Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, Marquis de Custine (18 March 1790 – 25 September 1857) was a French aristocrat and writer who is best known for his travel writing, in particular his account of his visit to Russia, La Russie en 1839. This work documents not only Custine's travels through the Russian Empire, but also the social fabric, economy and way of life during the reign of Nicholas I. Due to this work, Custine was later dubbed by some historians as "the de Tocqueville of Russia". considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature. The marchioness purchased the château of Fervaques, near Lisieux, in Normandy, from the Duc de Laval in October 1803; Chateaubriand noted his visits there between 1804 and 1806 in which he discussed with both the marchioness and Custine in Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe. Delphine died at Bex, in Vaud, Switzerland, on 13 July 1826.
Custine was given an excellent education and seemed to be headed towards a life in society. An income of 60,000 francs a year enabled him to live as he pleased. He owned an estate outside Paris, at Saint-Gratien, where on occasions he was visited by Frédéric Chopin. Custine spent time in the diplomatic service, attending the Congress of Vienna, and even accepted a military commission. Custine was at one time expected to marry Madame de Staël's daughter, Albertine, but refused the match. In 1821 Custine married Léontine de Saint-Simon de Courtomer, following the wishes of his mother. The Marquis, who would later admit his homosexuality and live openly with a male lover, was nevertheless genuinely fond of his wife. They had a son, Enguerrand. During the marriage Custine met and established a romantic relationship with an Englishman, Edward Saint-Barbe, who moved into the house with the couple, and remained his life companion. In 1823, during the early stages of a second pregnancy, Léontine fell ill and died, aged only twenty. However the exact reason for the attack was never proven. Nevertheless, news of the incident quickly spread around France — "From this time on to the end of his life Custine would figure, in the cruel gossip of the day, primarily as France's most distinguished and notorious homosexual." Even though the literary salons, as opposed to the society salons, remained open to Custine, many people who were friendly with him sneered at him behind his back. His diplomatic career was also cut short by this incident. moved into Custine and Saint-Barbe's home in the rue de La Rochefoucauld to form a ménage à trois. Wrote Custine: "He has an excellent heart, an original mind, is graciously ignorant of everything, and what settles it all, a charming bearing and countenance." In 1841 Gurowski married a Spanish infanta, Isabella Ferdinanda de Bourbon.
La Russie en 1839
Custine eventually discovered that his knack was for travel writing. He wrote a decently received account of a trip to Spain and was encouraged by Honoré de Balzac to write accounts of other "half-European" parts of Europe, like southern Italy and Russia. In the late 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America appeared, whose last chapter contained the prophecy that the future belonged to Russia and America. Inspired by Tocqueville's work, Custine decided that Russia would be the subject of his next writing effort. Custine was later dubbed by some historians as "the de Tocqueville of Russia".
Custine visited Russia in 1839, spending most of his time in St. Petersburg, but also visiting Moscow and Yaroslavl. A political reactionary in his own country, fearful that democracy would inevitably lead to mob rule, he went to Russia looking for arguments against representative government, but he was appalled by autocracy as practiced in Russia and equally by the Russian people's apparent collaboration in their own oppression. He attributed this state of affairs to what he saw as the backwardness of the Russian Orthodox Church, combined with the disastrous effects of the Mongol invasion of medieval Russia, and the policies of Peter the Great.
Most of Custine's mockery was reserved for the Russian nobility and Nicholas I. Custine said that Russia's aristocracy had "just enough of the gloss of European civilization to be 'spoiled as savages' but not enough to become cultivated men. They were like 'trained bears who made you long for the wild ones.'" Custine criticized Tsar Nicholas for the constant spying he ordered and for repressing Poland (see November Uprising). Custine had more than one conversation with the Tsar and concluded it was possible that the Tsar behaved as he did only because he felt he had to. "If the Emperor has no more of mercy in his heart than he reveals in his policies, then I pity Russia; if, on the other hand, his true sentiments are really superior to his acts, then I pity the Emperor" (Kennan 76).
According to Kennan, Custine saw Russia as a horrible domain of obsequious flattery of the Tsar and spying. Custine said the air felt freer the moment one crossed into Prussia. In the mid-20th century, many commentators drew parallels between Custine's description of Russia and contemporary Soviet Union as well as noticing many similarities between his character outline of Nicholas I and Joseph Stalin.
Publication and reaction
La Russie en 1839, first published in full in 1843, went through six printings and was widely read in England, France, and Germany but banned in Russia, where it was not published in an unabridged version until 1996. Nonetheless, several Russian authors published works critical of it. Tsarist authorities also sponsored a more scholarly investigation of Russia by a foreigner, August von Haxthausen, who authored the Studies on the Interior of Russia. This work can be interpreted as an attempt to provide an objective research of Russia's traditional social institutions, which the Tsar's advisors believed would effectively counter Custine's work. The Tsar also commissioned the French writer Hippolyte Auger to pen an extensive refutation. However, as the scandal of Custine's work had subsided by then, the Tsar decided it was best not to remind the public of the book, and the project was abandoned.
Death
Custine died of a stroke in the evening of 25 September 1857.
Legacy
Custine's observations in La Russie en 1839 continue to be admired for their insight, prescience and sheer entertainment value, but are also disliked by others for reasons that can include the belief they are inaccurate, pretentious, racist, and that the idea of national stereotypes is an absurdity.
However, as one critic has written, what is indisputable is that "Above all, the Marquis valued freedom; freedom from fear, hypocrisy and the shackles that restrain the human spirit."