The quotes below are from the bestselling book of the 18th century ‘Travels in Russia’ written by a British traveler Edward Daniel Clarke (1769-1822). The observations were made in the area of Donetsk region of Ukraine and the Rostov region which is currently in the Russian Federation. The first observation below Edward Clark made in the area of Voronezh, which is a little above the red area on the right side of the map. The map, although compiled a century later than the time of Clarke’s travels, is very representative of the ethnic population of the area of the 18th and 19th centuries as well.
“Approaching the southern part of the empire, the strong characteristics of the Russian people are less frequently observed. Happily for the traveller, in proportion as his distance is increased from that which has been mistakenly considered the civilised part of the country, he has less to complain of theft, of fraud, and of dissimulation.
In the more northern provinces, he is cautioned to beware of the inhabitants of the Ukraine, and the Cossacks. The chambers of our inn were immediately over the town jail, and it is quite unnecessary to add of what nation its tenants were composed.
The Russian finds it dangerous to travel in the Ukraine, and along the Don, because he is conscious that the inhabitants of these countries know too well with whom they have to deal…
Concerning the inhabitants of the country called Malo-Russia [Eastern Ukraine], a French gentleman, who had long resided among them, assured me he used neither locks to his doors nor his coffers; and among the Cossacks, as in Sweden, a trunk may be sent open, for a distance of 800 miles, without risking the loss of any of its contents. Mr. Rowan, banker of Moscow, was compelled, by the breaking down of his carriage, to abandon it in the midst of the territory of the Don Cossacks, and it was afterwards brought safe to him at Taganrog, with all its appurtenances and contents, by the unsolicited and disinterested labour of that people. Who would venture to leave a carriage, or even a trunk, although encased, doubly locked, and directed among the Russians?
[Village of] Usmani is entirely inhabited by Russians; and whenever that is the case, towards the south of the empire, a village resembles nothing more than a number of sacks of straw or dried weeds.
From Celo Usmani we travelled over similar fine plains to Podulok Moscovsky, where we passed the night in a wretched village, whose miserable inhabitants were not even able to strike a light. Nothing could be more revolting than the sight of the hovels in which they lived, open to all the inclemencies of the weather, and destitute of every comfort and common convenience of life. They were said to be settlers from Tver…
We began to perceive that the farther we advanced from the common hordes of the Russians, the more politeness and hospitality we should experience; exactly the reverse of that which we had been taught to expect by the inhabitants of Moscow.
The first regular establishment of Malo-Russians which we saw, occurred after leaving Jestakovo. It was called Locova Sloboda. The houses were all whitewashed, like many of the cottages in Wales; and this operation is performed annually, with great care. Such distinguishing cleanliness appeared to them, that a traveller might fancy himself transported, in the course of a few miles, from Russia to Holland. Their apartments, even in the ceilings and the beams in the roof, are regularly washed. Their tables and benches shine with washing and rubbing, and reminded us of the interior of cottages in Norway. Their courtyard, stables, and out-houses, with every thing belonging to them, bespoke industry and neatness. In their little kitchens, instead of the darkness and smoky hue of the Russians, even the mouths of their stoves were white. Their utensils and domestic vessels all bright and well polished. They kept poultry, and had plenty of cattle. Their little gardens were filled with fruit trees, which gave an English character to their house—the third nation with those dwellings I have compared the cottages of Malo Russia; that is to say, having a Welsh exterior, a Norwegian interior, and the gardens and out houses of the English peasantry. They had neat floors; and although the roof was thatched, its interior was wainscoted. There was nowhere any appearance of dirt and vermin…
We met frequent caravans of the Malo-Russians, who differ altogether from the inhabitants of the rest of Russia. Their features are those of the Polonese, or Cossacks. They are a much more noble race, and stouter and better looking people than the Russians, and superior to them in every thing that can exalt one set of men above another. They are cleaner, more industrious, more honest, more generous, more polite, more courageous, more hospitable…
Their language is pleasing and full of diminutives. But the resemblance which these people bear, in certain circumstances of dress and manners, to the Scottish Highlanders, is very remarkable…
They have in many instances converted the desolate steppe into fields of corn. Their caravans are drawn by oxen, which proceed about thirty versts hi a day. Towards evening, they halt in the middle of a plain, near some pool of water, when their little waggons are all drawn up in a circle, and their cattle are suffered to graze around; while the drivers, stretched out upon the smooth turf, take their repose, or enjoy their pipe, after the toil and heat of the day. If they meet a carriage, they all take off their caps, and bow. The meanest Russians bow to each other, but never to a stranger.
