From Blackwood's Magazine. INTERNAL SUFFERINGS OF RUSSIA

FROM THE WAR.

BY AN EYE-WITNESS.

[THE writer of the following statement left Russia, where he had resided for many years, in

the course of the present summer.

It will be observed that he apologizes for any defects of style which appear in the narrative, on the ground of the length of time during which he had been unaccustomed to write his own language. No such defects will, we feel satisfied, be found; as the facts, so deeply interesting in themselves, and so important in their bearing are told in plain sensible terms, leaving no doubt of the writer's sincerity, and his desire to tell nothing but the truth.]

If the war continue, they will, for the greater part, be brought to ruin. This will be seen by the following facts, which came under my observation upon an estate where I have resided for some years, and which I can give as an average specimen of the whole country. (It must be remembered that I only speak of

the south of Russia; of the north I know comparatively nothing.) The estate in ques tion consists of about 40,000 acres of land, with about thirteen hundred serfs. Its principal productions are linseed, corn, and wool, which are all sold for exportation by way of the ports of the Azoff and Black Seas. These two seas having been closed for some time, all the raw produce remains rotting on the hands of the producer, with the single exception of wool, which finds a ready market in Germany, HAVING recently left the interior of Rus- being transported overland through Austria; sia, I think it my duty to lay before the public still the price diminished sensibly last year, on a plain statement of the results already pro- account of the increased cost of transport. I duced by the events that are now passing. will now proceed to state the details of the losses About the court and capitals I can give no in- experienced last year upon this one property formation, as I was only in them for a few The average income amounts to about £6000, days on my way home; but all that I advance out of which £1500 has to be paid as interest here relative to the particular part of the of the mortgage-for this, like most other escountry I have lived in so long, is the truth, tates, is mortgaged to the government. Last and to be relied on. I had the honor of giv-year there were about 1500 quarters of linseed, ing the same information to some of the high- which, sold on the spot, would fetch upon an est personages in the kingdom soon after my average 16s. per quarter. Of this not a bushel arrival, and apparently they did not think it has been sold; so, on this article alone, there without importance; so I have ventured to is a loss of £1200. The wheat grown was lay it before my country, trusting that what about the same quantity. The average price has hitherto been dark will now appear in the of wheat is 12s. per quarter, and now only a light of truth; for I have put nothing down limited quantity can be sold at 8s.; but, supthat did not come under my own personal ob- posing the whole to be sold at that price, the servation, or that I did not obtain from sources loss will still amount to £300. This, however, on which I could rely. I had thought of is not the case, and the loss is not less than publishing a larger work upon Russia, but £500 upon wheat. Last year the price of was deterred by reading the books already wool was, upon an average, 15 per cent. bepublished, which showed me that I should be low the usual price; in some instances there obliged to repeat much that has been already was a loss of 20 and 25 per cent; the quanwritten by abler pens, and which may be re-tity sold usually fetched about £1400-so lied upon; I have therefore confined myself there was another loss of more than £200. to what relates exclusively to the influence Upon this same estate there are kept about exercised upon all classes in the interior by eighteen thousand sheep, of which there are the war. There is, doubtless, much left un- generally sold every year two thousand for said that might be of interest, but of which I their tallow and skins, at an average price of possess no information upon which I can 7s. a-head; now, on account of the difficulties depend; and, true to my resolve of only of exporting tallow, the price is only 5s.,advancing what I know to be facts, I another £200 out of the pocket of the prohave left out all that is in any way doubtful. prietor. It will be seen by the foregoing stateI am quite unused to writing for the public, ment, that the income of the possessor of this and have employed my native language so lit-one estate is diminished more than one-third, tle of late years, that I trust the garb in which by restrictions laid upon trade by the closing I have clothed my truths will be excused if it of the ports of the Azoff and Black Seas; be a little foreign in appearance; for the heart and as this may be taken as a good criterion of the writer beats with a truly British enthusiasm, and breathlessly awaits the moment when his country will have triumphed over all her enemies.

