Russia

by Donald Mackenzie Wallace -- 1905

Table of Contents    Back to Wallace, Chapter 17

CHAPTER I -- TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA
Railways--State Interference--River Communications--Russian "Grand Tour"--The Volga--Kazan--Zhigulinskiya Gori--Finns and Tartars--The Don--Difficulties of Navigation--Discomforts--Rats--Hotels and Their Peculiar Customs--Roads--Hibernian Phraseology Explained--Bridges--Posting--A Tarantass--Requisites for Travelling--Travelling in Winter--Frostbitten--Disagreeable Episodes--Scene at a Post-Station.

CHAPTER II -- IN THE NORTHERN FORESTS
Bird's-eye View of Russia--The Northern Forests--Purpose of my Journey--Negotiations--The Road--A Village--A Peasant's House--Vapour-Baths--Curious Custom--Arrival.

CHAPTER III -- VOLUNTARY EXILE
Ivanofka--History of the Place--The Steward of the Estate--Slav and Teutonic Natures--A German's View of the Emancipation--Justices of the Peace--New School of Morals--The Russian Language--Linguistic Talent of the Russians--My Teacher--A Big Dose of Current History.

CHAPTER IV -- THE VILLAGE PRIEST
Priests' Names--Clerical Marriages--The White and the Black Clergy--Why the People do not Respect the Parish Priests--History of the White Clergy--The Parish Priest and the Protestant Pastor--In What Sense the Russian People are Religious--Icons--The Clergy and Popular Education--Ecclesiastical Reform--Premonitory Symptoms of Change--Two Typical Specimens of the Parochial Clergy of the Present Day.

CHAPTER V -- A MEDICAL CONSULTATION
Unexpected Illness--A Village Doctor--Siberian Plague--My Studies--Russian Historians--A Russian Imitator of Dickens--A ci-devant Domestic Serf--Medicine and Witchcraft--A Remnant of Paganism--Credulity of the Peasantry--Absurd Rumours--A Mysterious Visit from St. Barbara--Cholera on Board a Steamer--Hospitals--Lunatic Asylums--Amongst Maniacs.

CHAPTER VI -- A PEASANT FAMILY OF THE OLD TYPE
Ivan Petroff--His Past Life--Co-operative Associations--Constitution of a Peasant's Household--Predominance of Economic Conceptions over those of Blood-relationship--Peasant Marriages--Advantages of Living in Large Families--Its Defects--Family Disruptions and their Consequences.

CHAPTER VII -- THE PEASANTRY OF THE NORTH
Communal Land--System of Agriculture--Parish Fetes--Fasting--Winter Occupations--Yearly Migrations--Domestic Industries--Influence of Capital and Wholesale Enterprise--The State Peasants--Serf-dues--Buckle's "History of Civilisation"--A precocious Yamstchik--"People Who Play Pranks"--A Midnight Alarm--The Far North.

CHAPTER VIII -- THE MIR, OR VILLAGE COMMUNITY
Social and Political Importance of the Mir--The Mir and the Family Compared--Theory of the Communal System--Practical Deviations from the Theory--The Mir a Good Specimen of Constitutional Government of the Extreme Democratic Type--The Village Assembly--Female Members--The Elections--Distribution of the Communal Land.

CHAPTER IX -- HOW THE COMMUNE HAS BEEN PRESERVED, AND WHAT IT IS TO EFFECT IN THE FUTURE
Sweeping Reforms after the Crimean War--Protest Against the Laissez Faire Principle--Fear of the Proletariat--English and Russian Methods of Legislation Contrasted--Sanguine Expectations--Evil Consequences of the Communal System--The Commune of the Future--Proletariat of the Towns--The Present State of Things Merely Temporary.

CHAPTER X -- FINNISH AND TARTAR VILLAGES
A Finnish Tribe--Finnish Villages--Various Stages of Russification--Finnish Women--Finnish Religions--Method of "Laying" Ghosts--Curious Mixture of Christianity and Paganism--Conversion of the Finns--A Tartar Village--A Russian Peasant's Conception of Mahometanism--A Mahometan's View of Christianity--Propaganda--The Russian Colonist--Migrations of Peoples During the Dark Ages.

CHAPTER XI -- LORD NOVGOROD THE GREAT
Departure from Ivanofka and Arrival at Novgorod--The Eastern Half of the Town--The Kremlin--An Old Legend--The Armed Men of Rus--The Northmen--Popular Liberty in Novgorod--The Prince and the Popular Assembly--Civil Dissensions and Faction-fights-- The Commercial Republic Conquered by the Muscovite Tsars--Ivan the Terrible--Present Condition of the Town--Provincial Society--Card-playing--Periodicals--"Eternal Stillness."

