A Herzen Reader

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?

In the university courtyard.