THE

RUSSIANS AT HOME:

Unpolitical Sketches,

SHOWING

WHAT NEWSPAPERS THEY READ; WHAT THEATRES THEY FREQUENT ;
AND HOW THEY EAT, DRINK, AND ENJOY THEMSELVES;

WITH OTHER MATTER RELATING CHIEFLY TO

LITERATURE AND MUSIC, AND TO PLACES OF HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS
INTEREST IN AND ABOUT MOSCOW;

Comprising also Four Russian Designs (on stone).

BY

SUTHERLAND EDWARDS.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

WM H. ALLEN AND CO., LEADENHALL STREET.

1861.

[The right of translating and republishing this work (of which a portion is written
by an American citizen) is reserved.]

1851

HARVARD
UNIV. RUITY
LIBRARY

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, by

J. C. HANEY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

LONDON PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER,

ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET.

THE RUSSIANS AT HOME.

CHAPTER I.

JOURNALISM.

AMONG the numerous accredited errors on the subject of Russia, one of the most remarkable is that which exists in England with regard to the diffusion of the French language throughout the empire. Many otherwise wellinformed Englishmen imagine that Russian is spoken in Russia merely as Irish is spoken in Ireland, or Flemish in Belgium, and that French is the ordinary medium of communication between all persons possessing the slightest pretensions to education. The English tourist who arrives at St. Petersburg, and finds to his astonishment that the Custom-house officers neither search his person, nor confiscate his "Murray," nor "crumple up" his shirts, as Mr. Cobden would say, is almost equally surprised at their utter inability to understand French. This surprise changes into annoyance, or even alarm, when neither the isvostchik, who takes possession of him and puts him on to a droshky, nor the first, second, or third person he accosts in the street, nor any of the dealers or customers in any of the shops along the Quai, are able to understand a word he says, let him speak either French, German, or, as a last resource, English. The sensible isvostchik, if left to himself, will soon release the traveller from his difficulty by driving him to a German hotel (in Russia, by the way, all foreigners are "Germans," as formerly in England all

B