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Count Viktor Panin’s Speech to the Deputies 111 8. Zakrevsky was relieved of his duties April 15, 1859, after granting written permission for his daughter, Countess Nesselrode, to enter into a second marriage without having ended the first one, and having threatened a priest with exile to Siberia if he did not perform the ceremony as ordered. Pavel A. Tuchkov (1803–1864) succeeded him as governor-general of Moscow from 1859 to 1864. 9. Prince Vasily A. Dolgorukov (1804–1868) was chief of gendarmes and head of the Third Department from 1856 to 1866. 10. The Baltic German Ernst Biron (1690–1772) was a favorite of the Empress Anna Ioannovna and regent in 1740; Count Andrey Osterman (1686–1747), born in Westphalia , entered Russian service in 1704 and occupied senior government posts until 1741; Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), of humble birth, was a gifted scientist, writer, and the founder of Moscow University. 11. Poet Alexey V. Koltsov (see Doc. 1). 12. Faustin Soulouque (c. 1782–1876) fought in Haiti’s war for independence and served as the country’s president and emperor. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are characters in Gogol’s play The Inspector General. 13. Ivan S. Barkov (1731–1768) was a poet, translator, and author of pornographic verse. 14. Under Paul I, a Wachtparade took place daily in the tsar’s presence; under Alexander II, it was staged every Sunday. 15. Not of gentry birth.  26  The Bell, Nos. 68–69, April 15, 1860. This is one of the periodic attacks on Panin in Herzen’s satirical style.  Count Viktor Panin’s Speech to the Deputies [1860] Gentlemen, You recall the words of our sovereign emperor; I have deeply engraved them in my memory and I will act in conformity with them. You know that the plans of the Editorial Commission have not yet been confirmed, and for that reason I cannot say anything that will be either reassuring or favorable to you, and I hope that you will refrain from anything that might excite major hopes or fears among the gentry. Although I myself am a wealthy landowner, I will not forget the interests of landowners of modest means, and, recalling that peasants do not 112 A Herzen Reader have their own representatives here, I will keep in mind their benefit, all the more since I am completely convinced that there will be no way of avoiding sacrifices on the part of the gentry. Gentlemen, ours is a private, family matter, and it should not go outside this room, because there is no need to disseminate information, and especially to write about it to those abroad. And now, gentlemen, I have another request. I have heard that many of you gather at Count Shuvalov’s, where members of the nobility are preparing for elections, and for that reason I ask you to curtail your visits because people there might try to lobby you. My door is always open to you and to everyone, but I request that you not visit me, in order not to give credence to rumors that I am under the influence of one or another of you. Thus, gentlemen, I advise you to get to work. Gentlemen, in this regard I can offer my experience; there is no significant government business that cannot be concluded in fourteen days. The nonsensical words of this count-bureaucrat have almost reconciled us to him, as we have begun to pity this lanky, sickly figure, whose brain had gone soft from the lofty heights (and, to be sure, it was not so firm before this). He is subject only to medical judgment; the court of public opinion is for those who placed him not in a madhouse but in the house of liberation. Take note that every phrase is a plus-minus—which equals zero. What can it mean that Panin has nothing to say that is either reassuring or favorable? What would he call reassuring? To leave things as they were? The rights to seize a dwelling, to receive one’s quitrent in bed, to require six days labor… to the birch rod, to extortion? Why is the emancipation of the serfs a private and family matter, why must it be muted? This is a matter for an assembly of the land, it is historical, all-Russian, and not a family matter for rich landowners who feel the pain of the poor ones. And bragging about his own fortune is very...

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