BERESOV - A STANITSA - AND ITS COMMANDANT

In Czarist Russia, the outpost community, the stanitsa, was an institution. The conquest of what I call the "Wild East" brought on its establishment as fortress, trading post, and prisoner camp.
Seeing how much I love outpost communities, frontier towns, and their commandants, even to the extent of writing a "Stanitsa Othello", as you read it, set in the reign of Catherine the Great, with westernized (some of them even Western European) young nobles and a steppe-born commandant who, though westernized through and through himself, hears racist slurs whispered at court behind his back, and still remembers a tragic childhood, having been orphaned and taken prisoner by the ranks of Elizabeth (the reigning czarina's mother-in-law).
The setting being far harsher that the one of the sister story Kétkedésvár (with a Hungarian Othello in nineteenth-century Austria, also adopted and raised to a high rank by the "enemy" that took his home and parents), "A Stanitsa Othello" is not only a livng picture of courtly, society, and frontier life in this Age of Enlightenment, but also a journey into the heart of darkness, which, for the commandant's Voltaire-reading spouse and her equally learned childhood friend, who is also his aide-de-camp, but mostly for the commandant himself, now turned a leader of the enemy of his own kin. As winter closes in, the secluded holdfast becomes the scene for ethyl addiction, drunken brawling, clever ruses, and a promising life put to an untimely end by strychnine poisoning.
This Gustav Nieritz account of stanitsa life illustrates many of the conditions of life in such a place, and it serves as a source to the Ringstetten Saga's second arc, in which a stanitsa and its commandant play a major role:

The journey continued without intermission, while the air became ever colder, and the days shorter, as they proceeded farther and farther north. All natural life appeared to have died, and rarely did they meet a traveller galloping past in his sledge drawn by husky dogs or reindeer. The sun seemed to have lost all its brightness, for without dazzling their eyes they could gaze intently on its red disc, and was visible a few hours only above the horizon, while sometimes several suns could be seen beside one another. Such false suns and false moons frequently are formed by the air becoming so condensed by cold that it receives and reflects like a mirror the image of the real sun or moon. This is one of the most fearfully beautiful spectacles that can be seen in nature.
At length they approached the eastern boundary of Europe.
Siberia, in all its immensity, lay before them, in extent larger than the whole of Europe with its many kingdoms, but possessing very few inhabitants. One seldom meets with a human dwelling on its boundless deserted plains;and as the little town of Beresow lay deep in this wilderness, they had a long journey yet to accomplish. The state of the suffering Princess had in no wise improved when they reached the boundaries of Europe. Although they had been allowed several times to rest by the way, she had derived not the least refreshment from it. The children surrounded their loved mother with tender care, forgetting on her account their own condition, on which, especially that of the young Princesses, a great change had taken place. Having no maidservant, or any kind of female assistance, their attire had fallen into considerable disorder; their hair, formerly so smooth and so neatly arranged, hung in tangled masses upon their shoulders, while their dresses were crumpled and partly in rags. The Princesses would willingly have repaired these disasters, but they were entirely unaccustomed to the duty, and therefore did not know how to go about it, but they were soon to be spared this trouble.

The commandant of the little frontier town—a rude, unfeeling man,—harshly informed the banished family that they must now exchange their costly dress for that worn by convicts. He brought a Russian along with him, bearing a whole arm-full of clothing, made of coarse brown woolsey, which he threw down on the floor. The commandant tumbled them over, seized hold of a pair of trousers, as also a kind of smock-frock or coat, and held them out with the words,—

"There, take these; they are whole, keep them so. Here, woman. There, girls. What is. left is for the boy."

So spoke the man to this princely family, whose favour had been courted by the most powerful of the Empire. The Princess and her daughters, without murmuring, betook themselves into a little neighbouring chamber, and after a short time, on the door again opening, a little elderly peasant woman came out, supported by two young damsels. The dainty feet of the females were encased in clumsy but warm shoes of untanned leather, and looked like shaggy bears' paws, while out of the long sleeves of the coarse garments the delicate little fingers of the Princess and her daughters peeped. Their heads were covered with thick unshapely hoods, by which scarcely one-half of their faces could be seen, while fastened to their shoulders by a cord hung large rough foxskin gloves. Only after earnest entreaty had the poor banished ones obtained the favour of being allowed to wash themselves; otherwise the coarse material would certainly have torn their delicate skin.

When the Princess—as having been Princess born—entered, dressed in her miserable clothing, wearing a death-like smile on her pale face, and accompanied by his children, once the ornaments of the youthful nobility of St. Petersburg...

