Petrashevsky's circle was opened c. Circle M.V.

Petrashevsky's circle became the most significant organization of Russian utopian socialists. It began to be created in the autumn of 1845. On behalf of the chief leader - M.V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky - its participants were called Petrashevites. The circle included officials, officers, teachers, writers, publicists and translators.

Since the spring of 1846, meetings in Petrashevsky's house have become quite systematic, a certain day was chosen - Friday. Initially, there were few participants, no more than 10-15 people, but it was the color of the then intelligent youth of St. Petersburg.

In the first period (1845-1846) among the visitors are known: M.E. Saltykov - the future famous satirist Saltykov-Shchedrin, and then still a novice writer; V.N. Maikov, editor of the first issue of the Dictionary of Foreign Words, talented critic and publicist, propagandist early works Dostoevsky; A.P. Balasoglo, poet, prose writer, essayist, one of Petrashevsky's closest friends; A.N. Pleshcheev, already then a well-known poet, the author of a kind of anthem for the radical youth of the 40s - “Forward! without fear and doubt ... "; V.A. Milyutin, a progressive scientist and publicist, an employee of Otechestvennye Zapiski and Sovremennik, a friend of Saltykov and Maikov; A.V. Khanykov, a student of St. Petersburg University, dismissed for unreliability in 1847, one of the first ideological teachers N.G. Chernyshevsky; N.Ya. Danilevsky, a young naturalist and philosopher.

Petrashevsky's "Fridays" gained great fame in the capital, several hundred people visited them: officers, officials, teachers ... Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Maikov and others were there. At first, these were friendly parties, then elements of an organizational meeting appeared at them: a chairman, a bell, reading pre-prepared abstracts. Fridays visitors, leaving for work in the provinces, collected the same mugs there.

Petrashevsky consciously treated his activities as propaganda of revolutionary ideas, he called himself "the oldest propagator of socialism." He also developed the concept of preparing a revolution: first propaganda, then the creation secret society and finally the uprising. All links of the state apparatus, the whole system were criticized by the Petrashevites: “The word official is almost the same as a swindler or a robber, an officially recognized thief.” On legislation: "Laws are inconsistent, stupid, contradictory." political ideal Petrashevists was a republican structure with a unicameral parliament at the head of the legislative branch and electiveness to all government posts. They were in favor of federalism. future Russia, in which the peoples will be given broad autonomy: "The internal government should be based on the laws, customs and mores of the people."

All Petrashevists strongly condemned serfdom, and the liberation of the peasants was considered the most important task. They saw the ideal of a political system in the republic and outlined a program of broad democratic reforms. In 1848 M.V. Petrashevsky creates the "Project for the Liberation of the Peasants", proposing direct, gratuitous and unconditional liberation of them with the allotment of land that they cultivated. The radical part of the Petrashevists came to the conclusion that there was an urgent need for an uprising, the driving force of which was to be the peasants and mining workers of the Urals.

The ideas of the Petrashevites found a fairly complete expression in their literary work. The first poet of the circle was A.N. Pleshcheev, author of the collection "Poems" (1846), the poetic manifesto of the Petrashevites. At the same time, V. Maikov explained in the Notes of the Fatherland the meaning of Pleshcheev's lyrics, associated with the Lermontov tradition in developing the theme of the poet-prophet, the theme of the wanderer, the prisoner; Fourierist motives were also found in it (the preaching of universal happiness, the condemnation of inequality, the contradictions of wealth and poverty, " unequal marriage" etc.). Lermontov's influence is also characteristic of the poems of A.A. Petrashevets. Palm, who combined social and utopian motifs with an appeal to folklore themes. In numerous translations by S.F. Durov (from O. Barbier, V. Hugo and others), imbued with civic pathos, his democratic ideals are embodied. The ideological influence of the circle of Petrashevists was also reflected in the work of some poets who, on the whole, were far from the advanced movement of the 40s: A.N. Maykov - the author of the poems "Two Fates" and "Mashenka", A.A. Grigoriev, who wrote a cycle of revolutionary and pathetic poems during a short period of communication with the circle (“Farewell to St. Petersburg”, “When the bells solemnly sound”, etc.).

