Novorossiya: Fire And Ice

FIRE AND ICE

From the beginning of the year 1839, Andrei Mikhailovich had many troubles and worries about two positions and clashes with the kind but stormy Governor Timiryazev. He was also very saddened by the premature release of Rostya from the Artillery School. It was for some insignificant prank as a cadet in the battery stationed in Bendery and seemed far too trivial to result in expulsion; a punishment that effectively deprived the boy the opportunity to complete his education.

In his spare time from official troubles, Andrei Mikhailovich found consolation and entertainment in the circle of his dear family and in friendly conversation with several good friends who were truly disposed towards them. Two of them, naval officers, captains of the 1st and 2nd ranks, Kuzmishchev and Stadolsky, worthy of respect on all fronts for their spiritual qualities, intelligence, and rare knowledge, were far from ordinary people. Both had made several voyages around the world and, with their curiosity and observation, had drawn so much curious material from everything they had seen and experienced that conversation with them was of particular interest and entertainment. He also spent some time very pleasantly in the company of the learned Frenchman, Xavier Hommaire de Hell, and his new wife, Adèle Hériot.[1] He was a truly learned man, with an extensive store of information. He had the patience to travel and survey the entire steppe space between the Azov Sea and the Caspian Sea in the autumn of that year and was convinced of the convenience and possibility of connecting them through Panych and Kuma. (Subsequently, this convenience and benefits, according to the most detailed and immediate research, turned out to be incorrect.)[2]

In May, when the southern sun began to make its presence felt too strongly, Andrei Mikhailovich went with his family to Sarepta to avoid the very unpleasant heat of Astrakhan. He planned on spending two or three months there, so they rented a cozy little house on the farm of a Sarepta resident a short distance away, and they were all settled comfortably. During this time, he surveyed all the surrounding lands of the Kalmyk nomad camps and Russian settlements. Their Kalmyk friends, the princes Tunduty, Dzhinjit, and Menko-Ochyar, the owners of rich uluses, came to visit them. “They were wonderful, kind, noble young people, although not involved in European civilization, having grown up in a wild nomadic ulus,” thought Andrei Mikhailovich, “but by their simple, unspoiled nature and good natural qualities, standing incomparably higher than many high-society dandies.” The Sarepta people received them very hospitably and were extremely attentive to them and made every effort to ensure their stay with them was pleasant.

In June severe rheumatism from a cold and unbearable torment from mosquitoes forced the Fadeevs to return to Astrakhan. From June to October Andrei Mikhailovich spent his time writing, and in disputes with Governor Timiryazev, and in several trips to government settlements and nomadic camps of the Astrakhan Province.[3] In October Governor Timiryazev, Andrei Mikhailovich, and all the Astrakhan nobility, were invited to visit the camp of the Bukei Horde by the Kirghiz Jangir Khan.[4] On the way there he passed through Mount Bolshoe Bogdo. The “Bogdo” part of the name was a traditional Russian rendering of a Kalmyk term meaning “Holy.” The clarification “Bolshoi” (“Large”) was given to distinguish it from the nearby Mount “Maly” (“Small) Bogdo. They also stopped at the Baskunchak Salt Lake (the most important of many such lakes in the Astrakhan Province.)

Jangir Khan tried to show that he knew how to be a European gentleman (wanted to educate his Kirghiz, introduce civilization into the horde, start a town, establish schools, etc.) but all this was one phantasmagoria. Everything was only an external gloss, which stood out strangely in contrast to real life. The Khan had Russian cooks, a lot of champagne, musicians, and luxurious furnishings, but all this was unkempt, wild, and without any conveniences. In the evening Andrei Mikhailovich told the Khan’s valet to prepare all the necessary utensils for him in the bedroom for the night, but when he went to bed, he found his bedpan was a large silver vase. The same large silver vase in which the soup was served the next day at the ceremonial dinner! They stayed with the Khan for several days. The feast was in full swing, complete with amusements of all kinds, mixed with European and Kirghiz, was almost non-stop.

