1815-32] Corruption. — Vodka revenues 421

the most elementary, no account was taken; there was no system of training, no system of tests; any qualifications which a candidate might possess were those acquired by the discharge of subordinate duties in the public departments. It was looked upon as a matter of course that any candidate possessing influence, or the means of purchasing a post, was competent for any special service, administrative or judicial; it was quite a usual thing, too, to pass, not only from one branch of the service to another, but from the military into the civil service and vice versa. Bribery was universal in all grades, and in all branches of the administration ; it was one of the main sources of livelihood for a huge army of officials, wretchedly paid, and thus forced by the State itself to take bribes. In fact, all the officials (only excepting, to some extent, the functionaries of the Ministry of Finance, relatively better though still very scantily remunerated) received salaries on which they were quite unable to subsist. Judicial officers were still paid, notwithstanding the increased cost of living and the depreciation in the value of money, according to the rate of salaries fixed in 1772. Thus the presidents of the Judicial Chambers, both civil and criminal, received a salary of 840 paper roubles annually, judges 600, judges of provincial Courts 300, and officials of the secretarial staffs from 20 to 100 roubles annually. The salaries of the administrative authorities were equally poor. Accordingly the temptation to extortion, fraud, and corruption became almost irresistible ; and, in view of the lack of any proper control, indictments for such misconduct became, in almost every case, a farce. Examples of every kind of malversation were set by the Governors, who were allpowerful in their own provinces, and directly dependent only on the Tsar: that is, practically dependent on no one.

The indirect revenues of the Governors, obtained by plundering the Treasury and public property, and especially by bribes extorted from the inhabitants of their respective provinces, were reckoned, on an average, at several hundred thousands of roubles annually. Some military Governors (as, for example, the notorious Governor of Volhynia, Komburlej) in a short time amassed millions. During the first few years after 1815, in consequence of a number of senatorial inspections, that were held in response to the complaints of the inhabitants, a number of Governors, convicted of disgraceful criminal abuses, were removed or sent to trial. All this, however, resulted in nothing, for their immediate successors were no better; and thereafter, as a rule, the people, for fear of the Governors, refrained from making complaints. Particularly flagrant abuses took place in the administration of the vodka revenues, which were farmed out. The Governors, usually in the pay of the rich vodkafarmers, combined with them to make the people drink, and plundered the Treasury of a considerable portion of its revenues. To provide against the loss thus occasioned to the Treasury, the experiment was made, in 1819, of introducing a government monopoly in the central

422 Prisons. — Religion [1815-32

provinces. From that time the Government itself took active steps to make the people drink; government public-bouses, and inns with billiards, music, and dancing, were everywhere established. The Minister of Finance, Kankrin, in a memorial submitted to Alexander, pointed out the necessity of "spreading the use of strong drink among the common people." However, the monopoly system, in the end, only led to the enrichment of the authorities charged with the administration of the monopoly; the civil Governors, by means of substitutes, themselves kept the public-houses, and, at the same time, entered into secret agreements with the former wctta-farmers. The whole burden thus fell upon the public, who paid double the former price for villainous liquor. Ultimately (in 1827), the monopoly had to be given up, and the old system of farming' out was restored.

The lower officials — the ispravniks, chiefs of police, town-prefects, and procurators, as well as the judicial authorities — following the example of their superiors, robbed and plundered the people unmercifully. There was no possibility of getting a civil case, in any Court, from the landCourts up to the Senate, carried through without bribery. The prisons too were in a terrible state. Prisoners, without distinction of crime, or age or sex, were kept in cold, damp, overcrowded, underground cells; tbey lived, for the most part, on public alms, for the funds for their support were commonly misappropriated by the prison authorities.

In 1818 two Quakers, William Allen and Grelle de Mobillier, arrived at St Petersburg with the object of visiting Russian prisons. Although it is evident that not everything was shown to them, yet they were so shocked with what they did see that, with the candour characteristic of their sect, they immediately communicated their experiences in person to Alexander. The Tsar listened to them sympathetically and offered prayers with them; but the prison system remained unchanged.

