A Herzen Reader

The Kandeevskoe uprising included twenty-six villages and spread to the neighbor­ing Kerensky region.

Herzen will discuss Count Apraksin's role in what came to be known as the Bezdna massacre in Doc. 37: "April i2, i86i (The Apraksin Murders)."

These factories were owned by the entrepreneurial Stroganov family.

Count Alexander G. Stroganov (i795-i89i) held many high government positions before becoming the governor-general of Bessarabia and Novorossiisk in i855.

♦ 36 +

The Bell, No. i00, June i, i86i. Herzen frequently wrote on the subject of regulations governing such matters as beards and beardlessness, smoking in public, and the fanati­cal attention to buttons on uniforms, all of which bordered on the ludicrous at a time of momentous change and daunting problems.

The Smell of Cigars and the Stench of the State Council

[1861]

The State Council, which displayed its cleverness in the emancipation of the serfs, is taking ses revanches. It is sufficient to have liberated the serfs— we will not liberate the smoking of cigars! These cripples decided that it is impossible to allow smoking on the streets, first of all, because it makes it more difficult for officers of lower rank to salute their superiors; second, there will be a nasty smell on the streets.

Pitiful orangutans of the first two ranks! What utter stupidity!

Notes

Source: "Dukh sigar i von' gosudarstvennogo soveta," Kolokol, l. i00, June i, i86i; i5:i06, 36i-62.

♦ 37 ^

The Bell, No. i0i, June i5, i86i. This essay is devoted to the April i86i massacre of peasants by government forces at Bezdna in the province of Kazan, already mentioned in "Russian Blood Is Flowing!" (Doc. 35). The Russian government hid information about this unrest from the public for a month, and only released an official announce­ment in the St. Petersburg Gazette after news began to appear elsewhere. Herzen and Ogaryov included "A Peasant Martyrology," in the June i, i86i, Bell, and returned to the subject in i862, when the peasants arrested in this incident were released from custody. Professor Afanasy Shchapov (i830-i876), mentioned by Herzen in a foot­note, spoke sympathetically about the Bezdna victims at a memorial service attended by more than 400 students in Kazan's Kratinsky Cemetery four days after the tragic events (Let 3:204). What happened to Shchapov next demonstrates the government's confusion; the professor was sent by Kazan officials to Petersburg to offer an explana­tion, was arrested en route and turned over to the Third Department, then released to Minister of the Interior Valuev, who set him to work on matters concerning the Old Believers. Late in i86i the Synod tried to have Shchapov exiled to Solovki, but public opinion in his favor prevented this. He wound up being tried in i862 along with other accused followers of the "London propagandists," but managed to prove his innocence, although he had in fact sent Herzen articles and had received at least one very support­ive letter in return, praising him as "a fresh voice, pure and powerful" who stood out amidst so many other writers who had become "jaded and hoarse" (Gertsen, Sobranie sochinenii, i5:370-7i).

April 12, 1861 (The Apraksin Murders) [1861]

Our "Muette de Portici" has finally admitted to the spilling of peasant blood in Bezdna.¹ The official story is even viler and more repulsive than what was written to us.

The brain goes to pieces and blood freezes in the veins while reading the naive-ingenuous story of such villainy, the likes of which we have not seen since the days of Arakcheev.²

Where did these bloodthirsty aides-de-camp come from? Where were these impromptu butchers brought up? How were they schooled in such heartless villainy?

The government tolerates murders that are due to its inarticulateness, ignorance, and duplicity.³ Didn't the new pedant Valuev⁴ clearly distinguish serfdom's obligatory labor from obligatory labor in anticipation of eman­cipation? And because the people do not understand, and believe that the government is not deceiving them, five salvos are fired.

We do not recognize Russia. steaming blood, corpses all over the place! [. . .]

Fifty victims, according to the criminals themselves, and on this occa­sion the genial monarch was so used to this sort of thing that he did not ask Apraksin: "And how many soldiers were killed or wounded?"

The article states directly that the peasants' military actions consisted in the fact that some of them went to get wooden stakes.

And what was the rush in punishing Anton Petrov?⁵ Who tried him? What was he tried for? Obviously the bloody traces should be hidden! What sort of instructions were given by the tender-hearted tsar?

Pugachev was tried in a court before Catherine and not quietly shot.

To hell with them—the bloody executioners!