The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1340: Chapter 186: The Addiction to Acting

The law is made for subordinates, not for superiors!

—— Alexander Hristoforovich Benkendorf, founding director of the Third Bureau, Imperial Office of His Majesty the Tsar

The mayor saw Arthur actively inquire about the judge’s name and thought to himself: ”Ha! This unlucky fellow, echoing whatever the imperial envoy said, biting whatever bait is thrown, no wonder his superior sent him from Slonin to Druiysk. Even a mule knows to run faster after being whipped, but some people still remain ineffective after being lashed.”

The judge was obviously startled by Arthur’s unexpected question, hesitated for quite a while, and then replied with trepidation: ”Nikolai Ivanovich Ljudnikov.”

”Very well, Mr. Ljudnikov.” Arthur nodded slightly, picked up the teacup beside him and sipped: ”Your views are almost close to those of Pushkin.”

The judge turned purple at the words, but before he could defend himself, Arthur continued.

”You shouldn’t think that having thoughts close to Pushkin’s means they are bad, disloyal, or detrimental to national interests. Of course, I’m not saying Pushkin’s works before 1829 were great, but you should pay attention to his works after 1830.”

Arthur swirled the teacup and shared anecdotes he heard from Herzen and others with the local officials who viewed Pushkin as a terrifying monster: ”After all, since the Tsar ordered Pushkin back to St. Petersburg, all his published works were personally reviewed by His Majesty. The Tsar himself acted as a reviewer, such supreme honor. If Pushkin didn’t mix with the Decemberists, with his fame, he might have become a court poet.”

Of course, Arthur dared to present these anecdotes as real stories not merely to satisfy personal malicious pleasure.

Before heading to Russia for his appointment, he specifically collected classic works from the Tsarist Russian literary world in recent years to better integrate into St. Petersburg’s social circles, among which there were several of Pushkin’s handwritten notes.

These notes continued to be remarkable, but also exuded a strange, peculiar smell everywhere.

If one had to describe this smell, it’s akin to Heine having to pinch his nose and write certain paragraphs to pass publishing censorship.

For instance, when Pushkin criticized the Russian peasants’ treatment for having not improved much compared to 200 years ago, he had to mention that since Louis XV, there hadn’t been much change in the treatment of French peasants, and idle people were everywhere on the streets of Paris.

Of course, as a well-known tragic story in Europe, the situation of British workers was naturally singled out for discussion.

Although ”British” works were not published in Russia, Pushkin somehow found works by Dickens, Disraeli, and others, and even quoted some descriptions of life in the East End of London from ”Hastings Case Files” in his texts.

—— Please read the complaints of British factory workers, which will startle you so much your hair stands up. How much appalling cruelty and inexplicable suffering there is! One side is so barbarically cruel, while the other side is terribly impoverished! Do you think this is about the Pharaohs building pyramids, or about the Jews laboring under Egyptian whips? Completely not! This refers to Mr. Smith’s woolen or Mr. Jackson’s knitting needles! If you don’t work, awaiting you is Mr. Hastings’ (Note: Senior head of London police, commanded and brutally suppressed the 1833 London riots) baton.

—— Please note, none of this is fraudulent behavior, not a violation, but happened strictly within the framework of law. If you only look at British law, it seems there is no misfortune for British workers worldwide, but look, when new machine inventions suddenly relieve five to six thousand people of laborious hard work, simultaneously depriving them of their last means of subsistence, what kind of situation will appear?

—— Our country has no similar situation. Generally speaking, corvee is not too heavy, capitation tax is fair, labor service is lawful, and substituting rent hasn’t greatly hurt the peasants. After landlords impose substitute rent, they let their farmers freely go and fetch whatever they wanted from anywhere. Farmers do whatever they want and often run more than two thousand Russian miles away to earn money...

Arthur severely suspected Pushkin, under the Tsar’s surveillance, enjoyed some privileges, at least he could peruse parts of English and French literary works with the Tsar’s permission. And to pass the Tsar’s review and have new works released as usual, Pushkin could only play the same trick as Heine.

As for where exactly Pushkin obtained ”British” works, Arthur reasonably speculated, these books were likely brought back by some officials at the Russian embassy in Britain, such as his friend — former Tsarist Russia’s assistant military officer in Britain, Colonel Shubinsky.

Of course, Arthur didn’t deny Britain’s problems, and he himself thought Britain had more issues than Pushkin wrote, because British peasants’ lives were not much better than British workers’, and even worse at times of poor harvest.

However, seeing his name appear in Pushkin’s articles and being set up as an example of opposition, this was intolerable for the Sir.

He enjoyed an excellent reputation among the French Republican Party, Royalists, and even the Orleans Party, Italian nationalists, and German Liberals, so how did he become a target of criticism in Russia?