Church of St. Basil

We now visited the singular Church of St. Basil said to have been constructed for one of the Emperors who, after it was finished, tore out the eyes of the artist in order that he might not build another similar for any other monarch.  It is a singular [47]  building composed of several distinct chapels so arranged that services can be performed in them all at the same time, without the one disturbing the other.

We took a drive the next day to visit a branch of the Great Foundling Hospital of Moscow.  We were quite anxious to gain admission to the main part hwere the younger children were, but we were told by our lying valet-de-place, who had had some quarrel with the governor that it was repairing, and could not be seen.  So we were obliged to content ourselves with the smaller one, which however contains some 300 boys. The institution founded by Catherine II has under its protection 20,000 children of different [45] ages. In the larger branch of the habitation, there are 700  Wetnurses employed and once a week different peasants, come into town, and being known to the Directors, are allowed to take one of the young children with them to bring up, being paid a small sum for their care.  The major part of the children formerly were illegitimate.  No questions were asked when they were left—if but a small sum was left along with them, the boys were made officers in the army, and the girls governesses—if no money was left at the time, they were brought up to some useful trade.  Their education is well attended to, and they are particularly instructed in any one branch that it is found their talents are adapted to.  Each child on entering the institution has a numbered token attached to its’ neck a duplicate of which is given to the parent, who by this can reclaim the child whenever they may feel disposed to.  The children after leaving pay some sujm annually, for a certain [46] length of time to the Institution.  The 300 boys that we saw were all occupied at trades or their studies . [The] Establishment is kept in admirable order, with fine dormitories, a hospital, &c.  We saw them enter the room for dinner, marching in regular order and each standing behind his seat, then at a signal given they all commenced singing in a manner I have never heard surpassed by boys.  Music, Painting, drawing &c &c are well taught.  The expense of such an Establishment is necessarily enormous, though the Emperor by means of it obtains annually many for his army.  Different rules are being made relative to separating legitimate from the illegitimate children__________ 

Fedor Alekseev and his pupils. The Foundling Hospital in Moscow.1800-1802.
Watercolour on paper. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

After leaving the interior of the Kremlin we passed by the Spaskoi [sic] Gate or Holy Gate, under which no person can pass without uncovering the head, and the Russians are so particular with regard to this that it is said, no bribe would induce one of them to pass under this gate with his hat on, were he not compelled to doff it by the Sentinel who stands always by--- The reason of its great sanctity, I cannot find.  ‘Tis dedicated to some saint I believe.  

Spassky Gate, Kremlin

Born to Command

We were shown in another room the saddles of Catherine II.  We had seen in another room a portrait of this singular woman, in her favorite manner of appearing before her guards, mounted and dressed as a man, and really she looked as if she were born to command.  Her saddles were completely covered with jewels and certainly very rich, but do not now seem so much so, since I have seen the magnificent ones presented by the father to the Emperor.  Below we were shown several old state carriages & sleighs made at different times and in different countries, driven in things they [covered], almost like a parlor with sofas, mirrors &c within, and requiring some two dozen horses to draw them.  In still another room we were shown the model of a building which Catherine II intended once to have [43] enclosed the whole of the Kremlin with—which project however she abandoned as man others of the same kind, well, perhaps for her purse, as it certainly was for the beauty of Moscow.  It was a great piece of work and if carried out according to the model must have cost an immense amount of money.  

More on Siberian-bound convicts; Rev. Baird describes their crimes

Rev. Robert Baird, temperance campaigner 

The wagons now brought up the rear of the band, and to the sound of a military drum, these poor creatures commenced their march to a place from which the majority were never to return.  We saw them leave, surrounded by his Majesty’s   [31] troops, and long after they had departed we could hear the clanking of their chains which made a proper accompaniment to their helpless march.-----I met on this ground the Rev^d Mr Baird of Paris, and he gave us some of the various crimes—among them we saw some few in other respects like their fellows excepting their chains, and these we were told were Nobles, a singular distinction made for their stile.   There were some few in this band who were convicted of murder, but the majority were sentenced for some trivial offence, a petty theft, or an attempt to rebel against some demand of their owners.  These latter were sent to what is called the nearer Siberia for colonizing, and the former to the mines.  

