THE BALTIC PROVINCES OF RUSSIA.*
ABOUT six months ago we had an opportunity of noticing this book in connection with its principal topics—the development of Russia since the Crimean War, and the attempts to organize it on
a communistic basis but it was impossible in a single article to give anything like a fair account of all the matters contained. Dr. Eckardt, though his book is not a long one, has been so close an observer of Russian history and the mingled currents of the
Modern Russia: comprising Russia under Alexander II. ; Russian Communism ; the (7) eek Orthodox Church and its Sects; the Baltic Provinces of Russia. By Dr. Julius Eckardt. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.
t "The Modern Russian Polity," Spectator, April 26, 1870. political, social, and literary movements in that country during recent years, and he presents so distinct a picture in his brief pages, that even the shortest résumé of his observations, to be at all complete, must occupy a good deal of space. At any rate, the chapter on the "Baltic Provinces of Russia," though not disconnected from the main theme of the book, appears to be well adapted for separate treatment. The link of connection is the attempt of the Russian rulers to carry out their new principles of government in these provinces, and to Russianize them, notwithstanding the distinction and even contrast between their past history and civilization and those of Russia Proper. But as the provinces do not number altogether two millions of population, the incidental effect upon them of a policy which was directed in the interests or supposed interests of a vast empire could hardly seem to matter much in the general discussion. To be dealt with properly at all, their position must be considered from a separate stand-point, if it was of sufficient intrinsic interest to receive a full description. It certainly possesses that interest. In sub- stance Dr. Eckardt's account is that these provinces are outlying settlements of Germany—the upper classes, numbering about a ninth part of the whole population, being exclusively German, while the lower classes—Esthonians and Letts—know of no civilization but German,. have been governed for centuries by German laws and institutions, have no separate race feeling, and are fast becoming Germanized with their rise in the social scale. In this general statement one can see the analogy which these Baltic provinces present with the history of civilization in East Prussia itself, and the probability of some interesting differences in their present condition in consequence of their different fate as the provinces of a non-German State. The condition of the Rus- sian Baltic provinces is thus deserving of study, even if it did not happen that the power to which they are allied is Germany, just beginning to take rank as a single state and just becoming aware of its strength, and if there were no mutterings of German opinion in favour of protecting German communities against the encroachment of a foreign state to which they happen to be subject. But the fact that these latter conditions do exist is an additional reason why the Baltic provinces should not be for- gotten, and why we should look to their connection with Russia as possibly even more fruitful of future consequences than the internal development of Russia itself,—as at any rate the moat probable point of contact for that development with the inter- national politics of Europe.
According to Dr. Eckardt, the circumstances of these Baltic provinces—Esthonia, Livland, and Courland—are only cases of a much more general phenomenon. Along the :3titli parallel of longitude, from the White Sea to the Transylvanian Alps, a narrow strip of territory, occupying about four degrees on each side of the central line, is the scene of a curious conflict between races and modes of civilization. The mass of the population in each district is of one race, their civilization comes from a second race which is overwhelmingly in a minority, and both are now subject to a third power, that of Russia, which in language, manners, and ideas is entirely foreign to both. To the north is Finland, where Swedish is the civilizing element, and the masses of the people are Finns or Lapps ; to the south is Polish Lithuania, where Polish is the civilizing element, and the masses, as the name implies, are Lithuanic ; while midway lies the German colony of Courland, Livland, and Esthouia, where the masses of the people are partly Esthonians, an allied race to the Finns, and partly Letts, a race closely allied to the Lithuanic, which prevails farther south. Throughout all this territory the native masses have no history and no independent life, deriving everything from the colonists who have conquered and civilized them, while the colonists themselves are the kinsmen of adjacent peoples, just as the now governing power is the representative of another adjacent race. To add to the interest of the problem, the adjacent nations to which the colonists belong take a vivid interest in the affairs of their settlements, and though Dr. Eckardt complains of the Germans hitherto having very much forgotten theirs, his own statements show that the forgetfulness has been far from complete, and that the sympathy between colony and mother country may easily be revived. The history of the Germany colony has had all the eventfulness which belongs to a settlement that has the misfortune not only to be a frontier territory for centuries, but the prize of contests between bigger powers on either side of it. Rediscovered