Nikolai Gretsch's Travel Letters: Volume 2 - Letters from France

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: 9781839980862

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Nikolai Gretsch’s Travel Letters

Nikolai Gretsch’s Travel Letters

Volume 2 - Letters from France

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: 978-1-83998-084-8 (Hbk)

ISBN-10: 1-83998-084-2 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

Introduction to Volume 2

Letter XVIII

Letter XIX

Letter XX

Letter XXI

Letter XXII

Letter XXIII

Letter XXIV

Letter XXV

Letter XXVI

Letter XXVII

Letter XXVIII

Letter XXIX

Letter XXX

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

2.1Title page of volume 2 of Travel Letters from England, Germany and France (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

2.2Frontispiece to volume 2 (A View of Vienna, with the City Name in Russian and German) (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

2.3Palace of Versailles (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

2.4Palace of Fontainebleau (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

2.5Reims Cathedral (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

2.6Kreuzberg Monument (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

2.7Tharandt (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

2.8Kulm Monument (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

ABBREVIATIONS

Roman Alphabet

Cyrillic Alphabet

Figure 2.1 Title page of volume 2 of Travel Letters from England, Germany and France (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

Figure 2.2 Frontispiece to volume 2 (A View of Vienna, with the City Name in Russian and German) (Typ 858 38 4355, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 2

By the end of Volume 1, Gretsch already has recorded his entry into France and mentions having been there for some time. With the first part of Volume 2, he begins his in-depth exploration of important French historical sites as he moves through Paris and other cities like Versailles, Fontainebleau, Blois, Orléans, Reims, Châlons, Verdun, Metz, and Strasbourg. These visits keep him busy until Letter XXV, in which he describes finally leaving France to enter the German Confederation. Thereafter, the narrative follows Gretsch through Karlsruhe, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Potsdam, Berlin, Pillnitz, Tharandt, and finally Dresden and its environs. At each stop along his route, he pauses to visit the theatre, to see the local sights, and to enjoy the local culture as his whims decree. These sections of Gretsch’s narrative are particularly interesting for the contrast that Gretsch draws between Russians and the French (and Britons, briefly). Additionally, Gretsch reveals more about himself and his own ideals in his staunch defense of Russia any time that he hears his own country disparaged, and he is delighted to meet several important literary and political figures.

Contrasting the French with Britons and Russians

Before concluding Volume 1, Gretsch records his entry into France, and it quickly becomes evident that his opinion of the French is considerably more negative than that of the British. This impression stays with him throughout his time in France so that when he finally crosses the Rhine at Strasbourg, he breathes a sigh of relief on entering German territory.

Gretsch’s first impressions of France are colored especially by the contrast with England that he notices after crossing the English Channel. In Letter XV at the end of Volume 1, he cautions later travelers not to enter France from England if they want to save themselves from disagreeable impressions. While England is clean and neat, the villages in France constitute a striking and unpleasant contrast by being extremely dirty and smelling badly.

In the same letter, Gretsch calls the French bold, smart, funny, and says they could accomplish a great deal if they were not quite so fickle. This comment about fickleness probably is a not-so-subtle criticism of the French for their revolutionary activity in recent decades, especially the July Revolution of 1830. Gretsch even sees a difference in the way horses are treated along the road. In England, a horse that stumbled and fell would be inspected for injury, but when the same happens in France, Gretsch’s driver simply falls into beating the poor horse mercilessly. Gretsch interprets this incident as a good example of the French tendency toward impatience, lack of common sense, imprudence. Obviously, Gretsch is overgeneralizing, but his attitude is clear.

Gretsch’s wariness toward the French people undoubtedly was fueled by a similar wariness that was present in the minds of many other Russians of the time. Ironically, aristocratic Russians often emulated the French in their daily activities, including speaking French with one another. In fact, some of the works that Gretsch published in his print shop in St. Petersburg were in French. Gretsch acknowledges several times in his Notes on My Life how important the French language remained in Russia during his lifetime, but he notices that its popularity was waning. Two of the tutors his parents hired to teach him as a child were French, although neither of them taught him much.¹ The first, simple printing press he had as a young man used French letters instead of Russian, and he later acknowledges that at one point, his school friends spoke French fluently, a fact that made him feel as if his education were deficient. Furthermore, when Empress Maria Fyodorovna visited one of his classes in 1819, she spoke initially to Gretsch in French, assuming he was a foreigner.