Participation in the circle is associated with the social motives of Dostoevsky's early prose (“Poor people”, etc.), the first stories of M.E. Saltykov (“Contradictions”, “Tangled Case”), who believed that participation in the circle and Belinsky’s “school of ideas” were the most important in his creative development. The socialist ideas of the 40s played a significant role in shaping the views of N.G. Chernyshevsky, who student years was a member of one of the circles associated with the Petrashevites. An active member of the circle A.V. Khanykov introduced him for the first time to Fourier's theory and to Feuerbach's views. The ideas of the Petrashevtsy (mainly V. Maikov) about the nature and purpose of art are reflected in Chernyshevsky's work "The Aesthetic Relationship of Art to Reality".

Literary critic V.G. Belinsky in his "Letter to Gogol" wrote: "Russia does not need sermons, but the awakening of feelings human dignity. Civilization, enlightenment, humanity should become the property of the Russian people. The “Letter”, which was distributed in hundreds of lists, was of great importance for the education of a new generation of radicals.

At the meetings, the issue of creating a secret printing house was discussed. The most radical part of the circle made plans for organizing a peasant uprising. Unlike their predecessors, the Petrashevites did not think about a military uprising, but about a "general explosion." They said: "In Russia, a revolution is possible only as a popular, peasant uprising and serfdom will be the reason for it."

Dostoevsky and the Petrashevsky Circle

In 1846, after breaking off relations with Belinsky and his associates, Dostoevsky entered the philosophical and literary circle of the Beketov brothers, whose members were Dostoevsky's friends - A. N. Pleshcheev, A. N. and V. N. Maikov, D. V. Grigorovich. In the spring of 1847, Dostoevsky met the utopian socialist M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky. A supporter of Fourier's utopian socialism, the organizer of the first socialist circle in Russia, a remarkable orator, a propagandist who amazed with his erudition on social issues, Petrashevsky quickly won Dostoevsky's sympathy. A peer of the writer, after graduating from the St. Petersburg "former Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum" he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had a library of banned books, which he willingly shared with friends. I took books from Petrashevsky and Fyodor Mikhailovich. These were mainly works on so-called Christian socialism and communism. Soon the young writer began attending Petrashevsky's "Fridays", and in the winter of 1848/49, the circle of the poet S.F. 19th century was one of the famous).

The members of the circle read at their meetings the works of the utopian socialists (especially C. Fourier), the articles of A. I. Herzen, discussed the ideas of socialism and criticized the existing Russian state build. The main topics of discussion at that time were serfdom, court and press reforms.

The Petrashevsky Society inherited the ideas of the Decembrists. But it consisted not only of the nobles, but also of the raznochintsy. What place did Dostoevsky occupy among them? The Russian geographer and botanist P.P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky wrote that “Dostoevsky never was and never could be a revolutionary.” The writer had too little in common with the Petrashevites. It is possible, as some researchers suggest, that, if it were not for the arrest, the writer eventually moved away from the Petrashevites, as he moved away from Belinsky. He was a supporter of the abolition of serfdom and the abolition of censorship of literature, but, unlike the rest of the Petrashevites, he was an ardent opponent of the violent overthrow of the existing government. Already after his arrest, during interrogation at the Investigative Commission on the case of the Petrashevites, Dostoevsky said this about the teachings of the utopian socialist C. Fourier: “Fourierism is a peaceful system: it charms the soul with its elegance ... It attracts to itself not with bilious attacks, but by inspiring love for humanity . There are no hatreds in this system... Fourierism does not believe in political reform: its reform is economic. It does not encroach on either the government or property ... "Nevertheless, in 1848 Dostoevsky entered a special secret society organized by the most radical Petrashevist N. A. Speshnev, "having a bias towards communism." Among the members of the circle, he was one of the most prominent. The poet Pleshcheev recognized him as "the most wonderful personality of all of ours." The revolutionary program of the Speshnev organization included the creation of an administrative committee of the most influential members of the circle and the organization of a secret printing house.

