CHAPTER I

TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA


Railways--State Interference--River Communications--Russian "Grand
Tour"--The Volga--Kazan--Zhigulinskiya Gori--Finns and Tartars--The
Don--Difficulties of Navigation--Discomforts--Rats--Hotels and
Their Peculiar Customs--Roads--Hibernian Phraseology
Explained--Bridges--Posting--A Tarantass--Requisites for
Travelling--Travelling in Winter--Frostbitten--Disagreeable
Episodes--Scene at a Post-Station.


Of course travelling in Russia is no longer what it was. During the last
half century a vast network of railways has been constructed, and one
can now travel in a comfortable first-class carriage from Berlin to St.
Petersburg or Moscow, and thence to Odessa, Sebastopol, the Lower Volga,
the Caucasus, Central Asia, or Eastern Siberia. Until the outbreak of
the war there was a train twice a week, with through carriages, from
Moscow to Port Arthur. And it must be admitted that on the main lines
the passengers have not much to complain of. The carriages are decidedly
better than in England, and in winter they are kept warm by small iron
stoves, assisted by double windows and double doors--a very necessary
precaution in a land where the thermometer often descends to 30
degrees below zero. The train never attains, it is true, a high rate
of speed--so at least English and Americans think--but then we must
remember that Russians are rarely in a hurry, and like to have frequent