A Herzen Reader

For giving him credit I will be scolded by revolutionary ascetics and rig­orous thinkers—I have been scolded for many things I have said. But if I expressed my opinion when for that you could be imprisoned and exiled to Vyatka, if I was not afraid of irritating the haughty aristocratic spirit of a decrepit and self-satisfied civilization, then why would I stop at the opposite prejudices?

It is all the easier for me to acknowledge Alexander II's great deed be­cause that acknowledgment is a guarantee of our sincerity, and we need people's confidence, as much confidence as possible!

The February i9 manifesto is a milestone; the whole road still lies ahead, and the mail is in the hands of the most savage Tatar coachmen and Ger­man riding-masters. They will do everything to overturn or to tie up the cart. But it is impossible to expose their machinations in Russia. The word has fallen behind—as before it is firmly censored at home—that is why publishing abroad is essential and we know our duty.

And let them not be anxious—their business affairs will not disappear: we will follow them with great fervor step by step, bribe after bribe, crime after crime, with the tireless attention coming from a hatred that senses its own rightness. We will lead them out to the place of punishment, we will bind them up in their own filth to the pillory—all these Muravyov- the-hangmen, prince-deacons, like Gagarin, and radiant gendarmes, like Dolgorukov; these soulless hoarders and embezzlers, rebels in the name of slavery, knights of the birch rod—not ashamed to steal from the people the first day of their celebration!

Our work really only begins now. Therefore, friends, let us go to the printing presses, to our service for the Russian people and for human free­dom! But first let us drain our glasses for the health of our liberated broth­ers and in honor of Alexander Nikolaevich, their liberator!

For the Polish people, for their freedom and equality, for their complete independence from Russia and for the friendly union ofRussians and Poles!

A toast to the tsar Notes

Source: Druz'ia i tovarishchi!.." April 10, 1861, 15:217-19, 419-21.

♦ 33 +

The Bell, No. 96, April i5, i86i. Kovalevsky is the minister of education who banned the speech about the late Konstantin Aksakov at a St. Petersburg University assembly on February 8, 1861. At the conclusion of the assembly, the students' loud demand for a public reading of the speech caused the university authorities present to quickly vanish. Several days later, Kostomarov gave the speech; it was received with great en­thusiasm and students lifted the professor up in his chair and carried him out of the auditorium.

The Bell, Kovalevsky, Kostomarov, a Copy, and Cannibals

[1861]

In London, one is forbidden to hang indecent posters on walls; at Peters­burg University there is so much freedom that some naughty fellow named Pletnev posted the following announcement:

By order of the minister of education and the trustee of the St. Pe­tersburg educational district, a proposal in my name, dated February ii, i86i, No. 782, directed that the following announcement be made throughout the university.

University Rector Pletnev

(^{a co}py⁾

Every educated person is aware that lawful requests must be ad­dressed to the authorities in a prescribed way. On this basis, students of St. Petersburg University, as they have been told repeatedly, should declare every request of theirs to the authorities through their chosen colleagues.

Meanwhile, the incident at the university assembly on February 8, most unfortunately, showed that students did not follow the sole legal path for an explanation of their quandary.

This sad incident, which demeaned the dignity of the university, although carried out by a minority of the students, nevertheless brings infamy to the entire student body.

People who consider themselves for the most part educated gave a clear example of their lack of respect for the law and a crude indecency.

To prevent similar actions in the future, in addition to the an­nouncement of December i8, i858, forbidding any demonstration on penalty of the expulsion of the guilty parties from the university, irrespective of their numbers, by order of the highest authority it is an­nounced that:

If disturbances of the type mentioned above are carried out by students as a group at lectures then students of that school and year, who, according to the schedule, were obliged to be at this lecture, will immediately be dismissed, with the exception of those who can offer absolute proof that they were not present at the university at that time.