The Saratov Governor, Illarion Mikhailovich Bibikov, arrived for this celebration towards the end. Because of the proximity of the nomadic camp to the borders of the Saratov Province, which he was inspecting, Governor Bibikov was a passionate lover of carousing, and therefore, with his arrival, the feast flared up with new strength and animation. The carousing did not interest Andrei Mikhailovich much, especially after Governor Bibikov informed him that he had been transferred to Saratov as Manager of the local chamber of state property. Andrei Mikhailovich knew that Count Kiselev wanted to give him a wide range of activities, but he did not expect that this would follow so soon. The Saratov Province, before the alienation of the Trans-Volga districts from it, was indeed one of the most abundant in Russia in state lands and with a large population of state settlers and colonists.

Despite their frequent arguments and disagreements on official matters, Governor Timiryazev was greatly distressed by the news of his transfer. They left the Kirghiz nomad camp for St. Petersburg, and they both cried when they parted. After their departure, Andrei Mikhailovich went back to Astrakhan to prepare for the move to Saratov. A few days after his return, he received formal notice of his transfer.

It was already deep autumn, and it was impossible to postpone the move for long. However, the weather at the end of October and the beginning of November was still quite good, so they decided to travel from Astrakhan to Saratov (with the whole family, people, things, crews, etc.) on a steamer, which this year, at the same time, opened the first steamship communication between Astrakhan and the upper reaches of the Volga. It turned out that Andrei Mikhailovich still needed to travel to the city of Cherny Yar by land for business. Thus, the Fadeev family left on a steamer on November 2, and he, by land, on November 4. Having finished his business and arrived in Cherny Yar, he was sure that he would find the steamer with his family already there, but it had not yet arrived. This worried him greatly, especially since the weather changed. It was now cold, and a large amount of floating ice appeared on the Volga. Andrei Mikhailovich sent someone to look for the steamer and learned that it was lying delayed, almost jammed by ice, one station below Cherny Yar. He decided, at all costs, to cross to the steamer. He went along the bank in a carriage, but when he reached the place from where the steamer was visible on the opposite bank of the Volga, from the meadow side, he found that it was impossible to reach it by boat, because of the ice. With the help of several brave people, he risked crossing the Volga on planks that were laid from one ice floe to another. He almost broke through on one ice floe, but God saved him. Somehow, with extreme difficulty and effort, he finally managed to reach the steamer. Elena Pavlovna and children watched with inexpressible fear from the deck of the steamer as he walked across the Volga on planks, and in stormy, cloudy weather, too, realizing what danger he was exposed to. Elena Pavlovna had previously asked the ship’s workers to deliver a note to him on the other side, in which she begged him not to try to cross over to the steamer under any circumstances; she offered the workers a large price for delivering the note, but none of them agreed to it. Meanwhile, the frost increased with every hour, and it became unbearably cold on the steamer (of primitive construction.) Night fell and it was necessary to stay the night on it. The next day, after consulting with the owner, an Astrakhan merchant, an Armenian named Uglev, they decided that the steamer with all their baggage and things should remain in place until a warm wind destroyed the ice because in the beginning of November, the Volga never froze solidly in those parts. They, that is, Andrei Mikhailovich, Elena Pavlovna, Katya and Nadya, and their servants, decided to cross to the shore over the ice floes, which during the night, due to the increasing frost, apparently pulled tightly together and became stronger. They made the journey quite safely, although not entirely without incident and with great caution. The thin ice cracked under their feet, and in places it broke through, but, fortunately, without any particular consequences. Only two of their companions, the official who was with him, and one of the servants, were slightly exposed to the cold bath.

Having reached the shore, they all thanked God with a warm prayer for their salvation. All the coastal inhabitants were amazed at their determination. Andrei Mikhailovich had only one carriage with him. He was traveling with an official, intending to transfer to a steamship in Cherny Yar, and he did not foresee that they would all have to continue the journey by land. He somehow managed to fit in the carriage with Elena Pavlovna and the children, and for the rest, they had difficulty finding a few more carts. With great obstacles and difficulties, and in bad weather, they arrived in Saratov on November 30, 1839.