in 1159 by Bremen merchants, the Baltic coast became the rendezvous of German knights, priests, and merchants, whose numbers increased so much that between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries they were able to form Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland, under the collective name of Livland, or Livonia, into a federative State, "which acknowledged the Roman-German Emperor and the Pope as its paramount lords and supreme heads." The colony only maintained itself by sharp contests with its previous inhabit- ants and with Russians, Lithuanians, and Danes ; but the subjugation was effectual, the natives being at the same time made serfs and forcibly converted from heathenism to Christianity. The immigration ceased in the middle of the thirteenth century, but the colony was enabled to defend itself, with much fighting, by alliance with the knights of the Teutonic order settled in East Prussia. Society in the colony, moreover, was for centuries the scene of much internal strife, reflecting in miniature the struggles in Germany itself during the middle-ages between nobles, citizens, and peasants, and between the laity and the Church. Unfortunately, the beginning of the sixteenth century found the strife still continuing, and the work of Germanizing the natives and raising them from their original barbarism hardly advanced at all ; when two events of great importance happened. The Lutheran Reformation made great way in the colony, rendering the continuance of the Confederation, with its old complex institutions, impossible ; and there was a terrible inroad by a Russ-Tatar army, sent to Livland by Ivan the Terrible. The land was completely swept and ravaged in a manner to which only a Mongol invasion offers a comparison, and to this day -" the number of the population of Livonia has not reached the height at which it stood previous to that invasion." " At the close -of the sixteenth century scarcely a fourth of the flourishing cities of the country were left." The result was the complete dissolution of the Confederation. Esthland passed under Swedish, Livonia and Courland under Polish rule ; and for half the fifty years of this rivime the country was the scene of -perpetual wars be- tween Sweden and Poland. At length the whole country passed under Swedish government, again, however, to be- -come the scene of long wars in consequence of the contests between Sweden and Russia, from the time that the latter power began to have for its aim the firm possession of the Baltic coast. The contest ended in Russian victory, though the Liv- landers obtained from Peter as the price of submission the acknow- ledgment of " the predominance throughout his new provinces of Livonia and Esthonia of the Lutheran Church, of the German -race, of the German language, and of the hereditary constitution ;" and the promise " to ensure for all time to come the augmenta- tion' rather than the ' diminution' of the privileges of the Liv- 'landers." Since this event, and until a recent date, the history of the colony has been one of unchecked Germanization under Russian sovereignty. The internal government has been of a German -aristocratic type, unfortunately antiquated, owing to the difficulty of making any change which would not prejudice self-government altogether ; but such as it is, it has permitted a great advance in prosperity and civilization. The process of Germanization has gone on, the number of schools and churches has increased, greater numbers of the peasantry and citizens are becoming Germanized, and above all, the German University of Dorpat, which was restored in 1802, has been a Centre of enlightenment and progress for the entire colony.
On the face of this history, the German character of these Bal- tic provinces is apparent. Though governed from St. Petersburg, their life has not been that of the rest of Russia in language, laws, religion, literature, or any other vital point. And the German -character is still more apparent from 1)r. Eckardt's minute account -of their present condition :—
" Everything," ho says, "that does not belong to the peasant class is German in its character. No one has yet undertaken to establish ac- curately who belongs to the German and who to the Lettic and Esthic population, and scarcely would any one succeed in the attempt ; for yearly the number of those who pass over from the subject into the ruling race is on the increase. The schoolmaster, who has received his education in one of the seminaries of Livland or Courland ; the younger son of the easy farmer, who has gone to the city to learn a trade or be- come an apprentice ; the talented peasant's boy, to whom the favour of the manor or the friendship of the neighbouring pastor, has opened a learned career ; the prudent agriculturist, who has risen to be a bailiff, steward, or manager ; and lastly, the serf's daughter who has gone into service in the city, or has been brought up with the baron's daughter as -a dependent playfollow,—all these change their nationality with their calling, and become Germans within a year ; even the rich Lettish pro- prietor, who has gained his farm as his free property and proudly calls himself a peasant, who speaks intentionally no other language than that of his people, is glad when his children learn German. The idea of Master' and Garman ' are in this country so completely identified, that the language of the Esthians has only one expression (Saxa) for both ; and Germanization is regarded as the only way which leads to true -culture and higher position."
