[1] Voyage autour du Caucase, par Frédéric Dubois de Montpereux. 6 vols. with an Atlas. Paris, 1839.
[2] Études sur les Forces Productives de Russie, par M. L. de Tegoborski, Conseiller Privé et Membre du Conseil de l’Empire de Russie. 3 vols. Paris, 1852-54.
[3] Les Steppes de la Mer Caspienne, le Caucase, la Crimée, et la Russie Méridionale. 3 vols., with an Atlas. Paris, 1845.
[4] This was the strength of the army in 1846, when I left it.
[5] I do not reckon as a war the short period of misunderstanding with them in the reign of the Emperor Paul.
[6] He was a Mussulman, but all the rest of his family are Christians.
[7] As this is a point of some importance, I think it right to state that my authority for this statement is Mr. Carruthers, late Consul, and Mr. Lander, late a merchant, at Taganrok.
[8] This name appears for the first time in Theophanes, page 316. He says, “Justinian remembering the plot against him of the Chersonites, the Bosphorians, and the inhabitants of the other Klimata.” Some authors supposed it to refer to the southern coast, but Dubois applies it to the northern slopes of the Tauric chain (the same country which was called Doru by the earlier writers), principally from the following passage in Constantine Porphyrogenitus:—“One part of the nation of the Patzinakes is found next to the Chersonites, of whom they are the carriers. They always treat them well, as it would be easy for them to ravage and destroy Cherson and the Klimata.” He adds, “From Cherson to the Bosphorus are the castles of the Klimata.” Dubois, Voyage autour du Caucase, chez les Tcherkess Abkhazes, en Calchide, en Georgie, en Arménie, en Crimée: ouvrage qui a remporté le prix de la Société de Géographie de Paris, 1838: vol. v. p. 5.
[9] That is, passing through Bereslaf; for, by going straight from Perecop to Kherson by Adeski, it is only 332 miles, but this road is not always practicable, on account of the difficulty of crossing the Dniepr.
[10] Its old Russian name was Belaio Veja, and it was called Kiz Kerman, or the Girl’s Castle, by the Tatars (Vsevolovski, Dict. Hist. Géog. de la Russie).
[11] The following is the account Herodotus gives of this river:—“The fourth is the river Borysthenes, which is the largest of these after the Ister, and, in my opinion, the most productive, not only of the Scythian rivers, but of all others, except the Egyptian Nile; for to this it is impossible to compare any other river, but of the rest the Borysthenes is the most productive. It affords the most excellent and valuable pasture for cattle, and fish of the highest excellence and in great quantities; it is most sweet to drink; it flows pure in the midst of turbid rivers; the sown land near it is of the best quality; and the herbage, where the land is not sown, is very tall; at its mouth abundance of salt is crystallized spontaneously; and it produces large whales, without any spiral bones, which they call Antacæi, fit for salting, and many other things that deserve admiration. The Borysthenes continues flowing near the sea, and the Hypanis mingles with it, discharging itself into the same morass.” Lib. 4.
[12] About 1801 the English, French, Dutch, and Prussians obtained permission for their mercantile navy to pass the Bosphorus.
[13] 1791.
[14] 877 miles from Moscow, and 1362 miles from St. Petersburg.—Lyell.
[15] Castelnau.
[16] Strange to say, stores are always scanty here, perhaps because many kinds deteriorate by keeping. Even timber is wanting for ship-building, and is used green, and never seasoned. A part of the ‘Twelve Apostles’ was rotten when she was launched.
[17] This fact is noticed by Herodotus.
[18] Lyell’s Travels.
[19] There used to be many governor-generals in Russia, and there is still one for the Ukraine, which comprehends the governments of Kharkow, Tchérnigof, and Pultava.
[20] See Hist. of the Precopian Tatars, London, 1693; also Peyssonel, Commerce de la Mer Noire, in which there is a Dissertation on the Tatars, from information gained among them by the author, who was French consul at Baktchéserai, the capital of the khan in 1773. The Tatars first appeared in Crimea in 1226.
[21] Fletcher’s Hist. of Poland, p. 69 and 70.
[22] Tanquam nidulo aliquo affixi.
[23] See Fletcher’s History of Poland, p. 68, from which this account is taken. The original authorities are Chevalier’s work on the Cossack war, published 1663, and the Relazione di Polonia in the Harleian Collection.