Writing about Russian attitudes toward the French at the time, Priscilla Meyer argues that members of the aristocracy were suffering from the disease of ‘France,’ whose language and culture had shaped the world of the Russian aristocracy from the time of Catherine the Great.² Unfortunately, many of these same Russians felt that their own culture was largely inferior to that of the French. As Meyer points out, Russians who lived in an imitation European subculture were painfully aware that the level of Russian culture was far lower than that of Western Europe and saw themselves self-consciously through Western European eyes, at once admiring Europe and feeling inferior to it.³ Because of this tendency in Russian thought at the time, many writers were quite consciously creating a new national literature that would be uniquely theirs.⁴ In this respect, they were similar to their contemporary American writers, who were engaged in a similar cultural struggle with Britain.

The Official Nationality doctrine, mentioned in the introduction to Volume 1, undoubtedly fueled this Russian desire for an independent literature.⁵ Bruce Lincoln links the British and the French to suggest a rationale for this Russian attitude. In his book on Nicholas I, Lincoln writes, The French Revolution of 1789 and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in late eighteenth-century Britain changed the nature of European society so that it became far removed from the model that Russia had attempted to follow since the early eighteenth century.⁶ From his viewpoint, many Russian thinkers of the time had a sort of inferiority complex and worried that they were unable to compete with their counterparts in Western Europe.

Additionally, many Britons of the time harbored significant reservations about Russia. Martin Malia points out that the British strongly distrusted the despotism that they saw in Nicholas I.⁷ They feared that Europe had thrown off the hegemony of France only to risk falling under that of Russia.⁸ Gretsch, himself, points out in his Notes that neither England nor France wanted Russia to enter Europe like a wedge.⁹ Hence, Britons, French, and Russians were wary of one another in a vicious circle of distrust.

Political upheavals in France, starting with the revolution of 1789, began a process that deteriorated the Russian view of the French and their language. By the time Gretsch entered the Junkers school as a young man, the French language was not offered there due to the corruption of morality in France, as he phrases the explanation in his Notes.¹⁰ Gretsch himself acknowledges having an innate patriotism and optimism even as a child, and he remembers once complaining to his nanny when she brushed his hair roughly that she would brush my head off just like what happened to the French king!¹¹ Even as a child, he was aware of the upheavals in France. In fact, Gretsch had an acquaintance whose brother witnessed the notorious incident in which French Revolutionaries decapitated the Princess Lamballe and carried her head on a pole through the streets of Paris. Apparently, they hit him in the face with the head, which prompted his flight from France back to St. Petersburg.¹² Later, Gretsch comments that Russians of the time equated the French Revolution and Napoleonic conquest.¹³ Once Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, Gretsch says that hatred of the French in the Russian populace grew by the hour.¹⁴

Gretsch sees a strong contrast between the French view of monarchy and that of the Russians. In his Notes, he comments, "In 1838, in Paris, one clever and educated Frenchman asked me in a large company if we truly love our sovereign and where this unconditional love—that the French cannot understand—comes from. This is what I said to him in response: ‘We love our sovereign like a father who was given by God, who himself loves us sincerely and unconditionally. You, on the contrary, look at your king as a guardian, from whose guardianship you try to break free as soon as you come of age.’¹⁵

Gretsch’s criticisms of the French are understandable given how negatively Russians, in general, viewed the French and the disrupted state of the French government during the previous four decades. Of course, Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 added to Russian skepticism about the motivations of the French, and the most recent revolution in France, the July Revolution of 1830, had made the aristocracy increasingly nervous.¹⁶

In fact, the Official Nationality doctrine was promulgated, in part, as a response to revolutionary sentiments in Western Europe. Nicholas I understandably viewed these sentiments with distrust, especially since his authority had been challenged by the Decembrist revolt of 1825, just as he had come to power. Various peasant revolts within the country followed, bringing additional anxiety to trouble Russia’s aristocrats.¹⁷

