A Herzen Reader

97. The Right to Congregate—New Restrictions [1867]

Rivals of the Big Bell and the Big Cannon 331 Katkov’s predecessors, the emperor Nicholas, some American fool lied to the extent that he called the two lead bullets that Nicholas used for eyes as “mild,” to the great delight of Punch. That is what Katkov is experiencing now. The correspondent visited him—as if crawling into Saltychikha’s cage—and couldn’t get over his admiration for the graciousness and meekness of the passionate editor-inquisitor. Is the great career of Muravyov’s Homer coming to an end? He’s growing a little paler and less visible, and the Belgian correspondents are beginning to exaggerate his importance, and, what is much worse, the nasty News accuses him not only of rivaling the big bell, but the smaller one, that is, us. One huntsman for the gentry is beginning to think that The Moscow Gazette and The Bell have a single editorial staff (quite a compliment for us!) and calls Katkov’s articles chimes.2 [. . .] It is clear that the abyss into which he pushed Russia on a daily basis has begun to terrify Katkov; he has stumbled at the very edge, and has found people who are more Katkov than he himself is. But it is also impossible to turn back, Serafim-Abadonna, and he is forced to “wander sadly through the past,” and, blushing for the present, receive from his fellow diggers insults and kicks.3 It’s a bad business to be a renegade. Notes Source: “Soperniki bol’shogo kolokola i bol’shoi pushki,” Kolokol, l. 239, April 15, 1867; 19:241, 454–55. 1. Le Nord was a political daily (1855–92), published in Brussels and subsidized by the Russian government. The report in question appeared in the March 28, 1867, issue under “Chronique de Moscou.” The author spoke with reverence of the clarity of Filaret’s mind and the sanctity of his way of life. Katkov was praised for the independence of his views and his position as the first genuine Russian commentator. 2. The reactionary News took issue with Katkov over the question of land reform; Herzen was naturally amused by squabbles between two basically like-minded periodicals. 3. The image of Serafim-Abadonna wandering sadly through the past, repenting his sins, comes from the first part of the German poet Friedrich Klopstock’s epic poem “Der Messias.”  97  The Bell, No. 242, June 1, 1867. Conditions were worsening in Russia, although Herzen does not appear to be as shocked as his correspondent.  332 A Herzen Reader The Right to Congregate—New Restrictions [1867] We received this from Petersburg: Why have you omitted the outrageous measures that have placed every sort of gathering under police surveillance? According to the new law, not only secret political and non-political meetings are considered “illegal,” but in general any kind of meeting with any sort of goal that does not receive preliminary permission. The police are ordered to seek out criminal societies everywhere, harsh punishments are set for participants, and, finally, there is a promise of forgiveness and all kinds of leniency for informers. Only that? Isn’t there any payment, by the number of societies, or per person? All this is vile, all this is pure Valuev and genuine Shuvalov, so why is the correspondent surprised? Don’t these measures belong to a series of vile measures from the past five years? And before that did we really have some kind of right of assembly—droit de reunion?... Enough! Notes Source: “Pravo sobirat’sia—novye stesneniia,” Kolokol, l. 242, June 1, 1867; 19:265, 469.  98  The Bell, No. 243, June 15, 1867. A Polish émigré, Anton Berezovsky, a veteran of the 1863 uprising against Russian rule, took a shot at Alexander II in Paris on June 6, 1867, a crime for which he was given a life sentence by the French courts. Herzen delayed a trip to Nice to respond in print to this new assassination attempt. He wrote to a friend that “my head is spinning—news, gossip, bullets, tsars, horses—but I have to keep my wits about me and write” (Let 4:419). He was likely unaware that the tsar’s young mistress , Katya Dolgorukaya, had also traveled to Paris and that Alexander II ignored considerations of safety to secretly visit her. Herzen’s disapproval of Karakozov’s attempt the previous year to kill the tsar damaged the writer’s relations with young Russian revolutionaries abroad, but he did...