The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-03 00:00:00

WOULD THE CZAR OF RUSSIA

DESTROY WARSAW?

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)
The long-litigated point regar3ing the Autocrat of Rus-
sia's speech to the deputies of Warsaw has been disposed
of ; and that it has been delivered rests, not only on the
authority of the Debuts, but also on that of the Franklbrt
Journal, to which it had been sent by some correspondent
at Warsaw, or not improbably by Russian authorities
themselves, who have, on many occasions, employed that
paper as an organ. The threat held out of the destruc-
tion of Warsaw by the cannon of the citadel is then true,
and the only question is, whether it was intended as a mere
warning, or for execution in the case given. We say that
it was intended for execution. Human minds may shrink
from admission of any such demoniac idea for humanity's
sake, and the friends of Nicholas, if Lis acts have left him
any, for his own credit ; but what is advanced remains more
than probable, and reasons may be found for it—lst, in the
system of Russian rule ; and 2d„ in the character of the
present Emperor. We can prove it from history.
The disasters arising from the Russian rule of governing
are not of a recent date. The Muscovite Government has
been for ages hostile to the liberty on Slavonian ground, to
the Slavonian tribes and nations, as it now menaces the
whole of Western Europe.
Ancient Slavonia was an extensive democracy ; and in
different parts independent states, communities, and cities
sprang up in accordance with that principle. In Russia
were seen two powerful cities, Pskow and Novogrod, flour-
ishing by industry and commercial connections with Greece
and Germany, as ancient treaties attest. They were re-
publics, had a government of elders composed and elected
by their own citizens. They fostered and kept safe guard
over the national liberties of Slavonia. Their independence
of the Russian knazes or dukes was so clearly defined, that
the latter had only so much power over them as was allowed
them by compact. So late as the 13th or 14th century,
we find the records of several compacts of this description
between Jaroslaw, the Duke of Twer, and Novogrod. But
what has become of those city republics ? What of Pskow ?
What of Novogrod ? And what of its large territory,
where the dukes were prohibited from building villages,
even from entering it themselves or their officers, but ac-
cording to stipulations fixed by mutual compact ? The
might of Novogrod was such as to have become proverbial.
" Who can any thing against God and the mighty Novo-
grod ?" has been repeated all over Russia ; but the city,
Pskow, Wiazma, and others, became the object of plunder
and oppression, were gradually losing their ground and
franchises, until they fell into decay, victims of the Musco-
vite system of aggression and violence.
The usual mode pursued by Russia for ingrafting the
reign of despotism and crushing liberties has ever been the
demoralization of the people by fraud and intrigue, and by
depriving nations, tribes, and cities, of all means of resist-
ance, by open and secret plunder. Force breaks down the
rest ; and the work is accomplished by extermination or
transferring the inhabitants to some other place. The city
of Novogrod was the first victim of that system in the 15th
century ; it was robbed of its riches, and the citizens who
were foremost in defence of its prerogatives were either ex-
terminated or dispersed all over the territory of what was
then Muscovy. This was done by John the Terrible.
But this system, barbarous as it is, not only has not been
discontinued, but has been refined upon and made perfect
by the successive Czars, and proved more or less cruel ac-
cording to the personal character of each ; yet it was always
combined with the utter disregard of human rights. We
select instances from the later reigns, which pass for more
civilized than those which preceded them.
In Mr. Eton's travels in 1778 we find a narrative of a
translocation of the inhabitants under the reign of Catherine
11. The reason for that measure is not stated, and might
not have been known by any one, for the history of despotism
is never clear. The passage runs so :--
" While I was in the quarantine at the Russian frontier
there passed 75,000 Christians, obliged by the Russians to
emigrate from the Crimea. These people were sent to inhabit
the country abandoned by the Nogai Tartars near the west
coast of the Sea of Avail' (Palus Mmotis) ; but the winter
coming on before the houses built for them were ready, a great
part of them had no other shelter from the cold than what was
afforded them by holes dug in the ground, covered with what
they could procure. They were people who all came from
comfortable homes, and the greatest part perished. 7,000
only were alive a few years ago."
Captain Jones, in his travels in 1827, mentions a trans-
location, no less destructive of human life, which occurred
under the reign of Alexander, in 1824 :
" Not mere than three years ago, 25,000 souls were ordered
to be removed from the frontiers of Poland to the territory of
the Tchernemorski Cossacks, their numbers having greatly
diminished, from various causes, since their compulsory migra-
tion by Catherine. The reinforcement arrived in the begin-
ning of winter, when numbers perished from the inclemency
of the season, and from want; strange to say, the only reason
given for this injudicious time for removal was, that the order
had arrived to transport them, and that, consequently, they
could not be returned in the population report of the new year
as inhabitants of the old government, arid must be included in
