■<-
CTSGG^ PICTURES
FHOM
ST. PETERSBURG.
BY
EDWARD JERRMANN.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN
BY
FREDERICK HARDMAN.
ITT TWO PARTS.
PART I.
LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1852.
v
?-'
\i>\H
London :
Sfottiswoodes and Shaw,
New-Street-Square.
TKANSLATOE'S PREFACE.
In sending to press this English version of a very enter-
taining German volume, the translator does not feel called
upon to prefix other introduction than the expression of
his belief in the book's accuracy and impartiality. Mr.
Jerrmann's preface explains the principles to which he
has striven to adhere whilst writing of a country of which
he has evidently brought away a more favourable impres-
sion than it has left upon the majority of its recent literary
visitors. From his fifteenth chapter we learn what he
himself by profession is, — namely, a stage-player, who
passed three years in St. Petersburg as manager of a
German company. The patronage he there met with
was hardlv calculated to cast a rose-coloured reflection on
his reminiscences of the Russian capital ; otherwise we
might perhaps be justified in suspecting that the actor's
gratitude had swayed the author's pen to undue laudation
of the emperor Nicholas, of whom he is manifestly a warm
admirer.
In the original German, the word " unpolitical " is
prefixed to the title of this book, whose contents hardly
justify its use. The political bias, if bias there be, is in
a contrary direction to that traceable in most English,
French, and German works published of late years, and
A 2
4 translator's preface.
relating to Russia. Upon tlie whole, Mr. • Jcrrmann rather
approves than blames the j^i'esent order of things in that
country, which he considers to be in a transition state of
steady but slow improvement — the more satisfactory be-
cause slow. He does not, however, dogmatically contend
for the soundness of his opinions, but will apparently be
well content if his readers credit the facts with which he
furnishes them, thereupon to form their own judgment.
Thus much can hardly be refused to a writer who, al-
though hitherto unknown in England, is evidently shrewd
and intelligent, Avhose veracity v/e have no grounds to call
in question, and to whom we are certainly indebted for a
highly interesting book.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The friendly reception wliicli several of the following
sketches from St. Petersburg have already found in various
journals, encourages me, in compliance with the gratifying
invitation of my publishers, to place them before the public
in a collective form, and with considerable augmenta-
tions. I do not deceive myself as to the difficulties of
my undertaking : I know how much more is justly required
from a book than from fugitive newspaper sketches ; and
on that account I have arranged the present volume in the
unassuming form of detached pictures. I do not pretend
to pass judgment ; I confine myself to depicting that which
I have partly seen with my own eyes, and partly derived
from trustworthy sources.
The present tone of public opinion in no way discour-
ages me. In a far more agitated time, upon my return
from France, I wrote my book on Paris ; and although, in
many respects, it was directly opposed to the prevailing
opinion of the political and social condition of France, it
nevertheless met, at the hands of both readers and critics,
the indulgent consideration which those may fairly claim
who honestly strive after a knowledge of the truth. Now,
as then, I address myself to my task in a cheerful and
impartial spirit.
Observant by education, by calling, and by inclination,
A 3
6 author's peeface.
and weaned, by travel and experience, from many pre-
valent prejudices, I noted, with careful eye, during three
years' sojourn in the Russian capital, all that my social
position and relations allowed me opportunity of investi-
gating ; and I here add to my observations such remarks
only as are their natural and inevitable results. I put
myself forward neither as moralist nor as politician. My
aim is to display the customs and manners of a foreign
land, with that candour and freedom of speech whose
consequences certainly darkened some of the best years
of my life, but of which I have never been able to
divest myself. I must either speak the naked truth or
be silent. In speaking of the men and things of Russia,
I have exhibited them as I beheld and appreciated them.
If I took a false view, it was the fault of my powers
of percpption, not of my will. I can see only with my
own eyes ; but the consciousness that I have in no way
misrepresented what I have seen, gives me courage to
present my observations to the world, at risk of running
counter to the prevailing opinion of many, and of opening
to prejudice a wide field of criticism. I say prejudice,
and I repeat the word, for on no subject have I, in en-
lightened Germany, heard such prejudiced opinions ex-
pressed as on the subject of Russia and its Ruler. We
are more intimately acquainted with the state of China
than with that of a country which commences at our
frontier. To the many erroneous views with respect to
Russia which have obtained wide currency amongst us,
the various books published concerning that country have
not a little contributed. For, independently of wilful
misrepresentations, French and German writers have con-
author's preface. 7
templated the social and political circumstances of Russia
with the eyes of their own nationality. This is wrong
and unjust, for every country and every nation has a right
to demand that it should be examined and judged from the
point of view of its own peculiar idiocrasy. He who
refuses to tal^e his observations from that point of view,
may achieve sparkling comparisons, witty reasoning, jest
and satire, but will never attain to a natural and life-like
representation of the people he professes to describe.
It is with heartfelt conviction that I praise in Russia
much which in Germany I should bitterly blame. Persons
who have blamed those things in Russia have had before
their eyes, when forming their judgment, not Russia, but
their own country, thev' nationality, themselves in short. I
have done my utmost to avoid this subjective manner of
viewino; thino;s, and have endeavoured, when investioratino;
whatever struck me as strange, to make due allowance for
differences of climate and civilisation, and in the tempera-
ment and character of the people. As for the rest, I
stand upon facts, partly historical, partly still existing,
and therefore incontrovertible. My views may possibly
be refuted, but the facts upon which they are based defy
refutation.
A 4
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
FiKST Impressions and Social Intescourse - - 13
CHAP. II.
The Emperor Nicholas •• - - - - 27
CHAP. III.
The Festival at Peterhof, and a Military Review - 35
CHAP. IV.
Public Buildings and Private Houses - - - 41
CHAP. V.
The Winter Palace - - - - - 50
CHAP. VI.
Public Schools - - - - - - 61
CHAP. VII.
Foundling Hospital - - - - - - 67
CHAP. VIIT.
CURIOSA ..._ _._7l
CHAP. IX.
Kitchen and Cellar - - - - - 79
IQ CONTENTS.
CHAl . A.. Page
Official Pensioks and Responsimlxties - - - 84
CHAP. XI.
89
The Russian Police - - . -
CHAP. XII.
96
Russian Justice . - - - -
CHAP. XIII.
1 no
A Show of Brides -
CHAP. XIV.
Coachmen and Couriers - - - - - 10/
CHAP. XV.
Theatres - - - -
113
CHAP. XVI.
Henrietta Sontag - - - " " ^-'
CHAP. XVII.
Concerts _------ 131
CHAP. XVIII.
Conspiracies - - - - " -13/
CHAP. XIX.
The Imperial Family - - - - - 147
CHAP. XX.
Joseph is Dead, but Peter Lives - - - - 157
CHAP. XXI.
Prince Gagarin ..---- 162
CONTENTS. 11
CHAP. XXII.
Page
GOSTINOT DWOR - - - - - -170
CHAP. XXIII.
Classification ...... 175
CHAP. XXIV.
Master and Slave -- - - - -179
CHAP. XXV.
The Serf - - - - - - - 185
CHAP. XXVI.
A Merchant of the First Guild, and a Spendthrift of
THE First Magnitude - - - - - 189
CHAP. XXVII.
A Merchant of the Second Guild - - - 194
CHAP. XXVIII.
A Russian Sect - - - - - - 199
CHAP. XXIX.
A Dream 203
CHAP. XXX.
The Statue of Peter the Great - - - - 208
CHAP. XXXI.
The Pofe - - - - - - - 213
CHAP. XXXII.
The Serf's Story 221
CHAP. XXXIII.
Storm and Whirlwind ... - - 227
12 CONTENTS.
CHAP. XXXIV.
The Moon of the Mountains _ - - . 235
CHAP. XXXV.
Justice and Police ------ 241
CHAP. XXXVI.
Rod and Knout ..-.-- 248
CHAP, xxxvn.
The Russian Peasant . . - . - 254
CHAP. XXXVIII.
A Day at Sarskoje-Selo ----- 257
CHAP. XXXIX.
A Winter Morning in the Country - . - 264
CHAP. XL.
An Evening in the German Colony - - - 271
PICTURES
FROM
ST. PETERSBURG.
CHAPTER L
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.
St. Petersburg, the capital of an empire which borders on
Germany ; St. Petersburg, which reckons amongst its inhabit-
ants upwards of forty thousand Germans, of whom a large
proportion correspond Avith friends and relations in their own
country ; St. Petersburg, which annually receives several hun-
dred German guests, is nevertheless as imperfectly known to
us as if it lay beyond the Mountains of the Moon ; and the
accounts we get of it are so fabulously strange, that when we
come to visit it we scarcely dare to trust the evidence of our
own eyes. Even according to the sketches given by Messrs.
Kohl and Pelz (Treumund Welp), who nevertheless abode there
long enough to know better, one trembles lest one should en-
counter a bear on the Newsky Perspective, or receive in one's
peaceable dwelling the visit of a famished wolf. His mind full
of such erroneous anticipations, the traveller fancies himself a
stage or two beyond Christendom, expects to make acquaintance
with a semi-barbarous land, and approaches the City of the Czars
with trepidation and anxiety. How startling and agreeable
is the contrast, to these gloomy forebodings, of the reality that
presents itself on entering the Russian capital, especially if the
approach be made from the side of the sea. The beauty of the
entrance into St. Petersburg cannot easily be paralleled. First,
14 PICTURES FEOM ST. PETERSBURG.
magnificent Cronstadt, with its harbour full of countless ships,
its docks without end, its remarkable towers and works, rising
in wonderful strength and beauty out of the depths of the
open sea, strikes us with admiration. A little further we pass
the beautiful palace of Peterhof, with its delightful gardens, its
pleasant park, its fairy-like buildings. After several hours'
sail up stream, and after passing the splendid building appro-
priated to the mining school, we reach the majestic English
quay, where the steamer stops, just opposite to the Exchange.
The delay occasioned by the revision of passports, before
which no one is allowed to quit the vessel, and by the subse-
quent inspection of baggage at the custom-house, is disagreeable,
especially as the glimpse one gets of the city excites the
strongest desire and most impatient curiosity to examine it
more closely. The annoyance of the detention is lessened,
however, by the obliging courtesy with which the officials per-
form their duty, assisting the travellers, after its completion, to
repack and arrange their property. If there be any truth in
the oft-repeated tales of the horrors of the Russian custom-
house, they at least can apply but to the inland frontiers,
where, perhaps, Cossack usages still prevail. When entering
St. Petersburg by water it is only in cases where information
of fraud has been received, that harshness and severity are
displayed ; otherwise, and as a general rule, the treatment is
considerate and humane, and might be substituted with great
advantage for the petty annoyance inflicted by the Austrian
customs' officers. The customary formalities at an end, it is
usually still broad daylight when you reach the interior of the
city. Most strangers proceed thither along the quay, across
the Isaac Square, by the fine statue of Peter the Great, the
imposing building of the Admiralty and the wonderful Isaac
Church, to the Newsky Perspective. However much accus-
tomed to Paris and London, the stranger cannot but be struck,
impressed and delighted by the spectacle that here presents
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 15
itself to him ; by the remarkable beauty of this street, its
immense width, including a double line of carriage ways floored
with wood, and foot paths ten or twelve feet broad — by the
magnificent palaces and palatial houses bordering it on either
side : by the elegance of the rows of shops, each vying with the
other in luxury and richness, fronted with the clearest glass,
illumined at night with floods of gaslight, and filled with the
most costly objects that luxury and refinement can devise.
Still more is he astonished at the constant stream of life which
flows along this great artery of the city ; at the throng of pas-
sengers on foot and on horseback, in carriages drawn by six
and by four horses, in smaller vehicles of every kind, m
droschkis and istworstschiks. If the stranger, extricating him-
self from this noisy bustling scene, succeeds in finding accom-
modation at the Hotel Coulon or the Hotel Demuth, the only
foreign hotels in St. Petersburg, he may live there comfortably
enough until he can settle himself in more permanent quarters.
But if, through want of room at those houses, or ignorance of the
locality, he betakes himself to a Russian hotel, he has speedy
opportunity of studying one of the most disgraceful sides of life
in St. Petersburg. Short of a forest cavern, a foreigner could
hardly meet with anything more uninviting and unpleasant than
the aspect of one of these caravanserais, or with anything more
dismal than its arrangement and distribution. He is ushered into
ill-lighted rooms, betraying a sad want of the careful and cleans-
ing hand of a tidy hostess ; and where the elegance of the furni-
ture is by no means so great as to make amends for its extreme
scantiness. The absence of anything like a bed particularly
strikes him. Russian travellers do not miss this, for they in-
variably cany their own beds about with them, as Maximilian
the First carried his cofiin, and thus accustom hotel keepers to
dispense with beds in their apartments. At last, after many
delays, and at the urgent and agonized entreaty of the weary
foreigner, such a bed is provided as the German, accustomed to
16 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
the snug eiderdown of the fatherland, shudders to contemplate.
The painful impression of this first reception is but very par-
tially surmounted, when he becomes aware of another cause of
discomfort and annoyance. The attendance is simply execrable.
In these Russian hotels there is seldom a living creature who
can speak anything but Russian ; and foreigners are at their
wit's end to make themselves understood. There is little hope
for English, French, and Italians. Only the German, if his
good genius suggests to him to visit the kitchen, may chance to
discover there a Finland woman. These are skilful cooks, and
most of them speak German. He will hardly get a better
supper for this, however ; and ultimately will be fain to have
recourse to the hospitality of his countrymen resident in St.
Petersburg, and which assuredly will never fjiil him. If the
stranger has letters, or even only a single letter, of introduction,
v.'liich it is natural to suppose will in most instances be the
case, he is rescued, immediately on presenting them, from the
purgatory of his inn, either by the offer of a room in tlae
friend's house to whom he is recommended or by being provided
with a furnished apartment, of which there are plenty to let in
St. Petersburg, chiefly in German houses, and where he will
usually find himself very comfortable.
Should any one who reads these lines ever visit St. Peters-
burg without introduction or acquaintance, let him go to the
first wine-house or restaurateur he meets with (thei'e is no
lack of them), and inspect the bill of fare, upon which the
names of eatables and drinkables are inscribed in German as
well as in Russian. In such places, too, tliere is generally an
attendant who can speak German. Let the stranger walk in,
seat himself at the first unoccupied table he comes to, and order
his breakfast in German, and in rather a loud voice. He may
be pretty certain that, before he has half finished his repast, —
and provided he be not too entirely engrossed in its discussion
— he will observe some one of the persons present call the
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AXD SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 17
waiter, and whisper a few words in liis ear. The waiter
replies by the same sort of pantomime usually performed by a
German court-chamberlain when his royal master asks him
why the people do not cheer as he goes by. The habitue,
having received this shoulder-shrugging answer to his inquiry,
seems to consult a moment with his companions, then empties
his glass, fills it again, rises from table, approaches the stranger,
and greets him as a countryman. Some conversation ensues,
and if there be anything in the new comer's mode of speaking,
occupation, country, journey, or manner, to inspire the slightest
interest, it may safely be wagered that before his interlocutor
has emptied his glass, he has invited him to join his party.
If, in the intercourse which then follows, he justifies, ever so
little, the good opinion which his new acquaintance are well-
disposed to entertain of him, he is asked to call upon them,
and thenceforward it only depends upon him to consider their
houses, if he so pleases, as his own. There is little ceremony
used with anybody. A stranger is invited only once to dinner.
If he does not please his entertainers, they nevertheless, for
that once, endure him with a good and hospitable grace. If, upon
the other hand, he makes a favourable impression, on leaving
table his host says to him, with a cordial shake of the hand,
*' Do not wait for another invitation ; your knife and fork will
be laid here daily, and the oftener you come and use them,
the greater the pleasure you will do us." And when this is
said, the guest may feel assured that it is meant literally as
spoken. Nor need he ever fear to inconvenience his hospitable
entertainers ; go when he will, he will be welcome. His
place is ready for him : if oysters and champagne are upon
table, his host smiles, well-pleased that he has come on a day
of good cheer. But though beef and potatoes alone be on the
board, the lady of the house betrays not a sign of vexation or
embarrassment. Enough there always is ; how it is managed
1 know not ; but the entrance of half a dozen unforeseen guests
B
18 PICTURES FKOM ST. PETERSBUKG.
neither excites surprise nor occasions inconvenience. On the
other hand, however homely the repast, the hostess never
deems an apology requisite. What she gives is freely given,
and she therefore makes sure that it will be contentedly re-
ceived. How she would laugh, could she witness, in some
German household in Dresden or Berlin, the housewife's deadly
agony when her husband unexpectedly brings home from 'Change
a friend or two to dinner. Such agony, for such a motive,
is unknown in St. Petersburg ; unknown, too, there, is the
German custom of making trifling presents to servants as often
as you take a meal in a friend's house. At Christmas and
Easter it is customary to make calls at the houses of your
friends, and then money is given to servants, and in handsome
amounts ; ten or twenty rubles to each, or even more, according
to the means and inclination of the donor. If the two customs
come much to the same in the end, at any rate that of the
Russians is more seemly and convenient.
Conversation at Russian dinner tables is not very striking
or diversified. This may be partially accounted for by the
separation of the sexes. Be it observed that I here depict the
manners of the middle classes. He who desires to learn those
of the nobility — not only of Russia, but of the rest of Europe
— has only to study the usages of Parisian society, and he
then knows those of all other aristocratic societies. In the
burgher circles at St. Petersburg, the two sexes usually group
themselves very much apart from each other. Even at meals
the gentlemen take one half of the table, and the ladies the other.
I will not venture exactly to praise such an arrangement, but
certainly it spares many an old greybeard, or busy merchant,
engrossed with agios and percentages, the trouble of having to
entertain a simpering sixteen-year-old neighbour.
The chief subjects of conversation with the ladies of St.
Petersburg, at the dinner table, and in the circle they subse-
quently form round their coffee cups, are music, theatricals,
PIRST IMPRESSIONS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 19
the gossip of the town, a very little literature, and, above all,
the fashions. On this last subject they are inexhaustible, and
truth demands the confession that they do not cultivate a
barren soil. They do not, as many a distinguished national
assembly has done, waste their time in fruitless theories.
Every project devised speedily becomes an accomplished fact;
plans are no sooner sketched than carried out ; theory quickly
blossoms into practice ; no undertaking is too difficult, no
obstacle insurmountable, no sacrifice too great for these devoted
priestesses of the Graces.
Amongst the men at St. Petersburg the talk is of their
business, of art, science, and politics. Of the latitude of con-
versation on this latter subject, we, in Germany, have no idea.
Our notion is, that politics are a prohibited topic in the Russian
capital. Nor is the notion altogether erroneous, for in public one
does not hear them discussed. But did any one hear them dis-
cussed publicly in Germany until before the events of March ?
And did not the places of public amusement in Germany offer a
thousand opportunities for their discussion ? And in all Austria
did any man dare, even in his own house — if there were a few
persons collected there — to speak his mind freely ? And if by
chance, between cheese and dessert, he did allow a candid word
or two to escape him on political subjects, did he not, on the
servant's entrance, even though the man had been ten years
under his roof, bite his lip, and quickly hold his peace?
In St. Petersburg people do not live abroad. Public gar-
dens, boulevards, bazaars, and so forth, are there unknown.
There everybody minds his business, and stops in his house ;
and when the cares and toils of the former are at an end, he
does his utmost to transform the latter into a paradise. Free-
dom is an indispensable condition of such transformation, and
of freedom the Petersburger enjoys, in his own house, an ample
measure ; not only in the complete liberty of his social life, not
only in his complete abandonment to his individual inclina-
B 2
20 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
tions, but also in respect of political controversies, which in his
domestic circle are often carried on with such keenness and
unreserve, that the hearer fancies himself transported into some
German republican club. Freedom is far greater in St. Pe-
tersburg, in this respect, than is generally supposed. Con-
sidering the licence of expression indulged in when conversing
on political subjects before strangers and servants, it is quite
inconceivable that the vigilant police should never have be-
come aware of, or taken umbrage at it ; and that there should
be no instance on record of a domiciliary visit in the house
of a German resident in St. Petersburg. It is probable enough,
however, that the authorities are aware of those conver-
sations, but intentionally take no notice of them, knowing the
character of Germans, and that, with them, — words do not lead
to deeds.
When politics, into which conversation at St. Petersburg
usually ends by gliding, have been fairly exhausted, play is
resorted to as a pastime. In this the women are in no way be-
hindhand with the men ; but, on the contrary, have usually or-
ganised their tables of whist, boston, ombre, ov preference, long
before the politicians have finished their discussions. Pre-
ference, especially, is a favourite game with the St. Petersburg
fair ones. With unremitting assiduity they play on from seven
or eight in the evening till two in the morning, then sup, and
separate at four to get up again at daybreak, — that is to say,
according to German time, at nine in the morninix : for I here
speak of winter parties only, seeing that in summer, at St. Pe-
tersburg, there are neither parties nor inhabitants.
When the St. Petersburger has thus introduced a stranger
into his house and shown him his domestic interior, the chief
subject of his pride, he proceeds to display to him the second
thing in which he glories, namely, the beauties of the capital.
A day is fixed, the droschki is brought to the door, — few Pe-
tersburgers in comfortable circumstances are M'ithout an equi-
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 21
page, — and the foreigner is driven all about the town. First,
through the Newsky Perspective, already referred to, to the
majestic Newsky Convent, where repose the bones of St. Alex-
ander Newsky, which were miraculously cast ashore, so runs
the tradition, on the Neva's bank, by the Baltic's tempestuous
billows. In costly silver relievos, the hero's exploits are per-
petuated upon his coffin. Returning hence, the strangei-'s guide
pohits out to him, on the left of the Perspective, the Kasan
church, one of the most beautiful ornaments of the city. In its
front stand four colossal stone statues of apostles, models for
four statues of the like gigantic size, which are to be cast in
silver. The metal for this purpose is already stored up in the
vaults of the Church, and is a pious present from the Cossacks
of the Don. On entering the sacred edifice, the eye is at once
fettered and dazzled by tlie magnificence it meets. Pillars,
walls, floor, and ceiling, all of the costliest marble; a great
barrier, three feet high, and of wrought silver, in front of the
sanctuary, and behind it pictures of saints, partly cut out, ac-
cording to the Russian fashion, and having head, neck, and
breast, as well as the frames, studded with precious stones of
great price. Various trophies, conquered in the wars with
Turks and French, decorate the Church ; amongst others, the
marshal's baton of Davoust, the sight of which once incited a
Frenchman, fanaticised by false patriotism, to commit a church
robbery. He was detected ; and although the offence is one of
those most severely punished in Russia, the authorities con-
tented themselves, in consideration' of the extenuating motive,
with sending him out of the country.
From the Kasansky you drive through the Morskoy, paved,
like the Newsky, with wood, to the Etat Major*, one of the
liandsomest buildings in St. Petersburg, opposite to which, on an
* Generalstab, military headquarters, offices of the stafF : in England,
the Horse-Guards is the only analogous establishment. — T.
B 3
22 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
immense open square, stands the enormous Alexander's Pillar.
Thence you proceed to the sumptuous Winter Palace, whence the
view over the Neva, Wasili-Ostrow, and the Petersburg bank, is
exceedingly fine. Going down the quay, you reach the Champ
de Mars, of such vast extent that I once saw the Emperor pass
in review there a body of 80,000 men of all arms. Whoever
has had the opportunity of seeing the Russian guards manoeuvre,
will assuredly hesitate before expressing German contempt of
those " barbarous hordes." Several days are requisite for even
a superficial examination of the principal sculptural and archi-
tectural monuments of the city. Then it is the turn of St. Pe-
tersburg's charming environs; — Sarskoje-Selo, Jelagyn, and
Peterhof, the summer residence of the Court, whose beauty
borders on tlie fabulous. Thence comes a visit to Apothe-
cary's Island, with its wonderful botanical garden, in whose
immense conservatories one fancies oneself transported to the
tropics. To the intelligent zeal of the court- gardener, Mr. Tell-
mann, a German, these hot-houses are indebted for a care and
development which renders them probably unsurpassed by
similar establishments in any country of the w^orld. At any
rate, nothing of the kind that I have seen in Potsdam^ Vienna,
and Paris, can bear comparison with them. From Apothecary's
Island you reach Kamini-Ostrow, thence proceed to Petrowsky,
and so from one island to another, each surpassing its neighbour
in the beauty of its plantations and elegance of its summer
villas. Certainly art alone is to be thanked for all this beauty
and bloom in the far north of Europe, where nature does no-
thing ; equally certain is it that the glory of these lovely gardens
lasts at most but ten or twelve weeks. Not on that account,
however, are we to withhold our recognition of the Beautiful,
wheresoever we find it ; but rather prize and appreciate it the
more, because our enjoyment of it is to be so brief. And as-
suredly the stranger, crossing for the first time the bridge of
Kamini-Ostrow, pausing in its centre, and looking right and left
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 23
at the lovely villas, built in the most graceful Italian style, and
embedded in luxuriant vegetation and beauteous flowers, may
well imagine, as his astonished gaze wanders over the shores of
the arm of the Neva, that he has been suddenly transported to
the seductive banks of Arno or of Brenta. These islands are the
summer abode of the inhabitants of the capital ; where no one,
whose business will possibly admit his absence, ever remains be-
tween the beginning of June and the end of August. The oppres-
sive heat,combined with the intolerable dust, and, above all, the
pestiferous exhalations of the canals, drive every one forth.
These canals, of great width, and encased in handsome granite
quays, are very ornamental to the city ; but they render residence
there during the hot season perfect torture. Accordingly,
towards the end of May, all make their escape ; and if I have
already had occasion to praise the hospitality of the town, I
must now admit it to be surpassed by that exercised in the
country. There it is a common practice for whole families to
quarter themselves, unexpected and uninvited, upon their friends
and acquaintances, bringing with them their servants, horses,
and dogs. They are always heartily welcome, kindly received,
and hospitably entertained ; and their departure is sincerely
deplored, though it occur only after many weeks' stay. The
rural amusements are walks and rides, bathing, bals champetres,
fire-works, — which are let off almost every evening, especially
towards the beginning of autumn, — music, singing, somewhat
more conversation than in town, because less time is passed at
cards, somewhat less reading, because one is almost constantly
out of doors. Gambling, however, is not entirely given up
and moreover the abstinence in summer is amply compensated
by the winter's excess. With the exception of Mexico, there
is assuredly in no place in the world more gambling- than here
True, that games of chance are strictly prohibited, and are
played neither in public places nor at private clubs ; but games
of skill, especially •preference, are played so abominably hio-h
B 4
24 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
that scarcely an evening passes, in the winter-time, without
a few hundred thousand rubles banco exchanging hands at the
card-tables of the English club and other establishments of the
kind. These profuse and habitual gamblers play, especially
the Russians, with wonderful coolness, and with the utmost
apparent indifference as to the result.
