Petrograd through middle-aged1 eyes—Russians very constant friends—Russia an Empire of shams2—Over-centralisation in administration—The system hopeless—A complete change of scene—The West Indies—Trinidad—Personal Character of Nicholas II—The weak point in an Autocracy3—The Empress—An opportunity missed—The Great Collapse4—Terrible stories—Love of human beings for ceremonial—Some personal apologies—Conclusion.
I returned twice to Petrograd in later years, the last occasion being in 1912. A young man is generally content with the surface of things, and accepts them at their face value, without attempting to probe deeper. With advancing years comes the desire to test beneath the surface. To the eye, there is but little difference between electro-plate and solid silver, though one deep scratch on the burnished6 expanse of the former is sufficient to reveal the baser metal underlying7 it.
Things Russian have for some reason always had a strange attraction for me, and their glamour8 had not departed even after so many years. It was pleasant, too, to hear the soft, sibilant Russian tongue again. My first return visit was at mid-summer, and seeing Peter's City wreathed in the tender vivid greenery of Northern foliage9, and bathed in sunshine, I wondered how I could ever
{341}
have mentally labelled it with the epithet10 "dreary11." Rising from the clear swift-rushing waters of the many-channelled Neva, its stately pillared classical buildings outlined through the soft golden haze12 in half-tones of faintest cobalt and rose-madder, this Northern Venice appeared a dream-city, almost unreal in its setting of blue waters and golden domes13, lightly veiled in opal mist.
Russians are not as a rule long-lived, and the great majority of my old friends had passed away. I could not help being affected14 by the manner in which the survivors15 amongst them welcomed me back. "Cher ami," said the bearer of a great Russian name to me, "thirty-three years ago we adopted you as a Russian. You were a mere16 boy then, you are now getting an old man, but as long as any of your friends of old days are alive, our houses are always open to you, and you will always find a place for you at our tables, without an invitation. We Russians do not change, and we never forget our old friends. We know that you like us and our country, and my husband and I offer you all we have." No one could fail to be touched by such steadfast17 friendship, so characteristic of these warm-hearted people.
The great charm of Russians with three or four hundred years of tradition behind them is their entire lack of pretence18 and their hatred19 of shams. They are absolutely natural. They often gave me as their reason for disliking foreigners the artificiality of non-Russians, though they expressly
{342}
exempted20 our own nationality from this charge. That is, I think, the reason why most Englishmen get on so well with educated Russians.
Seeing Petrograd with the wearied eyes of experienced middle age, I quite realised that the imposing21 palaces that front the line of the quays22 and seem almost to float on the Neva, are every one of them built on piles, driven deep into the marshy23 subsoil. Every single house in the city rests on the same artificial base. Montferrand the Frenchman's great cathedral of St. Isaac has had its north front shored up by scaffolding for thirty years. Otherwise it would have collapsed24, as the unstable25 subsoil is unable to bear so great a burden. On the Highest Authority we know that only a house built on the rock can endure. This city of Petrograd was built on a quagmire26, and was typical, in that respect, of the vast Empire of which it was the capital: an Empire erected27 by Peter on shifting sand. The whole fabric28 of this Empire struck my maturer senses as being one gigantic piece of "camouflage29."
For instance, a building close to St. Isaac's bears on its stately front the inscription30 "Governing Senate" (I may add that the terse31, crisp Russian for this is "Pravitelsvouyuschui Senat"). To an ordinary individual the term would seem to indicate what it says; he would be surprised to learn that, so far from "governing," the Senate had neither legislative32 nor administrative33 powers of its own. It was merely a consultative body without
{343}
any delegate initiative; only empowered to recommend steps for carrying into effect the orders it received.
And so with many other things. There were imposing façades, with awe-inspiring inscriptions34, but I had a curious feeling that everything stopped at the façade, and there was nothing behind it.
