Pictured above is Marquis de Custine. Marquis de Custine was a French aristocrat and writer who lived during the 19th century. His famous works cover his travels, which include a trip to the Russian Empire. In his travel writing, Marquis de Custine portrays Russian culture as inorganic. What I mean by inorganic is simple: Russian culture is not completely Russian; rather, Russian culture is copied from other nations’ cultures. Granted, no nation’s culture is completely organic, meaning isolated and not influenced by other cultures; however, the distinction between organic and inorganic cultures is that an inorganic intentionally copies another countries culture.
In his Letters from Russia, Custine detailed an interaction with Tsar Nicholas I. He wrote: “he [Tsar Nicholas I] is always posing… despite his charm, there is something that distracts from the man’s moral influence, namely that each of these expressions, which pass arbitrarily across his face, without any trace of the previous one remaining to modify the new.” Custine described Tsar Nicholas I as an actor, since the Tsar appeared to change masks between expressions. As Custine wrote, Nicholas I was a man with “many masks, but no face.”
However, Custine did not describe the Tsar as an actor to insult him. Rather, it is in recognition of his unique position. Custine interpreted the Tsar’s masks as resignation of his position. Nicholas I was the man Russia needed: “without seeming to share any of our emotions, he is always leader, judge, admiral, in short, a prince: nothing more, nothing less.” In an empire Custine viewed as violent and desolate, impoverished and barbaric, Custine beleived the Tsar was the only civilized, or European, component of the Russian Empire.
More importantly, Custine did not witness true Russian culture in the presence of the Tsar. As the Tsarina would later tell Custine, the city that greeted him, St. Petersburg, was not Russian at all. The festivities, celebrations and courtship mimicked other European countries. Custine even acknowledged that the men who surrounded him were foreign to Russian. Most of these men were German and Germans usually occupied high positions in the Russian bureaucracy. Although Custine does not mention the Tsar’s clothes, Nicholas I wore military uniforms that copied Prussian military dress. His uniform offers a stark contrast from the dark, Mongolian cloak worn by Ivan the Terrible.
The discrepancy between true Russian culture and the culture of the Russian court and the Romanov monarchs has several explanations. Russia’s adoption of Orthodox Christianity isolated Russia from the rest of Europe – except for Greece. Divisions between Russia and Europe widened during the 13th and 14th centuries, when they were part of the Golden Horde. Following Mongol occupation of Russia, Russian culture became more Asian. However, Russian culture had to become more European during their imperial era because European culture offered Russia solutions to problems associated with imperial growth. As a result, Russia intentionally stole parts of European culture, such as the military organization, bureaucracy and aesthetics to support its imperial ambitions.
Following its adoption of European culture, Russia’s monarch became more symbolic than substantial. Tsar Nicholas I was a prime example of this transition. Despite Slavophiles characterizing Russia as a unique empire with a special culture, Nicholas I was obsessed with copying European aesthetics in his court. The show Nicholas I performed served to portray Russia as a modern European power that could compete with France and England without making any substantial social change associated with modernization- such as abolishing serfdom. Just as Custine described, Nicholas I was an actor surrounded by political theater and nothing organic.