A circumstance that comes greatly in aid to the hospitality
of the Petersburgers, is the abundance of provisions and their
consequent cheapness. One can hardly form an idea of the
plenty that prevails. On Tw^elfth Day, when midnight chimes,
the peasants of the whole empire set out upon their sledges,
well packed with fish, flesh, game, and preserved fruits, which
latter are no where so well prepared and of such good flavour
as in Russia, and repair to the towns, especially to St. Peters-
burg, often performing journeys of 2000 or 3000 versts. There
they usually sell their goods at very advantageous prices, and
then, in large caravans, in high spirits, and somewhat elevated
by drink, retrace their steps homewards. These journeys,
however, take place only in what are called fine winters, by
which the Russians understand a steady cold of 20° to 24^
Reaumur. Then the sledging paths are firm and smooth ; the
peasants' little horses, not bigger than a bull of a year and a half
old, drag them briskly and without fatigue to the capital, where
their eatables arrive fresh and in good order. If, upon the
other hand, a thaw sets in, these poor people are greatly to be
pitied. The results of their year's toil are inevitably lost to
them. And even when it freezes again directly, so that the
pi'ovisions reach their journey's end seemingly well preserved,
the thaw has nevertheless caused distrust as to the state of the
meat, and sale and price are alike diminished. With respect to
fish not the slightest deception can take place, for the Russian
knows by the very first look at the fish's eye and by pressing it
gently with his finger whether the fish has been thawed, and if
it has he will not purchase it at any price. In remarkably mild
FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 25
winters, when there are frequent intermissions of thaw and
frost, — as happened, for instance, in the winter of 1841-2, — the
police institute a rigid examination of the provisions before
they are allowed to enter the city. And so it came to pass that
in that unfortunate winter, many hundreds of sledges were
excluded from St. Petersburg, their contents were thrown into
the water or buried in the earth, and their unhappy owners had
no choice but to sell horse, sledge, and harness, and to retrace
on foot, sorrowful and a-hungered, the weary journey to their
distant homes. Happily such had (mild) winters are of very
rare occurrence. The one I have just referred to, during which
the Neva twice thawed and twice again was frozen, was un-
paralleled in the memory of the oldest man in St. Petersburg.
The cheapness of the principal necessaries of life, such as
bread, potatoes, meat, and fish, extends also to the more delicate
vegetables, to fruit, and to poultry and the smaller sorts of game,
(especially a species of partridge, heathcocks, &c.), particularly if
one does not run after things which have only just come into
season. This explains the abundance observable on the tables
of St. Petersburg, even upon those of the middle classes. Fuel
is also very cheap, and rents, compared with those demanded in
Vienna and other capitals, are by no means high. I lived
in the Stalerney-Perulok, one of the most lively streets in
St. Petersburg, in a very large handsome house. I had the best
floor, which there means the second floor ; the first floor of
St. Petersburg houses being disagreeable owing to deficiency of
light and the noise from the street. My apartments consisted
of a large drawing-room with a balcony, and four other highly
comfortable rooms, besides corridor, kitchen, loft and cellar.
The rent I paid was 1,300 rubles banco (not quite 45/. sterling).
In Vienna the same accommodation would certainly cost twice
as much. My expense for fuel during the whole of the long
winter of St. Petersburg — where, as is well known, the stoves
are arranged so as to heat, besides the dwelling rooms, kitchen,
26 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
passage, hall and staircase — amounted to no more than 200
rubles, or less than 7/. sterling ; whereas in Vienna, with much
less space to heat, I paid the same sum every two months the
winter through. And those who are satisfied to burn nothing
but coals will hardly be at a third of the expense. Thus we see
that rent is certainly not dear, and that the ordinary necessaries
of life are decidedly cheap. But very costly, upon the other hand,
are all objects of luxury, particularly those manufactured in
foreign countries. Men's clothes, and more particularly women's
clothes, are made in St. Petersburg even better than in London
and Paris ; the fashions of course coming from the latter places,
and being most conscientiously imitated by the Russian artists.
But they are enormously dear, as are all kinds of dress,
millinery, and ornaments, and as are also French wines and
books. The dealers in these last, for instance, reckon the
Prussian dollar as equivalent to the silver ruble, which is at
once an addition of six or seven per cent to the price, and
moreover, lay on a profit of twenty-five and often thirty-three
per cent. By these exorbitant charges the sale of books is
much injured. Foreign wines in general are anything but
cheap, especially champagne, the regular price of which is three
silver rubles a bottle, or more than half as dear again as in
Germany ; and what makes this expense still more felt is the
extravagant use of that wine. The first thing that a Russian
places before a stranger is champagne, and as the German is of
an imitative nature, and this custom flatters alike his palate and
his vanity, the use of the luxury is carried to profusion. An
effort has been made to substitute a Russian product for this
expensive drink ; and a wine is fabricated out of the excellent
grapes of the Crimea which is called Russian champagne, and
which exactly resembles the original as far as colour and effer-
vescence go. But there the likeness ends. In flavour the
difference is so notable that the Russian sets the Crimean wine
THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 27
only before those guests whom he does not desire again to
receive, but the repetition of whose visits the sacred laws of
hospitality forbid him to decline.
CHAP. II.
THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS.
The name of the Emperor Nicholas is at this day as insepa-
rable from that of Russia as is the idea of the sun from that
of daylight. The comparison may be carried farther ; for,
whatever now thrives and ripens in the intellectual and ma-
terial domain of Russia, is indebted for its growth to the
vivifying beams of the imperial sun, imparting warmth and
life to dead matter. Hence we get to comprehend the erroneous
judgment which attributes to the same influence evil as well
as good, and especially the continued duration of a state of
things which is undoubtedly, in some respects, deeply to be
deplored, and which, measured by the German standard, appears
perfectly horrible and revolting. It is but the few who know to
what extent the bounteous hand of the Czar pours healing balm
into the gaping wounds of his country ; and, of those few, but
a very few are open to conviction of the fact.
Let me devote a few lines to a brief investigation, founded
upon facts.
The rights of man ai'e trampled under foot in Russia !
Who denies it? A nation, still semi-barbarous, is subjected
to a semi-barbarous rule ! Perfectly true. Laws unworthy
of the name exist there, as well as classes of men degraded
below the proper dignity of man. All this is matter of fact ;
but the profound genius of the Emperor, who discerns all
this, his restless striving to remedy these evils, to reconcile
28 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
these incongruities, — fJiat stamps him in my eyes, not only as a
great sovereign, but also as a true friend of the people.
It is with real gratification that I oppose, in these pages,
a true and faithful representation of facts to a prejudice
universal in Germany — a prejudice often confirmed and
strengthened by Germans who have long resided in Russia.
It is not my fault if those Germans either were unable to
take a clear-sighted view of what passed around them, or else
measured it with a German rule — a mode of measurement of
which Russian matters certainly do not admit. The man who
rigidly investigates, and takes into due consideration, the cha-
racter of the people, the confirmed habits of centuries, the
perils and material disadvantages of the too-sudden development
of free institutions, will not only contemplate with respect and
admiration the efforts of the Russian government for the safe
and gradual spread of liberty, but will also, like myself, not
hesitate to proclaim the Emperor Nicholas — so often denounced
as a deadly foe to freedom — the true father of his country,
earnestly striving to develope and mature the rights of his
subjects.
Proofs strike deeper than assertions, and a few of the former
may here with propriety be given. Let us first glance at that
institution which most estranges Russia from civilisation —
namely, at the institution of serfdom.
For the female members of this class there is but one legal
path to emancipation : namely, marriage with a freeman. For
male serfs, at all times until recently, military service was the
only avenue to freedom. Once under the colours, the soldier
is free. The freedom of tlie Russian soldier is not very com-
prehensive, and the recruit may in some sort be said only to
exchange one kind of slavery for another and a milder one ;
but when, on the completion of his term of service, or in
consequence of wounds or ill-health, he receives his discharge,
it is as a free man that he returns to his home. In strict regard
THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 29
to truth, I must, however, here observe, that, for a long time,
this road to citizenship led but few to its enjoyment. The
soldier, after completing a period of twenty years' service, was so
accustomed to that mode of life, whilst on the other hand, owing to
his long disuse of the occupation to which he had been brought
up, he saw so little prospect of earning a living, that in most
instances he accepted a second bounty, and recommenced his
military career, to which he then clung till death or the hos-
pital received him. Seven years ago, however, the Emperor
Nicholas shortened the term of service to eight years; a re-
duction which now annually restores to civil life many thousand
free men, who were slaves until they donned the uniform. At
the expiration of his eight years' service, the soldier is still a
young man ; he can still enjoy his freedom, and found a free
family. For this first and important step towards the eman-
cipation of the serf, the Russian people have to thank the love
of liberty of the Emperor Nicholas.
A not less important disposition, aimed at the same end, and
at the same time calculated to avert the total ruin of the
Russian nobility, is that which relates to advances made by the
Crown on territorial property.
To prevent the partial depopulation of estates, a ukase, dated
in 1827, declared the serfs to constitute an integral and in-
separable portion of tlie soil. The immediate consequence of
this decree was the cessation, at least in its most repulsive
form, of the degrading traffic in human flesh, by sale, barter,
or gift. Thenceforward no serf could be transferred to another
owner, except by the sale of the land to which he belonged.
To secure to itself the refusal of the land and the human beings
appertaining to it, and at the same time to avert from the
landholder the ruin consequent on dealings with usurers, the
government established an imperial loan-bank, which made
advances on mortsrafre of lands to the extent of two-thirds of
their value. The borrowers bad to pay back each year three
30 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
per cent, of the loan, besides three per cent, interest. If they
failed to do this, the Crown returned them the instalments already
paid, gave them the remaining third of the value of the pro-
perty, and took possession of the land and its population. This
was the first stage of freedom for the serfs. They became
Crown-peasants, held their dwellings and bit of land as an
hereditary fief from the Crown, and paid annually for the
same a sum total of five rubles (about four shillings) for each
male person ; a rent for which, assuredly, in the whole of
Germany, the very poorest farm is not to be had ; to say
nothing of the consideration that in case of bad harvests,
destruction by hail, disease, &c., the Crown is bound to supply
the strict necessities of its peasants, and to find them in daily
bread, in the indispensable stock of cattle and seed corn, to
repair their habitations, and so forth.
By this arrangement, and in a short time, a considerable
portion of the lands of the Russian nobility became the property
of the State, and with it a large number of serfs became Crown
peasants. This was the first and most important step towards
opening the road to freedom to that majority of the Russian
population which consists of slaves.
When in this manner the first ideas of liberty had been
awakened in the people, the emperor, in the exercise of his own
tmlimited and irresponsible power, took a second step, not less
pregnant with consequences than the first. Unable suddenly to
grant civil freedom to the serfs, he bestowed upon them, as a
transition stage, certain civil rights. A ukase permitted them
to enter into contracts. Thereby was accorded to them not
only the right of possessing property, but the infinitely higher
blessing of a legal recognition of their moral worth as men.
Hitherto the serf was recognised by the state only as a sort of
beast in human form. He could hold no property, give no legal
evidence, take no oath. No matter how eloquent his speech,
he was dumb before the law. He might have treasures in his
THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 31
dwelling, the law knew him only as a pauper. His word and
honour were valueless compared to those of the vilest freeman.
In short, morally he could not be said to exist. The Emperor
Nicholas gave to the serfs, that vast majority of his subjects,
the first sensation of moral worth, the first throb of self-respect,
the first perception of the rights and dignity and duty of man !
What professed friend of the people can boast to have done
more, or yet so much, for so many millions of men ?
But the Czar did not rest satisfied with this. Having given
the serfs power to hold property, he taught them to prize the
said property above all in the interest of their freedom. It
seems quite like a jest to speak thus of the " tyrant and bloody-
minded man ;" but I speak in all seriousness, and the facts are
there to prove my words. The serf could not buy his own
freedom, but he became free by the purchase of the patch of
soil to which he was linked. To such purchase the right of
contract cleared his road. The lazy Russian, who worked with
an ill will towards his master, doing as little as he could for
the latter's profit, toiled day and night for his own advantage.
Idleness was replaced by the diligent improvement of his f\irm,
brutal drunkenness by frugality and sobriety ; the earth, pre-
viously neglected, requited the unwonted care with its richest
treasures. By the magic of industry, wretched hovels were
transformed into comfortable dwellings, wildernesses into bloom-
ing fields, desolate steppes and deep morasses into productive
land ; whole communities, lately sunk in poverty, exhibited un-
mistakeable signs of competence and well-doing. The serfs, now
allowed to enter into contracts, lent the lord of the soil the
money of which he often stood in need, on the same conditions
as the Crown, receiving in security the land they occupied,
their own bodies, and the bodies of their wives and children.
The nobleman preferred the serfs' loan to the government's
loan, because, when pay-day came for the annual interest and
instalment, the Crown, if he was not prepared to pay, took
32 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
possession of liis estiite, having funds wherewith to pay him
the residue of its value. The parish of serfs, which had lent
money to its owner, lacked these funds. Pay-day came ; the
debtor did not pay, but neither could the sei-fs produce the
one tiiird of the value of the land which they must disburse to
him in order to be free. Thus they lost their capital and did
not gain their liberty. But Nicholas lived ! the father of his
subjects.
Between the anxious debtor and the still more anxious
creditor now interposed an imperial ukase, which in such cases
opened to the parishes of serfs the imperial treasury. Mark this ;
for it is worthy to be noted : tlie Russian imperial treasury was
opened to the serfs that they might purchase their freedom !
The Government might simply have released the creditors
from their embarrassment by paying the debtor the one-third
still due to him, and then land and tenants belonged to the
state ; — one parish the more of Croivn Peasants. jSTicholas
did not adopt that course. He lent the serfs the money they
needed to buy themselves from their master, and for this loan
(a third only of the value) they mortgaged themselves and their
lands to the Crown, paid annually three per cent, interest and
three per cent, of the capital, and would thus in about thirty
years be free, and proprietors of their land ! That tl;ey would
be able to pay off this third was evident, since, to obtain its
amount, they had still the same resources which had enabled
them to save up the two-thirds already paid. Supposing,
however, the very worst, — that through inevitable misfortunes,
such as pestilence, disease of cattle, &c., they were prevented
satisfying the rightful claims of the Crown, in that case the
Crown paid them back the two-thirds value Avhich they had
previously disbursed to their former owner, and they became
a parish of Crown Peasants, whose lot, compared to their earlier
one, was still enviable. But not once in a hundred times do
such cases occur, whilst, by the above plan, whole parishes
THE EMPEHOR NICHOLAS. 33
gradually acquire their freedom, not by a sudden and vio-
lent change, which could not fail to have some evil conse-
quences, but in course of time, after a probation of labour and
frugality, and after thus attaining to the knowledge that without
these two great factors of true freedom, no real liberty can
possibly be durable.
I cherish a steadfast belief, that the reader, who perhaps took
up these pages with a previously formed contrary opinion, will
here lay them down in astonishment, if not converted from
his views, at least staggered in them ; and perhaps will ask
why, if the emperor so earnestly desires the freedom of his
people, why he does not — he to whom nothing is impossible and
who has the right as well as the power — confer it upon them
by a stroke of his pen, instead of wearily prolonging his work
and spreading it out over so many years, to say nothing of the
thousand eventualities which may occur to destroy it before it
is complete ? The answer is plain. The great man who is
carrying out this reformation — no, let us call it by its right
name, this peaceful Revolutiox, — who is pursuing, by care-
fully prepai-ed roads, his plans for the abolition of existing
abuses, has chosen, in his wisdom, which is equal to his love,
the longer path, because it is not only the sure one but the
only sure one. In the first place, he recoils with dismay from
the injustice without which so enormous an encroachment on
the rights of property could not be accomplished. Not less
does he apprehend the abuse of the suddenly bestowed freedom,
for which Russia is still less ripe than other civilised countries,
which nevertheless have proved themselves unable to withstand
its inseparable temptations, and have derived nothing but misery
from measures which, wisely applied, would have led them to
prosperity and happiness. Fruits can but gradually ripen, and
this is also true of freedom, that noblest fruit In the garden of
life. The Baltic provinces, where serfdom no longer exists,
were liberated by this same process, by which the rest of Russia
c
34 PICTUKES FROM ST. PETEESBUKG.
will not fail to attain the same desirable object. Every man is
ripe for freedom when he is fresh from the hands of nature :
after a serfdom of centuries he is not ripe for it.
" Vor dem freien Manne erzittre nicht !
Doch vor dem Sklaven, wenn er die Kette zerbricht !"*
So sang the poet of the nineteenth century. In the sixteenth
(1586) King Stephen Bathory, of Poland, experienced the truth
of the sentiment. Moved by the whining entreaties of the
Livonian peasants, he wrote to the nobles to substitute fines
for corporal punishment, whereupon the peasants themselves
rebelled, because they were no longer beaten. Theories are
excellent in the study ; the happiness of nations is best secured
by measures founded on actual and practical experience.
But what would our ardent anti-Russians say, if I took them
into the interior of the empire, gave them an insight into the
organisation of parishes, and showed them, to their infinite asto-
nishment, what they never yet dreamed of, that the whole of
that organisation is based upon republican principles, that there
every thing has its origin in election by the people, and that
that was already the case at a period when the great mass of
German democrats did not so much as know the meaning of
popular franchise. Certainly the Russian serfs do not know at
the present day what it means ; but without knowing the name
of the thing, without having ever heard a word of Lafayette's
ill-omened " trone monarchique, envirotme d' institutions re-
publicaines," they choose their own elders, their administrators,
their dispensers of justice and finance, and never dream that
they, slaves, enjoy and benefit by privileges by which some of
the most civilised nations have proved themselves incapable of
profiting.
Space does not here permit a more extensive sketch of what
• Tremble not before the freeman, but before the slave who has broken
his chain !
FESTIVAL AT PETERIIOF. 35
the Emperor Nicholas has done, and still is daily doing, for the
true freedom of his subjects ; but what I have here brought
forward must surely suffice to place him, in the eyes of every
unprejudiced person, in the light of a real lover of his people.
That his care has created a paradise — that no highly criminal
abuse of power, no shameful neglect prevails in the departments
of justice and police — it is hoped no reflecting reader will infer
from this exposition of facts. But the still-existing abuses alter
nothing in my view of the Emperor's character, of his assiduous
efforts to raise his nation out of the deep slough in which it still
is partly sunk, of his efficacious endeavours to elevate his people
to a knowledge and use of their rights as men — alter nothing
in my profound persuasion that Czar Nicholas I. is the true
father of his country.
CHAP. HI.
THE FESTIVAL AT PETERHOF, AND A MILITARY REVIEW.
The summer residences of the imperial family are in the
highest degree delightful. That of Sarskoje-Selo is the one
to which the court usually first repairs, remaining there from
the beginning of spring to the commencement of June. Thence
they go to Peterhof, till September, then to Jelagyn, and then
back again to Sarskoje-Selo, returning, most years, to St.
Petersburg on the 9th of November. The stately buildings of
these summer palaces are surrounded with statues and monu-
ments, and with delightful gardens, shrubberies, and plantations,
wandering amongst which one feels suddenly transported from
the icy north to some genial southern zone. Peterhof is the
palace that most interests strangers. Its situation is peculiarly
c 2
36 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
charming. Standing northward from St. Petersburg, at the
mouth of the Neva, opposite to Cronstadt, which is plainly
discernible from its windows through a telescope of moderate
power, the view on that side is imposing by reason of the grand
scale of the landscape. On the opposite side a different scene
presents itself; there the eye reposes upon rich verdure and
abundant foliage, or contemplates with delight the thousand
hues of the flowers that fill the parterres and overhang the
paths. Peterhof is, nevertheless, but little visited by the
Petersburgers. Only on the 1st of July (old style) amends are
made to this charming summer abode for the neglect to which
it is doomed during the rest of the year. On that day — the
13th of July of our style — which is the Empress's birthday, and
also her wedding day, the people of St. Petersburg throng in
vast and motley multitudes to the renowned Peterhof Festival.
It is difficult to give an idea of the immense concourse that
flows thither. From the earliest hour of the morning, the
Neva is covered with steamboats, skiffs, and gondolas, and the
roads with vehicles of every kind, full of eager holiday-makers,
feai-less of the dust so long as they reach the scene of enjoy-
ment. There the accommodation prepared for them cannot
possibly suffice. Enormous tents are pitched to afford rest and
refreshment to the weary wayfarers ; but so extraordinary is
the throng, that it is scarcely possible to keep si place even
if obtained ; or else the heat drives one from under cover, to
mingle and be carried along with the dense stream that fills
every avenue. Hurrying from room to room, and from one
garden into another, the morning passes away, and at noon
the Empress appears on the balcony of the palace, and a
military parade ensues. After the troops have defiled before her,
the orderlies of the various corps march by, amongst which
the Circassians are remarkable for their personal appearance,
costume, and skill in military exercises. After the pai-ade,
which has been preceded by divine service, a court drawing-room
FESTIVAL AT PETERHOF. 37
is usually held ; then comes a drive through the park, and then
dinner, succeeded, towards eight in the evening, by a ball in
the palace. To this ball every one, without exception, is
welcome. The country people, in their ordinary garb, mingle
with the wearers of elegant dresses and brilliant uniforms ; a
mixture which, however, in no way diminishes the universal
enjoyment. Suddenly the musicians strike up ; through the
folding doors, thrown wide open, two chamberlains enter, and
with the utmost courtesy entreat the assemblage to make room
for their Majesties, who are near at hand. Every one draws
back, as much as the thi-oitg and' pressure permit, and the
Polonaise is danced, with the Emperor at its head, through
all the extensive suite of apartments. All have thus an oppor-
tunity of seeing their sovereigns, and all greet them joy-
fully as they pass, until the royal dancers, retracing their
steps, conclude the dance in the same hall wherein they com-
menced it.
At a signal from the Empr';ss, the whole of the vast garden
is now suddenly illuminated. This takes place as by enchant-
ment. With lightning speed the countless flames ascend from
the lowest branches to the very topmost sprigs of the trees.
In less than a quarter of an hour, park and garden appear
in a blaze. The waters of the fountains plash and ripple
over steps which seem to burn. Lamps, ingeniously sheltered
from extinction, gleam through the falling water, whose every
drop glitters, diamond-like, with all the tints of the prism.
Eye cannot behold a more striking and beautiful scene. The
finest sight of all is the " Golden Staircase," next to the
" Hercules," fountains with which even the Grandes Eaux at
Versailles cannot be compared. And now imagine the effect
of the monster illumination, reflected on all sides in the colossal
cascades and waterworks, and in the adjacent arm of the sea ;
imagine the melodious murmur of music, issuing from the
palace, and mingled with the whizzing of rockets, with the
c 3
38 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
booming of cannon from the vessels at Cronstadt, and with the
joyous songs of countless groups, who, having selected spots
for their bivouac, lie around the fires in various and picturesque
attire. All these things combine to render this one of the most
beautiful festivals that can be imagined.
At ten o'clock the ball ends ; after which the court usually
take a little drive on a sort of long droschkis (jaunting cars).
On their return in-doors, the lights in the palace are suddenly
extinguished. Gradually the walks are deserted by the prome-
naders, who establish themselves for the night under tents or
beneath waggons, or round grea! watch-fires ; departing with
the first dawn, by land and by water, to their respective homes.
Thus ends the great holiday at Peterhof, unquestionably one of
the grandest and most agreeable of popular festivals.
Next to the Peterhof festival, there are few things better
worth visiting than a review at St. Petersburg. One is usually
held every spring by the Emperor, before his departure for the
country, on the Champ de Mars. This " Field of Mars" is an
immense plain situated between the summer garden and the
barracks of the foot-guards, towards the north, hard by the
Treutzky bridge, and will contain with ease eighty thousand men,
who there defile before the Emperor. He who has derived his
sole knowledge of the Russian soldier from the sort of accounts
usually given in German papers, will be astonished at sight of
these pattern troops. More thorough soldiers are not to be
found. Their bodies are inured to hardship, their discipline is
the strictest and most exact, in the practice of their profession
they are zealous and earnest. Uniformity of dress and equip-
ment is carried out in the minutest details ; that of the cavalry,
especially with respect to the horses, has no parallel in the
world. One sees whole regiments of dragoons mounted on
great strong black horses, all exactly the same height, without
a single white hair, and so much alike as to be scarcely distin-
guishable from each other. The same is the case with other
MILITARY REVIEW. 39
regiments, which ride all brown or all chesnut horses ; and I
saw the same in a hussar regiment, mounted, to a man, on dapple
greys. And then the Circassians, those models of manly beauty
— knightly figures, cased in steel, their features bronzed by the
sun of their native mountains, their lofty forms lean but mus-
cular, their dark eyes flashing from beneath their iron helms,
their broad chests protected by shirts of mail, mounted upon
horses which they cherish and watch over as they might a
sister or child ; truly this corps is the very beau-ideal of all
cavalry. The Circassian does not ride his horse to review or
parade ; he has him led thither, lest his rider's weight should
make him sweat. On the parade ground he is again rubbed
down, his hoofs are painted black, and every speck of dust is
carefully blown off his coat. Then only does the rider spring
into his saddle, and easy is it to discern how proud he is of his
steed and how proud his steed of him. Now off they set at a
headlong gallop, over hedge and over ditch, and the same man
who, a minute before, would have feared to injure his steed by
too hard a pressure of hand or currycomb, spares him as little,
until he again dismounts, as though he were riding the greatest
screw under the sun. Yes ! those Circassians are the best
cavalry in the world. And now behold that artillery, those
horses and harness, the elegance and lightness of the gun-
carriages and ammunition waggons, the accuracy of the exer-
cises, the endurance and indefatigableness of the men, and their
splendid discipline ! In this last particular all the Russian
troops are alike, from the Cossacks, who, in obedience to orders,
covered Eylau's bridge with their bodies, to the sentries at the
burning Winter Palace, who, in defiance of the glowing heat,
would not leave their posts until regularly relieved. I am less
acquainted with the troops of the line, and here speak only of
the guards. These are, indeed, a picked and choice body of
men. At the same time, it must be mentioned, they are
admirably well cared for. Every man has his three complete
C 4
40 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
uniforms, gets his meat, bread, and paj, and moreover his share
of the artell, which greatly improves his diet. This means that,
wherever troops are quartered for any length of time, certain,
tracts of land are allotted to their use. These they cultivate
in their leisure hours, and grow potatoes and cabbages. By a
very trifling subscription from their pay they get a capital mess.
