RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5278, 23 February 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

(From the Pall\, Mall Gazette.)

.Russians, are.. extremely . sensitive to the opinion of foreigners, ;aud this, vendors them amiable 'to, a; point, which quite., charms a stranger on his first arrival in; the; (country. The stranger’s seqpnd.itnpressien, formed at the end of a week or, two,, is that .there, is a good deal qf:..actmg.ia.'the ; sooiety-manuers of his hosts; his third, which begins, to,,shape itself towards the close of a 'month,: is that/he, has .Jieard an uncommon nuoabor of, untruths. ; The humility with which Russians affect to speak of-,the backwardness of their country, covers a, deep feeling of pride in its strength : and while ;they seam- to invite criticism they really resent: it. This appears when ,a Russian, has become , sufficiently intimate, with you to throw off the mask and challenge, comparisons between your country .and his j.then hebragspf his superiority with brutal filuhtness. His Czar is popular ; his country wonderfully advanced, considering the drawbacks of climate.;,-his army is the largest, and finest going ; and the people are religious and contented, which, is .more than ,cau be arid of those in,ether,,States;,which he has visited. A Russian’s disiike for despotism, a?,; expressed in drawing-room.,conversations, .arises’chiefly from the fact that despotism is unfashionable-abroad ; so that the, advocacy of it seems ridiculous to cultivated foreigners. ' A Russian is also afraid that any apology for .autocracy coming from, his lips, might,, bo ; ooni. strued into a servile, fear of :his masters.;' so , tbft t he forces his liberal utterance , to! a pitch ’which is oftb'j extravagant/ In pursuance of. the.sgme spirit he gabbles in conspiracies, and and wbnld join in a revolution without having any clear end in view, but’ simply under‘the belief that he was discharging hip duties as! an enlightened being 'according to Western notions. Fashion is the upper class Russian’s god,, and all his efforts tend to show strangers.that’ he is on a level with the latest theories in politics, religion, and social ethics. Russian' hospitajity is dazzling. The’ entertainments which are 'given ’ by the ’richest .’nobles jn St. Petersburg, excel anything that ,‘can, be seen 1 elsewhere, because nowhere else can people afford to spend so much ripen .show. ! .The rich in Western States have claims upon their fortunes, and spend a good deal in improving their estates ; but a Russian draws all '.he can from his land, and gives back little or nothing. He disburses prodigally for wines,’"music, diamonds, and rich dresses forfiis wife ; fie keeps ah immense .retinue of servants ; gambles, largely, whatever ihaly be his age or profession!;’and the surplus of his income goes :to defray journeys to Paris, Nice, and’ the German wateringplaces, where he seems to set,his ambition on enriching hotelkeepers. ‘ Aft is ! but little patronised, ‘and itmay even be doubted whether Russians are so fond of music as; they seem to he/for the ’music-one hears Ifit* concerts and operas is always the newest,'and for old there is hb demaiud. Gounod and LOcocq are mentioned in the same' breath,' as- if ’ they were composers of equal excellence ; find during the. ephemeral craze for Wagner, Meyerbeer and’ Mozart were alluded to as! though their feign' had‘definitely vanished. No man catches the can’t of a-passing Western fashion so -fast as a Russian ;■ but he can seldom attune fiimself to foreign thought, so that‘all his tact in observing strangers does not save him from occasionally committing ' 'amusing ‘ blunders"'when- he talks’'Of tilings -about’ which he' affects todcnOw’ much more than he really does/’‘‘-In this respect the faultless! accent; of Russians In speak--ing foreign languages (which comes frofn the multitude of consonances Which’they have to master in learning their own) is l apt to; blind one ' to their ignorance of the 'spirit’ of the tongues which they prattle so well. It is their own’‘fault ‘if = one remarks’ - ’this ;’ for it 5 they ware content to be and to seem' Russians they might-still- claim" credit for ; being the - best linguists in’tlio world ;'itls'only because they aspire to bethought “ Parisians of the Norljh” • that oife’ is fbfofid.tb see. that they liave only the outer varnish of their models./ However .filussians pf ’the ’upper, classes fife in general

Very l well 'educated, 1 arid if they ( continued to instruct themselves - 'after leaving tlieir private tutor'they'would be the' most accomplished aristocracy,.in. Europe.,... IJhfoitunately. the young boyard, whose attainments at twenty excite surprise 'and 1 admiration, has learned nothing more at . thirty, and at forty has imlearried riiuch,, and.settled into / the grooves of offioiarthbrigh't. This rule is universal j there are scarosly,,any..exceptions to it. Many a young Russian who hnS been admirably brought up at home ,by French and. German masters starts in' life with ardent hopes and generous (desires'to aid in righting .some of the abuses , which' ho sees'; but’ 1 he'is enrolled in the Tachion as an officer or civil servant, and soon learns that originality of thought is dangerous. If 1 he . persists, in airing crotchets of ’ reform I after his' relatives have ail' adored him to keep quiet, ,St. .Petersburg will become too hot to hold Kim, aridhis ultiriiate (fate, will be exile Ip the Caucasus, if riot ‘ something worse. A ' man may be a froudenr ini Russia so long as he confines himself to talking ; the iustaut he shows, himself beut-upqa action. there is an end of him, socially speaking.-y - Th o cautious oldstock Russians hold, aloof, from such things,' and resign themselves to a trust in Providence for the remedying,of : such ,evils,,as they may (individually.,deplore. Meanwhile the.depra- 1 vity(of Russian society,,-proceeds..from the ,(enforced, idleness (of ; its. richest , members.' Being allowed no initiative in, any matter) of , yqform—political or. social—^afraid,•/to riot, afraid (p disturb anybody, confined to intrigue or frivolous Court duties—they are consumed' with ennui, and seek in eutravagance, licentiousness, rind, sensationalism a relief from the ■overpowering monotony of existence. Nature has endowed many of them with brilliant gifts, butGovernmerit compression dwarfs their moral gyowth, and .causes, them, tp. remain Jug children, 'wfipsej only object (is to amuse ;ind bo amused, to pose arid evoke from foreigners, if not, real admiration, at least wonder-.and beriovolent flattery.,,,, ,((' ( (. i -