Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-07-16
Dark Russia.



The fact is that the history of Russia
is still to be written. What we now pos
sess is a history, not of Russia, but Oh Il
few distinguished Russians. Peter me
Great and his compeers stand on Ike
mountain peaks that catch the hrst Sieiiii,
of dawn. while all below them Is sui
buried i'll darkness. And yet, To those
who know what constitutes the sirenStn
of country, the patient, silent pioaulhs
of the masses il far better worth chrohi-
cling than the successful robberles AMI
murders of the so-called 'superlors.
Tradition tells us that the inventor OF
chess was sagacious BrahmIn, who de-
signed thereby to teach his royal pupil
that king is as helpless apart from ms
people as the people. according to MS
theory, would be without their KING;
s.Do vou see those fellows yonder? said
man TO me in n Russian village IN 1871,
pointine to a group of sallow, bearded,
| low -broweJ pcasants, who were slouchlnS
past in their ragged frocks of sheepskin.
..These are the men who carry all Russia
on their backs, and the moment they find
out how much they have to bear, down
we all go together but they endure 1t
! because they don't know how i'll off they
are - Few more striking truths have
ever been uttered, and the utterer could
hardly be accused of speaking without
experience, for he was no other than
Michael Bakunin, the greatest, If not the
most renowned, of all the nihllists chiefs
of Russia.
Those who have heard Tourguenieff
read one of his own novels may form
perfect idea of the Russian ''mujik with
ont ever having seen him Mt all but no
description less vivid and powerful than
that of the great master himself could do
Justice to the stranGest of all the count
less waits stranded upon the shore OF the
present by the ebb of the past. lgno-
rant as an Australian savage, superst-
tious as an ancient Athenian, accepting
as everyday matters hardships and prl-
vations worthy of St Simon Stylites ; at
once glutton and an ascetic; lying hab-
itually, with no apparent object, IN the
strange, purposeless fashion of gypsy
or a Bedoin ungovernablc save by ex-
treme severity, although intensely sus-
ceptible of kindness peaceable even to
sluggishness, yet capable of the most
frghtful extremes of vengeance start
linely shrewd and knowing within his mar
row circle. brutally stupid us regards
everything beyond it. TO a casual OBJ
server, Ivan Petrovitch might appear an
easy-going, harmless fellow enough, with
no particular tastes except perfect
mama for weak tea or strong whiskey,
curious habit Of backing his boots with
tar, and putting on red shirt over his
other clothes on Sunday, and SO strong
passion for gay colurs that his only word
for ''bcautiful'' preka MI means literally
bright scarlet" But behind that Hat,
heavy, expressionless face lurk terrible
possibilities, which no Russian ruler can
safely ignore In remote villages, far III
lie nnt, nor. gray-haired men Will tell
You ,n,iur their breath that before the
emancipation the peasants ''got up one
black autumn night, burned the great
huuse" t. the ground, split the ''barin's"
skull with II hatchet, flung the ''barina'
from thrd-story window, tossed the
screaming children into the flames with
pitchforks, and then, exhausted by their
own fury, sat sullenly down amid the
ruins tili the gray-coateI children of the
ear" came and prodded their life out
with leyeled bayonets. Nor is it SO long
since myself heard from an eyewitness
how Cossack horse stcaler, taken red
handed in the fact, was tied tn tree by
his captors and ilayed alive, his ears and
nose cut of, his eyes Gouged out, and his
inanglcd remains flung into the nearest
river Yet these, and not dlplomatlsts Ill
gold trimmed spcctacics, not jaunty Off
GERS with trim moustaches, are the true
representative. ,f Russia. Were any
mornlist to seek fit symi,vi "f what the
great empire is and has been for ccntu-
4 han nj
in the inner court Of the kreII,hn at Mos
Low. At the foot of the tall, white
go!den-dnmed bclfry that bears the name
of the Gar Ivan Nelik (John the Great)
stands monster bell Of antique fashion,
with gap in its side through which Il
six-foot grenalier might walk erect. This
is the famous "Tsar kolokol'' king BelD,
which, cast i'll the reign of the Empress
Anna lyanovna and cracked III the cast
ing, WAS disinterred by Nicholas after
lying buried for 13t years, and has stood
here ever since, an object of reverence to
all loyal Russians. 1t is hard to imagine
n more melancholy sight than this mann
cd Titan standing silent and lonely, while
its countless lfetlrcn are making the air
ring with their joy-pcal over some great
church festival. What IL chance for some
nihilist poet to draw trenchant paral-
lei between the voiceless bell and the
dumb millions of Russia, somewhat i'll
this style:
once more To the golden sunlight
Thou art risen from agc-long rest.
Like the soul of thine own great nation.
Long buried and sore distressed.
She, too. in the dust down-troidcn.
For ages eAiomhed hath lain;
She, too, for speech hath struggled
And struggled how long III vain
She, too from her grave hath risen.
by Gods own hand upstrred;
An Woe 10 her sceptrcd tyrdnts
II once her voice he heard.
And, indeed, ii has been heard at last,
i'll Il way that no one can mistake. DIM
ly and slowly, across the waste of Il thou
sand years-Tartar cOnquests, Polish in
vasions, Turkish wars, Borodino battles,
Crimean disaters the dawn of the
great truth which every great nation
must learn sooner or later, that a man be-
longs to himself, and to no other under
heaven that his life and soul are his
own. and that no system basel upon any
other principle, be il ever SO strongly es-
tablished, can be other than n fnlsehood
and wrong But even this blessing has
not come unalloyed. Russia's present
position is that of n mutinous crew,
whose leaders, not content with the grant
ing of their Demands insist upon taking
command of the ship themselves. But
for Netchaieff and Bakunin, Russia would
have had at least the outline of II free
constitution III ISL But for Solovicif
and Vladetski, she would probably have
the reality now. The true opponents of
Russian liberty are the nihilists them
selves and the day on which the Rus
sian people shall discover that fact will
bc very awkward one for them.