They are also bound to contribute to the mess-fund a certain
per-centage of whatever they earn by non-military services,
such as appearing on the stage at theatres, in plays when sol-
diers are required, transporting furniture for people who are
changing their houses, cutting wood, and, so forth. These con-
tributions swell the fund considerably, and, conjointly with the
produce of the garden, afford them excellent meals. The Rus-
sian troops are exceedingly well nourished.
Particular attention is paid to the lodging and cleanliness of
the soldier, as well as to his food. The barracks at St. Peters-
burg are roomy, handsome, palace-like buildings, well suited to
promote the health and comfort of their inmates. Almost
superior to the barracks are the military hospitals, which com-
bine arrangements admirably adapting them to the purpose for
which they are designed, with the most careful nursing and
skilful medical treatment of the sick. There is no danrrer of
negligence on the part of any of the officials there employed ;
for they never know at what time tl)e Emperor may surprise
them by a visit, and that apprehension makes them zealous
in their duty. Thus in illness, as in health, the soldiers are
well cared for ; and as the garrison is very strong, the guard-
duty is by no means oppressively severe.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND rRIVATE HOUSES. 41
CHAP. lY.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND PRIVATE HOUSES.
The arsenal and clocks of Cronstadt must be included amongst
the finest public works of St. Petersburg ; and after them the
attention of the stranger is forcibly arrested by the multitude
of splendid churches and public buildings of all kinds, the
Winter Palace being prominent amongst the latter, I shall not
weary my readers by a dry and detailed account of things which
they may find better described in any guide-book. I will but
pause a moment at the public hospitals, selecting especially
that of Abuchow, which I had special opportunities of inspecting
through the kindness of one of its directors, Counsellor Gotte,
who was distinguished alike as physician, administrator, and
man ; but who now, unhappily, is no more. These St. Peters-
burg hospitals strike the visitor so forcibly at a first glance, by
their extreme cleanliness and convenience, that he is unavoid-
ably prepossessed with a most favourable idea of the treatment
experienced there by the sick. This treatment is, indeed, so
excellent, the care and attendance so first-rate, that I do not
hesitate earnestly to advise such strangers as may be thrown
upon their own resources in St. Petersburg — living at hotels or
in furnished apartments — to take refuge, in case of illness, in one
of the public hospitals. There, at a very reasonable rate, they
may obtain a room and attendance for themselves, such as they
assuredly could not obtain — especially the attendance — in any
other way. Whilst speaking of hospitals, I must not omit to
mention an establishment which, above all others, excited my
strong sympathy. This is a private hospital for complaints of
the eyes and ears. It belongs to Dr. Charles Frederick Strauch,
a physician celebrated for his skill in the treatment of those
classes of disease, and who may be styled, with strict justice,
42 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
the Kramer of St. Petersburg. Dr. Strauch, a man of property
and high reputation, who is frequently sent for to Moscow, and
even as far as Kiew, to perform important operations, and who
has an immense practice at St. Petersburg, founded this hospital
out of his own private means, and devoted two-thirds of the
accommodation it contains to poor sick persons, who are there
taken care of without charge. If we bear in mind that, at
St. Petersburg, most complaints have a tendency, in conse-
quence of the great dust in summer, to fall upon the eyes, and
that ear-diseases are nowhere more plentiful than amongst the
lower classes of Russians — a consequence of the lavish and
imprudent use of vapour- baths, — there is no difficulty in be-
lieving that the free places in this hospital are constantly full,
and that a host of applicants are always down for the first va-
cancies. The patients are supplied not only with medical
advice and with medicine, but also with attendance, fire and
light, food and drink, and even with linen, and with books to
read, all gratis. Physicians get very highly paid at St. Peters-
burg ; but though the rooms reserved for patients who pay were
constantly full, and though these patients remunerated their doc-
tor at the highest rate, this still would far from suffice to cover
even the larger part of the expense which the free places
occasion. The hospital is situated in the Wosnischensky, a per-
fectly healthy part of the city, where there is abundance of light
and of fresh air. The cost of the medicines is lightened to the
founder of the hospital by his brother, the druggist, Alexander
Strauch, vulgarly known as " Moses," whose pharmacy is at
the corner of Balschoi-Mechansky and Garochovoy, and who
has an agreement with his brother to supply him with drugs
gratis, up to a certain amount, for the free portion of his hos-
pital, he being paid for those consumed in the other portion.
All honour to these worthy brothers, who thus nobly and un-
selfishly devote time, means, and talents^ to their suffering
fellow men! And double honour is due to them, for they
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND PRIVATE HOUSES. 43
extend their benevolence, without distinction of nations, to
all, from whatsoever land they come, who need their aid. It
does the heart good to be able to record such generosity and
benevolence on the part of two of one's own countrymen.
The style of building of the St. Petersburg houses is peculiar,
very suitable, but expensive. Although building materials —
stone, wood, iron, — are there infinitely cheaper than in Germany,
houses yet cost much more. In St. Petersburg the owner of a
stone house is looked upon as a man well off in the world.
The term " stone," used as a distinction from " wooden," will
soon fall into disuse, for in the heart of the city there are
scarcely any wooden houses remaining, and in streets more
distant from the centre they will gradually quite disappear,
substantial and extensive repairs of such houses being no longer
permitted. When these become necessary, the owners are
bound to take down the houses and rebuild them of stone.
The expensiveness of building arises from high wages, and from
the great solidity of the buildings. St. Petersburg is built partly
on swampy and partly on sandy ground ; houses of any size
require, therefore, enormous foundations. When one reflects
that, a century ago, a bottomless morass existed where now
stands the mighty Kasansky Cathedral, a morass which swal-
lowed whole forests of trees before the erection of so colossal
a monument could be ventured upon, one marvels at the
boldness of the mind which could plan and carry out the
erection of such a city on such a spot. Even as the idea of its
foundation originated with Peter the Great, so was he also the
animating spirit at the carrying out of the plan. He resolved to
found an immense commercial city, a second Amsterdam ; he
would have his merchantmen, freighted in India, discharge
their cargoes in the heart of his capital at the door of his
merchants' warehouses. Direct from the vessel's hold should
the bales of rich eastern produce be craned up into the store.
With this view did he plan the three broad and proper-
44 PICTDKES FROM ST- PETERSBURG.
tionably deep canals which intersect St. Petersburg in every
direction. During their construction the Czar made a journey
to Holland ; on his return he went, with Menzikoif, to whom
the superintendence of the works had been intrusted, to inspect
their progress. On reaching the " Blue Bridge," where now
stands the Duke of Leuchtenberg's recently-erected magnificent
palace, he found himself deceived in his expectations. The
whole design of the canals was completely spoiled, all his grand
plans knocked upon the head. Foaming with rage, but without
a word of reproach, he grasped his inseparable companion, his
trusty dubina, and vigorously applied the cane to his minister's
shoulders until he was fain to give over from pure exhaustion.
The minister stood erect and immoveable to receive his thrashins;
from his angry master. When Peter's fury had cooled down a
little, he I'esigned himself to what could not be helped ; embraced
MenzikofF and kissed him, in sign of reconciliation, upon both
cheeks ; after which they got into their carriage and drove
away. The gaping populace, Avho had witnessed this startling
although not unprecedented scene, at once gave to the spot
upon which it had occurred the name of the " Kiss Bridge," and
such is the popular mode of styling the bridge even at the
present day.
Athough Peter's grand project with respect to the canals was
thus frustrated, they nevertheless are a great ornament to the
city, and an important assistance to traffic and trade. It is,
in point of salubrity however, that they are of the greatest value.
They drain off the moisture from the marshy soil, and it is
owing to them that St. Petersburg is so healthy a place to
live in.
"When new houses are built, the authorities exercise the
utmost vigilance to see that the foundations are properly laid.
If the obligation of deep and massive foundations considerably
augments the cost of building in St. Petersburg, a still
heavier expense is incurred by the necessity of making the
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND PRIVATE HOUSES. 45
walls of great thickness. With the thin walls of Germany one
could not exist in a St. Petersburg house. Russian walls are at
least four times as thick as ours. The same remark applies to
the iron work, which in Russia is wrought very elegantlv, but
also of great strength and durability. The possessors of wooden
houses exchange them but unwillingly for stone ones ; setting
aside the difference of cost, the former are warmer and more
comfortable. This seems incredible, but such is the fact. The
interstices of the timbers in wooden houses are so tightly stopped
with moss, which is also stuffed in behind the well-papered
wainscots, that the thickest stone walls cannot compare with
them for warmth. For duration, of course, there can be no
doubt on which side the advantage is, and the risk of fire consti-
tutes the strongest of all arguments against the wooden houses.
Building being so expensive in St. Petersburg, the govern-
ment steps in to the aid of private enterprise. If a builder has
but the means to get the roof on a house, he may then have an
estimate made, according to the plan he has drawn out, of the
value of the house when it shall be complete, and may obtain from
the crown, as an advance, two thirds of the amount. These
two thirds often exceed the sum he has as yet laid out upon the
building. He binds himself to pay annually four per cent.
interest and four per cent, of the capital until extinction of the
debt, the said interest and instalment being all along calculated
on the amount of the original loan, so that, if the payments are
regularly made, the whole debt is cancelled in about twenty
years. In this manner many industrious men, especially
Germans, have enriched themselves ; for if they have a business
or employment sufficient to live upon, and a very small sum
wherewith to begin building, they easily obtain sufficient credit
to build the walls of the house and get the roof on them.
These debts they then pay off by means of the government
advance, and, the house once complete, the rent they draw
from it enables them to pay interest and instalments, which
46 PICTURES FEOM ST. PETERSBURG.
together amount only to eight per cent. The taxes are barely
one per cent. ; during the first twenty years of a house's exis-
tence no important repairs are required ; and it must be a badly-
letting house indeed that does not yield, in any moderately good
situation, at least ten per cent, on the capital expended.
Amongst the best and richest shops in St. Petersburg are
provision shops — somewhat resembling our Italian warehouses
— where an immense variety of edibles and potables, the choicest
spices and most expensive wines, delicacies of every kind, as
well as butter, cheese, and other common articles of consump-
tion, are exposed for sale. Goods, to the amount of many
millions of rubles, are heaped up in these shops, most of whose
keepers, themselves millionnaires, are serfs of Count Schere-
metiew, in whose name the business is carried on, since by
Russian law no serf can trade. When they began business
they were aided by the count's money and credit, and in return
they pay an annual poll-tax, in like manner with the serfs who
till the ground, and with those who, by their owner's per-
mission, take service or employment in the towns. Five rubles
(four or five shillings) was the yearly sum they paid, when they
first set up their shops, for each male — women being exempt
from the impost. They pay the same and no more now that
they roll in wealth, inhabit sumptuous mansions, and drive in
elegant carriages.
By the Russian laws every female serf is free as soon as
married to a free man ; on the other hand, marriage with a serf
entails serfdom on a free woman. On a certain day one of
Count Scheremetiew's rich bondsmen appeared before his lord
to petition for the freedom of a son. The young man was in
love with a poor but free maiden, who returned his affection,
but who would not sacrifice her liberty to her love. The father
offered eighty thousand rubles as the price of his son's happi-
ness. The count accepted, and desired his vassal to produce
the money. In an instant it was paid over. Letters of eman-
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND PRIVATE HOUSES. 47
cipation were forthwith drawn up, and the count delivered
them to the delighted father, with the words, " You must let
me be the bridesman." When, in this capacity, the count had
conducted the bride from the altar to her husband's house, and
had handed her, according to Russian custom, upon a silver
waiter, the first glass of champagne, he presented to her, as a
bridal gift, a bouquet of fresh flowers, skilfully arranged round
a small packet containing the eighty thousand rubles. It was
his pride to have wealthy men as serfs, but their wealth had no
attractions for him.
In warm weather, refuge from the noise, and dust, and from
the exhalations of the canals, is sought in the numerous villas that
surround St. Petersburg on all sides. It is rather remarkable
that the finest of these country residences and gardens are
all to the north of the city. This, however, is explicable
by the situation of the numerous islands formed by the various
arms of the Neva as it flows northwards from St. Peters-
burg. The nearest agreeable summer abode is Apothecary's
Island, not far from and on the way to Kammenoje-Ostrow,
and at a distance of about three versts from the Isaac's
Bridge. A vast number of delightful gardens and villas,
and of admirably arranged hot-houses, give an enchanting
aspect to this island. Separated from it by an arm of the Neva
is Kammenoje-Ostrow, the most magnificent of all the islands,
in respect both of parks and buildings. Here, close upon the
river's bank, stands the summer palace of the Grand Duchess
Helena, widow of the lamented Grand Duke Michael. It is
surrounded by a fine garden, which, however, like her garden in
St. Petersburg, is not open to the public. Kammenoje-Ostrow
also boasts of a very pretty theatre, in which, during the resi-
dence of the court, the French company give frequent perform-
ances, an honour which is not accorded to any other theatrical
company.
Quitting Kammenoje-Ostrow, one reaches, — the road lying
48 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
partly through a very agreeable park, — the property of the
Countess StroganofF, Avhich bears her name. Two fine build-
ings, in the Gothic style of architecture, stand in the midst of a
garden, at no great distance from the high road, whence they
have a very beautiful appearance. Before my journey to St.
Petersburg, I heard a great deal of the celebrated Stroganoff
gardens, but with the exception of this one, I was never able
to discover any.
The StroganofFs are not only one of the most illustrious of
Russian noble families, but they are also enormously rich, have
vast estates and a very considerable number of serfs, with which
latter they are extremely fortunate. True it is, that this family
have the custom to treat their serfs with particular care, to
educate them well and to foster every indication of talent
that manifests itself amongst them. One of the consequences of
this is that almost all the inspectors, accountants, overseers, &c.
of the surrounding estates are their serfs, and are such faithful
and trustworthy servants that the property under their care is
distinguished before most others for prosperity and good manage-
ment. The most careful education cannot confer genius, but it
may sometimes assist its development ; and for at least one
man of genius, the world is indebted to the serfs of the
Stroganoff family. The architect who drew the plan of one
of the most remarkable building-s in St. Petersburg: was a serf
of Count Stroganoff's, who gave him his liberty as a recognition
of his rare talent.
The edifice in question is no other than the Kasansky, the
cathedral of the Holy Virgin of Kasan. It is a very astonishing,
and indeed one of tlie most imposing, buildings of its class. Two
circular colonnades, similar to those in front of St. Peter's at
Rome, lead to the entrance of the church, which is adorned with
colossal statues. In the interior of the cathedral are fifty-six
column?, each one of wliicli is hewn out of a single block of
dark marble, and beautifully polislicd. They are fifty-two feet
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND PRIVATE HOUSES. 49
Jiigh, and the Corintliian capitals surmounting them are beauti-
fully carved and richly gilt. In corresponding taste are all the
other ornaments of the church. Walls and flooring are of
polished marble, and the various pictures are adorned with a
profusion of precious stones really dazzling to the eyes. Promi-
nent amongst them is the picture of the Virgin and Child, which
is literally covered with diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds of
the rarest beauty. This picture, to which the church is in-
debted for its name, was brought from Kasan to Moscow by
command of Ivan Vasiliewitsch. Peter the Great carried it
away from Moscow to adorn his new capital, which he placed
under its guardianship and protection. The treasures of this
church would alone suffice to cover the cost of six Hungarian
campaigns.
If we seriously contemplate and minutely examine this sub-
lime piece of architecture, and call to mind that not only all its
materials are extracted from the soil of Russia, but also that it
is pure Russian art and industry, unaided by foreign hands,
which have executed the great work, we shall feel disposed to
judge, more justly than is often done, both the country and its
people, and to abate somewhat of any preconceived notions we
may have formed of their barbarous condition.
At no great distance from the Kasansky, at the end of the
Perspective, upon a vast open square which derives its name
from the church in its centre, stands another still more im-
posing, really gigantic monument, one of the greatest and most
spacious upon the face of the earth, namely, the Isaac's Church.
I abstain from repeating, with respect to this building, details
which hundreds of travellers have already published ; the
object of these pages is to sketch manners and customs ; I refer
to monuments only when they have some bearing upon these,
and in reference to the impression they made upon me. I
cannot, however, abstain from a few brief remarks on this
architectural wonder. It owes its existence to a flash of light-
D
50 PICTURES FKOM ST. PETERSBURG.
ning, which laid in ashes a church that Peter the Great had
built upon the very spot now adorned by the holy synod. To
replace the loss, Catherine II. laid, at a short distance from
the burned building, the foundation-stone of the Isaac's Church.
The first plans for it were drawn out by the Italian architect
Rinaldi : the mere foundation and preparatory labours consumed
an immense time and many millions. After Catherine's death,
the Emperor Paul hit upon an ingenious idea. That it might
be the sooner and more cheaply finished, he proposed to com-
plete it with bricks. Rapidly now did the building proceed ;
but not nearly so rapidly as it was pulled down to the very
foundation when, on the eve of its completion, the deficiencies
and want of harmony of the structure were at last discerned.
A committee was then formed for the express purpose of ma-
naging the matter, and consumed several years in deliberation,
without coming to any agreement as to the mode in which the
building should be carried out. At last, in 1819, the Emperor
Alexander sent for Montferrand, the architect ; who, to my
own knowledge, was still busily engaged upon the building in
the year 1845. True it is that the Emperor Nicholas pressed
hard for all possible acceleration of the work ; but even his
energy and influence failed to bring to a conclusion this fat
architectural job ; which was, doubtless, too lucrative to those
engaged in it not to be by them protracted to the utmost.
CHAP. V.
THE WINTER PALACE.
From the sacred to the profane is but a step ; let us take it,
and we find ourselves in the Winter Palace, which, in its own
particular style, is not a bit less magnificent than the imposing
THE WINTER PALACE. 51
cathedral. An English author has declared his opinion that
the trouble of a journey to St. Petersburg is well repaid by the
sight of this palace, with which scarcely any other in Europe
will bear comparison. And I cannot do otherwise than coincide
in this opinion : — so long, that is to say, as the person
undertaking the journey resides at no immoderate distance
from the Russian capital.
This palace, of extraordinary extent, was built by Count
Rastrelli for the Empress Elizabeth. In 1754 she laid the
foundation stone of the colossal fabric. Eight years later, ia
the year of her death, it was completed.
Rising majestically upon the bank of the Neva, the building^
gives its name to the quay in its front, which, however, is more
commonly known as the Court Quay. The principal fa9ade of
the enormous palace has fifty-three windows, is 470 feet long,
380 feet deep, and 76 feet high. It consists of three stories, is
of the form of a long square, and its imposing aspect is not a
little heightened by ten superb pillars rising above the portal,
and by finely formed statues, which, however, are only of
plaster of Paris, whereas the balustrades are of beautiful
marble.
Surprising is the spectacle that presents itself on entering
from the side of the Neva this residence of the czars. Here is
the great entrance, including a marble staircase, whose like
might in vain be sought. It leads to the first story, devoted
entirely to court ceremonies. Here saloon succeeds saloon,
each vaster and more magnificent than its predecessor. I will
confine myself to naming the Golden Saloon (the Empress's
reception-room), the White Saloon, reached through a gallery
containing a series of excellent portraits of the imperial mar-
shals, from RoumiantzoiF to Paskewitsch, and connected with
the Throne Saloon, or St. George's Hall, which for grandeur
and beauty surpasses everything that Europe's palaces can
show.
D 2
52 PICTURES FllOM ST. PETERSBURG.
Whoever has enjoyed an opportunity of seeing these apart-
ments lighted up, and of witnessing one of the sumptuous festi-
vals occasionally held in them, Avill assuredly acquit me of
exaggeration when I say that the sight carried me back to the
fairy-tale days of my boyhood, and that I fancied myself trans-
ported into one of the enchanted scenes of the Thousand and
One Nights.
I have already given a detailed account of the Peterhof
festival ; how it ends with a ball, to which all the world, with-
out distinction of persons or ranks, finds admission. In like
manner, on every New Year's day, a popular ball takes place in
the Winter Palace, and is graced by the presence of the whole
court. The Emperor and Empress mingle freely with the
motley and heaving throng, and are lost in the vast assemblage.
Only with difficulty do they make their way to the dance
through the densely crowded saloons. Had Nicholas anything
to fear from his subjects, here were the place where he would
be in real danger, for so great is the crush around him that it
was only by the utmost efforts I avoided being squeezed bodily
against him. In such a moment of close proximity I gazed
hard at the Emperor, seeking to read upon his countenance the
dominant emotions of his mind. None others could I trace
than the perfect tranquillity and cheerful contentment of a
father of a family, when surrounded by his children, in full
enjoyment of a festival of his preparation. And heartily have
I since laughed — less, however, at the absurd story than at the
utter ignorance it showed of the real feelings of the Kussiau
people — when reading in certain German papers how, on the
occasion of the Silver Wedding * of the illustrious pair, the
Emperor was just about to seat himself upon the throne at the
Peterhof ball, when Prince AVolkonsky fortunately pulled hini
back, only just in time, for the very next moment hundreds of
* " Silver Wcddinj^." — The twcnty-iiftli anniversary of marriage, cele-
brated by rejoicings and cntertiiiiinicnts. — T.
THE WINTER PALACE. 53
ciap;ger blades, moved by hidden mechanism, would have been
jjropelled from the seat, back, and arms of the chair, and have
slieathed themselves in the body of Nicholas. It so happened
that I was present at that joyous feast at Peterhof. There was
no throne in the room at all, and the daggers existed only in
tlie diseased imaginations of the inventors of the tale.
If the interior of the Winter Palace combines all that it be
possible to conceive of magnificence, taste, luxury, and splen-
dour, it yet is perhaps surpassed by the view from the windows
on three of its sides.
The principal front faces the south, and commands a view over
the Kaiser-Platz, or Emperor's Square, in Avhose centre rises
the clorious Alexander Column. This colossal memorial reminds
one of the most stupendous monuments of antiquity ; probably
it is hitherto unsurpassed ; at any rate, it is a higher pillar than
either Pompey's or Trajan's. It consists of a single granite
block, and weighs 17,640 cwt. The pedestal, in due propor-
tion to the height and circumference of the column, is also a
solid block of granite, and both were hewn out of the quarries
of Pytterlaxe, a village on the Gulf of Finland, one and twenty
German miles from St. Petersburg. On the apex of the column
hovers an angel of extraordinary beauty, with head depressed,
the cross in one hand, and the other pointing to heaven. Pity
it is that on two sides, when you contemplate this lovely statue
from a distance, the head can hardly be seen at all ; only on a
near approach does the beholder discern all the beauty and
perfection of the work. The story goes that Louis Philippe of
France, in the days of his greatest power and prosperity,
applied to the Emperor Nicholas for a similar column out of his
Finland quarries. The Emperor begged to be excused. " He
would not," he said, " send him a smaller one ; a similar one he
could not send him ; and a greater was not to be obtained."
It is much to be regretted that this splendid monolith is
already cracked.
D 3
54 PICTURES FKOM ST. PETERSBURG.
Opposite to the pillar stands the fine buiWing, with beautiful
arcades, and bronze decorations, occupied by the military staif.
To the west, one looks across the great parade ground to the
Admiralty, the Isaac's Square, and its lofty church. The view
to the north I never saw but in winter, from Prince Wolkon-
sky's reception-room ; but never did any sight more surprise
and powerfully impress me. That immeasurable field of ice,
with islands sharply defined upon its level surface ; Wasiii-
Ostrow, with its magnificent Exchange ; the Academy, with its
sphinxes, pillars, and statues ; the citadel, the Petersburg and
the Wiburg shores, with their snow-covered towers and roofs ;
the whole vast landscape wrapped in winter's garment ; the
innumerable columns of smoke rising on all sides, and telling
of the dense population of the seemingly solitary plain ; and
then the swift sledges, darting to and fro, and suddenly disap-
pearing like the figures in a dream ; — altogether the winter
landscape was the most beautiful tliat could well be seen.
His Excellency kept me waiting a tolei'ably long time for the^
honour of an interview ; but truly I could have waited much
longer without finding the time hang heavy. I have never
been a haunter of the ante-chambers of the great ; but if all
commanded so agreeable a view, I should cease to wonder that
such dancing of attendance is so much in vogue.
From the eastern side of the palace, only the Hermitage is to
be seen, to which a close, covered gallery leads.
The crown and sceptre, and other state jewels, are kept in
the Winter Palace.
If this imperial residence combines all that can be imagined
of brilliancy, splendour, wealth, taste, and elegance, on the
other hand, the conveniences it affords to its inmates, except in
the case of the very highest personages, are extremely limited.
The whole first story of the immense pile is unoccupied, — con-
sisting entirely of the vast apartments reserved for court fes-
tivals and ceremonies. The basement floor contains the kitchen
THE WINTER PALACE. 55
and the lodgings of the innumerable servants. The entresol is for
the higher officials. The second floor is inhabited by the im-
perial family, including the ladies of the court and great officers
of the palace. Altogether, the roof covers more than twelve
hundred persons. As far as height goes, there is plenty of
room, but the breadth is scanty enough. And what makes it
scantier still is that, in the centre of the second floor, one steps
out of one of the apartments into a tolerably spacious garden •
This is certainly an agreeable surprise. Pleasant is it, whilst a
northern winter frowns around, to wander in an artificial cli-
mate, and in the shadow of tropical plants. But the luxury
infringes terribly on the area of the house ; so that even the
minister Wolkonsky possesses, besides a very handsome recep-
tion-room, only a few very small chambers. It is a usual cha-
racteristic of the Russian style of building — a characteristic
which pointedly indicates the national quality of vanity,— that in
all houses, even in those occupied by the inferior classes of
citizens, the principal, most agreeable, and important apart-
ment is appropriated to the purposes of a drawing-room. So
long as this is spacious and handsome, the Russian attaches
little importance to the degree of comfort, or to the habitable
condition, of the inferior apartments in which he passes his life.
Thus does Prince Wolkonsky content himself, the whole year
through, with bis narrow little rooms, in which he also receives
all visitors, except on grand reception-days ; although he has,
at no greater distance than the thickness of a wall, a splendid
saloon, adorned with, a piece of Gobelin tapestry of marvellous
magnificence, a present from Charles X. Six or eight times in
the year, this saloon is thrown open to a distinguished company ;
that is all the use made of it.
