A Herzen Reader

57. I. Kelsiev and N. Utin [1863]

I. Kelsiev and N. Utin 207 6. Herzen notes here that this means to shoot without justification, as had occurred with an unfortunate Jew in Odessa convicted of arson two years earlier. In the case of the Kazan group linked to the false manifesto, arrests were made in April and May 1863 and the accused were handed over to a military court; four ringleaders were executed in 1864, one more in 1865, while other participants were sentenced to hard labor.  57  The Bell, No. 169, August 15, 1863. Ivan I. Kelsiev (1841–1864) was an auditor at Moscow University and an active participant in the student demonstrations of October 1861 that included a march to the home of Governor-General Tuchkov. As one of a three-student delegation hoping to negotiate with Tuchkov, Kelsiev was arrested, exiled to Perm, then arrested once more on suspicion of involvement in revolutionary propaganda, including articles intended for publication in The Bell. Held in a private dwelling in Moscow while awaiting sentencing, Kelsiev escaped to Constantinople with the help of Land and Liberty, only to die the following year. Nikolay I. Utin (1841–1883), leader of the student movement at St. Petersburg University, was arrested in fall 1861 and held for several months. After his father successfully lobbied for his release, Utin joined Land and Liberty in 1862, but escaped to London when he learned that the police planned to arrest him again; after a search of his apartment, he was tried and sentenced to death in absentia . He later served as secretary for the Russian section of the First International. In this article, Herzen frequently employs puns in referring to jails and to Russia as a whole.  I. Kelsiev and N. Utin [1863] Two energetic representatives of university youth—from two very different sides—have been saved from the St. Petersburg government’s persecution. I. Kelsiev, the brother of the publisher of Old Believer anthologies, was arrested in connection with the Moscow student affair and sent to Verkhoture . From there he was sent for questioning in the matter of Argiropulo and Zaichnevsky.1 Argiropulo died in prison, and Zaichnevsky was sentenced to hard labor. Kelsiev was sentenced to six months of incarceration, after which he was to continue his exile in Verkhoture. [. . .] He preferred— and very wisely—to leave the private dwelling in which he was held, and then the common prison in which the whole of Russia is confined. He is now abroad. N. Utin was at St. Petersburg University, and his name, like that of Kelsiev , is well known to our readers. He was among the instigators of the 208 A Herzen Reader Petersburg University demonstrations, was held in the Peter Paul Fortress and, when faced with a new arrest, decided to leave Russia. We enthusiastically welcome them to Europe. Note Source: “I. Kel’siev i N. Utin,” Kolokol, l. 169, August 15, 1863; 17:234, 446–47. 1. Perakl E. Argiropulo and Petr G. Zaichnevsky were student leaders in Moscow, arrested in 1861 along with other students, on suspicion of illegally printing forbidden texts and revolutionary decrees. Argiropulo died in a prison hospital in 1862; Zaichnevsky was sent to hard labor for a year, and then into Siberian exile.  58  The Bell, No. 169, August 15, 1863. Herzen cannot rest while journalism in Russia is supporting the bloody work of the state. He wrote to Bakunin that “however vile the government was, journalism and society were even more vile” with dinners and toasts for the worst of the lot, Muravyov and Katkov (Let 3:532).  Gallows and Journals [1863] We will no longer take note of political killings carried out by the Russian government, nor provide excerpts from Russian newspapers. Executions have become part of the daily routine in our country. Since Peter I practiced doing this with his own hands, there has been nothing like it in Russia, even in the time of Biron1 or Paul I. We turn away in shame and sorrow from the gallows and their daily lists. The year 1863 will remain noteworthy in the history of Russian journalism and in the history of our development as a whole. The heroic era of our literature2 has ended. Since the university events and the Petersburg fire, it has taken a new turn: it has become official and officious,3 denunciations have appeared along with demands for unheard of punishments, etc. The government, while winning over and encouraging favorable journals by all available...