11
CATHERINE THE GREAT
THE vivid “Russian atmosphere” induced by the writing of The M.P. for Russia continued throughout the autumn and winter of 1908, during which time, on his return from Ealing, Mr. Stead was still closely at work on his book. There had also been a series of unusually interesting moves on the psychic chessboard, if one may so term it, for a powerful influence, purporting to be that of no less a personage than Catherine the Second, Empress of Russia, had for some time past loomed large on our horizon, and in a variety of ways seemed endeavouring to express from the Beyond her continued interest in the future of the Slavonic peoples, of whom she frankly styled herself the “tutelary deity.” Affairs in Eastern Europe were fast approaching that political and international crisis of which the principle outward feature was the annexation by Austria of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Through several sources, including the hands of three automatic writers (Mr. Stead, Miss Scatcherd and myself) the Great Empress seemed endeavouring to convey what the Chief called a separate section or “ray” of her complex personality, the result being a marshalling of forces whose combination was, to say the least of it, imposing. She also expressed herself with great ease and fluency through Mr. A. V. Peters, the psychic, who when in deep trance often became the mouthpiece for much political wisdom concerning the affairs of Eastern Europe in general and Russia in particular.
To Mr. Stead, who did not hold the opinion that the former rulers and statesmen of the earth have “elected to pass eternity in dignified idleness” there was nothing at all impossible or far-fetched in the idea of the Imperial Catherine’s condescending to utter words of counsel, guidance, and warning, in regard to the destiny of the “Holy Russia” she loved so well.
It was understood that Catherine had long been interested in W.T. Stead as an ardent worker on behalf of her adopted country, she having found in him a facile instrument through whom she could express the vast ideals left unattained by her at the close of her tumultuous reign. On this theme she constantly and variously dilated, declaring that all unconsciously to him to her unseen influence from the Beyond was due the persistent trend of his mind towards an Anglo-Russian entente, his persistent sympathy with the Slavonic ideal, and the constantly recurring “Russian influence” that was the dominant note of his career.
In this connection, as in others no less striking, the “long arm of coincidence”—or apparent coincidence—is evident in his life from first to last. His first employer was Russian Vice-Consul at Newcastle-on-Tyne. As editor of the Northern Echo (“the youngest editor in England”) he first attracted the attention of Gladstone and Freeman in 1876 by his brilliant, impassioned articles on the Bulgarian Atrocities, and he was one of the “three Englishmen” to whom the thanks of the Bulgarian Assembly were publicly voted in 1878 for service rendered to the cause of Bulgarian independence. In this period began also his life-long friendship with Madame Olga Novikoff, by whom he was personally introduced to Gladstone, Froude, Thomas Carlyle, and many another of the giants who had first stirred his youthful enthusiasm. He was the first—I believe the only—journalist to “interview “a Tsar of Russia: he was received by Alexander III at Gatchina in 1888, and thrice later by Nicolas II, the present Tsar. And he numbered among his Russian friends men of such widely differing personalities as Madame Novikoff, Count Leo Tolstoy, Pobedonestzeff, M. Stolypin, and Prince Kropotkin. In one way and another he has been persistently identified with Russian affairs, and to use his own words, he has “preached, in season and out of season, an Anglo-Russian Alliance.”
Apropos of the Gatchina interview with the Emperor Alexander, an amusing detail, variously told, went the round of the press at the time, concerning his “dismissing the Tsar.” The true story, as the Chief told it to me, was that after a conversation lasting nearly three-quarters of an hour, Mr. Stead, feeling that he had already trespassed sufficiently long on the Emperor’s time, suddenly jumped up and declared that he “really could not detain his Majesty any longer!” The Emperor’s smile of mingled amusement and surprise as he also rose to his feet, “Made me feel what an ass I had been,” related the Chief, adding, “If only I had gone on talking I might have had another half-hour.” He had been till then all-unconscious of the “etiquette” of Courts which ordains that it is the Sovereign who brings an interview to a close. Nevertheless, it was of that famous interview with the Emperor Alexander III, that Sir Robert Morier, then British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, wrote to Queen Victoria that “never since the memorable interview between Nicolas I and Sir Hamilton Seymour had any Russian Emperor ever spoken with such frankness and fulness to any Englishman. Not only so, but the circumstances under which the interview had taken place, and the character of the interlocutors, rendered it certain that the ‘verite vraie’ had been spoken.”
