Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow Irina Reyfman (snow like ashes .TXT) 📖

had acquired. I found many similar to the sheet I had already read. I consistently encountered the character of a philanthropic heart, consistently saw the citizen of future times. More than anything it was clear that my friend had been stunned by the inequality of civilian rankings. A large bundle of papers and legal sketches concerned the abolition of slavery in Russia. But my friend, knowing that the supreme power in Russia lacked sufficient strength to change opinion immediately, had sketched a way forward for incremental legislation toward the gradual emancipation of landworkers in Russia. I shall here demonstrate his train of thought. His first regulation concerns the distinction between rural serfdom and domestic serfdom. The latter is abolished first, and nobles are forbidden to take into their homes all rural dwellers and anyone registered in the census. Should a landowner take a landworker into his home as a servant or laborer then the landworker becomes free. Serfs should be permitted to enter into marriage without requiring the agreement of their master. A bride-price should not change hands in the process. The second regulation relates to property and the defense of landworkers. They should own as their property the parcel of land they cultivate since they pay their own poll tax. Property acquired by a peasant should belong to him; let no one deprive him of it on a whim. The landworker should be restored in the status of citizen. It is appropriate that he will be tried by his equals, in peasant courts, for which the jury selection be made from serfs as well. The peasant is to be permitted to acquire fixed property, that is to buy land. He will be permitted the unrestricted acquisition of freedom by paying the master an agreed sum for manumission. Arbitrary punishment without trial is to be forbidden. “Disappear barbaric custom, perish power of tigers!” proclaims our legislator…. The complete abolition of slavery follows this.

Among the many decrees relating to the restoration, insofar as possible, of equality of citizens I found the Table of Ranks.73 How anachronistic it is in the present day, and inadequate, each can imagine himself. But presently the bell on the tracing rein of the middle horse rings and summons me for departure; and for that reason I decided that it would be better to think about what is more suitable for the traveler by coach: that his horses proceed at a trot or amble; or what is more suitable for the postal nag, whether to be an ambler or charger—better this than to get caught up in what does not exist.

VYSHNY VOLOCHOK

I have never driven past this new city without going to see the locks here. The first person who conceived the idea of imitating nature in its positive actions and to create an artificial river in order to establish a better nexus connecting all the ends of the region deserves a monument for most distant posterity. When for natural and moral reasons current powers collapse, when their gilded fields become overgrown by brambles, and grass snakes, serpents, and toads hide in the ruins of the magnificent palaces of their proud rulers, then the curious traveler will find eloquent remains of their magnificence in commerce. The Romans built great roads, aqueducts whose durability amazes to this day and rightly so. But they had no concept of the interconnected waterways that currently exist in Europe. Our roads will never be the like those of the Romans. Our long winter and the hard frosts prevent it, but even without lining canals will take a long time to disappear.

More than a little delight was afforded me by the sight of the canal at Vyshny Volochok full of vessels loaded with grain and other merchandise being prepared to pass through the locks for their sailing onward to Petersburg. Here we could see the true abundance of the land and the surpluses of the landworker. Here, plain and visible in all its brilliance, was the powerful stimulus to human actions: the profit motive. But if at first glance my mind was pleased by the sight of prosperity, my rejoicing soon dissipated on the breaking down of my thoughts into parts. For I recalled that many landworkers in Russia do not work for themselves; and therefore in many regions of Russia the productivity of land demonstrates the oppressed lot of its inhabitants. My pleasure changed into indignation comparable to my feelings when in the summertime I walk on the pier at the customs station, gazing on the ships that transport to us America’s surpluses and her expensive products, like sugar, coffee, pigments, and other items in which the sweat, tears, and blood drenching them during their production have yet to dry out.

“Imagine,” my friend said to me once, “that the coffee poured into your cup, and the sugar dissolved in it, deprived someone just like you of rest, that they caused him to make exertions beyond his strength, caused his tears, groans, punishment, and abuse. Hard-hearted one, go on, dare to slake your throat.” The look of disapproval accompanying this speech shook me to my inner core. My hand began to tremble and the coffee spilled.

And you, O residents of Petersburg, who feed on the surpluses of the productive regions of our fatherland at magnificent feasts or at a friendly dinner, or on your own, when your hand picks up the first piece of bread designated for your satiety, stop and think. Might I not tell you the same thing that my friend told me about products of America? Might it not be through sweat, tears, and groaning that the fields on which it grew have been fattened? Blessed are you if the piece of bread you hunger after derives from grains originating in a field classified as state property; or at least in a field that pays quitrent to the landowner. But woe unto you if its dough is from grain collected in a granary belonging to a nobleman. Woe