118 Orientalism and EmpireStPetersburg bookstores. Newspaper writers joked that they ex-
pected to see Shamil caps, Shamil bracelets, and Shamil cloaks soon
on the streets.^53 Shamil finally arrived at the Nikolaev Station on the
morning of 26 September and promptly informed the crowd that had
gathered to see him: “If I had earlier known Russia and all that I have
now seen and see, I would have submitted [pokorilsia] a long time
ago.”^54 He visited the general of the Main Staff, the StPetersburg mil-
itary governor-general, and the Military Topographical Department,
where he was shown a number of maps of the Caucasus.^55 On the
28th he was taken to the Academy of Sciences Museum and the
Italian Opera, and the following day to the Bolshoi Theatre.^56 At the
Public Library on Nevskii Prospect, Shamil admired works of
Russian scholarship, viewed portraits of previous Russian tsars and
maps of the Caucasus, and in particular examined a portrait of
General Paskevich.^57 At StIsaac’s Cathedral he carefully examined
the massive dome and requested details on its construction.^58
Rumours of Shamil’s location quickly spread among the residents of
the city, often causing crowds to gather in vain. Large crowds nightly
appeared at all the StPetersburg theatres, unsure of which one he was
to attend.^59 Shamil had finally been exposed to the most European of
Russian cities, and his every reaction to the details of European life
was of interest to the Russian public. In his room at the Znamenskii
Hotel the Russians observed “with what curiosity he looked over the
gas burner,” apparently convinced that a source of oil must be hidden
somewhere. He was similarly intrigued by the street lights, and at the
Italian opera he was surprised and curious when the lights dimmed.^60
S. Ryzhov, in a passage that we have quoted at the start of this chapter,
summarized the cumulative effect of such exposure upon the great
mountaineer: “European civilization, with railroads, steam cars, gas
lighting, the comforts of life, and so on, opened a new world to these
savages, who have previously never seen anything but the pitiful pov-
erty and rags of Dagestan.” Shamil, Ryzhov was comforted to dis-
cover, was “surprised at everything he sees.”^61 Russia, of course, to
Ryzhov’s thinking, belonged to “European civilization.”
On 10 October Shamil and his party finally reached Kaluga. Huge
Russian crowds, the local newspaper reported, were delighted by his
smiling face, fur coat, and beautiful white turban at the Kulon Hotel
window, and they were pleased to know that “Shamil really liked our
city” and claimed that it reminded him of Chechnia.^62 The residents
of Kaluga had played host to other prominent and non-Russian exiles
in the past. The last Crimean khan, Shahin-Girei, had resided first in
Voronezh and then in Kaluga in 1786; the sultan of the Small Kirgiz
Horde, Arungiz Abulgaziev, had arrived in Kaluga in 1823 and