CHAPTER XII -- THE TOWNS AND THE MERCANTILE CLASSES
General Character of Russian Towns--Scarcity of Towns in Russia--Why the Urban Element in the Population is so Small--History of Russian Municipal Institutions--Unsuccessful Efforts to Create a Tiers-etat--Merchants, Burghers, and Artisans--Town Council--A Rich Merchant--His House--His Love of Ostentation--His Conception of Aristocracy--Official Decorations--Ignorance and Dishonesty of the Commercial Classes--Symptoms of Change.

CHAPTER XIII -- THE PASTORAL TRIBES OF THE STEPPE
A Journey to the Steppe Region of the Southeast--The Volga--Town and Province of Samara--Farther Eastward--Appearance of the Villages--Characteristic Incident--Peasant Mendacity--Explanation of the Phenomenon--I Awake in Asia--A Bashkir Aoul--Diner la Tartare--Kumyss--A Bashkir Troubadour--Honest Mehemet Zian--Actual Economic Condition of the Bashkirs Throws Light on a Well-known Philosophical Theory--Why a Pastoral Race Adopts Agriculture--The Genuine Steppe--The Kirghiz--Letter from Genghis Khan--The Kalmyks--Nogai Tartars--Struggle between Nomadic Hordes and Agricultural Colonists.

CHAPTER XIV -- THE MONGOL DOMINATION
The Conquest--Genghis Khan and his People--Creation and Rapid Disintegration of the Mongol Empire--The Golden Horde--The Real Character of the Mongol Domination--Religious Toleration--Mongol System of Government--Grand Princes--The Princes of Moscow--Influence of the Mongol Domination--Practical Importance of the Subject.

CHAPTER XV -- THE COSSACKS
Lawlessness on the Steppe--Slave-markets of the Crimea--The Military Cordon and the Free Cossacks--The Zaporovian Commonwealth Compared with Sparta and with the Mediaeval Military Orders--The Cossacks of the Don, of the Volga, and of the Ural--Border Warfare--The Modern Cossacks--Land Tenure among the Cossacks of the Don--The Transition from Pastoral to Agriculture Life--"Universal Law" of Social Development--Communal versus Private Property--Flogging as a Means of Land-registration.

CHAPTER XVI -- FOREIGN COLONISTS ON THE STEPPE
The Steppe--Variety of Races, Languages, and Religions--The German Colonists--In What Sense the Russians are an Imitative People--The Mennonites--Climate and Arboriculture--Bulgarian Colonists--Tartar-Speaking Greeks--Jewish Agriculturists--Russification--A Circassian Scotchman--Numerical Strength of the Foreign Element.

CHAPTER XVII -- AMONG THE HERETICS
The Molokanye--My Method of Investigation--Alexandrof-Hai--An Unexpected Theological Discussion--Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Molokanye--Moral Supervision and Mutual Assistance--History of the Sect--A False Prophet--Utilitarian Christianity--Classification of the Fantastic Sects--The "Khlysti"--Policy of the Government towards Sectarianism--Two Kinds of Heresy--Probable Future of the Heretical Sects--Political Disaffection.

CHAPTER XVIII -- THE DISSENTERS
Dissenters not to be Confounded with Heretics--Extreme Importance Attached to Ritual Observances--The Raskol, or Great Schism in the Seventeenth Century--Antichrist Appears!--Policy of Peter the Great and Catherine II.--Present Ingenious Method of Securing Religious Toleration--Internal Development of the Raskol--Schism among the Schismatics--The Old Ritualists--The Priestless People--Cooling of the Fanatical Enthusiasm and Formation of New Sects--Recent Policy of the Government towards the Sectarians--Numerical Force and Political Significance of Sectarianism.

CHAPTER XIX -- CHURCH AND STATE
The Russian Orthodox Church--Russia Outside of the Mediaeval Papal Commonwealth--Influence of the Greek Church--Ecclesiastical History of Russia--Relations between Church and State--Eastern Orthodoxy and the Russian National Church--The Synod--Ecclesiastical Grumbling--Local Ecclesiastical Administration--The Black Clergy and the Monasteries--The Character of the Eastern Church Reflected in the History of Religious Art--Practical Consequences--The Union Scheme.

