SOCIAL CLASSES
Do Social Classes or Castes Exist in Russia?—Well-marked Social
Types—Classes Recognised by the Legislation and the Official
Statistics—Origin and Gradual Formation of these Classes—Peculiarity
in the Historical Development of Russia—Political Life and Political
Parties.
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
THE IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION AND THE OFFICIALS
The Officials in Norgorod Assist Me in My Studies—The Modern Imperial
Administration Created by Peter the Great, and Developed by his
Successors—A Slavophil's View of the Administration—The Administration
Briefly Described—The Tchinovniks, or Officials—Official Titles, and
Their Real Significance—What the Administration Has Done for Russia in
the Past—Its Character Determined by the Peculiar Relation between
the Government and the People—Its Radical Vices—Bureaucratic
Remedies—Complicated Formal Procedure—The Gendarmerie: My Personal
Relations with this Branch of the Administration; Arrest and Release—A
Strong, Healthy Public Opinion the Only Effectual Remedy for Bad
Administration.
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXV
MOSCOW AND THE SLAVOPHILS
Two Ancient Cities—Kief Not a Good Point for Studying Old Russian
National Life—Great Russians and Little Russians—Moscow—Easter Eve
in the Kremlin—Curious Custom—Anecdote of the Emperor
Nicholas—Domiciliary Visits of the Iberian Madonna—The Streets of
Moscow—Recent Changes in the Character of the City—Vulgar Conception
of the Slavophils—Opinion Founded on Personal Acquaintance—Slavophil
Sentiment a Century Ago—Origin and Development of the Slavophil
Doctrine—Slavophilism Essentially Muscovite—The Panslavist
Element—The Slavophils and the Emancipation.
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVI
ST. PETERSBURG AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE
St. Petersburg and Berlin—Big Houses—The "Lions"—Peter the Great—His
Aims and Policy—The German Regime—Nationalist Reaction—French
Influence—Consequent Intellectual Sterility—Influence of the
Sentimental School—Hostility to Foreign Influences—A New Period of
Literary Importation—Secret Societies—The Catastrophe—The Age of
Nicholas—A Terrible War on Parnassus—Decline of Romanticism and
Transcendentalism—Gogol—The Revolutionary Agitation of 1848—New
Reaction—Conclusion.
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVII
THE CRIMEAN WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
The Emperor Nicholas and his System—The Men with Aspirations and the
Apathetically Contented—National Humiliation—Popular Discontent
and the Manuscript Literature—Death of Nicholas—Alexander II.—New
Spirit—Reform Enthusiasm—Change in the Periodical Literature—The
