeman has no beat, and

you never

see

looking

after

night.

He

him

prying into shop

burglars,

or trying

though he

pavement.

He

is

felt

ten

degrees

much

as

out of place on the

posted at certain points, and

only moves about to keep himself asleep.

windows

door-locks at

keeps to the roadway as

possible, as

falling

-

When

or from

thermometer

the

below freezing

warm

-

point

sinks

log-fires

are

up in the streets by the ever - useful dvorniks, and around these cluster the policemen and izvostchiks to keep themselves from being

Ughted

frozen to death.

—

CHAPTER

XI

FURTHEll CHAUACTEKISTICS Summer

flitting

— Winter gaiety — Students — Mixture of races —Antiquated

British Colony

St.

survivals.

Petersburg completely changes

its

appearance

with the turn of the principal seasons of the year.

During the short summer everybody who can, and many who cannot, afford it go to their coimtry villas or estates, and the city is left chiefly to workmen, especially builders and repairers, and to merchants and

others

connected with shipping.

For business people in any way interested in the import and export trades the period of open water and navigation is naturally the busiest time of the year, and this keeps the men in town, but their wives and families are sure all the same to go away hke the the St. '

The exodus of women and summer is so general as to be quite rest.

Other

Petersburg.

empty

'

when

children in peculiar to

gi-eat cities are theoretically

society leaves for the country or

abroad, but there

is

no perceptible 144

falling off in the

THE OUTSIDE PORTER The dvomik,

or yard-porter, asleep

FURTHER CHARACTERISTICS crowds on the

of

effects

the main thoroughfares to indicate

all

In

fact.

St. Petersburg,

the

apparent in the

summer

on the contrary, the

flitting

which are

streets,

hours of the day and evening are always

145

most crowded.

at

once become

all

but empty at

when

in winter they

If there be

number of people on the street summer they constitute quite a

any large

in the height of

different kind of

public.

As

soon as the

snows of winter disappear,

last

and the increasing power of the sun begins to release the Neva from its bonds of ice, a feverish restlessness takes possession of families of all classes,

quite Hke that observable in migratory birds at the

change of seasons when confined in cages. talk

is

All the

of the datcha, the country house, or of

journeys farther

afield.

The people who most

enjoy Hving in St. Petersburg in winter hate

most in

in

winter,

The unhealthy indoor

summer. with

hermetically puttied-up

windows, overheated

it

life

double

rooms, and no ventilation

—this

makes them intolerant of residence there in summer. They long to get away from their winter wrappings and the stifling atmosphere of houses, and to be fi'ee to roam worth speaking of

about in rural retirement without hats or coats. 10

146

ST.

And nowhere

the return of

is

more dehght than officially

PETERSBURG summer

hailed with

in St. Petersburg.

celebrated

It

moved away seaward

to be launched

Commandant

even

by the annual ceremony of

As

opening the navigation of the Neva. the ice has

is

on the stream

is

first vessel

always that of the

who

of the fortress,

the

soon as

is

rowed across

the river in his state barge to the Palace under

a salute from the guns on the ramparts.

The winter

is

both the city and

the gay and festive season, its

transformation in

when

inhabitants undergo a complete

outward appearances, owing to

the mantle of snow covering everything, the change

from wheeled conveyances to

sledges,

The frozen

ing of fur coats and caps.

and the wearcanals support

throngs of merry skaters, gliding over the ice to the strains of military

music

;

some twenty

theatres

and

other places of entertainment are in full swing,

headed by the

finest

Imperial opera and ballet

representations in Europe, and night day.

The

is

turned into

streets are quite lively at three or four

o'clock in the morning, for

nowhere

hours so generally indulged fully as long as

it

in.

else are

such late

All goes on beauti-

keeps cold and frosty.

soon spoils everything.

The

conditions for

winter enjoyable, for instance, in

A thaw making

London have

to

— FURTHER CHARACTERISTICS

147

be entirely reversed for a successful winter in Petersburg.

with

Instead of a

traffic, it

only

fall

facilitates

St.

snow interfering The more snow

of it.

the better for getting

about in sledges, although

a very heavy

it

of

fall

and private householders for

removing

it

involves

the authorities

in considerable

expense

from roofs and yards.

Here,

man- of- all- work, the dvornik, is brought into requisition, and it must be admitted again, the useful

that St. Petersburg

snow.

There

is

knows how

to deal with

one exception, however, which

particularly noticeable

when

filth,

and that

St.

Petersburg

is

snow

their dirty

is

sometimes almost impassable state in front of

Government buildings and

is

conditions of weather

require the roadways to be cleared of caked

and accumulated

its

and

many

barracks.

the educational and intellectual

focus of the Russian Empire, and

its

large

number

of educational institutions regulate to a very great

extent the movements and habits of a vast proportion of the population.

When

all

these institutions

summer, everybody leaves town when they open again in September, everybody comes back to work and pleasure. close their doors at the beginning of ;

Then the

swarms with students in uniform, including young men from all parts city perfectly

148

ST.

PETERSBURG

from Poland, the Caucasus,

Siberia,

and Central

Asia. The students of the University alone number 10,000 or more. The variety of races amongst them, the want of European culture of many, in spite of much learning, their unkempt

appearance, and the nightly dissipations of city in

which they very

life

prominent

freely indulge, are

features of winter in the Russian capital.

As

regards the different races,

it

may

in general that the population of St.

common

no one

exhibits

There

type.

be said

Petersburg is

an extra-

ordinary mixture of racial and physical charac-

which point to the

teristics,

fact that

no

single

one distiuct type of race has yet been evolved out

One

of the mass.

finds nothing strange in being

told that a single person

is

descended within a few

generations from Russian, Tartar, Swedish, Finnish,

Lithuanian,

and sometimes

also

even

English,

ancestors.

The

colony in

British

time has numbered

Crimean while the

War

its

many

St.

Petersburg in

thousands, but since the

strength has gradually waned,

German colony

has proportionately in-

creased in wealth and numbers.

probably

about

its

2,000

British

There are now subjects

Petersburg, engaged principally in business

in

—

St.

mills.

3

5

FURTHER CHARACTERISTICS factories, farming,

charitable

and teaching

institutions,

— and

hbraries, a

they support

well -endowed

church, and two Nonconformist chapels.

New Enghsh

also the

There

Bart, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.,

Sir

etc.,

Arthur

W. W. Woodhouse,

Consul,

is

Arthur Nicolson,

is

Esq.,

President, and

His Majesty's

a Vice-President.

These able representa-

of British interests,

worthily seconded by

their respective assistants, Councillor of

H.

J.

is

Club, of which the British

Ambassador, the Right Hon.

tives

149

Embassy

O'Beirne, Esq., C.V.O., C.B., and Vice-Consul

Cecil Mackie, Esq., take an active part in all that

concerns the welfare of the British community, and are doing

much

to promote the development of

British business in Russia.

As losing

already pointed out, St. Petersburg has been

some of

theless, there are

by at

side with

many

its still

modern

old

characteristics.

many

Never-

strange survivals side

innovations.

For example,

places not far from the centre one

see streets

which are not a

bit better

may

than those

of the most out-of-the-way provincial towns, and

some of the outlying parts of the city the commonest kerosene lamps still light the streets at night. Only the principal thoroughfares are in

decently paved, hexangular blocks of

wood being

PETERSBURG

ST.

160

chiefly used, whilst the other streets are covered

with cobble-stones, which used to shake one up horribly

when

them

driving over

use of rubber tyres.

before the general

Fires, too, are

still

watched

for

from the tops of wooden towers, and signals are hoisted above

them

to

flagration, although

posts

show the

have been introduced

with the

brigade.

fire

barrels of water to a

public

for

communicating

The firemen fire,

also drive with

together with the latest

kind of steam fire-engine.

modern

position of a con-

the latest electrical signalling

Again, alongside the

conveyances we

have wretched

primitive vehicles for passengers which ought to

be

all

destroyed, except one specimen to be kept

in the Imperial Carriage

curiosity. is

A

presented

handsome

similar in

the

bridges

Museum

contrast

matter

have

been

of

of

an historical

as

old

and new

bridges.

built

across

Two the

Neva within the last twenty years, and a third is now under construction but an old wooden bridge ;

of planks laid on anchored barges across

the

river

right

in

front

still

stretches

of the Winter

Palace, and leads to such important points as the

Exchange and the Customs House. This bridge, the planking of which has to be continually renewed, is

often raised so high above the level of the banks

FURTHER CHARACTERISTICS in

stormy weather that no

A

traffic

number of other wooden

151

can pass over

it.

bridges unite the

different islands of the city.

Another

characteristic,

which

is

gradually passing

away, probably in proportion to the decrease in the illiterate portion of the population,

40 per

cent.,

is

articles sold in

now about

the custom of painting pictures of

shops on their signboards outside.

This kind of picture-writing, which was formerly so

common on

all

shop-fronts,

is

disappearing fi'om

the

more

fashionable streets where articles

are

now

so

much

better displayed

on

sale

in the shop-

windows.

book on the Ermitage and other picture-galleries, museums, exhibitions, and academies, for which St. PetersNothing has been

burg dealt

is

said

in

this

justly famous, as these have been so fully

with by other English writers in various

handbooks and guides.

CHAPTER ENVIRONS OF Tsarskoe Selo

all.

— Sestroretsk —The islands.

usually

are

Petersburg at

PETERSBURG

— Pavlovsk — Krasnoe Selo — Peterhoff— Gatchino^

Oranienbaum

What

ST.

XII

are,

environs

properly speaking,

The term

is

of

St.

not environs

inaccurately applied to a very

large area of country, and villa-settlements,

the

called

summer

made

to include

resorts, villages,

many

and even

separate towns, such as Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhoff, situated at considerable distances

the capital. to

many

More

away from

or less historical interest attaches

of these places in connection with St.

Petersburg, but at the present day only the two

towns just mentioned are of any

importance.

real

Tsarskoe Selo, where the Emperor and Empress

have resided

in winter since the

revolutionary

movement

in

1

005,

beginning of the is

a

town of some

25,000 inhabitants, fifteen miles off from St. Petersburg.

The

direction

railway running to

was the

first line

of

152

it

in a southern

rails laid

down

in the

STUDENTS

ENVIRONS OF

PETERSBURG

ST.

153

Russian Empire, the next having been the hne to

was the work of EngHsh engineers,

It

ISIoscow.

and the Emperor Nicholas over

it

open

in 1837, sitting

carriage,

I.

made

his first

with the Empress in an

which was placed on an ordinary Parallel with this line there

platform truck.

a second railway to Tsarskoe Selo, which

exclusively for the Imperial

is

is

now

reserved

Family and Court.

stands on elevated ground as com-

The town pared with

journey

Petersburg, and

St.

is

regarded as a

very healthy spot relatively to the latter city.

was begun on the

site

called Saari Muis, or

It

of an old Finnish village

Elevated Farm, the word

Soar having been gradually Russianized into Soarski, and then into Tsarskoe Selo, without any original intention, as

it

seems, of calling

The

present.

at

village

the Tsar's Village,

it

was

presented

to

1708, and

I. by Peter the Great in had a palace built there, and adopted Empress that

Catherine

it

as

a

summer

residence.

It

is

celebrated

in

medical annals as the only locality in the district of the Russian capital that has never been attacked

by

cholera.

sion

Every year there

through

immunity outbreak

of

its

streets

to

is

a religious proces-

commemorate the

Tsarskoe Selo during the terrible

ot the

epidemic in the middle of the

last

164

ST.

century.

PETERSBURG

has the further advantages of being

It

supplied with good and pure water, and a drainage-

system, which makes probably, in

laid

out in

number

the healthiest settlement,

the province of St. Petersburg.

all

The town

it

no way remarkable, being wide streets and boulevards, with a itself is in

of fine

summer mansions

of the nobility

and gentry, and of persons attached to the Imperial

The

Court.

and importance of the place

interest

centres entirely in

its

Imperial palaces and the

large parks, with lakes and gardens, which surround

For the most part these parks are more woods, owing to the large number of old trees

them. like

which cast a gloom over most of the avenues

and

The Empresses Elizabeth and

pathways.

Catherine fantastic

II.

erected

buildings,

here

many handsome and

enriched

the

palaces

with

valuable treasures, and ornamented the parks with

monuments, Chinese pagodas, artificial ruins, and statuary. There are two principal palaces, in one of which the Emperor and Empress reside, while the other

is

ceremonies.

now

used only for State receptions and

This

latter,

the old palace,

brated for the splendour of walls of one of

amber

its

its

is

apartments.

cele-

The

rooms are faced entirely with and the walls of another

in various designs,

ENVIRONS OF

ST.

PETERSBURG

166

The

are covered with incrustations of lapis-lazuli. latter

room

also

has ebony flooring beautifully

inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

About

three miles from Tsarskoe Selo there

a smaller

town of about 5,000

Pavlovsk, which, Petersburg, owes

The

locality

like

all

is

inhabitants, called

these adjuncts

of St.

origin to the Imperial Family.

its

was given

Emperor

as a present to the

Paul, while he was yet heir-apparent, by Catherine II.

more beautiful palaces, with fine wooded parks and lakes, but the place is best known and

Here

are

appreciated for

its

excellent

which performs here

in the

orchestra of music,

summer

attracts thousands of visitors

from

evenings, and

St.

Petersburg

to the concert-house attached to the railway-station.

Some

eight miles west from Tsarskoe Selo, and

about half-way between the latter place and Peterhoif, is

Krasnoe Selo, the location of the great

summer camp

of the garrison of St. Petersburg.

Peterhoff, which in

summer

shares the honour of

being one of the two residential towns of the present Sovereign,

is

situated

on the shore of the Finnish

Gulf, opposite to the island of Cronstadt. its

existence to the

Empress Catherine

It

owes

I.,

who

suggested to her husband^ Peter the Great, the advisability

of his having

some near

retreat

in

ST.

156

which to take

rest

PETERSBURG and

shelter in

stormy weather

while engaged in superintending the construction of the fortifications of Cronstadt Harbour. first

His

building here was the small paviUon on the

shore,

which he called Monplaisir.' '

He

afterwards

constructed a magnificent palace and grounds on

The

the plan of the French Versailles.

PeterhofF

scenery

which

the fountains,

is

glory of con-

stitute

an entire avenue of spouting jets from the

palace

to

the

sea.

At

the head

in front of the terrace leading is

up

them

of

the principal fountain, a gilded figure of

forcing open the jaws of a Uon,

of water rises 70 feet into the

Another Imperial

summer seven

seat

is

all,

to the palace,

whence a

Samson column

air.

Gatchino,

now

the

Empress Dowager, twentyPetersburg, with some St.

retreat of the

miles

from

summer residents, and a palace containing 600 rooms. Then comes Ropsha, where Peter III. met with his mysterious death, Oranienbaum, 15,000

Strelna,

and other smaller

places, all creations of

Peter the Great or his Imperial successors.

All

these towns and settlements are situated on

the

south side of the lliver Neva. Finnish

side,

there are a few

On

the north, or

summer

settlements

of the inhabitants of the capital, such as Ozerki,

'^^

«w»KaB(BR-"

I'l

The

i

I.KHOI-'K

foutitaiii^ in tront of the paUicc at PeterlK>lf

:

ENVIRONS OF

ST.

PETERSBURG

157

Shouvalovo, Pargolo, and Sestroretsk, the latter

having been also a creation of Peter the Great.

Only the mentioned

Neva remain to be of the more immediate suburbs

as part

On

of St. Petersburg. several

of the

islands

wooden bridges

these,

which are joined by

across different branches of

who are obliged to stay in summer take the fresh air. It is

the river, the inhabitants

town during the

often remarked in hot sultry weather that without these islands St. Petersburg

They

habitable.

would be quite unin-

are well provided with restaurants,

public gardens, theatres, and cafe chantants, and

a fashionable pleasure in spring place on one of

them

called the

*

is

to drive to a

Point,' to admire

the glowing splendour of the setting sun.

When was

Professor Oscar Browning, of Cambridge,

in St.

Petersburg in 1909, entertaining Russian

society vnth his lectures

on English

literature,

he

addressed to one of the Russian journals the following sonnet, which

may

be

fitly

reproduced here in

concluding this volume ST.

PETERSBURG.

Fair child, engendered by a despot's thought, Queen of the North, enthroned on confluent streams, Goal of his strivings, pagod of his dreams, From churlish nature by persistence wrought.

ST.

168

PETERSBURG

Prove worthy of thy mission, slowly tauj^ht

By triumph and

disaster,

Clutch not at ha^ty

Too

oft

wear thy crown;

issues,

be thine own,

by misdirected good distraught.

Then the bright spirit of the Slavic mind, Condemned too long to an unworthy part, Led by thy gentle governance, shall find

New

worlds in letters, music,

Awake, proud

Thy

life,

city of the golded

and

art.

domes

!

winter past, the joy of harvest comes.

MOSCOW CHAPT>ER XIII HISTORICAL '

Come

to me, brother, to Moscow.'

Little did old

when he wrote

Prince Urie Dolgorouky think,

this

invitation to his friend Prince Sviatoslav Olgovitch, in 1147, that

he was writing an historical document.

However,

has become

it

the earliest

so, for this is

authentic document which mentions Moscow.

Before then the place where

was

called

Kuchkova,

owned the

after the

rouky acquired the land, garrison,

the

and renamed

bridge.'

built

little village, it

However,

pletely destroyed

Kuchki

stands

family,

who

However, old Prince Dolgo-

land.

wall round the

Moscow now

by

fire

a strong

lodged in

Moskva, or his

little

'

it

wooden a small

the place by

fort

was com-

a few years after.

In 1272 Prince Daniel Nevsky settled at Moscow,

which from that year became a separate princedom. 169

MOSCOW

160

Thanks

to

policy of

its

its

central position, and

Princes, the population of the

rapidly increased, as also the wealth of

For

their

own

wooden

strong

Princes.

its

the

walls

little

side

of high

triangle

— the

south

— by the

River, and on the west and north

with marshy banks

small river,

This

town

safety the old Princes fortified with

ground contained on one

Moscow

the wily

to

the

w^as

Kremlin,

the

— the

fortress.

Neglinia.

Moscow

became so important that the Metropolitan sook Vladimir, the old Church to

Moscow, where the

first

capital,

by a

for-

and moved

stone building in the

town, the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin,

was

built in

1339, under the superinten-

dence of foreign architects, as the Russians only understood wooden buildings.

In 1367 the whole

wooden walls of the Kremlin, was burnt down. Prince Dmitry Donskoi

of Moscow, including the

then had a stone wall built round the Kremlin. This was badly constructed, and was replaced, early in the fifteenth century,

by the walls now standing,

which were constructed

under the direction of

Italian architects.

Owing position,

to

its

central,

and consequently protected,

Moscow suffered

princedoms

in

less

than any of the other

Russia from the invasions of the

THE SAVIOUR SPASSKV; TOWER OF THE KREMITX, MOSCOW

1

HISTORICAL Tartars, Swedes, Poles, etc.

flocked to increased,

it

for

and the

161

consequently people

;

population rapidly

shelter, the

coffers of the

Moscow

Princes

became well filled. AVhen the Tartars put up the post of Grand Prince (or Grand Duke, as we say now) for auction, the

Moscow

thereby

Princes easily outbid the others, and

more increased

still

Ultimately the Princes of

fluence.

and

their wealth

in-

Moscow became

looked on as hereditary Grand Dukes of Russia. This brings us to the end of the fifteenth century,

when is

the Tartar yoke was nearly broken.

now

vastly improved

;

Moscow

Byzantine architects are

building stone palaces for the wealthy nobles, and

Grand Dukes of Moscow now Monarchs of all Russ.'

the '

Ivan

(1462-1505)

III.

logus, niece of the last

on the

fall

double

married Sophia Palceo-

Emperor

of Byzantium, and

of Constantinople considered himself the

heir of the Byzantine -

style themselves

Emperors, and adopted the

headed eagle as

his

arms.