Convicts destined for Siberia

Turning from our view of the city & the thoughts occasioned by it, of its former history, we [28] passed a short distance to the right to a building guarded by [Sentinels?], not looking much like a prison though strongly barred with iron.  We arrived a few moments before the prisoners were brought out, and leaving our carriage, stationed ourselves before the main gate of the building in front of a number of troops formed in a square waiting for the appearance & purpose of conducting & guarding the Convicts.  In a few moments, the gate was opened and we heard the voice of the officer on duty call out a name, and out stepped one of the unfortunate beings destined to spend the remainder of his days as a prisoner in Siberia.  He was dressed as well as his fellows in the Convict’s dress of a mixed home-spun cloth, making a cloak & pants and a pair of boots.  One half of his head [29] was shaved making his appearance singular indeed, whilst the other half of his head was, au naturel.  He had an iron chain fastened to either ancle, and kept suspended, (so as not to interfere with his walking) by a belt tied around his waist.  In this manner were some eighty-odd of these beings dressed preparatory to their weary journey from Moscow.  Amongst these we now and then saw a female, some as convicts and others following their husbands to their place of Banishment.  In front of the band ranged out in order, stood an old man with a plate in his hand collecting some small favors from the few spectators and officers standing about .The gate was now opened wide and out drove some half dozen wagons with luggage and those convicts who were too [30] old or too infirm to walk this six week journey. Here and there you could see a little baby in the arms of its mother, unconscious of course of its destination & future life.  There was an old woman in one of the wagons whose countenance I think I shall never forget.  She must have been near seventy years of age as dark as a Bohemian who was sitting beside her, and as she left the gates of the prison, her face expressed more than words could ever do; before her was an old man probably her husband and she was casting her lot still with him..  

Napoleon's Moscow

One Evening at Moscow we took a short drive out on the road by which Napoleon entered the City.  There is an Eminence at a short distance from the City, which [27] would shut out the view of Moscow from one approaching it from the opposite side.  Was this that the great personification of Ambition, of good & bad deeds, after leading his weary soldiers through the snows of Russia, harassed on all sides by the waiting Cossacks, first saw the end of his journey, and how taking up a handful of the Earth, turned to his followers and cheered them wit the words which in his mouth seemed almost equivalent to Victory “Voici la terre de Moscou.”  A few days afterwards and this great army left the place of their destination, a broken band and Napoleon wended his way to Paris, his confidence in his Omnipotence somewhat reduced from the place where he put it---- 

Moscow truly foreign--the city after the fire of 1812

The burning of Moscow

Our driver brought us to the top of an elevated piece of ground when we turned and beheld the city at our feet, the Moskva winding through the city and [26] losing itself on our left in the midst of a pretty country for this part of the world.  I have been so long away from home, and have been so accustomed to visiting new places, and considering them for the time being as my real home, that people and places now remind me of really being as far distant from my native land as I naturally am, but looking at Moscow from this height I was forced to think that I was truly in a foreign land.  All that I had heretofore viewed had been European (so to speak), modern—in fact in some degree like America, but this was new.  I beheld before me that which I had before seen in imagination only, and [illeg.] to myself as Asiatic, Oriental, in the times of the Caliph, in fact as something which belonged to another race of people.  Moscow of course is in a great degree modern as regards its’ buildings, yet when its Churches [26] & Mosques were burned as well as its private residences, in 1812, they have generally been rebuilt after the same models, and though often new in materials, are old in style.  This burning of Moscow has of late caused many words pro & con.  As regards the Great Conqueror who here first felt himself somewhat at least subdued, the Russians themselves universally deny the charge of having fired the City & place the fact upon the Soldiers of Napoleon.  By so doing I must say I think they destroy much of the romance of history attributing the deed to their determination, that if the Emperor entered Moscow that he should do so after its glory had departed.  

