What is it these gentlemen want from young people? It's very simple—a slavish spirit, slavish discipline, and slavish silence! What can be meant by the order from on high not to applaud professors?.. And why is the sovereign taking up the role of school disciplinarian and inspector?.. How differently Pushkin understood the dignity of a tsar when he had Godunov tell his son that the word of the tsar, like the sound of church bells, should only ring out to tell of some great event or great misfortune!
One of the worst infringements on liberty in the previous reign was the persistent attempt to break the youthful spirit. The government lay in wait for the child during his first steps in life and corrupted the child cadet, the adolescent schoolboy, and the young student. Mercilessly and systematically it trampled the human embryos, breaking them of all human feelings other than submissiveness as if they were vices. [. . .]
Look at this generation—the portion that survived the spirit-killing government education—sickly, nervous, inwardly troubled, no longer believing in anything radiant or in itself.
And how many lay down their heads and died, never knowing a joyous day after entering the corps or the school? [. . .]
A silent nation, swallowing its tears, did not break discipline. [. . .]
III
These memories are oppressive! One would wish not to bring them into the new decade, but it is not we who have summoned the dark shades of the past.
Every blow of a government lash against youth and future Russia awakens in those aching hearts terrible images. [. . .]
Allow just one generation—you celebrated educators—to grow up in a humane way, able to look everything in the eye, to fearlessly speak their minds, to openly applaud and openly gather, just like what takes place in every school in England.
Can it be that an entrance hall where a dozen serfs keep silent in the master's presence and silently hate him is an educational model? Is the whispering of slaves more pleasing to you than the voices of awakening lives, their resonant laughter and even their occasionally arrogant words?
How backward are our educators! How far they are from a "human being" and how close to Arakcheev, how noticeable the smattering of barracks dirt and the raznochinets15 petty official's ambition, which demands not respect for the person, but subordination and fear of his rank!
.We do not readily give in to the belief that it is so easy to stop them, and to the question of whether we think that all of these Nicholaevan rags can bring Russia to a halt and return it to the way it was before 1855 the answer is a decisive no!
But, on the other hand, we know that the path Russia is traveling can be twisted, covered with dirt, and sprinkled with broken glass; from a radiant, regular procession it can become a wearying march and continuous fight, in which the government—materially much stronger—would destroy a lot of people and create a lot of unhappiness without any need and without any purpose. That is why these reactionary moves, this return to a time which we need to forget, these shifts in the direction of the past do not plunge us into despair, but they do make us tremble with anger and vexation. That is why we are entering the new decade in a thoughtful mood and, as we cross the final boundary with the past, we are stopping once more to say to the sovereign:
Sovereign, awaken, the new year has rung in a new decade, which, perhaps, will carry your name. However, you really cannot use one and the same hand to brightly and joyously sign your name into history as the emancipator of the serfs and, at the same time, sign absurd injunctions against free speech and against young people. You are being deceived and you are deceiving yourself—it is Yuletide and everyone is in costume. Order them to take their masks off and take a good look at the ones who are friends of Russia and those who love only their own private advantage. It is doubly important for you that the friends of Russia can still be yours. Order them to take their masks off quickly. You will be surprised—this masquerade that surrounds you is not like the one that was organized two years ago for the grand dukes in the military academy. There, children pretended to be wolves and wild boars, while here, wild boars and wolves pretend to be senior officials and fathers of the fatherland!
Notes
Source: "i860 god," Kolokol, l. 60, January 1, i860; 14:214-25, 526-30.
Along with his service on the Editorial Commission, Nikolay A Milyutin (18181872) was minister of the interior from 1859 to 1861 and state secretary for Polish Affairs from 1863 to 1866.
After the death of Nicholas I in 1855.
The Nazimov Rescript was issued in August 1857 and published in November of that year.
The dying words of Emperor Julian the Apostate, who had fought the rise of Christianity. Herzen had used this phrase at the beginning and end of his article "After Three Years," which appeared in the ninth issue of The Bell on Feb. i5, i858.
From "A Letter to Emperor Alexander the Second," which appeared in The Polestar in i855 (Doc. 5).
On September 4, 1859, in a speech to deputies from the provincial committees, the tsar stated that he had always and would always proudly consider himself the country's "first nobleman" (pervyi dvorianin).
Prince Mikhail D. Gorchakov (1793-1861) was governor-general of the Kingdom of Poland from 1856 to 1861, not to be confused with the better-known Prince Alexander M. Gorchakov, minister of foreign affairs.
Zakrevsky was relieved of his duties April 15, 1859, after granting written permission for his daughter, Countess Nesselrode, to enter into a second marriage without having ended the first one, and having threatened a priest with exile to Siberia if he did not perform the ceremony as ordered. Pavel A. Tuchkov (1803-1864) succeeded him as governor-general of Moscow from 1859 to 1864.
Prince Vasily A. Dolgorukov (1804-1868) was chief of gendarmes and head of the Third Department from 1856 to 1866.
The Baltic German Ernst Biron (1690-1772) was a favorite of the Empress Anna Ioannovna and regent in 1740; Count Andrey Osterman (1686-1747), born in Westphalia, entered Russian service in 1704 and occupied senior government posts until 1741; Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765), of humble birth, was a gifted scientist, writer, and the founder of Moscow University.
Poet Alexey V. Koltsov (see Doc. 1).
Faustin Soulouque (c. 1782-1876) fought in Haiti's war for independence and served as the country's president and emperor. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are characters in Gogol's play The Inspector General.
Ivan S. Barkov (1731-1768) was a poet, translator, and author of pornographic verse.
Under Paul I, a Wachtparade took place daily in the tsar's presence; under Alexander II, it was staged every Sunday.
Not of gentry birth.
♦ 26 +
The Bell, Nos. 68-69, April i5, i860. This is one of the periodic attacks on Panin in Herzen's satirical style.
Count Viktor Panin's Speech to the Deputies [i860]
Gentlemen,
You recall the words of our sovereign emperor; I have deeply engraved them in my memory and I will act in conformity with them. You know that the plans of the Editorial Commission have not yet been confirmed, and for that reason I cannot say anything that will be either reassuring or favorable to you, and I hope that you will refrain from anything that might excite major hopes or fears among the gentry. Although I myself am a wealthy landowner, I will not forget the interests of landowners of modest means, and, recalling that peasants do not have their own representatives here, I will keep in mind their benefit, all the more since I am completely convinced that there will be no way of avoiding sacrifices on the part of the gentry. Gentlemen, ours is a private, family matter, and it should not go outside this room, because there is no need to disseminate information, and especially to write about it to those abroad. And now, gentlemen, I have another request. I have heard that many of you gather at Count Shuvalov's, where members of the nobility are preparing for elections, and for that reason I ask you to curtail your visits because people there might try to lobby you.