Students of history will remember how, on the occasion of Catherine the Great's visit to the Crimea, her favourite, Potemkin, had "camouflage" villages erected along the line of her progress, so that wherever she went she found merry peasants (specially selected from the Imperial theatres) singing and dancing amidst flower-wreathed cottages. These villages were then taken down, and re-erected some fifty miles further along the Empress's way, with the same inhabitants. It was really a triumph of "camouflage," and did great credit to Potemkin's inventive faculty35. Catherine returned North with most agreeable recollections of the teeming36 population of the Crimea; of its delightfully37 picturesque39 villages, and of the ideal conditions of life prevailing40 there.
The whole Russian Empire appeared to my middle-aged eyes to be like Potemkin's toy villages.
My second later visit to Petrograd was in 1912, in midwinter, when I came to the unmistakable conclusion that the epithet "dreary" was not misplaced. The vast open spaces and broad streets with their scanty41 traffic were unutterably depressing during the short hours of uncertain daylight,
{344}
whilst the whirling snowflakes fell incessantly42, and the low, leaden sky pressed like a heavy pall43 over this lifeless city of perpetual twilight44.
The particular business on which I had gone to Petrograd took me daily to the various Ministries45, and their gloomy interiors became very familiar to me.
I then saw that in these Ministries the impossible had been attempted in the way of centralisation. The principle of the Autocracy had been carried into the administrative domain46, and every trivial detail affecting the government of an Empire stretching from the Pacific to the Baltic was in theory controlled by one man, the Minister of the Department concerned. Russians are conspicuously47 lacking in initiative and in organising power. The lack of initiative is perhaps the necessary corollary of an Autocracy, for under an Autocracy it would be unsafe for any private individual to show much original driving power: and organisation48 surely means successful delegation49. A born organiser chooses his subordinates with great care; having chosen them, he delegates certain duties to them, and as long as they perform these duties to his satisfaction he does not interfere50 with them. The Russian system was just the reverse: everything was nominally51 concentrated in the hands of one man. A really able and zealous52 Minister might possibly have settled a hundredth part of the questions daily submitted for his personal decision. It required no great political foresight53 to understand
{345}
that, were this administrative machine subjected to any unusual strain, it would collapse into hopeless confusion.
Being no longer young, I found the penetrating54 damp cold of Petrograd very trying. The airlessness too of the steam-heated and hermetically sealed houses affected me. I had, in any case, intended to proceed to the West Indies as soon as my task in Petrograd was concluded. As my business occupied a far longer time than I had anticipated, I determined55 to go direct to London from Petrograd, stay two nights there, and then join the mail steamer for the West Indies.
Thus it came about that I was drinking my morning coffee in a room of the British Embassy at Petrograd, looking through the double windows at the driving snowflakes falling on the Troitsky Square, at the frozen hummocks56 of the Neva, and at the sheepskin-clothed peasants plodding57 through the fresh-fallen snowdrifts, whilst the grey cotton-wool sky seemed to press down almost on to the roofs of the houses, and the golden needle of the Fortress58 Church gleamed dully through the murky59 atmosphere. Three weeks afterwards to a day, I was sitting in the early morning on a balcony on the upper floor of Government House, Trinidad, clad in the lightest of pyjamas60, enjoying the only approach to coolness to be found in that sultry island. The balcony overlooked the famous Botanic Gardens which so enraptured61 Charles Kingsley. In front of me rose a gigantic Saman tree, larger than
{346}
any oak, one mass of tenderest green, and of tassels62 of silky pink blossoms. At dawn, the dew still lay on those blossoms, and swarms63 of hummingbirds64, flashing living jewels of ruby65, sapphire66, and emerald, were darting67 to and fro taking their toll68 of the nectar. The nutmeg trees were in flower, perfuming the whole air, and the fragrance69 of a yellow tree-gardenia, an importation from West Africa, was almost overpowering. The chatter70 of the West Indian negroes, and of the East Indian coolies employed in the Botanic Gardens, replaced the soft, hissing71 Russian language, and over the gorgeous tropical tangle72 of the gardens the Venezulean mountains of the mainland rose mistily73 blue across the waters of the Gulf74 of Paria. I do not believe that in three short weeks it would be possible to find a greater change in climatic, geographical75, or social conditions. From a temperature of 5° below zero to 94° in the shade; from the Gulf of Finland to the Spanish Main; from snow and ice to the exuberant76 tropical vegetation of one of the hottest islands in the world! The change, too, from the lifeless, snow-swept streets of Petrograd, monotonously77 grey in the sad-coloured Northern winter daylight, to the gaily78 painted bungalows79 of the white inhabitants of the Port-of-Spain, standing80 in gardens blazing with impossibly brilliant flowers of scarlet81, orange, and vivid blue, quivering under the fierce rays of the sun, was sufficiently82 startling. The only flowers I have ever seen to rival the garish83 rainbow brilliance84 of the gardens of Port-of-Spain
{347}
were the painted ones in the "Zauber-Garten" in the second act of "Parsifal," as given at Bayreuth.
