Every true Russian, to whom the Winter Palace kind of servility is alien, will remember with tender emotion this man, who sacrificed all his earthly blessings to his convictions, and his desire to see his homeland free: wealth, reputation, even his own freedom! May he rest in peace, this noble, venerable victim of a vile autocracy, who out of love for his fatherland exchanged a general's epaulets for a convict's shackles.
Prince Petr Dolgorukov
Notes
Source: "Kniaz' Sergei Grigor'evich Volkonskii," Kolokol, l. 2i2, January i5, i866; i9:i6- 2i, 369-70.
What follows is an excerpt from a long series of "Letters to a Future Friend," four of which appeared in The Bell in i864, and a fifth in i866, and which marked a deepening rift between Herzen and the liberals.
Prince Petr V. Dolgorukov (i8i6-i868), a historian and commentator, emigrated in i859, and from i860 to Й64 published newspapers and journals in Leipzig, Paris, Brussels, and London.
Herzen mentions in a footnote that Volkonsky related much of this story to him as well, but asked that any published work attributed to him be delayed until after his death. Volkonsky's account of the three traitors—Boshnyak, Maiborod, and Shervood— was published earlier in the ninth issue of Herzen's journal Listok but as the notes of "a deceased Decembrist."
Herzen adds that Yushnevsky had given the document to two others, Kryukov and Zaykin, who shared quarters in Tulchin. Hearing of Pestel's arrest, they buried it in the ground in a neighboring village. During the investigation, Zaykin was tortured into a confession, and was taken from Petersburg to the site to retrieve it.
The liaison and possibly secret marriage between Empress Elizabeth and the Cossack turned count Alexey Razumovsky gave rise to legends about offspring. The first false Princess Tarakanova retired to a convent; the woman mentioned here is the second pretender, who was brought from Italy in i775 by Count Orlov on orders of Catherine II and was imprisoned, dying soon afterward.
Speransky wrote a very liberal reform plan—a constitutional government based on a series of ascending dumas—for Alexander I in Й09, was dismissed on the eve of the i8i2 campaign, made governor-general of Siberia in i8i6, and asked by Nicholas I to codify all existing Russian laws. His role in i826 was a loyalty test set by the new tsar, which he passed.
A verst is slightly longer than a kilometer.
♦ 78 +
The Bell, No. 2i4, February i5, i866. The theme—harassment ofprogressive journalists— and the ironic tone are familiar, as are the government's misgivings about the zemstvos (institutions oflocal self-government), which were the products of its own reform program.
From Petersburg [1866]
There was a speech in the committee of ministers about closing the zemstvos, in light of the fact that the zemstvo assemblies are seeking more
and more to become independent of the administration, taking up issues that do not directly concern their mandate. Speeches are given that agitate people, and the development of these institutions is leading to a limitation of autocratic power.1 The proposal to take repressive measures against the zemstvos came from Warsaw-Milyutin, as he is called, and the majority of ministers were on his side. Only Valuev defended the zemstvo institutions, and the matter ended in some sort of compromise.2
The bureaucrats were frightened by the first signs of a lively spirit in the zemstvo assemblies, and are conspiring in their departments against the zemstvos. They tremble over the financial support, the extraordinary sums, and the government quarters. They are frightened by the thought that maybe, one day, they will have to give an account of their actions not to the authorities, but to representatives of the people. With all their limitations, they understand that the present order of things will not remain forever and ever in Russia, that it will not always be in the grip of the limitless power of a spendthrift government and its thieving officials.
The bureaucrats will likely draw the government toward repressive measures, and in that case they will themselves call forth and prepare the soil for a violent revolution.
The publisher of The Contemporary, after two warnings, asked Valuev to place The Contemporary under censorship control once more.3 Valuev refused, referring to the fact that to transfer The Contemporary, "that freedom- loving journal," back to the censorship would amount to directly admitting that the new, censorship-free situation for Russian journalism was worse than under the previous censorship. However, without fulfilling Nekrasov's request, Valuev reassured The Contemporary with the following advice: "Carry on your publication under the same conditions, and I give my word that I will not administer a third warning and will not close down the journal. as long as the editors of The Contemporary agree to present me with articles for my preliminary examination."
The People's Chronicle will not be published.4 At first, there was permission to launch this newspaper but its program was forbidden, and then Valuev asked for an approximate list of the contributors. The names of An- tonovich, Eliseev, Zhukovsky,5 and others were pointed out to him, after which Valuev politely answered that this was all fine, but upon the publication of the first issue of the newspaper it would receive its first warning, the second issue would bring a second warning, and so forth. "While I am minister," he added, "I will not help any nihilistic dough to rise" (Antonovich, Eliseev, Zhukovsky—nihilists!!!).
In The Russian Gazette someone writes from Korsun: "As a consequence of all the difficulties in cultivating grain with hired labor and a minimal profit—or none at all—the landowners each year have reduced the amount of tillage, and, obviously, receiving from it even less income, have sold for a pittance their redemption certificates, have gone through the money they received from that and as a result have reached such a state that they are left like fish on a sandbar. Finding themselves in such a hopeless position, many of the landowners have decided with their last kopeck to set up in business, primarily the sale of liquor. After a brief period, very little promise has come of these ventures; hardworking people, looking after themselves, and, most importantly, leaving behind their gentry ways, have succeeded; those who are used to looking at business condescendingly and to use others to pull their chestnuts out of the fire, have been utterly ruined. The same has happened to the small landowners. They went through their redemption money, there was no further income, and it became necessary to sell the final bits of land for a pittance and with their last kopeck to set up a tavern. Lots of these establishments have sprung up in our province, up to almost five thousand. Careful people who didn't knock the price down too much, didn't get mixed up in vodka, and conducted their affairs in an orderly way, were able to earn enough on which to live. But the majority of these petty merchants went down another path."