The Englishwoman in Russia

by A lady

The peasants hesitated; they did not wish to doubt his word, but were fearful lest he should have told them so because he did not desire their money. It was only by repeated assurances that they were at last convinced that it was a fact. They then begged he would accept the money as a present; on that being declined, they would only be satisfied with the promise that in case he should find himself in difficulties he would apply for assistance to them and not to strangers.

It may seem strange to English people that serfs should be possessed of so large a sum as a million of roubles (45,000l.); but it must be remembered that many of them are not mere field labourers, but rich shopkeepers and tradesmen with large fortunes. Some of the slaves belonging to Count S. (a nobleman who possesses one hundred and twenty thousand souls on his estates) are among the wealthiest shopkeepers in St. Petersburg, and have hundreds of thousands of pounds capital. The question naturally arises, “Why do they not, then, purchase their freedom?” They cannot do so without the consent of their proprietor; and as he is not willing to give it, having a kind of pride in possessing people of such enormous fortunes, they remain in the condition in which they were born. It is said that very lately they have lent Count S. above one hundred and fifty thousand pounds to pay off debts on his property. The shopkeepers and merchants in Russia are now the richest class in the country; the nobility every year are becoming poorer. The policy of Catherine has worked well in that respect; for, they say, it was she who began to lower their power, which has ever been dangerous to the imperial family, and her successors follow in her steps. It is astonishing how reckless the Russian nobles are of the consequences of their extravagance. I was well acquainted with a family whose daughter was to be presented at court; to my certain knowledge they pawned a part of their hereditary estates to enable them to make a brilliant figure for the season. As their estates are generally pawned to the crown, and their improvidence and love of show make it very improbable that either they or their children will ever be in a condition to reclaim them, the consequences are not difficult to foresee.

It is not lawful in Russia to sell the serfs without the land, or to separate individuals of a family unless the parents accompany them; it is nevertheless sometimes done, for two or three instances have come to my own knowledge, in establishments in which I was residing; and although I was present on the occasions, and know the terms on which the sales took place, Russians have often contradicted me, and assured me that such a thing was impossible, as it was not allowed. It is true, indeed, that it is not allowed by the law, but, if the two proprietors consent to the bargain, who is to complain? It certainly would not be the servant so disposed of, as her existence would be wretched enough afterwards; and we have often heard both male and female domestics beg another owner to purchase them, if they dislike the family they are in. After twenty-five years service in their master’s household, they can have the choice of being free or not; but they do not often profit by it, for, after the best years of their life have been passed in working for their proprietor, they with reason think that their old age should be taken care of by him; and that, if permitted, they would prefer passing the evening of their days in the village in which they were born, and among the scenes endeared to them by their youthful associations, to dragging out a toilsome and precarious life among strangers or in a crowded city. Many of the household servants are hired; they are furnished by their owners with a passport; they can then go whither they please, and serve whom they like, upon the condition of their paying the yearly abrock, or poll-tax, to him; but as this sum is not fixed by law, and the amount is entirely dependent on the will of the proprietor, he often abuses the trust, and manages to exercise a tyrannical influence even on those of his serfs who are at a distance and removed from his immediate power. The chief cuisinier in Madame-B.’s house at Twer belonged to a landowner who lived in Kalonga, and who had furnished him with a passport. The man was clever at his profession, and had served a seven years’ apprenticeship in a French house in St. Petersburg; he was therefore a valuable acquisition to a large establishment; he had three other cooks under him, and was very much respected. Madame B. was generous: his wages were high, and in addition she kindly allowed him to superintend public suppers and private parties in the houses of the neighbouring gentry, for which he received so good a remuneration that he realized a handsome profit. So far so good. By economy he might have saved in a few years sufficient money to buy his freedom, and he would have done so, as he was extremely anxious to marry one of the upper servants that lived in the same family; but then there was the abrock, and his master was one who never seemed to have enough. As soon as he found that Vassili was making money, he raised the amount of the poll-tax, and, by adding every year a little more to it, contrived to squeeze out of the poor fellow’s hands almost all his earnings. Many and many a time have I seen the tears rolling down his cheeks as he saw that his hopes for the future were daily getting more indistinct, and that he had no prospect of becoming free and wedding Grushia. One day we found him sobbing bitterly over an open letter; he had just received it from his proprietor: it was, as usual, demanding more abrock, but, worse than all, it was an answer, to a proposition made by Madame regarding his purchase: she with her wonted kindness wished to render all her household as happy as it lay in her power to do, and had told Vassili to inquire what amount was necessary to make him a free man. The sum named was so exorbitant that it was beyond the lady’s means. Apparently his master was determined not to part with a property that afforded him so great an annual profit and the hopes of increasing it in future.

