La Russie en 1839 (French for Russia in 1839) is a 1843 book by French author Marquis de Custine. Highly critical of Russia, it was banned there during the era of the Russian Empire.
Due to this work, Custine was later dubbed by some historians as "the de Tocqueville of Russia". [1]
Custine in this work coined the description of Russia as the prison of the peoples. [2]
Inspired by Tocqueville's work, in late 1830s Custine decided that Russia would be the subject of his next writing effort. Custine visited Russia in 1839, spending most of his time in St. Petersburg, but also visiting Moscow and Yaroslavl, and based his work on his observations during that time.
A political reactionary in his own country, fearful that democracy would inevitably lead to mob rule, Custine went to Russia looking for arguments against representative government, but he was appalled by autocracy as practiced in Russia and equally by the Russian people's apparent collaboration in their own oppression. He attributed this state of affairs to what he saw as the backwardness of the Russian Orthodox Church, combined with the disastrous effects of the Mongol invasion of medieval Russia, and the policies of Peter the Great. He was struck by the "smothering enormity of power and the randomness of everyday life and death". [3] Custine criticized St. Petersburg for being the creation of one man and not the result of spontaneous historical forces. Custine, however, loved Moscow architecture and predicted that Russia would be a great power if its capital were ever moved back to the older city.
Most of Custine's mockery was reserved for the Russian nobility and Nicholas I. Custine said that Russia's aristocracy had "just enough of the gloss of European civilization to be 'spoiled as savages' but not enough to become cultivated men. They were like 'trained bears who made you long for the wild ones.'" Other tart and much-quoted observations included:
"In Russia, everything you notice, and everything that happens around you, has a terrifying uniformity; and the first thought that comes into the traveler's mind, as he contemplates this symmetry, is that such entire consistency and regularity, so contrary to the natural inclination of mankind, cannot have been achieved and could not survive without violence."
"The nature of its Government is interference, negligence and corruption. You rebel against the notion that you could become accustomed to all this, yet you do become accustomed to it. In that country, a sincere man would be taken for an idiot."
"A wealth of unnecessary and petty precautions here engenders a whole army of clerks, each of whom carries out his task with a degree of pedantry and inflexibility, and a self-important air solely designed to add significance to the least significant employment."
"The profession of misleading foreigners is one known only in Russia ... everyone disguises what is bad and shows what is good before the master's eyes." [3]
Custine criticized Tsar Nicholas for the constant spying he ordered and for repressing Poland. Custine had more than one conversation with the Tsar and concluded it was possible that the Tsar behaved as he did only because he felt he had to. "If the Emperor has no more of mercy in his heart than he reveals in his policies, then I pity Russia; if, on the other hand, his true sentiments are really superior to his acts, then I pity the Emperor" (Kennan 76).
Kennan wrote that Custine describes Russia as a horrible domain of obsequious flattery of the Tsar and spying. [4] Custine said the air felt freer the moment one crossed into Prussia. In the mid-20th century, many commentators drew parallels between Custine's description of Russia and contemporary Soviet Union as well as noticing many similarities between his character outline of Nicholas I and Joseph Stalin.
La Russie en 1839, first published in full in 1843, went through six printings and was widely read in England, France, and Germany but banned in Russia. Nevertheless, some books printed in France were smuggled in and made an impact on Russian society. From 1890 to 1891, fragments of the book were published in Russian journals. Poorly-abridged versions of the book were published in 1910 and in 1930 in the Soviet Union. Finally, an unabridged version was published in 1996.
Several Russian authors published works critical of Custine's La Russie en 1839, among them Un mot sur l'ouvrage de M. de Custine, intitulé: La Russie en 1839 by Xavier Labenski (Jean Polonius) and Examen de l'ouvrage de M. le marquis de Custine intitulé "La Russie en 1839" (Paris, 1844) by Nicholas Gretsch. [5] Tsarist authorities also sponsored a more scholarly investigation of Russia by a foreigner, August von Haxthausen, who authored the Studies on the Interior of Russia. [6] This work can be interpreted as an attempt to provide an objective research of Russia's traditional social institutions, which the Tsar's advisors believed would effectively counter Custine's work. Studies was translated from German into French and English in 1848. [7]
The Tsar also commissioned the French writer Hippolyte Auger to pen an extensive refutation. However, as the scandal of Custine's work had subsided by then, the Tsar decided it was best not to remind the public of the book, and the project was abandoned. [8]
Due to this work, Custine was later dubbed by some historians as "the de Tocqueville of Russia". [1]
Nicholas I was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He was the third son of Paul I and younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas's thirty-year reign began with the failed Decembrist revolt. He is mainly remembered as a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, centralisation of administrative policies, and repression of dissent both in Russia and among its neighbors. Nicholas had a happy marriage that produced a large family; with all of their seven children surviving childhood.