Through the covered gallery of the Winter Palace already
mentioned, we reach the " Sans- Souci " of the great Catherine,
the Hermitage, of her own building ; on entering which the Em-
press was wont to lay aside crown and sceptre, and appear as
D 4
56 PICTUSES FROM ST. rETEKSBUEG.
tlie witty and charming Avoman. Here, in her boudoir, she
onjoyed her leisure, surrounded by a circle of men and women
«){' sympathetic tastes and accomplishments. Here she held her
soirees spirittielles, conversazioni, and reading-parties ; here was
her studio and workshop, where she drew, engraved, and exercised
the turner's craft. I will not weary the reader with a descrip-
tion of the gallery of two thousand pictures, including many
master-pieces of almost every school down to our own day, nor
with a detail of the collections of medals and engravings ; and I
will but briefly mention the library, which contains upwards of
a hundred thousand volumes ; amongst them many unpublished
manuscripts, and especially a copy of Voltaire's works, pro-
ceeding from his own library, and enriched with marginal notes
in his own writing — many of them exceedingly witty, and
which have not found their way into any subsequent editions of
his Avritings. Here also are preserved a quantity of turnery-
ware, very skilfully wrought by Catherine's own hand. These
mechanical occupations seem to have been her favourite pastime.
She turned a great deal, and engraved on cornelian, and fre-
quently made presents of tliese imperial productions to courtiers
and learned men. King Stanislaus of Poland speaks in his
memoirs with enthusiasm of the zeal with which the great wo-
man pursued these trifling occupations, and mentions, amongst
other things, a capital copy of a picture by Greuze, executed
with such talent and artistic skill that it possessed every quality
and perfection of the original.
The Hermitage has had repeated additions made to it, and at
the present time they are busy enlarging it. The present
emperor's well-known love of art is a guarantee that its con-
tents also will be increased. He has ali'eady enriched it by
various contributions, and especially by the addition of many
admirable pictures to the gallery.
Such was the aspect of the Winter Palace in December, 1837.
On a certain evening of that month, the court was witnessing
THE WINTER PALACE. 57
a performance of the French company at the Michael's Theatre,
when an aide-de-camp entered the imperial box and whispered
to Prince Wolkonsky, one of the ministers there present. The
prince gave him orders, and continued to look quietly on at the
performance. Half-an-hour later the aide-de-camp returned, and
this time the Prince, after listening to him, spoke to the Em-
peror, who rose, gave his arm to his wife, and conducted her to
her carriage. The coachman received orders to drive to the
AnitchkofF Palace instead of to the Winter Palace. The Em-
peror mounted a horse that was in waiting for him, and gal-
lopped to the Winter Palace. There was a terrible crowd and
crushing in the streets ; half St. Petersburg was on foot ; it was
as light as day, and Hames roared up into the sky : the Winter
Palace was on fire.
A terrible sight awaited the Emperor. The cradle of his
childhood stood in a sea of fire. From every window of the
I'a^ade the flames flared furiously upwards ; from that side
nothing could be distinguished of the whole upper portion of
the building ; but high, high in the air, glimpses were occa-
sionally caught of gigantic figures towering above the flames
and rocking on their lofty pinnacles. These were the allegorical
figures which decorated the summit of the roof, and which the
flames actually spared; blackened, but otherwise uninjured,
they passed through that terrible conflagration.
The Emperor gallopped round the building to look after his
sentries. The precaution was not superfluous ; on the western
side two soldiers were near falling victims to the fire ; in the
general confusion those whose duty it was had forgotten to
relieve them, and there they stood, notwithstanding the frightful
lieat, musket on shoulder and resigned to their fate. The
Emperor relieved them himself, and pressed forward into the
palace ; at a glance he saw that the whole must soon fall in, and
he hastened into the rooms where the danger seemed greatest,
to call out the men who were saving the furniture. At his
58 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
command everybody fled from the building, with the exception
of four workmen who had received orders to save an enormous
mirror, and who would not leave the place without it. The
Emperor drew his sword, and with one blow of the hilt shivered
the glass. Scarcely had the last man passed the threshold,
when the roof fell in with a terrible crash. Having satisfied
himself that no more lives were in danger, Nicholas hurried to
the Empress at the Anitchkoff Palace.
The Empress had recovered from her first alarm. She was
tired, and when she had seen her husband, she asked, with some
uneasiness, where she was to pass the night. Her secretary, the
privy-councillor Chambeau, begged permission to conduct her
to the sleeping-room that had been hastily prepared for her.
There she found, to her great astonishment, through the delicate
attention of an attached servant — her sleeping apartment out
of the Winter Palace, with its thousand little comforts and
conveniences ; everything in the same place and order as if it
had remained untouched since she last dressed herself. When
the fire had reached that wing of the palace (and it spread with
tremendous rapidity), Chambeau hastened to the boudoir with
a dozen servants and muschiks. " All here belongs to the
Empress!" he cried, "not a thing must be broken!" and in
aprons, baskets, pockets, were carried away all those thousand-
and-one costly nicknacks — clocks, vases, boxes, and ornaments
— without which such a boudoir could not be complete. With-
out the slightest injury they were carried out of the burning
palace and for half-a-league through the heaving throng that
filled the streets ; and when Chambeau had arranged everything
as it was in its former place, the locality alone was changed ;
all things seemed to stand where they had been left — not a
riband was crumpled nor a sheet of paper soiled. I doubt
there being many masters in Germany who are so well and
so quickly served.
The next day the Emperor returned to the scene of destruc-
THE WINTER PALACE. 59
tion. Within the walls the fire still raged. It had been
allowed to burn on, whilst all efforts were directed to saving
the Hermitage, fortunately with complete success.
Long gazed Nicholas in deep sorrow at the grave of one of
the prime ornaments of his beautiful city. At last he raised his
head, passed his hand over his brow, and said, quite cheerfully,
" This day year will I again sleep in my room in the Winter
Palace. Who undertakes the building?"
All present recoiled from the challenge. There stood around
the Emperor many competent judges in such matters, but not
one had the courage to undertake that which seemed impossible.
There was a brief pause, and then General Kleinmichael, an
aide-de-camp of the Emperor's, stepped forward and said, like
the Duke of Alba to Don Philip, " I will !"
"And the building is to be complete in a year?" asked the
Emperor.
"Yes, Sire!"
"'Tisgood! Set to work!"
An hour later the still burning ruins were being cleared
away. The destruction of the building had occurred in
December, 1837; by December, 1838, it was rebuilt. Three
months later it was occupied by the court,
Kleinmichael had kept his word : the building was com-
pleted, completed in the time specified! but — at what a price! !
Only in Russia was such a wonderful work possible ; only in
Russia, where the will of the " Master " is a decree of Provi-
dence ; only in Russia, where they spare nothing, recoil from
nothing, to fulfil his commands.
Under the Empress Elizabeth the palace had taken eight
years to build ; Kleinmichael completed it in one. True it is
that almost the whole of the masonry resisted the fire, but
the whole of the interior had to be reconstructed ; and what
a task that was ! The work went on literally day and night ;
there was no pause for meals ; the gangs of workmen relieved
60 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
each other. Festivals were unheeded ; the seasons themselves
were overcome. To accelerate tlie work, the building was
kept, the winter through, artificially heated to the excessive
temperature of twenty-four to twenty-six degrees Reaumur.
Many workmen sank under the heat, and were carried out
dead or dying ; a painter, who was decorating a ceiling, fell
from his ladder struck with apoplexy. Neither money, health,
nor life, was spared. The Emperor, who, at the time of the
conflagration, had risked his own life by penetrating into the
innermost apartments to save the lives of others, knew nothing
of the means employed to carry out his will. In the December
of the following year, and in proud consciousness of his power,
he entered the resuscitated palace and rejoiced over his work.
The whole was constructed on the previous plan, but with
some improvements and many embellishments. With the Em-
press on his arm, and followed by his whole family, he ti-aversed
the apartments of this immense building, completed, in one
year's time, by the labour of thousands of men. He reached
the saloon of St. George, the largest and most beautiful of all,
and the royal family remained there longer than anywhere
else, examining the costly gold mouldings of the ceiling, the
five colossal bronze chandeliers, and the beautiful relievo over
the throne, which represents St. George slaying the dragon.
The Empress was tired, and would have sat down; — the
patron spirit of Russia prevented her: as yet there was no
furniture in the hall, so she leaned upon the Emperor's arm
and walked into the next room, followed by the entire retinue.
The last of these bad scarcely passed through the door when a
thundering crash resounded through the palace, which trembled
to its very foundations, and the air was darkened by clouds of
dust. The timbers of the ceiling of the saloon of St. George
had yielded to the weight of the chandeliers ; and the whole
had fallen in, crushing everything beneath its enormous mass.
The saloon, a moment before so brilliant, was a heap of ruins.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 61
The splendid palace was again partly destroyed, but the genius
of Russia had watched over her destiny — the imperial family
were saved.
CHAP. VL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Amongst the numerous and magnificent public buildings which
constitute so striking a feature of the Russian capital, there
is one class, to which I have not yet referred, which must not
be forgotten. Besides the imperial palaces, the churches, the
buildings appropriated to the use of the admiralty, the military
staff, and the senates ; besides the theatres, barracks, and so
forth, the educational establishments deserve especial mention.
Their annual cost to the State amounts to a sum such as
Russia only could afford for such a purpose. The immense
expense can be understood only by calling to mind that
Louis XIV. 's saying, ^^ L'Etat dest moil''' is also that of
the Emperor, who takes as much care of the State as he
could do of his own person. Besides the various civil and
military schools, those of the Mining and Forest Corps are
excellent educational institutions for youth. These two re-
markable and palace-like buildings are provided with every-
thing that can contribute to the health and comfort of their
inmates ; and the treatment of the scholars completely fulfils
the high expectations which the imposing exterior of the
edifices is calculated to awaken. There is no great difficulty
in obtaining the admission of lads. The interest of the State
is the main object kept in view ; and the State, it is considered,
cannot have too many able servants. From tlie day of his
entrance into these corps, every material and moral want of the
pupil is fully supplied, not only until his education is com-
62 PICTURES FllOM ST. PETERSBURG.
pleted, but in some sort for his whole life, Bj the fact of his
fintrance into one of these schools, he becomes bound to serve the
State a certain number of years. This includes a reciprocal
obligation on the part of government to provide the young man,
when his term of service is expired, with a suitable position.
The system of education in these corps is, as in the Polytechnic
School at Paris, entirely military. It is usual in Russia for
every government servant to hold military rank. From this
arrangement springs an official aristocracy, which, in social
estimation and value, is far superior to the aristocracy of birth.
The official aristocracy occupy an important middle station
between the nobles by birth and the burgher classes. In addi-
tion to the imperial educational establishments already existing,
the Duke of Oldenburg founded, some twelve or fourteen years
ago*, a school of law, which, under his auspices, has had the
happiest results. It has sent forth a large number of legal
officials, who enjoy, especially by reason of their incorrup-
tibility, the high respect of the nation. There can be no
higher recommendation of such an official, nor one tending to
inspire greater confidence in him, than to have been educated
at the Oldenburg legal school. Stimulated by the success of
this undertaking, in the year 1840 the noble duke founded, at
Kalomeja, nine versts from St. Petersburg, a school of agricul-
ture, which has also been signally successful. The young men
who there receive theoretical and practical instruction in the
various branches of farming are sent, after completing the
course, to distant provinces of the empire. There, installed as
teachers or government officers, they exercise an advantageous
influence on the progress of agriculture. Of such institutions
there are several in the country ; but that which advantageously
distinguishes those of the Duke of Oldenburg above them, is
* It may here be proper to remind the reader that, although Mr. Jerr-
mann's book was first published in the year 1851, some of its chapters had
been written several years earlier. — T.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 63
their superior moral standing, and the circumstance that they
annually send forth a number of young officials whose incor-
ruptibility has become proverbial ; assuredly a great benefit for a
country where there is by no means a superfluity of that virtue.
The public schools — called corps in Russia — are under
the special protection, and indeed, it may be said, under the
personal superintendence, of the Emperor. By day and by
night, they are never safe from his domiciliary visits. Often
does Nicholas rise in the middle of the night from the iron
camp bed upon which he invariably reposes, get into his one-
horse droschki, and make a solitary tour of inspection of the
various public schools. Not unfrequently he goes forth on foot,
and takes the first vehicle he finds plying for hire in the street.
Thus it was that upon a certain snowy night an Istworstschik
drove him in his sledge to a remote quarter of the city. The
sledge had long to wait for him, and when the Emperor returned
and, before getting in, would have paid the driver, he found
that he had no money about him. The grinning Istworstschik
declared that was not of the least consequence, and when the
czar, throwing himself into the sledge, absently called out " Na
domo!" (Home !), the man drove his little Finland horse full
trot to the Winter Palace, in whose immediate neighbourhood
he suddenly stopped, and looked inquiringly round at his fare.
The Emperor got out, rather surprised, ordered him to come to
the same place on the following evening, and asked him, as he
walked away: "Do you know me?" A sly "No" was the
reply, and the next evening the sledge-driver received princely
payment — less, assuredly, for his readiness to give credit than
for his cunning discretion.
At these nocturnal visits to the schools, rigid investi-
gations take place. The Emperor's first glance on entering
the corridor is at the thermometer ; and woe betide those
who are responsible, if it does not stand at the prescribed
fourteen degrees. Then he visits all the rooms, to see if there
64 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
be everywhere light, and if the officers ou duty be vigilant.
The beds of the scholars are next examined; the Emperor pulls
off the bed-clothes, and, holding a light in one hand, with the
other he turns the children from side to side, strictly investiga-
ting the cleanliness of the linen, and of their persons. Often,
in order to try their bodily strength, he challenges them to
wrestle with him, and, for a stranger who should suddenly enter,
it would certainly be no uninteresting sight to behold the despot
of all the Russias, with five or six lads clinging to his gigantic
form, and exerting their utmost strength to throw the ruler of
forty millions of men upon the floor. Henry IV.'s reply to the
Spanish ambassador : " You are a father ? Then I can continue
my game ! " has helped to fill all sorts of grammars and vade-
mecums down to the present day ; of the paternal sports of the
mightiest of European potentates with lads who are total
strangers to him, nothing is known but the wildest and most
ridiculous tales that idleness and a rage for gossip ever engen-
dered. In the intimate family circle of the Russian court these
offspring of corrupt imaginations are often the subject of jest
and laughter. In proof that these absurd and nonsensical
fabrications have reached the ears of Nicholas himself, he one
day said to the Viscount de Custine, when showing him the
pupils of the public schools, whose healthy happy appearance
struck every one : " Here are some of the youths of whom I
devour a few every week;" and Count OrlofF, who just then
came up and was presented to Custine, announced himself as
" the famous poisoner."
This casual mention of Viscount de Custine reminds me of
his deplorable book, which, by its three editions, and by the
nonsense they contained, achieved a momentary celebrity. I
will not here dwell upon the contradictions and ir.consistcncies,
or upon the personal views and passionate prejudices with
wl'ifli the book abounds. I will limit myself to the simple and
in- ■' itrovcrtible ft;ct that M. de Custine undertook to place
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. G5
before the reading public a description, in two thick octavo
volumes, founded upon personal observation, of the political
and social condition of a country whose language and customs
were totally unknown to him, which he had never before visited,
and in which he sojourned for the long period of nearly three
months. This was the whole time he had to get together the
materials of his work ; and this time was taken up with visits,
balls, concerts, theatres, parades, court festivals, and with trips
to Moscow, Charkow, and, if I do not mistake, also to Kasan.
Had the noble viscount, who, in the first volume of his bad
book — written in St. Petersburg — fawned upon the Emperor
like any lapdog, in hopes of obtaining the much desired amnesty
for hisPoVish protege, and who, when these hopes were destroyed,
filled his second volume with fiilsehoods and impure gossip
concerning the very same sovereign — had the noble viscount,
I say, passed his days in the streets and squares, in the public
buildings, markets, taverns, and coffee-houses ; and had he, in
the evening, instead of visiting brilliant soirees, sat down with
his dwornik (an upper servant), and made him talk about the
mode of life, the joys and sufferings of the Russian people, he
would have learned much more that was true and worth know-
ing than in the coteries he frequented, and which took advan-
tage of his thoroughly French love of gossip to impose upon
him all sorts of ridiculous fables, such as it suited their purpose
to propagate. Having once told them to the credulous viscount,
their object was attained, and the inventions were sure of wide
circulation. At that period it must have been a man of greater
discernment and more decided character than M. de Custine
not to be carried away by the stream of popular prejudice with
regard to Russia, a prejudice then so strong that it led to the
greatest personal injustice. This was the case not less in
Germany — always imitative and eager to follow the fashion —
than in France. Not long after the appearance of the work now
referred to I returned to Germany from Russia, and met^ on an
66 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
October day, under the Linden at Berlin, a man honoured and
esteemed by all who knew him, by reason of his rare talents,
his learning, and his manly character, — namely. Counsellor
Gretsch. I cannot describe his lamentations when he saw me.
' Good heavens ! " he exclaimed, " you here and I knew it not !
How unfortunate ! What wretched days I have passed here ! "
And he was eloquent in his complaints of the contemptuous,
mistrustful treatment he had encountered on all sides, and
which he had been compelled to endure the whole time that
his business, entirely of a literary and scientific nature, had
detained him in Berlin. He had brought it to a close, and was
going away the next day. In reply to my entreaty that he
would remain a day longer, he assured me that nothing would
induce him to delay his departure a single hour more than was
absolutely necessary. He only wished, he said, that he might
have the opportunity of welcoming many Berlin people at
St. Petersburg, that they might form some faint idea of the
way in which hospitality was understood and practised by the
rude barbarians of the North.
It was during the existence of this state of popular feeling
that M. de Custine's book appeared, and excited a fleeting but
for the time great and general interest. The work reached the
Emperor's hands, and accident threw a copy in my way in
which he had made red marks against the most striking pas-
sages. Whether the malice of some of these vexed him I
know not ; but I think I can answer, of my own knowledge, for
his having often heartily laughed at the nonsense and many
absurdities the book contains.
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 67
CHAP. VII.
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.
The richest and most considerable of tlie public institutions of
St. Petersburg is the Foundling Hospital. Well endowed from
its very first establishment, it owes its colossal wealth to the
bounty and particular care of the late Empress Maria. Amongst
other favours accorded to the hospital, she gave it the monopoly
of playing-cards. The duty on these is very high ; if I am not
mistaken it amounts to fifty silver kopecks (more than eighteen
pence) a pack. Now I do not think I make too bold an asser-
tion, when I say that in all the other countries of Europe put
together there is not so great a consumption of cards as in
Russia. Not only the long winter evenings, — that is to say, the
long evenings of nine months out of the twelve, — and the
Russians' innate love for play, make the sale of cards some-
thing almost incredible ; but luxury and waste further stimu-
late the demand. In the higher circles, a pack of cards serves
but for one game of ombre, whist, &c. ; and even in the better
sort of clubs new cards are taken after every third game. In
Germany such extravagance would astonish ; it gives but a
faint idea of the luxury prevailing in Russia, although this is
but a pale shadow of that which formerly reigned. About
eight years ago the charming Countess Woronzow Daschkow
took into her head to give a grand fete in the old French style.
For that evening the whole house and its appurtenances were
transformed, by the magic of her command, into a mansion of
Louis XIV.'s time ; corridors, staircases, saloons, boudoirs, all
wore the character of that period ; walls and ceilings, floors and
windows, the furniture, the services, even the liveries of the
laced footmen, with their long powdered perukes — all was
rococo. The entertainment lasted four hours, cost many hun-
£ 2
68 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
drecl thousand rubles, and early the next morning everything
was destroyed and torn down, in order to restore the house as
quickly as possible to its former condition. The houses of all
persons of quality arc annually thoroughly new-furnished, that
they may not be a single season behind the latest Paris fashions;
and yet what is all this compared to the mad prodigality of an
earlier period ? Previously to the accession of Alexander, a
high-born Russian would have thought it a profanation of
hospitality to use the same service for two feasts. The guests
gone, the servants took everything that had been used at the
repast — bottles, glasses, covers, plates, candlesticks, linen — the
whole furniture of the table, in short — and tossed it all out
upon the heads of the rejoicing mob assembled in the street
below. What would now be deemed madness, was then good
taste. May posterity pass a milder judgment on our fashionable
follies and extravagances !
The enormous capital belonging to the St. Petersburg Found-
ling Hospital, affords it abundant means to maintain itself on a
level in every respect with the first philanthropic institutions
in the world. The institution is under the immediate protec-
tion of the present empress, who frequently visits it, often in
company with the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, watches over all
its arrangements with true womanly care, and strengthens and
improves it by her powerful patronage. The orphan who
enters this charitable house is cared for not only in its tender
infancy, but for its whole life. Unseeing and unseen, the
woman on duty in the interior of the chamber receives the
little helpless being whom the world and its own parents
abandon. At the ring of the door-bell she turns the exterior
half of the coffer inwards, her ear scarcely catching the last
murmured blessing with which many a heartbroken mother
commits to the care of strangers that which she holds dearest
in the world. As soon as received, the inftint undergoes a
medical examination ; and an exact record is made of every
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 69
mark and sign upon its body and linen, — of everything, in
short, which came with it. Then it is washed, dressed in new
clotlies, a number is allotted to it, and it is given over to one
of tiie nurses, who are always there in readiness. It is an
affecting sight, on bright spring mornings, to see long strings
of well-closed carriages driving slowly through the streets,
conveying the nurses and their innocent charges into the
country. There the children remain for some years, under the
care and superintendence of physicians and officers of the in-
stitution, who regularly and strictly inspect the foster mothers
The first years of infancy happily passed, the children are
brought back to the Foundling Hospital, and their education
begins. The nature of tliis education depends entirely on
the capacity and inclinations they betray. This establish-
ment sends forth stout blacksmiths and ploughmen, just as
it has also produced distinguished officers, sculptors, and
musicians. Cooks from the Foundling Hospital are much.
sought after ; governesses that have been educated there are
preferred to all others. "When the lad has completed his edu-
cation in the house which received him as a helpless infant, the
clioice of a calling is allowed him, — more or less limited, of
course, by the degree of ability and conduct he has manifested.
He may devote himself to science or art, to the military or
naval profession, to some trade or handicraft — just as he
pleases ; and the expense of his education, previously borne by
the hospital, thenceforward falls upon the government. To
requite this he is bound to devote his acquirements to the
service of the state for a certain time. This, however, is not a
very hard condition, since it ultimately leads to that wdiich so
many thousands sigh after for years in vain, namely, an ap-
pointment as soon as he is quite fit for one. Formerly these
foundlings could be at any time claimed by their parents ; but
lately a ukase has put many difficulties in the way of such
claims, if it has not, indeed, totally disallowed them. This
E 3
70 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
decree was rendered necessary by the great abuses that arose
from the facilities afforded to heartless and unscrupulous parents
of getting rid of the care of their offspring's childhood without
urgent necessity. In this manner, children born in wedlock
were often temporarily committed to the cai'e of the state, and
taken back when their age and education rendered them pro-
fitable, instead of burthensome, to their families.
Startling contrasts abound in St. Petersburg. One morning,
before four o'clock, I was driving to the Neva baths, when, on
the Camino-Most, the stone bridge, my progress was impeded
by a long procession of these little emigrants, proceeding into
the country in their carriages. Still under the influence of the
impression this scene had made upon me, and meditating on the
temptations and perils to which the children, and especially
the daughters, of the poor are exposed in this age of luxury
and corruption, I drove • past the magnificent Kasansky, and
reached the Newsky Prospect, stretching away, in its vast
length, beyond my range of vision, and, at that hour of the
morning, hushed in a stillness which was not without a certain
solemnity. Suddenly, to my astonished eyes, the strangest
scene presented itself. I beheld before me an al-fresco ball. A
number of elegantly attired ladies, some in handsome shawls,
and with feathers in their hats, were performing the strangest
sort of dance, which they accompanied with a sort of bowing
motion, incessantly repeated. I could recognise no French or
German dance in their singular evolutions. Could it be some
Russian national dance ? I thought. What kind of dance could it
be that was thus danced in broad daylight on the public high-
way, and without male dancers ? A few men were certainly
there, but merely as lookers-on. I touched the arm of my
Isworstschik, called his attention to the group, and made an
interrogative gesture. The explanation he gave me was doubt-
less very lucid and circumstantial, and would have been highly
satisfactory, had it only been intelligible to me. Unable
CURIOSA. 71
to understand a word lie said, I ordered him, by the vigorous
articulation of " Pachol," to drive up to the strange ball before
the weary dancers should seek repose upon the stones at the
street corners. Drawing nearer and nearer, I yet heard no
sound of music ; at last we reached the Anitschkow Palace, and
found ourselves close to the scene of this untimely activity. A
repulsive and horrible sight met my eyes. A number of young
women, apparently still fresh and blooming, with ruddy cheeks,
— but whether of artificial or natural colours their incessant mo-
notonous bowing movement prevented my distinguishing — ele-
gantly dressed in silks, jewels, and feathers, were sweeping the
Newsky Street under the superintendence of policemen. Some
of them appeared overwhelmed with shame, others stared at me,
at the Isw^orstschik and horse, with perfect indifference, and
seemed rejoiced at our passage, which suspended for a moment
their painful and disgraceful occupation. They were a detach-
ment of nocturnal wanderers, who, when returning too tardily
to their homes from pursuing their wretched calling, had
fallen into the hands of the patrol, had passed the remainder of
the night in the watch house, and were now atoning, broom in
hand, their untimely rambles. I hurried off to the bath, glad
to escape from this degrading and deplorable spectacle.
CHAP. VIII.
CURIOSA.
Eager to admire a building which enjoys no small fame in
Germany, I hastened to the celebrated Marble Palace. One
who, expecting to enter an orangery, falls into an ice-cellar,
cannot experience a more bitter deception, or a severer chill,
E 4
72 PICTUKES FROM ST. TETEKSBURG.
than I did. This famous pah\ce is the most repulsive building
in all St. Petersburg. Cold and gloomy in its aspect, at tlie
mere sight of it the beholder experiences an icy shivering.
Catherine II. built it for Orloff, after whose death it was pur-
chased by the Crown, and was occupied for a time by the
deceased Grand-duke Constantine. It is now empty. Besides
the sentries, no one approaches it : the Petersburgers hold it in
special antipathy.
The only remarkable point about the palace is the enormous
sum it cost. A handsome building it decidedly is not. Its
shape is a long quadrangle, whose two longest sides face south
and north. The chief facade, towards the north, looks dispro-
portionately small when compared with the whole building.
Two wings are adorned with handsome pillars, but they are of
unequal height, which makes an unpleasant impression on the
beholder. The ground floor of the palace is of granite, whilst
its two upper stories are of grey-veined marble, embellished
with pilasters and pillars of red marble, whose capitals, by way
of farther variety, are of white marble. The first floor is orna-
mented with balconies and balustrades of gilt bronze ; the panes of
glass in the windows are three feet high, and of wonderful purity.