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To Gogol. One of these circles was going to Irinarch Vvedensky (see); young writers and students G. E. Blagosvetlov, A. P. Milyukov and N. G. Chernyshevsky belonged to the number of its participants. The well-known Vigel, who knew about these meetings and their close connection with the meetings at Petrashevsky, made a denunciation in this sense, and only the lack of accurate information from Liprandi, and most of all the intercession of Rostovtsev, who loved Vvedensky very much, saved the latter and his friends. In addition, many of those who were at the meetings near Petrashevsky himself escaped persecution, such as Engelson, later an active participant in Herzen's "Polar Star", a well-known theorist of the latest Slavophilism - Nikolai Danilevsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and for a long time Apollo Maykov, who diligently attended Petrashevsky Fridays. Finally, two first-class writers can be reckoned among P., who only did not fall into the number of defendants because they died before the start investigations: Valerian Maykov and Belinsky. Valerian Maikov was very friendly with Petrashevsky and took a great part in compiling Kirillov's Dictionary of Foreign Words, which was one of the largest corpus delicti process. Belinsky, for his letter to Gogol, would probably have been ranked among the most criminal category of "society", since many of the P. were only guilty of distributing this letter. The final verdict of the audience general regarding Pleshcheev is motivated as follows: "Pleshcheev, for distributing Belinsky's letter, to deprive him of all the rights of his estate and exile him to hard labor in factories for 4 years." One of the motives on the basis of which Golovinsky, Dostoevsky, Palm were awarded to death penalty, exhibited misreporting on the distribution of Belinsky's letter.

The Petrashevsky case has long been the subject of state secret. The very name of Belinsky was withdrawn from circulation and even in the first years of the reign of Alexander II was not pronounced directly in the press, but was replaced by the expression: "critic of the Gogol period." This secrecy, in connection with the severe punishment suffered by the participants in the “propaganda society”, created the perception of the Petrashevsky case as a serious one. political conspiracy, which was often put along with the Decembrists' conspiracy. Such an idea collapsed after the publication of documents related to the case of P. “Members of society,” Liprandi said in his report, “suggested to follow the path of propaganda that affects the masses. To this end, discussions took place in the meetings on how to arouse indignation against the government in all classes of the people, how to arm the peasants against the landlords, officials against the bosses, how to use the fanaticism of the schismatics, and in other classes to undermine and destroy all religious feelings, how to act in the Caucasus , in Siberia, in the Ostsee provinces, in Finland, in Poland, in Little Russia, where the minds were supposed to be already in fermentation from the seeds thrown by the works of Shevchenko (!). From all this I drew the conviction that there was not so much a petty and separate conspiracy as comprehensive general movement plan, upheaval and destruction».

In fact, however, the court turned out to be quite different. “Butashevich-Petrashevsky,” the report of the general-auditoriat says, “ever since 2010, he has been trying to instill the evil principles of liberalism in the younger generation.” Starting with Mr. Petrashevsky, “in certain days he gathered at his place teachers, writers, students and, in general, persons of different classes, whom he knew, and constantly aroused judgments that tended to condemn the existing in Russia government controlled". Not satisfied with this, at the end of the year, Petrashevsky conferred with Speshnev, Chernosvitov, Mombelli, Deboux, Lvov “on the establishment of a secret society called, as they themselves expressed it, a partnership or brotherhood of mutual assistance from progressives and people of advanced opinions that could move the civil life forward on new principles, through the exaltation of each other; however, this society, by members' disagreement, did not take place". So, people have never gone further than abstract reasoning, even in theory they could not agree on any organization. However, the court agreed with Liprandi in general assessment"society" and sentenced all its members to death. The harsh sentence was motivated solely by "criminal talk", "harmful ideas", "vile liberalism", as Mombelli put it in his penitential testimony. The "harmful thoughts" expressed at Petrashevsky's meetings boiled down to the following: On March 18, Yastrzhembsky delivered a speech that "was sprinkled with salt on the local officialdom." He also spoke with praise of Proudhon, but "he analyzed Lamartine from the worst side." Golovinsky at a meeting on April 1 "was distinguished by eloquence, impudence of expressions and the most malicious spirit, analyzing three main questions: liberation of the peasants, freedom of the printing press and the transformation of the judiciary. Kuzmin "took part in the debate about the same issues." Timkovsky, “speaking of his intention to bring a complaint to the government senate about his incorrect dismissal from service, added that he only wants to set an example for others, like him, who are dismissed from service, who lose their food along with the service.” Akhsharumov "said that the issues of legal proceedings and the release of peasants should be resolved on the same day." Grigoriev "took part in the debate on the liberation of the peasants." Durov, in the "session" on March 25, read his preface to the works of Khmelnitsky, which had been passed by the censors and therefore freely circulated in the book trade. “The whole society applauded. Durov complained that the censorship did not allow much to pass through, but Petrashevsky added: everyone should try to write in a similar spirit, because although the censorship will black out ten or twenty thoughts and ideas, although five will still remain.

