They lived quite apart from the Russians and avoided all contact with the inhabitants. There was great unanimity among them, and the rich shared with the poor like brothers.
On the part of the inhabitants I never saw signs of either hatred or special good-will towards them. They looked upon them as outsiders-the more so, as scarcely a single Pole knew Russian.
One tough old Sarmatian, who had been an officer in the Uhlans in Poniatowski's time and had taken part in Napoleon's campaigns, recf:'ived permission in 1 83 7 to return to his Lithuanian domains. On the eve of his departure he invited me and several Poles to dinner. After dinner my cavalry oflicf:'r came up to me, goblet in hand, embraced me, and with a warrior's simplicity whispered in my ear, 'Oh, why are you a Russian!' I did not anS\VPr a word, but this observation sank deeply into my heart. I realised that this generation could never set Poland free.
From the time of Konarski7 the Poles have come to look quite differently upon the Russians.
As a rule Polish exiles are not oppressed, bu t the material situation is awful for those who have no private means. The of Biron. was t>x ilPd hy El izabeth. and finally hroup;ht hack from Siberia hy CatherinE'. ! Tr.)
7Simon Konarski. a Polish rpvolutionary. also active in thl' 'Young Europe' ( aftNwanls 'Young I taly' ) movement, lived in disguist> and with a falst> passport in Poland. fouJl(l ing a printing prt>ss and ca rrying on actiw propap;anda till ht> was caught and shot at Yilna in 1 8 39. His admirPrs cut tlw post to which ht> WilS tit>d into hits which tht>y presPned, l i ke the rPlics of a saint. !Tr.) An a t tt>mpt to l ihPrate Konilrski from tlw prison il t Vilna was madP hy a SPcrN organis<llion of Russian officers
!waded hy Kuzmin-Kilrayev. ( /l .S.)
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government gives those who have nothing fifteen paper roubles a month; with that they must pay for lodging, food, clothes, and fuel. In fairly big towns, in Kazan and Tobolsk, it was possible to earn something by giving lessons or concerts, playing at balls, executing portraits and teaching dancing. In Perm and Vyatka they had no such resources. And in spite of that they would ask for nothing from Russians.
Tyufyayev's invitations to his greasy Siberian dinners were a real imposition on me. His dining-room was just like the office, but in another form, less dirty but more vulgar, because it had the appearance of free will and not of compulsion.
Tyufyayev knew his guests through and through, despised them, showed them his claws at times, and altogether treated them as a master treats his dogs: at one time with excessive familiarity, at another with a rudeness which was beyond all bounds-and yet he invited them to his dinners and they appeared before him in trembling and in joy, demeaning themselves, talking scandal, eavesdropping, trying to please, smiling, bowing.
I blushed for them and felt ashamed.
Our friendship did not last long. Tyufyayev soon guessed that I was not fit for 'high' Vyatka society.
A few months later he was dissatisfied with me, and a few months later still he hated me, and I not only went no more to his dinners but even gave up going to him at all. The Heir's passage through Vyatka saved me from his persecution, as we shall see later on.
I must observe that I had done absolutely nothing to deserve first his attention and invitations, and aftenvards his anger and disfavour. He could not endure to see in me a man who behaved independently, though not in the least insolently; I was always en regie with him, and he demanded obsequiousness.
He loved his power jealously. He had earned it the hard \vay, and he exacted not only obedience but an appearance of absolute submission. In this, unhappily, he was typically native.
A landowner says to his servant. 'Hold your tongue; I won't put up with your answering me back ! '
The head o f a department, turning pale with anger, observes to a clerk who has made some objection, 'You forget yourself; do you know to whom you are speaking?'
The Tsar sends men to Siberia 'for opinions,' docs them to death in dungeons for a poem-and all these three are readier to forgive stealing and bribe-taking, murder and robbery, than the
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impudence of human dignity and the insolence of a plain-spoken word.
Tyufyayev was a true servant of the Tsar. He was highly thought of, but not highly enough. Byzantine servility was exceptionally well combined in him with official discipline. Obliteration of self, renunciation of will and thought before authority went inseparably with harsh oppression of subordinates. He might have been a civilian Kleinmikhel ; his 'zeal' might in the same way have overcome everything,8 and he might in the samP
way !wve plastered the walls with the dead human bodies, have used living men's lungs to dry the damp walls of his palace, and have flogged the young men of the enginPering corps even more severely for not being informers.
Tyufyayev had an intense, secret hatred for everything aristocratic ; he had kl'pt this from his bittPr experiences. The hard labour of Arakcheyev's secretariat had been his first refuge, his first deliverance. Till then his superiors had never offered him a chair, but had employed him on menial l'rrands. When he served in the commissariat, the officPrs had pPrSPCUtPd him, as is tlw custom in the army, and onP colonPl had horsewhipped him in thP street at Vilna . . . . All this had enterPd into the copying clerk's soul and rankled thPre; now he was governor and it was his turn to oppress, to kPep men standing, to call people 'thou,' to raise his voice more than was necpssary, and sometimes to bring gentlemPn of ancient lineagp to trial.
From Perm TyufyayPV had been transferrPd to Tver. The gPntry of the province, for all their submissiveness and servility, could not put up with him. They petitioned the minister, Bludov, to n•movl' him. Bludov appointed him to Vyatka.
There he was quitp at home again. Officials and contractors, factory-owners and government clerks-a free hand, and that was all hP wantl'd. EvPryone trembled hP forP him, evPryone stood up when hP came in. Pwrvonl' offPrPd him drink and gave him dinners, l'VI'ryonl' waitPd on his slightt>st wish ; at wl'ddings and namP-day partiPs, the first toast was 'To tht> health of His ExcPllencv!'
A The motto o f the roat o f nnns �rant('d by Nirholns I t o Count Kl('inmikhel WilS 'Zeal OYerromcs nJJ.' ( !l.S. )
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Misgovernn1ertt ill Siberia
ONE OF THE most melancholy results of the Petrine revolution was the development of the official class. An artificial, hungry, and uncultivated class, capable of doing nothing but 'serving,'
knowing nothing but official forms, it constitutes a kind of civilian clergy, celebrating divine service in the courts and the police forces, and sucking the blood of the people with thousands of greedy, unclean mouths.