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under the foreign crust. Even if Kief is more entitled
to honor from the Russians than Moscow, on account of
its greater antiquity, and even if it is, like Jerusalem, the
holy city,—still, Moscow is always, for the inhabitants
of Greater Russia, the mother city, Moskva mátushka.
The vivid colors of these roofs, the bright gilding of
the cupolas of the churches, all this, which in a milder
climate would be in bad taste, has its foundation in the
climatic and historical relations, and most of all in the
length and kind of the winters. If you conceive a
winter where the snow for two hundred days together covers
everything, woods and fields, roads and streets and roofs
of the houses, with its monotonous sheet, you can
understand that some splendor is needed in the air to enliven
the world when the sun does shine for a day.
Winter is the characteristic season in Russia. Even
if the wind is cold, still it is not by far so strong as in
Denmark, so that a greater degree of cold can be endured
than here. Winter stamps the whole life and character
of the people.
The peasant is obliged to live immured in his hut,
with the walls and windows carefully closed to the cold.
He lives in bad air, by the light of a blazing pine knot,
close to the great stove, on the top of which the whole
family sleep at night. He sleeps with his clothes on,
including his sheepskin. He does not undress the whole
week through, except when, on Saturday, he takes his
Russian bath. But with his sheepskin he puts on his
vermin again.
With the higher classes the long winter has this
result, that night is turned into day. Social life in St.
Petersburg is even in a higher degree than in Warsaw a
night life. Even the most of the sleighing parties take
place in the night. In the silent quiet, the three horses
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