It so happened that when Nicholas II visited India in 1890 as Heir-Apparent, I stayed in the same house with him for ten days, and consequently saw a great deal of him. He was, I am convinced, a most conscientious85 man, intensely anxious to fulfill86 his duty to the people he would one day rule; but he was inconstant of purpose, and his intellectual equipment was insufficient87 for his responsibilities. The fatal flaw in an Autocracy is that everything obviously hinges on the personal character of the Autocrat88. It would be absurd to expect an unbroken series of rulers of first-class ability. It is, I suppose, for this reason that the succession to the Russian throne was, in theory at all events, not hereditary89. The Tsars of old nominated their successors, and I think I am right in saying that the Emperors still claimed the privilege. In fact, to set any limitations to the power of an Autocrat would be a contradiction in terms.
Nicholas II was always influenced by those surrounding him, and it cannot be said that he chose his associates with much discretion90. There was, in particular, one fatal influence very near indeed to him. From those well qualified91 to judge, I hear that it is unjust to accuse the Empress of being a Germanophile, or of being in any way a traitor92 to the interests of her adopted country. She was obsessed93 with one idea: to hand on the Autocracy intact to her idolised little son, and she had, in addition, a
{348}
great love of power. When the love of power takes possession of a woman, it seems to change her whole character, and my own experience is that no woman will ever voluntarily surrender one scrap94 of that power, be the consequences what they may. When to a naturally imperious nature there is joined a neurotic95, hysterical96 temperament97, the consequences can be disastrous98. The baneful99 influence of the obscene illiterate100 monk101 Rasputin over the Empress is a matter of common knowledge, and she, poor woman, paid dearly enough for her faults. I always think that Nicholas II missed the great opportunity of his life on that fateful Sunday, January 22, 1905, when thousands of workmen, headed by Father Gapon (who subsequently proved to be an agent provocateur in the pay of the police), marched to the Winter Palace and clamoured for an interview with their Emperor. Had Nicholas II gone out entirely102 alone to meet the deputations, as I feel sure his father and grandfather would have done, I firmly believe that it would have changed the whole course of events; but his courage failed him. A timid Autocrat is self-condemned. Instead of meeting their Sovereign, the crowd were met by machine-guns. In 1912, Nicholas II had only slept one night in Petrograd since his accession, and the Empress had only made day visits. Not even the Ambassadresses had seen the Empress for six years, and there had been no Court entertainments at all.
{349}
The Imperial couple remained in perpetual seclusion103 at Tsarskoe Selo.
In my days, Alexander II was constantly to be seen driving in the streets of Petrograd entirely alone and unattended, without any escort whatever. The only things that marked out his sledge104 were the two splendid horses (the one in shafts105, the loose "pristashka" galloping106 alongside in long traces), and the kaftan of his coachman, which was green instead of the universal blue of public and private carriages alike.
The low mutterings of the coming storm were very audible in 1912. Personally, I thought the change would take the form of a "Palace Revolution," so common in Russian history; i.e., that the existing Sovereign would be dethroned and another installed in his place.
I cannot say how thankful I am that so few of my old friends lived to see the final collapse, and that they were spared the agonies of witnessing the subsequent orgies of murder, spoliation, and lust107 that overwhelmed the unhappy land and deluged108 it in blood.
Horrible stories have reached us of a kindly109, white-headed old couple being imprisoned110 for months in a narrow cell of the Fortress, and then being taken out at dawn, and butchered without trial; of a highly cultivated old lady of seventy-six being driven from her bed by the mob, and thrust into the bitter cold of a Petrograd street in January, in her night-dress, and there clubbed to death in
{350}
the snow. God grant that these stories may be untrue; the evidence, though, is terribly circumstantial, and from Russia comes only an ominous111 silence.