Far superior in beauty is the Tauris Palace. It belonged to
Potemkin. After his death Catherine II. bought it, and be-
stowed upon it, in commemoration of her favourite's campaign
in the Crimea, the name that it still bears. The greatest orna-
ment of this palace is its magnificent winter-garden, which, in
extent and beauty, far surpasses that of the Winter Palace.
The grandeur of the whole building defies description. After
Catharine's death, Paul converted a part of it into a barrack,
and the great hall immediately adjoining the garden was turned
into a reading-room for the officers of the guard. In this hall
were the tables laid oat for the celebrated banquet given by
Potemkin to the Empress. So vast are its dimensions, that,
according to the memoirs of Kinji Stanislaus, a whole battalion
CCRIOSA. 73
of soldiers was once manoeuvred in it. The Emperor Alex-
ander had it put in repair, and the original old furniture I'eplaced
in it.
I must not leave entirely unnoticed a palace Avhich stands on
the south side of the Summer Garden, and is known by the name
of the Red Palace. — a name for which it is indebted to one of
the many strange whims of the Emperor Paul. At a court ball,
a lady made her appearance in red gloves, which so enchanted
Paul, that the next day he proclaimed red his favourite colour,
and Ordered that the palace should forthwith receive that showy
tint. In the same palace, his monogram, P.L, is so constantly
repeated on every side, and in every corner, that an English-
man, who undertook the thankless task of counting them, got as
far as 8000, and then, through weariness, left off without having
nearly completed his undertaking. Paul had many such crotchets.
So fond was he of the gaudy and the motley, that one of his
ukases was to the effect that, on one and the same day, all the
gates, bridges, palaces, guardhouses, 8sc. in the whole vast
empire should be painted in variegated colours ; — a piece of
childish folly, the results of which were, in time, of course,
obliterated.
More interesting to me than all these palaces, whose at-
tractions are for the most part limited to the splendour, taste,
and luxury which are their general characteristics, was the
modest little house on the St. Petersburg side of the Neva,
which Russian veneration for a great sovereign has covered
with a wooden casket to protect it from decay. It is the same
little house in which the greatest Russian who ever lived used
to rest after his hard day's work ; the house whence he directed
tho building of the great capital, whose foundation-stone he
laid. With religious scrupulousness his rooms are preserved
in precisely the same order as when he occupied them. There
stands his bedstead ; there are his tools, his architect's rule, his
inkstand, and some old fragments of his clothing. Everything
74 PICTURES niOM ST. PETERSBUKG.
he touched, all that belonged to him, is held sacred by his
descendants ; and even a foreigner cannot but feel a pious
emotion at the sight of these relics — mementos of the thoughts,
deeds, and mode of life of the greatest man of his time. The
respect and piety of those who have come after him, their
grateful memory of his labours for the happiness of his people,
and of the benefits he conferred on his country, have found
expression in the conversion of his sleeping-room into a chapel.
At an altar, whose plainness accords with the simplicity of the
apartment, two masses are daily said. In the neighbourhood an
old inn is shown to strangers, built upon the same spot where
formerly stood the little tavern at which Peter made an ap-
pointment, when his "day's work" was over, with the Dutch
ambassador, who was trying to persuade him into a commercial
treaty disadvantageous to Russia. There, with Menzikoff to
back him, the czar drank so stoutly and repeatedly to his guest,
that the Hollander got drunk in replying to the challenge, and
at last fell under the table, where he was left by his two enter-
tainers until the cool morning air should restore his senses.
Upon the island nearest to the St. Petersburg side of the river
stands the citadel, there always spoken of as " the fortress." It
is almost entirely of granite, and was built by Peter the Great
after a plan of his own drawing. In the interior of the church
pertaining to it, in the imperial vaults, are preserved the
banners and keys of conquered towns, those of Warsaw, Ocza-
koff, Ismael, and Derbent occupying the first places ; and there
are also kept the bread and salt which the chief magistrate of
Warsaw presented, with the city keys, to Suwarrow, in token of
the complete subjection of Poland. The tower of the church is
lofty and covered with gold, like almost all the church towers
of St. Petersburg.
In a casemate of the fortress, converted into a state prison,
Prince Alexis, son of Peter I., ended his days, after his
condemnation as a rebel. And there, in 1771, perished the
CURIOSA. 75
princess Tarakanoff, and all the other state prisoners there
confined, in consequence of an overflow of the Neva, Since
those days the state of morals in Russia has greatly im-
proved, even amongst the very lowest classes, and manners and
habits have become milder and more humane. In the year 1776,
out of 4369 deaths in St. Petersburg, 1 33 persons were found
dead — murdered, there could be no doubt. What a difference
between then and now ! Modern writers certainly warn us of
the insecurity of the streets in the long winter evenings ; even
Kohl, who wrote only eleven years ago about St. Petersburg,
sees a candidate for the cemetery in every sledge that crosses
the Neva after nightfall ; but such expressions are the mere
results of preconceived notions or exaggerated apprehensions.
It has happened to me to return home from Wassilije-Ostrow at
every hour of the night, and in every season of the year, and I
never found cause for the least uneasiness.
From time to time a robbery or murderous assault certainly
occurs, from time to time a corpse is found upon or under the
ice ; but amongst ourselves, in our own Prussian capital, rob-
beries and even murders are sometimes committed, without
Berlin being set down on that account as an " uncivilised" or
^' unsafe " city.
Moreover one must not overlook the fact, that many dead
bodies, found in the street, on hard winter nights, are quite
erroneously supposed to have been left there by murderers.
How often has it happened to myself, driving through St.
Petersburg in bright summer nights, to pass the bodies of men
lying in the middle of the street in a perfectly unconscious con-
dition ! They had been neither knocked down nor wounded,
but were simply dead drunk. On a December night a tipsy
nap of this kind inevitably entails death. And frozen to death
many undoubtedly are. At Cronstadt, every year, sentries
perish in that manner, although, when the cold is severe, they
wear thick furs and are relieved every half hour. Occasionally,
76 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
too, they are attacked by wolves, which is perhaps what has
given occasion to Mr. Kohl to describe Russian country houses
in a manner which might lead one to suppose that, in every
villa round St. Petersburg, the bears and wo ves run about as
plentifully as puppies and poodles in German country places.
All this belongs to the class of exceptions — nay, so great is the
scarcity of wolves at St. Petersburg, tliat when the court on
one occasion, to pleasure a foreign prince, got up a wolf-hunt,
the witty prince, when the chase was ended, expressed great
surprise at the singular breed of the slain savage, round whose
neck the hair was rubbed off, exactly as if lie had tvorn a collar.
If, in Russia, the poor are more exposed than the rich to death
from frost, this is only an indirect consequence of the cold — a
more direct one of their love of brandy. If the wodka has not
been previously indulged in, there is little cause for apprehen-
sion in the streets and immediate vicinity of St. Petersburg —
especially as even the very poorest has there at least a sheep
skin wherein to wrap himself. A good raccoon-skin (Schup-
penpelz-Waschbiir) will resist a cold of twenty or more degrees
in the open country.
These raccoon furs form the customary winter clothing of the
Petersburgers. Foreigners, on their road to Russia, are often
advised to provide themselves with such furs at Hamburgh or
Leipzig, because they are infinitely cheaper in Germany. That
they are cheaper is true enough, and he who buys one in Ger-
many, with a view to selling it to a furrier at St. Petersburg,
may find his account in the purchase. Not so he who buys it
for his own wear, for in that case he is obliged to have it dressed
over again in Russia, which is expensive and troublesome. In
Germany they dress these skins so badly that in Russia thej
are scarcely wearable. I travelled to St. Petersburg with an
acquaintance who had bought one of these raccoon-fur coats at
Hamburg for eighty dollars, Prussian currency. It was bad
and heavy, and in two months it became hard. Its owner wore
CURIOSA. 77
it for three years, with great discomfort, then left the country,
and was fain to give it away, because he would not be troubled
to drag it about with him in summer, and nobody would buy it.
Thus, in three years, his furs cost him eighty dollars. On
reaching St. Petersburg, I purchased, from Michael, the German
currier on the Newsky, a fur coat for 1000 rubles, or about
300 dollars, Prussian currency, wore it three winters, then went
away, and returned it to the seller, who, the fur having been taken
good care of, willingly took it back and returned me my money,
deducting only fifteen Prussian dollars for the use of the
garment. So that, for three years, and for fifteen dollars, I had
had the wear of a fur which was light, ample, soft, and more-
over remarkably handsome.
A sort of fur that is much prized in Russia, but not very uni-
versally worn, perhaps on account of its great costliness, is called
haraiiken, and is composed of the skins of unborn lambs. The
mother has to be killed shortly before lambing time, to obtain the
lamb, whose wool should then be silky, and have a silvery lustre.
Thus it often happens that a great many ewes are sacrificed before
enough lamb skins are got together (of sufficiently fine quality)
to make a fur coat. This explains the high price. These skins
come from Persia, Bucharest, and the land of the Calmuck.
Formerly they were believed to be a vegetable product — the
Scythian sheep, as it was called, concerning which so many
fables were current. The Tartars, who deal in these skins, still
vouch for the story, and demand enormous prices on account
of the scarcity of their growth. The legend of this plant is
current all over Russia. Its origin may be traced to Bell Von
Antermony, who discovered, in the steppes of Astrakan, certain
dry shrubs, with stems eighteen inches high, surmounted by a
cluster of sharp thorny leaves, in whose shade neither plants
nor grass xoould grow. Hereupon was founded the legend of
an animal-plant, with seeds like those of a melon, and witli fruit
in the likeness of a lamb, growing upon a stem five spans from
78 PICTUliES IKOM ST. PETERSBURG.
the ground. The taste of this lamb's flesh was like that of a
crab. It was fixed firmly to the stem at the navel or middle
of the belly; it had head, eyes, and all the other parts of a
lamb, and lived until the root had consumed all the surrounding
grass and plants, when it dried up for want of nourishment.
Wolves and other beasts of prey sought it as a great delicacy.
From its skin were made costly turbans, caps, muffs, &c.
That such fabulous legends as these should obtain popular
currency is not surprising, but it is worthy of remark that they
have been adopted by science, and credited by its votaries.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Herberstein heard
of the existence of this plant, and collected the above par-
ticulars concerning it. A similar account is to be found in
the works of the most celebrated writers who succeeded him^
and was still credited as recently as the middle of the eighteenth
century. He himself was informed by a learned Russian, the
ambassador Demetrius at Venice, that his father had obtained,
in Astrakan, the seeds which produced this extraordinary plant.
He also affirmed to have heard, from a learned Oriental and
interpreter, that in Samarcand and its neighbourhood grew
plants bearing delicate fleeces, which were worn and much
prized as furs.
All writers of travels in Russia during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries relate these fables ; even botanists, like
Reutenfels, Struys, and others. Kiimpfer and Bruce first dis-
covered, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, that the
baranhen are the skins of unborn lambs, and were not a little
surprised to find, at that date, the belief in the " Lamb Plant"
general throughout Russia, a belief which even at the present
day is not quite extinct in many parts of the empire. The
pretended plant was called Baranez (a lamb), whence the name
of the fur, baranken.
A similar legend is current in Russia respecting the great
fish morff, or mors. The naturalist Mi how first related that
KITCHEN AND CELLAR. 79
this fish was wont to leave the Northern Ocean and ascend the
mountains in the neighbourhood of the Arctic, working . his
way up by digging his great teeth into the earth. "When he
reached the top of the mountains, he rolled down the other
side. Of the teeth of this pretended fish were made knife and
dagger hafts, sword hilts, &c., which were sold at very high
prices to the Turks and Tartars, The belief in this fable was
supported in Russia by writers till the middle of the seven-
teenth century, Negebauer describes the sea-monster mors
in such a manner, that, notwithstanding the walk up the
mountains, there is no difiiculty in recognising the sea-horse of
the Icy Ocean.
CHAP, IX.
KITCHEN AND CELLAH.
Vienna is celebrated for its epicurism, but in this respect it
is far behind St, Petersburg. In the Russian capital people
eat much and live well, and, owing to the cheapness of pro-
visions, good living is become a habit. Nothing that the
country produces is dear ; and what does not that country
produce ? From potatoes up to the finest grapes, all the pro-
ducts of Southern Germany are, with few exceptions, to be
had. Amongst the exceptions are cherries and plums, which
do not grow in northern Russia, and will not bear carriage from
the southern provinces of the empire. They are to be found
in hothouses, and there exceed in size and beauty any that I
ever saw in Germany, But one must content one's self with
their handsome appearance ; they are for show, not for use.
In Countess Samailow's hothouses near Pawlowsky, three
80 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
vcrsts from Sarskoje-Selo, I saw whiteheart cherries of such
wonderful size and beauty, that I thought I never before had
seen fruit deserving of the name. I gathered a few ; they were
perfectly soft and ripe; but their flavour! — truly appearances
were in their case deceitful. They were a watery fruit,
Avithout flavour or perfume ; mere counterfeit cherries. On
the other hand, they have beautiful melons at St. Petersburg —
in Hungary I never saw them larger and finer ; pomegranates
of extraordinary beauty, and Crimean grapes, resembling the
Cape grapes in form and size, but with some difference in
flavour, the Black Sea grapes having a harshness, which doubt-
less proceeds from their being gathered too early. In order
that they may travel without being crushed by their own
weight, they are taken from the vine before they are ripe.
This is certainly also the case with the grapes from the Cape ;
but these have so much natural heat in them, that they ripen
in the sawdust in which they are packed, whereas the Crimean
grapes cannot do without the sun's rays, and never attain a
proper ripeness, but get only soft by keeping. As regards
oranges — and these of excellent quality — they are so abundant
in St. Petersburg, that they are actually squandered. The
purchaser of a whole case, taking his chance of some being
spoiled, gets one — of the size usual in Germany — for six bank
rubles, or about four shillings and sixpence. By retail, you
pay, in the orange season, sixty to ninety kopecks for ten, or
about a halfpenny a-piece. Their cheapness and profusion are,
however, surpassed by those of fish and game. Of deer and
roebuck there are none, but wild boars and hares are in
extraordinary abundance, and one is literally crammed with
partridges, heathcocks, capercailzies, and birds of every kind.
The imperial kitchen is good, very delicate, but extraordi-
narily meagre ; for eating goes on so constantly that it is
necessary the diet should be easy of digestion, and especially
not fat or rich. I had my dinner at Petershof from the
KITCHEN AND CELLAR. 81
imperial table, and frequently dined with one of the officers
of the court, whose meals were supplied from the " second
station ;" the dessert was always magnificent, but as to the
dinner, I confess that the style of cooking at St. George's, a
celebrated Petersburg restaurateur, pleased me f\ir better.
I must explain what I mean by " Stations." Their establish-
ment had its origin in the following incident. The Empress
once took it into her head to examine the state of her house-
keeping, and found the expense of the palace menage rather
considerable. Ordering the daily reports of expenditure to be
brought to her, she proceeded to examine them, and noticed, in
the very first she took up, the following rather singular item : —
" A bottle of rum for the Naslednik" (heir to the crown). This
struck her as strange, and excited her curiosity to look further
back ; but what was her astonishment when, for years past,
she found a bottle of rum set down every day to the account
of the Naslednik ! A bottle of rum daily ! Shocked to find
her son such a confirmed drinker, she continued her inves-
tigations, and found that, even in his infancy, he had made
the same enormous consumption of spirits — that in his cradle,
and on the very day of his birth, he was still charged with the
daily bottle. And on referring back to before his birth, the
bottle was still put down. This was inexplicable. Continuing
her researches, however, the Empress at last got to the first
bottle. It was set down in some year of the last century, and
the following note was on the margin : — "On account of violent
toothache, a teaspoonful with sugar to be given ; by order of
the physician of the imperial court." So, because the Emperor
Alexander, when heir-apparent, had taken a teaspoonful of rum
for a toothache, a bottle had ever since been daily drawn from
the imperial cellar, and nominally consumed by him and his
successors. This was rather too strong, and led to further in-
vestigations ; and the Empress informed her husband of the
discoveries she had made. He read, and calculated, and cyphered,
F
82 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
and thought long over the matter. At last he exclaimed, " If
this goes on, I shall have to pledge my lands in order to pay
for my table. There must be an end to this — I to ill put mifself
out to board" And no sooner said than done. Next day the
imperial kitchen existed no longer.
The Emperor made a contract for himself and his court. An
enterprising purveyor undertook the supply of the whole Winter
Palace, from the St. George's saloon down to the stable, and
divided it into "stations." The Emperor and Empress were
each to pay fifty rubles a day for their food ; for the archdukes
and archduchesses and all who ate at their table, twenty-five
rubles per head ; for the ladies and gentlemen of the court
twenty rubles was the charge, for loAver grades respectively
fifteen and ten rubles, for the servants five, for the grooms
three. A wonderful change ensued in the whole Winter Palace ;
the Emperor declared he had never dined so well before ; the
court, tempted by the more numerous courses, sat far longer at
table ; the maids of honour got fresh bloom upon their cheeks
and the chamberlains and equerries rounder faces, and most
flourishing of all was the state of the household expenses,
although these diminished by one half. In short every one,
save cook and butler, was content, and all this was the result
of a bottle of rum, from which the Emperor Alexander, when
heir to the crown, had been ordered by the physician to take a
spoonful for the tooth-ache.
As already mentioned, I frequently dined at the table of
the "second station," which was provided with six dishes
and a most capital dessert. The drinkables consisted of
one bottle of red and one of white wine, two bottles of beer,
one of kislitschi, and quass ad libitum. The wine was a light
Burgundy ; the beer, on the other hand, was particularly heavy ;
the kislitschi is a sour-sweet drink, prepared from honey, water,
lemon-juice, and a decoction of herbs ; quass is the plainest and
cheapest sort of drink, extracted from malt, sometimes from
KITCHEN AND CELLAR. 83
bread-crusts — and is commonly drank by the people; at first
its taste is quite insupportable, but one soon gets accustomed to
it and prefers it to any other beverage, especially in summer,
on account of its cooling properties. It is very wholesome, not
intoxicating, and constitutes the chief drink of the Russian
people.
In no city in the world is there a greater consumption of ice
than in St. Petersburg ; not only of natural but also of artificially
prepared ice.
In bad (mild) winters there is often a great deficiency of
natural ice, for enough is wanted to fill all the cellars not only
of the city, but of the surrounding country villas.
When the Neva is frozen to the thickness of a foot and a
half or two feet, great slabs, five feet long and three feet wide,
are hewn out of its icy covering, and with these the cellars are
filled. The ice, however, is not stowed away in these great
blocks, but is first crushed into small pieces, which are stamped
down into a compact mass in the cellars. This mass again
freezes into solid layers of ice, the lowest or ground-tier of
which is never taken out, when the cellars are well constructed,
but remains perpetually there, a frozen foundation two or three
feet deep, upon which, each successive winter, fresh ice is piled
up to a height of five or six feet. Ice is deemed such a neces-
sary of life in St. Petersburg, that the finest house would obtain
no tenant if its ice-cellar were bad. People literally cannot
exist there without ice. It is in constant use. In the first
place, all kinds of eatables, — meat, milk, butter, &c., — are kept
in the ice-cellar. Then it is mixed with water, beer, quass, and
with almost all cold drinks. When there is a superfluity of it,
the Petersburgers place it on the stoves and under the beds,
to cool the apartments. In short, they never can have too much
ice.
Vast quantities of artificial ice are also consumed ; not only
at parties, at the theatres, and for family use, but even in the
F 2
84 PICTURES FEOM ST. rETERSBURG.
public streets. Men perambulate the city, beai-ing great tubs
upon their backs, the tubs enveloped and covered with wet
cloths to protect them from the heat of the sun, and crying their
ice for sale, just as formerly at Bei-lin pickled gherkins were
hawked through the streets, and as lampreys are at the present
day. This ice, which I never tasted but once, has no very
agreeable flavour ; I was told, however, that I should soon get
used to it and like it, which I am the more disposed to believe
because the same thing had occurred to me with respect to
quass.
Fresh fruit is never eaten by the Eussians until it has been
blessed by the priest ; a highly judicious sanitary measure, inas-
much as it never obtains the blessing until it is perfectly ripe ;
then it is taken to the church, where the ceremony is performed
-with great solemnity. The Russian clings uncommonly to all
ecclesiastical usacres : on no account would he transgress this
precept. On foot or horseback, or in a carriage, he never passes
a chui'ch without making the sign of the cross ; before the image
of his patron saint, he dismounts to perform this devotional cere-
mony. He has another practice, to appearance less reverential >
he never meets one of his popes (priests) without spitting.
This he does neither from contempt nor from hatred ; it is simply
a custom, with whose meaning and origin I do not believe that
he himself is acquainted. At any rate, I took the utmost pains
to discover them, but without the least success.
CHAP. X.
OFFICIAL PENSIONS AND EESPONSEBrLITIES.
Prominent amongst the numerous absurdities current concern-
ing Eussia, is the tale of the enormous pensions enjoyed by
OFFICIAL PENSION'S AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 85
government officers, and of the still more monstrous frauds and
embezzlements of which such officials render themselves guilty.
With respect to the first of these two points, it is perfectly-
true that every government officer has a right, after twenty-
two years' service, to a. full pension ; that is to say, to a pension
equal in amount to the salary of the office he has held. This,
however, cannot be considered an excessive allowance, when
we bear in mind that in Russia the largest pay or salary (I
except the very highest civil and military employments, such as
field-marshals, ministers, or ambassadors) does not exceed four
thousand rubles, or something more than one hundred and fifty
pounds sterling. In Prussia or Austria, would not a general or
counsellor of state, after twenty-two years' service, receive at
least as large a pension? This elucidated, I proceed to
the second point, which is linked with and explained by the
first. With a view to limit the pensions, nobody receives a
higher salary than four thousand rubles. But as it is manifest
that many state officers, merely as a consequence of their of-
ficial rank and position, — could not possibly exist on such pay,
a number of temporary advantages and emoluments are con-
ceded to them, which expire on their becoming pensioners.
Only a small portion of these allowances, such as table money,
contingent expenses, &c., are paid to them in cash.
Independently of the above-named consideration with respect
to pensions, the imperial government here proceeds upon the
principle of personally interesting the chiefs of the various
branches of the administration by giving them a share in their
advantages, thus making them more free and independent,
and thereby acquiring a right to lay upon them a so much the
stricter responsibility. As regards this principle of responsi-
bility, it is certainly at times carried out to an absurd extent ;
reasons are not listened to when proffered by the chief of a
department ; a misfortune is imputed as a crime to him under
Vv^hose administration it has occurred. A revolt in a company
F 3
8'6 PICTUKES FEOM ST. PETERSBURG.
dishonours a commander ; a nail in a horse's foot may easily
lose an equerry his place ; the defalcation of a clerk is the ruin
of the chief of his division. Hence the rigid and severe
responsibility which every official, from the highest downwards,
lays upon his immediate subordinates ; and as this respon-
sibility cannot possibly be a reality without a certain freedom
of action, the result is a sort of official despotism, which one
must have seen and studied in Russia before comprehending to
its full extent the meaning of the word bureaucracy. Upon
this principle of responsibility is erected the entire edifice of
the public service.
Every official is an absolute lord and master so far as his
responsibility extends. The same principle is applied to the
financial portion of the administration. Those government
servants to whom money is confided for the use of their depart-
ments, are at perfect liberty to manage it in the w^ay that seems
good to them, and even to their own best advantage, so long as
they strictly fulfil their duty as far as their responsibility ex-
tends. A groom in Germany, no matter in how good condition
were his horses, would be severely blamed or punished if con-
victed of having made away with even the smallest portion of
their corn, or of having neglected to litter them well down ; on
the other hand, he is not answerable for their sickness or death
if he can show that it has not arisen from neglect of his. In
Russia it is very diff'erent : there he may give his horses brick-
bats for straw, and May-flies instead of oats, so long as they
look and work well ; on the other hand, their sickness or death
is his fault, though twenty physicians certified the contrary.
How far this principle is a good one I will not investigate;
what is certain is, tliat it leads to the desired end ; the means
by which this is attained may not always be the most delicate,
but the system and circumstances I have just displayed are to
a great extent an extenuation. Thus, for instance, in the case
of an officer of my acquaintance, who was travelling in charge
OFFICIAL PENSIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 87
of horses belonging to the Emperor. The man has one of the
best and kindest hearts under the sun, and yet he confessed to
me that often, in bad weather, when he took up his night's
quarters in a village, and no straw was to be obtained, he had
the thatch taken off the peasants' cottages. " It grieved me," he
said, " to see the rain pouring into the people's beds, but my
horses must have dry litter ; my responsibility/ was at stake-"
I was glad the houses were covered with straw instead of tiles,
for I iirmly believe that, in the latter case, he would have taken
the villagers' bedding to lay under his horses. Yet, I repeat it,
this was an excellent man ; but he was a Russian, and the
Russian knows nothing superior to the word " Service." It
must be admitted that from this word he often deduces very
singular consequences.' The same officer assured me that,
during his whole journey, so long as he was on Russian ground,
he never paid a kopeck for any thing. Every morning the
mayor or burgomaster of the place brought him a receipt for
what he had consumed, but steadfastly refused the money.
This was assuredly out of no love for either the Emperor's
horses or the officer ; ii teas out of fear of the consequences of
accepting payment. In like manner, in all Russia, no post-
master Avill take money from a cabinet courier. He prefers
losing the posting to risking having his horses driven to death.
The government will never think of calling officer or courier
to account for such non-payment ; their responsibility extends
only to the safe and punctual delivery of horses and dispatches.
The same state of things exists in the army. Commanders
of all grades have their obligatio7is. These they must fulfil,
but the manner of their fulfilment concerns them alone. It is
the colonel's business to purvey everything required by his
regiment. Every necessary is specified and calculated, and he
receives the sum total in the lump, or the difference by monthly
payments. He has a right, let us suppose for example's sake,
to a hundred bushels of oats and five hundredweight of hay ;
p 4
88 nCTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
"but instead of taking those quantities, lie takes twenty hundred-
weiglit of liay, and only fifty bushels of oats ; the difference in
value is allowed, credited, and paid to him, openly and without
concealment, as his own private and legitimate profit. The
technical expression for this practice is " to economise'^
One of the most curious exemplifications of the workings of
this system is to be found in the mode of remounting the
cavalry. This is more easily managed in the provinces than in
the capital, the requirements being less rigorous in country
garrisons with line regiments than at St. Petersburg with the
sruards, not one of whose horses must differ from the others
a hair in colour, or a half inch in height. And splendid
horses they are, and the task a hard one to discover and supply
them.