Hundreds of

Greeks and Italians came to Moscow with Sophia Palaeologus

and on the

fall

of Byzantium,

and

brought Greek art with them.

In 1547 Ivan IV.

Moscow with

a royal diadem, and

was crowned

in

assumed the

title

of Tsar, which for so long had 1

MOSCOW

1G2

been the attribute of the Tartar Khans. earned the

name

ordinary cruelties.

of

'

the Terriljle

as

to raise the

and

politic ruler,

it

and did

fortunes of his country as

Oliver Cromwell did for England. reign the Cossack

his extra-

However, he was an unscrupu-

lous, sagacious, powerful,

much

by

'

Tvan

Yermak conquered

was added to Ivan's dominions. The growing influence of this the

During

liis

Siberia,

and

first

Tsar of

Muscovy is shown by the fact that England opened up commercial undertakings with Moscow, and sent out expeditions under Richard Chancellor in

Hugh

1553, and Sir

Ivan was so

Willoughby.

impressed by their accounts of the greatness of

England wife,

that,

having just got rid of his seventh

he sent over an Ambassador to England with

a letter to his

'

good

fi*iend

'

Queen

Elizabeth, re-

questing her to send him out a bride from her

Queen Elizabeth suggested Lady Mary Hastings, daughter of the second Earl of HuntThe Russian ingdon, who was of royal blood. family.

Ambassador, Pizemsky, returned to Russia with glowing accounts of the bride, and also with the

Order of the Garter the treasury in

(tliis

Moscow)

for

is

still

Ivan,

pleased that he gave the English the

preserved in

who was

so

monopoly of

HISTORICAL Russian trade.

1G3

However, Ivan died suddenly,

in

1584, before the negotiations were completed, and

Lady Mary Hastings escaped being

Ivan's eighth

bride.

Horsey writes

:

*

Ivan Vasiliwich was

readie wisdom, cruel, bloudye, merciless

sumptuously intomed

in IVIichell

:

full

of

he was

Archangel church,

where he remains a fearfuU spectacle to the memory of such as pass by or heer his are contented to cross his resurrection againe.'

and

name spoken

of,

bless themselves

who from

CHAPTER XIV HISTORICAL {continued)

That Moscow had enormously and population

is

by the

clear

increased in size fact that towards

the end of the sixteenth century there were 9,000 foreigners living in the

In 1343

we

read

perished in a great

'

foreign quarter.'

that fire,

twenty-eight churches

and

in

1366,

when

the

Tartar General Tokhtamish captured the town, over 24,000 persons were killed in

it.

Under the

walls of the Kremlin there sprang little

built

up a thriving business town. In 1534 a wooden wall was round it, which was replaced two years later

by the brick and stone wall, about two miles in length, which is still standing. This now represents the city.' According to an old census, in 1520 '

there were already 41,500 houses in

The town

Moscow.

went on rapidly increasing outside the Kremlin and the Kitai-gorod,' or city, and a stone wall was built round this, the so-called \Miite still

'

'

Town,'

in the

days of Feodor, son of Ivan the 164

HISTORICAL Terrible and Boris Godunoff,

This wall was about

five

1C5

who succeeded

him.

and a half miles long. The

town went on increasing in size, and now building commenced also on the opposite side of the river. In 1633, owing to fear of invasion by the Tartars from the Crimea, a ditch and fence were constructed round

In 1637-1640 inside the ditch

it.

was thrown up a great embankment of

earth, faced

with beams, with a strong palisade on top.

Owing to

this earthen rampart, this part of the towii

known as the Earthen Town.' Moscow within this rampart was

became

The shape

'

a rough

of

circle,

the circumference of which was nearly twelve and a half miles.

The

city has increased

enormously

in

since then, but no further fortifications were

size

ever erected.

In 1689 Peter the Great ascended the throne,

and

in

1703 he commenced to build

burg, which he created the

taking the

title

new

capital,

St.

Peters-

he himself

of Emperor.

Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, reigned

from 1741 to 1762. the

'

Earthen

round

it

Town

to be filled

'

She caused the rampart round to be removed, and the moat

in.

The ground

that had been

thus occupied she converted into a long series of boulevards.

She then had the wall round the

MOSCOW

1C6 '

WHiite

Town

'

removed, and with the bricks built

Home

the huge FoundHiigs'

on the banks of the

river,

and another Une of boulevards occupied

site.

In 1755 she also founded the

versity, the

In 1812

first in all

we have

Moscow

its

Uni-

Russia.

the French invasion, and Napo-

occupation of Moscow, in the reign of

leon's short

Most of old wooden Moscow then perished by fire, and when the city was rebuilt Alexander

I.

the generality of the houses were brick. present time no

wooden

At

the

buildings are allowed to

be constructed in the town.

In

this short sketch

from the small wooden

Dolgorouky

in

we have brought Moscow fort

put up by old Prince

1147 to the present

population of 1,400,000, which

and

now

is

city,

with

its

rapidly increasing,

has an area the same in extent as Paris.

tt^^J^^

"mii">'iBP

THE WEDDING OF

A

NOBLEMAN

CHAPTER XV IMPRESSIONS OF MOSCOW

— think was the Herberstein — wrote, circa 1460:

A FOREIGN

traveller in Russia

German Legate If Moscow is not '

in Asia,

it

1

it

certainly

is

on the

very edge of Europe, and very close to Asia.'

Though, naturally, the town has greatly changed in all respects since that was written, still, I think

all

paying their

first

visit

who have been how much of Asia

Moscow, and

to

especially those

in the East, cannot

help feeling

there

For

instance, the types

you meet

still

remains.

in the streets.

I

do not allude to the Tartars or Armenians, who are Asiatics pure and simple, but the peasants.

To

see those big, burly fellows, with their sunburnt faces

and fur caps and sheep-skin

irresistibly

meet in

traits.

side

you are

reminded of the Pathan or Afridi you

in the bazaars in

their

coats,

poshteens.

The Russian

one another and

Peshawur or Northern India

You

notice

such

common

peasants do not walk alongtalk, as ordinary 167

Europeans:

MOSCOW

168

they walk one behind the other and talk over their shoulders to the

India do. is

'

pici

'

man

behind, just as the natives in

In the bazaars

and

'

rupees

'

so

;

'copeks' and 'roubles.' India nothing in the

whole talk

in India the

here

all

the talk

is

Then, again, just as in

way

of buying or selling can

be effected without shouting, gesticulating, chaffer-

buy anything

ing, so here, if a peasant goes to

himself or his wife, he

is

seized

for

by the employes of

the various shops, whose business

is

to stand about

by the shop-doors and secure anybody who looks like a customer, nearly torn into pieces by the representatives of the various firms, and finally dragged into a shop, where the methods of bar-

The shopman

gaining, etc., are purely Oriental.

begins by asking twice as

much

as

he

is

really pre-

pared to take, and the customer offers one-half of

what he

is

really prepared to pay.

After hours

of heated bargaining, each party declaring he

behig ruined, a deal promise.

The

is

ultimately effected by com-

noise and excitement

accompanying

these transactions are absolutely Oriental, also are

is

the smells one meets in the

and so

by-streets

and courts where the shops with goods

for the

peasants are situated.

The Moscow merchant

classes are proverbially

MOSCOW

IMPRESSIONS OF It

conservative.

is

not long since that the beauty

making a good

of a lady and her chances of

were

marriage

calculated

very

a

thin girl

;

if

not

No

rich

largely,

mainly, by her weight and stoutness.

man would marry

169

it

would be

a

reproach to him and a bad advertisement for his business.

The long Tartar pressions,

rule in Russia left deep

im-

and one of the deepest was on the way

the Russian

women were

treated.

Till the times

of the Tartars they were quite free, but after that

they seem to have been mainly confined to the terem^ or

women's apartment.

In the old portion

of the palace you see the tereni, and above

it is

a

windows of talc. Tradition says that the old Grand Dukes or Tsars and their courtiers used to look on the ladies walking there, to aid them in selecting a bride, as they apparently did not see them otherwise. small gallery with

When

little

Peter the Great came to the throne and

established his capital in Petersburg, one of the

greatest fights he had

was to induce the nobles to

allow their wives and daughters to

come

to Court,

and when he ultimately got their consent, it was no easy matter to induce the ladies themselves to come.

Even now

the ladies' part of the house

MOSCOW

170 is

usually

upstairs,

away

the

at

back

the

of

house.

Until quite a few years since

it

was considered

impossible for a lady to walk in the streets.

If she

went out she must drive, and must have with her a male or female servant.

had to walk and shabbiest

in the streets, attire

;

by any chance a lady she put on her oldest

If

hence,

if

you met

a smartly-

dressed person you were pretty safe in thinking

was an

However,

or a demi-moudaine.

actress

it

now

the last few years have worked wonders, and

the fashionable streets are full of smartly-dressed ladies

promenading up and down, with the usual

retinue of well-dressed men, for the Russians are

very gregarious and hate being alone anywhere.

you go for a walk you must form a party, and must all walk and talk together, or you are voted unsociable, if Their idea of enjoyment

is

a crowd.

If

not rude.

In another respect Moscow that

is

in its hospitality.

different

of

from Petersburg.

Moscow he '

is

quite Oriental, and

In this respect

In Zabielin's

it is '

quite

History

alludes to this, and, with a note of

pride, says that the very first

was old Prince

mention of Moscow

Dolgorouky's invitation

to

his

neighbouring Prince to come to Moscow, where he

A RICH MERCHANT AND HIS WIFE

— MOSCOW

IMPRESSIONS OF had prepared

'

first

now.

experience of

I still

Just after

this.

Russia, in the family in which I was

of the ladies had an imenina, or it

This tradi-

a strong feast,' in 1147.

tional hospitaUty continues

my

171

'

was the calendar day of the

remember I

came

to

staying, one

names-day

'

i.e.,

whom

saint after

Moscow, at all events, the looked on as far more important

she was named, and in *

names-day

'

is

than the birthday.

The

guests

we

12 noon, and shortly after

sat

about

arrived

down

to dinner.

This lasted about four hours, and then immediately

was brought

tea

cigarettes for the

on

with

arriving,

10 p.m., rose

for the

men.

ladies

and

fruit

when supper was

sweets,

laid,

'

names-day

'

;

but

if

about

till

and we ultimately

from supper at about 4 a.m.

tainly for a

and cognac and

Relays of fresh tea kept

That was

you have an

cer-

intro-

duction to a Russian house, you will be asked to call

any evening.

When

you

entertained with fruit, tea, galore.

you will be sweets, and cigarettes arrrive

After staying an hour or so you

to leave, but your host will not hear of

it

rise

—you

must stay to supper. Supper may last any time, but you need not expect to get away before If you insist on leaving earlier your 2 to 3 a.m. hosts will be very disappointed and somewhat

MOSCOW

\7'2

hurt, as

of

all

is

also the case if

you do not eat

heartily

the numerous and excellent dishes they press

on you.

The

old

Russian proverb

rejoiced with a large piece,'

you

acts

up to the

spirit

says,

'

The mouth

is

and your host in helping

of the proverb.

CHAPTER XVI THE KREMLIN

Although Moscow is such an are now very few remains of

ancient city, there old

its

buildings.

Beyond the Kremlin walls and buildings, and a certain number of churches, there is virtually nothing in the whole city that This

may

wooden and by the numerous

stone ones,

preferred

which devastated the even

200 years

old.

be accounted for by the fact that the

Russians always

ever,

is

if

buildings terrible

city time after time.

there were nothing ancient in

besides the Kremlin, that

to

fires

HowMoscow

would make up

for all

other deficiencies. I

have shown over the Kremlin numerous people

who have

travelled all over Europe, if not over the

world, and they unite in saying that

To compare

it

with England,

it

it is

represents

unique.

West-

Tower of London, the Tower of London rolled

minster Abbey, St. Paul's, the

and the contents of into one.

It

is

the keystone of Russian history, 173

MOSCOW

174

and the men who lived a collection

in

weak princedoms, created

petty and

ot"

were those who, out of

it

the mighty Russian Empire.

The Kremlin ground

is

well situated

To

Moscow.

in

the south, the walls in old

days w^ere washed by the fined

To

which

river,

now

is

by an embankment, leaving space

ground

in pipes to the

moat on the eastern

—which

now

filled

and that on the west

by

runs under-

west of the Kremlin.

side has

ccjn-

for traffic.

the east and west were deep moats,

the stream, the Neglinia

in,

on the highest

been entirely

The filled

partially so, the hollow

remaining having been converted into a garden. If

you enter the Kremlin by the northern or

Nicholas gates, to your right

by Peter French

To

I.

in

in 1702-1736.

It

is

the Arsenal, built

was blown up by the

1812, but was rebuilt by Nicholas

the left

are

the

Law

Courts,

I.

a handsome

triangular block, built in the days of Catherine II.

—about the

of

1780. gates,

Immediately facing you, is

a

small

ornamental

ancient Russian design, erected to

in front cross,

of

commemorate

Grand Duke Serge, then Governor-General of Moscow, was assassinated by

the

spot

where the

a bomb.

All along the walls of the Arsenal are arranged

THE SMALL GOLDEN PALATA, OR TSARITSa's HALL^

IN

THE KREMLIN.

(Page 26}

THE KREMLIN

175

hundreds of field-guns and mortars, captured from the French in their retreat from Moscow.

In the background

the

barracks of

the

Behind the barracks are the three

Grenadiers.

ancient cathedrals

Holy

are

—that of the Assumption of the

Virgin, built in the fourteenth century

;

the

Cathedral of the Annunciation, built at the com-

mencement of the

fifteenth century

;

and that of

Michael the Archangel, built early in the fourteenth

The

Assumption Cathedral was badly and the present building was reconstructed

century. built,

old

under the guidance of Italian consecrated

in

1479.

The

architects,

cathedral

being

has

seen

troublous days, and was looted and partly destroyed

by the Tartars, Poles, and French, only the old walls

still

remaining of the original building.

The

old wall-paintings, of the seventeenth century, are

very quaint.

Among

Some

of the icons are very ancient.

the relics are one of the nails with which

our Lord was fastened to the cross, a fragment of our Lord's robe, and a fragment of the Virgin's

The

robe.

coronations of the Russian monarchs

have for centuries always taken place in dral,

and most of the

this cathe-

official services are also

held

here.

The

original Cathedral of the

Annunciation was

MOSCOW

176

founded

in 1397, but,

owing

to faulty building, had

The

to be virtually reconstructed in 1489.

paintings in the interior are cially

the

history

most

of Jonah.

wall-

interesting, espe-

The

cathedral

is

connected with the palace by a covered passage, by which the old Kings and Queens entered the building. In ancient times the Grand Dukes and Kings were always christened and generally married here. When Ivan the Terrible was excommunicated,

and therefore unable to enter a church, he

on to the cathedral, with a

had a small chapel

built

special entrance.

A window was made in the wall

of the cathedral, through which he could look, and

He

thus take some part in the services. lected

and deposited

in his chapel various highly

This

venerated

relics.

the wall

pointed out as his

is

also col-

still

exists,

and a niche

in

seat.

The Archangel Cathedral was built, in 1333, of wood, but had to be pulled down in 1505, a new stone edifice being started

at

superintendence of a Milan

arcliitect,

consecrated in 1509.

renewed several times 1813, as

it

However,

once,

it

since, the last

luider

the

which was

has had to be

time being in

was very greatly damaged by the French.

This cathedral

is

the burying-place of the Russian

Grand-Dukes and Tsars up to the days of Peter

THE KREMLIN the Great.

Here, in a separate chapel,

Ivan the Terrible, alongside in a

fit

are the

177

his son,

own

of rage with his

tomb and various relics

is

whom

hands.

buried

he killed

Here,

also,

of the heir-apparent,

Dmitry, who was murdered, and of Prince Michael of Chernigoff, Tartars.

who was

tortured to death by the

In the robe-room of the cathedral are a

very fine old

New Testament

of the twelfth century

and the cross that Ivan the Terrible always wore. Alongside the Archangel Cathedral Tsar of Russia on the death of

became

extinct, as Boris

had arranged that Feodor's only

The

be murdered in 1591. direct proof of

his semi-imbecile

With Feodor

brother-in-law Feodor in 1598.

was no

the lofty

by Boris GodunofF, who became

belfry constructed

old line of Rurik

is

it,

son,

the

GodunofF

Dmitry, should

people, though there

were

all

convinced that

GodunofF had murdered the heir-apparent, Dmitry, and every national

disaster

which afterwards hap-

pened was attributed either to GodunofF's machinations or to the anger of

becoming Tsar.

He

God

at such a sinful

man

was, in the popular opinion,

responsible for the terrible famine of 1601, and with

a view to providing

work

for the people,

he caused

the great belfry of Ivan the Great to be built. interesting as the first

known

It

is

instance of famine12

MOSCOW

178

work in Russia. Needless to say, Boris Godunoff died a violent death, in 1G05 he would seem to have been poisoned, though this has never relief

:

been actually proved.

The

When

belfry

a massive building, 327 feet high.

is

Napoleon was

in

Moscow,

in 1812,

he heard

that the cross at the top of the belfry was of solid gold, so he

had

it

to be of iron, so

The who

belfry

tried to

New

Napoleon shot the

blow

The

up.

it

Bell,'

At

The next

the foot of the

on a granite basement, stands the

'

Tsar-

badly cracked, and with a massive piece

When

it.

of Boris GodunofF,

was

great bell weighs

only rung on great occasions, such

is

broken out of

It

proved

false informers.

Year, Christmas, or Easter.

largest bell weighs 33 tons. belfry,

it

was greatly damaged by the French,

66 tons, and as

However,

taken down.

it

it

was

cast, in

the days

weighed very nearly 1 35

recast in the middle

tons.

of the seventeenth

century, and, after great efforts, was raised to

However, two supports, and

years

it fell

after

was about 100

it

orders of the

Empress Anna,

spot in 1735.

a

The

fire

destroyed

and was broken.

ground where

its

— about half way up.

place in the arch of the belfry

years,

it

was

its

It lay in the

and then, by recast

on the

scaffolding for re-raising

it

to

'^-•''^Z.,,^.,^ __

THE "TSAR" BELL

THE KREMLIN its

179

place was just ready when, in 1737, by

mischance, the scaffolding was set on large

amount

which

fell

caused

it

of cold water used to put out the

on the

fire,

which was nearly red-hot,

bell,

to crack so badly that a large piece fell

100

nearly

Nicholas

I.

years,

had

recastings,

Emperor

and placed on the granite

it

as various alloys

were added.

on 200 tons

just

the

1836,

in

till,

raised

it

now stands. The bell, after its was much larger than its original size,

pedestal where

in

The

fire.

After that the bell again lay in the ground

out.

is

some

;

it is

The

circumference.

Its present

weight

19 feet high and 60 feet clapper

is

over 18 feet

long.

Close by the great bell

ment of Russian It

was

casting.

Moscow

cast in

and weighs 40

tons,

is

in

another massive monu-

is

This

1586 by a Russian smith,

close

on 20

and the diameter of the bore

At

is

feet in length,

almost exactly a

Needless to say, no shot has ever been

yard.

from

the 'Tsar-Gun.'

is

fired

it.

the back of the cathedrals, facing the river,

is

the main Kremlin Palace, built in the shape of an irregular hollow square, with a large courtyard in

the centre.

church in

In the courtyard stands the oldest

Moscow— St.

Saviour's in the

Wood,

— MOSCOW

180

when

so called because thirteenth century,

all

was

it

the ground

Kremlin was a virgin

the

now

occupied by

The

forest.

building was finished in 1527.

the

built, early in

present

In ancient days

it

was the chapel of the Grand Dukes and Duchesses, and till the Archangel Cathedral was built was also

The

their burying-place.

strange sight, and in

many

a Princess

it

whom,

old church

was shaved

saw many a tlie

head of

for political reasons,

it

was

considered advisable to cut off from the world to lodge in a nunnery.

alias,

Not

a few Princes

also

were here, voluntarily or against their own

will,

shorn preparatory to entering a monastery.