These political tensions certainly influenced Gretsch’s attitude as he traveled through Paris and into the French provinces, and his narrative is markedly more critical of the French than it is of the British. In Letters XXI and XXII, for example, Gretsch describes the French capital and its people in some detail. His most telling comment about Paris is that in the city, uncleanliness is voluntary. He reports that all manner of waste is dumped into the streets, including human excrement. The dirty villages near Calais are mere preludes to the disgusting conditions in the capital. To refer to the filth as voluntary is to suggest that the inhabitants have no desire to live in more civilized conditions and to suggest a kind of laziness—perhaps even a moral laziness—on their parts in not trying to improve their living conditions.

Gretsch complains directly about the French people, as well. He asserts that the French have lost much of their courtesy, amiability, levity, and geniality, pointing out that even French authors like the Duchess d’Abrantès support his opinion publicly. Most of them [the French], Gretsch writes, are driven by self-interest, selfishness, and the most shameless materialism. He suggests that the bulk of the French people are interested only in satiating their own desires for pleasure and are obsessed with money as the means to that end. They have lost their sense of civic pride and are allowing their country to deteriorate.

Even the women, whom Gretsch loves to observe wherever he travels, provide little grounds for compliments in France. One day, he reads a newspaper article about how beauty is vanishing in Paris and decides to make his own assessment. Paying closer attention to women that day, he concludes by complaining, Among approximately two hundred women, I counted barely two who were beautiful, ten decently looking, fifteen passable—everyone else was ordinary. When Gretsch asks some of his younger male Russian companions if they agree with him, they confirm his opinion.

Despite his negative comments about Paris, Gretsch does indicate that the city has much to offer visitors. He sees it as a place of progress where one can live comfortably at reasonable prices. In his opinion, Paris has good newspapers, good restaurants, and good places for an evening promenade. The theatre is in decline, in his view, but some shining stars exist, especially Mlle Mars, who captivates Gretsch with her beauty. Another positive feature of the French capital is that the police have managed to reduce the number of prostitutes and limit conspicuous lechery, as he calls it, in the streets. Gretsch also is pleased with the new system of omnibuses that covers the city, and he is happy that fewer beggars and swindlers seem to spend their time in public. However, even these faint compliments are couched mostly in negative terms.

Gretsch is impressed, perhaps more than anything else in France, with the Parisian salons, and he devotes Letter XXII to discussing such intellectual gatherings. He describes the function of salons and quotes a few times from the works of the Duchess d’Abrantès about their history while arguing that they are an extremely pleasant way to spend an evening. In Gretsch’s opinion, however, even this aspect of French culture is in decline. Nevertheless, he is able to visit more than one salon during his stay in Paris and enjoys the time immensely. He is invited to Baron Meyendorff’s, where he meets the Countess de la Rochejaquelein, Count de la Bourdonnais, Baron Eckstein, and Deputy Berryer. He visits Mr. Salvandy’s, where Victor Hugo reads a new poem and where other notable figures also attend, like Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Baron Pasquier, and Count Molé. He also attends meetings at the salons of Mr. Guizot, Mr. Loève-Veimars, and others. Before Gretsch leaves Paris, his friend Mme Sofia Conrad even introduces him to the Duchess d’Abrantès, whose history of the salons he has been reading.¹⁸

Defending Russian Ideals

Gretsch may have plenty of negative comments to make about the French—and people of other nationalities he encounters—but he is quick to defend Russia when he perceives that his country has been disparaged in any way. He has several opportunities to do so during his stay in France.

