But I was more disposed to mysticism at the period when I was living with VitbPrg than at any otlwr timP.
Separation, exile, the religious exaltation of the letters I was receiving, the love which was filling my heart more and more intensely, and at the same time the oppressive feeling of remorse, a l l reinforced Vitberg's influence.
And for two years afterwards I was under the influence of
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ideas of a mystical socialist tinge, drawn from the Gospel and from Jean-Jacques, after the style of French thinkers like Pierre Leroux.7
Ogarev plunged into the sea of mysticism even before I did. In 1833 he was beginning to write the words for Gebel's8 oratorio, The Lost Paradise. 'In the idea of a "Lost Paradise," ' Ogarev wrote to me, 'there is the whole history of humanity' ; so at that time, he too mistook the paradise of the ideal that we are seeking
-
for a paradise we have lost.
In 1 838 I wrote historical scenes in the religious socialist spirit, and at the time took them for dramas. In some I pictured the conflict of the pagan world with Christianity. In these Paul entering Rome raised a dead youth to a new life. In others I described the conflict of the official Church with the Quakers and the departure of William Penn to America, to thr New World.9
The mysticism of the Gospel was soon replaced in me by the mysticism of science ; fortunately I rid myself of the second also.
7 Leroux, Pierre ( 1 797-187 1 ) , a follower of Saint-Simon, of the first half of the nineteenth century. ( Tr.)
S Gebel, Franz ( 1 787-1 843) . a well known musical composer of th£'
period. ( Tr.)
!l I thought fit, I don't understand why, to write these scenes in verse.
Probably I thought that anybody could write unrhymed fiw-foot iambics, since even Pogodin" wrote them. In 1 838 or 1 8.W, I gave both the manuscripts to Belinsky to read and calmly awaited his praises. But the next day Belinsky sent them back to me with a note in which he said: "Do please haYe them copied to run on without being divided into lines, then I will read them with pleasure, but as it is I am bothered all the time by the idea that they are in verse.'
Belinsky killed both my dramatic efforts. It is always pleasant to pay one's debts. In 1 84 1 Belinsky published a long dialogue upon literature in the Notes of the Fatherland. 'How do you like my last article?' he asked me, as we were dining together en petit comite at Dusseau's. 'Very much,' I answered. 'All that you say is excellent, but tell me, please, how could you go on struggling for two hours talking to that man without seeing at the first word that he was a fool?' 'That's perfectly true,'
said Belinsky, dying with laughter. 'Well, my boy, that's killing! Why, he is a perfect fool!'
• Pogodin, Mikhail Petrovich ( 1 800-5 ) , chiefly known as a historian of a peculiar Slavophil tinge, was co-editor with Shevyrev of the Moskvityanin, a reactionary journal, and wrote historical novels of little merit. ( Tr. )
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Tlze rTS{trenic/1' s /�·sit
THE HEIR will visit Vyatka ! The Heir is travelling about Russia to show himself and look at the country! This news interested everyone, but the governor, of course, more than any. He was harassed and did a number of incredibly stupid things: ordered the peasants along the high-road to be dressed in their holiday caft;ms. ordPr!'d tlw fpnces in the towns to be painted and the sidewalks to be repair!'d. At Orlov a poor widow who owned a small house told the mayor that she had no money to repair the sidewalk and he reported this to the governor. The latter ordered the floors in the house to be taken up (the sidewalks there are made of wood ). and tha t, should thev not be sufficient, the repairs should be made at the governm�nt expense and the money recovered from her afterwards, even if it were necessary to sell her house at public illiction. Things did not go so far as a sale, but the widow's floors were broken up.
Fifty versts from V•;atka is the place at which the wonderworking ikon of St Nicholas of Khlynov appeared to the people of l'\ovgorod. \\'hen f'migrants from Novgorod settled at Khlynov (now Vyatka ) they brought the ikon, bnt it disappeared and turned up again on the Great River fifty versts from Vyatka.
They ff'tched it back again, and at the same time took a vow that if the ikon would stay they would carry it every year in a solemn procession to the Grea t River. This was the chief summer holiday in the Vya tka province; I believe it is on the 23rd of
:\Iav . For twentv-four hours the ikon travels do,vn the river on a magnificent raft with the bishop and all the clergy in full vestmPnts accompanying it. Hundreds of all sorts of boats, rafts, and dug-out canocs fi lled with pf'asants, money and women, Votyaks.
and artisans follow the sailing image in a motley throng, and foremost of all is thP gowrnor's deckf'd boa t covered with red cloth. This barbaric spectacle is very fine. Tens of thousands of people from districts ncar and far wait for the image on the banks of the Grea t River. They all camp in noisy crowds about a small villagc, and. what is strangest of alL crowds of unbaptised Votyaks, Chcr!'mises, and even Tatars come to pray to the i mage; indeed, the festival has a thoroughly pagan appearance. Outside
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the monastery-wall Votyaks and Russians bring sheep and calves to be sacrificed; they are killed on the spot, a monk reads a service over them, and blesses and consecrates the meat, which is sold at a special window within the precincts. The meat is distributed i n pieces to the people ; in the old days it used to be given for nothing: now the monks charge a few kopecks for every piece; so that a peasant who had presented a whole calf has to pay something for a piece of his own consumption. In the monastery-yard sit whole crowds of beggars, the halt, the blind, the deformed of all sorts, who sing 'Lazar' in chorus.1 Ladspriests' sons or boys from the town-sit on the tombstones near the church with inkpots2 and cry: 'Who wants lists written?
Who wants lists?' Peasant girls and women surround them, mentioning names, and the lads, deftly scratching with their pens, repeat: 'Marya, Marya, Akulina, Sepanida, Father Ioann, Matrena . . . . Well, Auntie, you have got a lot; you've shelled out two kopecks, we can't take less than five ; such a family
Joann, Vasilisa, Iona, Marya, Yezpraxia, Baby Katerina . . . .'
In the church there is much jostling and strange preferences are shown ; one peasant woman will hand her neighbour a candle with exact instructions to put it up 'for our guest,' another gives one for 'our host." The Vyatka monks and deacons are continually drunk during the whole time of this procession.
They stop at the bigger villages on the way, and the peasants treat them to enough to kill them.
So this popular holiday, to which the peasants had been accustomed for ages, the governor proposed to move to an earlier date, wishing to entertain the Tsarevich who was to arrive on the 19th of May; he thought there would be no harm in St Nicholas, the guest, going on his visit to his host three days earlier. Of course the consent of the bishop was necessary; fortunately he was an amenable person, and found nothing to protest at in the governor's intention of celebrating the 23rd of May on the 19th.