The

spot

now

occupied by the palace has from

the earliest times been the site of the residence of the Russia.

Grand Dukes and Tsars of Muscovy,

In ancient times the building was called

the Prince's Court, and

Moscow became

a

end of the

Till the

in 1508.

by

days of Ivan III.

fifteenth century

wooden building

architects,

when the Grand Dukes name was changed

Tsars, the

the King's Court. latter

or

;

however, he

of to

— the

— the palace was

summoned

Italian

who finished building him a stone palace Owing to the building being constructed

Italian architects

and to the influence of Sophia

Pala3ologus, Ivan's wife, the building, l)oth exter-

Z^ A^^^

THE "TSAR"

C;U\,

MOSCOW

THE KREMLIN

181

nally and internfilly, bore a distinctly Byzantine

Nearly

appearance. built

every

successive

monarch

on a certain amount, but these additions were

in a strictly

only exception was the

were entirely Polish.

'

false

1645),

the Poles overran into almost

fell

and was entirely looted of

The

sures.

Dmitry,' whose tastes

When

Russia, the old King's Court plete ruin,

The

Russian style of architecture.

first

all its

comtrea-

of the Romanoffs, Michael (1613-

had to entirely restore the palace, and

successor Alexis also did a great deal.

Under

his

their

guidance the palace was placed in an excellent state,

and was magnificently adorned and

Peter

the

Great virtually

left

fitted up.

Moscow, and

resided at his estate of Preobrajensky, before he

moved

to Petersburg

and allowed the palace to

into a sad state of decay,

and

it

was only

fc^r

fall

his

marriage with Catherine that Peter had the buildings repaired at

all.

However, nearly the whole

down in 1737. The palace was by the Empress Elizabeth. However, the great fire of Moscow, when Napoleon was obliged to abandon the city, in 1812, again destroyed virtually the whole building. The present palace was built in the days of Nicholas T., and was consecrated palace was burnt rebuilt

in 1849.

The main block of the

palace, the state

— MOSCOW

182

apartments, faces south, the

To

river.

is

what

The block

Palata, and

on the other

is left

at

the back of the

side of the palace courtyard,

of the old palace. is

very simple, and the

only two stories high.

In the palace are

exterior of the palace

is

windows looking over

the east of the building joms on the

old Granovitia building,

tlie

9 churches or chapels, 7 courts, and 700 rooms,

which can contain 20,000 persons.

As you

enter the palace, to the

left

are the

Imperial apartments, to the right a staircase, which joins the palace with the Cathedral of the tion,

and facing you the main

Annuncia-

staircase.

As you

turn to the right at the top of the staircase, you enter the St. George's Hall, about 80 by 25 yards.

The

walls are draped with the colours of the i-ibbon

of the Order of St. George, the principal Russian military

Order, corresponding

(in

some of the

grades) to our V.C., and on marble slabs let into

the walls are engraved of the

Order.

all

the names of the knights

The Order

of St.

founded by the Empress Catherine

From

George was

II. in 1769.

the St. George's Hall you pass into the

Alexander Hall

i.e.,

of the Order of St. Alexander

Nevsky, which was founded

in 1735.

The

furni-

ture and drapery of the walls are of the colour of

A SCENE IN

THE KREMLIN DURING THE CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR

THE KREMLIN

183

On

the ribbon of the Order, deep crimson. walls are pictures

incidents in the

by Professor Mailer

life

illustrating

of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Passing on, you come into the Hall,

the

St.

Andrew's

the walls of which are draped with pale

blue, the colour of the ribbon of the Order,

was founded

in

1698 by Peter

At

I.

which

the far

end of the room, on a slight elevation, are three thrones, used at the time of the recent corona-

by the Emperor and the two Empresses. There is a splendid view from the windows of this and the Alexander Hall across the river. Beyond the St. Andrew's Hall is the ChevalierGarde Room, where the guard of honour is stationed on the occasions of state reception. The walls are of white marble. From the Chevalier- Garde Room you enter the Catherine Hall. The Order of St. Catherine the Martyr was founded in 1814. tion

This

is

are draped initials

in

white

silk,

The

The throne

and the canopy

pillars of

is

is

on

of crimson

malachite are very fine and

costly, as also the crystal candelabra.

Empress's throne-room

walls

embroidered with the

of the Order (L. S. F. R.).

a slightly raised dais, velvet.

The

the Empress's throne-room.

is

Joining the

the state drawing-room,

in the Renaissance style, the walls

draped with

— MOSCOW

184 cloth of gold

on a green background. The Chinese

and Japanese candelabra are very handsome, as also the inlaid buhl tables.

Off the drawing-room are the state bedroom and

The

dressing-rooms.

latter are interesting, as

were made to show the

they

of the Russian car-

skill

penters, and take to pieces, there being virtually no

employed

nails

in

construction,

their

portion fitting accurately into

but

its position.

each

Beyond

the dressing-rooms comes the Winter Garden, in

which

and

is

a beautiful collection of tropical palms

plants.

From

Winter Garden you pass into the The drawing-room is heir-apparent's apartments. the

called the Silver chairs,

tables,

silver.

On

Room,

as

most of the objects

picture-frames,

etc.

—are

of pure

the walls are four very fine tapestries,

illustrating the adventures of

Don

Quixote.

of the furniture in the study and bedroom interesting

Some is

also

and of beautiful workmanship.

Passing on, one enters the old part of the palace,

and passing the

corridor, off

which are the rooms

of the maids of honour, you reach the small Golden Palata, or hall.

This was built by Feodor, son of

Ivan the Terrible, for

his bride Irene, sister of the

celebrated Boris Godunoff.

At one

time

this

was

THE KREMLIN

185

became that

the Patriarch's audience-chamber, but

Grand Duchesses and

of the

Tsaritsas.

The

walls

are decorated with frescoes, illustrating well-known

epochs in the history of Christianity.

From

you pass

Hall,

Golden Palata, or

the small

Tsaritsa's

into the Vladimir Hall, built in

honour of the Order of

St.

Vladimir, the walls

being of pink marble, and the emblems of the Order

on the

Red

The anterooms of

ceiling.

(or Beautiful) Staircase

Granovitia

The

Hall.

the hall lead to

and to the celebrated

walls

covered with

are

frescoes illustrating Biblical or historical scenes.

The

existing Beautiful Staircase

the great

fire

leads

built after

of 1737. Before then the old staircase

had a gilded roof over It

was

from

the

whereas

it,

Granovitia

now

it is

Palata

Cathedral of the Annunciation in three

The

old staircase

torical scene.

is

From

connected with

open.

to

flights.

many an

back from Divine service

;

historical

way

here they received the

Patriarchs and chief boyars, or nobles.

many an

his-

the staircase in old times the

Tsars distributed alms to the beggars on their

place

the

murder

Here took

in the troublous

times of past history, and along this staircase have passed

all

the Russian monarchs since the days of

Ivan 111. on their way to the Cathedral of the

MOSCOW

186

Assumption case

is

Now

for their coronation.

the stair-

used only for state entrances to the Cathedral

of the Assumption, and from

The Granovitia Palata was It

the

Emperor bows

on the square beneath.

to the people assembled

1487-1491.

it

was intended

built

by Ivan

for state functions, such

Ambassadors,

as the reception of foreign

III. in

etc.

Feodor, son of Ivan the Terrible, had the walls decorated with frescoes, in the quaint old Byzantine church-painting style.

Among them are representa-

tions of the creation of the

race

;

world and of the

human

the acts of David and Solomon, the story

of Joseph, and a series of portraits of the Russian

monarchs from the days of Rurik. However, the hall fell into a bad state of repair, and was done up again in 1882 by order of Alexander II.

In the middle of the hall

is

a large square pillar,

which supports the arches of the state function

is

roof.

When

to be held, or a procession

is

a to

pass through the hall, the shelves on this pillar are

decorated with silver vessels of gifts

all sorts.

These are

made by foreign monarchs to the Russian

Tsars and Emperors. ficent vessels are

At

other times these magni-

lodged in the Treasury.

English vessels are really superb, and assured by connoisseurs

who know

I

The

old

have been

our English

THlv COKO.NATION

OK THK h.MPhROR

THE KREMLIN

187

we have nothing

collections that

to be

compared

to the display in this the old capital of Russia.

In the

hall

a throne, and round the walls are

is

oak benches, carved

The

carpet

is

in the antique

Russian

style.

a very strange one, and has been

embroidered in old Russian designs by the nuns of the nunnery of St. John.

High up

in the wall

is

a semicircular window.

This looks into the hall from the women's rooms.

According to old Russian custom (which had been deeply affected by contact with the Tartars)

women

could not be present openly at men's carouses, debates,

As

etc.

the

window was constructed

ladies

to enable

hear, while they themselves apart.

were curious, the

remained

This historical chamber

the time of the coronation.

them

is

In

now it

to see

and

invisible

and

only used at

the

Emperor

receives the congratulations of his relations

and of

the representatives of foreign Powers, and here he

then dines in

state,

waited on by his nobles.

Going back along the anterooms and across the Vladimir Hall, one comes to the staircase leading up to the old palace,

which

gilt barrier.

Tei'em, or private portion of the

is

At

shut off from the main palace by a the foot of the staircase

church, which, as

it

is

also fenced off

is

a small

by a

gilt

MOSCOW

188 barrier,

known

is

behind the Gilt church, and

as *the

Church of our Saviour This was

Barrier.'

over the Tsaritsa's Palata.

is

by the Tsar Michael

built

palace

the

in 1635,

It

was

but has been

redecorated several times since then, the last occasion being in the time of Nicholas

the renovations have

Fortunately,

I.

been carefully carried out,

all

harmonize with the

in the old style, to

rest of the

In the church are some ancient icons of

church.

the fifteenth-century style, brought from Byzan-

tium, according to tradition, by Sophia Pakcologus.

The and

is

old

Terem Palace

is

a five-storied building,

a perfect example of an old Russian princely

wooden

The

building.

old palace

was

built

by the

Tsar Michael early in the seventeenth century.

The

first

ceiling of all

room which

is

—

the dining-room, the walls and all in

small arches

—are

painted

over, as also are the quaint ancient stoves.

the windows talc,

— diamond

and the

floor

is

panes

— instead

very curious.

of glass,

Then

In is

follows

the Council Chamber, also decorated with wallpaintings. its

Beyond

this

is

the Throne- Room, with

ancient furniture, and the old chair used by

Tsar Michael.

The

walls are painted red, picked

out lavishly with gold.

On

are paintings of our Lord,

the arches of the roof

and representations of

HERALDS ANNOUNCIXG THE CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR

THE KREMLIN

189

the coats of arms of the princedoms and districts of

In a silver coffer

Russia.

ment about the

is

preserved the docu-

election of INIichael

Romanoff

in

1613 to be Tsar of Russia, and the founder of the present Russian dynasty.

Another

coffer con-

tains the royal decrees for the foundation of the

When

Patriarchate in Russia.

Peter the Great

was strong enough, he did away with the Patri-

The power

archate.

of

the

Patriarchs as sole

heads of the Russo-Greek Church was enormous,

and often clashed with that of the Tsar, generally to the advantage of the Church.

have any

rivals, so

Peter would not

he constituted himself

Head

of

the Church, abolished the post of Patriarch, and instead appointed as co-heads of the

Church the

Metropolitans of Kiev, Moscow, and Petersburg.

He

thoroughly understood the old

maxim Divide '

work was completed by the appointment of a layman to be Procureur of the Holy Synod. There is no doubt that the little old rooms of the Terem Palace are far more interesting in every way than tlie modern building. Looking at the et

impera,'

and

his

plain little rooms, one can hardly realize that this

was the palace of a powerful and haughty race of monarchs.

MOSCOW

190

From

Throne-Room one

the

bedroom, which

is

passes into the state

quite a small room, with

The

square four-poster carved wooden bed. silken coverlet

is

historical, as it

Emperor of China. Off the bedroom is a small

was a

gift

a

old

from an

old

oratory, with various

ancient icons and a fine old manuscript Testament.

From

the oratory runs a small corridor, which

really a gallery,

whence one looks down on a

narrow room below.

is

long,

Tradition says that the old

Tsars and Princes used to use this gallery for the

purpose of having a good look at the ladies of the Court,

By

who used

the

room below

promenade.

as a

Court etiquette, the men saw but the

ladies, so that

could see

how

gallery upstairs

little

venient conning-tower,

little

of the

was a con-

whence the young Princes

the ladies looked

in

their indoor

garments.

To to

see the present Imperial apartments, one has

return to the main entrance of

Passing through the vestibule, the dining-room.

pine-wood

The

first

the palace.

room

walls are of yellow marble

furniture

is

very

handsome

bcautifid workmanship, and there are

is

the

;

the

and

of

some hand-

some statues. Next is the drawing-room, a white room, with

'^^^NS^^-'^SBirf

A DROSHKV DRIVER KISSING HIS HORSE GOOD-MORNING

THE KREMLIN Louis XIV. furniture, and

The

vases.

inlaid

many

191

beautiful Sevres

doors are of

great beauty.

Thence across an anteroom one enters the Empress's study, the furniture of which is old buhl,

Next is the room of the ladiesin-waiting, with walnut- wood furniture, and beyond that the bed- and dressing-rooms, in which are some and

is

magnificent.

very ancient icons in valuable settings.

The Emperor's study

is

very plainly furnished

with bookshelves and ordinary leather

Beyond

this are a

chairs, etc.

reception-room and the rooms

for the Imperial children.

CHAPTER XVll THE TREASURY,

The '

Treasury,

or, as

Palace of Arms,'

is

it

called in Russian, the

a separate block

palace, but one can enter

At

is

ETC.

from the

from the Winter Garden.

the entrance, in the vestibule, are Peter the

some small guns of the

Great's carpenter's lathe,

time of PugatchefF's Insurrection in 1774, and some suits of

armour of the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries. suits of

On

the walls of the staircase are more

armour and some

collection in the

The most

historical pictures.

Throne-Room

is

most

The

interesting.

Monomakh's cap, which was sent by the Emperor of Byzantium in 1116 to the Prince Vladimir Monomakh. The top is of sable, and it is richly ancient relic

is

the celebrated

embroided with pearls and precious stones. the cap of the Tsar Michael (1()27)

and unusually large emerald. is

is

In

a magnificent

John's cap (1G87)

almost entirely of diamonds, there being more

than 900 stones. 192

THE TREASURY, The Imperial crown

has in

it

ETC.

193

a wonderfully fine

and large ruby, which was purchased

There are besides various other

Pekin.

1676 in

in

historical

caps or crowns, such as that of the last King of

Kazan, that of the Kings of Georgia, and the Maltese crown, presented by the Maltese to Paul

m

I.

1798.

There

is

also a fine collection of sceptres

The most

staffs.

and

interesting thrones are the ivory

one sent to John III. by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Palaeologus

;

the diamond throne pre-

Michailovitch by the

sented to the Tsar Alexis

Armenian Commercial Society in 1659 and the Persian throne sent to Boris GodunofF in 1605 by the then Shah of Persia Abbas. There are also ;

various

coronation robes

and

uniforms.

It

is

interesting to notice on the breast of the coronation

tunic of the

Emperor the

unbuttoned at the due time under which

may

is

square, which

little

in the service,

the bare skin, that the

be anointed with the holy

is

and

Emperor

oil.

In the Trophy Hall are various thrones, also a large collection of flags, captured

Poles,

from the French,

and Hungarians, the keys of various Turkish

and Polish

fortresses,

and

portraits

Russian Emperors and Empresses.

It

of is

various

gratifying 13

MOSCOW

194

that there

to notice

to British visitors

is

not a

single British flag exhibited here as a trophy of

war.

1

beheve that only one British

flag

was

captured during the Crimean War, and that was

from a pinnace of one of our warships, which was This flag was sent

blown ashore during a storm. to to

Moscow, but the Emperor would not allow it be exhibited, as it was not taken by Russian

prowess.

but

it is

I

believe

preserved in the Treasury,

it is

not shown.

In the Silver Hall

is

a magnificent collection of

silver vessels of all sorts, gifts

some Russian and others

from various nations.

Chernigoff's

dimensions

—

drinking-cup it is

remarkable for

is

15 inches in diameter.

lection

of foreign

assured

by many

English

Prince Vladimir of

silver

is

travellers

collections

that

magnificent.

its

The

col-

I

am

who know our own we have nothing in

England that can compare with the display of old English silver ware exhibited here, all being presents to the Russian Tsars and also

some

portraits

Emperors.

and statues

The remaining

halls

There are

in the hall.

on the upper story are

mainly devoted to collections of armour, weapons,

and saddlery. is

One

of the most interesting objects

the helmet and coat-of-mail of Prince YaroslafF,

.^--- -^i.-i,^

BELL-RINGLKS

THE TREASURY, which was found on the

ETC.

field

of the Battle of

Lipetz, which took place in 1216.

two-pointed sword, Ali.

On

one who

it,

'

195

Another

the

Zulphigar,' which belonged to

in Persian,

is

engraved

:

'

brave save Ali, and there

is

is

There is

no

is

no sword

The saddles presented by the Sultan Abdul-Hamid to the Empress Catherine II.

save Zulphigar.'

in 1775,

and by Selim

in 1793, are very

handsome,

and are studded with large emeralds, turquoises, etc.

In the adjacent armour,

much

halls

of which

is

are

fine

historical,

and of carpets

and ancient saddlery, bows and arrows, quivers,

Here

is

also

shown Peter the

of

collections

Great's bed and

etc.

camp

equipment, also the throne of Khivar, which was captured by the Russian troops in 1873.

The old state carriages in Hall 8 are very fine, some of them being of English workmanship. One of these was used by the Empress Elizabeth for her journeys Another, to and from Moscow and Petersburg. presented by Count Razumovsky to the Empress Elizabeth,

is

striking for

its

enormous dimensions.

In the Town- Hall are two of Napoleon's camp-beds,

which were captured at the battle of Berezina

in

1812, and two of his dinner services, captured at

the same time, of most beautiful workmanship.

— MOSCOW

196

There coins.

From

the word

means

also a fine collection of old

is

to

'

'

The Russian verb roubeet The silver was carried about

rouble.'

hack

of a certain

The

the bar.

one sees the origin of

this collection

off.'

long thin bars,

in

and the rouble was a piece which

thickness

was

'

hacked

off'

and weight of the old copper

size

and bronze coins

Russian

enormous, and must have been

is

most inconvenient. Adjoining the Treasury the

'

is

a quaint old building

Poteshny Dvorets,' or Palace of Amusement.

This was built by the Tsar Michael early in the seventeenth century as the palace theatre, and was

used for mummers, jugglers, '

Peter

I.

built a

Temple of Comedy,' which was then used

as the

palace theatre, the old

'

etc.

Poteshny Dvorets

converted into a police bureau. of the eighteenth century

temporary residence at

Moscow, and

official

since 1806

residence

Kremlin.

for the

of

the

it

being

About the middle fitted up as a

was

Empress, it

'

if

she stopped

has been used as the

Commandant

of

the

CHAPTER

XVIII

PICTURE-GALLERIES, ETC.

Close

Kremlin

to the

of St. Barbara. past

times,

In this

is

an interesting reUc of

Romanoff boyars building was the town house of

the house of the

This old

(nobles).

the Varvarka, or the Street

is

Nikita Romanoff, whose son Feodor was the father of Michael Romanoff, who, as a lad of sixteen, was

by the Zevisky Sobor, or Meeting of the Land, in Moscow in 1613 as Tsar of Russia, and so was the first of the present Russian reigning dynasty.

elected

Michael's father, Feodor, became, under the

of

*

Philarett,' Patriarch

title

of the Russian Church,

which was of enormous advantage to

his son, the

youthful Tsar.

