Kronstadt

“ Their newspapers spit fire and poison, and because they have failed to persuade the proletariat that Kronstadt is in the hands of counter-revolutionists, they are now trying to play on the nationalistic feelings. The whole world already knows from our radios what the Kronstadt garrison and workers are fighting for. But the Communists are striving, to pervert the meaning of events and thus mislead our Petrograd brothers. ”

“ In the face of this power, the fortresses, armies, and fleets of the world were useless and helpless. The destruction of Kronstadt had proved that to demonstration. From a height of several thousand feet, and a distance of nearly seven miles, the unknown air-vessel had practically destroyed, with four shots from her mysterious, smokeless, and flameless guns, the strongest fortress in Europe. ”

“ A very large proportion of the inhabitants are sailors, and large numbers of artisans are employed in the dockyards. Kronstadt was founded in 1710 by Peter the Great, who took the island of Kotlin from the Swedes in 1703, when the first fortifications were constructed. ”

“ The charges for rooms generally in the country are out of all proportion to the accommodation given. Travellers are rare, at least they used to be before the present war; but Kronstadt is the terminus of the direct railway from Buda-Pest, which, communicating with the Tomöscher Pass over the Carpathians, is the shortest route to Bucharest.
As far as the buildings are concerned, Kronstadt has much the air of an old-fashioned German town. As you pass along the streets you get a peep now and then of picturesque interior courtyards, seen through the wide-arched doorways. ”

“ It must broaden and develop. A rebellion that localises itself, plays the waiting policy, or puts itself on the defensive, is inevitably doomed to defeat.
In this regard, especially, Kronstadt repeated the fatal strategic errors of the Paris Communards. The latter did not follow the advice of those who favored an immediate attack on Versailles while the Government of Thiers was disorganised. They did not carry the revolution into the country. Neither the Paris workers of 1871 nor the Kronstadt sailors aimed to abolish the Government. ”

“ So far we only really hold the ground on which our armies stand. If I were to walk out from this tent a mile or two over the hills yonder, I should probably be shot. Kronstadt has been ours for four months. It is on the main railway. The country all round is being repeatedly crossed by our troops. Yet an Englishman would not be safe for a minute out of range of those guns on the hill. ”

“ But the service ended, and with a throng accompanying him the saint, putting his great-coat over his robes and his goloshes over his boots, departed down the street to some other scene of hallowed beneficence.
It was hard to realize that this was Father John of Kronstadt, regarded by revolutionists as among the most dangerous enemies of the Movement. In the political cartoons he almost always figures among the leaders of reaction. ”

“ Though the dangers of the frontier are by no means a thing of the past, the town walls and the towers are mainly in ruins, overgrown with wild vines and other luxuriant vegetation. As no guidebook exists to tell one what one ought to see, and where one ought to go, I had all the pleasure of poking about and coming upon surprises. I was not aware that the church at Kronstadt is about the finest specimen of fourteenth-century Gothic in Transylvania, ranking second only to the Cathedral of Kashau in Upper Hungary. ”

“ I transferred my saddle-bags to the spare horse, and we got on much faster, reaching Orlat by sunset.
Before descending into the plain we had a magnificent view. Herrmannstadt seemed almost at our feet, though in reality it was still a long way off; the Fogaraser Mountains stretching away towards Kronstadt, appeared in all their picturesque irregularity, and along the plain at their base were scattered the villages of the Saxonland, each with its fortress-church, a relic of the old time, when the brave burghers had to hold their own against Turk and Tartar. ”

“ Where the rock is most precipitous a breastwork has been thrown up. The pointed turrets of the castle are all painted red, and adorned with fantastic weathercocks.
The path leading through the Boza Pass to Kronstadt is not more than an hour's journey from this little castle, and along this path, at the very time when Prince John Kemeny was still regaling himself at Hermannstadt, we see a long line of cavalry wending their way into the valley below—two thousand Turkish horsemen, or thereabouts, distinguishable from afar by the scarlet tips of their turbans and their snow-white kaftans. ”

“ Returning to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope, after an extended series of explorations, Krusenstern reached Kronstadt in August 1806, his being the first Russian expedition to circumnavigate the world. The emperor conferred several honours upon him, and he ultimately became admiral. As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did much useful work. ”

“ Amongst the fair-haired, blue-eyed Saxons are dusky Armenians and black-ringleted Jews, wearing strange garments. By the way, the [Pg 203] merchants of these two races have ousted the Saxon trader from the field; commerce is almost completely in their hands.
The market-day at Kronstadt is a most curious and interesting sight. The country-people come in, sitting in their long waggons, drawn by four horses abreast, they themselves dressed in cloaks of snow-white sheepskins, or richly-embroidered white leather coats lined with black fur. The head-gear too is very comely, and very dissimilar ”

“ Kremmen, Kremenetz, Kremnitz, Kremmenaia, Kremenskaia, towns in Russia, Poland, and Lusatia.
KRONE, KRON (Teut. and Scand.) ,
a crown; e.g. Kronstadt, Hung. Brasso (crown city) , in Hungary; Cronstadt, in Russia, founded by Peter the Great; Königscrone (the king’s crown) ; Carlscrone (Charles’s crown) ; Landscrone (the crown or summit of the land) , a mountain and town in Silesia—also with the same meaning, Landscrona, in Sweden. Kron, however, as a prefix, comes occasionally from krahn (a crane) , as in Kronwinkel (the crane’s corner) . ”

“ That is all very possible, and the recent scandals about a certain Virgin of Kronstadt, who saw her way to making money out of the situation by vicarious sanctitude, are only such as seem to arise inevitably around a fellow mortal of much belauded virtue, whether they are true or not. It is very probable also that the mothers of the Black Hundred secure comparatively honest half-crowns by arranging special interviews and privileges for visitors to the saint. ”

