Russian Life To-day Part 1

Russian Life To-day.

by Right Rev. Herbert Bury.

INTRODUCTION

My first inclination, when the entirely unexpected proposal of the Publishers came to me to write this book, was immediately to decline.

There are so many well-known writers on Russia, whose books are an unfailing pleasure and source of information, that it seemed to me to be nothing less than presumption to add to their number. But when I was a.s.sured that there seems to be a great desire just now for a book which, as the Publishers expressed it, "should not attempt an elaborate sketch of the country, nor any detailed description of its system of government and administration, or any exhaustive study of the Russian Church, and yet should give the _impressions_ of a sympathetic observer of some of the chief aspects of Russian Life which are likely to appeal to an English Churchman," I felt that I might venture to attempt it.

It has been given to me to get to understand thoroughly from close and intimate knowledge the commercial development of Siberia by our countrymen; and yet everywhere, both there and in Russia proper, I have to go to every place specially and primarily to give the ministrations of religion. It can be permitted to few, if any, to see those two sides of the life of a great and growing Empire at the same time. This has been my reason, therefore, for undertaking this small effort, and my object is to give, as the Publishers expressed it, "personal impressions." I hope my readers will accept this book, therefore, as an impressionist description of Russian life of to-day, of which it would have been quite impossible to keep personal experiences from forming an important part. And though I write as an English Churchman, yet I wish to speak, and I trust in no narrow spirit, to the whole religious public, that I may draw them more closely into intelligent sympathy with this great nation which has seemed to come so suddenly, unexpectedly, and intimately into our own national life and destiny--and I believe as a friend.

HERBERT BURY, _Bishop_.

RUSSIAN LIFE TO-DAY

CHAPTER I

RUSSIA'S GREAT s.p.a.cES

I will begin my opening chapter by explaining how I come to have the joy and privilege of travelling far and wide, as I have done, in the great Russian Empire. I go there as a.s.sistant Bishop to the Bishop of London, holding a commission from him as bishop in charge of Anglican work in North and Central Europe.

It may seem strange that Anglican work in that distant land should be directly connected with the Diocese of London, but the connection between them, and between all the countries of Northern and Central Europe, as far as our Church of England work is concerned, is of long standing. It dates from the reign of Charles I, and from an Order in Council which was pa.s.sed in 1633, and placed the congregations of the Church of England in _all_ foreign countries at that time under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London "as their Diocesan." It may be remembered that when the present Bishop of London went to Was.h.i.+ngton some years ago he took with him some interesting doc.u.ments which he had found in the library at Fulham Palace, and which were connected with the time when Church work in the United States looked to London for superintendence and episcopal leaders.h.i.+p. These he handed over to the custody of the Episcopal Church of America, knowing how interested that Church would be to possess them, and to keep them amongst other historical records.

The same rapid progress as that which has attended the American Church has been made in the Colonies and other parts of the world. New dioceses and provinces have been formed one after another, and in 1842 the Diocese of Gibraltar was formed, taking in the congregations of the English Church in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Roumania, and all places bordering upon the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. But the other countries of Europe, to the north and in the centre, remain still, as far as Church work goes, where that old Order in Council placed them, in the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London.

It is impossible, of course, that he should attempt to meet this responsibility himself and bear the burden of such a diocese as that of London, and so the rule has been, since 1825, to issue a commission to another bishop, who, while being an a.s.sistant, yet has to feel himself fully responsible, and in this way spare the Bishop of London as much as he possibly can.

It will therefore be understood, as I have said in my few words of introduction, that, filling such a position and having such work to superintend, and also, for many reasons to be more fully explained in succeeding pages, finding the Orthodox Church of Russia very friendly towards our own, I shall write throughout with those whom I have termed the "religious public" very clearly in my mind and sympathies. At the same time I am hoping to interest the general reader also, and therefore shall try my utmost to give a comprehensive view of Russian life as it will be found to-day by travellers on the one hand if they give themselves time and opportunity enough, and by those, on the other, who have to go and live and work in Russia.

First impressions are usually interesting to recall. Mine were immediate and extraordinarily vivid, and were all a.s.sociated with thoughts--which have gradually become convictions--of Russia's vast potentialities and future greatness.

When first I had the honour and pleasure of an audience with the Emperor of Russia--I will speak of it at greater length in a later chapter--one of the first questions he asked me was:--

"And what has most impressed you, so far, on coming, as a new experience, into my country?"

I was not prepared for the question, but answered at once and without the least hesitation--for there seemed to come into my mind even as His Majesty spoke, the vivid impression I had received--

"Russia's great s.p.a.ces!"

"Ah, yes!" he said, evidently thinking very deeply; "that is true.