[24] From “Tchorny,” black, and “Moré,” the sea, in Russian.
[25] From about A.D. 1560-1783.
[26] The country between the Dniestr and the Pruth, called Bessarabia, used to be an integral portion of Moldavia, and is still inhabited by Moldavians. It was torn from Turkey and given up to Russia in 1812, by the treaty of Bucharest, which was concluded by Sir Stratford Canning, then a very young man, who rose into notice from his services on this occasion.
[27] See ‘Études sur les Forces productives de la Russie,’ par M. de Tegoborski, Membre du Conseil de l’Empire de Russie. Paris, 1852. Vol. i. p. 33.
[28] “Step” is a Russian word. The following is the account of the Steppes taken from Von Hammer’s History of the Ottoman Empire:—“These Steppes are called by Oriental geographers ‘the fields of Hëihat:’ they extend from east to west from the banks of the Aksou (river Bug) and the Ouron (river Dniepr) to those of the Ten (river Don) and the Tel (river Wolga); northward as far as Astrakhan, and southward as far as the banks of the Kuban (river Hypanis): situated between the Caspian and Black Seas, they cover a superficies of 1000 parasangs (one parasang is about four miles). These immense Steppes, which Timour, in marching against Tóktamish, traversed in 180 days, are covered in winter with snow as high as the grass in summer, and are inhabited by the Nogais and Kalmouks.” Vol. ii. p. 109.
[29] Hylè means “wood” in Greek.
[30] Tegoborski, vol. i. pp. 34-36.
[31] Geology of Russia in Europe, by Sir Roderick Murchison, vol. i. p. 559.
[32] Well known in the English markets under the name of “the country of the Line.” The production has much decreased of late years, owing to so many of the Cossacks being employed for warlike purposes.
[33] This account is taken from a paper by M. Teetzmann, steward of the estates of the Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, near Bereslaf. See Tegoborski, vol. i. p. 38.
M. Teetzmann says, that on his domain, in the 10 years from 1832 to 1841, rye and wheat produced on the average 6 times, barley 7 times, and millet 23 times the amount sown. In this time there were some years when the rye gave 16 times, wheat and barley 15 times, and millet 64 times the amount sown; but there was also one year when the crops entirely failed, and others when they did not give more than the amount sown. This was in a country which M. T. ranks among the “Eternal Steppes.”
[34] The post-carts are found at every post station throughout European Russia, from Archangel to the banks of Erasas, on the borders of Persia, and are called “pavosk,” or “telega,” or “pereclodnoi;” they are very low, have a seat for the driver in front, and will, with difficulty, hold two persons inside: they have no springs and no seat, and the traveller sits on his luggage. In this way, couriers and officers perform journeys of 1000 and 2000 miles without stopping, except to change at each station. I have myself performed a journey of 1200 miles from Tiflis to Odessa in this manner, and have frequently known Russians to have travelled 12,000 to 13,000 miles within the year.
[35] “It would be tedious to notice on every occasion the extraordinary number of tumuli which appear during the whole route (i. e. from Kasankaia to Tcherkask): I wish the reader only to keep in mind the curious fact of their being everywhere in view.”—Clarke’s Travels, part i. p. 254.
[36] Mus citillus of Buffon.
[37] See Clarke’s Travels, part i. ch. 12. Recently rewards have been offered for the destruction of the suslics on account of the great injury they do to the crops and fields. They make the steppe very dangerous for riding.
[38] Nat. Hist., cap. 26.
[39] This name is said to be derived either from Horus and Kapou (and it would then mean the gate of Horus or the frontier), or from the Tatar word “Or,” or “Ore,” meaning fire. Von Hammer.
[40] In the name of Beresin is preserved the ancient name of the isle Boristhenis, which, like the island of Leuké, at the mouth of the Ister, was devoted to the races in honour of Achilles; and the “Kil” in Kilboroún probably comes from Achilles, the sovereign of Pontus, although the Tatars explain the word as meaning a promontory as fine as a “hair,” since “Kil” means hair in their language.—Page 362.
[41] Von Hammer, Hist. de l’Empire Ottomane, vol. xiv. p. 360-364.
[42] The whole account of the coasts and soundings is taken from the ‘Pilot of the Black Sea and the Azof,’ by M. Taitbout de Marigny. Constantinople, 1850.
