Imperial sway
RONALD HINGLEY
The Rise of the Romanovs Vasili Klyuchev- sky, translated and edited -by Liliana Archi- bald, assisted by Mark Scholl (Macmillan 90s) Romanov Relations: The Private Corres- pondence of Tsars Alexander 1, Nicholas I and the Grand Dukes Constantine and Michael with their Sister Queen Anna Pav- lovna, 1817-1855 edited by S. W. Jackman, assisted by Berangere Steel (Macmillan 63s) Each in its different way, these two books help to unravel the complicated history of the Romanov dynasty which ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917. In The Rise of the Romanovs Mrs Archibald makes available to the English-speaking reader a classic of pre-revolutionary Russian historiography— V. 0. Klyuchevsky's Course of Russian History. Based on lectures originally de- livered at Moscow University in the 1880s, and later emended and expanded, the material in this volume covers the Russian seventeenth century before Peter the Great's accession in 1682.
Now that scholars ignorant of the Russian language are increasingly concerning them- selves with Russian history, the appearance of this study can only be welcomed, especi- ally as much useful footnoted information has been added. Unfortunately, however, the translation is by no means impeccable. It was also, surely, a mistake not to incor- porate the various sub-headings and sub- titles which enable readers to find their way about the 1956-59 Russian edition of the same work — Klyuchevsky not being the easiest of authorities to use for reference purposes.
In a particularly stimulating passage, Klyuchevsky analyses the penetration of Western European influence into a seven- teenth century Muscovy suddenly grown conscious of her comparative backwardness and anxious to make up lost ground. The process began in the military sphere with the hiring of foreign mercenaries—both to fight for Russia and to train the primitive Russian army of the day. A shin. the first unit of the future Russian navy, was built and launched on the Casnian Sea. only to be destroyed by Stenka Ra7in in the great peasant-Cossack rebellion of 1670-1. By now immiarant Susi-rich colonels. Dutch shin. wriehts and German mgcter-gunners had been followed into Russia by numerous foreign clock-makers, artists. water-diviners, smelters and wire-weavers until Moscow boasted a thriving satellite `German' town in which these useful but heretical aliens were segregated from the Orthodox native population.
On the dichotomy between Holy Russia and Western technology, and on the deep schism—not only religious—to which the impact of foreign influence gave rise in the seventeenth century (and which remains a live issue to this day), Klyuchevsky is par- ticularly illuminating. He also provides a scintillating profile of the Patriarch Nikon, the most notable and formidable Russian personality of the age. It should, however, be added that Klyuchevsky has produced anything but a definitive history of the Russian seventeenth century. that the level of his writing is uneven, that it is not properly documented, and that his highly technical material does not always blend harmoniously with the brilliant sketches of people and events with which it is inter- spersed.
The early Romanov Tsars—Michael. Alexis and Theodore III—were a primitive. uncouth breed by comparison with western European monarchs of their day ... and also by comparison with their own descendants over a century later. Skipping the interven- ing reigns of Peter the Great, Eliza- beth. Catherine the Great and smaller fry, we find an entirely different picture deployed in Mr Jgrkman's book. By the early 1800s the Tsars had long had the status of Tsar- Emperors. They and their close relatives were now chiefly German. not Russian, by descent—yet many of them spoke French better than any other language.
It is, accordingly, from that language that the correspondence, hitherto unpublished and now presented in Romanov Relations, has been translated. It consists of letters to and from Anna Pavlovna, youngest daughter of the Emperor Paul of Russia. She married William Prince of Orange. and herself be- came Queen of the Netherlands, while never forgetting that she had been born and re- mained a Russian Grand Duchess to whom supreme deference was due as member of an imperial house.
Queen Anna Pavlovna's family history was indeed a memorable one, not least be- cause her father Paul 1, and also her nephew Alexander II, were both assassin- ated by their mutinous Russian subjects. Being also daughter to the redoubtable Maria Feodorovna (Paul's Empress), as well as younger sister to the Emperor Alexander I and elder sister to the Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Anna Pavlovna was a natural focus for royal and imperial gossip and exchange of intelligence. The publication of these letters, accordingly, makes available a new historical source of some importance.
As this correspondence confirms, the Romanov Tsars of the period were not in every way fiends in human shape, such as they have sometimes been paraded by the creators of popular demonologies. They were courteous and sensitive in their family relations, and some of them were highly intelligent. Imbued with an intense sense of duty towards the country which they felt themselves divinely appointed to rule. they were not pleasure-seekers in private. Though the early nineteenth century Romanovs' addiction to military spit and polish was excessive by any standards, they were all more than mere drill sergeants. One figure in particular, the Tsarevich Constantine (who, in the early 1820s. resigned his rights as heir to the throne to his younger brother Nicholas), has often been regarded as a freakish martinet and no more. Here and elsewhere these letters will help to redress the balance.
Nicholas I, too. will be seen to greater advantage. That this urbane and civilised sovereign was capable of having mutinous peasants brutally flogged in the intervals between indicting these courtly epistles to his sister must also be conceded. That was, how- ever, at least an improvement on the seven- teenth century 'Most Gentle' Tsar Alexis (subject of a memorable portrait by Klyu- chevsky), in whose reign a humble citizen „ was sentenced to the amputation of a foot and hand for accidentally discharging a fire- arm near the royal palace when shooting jackdaws.
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