The outcome of that Russian visit of 1888 was Mr. Stead’s book The Truth about Russia, which he published soon afterwards. That book had the curious experience of being first interdicted by the Russian Censor (in particular because of certain pages relating to religious persecution), and afterwards of having the prohibition removed, it was whispered, by the Emperor Alexander himself, after which The Truth about Russia was circulated freely throughout the whole Russian Empire.
In 1905, shortly before the opening of the Douma, Mr. Stead made a tour of Russia on a stirring campaign on behalf of his ideal of “patriotic co-operation” on imperial lines—a dangerous flag to fly with a “Revolution” in process, and one which drew the fury of the revolutionaries down upon him. “But none the less,” wrote Dr. Dillon, the special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in St. Petersburg, “Russians were favourably impressed by the spectacle of this apostolic reformer come from the distant shores of Britain to preach the gospel of modernism to the Russian mooshik” and even the enemy were “struck by his mysterious power of arousing sympathy and grasping the heart and the conscience of his hearers.”
Whether or not Mr. Stead was guided by the Great Empress in his life-long passion for “the evolution of the soul of Russia,” is for the reader to determine according to the extent to which he is in sympathy with the idea. By what method, for instance, comes the answer to prayer? To what extent is “the ministry of angels” an actual reality, and of what does it consist? He would have asked you all these questions had you been discussing the “Catherine” problem with him.
I have lightly touched in briefest detail on some of these evidences of “Russian influence” of which his life was so full, in order to show how easy it was for him and for those in closest sympathy with him to realize that there was some driving force, some unseen power at work which constantly energized his Russian sympathies. That power called itself Catherine II of Russia, and whatever may or may not be the “evidential value” of these striking communications from the point of view of the determined sceptic, there is no doubt that they formed immensely interesting reading and that they were a frequent source of inspiration to W.T. Stead in his writings on the Eastern Question.
Here, for instance, is one of these communications, which came through Mr. Stead’s hand in December 1908, the MS. of which he sent me, with the following letter—
“Will you ask Catherine to annotate this, and after it is done, please bring it up, typed out (three copies), as annotated, but not showing which are annotations and which are not. Work her annotations into the text.
“The trouble of writing this is that my own ideas are so strong that I am not passive enough. If Catherine wants to erase any or all of it do not hesitate to let her do so. Let her write freely with your hand. Your mind is a clean slate, mine is not.”
It was perfectly true that my mind was, as he phrased it, a “clean slate” so far as the Balkan Question was concerned. That storm-centre of Eastern Europe represented to me then little more than a geographical district. The sundry comments and additions to Mr. Stead’s script, duly written by “Catherine” through my hand, were certainly not the product of my own mind. On my returning the annotated MSS. to the Chief he replied, “I have fired off Catherine’s letter,” and next day the message, signed X, duly appeared, in the columns of the Westminster Gazette for December 12, 1908, under the heading “Austria and Turkey: a Warning Note from the Balkans”: from “A Correspondent who is in touch with many and varied sources of information in Eastern Europe.” It would not be easy, I imagine, to detect the annotations “worked into” the original script. Mr. Stead told me he had read it, intact, to an exalted official personage who had given it the seal of his approval.
The letter began by touching briefly on the situation in the Near East, which, though at the moment apparently peaceful, threatened serious developments before the end of the year. With subtle wisdom it was urged that time should be given, not only to allow the disintegrating forces to work their way beneath the apparently solid surface of the Austro-Hungarian Empire-Kingdom, but also to allow the peoples of the Balkan peninsula occasion to sink their own internal disputes and present a front of solid unity against any outside assault.