Gretsch is particularly annoyed by the French press and the way local journalists write about Russia. He comments in Letter XXIII, I was interested to get to know some journalists and observe their bee-like work, but from my first days in Paris, they became so loathsome to me that I suppressed my curiosity. In the subsequent letter, he further complains, All Frenchmen are convinced that their periodicals are filled with lies, absurdities, slander, and yet they believe any nonsense that is published in them about Russia. He does not provide specifics about what the newspapers have reported but explains in a lengthy footnote to Letter XXV, I was irritated and infuriated in France by those absurd and foolish speculations about Russia, full of malicious slander, published in the newspapers almost every day. He adds, Even favorable articles about Russia are filled with the most contentious rumors that indicate their authors haven’t the slightest idea about this subject. Gretsch goes so far as to agree, subject to the approval of his superiors, to write articles about Russia to send to his friend Mme Conrad to translate for publication in Paris, and he even asks some editors whether they would be interested in printing such material. However, he later learns that even this gesture of goodwill on his part has been misrepresented to the public with the intent, in his opinion, to undermine any articles he might send.

In fact, Gretsch is mentioned personally in the French newspapers during his stay in Paris. He does not repeat what was written, but the conversation he has with Prince Metternich, as recorded in Letter XXXIX in Volume 3, offers a hint. During their first meeting, Metternich comments jokingly to Gretsch, I know you […] from the gossip that was printed about you in the French newspapers. Gretsch incites laughter when he responds graciously that he has the pleasure to share this fate with the prince. A perusal through contemporary newspapers reveals that Gretsch was openly labeled as a Russian spy by the French press.¹⁹ This allegation may be the catalyst for his statement in the aforementioned footnote to Letter XXV, I, myself, experienced the unpleasantness of the systematic lies and insults. Gretsch clearly was not pleased with the way French periodicals represented Russia and him as his country’s representative.

Another incident that prompted Gretsch to defend his native land is reported in Letter XXIII. In this letter, Gretsch tells his readers about a conversation he has with the well-known French writers Philarète Chasles and Augustin Sainte-Beuve. Perhaps aware of Gretsch’s ties with censorship committees in Russia, Sainte-Beuve challenges Gretsch with the accusation that censorship must restrict the creativity of young writers in Russia. Gretsch, however, is quick to defend his country’s ways. Censorship in Russia, he says, has had a positive impact: it gave our literature and all our literary works a character of nobility, decency, modesty, and, I can say, chastity. Gretsch does acknowledge that the Russian system may tend to suppress naturalness and the close imitation of nature, but he points out that the morality, honor, and dignity of literature benefit greatly. He contrasts the literature of France and Germany with that of Russia, accusing Western Europeans of using words and expressions […] without the slightest twinge of conscience [that] are not tolerated in our country, even in the most unrefined books. He then questions why anyone would challenge the obvious benefits or limiting the use of forbidden words and phrases.

Gretsch’s attitude toward censorship may seem odd to many readers today, but it makes sense given Russia’s embracing of the Official Nationality ideology during Gretsch’s lifetime.²⁰ The first element of the ideology’s axiomatic Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality involves Orthodox belief, and Gretsch’s view of censorship supports this precept. As Gretsch points out in the same conversation, Literature that does not attempt to eradicate vice and does not respect honor and virtue, is not real literature and only that writer deserves respect who ennobles the dignity of a man and a citizen with his own personality and with his works. For Gretsch, censorship is a necessity in the defense of Orthodoxy, which supports the authority of the autocratic emperor and functions in the best interests of the nation.

Indeed, despite being a publisher himself, Gretsch supported government censorship of the press so much that by this point in his life, he had served on the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee for a decade and had helped to draft the Russian censorship laws of 1828. As a result, he was especially sensitive to this subject, perhaps even more so because a periodical he helped edit earlier in his journalistic career had been closed by Russian government censors.

In several instances in the travelogue, Gretsch directly admits that he does not support freedom of the press. He views such a freedom as destructive and staunchly supports his own government’s decision to censor Russian publications systematically. He is especially surprised by the lack of pre-publication censorship in England, noting, in Letter VIII of Volume 1, that English writers may publish almost anything as long as their works do not include malicious insults or treason. He asserts in Letter XVII that freedom of the press contributes significantly to the calamities and torments of constitutional France and that nothing good will come of it! Gretsch actually equates freedom of the press with dangerous tyranny, which he believes is exerted by the majority through public opinion. In Letter XXV, Gretsch acknowledges that France is home to many decent and noble people, but because of the freedom of the press, everything in general, in the mass, presents a chaos of malignant substances bubbling inside a volcano before its eruption, and while walking over its surface might be exciting, it is not at all entertaining. In short, he believes, as noted in Letter XXIV that so-called freedom rarely leads to good.