The persons who are the greatest sufferers by the present war are the landed proprietors,

of the whole southern part of Russia, the loss is consequently something enormous. A few of the proprietors, it is true, sold their produce, at almost nominal prices, to merchants who speculated upon the results of the Conferences at Vienna, and bought up largely and

transported the corn to the different ports of eration of their vicinity to the seat of war, the south, to be ready to take advantage of are exempted from the militia of thirty in the the first opening of the trade, had the Con- thousand, which is being raised in the northferences led to the much desired peace. The ern governments. If they have not the miimmense quantities of corn destroyed during litia, they are subjected to exactions under the the late expedition to the Azoff, did not, as name of voluntary contributions. In the spring was stated, belong to the Russian government, of 1854 the estate was obliged to send forty but was the property of private speculators, oxen as rations for the troops then in the Daamong whom I know one who bought largely nubian provinces; at the same time there in wheat in the month of March, transporting were required five waggons, with a pair of it to Berdiansk, and I have no doubt he is a horses and a driver to each, which are to be very large sufferer by the late events. I do returned at the end of the war. These were not assert, however, that no portion of the for the transport of baggage and troops upon corn belonged to the Imperial government, an emergency; and it was upon them that the but certainly not more than a fifth of the armies who fought the battle of Inkermann whole quantity destroyed was intended for were transported last autumn. In the autumn the use of the troops, although it might have of the same year (1854) there were required all been seized for that purpose later in the half a pood (18 lb.) of biscuit from every war, under the name of voluntary contri- male serf for the army, which, for 1300, would butions. amount to 650 poods; but the proprietor of I have attempted to show the losses that the fered 1000 poods; which had to be made and present war occasions the land-owner, by the despatched in about three weeks. While the trammels it imposes on trade: we will now preparation of the biscuit was going on, there take into consideration the enormous taxes he came another order for ten waggons, with a is subjected to, in order that the government driver and a pair of horses to each, to be ready may be provided with means of carrying on and delivered up to the authorities in ten days, the war, or ruining him, which is synonymous. as the case was urgent. This was just before The most severely felt tax at all times is the the news of the descent in the Crimea reached conscription. This in time of peace does not us. take place oftener than once a-year, and the number of recruits required is generally seven from every thousand serfs; but since the war broke out there have been two conscriptions in the year 1854, and already one in 1855, each of twelve in the thousand, being, for eighteen months, thirty-six able-bodied laborers out of every thousand males, old and young together. I do not know what the proportionate number of able-bodied men there is in a thousand males, but the effective strength must be considerably diminished when such a large number is taken away. This is When the recruits are sent to the town to be examined and passed by the proper authorities, there must be for every twelve men at least eighteen more, in case the others should be rejected: these are sometimes kept away from their work two or three weeks, without any indemnity whatever. By this In the April of the present year, double statement it will be seen that, during the last the quantity of biscuit of that contributed last eighteen months, the possessor of the estate year was required; and as I travelled through have quoted above has given to the govern- the country in the month of May, I saw thoument forty-seven conscripts, being the pro- sands of tons piled outside the towns, ready portion of thirty-six in the thousand for for transportation to the army, which of course thirteen hundred, and lost the labor of about has to be done by the proprietors and peasseventy men for a space of fourteen days; ants of the crown. I met upon the road long which latter loss, at 6d. a-day, will be £24, 10s, strings of waggons going to load with this biswithout counting the entire loss of forty-seven cit, and stopped and talked with the drivers, men for ever. But every proprietor is obliged who were for the chief part peasants belongto pay a sum of money (about £8) to provide ing to the crown. They lamented bitterly the recruit with an outfit and arm him; this will their hard fate, being obliged to leave their give again a sum of £376 for the year and homes just as the haymaking was about to half. The southern governments, in consid- commence; and as they had to perform a

not all.