The arrangement and concerns upon arrival at a new place, setting up a home, especially familiarizing himself with the progress of affairs in the Chamber of State Property, occupied Andrei Mikhailovich exclusively until the new year of 1840. He entered upon his new position on the occasion of the death of the first manager of the Saratov Chamber, Bolvillier, a favorite of Count Kiselev, a well-intentioned but sickly man, whose death was hastened by the multiplicity of his work and the difficulty of his new position. He was soon convinced of this difficulty by his own experience.

The province was then one of the most extensive in Russia. There were up to seven hundred thousand state-owned Serfs in it (more than seven million dessiatines of state-owned land.) The previous administration over them was such that it would have been better if it had not existed at all. All the officials in this area, formed at the opening of the new administration, differed little from those in Astrakhan. Bolvillier tried to arrange the composition of officials as best as possible, but, as in Astrakhan, there was no one to choose from except the clerks. However, the Saratov Province had one advantage, at least for the highest positions, such as District Chiefs, there were many landowners, mostly ruined or small landowners, who applied for them, and Bolvillier managed to find several good, capable people for these positions. They, however, constituted an extreme minority. To the multitude of statements, books, and other urgent reports established by the new ministry, dozens of new institutions, and new demands were added with each mail; all of them needed new research and local considerations, and to correctly and accurately fill them out, it was impossible to do otherwise than to do all this himself. As a result, frequent trips in all directions of the Province became an inevitable necessity.

Schismatic affairs also constituted an important subject for the occupation and care of the chamber manager. The Saratov Province, and especially Zavolozhye, was a “nest of schismatic sects of all generations and branches.” This was a concern not only for the Minister but also for the Tsar. Nicholas Pavlovich kept an eye on the sects, and while not wishing for their destruction, desired that the “spread of the schism,” be prevented. In 1839 he even promised these sects fifty years of military exemption if they resettled in Transcaucasia.[5] The bishop at that time in Saratov was Archbishop Yakov Ivanovich Vecherkov, an old acquaintance of Andrei Mikhailovich from Ekaterinoslav, where he was rector of the Ekaterinoslav Theological Seminary from 1823 until 1827.[6] Though a man in all respects worthy of respect, Archbishop Vecherkov was something of a fanatic regarding the schismatics and also worked hard to eliminate their influence. He often held meetings on this subject, under the name of “advisory committees,” which, together with the implementation of the conferences, also took up a lot of time.

Archbishop Vecherkov (Yakov Ivanovich Vecherkov) c. 1840.[7]

Taken together, these concerns were matters which Andrei Mikhailovich was compelled to address. His travels in all directions around the Province began in February and were repeated many times until the end of the year. They were mainly directed towards the Zavolozhye steppes, which attracted the special attention of the government, due to the vast expanse of uninhabited lands there, intended both for the founding of new settlements, various institutions, and for distribution as a grant. Then a special survey of all these lands was carried out by a commission under his supervision and with his special participation in that matter. His first trip was to the cities of Volzhsk and Khvalynsk, and from there to Zavolozhye and Nikolaevsk District. In Volzhsk, he met the richest merchants in the Saratov Province, Sapozhnikov and Kursakov, of whom the first was (secretly) an Old Believer at heart, and the second an ardent fanatic, both in body and soul. He then went to Zavolozhye, to the Nikolaevsk District, and visited the schismatic Irgiz Monasteries, which were recently “glorified” in Russian literature. Their institutions and charter contained a lot of originality and that explained, quite clearly, why, from the time of their founding eighty years earlier, they fully achieved their goal of being a focal point for the spread and establishment of the schism in Russia.[8] In 1836 Archbishop Vecherkov oversaw its transition to a co-religionist monastery, which resulted in violence, bloodshed, and public outcry.[9]

When the followers of Jung-Stilling came to Saratov, their message reinforced similar apocalyptic expectations among the raskolniki who already lived here. The religious ferment of South Russia was, to a large extent, the result of the provinces having served as lands of exile for revolutionaries (religious, political, and social) since the seventeenth century. Dangerous criminals were also sent there, and a population of this disposition openly received all who preached rebellion against Orthodox principles and doctrines. It was at this time when a number of “false Christs” emerged in the region, each having organized their own sects. Contemporary legends abounded that there was a utopian city known as Belovod´e (“Whitewater”) beyond the Russian border, where schismatics would be safe from persecution, and a refuge from the Antichrist (in the form of the Tsarist state.)[10]