The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was discussed adversely, but without animus. And the Slavs were again exhorted to preserve an attitude of patience, for in the fateful outcome of the future might not Austria-Hungary yet disappear into the “melting-pot” to reappear, flushed with fresh vigour, as “the Federation of the Danube”? A consummation devoutly to be wished, yet one which hasty and untoward action on the part of the Slavs might postpone indefinitely.
In particular Macedonia was warned of danger, clear to eyes able to descry the signs of coming storm. At any moment, in the strained condition of local affairs, the most trivial episode might bring about a general upheaval, so delaying the longed-for reunion of the Slavonic race. A moment so full of promise yet of portent is an unerring test of a people’s instinct. The Slavs were therefore implored to hold their strength in reserve, to take “Patience and Unity” for their watchword, … “for the day will come!”
Regarding the foregoing and similar communications Mr. Stead commented to me on one occasion—
“My chief objection or difficulty is that these ideas are all my ideas. She may have given them to me long ago. But the in sceptic would say they are ‘stained glass’ and that I impute to Catherine only my own notions. You might ask her about this and see what she says. I think she gives me her thoughts, but she dictates more verbally to you.”
Again he wrote—
“Here is quite a long message from Catherine who says, you will see, that it is all right but needs careful annotating. I wrote it with much difficulty. But as she once said (or Julia, I forget which) that I get it most correctly when I get it with the greatest difficulty, this may be right!”
“Stained glass” was a favourite metaphor he used to imply that such communications were coloured by the mind of the person through whom they were transmitted, as light passing through a painted window reflects the prevailing tints.
The flamboyant style and vigorous phraseology of the Catherine communications, whether through the Chief’s hand or through mine, was considered singularly alike, more so, I may say, than in the case of almost any other of our autoscripts, though Julia was always more or less vraisemblable, certainly in essence always so. I remember the Chief’s telling me that he had read aloud one of my Catherine messages to a certain distinguished general, without saying from whom it came. The latter, supposing it to be Mr. Stead’s, remarked that it was “Some of the best Stead-ese he had ever heard in his life!” The Chief’s triumphant retort, “Wrong, my dear sir! It is not me at all. It is Catherine of Russia!” would hardly enlighten him much, though, as he was an old friend of the Chief, perhaps it did!
The question as to the possible “reincarnation” of Catherine, having come up, he wrote me as follows—
“November 15.
“With regard to your doubts about re-incarnation and Christianity, I do not in the least see any antagonism between the two. The Last Judgment is obviously not the judgment that follows the dissolution of the body, but the completed probation of the soul.”
As to how far Catherine had left behind her, with her physical body, her earthly characteristics in the “old unhappy far-back time” he said—
“The idea of having Catherine as a Guide is a novel one! Julia is of my own religion and ethics, but Catherine is—Catherine!” And again: “If the lion and the lamb are to lie down together, surely the lamb must satisfy itself that the “carnivore” has turned vegetarian.”
Catherine was naturally much in evidence while he was writing The M.P. for Russia. I told him that to me her life stood out as one of the most pathetic tragedies in history. He replied that he would write of her as a great idealist, “whose real life was one long dream of the destined greatness of the Slavonic race.”
Another of those unique documents was Catherine’s Manifesto to the Slavs, which appeared in the Contemporary Review for January 1909, under the title “The Arrival of the Slav.” The story of its inception is as follows—
On December 4, 1908, Mr. Stead wrote me:
“I want you to ask Catherine whether she would like to write an article which I would have to sign, this article to deal with the general ferment and prospect in the Near East. It has occurred to me I might adopt the form of saying: “Suppose the great Catherine still lived, with mature judgment and widened experience, how would she contemplate the transformation of the East and what would she do?” She might work in her dreams and make them strike home by interspersing them with shrewd reflections upon the actual political situation as she sees it and foresees it. You might ask her what she thinks of the idea, and whether she would prefer to write it with your hand or with mine.
I think it would be a great thing to re-introduce her to magazine literature, don’t you?’”