“ The Germans never stray beyond the gravelled walks around the house. Such quietude would kill us, so we appease our love and habit of movement with a daily donkey ride among the Taunus Hills or a walk through the lovely woodland paths. The famous castles of Kronberg (Crown-hill) , Konistein (King's-stone) , and Falkenstein are within a reasonable walk. Konistein has been an immense fortress, and its story is interwoven with the annals of the country. ”

“ Kronau is a small bourg between Assling and Wurzen, and the glen, at the entrance of which it is situated, seems to be the finest in the whole valley, although the tops of the higher mountains were obscured by huge masses of cloud. We here met many hundreds of pilgrims, of both sexes, [Pg 73] travelling in companies; some returning, some going to Mount Lushari, a lofty mountain about six leagues beyond Wurzen, where there is a famous shrine of the Virgin. ”

“ Kronenberg gathered himself, helped his nag to rise, and tried to regain the highway across the meadows and footpaths and through the woods.
In cheerful sunshine he roamed through many beautiful districts, sometimes lingering in the towns, making new acquaintances, tarrying at the watering-places, and trying to occupy himself and take his mind off his troubles. By now he had penetrated into the valleys of a romantic mountain range, and the variety of forest and mountain, hill and meadow delighted him immensely. ”

“ Cronstadt, the celebrated port of St. Petersburg, although strongly fortified, which of course is to protect the capital, is in itself a wretched town; most of the houses are of wood, the streets unpaved, and containing scarcely a single handsome building. ”

“ Falkenstein village, close under the castle, looked like a brood of chickens huddled under its mother's wing. Kronberg and its towers were in shadow; but the vast plain beyond was bathed in light, and the Main and the Rhine were sparkling in the distance. All around me was a scene of savage Nature in her stern strength, all beyond of her motherly plentiful production. I counted eighteen villages; a familiar eye would probably have seen twice as many more. They are not easily distinguished from the earth, with which their colour blends harmoniously. ”

“ Below the town of Cronberg winds a wooded glen, spreading upwards into a space open and cultivated, and backed by the hill of Falkenstein, and furnishing a good specimen of the distinctive beauty of the valleys of the German hills, as found in the Hartz, Thuringia and Taunus, best expressed by the word idyllic. The great spreading chestnut shades with soft natural lawns under them, numerous though small rills, with peeps of castles through the trees, all belong to the pastoral, not the pastoral of real life, but of the stage. ”

“ I should like, if you have no objection, to start for Kroten this week."
"Good heavens! Why?" Nigel exclaimed.
"I can scarcely answer that question," Jesson said. "I am like a man with a puzzle board and a heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those pieces, but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet. Here," he said, "is as much as I can tell you about it. There are three cities, situated in different countries in the world, which are each in their way connected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. ”

“ Kronenberg, in order to punctuate the uneasy silence, asked:
— Might one know what book you have just been reading?
— Indeed, she exclaimed, that maussade [2] author who has ventured into an area the style and subject matter of which are much too sublime for him, and who conceals his lack of insight behind a plethora of German platitudes. Strange! The foreigners have a specific word for something that is really only at home amongst us Germans! ”

“ It is so true that the end is in sight. Conspiracy is talked openly in the streets, in the cafes, everywhere. The Osians will be sand in the face of a tidal wave. A word from me, and Kronau follows it. It all would be so easy were it not for the archbishop.”
“The archbishop?” contemptuously.
“Ay, Madame; he is a man so deep, with a mind so abyssmal, that I would give ten years of my life for a flash of his thoughts. He has some project; apparently he gives his whole time to the king. He loves this weak man Leopold ”

“ The environs of Berlin are of no great beauty, the city being built on a sandy plain, with the single eminence of the Kreutzberg, from which it can be viewed with advantage; but in and about the city there are beautiful gardens, private and of royal foundation, and these are invariably open to the public. One happy Sunday afternoon we spent in Charlottenburg, the pleasure-palace of the king ”

“ The Kreutzberg stands about a mile and a half from the city gates, and rears its grey height like a mountain amid the general level, commanding a prospect of thirty miles around. Berlin, half garden, half palace, lies at your feet, rising majestically from the sandy plain, and irregularly divided by the winding Spree. The surrounding country, by its luxuriance, gives evidence of the energy of an industrious race struggling against a naturally barren soil. Turning our eyes upwards upon the military monument which graces the summit of the hill, we cannot repress our gratification at its beauty. ”

“ So, as he considered himself an excellent horseman, Kronenberg had a secondary object in mind when he undertook this journey, namely, to reaccustom this beautiful animal to reason and order: he learned, as he trained it, that he too was more absent-minded than he had thought: the worst failing, and the one which ensures that all training, whether by someone of a reasonable or an unreasonable disposition, becomes impossible. ”

“ The town, which contains a population of thirty-seven thousand (two thirds of it constituting the garrison) , is built on an [140] island, and is cut up by two canals, one leading to the "Merchants Harbor," and the other to the naval repairing dock South of the town is an immense harbor, capable of holding thousands of vessels.
Cronstadt is Russia's principal naval station, and contains vast manufactories and storehouses belonging to the government. Scores of old seventy-four gun ships, built of wood, and now practically useless for modern warfare, are laid up here. The town is the port of St. ”

“ Krone is an intimate friend of more than one Councilman, and a man of much measure in the political world-that is, Mr. Krone is a politician-maker. When you say there exists too close an intimacy between the pugilist and the politician, Mr. Krone will bet twenty drinks with any one of his customers that he can prove such doctrines at fault. He can secure the election of his favorite candidate with the same facility that he can make an hundred paupers per week. You may well believe him a choice flower in the bouquet of the corporation ”