More than two-thirds of the population of Russia at this period belonged to the Orthodox confession. At the end of Alexander's reign, in 1825, the Orthodox population (not including the army) amounted to 34 millions. The " white " (secular) clergy numbered 110,000, while the "black" (monastic) clergy included 5700 monks and lay-brothers, besides 5300 nuns. There were over 27,000 churches, among which were 450 cathedrals (sobors), and about 800 chapels. The monasteries numbered 377. The nunneries were 99 in number. There were 3 ecclesiastical academies, 39 seminaries, 128 district church-schools and 170 parish schools with 45,000 pupils. The funds for educational purposes in the hands of the Orthodox clergy amounted to 10,500,000 roubles, while the yearly expenditure for Church objects was about 900,000 roubles. Four Orthodox missions were carried on, viz. the Ossetian in the Caucasus, the Samoyede in the province of Archangel, the Siberian among the Buriats and Chukches, and the Pekin mission —

1801-32] The clergy. The Synod 423

a particularly active one, which gave instruction in the Chinese and Manchurian languages, and also played a certain political rQle. The condition of the vast majority of the Orthodox clergy was deplorable, alike in moral, intellectual, and material respects. The parish clergy, composed of married priests, were overburdened with families and, being sunk in poverty and ignorance, were looked upon with contempt by the laity. It was only in comparatively recent times, viz. by an ukase of 1801, that corporal punishment for the parish priests was abolished, and later still, by an ukase of 1808, for their wives. Special administrative enactments were made, forbidding the " popes" to drink and brawl in public places, but these were of little use. Universal drunkenness prevailed among the secular clergy, and was not of rare occurrence among the monks, as is attested by many scandalous cases. In consequence of the low level of instruction in the academies and seminaries, only a few individuals were able, by their own efforts and private reading, to obtain any higher education, general and theological. In intelligence the "black" clergy were relatively superior; they were, moreover, powerful enough to protect against the secularising hand of the Government the immense wealth accumulated in the monasteries. The leading Church dignitaries sprang almost exclusively from their midst; but, for the most part, they* were actuated by extreme and aggressive ambition and fanaticisYn.

The supreme ecclesiastical authority, the Synod, since its creation in 1721, had been in appearance, at least, entirely subject to the authority of the secular Government, and had been kept by it in the strictest discipline during the reigns of Catharine II and Paul; it did not cease, however, to aim secretly at becoming independent and, indeed, to exercise an influence on the actions of the Government. The chief representative of this tendency was the most influential man in the Synod, Seraphim, Archbishop of Tver (1814-9), afterwards (until 1821) of Moscow, finally Archbishop of St Petersburg and president of the Synod until 1843: a narrow, bigoted person, absolute and implacable, yet a profound politician in his own way. He employed as his tool the Archimandrite Photius, religious teacher at the School of Cadets, a young ascetic, who was wont to torture his body with sackcloth, flagellation, and fasting. In his strange autobiography this monk has described his hallucinations, temptations, and visions of demons. He was a man morbidly sensuous, ambitious, and cunning, and has been called, not without reason, the Russian " Torquemada." The most distinguished and purest figure in the Synod was Philaret, Archbishop of Jaroslaff, afterwards (from 1821) of Moscow, a man of high intellectual attainments and Liberal ideas, who was convinced of the necessity of the reform of the Church, but, at the same time, was devoid of influence. He was denounced by Photius as a " freemason," and charged by Seraphim as being of an " unorthodox "

424 Reforms in the Orthodox Church [1812-8

and " Lutheran " tendency. The lay Procurator-General of the Synod, Prince Meshcherski (1817-33), was weak and indifferent, and unable to influence in any way the direction of the Synodal or Church affairs.

