Nikolai Gretsch's Travel Letters: Volume 1 - Letters from England

By Nikolai Gretsch

Nikolai Gretsch's Travel Letters is a fully translated English edition of a three-volume account published by Nikolai Gretsch (1787–1867) in St. Petersburg in 1839.  In the original Russian, Gretsch describes his travels in post-Napoleonic England, France, and Germany in 1837 at the behest of the Russian Empire.  His official task was to examine educational systems, but as he travelled, he also noticed the cultural norms in his surroundings, the history of each country, and the personal experiences of the people he met.  On his return home, Gretsch assembled his entertaining and often humorous personal observations into the edition that forms the basis for the present translation.  His astute observations provide a rich contemporary resource for information about the countries he visited, especially given his status as an outsider.  Additionally, as a result of his government position, Gretsch was able to move in social circles that would have been closed to many other people.  In England, he once found himself in the same room with Princess (the future Queen) Victoria, and in France, he dined with Victor Hugo.  Gretsch’s observations offer a treasure-trove of contextual information that will be valuable to anyone interested in cultural interactions during the nineteenth century.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anthem Press
• Release date: Aug 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781839980831

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Nikolai Gretsch’s Travel Letters

Nikolai Gretsch’s Travel Letters

Volume 1 - Letters from England

Translated, edited, and annotated by

Ben P. Robertson and Ekaterina V. Kobeleva

Anthem Press

An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company

www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2021

by ANTHEM PRESS

75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK

or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK

and

244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

© 2021 Ben P. Robertson and Ekaterina V. Kobeleva editorial matter and selection;

individual chapters © individual contributors

The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,

no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means

(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),

without the prior written permission of both the copyright

owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021942599

ISBN-13: 978-1-83998-081-7 (Hbk)

ISBN-10: 1-83998-081-8 (Hbk)

Cover Image: Naslednik, the steamer that carried Gretsch from St. Petersburg (Kronstadt) to Travemünde (Windjammer Museum, Barth, Germany)

This title is also available as an e-book.

To His Excellency

COUNT

EGOR FRANTSEVICH KANKRIN¹

a most assiduous dedication from

the Author

1 EGOR FRANTSEVICH KANKRIN : See Канкрин, Егор Францевич [Kankrin Egor Frantsevich, 1774–1845], П. Каллиников and И. Корнеева, comp., Русский Биографический Словарь , 20 vols. (Москва: ТЕРРА, 1998), 8: 69–72 (hereafter, РБС ). As the Russian Minister of Finance, Kankrin was Gretsch’s superior.

Isn’t wanting to be praised by the whole world

The same as trying to drink the sea?

Zhukovsky²

2 Isn’t wanting … Zhukovsky: From Epistles to Prince Vyazemsky and V. L. Pushkin, by Vasily Zhukovsky (1814). See Жуковский Василий Андреевич [Zhukovsky, Vasily Andreyevich, 1783–1852], РБС , 1: 162–71. See also В. А. Жуковский, Собрание сочинений в 4 т . (М.; Л.: Государственное издательство художественной литературы,1959), 1: 224–29.

PERMISSION TO PRINT IS GRANTED,

on condition that upon publication the statutory number of copies be presented to the Censorship Committee.

Saint Petersburg, 16th of June 1838.

Censor Pyotr Korsakov³

In the print shop of N. Gretsch

3 Pyotr Korsakov: See Корсаков, Пётр Александрович [Korsakov, Pyotr Aleksandrovich, 1790–1844], РБС , 8: 447–48.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

General Introduction

Chronology of Gretsch’s Life

Introduction to Volume 1

Preface

Letter I

Letter II

Letter III

Letter IV

Letter V

Letter VI

Letter VII

Letter VIII

Letter IX

Letter X

Letter XI

Letter XII

Letter XIII

Letter XIV

Letter XV

Letter XVI

Letter XVII

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

1.1Title page of volume 1 of Travel Letters from England, Germany and France (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.2Frontispiece to volume 1 (A View of Munich, with the city name in Russian and German) (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.3Portrait of Nikolai Gretsch (1837) after Franz Krüger (Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation)

1.4Portrait of Nikolai Gretsch. From Nikolai Gretsch, Notes on My Life, in Collected Works by N. Gretsch, ed. P. S. Usov (St. Petersburg: A. C. Syvorin, 1886), p. 588. (From the funds of State Public Historical Library of Russia; Из фондов ГПИБ Россия)

1.5Map of Gretsch’s route in 1837 (David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com)