Gretsch has another opportunity to defend Russia during one of his visits with his new friend Victor Hugo as recorded in Letter XXIII. Hugo overhears Gretsch’s conversation with Sainte-Beuve about censorship and sides with Gretsch in the debate, but later at Hugo’s home, Gretsch meets Mr. Varin, historian of the city of Reims, who politely challenges him about Russian serfs and suggests that Russians violate the laws of justice in some of their government policies. Which of them? Gretsch asks pointedly; Name them to me, and I will try to prove the opposite. Without yet even knowing the specific issue at hand, Gretsch is ready to defend his dear country against any detractors. Varin objects that depriving serfs of access to higher education is cruel in restricting their access to enlightenment. Gretsch disagrees immediately. This law is fair and necessary; he argues; it originates from the sacred rule that every man has to be educated according to his rank and status in society. To give a person an education that is higher than his status—to inspire in him desires and needs that he won’t be able to satisfy in his civil life—means to ruin him by making him either a wretch or a villain. In Gretsch’s mind, the autocratic system of Russia is the ideal.

After crossing into Germany, Gretsch continues faithfully to defend his country against critics, although he is given less reason to do so. I spoke little about politics, he admits in Letter XXVIII; I stepped into such conversations only when the Germans began to talk nonsense about Russia. My soul does not tolerate slander. Given his patriotism, Gretsch was, in many ways, an ideal representative of his country and government.

Important Public Figures

Gretsch may have plenty of negative commentary to offer about the French, but he is gratified to encounter a number of important public figures during his visit. He acknowledges in Letter XXIII that one of his greatest desires while in France is to meet some of the people who were playing important roles in the new era—primarily ministers, orators, men of letters. He complains that many of them are absent during the summer, but the ones he does meet or observe from a distance are impressive.

Gretsch lists a number of significant figures he saw, describing their physical appearance and mentioning some of their claims to fame. Gretsch sees Alexandre Dumas and Alfred de Vigny at the theatre (without speaking to either of them), and one day at a restaurant, he witnesses Honoré de Balzac eating and drinking with great appetite but chooses not to introduce himself for fear he will be disappointed with the author. Gretsch’s friend Alexandre Vattemare introduces him to Lord Byron’s friend Thomas Moore for a brief conversation as well as to Mme d’Avenas.

In Letter XX, Gretsch describes making a brief detour to visit the Loire Valley, a region south of Paris that is known for its beautiful castles. Having brought a letter of introduction, he presents himself at the Château de Valençay, where he meets Prince Talleyrand and the Duchess of Dino. The prince immediately asks Gretsch to stay in the palace, so he moves his belongings there from the hotel he had chosen. During his first conversation with the duchess, Gretsch experiences a sudden realization of his great fortune. While trying to remember his French verb conjugations, he is momentarily distracted by the fact that he is conversing with "an actual duchess! Gretsch enjoyed lengthy conversations with the prince and other members of the household as they asked him for news from Russia. He says at one point, I was talking incessantly, but finally came to my senses and stopped. ‘Parlez, parlez toujours!’ said both the prince and the duchess, who had been listening to me with visible pleasure. Gretsch comments at the end of Letter XX, Everything that I saw, heard, experienced, during these days, rushed unceasingly through my imagination—and shortened the time of the journey." Gretsch perhaps enjoyed this part of his voyage more than any other part in France.

Finally, in Letter XXIII, Gretsch discusses his conversation with the most interesting among the historical personalities whom I met in France […] (after Talleyrand)—Don Manuel de Godoy, the so-called Prince of Peace. They discuss the prince’s involvement with Napoleon and many other subjects. The prince offers an anecdote about Catherine the Great, mentioning that he denied her claim to a Mediterranean island with the reply, "Your Highness! We can never cede it to you. Other people, having acquired what they want, would not know what to do with it, but you are so clever and know how to