Russia's _great_ s.p.a.ces--what a striking impression they must make, for the first time!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Russia's Great s.p.a.ces--Winter._]

I went on to explain that one can see great s.p.a.ces elsewhere. On the ocean when for days together no other vessel is seen; on some of the great plains in the other hemisphere; riding across the great Hungarian tableland; and even in Central France or in the Landes to the west I have felt this sense of s.p.a.ce and distance; but Russia's great flat or gently undulating expanses have always seemed to me to suggest other s.p.a.ces on beyond them still, and to give an impression of the vast and illimitable, such as I have never known elsewhere. It is under this impression of vast resources, no doubt, that so many military correspondents of our daily papers constantly speak of the Russian forces as "inexhaustible." It is the same with other things also. They suggest such marvellous possibilities.

This is the impression I would like to give at once in this my opening chapter--a sense of s.p.a.ciousness--power to expand, to develop, to open out, to make progress, to advance and grow. It is not the impression the word "Russia" usually makes upon people who know little about her inner life, and have received their ideas from those who have experienced the repressive and restrictive side of her policy and administration. But I can only give, and am glad of the opportunity, the results of my own experiences and observations; and those are embodied in my reply to the Emperor.

When I crossed the Russian frontier for the first time it was with a very quaking and apprehensive spirit. All that lay beyond was full of the mysterious and unknown, so entirely different, one felt it must be, from all one's previous experiences of life! Anything might happen, for this was Russia! "Russia" has stood so long with us in this country for the repressive and reactionary, for the grim and forbidding and restricting, that it will be difficult for many to part with those ideas, and I can hardly hope to remove impressions now deeply rooted. I can only say, however, that my own prejudices and preconceptions in the same direction disappeared, one after another, with astonis.h.i.+ng rapidity in my first year; and now my spirits rise every time I cross the frontier of that great country, and my heart warms to that great people as soon as I see their kindly and friendly faces, their interesting and picturesque houses, and catch my first sight of their beautiful churches, with the fine cupolas above them with their hanging chains, painted and gilded domes, and delicate finials glittering in the sun and outlined against a sky of blue. Russia to me presents at once a kindly, friendly atmosphere, and others feel it also; for I have, just before writing these words, laid down a copy of _The Times_ in which Mr.

Stephen Graham--no one knows the heart and soul of Russia quite as he does, I fancy--writing one of his illuminating articles on "Russia's Holy War," says "People in Russia are naturally kind. They have become even gentler since the war began." Those who enter Russia expecting the unfriendly will find, I feel sure, as we have done, exactly the opposite--nothing but kindness and courtesy. It will be the same in other experiences also if I mistake not.

One of the chief difficulties ordinary travellers or tourists expect to encounter, for instance, in Russia is that of language.

"Isn't it extraordinarily difficult to acquire, and to make yourself understood?" is an invariable question, and certainly in long journeys across country, as from Warsaw up to Riga, and from Libau on the Baltic to Moscow, and especially in my Mining Camp Mission in Siberia, I expected to have very great difficulties; but, as so often happens, they were difficulties in antic.i.p.ation rather than in reality.

Even off the beaten track in Russia any one who can travel comfortably in other European countries can travel equally satisfactorily there.

Most educated people speak French, and an ever-increasing number--for English governesses and nurses are in great request--speak English.

Great numbers of the working cla.s.s speak German, the national language, of course, of Russia's Baltic provinces, on railway trains as conductors and in restaurants as waiters, and at railway stations as porters.

Indeed, if any one is in the dining-car of a train or in the buffet or dining-room of a railway station or other public place, and has the courage to stand up and say, "Does any one here speak French?" or "Does any one here speak German?" some one ready to help and be friendly will invariably come forward.

In my first Siberian Mission, however, I found myself in a real difficulty. I had to drive across the Kirghiz Steppes from the railway at Petropavlosk, about four days and nights east of Moscow, to the Spa.s.sky Copper Mine, and the management had sent down a very reliable Kirghiz servant of theirs to be my interpreter; but I found that his only qualification for the work of interpreting was that, in addition to his own Kirghiz tongue, he could speak Russian!

For the inside of a week, travelling day and night, we had to get on as best we could together, and arrange all the business of changing horses, getting food, and paying expenses, largely by signs. Once only, and then in the dead of night when changing horses, did we encounter a German-speaking farmer from Courland or Lettland on the Baltic, and a great joy it was to him to meet some one who knew those fair parts of the Russian Empire where agricultural work brings much more encouraging results for the toil bestowed upon it than Siberia, with its terrible winter season.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Russia's Great s.p.a.ces--Summer._]

But though to acquire a knowledge of Russian for literary purposes, so as to write and compose correctly, must be most difficult, owing to the number of letters in the alphabet--forty-six as compared with our twenty-six--and the entirely different way from our own in which they are written, I do not think it is difficult to acquire a fair knowledge of the language in a comparatively short time so as to make one's self understood and get along. I find young Englishmen, going to work in Russia and beyond the Urals, very quickly come to understand what is being said, and to make known their own wishes and requirements; and in a couple of years, or sometimes less, they speak quite fluently.

