Poetreehugger's Reviews > Letters from Russia

I’m so glad this book came to my attention. What an privilege to be able to read about what he saw, and to listen to his thoughts and opinions, as a traveler almost 150 years ago, one who lost family and heritage to the French Revolution, who loved to travel, and who insisted on honesty even to the extent of smuggling out or hiding his written records of his travels while in Russia because it would have meant imprisonment or worse if he were found out.
This historical glimpse explains a lot about Russia today, and is relevant to our time in so many of the political and social conclusions he draws.
“Silence is indispensable to oppression. Under an absolute government every indiscretion of speech is equivalent to a crime of high treason.” P. 299.
“To pass an impartial opinion upon him [the Czar] is, at the present time, a sacrilege which is not without danger, even for a stranger, in Russia. I brave this danger every day; for of all yokes, the most insupportable to me is that which imposes the necessity of admiring… An oppressor is of all others the man who most fears the truth, he only escapes ridicule by the terror and mystery with which he environs himself.” P. 136.
“I can perceive that I am feared here, which I attribute to its being known that I write under the influence of my convictions… 'This is a sincere man,' they think, 'therefore he must be dangerous.'" P. 137