[43] P. 60.
[44] P. 51.
[45] P. 53, 54.
[46] Gloubok means “deep” in Russian.
[48] This was in about the year 1838. See H. de Hell.
[49] Crimea was divided into 48 kadilics.
[50] Peyssonel, de la Commerce de la Mer Noire, vol. i. p. 252.
[51] Dubois, vol. v. p. 390.
[52] One verst, equal to about three-quarters of an English mile; 108 Russian versts = 1 degree; 69 English miles = 1 degree.
[53] De la Motraye, 3 vols. fol. illustrated by Hogarth: vol. ii. p. 42. The temperature of the water is 10° Réaumur, 54° Fahrenheit. See R. P. Koeppen, uber 130, Tauriens Quellen, p. 13. See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 325.
[54] The following is the translation of the Tatar inscription on this fountain:—“Glory to God most High! the face of Baktchéserai is made glad by the beneficent care of glorious Prince Geray Khan. With a prodigal hand he has satisfied the thirst of his country, and he will spread other blessings if God lends him his assistance.
“By care and trouble he has opened this excellent spring of water. If there exist such another fountain, let it come! We have seen the towns of Cham (Damascus) and Bagdad, but nowhere have we seen such a fountain. The author of this inscription is called Cheiki. If any man, fainting from thirst, reads these words across the water which escapes trickling from the slender pipe, what do they tell him? Come: drink this limpid water that flows from the purest of springs; it gives health!”
The last three words, when reduced into figures, give the date 1176 (A.D. 1762).—Dubois, vol. vi. p. 328.
[55] See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 331.
[56] He was poisoned in A.D. 1769.
[57] Hommaire de Hell, Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian, p. 360, English edition.
[58] Dubois (Voyage du), vol. vi. p. 337.
[59] The population of Tchoufout Kaleh in 1830 was composed of 492 men and 617 women, altogether 1109 Jewish inhabitants. P. de Koeffen, Baktchéserai zur Zeit der Cholera, 1830.—See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 340. Hommaire de Hell says, in 1842, they were gradually leaving, to settle in Baktchéserai: p. 364.
[60] Henderson, p. 314.
[61] Also Hothinger, Albringrus, Triglandius, and others. See Henderson.
[62] The name Karaim comes from the Hebrew word “Kara,” Scripture. They are also frequently called “Bene Mukra,” sons of the text, and “Baala Mikra,” masters or possessors of the text. Henderson’s ‘Biblical Res. in Russia,’ p. 316.
[63] She died A.D. 1437-38—year of the Hedgra, 841.
[64] The name “Tchoufout” applied to the Jews, is said by Pallas to be derived from “Cifutti,” which was a term of reproach applied to them at Genoa. There are many Genoese words in the Tatar language.
[65] Kirkor is first mentioned by Abulfeda (1341), under the name of Kerkri, and he says it was then inhabited by the As. Kerkor was probably the capital of the Khans of Crimea from about 1400 to 1480 A.D.—Dubois’ Voyage, &c., vol. vi. p. 343.
In 1396 “the Khan of Kirkel” is found fighting on the banks of the Don, against Vitort, Grand Duke of Lithuania. Pallas and Clarke think the Genoese possessed this place, as well as Mangoup and Eski Crim, but Dubois doubts this fact.
[66] The question as to who built the crypts is fully discussed in Dubois, vol. vi.
[67] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 347.
[68] Whenever the Russians say Tatars and Kalmucks, the ethnologists I have chiefly followed say Turks and Mongols.
“Ethnologically viewed, the ‘Tatars’ or ‘Tartars’ were a tribe nearly allied to the Mongols in race, who dwelt near the lake Bougir, to the eastward of Mongoliei. They were among the first of the Mongol conquests, and they took afterwards so conspicuous a place in the army of Zingis Khan that their name became synonymous with that of the Mongols. Their proper name was Tatars. It was said to have been changed into Tartars in consequence of an expression of St. Louis, who, when the devastations of Zingis Khan were heard of with horror in Western Europe, is reported to have exclaimed, ‘Let this heavenly consolation, O Virgin Mother, sustain us if they come, that either we will drive the Tartars, as we call them, back to their Tartarean (infernal) seats, whence they have sprung, or they shall raise us all to heaven.’”—Dr. Smith’s Note, Gibbon, vol. iii., p. 294.
