Eternal Russia never changes, whatever label you chose to affix be it capitalist, communist, czarist or Catholic they are still the same. It is a mafia society where only the most ruthless rise to the ruling class and without a doubt it works, to a certain point.
"A wealth of unnecessary and petty precautions here engenders a whole army of clerks, each of whom carries out his task with a degree of pedantry and inflexibility, and a self-important air solely designed to add significance to the least significant employment. He refrains from speaking, but you can see him thinking, more or less: "Make way for me; I am a cog in the mighty machine of state." This cog, operated by a will beyond his own, has as much life as a wheel in the balance of a clock, yet he is what, in Russia, they would call a man."
"In Russia, everything you notice, and everything that happens around you, has a terrifying uniformity; and the first thought that comes into the traveler's mind, as he contemplates this symmetry, is that such entire consistency and regularity, so contrary to the natural inclination of mankind, cannot have been achieved and could not survive without violence. . . . Officially, such brutal tyranny is called respect for unity and love of order; and this bitter fruit of despotism appears so precious to the methodical mind that you are told it cannot be purchased at too high a price."
"In Russia, the government rules everything and vitalizes nothing. The inhabitants of this vast Empire, though not calm, are dumb. Death hovers over every head and strikes at random -- it is enough to make one doubt divine justice. Mankind there has two coffins: the cradle and the tomb. Mothers must weep for their children at birth as much as at death."
"The greatest pleasure of this people is drunkenness, in other words, oblivion. Poor folk! they must dream to be happy; but, to prove the good nature of the Russians, when the muzhiks get drunk, besotted though they are, they turn to sentimentality instead of fighting and killing one another, as is the custom with drunkards in our country: they weep and kiss. What a peculiar and engaging people!"
"Whenever your son is discontented in France, I have a simple remedy: tell him to go to Russia. The journey is beneficial for any foreigner, for whoever has properly experienced that country will be happy to live anywhere else."
"Men stay silent in Russia, but the stones speak, in pitiful accents. No wonder the Russians fear and neglect their old buildings, for these bear witness to the history that they would prefer, more often than not, to forget."
Astolphe Louis Leonor, the Marquis de Custine
 |
| |
|