If I am asked what will be the eventual112 outcome in Russia, I hazard no prophecies. The strong vein113 of fatalism in the Russian character must be taken into consideration, also the curious lack of initiative. They are a people who revel114 in endless futile115 talk, and love to get drunk on words and phrases. Eighty per cent. of the population are grossly ignorant peasants, living in isolated116 communities, and I fail to see how they can take any combined action. It must be remembered that, with the exception of Lenin, the men who have grasped the reins117 of power are not Russians, but Jews, mainly of German or Polish origin. They do not, therefore, share the fatal inertness118 of the Russian temperament.
I started with the idea of giving some description of a state of things which has, perhaps, vanished for all time from what were five years ago the three great Empires of Eastern Europe.
There is, I think, inherent in all human beings a love of ceremonial. The great influence the Roman and Eastern Churches exercise over their adherents119 is due, I venture to say, in a great measure to their gorgeous ceremonial. In proof of this, I would instance lands where a severer form of religion prevails, and where this innate120 love of ceremonial finds its rest in the elaborate ritual of Masonic and kindred bodies, since it is denied it in ecclesiastical matters. The reason that Buddhism121,
{351}
imported from China into Japan in the sixth century, succeeded so largely in ousting122 Shintoism, the ancient national religion, was that there is neither ritual nor ceremonial in a Shinto temple, and the complicated ceremonies of Buddhism supplied this curious craving123 in human nature, until eventually Buddhism and Shintoism entered into a sort of ecclesiastical partnership124 together.
I have far exceeded the limits which I started by assigning to myself and, in extenuation125, can only plead that old age is proverbially garrulous126. I am also fully38 conscious that I have at times strayed far from my subject, but in excuse I can urge that but few people have seen, in five different continents, as much of the surface of this globe and of its inhabitants as it has fallen to my lot to do. Half-forgotten incidents, irrelevant127 it may be to the subject in hand, crowd back to the mind, and tempt5 one far afield. It is quite possible that these bypaths of reminiscence, though interesting to the writer, may prove wearisome to the reader, so for them I tender my apologies.
I have endeavoured to transfer to others pictures which remain very clear-cut and vivid in my own mind. I cannot tell whether I have succeeded in doing this, and I hazard no opinion as to whether the world is a gainer or a loser by the disappearance128 of the pomp and circumstance, the glitter and glamour of the three great Courts of Eastern Europe.
The curtain has been rung down, perhaps
{352}
definitely, on the brave show. The play is played; the scenery set for the great spectacle is either ruined or else wantonly destroyed; the puppets who took part in the brilliant pageant129 are many of them (God help them!) broken beyond power of repair.—Finita la commedia!
Things Russian have for some reason always had a strange attraction for me, and their glamour8 had not departed even after so many years. It was pleasant, too, to hear the soft, sibilant Russian tongue again. My first return visit was at mid-summer, and seeing Peter's City wreathed in the tender vivid greenery of Northern foliage9, and bathed in sunshine, I wondered how I could ever
{341}
have mentally labelled it with the epithet10 "dreary11." Rising from the clear swift-rushing waters of the many-channelled Neva, its stately pillared classical buildings outlined through the soft golden haze12 in half-tones of faintest cobalt and rose-madder, this Northern Venice appeared a dream-city, almost unreal in its setting of blue waters and golden domes13, lightly veiled in opal mist.
Russians are not as a rule long-lived, and the great majority of my old friends had passed away. I could not help being affected14 by the manner in which the survivors15 amongst them welcomed me back. "Cher ami," said the bearer of a great Russian name to me, "thirty-three years ago we adopted you as a Russian. You were a mere16 boy then, you are now getting an old man, but as long as any of your friends of old days are alive, our houses are always open to you, and you will always find a place for you at our tables, without an invitation. We Russians do not change, and we never forget our old friends. We know that you like us and our country, and my husband and I offer you all we have." No one could fail to be touched by such steadfast17 friendship, so characteristic of these warm-hearted people.