This old building only is

is it

is

doubly interesting, for not

Romanoff family, but it boyar's house in Moscow.

the cradle of the

the only existing old

The house

is

built

up the

side of the

hill,

so that

from the street it is but one-storied, whereas at the back of the building there are three stories. 197

MOSCOW

198

Everywhere one rampant

sees

The

lion.

the

Romanoff

ground-floor

is

the

crest,

occupied by

store-rooms, ice-cellar, kitchen, and servants' rooms.

The

kitchen

place

The

is

is

large

roomy apartment, and the

fire-

enough to have cooked a whole

story

first

a

is

ox.

The

occupied by five rooms.

rooms are long and very narrow, with talc instead hence they are rather of glass in the windows ;

dark.

The

first

room was the family chapel, which,

however, was only used on great

some ancient icons and round the room are various are

and

articles

belonging to

Next

was the oratory, which was used daily prayer.

Here

crosses,

and Michael Romanoff.

Philarett

festivals.

in cases

to this

for family

In the living-rooms are preserved a

lection of historical articles sticks, Michael's sceptre,

—

seals,

sword,

etc.

col-

combs, clothing,

Then come two

small rooms for the children, one the boys' room,

and the other

for

the

girls.

The bedroom and wooden Terem, and

ladies'

apartments are in the

here

a fair collection of ladies' garments, looking-

is

glasses, etc.

All the furniture and objects shown

are strictly historical, but the building itself has

much restored, though the renovations have been made with care, to fit in with the spirit of the

been

old house.

PICTURE-GALLERIES, ETC. It

199

was the custom that the boyar who was noble

another

visiting

should

bow low

he

as

However, a noble of higher

entered the room.

rank would not demean himself by bowing to another of inferior birth to himself.

Old Nikita

Romanoff, however, made up

that every-

his

mind

body should bow who came to see him, and carefully had the door into his study made less than five feet high, so that it

was impossible to enter

his

presence except in a bowing attitude, or by falling

on one's knees.

In either case the old gentleman's

was

pride of race

gratified.

Tradition says that Michael Romanoff, the

first

of the present Russian dynasty, was born in this

quaint

little

question

Anyhow,

has, this

buildings in see

it

old house on the Varvarka

never

believe,

I

been

;

but the decided.

quite one of the most interesting

is

Moscow, and

thoroughly in

another street just

off

less

so small that one can

is

than half an hour.

the Kremlin, the Nikolskaia,

or Street of St. Nicholas,

is

a

handsome

structure,

painted blue, with a very fine Gothic facade. is

the printing-office of the

built in 1645.

The

In

This

Holy Synod, and was

present building was almost

entirely reconstructed in 1814, but the original archi-

tectural

features

were carefully reproduced.

In

MOSCOW

200

the library

preserved the very

is

of the Apostles

'

— that was ever

first

book

—

'

Acts

printed in Russia.

This historic work was printed and finished on

March It

1564, by a deacon

1,

named Ivan

Feodoroff.

printed in large type, clear and good.

is

FeodorofF died in poverty, forgotten by tion, in the

town of LvofF

printing-press

but

in 1583,

been erected to of

ing-office

his genera-

now

his old

preserved in this building as a

is

monument

valuable relic of the past, and a just

Ivan

the

his

Synod

memory.

This

furnishes

has

print-

nearly

all

Russia with Bibles and religious books of various sorts.

What jects

especially interesting to British sub-

that

is

street

is

over the main

entrance from

on the walls figure our British

unicorn

;

lion

the

and

the shield, however, has been removed.

The

walls of the building are green, whereas the

lion

and unicorn are painted white, so that they

stand out well.

I

have never been able to ascertain

any true account of how they came to be placed there.

I

asked Professor Zabielin,

authority on ancient

who

Moscow, and

his

is

the great

suggestion

was that the building originally belonged to the Romanoff family, who put up on it their family crest, Under the influence of foreign the rampant lion.

PICTURE-GALLERIES, ETC. ideas,

201

he suggests that they added the unicorn to

balance the shield and look more symmetrical.

asked the celebrated General TrepofF, chief of the certainly

merely

Moscow

feasible,

his

own

and

police,

his explanation

He

supposition.

when he was

he added,

though, as

I

it

is

was

said that in old

times the Nikolskaia was called the Posolskaia, or

Ambassador

and

Street,

that

all

the

foreign

Legates and Envoys used to put up there. theory was that in

Envoy had stopped

all

probability

some

in the building in years

His

British

gone by,

and had put up the British arms, of which now only the lion and unicorn remain.

Opposite the Kremlin Palace, on the other side of the river,

is

the celebrated Tretiakoff Picture-

It was

Gallery.

originally the private collection of

Mr. P. Tretiakoff, a Moscow sented

it

and the building

millionaire.

it is

in to the

He

pre-

town of

Moscow, and he and his brother left a large sum of money for the upkeep of the gallery, and also for buying new lection

In

pictures.

of pictures

it

there

by foreign

is

a small col-

painters,

but the

generality are from the brushes of Russian artists,

commencing with those of the eighteenth century, in all about 3,000 pictures. The gallery is well worth

visiting,

were

it

only for the purpose of

MOSCOW

202

seeing the collection of paintings and sketches

His pictures of

Verestchagin. are splendid

—nothing

Englishmen

sketches and studies.

by

in Central Asia

could be better than the

gates at Samarkhand, etc. cially to

life

—but what appeals espe-

is

a large series of Indian

Verestchagin was,

I

think,

two years in India, and his Indian sketches are very typical, and appeal strongly to anyone who has ever been in the East in general, or

in India in particular.

His large paintings of the snows in India real objects of his

Indian trip

—the

— are truly magnificent,

but unfortunately they are not in the TretiakofF Gallery.

Verestchagin's pictures and studies are

the

ones one sees on entering the gallery.

first

Even

in

some of

his pictures

vein of melancholy which in Russian music, art, etc.

in the

one

human

soul

—quite

is

I

one finds traces of the nearly always present

suppose

it is

possibly an unconscious

—to the cruel climate, the horrors of the Tartar

yoke,

and the

state

of

repression

the

Russian knows and suffers under, which this vein of

what all

the echo

melancholy.

average calls

out

However, be the reason

may, one nearly always examples of Russian art. it

finds

it

present in

Aivazovsky's sea-scapes are also well represented,

and worthily

so, in

the gallery.

His treatment of

PICTURE-GALLERIES, ETC. storms in the Black Sea, surf and sea

«08 effects, is

often magnificent.

woodland scenes are also lovely. The has its own rugged beauty, which does

Shishkin's pine-forest

not always appeal to inhabitants of milder climates.

However, Shishkin has managed to catch

the

rugged sternness of the northern landscape, and, it

as

were, at the same time to put forward Nature's

down and

Anymore charming than the picture of the bear-cubs in the forest glade would be hard

toning

softening of the harshness.

thing, for instance,

to imagine.

A picture in quite another tion also.

This

his son,

the

Ivan had

Son.'

his

and

in a

Ivan

'

lost

his

point entered by the

inflicted a terrible

young man died

atten-

in his fury hurled his iron-

The

tipped staff at his head.

temple and

demands

Riepin's celebrated canvas,

is

the Terrible and

temper with

style

wound, from which

The

few minutes.

artist

has represented Ivan supporting his son on the

ground

in his

summer

palace at Kolomna, and try-

ing vainly to stop the terrible rush of blood. There is

blood everywhere

picture.

However,

the face of Ivan anguish,

is

—in it

is

fact, it is

an

a most revolting

historical scene,

well worth a study

:

and

the horror,

and remorse are wonderfully depicted,

MOSCOW

204

and yet the face also expresses fanaticism and fury.

Everything that went wrong with Ivan in

God

years he always attributed to

marriage with

Lady Mary

Terem Palace

in

Moscow,

in

little

I

rooms

in the

rushed a messenger

and flung himself down with ground.

for his

Hastings, and conduct-

ing affairs of State in one of the old

punishing him

While Ivan was arranging

for this crime.

after-

head on the

his

expect the messenger was in a state of

was a risky business communicating unpleasant news to Ivan, who was apt to become

terror, for it

furious and

work

off his fury

on the nearest person,

often the unfortunate messenger. at last to speak, the

When

ordered

messenger tremblingly an-

nounced that there had been a

terrific

thunder-

wooden summer palace at Kolomna had been struck by lightning and had

storm,

that the old

been burnt to the ground.

God

noted

this as the finger of

livid,

and he attempted to

was

raised,

ended

Ivan's brain at once ;

rise,

his features

became

but collapsed.

He

but was suffering from a stroke, which

his life in a

few minutes.

Another interesting small picture an historical event in the

life

also depicting

of Ivan the Terrible

deserves notice, partly for interest of the scene,

PICTURE-GALLERIES, ETC. which also as

One

I believe, historically

is,

205

correctly drawn, but

an example of Ivan's extraordinary cruelty.

of his leading nobles had revolted, and had

fled to

Poland

for safety.

Thence he sent a mes-

senger with a letter for Ivan. sents Ivan

and

his suite

The

picture repre-

on the Beautiful Staircase

of the Kremlin, Ivan, as usual, leaning on his

with a sardonic smile on his grim features.

staff,

On

the

step below stands the messenger, proudly reading

the letter of the revolted noble. the

picture

is

that

Ivan,

partly

cruelty and partly possibly to for his noble, has carefully

The

interest of

from inherent

show

his

contempt

put the point of

his

iron-shod staff on the instep of the messenger on

the step below, and, by leaning on the

staff,

driven the point through the foot and pinned

the stair steps.

;

the blood

The

cruel smile

artist

is

dripping

down

has it

to

to the lower

has excellently depicted Ivan's

and the haughty bearing of the mesfrom beginning to end

senger, reading the letter

without a tremble in

his

voice, in

excruciating pain he was undergoing.

spite of the

CHAPTER XIX KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES,

The

original walls of the

ETC.

Kremlin were wooden,

but they were constantly suffering from the terrible fires

which time

The

old fortress, or Kremlin,

after

time devastated the town.

was protected on the south by the river on the north and west by the swampy stream, the Neglinia and on the west by ;

;

a very deep moat, which was also

filled

by the

Neglinia.

The

great

fire

of 1367 burnt

down

the whole

—

town and also its protection the wooden walls of Acting on the advice of the Metrothe KremUn. politan Alexis and of the nobles, the then Prince

Dmitry Donskoi, resolved to construct The Russians, however, understood stone walls.

of Moscow,

but

little

did

not

about building with brick or stone, and

know how

to

select

good

materials, so

Towards century Ivan HI. had the

that the stone walls did not last long.

the close of the fifteenth old walls

knocked down, and new stone ones con206

THE RED (or REAUTIFUl) STAIRCASE OF THE KREMLIN.

(Page 27)

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, structed,

ETC.

207

under the superintendence of Italian archi-

These old walls are those we see now, but,

tects.

of course, they have repeatedly been repaired since

On

then.

the walls are built nineteen towers, and

there are five gates. old towers

that there

is

having been a beautiful

One

interesting thing in these

no trace of there ever

is

Of

portcullis.

the towers the most

the Saviour Tower, built over the gate

is

of the same

name (Spassky

Gate).

The tower

is

about 62 metres in height, crowned with the two-

headed

eagle.

The lower

part of the tower, the

gateway, was built in 1491, during the reign of

Ivan

III.,

by a Milanese

architect,

who put up

Latin inscription over the gateway to that

The upper

a

effect.

part of the tower, of Gothic architec-

tural style,

was

1626 by a Scotsman of

built in

name of Galloway. The Scotch have played no mean

the

history and

development of Russia.

part in the

Peter the

Great brought back with him a number of Scotch gentry to help him in reorganizing the Russian

army, and the tradition

is

that he kept

them

in

the country by the simple process of never giving

them any money with which they might leave. However, many of them seem to have married Russian heiresses, and

we

find their successors

and

MOSCOW

208

descendants

now thorough Russian landed names

often with their

guise that

so altered in their Russian

difficult to recognize

it is

gentry,

the well-known General Klegels

is

Thus

them.

of Scotch origin.

In Revel you will find the old Scotch firm of Henry Clayhills

and Sons, and the Russian General

descendant of the original Henry Clayhills started the branch in Revel. '

is

a

who

Again, the celebrated

Russian poet LermontofF was of Scotch descent, '

and of the ancient family of Learmont of Lear-

mont Towers. from Thomas

Lermontoff claimed the

When

works. while in

Rhymer, who

he wrote

his

direct descent

figures in Scott's

well-known

verses,

on the Caucasus, saying how he

exile

longed to tread

his native

native mountain

air,

heaths and breathe his

LermontofF was certainly not

speaking of Russia, but of Scotland.

The

celebrated

General Min, of the SemenofF Regiment of the Guards,

who put down

lution of 1905

was

really a

of his relations are registered sulate.

His

father

came

real

name was Main, and

to Russia, and

subject, stayed

on

Moscow RevoScotsman, and many in the Moscow Con-

the so-called

his

grand-

becoming a Russian

in the country.

For some two

or three generations the Governors of Smolensk, a

fairly

large

town near Moscow, were

Leslies.

KREMLIN WALLS, CHUJICHES, ETC.

209

They

are

since

they arrived in Russia, and have now,

beheve,

fortunate in

having their family tree I

been able to prove their descent from

Old Mr. Leslie of Smo-

the old Scotch Leslies. lensk was very

much

surprised

when he

learned

that the I^eslie family itself was not really Scotch,

but Hungarian, the original knight Leislaus having

come over

as chamberlain in the suite of

the Lion's

Hungarian

bride.

William

He was made

knight of Scotland for saving the Queen's

life

a in

fording a river in spate, and the old Leslie shield,

with

its

three buckles and the motto

'

Grip

fast,'

commemorates how she was saved by gripping

fast

hold of her faithful chamberlain's belt while riding in a pillion

behind him.

In Finland you will find troops of Ramsays and other Scotch names, and Scotch names abound in Russia.

The

celebrated

General SkobelefF was

supposed to be a descendant of the good old Scotch family of Scobel.

In old days the religious processions

left

the

Kremlin by the Spassky Gate and entered by the same, the Patriarch mounted on a donkey, which

was led by the Tsar, bareheaded, along the road, which was covered with

strips

of scarlet cloth.

Over the external wall of the gateway

is

suspended 14

MOSCOW

210

an icon of our Saviour, which was hung there by

The Tsar ordained

Alexis JNIichailovitch in 1626.

man

that no

should pass througli the gateway

without uncovering his head, and that decree still

in force.

I

when

believe that

is

the Russian

Landsturm, under Minin and Pojarsky, drove the Poles, in September, 1612, out of the

Kremlin and

then from Moscow, the attack on the Kremlin w^as

headed by the Patriarch

the

(or

made on

carrying this same icon, and was

Spassky Gate.

As

*

the

the expulsion of the Poles

enabled the Russians to Sohor, or

Metropolitan)

in

call

Council of the Land,'

1613 a Zemsky

who then

elected

young Michael Romanoff to be Tsar, it is highly probable that Michael's son Alexis would have the icon placed over the scene of the successful attack w^hich

paved the way

for his father to

come

to the throne,

as also that

he should ordain that every man should

uncover

head when he passed under the

his

icon.

This beautiful gateway and tower had a narrow

Napoleon ordered

escape from destruction in 1812. the building to be undermined

were placed lit

in position,

as the last of the

;

barrels of

powder

and the slow matches were

French mo\'ed

nately, the Cossacks galloped

up

out.

Fortu-

just in time, and

extinguished the matches at the risk of their

lives.

>'.>'^«'-*»^^

THE SPASSKV (SAVIOUR) GATE OF THE KREMLIN

Plan

of

Kremlin NICHOLAS TOWER and

GATE

Spot where Grand Duke Serge was killed by bomb,

SPASSKY rowiR and GATE

BOROVITSKY

TOWER «.GATE

1.

Cathedral of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin.

2.

Cathedral of the Annunciation.

3.

Belfry.

4.

Cathedral of Michael the Archangel.

5.

Chudoff Monastery.

6.

Nunnery.

7.

Small Nikolai Palace.

8.

Winter Garden, with roadway under Monument of Alexander 11.

9.

it.

MOSCOW

212

Another of the towers of the Kremlin, the one over the Nicholas Gateway, was not so fortunate. It also was undermined and fired by the retreating French, more than half of

it

being destroyed.

Over the gateway is an inscription which states that, though the gate and tower were destroyed, the icon of St. Nicholas, the miracle-worker, which was absolutely untouched. The old walls themselves are most picturesque, with their

hung

there,

battlements.

Now that

front has been filled side

the moat along the western

in,

the river on the southern

enclosed with an embankment, and a raised

boulevard under the actual walls, and the old moat

on the west and north partly

filled

in

and con-

verted into a public garden, the old walls have naturally lost considerably in appearance, and prob-

ably

now seem

originally ever, even

only about half the height they

were above the

soil at their base.

now, on the western

places they stand

up

finely.

side,

The

old towers and

bastions are wonderfully picturesque turrets

and roofs of

How-

in one or two

;

with their

(juaint old green tiles,

they

present a thoroughly ancient and Asiatic appear-

coming from the bustling and very modern Ilinka and Nikolskaia

ance.

It

is

a

strange effect,

Streets to cross the road, pass under the old gate-

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES,

ETC.

You

ways, and enter the peaceful Kremlin. in a

213 are

second carried back two or more hundred

The

years.

effect

is

when

the same as

you turn from the busy thoroughfares ful and ancient cathedral close. Approaching the Kremlin, one

is

in

England

into a peace^

somewhat

pre-

pared for the transition by crossing the so-called Place Rouge,

or, as it

should be named, the Beautiful

This fine open space

Square.

by the ancient Kremlin walls

is ;

bounded on the west on the east are the

splendid Riadi, or arcades, built in 1893 for com-

mercial purposes, but in old Russian style of architecture, so that they are

by no means out of sympathy

with the other surroundings of the square. north

the fine Imperial historical

lies

To

the

museum,

a

rather heavy-looking red-brick building, in the old

Russian style of the sixteenth century, constructed, however, only in 1875-1883. square

is

The other

face of the

occupied by a really wonderful, almost

unique, building

— the

Beatified, of marvellous

sixteenth century.

the church

is

Church of

Basil

the

Russian architecture of the

The

as follows

St.

origin of the building of :

When

John the Terrible

returned to Moscow, after subduing the last Tartar

kingdom and capturing Kazan, he determined to build eight churches on the Place Rouge, to com-

MOSCOW

214

memorate the names of the his eight

built

main victorious

saints of the days of

battles.

He

accordingly

one stone church and seven wooden ones.

However, the Tsar was not

with them,

satisfied

and resolved to replace the wooden churches with

He summoned two

stone buildings.

of the best

Russian architects of the day, and ordered them to prepare plans.

These architects completely altered

the whole plan of the churches by suggesting, stead

of

the eight originally intended

in-

separate

churches, to build one large church, and round

attached to

it,

it,

and forming one symmetrical and

stately whole, to

group eight small churches.

The

plan was approved by the Tsar, and the nine-

domed church was

built in 1555-1559.

has repeatedly suffered from

fires,

at various times been renovated.

tion

The church

etc.,

The

last restora-

was completed but a short time

was entrusted to and looked Archaeological Society,

who

after

The

result has

the sole fault one can find

years they

It

by the Moscow

work most exactly

been very satisfactory

is

restored part look too new. will

since.

carefully studied the

old archives, and had the old

reproduced.

and has

;

that the colours of the

However,

in a

few

tone down.

In 1812 the French used the beautiful old church

NOTHE DAME D

lUEIllA

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, ETC. as a stable,

and looted everything that the clergy

had not had time to remove.

much

215

Napoleon was very

However,

struck with the fine old church.

his military instincts gained the upper hand, and

he decided that, as fire,

it

interfered with the line of

should be blown up.

it

Accordingly,

it

was

undermined, and preparations made for destroying Fortunately, the Cossacks arrived in time to

it.

save

from destruction.

it

Tradition says in coiniection vnth the old church that Ivan the Terrible was very

and sent

the building,

him

much

He

asked

there was another similar church anywhere,

if

to which the architect replied no, as idea,

pleased with

for the architect.

it

was

his

and he had never constructed another.

then asked

if

such another church could be

and the architect replied that he was the

who

person

own Ivan

built,

sole

could construct such a church, and

that, of course,

he could build another.

