Sadyk Pasha was the Turkish name of Mikhailo Czaikovsky (Michal Czajkowski, 1804-1886), who fought for Poland in 1831-32, after which he fled to Paris and then to Turkey, where he converted to Islam, organized a Cossack brigade to fight the Russians during the Crimean War, and eventually accepted amnesty from Alexander II, converted to Orthodoxy, and lived in Ukraine from 1872 until his death.
♦ 96 ♦
The Bell, No. 239, April 15, 1867. The title makes obvious references to the large, non- functioning bell and cannon in the Kremlin, as well as to Herzen's newspaper.
Rivals of the Big Bell and the Big Cannon [1867]
A correspondent for Le Nord, talking about his three-week stay in Moscow, points out—like two great rarities—not the large bell and not the large cannon, but Filaret, the 84-year-old chief prelate, and Katkov, the much younger, but no less great, chief publisher.1 Before the decline of one of
Katkov's predecessors, the emperor Nicholas, some American fool lied to the extent that he called the two lead bullets that Nicholas used for eyes as "mild," to the great delight of Punch. That is what Katkov is experiencing now. The correspondent visited him—as if crawling into Saltychikha's cage—and couldn't get over his admiration for the graciousness and meekness of the passionate editor-inquisitor. Is the great career of Muravyov's Homer coming to an end? He's growing a little paler and less visible, and the Belgian correspondents are beginning to exaggerate his importance, and, what is much worse, the nasty News accuses him not only of rivaling the big bell, but the smaller one, that is, us. One huntsman for the gentry is beginning to think that The Moscow Gazette and The Bell have a single editorial staff (quite a compliment for us!) and calls Katkov's articles chimes.2
[. . .] It is clear that the abyss into which he pushed Russia on a daily basis has begun to terrify Katkov; he has stumbled at the very edge, and has found people who are more Katkov than he himself is.
But it is also impossible to turn back, Serafim-Abadonna, and he is forced to "wander sadly through the past," and, blushing for the present, receive from his fellow diggers insults and kicks.3
It's a bad business to be a renegade.
Notes
Source: "Soperniki bol'shogo kolokola i bol'shoi pushki," Kolokol, l. 239, April 15, 1867;
i9:24i 454-55.
Le Nord was a political daily (1855-92), published in Brussels and subsidized by the Russian government. The report in question appeared in the March 28, 1867, issue under "Chronique de Moscou." The author spoke with reverence of the clarity of Filaret's mind and the sanctity of his way of life. Katkov was praised for the independence of his views and his position as the first genuine Russian commentator.
The reactionary News took issue with Katkov over the question of land reform; Her- zen was naturally amused by squabbles between two basically like-minded periodicals.
The image of Serafim-Abadonna wandering sadly through the past, repenting his sins, comes from the first part of the German poet Friedrich Klopstock's epic poem "Der Messias."
♦ 97 +
The Bell, No. 242, June 1, 1867. Conditions were worsening in Russia, although Herzen does not appear to be as shocked as his correspondent.
The Right to Congregate—New Restrictions [1867]
We received this from Petersburg:
Why have you omitted the outrageous measures that have placed every sort of gathering under police surveillance? According to the new law, not only secret political and non-political meetings are considered "illegal," but in general any kind of meeting with any sort of goal that does not receive preliminary permission. The police are ordered to seek out criminal societies everywhere, harsh punishments are set for participants, and, finally, there is a promise of forgiveness and all kinds of leniency for informers.
Only that? Isn't there any payment, by the number of societies, or per person?
All this is vile, all this is pure Valuev and genuine Shuvalov, so why is the correspondent surprised? Don't these measures belong to a series of vile measures from the past five years? And before that did we really have some kind of right of assembly—droit de reunion?... Enough!
Notes
Source: "Pravo sobirat'sia—novye stesneniia," Kolokol, l. 242, June i, i867; ^265, 469.
♦ 98 ♦
The Bell, No. 243, June i5, Й67. A Polish emigre, Anton Berezovsky, a veteran of the i863 uprising against Russian rule, took a shot at Alexander II in Paris on June 6, i867, a crime for which he was given a life sentence by the French courts. Herzen delayed a trip to Nice to respond in print to this new assassination attempt. He wrote to a friend that "my head is spinning—news, gossip, bullets, tsars, horses—but I have to keep my wits about me and write" (Let 4:4^). He was likely unaware that the tsar's young mistress, Katya Dolgorukaya, had also traveled to Paris and that Alexander II ignored considerations of safety to secretly visit her. Herzen's disapproval of Karakozov's attempt the previous year to kill the tsar damaged the writer's relations with young Russian revolutionaries abroad, but he did not waver in his rejection of such acts of individual terror which only led to further repression, and he believed that his views would be better understood in the future.
The Shot of June 6 [1867]
Once more a shot rings out. We will not go on about it at great length. Our opinion about people who take such a path is well known, and neither the howl of crazy loudmouths,1 nor abuse by the powerful of this world will cause us to extol this type of attempt, which brings with it terrible calamities, nor to pronounce words of judgement on the martyrs who condemn themselves to death and whose conscience is clear for the very reason that they are fanatics.
It goes without saying that the June 6 shot will exert no influence on the spirit of our publication. Our convictions were formed a long time ago, and no chance event can bend them to the right or to the left.
There is a great lesson for Russia in this.
Berezovsky will be judged in open court, not in a secret torture chamber the way Karakozov was judged, and he will be tried by judges, not by specially selected generals.
The first investigator, looking at the poor-quality pistol Berezovsky used, noted that in all likelihood, he had no accomplices.2 Hundreds of young people were brought into the Karakozov case, although their innocence was known. Just the mention by Limayrac in Le Constitutionnel about a moral connection between the shot and cries of "Long live Poland!" provoked a cry of disapproval not only in liberal journals but in those with a monarchist or religious point of view.3
In closing, we turn our readers' attention to Shuvalov's police trickery, in asking Berezovsky whether he had corresponded with his father.4 That is, he tried to entangle relatives, acquaintances, their relatives and their ac- quaintances—in both Poland and Russia—in this business, which so clearly stood on its own!
This should be a genuine cause for contemplation.
Notes
Source: "Vystrel 6 iiunia," Kolokol, l. 243, June i5, Й67; ^269, 472-74.
Herzen had received anonymous letters of abuse after his article "Irkutsk and Petersburg" (Doc. 80).