In the university courtyard.
The crude government, frightened by a Stroganov who had lost his mind, alongside petty persecutions and humiliations, began to insult the universities: with the appointment of Putyatin, with constraints on the schools, and with the heartless expulsion of the poor.5 The students of St. Petersburg University selected deputies and instructed them to carry their protest to the authorities. The authorities treated them as savages on the Sandwich Islands behaved toward members of Parliament, and the same way that Peter the large behaved with Polubotok, and Nicholas the long with deputies of the soldiers from Staraya Russa, i.e., contrary to any understanding of honor and moral shame, they were seized.6 The students resolved to ask that their comrades be freed, and that is why Bistrom-Santerre whipped up the soldiers, setting them against other social classes. Patkul wore out two horses, and Ignatiev-Malkovsky whispered to Filipson: "Everything is ready. We can begin!" Begin what? The slaughter of young people, carnage in the university courtyard?.. What can one add to that! [. . .]
In Russia the universities are closed down, and in Poland the churches closed themselves after being defiled by the police. There is neither the light of reason nor the light of religion! Where do they want to lead us in the dark? They have lost their minds—get them out of the driver's seat if you do not want to crash to the ground along with them!
But where can you go, young people, who have been barred from learning? Shall I tell you where?
Listen carefully, since the darkness does not prevent you from hearing: from all parts of our vast homeland, from the Don and the Urals, from the Volga and the Dnepr, there is increased moaning and a rising murmur—it is the initial roar of a wave which is boiling up, fraught with storms, after an awfully tiresome period of calm. To the people! To the people!—that is your place, exiles from learning. Show these Bistroms that you will not turn into petty officials, but warriors, not homeless mercenaries, but warriors of the Russian people!
Glory to you! You are initiating a new era; you have understood that the time of whispering, distant hints, and banned books is passing. You still secretly print books at home, but you openly protest. Praise to you, younger brothers, and our distant blessing! Oh, if only you knew how the heart beats, how tears were ready to flow, when we read about the day of the students in Petersburg!
ISKANDER. October 22, i86i
P.S. This article was already written when we read in The Times (for October 22) about such vile, such base villainy, that despite all our limitless faith in the immorality of the Petersburg administration, we were almost in doubt. The secret police sent out fake invitations to the students to gather on the square in order to catch them all, but the students figured this out and did not show up. After this, can one be surprised at Bistrom's Jacobin speech and the fact that he is not on trial for this speech, and that the Third Department toyed with the thought of kidnapping me from England; can one just despise from afar the fact that when Mikhailov7 was arrested, the gendarmes were busy with prostitutes (do not blush, Shuvalov, do not blush, Patkul, do not blush, Ignatiev, the word is not as shameful as the deed), women whom they had been instructed to search.
And these dregs of cheats, crooks, and whores we are obliged to accept as a government!
Notes
Source: "Ispolin prosypaetsia!" Kolokol, l. ii0, November i, i86i; i5:i73-76, 398-99.
The quotation is from a poem written by Derzhavin on the occasion of the capture of the fortress of Izmail from the Ottoman Empire in late i790-early i79i by General Suvorov.
Filaret ^783^867) was metropolitan of Moscow beginning in i826. The imperial law school was founded in i835 on the initiative of Prince Petr G. Oldenburgsky (i8i2-i88i), who was its longtime trustee.
Alexander II was in the Crimea at the time of student unrest in St. Petersburg. Grand dukes Nikolay (i83i-i89i) and Mikhail (i832-i909) were the tsar's younger brothers. Herzen ironically refers to Governor-General Ignatiev as "Ignatiev-Malkovsky" because of his "heroic" and unjustified arrest of the merchant E. Malkov in Й58, which had been publicized in previous issues of The Bell.