Ivan calmly replied

:

'

Put

his eyes out,

On

this,

and then

such another church can never be made.' This

tradition

is

very likely characteristic of

summary method

Ivan's believe

it is

of settling matters, but I

not true in this instance, and that the

architect built another church in the

South of Russia.

on very similar

lines

MOSCOW

216

Almost opposite the

old church

early

first historical

the Terrible

in

sixteenth

the

mention of

made

it

is

a small round

This was con-

stone structure, absolutely plain. structed

is

The

century.

that from

Ivan

it

to his assembled people a public

confession of repentance for his misdeeds, and pro-

mised to rule properly for the future. days

was a round brick

it

high, surrounded with a

roof supported on

structure,

wooden

pillars.

In those

some ten

and with a

fence,

In 1786

was faced

it

Ever

with rough stone, and the roof taken away. since the time of cessions

old

its

construction

sent ascends the present.

all religious

from the Kremlin have stopped

Lobnoe Mi^sto, and the

From

steps

feet

pro-

at this the

chief clergyman pre-

and blesses

the

people

the steps the Tsar led, bareheaded,

the donkey on which the Patriarch rode

;

and here

the Patriarchs distributed to the Tsar and his nobles

sprays of consecrated palm on

the days of Peter the Great

Palm Sunday.

all

edicts

Till

and decrees

were read aloud to the people from the Lobno^ Mi^sto here the Tsar presented himself once every ;

year to his people, and here he presented to the

people his heir-apparent as soon as the latter was sixteen years of age.

It

was never used

as a place

of public execution, but the executions took place

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, round

it.

ETC.

Tradition says that the furious

217

mob

some unfortunate French who happened to be found on the streets when the news of Napoleon's advance on Moscow became public property. This, however, would seem to tore to pieces here

have been an isolated

were treated

the

in

As a rule the prisoners most humane manner. The case.

landed gentry took them into their houses, and the

French

soldier,

who might have been

a groom, or

bootblack, or anything, suddenly found himself a

person of position

— the

French teacher of the

family, and the instructor as concerns le

bon

ton.

Not

marrying their are

still

manners and

a few of these prisoners ended by

and

fair pupils,

their descendants

Russian landed gentry.

There are numerous legends current concerning the stay of the French in churches.

Thus,

it is

Moscow and

said that the

the Russian

French stabled

a cavalry regiment in the Cathedral of the As-

sumption.

Here

is

a splendid solid-silver

one of the old Metropolitans. this

tomb remained

of value was looted silver

from

intact,

tomb of

The legend how

whereas everything

—they carried

else

off five tons of

ware and nearly one-third of a ton of gold this cathedral alone

—

is

that

when they

ap-

proached the tomb, Ughtning came out and played

MOSCOW

218

around

;

eeased.

wlien they retreated from

Tims

St.

the tomb,

Peter protected his

it

tomb from

desecration.

Napoleon was so struck with the beauty, symmetry, and original design of the Church of the

Assumption of the Holy Virgin on the Maroseika Street that he placed a guard near sentries posted all

round

it,

to protect

m

and had

from being

The church was

looted or injured in any way. built either

it

the reign of Ivan the Terrible or

of Boris Godunoff, but the absolute date

is

not

known.

Another church connected with Napoleon and the French invasion

Our Saviour on the Kremlin.

is

the beautiful cathedral of

the banks of the river a

as a thanksgiving offering to

of the nation from is

above

This magnificent structure was built

by the Russian Emperors out of

cathedral

little

the

their private purse,

God

French

for the

freedom

invasion.

The

a fine example of the so-called Russo-

Byzantine style of architecture.

The

original idea

was to build the cathedral on the Sparrow Hills, the highest ground in or near Moscow, and to the south-west of the town on the bank of the

Moskva. According to the plan of the architect Witberg,

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, the cathedral was to have

770

building,

feet

219

been a three-storied

height.

in

ETC.

Tiie

foundation-

stone was laid in October, 1817, with great cere-

mony. years,

However,

working

for

over eight

and expending more than 4,000,000 roubles,

the architects soil

after

came

to the final conclusion that the

on the Sparrow Hills was too uncertain to

sustain

the weight

another

site

of

had to be

the great

building,

and

selected.

A B C D

Small side domes

A new plan was drawn up, and was approved by the

Emperor Nicholas

tion-stone 1839.

The

was

laid,

I.

1832

cathedral, however,

the building, except a

Russian, and

all

the

;

and the founda-

again with great ceremony, in

and consecrated in 1881.

workmen.

in

was only completed

The

little

materials used for

of the marble,

is

all

work was executed by Russian

MOSCOW

220

The sided

cathedral

and

cross

built in the shape of an eight-

is

supported by thirty-six huge

is

On

eight-sided pillars. sides

is

each of the four shorter

a small cupola, while in the centre

lofty circular

is

tower surmounted by a huge

a

gilt

There are twelve doors, three on each of

cupola.

Over the doors

the four main sides of the cross.

and on the walls

are

raised

groups,

sculpture

representing incidents from the Scriptures or from

the lives of various saints. Inside the doors one finds oneself in a broad corridor,

On

which runs right round the building.

the walls of the corridor are a series of white marble slabs,

on which,

descriptions

in letters of gold,

of the

are inscribed

various engagements

of the

Napoleonic invasion of Russia and the names and rank of those

who

on the Russian

fell

side in each

engagement. Passing along the corridor, one enters the actual cathedral, leries

is

rests

upstairs run

corridors.

and

which

The

on four huge

pillars.

Gal-

round the cathedral over the

interior of the building

is

well

lit,

beautifully, but not gaudily, decorated with

wall-paintings and designs marbles.

The

exquisite design.

reredos

The

of

in

various

white

coloured

marble

is

of

wall-paintings are magnifi-

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, and are

cent,

artists,

four of

\''erestchagin.

central

dome

work of some of

tlie

is

221

Russia's best

them being from the brush of The painting of the Trinity in the unfortunately rapidly fading. The

height to the top of the central

and each face of the cathedral

The

ETC.

inside of the cathedral

dome

is

340

is

270 feet long.

is

far

more

feet,

beautiful

than that of any of the other churches or cathedrals in JMoscow,

and

is

well

lit

the charm of antiquity.

huge but

;

but, of course,

The

it

has not

external view of the

symmetrical white building, with

its

golden domes, glistening in the sun, standing out against the bright blue sky, is

surrounded by a

is

superb.

fairly extensive

laid-out garden, so that one can

whole building and admire It

is

it

The building and

tastefully

walk round the

from different

points.

interesting to find that the Russians tell the

same legend about the

selection of its present site

as the natives of India tell

about the selection of

the site of the celebrated bridge at Attock. will assure

you that the

site

originally selected for the bridge

from the spot where

When

it

They

the British engineers

was some way

was ultimately constructed.

the materials began to be collected,

it

was

always found in the morning that they had been miraculously transported to the spot where the

MOSCOW

222 bridge

now

This excited the curiosity of

stands.

the engineers,

who made

soundings, and found at

this particular spot a rock in the

middle of the

on which the central supports of the bridge now rest. This, of course, was clear proof to the native mind that this was the work of the river-

river,

god,

who had

tection,

taken the British under his pro-

and had adopted

them the

best site

means of showing

this

the construction of the

for

bridge.

Similarly,

when

this cathedral

was to have been

built

on the top of the Sparrow

that

some mysterious agency regularly

Hills,

some of the materials from the then that where the cathedral it

now

are told

transferred

selected site to

stands.

However,

took the Russian engineers and architects some

years before they finally gave fell

back on the present

Most books say glimpse of I

we

am

that Napoleon obtained his

Moscow from

assured,

is

up the attempt and

site.

the SpaiTO'w Hills.

not correct.

first

This,

Napoleon was ad-

vancing along the old chaussee from Mojaisk, and his first

the

view of

Poklon

Hill,

Moscow would have been from which

is

alongside

the

road,

whereas the Sparrow Hills are a long way

off.

Napoleon, however, did go out to the Sparrow

THE CHURCH OF

ST.

BASIL IN

THE PLACE ROUGE ON CHRISTMAS

EVE.

(Page 55)

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, ETC. Moscow,

Hills to have a view of visitor does.

The

best time

the dust, that

summer rama.

is

as nearly every

in the afternoon,

shower of

and, if possible, after a

223

rain,

which lays

such a curse of Moscow, and in

is

often entirely obliterates the whole pano-

Given favourable conditions, the view from

the Sparrow Hills of the winding river, with the

new Dievichy monastery

in the foreground,

the background Moscow, with roofs, its blue or glittering

its

and

in

red and green

golden domes and cupolas,

white walls, with patches of green foliage show-

its

ing up here and there,

The Novo

we

(or

truly magnificent.

new) Dievichy Monastery,

should say, the

beautifully situated

by the Sparrow

is

'

New Nunnery

for Girls,'

on the banks of the

Hills.

It

was

or, as is

river, close

built in 1524

by the

Grand Duke Vassili HI., the father of Ivan the Terrible, in commemoration of his conquest of the princedom of Smolensk.

When

Ivan the Terrible's

son Feodor died, in 1598, his widow, Irena, came for refuge

and shelter to

this

monastery or nunnery,

and with her came her brother, Boris GodunofF.

Feodor was weak-minded,

if

not almost imbecile,

and had allowed the control of everything to into the

hands of

his

very capable, active,

skilful brother-in-law, Boris Godunoff'.

drift

and

Boris had

MOSCOW all

the threads in his hniuls, and

felt certain

that

without him such a muddle would ensue that he

would have to be summoned to the throne. At the same time, his family, a Tartar one, was quite insignificant in

comparison with the great Russian

noble houses

so had he tried to usurp the throne

on

;

his brother-in-law's death,

fight for

it,

he would have had to

and would probably have got the worst

of the struggle.

He

was, therefore, well advised in

retiring with his sister

from the Kremlin, and plac-

ing himself within the shelter and sanctuary of the

strong monastery walls, whence he announced that

he was going to become a monk. as Boris in the

had calculated, and at

All turned out last Boris yielded

monastery to the entreaties of the Patriarchs,

the nobles, and the people, abandoned his announced intention of

becoming a monk, and accepted the

Tsardom. Peter the

Here, too,

Great incarcerated

masterful and turbulent sister Sophia. constantly tried to wrest the

hands,

and at

last,

after

Peter lodged

She had

kingdom from

his

her machinations had

brought about the mutiny of the her in this old

his

rifle

regiments,

nunnery, had her hair

shorn in token of her having abandoned the world,

and she became Sister Susanna.

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, The minneiy almost leon had It

ETC.

perished in 1812, as Napo-

underniined, and had the mines

it

225

fired.

was only saved by the heroic intrepidity of the

nuns,

who rushed

up, at the peril of then- lives,

and extinguished the

The

fuses.

old nunneries and monasteries, with theii

massive walls, which were often mounted with artillery,

places

played no small part as fortresses and

of refuge in past

days.

It

was no un-

common thing for royal and other noble who for political or family reasons were in the outside world, to be forcibly

relations

to

their heads in general.

the

monastery or

personages,

not wanted

taken by their

nunnery,

where

were shorn and they died to the world Doubtless the coffers of the monastery

were never the poorer

after such

Some

an event.

Moscow, on the Yaroslavl line, is the celebrated Troitza (Trinity) Lavra, or Monastery. This was built or started by St. Sergius in 1380, and has played no mean part in Russian history. Here it was that the celebrated Prince Dmitry Donskoi decided to undertake his campaign fifty

miles outside

against the Tartars in about 1380.

of

Our Saviour

in

Moscow

Verestchagin, depicting

is

In the Cathedral

a fine wall-painting

Dmitry

blessed at the Troitza Monastery

by

in

armour being

by

St. Sergius, as

15

MOSCOW

226

he was starting for the celebrated

15{jttle

of Kulikoff.

Later on, when the Poles overran Russia, about the

time of the election of Michael Romanoff to Tsar (1G13), the monastery was besieged for teen months by the Poles serfs gallantly

;

but

tlie

was

their heroic defence

It

tributed

largely towards

enemy.

When

six-

monks and their

defended themselves and beat

attacks.

l>e

off all

which con-

the final defeat of the

one remembers

tliat

the wealth of

the monasteries was enormous, that the populace of

the surrounding district brought

all their

valuables

to the monastery for protection during troublous times,

and that the Troitza Monastery was justly

celebrated as Russia,

we can

the richest in Central or Northern well understand

so anxious to capture

When him

in

his sister

why

the Poles were

it.

Sophia raised rebellions against

1682 and 1689, Peter the Great found refuge

here within the strong walls, and protected by the warlike monks.

The

walls are over 21 feet thick,

so could well stand any

amount of

battering from

the best artillery of tliose days. It

is

said that Sergei-Troitza, as

it

is

called in

Russian, contributed well over a million sterling

towards the expenses of the Russo-Turkish War,

which the Russian clergy largely looked on

as a holy

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, ETC. war aoainst the

infideL

true or not

hard to

it is

227

Whether the amount is say, but it is known that

the wealth of the monastery

is

enormous, and that

it

contributed very largely to the expenses of the war.

Away

in the

White

Sea, north of Archangel,

is

the well-known Solovetsky Monastery, which was

used from early times as an ecclesiastical penal settlement or reformatory for the confinement or

banishment of turbulent of the is

little

island

clerics.

One

of the sights

on which the old building stands

When we

the innumerable flocks of seagulls.

were fighting Russia, our offing

fleet

appeared in the

However,

and bombarded the monastery.

damage done was virtually nil, and the monks will tell you that it was the seagulls who protected It would seem that the intrepid birds the place.

the

wheeled round our

and so distracted the

vessels,

gunners by pecking at their eyes that they could not aim.

Seeing that nothing could be done, the

Admiral gave up the attempt, and the monks have ever since requited this good turn of the gulls by liberally feeding

It

is

them.

interesting to note that in the days of Tsar

Feodor, century,

towards there

the

close

were 943

of

the

churches

seventeenth in

Moscow,

whereas at the present time there are only about

:

MOSCOW

228

450, includintr private chapels.

and perished during the numerous

buildings,

When

which devastated Moscow.

was astonished,

I

number of

are, at the

friend if this

churches.

it

My

reason.

because

Moscow

'

It

is

'

:

You

visitors

asked a Russian

Russian

Moscow, imd

if so,

friend replied briefly

a city of merchants.'

is

not understand the explanation, so tinued

most

featiu-e in all

a peculiarity of

what was the

I

fires

went to

I first

as probably

was a general

towns, or was

the

far

churches were wooden

greater part of these old

Moscow

Probably

do not

probably

my

1

did

friend con-

know

the

old

Russian trading proverb, " Unless you swindle, you will

never do any business."

The

old

Moscow

merchants acted well up to the proverb, and their coffers.

However, on

their consciences reproved

filled

their death-beds either

them

or the counsels of

sums of money for building and endowing a church, whereby they " bought out their souls." Whether this is a true

their priest induced

them

to leave

'

explanation or not

cannot say, but the fact

I

remains that

Moscow

number

churches.

of

its

is

certainly very rich in the

There Moscow,

are various churches of foreign faiths in

Catliolic,

Lutheran,

such

as

Armenian, etc.,

Jewish,

Roman

and among them a very

— KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES,

229

This chin'ch was only

luindsoine Anglican church.

completed a few years

ETC.

and was built on

since,

the same spot where the old British chapel had

stood for

Russia

many a long day. The Anglican churches in

—there are only about half a dozen

all

told

have very exceptional privileges, which were granted

them by John the if

Terrible,

and have been renewed,

not amplified, by succeeding Russian monarchs.

Thus, they are for

The

territorial.

Company, special

all

old

and purposes extra-

British

Factory, or Russia

did

certainly

privileges

intents

for

well

their

in

securing

these

but

these

churches,

worthy gentlemen did not forget the good of

own

pockets

also.

Thus

John the Terrible the

could not last long to

control

to give

trade with

foreign

by

they secured

w^e read that they

;

it

induced

them the monopoly of

Russia.

This naturally

was impossible for a company

itself. Another special privilege was that only British ships were

allow^ed to enter

any Russian

port.

This monopoly

held good for a long time, and then the

made

their

a concession,

and allowed ships of other

nations to enter Russian ports vessel that entered a

company

;

but each foreign

Russian port had to pay a

heavy royalty to the British Factory, and royalty was duly collected and handed over to

this tlie

MOSCOW

230

by the Russian port officials. However, after a time, as was only to be expected, the factory had to collect their own dues. I think it was only factory

in the last century that the foreign ships refused to

pay these

royalties,

and

as the factory

had no means

of enforcing their demand, the old custom through.

fell

had an amusing interview with an

I

izvosckik, or driver of the fiacre of the country, over

same

this

point.

The man

asked him some questions. tences, he asked

my

saying

I

me what

I

me, and

I

After some few sen-

nationality I was, and on

my

was an Englishman, to

astonishment, he spoke to

When

M^as driving

me

intense

in very fair English.

asked him when he learned the language,

he said that he came from Cronstadt, and that

his

family for generations had been izvoschiks there.

As

all,

or very nearly

all,

the vessels that

came

that port were British, every one, or nearly

the izvoschiks spoke some English.

why

he had

left,

and he amused

all,

asked him

me by

saying that

the good old times had passed, that

now all

sorts of

them would

not speak English, but would speak their

— French,

of

I

foreign ships came, and the people on

languages

into

German, or what

not.

own

He

was not going to take the trouble to learn these outlandish languages, and they so spoilt his really

THE FIRE nniGADE The horses are trained

to follow the dear

!

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, temper and

his earnings that

ETC.

231

he decided to leave

Cronstadt and come to Moscow, where he would only hear Russian.

However, he was very disappointed,

any amount of

as

his fares

spoke foreign languages

This was at the time of

he did not understand. the Boer

War, and he astonished me by suddenly

saying,

What

*

lucky people you

English

are

you are always fighting somewhere. We Russians never have any luck we have not had a row since ;

the war with Turkey.'

and he

I

asked him what he meant,

said that the population

was getting much

too thick, and that they wanted a good war to thin

them out

a

bit.

'

Why,' he

said,

'

thirty years ago

there were only a few hundreds of us izvoschiks in

Moscow, and now there

are as

many

There are far too many people in Russia

thousands.

— that

is

why

Dai Bog skoro budet voina '—that is, Please God, we shall soon have a war.' I never met him again, but his wish was certainly soon fulfilled, and possibly he was one of

we

are

so poor now.

all

'

the victims.

There

Moscow Fili

it

little

in

1812

doubt that the great

— at

the

having

set it

on

fire,

of

council

was decided to abandon the

fighting,

and

is

of

war

at

city without

previously destroyed

when over

fire

all

stores

three-quarters of the

MOSCOW

232

whole town was in

disguise.

])urnt

NV^itli

down

the

fire

— was really a blessing vanished most of old

Moscow, the quaint old wooden houses of which old travellers liave left accounts, and Napoleon was enraged at the failure of his plans that he

so

intended to burn or destroy what was ever,

How-

left.

heavy rain and the rapid advance of the

much damage being done, Kremhn itself. When the populaMoscow was burnt out and when though doubtless the new town

Cossacks prevented except in the tion returned, it

was

lost

;

rebuilt —

much

mously streets,

picturesqueness

in

—

gained

it

etc.

It

is

interesting

to

note that the

population then w^as only 251,000, whereas is

just

on

now

it

1,4.00,000.

Another

result of the fire

away with the

Few

enor-

in better construction, wider and straighter

old

was that

aristocratic

life

it

quite did

of Moscow\

—

Moscow most of have to stayed seem in Petersburg— and them INIoscow more and more developed into a manufacof the nobles returned to

turing and commercial town, which character

maintained

e^^er since.

At

it

the present time there

Moscow, and such as almost entirely owing to local official

are very few aristocrats in

there are are so

has

positions or to connection wuth the University.

