Vologda

“ This part of Vologda is, you see, flat and exposed; the soil is poor, the population sparse, and the long winter is always more severe than away in Petersburg. The consequence of this was that the inhabitants of Nagorskoie had become wild and embittered, for my father’s exactions had reduced his serfs to the direst poverty; the isbas were devoid of all but absolute necessities, the fields neglected, and the wretched moujiks starving. In the majority of the cottages the stove had gone out owing to lack of fuel, and the samovar disused because there was no tea. ”

“ This was the lame Eliava of the Vologda Soviet, who came up in great surprise at seeing me again, and reminded me how Radek and I, hungry from Moscow, astonished the hotel of the Golden Anchor by eating fifteen eggs apiece, when we came to Vologda last summer (I acted as translator during Radek's conversations with the American Ambassador and Mr. Lindley) . Eliava is a fine, honest fellow, and had a very difficult time in Vologda where the large colony of foreign embassies and missions naturally became the centre of disaffection in a district which at the time was full of inflammable material. ”

“ We were only three on that trip. The Russian couple preferred to hug their stove in Petrograd, while our young Communist collaborator had to resume his studies at college.
On the way to Archangel we made two stops, at Yaroslavl and Vologda. Both cities had served as centers for plotters against the Revolution. The former had been the base of the once celebrated revolutionist Savinkov's uprising, drenched in the blood of thousands. Vologda had been the headquarters of the American Ambassador Francis and other wirepullers in favor of intervention. ”

“ The eastern boundary of Vologda follows the main water-parting of the Urals, which has but few points over 3000 ft.; wide, parmas, or woody plateaus, fill up the space between the main chain of the Urals and the southern spurs of the Timan Mountains, in the upper basin of the Pechora. It is above the parmas—especially over those which are nearest the Urals proper—that the highest summits of the Urals rise in the form of dome-shaped mountains (Töll-poz-iz, 5535 ft.; Kozhem-iz, 4225 ft.; Shadmaha, 4115 ft.) ”

“ Vologda standeth vpon the riuer of Vologda, which commeth into Dwina. The towne is great and long, built all of wood, as all their townes are.
In this towne the Emperour hath built a castle inuironed with a wall of stone, and bricke, the walles faire and hie, round about. Here (as in all other their townes) are many Churches; some built of bricke, the rest of wood, many Monks and Nunnes in it: a towne also of great traffike, and many rich merchants there dwelling. ”

“ Sailing up the Dvina to Vologda, he noted that town as a place for future trade; crossed the water-shed of Central Russia to Jaroslav and Moscow; dropped down the river Oka; and fell into the Volga at Nijni, the only town in which trade was being done, until he reached the Caspian Sea. The Volga banks were overrun by Tartar hordes, who took their spoil from every farm, and only spared the towns from fear. In ten weeks his rafts reached Astrakhan, where he saw, to his great surprise and joy, the riches of Persia and Bokhara lying about in the bazars in heaps ”

“ A vast number of ruinous churches and convents are melancholy monuments of its former magnificence.—Wologda, or vologda, on a river of the same name, a place of great trade, and has a large magnificent church a castle and a fort.
Archangel is seated on the northern Dwina, at twenty miles from its mouth. It was long the only sea port of Russia; but since the building of Petersburgh its trade isgreatly dminished—Smolensko, on the Dneiper, is surrounded with a wall 30 feet high, and 15 thick. It is of great extent; but the houses are poorly built, and it does not contain above 4000 inhabitants. ”

“ The feathers which come from Penning they do little esteem.
If our merchants do desire to know the meetest place of Russia for their standing house; in mine opinion I take it to be Vologda, which is a great town standing in the heart of Russia with many great and good towns about it. There is great plenty of corn, victuals, and of all such wares as are raised in Russland (Russia) , but specially flax, hemp, tallow, and bacon; there is also great store of wax, but it cometh from Moscow. ”

“ The climate is severe, the average yearly temperature being 36° F. at Vologda (Jan., 10°.7; July, 63°.5) and 32°.5 at Ust-Sysolsk (Jan., 4°.8; July, 61°.7) .
The flora and the physical aspects vary greatly as the traveller moves north-east down the Sukhona and up the Vychegda, towards the parmas of the Pechora. In the south-west the forests are cleared, and the dry slopes of the hills have been converted into fields and meadows; the population is relatively dense, and nearly one-quarter of the area is under crops. ”