Baron Rodrig G. Bistrom (i8i0-i886) was a general who took part in suppressing the Poles in i830-3i and i863; Herzen later calls him "Bistrom-Santerre" after a French revolutionary general, Antoine Santerre. Major-General Alexander V. Patkul (i8i7- i877) was head of the police in St. Petersburg and a member of the Military Council.
Count Sergey G. Stroganov was one of three members of a commission set up in i86i to look at university regulations. Count Efim V. Putyatin (i803-i883), admiral and diplomat, was for a few months in i86i the minister of education.
In i723, hetman P. L. Polubotok was suspected of wanting to separate Ukraine from Russia; he was lured to St. Petersburg and imprisoned, dying the following year. In i83i there was an uprising at military settlements in Staraya Russa; the soldiers were promised negotiations with Nicholas I, but instead were harshly punished.
Herzen: "Mikhailov, Pertsov and the officer Kostomarov were arrested in connection with the 'Great Russia' affair and the secret typography. The Times says that Kraevsky, Count Kushelev-Bezborodko, and Gromeka staged some sort of protest against the illegal detention of Mikhailov; we would very much like to know the details of this matter." Mikhail I. Mikhailov (i829-i865), revolutionary, poet, journalist, was arrested in i86i, based on a denunciation by Vsevolod D. Kostomarov (whose brother Nikolay and the journalist Erast Pertsov were also arrested) and sentenced to hard labor for distributing a proclamation written by him and N. V. Shelgunov called "To the Younger Generation."
♦ 40 *
The Bell, No. П3, November 22, i86i. In October, Herzen received a letter from Bakunin after he had escaped from Siberia and had gotten as far as San Francisco. This information was passed on to Proudhon and to acquaintances in Russia. Bakunin arrived in London on December 27, i86i. Herzen wrote the first biography of the anarchist in i85i for a French audience, and dedicated his book On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia to Bakunin. While this is a very brief notice, its importance would expand in the readers' minds and in discussion—the empire's borders were obviously not secure, and, based on Bakunin's previous exploits, it was a good bet that he would continue his revolutionary activities in the future. In the meantime, the Echo de Bruxelles published a rumor that Herzen had made a secret trip to Russia, where he had been arrested and sent to Siberia. Herzen had actually put off traveling outside of England, due to threats reaching him that he would be kidnapped or killed (Let 3:250-53, 266, 27i).
Bakunin Is Free [1861]
MIKHAIL ALEXANDROVICH BAKUNIN is in San Francisco. HE IS FREE! Bakunin left Siberia by way of Japan and is on his way to England. We are spreading news of this with delight to all Bakunin's friends.
Notes
Source: "Bakunin svoboden," Kolokol, l. П3, November 22, i86i; i5:i94, 408-9.
♦ 41 *
The Bell, No. ii3, November i, i86i. Herzen compiled information on the treatment of students which included letters from readers of The Bell and other information that came his way, framed by his own commentary. The Bell continued to publish materials the editors received on this topic in subsequent issues. Herzen's premonition about attacks on the tsar was later realized, beginning with Karakozov's attempt in i866 and ending with the successful assassination of Alexander II in i88i, long after Herzen's own death. The image of Alexander II as a fairy-tale prince at a crossroads—offered three possibilities rather than the more familiar two choices in the West—has become a favorite of Russian political analysts (See Billington and Parthe, Search for a New Russian National Identity, 27-30, 92-3). In the original tale, Ilya Muromets sets out on a quest, only to find at the top of a mountain a sign pointing in three directions: the first way promised food for Ilya but not for his horse, taking the second meant that the horse would eat but not its rider, and the third warned that the champion would die. Strangely enough, Ilya "followed the third road, although the inscription said that on this road he would be slain; for he had confidence in himself" (Afanas'ev, Russian Fairy Tales, 571). According to Herzen, the new tsar is trying to travel all three at once, a path that is, literally, not viable. This motif recurs in the final issue of The Bell, in an excerpt from Past and Thoughts, but by this point, the knight at the crossroads is Herzen himself (Doc. 100).