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, The Imperial Moscow University

is

ETC.

^33

the oldest in

Russia, having heen founded in 175.>, in the days of

the

The

Empress Elizabeth.

old buildings of the

University, together with the whole of the library,

of

many thousands

of volumes, and some very valu-

able scientific collections,

all

perished in the great

The new buildings are nary architecture. The library now

fire

of 1812.

of very ordicontains over

200,000 volumes and some 20,000 manuscripts, and the

number of students

owing

is

However,

about 11,000.

to political disturbances

and serious internal

and external causes, the amount of work done

in

the University for several years past has unfortunately been very small. If visitors

and

tourists

even

now

when

so

buildings

by Moscow,

are struck

the original and individual character of

many of the old houses and historical and monuments have disappeared, and

modern buildings are being run up in all directions, what would they not say if they could blocks of

see the old

sixteenth

Moscow and

at the time of its glory, in tlie

seventeenth

Court and the nobles were

when

the

living there

and

centuries, still

keeping up their quaint old-time wooden houses

?

Moscow was then the artistic centre of all Russia a.s, now it is the greatest commercial centre. However,

MOSCOW

234

Moscow

has not contented itself with

alone, but

is

one of the greatest

and educational centres

also,

commerce

artistic,

musical,

and these advantages

have probably more to do with the extraordinarily rapid increase of

its

population during the past

years than anything else, although

very

many have moved

they

feel safer there

into

it

town

is

fifty

true that

recently, as

than on their estates in the

country.

Another thing that added to the beauty of the Moscow of those days was the amoinit of open Except in the Kremlin and spaces and foliage. the Kitai City, the business centre, the houses seem to have mainly stood well apart from each other,

each in

its

own

extensive grounds.

The houses

themselves, mainly wooden, were gaily painted and

very

much ornamented.

However, other matters

were not so pleasant. Virtually none of the streets were paved in any way, so that the mud was often terrible.

It

is

interesting to note, as a proof of

how

little

the old Russians liked to live in stone houses, that

when Ivan in the

III.

was rebuilding the royal apartments

Kremlin, at the commencement of the

teenth century, he had

all

of wood, and only the

the dwelling part

six-

made

reception-rooms were of

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, stone.

It

is

ETC.

235

believed that the old Russians thought

stone houses were unhealthy.

Having learned from the Itahan architects, w^ho were summoned by Ivan IIL to build the Assumpand Archangel Cathedrals and the walls of the Kremlin, the arts of building in brick and of manu-

tion

facturing good brick, the Russians began to build brick churches and houses, but copied the designs

of their old

wooden churches and

houses.

The

Russians are also indebted to the Greeks for their wall-paintings and the frescoes

we

see so largely

used for adorning their churches.

Moscow was

own

at the height of its

original

style of architecture in the seventeenth century,

but from the days of Peter

I.

we

find the ordinary

Western European style coming in more and more. Thus the Arsenal in the Kremlin, built about 1730, is totally diiFerent in style from any of the old Peter's

buildings there.

days, in

epoch in Russian architecture.

were an

fact,

He

was who

it

ordered that the houses should no longer be built

surrounded by spacious courts and gardens, but in

rows on the ordered that

street, all

with iron or

new houses

tile

roofs

in the Kitai

;

he also

Gorod, or

business centre, should in future be constructed of

stone or brick, and had the streets paved there in

MOSCOW

2;jn

lie also invited artists from abroad, and

1720.

instituted a

'

Cliancellerie of Buildings,'

which was

to inspect the plans of uew^ houses and introduce

Western

styles as

much

as possible.

down

the old

Kremlin Palace, and build a modern one

instead.

Catherine

II.

decided to knock

However, nothing more happened than the destruction of several of the old buildings and the drawing

up of a plan

for a

new

palace.

Fortunately, the great leon's invasion

at the time of

fire

Napo-

and the number of buildings that

w^ere

blown up gave the authorities

hand

in superintending the laying out of the

The

city.

streets

virtually a free

new

were greatly straightened; the

old w^ooden houses, with

tiicir

original architecture

and large gardens, were replaced by stone buildings, mostly in the Empire

The

style,

and

built in rows.

schools of architecture, after the defeat of

the French, under the influence of the wave of national pride and enthusiasm, again began to study

the old Russian style of architecture, and

we

see

theresultsof this influence in the splendid cathedral of

Our Saviour and

latter

is

in tlie

triumphal arch, which

in the old classical style.

How^ever, from the middle of the nineteenth century

Moscow became more and more

a trading

and

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURrHES,

ETC.

237

commercial centre railways began to be constructed, ;

and

factories to be built after the styles prevalent

abroad, so that very rapidly

any other great European were

buildings

lost its old

and tended to become more and more

originality, like

Moscow

the ordinary Em-opean style,

in

introduced the old

architects

ornamentation,

Although the

city.

Russian styles of

was

however,

which,

idealized as to be quite different

often

so

from the ancient

Every year more and more of old Moscow becomes less and less like the original ancient city. Beyond a very occasional old house and church, the main streets are now composed of modern buildings of three, four, or six ideas.

disappears, and the city

whereas old INIoscow was almost entirely

stories,

one -storied, with

a

sprinkling

two-storied

of

houses.

This change in architecture has been accompanied

by a change ago

Fifteen years

in winter the streets w^ere uniformly dull.

men were fur,

in the inhabitants also.

all

The

hidden in black greatcoats, lined with

nearly always with astraklian collars and caps.

The

ladies nearly

with

fur,

always wore black cloaks lined

with collars of the same, and

pie- shaped fur caps.

walked

;

it

The

little

pork-

fashionable ladies never

was considered impossible

for a well-

MOSCOW

238

dressed lady to walk on the streets.

If

you saw a

smartly-dressed lady, you were pretty safe in judging

However, now

her to be a foreigner or an actress.

nous avons change tout

cela,

and you

will find troops

of smartly-dressed ladies promenading up and the Kuzretsky Most, our

day of the

Moscow Bond

Moscow, which

is

any

Street,

year, except possibly in the

when everybody who

down

summer,

possibly can clears out of

a wretched place to be in during

hot weather.

The shops last

few

also

years.

have greatly changed in the

Up

to fifteen or

twenty years ago

the Russian shops virtually showed nothing in their

windows, and very

little inside.

Everything was

stowed away, and had to be unpacked when wanted. This is very much better now the windows have :

large plate-glass fronts,

good

displays.

in

them have

quite

Some of them evidently pay great

attention to having their

The employes

and

windows smartly decorated.

in the shops are also improving.

Fifteen years or so ago

it

was quite a common

thing to go into a shop and see groups of the employes chatting among themselves. After a due

wait one of them would saunter over and ask what

you wanted. When you said, he would say, Do you want much ?' If you replied affirmatively, he '

^-^ f^^

..

A STREET VENDOR OF SALT HERRINGS

KREMLIN WALLS, CHURCHES, would

brisk

ETC.

up somewhat and serve you

;

239 if,

on

the contrary, you wanted a small amount, the odds

were he would reply,

and

stroll

'

Sorry,

back to resume

we have not got

it,'

his interrupted gossip

with his comrades.

The shops in Moscow are now so good that many people come from Petersburg for dresses, etc. A night in the train

is

nothing in Russia, and the

expresses are so arranged that you

leave in the

evening and arrive at your destination in the early

morning.

CHAPTER XX SOCIAL

AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

UK two features of the Russian character which struck me most when I first went to Russia were 'J'

their

great hospitahty, to whicli I have ah-eady

and

alhided,

their absolute

their lawlessness.

contempt

By

this

I

for laws of all sorts.

mean Thus,

on every railway carriage there are painted up not to stand on the

orders that passengers are

In the

platforms outside. the platforms

summer you

will find

crowded to such an extent that

it is

often almost impossible for the ticket-collectors to

The

get from carriage to carriage. protest and protest, but

united against the travel

on

carriages.'

tlie

all

officials

the public are always

officials.

platforms, you

The

railway

'

If

we

are not to

must put on more

know perfectly well that as company has not more carriages

public

a rule the railway

or rolling stock available, and also, probably, that

it

would be unsafe for a heavier train to run than is already formed up but tliat does not matter they :

;

240

SOCIAL AND OTHER ("IIARACTERISTICS all side

against the company's

241

The same

officials.

thing always occurs on the tramcars, and again the public fortunate

is

nearly always united against the un-

tram

\Vhen the

law.

who

official

to enforce the

tries

police try to regulate the traffic the

and

drivers all argue the question,

their fares

and

the public are always against the police.

You

will find this strange objection to abiding

by the law

prevails everywhere in

law

everybody seems to consider

exists,

boimden duty

either to flatly refuse to

Russia.

If a it

his

acknowledge

more generally, to see how he or she can manage to get round it with the least unpleasant it

or,

consequence for himself or spirit,

about which

Russians and others

I

herself.

have

often

who know

This lawless

spoken

with

the country well,

is

put down by most foreigners to the absolute lack of anything approaching discipline that prevails nearly everywhere,

and

also

very largely to the

system of perverted ultra-kindness

young Russian is treated. This commences from

witii

his or her infancy.

apparently regarded as a family disaster

should cry.

good or bad, child

may

If he it

which the

if

It is

a child

demands anything, whether

must be given

or he might cry.

apparently do any amount of

damage

A if

MOSCOW

242

he desires

—

way

to, for lie

must not be thwarted

would break

it

his

spirit

and

in

any

spoil

his

This being what he remembers from

character.

his infancy, it

is

not strange that

when

the child

older he recognizes that he has only

gets a

little

got to

make enough

fuss

ciently objectionable

to

and make himself always carry

his

suffi-

point.

Consequently, you find that the children dominate the household.

It

is

a

common

thing to go to an

evening party and see small children of

five or six

two or three in the morning. When you ask why they are kept up, you are told Oh yes, of course it is very bad but what is to

years old sitting

up

till

:

'

;

be done

?

— the children have decided that they won't

go to bed

Then

till all

the guests have gone.'

the boy goes to school, but even here he

learns

no ideas of

theory

now

discipline.

as concerns schools

The dominating is

that the pupils

must never be punished. Again you would break their spirits and spoil their

The

school

is

to be run

formed by moral suasion.

are told

it

characters.

and the boys' characters

The

result naturally

that the boys domineer and boss the school.

is

A

mine is one of the English masters in a Recently one of the boys big school in Moscow. was making himself a nuisance, and my friend friend of

l.\

THE ENVIRONS OF MOSCOW: AWAITING THE POSTMAN

SOCIAL

AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

scolded him.

The boy repUed with an

obscene remark and gesture.

punish a boy,

all

As no

243

absolutely

master can

the teacher could do was to order

room and report the case to the principal, imploring him to uphold the authority of the teachers by making an example of the boy. The principal summoned he probably did not care to take upon himself the responsibility of deciding the boy to leave the

—

on any action

—a

meeting of masters to decide

what should be done. All the foreign masters voted solid for making an example of the boy, and all the Russian masters were opposed to any pun-

As no

was come to unanimously, another meeting was called, with a like result, and ishment.

then a third.

I

decision

think, so far as I

remember, that

the foreign masters saw the case was a foregone conclusion, and so either did not attend the last

meeting or abstained from voting. final decision

ished,

Anyhow,

the

was that the boy should not be pun-

but should be asked not to be objectionable

in future.

This in English schools would seem a

that the boys domi-

but the simple explanation

is

neer over the masters.

A

master has to

through a certain amount of work with per term or per year

;

also,

fairy-tale,

his pupils

get

his form must show

MOSClOW

214 tliat

they are making some progress

naturally, tlie master post.

he

is

He

is

;

otherwise,

voted useless and loses

not allowed to punish the boys

is

often not supported

;

his

also,

He

by the head-master.

has to earn his bread and butter, and so he finds advisable to stand in witli his pupils.

He

it

keeps

on good terms with tliem, work goes on, and the apparent results are satisl'actory

know

that they dominate

the

dominated the situation at home nate the school University,

;

situation. ;

They

now they domi-

naturally expect to continue

Here, however, they unexpectedly

run upon opposition. let

but the boys

and from that they pass into the

when they

the process.

going to

;

The Government

are

not

the students run the Universities, for

from that to trying to run the country would be too easy a step.

remember some eight years ago an English lady came to me and asked me to help her. Her son was a student in the Moscow University, and I

he had been arrested, five years' banisliment

into the case,

tried,

and was sentenced to

to Archangel.

I

inquired

and learned that a party of students,

about twenty of them, with, of course, two or three coursistki, or lady-students,

seized the quarters of

had armed themselves,

one of

tlie

professors in the

SOCIAL

AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

245

University buildings, where they barricaded them-

hung

selves in,

a red flag out of the window, and

proclaimed that they would never surrender, also that they were

The

Russia.' sible

them

'

drawing up a Constitution for

police

seem to have been quite

sen-

they simply surrounded them and starved

:

out, with the result that they got five years'

exile apiece.

As

some Imperial afterwards, an am-

a matter of fact,

event happened very shortly

nesty was proclaimed, and these aspiring youthful politicians

were

let off.

incident occurred

This

before

and when the police

started,

with the students.

Had

it

still

the real

rows

dealt leniently

taken place recently,

would probably have been some fighting and various deaths on either side. there

This

is

the

first

time that the youths begin to

what authority means. They have not known what it is, and so they kick against it. Naturally, the more you kick against a prick the more you feel

hurt yourself, whereas had they been educated

from the

first

to keep within bounds, they could

probably have got along without feehng the pricks

— at

all

events, they

than to kick violently, selves most.

would have known better which naturally hurts them-

MOSCOW

246

Though one can hardly sympathize with

the

student's apparent firm conviction that he and his

fellows are heaven-born statesmen,

Russia a perfect paradise

if

they

'

who

make

bossed the show,'

one cannot help feeling sympathy still

could

for

them, and

more pitying them.

The Russian University

they small.

1

live

should think

that 80 per cent, of

University

them

—

—and there

are,

from

we might

are, all told,

in

how

extraordinarily

are

say for certain

the students at the

all

Moscow

about 11,000 of

from one point of view, miserably poor.

Their annual income

£35 a

;

they Hve where and

Again, the fees

like.

totally different

There are no colleges

our old Universities.

which the students

is

is

probably not more than

which they have to pay

year, out of

their

University fees and procure board and lodging, clothe themselves, is

insufficient,

lessons,

so

buy books,

etc.

Naturally, this

they supplement

by playing

in

it

by giving

orchestras, singing in the

theatre choruses, and in the vacations by acting as ticket-collectors

on the railways,

etc.

Again, they have no sports of any sort whatever.

The Universities are much too poor to find the money for purchasing land for playing-fields, and now it is a moot question, if the appliances and

BEGGARS,

(/'.(./«

!I3)

SOCIAL

AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

247

land were forthcoming, whether one could imbue

the taste for sport or athletics into the students, or whether, which

vote sports a

relic

is

most probable, they would not

of barbarism, and refuse to have

anything to do with them.

Again, they have no debating societies or anything of that sort, and officials,

finally,

the professors are

appointed virtually by the Government

and depending on the Government.

Their duty

simply to read their lectures, but

is

their

it

is

no part of

duty to mix with the students, to try to

guide or form their ideas, and so on.

Hence, the

students are a sort of no man's lamb, and no guid-

ing hand to take.

is

stretched out to indicate the safest path

They

are all

young

fellows or girls with

amount of energy, and with the desire, common to all young people, to distinguish themselves before their compeers and to work off a considerable

At

the natural superfluous energy of youth.

same time, what his

is

energy off in

?

the unfortunate student to work

—no

no debating

sports,

clubs,

nothing to which he can attach himself openly. it

wonderful that he

broods on his

kicks

against the

own personal misfortunes, then

the University

is

the

Is

pricks,

thinks

run in a pretty rotten manner,

then that the whole country

is

also sadly in

need

— '

MOSCOW

«48

of reform, and ultimately becomes a rabid politician,

and

in nearly

every case

One can understand illegal political it is

is

agin the (Tovernment

'

?

the })leasure of attending

To understand

meetings.

know

necessary to

'

fully,

it

that in Russia, according to

law, three persons conversing or standing together

constitute a meeting, so that any three students

chatting together outside the University buildings

on any topic of the day

—and few topics are totally

unconnected nowadays in Russia with something

depending on the Government— can always construed by an energetic policeman into an political

meeting.

When

Moscow Revolution was in some time after, the police, who

the so-called

swing, and for

walked about armed with loaded bayonets

be

illegal

—

still

the case in

and fixed

rifles

many parts

Moscow

of

had always the right to disperse any

*

meeting

more persons who stood a {i.e., minute to pass the time of day) by the simple expedient of firing into the brown.' I remember group of three or

'

one day meeting a couple of friends and stopping

One

to talk. are

an

illegal

promptly easily

of

them suddenly

political

left us.

It

was

said,

meeting; distinctly

might have been quite

'

I'm

I

say,

off,'

we and

humorous, but

tlie reverse.

—

— SOCIAL AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS ^^'hen one thinks of

249

these disadvantages,

all

I

think no British subject can help pitying the unfortunate Russian student, though in

probability

all

the students themselves would be greatly surprised if

they

knew what were

the grounds for the pity.

In Russia no one can obtain any Government post,

can become a lawyer or a doctor, without

having

*

passed out

'

of a University

without

i.e.,

having put in the requisite number of terms and

having passed successfully the Government exam, at

Naturally,

the end.

Universities are always

Of the

the

result

is

that the

crammed.

number of students in the Moscow some 11,000 there is a small party

total

University

—

—

of Social Democrats and Revolutionaries.

student

calls

cal parties

himself a

member

Socialists

of one of the politi-

—a Monarchist, Kadet, Octobrist,

but the smallest party

is

that of the

and Revolutionaries

this tiny party

Every

;

etc.

combined

and yet we find

domineer the whole University, for

the simple reason that they have a good organization

and good

discipline,

whereas the other parties

have not. This party

it is

that nearly always

tor of the University rows, who insists tical

meetings, which they

know

is

the instiga-

on

calling poli-

will lead to the

— MOSCOW

860

closing of the University, tlie rest

of the students

to be thus

and so on

why

and

;

if

you ask

they allow tiiemselves

cowed by a handful, whereas they themadmit that

selves are thousands, they sadly

it

is

because the Socialists have discipline and organization,

whereas they themselves have not.

know

that year after year the University

is

They closed,

that the examinations are not held in consequence, or are held at irregular intervals

;

they

know

that

without passing the exams, they cannot start on their professions, after year,

their

but have to stay on

penury year

and yet they camiot apparently throw

apathy and

rise

and

strange thing that in

all

assert themselves.

It

is

a

The Government

a connected body, with discipline and plans, but

the people are not, and until

who knows what

some

leader arises

he wants and enforces his will on

his followers, instead of trying the impossible

trying to formulate a

programme

body's pet scheme and theory is

off

these years of unrest no

leader has appeared on any side. is

in

hard to see

how

is

in

i.e.,

which every-

to be included

—

it

a disunited people can ever hope

to cope with, or get the better of, a strong body, that

knows what

it

wants, and

is

prepared to enforce

its

wishes. It

is

interesting to

meet these same students

AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

SOCIAL

251

some years afterwards, when they have entered Government employ, and to see how their ideas have altered. I met one of them who as a student had been very advanced in

me

He

his views.

assured

the students were a curse, and that the only

salvation

Russia would be to wipe out the

for

whole male population between the ages of sixteen

and twenty-five. but

have

I

This sounds a very

expressed by people

what they

heard

often

who

tall

very similar

should

order,

opinions

know something

of

Every big employer of you that it is the boys

are talking about.

labour in Russia will

tell

and the young

men who

When

married and has a wife and family

a

to feed,

many

man

is

it.

give

the trouble.

all

stands to reason that he thinks a good

it

times before he risks losing his employment.

