Le Siecle was a politically liberal Parisian daily.
Darya N. Saltykova (i73o-i8oi), known by her nickname "Saltychikha," was a famously cruel serf owner, whose i768 sentence included an hour in the pillory, after which she spent the rest of her life confined to a convent.
Baba Yaga is a well-known and fearsome character in Russian fairy tales.
At the beginning of January Й64, a committee of five was formed, under the chairmanship of Alexander II, to prepare a land reform plan for Poland.
* 63 *
The Bell, No. i79, February i5, Й64. Herzen carried on an emotional polemic with Ivan Aksakov's The Day, revealing a much harsher opinion of him than did Ogaryov.
They've Gone Completely Out of Their Minds [1864]
In several Russian newspapers (The Siberian Gazette, The Northern Bee) there is a description of an execution that took place on January 5 in the town of Ostrov. Felix Ambrozhinsky was accused of being a gendarme in the Polish service, executing someone (no name was given), and "providing food supplies to the rebels." None of this is surprising any more. But listen further: "Along with the troops, Ambrozhinsky's accomplices were present, gendarmes like him (whose crimes had not yet been investigated), who had to play the role of executioners. After the reading of the sentence, the criminal kneeled, kissed a cross that was held by the priest, said: 'Forgive me,' and stood up. The men—accomplices of the criminal—led him to the scaffold [. . .] and performed a task probably familiar to them with the noose."
We address all honest people. We address, yes, we address, for example, you, Mr. Aksakov, publisher of The Day [. . .] yes, we turn to you—you bear a pure and honest name, a name that we are accustomed to respect in your father and to love in your brother—take care with whom you stand and what kind of energetic actions you praise. People whose crimes had not yet been uncovered, were forced to kill their comrade! [. . .]
Words fail, for language cannot supply sufficient reprimands and swearwords for this evil deed. Take care, Mr. Aksakov, that in supporting, for your own important political reasons, this unleashing of blood and brutal measures of such refined artistry, you have accumulated, instead of aid for the Bosnyaks, Croats, and Dalmatians, terrible remorse. You felt badly for us in The Day1 and we feel badly for you in The Bell.
Note
Source: "Oni sovsem soshli s uma," Kolokol, l. i79, February i5, i864; ^49-50, 548-49.
i. Ivan Aksakov said that he regretted that Herzen was friends with Bakunin, who had betrayed the Russian people through his support for the Й63 Polish uprising. While he had never respected Bakunin, from Herzen he still hoped for repentance.
64 ♦
The Bell, No. i86, June i5, i864. This essay, full of respect and concern for a famous prisoner of the tsar, was reprinted in French soon after it appeared in The Bell. Ironically, during his trial Chernyshevsky had used the fact of Herzen's previous attacks on him in "VERY DANGEROUS!!!" (Doc. 22) and other essays as proof of the distance and mutual dislike between the two men (Let 3:283). The sentence handed down by the State Senate was published on May 9, Й64, in The St. Petersburg Gazette, and on May i8 The Stock Market Gazette announced that the "civil execution" would take place the following day on Mytinskaya Square. Herzen had previously commented on the Chernyshevsky case; here he includes eyewitness accounts of the public spectacle favored by the Russian government. The lack of support shown Chernyshevsky by Russian liberals was a particular irritant. K. D. Kavelin had written Herzen on August 6, i862, that he was not especially upset by the wave of arrests. "This is war, and one of them will win out over the other" (Eto voina: kto kogo odoleet). Kavelin saw each side as permitting itself any and all means to achieve its end. Chernyshevsky's propaganda had drawn a line between "young Russia" and a Russia that was "a little liberal, slightly bureaucratic, with a whiff of the serf owner" (Ivanova, A. I. Gertsen, i88), and that distinction became clearer as the i860s progressed.
N. G. Chernyshevsky [1864]
Chernyshevsky has been sentenced to seven years of hard labor and permanent exile.1 May this boundless villainy fall like a curse upon the government, upon society, and upon the despicable, corrupt journalism that called for this persecution, and exaggerated the case for personal reasons. They schooled the government in the murder of prisoners of war in Poland, and the affirmation of sentences in Russia by preposterous ignoramuses in the Senate and the gray-haired villains of the State Council. [. . .]
The Invalid recently asked where was the new Russia to which Garibaldi had offered a toast.2 Evidently, it is not entirely "beyond the Dnepr" as one victim falls after another. How can one reconcile the government's terrible executions, the terrible acts of retribution, and confidence in the restful serenity of its hack writers? What does the editor of The Invalid think about a government that, without any real danger, without any reason, shoots young officers, exiles Mikhailov, Obruchev, Martyanov, Krasovsky, Truve- lier,3 and twenty others, and finally condemns Chernyshevsky to hard labor.
And this is the reign that we greeted ten years ago!
Isk—r.
P.S. These lines had already been written when we read the following in a letter from an eyewitness to the civil execution: "Chernyshevsky had greatly changed, his pale face was swollen and bore the signs of scurvy. They made him kneel, broke the sword, and displayed him for a quarter hour at the pillory. A young woman threw a wreath into Chernyshevsky's carriage—and they arrested her. The well-known man of letters P. Yakushin shouted out to him 'Farewell!' and they arrested him. When Mikhailov and Obruchev were exiled, they were taken out at 4 in the morning, but now it is done in broad daylight!... "
We congratulate all the various Katkovs—they have triumphed over this enemy! Well, do they feel good about it?
You placed Chernyshevsky at the pillory for a quarter-hour4—how long will you, Russia, remain tied to it?
Damnation to you, damnation—and, if possible, vengeance!
Notes
Source: "N. G. Chernyshevskii," Kolokol, l. 186, June 15, 1864; 18:221-22, 578-79.
Chernyshevsky was first sentenced by the Senate to fourteen years of hard labor, which was confirmed by the State Council but cut in half by the tsar.
During a visit by Garibaldi and Mazzini to Herzen in London on April 17, 1864, the latter toasted a new, democratic Russia. The reactionary newspaper The Russian Invalid made fun of this new Russia that had been educated by Herzen, whom they characterized as "our emigre from beyond the Dnepr" (579).
These men were arrested for distributing radical literature and were sentenced to varying terms of hard labor and exile.
Herzen: "Will none of our Russian artists paint a picture of Chernyshevsky at the pillory? This denunciatory canvas will be an icon for future generations and will increase the exposure of the dim-witted scoundrels who have bound human thought to the criminals' pillory, making him a companion on the cross."
The Bell, No. 187, July 15, 1864. Herzen summarizes the evolution of the Russian liberal gentry. The radical emigre Nikolay Utin (1841-1883), a member of the first Land and Liberty group who continued his radical work abroad, wrote to Ogaryov that this was the kind of categorical statement that Herzen should continue to write after the move to Geneva and the transfer of other work to younger revolutionaries (Let 4:23).