(A.S.)
4 Runich, Dmitry Pavlovich ( 1 778-1860), reactionary official and mystic; Warden of Petersburg education district, 1 821-6. ( A.S. ) 5 Foty ( 1 792-1838), archimandrite of the Yurevsky monastery at Novgorod. He took part in palace intrigues under Alexander I, and influenced his reactionary policy. (A .S.)
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persistent, the one thing in which it does not change, howeve.- its principles and religion may change, is its unjust oppression and persecution. The fury of the Runiches and the Magnitskys was turned against the Runiches and the Magnitskys. The Bible Society, only yesterday patronised and approved-the prop of morality and religion-was to-day closed and sealed, and its members put almost on the level of counterfeit coiners; the Messenger of Zion, only yesterday recommended to all fathers of families, wns more severely prohibited than Voltaire and Diderot, and its editor, Labzin, was exiled to Vologda.
Prince A. N. Golitsyn's downfall involved Vitberg; everyone fell upon him, the committee complained of him, the metropolitan was offended and the Governor-General was dissatisfied. His answers were 'insolent' ('insolence' is one of the principal charges in the indictment of him ) ; his subordinates were thieves
-as though there was any one in the government service >vho was not a thief. Though indeed it is likely that there was more thieving among Vitberg's subordinates than among others; he had had no practice in superintending houses of correction and highly placed thieves.
Alexander commanded Arakcheyev to investigate the case. He was sorry for Vitberg; he let him know through one of his intimates that he believed in his rectitude.
But Alexander died and Arakcheyev fell. Under Nicholas Vitberg's case at once took a turn for the worse. It dragged on for ten years, with incredible absurdities. On the points on which he was found guilty by the Criminal Court he was acquitted by the Senate. On those on which he was acquitted by the Court he was found guilty by the Senate. The committee of ministers found him guilty on all the charges. The Tsar, taking a dvantage of the 'best privilege of monarchs, to show mercy and mitigate punishment,' added exile to Vyatka to his sentence.
And so Vitberg was sent into exile, dismissed from the service
'for abuse of the confidence of the Emperor Alexander and causing loss to the treasury.' He was fined, I believe, a million roubles, all his property was seized and sold at public auction, and a rurnour was circulated that he had transferred countless millions to America.
I lived in the same house with Vitberg for two years and remained on intimate terms with him up to the time I left Vyatka. He had not saved the barest crust of bread ; his family lived in the most frightful poverty.
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Two years after Vitberg's exile the merchants of Vyatka formed a project to build a new church.
Nicholas, being desirous of killing all spirit of independence, of individuality, of imagination, and of freedom, every,vhere and in everything, published a whole volume of frontages fQr churches sanctioned by His Majesty. If anyone \vanted to build a church he was absolutely obliged to select one of the government plans. He is said to have forbidden the writing of Russian operas, considering that even those written by the adjutant Lvov, in the Third Division of his own Chancellery, were good for nothing.
But that was not enough: he ought to have published a collection of musical airs sanctioned by His Majesty!
The Vyatka merchants after turning over the 'approved' plans had the audacity to differ from the Tsar's taste. Nicholas marvelled at the design they sent in; he sanctioned it and sent instructions to the provincial authorities to see that the architect's ideas were faithfully carried out.
'Who made this design?' he asked the secretary.
'Vitberg, your Majesty.'
'What, the same Vitberg?'
'The same, your Majesty.'
And behold, like a bolt from the blue, comes permiSSIOn for Vitberg to return to Moscow or Petersburg. The man had asked leave to clear his character and it had been refused; he made a successful design, and the Tsar bade him return-as though anyone had ever doubted his artistic ability . . . .
In Petersburg, almost perishing of want, he made one last effort to defend his honour. It was utterly unsuccessful. Vitberg asked the assistance of A. N. Golitsyn, but the latter thought it impossible to raise the case again, and advised Vitberg to \vrite a plaintive letter to the Heir with a request for financial assistance. He undertook to do his best for him with the assistance of Zhukovsky,6 and promised to get him a thousand siln•r roubles.
Vitberg refused.
I was in Petersburg for the last time at the beginning of the 6 Zhukovsky, Vasily Andreyevich, ( 1 783-1 852) . the well knmm poet, was tutor to the Tsarc\·ich. afterwards AlexnndPr I I. He was a man of fine and generous charactPr. His original •mrk is not of the first order, but as a translator from the European a nd classical languages he was of i nvaluable service in the developmPnt of Russian culture. ( Tr.)
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winter of 1 846 and there saw Vitberg. He was completely crushed. Even his old wrath against his enemies which I had liked so much had begun to die down; he had no more hope, he did nothing to escape from his situation, blank despair was bringing him to his end, all the components of this existence had broken down and he was waiting for death.
If this was what Nicholas Pavlovich wanted he may be satisfied.
Whether the sufferer is still living I do not know, but I doubt it.
'If it were not for my family, my children,' he said at parting,
'I should tear myself away from Russia and go begging alms about the world. \Vith the Vladimir Cross on my neck I would calmly hold out to passers-by the hand pressed by the Emperor Alexander and tell them of my design and the fate of an artist in Russi a ! '
'They shall hear i n Europe o f your fate, poor martyr,' I thought; 'I will answer for that.'
The society of Vitberg was a great solace to me in Vyatka. A grave serenity and a solemnity in his manner lent him something of a priestly air. He was a man of very pure morals and in general more disposed to asceticism than indulgence; but his severity did not detract from the wealth and luxuriance of his artistic nature. He could give to his mysticism so plastic a form and so exquisite a colouring that criticism died away on one's lips; one was sorry to analyse, to dissect the glittering images and misty pictures of his imagination.
Vitberg's mysticism was partly due to his Scandinavian blood; it 'vas the same coldly-thought-out visionariness that we see in Swedenborg, and which in its turn is like the fiery reflection of sunbeams in the icy mountains and snows of Norway.
Vitberg's influence made me waver, but my realistic temperament nevertheless gained the upper hand. I was not destined to rise into the third heaven: I 'vas born a quite earthly creature.
No tables turn at the touch of my hands nor do rings swing at my glance. The daylight of thought is more akin to me than the moonlight of phantasy.