The imperial government exacts much and pays little. For
a hussar horse I believe the allowance to be four hundred rubles
banco, and for a dragoon horse five hundred ; but I am not sure
of these figures, nor are they of the least importance, for what-
ever is paid is notoriously not a third of the real value. Colonels
of regiments set their pride upon their troop horses, and yet do
not contribute a doit from their own pockets towards purveying
good ones. The way the thing is done is this : the richest and
most ambitious of the young officers are sent upon remount-
duty. These young men make it a point of honour to execute
this duty in a brilliant manner^ and to earn the favour and good
opinion of their chiefs ; and so it often happens that a young
subaltern expends, out of his pocket, a sum equivalent to a
small fortune, paying 1500, instead of 500, rubles for every
horse — sacrificing 40,000 or 50,000 rubles, and half ruining
himself to enjoy the fame of having brought a good remount.
If he be so rich that he can afford to despise the government
allowance, he throws the helve after the hatchet, and pays the
whole price himself; the colonel recompenses him witli his
esteem, and has made an " economy."
THE IIUSSIAN POLICE. 89
In this system of responsibility, as in almost all Russian laws
and regulations, the fundamental idea has much to recommend
it ; but the advantages of the best possible idea may often be
counteracted by the manner in which it is carried out. All I
have endeavoured to prove is, that, if there be much that is
objectionable in the manner in vrhich is applied the system I
have here exhibited, on the other hand, that manner of appli-
cation is not literally an infraction of the law, and conse-
quently does not deserve the hard names often applied to it in
Germany.
CHAP. XL
THE RUSSIAN POLICE.
The position of the police in this singular country is very pecu-
liar. Russia is a " police-state," in the strictest sense of the word ;
and as everything in the country is subjected to their superin-
tendence, so also is their responsibility enormous. To save this
as much as possible, they (especially the subaltern officials) keep
themselves within the very letter of their orders, from which
literal observance the grossest absurdities often arise. There is
a standing order of the police that, on the breaking up of the
Neva, as soon as the thaw is announced to the police, agents
are to be stationed on both banks to prevent the accidents
which would arise from persons attempting to cross. It has not
unfrequently happened that the Budschniks (policemen acting
as street guardians), to whom the execution of this order has
been entrusted, have taken it too literally, and have not only
prevented persons crossing from the side of the river on which
they were stationed, but also would not suffer those to land
who, when the river began to break up, were already upon the
90 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
ice, and with peril of life had reached the shore. These were
forcibly repulsed by the Budschniks, because the letter of their
instructions was to let no one cross the ice. A similar too-
literal interpretation of the regulations in case of fire caused
a terrible calamity at the burning of the Lehmann Theatre,
as I shall presently have occasion to relate.
Who has not heard tell of the great trouble and difficulty
occasioned to foreigners by the Russian passport system ? And
yet, to those who choose to ascertain the simple routine of the
business, the trouble is very trifling. On his arrival in St. Pe-
tersburg, the stranger receives a carte, de sejour, or permission
of residence, in exchange for which he delivers up his passport,
which is deposited in the archives of the Alien Office until his
departure. Once a week, for the three weeks preceding his
departure from Eussia (journeys in the interior of the country
do not require this formality), he must advertise his intention in
the Petersburg Journal. In cases of pressing haste, the three
advertisements may succeed each other at shorter intervals.
The day after the appearance of the third, he lays the adver-
tisement before the Schasneprice, or police commissary of the
quarter. If, during the period of advertisement, no one has
applied to this officer, and made opposition to the delivery of
the passport, — on account of debts, or the like, — the commissary
delivers to him a formal certificate to that effect. With this,
the foreigner betakes himself to the Passport Office, addresses
himself to the official charged with the despatch of strangers,
and hands him his card of residence, the three advertisements,
the Schasneprice's certificate, and a twenty-ruble note. The
official takes charge of all these things, and courteously requests
the person from whom he receives them to return at three in
the afternoon, when he may reckon on being most politely
received and speedily expedited. If this is not the case, the
fault is that of the foreigner alone, who assuredly has forgotten
to give in one of the four documents above enumerated, and of
THE EUSSIAN'^ TOLICE. 91
whicli the official asks only for the^rst three, leaving the fourth
to be thought of by the applicant, who has, consequently, only
his bad memory to blame if he does not get his passport until a
little reflection indicates to him the sure means of accelerating
its delivery.*
One of the principal duties of the police is to display great
activity in the event of fires. The arrangements for the ex-
tinction of fires are excellent in St. Petersburg. Cries of " fire"
are unknown there. On elevated points, towers, and columns,
disposed for the purpose, watchmen are stationed both by night
and by day ; who, at the first signs of fire, pass telegraphic
signals, and thus warn the authorities in the surest and quickest
manner. The measures taken in such cases are so rapid and
well organised, that a fire is usually got under within a very
short time of its fii'st outbreak. With rare exceptions, — as, for
instance, that of the conflagration of the Winter Palace, — damage
by fire is seldom of much extent. The third story may be in a
light flame ; but not on that account does it occur to the occu-
pants of the second floor to remove their furniture. The
exertions of firemen and engines are certainly greatly aided by
the solid style of building.
As soon as the authorities reach the scene of the fire, all
other labour is suspended. The regular firemen set to work,
and with so much zeal and judgment, that the raging element is
seldom allowed to make much head. One thing that strikes the
eye especially, on these occasions, is the great beauty of the
horses that drag the engines. Many of them are animals of the
noblest breeds, of the most beautiful colour and form, and, what
* In this, as in some other passages of Mr. Jerrmann's book, a doubt re-
mains upon the reader's mind, whether he speaks earnestly or ironically.
Notwithstanding, however, his evident disposition to look favourably on
Russian institutions, we can hardly suppose him seriously to uphold, or even
to palliate, so annoying, expensive, and corrupt a system as is exemplified in
the above paragraph. — T.
92 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
is yet stranger, they cost the authorities not a single kopeck.
Here is the solution of the enigma. We will suppose you, a
foreigner, in company with a friend, to be making your way
through the throng that fills the principal sti-eets of St. Peters-
burg, looking anxiously and carefully about you, in order to
effect a passage unharmed through the dense lines of carriages
that fill the Newsky, the Morskoy, &c., and getting cautiously
out of the way of the brilliant and swiftly-rolling equipages.
See how differently tlie Russian behaves. Calm, careless, and
undismayed, he goes to and fro through the mob of vehicles ;
and, in reply to your apprehension lest he should be driven
over, his word is, " They dare not." Acting upon the prin-
ciple, no fallacious one either, that most accidents from being
run over occur in consequence of the driver's carelessness, the
Russian government passed a law, which briefly says : — " Who-
soever runs over a person shall be forthwith arrested, his hair
shall be cropped, and he be sent to serve as a soldier : the car-
riage and horses shall be confiscated and given over to the
police, who will appropriate the latter to the use of the fire-
engines. If the person run over be killed, or badly hurt, the
owner of the carriage shall support the charges of interment or
cure, and further shall compensate the family of the person
killed." The first of the penalties included in this decree can
be bought off ; and instances have been known of masters pay-
ing 1000 rubles, and more, for the redemption of a coachman
who had rendered himself liable to it. The law is somewhat
severe ; but it is also wholesome and necessary, to protect the
public from mishap.
Notwithstanding the protective severity of this enactment,
many persons are run over ; and, notwithstanding the excellent
arrangements for the extinction of fires, great conflagrations oc-
casionally occur, whose grievous extent and fatal results are
sometimes attributable to the too literal observation of beneficial
THE RUSSIAN POLICE. 93
regulations. Of this, the following case is a melancholy
instance.
The greatest, and also the most completely national, festival
of the Russians is the Maslinizza. This is the close of the
carnival ; or, rather, the people's own carnival. It lasts for the
entire week immediately preceding Lent, and extraordinary
preparations are made for it. The centre and chief scene of
this grand festival is the square of the Admiralty ; upon which,
for fully a fortnight beforehand, are erected booths and tempo-
rary theatres, — .most various in form, size, and description.
Next to the humble stalls of dealers in chesnuts and ginger-
bread, stands the extensive circus of a De Bach or Lejars ; hard
by the booth where marionettes dance and juggle, rises the
colossal stage of an Italian pantomime ; here a temporary tavern
props itself against the walls of a menagerie. The seemingly-
confused medley of buildings is, however, arranged on a fixed
plan, and intersected by streets for carriages and horsemen, and
by innumerable footpaths. Early on the morning of the first
day of the Maslinizza, the vast place is crowded with people ; —
all Petersburg is on its legs, hastening to and from the fair.
All business is suspended ; for these eight days are exclusively
devoted to uproarious popular diversions. So long as they last,
there reigns pure and unlimited social democracy ; no drunken-
ness is punished ; no nocturnal rovers are taken up ; even detected
thieves are rarely given up to the police, but, instead, often
receive upon the spot some slight punishment, according to
Lynch-Iaw — although the heavy fists, which, on such occasions,
are seen clenched and uplifted, make it probable that the cul-
prits would prefer the grasp of justice to such summary chas-
tisement. From early dawn, the greater portion of the immense
fair is crammed with the lower classes of the people ; compared
with the tumult, pressure, and congregation of men, what are
the fairs of Leipzig, Frankfort, or Beaucaire ? Foreigners are
wanting, whose presence is certainly the most characteristic
94 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
feature of the French and German mercantile fairs ; but, in
respect of crowd and noise, the latter are far below the Peters-
burg Maslinizza. Towards two or three o'clock, the whole of
the theatres, which, during those eight days, give two perform-
ances daily, disgorge the vast mass of their spectators, who flow
down, in long, compact streams, to the Admiralty Square, and
take a sort of wandering possession of it. Soon afterwards, the
equipages of the wealthy classes, also coming from the theatres,
fill the carriage-roads through the fair, and drive to and fro,
slowly and in long lines, through the temporary streets of the
markets and the dense throng of foot-passengers. The royal
family seldom fail to make their appearance in this brilliant
procession, which the populace greet with joyous acclamations.
After an hour's drive in sledges and carriages, the richest
and most elegant of these usually proceed to the Newsky
Perspective, where their occupants alight, and form the most
brilliant promenade it is possible to behold. What colossal
wealth and exquisite taste are there displayed ! In costly
equipages alone, millions are there accumulated. The value of
many a four-horse team there pacing up and down, would be an
independent fortune for a German burgher of modest pre-
tensions. And then the furs ! what countless sums have been
expended upon those beautiful furs, light as Persian shawls, but
of a warmth that defies all the rigours of a Russian winter !
After the promenade on the Newsky comes dinner, followed by
fresh visits to theatres and concerts. And till far on in the
night, the streets are filled with a giddy, half-drunken multi-
tude. At last, those who are in a condition to find their houses
return home : those who, after much reeling, and staggering, and
running to and fro, fail in discovering their domicile, and lie or
fall down in the kennel, or at the street-corner, are gathered up
by the police and patrols, and conveyed to the guard-house. In
ordinary times they would not be released next morning without
some slight memento of the hospitality accorded them: but
THE RUSSIAN POLICE. 95
during the Maslinizza, it is different ; and after sleeping off
their liquor on a camp-bed, in a warm room, they are suffered
to depart unpunished, to recommence the coarse sensuality of
the previous day.
Twelve or fourteen years ago, the most successful and po-
pular of all the entertainments assembled on the Admii-alty
Square during the Maslinizza, was that given by the celebrated
pantomime company of the German manager, Lehmann. There
Avas a perfect rage for these pantomimes ; all Petersburg flocked
to see them ; and, although they were repeated every two hours,
the temporary theatre in which they were played was con-
tinually filled to suffocation. During one of the morning per-
formances, whilst the pit was in full glee and uproar of delight,
the harlequin suddenly rushed upon the stage, and exclaimed,
"Fire! sauve qui pent!" The announcement was received
with a general burst of laughter at what was taken for a stupid
joke. The misapprehension was fatal, for it shortened the
brief space during which escape was possible ; in a few moments
the flames burst out from behind the scenes ; the wooden
building was in a blaze. The audience, wild with terror, rushed
to the doors; unfortunately these opened inwards, and the
pressure of the frantic throng closed them as effectually as iron
bars and bolts. Exit was impossible. Outside, a workman,
who had assisted in the building of the theatre, stepped forth
from the crowd and called for an axe, declaring that he knew
every joint of the boards and beams, and could quickly open a
passage for the imprisoned audience. But the budschnik or
policeman on duty would not permit this to be done till his
superiors came to decide upon the matter. At last, urgent
necessity overcoming every other consideration, the punctilious
police agent was pushed aside, several men seized axes, and
soon a large opening was made in the side of the building. A
dense cloud of smoke made the crowd recoil, and, when it had
cleared away, a horrible spectacle presented itself. In closely-
96 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
packed masses sat men, women, and children, apparently still
gazing at the stage, which was a sheet of flame. Rescue had
come too late ; the sudden smoke, filling the crowded building,
had stifled the entire audience : not one was saved.
CHAP. XII.
RUSSIAN JUSTICE.
There is much analogy in Russia between the administration
of justice and that of the police. Most of the Russian laws are
excellent ; unfortunately the intentions of the law-givers are
but too often neutralised by the conduct of those appointed to
administer them. It is evident that in every country the right
working of the laws depends entirely on their administrators,
and here is the weak point where Russia's imperfect state of
civilisation is most plainly manifested. The administration
of justice is also rendered doubly difficult by the circum-
stance that the whole Russian legal code consists of a mass of
ukases, which in the progress of centuries has assumed such
enormous proportions, that hundreds of waggons would hardly
sufiice to transport it. Amongst these ukases are naturally
found many which contradict each other. And (especially of
late years) a new ukase has not always contained a clause ex-
pressly annulling those in a contrary sense and of earlier date.
Hence the most important branch of Russian jurisprudence
became a knowledge of all these numerous ukases, since the
production of one of remote date often caused the decision of a
tribunal to be diametrically opposed to what it would have been
according to the decrees more generally known and commonly
acted upon. The Emperor Nicholas, discerning this great evil,
appointed, immediately after he ascended the throne, a special
commission of revision, whose task it was to sort all these
RUSSIAN JUSTICE. 9<
various ukases, to arrange tliem and bring tliem into keeping
with each other, and finally, out of the heterogeneous and dis-
cordant mass, to form one appropriate and harmonious code of
laws. The work was completed several years ago, and the
result was more than twenty folio volumes. A second commission
was then appointed, and has ever since been toiling, to reduce
these compendious tomes to dimensions more compact and prac-
tically useful. Thus, step by step advancing, Russia may hope,
in due time, to possess a regular code, remedying the evils and
supplying the wants that the country so long has felt.
Yet, even in their present state, the Russian laws are not
only adapted to the spirit and character of the people, but are
also for the most part humane, far more so than accords with
popular notions of Russia. Justice is cheap, and fees exist not.
Stamps excepted, a lawsuit may be carried through and decided
without costing a kopeck to either of the parties concerned. So
the law ordains. But how is this carried out ? At the very
first step taken by the plaintiff in a cause, the clerk or secretary
finds that the paper handed in is totally incorrect in its form,
and politely requests that it may be drawn up a second time in
a more regular manner. This is neither more nor less than an
indirect demand for twenty rubles banco. The uninitiated in
such matters, who finds his petition (in Russia everything is a
" petition") perfectly regular, and insists upon its reception, may
rest assured that it will be duly shelved and so remain ; on the
other hand, persons initiated in the mysteries of Russian justice,
rectify the imperfections of their " petition" by handing in the
twenty rubles, by virtue of which they may rest assured that no
exception will be taken to its form, and that their suit will be
advanced one stage. But it unfortunately happens that the
smallest lawsuit necessitates some twenty or more such " peti-
tions," each one of which must be weighted with the stimulative
douceur of twenty rubles, so that, although exempt from legal
charges, the gainer of a suit often finds himself out of pocket to
G
98 PICTURES FllOM ST. PETERSBURG.
twice the amount he has recovered. Whether or not the Rus-
sian officials adopt this mode of proceeding with the friendly
and highly moral view of disgusting people of lawsuits, and of
inducing them to resort as much as possible to amicable com-
promise, there can be no doubt that that is the end they attain.
It is a proverb in Russia, that " every man gets his rights —
who lives long enough ;" and the fact is, that it is often less
difficult to establish one's right than to obtain its official recog-
nition. Thus it happened that a certain person had duly won
his lawsuit, but his utmost endeavours were insufficient to get
possession of the judgment. At last he had recourse to strata-
gem. He went to the magistrate who had had the decision
of his affiiir, exposed to him the nature of his solicitation, and
after hearing, in reply, an exposition of the numerous diffi-
culties which opposed themselves to the fulfilment of his wish,
the pressure of business, &c. &c., he took out his pocket-book,
and extracted from it a packet of bank-notes, which he tore
in half. One of the halves he handed to the man of law, and
replaced the other in his pocket. " These halves,'' he said, "are
valueless apart, and useless to both of us. I consider mine as
lost ; it depends upon yourself to restore their full value to
those in your possession." On the morrow this ingenious per-
son had a call from a very friendly and gentlemanly man, who
made him the benevolent ofter to exchange the much desired
judgment, which he had with him duly and legally drawn up,
against the valueless halves of the bank notes.
As a striking example of the singular action of the " responsi-
bility" system upon the minds and moral perceptions even of
upright and highly respectable men, and of the manner in which,
upon occasion, they are found to limit their views to the mate-
rial advantage of the state, even at the cost of private indivi-
duals, I take an anecdote of the official life of Cancrin, the
famous Russian finance-minister. One of his spies — no branch
of the Russian administration is without these — brought him
RUSSIAN JUSTICE. 99
intelligence that a receiver-general of the revenue had misap-
propriated large sums of money. In most countries the natural
consequence of such a denunciation would be an immediate
investigation of the accused person's accounts. Cancrin did
nothing of the sort. He went into his office, and called out
aloud to a secretary, who sat at the further end of the hall, " to
give notice to those officials whom it concerned, that upon that
day week there would be a general inspection of all the public
money-chests of the metropolis." Of course the defaulter was
informed of this within the hour. Off he ran to Jew and Turk,
and borrowed for a few days the amount of his deficiencies.
The week elapsed, and the inspection began. The finance-
minister himself came to the accused person ; his books were
checked, and the balance they exhibited was compared with the
state of the treasury. Thanks to his money-lending friends,
the amounts coincided to a kopeck. With a well-pleased glance
Cancrin had the money restored to its iron coffer, locked it with
his own hand, and — put the key into his pocket.
An hour afterwards the receiver-general received his dismissal.
Thus he escaped Siberia, justice was cheated, and several inno-
cent persons — perhaps honest men, who had been eager to
oblige and serve him — were defrauded of their money. But
the State lost nothing, and the minister saved his " responsi-
bility." Thus are the laws evaded in Russia, but not in all
cases with so much apparent lenity.
The humanity of Russian legislation has long since abolished
capital punishment, with the sole exception of cases of high
treason. Even after the great military conspiracy of 1825, only
seven of the chiefs atoned for their crime with life : surely a
small number of executions for a plot whose ramifications were
so extensive. The knout, which replaces capital punishment, is
certainly a terrible infliction ; but here also do the widely spread
popular notions on the subject demand rectification. "With us
" Russia " and " knout " have become such identical ideas, that
G 2
100 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
one is inclined to believe that the slightest infraction of the law-
may bring the most honest of men under the friglitful thong,
which every police subaltern is supposed to be at liberty to
inflict by the warrant of his own will. The fact is, that in
Russia a criminal can be sentenced to the knout for no other
offences but those which in Germany would be punished by
death, and such sentences are never executed without an autho-
risation from the Emperor himself, signed with his own hand.
The number of blows seldom exceeds six ; it is certainly a fact
that the first often suffices to kill a man ; nevertheless, instances
have been known where criminals received ten, and yet survived
to make a long atonement of their fault by labour in the Sibe-
rian mines. The most frightful circumstance relating to the
knout, and that upon which its mournful celebrity is doubtless
founded, is the abuse that was formerly made of it. As recently
as in the time of the Emperor Paul, the sentence to punishment
by this fearfnl instrument often emanated purely and directly
from the sovereign's arbitrary will. By such order and authority
was a pope, who kept a reading club, condemned to the knout
and to banishment for life to Siberia, for having circulated
a prohibited book. Thus also did the sense of justice (coupled
with extreme severity) of that Czar pronounce an equally
terrible sentence upon the person guilty of a certain offence
which had been committed in the garrison. The affiiir was of
a delicate nature, and very probably had reached the ears of the
Czar in a distorted form. Meanwhile, in his first anger, he had
pledged his word for the carrying out of the penalty, and had
named a committee of investigation, whose researches it would
have been difficult, indeed impossible, for the real culprit to
escape. To« avert the horrible misfoi'tune that must have en-
sued, a non-commissioned officer of the Preobressentschy grena-
diers generously sacrificed himself for his young chief, and gave
himself up as the guilty person. The committee, who already
Lad their misgivings, felt themselves relieved from an oppressive
RUSSIAN JUSTICE. 101
burthen and responsibility. Examination and execution were
accelerated to the utmost ; influential intervention converted the
corporal punishment into a mere ghastly mockery, and the
devoted grenadier departed for Siberia, where he lived in abun-
dance, until a cabinet-courier, despatched by a new Emperor,
recalled him to receive his reward. The signature of his recall
is said to have been the very first act of the young Czar.
Such arbitrary sentences are no longer passed, and the present
Emperor might be blamed rather for his too great lenity than
for his severity. To this day, as regards the bureaucracy, the
celebrated " dublna " of Peter the Great would frequently find
very appropriate employment. It is undeniable that justice and
police are the partie honteuse, the shame and scandal, of the Rus-
sian empire. The Emperor, who knows everything, but Avho
cannot remedy everything, does his utmost to abate the evil,
and made an important step towards abolishing the most crying
abuses, by the appointment, some seven years ago, of tlie excel-
lent Perowsky to the post of minister of the interior. Yet it is
a question whether even this man of rare ability will succeed in
opposing an effectual and permanent barrier to the flood of ofHcial
corruption. Admirably qualified though he be for his Augean
task, it may still be doubted whether he will escape the countless
intrigues and cabals organised against him by the thousand-headed
monster he has to combat, and which he threatens in its inner-
most intrenchments. In the army of officials he finds his
bitterest enemies, against whose malice he is upheld only by the
Emperor's favour, and by the hearty good wishes of the people,
who adore him, and who see their great gain in his steadfast
exertions.
To prove to the administration of the police what venal
officers were to be found in its ranks, he once sent for its chief,
and communicated to him information he had received, that
every night, in a particular house, prohibited games of chance
were played. He asked for t'.vo of the most trustworthy officers,
G 3
102 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
and sent them at night to the house in question. It was sur-
rounded, and the two agents went up stairs to the apartment
that had been indicated to them. There they found a party of
six or eight gentlemen, seated at a round table, in the full en-
joyment of a game at faro, and with heaps of gold before them.
Caught in flagranti, the disconcerted gamblers were about to
be conveyed to the guard-house, when one of them managed to
make the two police tyrants understand that " ecarte," which
they had just been playing, was a very harmless amusement ;
that the pile of gold upon the table was no evidence against
them ; that they were in the habit of playing this game — which
was one of skill, not of chance — for very high sums ; and, to
prove this assertion, he offered to play a game at ecarte with
each of the police agents, at 1000 rubles a game. The agents
accepted the offer, as well as the 1000 rubles, took themselves
off, and next morning the chief of the district reported to the
minister that the visit to the suspected house had produced no
other result than the discovery of a party of gentlemen harm-
lessly amusing themselves with a friendly game at cards. Pe-
rowsky sent for the two police agents, heard their report from
their own mouths, and then, turning to their chief, who was
present, " Learn," he said, " what dependence you can place on
the men in whom you confide, and who should be the guardians
of the public welfare." And, opening a side door, he disclosed
to the astonished officials the gamblers of the night before,
sitting round a green table, in the same order, and engaged in
the same prohibited game. Disguised, and with a long false
beard, Perowsky went about to shops and stalls, j^urchasing
sugar, meat, and butter, and checking the weight of his pur-
chases. Many shops were closed, but the housewives of St.
Petersburg rejoiced at the augmentation of weight and measure.
A SHOW OF BRIDES. 103
CHAP XIII.
A SHOW OF BRIDES.
I HAVE already spoken of the public buildings of St. Peters-
burg, and I ought not to have omitted mentioning amongst them
the Michaelow Palace, of tragical fame. This palace, once so
brilliant, with its ditch, drawbridges, and palisades, and with
the bronze equestrian statue of Peter the Great in its court-
yard, is now transformed into a school for cadets ; and the apart-
ments in which imperial pomp and melancholy once reigned
are now occupied by young, light-hearted, and industrious
scholars. With the exception, it must be remarked, of one
room, whose floor, doubtless, yet bears traces of a terrible event,
for immediately after the fearful deed its doors and windows
were walled up. At the present cheerful day the darkened
casements look dismally forth upon the court-yard — gloomy
memorials of sad days gone by. In that room the Emperor
Paul met his death, " struck by apoplexy."
At no great distance from this old palace lies the delightful
Summer Garden, one of the pleasantest places of resort in St.
Petersburg. Peter the Great laid it out, and in a room of the
house which he built in it, is shown a piece of leather, the first
that was tanned in St. Petersburg, and which still bears marks
of the teeth with which the great Czar bit into it in his wild
extravagant joy at this new step of the civilization he had prg-
moted. At the present day there are nowhere such good
tanners as in Eussia, and nowhere are furs so well dressed and
prepared for use. This is proved by what I have elsewhere
mentioned with respect to the raccoon-skin coats (Schuppen-
pelze), which may be bought at much lower prices in Germany
but which, on arrival in Russia, require to be thoroughly dressed
a^ain before they become soft, durable, and agreeable to wear.
G 4
104 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
One of the boundaries of this Summer Garden is towards the
quay, and is separated from the Neva only by a carriage road.
The charm of the finely grown trees, of the enchanting walks
and alleys, of the fine statues and pleasant resting places, is
enhanced by the proximity of the colossal barrier of wrou"-ht
iron, which is probably unequalled in its style, and whose
beauty and renown furnished occasion for a thoroughly English
piece of folly. A son of Albion, who had long cherished a wish
to see the City of the Czars, chanced to hear or read of the rare
elegance of this railing. The next day he embarked foi
St. Petersburg. On arriving at Cronstadt, the search of the
vessel by the custom-house officers was martyrdom to his im-
patience ; he threw himself into a skiff and sailed up the Nera
as far as the Summer Garden, — the great object of his dreams
and aspirations. His guide book in his hand, he lay for hours
stretched out in the boat, his eyes immovably fixed upon the
wonderful railing. At last, by a violent effort, he detached
them from the object of his admiration, and turning to the
boatman, " "What," exclaimed he, " can the city possess that is
worth looking at after this ? Take me back to Cronstadt I "
And without having set foot in St. Petersburg, he betook
himself once more to his foggy native land.
