The question o f capital punishment in Russia was put before the State Council in 1 823, in connection with the forming of a scheme for a universal code. Some members of the Council interpreted the ukaz of 1 754 as having abolished capital punishment for all crimes, including state crimes ; but the majority of the members, relying upon the fact that in the text of the ukaz of 1 754 only common crimes were spoken of, and finding support in the practice of Catherine IL pronounced that capital punishment in cases of state crimes was juridically valid. Nicholas I availed himself to this later in awardmg the sentences for the Decembrist affair. (A.S. )
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but no one dared to confirm the sentence ; the hetman submitted the matter to the Tsar. 'They are a pack of women,' said Paul;
'they want to throw the execution on me: very much obliged to them,' and he commuted the sentence to penal servitude.
Nicholas reintroduced the death penalty into our criminal proceedings, at first illegally, but afterwards he legitimised it into his Code.l2
The day after receiving the terrible news there \'\"as a religious service in the Kremlin.13 After celebrating the execution Nicholas made his triumphal entry into Moscow. I saw him then for the first time ; he was on horseback, riding beside a carriage in which the two empresses, his wife and Alexander's widow, were sitting. He was handsome, but there was a coldness about his looks; no face could have more mercilessly betrayed the character of the man than his. The sharply retreating forehead and the lower jaw developed at the expense of the skull were expressive of iron will and feeble intelligence, rather of cruelty than of sensuality; but the chief point in the face was the eyes, which were entirely without warmth, without a trace of mercy, wintry eyes. I do not believe that he ever passionately loved any woman, as Paul loved Anna Lopukhin,14 and as Alexander loved all women except his wife; 'he was favourably disposed to them,'
nothing more.
In the Vatican there is a new gallery in which Pius VII, I l2 By the Code of Laws published in 1 832 the death penalty was pre·
scribed for political crimes. military crimes (in time of military operations) and crimes against quarantine regulations. (A.S.) l� Nicholas's victory over the Five was celebrated by a religious sen·ice in Moscow. In the midst of the Kremlin the l\1etropolitan Filaret thanked God for the murders. The whole of the Royal Family took part in the service. ' near them the Senate and the ministers and in the immense space around, packed masses of the Guards knelt bareheaded, and also took part in the prayPrs: cannon thundered from the heights of the Kremlin. Never ha,·e the gallows been celebrated with such pomp; Nicholas knew the importance of the \'ictory!
I was present at that sen·ice. a boy of fourteen lost in the crowd. and on the spot, before that altar defiled by bloody rites. I swore to a,·enge the murdered men. and dedicated myself to the struggle with that throne, with that altar. with those cannon. I have not a\·enged them: the Guards and the throne. the altar and the cannon all remain, but for thirty years I have stood under that flag and ha,·e ne,·er once deserted it. ( The Pole Star, 1 8'55.)
14 Paul's mistress. the daughter of Lopukhin, the chief of the Moscow police, better known under her married name as Princess Gagarin. ( Tr. )
' Nicholas I was not present. ( A .S.)
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believe, placed an immense number of statues, busts, and statuettes, dug up in Rome and its environs. The whole history of the decline of Rome is there expressed in eyebrows, lips, foreheads; from the daughter of Augustus down to Poppaea the matrons have succeeded in transforming themselves into cocottes, and the type of cocotte is predominant and persists; the masculine type, surpassing itself, so to speak, in Antinous and Hermaphroditus, divides into two. On one hand there is sensual and moral degradation, low bro"vs and features defiled by vice and gluttony, bloodshed and every wickedness in the world, petty as in the hetaira Heliogabalus, or with pendulous cheeks like Galb8 ; the last type is wonderfully reproduced in the King of Naples . . . . But tht:'re is anothe1·-the type of military commander in whom everything that makes a good citizen, everything human, has died out, and there is left nothing but the passion f01 domination; the mind is narrow and there is no heart at all; they are the monks of the love of power; strength and harshness of will are manifest in their features. Such were the Emperors of the Praetorian Guard and of the army, whom mutinous legionaries raised to power for an hour. Among their number I found many }wads that rl'called Nicholas before he wore a moustache. I understand the necessity for these grim and inflexible guards beside one \vho is dying in frenzy, but what use are they to one who is young, whose career is just starting?
In spite of the fact that political dreams absorbed me day and
'night, my ideas were not distinguished by any peculiar insight ; they were so confused that I actually imagined that the object of the Petersburg rising was, among other things, to put the Tsarevich Constantine on the throw•, whiiP limiting his power. This led to my being devoted for a whole year to that eccentric creature. He was at that timl' more popular than Nicholas; for what reason I do not know, but the masses, for whom he had never done anything good, and the soldiers, to whom he had done nothing but harm, loved him. I well remember how during the coronation he walked beside the pale-faced Nicholas with puckered, light-yellow, bristling eyebrows, a bent figure with the shoulders hunched up to the ears, wearing the uniform of the Lettish Guards vvith a yellow collar. After giving away the bride at the wedding of Nicholas with Russia, he went away to complete the disaffection of Vvarsaw. Nothing more was heard of him until the Z9th of November, 1 830.1 5
15 The date when the Polish rebellion bn:•ke out. (Tr.)
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My hero was not handsome and you could not find such a type in the Vatican. I should have called it the Gatchina16 type, if I had not seen the King of Sardinia.
I need hardly say that now loneliness weighed upon me more than ever, for I longed to communicate my ideas and my dreams to someone, to test them and to hear them confirmed ; I was too proudly conscious of being 'ill-intentioned' to say nothing about it, or to speak of it indiscriminately.
Yly first choice of a confidant was my Russian tutor.
I. E. Protopopov was full of that vague and generous l iberalism which often passes away \Yith the first grey hair, with marriage and a post, but yet does ennoble a man. 1\lly teacher was touched, and as he was taking leave embraced me with the words: 'God grant that these feelings may ripen and grow stronger in you.' His sympathy was a great comfort to me. After this he began bringing me much-soiled manuscript copies, in small handwriting. of poems: 'An Ode to Freedom' and 'The Dagger' by Pushkin, and Ryleyev's 'Thoughts'. I used to copy them in secret . . . (and now I print them openly ' ) .