Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Irina Reyfman (top 10 novels of all time .txt) 📕

but only for the public good. Such was their fantasy about the greatness of their power that Tsars imagined that their slaves and servants, by constantly coming before their gaze, assimilated their radiance; that royal splendor by being refracted, so to speak, in these new reflections, appears multiplied and more sparkling. Such was their deluded idea that Tsars erected idols of the court, who like little godlings of theater, obey a whistle or a rattle. Let us review the degrees of court ranks and let us with a pitying smile avert our gaze from those who are proud of their service; but let us weep when seeing them preferred over merit. My steward, stable boy, and even groom and driver, cook, waiter, bird catcher and the hunters supervised by him, my room servants, the man who shaves me, the man who combs the hair on my head, he who cleans the dust and dirt from my shoes, not to mention many others, are deemed equal or superior to those who serve the fatherland with their spiritual and physical strength and for the fatherland spare neither their well-being nor blood, loving even death for the sake of the glory of their state. What good is it to you that cleanliness and tidiness reign in my home? Will you be fed heartily if my meal is prepared better than yours and if wine from all parts of the world is in my goblets? Will you be protected in your travels from inclement weather if my chariot is gilded and my horses are fat? Will a field produce for you better fruit, will your meadows be greener if they are trampled upon when animals are hunted for the sake of my enjoyment? You will smile with a feeling of pity. But the person will not be rare who in righteous indignation says to us: he who cares for the condition of your palaces; he who warms them; he who combines the fiery spice of equatorial plants and cold stickiness of northern animal fat for the delight of your weakened digestion and jaded palate; he who makes the sweet juice of the African grape foam in your glass; he who lubricates the round part of your carriage wheel, feeds and waters your horses; he who in your name wages a bloody war against the beasts of the forest and birds of the sky—all these parasites, all these panderers to your arrogance, like many others, are superior to me who shed streams of blood on the battlefield; who lost the most essential limbs of my body when defending your cities and palaces in which your timidity was veiled by a curtain of pomposity disguised as bravery; who pass my days of joy, youth, and delights in the saving of the smallest mite to lighten insofar as possible the general burden of taxes; who did not take care of my estate, working day and night in the quest for means to achieve general welfare; who trample kinship, friendship, the union of heart and blood, by declaring in court the truth in your name so that you will be loved. Our hair turns white amid our exploits, our forces are exhausted in the labors we have undertaken, and on the brink of the grave we scarcely earn your approval, whereas all those calves fattened on the teats of leniencies and vice, those illegitimate sons of the fatherland, will inherit our property.

This and even more, in fairness, is how many of you speak out. What shall we, holders of power, answer in return? Let us disguise our humiliation in indifference, but an enraged fury in our eyes will glare at those uttering in this manner. Often these are our answers to declarations of truth. And may no one be surprised when the best of us dares this sort of thing. He lives among flatterers, talks with flatterers, sleeps with flattery, walks in flattery. And flattery and toadying have made him deaf, blind, and dull.

May such a reproach not fall on us. Having conceived a hatred for flattery from youth, we safeguarded our heart from its poisonous sweetness even to the present day; and now a new effort in our love and loyalty toward you shall be manifest. Today we are eliminating the parity between court-based service and the military and civil service. Let the practice, to our shame having survived for so many years, be eliminated in our lifetime. May genuine merits and qualities, concern for the general good, receive a reward for their labors and be the only ones to be distinguished.

Having cast from our heart so unbearable a burden, long oppressing us, we shall reveal to you our reasons for the elimination of ranks so offensive to merit and worth.—The assertion is made to you, and our ancestors were of the same views, that the Tsar’s throne, the strength of which resides in the opinions of citizens, ought to be distinguished by its external brilliance in order that the idea of its majesty remain always perfect and unassailable. From this stems the opulent appearance of the rulers of nations, from this stems the troop of slaves surrounding them. Everyone must agree that external trappings may dazzle narrow minds and small souls. But the more enlightened a people, that is the more individuals it has who are enlightened, the less effect external appearance has. Numa was able to convince the still uncouth Romans that the nymph Egeria77 guided him in establishing the laws. The weak Peruvians willingly believed Manco Cápac78 that he was the scion of the sun and that his law descended from the heavens. Mohammed was able to entice the nomadic Arabs with his ravings. They all used trappings, even Moses took up the tablets of the commandments on the mount amidst the flashing of lightning. But now should anyone wish to entice, it is not a brilliant exterior he will need but the appearance of arguments, if one may put it that way, the