Alexander I, being well acquainted with the inner working of the Church in its ecclesiastical and social relations, had originally in view its fundamental and thorough reform. He intended to ameliorate the position of the " white " clergy, to do away with the exploiting of the parishioners by the priests, to place the latter upon a fixed salary paid by the State, and to raise their whole spiritual level. From 1814, the Government actually began to pay salaries, allowing to ecclesiastics holding the degree of Doctor of Divinity 500 roubles, of Master 350 roubles, and of Bachelor 250 roubles per annum. In 1812, with the support of the Tsar, a Bible Society, formed on the model of the British Bible Society, had been founded. This society rapidly developed, and its work met with great success ; during the first nine years of its existence it printed 129 editions of the Bible in 675,000 copies. At the same time, a very important step was taken in the direction of bringing the Orthodox hierarchy under the special direction of the Government. By an Imperial manifesto of 1817, the administration of ecclesiastical affairs, which had hitherto been kept apart, was reformed and placed under the Ministry of Education; the Synod underwent reorganisation, and became directly subject to the authority of the Minister of Education, Prince Galitzin, who, according to the terms of the manifesto, " was henceforth to occupy the same leading position with respect to the Synod, as the Minister of Justice with respect to the Senate." It should be added that Alexander took a lively interest in the Orthodox sectarians, and personally sought the acquaintance of the most eminent sectarian leaders. At this time, too, the Tsar, who had previously been attracted towards religious mysticism by the famous Madame de KriideDer, made overtures to Rome, and appointed a permanent ambassador at the Holy See. In 1818 he concluded a Concordat with Pius VI I, establishing the Primacy of Warsaw and introducing harmony into the relations of the two Churches in the archbishopric of Mohileff. It appears that the question of the Union of the Churches (which had been seriously mooted before in Paul's time) occupied, to some extent, the active but unstable mind of Alexander, although he was indeed far from a practical realisation of this difficult and delicate scheme. It was not long before he had to renounce even the modest enactments proposed with a view to regulating the affairs of the Orthodox Church.

The Synod, seeing cause to be alarmed by these enactments, and observing in them a menace to the whole existing ecclesiastical hierarchy, determined to defend itself and entered upon a struggle with the Government. Seraphim was the prime mover in this matter. For several years he had been secretly fomenting a counter-agitation among the reactionary members of the higher social circles. Ultimately, having

1822-32] Reaction. — Forced conversion 425

waited for a change in the Liberal sentiments of the Tsar, he struck a decisive blow at the right moment. Photius, who was employed by him for this purpose, obtained, in 1822, an audience from Alexander and managed, by means of some sort of strange influence, to bring him into such a state, that, completely subdued, he fell at Photius' feet, kissed his hands, and otherwise humbled himself before him. Thereupon the astute Archimandrite, in unctuous tones, denounced not only Galitzin, but the whole movement in favour of freedom of thought, the Bible Society, the secret societies, the Catholics, Lutherans, and mystics — describing them all as the enemies of the throne and the altar. Alexander, however, did not yield all at once; his suspicious nature subsequently gained, to some extent, the upper hand over the momentary influence of Photius. But, henceforth, he began to waver, and was, doubtless, in his heart much perturbed by the menacing outlook thus disclosed, never having forgotten that he had ascended the throne over the dead body of his murdered father. In May, 1824, Seraphim renewed the attack; at an audience, granted to him by the Tsar, he denounced Galitzin as the enemy of Orthodoxy and demanded his immediate dismissal. It was in vain that Alexander defended his Minister, whom he regarded " not as a subject but as a friend." Seraphim remained unappeased ; Arakcheieff supported him, and the Tsar had to give way. Galitzin was dismissed; and the reactionary Shishkoff took his place.

Prior to this, in consequence of the representations of Photius, an Imperial rescript dated August, 1822, had suppressed all the secret societies and the Masonic Lodges, to which even persons of the highest rank belonged; for instance, the Tsarevich — the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich. By an Imperial ukase of May, 1824, addressed to the Synod, the position which that body had occupied prior to 1817 was restored to it, until a separate Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs should be established; which, however, was never done. At the same time, in consequence of Seraphim's denunciation (in December, 1824) of the Bible Society as being "a daughter of the British Society," a check was put upon its activity; but its formal suppression only took place after Alexander's death (1826). In the reign of Nicholas the Orthodox Church was able to commence again, on a large scale, the work of forced conversions, which had been interrupted since the death of Catharine II. Finally, owing to the abolition of the " Union" in Lithuania and Ruthenia, a million and a half of Uniates were forcibly converted in a body, and more than 2000 churches were taken from them. The triumph of the ecclesiastical reaction during the last years of the reign of Alexander I possessed the utmost significance for the future internal policy of Russia; and indirectly its effects were most disastrous to the kingdom of Poland and the-subsequent shaping of Polish-Russian relations.

The principle that the State does not exist for the community, but