[69] Or the Great Khan.
[70] Karamsin, vol. v. p. 83.
[71] Tóktamish was descended from Touschi, son of Zingis Khan, the Mongol hero. Tamerlane was a Turk, but claimed to be descended by the females from Zingis Khan. He was born 1335; d. 1405.
[72] After being four times khan, he died in 1704.—Von Hammer’s Genealogical Tables.
[73] Discourse on the Precopian Tatars. London, 1693, passim.
[74] Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian: see p. 369, English edition.
[75] Douvankoi means the Valley of Prayer (see ‘Pallas’s Travels’).
[76] This is the name of the fort and suburb on the north side of the bay of Sevastopol. “Sievarna” means northern in Russian.
[77] ‘Pallas’s Voyage,’ ii. 46, in Dubois.
[78] ‘Pallas’s Voyage:’ see Dubois, vol. vi. p. 26.
[79] Sevastopol, or Sebastopolis, is composed of two Greek words, “Sebastos” meaning Augustus, and “polis” a city; and it was the name of a Greek city of the Lower Empire on the eastern coast of the Black Sea in Abkhazia.
[80] The ancient Greek city of Kherson was close to Sevastopol, but in the time of the Empress Catherine it was supposed to have stood near the mouth of the Dniepr, and the new city she founded there was therefore called by that name.
[81] Clarke, in 1800, ii., page 98; Reuilly in 1803; Castelnau in 1817; Montandon in 1833.
[82] The wooden telegraph thus carries messages from Sevastopol to Odessa, whence there is the electric telegraph to Petersburg.
[83] In 1834 there were 1500 working with the chain, without counting the other prisoners.
[84] “Black rivulet” in English. Large reservoirs were formed at a distance in the mountains to supply the canal, but they gave way. The river was insufficient, and a steam engine was lately erected to pump sea water into the docks.
[85] This is taking the paper rouble at the same value as the franc, but it is really rather more.
[86] It is but justice to Col. Upton, who is now no more, to observe, notwithstanding the reports lately circulated about certain faults in the early part of his life, that he enjoyed a good reputation among his own countrymen in Russia, and was considered a honest and faithful servant of his employer, while he has left monuments of his talents of which we may be proud.
[87] Naval Gunnery, 4th ed., p. 619.
[88] Toola, besides the Government, has many private establishments, and is considered as the Birmingham of Russia.
[89] For all these details see Tanski, Tableau du Système Militaire de la Russie. Paris, 1833, p. 295-7.
[90] For many years all the harbours of the Crimea were shut to commerce on the plea of there being no quarantines.
[91] He writes in 1852.
[92] Haxthausen, Études sur la Russie, vol. iii. p. 477-479.
[93] ‘Histoire de la Russie,’ tom. ii. p. 624, par Mons. Chopin, Paris, 1838. This gentleman was for many years an employé in Russia.
[94] The first part of this chapter is based upon Haxthausen, vol. iii.
[95] Will of Peter the Great, transmitted by the Chevalier d’Eon, French Ambassador at Petersburg, to his court in 1757, and soon after made public. See ‘Geschichte Peters des Grossen,’ by Peters, published at Leipsic.
[96] Equipage is the French for “crew.”
[97] See Appendix C., on the Timber Trade.
[98] Hommaire de Hell, vol. ii. p. 383, French edition.
[100] See Sir H. Douglas’s ‘Naval Gunnery,’ from which I have borrowed all this account of the Paixhans system, p. 289-291.
[101] This chapter is based upon the account of the Russian army by M. Haxthausen, and a great portion of it is borrowed from him. He had access to Russian official records.
[102] M. Tegoborski, the mouthpiece of the Government of St. Petersburg, states that the estimate of the regular army alone in 1854 was from 800,000 to 900,000 men, and that it may be raised to 1,250,000 men in 1855. ‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ Nov. 15, 1854, p. 802.
[103] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 335.
[104] See his will, which has been often published.
[105] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 331.
[106] Nestor was a monk of Kieff, and ceased to write about A.D. 1016.
[107] Chroniques de Nestor, French translation, c. 3, p. 54.
[108] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 348.
[109] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 340.
