The record-union., 1894-06-09
ToURGURNEFFs MOTHER.
A Female Counterpart of Ivan Il
Terrible.


A Female Counterpart of Ivan the
Terrible.
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, who has fire.
quently confessed his great admiration
for Ivan Tourgueneff. and who has writ
ten charmingly of his intimate friendship
with the novelist, gives an entertaining
account of the latter'S mother in the
Century. His life was clouded, Mr..
Boyesen believes, by an unhappy child
hood and by the tyranny and abuse of his
mother. Tourguenef referred TO his
mother but twice in the presence of Mr..
Boyesen, once when he declared that she
was the typical noble lady of Russia, and
afterward, when he said: 'The utter ir-
responsibility of the master in his inter-
course with the serf has tho most detri-
mental effect upon character-as saw
exemplified in the case of my own
mother" Mr.. Boyesen writes:
II concluded from this that his mother
had been hard and tyrannical woman,
and that he was unable TO cherish her
memory. But never did / dream, until
his sisters narration fell in my hands,
that she was the female counterpart of
Ivan the Terrible. She delighted in the
most arbitrary exercise of power, and
from sheer ennui tormented everyone
who came within reach of her authority.
She had herself been cruelty maltreated
fully insnlted by her stepfather, and COM
pelled in consequence TO flee from home
and seek refuge with a relative. By the
death OF her uncle, Ivan Loutovinot1, she
inherited an immense fortune on the re-
ceipt of which she Enthusiastically re-
marked, Now | can do anything | like
(Maintenant. je peux tout.') Among the
many suitors who competed for her fa-
vor, she chose for a husband Serglus Mic
olaevitch Tourgeneff because of his ex-
traordinary beauty. She established her
self in princely opulence on her estate of
Spasskoe, and as she was determined
upon keeping the reins of authority in
her own hands, her husband thought it
wiser 10 indulge her caprices, and refrain,
as far as possible, from interfering with
her wishes. Probably he had by this
time discovered with whom he had to
deal. lie was too prudent a man TO pro-
woke quarrel with a woman of so for
midable a temperament.
''IJ was, in fact, not only he whom she
governed, but she insisted upon regulat-
ing the affairs of everyone who ap-
preached her or entered into any sort of
relation with her, however remote. Her
autocratic will did not tolerate even
suspicion of criticism. far less opposition,
and the devices she hit upon for humil-
ating those who manifested what she re-
garded as a spirit OF insubordinaton
were worthy OF her imperial prototype
Catherine, nisnamed the Great. When
her daughter was i'll with typhoid fever
she gave the physician, who was highly
educated serf, the choice between com
plete cure and Siberia. a favorite serf,
whom II pleased her from sheer caprice
to persecute, she degraded from the posi-
ton of a waiter TO that of field laborer,
and made him exchange his fine livery
for the coarse garb Of peasant. Her
major-domo, Paliakotf, she assaulted in
lit of uncomfortable fury with crutch,
and would have killed him if her brother
in-law had not interfered. She separated
him from his wife and children, to whom
he was warmly devoted and exercised
diabolical ingenuity in devising new
tortures for The unhappy man. His
otfense was that he had, out of love for
his young master, Nicholas Tourguenoff,
deceived her regarding the latter's rela-
ton TO certain beautiful German gov
erness, with whom Nicholas was deeply
in love. and whom he had secretly mar
ried.o