shadow of britain

Chapter 674: Russian Foreigner

Shubinsky's mustache trembled violently, like a church clapper being blown by the north wind. He grabbed Arthur's arm with such force that the British gentleman's camel hair coat wrinkled: "For the sake of Saint Michael, this is not a good place to chat..."

After passing through three iron gates with double-headed eagle reliefs, they finally arrived at the private territory of the gendarmerie colonel.

The office, known as the "confessional," was a spectacle: a Tatar whip hung next to a gilded statue of the Virgin Mary, and a carved oak table was topped with Dresden porcelain plates piled high with coarse rye bread - supposedly the "holy communion" for involuntary visitors.

"You have to understand that the interrogation committee is like the Malachite Hall in the Kremlin," Shubinsky said, pulling open two bronze-clad Gothic chairs with the toe of his boot. "Every feather wants to spread, but someone always gets their eyes pecked out."

Arthur's fingertips stroked the emerald malachite inlaid on the corner of the table, and the bitter taste of Virginia tobacco seeped into the stone veins. "I heard that General Staal overturned the entire conference table and said that you used Moscow University as a mousetrap."

"That old hussar is making a scene in front of the committee because of his seniority!" Shubinsky suddenly lowered his voice, like a sinner in a confessional: "He insists that at least two-thirds of the thirty-six young men we arrested are innocent..."

"So you crucified thirty-six more people?"

"How could that be possible!" The military police colonel's medal trembled in the light of the fireplace. "We reduced the list to thirty people overnight, but the next day the Ministry of Internal Affairs shoved in another twelve people! Now even the old gypsy chimney sweeps know that there are almost more prisons in Moscow than bakeries."

Arthur knocked a cigar out of the silver cigarette case, and the sparks danced a Cossack dance on the match heads. "Come on! Man, you and I have been doing this for a long time. We both know what is going on. If there were so many people secretly opposing the Tsar, Moscow would have been in turmoil long ago. You stuffed so many people into the interrogation room at once. Are you planning to create a Moscow branch of the Happiness Association out of thin air?"

Shubinsky also felt that he was in a dilemma. He knew that it was impossible for all the captured people to be opponents of the Tsar, but the problem was that Nicholas I was certain that there must be groups in Moscow that opposed his rule.

If the Tsar really listened to the advice, then when General Staal, a respected and meritorious old minister, was so unwilling to compromise and asked to save his reputation, it was conceivable that the case was not without problems. Therefore, he should at least summon the chairman of the committee, Prince Sergei Golitsyn, and order Staal to explain the case in front of him.

But the Tsar did not do so. Instead, he ordered these young political prisoners to be kept under strict surveillance.

Who in the committee is not a shrewd person and who doesn’t know how to read the political atmosphere?
Perhaps not all members of the interrogation committee were people like Golitsyn the Younger who wanted to gain credit for the case, but not taking credit did not mean that they were willing to bring bad luck to the Tsar on behalf of a group of young people with no relatives or friends out of conscience.

To withdraw from the committee to protect oneself like General Staal did is already a huge offense.

When Shubinsky thought of this, he couldn't help but back out.

He disliked Volkov and Golitsyn the Younger, and was reluctant to give up his coveted position of gendarmerie commander to them, but he did not dare to contradict the emperor.

Old man Staar is old and has basically seen the end of his life, but Shubinsky is still young and has a long way to go.

If he could not ensure his own safety, he would rather take a step back on this issue, at least to prevent His Majesty the Tsar from adding his name to the promotion blacklist.

"You don't understand. Those little brats are so sharp-tongued that they are cursing the Tsar behind his back..."

"How did you know?"

"Let's take the case of the Herzen kid, for example. We were questioning him in the library of the chairman of the commission, Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn. The kid turned around and looked at the bookcase, and there he saw a multi-volume memoir of Prince Saint-Simon. So he turned to the chairman and complained: 'How unfair! I'm being questioned for Saint-Simonism, and you have more than twenty volumes of his works!'"