The young ing

is

He

bachelor, however, does not

has only himself to think

if

risk-

and Russia

The Russians

an ideal country for beggars.

think that

of,

mind

you refuse to give to a beggar, and he is bound to befall you. Hence in the

curses you, evil

towns, at

all

events, I believe

it

is

an unknown

thing for anyone to die of starvation.

begin taking an interest in politics too

the

— from

their early teens.

Moscow schools

told

me

A

The boys

—and

the girls

teacher in one of

that quite a short time

MOSCOW

252

boy

since every

fifteen to sixteen political

one of

in

— carried

agent in

his

own

his classes

—average age

a revolver, and was a

little

way.

These school-

boys and schoolgirls take quite an active part

in

and many of them

disseminating illegal literature,

assisted in building the barricades during the late

disturbances. ball

Poor

chaps

!

they have no foot-

nor cricket on which to work off their super-

fluous energy,

much for

little

I

much doubt whether

they have

physical energy they could spare for games,

they are usually fagged out by the end of

Work

school.

begins at 9 a.m.

Each

lesson lasts

minutes, which gives ten minutes' interval for

fifty

the boys to stretch their legs, and for the air in the

classrooms to get a lesson begins.

there

is

a break

little

purer before the next

Work thus continues till till

12.30,

which

is

11. .50,

when

allowed for lunch.

After that work recommences and continues nearly three.

any

This six hours straight

off",

till

witliout

—for the boys are in the corridors when classrooms — and with probably no food

fresh air

not in the

when they leave home, when they return, witli the

ex-

ception of a piece of bread or a bun during

tlie

from,

say,

8

about 4 p.m.,

a.m.,

till

enough to sap any growing boy's energy, strength, and vitality, especially when it is added break,

is

SOCIAL

AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

253

that the chissrooms are generally too small for the

number of boys

in

kept far too hot.

Teachers have often told

virtually

no work

them, and are nearly always

done

is

in the after-break hours,

especially in the last lessons,

to try to get the boys to

overtired

— fagged

believe that

it is

me that

and that

work

physically

;

useless

it is

they are simply

and mentally.

pretty generally admitted that this

system of long-continued hours of instruction failure

;

but the

I

difficulty

to climatic reasons.

The

is

how

to alter

scholastic year

it,

is

a

owing

commences

about the begining of October, and ends about July.

Thus, for the generality of the time the days It

are short.

would be very trying

always work half the time by

for the

and

artificial light,

the parents would most certainly object children

boys to

their

if

had to go to school twice a day, and

especially

if

they had to return

home when

it

was

dark.

When the

first

the recent revolution started in Moscow,

house that was bombarded was almost

opposite the one

in

which

I

was staying.

The

news that the revolutionary party had a meeting there, at which all the leaders were present, where plans were being drawn up for seizing the

police got

Kremlin, the Governor- General's house, and the

MOSCOW

254 public

Troops were accordingly quietly

offices.

brought up, and the two streets on which the house

opened were blocked. police measures

—to

come

and

military

had been taken, the police advanced

to the entrance stairs

AVhen the

—the

demand

meeting was going on up-

that

all

should surrender and

However, they found that the staircase w^as held by the revolutionaries. There were seated on each step two or three young fellows, every one of them with his revolver in his hand, and they said to the police If you want us, out.

:

come and take and

after

us.'

More

'

troops were

summoned,

long hours of ineffectual parleying,

was decided to carry the house by

it

The

assault.

storming party formed up in a neighbouring courtyard, and advanced at the double.

However,

it

was

greeted with volleys of revolver-shots from the

windows and by two bombs, which, if I remember rightly, killed one officer and mortally wounded another and several men. The attempt to carry the building by storm was then abandoned, and it was decided to bombard it with artillery. The guns were posted some 200 yards away out of revolvershot and one gun fired a round of shrapnel. Then

—

—

the officer in charge of the troops

know

if

demanded

to

they would surrender, but revolver shots

REFRESHMENTS

— COFFEE

AND VODKA

SOCIAL AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS This went on

were the response.

had

fired

till

255

the guns

about nine rounds, when the defenders

of this fort chabrol announced they were willing to

Numerous people from the neighbour-

surrender.

ing houses were at their front-doors, watching the

proceedings and speculating on the result of the gun-fire.

As

a matter of fact, the

damage done by

the shrapnel was really very small.

made

shell hit the walls, it

When

the

a hole about 2 to 3 feet

deep, with a diameter of about 6 feet, but did not

go through,

Such

as the walls are over that thickness.

shells as

entered the windows only burst on

striking tlie inner walls,

was

done

in

the

and nearly

adjoining

flat,

all

the

damage

where was

a

museum. yVe were naturally most anxious to see the defenders come out. They were about ninety boys of from eighteen to perhaps twenty and about ten

young women of a similar age. It is known that there were some 500 people at that meeting, but the youthful defenders kept the troops busy for

some hours while the

leaders all escaped into other

adjacent buildings. ]\Iany school boys

and

girls

took an active part

in the street fighting, so that the school contingents

are quite a force that has to be taken into con-

— MOSCOW

256 sideration.

The mass

are certainly the

same

of the school boys and girls

as the traditional Irishman

However, when these young fellows and women grow up, they generally calm

'agin the Government.'

down

a good deal, and, though they

still

chafe at

the various restraints from which they suffer, they are

more

l{esister,

more

inclined to adopt the part of the Passive

and to defend

their political opinions

constitutional and peaceful methods.

by

CHAPTER XXI CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS

The

population of European Russia

at the rate of about 1,500,000 per

tremendous increase fittest.

The

30 per cent.

is

annum

in the

;

and

tliis

merely the survival of the

rate of infant mortality in

;

increasing

is

North of Russia

Moscow

it is

more

is

like

70 per cent.

The Russian peasant-woman has not much time to devote to nursing her babes

working hard

;

she has to be out

Before she starts she

take her infant with her.

takes a hard crust of black bread, ties bit of old rag,

and hands

to the child left in charge '

If

baby

cries,

in his mouth.'

this,

it

up

in

any

with a cup of milk,

— often

almost an infant.

dip the crust in the milk, and put

The

used day after day.

it

crust thus does duty certainly

same bit is marvellous what vitality

one day, but quite as likely

these infants

and cannot

in the fields or elsewhere,

It

is

must have to 257

as not the

sur\i^'e at all,

and yet 1"

MOSCOW

258

we

see the popuhition

is

steadily progressing

by

leaps and bounds.

During the summer the youngsters hve on bread, cucumbers, and any fruit they can secure and yet ;

as a rule they look healthy enough.

The Russian peasant, know of any such thing

needless to say, does not as a tooth-brush,

their teeth are usually beautifully white

The explanation

ently sound.

is,

and yet

and appar-

I believe, that

the constant gnawing of the hard crusts of the

black bread takes the place of the use of the toothbrush.

What

the peasant really loves in winter

a hot bath.

and

it is

self

his

is

taking

Over the stove he builds a brick bath, joy to sit in this and simply boil him-

When

the heat gets too

he rushes to the door, opens

much even

for him,

and, rushing out

it,

into very likely a temperature of 20 to 30 degi-ees

below

zero, rolls in the

snow

he returns and continues

most people, but It

is

it

till

he

his bath.

is

cooler,

when

This would

kill

apparently does him no harm.

certainly a fact that they can stand extra-

ordinary heat and intense cold equally well.

One

can

soldiers such

well

understand

men make

— very

what

magnificent

hardy, no nerves,

splendid physicjue, and accustomed to the simplest

1-

^f*-- i*»^

PEASANT^

\

ISlIINi,

MOSCOW

;

CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS and generally an insufficiency of

fare,

want

that they

is

leading.

259

think

should

I

Russian regiment would stand heavier

All

that.

without

loss

losing heart or getting demoralized than

a

any other

Another charming thing European regiment. It does about them is that they are fatalists. not matter what you do everything is predestined

—

The odds

hence you really need not worry.

you

will pull

clearly

was

through somehow

and

so intended,

it

;

but is

if

you

are

don't,

it

useless to try to

avoid your destiny.

This

a very comfortable theory, but

is

it is

apt

to be rather awe-inspiring to other nationalities.

You

are being driven,

place,

and you come to a

ticklish

which apparently needs careful driving. Your

driver,

who always

some

has

dangling, gaily whips

up the

foot of loose rein

horses.

You

he should take up the reins and drive a

suggest

bit care-

fully.

However, he merely laughs and says

lessly

'

:

A vos

get along

proyedem right).

all

'

If

(

care-

With any luck we shall you come to grief, he

merely remarks that Fate was against you.

He

himself

but

is

apparently quite content with

to Westerners

When an

it

seems cold comfort.

the Russo-Japanese

ex-officer

I

this,

War

was brewing,

as

naturally took a keen interest in

MOSCOW

260

what wasgoin

if

the want of

In winter you certainly have the skating-

most of them the few

is

for a

one has

if

run comes

rojii mijloscow is also

go some way out by

However. Mosct^TS

train

lo. really

better off for out-of-door sports in winter xw/^aci/

any other time of the year,

as there

is

also a sn/-o

curling-club.

In the spring and autumn a few enthusiasts, nearly

all

foreigners and mainly British

play a few games of football

;

but the

game

caught on really yet, though more interest in

it

than used to be the

case.

subjects,

has not is

taken

In the summer

in

Moscow there is only the tennis-club and boatingclub. The lawn-tennis-club is only a small one, with four courts. it

has

Originally started

now become

international.

by Englishmen,

The

courts are

very good, but there are too few of them,

it

being

^6

MOSCOW

almost impossible to procure purpose.

come

am

I

land

for

such

a

glad to say that a British firm has

to the rescue, and offered a considerable plot

On

of land.

the strength of

this,

a British Sports

Club has been formed, with a membership of about 150. We have now three excellent tennis-courts of our own.

Besides tennis, there

hockey on the permit

The

it is

ice,

and

hoped to

British Sports

is

curling.

football, skating,

As

soon as funds

also construct ice-hills.

Club

is

doing excellent work

in bringing the small colony into closer touch, this

work

will

Club, wliich

and

by the British has been recently formed and will be carried

still

farther

shortly open.

Both of these and

institutions are entirely British,

only British subjects can be

ladies

club,

members.

Both

and gentlemen can become members of either and

visitors

can become temporary members

on payment of a small subscription, and on being proposed and seconded in the usual way.

The it

is

boating-club has regattas and races, but

rather out of the way, and not very

Of

belong to

who can

clears out of

country.

The

of

wooden

many

course, in the sunnner, everybody

it.

Moscow and

goes to the

ddcha, or country-house,

is

a species

chalet, usually not beautiful to look at.

^

c^

LIFE IN If the weather it is

is

MOSCOW

hot, as the dachas

generally insufferably hot

287

have iron

and

;

roofs,

if it is cold,

as

but too few of them are built in anything but the flimsiest

way, and

adequately,

and

at

if

all,

most of them are very

in-

provided with stoves, one

sits

However,

shivers.

in

spite

of

these

advantages most people, especially those

dis-

who have

children, always try to get out into the country for

At

the summer.

all

events,

you get pure

and immunity from the rabble,

Moscow. a

At

attached.

small rule,

There

river,

where one

can

a

hire

of most rough construction,

local carpenter,

is

wooden generally a pond or with

sorts, is

air,

and

the dacha resorts there of

restaurant

roar,

whose

peace,

dirt,

of

usually theatre

lake or

boats

— as

built

by the

a

ideas of naval architecture

are not quite up-to-date

— and

a great feature in dacha

life,

bathe.

Bathing

and usually there

is

is

a

bathing-house on the river or lake attached to each

two

or three dachas.

These are very simply con-

wooden shanties. Beyond bathing and occasional performances at the theatre, amusements there are none. In very few dacha places will you find any tennis-court, or structed

certainly one

would care to

on which even a moderate player play.

Fishing

is

sometimes

avail-

MOSCOW

J;^S8

able, but fish

it is

jilvvuys bottoin-Hsliing, as

the Russian

do not seem to have been educated up to know-

ing wliat a

fly

is.

Tlie usual style of fisliing

to hire

is

a boat, and get rowed out to a suitaljle shady spot.

There you put out, say ten rods and round the boat, and you

smoke hiterminable

sit

lines

all

comfortably there and

cigarettes.

these fishermen for hours, but

have watched

I

have never once

I

them catch anything, beyond a wretched some two to three inches long. The other amusements are walks. These are usually large seen one of

sprat

parties of friends or acquaintances,

who

walk, or

rather stroll leisurely, along in the evening, always

keeping up a general conversation, and going down to the

station,

where they promenade

for hours

up and down the platforms seeing the passengers and depart.

arrive

Life at a dacha generally

is

is

not exciting as a

a most free-and-easy

fortable style of dress well, as often the heat

is is

life.

tolerated,

in

Any

which

quite tropical.

do not wear any hats out

rule,

is

and

com-

just as

The

ladies

the country, but

merely use a parasol, and you meet people going

down

to,

or

connng up from, the

spot in very casual attire.

very easy-going.

river or bathing-

In a word, dacha

life is

Everyone has come out to make

LIFE IN

MOSCOW

289

the mO'A of the air before being cooped up for several n\oiitlis in

town

in the

as possible,

you

your meals

in the ij^arden or

when

so cold that

it

is

live

an alfresco

you

—

all

;

hence, as far

You have all

life.

on the veranda, even all

have to put on

Every holiday

great-coats or wraps.

are legion in Russia

winter

—and holidays

your friends who have to

town troop out to you to get a breath of and you put as many as possible up for the night. They are not exacting, and a sofa, a stay in fresh

air,

blanket, and a cushion or pillow,

is

usually quite

enough to entice a person to escape a stuffy night in town. Then early the next morning a bath, a hurried breakfast, and a rush for the train.

As

most of the men grow beards, they do not have to shave anyhow, there is nearly always a decent ;

barber at

all

the railway-stations in town.

The great objections to life in town in the summer are the heat, the noise, and the smells. The houses are nearly all stuccoed and have tin roofs, so the upper stories are usually insufferably hot,

rattle

such that you can hardly

make

streets

roads are also, as a rule,

over the cobbles

is

The

most trying. very bad, and the

and the glare on the

is

yourself heard.

The way

of

making

a road in Russia

is

19

simple.

MOSCOW

290

You

take out three to four inches of the surface

In

earth.

sand

trench you hiy a couple of inches of

sand you stick upright cobble stones

in the

;

scatter all

tlie

some metal

or gravel over them, then cover

with sand, go over

your road

it

with a hand rammer, and

Naturally the wind blows up

ready.

is

;

clouds of dust and sand, and the loosely constructed

roadway heavy

soon cut up into holes and ruts by

is

traffic.

When

rains

it

or

the

road

is

watered,

the

moisture collects into puddles in the hollows by the cobbles,

and the muddy water

is

distributed freely

over you as you walk by the passing fast-trotters,

with their rubber tyres. Certainly

if

anybody wishes to

see

Moscow

the

The streets are quiet, more of snow, and the sleighs travel over this noiselessly and smoothly, and you can hear yourself talk in comfort. The winter is best time

as there

is

is

the winter.

a foot or

also the season full

swing,

;

the operas and theatres are in

whereas they are usually closed

in

the summer, as the troupes go touring in the provinces.

Since the Imperial Family and the capital were

moved

to

Petersburg, the

Muscovites have no

longer that personal knowledge of the

members

A TOBOGGAN SLIDE

LIFE IN

MOSCOW

291

of the Royal Family they formerly had.

the Imperial Family lives

much

Also

and their by the papers. However, people v^^ill freely give you all sorts of information concerning the various members doings are but

little

apart,

chronicled

of the Imperial Family, but as a rule their in-

formation tendencies

is

strongly

— you

biassed

will

hear

by

their

totally

opinions concerning one and the same

— and could

the

few

people

who

really

political

conflicting

member

know, and

speak authoritatively, are naturally those

who speak

least.

'Quot homines, tot sententia'

is

certainly true of the opinions one hears concerning

members of the Imperial Family, and where so little is really known this is not to be wondered at. However, nearly everybody is quite certain that the

he or she really possesses intimate knowledge of the

members of the Imperial Family

;

and

esting to hear all the various accounts,

it is

inter-

though

it is

impossible to draw any conclusions, as the accounts are so totally dissimilar.

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA CHAPTER XXIII CENTRAL RUSSIA It was in the south-west, in the

basin

of the

Dnieppr, the great waterway between Scandinavia

and Constantinople, that the Russian State had tirst

real

beginnings. '

and not Moscow,

KiefF,

But

mother-city.'

from

the

is

its

the

fourteenth

century Russian history has centred round the *

white-stoned

principal

part

town on

'

in

tlie

the

national

Moskva, and

the

development has

been played by the Muscovites, or Great Russians. In numbers and importance these by the

other two families

White and the

far

exceed

of the Russian race, the

Little

Russians.

It

was

the

Muscovite Princes that emancipated Russia from the Tartar yoke. that, possessing a

for

It

was the Great Russian stock

remarkable instinct and aptitude

colonization, sent forth successive

swarms of

emigrants to the northern forests and the 293

fertile

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA

5^94

steppes in the soutli, and that alone of

all

Slavonic

peoples ha\'e built up a powerful empire in face of

very considerable

difliculties.

Their religion, their

form of government, and their language, they have

stamped on the whole nation.

In

the

course

of expansion they have absorbed a considerable

number

of P^'innish peoples.

While

it

would be

a

mistake to infer that the predominant characteristics

of

the

Slavonic,

it

Great

Russians

are

seems probable that to

but

anything this

infusion

of P^innish blood, and not altogether to the

more

rigorous Northern climate, are due certain modifications of the Slavonic

type which are peculiar

They have lost in liveliness and gained in strength. They have more endurance and energy, more perseverance and patience, than the Little or White Russians. In physique they are less graceful, but more rigorous. This prolific stock, endowed wdth inexhaustible to them.

reserves of strength

and recuperative powers, has

spread in every direction of the empire, adapting itself

with peculiar readiness and success to

conditions, but at the

same time preserving

customs that could possibly be retained.

all

new the

Thus,

the traveller in Russia will notice a certain sameness in peasant

life

fi*om

Archangel to xVstrakhan,

CExNTRAL RUSSIA

295

the same village plan, the same type of houses, of clothes and manners, a sameness

tuated by the variations

do

similarity

of

which

is

accen-

the scenery.

But

under the influence of a novel

arise

environment, and Russian writers are careful to distinguish

between the character of the central

peasants and that of the people in the north and

The

in the Urals.

original type

central

governments

which

for

is

best seen in the

in the basin of the

River Oka,

long was a political and ethnological

frontier.

This its

one of the great

river,

source in the

rivers of

Europe, has

Government of Oryol, and meets

the Volga at Nijni.

Its basin is intimately con-

nected with Russian history, and comprises to-day the most populous and most highly district in the

of

railways

engaged

in

developed

Nowhere is the web nowhere are more people

whole empire. closer,

manufacturing industries.

Yet even

here the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are peasant agriculturists.

First, then, a

to the appearance of the country,

and

word this,

as

the

reader will remember, applies to rural scenery in

Russia generally. Sluggish

rivers,

through broad

with

plains.

steep

red

banks, wind

In the distance are dark

a

PROVLNCIAL RUSSIA

tim

woods of pines or

birches,

which

in the

The

resoujid with the notes of nightingales.

communal

fenced

evenings un-

gently towards the

fields slope

horizon, and through them, also un fenced, runs the

broad stoneless road with deep

marked

strongly

feature

predominant colour In spring

it is

is

in

in

ruts.

The

the landscape.

summer grey

or brown.

bright, almost dazzling, green,

winter practically unrelieved white.

no

'I'here is

The

and

in

feeling

of space, of distance, which the people call their

enemy, impresses

great

mind

all

;

round

for a

itself

strongly

thousand miles

on

is

the

Russia.

There are generally no separate homesteads long time, owing to the agricultural reforms

augurated by at

—

that must, however, alter largely in no

feature

INI.

