AND THE RUSSIANS, IN 1842. BY J. G. KOHL, ESQ. VOL. I. PETERSBURG. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1842. PREFACE. When natives of other European countries have resided for some time in Russia, and on their return home express themselves unfavourably respecting what they have seen and heard there, the Russians are accustomed to charge them with ingratitude, and to say, "We gave you a kind and cordial reception; you enjoyed yourselves while you were among us, and now in return you traduce us behind our backs, betray the confidence that we placed in you, and proclaim our secrets to all the world.” Foreigners, on the other hand, and the Germans more especially, are prone to mistrust all praise that is bestowed on their eastern neighbours. They know that much among them is but fair outside, and as they, moreover, feel an antipathy to the Russians because they fear their plans of conquest, they are strongly disposed to discredit all that is said in their commendation. Hence they are apt to look upon every one who expresses himself kindly, or, at least, not inimically, concerning the Russians, as not a good patriot, and to suspect him of apostacy from the cause of his country. The fact is, that when we turn over the various books that have been written upon Russia, we are obliged to confess that very often the Russians are perfectly justified in those complaints, as well as the people of other countries in these surmises. The author of the Sketches of Petersburg here presented to the public conceives that in his book there will not be found any cause for two such heavy charges as ingratitude on the one hand, or want of patriotism on the other. It is true that he resided for a considerable time in Russia, that he there made the acquaintance of many most respectable persons, and gained the intimacy of many a friend, whom he shall ever hold in grateful remembrance; it is true that he, therefore, deems it an imperative duty not to make public whatever was communicated to him, though but tacitly, under the seal of silence; it is true that he has accordingly abstained from all mention of names, from any even the most distant allusions, either in praise or censure of individuals, not undervaluing the right which every private man has to keep his character and his domestic concerns exclusively for himself and his family, and from exposure of any kind, either in a good or a bad spirit, to the eye of the public. Still he is far from considering that the rights of hospitality extend so far as to render it a duty for the stranger to avoid the frank expression of his opinions upon a foreign country, and to act the part of its unqualified panegyrist. For, in this case, precisely, their mouths would be closed who are best qualified to do acceptable service to the historical and ethnographic sciences, and truth concerning the character of nations and states could be learned only from traitors to friendship. He hopes, therefore, that if this book should meet the eye of some of his friends in Russia, they will peruse it without soreness or anger, and admit that, if he has flattered nobody, still less has he slandered or injured any one; and that he has not committed injustice in assigning to his own country a higher place than to theirs. So he ventures to hope also, on the other part, that if he now and then praises things which he has seen in Russia, in contradiction to prevailing opinions, nay, if he occasionally manifests a sort of affection for the people of Russia—and who is there that can help contracting a bias towards an object that he has contem |