When Arthur heard this, he immediately understood what was going on.

Duke Louis de Ruffray de Saint-Simon was a French minister during the reign of Louis XIV. His memoirs recorded the social and political conditions during the reign of Louis XIV, and even today it is still one of the must-read bestsellers for studying French history.

The person who proposed Saint-Simonianism was Count Claude Henri Saint-Simon of France. Although he may be a distant relative of the Duke of Saint-Simon, they are definitely not the same person.

It was impossible for Herzen not to know this, and by saying this at this time, he was probably betting that no one on the interrogation committee was well-read.

If you don't know much about Saint-Simonianism and French history, it would be easy to be fooled by this guy.

Although Herzen's actions were somewhat reckless, at least it can be seen that his spirit has not collapsed, his mind is very clear, and he even has the mind to be cunning.

Arthur pretended to be ignorant even though he knew the truth. He deliberately changed the subject: "Ha! This young man is really ignorant. He doesn't even know that Saint-Simonianism was not proposed by Duke Saint-Simon. I'm afraid his Saint-Simonian books are just for show. He thought Saint-Simonianism was fashionable and that displaying a few related works would bring glory to himself, but he ended up hurting himself! If his father knew the whole story of his son's imprisonment, he would probably break his legs!"

Shubinsky seemed to understand something when he heard this. He took the cigar handed to him by Arthur and lit it. "Excuse me, brother, I was wondering why you care so much about that young man Herzen. So, it was Herzen's father Ivan Alexeevich who sent you here. Are you here to be a lobbyist?"

Arthur told Shubinsky the truth, half true and half false: "Just barely. You know, when I was in Leipzig, I got to know these young men, Herzen, Ogarev, Sagin, and Ivan Obolensky. They were all students at Moscow University. I arrived in Moscow on Maslenitsa, and I was unfamiliar with the place, so I remembered the home address Herzen left me, and excitedly ran to his house to visit." Shubinsky remembered that he was not at home at the time, and turned to Arthur to apologize: "Brother, I'm sorry about this. At that time, I took my wife to St. Petersburg to visit my parents-in-law, otherwise I wouldn't have asked you to stay somewhere else. However, it was unexpected that you could be friends with Herzen's father. He has a strange temper, and many people say that he is difficult to get along with."

Arthur replied indirectly, "I don't think so. If he's difficult to get along with, it's probably because the visitor is not to his liking. If you can really chat with him, he'll be a great friend. You see, Prince Yusupov and Count Komarovsky both love him, and General Bakhmetev and the Governor of Essen are his brothers who have sworn all their lives. An old noble like him who served in the Guards in his youth, many of his old comrades have now climbed to high positions, so even if he's difficult to get along with, why don't you be more accommodating? It's nothing more than listening to a few more of the old man's nagging nonsense and enduring some of his outdated 'glorious memories'. And I think his memories of Paris and Moscow in 1812 may not be so boring. At least I enjoyed listening to them."

Shubinsky's boot heels suddenly made a sharp, trembling sound on the malachite floor, like a brown bear hit by a musket.

He paced back and forth, as if thinking, and suddenly he leaned forward and whispered, "My dear Arthur, you wouldn't want me to write in the interrogation record that Mr. Herzen's interest in Saint-Simonianism is like the cook's love for On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres?"

Arthur slowly trimmed the ash with a silver cigar cutter, and sparks fell on the gilded cover of the "Exile Register". "I heard that the prima ballerina of the Petrovsky Theater mistook The Social Contract for a new corset advertisement last week."

"But those students are not dancers!" The gendarme colonel dug his nails deep into the back of the leather chair. "Yesterday, little Golitsyn found a French poem in a young man's house, saying, 'When Caesar's laurel withers, Romulus's wolf will be reborn in the snowstorm.' This is clearly an allusion to the Decembrists!"

Arthur knocked on the malachite table with his pipe, causing the candles in front of the Virgin Mary to sway. "Brother, have you ever seen a real revolutionary? The boots of those desperadoes behind the barricades in Paris were stained with the blood of the city hall officials. And these young men you caught..."