This Summer Garden possesses another attraction, which it
shares with no other that I am aware of, save with the garden
of the Tuileries at Paris. Like the chestnut-shaded pvenues
of the Tuileries, this garden is the afternoon resort of crowds
of the most charming children, who repair thither, escorted by
their mothers and nurses, to people the solitary walks, and
make the shrubberies resound with their innocent mirth.
Fifteen or sixteen years later these children reappear upon
the same scene, but this time with less artless intentions, and
to play a more perilous game. On "Whitsuntide afternoon are
there to be seen, ranged in long rows, dressed in their best, and
often bedecked with costly jewels, the daughters of the middle
A SHOW OF BRIDES. 105
class of Petersburgers. Matrimony is the object of the display.
It is a Show of Brides.
Young bachelors, disposed to marry, now walk up and
down the line of damsels, critically inspecting them as they
pass. Should their eye indicate that they have made a choice,
a matchmaking friend of the young lady's steps out of the
rear rank, joins the would-be Avooer, and takes a stroll with
him through the garden, informing him of the girl's circum-
stances, of her family, dowry, housewifely qualities, &c., and
obtaining from him similar information concerning himself.
Should they so far come to an understanding that the consent of
the lady and her parents alone remains to be obtained, the match-
maker conducts her candidate to the mother, who introduces
him to her daughter, invites him to her house, and a wedding is
the most usual result of the acquaintance thus singularly com-
menced. Odd as it may seem, experience daily proves that
these marriages, originating entirely in the pleasing impression
and sympathy awakened by a first glance, are for the most part
productive of much happiness. This is, certainly, attributable
in great measure to the fact that a Russian of the middle class
expects very little from his wife ; and the richer he is the less
he expects. About the qualities and accomplishments Avhich a
German of the same class takes into consideration when selecting
a wife, such as education, economy, and the like, the Russian
troubles not his head. A rich Russian of the middle class
requires nothing from his wife but that she should be handsome,
dress with taste, appear elegantly attired the first thing in the
morning, and sit all day long upon the sofa, doing nothing, or,
at most, reading a novel or netting a purse. He detests to
see his wife busied with domestic matters. These are occu-
pations for servants, and should the mistress of the house make
them hers, she would lower herself not only in her husband's
eyes but in those of all around her. To sit in state and receive
company is the Russian lady's sole business. Under this state
106 PICTUKES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
of things the education of children is of course much less
attended to than were desirable. The boys, however, regularly
attend the schools, or are sent to board at educational institu-
tions ; and as to the girls, that which is required from them as
women, is, as we have already seen, so very little, that how
small soever the care bestowed upon their bringing up, it
nevertheless is found sufficient. But I certainlv do not advise
any German to seek a wife at a St. Petersburg Whitsuntide
Festival.
Wedding presents are not customary in Russia. On the
other hand, there is a long-standing patriarchal custom, which
has been preserved, with some variations, to the present day.
I one morning met an acquaintance, who hurried by me with
unusual precipitation.
" Whither away in such haste ? " I asked.
" I have no time to spare," was the reply, " I have bread and
salt to buy."
" Bread and salt ! Have you not both at home ? "
" I will tell you another time."
At our next meeting I received an explanation. From time
immemorial there has existed amongst the Russians a custom
that a person changing his house should receive from each one
of his acquaintances a loaf and some salt. The meaning of the
usage may possibly be the kindly wish, — May you never in your
new dwelling be in want at least of these two things. As the
people became more polished and refined, they brought the
salt in a little barrel, and the bread on a plate or in a basket.
Later still, when civilization led to luxury, these unadorned
receptacles were exchanged for costly ones. The simple gift
of bread and salt was presented in boxes and baskets of silver
and gold. And at the present day the bread and salt are
wholly omitted, and the casket stands for the contents. To
avoid monotony the salt-box is replaced by a costly vase, the
bread-basket by a service of plate or some other rich present.
COACHMEN AND COURIERS, 107
There is no change, however, in the formula of presentation.
As though to excuse by verbal humility the exaggeration and
extravagance of the gift, the donor never fails to beg kindly
acceptance of " Bread and Salt."
CHAP. XIV.
COACHMEN AND COURIERS.
If the most striking view of St. Petersburg is certainly that
which is obtained on approaching it by water, the entrance by
the high road is not less interesting, although on a less gran-
diose scale. Particularly imposing is the first appearance of the
city as it presents itself to the sight of the traveller advancing
towards it from the south. The Moscow Sastawa is a trium-
phal arch, erected in honour of the troops who made the last
campaigns in the East. It is very lofty, proportionably broad,
composed entirely of cast iron, with bronze ornaments, and
its simple grandeur has a striking effect. Through this gate
of honour one passes immediately within the boundary of the
city, the gilt cupolas of whose countless churches, rising like
flaming signs at the horizon, seem to greet and welcome the
visitor.
Those things which, in many large cities, so unpleasingly
impress strangers on their first arrival — such as the dirt of
artisans, the smell of tan-yards, the noise of forges, &c., are all
banished from the vicinity of St. Petersburg. On the banks of
the Neva, or on the quays, the traveller is greeted by the joyous
songs and merry gossip of troops of young washerwomen, who
there pursue their cleanly toils all the year round, braving the
ardent heat of summer, and the iron frosts of a Russian winter-
When the river is hard bound with ice, holes are cut in its
frozen surface, and still the hardy laundresses follow their chilly
108 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
avocation ; and still by song and jest they strive to beguile its
pains. Certainly there are no people in the world so cheerful
at their work as is the Russian at his. He must sing, or he
could not work. He sings at the plough as in the harvest-
field ; whilst tugging at ropes on ship-board, and over his glass
in the tavern ; on the box of the post-chaise, and on the top of
the hay-cart. Singing, he accomplishes the most wearisome
marches ; singing, he goes into action, and singing he comes
out of it — if he comes out at all, and with his due complement
of legs and arms. Give him but his song and his wodka, and
he needs nothing else to be perfectly happy. It is this innate
cheerfulness of disposition that enables him gaily to support the
most painful hardships. True it is, that by nature the Russian
is lazy ; he would gladly pass his life singing, drinking, and
sleeping, and then again awake to a similar round of sensual
enjoyment. But when spurred to labour by necessity, nothing
can exceed his fortitude and powers of endurance.
Observe yonder stately, six-foot high, comfortably full-bodied
man, with his round face and still rounder beard, in the kaftan
of fine green cloth, and the square cap of red velvet trimmed
with fur. The man's habitual mode of life is the most com-
fortable imaginable ; the dolcefar nieiite is his profession, and
only from time to time has he to make certain superhuman
exertions. That is the Emperor's bodij -coachman ! Off duty,
he lives like a lord of the land. You probably imagine that the
coachman's natural residence is the stable ! but — to err is human !
— our charioteer has never seen the stable since he received his
last appointment. Whether the carriages be in good condition,
the horses fat or lean, the harness suitable, he troubles not his
head. Even as a chamberlain approaches the Emperor with
the words, " Sire, the carriage is at the door !" so does a coach-
man of the second class present himself before the great chief
of the stable department and say, "Alexei Iwanowitsch, the
horses are put to!" Then the comely man with the beard rises
COACHMEN AND COURIERS. 109
from his chair, empties his glass, and descends deliberately into
the court-yard ; there a groom offers him his arm, leaning upon
which he gently attains the coach-box, settles himself com-
fertably, and nods. At that nod the reins are handed to him,
he winds them round his hands, stretches out both arms straijrht
before him, settles himself firmly against the box — he neither
can nor will sit — and, proud as the Emperor on his throne, he
drives off. It might really be said that he does his work with-
out moving hands or feet ; the latter he hardly can move, for
he is firmly planted upon them, and of the motion of the former
you ai"e not aware, for he guides the fiery horses with the
pressure of the little finger. It is only out of affectation that,
when he suddenly pulls up, he throws his body backwards,
clasping both arms to his breast, like a person swimming.
After a half-hour's drive, he returns home ; the Emperor alights,
and he drives to the court-yard. A groom runs to the horses'
heads, another helps him off the box, he throws the reins to a
coachman, and walks away. His day's work is done. He has
driven the Emperor — that is the whole of his duty. For that he
has officer's rank, a salary of several thousand rubles, and lives
in clover. But the medal has its reverse ; for it may happen
that the Emperor, on getting into his carriage, instead of bidding
him drive to Kamini-Ostrow, gives the word " to Moscow ; "
and, just as he would have driven seven versts, in the one case,
so he drives 7261 versts in the other, without pause or refresh-
ment, without closing an eye or leaving his box. At certain
distances along the whole road there are little houses built as
halting-places for the Emperor Alexander ; but Nicholas does
not use them ; he seldom alights till he reaches Moscow, and,
the changes of horses being effected with lightning-swiftness,
the coachman has hardly time to toss off a glass of tvodka. At
every post a fresh postilion gets upon the box with him ; but
the most the postilion is allowed to do is to urge on the horses ;
the reins never leave the coachman's handsj and thus he gets
110 PICTUKES FKOM ST. PETERSBURG.
over the one hundred and four German miles, standing, with
outstretched arms, without food, his attention unceasingly upon
the strain, exposed to every possible variety of temperature —
on the box of the carriage with twenty-four degrees of heat,
and on that of the sledge with as many of cold. It has hap-
pened that, on his ai-rival in Moscow, he was unable to leave
his box ; four men lifted him oiF, he was perfectly stiff, his eyes
were starting from his head, he had to be bled and put in a
bath, before his stiffened limbs and overstrained nerves resumed
life and suppleness. No German could endure such enormous
fatigue ; the Russian endures it with ease, when he nwM, — he
who would do nothing all his life long if he might.
The case of the cabinet-couriers is similar to that of the
coachman. Two of the former are constantly on duty in the
Emperor's cabinet. Perhaps at two o'clock in the morning an
aide-de-camp brings to one of them a despatch for Lisbon or
Naples ; and half-an-hour afterwards the courier has left
St. Petersburg. And fortunate may he think himself when such
journeys fall to his lot ; they are mere pleasure-trips, for he
soon reaches the frontier, and then he makes himself comfortable
— avails himself of railroads and of postchaises ; which latter,
even were they everywhere as bad as on the road from Vienna
to Prague, would still be state-carriages compared to a Russian
britsciika. Seated on a board covered with a thick leathern
cushion, in a wooden vehicle without springs or back to lean
against, and on a level with the traces, the courier travels at full
gallop over the most wretched roads, without rest or repose, to
Odessa, to Chiva, or even to Port St. Peter and St. Paul, 12,800
versts from St. Petersburg. Add to this, that the courier, so long
as he is on Russian ground, is forbidden, under pain of dismissal,
to close an eye in sleep. On such tremendous journeys as the
last referred to, nature becomes at last too powerful for duty to
resist her call, and the harassed courier allows himself brief
repose. But it has often occurred that when the despatches
COACHMEN AND COURIERS. Ill
reached their place of destination, their bearer was unable to
deliver them : he lay a eorpse in the carriage.
Less fatiguing than the journeys of these couriers, but still
far from agreeable to the foreigner, is the travelling with
post-horses, or by diligences. By the first mode he is very much
at the mercy of chance. If he quits St. Petersburg provided
with a good padroschnik (an official document to procure him
post-horses), and if he finds no competition at the posting-
houses, he gets on pretty well. But if he has not the paper in
question, or if there happens to be a demand for, and conse-
quent scarcity of, horses at the relaying-places, he may abandon
all calculation as to the probable progress of his journey, and
resign himself to the will of Providence. Supposing him to
have at last got his horses, and to have left the post-house far
behind, he yet has no certainty when he may reach the next ;
for he may chance to fall in with a courier, or with an officer
travelling on service, to whose horses some accident has hap-
pened, and who forthwith, and without the slightest ceremony,
stops the luckless stranger, takes the cattle from his carriage,
harnesses them to his own, and gallops off", perfectly indifferent
as to the fate of the man whom he thus leaves horseless and
helpless upon the Emperor's highway. The traveller by sledge
— say even from Riga to St. Petersburg, between which places
the road is tolerably good — may deem himself fortunate if
he does not get lost in the night ; and may thank, for his safety,
the quick ears of his postilion, who, hearing his cry of distress,
pulls up and waits until he can pick himself up out of the snow,
into which (and out of the sledge) a sudden violent jolt has shot
him. I would strongly advise every body who has to travel
from Petersburg to Moscow, or to the Prussian frontier, to go
by the diligences ; which, as far as Moscow, and also on the
road to Tauroggen, are very comfortable, and arranged quite in
the German manner. By these diligences the travelling is very
rapid, and remarkably cheap. From Petersburg to Tauroggen
112 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
the fare is somewhat more than thirty Prussian dollars (41 10s.).
But as to those persons who are compelled to journey into the
interior of Russia, I can only say " Heaven help them !"
At St. Petersburg, when the stranger alights, weary and
worn-out, from his travelling-carriage, he finds another little
trial to pass through before reaching his hotel. The droschki
which conveys him thither consists of a cushioned seat, four
feet long, with a back one foot high, and with splash-leathers
on both sides to keep off the mud. His safest plan, perhaps, is
to sit astride on it ; for, if he places himself sideways, he rather
hangs on than sits, and is apt to find himself, at any moment,
stretched at full-length on the pavement. This is very bad,
although it is being almost continually repaired ; but the nature
of the soil, partly sandy, and partly marshy, is the cause that
no good foundation can ever be obtained. Various streets, as for
instance the Newsky Perspective, the Great and the Little Mors-
koje, and some others, are paved with wood, which is a great
advantage both to those who drive through them, and to those
who dwell in them. The houses in those streets where this
mode of paving does not prevail, suffer greatly, particularly
when the streets are narrow, from the vibration caused by the
perpetual traffic. In consequence of this, even the Newsky lost
one of its greatest ornaments ; formerly it had on either side an
alley of trees ; to which, however, the constant rattle of carriages
was so obnoxious, that the whole of them withered and died.
Independently of its being preferable as regards the duration
of buildings and carriages, the wood pavement is as agreeable
to those who drive in the latter, by reason of the uniform
pleasant motion, as it is acceptable to those who reside in the
former, on account of the great diminution of noise. For
horses, on the other hand, it is very dangerous, especially in
damp weather, when they easily slip down and injure them-
selves. This way of paving is extremely expensive, even in
St. Petersburg, where wood is nothing like so dear as in Ger-
THEATRES. 113
many. The labour of laying it down is also very great. First
is placed a layer of masonry ; or, better than that, of square-
hewn blocks of wood, each about a cubic foot. These are
fitted tight in ; then the chinks are all filled up with pitch,
which is also spread over the entire surface. The wooden
pavement comes over this. It consists of a second tier of square
blocks, similar to those of the first layer, and disposed in pre-
cisely the same manner. The blocks are merely hewn with the
axe, but it is wonderful with what exactitude this is done : they
are all as precisely alike as one drop of water is to another, and
are as smooth as if they had been carefully planed. This pave-
ment lasts longer than the stone one, which is in more general
use ; nevertheless it is constantly under repair. Louis Philippe
once proposed to pave all Paris at his own cost. It is difficult,
in this instance, to give him credit for a generous motive, or to
think that he had merely the improvement of his capital at
heart ; his object more probably was to supply barricade-makers
with a softer material.
CHAP. XV.
THEATKES.
For the besrinning of the season, between the middle and the
end of September, everybody returns to the capital, and only
the highest nobility, the immediate court circle, remain in the
country as long as the royal family stop there. At the end of
October these also come back to town, and then approaches the
period when St. Petersburg is seen in its greatest glory and
brilliancy. It v/ere labour lost to attempt to describe the
splendour of the court festivals, of the balls, assemblies, and
masquerades ; to form a correct idea of them, one must have
seen them.
H
114 PICTUllES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
The return of the court gives fresh life and vigour to the
artistical world, and the drama flourishes in the beams of
imperial patronage. The Emperor visits the theatres almost
daily, especially the French play, which is particularly the
court theatre. It stands in the heart of the city, opposite the
Michael's Palace, and was a birthday surprise of the Emperor's
to the grandduchess Helena. Its exterior differing in no re-
spect from that of the adjacent buildings, she had no notion of
the existence of a theatre in the immediate neighbourhood of
her palace, until the Emperor conducted her thither to witness
the first performance.
The name of the Michael's Theatre was given to it in honour
of her husband. Compared to the other theatres it is small,
hardly so large as, certainly not larger than, the Berlin play-
house, but it is the most comfortable of all of them. Its
unpretending and simple elegance, its cheerful aspect and
commodious arrangement, particularly adapt it for a ren-
dezvous of the best society. The whole house, both before
and behind the curtain, is lighted — such at least was still the
case in 1844 — with oil, but so well lighted that there was
not a corner where one could not easily read the smallest
writing. And there is no lack of brilliant dresses, which at
once benefit and are benefited by the good lighting. The
internal arrangement of the house is capital. The stalls are as
roomy and comfortable as arm-chairs, which is the name by
which they go ; boxes and pit aee apportioned into a fixed
number of places, and beyond that number no tickets are issued.
Although there ai'e broad passages through the pit and to the
orchestra, no one, except the officer on duty, is allowed to stand
up in the house ; at the entrance, door-keepers, in rich liveries,
receive the tickets and open the doors and seats ; the servants
who have charge of the refreshments are also in handsome
liveries ; everything, in short, is arranged with the utmost
regard to comfort and convenience, with a sort of modest
THEATRES. 115
sumptuosity, and without consideration of expense. An even
steady light is thrown upon the stage, which leaves nothing
to be desired with respect to decorations, properties, and cos-
tumes. It is rather diflferent when we come to the repertory
of plays ; that is a medley which J defy any one to comprehend.
Setting aside high tragedy, to which they do not aspire, this
French company, which upon the whole is not very strong,
performs almost all the novelties that appear in Paris. They
give farces, vaudevilles, comedies, dramas, even tragedies, such
as Victor Hugo's Angele. To these latter they are not
equal, and their performance of dramas does not rise above
respectability. On the other hand, the performances at this
theatre are excellent in the lighter styles of comedy and
vaudeville, for which there is altogether a most effective
company. But even to the higher style of comedy they are
not uniformly equal. I saw them perform Moliere's Malade
Imaginaire, for one of the first appearances of Mademoiselle
Dupont, — an excellent actress, whom I had known in Paris,
whither she has lately been recalled by the management of the
Theatre Fran^ais. She appeared first in the part of the
Duchess of Marlborough in Le Vei-re d^Eau, where, as in
some other modern plays, she had very little to say. But
in the Malade Lnaginaire her talents made her conspicuous
amongst all her comrades, and it was quite evident that she
was the only performer in that company who understood how
Moliere should be acted. The French have very good, very
capital actors ; truth, however, compels me to declare that
those at St. Petersburg, with the exception of Mademoiselle
Dupont, were for the most part greatly overrated. Vernet and
Paul Minet are first-rate comic performers ; Dufour is an
excellent actor of characteristic parts ; Mademoiselle Alexandre
Meyer was exquisite in naive and sentimental cliaracters,
as was Madame Allan in a graver department. M. Allan
was a very respectable sedate lover, and M. Bressan took the
H 2
116 riCTUEES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
part of premier amoureux. Both were good actors, nothing'
moi'e, but both were praised and prized as if they had been
artists of the very highest rank ; and the last-named was
actually made an idol of, especially by the ladies. This, how-
ever, was all natural enough. The French theatre enjoyed the
highest patronage ; it had become the fashion, it was considered
hon ton to frequent it, and its performances were subject of
convei'sation in the most aristocratic drawing rooms ; the man-
agement did all in their power to keep up its brilliancy and
vogue. All these things, combined with its real merits, could
not fail to render it the spoiled child of the public ; but, never-
theless, it was decidedly overrated. This theatre, too, was an
example of the excellent influence an able administration — there
represented in the person of M. Peissard — when properly
supported by the directors, has upon the ensemble ^m^ "working
together " of the whole enterprise.
If the Russian National Theatre is behind the French one
in public favour, it is before it in real merit ; although, like
the prophets, it is not duly honoured in its own country. I do
not here refer so much to its merit as an artistic institution, as
to the non-recognition of the talent of the performers, of which,
it unites a greater amount than any other theatre I am ac-
quainted with. In Martinow especially, it possesses an actor^
who, as the French say, is an artist to his very finger-ends.
I do not hesitate to set him down as the greatest theatrical
genius of the day. At any rate the celebrated BoufTe, who, in
Paris, is held to be the first living representative of that line
of acting, cannot support comparison with him.
The Russians allot the palm of good acting to the elder Ka-
ratejin, but I cannot coincide with their opinion, for I conside?
him an inferior artist to Martinow. At the same time I must
observe that it is impossible to establish a comparison between
ti-agedy, which is Karatejin's line, and the class of plays in
which Martinow performs.
THEATRES. 117
Of all the people of the earth, the Russian, perhaps, possesses
the greatest faculty of imitation, and the most complete tech-
nical aptness to render it available. Of him it is literally true,
that what his eye seeth his hand can do ; but it is absolutely
necessary for him to see, for invention he has none. That is
visible in all his works ; in his buildings, manufactures, trades,
and even in his pursuit of art. But as an imitator he is un-
rivalled, and that is what makes him so good an actor of farce
and comedy, which require less the creative power of imagi-
nation than the reproductive faculty, and an acute observation
of the daily appearances of life. These he renders with
wonderful fidelity. In his own speciality of mimicry he is
quite unapproachable. I shall never forget the acting of
Martinow in the Russian version of the Pere de la Debutante.
It was a masterpiece of art. The character of the father is
considered in Germany a comic part, and the actor's efforts
are directed to make his audience laugh. I laughed, certainly,
at the Alexander Theatre, and more heartily than I remember
ever to have laughed before, but the actor's intention to
produce this effect was not discernible ; the poor father was in
no jocose humour ; the unfortunate old fellow, on the contrary,
endured the most frightful torments ; the sweat-drops hun"-
upon his brow ; the martyrdom of his heart and his many
sufferings, made the bright tears gush from his eyes. Insen-
sibly a sort of remorse of conscience crept over me for lau'Tjiin"-
at such a poor, harassed, tortured creature in the midst of his
pains. But yet, who could help laughing ? Nevertheless,
and in spite of the perfection of his acting, the palm of the
evening was not for Martinow. The Russian adapter of the
piece from the French had introduced a somewhat frivolous
scene, in which the debutante is introduced to the director of
the theatre. The actor, Samailow, availed himself of this oppor-
tunity to take off a former intendant of the theatres. Prince
Narischkin. I did not know the original ; but that the actor
H 3
118 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBCRG.
mimicked some person who had once existed, was quite clear
to me, for there was individuality in every tone, look, and
gesture. The audience was in an ecstacy of delight, par-
ticularly its older members, to whom was now presented a
living reminiscence of their youth, and who, for the sake of
this one scene, would never miss the performance at which they
had, perhaps, already laughed full fifty times.
The house in which the Eussians perform is the Alexander
Theatre. It is about the size of the Berlin Opera House, but
is not nearly so richly decorated. Indeed, I know no theatre
which can approach the latter for the grandeur and brilliancy
of its arrangement and fitting up. The Alexander Theatre
is not inviting to the eye, not well lit, and especially not
comfortable. The passages, leading to the seats, form a per-
fect labyrinth. Let no one, in the event of an alarm of fire,
separate himself from the throng to seek exit by a side path ;.
for only by a most extraordinary chance could he hope to
succeed. It was in this theatre that I saw the Emperor for
the first time. He came late, would not allow any one in
the box to stand up when he entered, and, without ceremony,
and in full view of the public, kissed all his children, great
and small, so that you could hear it in the pit. The audience
took not the least notice, and seemed quite accustonied to such
patriarchal scenes.
The German company is by no means the most favoured
in St, Petersburg. They perform alternately with the French
at the Michael's Theatre, and use the French decorations, and
whatever is fixed and fast ; but the elegant French wardrobe
warns them off" with a "7ioli me tangere!" The German ward-
robe is very poor ; the Russian theatre gives them some little
assistance in this respect, but anything in the way of novelties
is very hard to obtain. Earnest remonstrances are of little
avail ; more may be accomplished by an apposite jest. For
instance, I once had to perform Belisarius ; the costume was
THEATKES. 119
complete — all but the cloak, which was absent. Three suc-
cessive requisitions for one were rejected. At last I addressed
myself to General GedeonofF, director-in-chief of the theatres ;
he referred me to the wardrobe of Karatejin, who played the
same part, but was a man of gigantic stature. All my applica-
tions were fruitless ; the constant reply to them was, " Take
Karatejin's cloak." At last I retorted : " As your Excellency
pleases ; but if I am to have recourse to Karatejin's wardrobe,
the only thing I can do will be to borrow one of his hand-
kerchiefs to wear as a Greek mantle." The general laughed,
and signed an order for the necessary garment.
Besides the manager, every theatre in St. Petersburg has an
official personage attached to it, whose duty is general super-
vision and to note casualties and deficiencies. At the German
theatre this post was filled by a German employe, a good sort
of fellow who troubled himself little with anything beyond
seeing that the young figurantes and chorus-singers were nicely
dressed. One day the Court suddenly announced its intention
of being present at my benefit, then close at hand. Nobody
was prepared for this novelty, and there was great bustle and
running about in consequence. Messengers were scampering
over the city, hunting for General Gedeonoff, who showed
himself at the German theatre scarcely once in eight per-
formances ; the German superintendent had a grand parade of
figurantes, walking gentlemen, &c., and inspected them from
head to foot, and called me to account because one of them had
dusty boots. I wondered what made him all of a sudden so
anxious in his inspection. " The Court is coming," replied he,
" that is a great rarity here, and everything must be clean and
bright." " Certainly," I answered, " and so ought everything
to be every day of the week, and if you would more frequently
see that the boots are well polished, and all corresponding
matters in good order, the Court would doubtless oftener come
to see the Germans act." The superintendent held his peace
H 4
120 PICTURES TROM ST. PETEESBUEG.
and went his way, whilst the French scene-painter, who had
heard the conversation, tapped nie on the shoulder, and said,
parodying Charles X.'s famous mot, and pointing to the de-
parting official, " Ce n'est qiCun ennemi de phts!"
At that time the German theatre was in a better state than it
had been for years previously. At the performance for my be-
nefit the Court were very much gratified. The Emperor testified
to me, through General Gedeonoff, and subsequently, through
Prince Wolkonsky, his gracious approbation of my exertions
both as actor and as manager, sent me the next day a present of a
costly diamond ring, but did not return to the theatre. Soon
afterwards came Emile Devrient, provided with strong recom-
mendations ; the most influential persons at court interested
themselves for his performances, but were unable to seduce
the court, then resident at Peterhof, to a single one of them.
