A Herzen Reader

44. Academic Moscow [1862]

158 A Herzen Reader 2. Herzen: “Probably taking advantage of the fact that with us la recherché de la paternit é (the clarification of fatherhood) is not forbidden, as it is in the French law code.” 3. A character in Gogol’s Dead Souls. 4. Alexey P. Yermolov was an artillery general, and in 1812 chief of staff for the western flank of the army; Count Karl F. Tol was adjutant general in 1812, and chief of staff during the suppression of the Polish uprising in 1831. Nicholas was believed to be jealous of these two generals due to the distinguished nature of their military service. 5. Rtishchev (1625–1673) was a government official interested in education in the time of Tsar Alexey; Betskoy (1704–1795) was president of the Academy of Arts and founder of what became the Smolny Institute; Potemkin (1739–1791) was a favorite of Catherine II; Kochubey (1768–1834) was a diplomat and minister under Alexander I; Vorontsov (1782–1856) headed civilian and military administrations in Bessarabia and the Caucasus; Lazarev (1788–1851) was an Antarctic explorer; Kornikov (1806–1854) and Nakhimov (1802–1855) were both admirals who took part in the defense of Sevastopol. 6. Gury was a sixteenth-century bishop who was canonized; Varsonofy was a sixteenthcentury monastic leader, later canonized; Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736) was a preacher, writer, vice-president of the Holy Synod, and the person Peter I most relied upon in spiritual matters. 7. Tikhon Zadonsky was an important eighteenth-century bishop canonized in 1861. 8. Mitrofan was a seventeenth-century bishop canonized in 1832; Prince Baryatinsky led Russian military operations in the Caucasus from 1856 to 1862. 9. Askochinsky was a reactionary journalist and editor of Domestic Chats for Popular Reading from 1858 to 1877. 10. Herzen: “The monument’s form has really gratified us: a huge bell, placed so that it cannot ring. But all the same a bell! But—which one? The town council [veche] bell, or ours in London? It seems to us that it is neither one nor the other, but a bell that is very sweet [sladkii]; it was plastered over with all kinds of figures in immense quantities, among them one was plastered with wings and so ardently strains to get away that on its head is some sort of lamp. (See The St. P. Calendar for 1862.)”  44  The Bell, No. 125, March 15, 1862. The Bell gave extensive coverage to the student disturbances that flared up at Moscow University during September and October 1861 in connection with new rules set forth by Minister of Education Putyatin. Students asked that the rise in tuition costs be rescinded along with the ban on the student bank, and that they be allowed to send representatives to talk to university authorities. After several students were arrested, there was a march to the governor-general’s home to ask for the students’ release and to submit an address outlining their concerns to the tsar. There they were set upon by regular policemen, gendarmes in disguise, and shopkeepers who had been told that the students were opposed to the emancipation. Herzen was troubled by support for the government’s repressive measures among university administrators and a number of once-liberal professors like Sergey Solovyov and Boris Chicherin. Understanding that this marked a further break with his former acquaintances in Moscow, Academic Moscow 159 Herzen claimed that he wrote this article with tears in his eyes, but that some things were more sacred to him than any person. Kavelin sent a letter from Paris, saying that the article told the truth and that “for us, Moscow is a cemetery” (Let 3:290, 296).  Academic Moscow [1862] We have received three additional letters about Moscow University—dark, sad letters... Let them mock us for having a humane heart, but we will not hide the deep pain with which we read these letters. We do not slander ourselves with either feelings or a lack of feelings. The memory of Moscow University and our Moscow circle is very dear to us. We preserve a feeling of reverence for the friends of youth and for our Moscow alma mater. We spent the most sacred moments of youth in its auditoriums, and we endured all the insults of Nicholaevan despotism. [. . .] It is there that the idea of struggle to which we have remained faithful first formed and was strengthened. From there we dispersed to various places of exile and there we gathered...