Arthur gave an example: "Take the young man named Sagin for example. When he was chasing a girl, he could even copy Pushkin's "To the Sea" incorrectly in his love letter. He wrote "自曲无素" instead of "free elements", just like the last words of a grammar teacher before he fainted from anger."

Shubinsky's medal suddenly jingled like a bell plucked by an invisible hand.

He stealthily pulled out a yellowed piece of paper from the compartment of the Bible in front of his desk: "Look at this, I found it in the drawer of Ogarev's study!"

Arthur squinted his eyes to decipher the scribbled handwriting. "Thursday evening at seven o'clock, the usual place. Remember to bring the script of 'Evening Talks near Dikanka'... Oh, Mr. Gogol, who has hemorrhoids, is so popular nowadays?"

"The key point is on the back." The nose of the gendarme colonel was sweating, and Shubinsky himself felt guilty: "Look here - I have collected 300 rubles. I can order the original French version of The Spirit of the Law from Switzerland!"

A spark suddenly flew from the fireplace, almost igniting Shubinsky's carefully maintained mustache.

While he was frantically patting the flames, Arthur leisurely flicked the ash onto the "Exile Register" and said, "May I remind you that there are 27 copies of The Spirit of the Laws in the Moscow University Library, one of which is the only copy with Empress Catherine's personal annotations."

"But those are Russian translations!" Shubinsky covered his charred beard and jumped up and down: "The original French version..."

"The price is clearly marked at 45 rubles in the St. Petersburg Foreign Language Bookstore." Arthur pulled out his wallet from his inner pocket like a magician, and took out a receipt and placed it in front of Shubinsky: "This is the receipt for the purchase I made on behalf of Count Daramo last month. Although it is not The Spirit of the Laws, I can assure you that there are many original French books there. Of course, there may be no more next month, but at least they have been selling normally before the new decree is passed."

The military police colonel sank into his chair like a sturgeon with its bones removed, and mumbled incoherently: "Little Golitsyn insisted that this was money for secret activities..."

"So you are still willing to be led by him?" Arthur said, "I remember you told me before that your son will be sixteen in a few years. You planned to send him to study in Germany. You also asked me whether the University of Berlin or the University of Göttingen was better."

"Of course, I still remember you telling me that the education at the University of Göttingen was first-rate."

"That's not the point. The point is that if your son wants to learn real skills in Göttingen, the remittances you receive from him every month should be enough to buy the entire Swiss Bookstore."

Shubinsky smiled bitterly and said, "Forget it. I may not have this worry anymore."

"what happened?"

"You don't know yet." Talking about work not going well and life being even worse, Shubinsky sighed and said, "His Majesty the Tsar has just signed an order prohibiting Russian nobles from living abroad from this year, and government agencies are also prohibited from recruiting Russian students who graduated from foreign universities. So, do you understand now? If you send your child to study abroad now, it is equivalent to ruining his future."

Arthur was also quite surprised when he heard this. Although he knew the Tsar's extreme character, he did not expect Nicholas I to be so decisive.

"Heh..." Arthur half-jokingly said to himself, "It seems that I am illiterate in Russia. After all, I have never studied at a Russian university, and I don't have a British secondary school or primary school diploma."

"You? Why are you so worried?"

Shubinsky was also very dissatisfied with this policy. He beat around the bush and said, "Didn't you hear what I said before? The government does not recruit Russian students who graduated from foreign universities, but it did not say that it does not recruit foreign students who graduated from foreign universities! You have to know that our Tsar is very fond of Germans. Of course, he is also very fond of those non-republican French people, such as your friend Baron Dantes. I don't know what merits he has made recently. Maybe he is appreciated by a powerful lady. In short, I heard that he will be promoted to Major of the Guards Cavalry soon. If you are also interested in serving Russia, I think His Majesty the Tsar will be very happy. After all, in Russia, it is always the foreign priests who read the scriptures."

(End of this chapter)