The great charm of Russians with three or four hundred years of tradition behind them is their entire lack of pretence18 and their hatred19 of shams. They are absolutely natural. They often gave me as their reason for disliking foreigners the artificiality of non-Russians, though they expressly
{342}
exempted20 our own nationality from this charge. That is, I think, the reason why most Englishmen get on so well with educated Russians.
Seeing Petrograd with the wearied eyes of experienced middle age, I quite realised that the imposing21 palaces that front the line of the quays22 and seem almost to float on the Neva, are every one of them built on piles, driven deep into the marshy23 subsoil. Every single house in the city rests on the same artificial base. Montferrand the Frenchman's great cathedral of St. Isaac has had its north front shored up by scaffolding for thirty years. Otherwise it would have collapsed24, as the unstable25 subsoil is unable to bear so great a burden. On the Highest Authority we know that only a house built on the rock can endure. This city of Petrograd was built on a quagmire26, and was typical, in that respect, of the vast Empire of which it was the capital: an Empire erected27 by Peter on shifting sand. The whole fabric28 of this Empire struck my maturer senses as being one gigantic piece of "camouflage29."
For instance, a building close to St. Isaac's bears on its stately front the inscription30 "Governing Senate" (I may add that the terse31, crisp Russian for this is "Pravitelsvouyuschui Senat"). To an ordinary individual the term would seem to indicate what it says; he would be surprised to learn that, so far from "governing," the Senate had neither legislative32 nor administrative33 powers of its own. It was merely a consultative body without
{343}
any delegate initiative; only empowered to recommend steps for carrying into effect the orders it received.
And so with many other things. There were imposing façades, with awe-inspiring inscriptions34, but I had a curious feeling that everything stopped at the façade, and there was nothing behind it.
Students of history will remember how, on the occasion of Catherine the Great's visit to the Crimea, her favourite, Potemkin, had "camouflage" villages erected along the line of her progress, so that wherever she went she found merry peasants (specially selected from the Imperial theatres) singing and dancing amidst flower-wreathed cottages. These villages were then taken down, and re-erected some fifty miles further along the Empress's way, with the same inhabitants. It was really a triumph of "camouflage," and did great credit to Potemkin's inventive faculty35. Catherine returned North with most agreeable recollections of the teeming36 population of the Crimea; of its delightfully37 picturesque39 villages, and of the ideal conditions of life prevailing40 there.
The whole Russian Empire appeared to my middle-aged eyes to be like Potemkin's toy villages.
My second later visit to Petrograd was in 1912, in midwinter, when I came to the unmistakable conclusion that the epithet "dreary" was not misplaced. The vast open spaces and broad streets with their scanty41 traffic were unutterably depressing during the short hours of uncertain daylight,
{344}
whilst the whirling snowflakes fell incessantly42, and the low, leaden sky pressed like a heavy pall43 over this lifeless city of perpetual twilight44.
The particular business on which I had gone to Petrograd took me daily to the various Ministries45, and their gloomy interiors became very familiar to me.
I then saw that in these Ministries the impossible had been attempted in the way of centralisation. The principle of the Autocracy had been carried into the administrative domain46, and every trivial detail affecting the government of an Empire stretching from the Pacific to the Baltic was in theory controlled by one man, the Minister of the Department concerned. Russians are conspicuously47 lacking in initiative and in organising power. The lack of initiative is perhaps the necessary corollary of an Autocracy, for under an Autocracy it would be unsafe for any private individual to show much original driving power: and organisation48 surely means successful delegation49. A born organiser chooses his subordinates with great care; having chosen them, he delegates certain duties to them, and as long as they perform these duties to his satisfaction he does not interfere50 with them. The Russian system was just the reverse: everything was nominally51 concentrated in the hands of one man. A really able and zealous52 Minister might possibly have settled a hundredth part of the questions daily submitted for his personal decision. It required no great political foresight53 to understand
{345}
that, were this administrative machine subjected to any unusual strain, it would collapse into hopeless confusion.
