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

308INTRODUCTION TO THE

again rear the ramparts, formerly wooden, of the fortress more anciently founded under Dmitri Donskoï. But if this palace was not built by Ivan IV., it was built for him. It was by a spirit of prophecy that the great king, his grandfather, constructed the palace of the tyrant. Italian architects may be found every where, but in no other place have they produced a work similar to that which they raised at Moscow. I may add that there have been elsewhere absolute, unjust, arbitrary, and capricious sovereigns, and yet, that the reign of none of these monsters has resembled that of Ivan IV. The same seed springing under different climates and in different soils, produces plants of the same species, but of many varieties. The earth will never see two masterpieces of despotism similar to the Kremlin, nor two nations as superstitiously patient as was the Muscovite nation under the monstrous reign of its greatest tyrant.

The consequences of that reign are felt even in our days. Had the reader accompanied me in this journey, he would have discovered, as I have done, in the inner depths of the Russian character, the inevitable injuries produced by arbitrary power carried to its last excess; first, namely, a careless indifference to the sanctity of truth in speech, of candour in sentiment, and of justice in acts ; and afterwards, falsehood rampant in all its forms, fraud triumphant, and the moral sense, in fact, wholly destroyed.

I could fancy I saw a procession of vices pouring forth from all the gates of the Kremlin to inundate Russia.

Other nations have supported oppression, the Russian nation has loved it: it loves it still. Is not