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

And am I not to speak of so much falsehood, so many perils, so great an evil ? . . . . No, no; I would rather have been deceived and speak, than have rightly discerned and remain silent. If there is temerity in recounting my observations there would be criminality in concealing them.

The Russians will not answer me; they will say, " A journey of four months ! — he cannot have fully seen things."

It is true I have not fully seen, but I have fully devined.

Or, if they do me the honour of refuting me, they will deny facts,— facts which they are accustomed to reckon as nothing in Petersburg, where the past, like the present and the future, is at the mercy of the monarch : for, once again, the Russians have nothing of their own but obedience and imitation; the direction of their mind, their judgment, and their free-will belongs to their master. In Russia, history forms a part of the crown domain : it is the moral estate of the prince, as men and lands are the material ; it is placed in cabinets with the other imperial treasures, and only such of it is shown as it is wished should be seen. The emperor modifies at his pleasure the annals of the country, and daily dispenses to his people the historic truths that accord with the fiction of the moment. Thus it was that Minine and Pojarski — heroes forgotten for two centuries — were suddenly exhumed, and became the fashion, during the invasion of Napoleon. At that moment, the government permitted patriotio enthu` siasrn.

Nevertheless, this exorbitant power injures itself; Russia will not submit to it eternally. A spirit of