Stolypin's

establishing the

in-

Government, that aim

individual

and

independent

farmer, and hence project a revolution of a peaceful

but

exception foresters,

most of

momentous bee-keepers,

With

the

charcoal-burners,

and

nature.

whose occupations oblige them to dwell Those

in the

woods, the peasants

whose

strips of corn lie at the outskirts of the mi?'

all live in villages.

land, often ten or fifteen versts will

and

from

their

homes,

spend in harvest-time the nights in the open, their little fires will twinkle over the fields.

CENTllAL RUSSIA Great Russian

vary

villages

297

from each

little

Occasionally there are rows

other, except in size.

of trees relieving the monotony of the straight,

and

regularly-built streets,

pleasant grounds,

close by, surrounded

may

there

be

by

landowner's

a

long one-storied wooden house, with the men's

apartments at one end, the women's at the other,

and the public rooms

in

But most

the centre.

from the church, a

villages are treeless, and, apart

merchant's stores, the Zemstvo or Local Govern-

ment Board consist

fence,

They

which

ground

of the

exclusively

peasants.

and sometimes a

school,

enough

for the cattle.

fence there

is

a rough

hut to shelter the old fastening.

giving the its

'

souls,'

A

little

name

izbas

of

the

by a wattled

surrounded

are

lies far

wooden

hospital,

off to leave a pasture-

Where

the road meets this

wooden

gate, wdth a small

man who

farther

looks after

on there

its

a signpost

is

number of High over the

of the village and the

or male

inhabitants.

izbas rises the

white church, with

green cupolas.

On

position of the lowest transverse bar

by the old Eastern

cross

its

and

the orthodox cross the slanting is

determined

tradition that Christ

was lame.

In the Greek religion Zeus took to himself the attributes of mental suffering,

and

identified

him-

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA

298 self,

example,

for

Russians in

gone

farther.

their

God

peoples '

For

least

broad

their 'I'hey

have

hunianitarianisni

have not shrunk from making

physically deformed, alone of Christian

following literally the words of Isaiah

He

might

a Slavophil

average

So

hath neither form nor comeliness.'

would be present,

if

Russian

at

platform near

its

On

a pleasant note.

but

urge,

all,

mind.

stands the high belfry. little

But the

suppliant.

the

witli

the

:

at

notion

only very dimly in the Close

The

by

bells are

the

church

rung from a

summit, and generally have still

summer evenings

their

pealing tones echo musically far over the fields and

woods.

The broad road,

and

is

street

and

merely a continuation of the

equally full of ruts and pits and im-

expected chasms. of an izba

is

made

There may be the framework of round logs caulked with moss

resin set there for seasoning

sure to be

some

;

and there are

sturdy little black pigs scampering

about in search of garbage, cro\^'ds of fair-haired children playing on grass patches before the houses,

and womeii gossiping at the

wells.

These are

marked by a succession of long poles, whicli the Russians call cranes.' There are two poles to each One of them stands upright, and the middle well. '

CENTRAL RUSSIA of the other

end of

is let

into a catch at

movable pole

this

299 its

To one

top.

attached the rope with

is

the bucket, and to obtain water the other end pulled

down with

is

There are long

a second rope.

The

troughs by the wells for watering horses.

muddy

peasants do not scruple, however, to use the

even for culinary or drinking purposes.

river water

In general the Great Russian villages

are

not

But when they are tree-shaded, and them in soft evening light from over

picturesque.

one looks at

a wide river or pond, they are steeped in a quiet

Under the high

melancholy beauty of their own. white church, glowing like

silver, cluster

with their roofs of thatch or green

the huts,

iron.

Cattle,

sheep, and geese, string out over the

meadows, of their own accord returning home from pasture. Choir songs, sung by young peasants, float over the water.

Then

by the sharp

later the stillness

rattle of the

with which an old

man

small

is

broken only

wooden

clacker

goes round during the

night alarming ne'er-do-wells by his presence.

The huts

are generally built end

on to the

street,

and the projecting beams and overhanging gables are often

carved

Through the side, projects

roof,

with

intricate

ornamentation.

usually in the middle of the

a brick chimney.

In winter the huts

I'UOMNCIAL RUSSIA

;30()

up

are banked with earth and straw lialfway

small windows.

tlie

Tiie house stands at one of the

corners of a rectangle occupied by the homestead.

Somewhere on the

street line

wood, a large one

for carts

fence.

and sheds, and

dvor, or court. little

a dou})Ie gate of

and a small one

for

The rest of this line is a higli wooden Hound the other lines range the outhouses,

people.

byres,

is

box

at the

In

it

top for starlings.

and not from the

street, the

You go up one

entered.

middle

in the

is

the open

stands a long pole, with a

or

From

house

two

is

this court,

generally

steps to a porch

or small veranda where in simimer

many

of the

richer peasants spend their spare time drinking tea.

Then you which from

enter a small vestibule called the

sieiii,

A

door

the theme of a famous song.

is

this, again, leads into

the dwelling-room,

quently the only room of the

may

there

i7:ba,

fre-

though above

be a garret for storing grain and various

odds and ends. fifteen feet

Generally

by thirteen

tliis

In

room

is

about

corner

is

a

great stove of clay or whitewaslied brick, which

is

about

five feet in length

feet.

and four

tlie

feet in breadth,

and thus occupies a large proportion of Its

and

door in

is

tlie

about a foot above the wooden

winter,

when

the

wood

inside

has

space. floor,

been

A TUr>-^^

U

Vi

PEASANTS

:

CENTRAL RUSSIA resignation,

and

have written

charity,

and on

on

elo(|iiently

is,

this basis, indeed,

Messianic

Russia's

mission to Western Europe.

Aksakoff gives what

JJ09

Thus, for example,

perhaps, the finest picture of

childhood in the world's literature,

when he describes

a famine-stricken village through which he and his father passed.

'A

sullen-looking peasant said in a

rough voice to

my

father

:

" It

is

no joy to work,

would not look at such a A whole day you field but weeds and thistles My go over three acres and gather a fistful !" It is the father answered " What can be done ? Aleksai Stepanitch.

I

:

!

:

will of

God

friendlily

:

;"

and the sullen-looking reaper replied

" Of course

makes one of '

Later

I

his

it is, little

rare

father."

digressions

to

'

Aksakoff

comment

understood the lofty meaning of these

simple words that calm

all

agitation and silence

all

human protesting murmur, and by whose nourishing strength Orthodox Russia lives

till

this day.'

And

one cannot talk long with peasants before being struck by this religious note. terse, vigorous,

With

their gift for

and picturesque language, they con-

by those winged phrases, so rare in English conversation, which vibrate with penetrating insight, truth, and simplicity. But how far stantly startle one

these indisputable spiritual qualities are due to the

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA

310

Christian religion, and liow far to Oriental fatalism

and mere native character moulded by past it is difficult

to say.

It

is

history,

easier to note that they

have contributed to retarding material progress, and

more advanced

that in the

they are

districts

There can be no doubt, however, that

obvious.

and charity, constitute

faith, resignation,

is

if

religion, the

Russian peasants as a whole are profoundly It

less

religious.

absurd to limit their religion to idolatrous

worship of the ikon.

It

is

generally admitted to

Mr. Baring,

be largely tinged with mysticism.

it

should be noted, writing with his usual brilliance,

but with somewhat

perhaps, than his usual

less,

feature in a 'glorious

principal

insight, finds

its

sensibleness.'

This

is

certainly characteristic of the

peasants' attitude towards the priest, but the part

played by the priest in the religious life—in the broader sense as distinguished from State or Church ordinances

—

is

so

small

whether terms true of

that

It

peasant

is

to

may

is

questionable

may be applied towards God and the

this relation

with propriety to the relation ikojis.

it

be observed,

finally,

that

both religious and thoughtful he

become

dissatisfied

is

when

a

inclined

with the Orthodox Church,

and join an evangelical or mystical TurgueniefF, in one of his

sect.

poems in

prose, pictures

CENTRAL RUSSIA

311

the Sphinx brooding over sandy deserts, with a mysterious gaze, the riddle of which CEdipus alone could solve.

Then, as he scans those features and that

glance,

it

flashes across

which he knows.

'

him

that tiiey are things

The white low

forehead, the

prominent cheek-bones, the short straight nose,

mouth with

the finely-chiselled soft

its

white teeth, the

moustache and curly beard, the small eyes

set

wide apart, and the shock of parted hair on the head

— why,

that

Carp,

you.

is

peasant of Yaroslavl, of Ryazan,

man,

little

become

a

bone of Russia Sphinx V

And

!

Simyon

Sidor,

my fellow country-

Pray,

when

did you

he concludes by saying

that hardly will an CEdipus be found for the Russian

Sphinx.

It

is

indeed certain that the peasantry pre-

sent extraordinary and

all

but bewildering contrasts,

but to ponder GEdipus-like over the meaning of the glance in their

'

colourless but deep eyes

'

is,

in the

case of a profoundly tender-hearted poet, little likely

to yield results of practical value.

This passage of

TurgueniefF is as poignant but as unreal as Ruskin's description of the Swiss mountain-dwellers.

good and bad points

Of the both

in the peasant character,

of which have been profoundly influenced

by

torical conditions, the latter are largely the

his-

tem-

porary result of ignorance and isolation, and will be

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA

iil2

obliterated, or at least largely modified,

rated surroundings

deeper and be

;

by amelio-

while the former appear to

less liable to suffer

by the change.

Since the emancipation the peasants ha\'e

mense progress.

lie

made im-

And now the rate of improvement

can only accelerate with the influence of education, the breaking up of the

commune, which was

a heavy

rural enterprise, the political franchise,

and

the hicreased faciHties offered by the spread of

rail-

drag on

ways

for disposing of surplus crops

the internal resources of the cou ntry. assuredly

lies

A great future

before this remarkable people, with

physical and mental powers,

and youth.

and developing

This

may be

its

its

vigour, elasticity,

a question of time, but

can scarcely be a matter for doubt.

it

.^"^

*-*^' *«1

SIBERIAN CONVICT

CHAPTER XXIV THE NORTH

The North

of

the

Russia,

sparsely-inhabited

Governments of Archangel and Olonets, of illimitable forests, wastes of

mighty lakes and broad

rivers,

and sluggish, others rushing

To

broken.

Moscow by can

sail

is

a land

moor and tundra, some deep, reedy,

clear

and cascade-

get to Archangel, one travels from

rail

or

by

down

ship

the Dvina, or one

from Petersburg up the Neva, through the

stupendous inland seas of Ladoga and Onega, and

down

then by boats

Vyg

the

to

Gulf of

the

Onega, where, again, larger vessels ply round the coast towns.

Finally,

may

it

be reached by the

By this

Arctic Ocean and Barents Sea.

on August

24,

1558,

came the English

Richard Chancellor, on

Northern

With

maritime

last route,

his

route

mission

to

to

sailor

find

a

China and India.

a letter from

Edward

\"I.

who

received

him with the utmost

the Terrible, kindness,

he went to Ivan

and granted valuable concessions and 313

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA

314

commercial

To

privileges.

exploit

English colony was founded

century

all

and

Archangel was

in the seventeenth

the Russian trade with England left

But

wharves.

its

its

brief period of prosperity passed

There remain

with the foundation of Petersburg. still,

miles up the

fifty

Dvina, at a village Kholmogory. built thirty-one years later,

an

tliese

however, an English consulate and church,

and a considerable colony, employed

chiefly

in

great saw-mills in the neighbourhood, where the

men employ an Anglo-Russian jargon. stretches for four miles along the right

Dvina, over thirty miles from

harbour to the

free

is

first

Stream the southerly

from

Onega

Gulf.

than when the wind

So, too,

May

is

to October the port

and timber

when

there

is

a

From

an

of ships engaged

the Dvina, which

traffic, for

commercial

The

to the (Tulf

from the south.

witli

country.

May

warmer

is full

for

days of

appreciably

is

connected by a portage outlet

The

than in the more

ice here melts sooner

northerly breeze sea-bathing

in corn

first

Owing

days of October.

bank of the

mouth.

its

from the

ice

town

Tlie

the Petchora,

enormous

tract

is

is

a

of

town is has a museum,

level of education in the

high, but the place itself

is

dull.

It

a cathedral, and an unworthy statue of the great

THE NORTH

315

who was born

writer and scientist Lomonossoff,

in

1711, in a fisiierman's cottage near Kholmogory,

and who

set out

on

his first

momentous

visit to

JNIoscow on foot with three borrowed roubles and

a load of

fish.

There are no other towns of any

size in

Northern

Russia, but at a distance of fourteen hours' sailing

from Archangel

is

fairly large

wooded

lies

artificial

while the western wall

The

place

full

sound of waves. pilgrims visit

is

situated on a

Gulf of Onega, lakes.

One

of

under the high turreted wall to the

east,

is

It

island in the

dotted with natural and the latter

enormously

the famous and

wealthy Solovetski monastery.

it,

is

washed by the

sea.

of the cries of sea-birds and the

Every summer and often

are fed together in

as

fifteen

many

the refectory.

thousand

as a thousand

Founded

in

was greatly enlarged during the years of commercial activity in the north. It 1429, the monastery

has twice been bombarded, once successfully

by

the English fleet during the Crimean campaign.

The

other occasion was

much

earlier,

when

the

monks, passionately devoted to the ancient usages, rejected Nikon's ecclesiastical reforms,

and defied

for eight years the forces of the Tsar.

These same reforms

filled

the northern forests

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA

316

and the Vyg Valley with Raskolnik, or

whom

fugitives, to

were sacred and

when

creased

sectarian,

Holy AVrit Their numbers in-

the very errors of

inviolable.

Great trampled con-

the

I'eter

temptuously and deliberately on the old Muscovite customs, forbidding long beards and long robes,

surrounding himself with foreigners, and toiling with his

own

imperial hands at the boatman's oar

and the executioner's axe.

The

Peter was Antichrist.

that

conviction spread

Harassed and per-

secuted by the Tsar's soldiery, the malcontents

plunged

marshes and in

deeper

ever

into

these

impenetrable

The more reasonable settled shores of the White Sea, and the

forests.

peace by the

wilder orgiastic sects burned themselves in thousands.

Of

these wild martyrdoms, Merejhovski

has painted

and

a

remarkable picture in

'

Peter

admirably translated by Mr. Trench.

Alexis,'

Religious fanaticism it

his

is

will rarely be seen

not yet dead in Russia, but

by a

foreigner.

Pilgrims,

however, he will see everywhere, and near Archangel in the

bound

summer

for Solovetski,

the roads are

some of them

full

of them,

sensible

and

sane peasants or from higher classes fullilling a

vow,

many

of

them

rascals

and vagabonds, many

homeless, half-crazed wanderers that journey rest-

THE NOJITH from one great shrine to another.

lessly

unbalanced

these '

317

that

naturals

are

Toward known as

God's people,' the peasantry show extreme kind-

ness

and

little

sketch of their ravings

A

not

house

and

rain,

God

!

thoroughly typical.

is

suddenly

a voice say

partition

Turguenieff"s

reverence.

little

takes refuge in a wayside inn from

traveller

heavy

a

bless

!

"

'

:

God

through

the

bless all in

this

hears

God

bless

Amen Amen !"

!

!

the voice repeated, prolonging the last syllable of

each word in a wild, mmatural fashion.

heard a

I

loud sigh and the sound of a heavy body sinking

down on

a bench.'

Akulina — this grim — '"handmaiden "

'

"

ha

T-phew

!

much

my

Lord,

am

as I

Lord,

!

come

of God,

my

blessed

of

my

ha

.

!

.

the seventh hour

Who entered my '

"

'"And

is

my

on

T-phew

!"

that

.

!

am

.

Ha-ha-

my

God, like a

God, Master

Oho-ho

!

Ha-

blessed be this house

till

'

?"

I

room with

that,

affliction

And

!

my

the

as I

God," the voice began to boom

belly, look .

.

God, Lord,

deacon's before the altar, " Lord,

pil-

here,"

much

" See, for as

voice began again.

naked, for as

was a female with the

'

mv

asked

my

hostess,

who

a samovar.'

little

father."

slie

said in a

'

PKOVINCIAL RUSSIA

318

liurried whisper, "

He

man

a holy man, a

is

runs from him, the

In such weather

little

*

" A',

again.

where

is

!

God

In the desert this

!"

bless

— our

like tliey

friend

!

beautiful paradise

our paradise

is

.

.

And

!

the \oice started

AkuUna, Akulinushka,

our paradise

It just

!

pigeon, in floods

you should see the chains on him, what

be—terrihle !" " God bless

And

of God.

not long come to our country, and there, he

is

pleased to visit us.

is

—

'

.

And !

.

.

.

our paradise.

.

.

.

house at the beginning of the world

great happiness

— oh-oh-oh

something indistinctly

;

The

!"

voice muttered

then after a long yawn

there was another burst of hoarse laughter.

laughter broke out every time as

if

This

involuntarily,

and every time was followed by angiy expectoration.' *

Ech ma

"

our

grief, then,"

" He'll say will

The

!

the

master's not here

woman

!

There

of the house sighed.

some saving word, and me a woman,

not stay in

my

head

is

it

!"

Several causes have contributed to

make

the

northern peasant more energetic and independent

— not

for

any barin

will

the moujik of the centre.

he doff

A

his

hat

!

— than

large proportion of

the population are sectarians, descendants of the

THE NORTH who

are

invariably

more

in-

self-reliant,

and

provident,

than

the

Raskolniks,

old

dustrious,

319

They

adherents of the Orthodox Church. too, in their veins

much

Finnish blood that gave

have,

of the dour, determined

rise to

the proverb

'

:

Burn

a Karelian, and after three years he's not in ashes

!'

Being on Government land, they escaped the demoralizing conditions that

Something

serf-ownership.

Siberia, to the influence exiles.

so

is

also

due

private

here, as in

and propaganda of

political

number of them

are not

Lastly, a great

much

accompanied

agriculturists as

and

trappers, hunters,

fishermen, a stalwart race inured to privations and

dangers on flood and in

forest.

Several authorities

see in these northern peasants the strongest branch

In manners they are simple,

of the Russian race.

and

unsophisticated,

hospitable.

they are backward, and this explains still

linger with

them

education

In

dresses, customs,

why

there

and songs,

that have long vanished from Southern Muscovy.

Some

of the customs breathe an air of a sterner

age.

Thus, often in the marriage ceremonies the

bride's

hair

is

pulled,

and a song sung

the mattress of the marriage bed

is

to which

:

is

joined a whip of silk

has three ends, and

when

it

:

'

Under

a stick of oak,

the whip of

silk

scourges the blood

;

PROVINCIAL RUSSIA

320

savage

Less

squirts.'

but really

colour,

in

as

primitive, are the words of the bride when about to forfeit

lier

'

times before the

bow

lx)w for the

make

iAoris,

saying

most pious

for myself,

have pity on

young

me

make the first make the second

'

:

most pious Tsar,

for the

Slie kneels three

divine freedom.'

I

I

and the third

Tsaritsa,

that the Saviour

girl,

must

shriek and struggle,

new home

'

may

Among

in the strange house.'

their neighboiu's the Lapps, however,

I

the bride

and be hauled to her

Here there were

like a reindeer.'

col-

lected priceless old Invilinis that told of the heroes,

the peasants' sons, Mikoula and lllya of

and even now, while over great Russia

industrial

life

of Central

districts

introduced

has

costumes, cheap tunes, and

Murom

trivial

cheap

words, and to

some degree justified the factory song, O works! O you works You've demoralized the people,' '

!

in

northern

the

beautiful

old

home-worked

refrains,

linger

villages

dresses,

some of which

in

marvellously

and a wealth of slow maestuoso

touch with almost unendurable pathos the lowest deeps of human sadness rural

customs

strange

M'^ith

new world

;

while others, again, treat of

allegro

motifs

of melody to

Typical of this latter kind

is

that reveal

Western

a

ears.

the haunting air of

TlIK *

A moui

seed

prosy sayali

'

('

NORTH

We

321

have sown the millet-

instinct with the very breath of spring

').

the smell of country fields

and

:

-