In private relations with us, you were not our chief, but our father. We boldly came to you with our joys and our sorrows. You refused no one advice, comfort, or help.
Everywhere and in everything you were always the model of lively, thoughtful, and prudent activity.
God grant that this courage and strength not fail you now when your peace of mind and your family have need of it.
And if the non-hypocritical love and devotion of your former subordinates can serve to comfort you, then, Count, we are all present, and our genuine tears tell you more eloquently than words how deeply we are feeling the misfortune that has struck you and everyone close to your tenderly affectionate heart.
May the one on high fortify you and heal your heart's wounds!
Gentlemen! To the health of our unforgettable and ever-dear Count Arseny Andreevich!
II
On May 10, there was a dinner for the Moscow head of government, Count Stroganov.4 It was supposed to serve as an expression of the pleasure felt by Moscow residents that Zakrevsky had finally been replaced.5 More than 400 people signed up for the dinner, even those who had given the dinner for Zakrevsky.
A quarter hour before the count's arrival a commandant arrived and asked in the count's name that there be no speeches.
Nevertheless, Voeykov6 spoke and Stroganov responded, and then the dinner came to an end. After dinner, Professor Solovyov7 caught up with Stroganov and said a few words to him. The remaining speeches were given after the departure of Stroganov. That's something new! [. . .]
Notes
Source: "Politicheskie obedy v Moskve," Kolokol, l. 49, August 1, 1859; 14:403-5, 618-19.
A farewell dinner was given for the governor-general of Moscow, on April 17, 1859. According to Petr Vyazemsky's memoirs, it was rumored that his dismissal had to do with his defense of gentry and landowner rights, and thousands of members of the gentry from Moscow and other regions gathered to show support. Alexey Kaznacheev, director of government property in Pskov, organized a dinner in his honor and composed a speech in which he described Zakrevsky's service to the fatherland, which was delivered by Fedor Kornilov, who headed the chancellery of the Moscow governor-general.
Herzen: "During the Crimean campaign, Zakrevsky supplied low-quality cloth, etc., from his factory for the militia, and his officials enriched themselves; but one ought not thank him for this!"
Herzen: "On the peasant question, Zakrevsky pressed the committee's minority, who were sincerely attempting to change the serfs' way of life, delaying their activities and threatening them, but, in the end, seeing that the wind from Petersburg on the matter of serfdom was blowing a bit more favorably for the minority, and wishing to please his master, he presented the minority's project with his own additions."
Count Sergey G. Stroganov (1794-1882) was a member of the State Council, trustee of the Moscow educational district, and military governor-general of Moscow in 1859-60; beginning in i860 he was chief tutor for the grand dukes Nikolay, Alexander, Vladimir, and Alexey.
Contemporary memoirs report that the more liberal members of Moscow society openly greeted the news of Zakrevsky's dismissal with undisguised joy.
Voeykov was leader of the Moscow nobility from 1856 to 1861 and a member of the Moscow committee to examine the peasant question.
Sergey M. Solovyov (1820-1879) was a historian and professor at Moscow University from i847 to i877.
♦ 24 +
The Bell, No. 55, November 1, 1859. In part 1 of Past and Thoughts, Herzen described his part in a March 1831 student rebellion at Moscow University against Professor Malov of the Politics Faculty. They succeeded in getting Malov dismissed, but Herzen and five other students were held for several nights in the university prison. During the fall of 1859, students in the first year of Moscow University's medical school rebelled against Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology N. A. Varnek. One of the students involved in this affair sent material to The Bell, which formed the basis of Herzen's article, information that was included in the case file by the Third Department.
The Supreme Council of Moscow University Pharisees
[1859]
Yet another shooting star.
It appears that Moscow University has lived through its age of glory. It is as if the death of Granovsky drew a line. Was the weight of the Nicholaevan press necessary to forge the teachers and students into a unified family?
Now things are too free, and that is why professors, at least the majority of them, act like some kind of board of decency.
A year ago students stopped attending the lectures of some third-rate professor named Varnek; the university authorities inflated the incident, which ended with the expulsion of a dozen students, and it is through no fault of the academic high council that the affair didn't take a Nicholaevan turn. For some time we have known about this ugly story, but only recently did we obtain the details, which we will briefly convey to our readers.
The students chose as their deputy Zhokhov, who said to Varnek on their behalf: "Professor, we have not listened to your lecture, and in the future we will not cross the threshold of any auditorium where you are teaching. We ask you to allow us the possibility of having another professor."
The university authorities, whose academic-police dignity had been offended, resolved to break the will of the seditious students; they began their actions with the expulsion of Zhokhov, having announced that he was kicked out because of his ignoble verses by order of the late emperor, whose will had up to now not been carried out, because the trustee Nazimov had protected him, and another trustee, Kovalevsky, had somehow forgotten about him!..1
Second, they extracted from students a written obligation to attend Var- nek's lectures. The tricks and ruses they resorted to are quite interesting. Thus, the inspector demanded that medical students, in small groups, appear before him from 11 to 12 at night, to avert the possibility of strikes. Also, not without ulterior motives, he began the signed statements with the scholarship students, who had to choose one of two things—to agree or to go off and be medical assistants. Finally, the necessary preparations had been made and on the 19th the dean posted an announcement that the following day at a certain hour Mr. Varnek would lecture in the anatomical theater. Long before the beginning of the lecture students crowded the corridor adjacent to the amphitheater. At 11:30 university officials began to appear. Finally, trustee Bakhmetev himself arrived.2 He politely exchanged bows with the students and addressed them with the following words: "Gentlemen, we may now enter. It's time!" He pronounced this phrase in such a regular, affectionate voice, as if he knew nothing about the opposition that had formed. "We won't go!" shouted the crowd. "But gentlemen, remember that you gave your word of honor to the inspector." "Under the lash. they threatened us." "Then you absolutely don't want to go in?" "No! No!" "Then I ask you not to reproach me. I will act as my conscience demands. Rector, set up a commission to sort out this strange business. Whatever the decision, I will not hesitate to sign it, if it is just." The trustee bowed politely to the students once again and left, without even having seen Varnek.
At 7 o'clock in the evening several first-year medical students were called to the governing body, where they found Alfonsky, Barshev, Leshkov, and Krylov; Armfeld had left, not waiting for the students to gather and, as the rumors suggested, having argued with the others over their too honorable intentions!.. 3
The accused were led into a room and there was another attempt to convince them. "Why have you refused to go to Varnek's lectures?" "Because he lectures badly." "Who told you that he lectures badly? How did you acquire so much information in just two months that you take it upon yourselves to judge a professor, a man of science? You are young and might easily be mistaken." "We are not the only ones who feel this way." "Who else?" "All the medical students." "Well, listen up, medical students," exclaimed Barshev, a professor of criminal law, "that means you have formed a conspiracy!" "The trustee," said the president, "out of sympathy for your youth, wants to bring this story to an end in-house. Agree to listen to Varnek and you will be left in peace and no one will be punished. Think it over—stubbornness is useless and even dangerous."