This ought to be remembered also when we are thinking over future
relations between our own people and theirs. The Russians are not a
downtrodden and oppressed people struggling to throw off the yoke of a
harsh and despotic rule, but are contented, loyal, and law-abiding. They
do not, however, show their loyalty by any outward expressions such as
the "All Highest," and others with which we have been made familiar in
the addresses and letters of Germans of high rank, office, and birth,
during the war. No such terms exist or are thought of amongst the
subjects of the Emperor of Russia. The word Tsar occurs, I believe, in
the National Anthem, and Tsaritsa is used occasionally, while there is
no such word as Tsarina in the language. But neither Tsar, Emperor,
Tsaritsa, or Empress are used, I am told, amongst the ordinary people.
They speak of "_Gosudar_" and "_Gosudarina_" which mean Lord and Lady,
or Sir and Madame, and in such general use are these terms, I believe,
that a man writing a business letter to a tradesman would begin
"Gracious Gosudar." The Tsarevitch Alexis is spoken of amongst the
people by a word in perfectly common use, which is no more than the
ordinary word for "heir." Loyalty and great respect, it would seem, are
quite consistent with great familiarity of thought and expression.
The Emperor is probably spoken of more frequently as Nicolai
Alexandrovitch--"Nicholas, son of Alexander"--than by any other title,
and I feel sure that the Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander-in-Chief, and
his doings at head-quarters, have been spoken of all over Russian plains
and Siberian steppes this winter as familiarly and as proudly as of some
one who had gone from their own village. "Ah! Nicolai Nicolaievitch!
What a man he is! How well he has fought this war! How proud we are of
him!" etc., etc. I was told lately of a touching incident which
occurred at a great service in Russia (the translation of the remains of
a great saint) at which the Grand Duchess Serge was present, and, when
she arrived, had gone quietly up to a gallery pew, arranged for her and
other great ladies. Soon afterwards an old peasant woman, to whom she
had once shown a kindness, arrived, and at once began to inquire:--
"Has Elizabeth come yet?"--the Grand Duchess's Christian name--"I want
Elizabeth. She told me when next I came where she was to be sure and ask
for her. Where's Elizabeth?"
The Grand Duchess in her exalted gallery caught something of what was
going on, and, hearing her own name, at once came down.
"Here I am, little mother!" And then with "Dear Elizabeth!" the old
woman threw her arms about her neck and began her story.
Such a thing is only possible in Russia, and yet it is the one country
in the world where we have always been led to think that between the
highest and the lowest there is that "great gulf fixed," which if not
bridged over in this life by sympathy and love, has little hope of being
passed in the world to come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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