[Full list of all participants in the Petrashevsky case:

1) title. owls. Mikhail Butashevich-Petrashevsky (27 years old), 2) landowner Kursk province Nikolai Speshnev (28 years old), 3) Lieutenant of the Life Guards. Moscow regiment Nikolai Mombelli (27 years old), 4) Lieutenant of the Life Guards. Horse Grenadier Regiment Nick. Grigoriev, 5) Staff Captain of the Life Guards. Chasseur regiment Fedor Lvov (25 years old), 6) student of St. Petersburg. University Pavel Filippov (24 years old), 7) Candidate of St. Petersburg. University Dmitry Akhsharumov (26 years old), 8) student of St. Petersburg. Alex University. Khanykov (24 years old), 9) an employee in the Asian Department of Const. Debu 1st (38 years old), 10) employed there by Hippol. Debu 2nd (25 years old), 11) employee there Nick. Koshkin (20 years old), 12) retired college acess. , writer Serg. Durov (aged 33), 13) retired lieutenant engineer, writer Fed. Dostoevsky (27 years old), 14) non-serving nobleman, writer Alexei Pleshcheev (23 years old), 15) title. owls. You. Golovinsky (20 years old), 16) teacher of the head. eng. learned. Felix Toll (26 years old), 17) assistant inspector in technologist. inst. Iv. Yastrzhembsky (34 years old), 18) Lieutenant of the Life Guards. Jaeger Regiment Alexander Palm (27 years old), 19) title. owls. Const. Timkovsky (35 years old), 20) retired. college secret Alex. Europeus (2? years old), 21) tradesman Pyotr Shaposhnikov (28 years old), 22) son of post. civil You. Katepev (19 years old), 23) retired. sub. (former police officer) Raf. Chernosvitov (39 years old).]

The Petrashevites were very fond of the ideas of the French social reformers, but there was nothing politically dangerous in this hobby, and, moreover, it was inherent in very many people. educated people of that time (see the memoirs of Panaev, Annenkov, Milyukov, Dostoevsky, Saltykov, Belinsky's letters, and many others). Conversations about Owen's New Lanark, Cabet's "Ikaria", Fourier's "phalansters", Proudhon, Louis Blanc were the predominant topic of heartfelt conversations, which had an undeniably platonic character. From social systems the interlocutors drew only a general humane lining, the desire to put the common good, truth and justice in the basis public life. They did not think about the arrangement of phalansters in Russia. A special position among P. occupied only three - Speshnev, Mombelli and Petrashevsky, and from a special military point of view - and Grigoriev. In the papers of Speshnev, a draft was found of the obligatory subscription of members of the alleged "Russian society", according to which, in case of need, they undertake to "sparing themselves to accept the full open participation in rebellion and fight. The court found that this project was an isolated case of Speshnev, about which even the head of the "conspiracy" - Petrashevsky, knew nothing. Mombelli's papers were found "in the highest degree of insolence against the sacred person of His Majesty." The importance of this circumstance was greatly increased by the fact that Mombelli was an officer. In terms of violation military discipline the author of the "Soldier's Conversation" Grigoriev was also guilty, although the "conversation" only stated those difficult conditions of the soldier's service of that time, the improvement of which is always put among the greatest merits of Emperor Alexander II. Do not testify to the seriousness of P.'s intentions and the testimony given by them during the investigation and trial - testimony that expresses, for the most part, repentance and regret. Only Petrashevsky himself, according to the commission of inquiry, “ one of the prisoners"was" impudent and arrogant" and announced "that, striving to achieve a complete, perfect reform of public life in Russia, I wanted to become the head of a rational movement among the Russian people"; but Petrashevsky was, as they say, "a restless man", did not want to accept pardon under the amnesty of Mr. exiled. And yet Petrashevsky himself, when the idea arose in the Durov circle of acquiring a secret lithograph to spread Fourierist views, strongly protested against such an intention, which was abandoned. As soon as the public atmosphere changed, Petrashevsky became a sincere friend of the government.