1.6Gretsch’s signature as reproduced at the end of the preface (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.7Travemünde (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.8Greenwich (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.9Waterloo Bridge (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.10Westminster Abbey (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.11St. Paul’s Cathedral (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.12First page of Letter XII with engraving of Windsor Castle (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.13Dover (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.14Calais (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.15The Arc de Triomphe (Gretsch actually calls it the Gate of the Star, translating directly from the French name, La Porte de l’Etoile) (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

1.16Palace of Luxembourg (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

Cover Image: Naslednik, the steamer that carried Gretsch from St. Petersburg (Kronstadt) to Travemünde (Windjammer Museum, Barth, Germany)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project has benefitted from the support of a number of research institutions. We would like to express our thanks to the National Library (Российская национальная библиотека) of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg, the Russian State Library (Российская государственная библиотека) in Moscow, and the State Public Historic Library of Russia (Государственная публичная историческая библиотека России), also in Moscow. Thanks are due, also, to the British Library in London, the National Library of France (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) in Paris, and the German Digital Library (Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek) in Germany, as well as to the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische StaatsBibliothek), the Munich Digitization Center Digital Library (Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum Digitale Bibliothek), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), and the Vienna History Wiki (Wien Geschichte Wiki). We are grateful to the Windjammer Museum in Barth, Germany, for their assistance with information about the Naslednik and permission to use a photograph of a painting from their collection.

We also consulted material for this project at several facilities in the United States, including the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the National Portrait Gallery, all in Washington, DC. The Houghton and Widener Libraries of Harvard University were particularly useful, as was the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. Thanks are due, also, to the Powell Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, and to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. We are indebted, more locally, to the Draughon Library at Auburn University and to the Troy University Library.

The Hathi Trust Digital Library and Google Books—as well as their contributing institutions—have provided invaluable assistance.

We are especially grateful to the editors of the Русский биографический словарь (Russian Biographical Dictionary), the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the Nouvelle Biographie Générale (New General Biography), and the Deutsche Biographie (German Biography).

Special thanks are due to Dr. M. G. Shvetsova, Department of Linguistics, Vyatka State University, Kirov, Russian Federation, and to the anonymous reviewers who offered cogent and insightful critique of our manuscript.

Furthermore, we would like to thank our dean, Larry Blocher, and our department chairs, Stephen Cooper and Kirk Curnutt, for supporting this project with recommendations, and we also thank the Faculty Development Committee of Troy University for providing funding to help with travel expenses for research and conference presentations.

ABBREVIATIONS

Roman Alphabet

Cyrillic Alphabet

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

In 1837, Russian writer Nikolai Ivanovich Gretsch (Николай Иванович Греч, 1787–1867, see Figures 1.3 and 1.4, Portraits of Nikolai Gretsch) set out from the imperial Russian capital of St. Petersburg on a six-month journey through parts of England, France, and Germany.¹ As an official representative of the Russian government, Gretsch was tasked with examining trade and technical schools in the regions he visited. On his return to Russia, he would compile a lengthy report (not included here) about these schools to present to his superiors.

Figure 1.1 Title page of volume 1 of Travel Letters from England, Germany and France (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

Figure 1.2 Frontispiece to volume 1 (A View of Munich, with the city name in Russian and German) (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

Figure 1.3 Portrait of Nikolai Gretsch (1837) after Franz Krüger (Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation)

Figure 1.4 Portrait of Nikolai Gretsch. From Nikolai Gretsch, Notes on My Life , in Collected Works by N. Gretsch , ed. P. S. Usov (St. Petersburg: A. C. Syvorin, 1886), p. 588. (From the funds of State Public Historical Library of Russia; Из фондов ГПИБ Россия)

Not surprisingly, as he completed his trip, Gretsch took advantage of this tremendous opportunity to engage in extensive tourism. Along the way, he made notes about his adventures in the form of letters that he sent back to friends and family members in Russia, and he chose to publish some of these letters in the journal he coedited called The Northern Bee (Северная Пчела). After his return to St. Petersburg, Gretsch then compiled 41 letters into three volumes that he titled Travel Letters from England, Germany and France (Путевыя Письма изъ Англiи, Германiи и Францiи). The present volumes offer the first-ever, full English translation of Gretsch’s travelogue.

Gretsch’s Life

Nikolai Gretsch had a long and productive life. He was a teacher, translator, novelist, encyclopedist, journalist, editor, memoirist, literary critic, textbook writer, and government functionary. Born on 3 August 1787 in St. Petersburg, he completed his education in Russia before becoming a teacher in 1804, a role that he held at various institutions for many years. One of his first literary endeavors was the translation of anti-Napoleonic essays starting in 1806. He would later translate other material, including various German works.