The view of Moscow from Sparrow Hills (Воробьёвы го́ры)

View of Moscow from Sparrow Hills - Ivan Aivazovsky, 1848

It was three o’clock on Sunday morning that we stopped before the gates of Moscow and in the course of an hour afterward enjoying ourselves most luxuriantly in a place where we could kick an English bed, at W. Howards, the best hotel in Moscow (said to be so at least—though ‘tis making the others out to be most villainous.  ‘tis kept by an Englishman & wife, and a more parsimonious old couple I never want to see in the shape of Host & Hostess, however I have finished with them).  We arrived on Sunday Morning [24] greatly refreshed, and determined as soon as possible to finish our signt seeing in order to be again at the Capital for the Fête. Sundays in Russia are the same as in France, little or no distinction is made from other days. ---We took a carriage and four horses, abreast as usual (no carriage will leave the city with less than four horses), in order to go out to what is called Sparrow Hills, where we should be able to obtain a fine view of Moscow & also see the poor Convicts depart in chains for their long march to Siberia.  There is no English church we were told in Moscow, and in driving through the city we scarcely saw an English face, though I believe there are many there as in every city of the World.   And now we obtained the first view of the city of Mosques, and Tartars.  It was so late the previous evening when we arrived that one could get no view of it [25] all in passing through its streets, some here and there, some silvered dome would glisten in the starlight, and some tall steeple would shew itself from amidst the surrounding buildings.  Moscow is the most singular city in Europe—perfectly Oriental in its appearance, and carrying on at once to the times of the Prophet. Mosques, domes, minarets, & spires are on every side of you.  Look where you will and your eye will rest upon some edifice of worship called by what term you will presenting its half-a-dozen spires or domes, gilded, silvered, or spangled,  or of a deep blue, now a green and then one burnished like gold, the Greek Cross surmounting all, with here and there the Turkish Crescent beneath the cross.

The Greek Church

Though such wild furious looking fellows, they are said to be very harmless, and as I can say from experience are most strangely polite to every one.  In their small log villages you may see a crowd standing lazily about, and another of their acquaintance coming up on his dirty sheep skin is received by them all, with uncovered heads in fact as polite as a Frenchman.  In these poor starving towns, with no building there better than a dirty log hut, you universally on this route find one or more really noble looking churches and mosques.  In this part of Russia, as in Moscow they have copied the houses of worship from the Turks, and their church is generally formed like a mosque, with its half-a dozen colored & spangled [22] domes and minarets.  In the Greek Church, in most respects just like the Catholic, there is apparently much more superstition than in the Roman—certainly true in the lower classes of Society, or I should say life [?].  The people seem  completely devoted to the forms at least of religion. It is one canon of the Greek church to admit no images into their churches, yet walk into them and you will find them filled with pictures, of Saints, Madonnas, Christs, & yet almost universally with the bodies of the figures covered with silver or gold leaving the head, hands & feet only visible, and before one of these virgins, you will see some sheep-skin-clad serf placing his penny candle and prostrating his body ‘till his forehead touches the pavement, rising and crossing himself for an half hour at a time without cessation, and all the while muttering over some form of prayer to the Holy Mother, or other saint whose likeness [23] is before him.  As far as I can judge they are as much worshippers of idols as the Heathen of old.  You cannot in St Pg or in fact in any part of the Empire pass a church without seeing before it every minute of the day some one stopping taking off his hat and crossing himself frequently and apparently & I believe sincerely devoutfully and then going on his way.

Preparing for Moscow

We have now been hesitating for some time as regards taking a trip to Moscow, and have now finally concluded on starting immediately hoping to be able to return in time to witness the Entry of his Majesty [Emperor Nicholas I]  into the Capital, but it is so undecided and he is so fond of taking the people by surprise, that no one knows when it will take place, and it is useless for us to wait much longer, as the season [15] is getting to be so late, that if deferred we should be obliged to give up the trip altogether.  Orders have been given by the Police to every household to keep themselves in readiness for an illumination at any moment.  Have been to the Chancery Office where we were again examined as usual, and given a paper allowing us by presenting it at the Police office, to obtain a fresh passport for Moscow, presented ourselves at the Police Office General, and after again answering all the questions once again, and paying twenty-five paper roubles, &c, about five dollars.  We obtained a pass for Moscow, the Police retaining our original Passports until we may leave the Empire.  Four of us in Company (Americans) obtained a Diligence and guard and at 2 o’clock P.M. of Wednesday 16 Sep we started for the city of Moscow.  The road is the only good one in all Russia, being McAdamized its entire length which is here measured by Versts, the Verst being equal to about ¾ of a Mile English. [16]  The distance between the cities is some 670 Versts making about 500 miles, and this was to be accomplished without our stopping at all on the road excepting for Breakfast & Dinner.