A Herzen Reader

The thing is, The Moscow Gazette is not happy that the secret socialist groups about which the article speaks were organized in Moscow. They would like at all costs to ascribe them to poor, plague-infected Petersburg. They forget that, according to their doctrine, Petersburg possesses the alpha and omega of all Russia, its object of worship, the emperor—all power be to him—the law and the court system, the source of reason, truth, warmth, and light. We do not know by what right Moscow opposes itself to the city of the emperors. We do not understand why Moscow stands out from the monotony of the orthodox and faceless flock for whom the Petersburg tsar thinks and knows, freezes and sweats. Moscow's independent stand disturbs the impersonal unity of the sovereign's herd. Can the state move along one path, when the city of the Winter Palace pulls in one direction, while the city of the Palace of Facets pulls in another, when the Peter Paul Fortress goes this way, and the Kremlin goes that way? Won't this enor­mous empire—whose peripheries are held together by lead and blood, while in its heart hatred and the jealousy of one half toward the other take root—crack at its very center?

In order to shield Moscow, Katkov is sacrificing some of his false de­nunciations and some of the slander that he placed at the base of the tor­ture rack upon which his journal is published. In order to demonstrate that Karakozov has as his origin Petersburg ideas and world revolution, he mocks the importance given to Moscow high school and college students and the ideas ascribed to them:

Listen:

The author of the article in The Northern Post speaks about Mos­cow circles consisting of several high school and college students as if

this were a serious secret society of long standing, or a revolutionary organization extending over almost all Russia. But the investigative commission, which, of course, studied everything concerning these people down to the smallest detail, found no traces of participation by these revolutionary activists in the arson of 1864 and 1865. If these circles possessed even a hundredth part of the significance given them by the author of this article, then could it have happened that they stood idly by at the time of this arson, which destroyed so many cities and villages? It is obvious that other revolutionary elements were active then who bear no resemblance to the Moscow socialists, who are no more than the victims of these more secretive and serious enemy forces.

We do not know what conclusions the investigative commis­sion came to concerning these more secretive sources of evil in the Karakozov case. But one must think that in their further inquiries the investigative commission does not limit itself to the examination of teachings comprising the philosophy of nihilism, but has or will make use of all steps that could lead it to other areas. It is obvious that the tracks left by Karakozov and his comrades will not lead to the original source for the plan that was carried out in the assassination attempt on the 4th of April.

This is Katkov? Leontiev himself wouldn't recognize him in this new at­tire. Isn't he the one who since 1862 has talked of nothing but the fact that young people are all socialists, arsonists, and hasn't it been The Bell that has constantly said: "The investigation has revealed nothing"?

.Well done! He has distanced himself from the fires as he did from the theories of Gneist; now place your hopes in the Muravyovs and the tsars.

And what sort of irony is this on the analysis of the philosophy of nihil­ism? Who can fail to see that we were right in pointing out all the absurdity of bringing socialism, nihilism, positivism, realism, materialism, journal articles, student dissertations, etc., into the Karakozov case?

The truth is beginning to be uncovered ahead of the gallows.

Apropos of the gallows: Katkov is also dragging one of the accused² toward it. Did the gentleman write something against him or shoot his mouth off?

In the end, as one expects, there is an elusive hint. About whom, it is difficult to say; that's where the secret lies, and as the Germans say, Pass. One might think that he has in mind Suvorov, the Grand Duke, and la bete noire Golovin.³

Notes

Source: "Ssora mezhdu vragami, Separatizm 'Mosk. Vedomostei,' " Kolokol, l. 227, Sep­tember 1, 1866; 19:133-35, 414-15.

In the August 11, 1866, issue of The Moscow Gazette, Katkov responded to an article that had appeared in no. 167 of The Northern Post (Severnaiapochta).

In Doc. 87, Herzen mentioned Katkov's references to Ivan Khudyakov, a young revolutionary who had met with Russian radical circles in Europe, was arrested back in Russia, and sent into perpetual exile.

Suvorov's retirement as minister of enlightenment was seen as a sign of the in­creased strength of reactionary forces after Karakozov's attempt on the tsar's life.

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