A Herzen Reader

The year 1863 will remain noteworthy in the history of Russian journal­ism and in the history of our development as a whole. The heroic era of our literature² has ended. Since the university events and the Petersburg fire, it has taken a new turn: it has become official and officious,³ denuncia­tions have appeared along with demands for unheard of punishments, etc. The government, while winning over and encouraging favorable journals by all available means, has, in the French manner, banned all independent organs. Police literature took advantage of this and expressed itself without restraint, since no one in Russia could object. Of the independent journals with a political direction only The Day has held on; its Great Russian patri­otism has placed it in a special position. We know the direction of The Day, but, speaking frankly, if anyone had said a year ago that The Day would call honest adversaries who are fighting for the independence of their home­land bandits, and the Polish authorities—who organized the uprising and are steering their entire nation between life and death—a den of thieves and hangmen, we would not have believed it, just as we would not have believed that to the question of what to do with insurgents in the provinces, that same journal would have answered: of course, execute them, and this with­out any need since they would have been executed anyway, but just to show sympathy and approval.

This patriotic frenzy brought to the surface everything of the Tartar, land­owner, and sergeant that in a sleepy and half-forgotten way was fermenting in us; we now know how much Arakcheev⁴ there is in our veins and how much Nicholas in our brain. This will cause many to think carefully and many to submit. Evidently educated Russia had not run that far away when faced with the government. Neither the French language in days of old, nor philosophy from Berlin, nor England according to Gneist did much of anything. While speaking in a pure Parisian dialect we beat our serfs in the house and field; while discussing Gneist, we demand confiscations by mili­tary authorities and executions by secret courts. The Slavophiles have much over which to rejoice: the national, pre-Petrine foundation⁵ has not changed, at least in our savage exceptionalism, in hatred toward anything foreign, and in the indiscriminate use of courts and harsh punishments. [. . .]

What kind of excerpts and arguments can one have in this case? Hav­ing sadly escorted an old acquaintance to the madhouse, we will await his recovery, visiting now and then, and having faith in a healthy organism that can endure anything. The patriotic fury is too fierce to prevail for very long.

Those who have defiled our language will pay for it. Conscience will be awakened—if not theirs, then that of the younger generation, not those noticed by Moscow professors or by the court in Petersburg; they will re­coil with horror from those who sings psalms to the hangmen, from the fawning admirers of Muravyov, from all these Kotzebues⁶ and journalistic Arakcheevs. We do not doubt this and for that reason we will leave them to rage on and finish their unhealthy intellectual ferment.

August 5, 1863

Notes

Source: "Viselitsy i zhurnaly," Kolokol, l. 169, August 15, 1863; 17:235-37, 447-48.

1. Ernst Biron (1690-1772) was close to Empress Anna and the de facto ruler of Rus­sia from 1730 to 1740, a gloomy era that was later referred to as the bironovshchina.

By literature, Herzen clearly means journalism as well as other more artistic writing.

The word ofitsioznyi refers to a morally reprehensible degree of support for govern­ment activities, with an eye to currying favor.

Count Alexey A. Arakcheev (1769-1834), a general who served the governments of both Alexander I and Nicholas I, was tasked with organizing military colonies; his influ­ence on the governance of Russia is marked by the use of the word arakcheevshchina to refer to the years during which he was most influential.

Herzen used the French word fond.

General Pavel E. Kotzebue (1801-1884), head of the army general staff until 1862, then governor-general of Novorossiisk and Bessarabia from 1862 to 1874.

♦ 59 *

The Bell, No. 170, September 1, 1863. This essay continues Herzen's polemic with reform-era liberals, especially those like M. N. Katkov, N. F. Pavlov, and B. N. Chicherin who had begun to craft a kind of liberal conservatism, which included strong nationalist sentiments. Herzen saw this as a new stage in Russia's ideological development, which manifested itself in a number of ways, including increased attacks on him, a declining interest in his London publications, and greater difficulty in successfully sending them to Russia. "Literature" for Herzen includes journalism.

At This Stage [1863]