The way the Russians treat their household servants is sometimes very amusing—exactly as if they were babies. One day the eight footmen, and the five other men-servants at Madame R.’s, all had new liveries. Being desirous to see how they looked, Madame ordered them all into her presence; they came, with the porter at their head: the lady bade them stand in a row, so that she might see the effect; and having had a good survey of the waistcoats, commanded them to turn about, which they did in true military order, and gave us a gratifying view of thirteen pairs of broad shoulders, all covered with light blue broadcloth of the best quality; they then marched out as if they had performed an exemplary duty. At another time the family was increased by a raw recruit of a lacquey, about six feet two high, who was endowed with the awkward habit of letting everything fall that he took in his fingers. After he had exhausted the patience of everybody in the house, he was told that the next time he gave us a specimen of his mal-adresse, he should be punished. The very next day, as he was handing the dish of fish to Madame, down went the elegant silver slice; after having picked it up with a very red face, he cast a terrified look on his master, expecting some awful retribution on his head for the sin he had committed; when the lady, turning to him, ordered him immediately to go and stand in the corner for the rest of the time we should be at dinner. He obeyed with the most contrite face, and stood there like one of Madame Tussaud’s wax-work figures, without changing countenance or moving in the least. It was wonderful how the other servants could keep a serious expression. We were all nearly choked with suppressed laughter, it was so perfectly ridiculous.

It is frequently, indeed generally, the case for the proprietors to place many of their serfs out as apprentices to different trades, some as carpenters, others as hairdressers, shoemakers, tailors, cooks, milliners, dressmakers, &c. After their time is out, if their services be not required in their master’s house, they are furnished with a passport, and pay the poll-tax like Vassili, of whom I have spoken. In many of the châteaux the domestics are capable of doing all the work for the family: one makes the shoes and boots; another his master’s coat; a third, brought up as a coiffeur, is the valet; a fourth the head cook; a fifth the confectioner, who attends to all the preserves, pickles, and bonbons used in the establishment; his place is no sinecure, as the Russians eat a great quantity of these things, especially in the winter-time. In very large households there are serfs who have been educated as musicians and singers. One family with whom I was acquainted in St. Petersburg had a private theatre in which their own people performed operas in very good style: the orchestra and vocalists had all been trained at the owner’s expense expressly for his amusement.

There was an old noble (?), an acquaintance of my friends in Moscow, who was possessed of an enormous fortune, and who made it his boast that he was the greatest gourmand in Russia; his whole conversation was concerning savoury dishes and delicious meats, to the concocting of which his entire mental energies (if he had any) were devoted. His dreams were nothing but visions of soups, fricassées, and pâtés, varied with ragoûts, jellies, and macédoines. Whenever he called we were sure to hear that his genius had discovered some new combination of good things, which he seemed to think redounded as much to his honour as Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz did to his, or as Newton’s discovery of the theory of gravitation. By excessively high living he had attained so preposterous a size, that the door of his carriage had to be made the entire width of one side to allow of his getting in and out: his eyes were almost buried in the fat of his cheeks, and his thick lips and heavy looks showed to what an extent he pursued the gratification of his favourite vice.

This estimable old gentleman, in order to have the cookery of every nation in the highest perfection, hit upon the ingenious plan of sending one of his serfs to each of the great capitals of Europe, in order that they might be initiated in all the mysteries of the cuisine of the country. One was in Vienna, another in Paris, a third in London, and the fourth in Naples. The sum this cost him was enormous, not only for the journeys, but on account of the high premium demanded for their instruction. The man sent to Paris was bound for three years; he was the most intelligent of the four; his master built immense castles in the air about him; he was never tired of talking of the great progress the man was making in the culinary art, whilst the agreeable prospect of innumerable good dinners, rich soups, and magnificent entremets, solaced him and served to cheer him up whenever an attack of indigestion caused him a fit of the “blues.” He did not know, poor man! that the dreams of his distant serf were widely different from his own; nor perhaps had it ever entered his mind, that, in learning “la cuisine Française,” he might possibly learn the language, and imbibe French notions of liberty as well—but so it was. The three years were out, and the old gentleman was on the tiptoe of expectation; his delicious rêves were about to become realized; he had invited a host of acquaintances to dine with him on a certain day. But, alas! the very morning on which he made so sure of welcoming with open arms his chef de cuisine from abroad, there came a letter, in which the ci-devant slave politely and delicately informed him that, owing to a great change in his views, both social and political, he could not decide upon devoting the rest of his days to his service; that he was going to be married to a charming young grisette, and had resolved upon becoming a French subject, as he was already one at heart. He concluded by returning his sincere thanks for the protection and patronage his former master had afforded him; sent the receipted bills for the expenses which had been incurred on his account, which he assured him had been honourably paid in his name, out of the money forwarded to Paris for the purpose, and finished with the most amiable wishes for his health and prosperity.

The grief and dismay of the old gourmand were inconceivable, and such an effect did the mortification take on him, that he remained in bed a whole fortnight to lament in solitude his irreparable loss.

As for the other three, I never heard what became of them; but it is to be hoped that they all followed the same laudable plan.

Most of the dressing-maids have served their time, and are milliners and couturières by profession. I was present one day when a bargain was struck for a dressmaker; it was at Jaroslaf, and a gentleman from a neighbouring estate had just dropped in to dine. In the course of conversation the host had accidentally mentioned that his wife was in great want of a good dressing-maid.