♦ 38 +
The Bell, No. i09, October i5, i86i. This issue opens with a message to the Russian ambassador in London, revealing that Herzen and Ogaryov have received anonymous letters which suggest that the Third Department would try to either kidnap or kill them. Herzen warns the ambassador that if any harm comes to them, the Russian government
will be blamed. As regards the closing of the university, Herzen wrote to Turgenev that this was a sign that Alexander II was "going to the devil."
Petersburg University Is Shut Down!
[1861]
.The new administration has taken a sharp turn: students will be admitted to lectures by ticket, and non-students are forbidden to attend lectures, student assemblies are forbidden, they wanted to eliminate the library, and so on. Students gathered in the auditorium despite the fact that the doors were locked, invited the vice-rector Sreznevsky, and expressed their dissatisfaction.1 On September 24 (October 6) it was announced that the university would be closed until further notice. The next day all the students (up to i,500 people) gathered on Vladimirskaya street in front of Filipson's apartment and demanded that he appear, but suddenly Ignatev showed up with a platoon of guards.2 Filipson emerged in full uniform and suggested to the students that they set off for the university, with him following on foot. A large crowd attached itself to them. Filipson, having gotten tired, rode ahead. When they arrived at the university, mounted gendarmes appeared, along with a fire brigade carrying axes, and the police. The students behaved with complete calm. An officer of the gendarmerie unsheathed his saber, and two gendarmes prepared to plunge into the crowd. Shuvalov and the brotherhood stopped them.3 Student deputies approached them. At this moment Ignatiev showed up, saying: "Everything is ready, the operation may begin." Filipson answered that he knew from the Caucasus how with such means you can cause misfortune but you will not stop the young people. One of the students said: "There is no need for troops, I will be responsible for keeping order." Ignatiev insisted that Filipson had no right to negotiate with the students, but the latter took the responsibility on himself and promised that the library would open immediately, and that lectures would begin on October 2/L4, and by that time new rules would be announced. The students promised to remain calm. The orderliness on the part of the students was remarkable, and the crowd showed them sympathy. There were a great number of officers and there was one person they wanted to arrest but they held back. One soldier in the guards unit shoved a student, who said: "Aren't you ashamed—you're armed and you shove someone who is unarmed?".
the soldier blushed. One field officer violently shook a policeman's arm: "Hey you, did you come to do battle?"—"What can I do, your honor, they gave an order!" answered the policeman. One peasant said to another: "The blue caps are rebelling!" and heard in answer: "What should they do when their institution is shut down?" There were almost no military forces in the capital, and the soldiers were dispersed to their regular duties; they had been summoned by telegraph.
Thus, the university is closed! The government opposes enlightenment and freedom and doesn't know enough to yield in good time. We prophesied its downfall during the second part of this transitional era; it seems we were mistaken—it will happen much earlier.
Notes
Source: "Peterburgskii universitet zakryt!" Kolokol, l. Ю9, October i5, i86i; i5:i64-65,
394.
Ismail I. Sreznevsky (i8i2-i880) was a philologist who taught in Kharkov, and, beginning in Й47, a professor at St. Petersburg University.
Grigory I. Filipson (Й09-Й83) was a lieutenant-general, senator, and in i86i- 62, trustee of the Petersburg education district; Count Pavel N. Ignatiev (i797-i879), governor-general of Vitebsk, Mogilev, and Smolensk, and from i854 to i86i, military governor-general of St. Petersburg.
Count Petr A. Shuvalov (i827-i889) was an adjutant-general who held high offices in the St. Petersburg police, the Ministry of the Interior, and in i86i in the Third Department.
♦ 39 *
The Bell, No. ii0, November i, i86i. Herzen's call "To the people!" was answered a dozen years later, after the author's death, by the great populist pilgrimage of i873-74. The tone of this essay differs from many others by Herzen; when speaking to Russia's young people, he dropped his characteristic irony and his enthusiasm bordered on euphoria. Since Alexander II was no longer Russia's hope, only Russia's youth could fulfill the promise of a brighter future. In the postscript, where he reacted to additional news from Petersburg, the irony returned. The "Great Russia" (Velikorus) affair concerns a radical pamphlet that circulated in Petersburg, terrifying the government and Russian conservatives. Critic Vladimir Stasov (i824-i906) recalled getting together with composer Mily Balakirev (i837-i9i0) to read this article, which is said to have inspired Bala- kirev's overture "i000 Years," especially its image of a wave rising up across the Russian expanse after years of calm (Let 3:623; Gurvich-Lishchiner, "Gertsen," i85).
A Giant Is Awakening!
[1861]
Yes, a sleeping "Northern Colossus"—"A giant, the tsar's obedient ser- vant"—is awakening and he is not at all as obedient as in the time of Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin.1
Good morning to you—it's time, it's time! You slept like a hero—now wake up like a hero! Stretch out to your full youthful length, breathe in the fresh morning air, and sneeze so that you can scare off the whole flock of owls, ravens, and vampires, the Putyatins, Muravyovs, Ignatievs and other bats. You are awakening and it is time for them to retire. It is filth in motion— all these cockroaches, wood lice, insects, deprived of their wings but not of their appetite, who are not compatible with the daylight. Sneeze, giant, and not a trace of them will remain, except for the spots of Polish and peasant blood that cannot be eradicated!
Lord, what a pitiful and ludicrous sight this terrible government makes! What happened to its cavalry officer aspect, its sergeant-major bearing, where is its husky army voice, which it used for thirty years to shout: "I will drive Demosthenes into his grave!" Well, soldier, it is clear that the times are different and so are the military forces, the uniform is too big for you, the helmet has been pushed down over your eyes. Go off, knight, to the hospital, or onto invalid status!
Well what happened, why was it struck dumb? Was there a revolution? Did Filaret incite Moscow to rebellion? Was Petr Oldenburgsky proclaimed emperor in the law school?2 Guess! And then pick up The Times and read his superb correspondence.
The emperor is in Livadia. Petersburg is being governed by a committee of public salvation, consisting of Nikolay Nikolaevich and Mikhail Nikolae- vich, and so that Gorchakov does not give them any sensible advice, that intelligence-deflector Ignatiev-Malkovsky has been installed by their side.3 On the streets there are soldiers, gendarmes, Shuvalovs, and the Jacobin general Bistrom is angering the soldiers with a speech of the reddest sanscullot- ism: "From these people," he said, pointing to the unarmed students, "will emerge petty officials, the petty officials who rob you, who rob the people— we will teach them a lesson!" Patkul4 gallops to the right, then gallops to the left, one horse is worn out and another is fetched. Mikhail Nikolaevich asks Nikolay Nikolaevich: why is Patkul galloping about? Nikolay Nikolaevich, having risen with the first cock's crow due to his general love of chickens, tells Mikhail Nikolaevich that he does not know why Patkul is galloping about, but it must be that this is an uprising. One (or the other) says—ten regiments and he will pacify. Whom? Where are the enemy forces?