A Herzen Reader

The success of The Polestar has far exceeded our expectations, and allows us to hope for a positive reception for its traveling companion.

Nothing needs to be said about its political tendency; it is the same as The Polestar, the same one that moves with constancy through our whole life. Everywhere, in all matters, to be on the side of freedom against coer­cion, the side of reason against prejudice, the side of science against fanati­cism, and the side of advancing peoples against backward governments. These are our general doctrines.

In our attitude toward Russia, we passionately wish, with all the strength of our love, with all the force of our uttermost belief, that at last the old and unnecessary swaddling clothes that hinder her powerful development would fall away. For that purpose, now, as in 1855, we consider as the first necessary, unavoidable, and urgent step:

freedom of expression from censorship freedom of the serfs from the landowners freedom from corporal punishment.

However, not limiting ourselves to these questions, The Bell, dedicated exclusively to Russian questions, will ring out from whatever touches it— absurd decrees or the foolish persecution of religious dissidents, theft by high officials or the senate's ignorance. The comical and the criminal, the evil and the ignorant—all of these come under The Bell.

For that reason we turn to our fellow countrymen, who share our love for Russia, and ask them not only to listen to our Bell but to take their own turn in ringing it.

The first issue will appear around the ist of June.

London, April 13, 1857

It will be sold at Trubner and Co, 60, Paternoster Row, London (Price 6 pence)

Note

Source: "Kolokol. Pribavochnye listy k Poliarnoi zvezde," Poliarnaia zvezda, kn. 3, 1857; i2:357-58, 557.

i. "I summon the living!" From the epigraph to Friedrich Schiller's 1798 "Song of the Bell" (for more on this quotation, see the introduction). The Dostoevsky quote is from the translation of the novel by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (New York: Far- rar, Straus and Giroux, 1990), 744.

♦ 10

The Bell, No. i, July i, i857. The epigraph was a poem by Nikolay Ogaryov about the years of enforced silence in Russia, which are coming to an end as all its bells sound forth. Ac­cording to Herzen, Ogaryov convinced him to undertake this new project (Gertsen, So- branie sochinenii, 27:bk. i, 265). This preface outlines the publication's direction, which Herzen hoped would be acceptable to the widest possible circles, including the new tsar, although he indicates some impatience with the slow pace of change during the two years since Alexander II ascended the throne. The political demands mentioned com­prise the essential points of his program, and he frequently returned to this list in sub­sequent articles. Sections that appeared in the previous document are not repeated here.

A Preface to The Bell

[1857]

[. . . ] The appearance of a new Russian organ which serves as a supplement to The Polestar is not a chance occurrence that depends on the whim of a single person, but the answer to a demand: we must publish it.

To explain this I must remind you of the short history of our printing press.

The Russian Press, founded in 1853 in London, was a form of inquiry. In founding it, I addressed our fellow countrymen with an appeal. [. . .]¹

[. . .] While awaiting what was to come, I began printing my own works and short pieces written by others. There was no response, or, worse, the only thing that reached me was censure, fearful babbling, and careful whis­pers telling me that publishing abroad would be dangerous, that it might be compromising and cause a great deal of harm; many people close to me shared that opinion. This frightened me.

The war came. At a time when Europe turned its greedy attention to everything Russian and bought up the entire press runs of my French bro­chures,² and the translation of my Notes into English and German quickly sold out—not even ten Russian books were sold. They lay in piles at the printer's or were given away at our expense, and, what is more, to no effect.

Propaganda was just beginning then to be an active force that could pay its own way; without that it is strained, unnatural, and can only serve a party function, but more often calls forth a quickly developed sympathy, which pales and withers as soon as the sounds of the words cease.