Catherine immediately expressed not only her willingness but her anxiety to write the proposed article, with an alacrity that almost implied that the original suggestion had emanated from her august influence. It was ultimately decided that the article was to be written in three parts or sections, the first of which would be written by the Empress herself through the hand of Mr. Stead, and would give a survey of the Russia of her own day. The second was to be by his own unaided authorship, and would generally review and comment on the existing situation; while the third portion was to be made up of parts of different “Catherine” messages that had come through his hand and through mine, and which dealt extensively with the immediate and distant future of Slavonia.
“I am going on with Catherine’s article,” wrote the Chief by return. “Bunting will take it for the Contemporary, so that is all right.” Next day he sent me the first part, saying:
“I enclose you Catherine. I do not feel as if I had done her justice, but I have got the general idea right. Before you come up you might just ask her if she has a message before I go on to the second part.”
Then, a day or two later, Catherine having made sundry further suggestions, he wrote:
“Here is the second instalment. I have written it with my own hand, trusting to the Empress to alter what she pleases. …”
So the thrilling drama unfolded. Very shortly afterwards the article was completed and duly made its appearance in the Contemporary Review. The Chief wished it to appear over the signature “Catherine,” but this the Editor revolted against, insisting that it must be signed W.T. Stead. I quote one or two characteristic paragraphs, without specifying the different sections written by the two automatists, nor the “connecting links” or annotations added by the source of our inspiration.
The article began by noting the proposed annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Austro-Hungarian Empire-Kingdom as being but one of many signs of the ripening of the Slavonic question, the gradual emergence of the Slavs from the position of political serfdom and subordination, and their establishment as the predominant race of Eastern Europe:—
“Of all the great races in Europe the Slavs have received the fewest favours from the fates. Providence has been to them a cruel step-mother. They have been cradled in adversity and reared in the midst of misfortunes which might well have broken their spirit. From century to century they have been the prey of conquerors, European and Asiatic. When, as in Russia, they were able to assert their independence of Tartar and Turk, they could only do so by submitting to an autocrat whose yoke was seldom easy and whose burden was never light. But for this Cinderella of Europe the light is arising in the darkness, and there are not lacking signs that in the future the despised kitchen maid may yet be ‘the belle of the ball.’”
The three eighteenth-century rulers who have been accorded the title of Great, were next contrasted in the following words:—
“The work of Frederick was no haphazard business. Before an intellect somewhat limited, but singularly clear and definite even in its limitations, there stood the vision of Prussia, aggrandised and all-powerful. He conceived his kingdom in the realm of thought before he gave it shape on the plane of matter. But he was otherwise no idealist. A strong man, resolute and unscrupulous, he carved with bloody sword his way to his goal.
“Peter was a ruler of another order, as much vaster as Russia transcends Prussia. He waged war with elementals, as Thor waged ceaseless war with the giants of Jotunheim, giants of mud, giants of ice, giants of immense size and corresponding stupidity. He was a Titan of the Promethean type bearing fire from heaven wherewith to illumine the dark wilderness of Muscovy. He was a barbarian intoxicated with civilization, passionate to acquire it for his country, because it was his country. The world has not yet done him justice; perhaps it will never do full justice to the almost superhuman energy of Peter the Great. He was cruel, yes; but as a surgeon is cruel who, lacking proper surgical knives to perform inevitable operations hacks off gangrened limbs with a forester’s axe. Peter had three ideals. He spent his life in the attempt to realize them. First, to compel his people to avail themselves of the apparatus of the material civilization of the West. Second, to open up to the inland Muscovites a way to the three seas. Third, to bring to the mind of the Russian boyar and the Russian moujik a sense of the position, the greatness, and the destiny of Russia. Throughout his work from first to last runs the clear purpose of a strong man, labouring might and main to fulfil his mission. Faults he had as great as his qualities; savage, cruel, call him what you will, yet he saw his duty and lived and died in doing it. His failures were more wonderful than the successes of his contemporaries, and he has carved his name in imperishable granite upon the history of Russia.
