A Herzen Reader

Ivan Gavrilovich Bibikov (the former military governor-general) was sent to Kazan to restore order. Efimovich, already well known for his many achievements in pacification, was sent to Penza. One should not have expected different results; that much was clear to sensible people who rebelled against this transitional era. The flowers and fruit would come when the "Law" was fully applied. It contained so much that was Jesuitical, so many loopholes for the swindling, robbing, and oppression of the peasants! Joint obligations were not mentioned in the section on bringing the "Law" into effect, where only two kinds of obligations were mentioned, quitrent and corvee; referring to that, peasants who had fulfilled joint obligations (i.e., the vast majority of those in the quitrent areas of the northern and central zones) considered themselves freed from everything except quitrent, but landowners referred to art. 70 of the "Law," quietly giving them the right to mixed obligations until the introduction of the statutory document. This alone would cost blood. And there were a lot of ambiguities like that. The wording of many articles was am­biguous, and for that reason Butkov had such power! He is in charge of the entire peasant question and is deceptive, pretending to be a liberal. According to the peasants, the manifesto is such that it will be worse than before for them and that in two years the landowners will ruin them completely. The right to complain far from satisfies them: "Their brother the landowner really likes to complain." In the words of the landowners, the valuation of the estates is terribly high.

From a third letter

In the Odessa district, 60 miles from the city of Odessa, on the estates of Kiryakov, Kuris, and Svechin (the district leader of the no­bility), in the villages of Tashino, Novo-Kiryakovo, Malashevka, Tuzly, and Sakharovo, the peasants, through a misunderstanding, refused to work for the landowner, considering themselves completely free. Local authorities demanded military force to put down the revolt. Two companies of the Volynsk regiment were sent in carts from Odessa and another two from their location in the countryside. As soon as they arrived in the village of Tashino, by order of the district leader Svechin (who had by his side Khristiforovich, who had been attached by special assignment to Kherson's civilian governor), surrounded the peasants and began to read the manifesto. I continue with an ex­tract from the official report presented by the company commander: "... having listened to the manifesto, the peasants flatly refused to work for the landowner and to be under his authority. The leader of the nobility made every effort to convince the peasants to obey the will of the sovereign emperor as it appeared in the manifesto, but all these efforts were in vain; then the leader of the nobility gave or­ders to the lower ranks to take those peasants who were the primary cause of the unrest to be beaten with rods, and, when one peasant was seized, all the peasants without exception fell to the ground and began to shout: 'Beat us all.' This force (of up to 140 people) drove back the lower ranks who held the peasant; when the peasant was once more seized, then again they fell to the earth and cried out the same thing: 'Beat us all.' Having freed the peasant from punishment a second time, they all rushed straight through the chain of soldiers, from time to time using their fists; the soldiers closed ranks in a rather tight square and were thus able to restrain the peasants. In this crush, when the soldiers restrained the peasants, the latter, in trying to break free, jostled the soldiers and scratched their weapons. When the peasants had been caught, there followed flogging only of the chief disturbers of peace and order, after which all the peasants submitted and were sent home." With slight variations, the same thing hap­pened in other villages. Sechin says he did not administer more than 30 strokes, but, according to the soldiers' stories, there were harsh punishments—from 300 to 400 strokes; the officers don't say this, but one cannot rely on them. In Tashina alone up to 80 people were punished.

Svechin was in charge, although he acted for his own goals like a landowner, forgetting, that before using the rod, according to the

"Law," there are fines and arrests; the rod can only be administered by the police and no more than 20 strokes.

They say that Stroganov, who has heard the rumors of Svechin's zeal, wants to carry out an investigation.⁷

Notes

Source: "Russkaia krov' l'etsia!" Kolokol, l. 98-99, May i5, i86i; ^90-93, 350-52.

Alexander II issued this order at the beginning of February i86i to prepare for pos­sible disorders surrounding the emancipation announcement.

The Pretender was Anton Petrov, who claimed to be an emissary of Alexander II and was executed on April i9, i86i.

Vilna.