Then there was the popular peasant agitator, Kryloff, who enflamed the whole of Novorossiya with his intoxicating oratory. He believed so much in his mission of Savior, that he undertook a pilgrimage to St. Petersburg to be made a priest of the “spiritual Christians.” He was flogged to death. Another Molokan leader was Andreev, who long preached the coming of the prophet Elijah. Excited by his own discourses, one day he set forth with his followers to conquer the “promised land,” in the fertile district of Mount Ararat. For his troubles, he received a few wounds, and altercations with the inhabitants. When he returned home, he was exiled to Siberia for harboring some dangerous criminals in his flock.

The Molokan named Terentii Bezobrazoff was believed by his followers to be the prophet Elijah. Bezobrazoff announced that when he accomplished his mission, he would ascend to Heaven and rejoin God, his Father. When the day came for his ascension, two thousand believers assembled to witness the event. The crowd knelt and prayed while Bezobrazoff frantically waved his arms. He eventually flung himself down the hillside and fell to the ground. The disillusioned followers seized him and promptly delivered him up to justice. He spent many years in prison. These misfortunes did not weaken the spiritual resolve of the Molokans. Quite the contrary. There were a number of doomsday prophets in the region (Vasiliy Moskvi, Sidor Andreev, Luk’ian Sokolov, Fyodor Bulgakov, etc.) A veritable parade of “False Christs” impregnated the imaginations of the southern peasantry. In 1840, for example, another man would drain the peasants of Simbirsk and Saratov of their money by declaring himself to be the Savior. He fled to Bessarabia with his funds and his disciples. He returned later with “twelve feminine angels.” (He was deported to Siberia.)[11]

Many state peasants and Serfs were caught up in the chiliastic movement that swept through the region in the 1820s and 1830s. With the Second Coming of Christ near at hand, the authority of the landlords hardly seemed to matter. While the upper classes tried to justify the world as it existed, the peasantry called into question not only the landowner’s right to exploit their labor. The “social contract” was broken. This added texture to another problem in the area, that being the Arson Panic of 1839. It was a response to long-simmering issues. The cholera epidemic of 1831 and 1832 was followed by harvest failures in 1833 and 1834, resulting in significant illegal flights of peasants to the North Caucasus between 1832-1837. The crops failed again in 1839. During this period of social stress, peasant petitions rarely led to any relief of their conditions, so they had to resort to other measures to protest against their oppression. Many saw these fires as a sign of the coming apocalypse. As the summer progressed, fires throughout the land became ubiquitous. Everywhere the fires broke out, peasant disturbances followed (refusal to work, attacks on strangers, landlords, officials, etc.)^[12]

In the autumn, Andrei Mikhailovich visited the Elton Salt Mine and traveled to the extreme limits of the Province, that is, to the city of Tsarev on the Akhtuba, where he was very interested in the remains of the significant Tatar towns that were once located along this river. There he found piles of stones and bricks, the latter often with intricate designs in multi-colored enamel, among which, over the course of several decades, gold and silver items and money were found in large quantities. It was impossible to suppose that these masses of ruined buildings constituted the ruins of some city, in the full sense of the word at least. They rather belonged to the winter nomadic camps and trading posts of the Golden Horde, where in the summer only newcomers, watchmen, and sentries remained to guard the shops and barns. A similar example could be found among the Kalmyk princes of his own time; all of them had houses, offices, khuruls, and shops, maintained by Russian traders, in some part of the steppe belonging to them. This did not prevent them from wandering for three-quarters of the year, and their settlement from remaining empty all this time. The remains of dwellings, although not on such an enormous scale, still existed in the middle of the last century in the Novokuznetsk District. Near Tsaritsyn, seventeen miles above the city, where the village of Nechetnoye now stood, some rather remarkable ruins were preserved, with worn-out parts of the walls and heaps of stones, fragments, broken bricks, where silver, gold, and other very interesting things, sometimes of artistic work, were also found. In general, his frequent travels around the Saratov Province soon acquainted him with all its remarkable features in all their details.