[110] “The bankers of Berlin in 1853 refused the 5 per cent. Russian loan at 83, with a bonus of 17 per 100 on the nominal capital. For the last twenty years Russia has been borrowing, to cover the deficit left in her budget by her enormous military preparations.”—Léon Faucher, ‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ Nov. 15, 1854, p. 809.
The position of Russia is well described by M. Léon Faucher:—“How can the riches of a country be spoken of, which is still on so many sides a desert to clear and people? There are scarcely 11 inhabitants to the square kilomètre (⅔rds of a mile). The average of life is only 20 years (less than half that of the inhabitants of London, which is 43), and this presents very precarious resources for recruiting immense armies. The middle classes in Russia are scarcely born; the nobles are in debt; the peasants are reduced to a state of serfdom, or live in a kind of communism which is the actual practice of the most immoral and barbarous theories; manufacturing industry is an artificial creation by high protective tariffs; agriculture, with the exception of the kingdom of Poland, is in a rude and patriarchal state. The forests, the steppes, and the marshes occupy ⅚ths of the empire; and can it be supposed that a soil thus badly prepared can furnish the means of successfully resisting the powers of the West, who have in abundance what Russia has a dearth of, or will soon have a dearth of, namely, men and money.”—Id. p. 318. These are home truths, and we have only to thank our late rulers that Russia is not already so far reduced as to be obliged to accept any terms that we chose to impose upon her.
[111] I believe Count Radetski has also received this decoration since his Italian campaigns.
[112] Perhaps the light division of cavalry of reserve and its light artillery (24 light pieces) should be considered quite independent of this second corps.—Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 287.
[113] I have already mentioned the diminution in the quantity of linseed and wheat brought into the English market from “the Line country,” in consequence of the demands upon the Cossacks for men.
[114] “Sotni” comes from the Russian word sto—a hundred; “sot nic” means a captain.
[115] If M. Haxthausen estimates so highly these Caucasian auxiliaries, if they could be brought to aid the Russians, why have we not long ago arrayed them against their natural enemies?
[116] See Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 458.
[117] Haxth. vol. iii. p. 460.
[118] Napoleon’s opinion of the Cossacks was not high. In the celebrated 29th bulletin of the Grand Army, he says of these gentry, “Even the Cossacks became formidable—that contemptible cavalry that, under ordinary circumstances, could not have penetrated a company of Voltigeurs.” I quote from memory.
[119] Haxth. vol. iii. p. 301.
[120] First Levy.—9 battalions of grenadiers, 3 battalions of carbineers, 86 battalions of infantry of the line, 36 battalions of chasseurs of the line, and 134 battalions of infantry; 52 squadrons, and 24 batteries of infantry; representing a total of 98,000 men, and 192 cannons.
Second Levy.—12 battalions of the guard, 12 battalions of the grenadiers and the carbineers; 72 battalions of infantry of the line, and the chasseurs; in toto, 96 battalions of infantry, 62 squadrons, 24 batteries of infantry, 11 batteries of cavalry, and 2½ battalions of sappers: presenting in round numbers 115,000 men and 280 cannons.—See Haxthausen, vol. iii. ch. on the Russian army.
[121] See ‘Kreutz Zeitung,’ Feb. 1, 1855, a Prussian newspaper, generally considered to have good information on Russian subjects. This paper also states, that, exclusive of the corps of the Caucasus and two divisions of the fifth and sixth corps detached in Asia, the Russian active forces now amount to 607 battalions, 562 squadrons, and 1712 field-pieces, which on paper represents 637,000 infantry, 95,000 cavalry, and 42,000 artillery; and that no more than 10 per cent. is to be deducted for non-effectives. This would give a total of nearly 700,000 men.
[122] For this Chapter see Dubois, vol. vi.
[123] This name is derived from In and kerman, a castle.
[124] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 264.
[125] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 266. Some say Keffe Kil means “froth earth.” Clarke says that it is from this earth that the famous meerschaum (froth of the sea) pipes are made.
[126] The date of the earliest tomb of the Karaim Jews at Mangoup is the year of the world 5034 (A.D. 1274). P. de Koeppen Sbornik, p. 29.
[127] Dubois, vol. v. p. 19.
[128] Hommaire de Hell.
[129] As measured by Clarke. See Travels.
[130] A French guard is now placed to protect it.
[131] After A.D. 30.
[132] Sauromates V., A.D. 282.
[133] Rurik is a common name of Scandinavian heroes.