“Of the three monarchs designated Great in the eighteenth century by far the most interesting, and in many ways the most tragic, was Catherine the Second. Interesting because of her lofty ideals; tragic because of the lamentable destiny that seemed to mar her noblest purpose and blight her highest aspirations. There is a note of pathos throughout the whole of Catherine’s life, a sense of vast discord that might have been resolved into the grandest harmonies had the hand of a master but touched the keys. …
“In those dark days when she lived almost alone, the future Empress delighted to forget the uncongenial environment of the present in the glories of the past and in the still more far-reaching vistas of the future. But there grew up within her an unconquerable resolve to possess her soul in patience until the time should arrive when she would be able to give effect to the aspirations which flitted ghost-like before her, but which she dimly felt she was to clothe with the flesh and blood of realized fact. She waited but for Time and the Hour.
“When Catherine found herself Empress of Russia she exulted in the opportunity of attempting to realize the dreams of her suppressed girlhood, when in neglect and solitude she spent her days in tearing the heart out of the books which were her only companions.”
The ideals which justly won for Catherine the title of Great were next touched on in a rapid survey.
“The first great dream of her life was to compel Russia to become civilized, as she understood civilization. France then stood at the head of the culture and humanity of the world, and she became passionately devoted to the French philosophers, corresponded with them and promoted the circulation of their works among her people. They were perhaps but poor leaders and guides, but they were the most conspicuous lights of her time. Peter had introduced his subjects to the material civilization of the West. It was Catherine’s ambition to supplement and complete his work by introducing to the nation the laws, the learning, and the arts of the West. Her court became the centre of whatever there was of culture in Muscovy. She wished to educate her people, and she was as zealous for the education of women as of men.
“Her second aspiration was to free Russia finally from the last vestige of Asiatic domination. Hence her wars, which gave Russia the seaboard on the Euxine and planted the Russian standard beyond the doorway of the Caucasus.
“Herself a German, she nevertheless appreciated keenly the distinctive genius of the Slavonic race. Russia, the first of the Slavs to become independent, the first also as she fondly believed to become cultured, was in her eyes destined to achieve a great historic mission. Russia was to be the elder brother of all the Slavs, the deliverer and the helper of the younger races. Nor was that all. In her more exalted moments she dreamed of making the Slav the link between two continents, the mediator between Europe and Asia, the great bridge between East and West. Towards this end she laboured, often with but little wisdom, but with unswerving instinct. She was baffled by the unfitness of her instruments and the inadequacy of her resources. But despite all disappointments Catherine, judged by her aspirations and even by the comparative success with which she began their realization, will always rank as one of the greatest rulers of the world. Only now, in our own day, when the Slavs are awakened all along the line, do men begin to see not only the greatness and the glory of her ideal, but the possibility of its realization on the lines which she laid down.”
The article concluded with a confident assurance to the Slavonic people of the grandeur of their destiny, and an impassioned entreaty to them to possess their souls in patience for a time. In latter developments in the Balkan war surely one may see the fruits of the disregard of that far-seeing counsel.
“The day of cast-iron Empires is fast drawing to a close. The new century begins the era of decentralization and federation. In one form or another the whole vast stretch of country from Petersburg to Prague, from Prague to Adrianople, will be covered by a federation or federations of self-governing States, as peaceful as the Swiss cantons, in which the Slavs, by sheer force of numbers, will of necessity be in the ascendant. Nor will it be surprising if the despairing effort of the German to stem the tide of destiny in Poland, should lead to the addition of the German Polish lands to the federation of the future.
“The chief danger, almost the only serious danger, that threatens to retard the inevitable triumph, is the fatal tendency to anarchy that has ever been the bane of the Slavonian peoples. It was this that ruined Poland. It may postpone indefinitely the coming of the Slav into his kingdom. If we had the tongues of men and of angels we would cry aloud in the ears of all the Slavonian peoples: ‘In unity is your strength. United you can conquer all your foes. Disunited you will remain the despised and impotent thralls of your neighbours. Peace! Peace among yourselves! Patience and Unity. By those watchwards you will conquer.
“If these counsels prevail, then the good seed which Catherine sowed in the dark days of storm and tempest may spring up and ripen for the glorious golden harvest. Then may be fulfilled her majestic vision of the advent of the mighty kingdom of Slavonia, which will represent more than the splendour of ancient Rome; more than the vainly desired perfection of classic Hellas.”