Being no longer young, I found the penetrating54 damp cold of Petrograd very trying. The airlessness too of the steam-heated and hermetically sealed houses affected me. I had, in any case, intended to proceed to the West Indies as soon as my task in Petrograd was concluded. As my business occupied a far longer time than I had anticipated, I determined55 to go direct to London from Petrograd, stay two nights there, and then join the mail steamer for the West Indies.
Thus it came about that I was drinking my morning coffee in a room of the British Embassy at Petrograd, looking through the double windows at the driving snowflakes falling on the Troitsky Square, at the frozen hummocks56 of the Neva, and at the sheepskin-clothed peasants plodding57 through the fresh-fallen snowdrifts, whilst the grey cotton-wool sky seemed to press down almost on to the roofs of the houses, and the golden needle of the Fortress58 Church gleamed dully through the murky59 atmosphere. Three weeks afterwards to a day, I was sitting in the early morning on a balcony on the upper floor of Government House, Trinidad, clad in the lightest of pyjamas60, enjoying the only approach to coolness to be found in that sultry island. The balcony overlooked the famous Botanic Gardens which so enraptured61 Charles Kingsley. In front of me rose a gigantic Saman tree, larger than
{346}
any oak, one mass of tenderest green, and of tassels62 of silky pink blossoms. At dawn, the dew still lay on those blossoms, and swarms63 of hummingbirds64, flashing living jewels of ruby65, sapphire66, and emerald, were darting67 to and fro taking their toll68 of the nectar. The nutmeg trees were in flower, perfuming the whole air, and the fragrance69 of a yellow tree-gardenia, an importation from West Africa, was almost overpowering. The chatter70 of the West Indian negroes, and of the East Indian coolies employed in the Botanic Gardens, replaced the soft, hissing71 Russian language, and over the gorgeous tropical tangle72 of the gardens the Venezulean mountains of the mainland rose mistily73 blue across the waters of the Gulf74 of Paria. I do not believe that in three short weeks it would be possible to find a greater change in climatic, geographical75, or social conditions. From a temperature of 5° below zero to 94° in the shade; from the Gulf of Finland to the Spanish Main; from snow and ice to the exuberant76 tropical vegetation of one of the hottest islands in the world! The change, too, from the lifeless, snow-swept streets of Petrograd, monotonously77 grey in the sad-coloured Northern winter daylight, to the gaily78 painted bungalows79 of the white inhabitants of the Port-of-Spain, standing80 in gardens blazing with impossibly brilliant flowers of scarlet81, orange, and vivid blue, quivering under the fierce rays of the sun, was sufficiently82 startling. The only flowers I have ever seen to rival the garish83 rainbow brilliance84 of the gardens of Port-of-Spain
{347}
were the painted ones in the "Zauber-Garten" in the second act of "Parsifal," as given at Bayreuth.
It so happened that when Nicholas II visited India in 1890 as Heir-Apparent, I stayed in the same house with him for ten days, and consequently saw a great deal of him. He was, I am convinced, a most conscientious85 man, intensely anxious to fulfill86 his duty to the people he would one day rule; but he was inconstant of purpose, and his intellectual equipment was insufficient87 for his responsibilities. The fatal flaw in an Autocracy is that everything obviously hinges on the personal character of the Autocrat88. It would be absurd to expect an unbroken series of rulers of first-class ability. It is, I suppose, for this reason that the succession to the Russian throne was, in theory at all events, not hereditary89. The Tsars of old nominated their successors, and I think I am right in saying that the Emperors still claimed the privilege. In fact, to set any limitations to the power of an Autocrat would be a contradiction in terms.