Gretsch spent many years working for the imperial Russian government. He became an important member of the official St. Petersburg Censorship Committee in 1805 and held the position for 10 years. During this time, he also began editorial work for a journal called Гений Bремëн (Genius of the Times), for which he worked from 1807 until 1809 when, ironically, the journal’s run was terminated by the censor. Interestingly enough, Gretsch would go on to help write the censorship laws that went into effect in 1828.

Gretsch also married during this time—in 1808—and eventually would have five children, one of whom (Nikolai) is mentioned in the present volumes (see the end of Letter I, for example) as having died just before Gretsch’s journey began.

Gretsch traveled extensively. He studied in Paris in 1817 and 1818 and later would write five travelogues based on his voyages, one of which is, of course, Travel Letters from England, Germany and France. In his role as government official, he served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1829 to 1836 and the Ministry of Finance from 1836 to 1843. This latter position enabled his six-month tour through England, Germany, and France, by which point he held the rank of state councillor.

Gretsch was perhaps best known as a journalist, both as an editor and as a writer of literary criticism and reviews. He established the periodical Son of the Fatherland (Сын Oтечества) in 1812 and kept it in publication for nearly three decades (until 1839). As Ruth Sobel points out, Son of the Fatherland was one of the best Russian publications of its time, and Gretsch was able to recruit many well-known contemporary writers to contribute, including his friend Alexander Pushkin.² Gretsch became friends with Faddei Bulgarin in 1820 and began collaborating with Bulgarin on his periodical The Northern Bee in 1825.³ Gretsch officially became Bulgarin’s coeditor in 1831 and held the role until 1859. Over the years, The Northern Bee came to be widely recognized outside Russia as the semi-official organ of the Russian government.⁴ It was one of the main instruments by which the Russian government promulgated the Official Nationality doctrine introduced in 1833.⁵

Politically, Gretsch’s attitudes shifted during the course of his life. In his earlier years, he was a supporter of the Decembrists, who had revolted against Nicholas I in 1825.⁶ In fact, the emperor ordered secret surveillance over [Gretsch’s] journal and his person.⁷ Some readers may wonder about the shift in Gretsch’s attitudes toward the emperor and about why he might have given the Decembrists any support initially. He clarifies some of his thinking in the autobiographical Notes on My Life.

Gretsch points out that the Russian people had suffered a great deal under Emperor Paul I and actually rejoiced when he died.⁸ For example, the level of censorship under his rule was too strict, and Gretsch suggests that the notorious Spanish Inquisition was more lenient.⁹ The people were pleased with the accession of Alexander I, who held liberal ideas himself and tried to correct many of the abuses of his father’s administration.¹⁰ Gretsch refers to these as some of the best days of his life, although Alexander’s reliance on mysticism and religious fanaticism negatively colored the later years of his reign and pushed the country into more conservative tendencies.¹¹ This later tendency in Alexander’s reign, along with the unexpected accession of Nicholas I (his older brother Constantine unexpectedly refused the role of monarch), made the Russian people nervous. Many feared that Nicholas I would be tyrannical like his father Paul I had been just 25 years earlier.¹² Gretsch’s earlier liberal views can be explained, in part, because of this concern.

Moreover, Gretsch actually knew some of the key figures in the rebellion personally, and, in fact, they tried to recruit him to their cause on more than one occasion.¹³ Indeed, both Gretsch and Bulgarin came under close scrutiny by the government at the time. Gretsch devotes chapter 11 of his Notes on My Life to a lengthy discussion of this conflict and of the rebels, and ultimately, he suggests that most of them were misled by various circumstances in their opposition to the new government and by their exposure to French revolutionary ideals.¹⁴ The insidious influence of French ideas was everywhere.¹⁵ Gretsch even refers to himself as a notorious liberal early in his life because of the influence of French ideas during his stay in France in 1817.¹⁶ Even Sergei Uvarov, who was largely responsible for the Official Nationality ideology, had espoused more liberal ideas during previous years. Gretsch accuses him at one point of giving an ultraliberal speech, for which he would later put himself in a fortress.¹⁷ However, by the time Gretsch and Bulgarin started The Northern Bee in early 1825, Gretsch asserts that he had sobered up from liberal ideas.¹⁸

The version of Gretsch portrayed in the present volumes is that of a staunchly conservative royalist, as evidenced by some of the comments he makes about French revolutionaries. A few years later, he defended the Russian government against the Marquis de Custine’s La Russie en 1839 (Russia in 1839, published in 1843).¹⁹ According to Martin Malia, The tsarist empire appeared to [Custine] as a gigantic prison whose inmates, hounded by police spies, were afraid to speak frankly to one another, even to think for themselves.²⁰ Gretsch simply could not allow such criticism of his country to go unanswered.