And then Dr. Eckardt goes on to quote the opinion of a "clever writer" on the nationality of these provinces, to the effect that language is only one of the elements of nationality, and not an indispensable element, and that " the Letts and Eaths are a striking example of the fact that a people may retain their lan- guage, and at the same time, in almost every other respect, lose all stamp of peculiarity." This clever writer' adds :— " Through Lutheranism and Herrenhutianism the substance of their spiritual necessities is moulded in German form ; they have, for cen- turies, known none but German ideas of law, and their whole literature consists of imitations and translations of German productions. What remains? perhaps some national song, some marriage custom, some peculiar vehicle, plough or flail ? But all these remains from the childhood of the races vanish day by day; and we might assert that the Germanizing of the Letts and Esths, far from being a problem, is a fact long ago established."
Whatever may be thought of these theories, the pictures of the country and people, it must be admitted, are of a German char- acter. The Courland nobleman is in fact described as of rather a higher type than the ordinary German—unconquerable love of enjoyment and immense power of labour here appearing in close combination, and checking " that calm pedantic development of mind which generally constitutes the strength of the German." The Courland clergy, again, show many of the peculiarities of the enjoying Courland nature, though " nowise inferior to their solemn and pathetic German brethren in moral earnestness, ener- getic vigour, and fidelity to their vocation," and frequently above them in independence of opinion. Livonia is different from and in some respects inferior to Courland, and Esthonia, from its proximity to St. Petersburg, is more exposed than the other two provinces to foreign influence, but still the characteristics are dis- tinctly German. There are few who will not recognize in the following picture of still life something that is peculiarly German, though the scenery is different from almost any part of the father- land .-
"Side by side with artizans and potty dealers, the same people of authority are infallibly everywhere to be met with; the city pastor, the physician, the district teacher and his colleagues, the council-syndic- learned in the law, who, as a rule, is at the same time a legal prac- titioner—the postmaster, and lastly, the noble members and the learned secretaries of the provincial court of justice. Amid moderate profes- sional employment and social family life, the days pass by without variety ; visits to neighbouring proprietors, hunting parties, and at Christmas the usual journey to Riga or Titan, afford the only change. The men generally meet at a club, which possesses one reading-table, and many card-tables. The women are restricted to family visiting, except perhaps when a carnival ball, arranged with the help of the nobles in the neighbourhood, opens the club-room also to them; or when some itinerant company of actors gather young and old to witness their performances. The great distances which separate these country towns one from another, and the complete lack of railways, render these towns, oven at present, far more isolated than German cities of the same size and importance. Thrown, as regards their intellectual needs, ex- clusively on the books and journals which appear in the provincial towns or are suited to their taste, the country towns of the Baltic obtain modern culture only at second-hand. From the scantiness of outward diversion, reading is a more general resource than in the central points of civilization. The impressions received are more lasting, the suscepti- bility is fresher, and does not incur the danger of becoming blasé by continual change ; the mind is more richly and deeply developed than in the west, where men live closer together, and each individual scarcely weighs in the scale. During the endless winter, when forest and field are veiled in a covering of deep snow, and the shortest journey is per- formed with difficulties such as the dwellers in Central Europe can scarcely imagine, the cultivated classes of the provincial towns, and the country inhabitants of the Baltic shores, are thrown entirely on their own resources, and on the books and music which the bookseller of the nearest large town has selected for them. The worship of great poets and composers is therefore pursued with warmth and heartiness, arising from the feeling that life would be indeed only half-life without the gift of these immortal treasures. People who have never heard an orchestra in their life, to whom occasional Riga performances of Hamlet or Iphigenia have been their greatest artistic remembrances, now draw their highest edification from mediocre pianoforte arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies, or from well-thumbed copies of old editions of Goethe and Shakespeare ; and are never weary of kindling their hearts again and again with productions which, in the place of their origin, are scarcely now regarded, because people have heard or seen them till they are tired."