Nicholas II was always influenced by those surrounding him, and it cannot be said that he chose his associates with much discretion90. There was, in particular, one fatal influence very near indeed to him. From those well qualified91 to judge, I hear that it is unjust to accuse the Empress of being a Germanophile, or of being in any way a traitor92 to the interests of her adopted country. She was obsessed93 with one idea: to hand on the Autocracy intact to her idolised little son, and she had, in addition, a
{348}
great love of power. When the love of power takes possession of a woman, it seems to change her whole character, and my own experience is that no woman will ever voluntarily surrender one scrap94 of that power, be the consequences what they may. When to a naturally imperious nature there is joined a neurotic95, hysterical96 temperament97, the consequences can be disastrous98. The baneful99 influence of the obscene illiterate100 monk101 Rasputin over the Empress is a matter of common knowledge, and she, poor woman, paid dearly enough for her faults. I always think that Nicholas II missed the great opportunity of his life on that fateful Sunday, January 22, 1905, when thousands of workmen, headed by Father Gapon (who subsequently proved to be an agent provocateur in the pay of the police), marched to the Winter Palace and clamoured for an interview with their Emperor. Had Nicholas II gone out entirely102 alone to meet the deputations, as I feel sure his father and grandfather would have done, I firmly believe that it would have changed the whole course of events; but his courage failed him. A timid Autocrat is self-condemned. Instead of meeting their Sovereign, the crowd were met by machine-guns. In 1912, Nicholas II had only slept one night in Petrograd since his accession, and the Empress had only made day visits. Not even the Ambassadresses had seen the Empress for six years, and there had been no Court entertainments at all.
{349}
The Imperial couple remained in perpetual seclusion103 at Tsarskoe Selo.
In my days, Alexander II was constantly to be seen driving in the streets of Petrograd entirely alone and unattended, without any escort whatever. The only things that marked out his sledge104 were the two splendid horses (the one in shafts105, the loose "pristashka" galloping106 alongside in long traces), and the kaftan of his coachman, which was green instead of the universal blue of public and private carriages alike.
The low mutterings of the coming storm were very audible in 1912. Personally, I thought the change would take the form of a "Palace Revolution," so common in Russian history; i.e., that the existing Sovereign would be dethroned and another installed in his place.
I cannot say how thankful I am that so few of my old friends lived to see the final collapse, and that they were spared the agonies of witnessing the subsequent orgies of murder, spoliation, and lust107 that overwhelmed the unhappy land and deluged108 it in blood.
Horrible stories have reached us of a kindly109, white-headed old couple being imprisoned110 for months in a narrow cell of the Fortress, and then being taken out at dawn, and butchered without trial; of a highly cultivated old lady of seventy-six being driven from her bed by the mob, and thrust into the bitter cold of a Petrograd street in January, in her night-dress, and there clubbed to death in
{350}
the snow. God grant that these stories may be untrue; the evidence, though, is terribly circumstantial, and from Russia comes only an ominous111 silence.
If I am asked what will be the eventual112 outcome in Russia, I hazard no prophecies. The strong vein113 of fatalism in the Russian character must be taken into consideration, also the curious lack of initiative. They are a people who revel114 in endless futile115 talk, and love to get drunk on words and phrases. Eighty per cent. of the population are grossly ignorant peasants, living in isolated116 communities, and I fail to see how they can take any combined action. It must be remembered that, with the exception of Lenin, the men who have grasped the reins117 of power are not Russians, but Jews, mainly of German or Polish origin. They do not, therefore, share the fatal inertness118 of the Russian temperament.
I started with the idea of giving some description of a state of things which has, perhaps, vanished for all time from what were five years ago the three great Empires of Eastern Europe.
There is, I think, inherent in all human beings a love of ceremonial. The great influence the Roman and Eastern Churches exercise over their adherents119 is due, I venture to say, in a great measure to their gorgeous ceremonial. In proof of this, I would instance lands where a severer form of religion prevails, and where this innate120 love of ceremonial finds its rest in the elaborate ritual of Masonic and kindred bodies, since it is denied it in ecclesiastical matters. The reason that Buddhism121,
{351}
imported from China into Japan in the sixth century, succeeded so largely in ousting122 Shintoism, the ancient national religion, was that there is neither ritual nor ceremonial in a Shinto temple, and the complicated ceremonies of Buddhism supplied this curious craving123 in human nature, until eventually Buddhism and Shintoism entered into a sort of ecclesiastical partnership124 together.
I have far exceeded the limits which I started by assigning to myself and, in extenuation125, can only plead that old age is proverbially garrulous126. I am also fully38 conscious that I have at times strayed far from my subject, but in excuse I can urge that but few people have seen, in five different continents, as much of the surface of this globe and of its inhabitants as it has fallen to my lot to do. Half-forgotten incidents, irrelevant127 it may be to the subject in hand, crowd back to the mind, and tempt5 one far afield. It is quite possible that these bypaths of reminiscence, though interesting to the writer, may prove wearisome to the reader, so for them I tender my apologies.