that of the Tchernemorski Cossacks."
This system, horrible in itself, is apt to be rendered more
execrable, as we have observed, by the individual character
of the Czar. In this respect Nicholas has not been behind
any of his Tartar predecessors. We quote the following
proofs in confirmation :
" In 1830, shortly before the revolution in Poland, dis-
turbances had broken out at Sebastopol, in the Crimea,
which is an excellent port, the same in which the Russian
navy is building. The entente (for such it might be called,
it having had nothing political in view) was occasioned in
consequence of quarantine regulations, at the time of the
breaking out of the cholera. A sanatory cordon was esta-
blished around the town for the purpose of protecting com-
merce, and its inhabitants were to be provided with the neces-
saries of life out of the Government stores, and a commission,
composed of three generals and a certain number of inferior
eniployis, had been appointed for that special purpose. But
the circumstances of the commissariat officers having been,
according to the Russian custom, mere intent upon filling
their pockets with rubles than supplying the inhabitants with
provisions, had caused a famine ; and persons, especially
those of the lower classes, were often met dead from star-
vation on the public roads and walks, and even under the
windows where the commissioners were lodged. The wretched
inhabitants, long a prey to such misery, were at last driven
to despair, and revolted. In one night, men, women, and
children, collected in crowds, forced their way into the
houses of the three Generals, who were the authors of the
calamity, and in their rage tore them to pieces. This when
done, they committed no excess. Next morning a body of
troops who had been sent fur to put down the mutiny ar-
rived, and were much astonished at meeting with no oppo-
sition in the town, and finding all quiet. A report of the
whole transaction was despatched to the Emperor Nicholas,
who appointed a special commission of inquiry, composed of
Count Woronzoff, Governor of Odessa, and General Witt.
They had also been empowered to act as judges with the
greatest rigour. In their report to the Emperor, the com-
missioners stated the impossibility of discovering all the par-
ticipators in the crime ; but that, to satisfy the law, they had
sentenced six of the most culpable to be knouted, and then
to be banished to Siberia ; and that to execute this, only the
confirmation or mitigation of the sentence by his Majesty
was wanting. The report has at last returned from St.
Petersburgh, with the answer of the Czar. It was written
with his own hand, on its margin, and contained-4 The
six convicts must be hanged ; other 36 must be found out
for knouting, and if they survive—[Five strokes with the
knout are sufficient to kill any man]—for sending them to
Siberia for life ; and then let the town of Sebastopol be
razed to the ground.' Count Woronzoff and General Witt
wrote that the Imperial orders should be obeyed, but they
were bold enough to represent that by destroying the town
trade and navigation might be injured, and that the razing of
the town would cost the Government a large sum. These
financial considerations, more than anything else, induced the
Czar to revoke his savage ordinance ; and he did it in these
terms Let not the town Sebastopol be razed with the
ground ; but let all its inhabitants, without any exception,
be dispersed in the villages of the Crimea and employed as
serfs of the Government in tillage. Let the Bulgarians, who
emigrated from Turkey with the Russian army, be settled in
Sebastopol.' "
The latter order of the Czar was literally executed :
The Polish revolution, which shortly after broke out, and
proved unsuccessful in its issue, afforded Nicholas an op-
portunity for giving vent to his rage and revenge, and de-
veloping in full extent, the despotic principle peculiar to the
Czars of Muscovy. Who could have read but with the
utmost horror a secret ordinance of his commanding the
transportation of the Polish families of Podolia ? That
ordinance is dated the 9th (21st) of November, 1831, and
is in these terms :
" The Emperor has deigned to issue a supreme order to
make the-necessary regulation for transporting, in the first
instance, 5,000 families of Polish Gentlemen of the Govern-
ment of Podolia to the Steppes of Tartary, and in prefe-
rence, on the Line, or in the district of Caucasus, that those
transplanted may be enrolled in the public service."
Those persons who had come in under the faith of am-
nesty of the Emperor, persons who had been pardoned,
and were as if they had never offended, and persons whom
the local authorities looked to with distrust—that is, all
persons whom they chose, at their discretion, to select for
punishment, were chosen, with their families, to be the vic-
tims of this barbarous ukase. And this order was extended
to eight governments—that is 40,000 Polish families. The
Czar appears himself to have felt the enormity of the crime
be had been committing, since he enjoined the Governor of
Podolia to keep it secret.
" Your Excellency will make use of all necessary means
(without publishing or making known the tenour of this order)
to register the families that are to be transported, in order that
you may begin, without delay the execution of this order, ac-
cording to the rules which will be afterwards communicated to
you."
The recent speech of Nicholas to the municipal body o
Warsaw has astonished Europe ; but after all that had been
done in Poland by him, in consequence of his adherence to
the Russian established policy, and by the natural bent of
his own Autocratic character—as abolition of national laws