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, was a French aristocrat, diplomat, sociologist, political scientist, political philosopher, and historian. He is best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both, he analyzed the living standards and social conditions of individuals as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. Democracy in America was published after Tocqueville's travels in the United States and is today considered an early work of sociology and political science.
Russian Ark is a 2002 experimental historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. The plot follows an unnamed narrator, who wanders through the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, and implies that he died in some horrible accident and is a ghost drifting through. In each room, he encounters various real and fictional people from various periods in the city's 300-year history. He is accompanied by "the European", who represents the Marquis de Custine, a 19th-century French traveler.
De la démocratie en Amérique is a classic French work by Alexis de Tocqueville. Its title can be translated literally as Of Democracy in America. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years.
Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, Marquis de Custine was a French aristocrat and writer who is best known for his travel writing, in particular his account of his visit to Russia, La Russie en 1839. This work documents not only Custine's travels through the Russian Empire, but also the social fabric, economy and way of life during the reign of Nicholas I.
Henri Troyat was a Russian-French author; a biographer, historian and novelist.
Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse, whose esoteric pseudonyms were Papus and Tau Vincent, was a French physician, hypnotist, and popularizer of occultism, who founded the modern Martinist Order.
The Battle of Krasnoi unfolded from 15 to 18 November 1812 marking a critical episode in Napoleon's arduous retreat from Moscow. Over the course of six skirmishes the Russian forces under field marshal Kutuzov inflicted significant blows upon the remnants of the Grande Armée, already severely weakened by attrition warfare. These confrontations, though not escalated into full-scale battles, led to substantial losses for the French due to their depleted weapons and horses.
The Monument to Nicholas I is a bronze equestrian monument of Nicholas I of Russia on St Isaac's Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was created by French sculptor Auguste de Montferrand and unveiled on July 7 [O.S. June 25] , 1859, the six-meter statue was considered a technical wonder at the time of its creation. It is one of only a few bronze statues with only two support points.
The Willy–Nicky correspondence was a series of messages relayed between Wilhelm II, German Emperor, and Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia during the first months of the First World War.
Jean-Marie Chopin was a French-Russian explorer of the Caucasus. Son of a French sculptor and employed by Catherine II of Russia, Chopin began his career as secretary and librarian to Prince Alexander Kurakin, Russian ambassador to France for 12 years. In 1812 Chopin and Kourakin returned to Russia; after the death of his patron in 1818 Chopin settled in Paris.
Catherine Gavrilovna Chislova was a Russian ballerina. She was the mistress of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich; they had five children.
Count Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato was a Russian industrialist, diplomat and arts patron of the Demidov family.
August Franz Ludwig Maria, Baron von Haxthausen-Abbenburg was a German agricultural scientist, economist, lawyer, writer, and collector of folk songs, best known for his account of conditions in Russia as revealed by his 1843 visit.
Dr. Marie Mendras is a political scientist in the field of Russian and post-Soviet studies. She is a research fellow with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and a professor at Sciences Po University’s School of International Affairs in Paris.
Count Adam Gurowski was a Polish-born author who emigrated to the United States in 1849.
Charles François Philibert Masson was a Frenchman who is notable for the books that he published. His Secret Memoirs of the Court of St Petersburg described the court of Catherine the Great and Paul I of Russia. They are still in print.
Hippolyte Auger, born Hippolyte Augé, 25 May 1796 in Auxerre and died 5 January 1881 in Menton, was a French writer, Russian translator, and editor of the Journal de Saint Pétersbourg.
Prison of peoples or prison of nations is a phrase first used by Vladimir Lenin in 1914. He applied it to Russia, describing the national policy of that time. The idea of calling Russia a prison is based on Marquis de Custine's book La Russie en 1839.
Robert-Aloys Mooser, was a Swiss musicologist and music critic. He is the author of reference works on the history of the music of Russia.
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