I have endeavoured to transfer to others pictures which remain very clear-cut and vivid in my own mind. I cannot tell whether I have succeeded in doing this, and I hazard no opinion as to whether the world is a gainer or a loser by the disappearance128 of the pomp and circumstance, the glitter and glamour of the three great Courts of Eastern Europe.
The curtain has been rung down, perhaps
{352}
definitely, on the brave show. The play is played; the scenery set for the great spectacle is either ruined or else wantonly destroyed; the puppets who took part in the brilliant pageant129 are many of them (God help them!) broken beyond power of repair.—Finita la commedia!
The End
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2
shams
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| 假象( sham的名词复数 )； 假货； 虚假的行为（或感情、言语等）； 假装…的人 | |
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3
autocracy
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| n.独裁政治，独裁政府 | |
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4
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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5
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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6
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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7
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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8
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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9
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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10
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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12
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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13
domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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14
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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15
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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16
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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17
steadfast
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| adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的 | |
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18
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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19
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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20
exempted
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| 使免除[豁免]( exempt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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22
quays
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| 码头( quay的名词复数 ) | |
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23
marshy
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| adj.沼泽的 | |
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24
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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25
unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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26
quagmire
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| n.沼地 | |
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27
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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28
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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29
camouflage
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| n./v.掩饰，伪装 | |
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30
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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31
terse
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| adj.(说话，文笔)精炼的，简明的 | |
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32
legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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33
administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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34
inscriptions
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| （作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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35
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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36
teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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37
delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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38
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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39
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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40
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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41
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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42
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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43
pall
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| v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕 | |
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44
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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45
ministries
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| （政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期 | |
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46
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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47
conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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48
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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49
delegation
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| n.代表团；派遣 | |
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50
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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51
nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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52
zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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53
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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54
penetrating
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|
| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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55
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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56
hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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57
plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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58
fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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59
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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60
pyjamas
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| n.（宽大的）睡衣裤 | |
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61
enraptured
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| v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
tassels
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| n.穗( tassel的名词复数 )；流苏状物；（植物的）穗；玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 )；使抽穗， （为了使作物茁壮生长）摘去穗状雄花；用流苏装饰 | |
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63
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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64
hummingbirds
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| n.蜂鸟( hummingbird的名词复数 ) | |
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65
ruby
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| n.红宝石，红宝石色 | |
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66
sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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67
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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68
toll
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| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
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69
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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70
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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71
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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72
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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73
mistily
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| adv.有雾地，朦胧地，不清楚地 | |
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74
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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75
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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76
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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77
monotonously
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| adv.单调地，无变化地 | |
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78
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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79
bungalows
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| n.平房( bungalow的名词复数 )；单层小屋，多于一层的小屋 | |
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80
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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81
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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82
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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83
garish
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| adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的 | |
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84
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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85
conscientious
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|
| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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86
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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87
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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88
autocrat
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| n.独裁者；专横的人 | |
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89
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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90
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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91
qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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92
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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93
obsessed
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| adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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94
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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95
neurotic
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| adj.神经病的，神经过敏的；n.神经过敏者，神经病患者 | |
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96
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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97
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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98
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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99
baneful
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| adj.有害的 | |
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100
illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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101
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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102
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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103
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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104
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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105
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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106
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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107
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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108
deluged
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| v.使淹没( deluge的过去式和过去分词 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
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109
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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110
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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111
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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112
eventual
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| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
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113
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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114
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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115
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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116
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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117
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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118
inertness
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| n.不活泼，没有生气；惰性；惯量 | |
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119
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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120
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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121
Buddhism
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| n.佛教（教义） | |
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122
ousting
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| 驱逐( oust的现在分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺 | |
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123
craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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124
partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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125
extenuation
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| n.减轻罪孽的借口；酌情减轻；细 | |
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126
garrulous
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| adj.唠叨的，多话的 | |
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127
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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128
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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129
pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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