One of the main points of accusation against Petrashevsky was the Dictionary of Foreign Words he published (see above), freely passed by the censors and even dedicated to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. Passionately and captivatingly written, The Dictionary was intended to become something of a Voltaireian " Dictionnaire philosophique". His style, somewhat similar to a sermon, was generally in use in the forties under the influence of " Parols d'un croyant» Lamenne . The main aspiration of the dictionary is to show that the renewal of dilapidated forms of life is a necessary condition for any true human existence. The dictionary dreams of the harmony of social relations, of universal brotherhood and solidarity. The compilers of the dictionary are not fascinated by the constitution; in their words, "this vaunted government is nothing but an aristocracy of wealth." Equally hostile is the attitude of the dictionary towards capitalism. In general, the dictionary is a living reflection of the ideas that came to us from France in the forties. As in everything that came from P., there was nothing in him that threatened public peace. Summing up, one cannot help but conclude that the “propaganda society” was in fact society of liberal zhurfiksov. Dostoevsky quite rightly says in the "Diary of a Writer": "P.'s name is incorrect, because it is excessively big number in comparison with those standing on the scaffold, but exactly the same as us, P. remained completely untouched and undisturbed. True, they never knew Petrashevsky, but it was not at all in Petrashevsky that the point was in all this bygone history. P. were, in essence, only the pioneers of ideas that a few years later became an integral part of the government program. The court-martial charged over them found, however, that “the pernicious teachings that gave rise to unrest and rebellion throughout Western Europe and threatened to overthrow every order and well-being of the peoples, unfortunately, to some extent also resonated in our fatherland. A handful of completely insignificant people, mostly young and immoral, dreamed of the opportunity to trample on the most sacred rights of religion, law and property.

All defendants were sentenced to death by firing squad; but, taking into account various mitigating circumstances, including the repentance of all the defendants, the court considered it possible to petition for a reduction in their punishment, and Palmu even asked for complete forgiveness. The punishments were indeed mitigated: Petrashevsky was assigned hard labor without a term, Dostoevsky - hard labor for 4 years with return to privates, Durov - the same thing, Tolya - 2 years of hard labor, Pleshcheev - return to privates in the Orenburg line battalions, etc. Palm was transferred with the same rank to the army.

Despite this softening, the Petrashevskys had to endure, as Dostoevsky recalls with a shudder, "ten terrible, immensely terrible minutes of waiting for death." On December 22, they were brought from the Peter and Paul Fortress (where they spent 8 months in solitary confinement) to the Semyonovsky parade ground. The confirmation of the death warrant was read to them; a priest in a black robe approached with a cross in his hand, broke his sword over the head of the nobles; all but Palma were wearing death shirts. Petrashevsky, Mombelli and Grigoriev were blindfolded and tied to a post. The officer ordered the soldiers to aim ... One Kashkin, to whom the chief police officer Galakhov, who was standing next to him, managed to whisper that everyone would be pardoned, knew that all this was just a ceremony; the rest said goodbye to life and prepared for the transition to another world. Grigoriev, who was already somewhat damaged in his mind from solitary confinement, at that moment completely lost it. But then they hit the retreat; tied to a post, their eyes were untied and the verdict was read in the form in which it finally took place. Then everyone was sent back to the fortress, with the exception of Petrashevsky, who was immediately seated on the parade ground in a sleigh and sent straight to Siberia with a courier.

"Notes" by I.P. Liprandi in "Russian Antiquity" (1872, No. 7);
"Propaganda Society in the City" (Lits., 1875);
"New time", g. No. 1790;
Pleshcheev, in "Molva" (1881, No. 50);
Vuich, in "Order" (1881, no. 48);
Milyukov, in "Russian antiquity" (1881, No. 3,);
"Russian invalid", 1849, No. 276 (verdict);
Op. Miller, "Biography of Dostoevsky";
Dostoevsky, "A Writer's Diary";
V. I. Semevsky, “ Peasant question”(vol. II) and in the “Collection of Jurisprudence” (vol. I).

