April 12, 1861 (The Apraksin Murders) [1861]
Our "Muette de Portici" has finally admitted to the spilling of peasant blood in Bezdna.1 The official story is even viler and more repulsive than what was written to us.
The brain goes to pieces and blood freezes in the veins while reading the naive-ingenuous story of such villainy, the likes of which we have not seen since the days of Arakcheev.2
Where did these bloodthirsty aides-de-camp come from? Where were these impromptu butchers brought up? How were they schooled in such heartless villainy?
The government tolerates murders that are due to its inarticulateness, ignorance, and duplicity.3 Didn't the new pedant Valuev4 clearly distinguish serfdom's obligatory labor from obligatory labor in anticipation of emancipation? And because the people do not understand, and believe that the government is not deceiving them, five salvos are fired.
We do not recognize Russia. steaming blood, corpses all over the place! [. . .]
Fifty victims, according to the criminals themselves, and on this occasion the genial monarch was so used to this sort of thing that he did not ask Apraksin: "And how many soldiers were killed or wounded?"
The article states directly that the peasants' military actions consisted in the fact that some of them went to get wooden stakes.
And what was the rush in punishing Anton Petrov?5 Who tried him? What was he tried for? Obviously the bloody traces should be hidden! What sort of instructions were given by the tender-hearted tsar?
Pugachev was tried in a court before Catherine and not quietly shot.
To hell with them—the bloody executioners!
And you, unfortunate brother schismatics, having greatly suffered but never having meddled with the Russia of landowners, executioners, and those who shoot the unarmed—preserve the day of new horrors, April i2, in your memory. The times of biblical persecutions are beginning; you know from the Lives of Saints6 about the slaughter of Christians undertaken by the emperors, and you know who prevailed. But prevailing doesn't come without faith and without action. Be strong in spirit and remember the cry with which the peasants of Bezdna perished: Freedom! Freedom!
Isk—r.7
We received three additional letters about details of the business in Kazan. The principal outlines of the events are the same and we will not repeat them, particularly after the confession in the St. Petersburg Gazette. But there are details too precious not to be preserved in The Bell for posterity and for our contemporaries.
From one of the letters. Apraksin did not approach the peasants, but dispatched someone to tell them to send eight people elected to carry out negotiations. They refused. Then a second time he sent the leader of the nobility Molostov8 to try to convince them, and then a priest.
The priest asked them if they believed in God and in the Orthodox Church. They said that they did believe. Then the priest demanded that they hand over the prophet, but they refused to do this, and the priest and official witness returned; neither he nor the witnesses experienced the slightest show of violence.
After this, Apraksin decided to speak to the crowd; he got on his horse and, having ridden about 20 steps further away from his soldiers, who were 100 feet behind him, shouted: "Hand over the prophet, or you will be shot." At this time the prophet was calming them, saying that no more than three volleys would be fired and that the bullets would then turn back upon the soldiers. Then they rather calmly replied to Apraksin: "Shoot, little father, you won't be shedding our blood, but the tsar's." Apraksin shouted to the soldiers: "Fire." Two aides-de-camp of the governor—sent there to find out what was going on—rushed in vain to try and persuade him. In vain they told him that if these were insurgents, they would be armed with something and would have long ago surrounded them, and that, finally, nothing had prevented them from attacking the soldiers while the priest and official witnesses were returning, because it would have been impossible to fire at the priest.
To all of these objections Apraksin cried out: "Officers, stand at attention, fire!" Four salvos were given. Until the fourth salvo the crowd stood motionless, crossing themselves; several covered their faces with their work gloves. After the fourth salvo the crowd began to scatter; one group simply began to run, while another moved closer to the group around the prophet in order to find out why the bullets had not been turned back against the soldiers. Apraksin imagined that they were running to get wooden stakes and ordered five salvos one right after another. The rest is known: when the smoke cleared and the hero saw the heap of dead and wounded (these cannibals didn't even have a doctor with them!), Apraksin said: "Oh, there are a lot of them—well it will be possible to make it seem fewer, it's always done that way." But one local official pointed out to him that maybe that is what happens in wartime, but that here all the names would have to be written down.
The Kazan nobility wanted to give Apraksin a dinner, when he was up to his ears in peasant blood. Trubnikov, a member of the provincial administration, restrained these carnivorous freaks with the observation that "it is somewhat awkward to wash away blood with champagne!"
It's a shame that this was prevented; masks, away with masks, it is better to see the animals' teeth and the wolves' snouts than feigned humaneness and cheap liberalism.9
The names, the names—we implore you for the names of the officers who took part in the handling of the bodies and the maggots who gathered to feast on the corpses.
Notes
Source: "i2 aprelia i86i (Apraksinskie ubiistva)," Kolokol, l. i0i, June i5, i86i; i5:i07-9, 362-64.
"The Mute Girl of Portici," an i828 opera by French composer Daniel Auber (i782- i87i). Herzen is ironically referring to the official government newspaper St. Petersburg Gazette.
Count Alexey A. Arakcheev (i769-i834), artillery general, war minister from i808 to i8i0, who later organized the infamous military colonies. He is believed to have brought out the worst side of Alexander I.
Herzen has in mind ambiguity in the emancipation law, which allowed differing interpretations of several key points.
Herzen: "Valuev had already revealed himself in other ways. Maltsov (a plantation owner) put eight peasants in shackles and sent them to Kaluga as insurgents. Governor Artsimovich released them and wanted to conduct an investigation. The plantation owner [. . .] brought this matter all the way to Petersburg, and the new minister took the side of the serf-owner. Јelapromet! (That's very promising!)."
Anton Petrov was executed a week after the events at Bezdna.
Herzen refers to the Cheti Minei, a book of readings including lives of the saints arranged by month and day, information about holy days, and teachings for Orthodox believers.
Iskander is Herzen's most frequent pseudonym.
Herzen: "He received an amazing reward for his services. He was a retired staff- captain, and was awarded the rank of retired captain. For Russian tsars time does not exist—the past is not the past, and it would be wonderful if for them there were no future."
Herzen: "The Kazan students behaved differently; they held a funeral service for their dead brothers and the executed Anton Petrov. Professor Shchapov spoke, a gendarme denounced him (to each his own), the ministry dismissed him and the police arrested him. As least some of the clean-shaven Russian people will not be considered Germans and serf owners."