Russian shadow

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Russia in 1839

Russian shadow by the French travel writer and diplomat Astolphe de Custine is the abridged version of his book Russia in 1839 , which was translated by Adolph Diezmann and first published in Leipzig in 1843, the same year as the French original. In Russia itself, the book was banned until 1917.

Russian Shadows was published in 1985 in the series Die Andere Bibliothek , edited by Hans Magnus Enzensberger .

content

Astolphe de Custine had made a long trip to Russia in the summer of 1839 . The recordings of this journey were published by him in the form of a collection of letters in 1843.

One of the reasons for this trip is said to have been Tocqueville's On Democracy in America . In this work, Tocqueville referred to the USA and Russia as the future great powers. While Tocqueville deals with American democracy, Custine tries something similar with Russian despotism.

Custine paints a very negative picture of the Russia of his time. Already the entry - he chose the shipping route from Lübeck to Saint Petersburg - confronts him with excessive bureaucracy . Russian princes traveling with him receive preferential treatment, while he seems to arouse suspicion among the authorities.

The landscape around Petersburg is also a disappointment for him. The city hardly stands out from the swampy area. Although he sees Petersburg as a wonder of the world , he cannot make friends with the city, he recognizes an artificiality everywhere, which through the will of Tsar Peter I alone, to create a stronghold against Sweden and a "window to the north" , is intended.

Custine also gets to know Tsar Nicholas I and sees him relatively positively at first. This only changes when he hears the story of Princess Trubetskoi. The princess had decided to follow her husband, who was condemned as one of the leaders of the Decembrist uprising , into exile. Two requests for clemency within fourteen years, which only concerned the education of their children, were outrageously rejected by Tsar Nikolaus. This intransigence appears to Custine to be utterly inappropriate for a truly modern and enlightened leader.

Custine travels from Petersburg to Moscow . Custine will emphasize the eternal uniformity of Russia again and again, not only in terms of landscape, but also in human terms. The despotism suppresses the free development of the people; they are all servants and especially towards strangers they become cautious and secretive. A military police who accompanies Custine appears to him to be at least a potential spy .

For Custine, Moscow itself means above all the Kremlin , which he admires for its original Russian architecture. Here he sees a true role model for Russian development, which, in his opinion, is otherwise too oriented towards foreign architectural styles and does not respond to Russian needs.

Before returning home, Custine finally visits Sergiev Posad's Trinity Monastery , drives to the Volga and visits Nizhny Novgorod , where he attends the then very important mass and describes it as a meeting point between Europe and Asia.

In addition to numerous descriptions of sights, peculiarities, customs and costumes, but also about the living conditions as a traveler who is confronted with terrifying dirt and pests of vermin in the hostels, the main focus is on the political and social conditions in Russia.

At first glance, Russia Custine appears to be a civilized country, but he quickly notices that this is mainly based on facades. The praised hospitality, for example, is above all a means of presentation and lacks a truly perceived cordiality, and the great courtesy quickly turns into brute force when the social position of the other person is only low. What is striking is Custine's general devotion and fatalism , which, however, as he hears , can suddenly turn into extreme brutality during uprisings.

Custine tries to understand these peculiarities from the history of Russia. “ Peter I and Catherine II gave the world a great and useful lesson which Russia had to pay; They showed us that despotism is never more to be feared than when it wants to do good, for then it believes that its most outrageous actions can be justified by its intentions, and the bad that pretends to be a remedy has no limits. “Peter I in particular is viewed extremely critically by him. While recognizing his efforts and efforts, he also sees that the good of these reforms has evaporated, while the bad has intensified.

According to Custine, Tsar Nicholas I has the right ideas for change, but a single person - no matter how powerful they are - has to despair of the many reforms that are necessary. Tsar Nikolaus is too fixated on himself and does not count on the support of others enough to really cope with the multitude of tasks. “ The philanthropists do not have to fight against the tyrant here, but against tyranny . It would be unjust to accuse the emperor of the misfortunes of the empire and the mistakes of the government; the strength of a person is not up to the task of the sovereign, who suddenly wanted to rule over an inhuman people in a human way. "

He also noticed the discrepancy between national vanity and the exaggerated desire for imitation of modern arts and fashions, which was also based on Peter I and was further consolidated by the subsequent tsars. “ When one imitates the form of a society without also appropriating the spirit that animates it, when one demands instruction in civilization, not from the ancient teachers of the human race, but from strangers who are envied for their riches, without their character to be careful when the imitation is hostile and at the same time childish, when you copy from a neighbor you want to despise how he has furnished his house, how he dresses, how he speaks, then one becomes an echo, a Reflection and no longer exists through itself. ”The addiction to imitation and the lack of independence are a direct consequence of the lack of freedom. The uniformity of Russia is not just due to the extreme weather conditions, but is determined by the despotic will of control and uniformity.

From his Catholic denomination, Custine also criticizes the Orthodox Church and makes it jointly responsible for the situation in Russia because of its dependence on the Tsar.

Custine sees the future of Russia primarily depending on whether it succeeds in building up a middle class, because so far the people have only consisted of the emperor and serfs , some of whom again own serfs.

Custine stayed in Russia for only four months, which makes his very precise and critical look at the Russian conditions of his time, which are characterized by despotism, human contempt and bureaucracy, all the more admirable. He concluded that anyone who knows Russia will like it anywhere else.

In the film, Russian Ark by Alexander Sokurov Sergei plays Dreiden the Marquis de Custine. He accompanies the first-person narrator on a journey through time through the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. His views on Russia can be found here, for example when he accuses the copying of foreign art, describes Peter I as a tyrant who is still revered by the Russians, or welcomes the transfer of the capital to Moscow.

literature

  • Astolphe de Custine: Russian shadows. Prophetic letters from 1839 (Die Andere Bibliothek 12). Greno, Nördlingen 1985.
  • Christian Sigrist: The Marquis de Custine's image of Russia. From criticism of civilization to hostility to Russia. Frankfurt 1990.
  • Irena Grudzinska Gross: The Scar of Revolution, Custine, Tocqueville, and the Romantic Imagination. Berkeley 1991.
  • Anka Muhlstein: Astolphe de Custine. The Last French Aristocrat. London 2001.
  • Astolphe de Custine: Journey For Our Time: The Journals of the Marquis de Custine. Phyllis Penn Kohler, Washington 1987.
  • Astolphe de Custine: Journey For Our Time: The Journals of the Marquis de Custine. Phyllis Penn Kohler, London 1951.
  • Astolphe de Custine: Empire of the Czar. A Journey Through Ethernal Russia. August 1989.
  • George F. Kennan: The Marquis de Custine and His Russia in 1839. London 1972.
  • Albert Marie Pierre de Luppé: Astolphe de Custine. Monaco 1957.
  • Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan: Astolphe de Custine voyageur et philosophe. Paris 1990.
  • Julien Frédéric Tarn: Le Marquis de Custine ou les Malheurs de l'exactitude. Paris 1985.