In Belletre. Petrashevsky’s case is presented in the form of the Petrashevsky case in Palm’s novel “Alexey Slobodin” and in “The Results of Life” by L. M. Kovalevsky (“Bulletin of Europe”, Nos. 1-3).

The article reproduced material from the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.

Petrashevtsy, a society of Petrashevites, a circle of Petrashevists, a group of youth that gathered in the 2nd half of the 40s. 19th century in St. Petersburg with M. V. Petrashevsky; utopian socialists and democrats, striving for the reorganization of autocratic and feudal Russia. P. stood at the very beginning of the process of formation of the revolutionary democratic camp, whose ideologists at that time were V. G. Belinsky and A. I. Herzen; with P. begins, according to V. I. Lenin, the history of the socialist intelligentsia in Russia (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 7, p. 438, approx.).

Meetings at Petrashevsky began in, from the autumn of 1845 - they became weekly ("Fridays"). They were visited by officials, teachers, writers, artists, students, officers (D. D. Akhsharumov, A. P. Balasoglo, V. A. Golovinsky, I. P. Grigoriev, I. M. and K. M. Debu, M M. and F. M. Dostoevsky, S. F. Durov, A. I. Europeus, N. S. Kashkin, F. N. Lvov, V. N. Maikov, A. P. Milyukov, V. A. Milyutin, N. A. Mombelli, A. I. Palm, A. N. Pleshcheev, M. E. Saltykov, N. A. Speshnev, F. G. Tol, P. N. Filippov, A. V. Khanykov, I. L. Yastrzhembsky and others). The social composition and ideology of P. reflected the characteristics transition period of the Russian liberation movement, when, in the conditions of the aggravation of the crisis of serfdom, the revolutionary spirit of the nobility gave way to the raznochinskaya. P. did not have a formalized organization and a developed program. Initially, the tasks of the circle were limited to self-education, acquaintance with the theories of materialism and utopian socialism. The extensive library of forbidden literature collected by Petrashevsky attracted P. The works of S. Fourier and L. Feuerbach enjoyed particular success. The first attempt to propagate the ideas of democracy and utopian socialism in wide circles was the publication of the Pocket Dictionary of Foreign Words (v. 1-2, 1845-46), undertaken by Petrashevsky with the participation of V. N. Maikov, R. R. Shtrandman and others. In 1848-49 under the influence of the Revolution in France and the aggravation of the internal situation in In Russia, revolutionary moods began to mature among P. Along with theoretical problems (the atheistic reports of Speshnev and Tolya, lectures by Yastrzhembsky on political economy and others) political issues began to be discussed on “Fridays”. At meetings in a narrower format (in the office of Petrashevsky, in the apartments of the brothers Deboux, Kashkin, Durov), the peasants determined their attitude to the expected peasant revolution. In the autumn of 1848, Petrashevsky and Speshnev tried to develop a plan to lead the peasant uprising, which was to begin in Siberia, from there - spread to areas with a long tradition of popular movements (the Urals, Volga, Don) and end with the overthrow of the tsar. In December 1848 - January 1849 at the "meetings of five" (Petrashevsky, Speshnev, Mombelli, Lvov, K. Debu) the question of creating a secret society, its program and tactics was discussed. Disagreements emerged over the immediate goals of the society between supporters of preparatory propaganda work and Speshnev, who stood for an immediate uprising. The idea of the need for an illegal organization was shared by many P. The question was raised of creating propaganda works for the people, criticizing the socio-political system of Russia. To this end, Milyukov wrote an adaptation of the "Words of a Believer" by F. Lamenne, denouncing the clergy, Grigoriev - "The Soldier's Conversation" about the disenfranchised position of the soldiers, Filippov - "The Ten Commandments" about the position of the serfs. Speshnev and Filippov were preparing equipment for an underground printing house. Belinsky’s Letter to Gogol, which was first read publicly in P.’s circle at a gala dinner in honor of Fourier, arranged on April 7, 1849, was also intended for publication. P. proclaimed themselves fighters for a socialist society, emphasizing the need for Russia to combine socialist propaganda with the struggle against autocracy .