At last their exertions were so fiir successful that the German
company Avas allowed to give a performance at the Peterhof
palace. The piece selected was the Landwirth, and Devrient
was really capital ; with him performed Lilla Lowe, a tridy
charming actress, whose marriage has been a great loss to the
German stage. The performance went off excellently well, the
audience were perfectly satisfied, and the next day Devrient
received a valuable ring, but — no second performance took
place, whilst the French company, although lacking the charm
of novelty, had the honour, once a week or oftener, of being
summoned to act at the country residence of the court. Such
is the fate of German art, and of German artists.
The largest of the St. Petersburg theatres is the Stone
Theatre (^Camino Theatre), whose dimensions are quite co-
lossal. There German and Russian operas and ballets are
given. Although every thing possible is done to encourage the
Russian opera, it has never yet been able to raise itself to the
rank of the German, which in its turn was utterly eclipsed by
the appearance of the Italian opera.
THEATRES. 121
It was at Easter, 1842, tliat General Gedeonoff, then director
of the imperial theatres at St. Petersburg, had the honour of
being appointed by the Emperor Director in Chief of all the
"imperial" theatres in the empire. This appointment was a
disastrous one for German theatricals in Russia. The compre-
hensive title in fact extended the general's power only to the
Ikloscow theatres, for no other city in Russia has " imperial "
theatres, but that extension sufficed to deal the deathblow to
German dramatic art in St. Petersburg.
This is an appropriate place to say a few words concerning
the character of the officer who exercises so important an
influence on Russian theatricals. General Gedeonoff is a
man of extensive acquirements, rare administrative talents,
quick perception, interminable routine, indefatigable activity,
and of almost incredible perseverance. He is goodnatured,
but passionate and violent. He loves art just as far as, and
no further than, the Court loves it ; he patronises the style
which the Court views with favour, and is apt, moreover,
to estimate the value of a performance by the sum it brings
in. Fi'om the moment of his appointment as Director-Ge-
neral of all the imperial theatres, he planned the establish-
ment of an Italian opera in St. Petersburg — undeterred by
the total failure of a previous attempt of the kind. In the
autumn of 1842 he inducted a brilliant Italian company into
the spacious Camino Theatro, and to this undertaking the
sacrifice was, as usual, the Germans. To make room for the
Italian opera, the German opera was sent to Moscow for that
winter. But this was the death-warrant also of the German
dramatic company, which was enabled to produce pieces of any
importance only by the co-operation of the members of the
operatic corps, through whose loss it was now so reduced in
numbers — whilst nothing was done to fill up the vacancies — •
that the modest circle of its capabilities was very soon deter-
mined. According as the receipts diminished, the number of
122 PICTURES mOM ST. PETEESBURG.
performances was lessened, until, towards the end of the winter,
they occurred but once or twice a week ; proof sufficient that
they declined in favour in the same ratio as the cashbox grew
lighter. The success of the Italians proving triumphant, they
returned to St. Petersburg for the season of 1843-4, and again
the Germans were packed off to Moscow. The result of the
second season being as satisfactory as that of the first, in the
spring of 1844 the Italian opera was permanently established in
St. Petersburg, and the German, as might be expected, dis-
pensed with. Such, in St. Petersburg, is the fate of the beau-
tiful in art. With the discarded operatic company departed
also those members of the dramatic corps who had sufficient
talents to ensure success elsewhere, or who were not de-
tained in St. Petersburg by the prospect of a pension. The
German theatre sank into its former mediocrity. The im-
mense success of the Italians in St. Petersburg has main-
tained itself to the present day, and, if no warlike alarms
operate unfavourably on their position, a long and brilliant
popularity may be foretold to them. The triumphs there
achieved by some of the principal singers can hardly be de-
scribed with mere words. Only those persons who have wit-
nessed the enthusiasm of Spanish and Italian audiences can
foi-m an idea of them. Above all, Rubini, although he then
possessed but the tradition of his voice, and the admirable
Viardot Garcia, were the heroes of the day. The first was
appointed singer to the imperial chamber, and Prince Wolkonsky
himself was present in the Winter Palace at the ceremony of
his investiture with the uniform of that post. At his benefit a
golden laurel wreath was thrown upon the stage, and at Garcia's
benefit such a rain of flowers fell around her that she literally
waded through them, and they had to be carried off the stage
in great wash-baskets. Bearing in mind that this was in
February, when in St. Petersburg a rose costs twenty rubles,
and a handsome garland or bouquet eighty to a hundred rubles,
THEATRES. 123
I shall not be exceeding the truth if I say that on that day a
fortune faded on the singer's bosom. Could there be a more
characteristic trait of the luxury and extravagance of the
Petersburgers ? Without positively asserting it, I yet fully
believe that many a young man that evening laid the founda-
tion of pectoral disease. What I can positively affirm is, that
many sonorous powerful voices in my neighbourhood, which,
when the curtain fell, nearly deafened me with their furious
acclamations and calls for the great singer, were totally extinct
at the end of the uproarious interlude, which lasted full half an
hour. During that time Garcia had to present herself at least
twenty times to these extravagant admirers, who at last, com-
pletely hoarse and exhausted with such riotous applause, left
the theatre to try to regain their voices against the next
performance.
The ballet occupies a very prominent position on the St.
Petersburg stage, and is cherished with infinite care. Indeed
so great are the taste, artistic feeling, and pecuniary means ex-
pended upon it, that it may boldly place itself in competition
with the first in Europe. The ballet-master, Titus, and the
machinist. Roller, have done it good service ; the corps de ballet
is excellent, and amongst the most prominent native talent I
may name Mademoiselle Adrianow, whose taste and aplomb in
the performance of the most difficult steps cannot but content
the most fastidious judges, and who in grace and elasticity is
not inferior even to Taglioni.
I must not conclude this chapter without speaking of two
institutions, whose like is nowhere to be found : I refer to
the Institution for Pensions, and to the Theatrical School.
Upon the first of these two establishments all persons have
claims who have served the stage in an artistical capacity,
and for a period fixed by law. The mode of pensioning
is various. Russians get a double pension, but must serve,
in order to obtain it, twice as long as foreigners. The law
124 PICTURES FEOM ST. PETERSBURG.
prescribes that, after twenty years' service, and two years
more, known as " grateful years," every artist, employed in
an imperial theatre, has a right to retire on full pay. This
full pay, however, never exceeds in Russia the sum of 4000
rubles banco, or 180/. sterling. But the fixed salary con-
stitutes only a small part of the earnings of the more popular
actors. Allowances for each pei'formance {feux\ and benefits,
often multiply their profits five or six fold. Karatejin, Mar-
tinow, and others, draw fifty to a hundred rubles of feux every
time they act ; and their benefits at the great Alexander
Theatre often bring them in 3000 rubles and more. When
they have served their twenty years without interruption, a
pension is decreed them, and they thenceforward receive, from
the imperial treasury, the same salary as they before got
from the theatre, but are bound to serve two more years
gratis ; that is to say, that they receive from the theatre,
during those two years, only their feux and the amount of
their customary benefits. So that, in fact, they serve twenty-
two years before they are completely pensioned. The two
" grateful " years over, they are at liberty to retire from the
stage, or — still drawing their 4000 rubles pension — to enter
into a fresh contract with the management. As Russian
actors, for the most part pupils issuing from the theatrical
school, usually go on the stage very early, they often get a
pension before they are forty years old, and can very well
take a new engagement. As regards foreign actors, a different
arrangement exists. To be eligible for a pension they need
to serve only ten successive years, and the two " grateful "
years are not required of them. The amount of their pensions
was formerly regulated by that of their salaries, but of late
years another plan has been adopted. By this, the pensioners
are divided into two classes. The first of these, consisting of
persons whose salary was of 1000 rubles or less, receive pen-
sions of 1000 rubles ; all whose salary was above 1000, receive
THEATRES. 125
a pension of 2000 rubles, which is the highest given. This
sweeping arrangement led to some odd results, which fortu-
nately, however, were to nobody's disadvantage. Thus there
was an instance of a member of the orchestra, whose salary
was only 500 rubles, obtaining a pension of 1000 at the ex-
piration of his ten years' service ; twice as much, that is to say,
for doing nothing, as he had received for working. Foreigners
who obtain these pensions are at liberty to go and spend them
where they please, and after their death they are continued
to their wives and children. Lately, however, the term of
service after which a foreigner may claim a pension, has been
increased from ten to fifteen years.
The other institution to which I referred at the commence-
ment of this chapter, is the Theatrical School, and a most
remarkable institution it is. Founded originally on the model
of the Conservatory at Paris, it is far more comprehensive
and complete. I am unacquainted with the manner in which
admission is obtained. It may depend on the personal recom-
mendations of the children, or on the interest that can be
made for them. All that I know is that, once admitted, every
facility and advantage is afforded that may be expected to
conduct the pupils to success and fame. They are lodged in
a palatial edifice, which also includes the director's dwelling,
his ofiices, the counting-house, theatrical library and wardrobe.
Here, as in all the imperial schools, the most ample provision
is made for the material and intellectual wants of the scho-
lars of both sexes. The direction given to their studies is
of course chiefly artistical. Besides the instruction usually
imparted at schools, they have the benefit of the very best
teachers of declamation, music, singing, dancing, rhetoric,
drawing, &c. On the recommendation of Countess Rossi,
General Gedeonoff sent to Vienna, in the year 1840, for that
lady's former instructress, IMadame Czecca, and installed her
as chief of the singing department, with a salary of 4000
126 PICTURES TEOM ST. PETERSBURG.
rubles. For St. Petersburg this appears rather poor pay.
But it was the least part of the value of the appointment.
The teacher of the most renowned of Germany's sweet singers
was appointed to give lessons to the Grand-ducliesses Olga and
Alexandra, as well as to the daughter of the Grand-duke
Michael. She became the rage at St. Petersburg ; the highest
of the Russian aristocracy were eager to have their daughters
instructed by her who had taught Sontag; her lessons were
sought at extravagant prices, and she was overwhelmed with
rich presents. Without reckoning these last, Madame Czecca's
yearly income was not less than 20,000 rubles banco. This
was rather a different figure from that which her talent had
achieved for her in Germany ; at Leipzig, for instance,
where, under the splendid management of counsellor Kiistner,
she received 90Z. sterling per annum as music mistress ;
or in Vienna, where the highest nobility think themselves
extremely generous if they pay for the highest class of in-
struction in singing and music at the rate of two florins a
lesson. At St. Petersburg Madame Czecca never gave a
lesson at her own house under fifteen or twenty rubles ; or
under twenty-five to thirty rubles if she went out to give it.
Once she went to the house of the Countess Scheremetiew
rather after the appointed time, and pleaded, by way of
apology, that owing to the very bad weather she had had to
wait for a hackney coach. Upon the day fixed for the next
lesson an elegant carriage went to fetch her, and when it had
taken her home again, the coachman begged to know w^here
he should put it up. Two lines from the Countess Schere-
metiew begged her kind acceptance of " this little present."
HENRIETTA SONTAG. 127
CHAP. XVI.
' HENRIETTA SONTAG.*
Let not every singing mistress, however great her ability,
anticipate such good fortune at St. Petersburg as that which
Madame Czecca met with. She was indebted for her favourable
reception to the gratitude of the amiable ambassadress, her
former pupil, who not only recommended her, but sang at a
public concert for her benefit. This would have been nothing
for Mademoiselle Sontag ; for the Countess Rossi, in the midst
of the high Russian aristocracy, and of their haughty prej udices,
it was an incredible deal. The concert was the most brilliant
of the season, and its net proceeds were 14,000 rubles.
The day after the concert, Madame Czecca showed the
Countess the cash account of its results.
" Ah! Henriette," said she, " what have you done for me !"
"For you?" cried the Countess, and threw herself, sobbing
aloud, into her arms. " For you ? no, for myself ! Ah ! once
more, after many years, have I enjoyed an hour of the purest
and most complete happiness. Providence has done every-
thing for me ; has given me rank, riches, reputation, the love of
* English readers will be apt to smile at the thoroughly German style and
sentiment of this chapter, which I at first thought of omitting, as wliolly
irrelevant to the subject of the book, but afterwards decided literally to
translate, (as literally, at least, as its complicated and exaggerated phrase-
ology would permit), that it might not be said that Mr. Jerrmann's really
interesting volume had been given to the English public in a mutilated form.
For the same reason, I have retained the preceding chapter, on theatricals,
portions of which address themselves m.ore especially to actors and dramatic
dilettanti than to general readers. It is hard to say from what reporter IMr.
Jen'mann obtained his very minute and circumstantial account of Madame
Sontag's rhapsodical conversation with Madame Czecca and affecting in-
terview with the Armenian, or how far we are indebted to his imagination
for tlic high-flown dialogue of this green-room pastoral. — T.
128 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
a man whom I adore, the possession of hopeful and charming
children : and yet, dear Czecca, how shall I explain to you ? —
But you will divine my feelings : the element of my existence
is wanting. The sight of a theatre saddens me ; — the triumph
of a singer humbles me; — the sound of the organ, which sum-
mons others to devotion, drives me from the sanctuary. I am
a fallen priestess, who has broken her vow. Art, which I have
betrayed, now spurns me, and her angry spirit follows me like
an avenging specti'e."
Bathed in tears, she sank upon the sofa.
"But Hetty," said Madame Czecca, trying to console her,
" you are still an artist now as ever, and an artist you ever
must be. You still practise your art, and if the circle you now
enchant is but a small one, on the other hand, it is so much the
more select. The admiration of princely saloons may well com-
pensate you for the applause of crowded theatres."
"No, no, no !" exclaimed the Countess, spi-inging quickly up,
"nothing can compensate the artist for abandoning her vocation ;
— nothing, nothing in the wide world ! They praise, and flatter,
and worship me ! "What care I for all that ? Can they do
otherwise? They are all friends and acquaintances of my
husband — our daily circle. I am still young, not uglj-, cour-
teous to every one. People are grateful for the momentary
pastime I procure them. Perhaps, too, they are glad of oppor-
tunities to indemnify the singer for an* occasional moment's
oblivion of the Countess. But think, Czecca, of the stage with
its heavenly illusions ! the sacred fervour which thrills us on
the curtain's rising ! the passionate anxiety which impels us,
and the timidity which holds us back ; the feverish ecstasy that
throbs in all our veins ! Such must be the hero's emotion when
he plunges, eager for the fray, into the battle's whirl, confident
of victory, and yet full of anxious anticipations. And then the
public ! — that public over each individual member of v.'hich our
knowledge as artists elevates us ; but which, collectively, is the
HENRIETTA SONTAG. 129
respectable tribunal whose verdict we tremblingly await; — you
well know, my friend, how often we bitterly censure its ca-
prices, how often we laugh amongst ourselves at its mistaken
judgments ; and yet, yet, it is this public, this combination of
education and ignorance, of knowledge and stupidity, of taste
and rudeness — this motley mass it is, which, for money, say
for a single paltry coin, has purchased the right to be amused
by us, and to avenge on our honour a disappointed expectation.
To curb that wild power, and lead it away captive ; to unite
that vast assemblage, without distinction of rank or refinement,
in one emotion of delight, and to make it weep or laugh at
will ; to transmit to it the sacred fire of inspiration that glows
in our own breast, to captivate it by the power of harmony,
by the omnipotence of art: that is sublime, divine, — that
elevates the artist above the earth, above ordinary existence.
Oh, Czecca, Czecca I once more let me befool Bartholo, once
more let me fall beneath Othello's dagger, amidst the echoes of
Rossini's heavenly music, and no complaint shall again escape
me : I then shall be content ; for then I shall once again have
lived."
She sank, sobbing, upon the sofa. A servant entered and
announced a stranger, who earnestly insisted to speak with the
Countess. A denial had no other result than to produce an
urgent repetition of the request.
" Impossible ! " cried the Countess ; " I can see no one, thus
agitated, and with my eyes red from weeping."
" Never mind that," said Madame Czecca, "you are not the
less handsome ; and perhaps it is some unfortunate person
whom you can assist."
The last argument prevailed. Madame Czecca left the room,
and the stranger was shown in.
He was a tall figure, in Armenian costume. His grey beard
flowed down to his girdle ; his large sparkling eyes were ardent
and expressive. For a few moments he stood in silent contem-
I
130 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
plation of the Countess ; and only on her repeated inquiry of
the motive of his visit, did he seem to collect his thoughts ;
and then, in a somewhat unconnected manner, explained his
errand.
" I am a merchant from Charkow," he said, " and my life is
entirely engrossed by my business and my family. Beyond
those, I have only one passion, namely, for music and song.
The great fame which the Countess formerly enjoyed in the
artistical world, reached even to our remote town, and my most
ardent wish has ever been to have one opportunity of hearing
and admiring her. Your retirement from the stage seemed to
have frustrated this wish for ever, when suddenly we learned
that, out of gratitude to your former teacher, you had resolved
once more to appear before the public, and sing at her concert.
Unable to resist my desire to hear you, I left business, wife,
and children, and hastened hither. I arrived yesterday, and
had no sooner alighted than I sent for tickets. It was in
vain ; at no price was one to be obtained. Countess, I cannot
return home without hearing you. You are so good : yester-
day, for love of a friend, you sang in public ; make an old man
happy, and rejoice his heart with half a verse of a song ; I shall
then have heard you, and shall not have made this long journey
in vain."
As the dewdrops of night are absorbed by the bright rays of
the morning sun, so did the last traces of tears disappear fz*om
the smiling countenance of the charming woman. With that
amiable grace which is peculiarly her own, she drew an arm-
chair near the piano for the old man, and seating herself at the
instrument, abandoned herself to the inspirations of her genius.
Her rosy fingers flew over the keys, — the prelude echoed
through the spacious saloon ; the Countess had disappeared — ■
Henrietta Sontag was herself again ; or, rather, she was Desde-
mona in person.
The song was at an end : the musician, transported for the
CONCERTS. 131
moment into higher regions, returned gradually to earth, and
to consciousness. She looked round at her audience. The old
Armenian was upon his knees beside her, pressing the folds of
her dress to his brow. After the pause which followed the
song, he raised his countenance ; its expression was of indescri-
bable delight — mingled, however, with a trace of sadness. He
would have risen, would have spoken ; but could not. The
singer's little hand came to his assistance. He pressed it con-
vulsively to his lips, rose to his feet, and, in so doing, slipped
a costly diamond ring from his finger to hers. Then he tottered
to the door. There he stopped, turned round, and fixed a long
and penetrating gaze upoa the singer. " Alas ! " he exclaimed,
in tones of deepest melancholy, " how great the pity ! " And,
with the last word upon his lips, he disappeared.
Henrietta Sontag returned to her piano : she would have
continued singing, but her voice failed her. Deeply aifected,
she rested her head upon the music-stand, and, in mournful
accents, repeated the Armenian's words. " Yes," she said, aloud,
"the pity is great indeed." And, sadly pondering, she sank
upon the sofa.*
CHAP. XVII.
CONCERTS.
Although I have already described tlie various public amuse-
ments of St. Petersburg, I now return to the subject, in order to
supply ampler details of one of the most prominent and popular
*' Years after these lines were first published, ne^vs readied us of the
brilliant triumph which, in London, had been achieved bj art over social
prejudices. Genius had cast off the cramping fetters of convenance. Hen-
rietta Sontag was again enchanting the public. Let Gennany be proud of
its daughter Note hy the German Editor.
1 2
132 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
amongst them, namely, concerts. During the greater part of
the year these are completely tabooed. Throughout the whole
winter concerts are things almost unheard of, until Lent ar-
rives. During the seven weeks' fast their reign continues — a
reign which is absolute in proportion to its brevity. The
Petersburgers so gorge themselves at the musical banquet, that
they are sick of concerts for the rest of the year. When Lent
comes, the theatres are closed, dancing-music is forbidden, and
concerts have undisputed possession of the field. Tliere are
often half a dozen in a day. They begin at noon and last till
an advanced hour of the night. Everybody goes to them every
day, and often to two or three in one day. In spite of their
seeming excess, .they are always more or less well attended.
This is partly accounted for by the circumstance that, at the
season in question, a perfect army of virtuosi from all parts of
Europe throng to the Russian capital. These professors usually
make their appearance there a few weeks before Lent, provided
with recommendations to the principal dilettanti, get introduced
into musical circles, where they give proof of their talents, and
so win patronage preparatory to tlieir public performances.
The saloons of Counts Wilhorsky and Lwoff afford them abun-
dant opportunities for this, and a musician of real talent may
be sure by this means of obtaining at St. Petersburg due
appreciation and success.
Mere ordinary success, however, is no success at all in the
Russian capital. The delicate considerateness of the more
distinguished portion of the public, leads them to applaud even
mediocrity, which, however, is again forgotten before they visit
the next concert. But to obtain a real success, to cause a
sensation, is difficult in St. Petersburg, and only to be achieved
by talent of the very first order. The Countess Rossi had a
triumph of this kind, but we cannot estimate her success by the
usual scale applied to professional performers ; the circle in
which she moved separated her from that class, and it would
CONCERTS. 133
have been difficult for the keenest observer to determine the
exact degree of influence which the Countess exercised upon
the singer. Presently another musical celebrity appeared at
the horizon. In January, 1842, the cry, "He comes!" sud-
denly resounded through St. Petersburg. Nobody asked,
" Who comes ? " The pronoun was sufficiently significant ;
all knew whom to expect. The whole city waited in excited
anticipation. The mode of reception had its difficulties. Should
the whole of the musicians in St. Petersburg go out in a body
to meet him ? This was the first idea. But would not the
Dorpat University oppose this ? He was a graduate. And
would not the army put in its claim? For the hero of the
piano was also a man of the sword ; had received a sabre of
honour as a gift from his countrymen, the Magyars, and had
pledged himself, when returning thanks for it, to draw, in the
day of need, for the freedom of Hungary. Finally, the youth
of St. Petersburg would not be behindhand with that of Berlin,
and 2000 young men volunteered to form relays and draw his
carriage from Narva to the capital. Count Wilhorsky sent a
courier to meet him, and to offier him quarters at his hotel, but
the virtuoso declined, deprecated any ceremonious reception, and
excused himself by declaring his addiction to seclusion and to the
society of the Muse. An express came to engage apartments
for him at the Hotel Coulon ; for three whole days the streets
leading to it were blocked up by the concourse of people. At
last the sound of a post-horn was heard ; its melodious notes
were surely blown by the postilion who drove Liszt. The four
horses rattled round the corner of the Newsky, and were pulled
up in front of the Hotel Coulon. A servant sprang from the
box and pulled down the steps ; a young man stepped, smiling,
out of the carriage ; bis fur cloak concealed his features, but the
long hair that waved over his shoulders, and the long fingers
that protruded from his sleeves, betrayed his identity. " It is
he I " was the cry that resounded through the streets, along the
134 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
Newsky to the Morskoy, and as far as the Admiralty. Aristo-
cratic equipages come rolling up, the fashionable world begins
to crowd the antechamber, but speedily again evacuate it with
long faces and disappointed mien. It was not the great man ;
it was only Signer Pantaleone, Liszt's good secretary and bad
singer, who had come on in front, as quartermaster, to take up
the apartments and play St. Petersburg a little trick. The
modest artist made his quiet entrance after midnight in another
carriage and four, attended by his agent, valet-de-chambre,
servant, and chasseur.
The day of days arrived. Liszt gave bis first concert at the
Nobles' Club. The Emperor, the whole Court, the highest
nobility, all the artistical notabilities of the capital, a select
circle of ladies, adorned the room, every nook and corner of
which was crowded. The receipts amounted to 20,000 rubles
banco, and the delight and applause were equivalent to twenty
times as much. Liszt passes for a genius, and, by all the
Muses ! a genius he is ; but the great public cannot appreciate
him at his full value, which is not ascertainable at the price of
a ticket. To know what Liszt's genius really is, to appreciate
it in its full and true extent, one must have the opportunity I
have enjoyed of hearing him without seeming to listen — sitting
in a sopha-corner in his room, helping one's self out of his
travelling cigar store, and turning over the leaves of a news-
paper, whilst Liszt, heedless of the barbarian who can read the
" Debats" whilst he plays, gives himself up to -his inspirations,
plays without affectation or coquetry, plunges into an ocean of
sounds expressive of every gradation of the passions, and seems
alternately to soar upon celestial wings, and to descend into the
depths of an inferno. Then is Liszt magnificent, then is he
sublime — then is he equal to his reputation. But before the
public ! no ! then his better self struggles against his bad habits
— conquering, but not completely mastering them. Would that
Liszt could follow the advice which Herder somewhere gives
CONCERTS. 135
to actors, — " to forget that they are before the public." Could
Liszt attain to this degree of self-control, the public would
recognise his genius as I recognised it, and their admiration
would be immeasurably purer and more profound.
Liszt gave at least a dozen concerts during his stay at
St. Petersburg ; the enthusiasm was always the same, and his
receipts were enormous : only the smaller portion of these,
however, remained in his purse ; with princely generosity, he
loaded friends and countrymen with presents of money and
money's worth ; his liberality and munificence were proverbial,
and served not a little to heighten his fame. True it is that he
is generous to an excess ; but — truth before all things ! — Liszt
certainly throws away his money by handfuls, but (without
disparagement to his generosity) he throws it, by preference,
ivhere it is likely to jingle. To do good by stealth is less in
his way.
Covered with laurels, the great pianist left St. Petersburg.
His name and fame would have remained indelibly impressed
on the minds of the living generation — if he had never re-
turned thither. Better had it been for his reputation had he
played a sonata of Beethoven's the less, and applied the time
thus economized to the perusal of an old German comedy.
Amongst much rubbish, such old plays sometimes contain valu-
able truths. One of these is spoken by the gipsy beldam in
Preziosa, when she says, —
" Wird man wo gut aufgenommen
Soil man ja nicht wiederkommen." *
The proverb holds good all the world over, but nowhere so
much so as in St. Petersburg. That capital is a perfect shark
in the matter of devouring reputations. Its applause resembles
its seasons ; in a single night one passes from summer's ardent
* " When once one has been well received in a place, it is wise not to
return tihither."
136 PICTURES FROM ST. PETERSBURG.
heat to winter's icy cold, and a snow shroud covers the mea-
dows which yesterday bloomed in the sunbeams. The Russian
lives fast, and as he uses his life quickl}', so he uses all things
quickly which cheer and embellish existence.
A year after his first visit, Liszt returned to St. Petersburg,
His genius had been true to him in the interval ; his artistic
skill was, if anything, still more perfect than the year before ;
in no respect had he fallen off, and yet, for some inexplicable
reason, the public cared not for him. Ce lietait qtCun artiste
de plus.
to
*-3
t3:
3
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