I

All these exactions were made just at the time when the harvest was going on-the end of August-so that the hands were of the greatest consequence to get all the corn housed before the autumnal rains broke up the roads and rendered the transport impossible. The number of oxen required to transport the biscuit was twenty pairs, which were absent nearly four months, as they had to carry it a long distance after the roads were broken up, and when the mud was knee-deep. A little later in the same year, there was required a number of oxen again for rations. I do not remember the exact number required; but having sent so many away with biscuits, and the murrain being very bad among the cattle at this time, instead of sending them, the proprietor forwarded to the proper authorities £90 in money.

journey of some 1500 versts, going and re- troops, in order to obtain sustenance, were turning, it would be late in the autumn be- obliged to disperse themselves over a large fore they reached their homes again, and con- tract of country, marching in a parallel direcsequently too late to make any preparations tion, and falling on the poor peasantry, whose for winter. Many of them said to me: "Ba- stock of winter provisions was only prepared tushka! we suppose that we are intended to for the wants of their own families; like lostarve this winter; last winter we suffered custs, eating up everything, and reducing the enough while the troops were passing, but now we shall not be able to provide anything for ourselves, for there are only the babas (old women) at home, and what can they do?

inhabitants to the greatest distress; while the male population, who generally earn something considerable with their horses during the winter, in transporting merchandise from The peasants of the crown are subjected to one fair to another, was engaged on the main many of the same exactions as the proprietors road in the transport of artillery and tumbrils, -I think to all of them, except only the wag- which, by the wise arrangements of the Rusgons, and about them I am not sure. I know sian government, had to be dragged over a they had to provide the biscuit just as their country covered to the depth of six or eight superiors had, and the oxen, too, for rations. feet with snow, upon wheels; so that tumbrils, It is, however, extremely difficult to ascer- which could have been drawn easily by four tain the amount of contributions exacted from or six horses if placed upon sledges, required these poor, miscalled free serfs; for the twelve or fifteen to move them with their employés by whom they are managed ex-large wheels imbedded in the snow. During act so much from them for their own use, say- a journey I was obliged to make in February ing that it is required for the service of the 1854, I met more than 500 tumbrils transgovernment, that it is impossible to distinguish ported in this laborious manner. It made my what is really for their use, and what for that heart bleed to see the treatment both horses of their master. The war is a rich opportuni- and peasants received at the hands of the solty for the employés to make money, because diery who were with them. When they came they make all their demands upon the peas- to a hill, they were frequently obliged to use ants without producing any written authority double, and even treble, the number of horses from a superior officer, merely stating, in their required on the level ground. Roads had to written or verbal orders, that certain articles be cut in some places through the snow, to adare required on such a date, and of course mit of the passage of the heavy artillery. The they are ready without any demur or inquiry, peasants are seldom kept at this work for as it may happen that the government actual- more than a fortnight together; but they are ly, in this particular instance, requires what is frequently a hundred miles from their homes; demanded: then the man who sought ocular so that after an absence of a month they redemonstration is considered refractory, and turn only to find their home swept clean by sent to Siberia to improve his manners, and the hungry warriors whose fighting materials to serve as an example to others, who, after they have transported with so much difficulty. this, will be ready to give all that is required That many died of the artificial famine causof them without inquiry.

ed by these preparations for glorious war, I Another exaction to which all the agricul- have no doubt. The Russian soldier, too, is tural population is subject, is the furnishing much imbued with a strong propensity for means to transport all the munitions of war thieving, and there is nothing he will not steal through the country. At the beginning they if the opportunity of so doing should present were paid for this service in a kind of govern- itself. Finding all the houses where they ment check, called contremark, which was re- were billeted without the master, of course ceived again at the treasury in payment of many of the little articles of furniture were the poll-tax; but since August 1854 this has missing after their visit. These things were been changed, and this service is paid in mo- generally taken to the next halting-place and ney-i. e., not paid at all, for the employés sold for brandy-only, perhaps, to be stolen pocket the money, which it is never prudent again by the next party. It frequently hap to ask the contremark was of no use to the pened that soldiers and recruits met in the employés, consequently the service was always same villages, and the number billeted in one accurately paid, but now the peasants get no-house was so great that the master and his thing but kicks and cuffs for their trouble. family were obliged to sleep out in the sheds The sufferings of the inhabitants of those with cattle, or upon the snow, for slujba (as villages situated on the lines of march taken the peasants call the soldier) must have his by the armies that traversed the country from lodging. Nor were the sufferings of the troops north to south, during the winter of 1853 and themselves less acute, marching as they did at 1854, were so intense that even the soldiers such an inclement season of the year. They themselves pitied them; and it takes something strive, however, to enliven their dreary marchto touch the heart of a Russian soldier. The es by songs and jests, for in every company

there is always a certain number of singers who march in front, led by a man with a tambourine or an old violin, who dances, sings military songs, of which the other singers take up the chorus, or else he cracks jokes at any one's expense. It is a curious sight to meet a party of soldiers in the midst of a snowy desert, where nothing is to be seen but snow below and snow above; for the very air is impregnated with it. These armed men are wending their way to destroy, or be destroyed, as the case may be.