“ From Vologda (whieh lieth almost 1700. verst from the port of S. Nicholas) downe towards Mosco, and so towards the South part that bordereth vpon the Crimme, (which conteineth the like space of 1700. verst or there abouts) is a very fruitfull and pleasant countrey, yeelding pasture, and corne, with woods and waters in very great plentie. The like is betwixt Rezan (that lieth Southeast from Mosco) to Nouogrod and Vobsko, that reach farthest towards the Northwest. So betwixt Mosco, and Smolensko (that lyeth Southwest towards Lituania) is a very fruitfull and pleasant soile. ”

“ The boiling water, sputtering, ran from the tap into his mother’s cup.
A light shadow was cast by the little spoon upon the saucer and the tablecloth, and it lost itself in the glass of tea. Volodya watched it intently: the shadows thrown by the tiny little eddies and bubbles recalled something to him—precisely what, Volodya could not say. He held up and he turned the little spoon, and he ran his fingers over it—but nothing came of it.
“All the same,” he stubbornly insisted to himself, “it’s not with fingers alone that shadows can be made. They are possible with anything. ”

“ Of course the Volga told her not to be so rude, and said that little rivers should know their place and not argue with the great.
But the Vazouza would not keep quiet, and at last she said to the Volga: "Look here, we will lie down and sleep, and we will agree that the one of us who wakes first and comes first to the sea is the wiser of the two." ”

“ From the boundary between Europe and Asia the train takes us onwards past Ufa to Samara. The hills of the Urals [Pg 208] become lower and the country flattens out again. Snow lies everywhere in a continuous sheet, and peasants are seen on the roads with sledges laden with hay, fuel, or provisions. At Batraki we pass over the Volga by a bridge nearly a mile long. The Volga is the largest river in Europe; it is 2300 miles long, and has its source in the Valdai hills (between St. Petersburg and Moscow) at a height of only 750 feet above sea-level. ”

“ These people have abundance of swine, honey, and wax, precious furs, and falcons. Beyond these dwell the Merdas [1] or Merdui, who are Saracens or Mahometans. Beyond them is the Etilia or Volga, the largest river I ever beheld, which comes out of the north, from the country of the Greater Bulgaria and runs southwards, into a vast lake of four months journey in circuit, of which I shall speak afterwards. In the northern region, by which we travelled, the Tanais and Volga are not above ten days journey asunder, but towards the south they are at a much farther distance ”

“ Breezy, picturesque Yaroslavl, with its dainty, independent cabbies, who object to the mud which must have been their portion all their lives, and reject rare customers rather than drive through it; with its churches never to be forgotten; its view of the Volga, and its typical Russian features! It was a fitting end to our Volga trip, and fully repaid us for our hot-cold voyage with the samovar steamer against the stream, though I had not believed, during the voyage, that anything could make up for the tedium. ”

“ As far as the eye can reach extends the vast alluvial plain, rich with culture, and occasionally dotted with forests; whilst the Volga, flowing down from Tver, [294] looks like a broad blue ribbon stretched over the country from one extremity of the horizon to the other. Much of the plain below is inundated in spring by the overflowing of the river, leaving a fertile deposit which considerably enhances the value of the land. The stationary population of the town does not exceed 30,000 or 40,000, but during the fair the inhabitants swell up to considerably over 200,000 ”

“ Looked at casually, Tver and Sahara’s plains are level, and it is only in crossing them that one realizes the gentle up and down beneath the horses’ feet.
Soon Steinmetz raised his head and sniffed in a loud Teutonic manner. It was the reek of water; for great rivers, like the ocean, have their smell. And the Volga is a revelation. Men travel far to see a city, but few seem curious about a river. Every river has, nevertheless, its individuality, its great silent interest. Every river has, moreover, its influence, which extends to the people who pass their lives within sight of its waters. ”