A hand now knocked violently on the little window of the lowly chamber, and a rude voice cried,—

"Will you never stir out of that? must we be frozen to death for the sake of your chattering?"

The unfortunate family quickly prepared to set out on their journey, but when they reached the door they found the travelling carriage had disappeared, and in its stead were six small wooden sledges, called there Kibiks. They were open, with only one horse to each, with hardly room for a single person to sit, besides the driver, and entirely wanting in convenience. No cushion made the hard seat more comfortable, neither was there any cover to protect the traveller from the severity of the atmosphere. At this sight Menzikoff stood as if petrified; he could not believe his eyes.

"Must my sick wife make the journey in such a miserable box?" asked he at length.

"Certainly," returned the commandant, laughing. "Did you really think, Menzikoff, that something better would be provided for you than for the other convicts? Did you trouble yourself about procuring comfortable conveyances for those distinguished people who were sent here by your cruelty?"

The night, dimly lit up by the snow, wore away under constant travelling, and with morning a cold mist came on, and after it the blood-red sun, which sent its enlightening rays down upon the poor travellers, yet not its warmth.

As silent as a funeral procession they continued their journey, the cold killing all pleasure, and stiffening the tongues which would have willingly spoken. Several times she appeared to sleep, and not to hear the words which they addressed to her. On such occasions the inquirers would always retire, pained, however, with tormenting conjectures. In this way the second night of this journey set in; a journey for which none but Russian horses are capable. A faint brightness now began to light up the dark heavens, which by degrees spread itself farther and farther, assuming a fearfully beautiful aspect of a blood red colour. The sky seemed to be on fire, while dazzling rays shot up out of what appeared like a dark flaming furnace, towards the immeasurable expanse of heaven, as if a terrific battle was being fought by the powers above, or as if a thousand throats of flame belched forth their lightnings, and set the western universe in a blaze. Thus did this unexplainable event of nature appear; and more horrible, more spectral did the fight seem to them all on account of the profound silence which prevailed. No thunder, no clash of weapons, no battle cry, no death shriek was to be heard, for spirits alone appeared to fight against spirits. Such is the impression generally made upon the mind of the astonished onlooker by the northern lights, or aurora borealis. Even the horses had become restive, so much so as to make a halt necessary, and all eyes were turned to this appearance of the heavens, which is so often to be seen in the far north. It had also awakened the Princess, who, sitting upright in her Kibik, her mantle having fallen from her shoulders, and the ghastly hue of her wasted face glancing in the red reflection of the northern lights, gazed fixedly upon the blazing sky. She would not utter a word,  but at length, as if speaking to herself in a low voice, she began,—

"Sun and moon are darkened, the stars fall from the sky, the powers of the heavens are shaken."

The arrival of the Kibiks had aroused the curiosity of the inhabitants. Indeed the slightest unusual occurrence made an impression in a place so remote from the bustle of the busy world. A crowd of people had therefore gathered around them already, examining them with an offensive stare. 

At length, after more than twenty years,'she could no longer deny herself the pleasure of seeing him again, and therefore she undertook the journey, already related, together with her daughter, to St Petersburgh. We have seen what a straggle it cost her to conceal her feelings before her children. They afterwards travelled to her beloved brother Simonow, whose life his sister's self-imposed sacrifice had indeed saved; but Siberia was nevertheless appointed to him as his future residence. Here, however, he by no means lived the life of a convict, but executed his ordinary duties as a non-commissioned officer in the garrison of Tobolsk. Gradually he rose in office, and, after more than twenty years, had advanced step by step to his present lucrative post. He received his sister and her daughter with the greatest tenderness.

The convicts reached the little town of Beresow in the very depth of winter. It was wonderful that some of their members at least were not frostbitten on the long journey, from the intense cold. There stood the low wooden houses, on the extensive plain, lonely and still as death; at long intervals a person, wrapped in the skins of wild beasts, was seen moving quickly over the snow. The family were received roughly by the commandant of the place, and were assigned a wooden hut, in which on entering they found nothing but a small slab for the fire-place, representing the kitchen.

There was only one room, where a large stove, built of clay and bricks, but which might at the same time serve as a comfortable bed, took up a great part of the space. This, and a few wooden forms, a roughly made table and bare wooden walls, were all that they met with in their little house. A few small windows with panes of isinglass, through which only half the daylight could pierce, shed a dim twilight at full noonday, and made the light of a miserable tallow candle or pine torch always needful Here, of course, no tapestry, mirrors, chandeliers, curtains, easy chairs, or sofas were to be found. No handsome and comfortable carpet covered the dirty floor. Here each member of the family had not a separate apartment, but one room served the whole, both for eating and sleeping. Instead of pleasant beds of down, they found a few woollen bedcovers and shaggy bearskins only. Even the most necessary utensils, as plates, spoons, pots, and like needful house-furnishings, were wanting.

