A Herzen Reader

For his part, Bismarck, no less than Napoleon, knew the value of his philistines; on the benches of the Frankfurt parliament, he could assess them at his leisure. He understood that Germans needed as much freedom in politics as the Reformation had given them in religion, and that this freedom was necessary der Theorie nach, that they had become accustomed to obey authority, and had not become accustomed to a strict English self- governance. This would have been sufficient, but he understood more: he understood that at the present moment Germans were consumed by jeal­ousy of France and hatred for Russia, that they dreamed of being a powerful state, of uniting. but for what purpose?.. if they could have explained why, it would not have been lunacy. [. . .]

. If we renounce our sympathies and antipathies, if we forget what is dear and hateful to us, then we will hardly feel sorrow about what is going on in Europe. The military dictatorships and lawless empires are nearer to ending than the traditional kingdoms and lawful monarchies. Europe will not be bogged down by them, but will be led to a common denominator. or it will rot through, and, either by means of peace or war, come upon a terrible void. And this void will be the grave of all that is obsolete.

Proudhon—with a terrible lack of humanity—once reproached Poland because "it does not wish to die."⁴ We could say this more justly of old Europe. It is clinging to life with all its strength, but illness and death are coming closer and closer. Consciousness, thought, science and all its ap­plications long ago outgrew the Gothic and bourgeois forms of the old governance. The spirit is at odds with a body which is worn out, limited, and racked with ailments, and which keeps the soul in chains. The French revolution of ^89 feared this already and for that reason went astray with politics and war; it was happy to have an external occupation, and from the "rights of man" it developed the code of bourgeois rights.

No matter how unsteady and pale the revolution of i848, it raced power­fully to continue the interrupted political regeneration, and here is where the final battle began for the dying old man who had outlived his days, armed with an entire arsenal of ancient weapons, against an adolescent made strong by a single thought, a single belief, a single truth, who in the first clash released his sling and did not fall. It seems that it could have gone better: the Old Goliath was victorious, but he, and not the adolescent, is dying.

[. . .] Ideas are not sown in the earth. Science and thought are not glebae adscripti, are not tied to the soil.

.There was no place for the Gospel in Judea, so it was carried to Rome and preached to the barbarians; there is no room for a young worker in his father's house and his native fields, so he sets off for America. I do not know where.

We have said this not for the first time, but we think it necessary to sometimes repeat it, and especially necessary to repeat it now, when every­thing is covered with dark clouds and has so quickly become gloomy.

II

[. . .] Only two nations—among those who have entered the main chan­nel—enjoy special rights in history and are oriented differently toward the future.

Their task is a simpler one.

Their situation is less complex.

They are not troubled at present by "an unnecessary recollection and an unresolved quarrel."⁵

Nothing needs to be done on behalf of the North American union, for it is going full sail, au large.⁶

Russia could find its own channel even more easily, but it has lost its way in some kind of fog. It has dreamed up a compulsory past, drowned its old ships, and has cast stones into its own sea, but then is afraid to strike them with an oar.

Strength and time are being lost to no purpose.

The government lacks understanding, and we lack faith.

The success of our reactionary movement—newly baked from stale Eu­ropean flour—is based on this.

To explain anything to the government is a major feat, which we will not undertake; it would sooner come across it by blind instinct, or find it by touch, than comprehend anything.

We wish for something else: to cleanse our primary question from all the rubbish and silt and say to our friends whose faith is faltering what Sieyes said to his colleagues after Mirabeau's famous "Allez dire": "We are the same people today that we were yesterday—let us continue."⁷