CHAPTER XX -- THE NOBLESSE
The Nobles In Early Times--The Mongol Domination--The Tsardom of Muscovy--Family Dignity--Reforms of Peter the Great--The Nobles Adopt West-European Conceptions--Abolition of Obligatory Service--Influence of Catherine II.--The Russian Dvoryanstvo Compared with the French Noblesse and the English Aristocracy--Russian Titles--Probable Future of the Russian Noblesse.

CHAPTER XXI -- LANDED PROPRIETORS OF THE OLD SCHOOL
Russian Hospitality--A Country-House--Its Owner Described--His Life, Past and Present--Winter Evenings--Books---Connection with the Outer World--The Crimean War and the Emancipation--A Drunken, Dissolute Proprietor--An Old General and his Wife--"Name Days"--A Legendary Monster--A Retired Judge--A Clever Scribe--Social Leniency--Cause of Demoralisation.

CHAPTER XXII -- PROPRIETORS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL
A Russian Petit Maitre--His House and Surroundings--Abortive Attempts to Improve Agriculture and the Condition of the Serfs--A Comparison--A 'Liberal" Tchinovnik--His Idea of Progress--A Justice of the Peace--His Opinion of Russian Literature, Tchinovniks, and Petits Maitres--His Supposed and Real Character--An Extreme Radical--Disorders in the Universities--Administrative Procedure--Russia's Capacity for Accomplishing Political and Social Evolutions--A Court Dignitary in his Country House.

CHAPTER XXIII -- SOCIAL CLASSES
Do Social Classes or Castes Exist in Russia?--Well-marked Social Types--Classes Recognised by the Legislation and the Official Statistics--Origin and Gradual Formation of these Classes--Peculiarity in the Historical Development of Russia--Political Life and Political Parties.

CHAPTER XXIV -- THE IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION AND THE OFFICIALS
The Officials in Norgorod Assist Me in My Studies--The Modern Imperial Administration Created by Peter the Great, and Developed by his Successors--A Slavophil's View of the Administration--The Administration Briefly Described--The Tchinovniks, or Officials--Official Titles, and Their Real Significance--What the Administration Has Done for Russia in the Past--Its Character Determined by the Peculiar Relation between the Government and the People--Its Radical Vices--Bureaucratic Remedies--Complicated Formal Procedure--The Gendarmerie: My Personal Relations with this Branch of the Administration; Arrest and Release--A Strong, Healthy Public Opinion the Only Effectual Remedy for Bad Administration.

CHAPTER XXV -- MOSCOW AND THE SLAVOPHILS
Two Ancient Cities--Kief Not a Good Point for Studying Old Russian National Life--Great Russians and Little Russians--Moscow--Easter Eve in the Kremlin--Curious Custom--Anecdote of the Emperor Nicholas--Domiciliary Visits of the Iberian Madonna--The Streets of Moscow--Recent Changes in the Character of the City--Vulgar Conception of the Slavophils--Opinion Founded on Personal Acquaintance--Slavophil Sentiment a Century Ago--Origin and Development of the Slavophil Doctrine--Slavophilism Essentially Muscovite--The Panslavist Element--The Slavophils and the Emancipation.

CHAPTER XXVI -- ST. PETERSBURG AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE
St. Petersburg and Berlin--Big Houses--The "Lions"--Peter the Great--His Aims and Policy--The German Regime--Nationalist Reaction--French Influence--Consequent Intellectual Sterility--Influence of the Sentimental School--Hostility to Foreign Influences--A New Period of Literary Importation--Secret Societies--The Catastrophe--The Age of Nicholas--A Terrible War on Parnassus--Decline of Romanticism and Transcendentalism--Gogol--The Revolutionary Agitation of 1848--New Reaction--Conclusion.

CHAPTER XXVII -- THE CRIMEAN WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
The Emperor Nicholas and his System--The Men with Aspirations and the Apathetically Contented--National Humiliation--Popular Discontent and the Manuscript Literature--Death of Nicholas--Alexander II.--New Spirit--Reform Enthusiasm--Change in the Periodical Literature--The Kolokol--The Conservatives--The Tchinovniks--First Specific Proposals--Joint-Stock Companies--The Serf Question Comes to the Front.