At the denunciation of a provocateur , the Petrashevites were arrested on April 23 . Of the 123 people involved in the investigation, 22 were tried by a military court, 21 of them were sentenced to death. After the rite of preparation for the death penalty on December 22, 1849 on the Semyonovsky parade ground in St. Petersburg, upon the confirmation of Nicholas I, P. were exiled for various periods to hard labor, to prison companies and privates to the line troops. The Petrashevites were amnestied and by the beginning of the 60s. all (except Petrashevsky) restored in civil rights. Some P. returned to public struggle: they became publicists for Siberian newspapers (Petrashevsky, Speshnev, Lvov), defended the interests of the peasants during the Peasant Reform of 1861 (Europeus, Kashkin, Speshnev, Golovinsky), worked in the field of pedagogy (Tol).

The general prerequisites for the worldview of the Petrashevites (utopian socialism, democracy, enlightenment) did not exclude the complexity, diversity and inconsistency of their philosophical, socio-political and literary searches. In the field of philosophy, many Petrashevites were influenced by Belinsky and Herzen, some of them became materialists and atheists. Petrov's economic demands did not go beyond the tasks of Russia's bourgeois development. In favor of industrial development and the abolition of serfdom, the peasants disagreed on the conditions and methods for emancipating the peasants. The main revolutionary core of Poland, which connected the future of the country with the development peasant economy(Petrashevsky, Speshnev, Khanykov, Mombelli, and others), opposed by liberal fellow travelers (N. Ya. Danilevsky, A. P. Beklemishev, and others), who were oriented towards the development of the landlord economy. The most radical were the views of Speshnev, who considered himself a communist and demanded the nationalization of the land and the most important industries. Criticizing Western European capitalism, the communists recognized its relative progressiveness and saw in it the “threshold” of socialism. Following Fourier, P. believed that the socialist system corresponded to human nature, but, unlike Western European utopian socialists, they hoped to achieve it by revolutionary means. Most peasants did not share the theory of non-capitalist development put forward by Herzen, and only a few (Khanykov, Golovinsky, and others) attached particular importance to the peasant community. Socialism P. merged with democracy, was the ideological shell of their anti-serf struggle. P. understood that a radical restructuring of social relations in Russia is impossible without political reforms. They dreamed of a republic, or at least a constitutional monarchy. Unlike the Decembrists, P. considered the people main force revolution.

P.'s ideas were reflected in the poetic work of Pleshcheev, Palm, Akhsharumov, Durov, in the early prose of Dostoevsky ("Poor people", etc.), the first stories of Saltykov ("Contradictions", etc.), journal articles by V. N. Maikov and V. A. Milyutina. The influence of P.'s ideas affected the young L. N. Tolstoy, A. A. Grigoriev, and A. N. Maikov.

Petrashevtsy. Sat. materials, vol. 1-3, M.-L., 1926-28;
Case of the Petrashevites, vol. 1-3, M.-L., 1937-51;
Philosophical and socio-political works of the Petrashevites, M., 1953;
Petrashevsky poets, 2nd ed., L., 1957.

Literature

Semevsky V.I., M.V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky and Petrashevtsy, M., 1922;
Nifontov A. S., Russia in 1848, M., 1949;
Fedosov I. A., The revolutionary movement in Russia in the second quarter of the 19th century, M., 1958;
History of Russian economic thought, vol. 1, part 2, M., 1958;
Leikina-Svirskaya V. F., Petrashevtsy, M., 1965;
Usakina T. I., Petrashevtsy and the literary and social movement of the forties of the XIX century, [Saratov], 1965;
History of Philosophy in the USSR, vol. 2, M., 1968.

V. F. Leykina-Svirskaya, E. M. Filatova.

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Meeting participants. Circles close to the Petrashevites

In the history of 19th-century literature, the so-called Petrashevsky affair, or Petrashevists, occupies a prominent place, because so many writers and scientists did not participate in any of the Russian political processes. In addition to Petrashevsky himself, who published the wonderful Dictionary of Foreign Words under the pseudonym Kirillov, Dostoevsky, Pleshcheev, Palm, Durov, Tol, the chemist F. Lvov, the hygienist D. D. Akhsharumov were involved - they were directly involved, because they were on Fridays of Petrashevsky and were rewritten there.

