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

THE TCHINN DIVIDED INTO CLASSES. 145

Ivan IV. Peter I, was a Russian in character, though not in politics; Nicholas is a German by nature, but a Russian by calculation and by necessity.

The tehiim consists of fourteen classes, each of which possesses its own peculiar privileges. The fourteenth is the lowest.

Placed immediately above the serfs, its sole advantage consists in its members having the title of freemen. Their freedom means that no one can strike them without rendering himself liable to prosecution. In return, every member of the class has to inscribe on his door, his registered number, in order that no superior may be led to act under an ignorance that would render him liable to a penalty.

The fourteenth class is composed of persons in the lowest employ under the government, clerks of the post-office, factors, and other subordinates charged with carrying or executing the orders of the heads of departments : it answers to the rank of sub-officer in the imperial army. The men who compose it are servants of the Emperor, and serfs of no one : they possess a sense of their social dignity. But as to human dignity, it is not known in Russia.

All the other classes of the tchinn answer to as many military grades; the order that reigns throughout the entire state is analogous to the order of the army. The first class stands at the summit of the pyramid, and is now composed of one single man — Marshall Paskiewitch, viceroy of Warsaw.

The will of the Emperor is the sole means by which an individual is promoted in the tchinn ; so that a man rising step by step, to the highest rank

VOL. II.H