CHAPTER XXVIII -- THE SERFS
The Rural Population in Ancient Times--The Peasantry in the Eighteenth Century--How Was This Change Effected?--The Common Explanation Inaccurate--Serfage the Result of Permanent Economic and Political Causes--Origin of the Adscriptio Glebae--Its Consequences--Serf Insurrection--Turning-point in the History of Serfage--Serfage in Russia and in Western Europe--State Peasants--Numbers and Geographical Distribution of the Serf Population--Serf Dues--Legal and Actual Power of the Proprietors--The Serfs' Means of Defence--Fugitives--Domestic Serfs--Strange Advertisements in the Moscow Gazette--Moral Influence of Serfage.

CHAPTER XXIX -- THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS
The Question Raised--Chief Committee--The Nobles of the Lithuanian Provinces--The Tsar's Broad Hint to the Noblesse--Enthusiasm in the Press--The Proprietors--Political Aspirations--No Opposition--The Government--Public Opinion--Fear of the Proletariat--The Provincial Committees--The Elaboration Commission--The Question Ripens--Provincial Deputies--Discontent and Demonstrations--The Manifesto--Fundamental Principles of the Law--Illusions and Disappointment of the Serfs--Arbiters of the Peace--A Characteristic Incident--Redemption--Who Effected the Emancipation?

CHAPTER XXX -- THE LANDED PROPRIETORS SINCE THE EMANCIPATION
Two Opposite Opinions--Difficulties of Investigation--The Problem Simplified--Direct and Indirect Compensation--The Direct Compensation Inadequate--What the Proprietors Have Done with the Remainder of Their Estates--Immediate Moral Effect of the Abolition of Serfage--The Economic Problem--The Ideal Solution and the Difficulty of Realising It--More Primitive Arrangements--The Northern Agricultural Zone--The Black-earth Zone--The Labour Difficulty--The Impoverishment of the Noblesse Not a New Phenomenon--Mortgaging of Estates--Gradual Expropriation of the Noblesse-Rapid Increase in the Production and Export of Grain--How Far this Has Benefited the Landed Proprietors.

CHAPTER XXXI -- THE EMANCIPATED PEASANTRY
The Effects of Liberty--Difficulty of Obtaining Accurate Information--Pessimist Testimony of the Proprietors--Vague Replies of the Peasants--My Conclusions in 1877--Necessity of Revising Them--My Investigations Renewed in 1903--Recent Researches by Native Political Economists--Peasant Impoverishment Universally Recognised--Various Explanations Suggested--Demoralisation of the Common People--Peasant Self-government--Communal System of Land Tenure--Heavy Taxation--Disruption of Peasant Families--Natural Increase of Population--Remedies Proposed--Migration--Reclamation of Waste Land--Land-purchase by Peasantry--Manufacturing Industry--Improvement of Agricultural Methods--Indications of Progress.

CHAPTER XXXII -- THE ZEMSTVO AND THE LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
Necessity of Reorganising the Provincial Administration--Zemstvo Created in 1864--My First Acquaintance with the Institution--District and Provincial Assemblies--The Leading Members--Great Expectations Created by the Institution--These Expectations Not Realised--Suspicions and Hostility of the Bureaucracy--Zemstvo Brought More Under Control of the Centralised Administration--What It Has Really Done--Why It Has Not Done More---Rapid Increase of the Rates--How Far the Expenditure Is Judicious--Why the Impoverishment of the Peasantry Was Neglected--Unpractical, Pedantic Spirit--Evil Consequences--Chinese and Russian Formalism--Local Self-Government of Russia Contrasted with That of England--Zemstvo Better than Its Predecessors--Its Future.

CHAPTER XXXIII -- THE NEW LAW COURTS
Judicial Procedure in the Olden Times--Defects and Abuses--Radical Reform--The New System--Justices of the Peace and Monthly Sessions--The Regular Tribunals--Court of Revision--Modification of the Original Plan--How Does the System Work?--Rapid Acclimatisation--The Bench--The Jury--Acquittal of Criminals Who Confess Their Crimes--Peasants, Merchants, and Nobles as Jurymen--Independence and Political Significance of the New Courts.

CHAPTER XXXIV -- REVOLUTIONARY NIHILISM AND THE REACTION
The Reform-enthusiasm Becomes Unpractical and Culminates in Nihilism--Nihilism, the Distorted Reflection of Academic Western Socialism--Russia Well Prepared for Reception of Ultra-Socialist Virus--Social Reorganisation According to Latest Results of Science--Positivist Theory--Leniency of Press-censure--Chief Representatives of New Movement--Government Becomes Alarmed--Repressive Measures--Reaction in the Public--The Term Nihilist Invented--The Nihilist and His Theory--Further Repressive Measures--Attitude of Landed Proprietors--Foundation of a Liberal Party--Liberalism Checked by Polish Insurrection--Practical Reform Continued--An Attempt at Regicide Forms a Turning-point of Government's Policy--Change in Educational System--Decline of Nihilism.

