Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/108



N Russia, as in Europe, the revolution, and above all the jacobin terror, were followed by a notable decline in aspirations towards enlightenment and liberty. It was not in France alone that reaction occurred, but in Prussia and Austria as well, Frederick and Joseph being replaced by Frederick William and Francis. England exploited the anti-french alliance of the continent for the furtherance of her conservative policy.

In Russia, the aristocrats and the court, speaking French and having enjoyed a French education, made common cause with the reactionary aristocrats of France. Catherine temporarily forbade the printing of Russian translations from Voltaire; the masonic lodges were closed; Radiščev was sent to Siberia. Emperor Paul I, accentuating the reactionary movement initiated by Catherine, went so far as to refuse to tolerate anything French that did not bear the royalist and Bourbon stamp. Unofficial printing establishments were suppressed; the import of foreign books was prohibited; in 1797 the censorship was reorganized; and in addition a religious censorship, which had been unknown throughout the eighteenth century, was introduced in Moscow in 1796 and was subsequently extended throughout the realm. The religious censorship was regulated in accordance with the principles of "the divine law [holy writ], the rules of the state, good morals and literature." It is not difficult to imagine how these principles