If this is not true to nature, it is at least well imagined, and that a German can produce so sympathetic a description is perhaps of itself evidence of the adaptability of the facts. Still the colony has had some real connection with German history, as is shown, for example, by the circumstance that Herder, who was head of of the Cathedral School at Riga, is honoured by a statue in the Herder-Platz, which is named after him. The colony has contri- buted little to the common German life, but it is at least a genuine reflection of Germanic influence.
What are the present relations of these German communities with the Suzerain power? This is the question which has most practical interest at the present moment, since the internal development of the provinces will depend largely on the nature of these relations and it is on this point, as we have hinted, that we are already threatened with another international difficulty. Dr. Eckardt gives us to understand that the Germans have several grievances. They have, in fact, come into collision with the democratic and communistic ideas, which, since the suppression of the last Polish insurrection, have gained the ascendancy in Russia. The cry has been raised that all the provinces of the Empire must be Russianized,—in language, laws, and ideas; and in particular, that the Russian principle of common property in land should be everywhere recognized. The Baltic provinces, though in no way Russian, and hitherto self-governing, are called on to submit equally with Poland and Lithuania to the new regime. As a beginning, the Russian Government decrees the use of the Russian language in the administration and in the law courts ; obstacles are placed in the way of German schools, on the pretext that the peasants must be taught Russian ; the self-government of the province is restricted, and the constitutional chiefs removed ; the confiscation of property with a view to the establishment of common rights is threatened, if not begun. In some parts of the provinces the oppressive pre- sence of the Greek Church is also felt. At an unhappy date in their past history some of the Livonian peasants were induced to enter the Greek Church, which furnished an excuse to the. Russian Government to set up a Greek Church in every commune ; but anxious as these peasants now are to return to the Lutheran com- munion and share in the life of their neighbours, which is most natural to them, the influence of the Greek Church hinders their toleration. This is a pretty set of grievances. The German communities are, in . fact, engaged in a contest with their Russian rulers, aggravated by the circumstance that they have prescriptive rights and treaty engagements to appeal to, and are now at last a comparatively homogeneous people. If these are the facts, we should think there is little doubt that the guesses which have been made as to the probability of a Russian defeat on this field, with or without a struggle between Russia and United Germany, are in reality well founded. Even if Russia is not interfered with, the prospects of Russianization can hardly be considered good. German life has struck deep root, and is nourished by the neighbourhood of Germany ; only centuries, or the violent expulsion of the German inhabitants, could so alter the present condition of these communities as to permit Russian influ- ences to prevail. The German civilization is stronger, and must prevail on a field where the conditions are more than equal. It might be possible for Russia to incorporate the provinces in a federal State, still leaving them their distinctive character and ‘quasi-independence ; but the idea of Russianiziug them on a new model may almost be pronounced impossible. If it is tried with- -out interference, it will certainly commit Russia for an indefinite time to a hopeless struggle productive of no little weakness. But it can hardly be tried without interference, and the probability that it will be tried, from the fury of the new Russian democrats, gives rise to the expectation of a Russo-German war. We cannot conceive a strong German power submitting quietly to the oppres- sion of a German colony, still associated with the mother-country in literature, ideas, and manners, and drawing closer to it daily by the ties of commerce, proximity, and increased facilities of com- munication. That Russia must be defeated in the contest is too -evident for explanation, and she may, perhaps, give in without striking a blow.
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