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Greater examples are seen in his Battle of Narva, when he threw away an army to learn his opponent's game, in his building of St. Petersburg, where, in draining marshes, he sacrificed a hundred thousand men the first year. But the greatest proof of this great lack was shown in his dealings with the serf-system. Serfage was already recognized in Peter's time as an evil.
V. His Faults in Policy crystallized about one: for, while he subdued the serf-mastering nobility, he struck no final blow at the serf-system itself. Our running readers of French history need here a word of caution. They follow De Tocqueville, and De Tocqueville follows Biot in speaking of the serf-system as abolished in most of France hundreds of years before this.
The first comprised those working under the old, or corvée, system, giving, generally, three days in the week to the tillage of the owner's domain; the second comprised those working under the new, or obrok, system, receiving a payment fixed by the owner and assessed by the community to which the serfs belonged. The character of the serfs has been moulded by the serf-system.
But whether his livery were filthy sheepskin or gold-laced caftan, whether he lay on carpets at the door of his master, or in filth on the floor of his cabin, whether he gave us cold, stupid stories of his wrongs, or flippant details of his joys, whether he blessed his master or cursed him, we have wondered at the power which a serf-system has to degrade and imbrute the image of God.
But Biot and De Tocqueville take for granted a knowledge in their readers that the essential vileness of the system, and even many of its most shocking outward features, remained. Richelieu might have crushed the serf-system, really, as easily as Louis X. and Philip the Long had crushed it nominally. This Richelieu did not. And the consequences of this great man's great fault were terrible.
Hardly was the great European tragedy ended, when Alexander again turned sorrowfully toward the wronged millions of his Empire. He found that progress in civilization had but made the condition of the serfs worse. The sight of these wrongs roused him. He seized a cross, and swore upon it that the serf-system should be abolished. Straightway a great and good plan was prepared.
For, apart from the trouble, there came ever in his dealings with thieves that old timid thought of his, that, if he examined too closely their thief-tenure, they might examine too closely his despot-tenure. We have shown this vague fear in Nicholas's mind, thus at length and in different workings, because thereby alone can be grasped the master-key to his dealings with the serf-system.
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