A Herzen Reader

Parisian newspapers reported that similar demonstrations greeted the tsar at the Musee de Cluny, Notre Dame, and at a parade in the tsar's honor in front of the Grand Opera.

On Alexander's way to France, an order was given "at the highest level" to finish up with all political cases connected to the Polish uprising and return home all exiled na­tives of the Kingdom of Poland who had behaved well, in the opinion of local authorities. European public opinion saw this as simply a way to assure the tsar a peaceful journey.

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The Bell, Nos. 244-245, July i, i867. Herzen began to think about halting publication of The Bell for six months. A number of factors made it more difficult to carry on: reac­tion appeared to be triumphing in Russia, as progressive voices—including those who had supplied The Bell with information—were silenced, the newspaper's audience was greatly reduced, and there were tensions with Russian revolutionaries in Europe. Ba- kunin was one of the loudest voices raised in favor of continuing as before, writing to Herzen that readership had picked up again at home, and that even 500 copies could wield significant influence. He advised Herzen to change not the direction but the tone of the paper; there should be no further letters to the tsar and less caustic humor (Let 4:405). The Western and Russian reactionary press saw any hiatus as proof of the defeat of Herzen's ideas, a conclusion that is refuted below. As the title suggests, it is a sum­mary of the most significant period of Herzen's publishing activity, and, beyond that, of a "national project" that had begun in the i830s, in a circle of friends from Moscow University (Root, Gertsen i traditsii, 229).

This issue of The Bell included another excerpt from Past and Thoughts; although it refers to the year i862, it is evocative of many moments in Herzen's life. The folklore reference to Ilya Muromets had been used before to characterize Alexander II in i858, when he was moving to the right and away from the path toward "development, libera­tion, construction" (Doc. i8). Here it is Alexander Herzen himself who is unsure about the next step.

Like the knights in fairy tales who have lost their way, we had stopped at the crossroads. If you went to the right, you would lose your horse, but survive. If you went to the left, the horse would be fine but you would perish. If you went straight ahead, everyone would abandon you, and if you went back... but that was no longer possible, that road was overgrown with grass. If only some magician or hermit monk appeared, who could relieve us of the burden of this decision. (Kolokol, 8-9:2002)

Believing that the remaining audience for his journalism was European, a French edi­tion, Le Kolokol, with a Russian supplement, was published from January to December i868. Herzen died in January i870 and was buried beside his wife in Nice on a hill overlooking the sea.

On July i, i857 the first issue of The Bell was published in London. The cur­rent issue marks our tenth anniversary.

Ten years! We have stood firm, and, most importantly, we have stood firm for the past five years, which were very difficult.

Now we want to take a breath, wipe away the perspiration, and gather new strength, and, for that reason, we will stop publication for six months. The next issue of The Bell will come out on January i, i868, and with that we will begin a second decade.

Now we wish calmly, without the diversion of urgent work, to take a close look at what is going on at home, where the waves are headed and where the wind is pulling, and we want to check in which areas we were correct and in which we were mistaken.

We have taken a backward glance too often, especially in recent times, to have to repeat yet again our creed and the bases of the view that we have taken in The Bell; they were immutable, and at least our official enemies never doubted this. The Bell was and will be more than anything else an organ of Russian socialism and its development—socialism of the farm and the workers' cooperative, of the countryside and the city, of the state and the province.

For us, everything is subordinate to the social development of Russia: forms and individuals, doubts and mistakes—but since it is impossible without freedom of speech and assembly, without general discussion and counsel, with all our strength we called for and will continue to call for an Assembly of the Land. In it we see no more than a gateway, but an open gateway, and that is most important—until now Russian development has had to secretly come in over the fence, while the watchman was not looking or slept.