But of  what use was the money in a place where there was no tradesmen (artisans), not even a baker. The land, on account of the shortness of summer, not being capable of producing grain, and flour required to be conveyed from immense distances; every family therefore provided themselves with the necessary supplies before winter set in, and then baked their own bread (mixing birch bark into the rationed flour). Here was neither beer nor wine, as both would have been congealed into ice, even in the casks. If they wished to drink water, or cook soup, they had first to fill a pot with snow or ice, and melt it over the fire. With money they could purchase spirits (ie vodka), and smoked, dried, or frozen fish; but delicate groceries and nourishing herbs were troublesome to acquire—for the shopkeeper, a German Jew, who dealt in them demanded the very highest price, as they could be obtained only from him. In summer the inhabitants were able to supply themselves much more easily with such things, from the ships that plied on the river running between Tobolsk and Beresow, and because everything is to be procured much more easily and quickly then than during winter, when the frightful cold nearly cuts off communication between the two places. 

On Sundays only, they allowed themselves the luxury of tea or chocolate instead of the bread soup. After breakfast, both the young men made excursions into the surrounding country, to hunt  for the sake of the skins or to provide flesh for dinner: while the maidens put their little apartment in order, and then either washed and repaired, or made new clothing for some of their number. they stitched among the coarse shaggy materials with their delicate fingers, straining their eyes in the continual twilight. After several hours' absence, the youths would return, their breath frozen and hanging in icicles round their hair and fur caps, their hands, which held the hunting weapons or fish which they had bought, thrust into large gloves, while their backs were frequently laden with booty, generally composed of foxes. They were joyfully welcomed by the sisters, to whom they cheerfully told their adventures. After dinner, the maidens also went out to have an airing in company with the young men; and they returned home with blooming cheeks.

In this manner the winter passed away, with its gloomy days, long nights, fiery northern lights, false suns, and false moons. Higher did the sun ascend, and brighter did it shine, and larger became the arch which it made in the blue heavens. The warm wind melted the snow on the plain, and caused the icy covering of the river to burst. The little green grass looked up cheerily out of the black soil, and overspread it as with a wonderful robe of emerald velvet. The brown limbs of the birch trees budded gaily, quickly wrapping themselves up in tender leaves. The swollen waters of the Ob, Irtisch, and Soswa came thundering down, bearing towards the ocean the icy coverings by which they had been so long shut up. A joyful vivacity awoke among the inhabitants. They exultingly left their smoky huts to enliven the newly re-animated land by their industry.

 to the banks of the Soswa with them, when, to improve as much as possible the long summer day, during which the sun seldom disappeared entirely from the nocturnal heavens, all bestirred themselves with cheerful diligence in providing the necessaries of life for the whole year. Numerous ships came sailing up the blue river, the eagerly-desired cargoes of which were brought ashore with exultation, amidst the joyous shouting of the sailors. Long rafts, composed of large trunks of trees bound together, and laden with firewood and boards, were arriving from the woody regions of the empire, and quickly found willing buyers. The young people amused themselves with the feathered wanderers, standing in the open space of the little town, but...

 While the great trunks resounded under the rapid strokes of their instruments, the Princesses shaped the costly materials for the hangings of the altar, and interwove gold and silver embroidery with them.

The roof of the little church was finished before the beginning of winter, and an Orthodox priest found to conduct the worship of God. When the last stroke of the axe and hammer, the last sound of the implements used in its erection, had scarcely died away, the little bell in its turret called the inhabitants of Beresow to engage in the solemn consecration of the House of God. Those employed among the wood laid aside their axes, and joined themselves to the hastily united assembly of the faithful. The lights burned in the now darkened church, beaming upon the beautifully painted picture (icon) of the Saviour, with a golden halo round the head, and the richly embroidered hangings of the altar, prepared by Menzikoff's daughters. The song of praise rose devoutly as the service began; and after the consecration was concluded, the crowd of believers separated themselves into two rows, between which a festively attired elderly couple walked up to the altar, followed closely by three maidens, beautiful as angels, and these by two young men.

Before the heralds of spring returned, intelligence of the sudden death of the Czar reached Beresow. The smallpox had put an end to his life and power. Elizabeth, a granddaughter of Peter the Great, was placed on the Russian throne.