“ Now we follow the musical little river Vologne as it tosses over its stony bed amid banks golden with yellow loosestrife, or gently ripples amid fair stretches of pasture starred with the grass of Parnassus. The perpetual music of rushing, tumbling, trickling water is delightful, and even in hot weather, if it is ever indeed hot here, the mossy banks and babbling streams must give a sense of coolness. ”

“ So Volga lay down to sleep; down lay Vazuza also. But during the night Vazuza rose silently, fled away from Volga, chose the nearest and the straightest line, and flowed away. When Volga awoke, she set off neither slowly nor hurriedly, but with just befitting speed. At Zubtsof she came up with Vazuza. So threatening was her mien, that Vazuza was frightened, declared herself to be Volga’s younger sister, and besought Volga to take her in her arms and bear her to the Caspian Sea. And so to this day Vazuza is the first to awake in the Spring, and then she arouses Volga from her wintry sleep. ”

“ The Middle Volga, flowing southward from Kazan to Czaritzin, is a remarkable moat not only to Russia but to Europe. The west shore, known as the Hill Bank, in opposition to the Meadow Bank on the other side, is a hill face, some hundred feet high, which overlooks the river for 700 miles; it is the brink of the inhabited plain, here a little raised above the sea level. ”

“ When his comrades slept Volgá slept not. Sometimes he turned himself into a grey wolf and ran and leaped in the dark forest and killed moose-deer and bears and wolves. Martens and panthers were his favourite prey, and he spared neither hares nor foxes. And at other times he turned himself into a bright falcon, flew far away over the blue sea and killed geese and white swans, and the little grey ducks he spared not. [3]
One day when he was at Kiev he called his body-guard:
“My good brave comrades,” said he, “listen to your big brother, your Chief. Bring a rope of silk and make a snare. ”

“ This is the usual route to Siberia below Nijni, and the one by which convicts are sent. Instead of going up the Kama, you could continue down the Volga, passing the large towns of Simbirsk, Saratoff, to Tsaritsin, from which there is a railroad to Kalatch, on the River Don, down which steamers descend to the Crimea. From Tsaritsin you may proceed down the river to Astrakhan, on the Caspian Sea, on which steamers ply to ports in Persia and elsewhere. The Volga is the Mississippi of Russia, and of quite as much importance to that country as the Father of Waters to us. ”

“ The city of Nijni-Novgorod is picturesquely constructed, and, at the same time, very interesting, on account of the liveliness of its bazaars.
The Volga where it receives the waters of48 the Oka is, at least, four miles wide. A great hill, or rather a mountain, swells up along the right bank of this immense sheet of water, and Novgorod rises proudly on the summit of this mountain, watching on one side Asia and on the other Europe, ready to awaken the Russian empire to any danger that might menace it from one quarter or the other. ”

“ From the foot of the column dedicated to Sviataslof Vsevolovitch, on the spot where he vanquished the Swedes and Poles, that rises on one of the highest summits of the great hill on which Novgorod is built, the stranger may50 contemplate a prospect that might serve as a type of a Russian landscape in winter. In the plain below sleeps the Volga, silent and still to the senses in its winter dress; for the frost, one of nature’s forces, the most imposing from its effects, has already congealed the surface of its running stream into the solidity and quiescence of the plain. ”

“ And even at the present day the common people are in the habit of expressing, by some kind of offering, their thanks to a river on which they have made a prosperous voyage. It is said that Stenka Razin, the insurgent chief of the Don Cossacks in the seventeenth century, once offered a human sacrifice to the Volga. Among his captives was a Persian princess, to whom he was warmly attached. But one day “when he was fevered with wine, as he sat at the ship’s side and musingly regarded the waves, he said: ‘Oh, Mother Volga, thou great river! ”

“ Having crossed a flat tract of country, we reached the Volga at a point about five miles from Kazan, and as many above its confluence with the Kama. It is truly a noble river, and the high banks enable one to get a sort of bird's-eye view of the broad sheet of water. I should rather say a compound of water, ice, and snow, for the surface of the river was covered with large blocks of ice, loaded with snow, moving rapidly down the stream, with a few open spots of clear water here and there. There was great commotion at the ferry among moujiks, Cossacks, and Tartars. ”