“During his change of horse-relays, Turgenev asked to see Custine. There then ensued, presumably at the postal station, a most curious verbal exchange, the account of which by Custme only deepens the mystery of the relations between the two men Custine, evidently, had already heard rumors of peasant disorders m the region of Simbirsk This, as it happened, was the region in which Turgenev had his estates. It was presumably to this destination that he was hurrying.
Custine evidently asked Turgenev about this, and Turgenev, by Custine’s account, now confirmed to him that eighty villages had indeed been burned, in the gouvernement of Simbirsk, by revolting peasants. He went on to say, however, that Russians tended to attribute this unrest to intrigues on the part of the Poles. The latter, he intimated, did some things with provocative intent, precisely to arouse further Russian ire and to dissuade the Emperor from showing any greater clemency towards Poland, lest the Polish peasantry be moved to take a kinder view of the Russians.
This curious suggestion evoked a sultry and bitter reply from Custine. “I prefer to believe,” he said, “that the Russians hurl accusations at their victims in order to justify their own rancor, and that they search, in everything unfortunate that happens to them, for some pretext to make heavier the yoke they impose on their adversaries, whose ancient glory they view as an unpardonable crime”.
“You take a poor view of our policies,” replied Turgenev, “because you don’t know either the Russians or the Poles.”
“That,” rejoined Custine, “is the usual refrain of your compatriots when anyone tells them any unpleasant truth.”
And then, moving over to what was clearly a personal note, he proceeded to point out that the Poles were easy to know, because they were always talking, he, however, had more confidence in garrulous people of this sort, who said everything, than he had in “taciturn men who say only those things that no one would want to know.”
Just who it was, among the Russians, against whom this sally was directed, is not clear. Turgenev was surely not a taciturn man. But he took it personally. “Il fout pourtant” he said, “que oous ayez blen de la confiance en moi” (However, you still have to have confidence in me), replied Custine…” (Kennan, George, Marquis de Custine and His Russia in 1839. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971)