CHAPTER XXXV -- SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA, REVOLUTIONARY AGITATION, AND TERRORISM
Closer Relations with Western Socialism--Attempts to Influence the Masses--Bakunin and Lavroff--"Going in among the People"--The Missionaries of Revolutionary Socialism--Distinction between Propaganda and Agitation--Revolutionary Pamphlets for the Common People--Aims and Motives of the Propagandists--Failure of Propaganda--Energetic Repression--Fruitless Attempts at Agitation--Proposal to Combine with Liberals--Genesis of Terrorism--My Personal Relations with the Revolutionists--Shadowers and Shadowed--A Series of Terrorist Crimes--A Revolutionist Congress--Unsuccessful Attempts to Assassinate the Tsar--Ineffectual Attempt at Conciliation by Loris Melikof--Assassination of Alexander II.--The Executive Committee Shows Itself Unpractical--Widespread Indignation and Severe Repression--Temporary Collapse of the Revolutionary Movement--A New Revolutionary Movement in Sight.

CHAPTER XXXVI -- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND THE PROLETARIAT
Russia till Lately a Peasant Empire--Early Efforts to Introduce Arts and Crafts--Peter the Great and His Successors--Manufacturing Industry Long Remains an Exotic--The Cotton Industry--The Reforms of Alexander II.--Protectionists and Free Trade--Progress under High Tariffs--M. Witte's Policy--How Capital Was Obtained--Increase of Exports--Foreign Firms Cross the Customs Frontier--Rapid Development of Iron Industry--A Commercial Crisis--M. Witte's Position Undermined by Agrarians and Doctrinaires--M. Plehve a Formidable Opponent--His Apprehensions of Revolution--Fall of M. Witte--The Industrial Proletariat

CHAPTER XXXVII -- THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITS LATEST PHASE
Influence of Capitalism and Proletariat on the Revolutionary Movement--What is to be Done?--Reply of Plekhanof--A New Departure--Karl Marx's Theories Applied to Russia--Beginnings of a Social Democratic Movement--The Labour Troubles of 1894-96 in St. Petersburg--The Social Democrats' Plan of Campaign--Schism in the Party--Trade-unionism and Political Agitation--The Labour Troubles of 1902--How the Revolutionary Groups are Differentiated from Each Other--Social Democracy and Constitutionalism--Terrorism--The Socialist Revolutionaries--The Militant Organisation--Attitude of the Government--Factory Legislation--Government's Scheme for Undermining Social Democracy--Father Gapon and His Labour Association--The Great Strike in St. Petersburg--Father Gapon goes over to the Revolutionaries.

CHAPTER XXXVIII -- TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND FOREIGN POLICY
Rapid Growth of Russia--Expansive Tendency of Agricultural Peoples--The Russo-Slavonians--The Northern Forest and the Steppe--Colonisation--The Part of the Government in the Process of Expansion--Expansion towards the West--Growth of the Empire Represented in a Tabular Form--Commercial Motive for Expansion--The Expansive Force in the Future--Possibilities of Expansion in Europe--Persia, Afghanistan, and India--Trans-Siberian Railway and Weltpolitik--A Grandiose Scheme--Determined Opposition of Japan--Negotiations and War--Russia's Imprudence Explained--Conclusion.

CHAPTER XXXIX -- THE PRESENT SITUATION
Reform or Revolution?--Reigns of Alexander II. and Nicholas II.Compared and Contrasted--The Present Opposition--Various Groups--The Constitutionalists--Zemski Sobors--The Young Tsar Dispels Illusions--Liberal Frondeurs--Plehve's Repressive Policy--Discontent Increased by the War--Relaxation and Wavering under Prince Mirski--Reform Enthusiasm--The Constitutionalists Formulate their Demands--The Social Democrats--Father Gapon's Demonstration--The Socialist-Revolutionaries--The Agrarian Agitators--The Subject-Nationalities--Numerical Strength of the Various Groups--All United on One Point--Their Different Aims--Possible Solutions of the Crisis--Difficulties of Introducing Constitutional Regime--A Strong Man Wanted--Uncertainty of the Future.

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