It always seems to me that the Russians p.r.o.nounce their words with more syllabic distinctness than either the French or Germans. And that natural kindness and friendliness of the whole people, of which I have already written, makes them wish to be understood and to help those with whom they are speaking to grasp their meaning. This, of course, makes all the difference!

When the question of the great difficulty of the language is raised another remark nearly always follows:

"But then the Russians are such great linguists that they easily understand!" And it is usually supposed that they "easily learn other languages because their own is so difficult," though they encounter no more difficulty, probably, than any one else when talking in their own tongue in infancy. They are "great linguists" for the same reason as the Dutch--and that is because, if they wish to be in educated society or in business on any large scale, their own language will only go a very short way.

In Russia as in Holland, as I have been told in both countries, an educated household will contain a German nurse and an English governess, while French will be the rule at table. It used to be a French governess, but now the English governess is in great request everywhere in Russia and Poland; and, in the great n.o.bles' houses, there is the English tutor also--not always for the language, but to impart English ideas to the boys of the family. When I was last in Warsaw, an Oxford graduate came up at a reception and introduced himself, and told me he was with a Polish prince who had astonished him on the first morning after his arrival by saying:--

"I have engaged you as a tutor for my two boys, but it will not be necessary for you to teach them anything--that is already provided for.

I want you to be their companion, walk out with them, play games with them, and help them to grow up after the manner of English gentlemen."

There is no real difficulty, therefore, with the language, nor is there with the money of the country as soon as one realizes the value of the rouble, eight of which make nearly a pound, and that it is divided into a hundred _kopecks_, p.r.o.nounced _kopeeks_, two of which are equal to about a farthing.

And now to speak of the actual travelling. Everything in the way of communication in Russia is on a large scale and in keeping with the answer I gave to the Emperor, and which I have placed at the head of this chapter. As soon as one pa.s.ses the frontier, for instance, the travellers change into carriages adapted for a broad-gauge railway, and are at once in more commodious quarters. There is no land, I suppose, where travelling over great distances is so comfortable as in Russia for all cla.s.ses; and it is incredibly cheap, first-cla.s.s tickets costing less than third in our own country, for those using the ordinary post train, which every year becomes more comfortable and nearer to the standard of the wagon-lit. There are excellent lavatories, kept perfectly clean, where one can wash, shave, and almost have a sponge bath, for--though without the luxuries of the Trans-Siberian express--there is more room.

There is usually a restaurant-car on the long-distance trains--and practically all the trains in Russia are for long distances--and, if not, there is plenty of time to get food at the stations on the way.

Conductors will take every care and trouble to get what is necessary, and first and second-cla.s.s compartments are never overcrowded, as far as my experience goes. I believe, indeed, that not more than four people may be put into a compartment for the night, and, as the cus.h.i.+oned back of the seats can be lifted up, all the four travellers can be sure of being able to lie down. The first-cla.s.s compartments on a post train are divided into two by folding-doors, and one is allowed to buy a _platzcarte_ and so have the whole compartment to one's self. Every accommodation too is provided for lying down comfortably in the third-cla.s.s, and the travellers there are always the happiest-looking on the train.

Another consideration shown to the public is that the scale of charges falls in proportion to the distance to be traversed. The stations are specially s.p.a.cious, particularly along the routes beyond Moscow, where emigration continually goes on into the great pastoral lands of Siberia.

In the summer months the traffic is very great, and it is one of the most touching and appealing experiences I can recall to pa.s.s through one of the great waiting-halls of such a station as Samara, at night, and pick one's way amongst the sleeping families of peasants waiting to get their connection with another line, and resting in the meantime. Their little possessions are all about them, and father and mother and sons and daughters lie gathered close up together, pillowing their heads upon each other, good-looking, prettily dressed, and fast asleep--as attractive a picture as any one could wish to see.

There is a great freedom of movement everywhere in Russia, and I do not remember having seen the word _verboten_ (the German for "forbidden"), or its equivalent, in any part of a Russian or Siberian station. The rule of having three bells to announce approaching departure is a most excellent one, whether the pause is long or short, the first ringing very audibly about five minutes, the second one minute, and the third immediately before departure. If travelling long distances, the ten-minutes' stop at all large towns gives plenty of opportunity for exercise and fresh air, and the absolute certainty of hearing the bells gives a perfect sense of security that no one will be left behind. If the bell rings twice just as the train enters the station, every one knows that the stay will be short, and that it is not worth while getting out.

Some of the most resting and refres.h.i.+ng experiences I have ever had have been those of travelling day after day for some two or three thousand miles in Russia, getting one's correspondence straight, for writing is quite easy in those steady and slow-moving express trains, reading up reviews and periodicals or making plans for future journeys, looking out of the windows in the early morning or late evening, all varied by meals in the _coupe_ or at a station, seeing all kinds of interesting people in strange costumes, and many attractive incidents at places where one alights for a walk and exercise.