A Herzen Reader

The translated essays from The Bell are presented in chronological order, but out of their original context, since the biweekly issues carried material by Ogaryov and others, along with reports and letters from Russia. The com­mentary at the beginning of each essay addresses the question of reading in context, but for Herzen the articles were also contributions to an ongoing discussion with fellow Russians, a vigorous debate that began in student groups of the i830s, continued most famously in Moscow and its environs in the i840s, and never ceased while he drew breath. He even refused to have his memoir called a chronicle, insisting to Ivan Turgenev that it was a conversation, full of "facts, and tears, and theory."³⁰ In an i868 letter he told his daughter Tata that "nothing is as boring as a monologue," and Her­zen dreaded boredom most of all.³¹ He enjoyed leaping from topic to topic, from Russian peasants to Polish rebels, and from ridiculous government ceremonies to the censorship, all the while deftly parrying blows from the right and left. Along with the Russian government's weak commitment to reform, Herzen addressed the desert-like sterility of homegrown Russian journalism.³² Accused by some of trying to dominate political discourse, he responded that while demanding and exercising freedom of speech, he did not claim an exclusive "concession on Russian speech in foreign lands" (Doc. 2i).

The strength of the essays in A Herzen Reader comes from astute political commentary married to the formidable literary talent of a man with a deeply personal approach to history; Thomas Masaryk saw this as an unusual and unbeatable combination that could not fail to attract attention.³³ Dostoevsky characterized Herzen as, in all things, first and foremost a poet.³⁴ Herzen's "lyrical journalism" was sufficiently distinctive to make unworkable a pro­posal to publish several essays in Russia under a pseudonym; it was clear that the author's "voice" was easily recognizable, and everyone knew the identity behind the pseudonym Iskander.³⁵ The unique Herzen style comes through in all genres, but it is perhaps strongest in his lead articles, where the goal is more immediate and the timing precise, resembling to a degree the telegrams that were altering the speed—and even the nature—of mid- nineteenth-century communication.³⁶ He placed a great value on precision, even "terseness," which was for many a welcome change from the "opaque, intractable atmosphere of so much Russian thought."³⁷ For Herzen, who funded the Free Russian Press from his inheritance, and who placed at risk himself and others involved in its publication and distribution networks, every word counted and cost; the editorial was never a leisurely literary form. Each comparison and ironic twist, each well-chosen foreign expres­sion, was there to address a weighty matter.

"Vivos voco" (I summon the living) serves as the epigraph to Herzen's announcement in The Polestar of a supplement called The Bell that would commence in mid-1857 (Docs. 9, 10). The Polestar offered hitherto re­pressed manuscripts and had a retrospective orientation, looking back to the Nicholaevan era and, in particular, the martyred Decembrists; in 1855 Herzen called its goal "a continuation of the legend and the work" (Doc. 4). In contrast, The Bell was entirely forward-looking; the Russia of both the bullying Nicholas I and the soft-spoken historian Timofey Granovsky had passed away, and the possibilities for change were palpable, even from faraway London. Herzen's use of the phrase "Vivos voco" can stand on its own, but he could safely assume that educated readers would recognize this as a borrowing from Friedrich Schiller's 1798 poem "The Song of the Bell" ("Das Lied von der Glocke"). Schiller himself had appropriated the Latin phrase traditionally inscribed on church bells (he apparently knew it from a fifteenth-century church bell in Schaffhausen, Switzerland). In full, the inscription reads:

Vivos voco. I summon the living.

Mortuous plango. I weep for the dead.

Fulgura frango. I shatter the lightning.

This epigraph perfectly describes the "voice" of The Bell, with its un­relenting insistence on greater participation in the process of bringing change to Russia. In the 1857 announcement "summoning the living," Herzen explains that The Polestar came out too rarely, while "events in Rus­sia are moving quickly, and they must be caught on the fly and discussed right away." An urgent tone entered Herzen's style and remained there for as long as he published this newspaper. He reiterates the general prin­ciples governing the two publications: "everywhere, in all matters, to be on the side of freedom against coercion, the side of reason against prejudice, the side of science against fanaticism, and the side of advancing peoples against backward governments." The urgent and necessary steps are an­nounced in capital letters: