The shot was understood perfectly among the people. They turned it into a celebration. What kind of ovation, coronation, or anointing with holy oil could have done more to shore up the throne, to strengthen the sovereign's personal power than this shot, with the peasant's saving arm, with all the circumstances? If there and then the sovereign would have risen to his full height, in the fullness of his magnanimity. and would have turned the shooter over to an ordinary court, but an open one. He did not do that and could not do that—he is surrounded by a different kind of conspiracy, he is surrounded by a secret Russian cabal. A dark intrigue has turned this shot into a banner of destruction, the kind of banner that in ancient German illustrations we see in death's hand together with a scythe. Yes, this cabal will strike to the right and to the left, strike first of all its enemies, strike those who are freeing the word, strike independent thought, strike heads that proudly gaze forward, strike the people which it now flatters, and all this in the shadow of the banner proclaiming that they are saving the tsar, that they are avenging him. Woe to Russia if the tsar believes completely that this secret force is saving him. We will experience the most terrible Biron-Arakcheev era, we will experience the torture chamber sanctimony of new Magnitskys,1 we will experience all the terrors of the secular inquisition of the Nicholaevan era but with all the improvements introduced with fake openness and a foul-mouthed police literature.
Under Nicholas they tormented and tortured people, threw them into solitary and sent them into exile silently. There was no insult. Now there is no punishment, no hard labor that can protect a person from the abuse and slander of the official howling dogs. Shameless, nasty, and base, they beat people lying on the ground, they insult corpses. for them there are no limits. once again it is our "riff-raff" put to the use of the police. From people they move on to ideas and institutions. and nothing can stand up to these nihilists of conservatism. Haven't we heard the cry raised against the education of the poor, against a too easy access to higher learning?.. Haven't we read the denunciations over the graves where the dead are buried, and over graves where they have buried the living?.. 2 Don't they lead shadows in chains from hard labor and the mines?.. They wish to judge history and tie it to the pillory, like they tied Chernyshevsky.
Notes
Source: "Novosti iz Rossii," Kolokol, l. 220, May i5, i866; ^69-70, 386-87.
Mikhail Magnitsky served under Alexander I.
This is a reference to a criticism of authorities in Tobolsk for a slackening of their vigilance toward Mikhailov, who was already dead by the time the accusatory materials were released by the Senate.
♦ 83 +
The Bell, No. 220, May i5, i866. The Moscow Gazette was issued a warning on March 26, i866, and Katkov paid a fine, but he preferred to cease publication rather than publish the warning as instructed, as a result of which a second warning was proposed. This decision was overturned by Minister of the Interior Valuev, who saw a need for the newspaper in the wake of Karakozov's act. However, once Katkov began to vigorously attack the committee on the press, Valuev agreed to second and third warnings, followed by suspension of the paper for two months. Before the assassin's identity was released, Katkov insisted that it had to be a Pole. Even after the name became public, the press insisted that "Karakozov" was not from a Russian family registered with the Saratov nobility, but a Tatar agent of exiled Russian revolutionaries, acting in concert with Poles. Some Petersburg newspapers muted their comments, fearing the final triumph of reactionary forces in Russia, which led Katkov to ask "Since when does liberal politics mean allowing the terrorization of society by evildoers aiming at the destruction of the state?" (Verhoeven, The Odd Man Karakozov, 45-47).
A Second Warning and a Second Godunov [1866]
The chief directorate for press affairs has received a second warning from Katkov. With its head hanging down it awaits a third warning and then a dismissal. The thoroughly frightened Valuev, who became so eloquent that the "halls of the noble assembly" call him "le prince de la parole,"1 hurried to propitiate the ruling editor with humility and disparagement—and with a praiseworthy meekness. But that is insufficient for their agent, and, if the repentant administration fails to strike itself in the chest and on the cheek because of its warning, he threatens to give up his regency. We foresee a great light, which will eclipse Komissarov. Noblemen, self-selected, will come from all corners of Russia on long-distance carriages and post- chaises to pay obeisance to the father-editor and autocrat. local police and gendarmes, agents of the secret police, priests, and opponents of reform will send telegrams. Russia will emerge exhausted by such addresses, as it was exhausted a few years back by jubilees. Katkov will refuse, like Boris Godunov, like Ioann in Alexandrovsk, and the nobility will pay his fine and bring him another inkwell2. The sovereign will be forgotten and Kara- kozov (a Tatar) will be executed3. Muravyov will soothe the heart of the editor-regent.
And it will be soothed, but on what conditions? They shouldn't stint on paying him for the second salvation of Russia: Konstantin Nikolaevich in retirement, all those connected to the warning in Siberia, the destruction of the entire Korsh family, Kraevsky to the gold mines in Kamchatka, Skedo- Ferroti to hard labor, the death penalty for three Poles of his choosing; finally, he should be mentioned during Orthodox services: "Let us pray for the savior of Russia's unity, the warrior-journalist and arch-strategist of Moscow and all Russia, the boyar Mikhail and his spouse."
If he holds out he will get it all. Fear is very gracious and generous.
And as a matter of fact, if he left The Gazette, what would happen to Russia, to whom would the tsar be abandoned, to Muravyov alone? Anyone would be terrified to be left in a room alone with him.
Notes
Source: "Vtoroe predosterezhenie i vtoroi Godunov," Kolokol, l. 220, May i5, i866; i9:76-77, 389-90.
i. Herzen read an account of Valuev's speech at the April i0, i866, gathering of the St. Petersburg Noble Assembly in the April i3 issue of The News. He comments that while the minister's speech was empty, unclear, and full of cliches, Valuev knew how to flatter the audience by speaking in a style familiar and dear to them from their nannies and servants.
"Ioann" refers to Ivan the Terrible, who removed his family to Alexandrovsk in 1564 to await a delegation of Muscovites begging him to return to Moscow and rule and punish treason as he saw fit. Katkov was presented with an inkwell by the Moscow Noble Assembly.
Herzen has noted before the absurdity of referring to Karakozov as a non-Russian, because his surname, like that of many prominent families, was of Tatar origin.
♦ 84 ♦
The Bell, No. 221, June 1, 1866. Over the years Herzen had written and published several letters to the tsar (in 1855, on the ascension to the throne; in 1857, in connection with a publication about the Decembrists; and 1865, on the death of the heir), as well as one to the empress in 1858, about the education of the future tsar. Here he includes quotations from the three previous letters. Herzen assumes that this will be his final letter to Alexander II, as the expectation of serious political reform from above had faded. He wrote to his son as the issue was going to press that the letter "will create a lot of noise in both camps," and mentioned that he had mailed this issue of The Bell directly to the tsar (Let 4:267). Bakunin objected to the inference that anything beneficial to the people could come from the government, and his misgivings were echoed by other radicals who believed that The Bell was too personal an enterprise and its political orientation determined too much by chance (Let 4:282, 356-57).