A Herzen Reader

36. The Smell of Cigars and the Stench of the State Council [1861]

138 A Herzen Reader “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 15, 1861; 15:90–93, 350–52. 1. Alexander II issued this order at the beginning of February 1861 to prepare for possible disorders surrounding the emancipation announcement. 2. The Pretender was Anton Petrov, who claimed to be an emissary of Alexander II and was executed on April 19, 1861. 3. Vilna. 4. The Kandeevskoe uprising included twenty-six villages and spread to the neighboring Kerensky region. 5. Herzen will discuss Count Apraksin’s role in what came to be known as the Bezdna massacre in Doc. 37: “April 12, 1861 (The Apraksin Murders).” 6. These factories were owned by the entrepreneurial Stroganov family. 7. Count Alexander G. Stroganov (1795–1891) held many high government positions before becoming the governor-general of Bessarabia and Novorossiisk in 1855.  36  The Bell, No. 100, June 1, 1861. 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! April 12, 1861 (The Apraksin Murders) 139 Notes Source: “Dukh sigar i von’ gosudarstvennogo soveta,” Kolokol, l. 100, June 1, 1861; 15:106, 361–62.  37  The Bell, No. 101, June 15, 1861. This essay is devoted to the April 1861 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 1, 1861, Bell, and returned to the subject in 1862, when the peasants arrested in this incident were released from custody. Professor Afanasy Shchapov (1830–1876), 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 1861 the Synod tried to have Shchapov exiled to Solovki, but public opinion in his favor prevented this. He wound up being tried in 1862 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, 15:370–71).  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 ...