Along with his editorial and journalistic roles as a writer, Gretsch also assumed the mantle of textbook writer, novelist, and memoirist. Ruth Sobel credits him with composing the first histories of Russian literature, and he also wrote extensive Russian grammar textbooks that ultimately became the standard for many years.²¹ One of his textbooks went through 11 editions.²² He also wrote two novels, the best-known of which was titled Black Woman (Черная Женщина, 1834). In his later years, Gretsch worked on his extensive memoirs, but he had not finished them when he died on January 12, 1867.

The Nature of Gretsch’s Travelogue

Gretsch never directly explains his reasons for publishing the travelogue, so readers are left to speculate based on the nature of the resulting volumes. However, he certainly must have had multiple incentives for publication. Like other writers, he probably hoped that others would follow his example, so he published the letters to encourage his fellow Russians to travel. In fact, Louise McReynolds points out that many writers of the time inspired readers to follow their paths, literally.²³ Gretsch also must have had personal gain in mind, hoping to sell enough copies of the travel letters to make a healthy profit. And finally, the travelogue also could serve the purpose of encouraging an official Russian view of Western Europe. After all, the volumes were published in Russian instead of in French, as other travelogues of the time had been in Russia, so they would have a broader audience than many similar travelogues.

In Authenticity and Fiction in the Russian Literary Journey, 1790–1840, Andreas Schönle points out that letters of the sort Gretsch published are either literary or on topics of everyday life and places Gretsch’s work in the latter category.²⁴ T. Roboli makes a similar observation, referring to Gretsch’s letters as semibelletristic rather than being truly literary.²⁵ In brief, Gretsch’s narrative records an actual journey rather than a journey of the imagination.²⁶ Gretsch does wax philosophical on occasion, but his primary focus is the exterior world rather than the intellect. Of the many travel accounts published in the nineteenth century, Roboli points out that one of the characteristic features is the extensive use of quotations and the interpolation of verse.²⁷ Gretsch’s narrative certainly follows the pattern, with dozens of borrowings from poetry and from other travel narratives and guidebooks. Indeed, current readers may lose patience with Gretsch’s many borrowings, but Roboli suggests that readers of the time expected this type of appropriation of other writers’ works, pointing out the fact that all this has already been said is of no concern; the process of narration itself is important.²⁸ McReynolds even suggests, in the context of a discussion of Catherine the Great, that translation of material into Russian often constituted a kind of Russification that extended cultural conquest.²⁹ Roboli also points out that this type of narrative tends to be quixotic, jumping from one topic to the next without a single unifying narrative thread.³⁰ In discussing Karamzin’s letters, Roboli says, "The main interest is focused not on the general, not on the typical, but on the individual, and rather than to the study of everyday life, attention is directed more to the anecdote, that is, a story based on some curious, entertaining or touching incident, which is, more often than not, associated with famous people."³¹ Again, Gretsch’s travelogue follows this established pattern.

The State of Europe in 1837

Historical accounts of European politics rightly place great emphasis on the unstable state of Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century.³² The American colonies had revolted against Britain at the end of the previous century to establish the United States, and shortly thereafter, the French Revolution had resulted in the execution of Louis XVI and the establishment of a new French republic.³³ However, Napoleon soon seized power in France and initiated years of bloodshed in his attempts to expand the French Empire.³⁴ By the time Gretsch made his journey in 1837, Napoleon had been dead for some time, but the effects of his actions were visible everywhere. Gretsch emphasizes the violence of the Napoleonic wars in all three volumes of the travelogue, condemning the French and their emperor for the massive destruction and loss of lives—even in Russia itself.³⁵

Although the French reestablished their monarchy with Louis XVIII, their government would undergo additional instability with the July Revolution of 1830 when Charles X was deposed and replaced with Louis Philippe.³⁶ Many historians see this revolution as the primary catalyst for similar insurrections in Belgium, Italy, Poland, and other parts of France.³⁷ Gretsch was very much a conservative by this point in his life, and he viewed these revolutions with distrust. Indeed, continuing dissent would result in another series of revolutions in 1848.

Although Gretsch was not comfortable with much of what he saw in France, he was considerably happier in England, where the traditional monarchy continued to rule. However, even the English were experiencing troubling times.³⁸ For example, rapid industrialization brought about massive increases in population in British cities, where workers began demanding better working conditions. The Reform Act had been passed as recently as 1832, and the new Poor Law had been enacted in 1834. The new Chartist Movement was gaining momentum, and the Anti-Corn Law League, which challenged the Corn Laws passed in 1815, also had been recently established. Everywhere Gretsch looked, he saw dissent.