In family matters the year brought him great consolation by the reunification, in its entirety, of his scattered family. He was indebted to the Chief of Artillery stationed in Saratov province, Lieutenant General Arnoldi, for the arrival of Rostya. He offered to transfer him to the Horse Battery stationed in Saratov, assuring him that Rostya would lose little by being sent out of school because at the time his peers would finish their courses, General Arnoldi would present him for promotion to officer rank. To receive this rank, Rostya would only have to go to St. Petersburg, pass the final examination, and he would be an officer at the same time as his comrades. Of course, Andrei Mikhailovich agreed to this offer with great pleasure and gratitude. General Arnoldi was not slow in fulfilling this offer. Soon the transfer took place, and Rostya came to Saratov.[13] Meanwhile, Helena Andreevna, heavily burdened by illness, yielded to the insistence of her mother that she come to Saratov and seek a more thorough treatment. She and the girls set out for Saratov that winter.[14]

← Previous

SOURCES:

[1] de Hell, Xavier Hommaire. Travels In The Steppes Of The Caspian Sea, The Crimea, The Caucasus, &c. Chapman And Hall. London, England. (1847): 166-167.

[2] Fadeyev, Andrei Mikhailovich. Vospominaniia: 1790-1867. Vysochaishe Utverzhd. Yuzhno-Russkago. Odessa, Ukraine. [Russian Empire.] (1897): Part I: 142-146.

[3] Fadeyev, Andrei Mikhailovich. Vospominaniia: 1790-1867. Vysochaishe Utverzhd. Yuzhno-Russkago. Odessa, Ukraine. [Russian Empire.] (1897): Part I: 146-147.

[4] Shaukenov, Ali. “Administrative And Territorial Changes And Legal Reforms In The Kazakh Steppe In The 19th Century.” Asian And African Studies. Vol. XXIII, No. 1 (2014): 89-109.

[5] Hardwick, Susan W. “Religion And Migration: The Molokan Experience.” Yearbook Of The Association Of Pacific Coast Geographers. Vol. LV (1993): 127-141.

[6] Fadeyev, Andrei Mikhailovich. Vospominaniia: 1790-1867. Vysochaishe Utverzhd. Yuzhno-Russkago. Odessa, Ukraine. [Russian Empire.] (1897): Part I: 151.

[7] Jacob (Vecherkov,) Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod. Lithograph by K. Ergot. 1840s.

[8] Fadeyev, Andrei Mikhailovich. Vospominaniia: 1790-1867. Vysochaishe Utverzhd. Yuzhno-Russkago. Odessa, Ukraine. [Russian Empire.] (1897): Part I: 151.

[9] Stepanov P.A. “The Capture Of The Irgiz Monastery From The Old Believers In 1836.” Russkaya Starina. Vol. XXIV, No. 3 (March 1879): 552-554,

[10] Perrie, Maureen. “In Search Of An Apostolic Succession: Russian Old Believers And The Legend of Belovod´e.” The Slavonic And East European Review. Vol. XCVIII, No. 2 (April 2020): 266-297.

[11] Palmieri, Aurelio. “The Russian Doukhobors And Their Religious Teachings.” The Harvard Theological Review. Vol. VIII, No. 1 (January 1915): 62-81; Finot, Jean. Modern Saints And Seers. William Rider & Son, Ltd. London, England. (1920): 41; Summers, Montague. The History Of Witchcraft And Demonology. Trübner. London, England. (1926): 57.

[12] Hudson, Hugh D. “A Rhetorical War Of Fire: The Middle Volga Arson Panic Of 1839 As Contested Legitimacy In Prereform Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne Des Slavistes. Vol. XLIII, No. 1 (March 2001): 29–48.

[13] Fadeyev, Andrei Mikhailovich. Vospominaniia: 1790-1867. Vysochaishe Utverzhd. Yuzhno-Russkago. Odessa, Ukraine. [Russian Empire.] (1897): Part I: 147-154.

[14] Zhelihovskaya, Vera Petrovna. How I Was Little. A. F. Devrien. St. Petersburg, Russia. (1898): 1-6.