Volume 1 starts in St. Petersburg and follows Gretsch's sea voyages to Germany, across the English Channel to England, and then back across the channel into France. Gretsch had visited Germany previously, a fact that he mentions in his first letter, dated from Hamburg on May 8. Additionally, he had studied in France 20 years earlier. However, he had never before been to England. By this point in his life, Gretsch already was well traveled, so he had a certain worldly awareness of the types of people and places he might expect along the way. He knew the kinds of difficulties he might encounter while traveling, and he had prepared himself beforehand by reading about his destinations. However, despite his experience and profound reading knowledge, Gretsch still found a number of surprises along the way.

Gretsch's Preface

Gretsch inserts a short preface before the first letter in the first volume. In it, he defends an attitude with which some of his contemporary readers disagreed. He notes that since parts of the letters have appeared previously in The Northern Bee, he has had the benefit of learning some of the criticism of those sections before they have appeared in the present volumes and is thus able to respond to them. Primarily, readers objected that Gretsch had been too critical of the French and their representative form of government. In Gretsch's view, the French system was too liberal, a flaw that weakened the government, making it the mere puppet of demagogues. Gretsch stands by his conclusions, however, pointing out that other writers have made statements similar to his and inviting anyone who disagrees to travel to France and experience the French system first-hand—as he had done more than once at this point. “Have my critics been to France?” he asks, questioning their ability to make accurate judgments; “Have they been there in the last seven years?” To Gretsch, the conclusions he has formed about the French are the logical response of any truly intelligent person.

Gretsch's attitude toward the French makes more sense to readers when considered alongside the Official Nationality ideology introduced in Russia just four years prior to his voyage.