Gretsch seems to have been most comfortable in Germany. The Holy Roman Empire was no more, and the German Confederation consisted of more than three dozen independent political units.³⁹ However, these units complied with established monarchical lines of succession, and Gretsch trusted this system better than he did that in France—or even in England. Some features of the German confederation were confusing—such as the monetary system, as mentioned in the introduction to Volume 3—but Gretsch simply admired the German tendency to uphold longstanding traditions and lines of royal succession.

Gretsch’s Itinerary

Nikolai Gretsch’s short trip, as he calls it in his preface, began in St. Petersburg, Russia, in May of 1837, but most readers today would not consider it short, either in terms of time or distance. In fact, Gretsch was gone from home for about six months and traveled around 7,500 km, or 4,700 mi.

The three volumes of the present edition are organized roughly with Gretsch’s experiences in England in Volume 1, in France in Volume 2, and in Germany in Volume 3. Gretsch did retain some overlap among the volumes; he actually describes entering France near the end of Volume I and Germany near the end of Volume 2.

Additionally, the political landscape of Western Europe at the time was much more complicated than these three larger divisions suggest. Germany, in particular, after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, consisted of a confederation of 38 kingdoms, duchies, and principalities.⁴⁰ Gretsch traveled through Mecklenburg, Holstein, Hesse, Hesse-Cassel, the Saxon Duchies, Saxony, Brandenburg, and Bavaria. He also entered Prussia and Austria, and he made his way through Bohemia. His route took him on a meandering pathway through present-day England, France, Germany, Czechia, Austria, the Ukraine, and Belarus.

The map reproduced in Figure 1.5, Map of Gretsch’s Route in 1837, roughly outlines Gretsch’s itinerary, marking only the larger cities through which he traveled. From St. Petersburg, he went to Kronstadt, Travemünde, Lübeck, Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Orfordness, Gravesend, Greenwich, London, Windsor, Richmond, Deptford, and Dover. He then traveled through the cities of Calais, Saint Denis, Paris, Versailles, Fontainebleau, Orleans, Blois, Valençay, Chambord, Reims, Chalons, Metz, and Strasbourg in France. After crossing the Rhine, he went through Baden-Baden, Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Gotha, Thuringen, Leipzig, Potsdam, Berlin, Dresden, Tharandt, Teplitz, Leitmeritz, Prague, Regensburg, Munich, Salzburg, Linz, Vienna, Lvov, Brody, Radzywillov, Kiev, Luga, and finally, home to St. Petersburg.

Figure 1.5 Map of Gretsch’s route in 1837 (David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com )

Gretsch does not explain the rationale for the route he took through Western Europe. Some of his travel decisions—to go to Blois, for example—seem to have been made at the last minute. In Letter XX, he mentions wavering about whether to travel there, only finalizing his plan after being encouraged by a friend to make the detour. Even the trip to London seems to have been calculated more for pleasure than for Gretsch’s official purpose of studying trade and technical schools. His final report does not discuss British schools, and he stayed very close to London, not bothering to venture into Scotland or Wales—or even to the rapidly growing industrial city of Manchester. Tim Youngs argues that advances in technology in terms of new forms of transport helped to inspire more travel and travel writing during the nineteenth century while fostering a new self-consciousness about tradition and the modern.⁴¹ In fact, Gretsch traveled by two of the new forms of transport Youngs mentions—the steamship and the railway—and that, in itself, may have affected his decisions in terms of the itinerary.

Notes on Translation

As is the case with any translation, rendering Gretsch’s letters into English has involved a number of complications. For readers interested in the details about many of the decisions made in creating this edition, we have included a section called Notes on Translation near the end of Volume 3. However, a brief summary of some of those decisions will suffice for most readers. We have done the following throughout the three volumes:

1. Romanized Gretsch’s name as Gretsch rather than Grech as a means of acknowledging the author’s German heritage (as well as the spelling on his grave marker in St. Petersburg and the way he spelled it in French even in Russia).

2. Identified as many proper names as possible.

3. Rendered Russian idiomatic expressions, as well as borrowings from other languages in English, as closely to the original meanings as possible. Poetry is rendered as prose.

4. Regularized all typography to avoid unnecessary confusion for readers who might not be familiar with the Blackletter Gothic typeface Gretsch uses for all German quotations—although we have retained the Eszett (ß, representing a double s in German).

5. Corrected Gretsch’s typographical errors silently and substantive errors with appropriate notes.

6. Identified Gretsch’s sources when possible, but without indicating how Gretsch changed the originals.

7. Indicated gender references in cases in