We proceeded from Paulovoskoy to Kazinskoy ‘hutor, a village inhabited by Malo-Russians and Russians mingled together. The distinction between the two people might be made without the smallest inquiry, from the striking contrast between filth and cleanliness. In the stable of the post house we found about twenty horses, kept with a degree of neatness which would have done credit to any nobleman’s stud in Britain. The house of the superintendant villager was equally admirable; every thing appeared clean and decent, there was no litter nor was any thing out of its place. It was quite a new thing to us, to hesitate whether we should clean our boots before walking into an apartment, on the floor of which I would rather have dined, than on the table of any Russian prince.”
Let us go over a couple of the highlighted parts of the text above and compare them to some facts that have become known to the world during the current war Russia wages on Ukraine.
‘Happily for the traveller, in proportion as his distance is increased from that which has been mistakenly considered the civilised part of the country, he has less to complain of theft, of fraud, and of dissimulation.’ – Edward Clarke’s route started in Petersburg, went via Moscow, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, and Krasnodar in Kuban. For him, neither Moscow nor Petersburg were civilized compared to rural Eastern Ukrainian lands. This fact debunks the myth of Russian chauvinists that they were the ones who brought civilization to Ukraine. It was the other way around.
‘The Russian finds it dangerous to travel in the Ukraine, and along the Don, because he is conscious that the inhabitants of these countries know too well with whom they have to deal…’ – It is quite interesting to learn that just a couple of centuries ago, the Don Cossacks did not seem to consider themselves ‘Russians’. In free spirit, dress, and customs they were closer to Ukrainian Cossacks.
The current war proved one extra time that whenever ‘Russians’ come, there is always theft, crime, and desolation. For more than a decade, Putin has claimed that the lands of Eastern Ukraine are some mythical ‘historic Russian lands’. The text above proves that those claims are bogus. Those lands were always Ukrainian ones. The Ukrainians were the center of civilization there. It was them who ‘in many instances converted the desolate steppe into fields of corn‘.
One should not be surprised by Putin’s claims after reading Clarke’s “We began to perceive that the farther we advanced from the common hordes of the Russians, the more politeness and hospitality we should experience – exactly the reverse of that which we had been taught to expect by the inhabitants of Moscow.” – Slandering other people, and other nations is Muscovy’s one of the famous hallmarks. Together with lying. ‘In Russia cannot be even one man not addicted to lying,’ wrote Fyodor Dostoyevsky. When one looks at the current Russian ‘elite’ one cannot help seeing the same addiction exposed. The brazen lies of all those dugins, lavrovs, nebenzias, peskovs, and putins are there for the whole world to see. Their lies are exposed every time but they simply cannot stop lying on and on. (Can people still recall the name of notorious vitaly churkin and scandal at UN?)
Why did Edward Clarke use the term ‘common hordes of the Russians‘ by the way? It was because he knew the true history of those people. Earlier in his book, he wrote that for a long time the ‘Tartars were lords of Moscow the [Russian] tsars themselves being obliged to stand in the presence of their ambassadors, while the latter sat at meat, and to endure the most humiliating ceremonies,’ and that the Russians, ‘always children of imitation‘ mimicked a people by whom they had been conquered – ‘they had neither arts nor opinions of their own: everything in Moscow was Tartarian dress, manners, buildings, equipages.’
According to Clarke, the Kremlin/ ‘Kremle is derived from the Tartar word Tcrim, or krem, which signifies a fortress. It is situated on the north side of the Moskva [River] which flows below it.’
Muscovy-Russia as replica of the Golden Horde >
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