with so much cloth or leather, as the case may be, and are required to return a certain number of articles ready for use; but the materials have already passed through the hands of the officials, who make their profit out of the affair by keeping back for their own use a good percentage of the materials, exacting at the same time the required number of articles. The poor tradesman has to make good the defalcations of this grasping rapacity out of his own pocket, besides the loss of the labor he is compelled to perform. Before I left the town The immense amount of misery the present where I was last May, I could not get a pair war is causing in Russia is little imagined; but of boots made, as all the bootmakers were that country cannot boast of its Times. Every-working opon this government work, to the thing is hidden from view; and only those detriment of their own interests and that who actually take part in these scenes, or are of their customers. For this work they get involuntary spectators, can know what is the a mere nominal price, the greater part of which real state of affairs. Even at St. Petersburg, goes into the pockets of the same men who nothing is known but what appears in official robbed them of their cloth; but they can obreports; so that in many instances far less is tain no redress for this, and look upon it as a known in that magnificent capital, of the state necessary evil. of the interior of the country, than in England, The merchants are not subjected to such where such excellent works as the English- heavy losses as might be supposed, considering woman in Russia are, or ought to be, universally the perfect annihilation of all external com read. Everybody is afraid to speak on these merce. It is true they are obliged to subscribe subjects, except to laud all the measures of the largely to the voluntary contributions for the paternal government. I remember an anecdote expenses of the war; but as nearly all busithat was current in Russia in the spring of 1854: ness is carried on with ready money, they A Russian, who had attained the rank of gen- merely withdraw their capital, and wait paeral in the civil service, spoke in the theatre tiently the course of events. It is among this of the absurdity of the returns of killed and class that the greatest number of patriots is to wounded published in the Russian papers. be found; for, as they understand no other The police master, who was present, over- language but their own, and are strongly athearing what he said, observed that he should tached to their country, not knowing any other, be obliged to report his words to the Count they get all their information of what passes, Orloff; for if he did not, somebody else pres- from the highly-colored misrepresentations that ent might, and he would fall into disgrace. The are published for them by the Russian governnext day the general received an intimation ment. They were enchanted with the patrithat it was the Emperor's pleasure that he otic verses, that were to be found in all the should join the army on the Danube im- Russian papers, describing the prowess and mediately, in order to satisfy himself of the victories (future?) of the holy Muscovite artruth of the returns, by counting the kil- mies. Lord Palmerston is represented to them led and wounded after each battle, and that as a monster, and the author of the war. In his military rank should be that of major. The one of these poetical effusions his lordship is same day there appeared, in the official ga- caricatured as a great warrior, who fights his zette: "Le conceiller d'état actuel, was battles on a map with his forefinger. Since received, by his own wish, into the army with the battles of Alma and Inkermann, these prorank of major!" It is extremely probable that, ductions have become less frequent. There is had these remarks been made in private, and one that appeared in the spring of 1854, that I reported, the consequences might have been must mention it is an allegory, composed by worse. Among those who feel the pressure of an actor, I believe; and relates that a Russian the war in the towns, are the working trades- molodetz (young man) was going quietly on his men, such as tailors and bootmakers. In all way, when he found his passage stopped by regiments there are a certain number of men three men-a turbaned Turk, a bearded who work for their comrades in time of peace, Frenchman, and a red-headed English mer making for them their clothing, boots, etc.; chant. With a few swings of his powerful but as now all are called upon to bear arms, they have to quit the needle and awl for the rifle and bayonet. The duty of providing the troops with their gray greatcoats falls upon the tailors, who are suffering enough from the depressed state of all trades. They are supplied

arm he made the Turk and Frenchman bite the dust, while the Englishman was glad to escape the same fate by surrendering the contents of his pockets to this fine fellow. These may serve as specimens of what is allowed to poison the minds of those who can read; while