Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

Add to this, that during the six most inclement of the winter months, they dare not breathe the free air more than two hours in the day. Such is the lot that heaven has assigned to man in these regions.

Let us see what man has done for himself: St. Petersburg is unquestionably one of the wonders of the world; Moscow is also a very picturesque city; but what can be said of the aspect of the provinces ?

The excess of uniformity engendered by the abuse of unity will be seen described in my chapters. The absence of soul betrays itself in every thing: each step that you take proves to you that you are among a people deprived of independence. At every twenty or thirty leagues the same town greets your eyes.

The passion of both princes and people for classic architecture, for straight lines, buildings of low elevation, and wide streets, is a contradiction of the laws of nature and the wants of life in a cold, misty country, frequently exposed to storms of wind which case the visage in ice. Throughout my journey, I was constantly but vainly endeavouring to account for this mania among the inhabitants of a country so different from those lands whence the architecture has been borrowed : the Russians cannot probably explain it any better than I, for they are no more masters of their tastes than of their actions. The fine arts, as they call them, have been imposed on the people, just as is the military exercise. The regiment, and its spirit of minntia, is the mould of Russian society.

Lofty ramparts, high and crowded edifices> the winding streets of the cities of the middle ages, would have suited better than caricatures of the