But the circle of Petrashevsky, through its individual members (Durov, mainly), stood in close connection with many others, where they argued in exactly the same spirit about the oppression of censorship, about the disgrace of serfdom, about the venality of the bureaucracy, where the theories of Cabet were read and commented with passionate interest , Fourier, Proudhon, and, finally, Belinsky's letter to Gogol was listened to with enthusiasm.

One of these circles met with Irinarkh Vvedensky; young writers and students G. E. Blagosvetlov, A. P. Milyukov and N. G. Chernyshevsky belonged to the number of its participants. The well-known memoirist F. F. Vigel, who knew about these meetings and their close connection with the meetings at Petrashevsky, made a denunciation in this sense, and only the lack of accurate information from Liprandi, and most of all the intercession of Rostovtsev, who loved Vvedensky very much, saved the latter and his friends .

In addition, many of those who were at the meetings near Petrashevsky himself escaped persecution, such as V. A. Engelson, later an active participant in Herzenov's "Polar Star", a well-known theorist of Slavophilism - Nikolai Danilevsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and for a long time zealously Apollo Maykov, who visited Petrashevsky on Fridays.

Finally, two first-class writers can be reckoned among the Petrashevskys, who only did not fall into the number of defendants because they died before the start of the investigation: Valerian Maykov and Belinsky. Valerian Maikov was very friendly with Petrashevsky and took a great part in compiling Kirillov's Dictionary of Foreign Words, which was one of the largest corpus delicti of the process.

List of Petrashevites

title. owls. Mikhail Butashevich-Petrashevsky (27 years old),
landowner of the Kursk province Nikolai Speshnev (28 years old),
lieutenant l.-gv. Moscow regiment Nikolai Mombelli (27 years old)
lieutenant l.-gv. Horse Grenadier Regiment Nick. Grigoriev
staff captain l.-gv. Jaeger Regiment Fyodor Lvov (25 years old)
student St. Petersburg. University Pavel Filippov (24 years old)
candidate St. Petersburg. University Dmitry Akhsharumov (26 years old)
student St. Petersburg. Alex University. Khanykov (24 years old)
employee in the Asian Department of Const. Debu 1st (38 years old)
employee there Ippol. Debu 2nd (25 years old)
employee there Nick. Kashkin (20 years old)
ret. college assistant, writer Serg. Durov (33 years old)
retired lieutenant engineer, writer Fed. Dostoevsky (27 years old)
non-serving nobleman, writer Alexei Pleshcheev (23 years old)
title. owls. You. Golovinsky (20 years old)
main teacher eng. learned. Felix Tol (26 years old)
assistant inspector in technologist. inst. Iv. Yastrzhembsky (34 years old)
lieutenant l.-gv. Jaeger Regiment Alexander Palm (27 years old)
title. owls. Const. Timkovsky (35 years old)
ret. college secret Alex. Europeanus (2? years old)
tradesman Pyotr Shaposhnikov (28 years old)
son of honor civil You. Katepev (19 years old)
ret. sub. (former police officer) Rafail Alexandrovich Chernosvitov (39 years old).

Denunciation of Liprandi

The Petrashevsky case was a state secret for a long time. The very name of Belinsky was withdrawn from circulation and even in the first years of the reign of Alexander II was not pronounced directly in the press, but was replaced by the expression: "critic of the Gogol period." This secrecy, in connection with the severe punishment suffered by the participants in the "propaganda society", created the idea of the Petrashevsky case as a serious political conspiracy, which was often put along with the Decembrists' conspiracy. This idea collapsed after the publication of documents related to the Petrashevsky case.

Among these documents important role played the report of I.P. Liprandi, who, on behalf of the Minister of the Interior, watched Petrashevsky's circle for more than a year and presented lists of people for arrest.

“Members of society,” Liprandi said in his report, “suggested to follow the path of propaganda that affects the masses. To this end, discussions took place in the meetings on how to arouse indignation against the government in all classes of the people, how to arm the peasants against the landlords, officials against the bosses, how to use the fanaticism of the schismatics, and in other classes to undermine and destroy all religious feelings, how to act in the Caucasus , in Siberia, in the Ostsee provinces, in Finland, in Poland, in Little Russia, where the minds were supposed to be already in fermentation from the seeds thrown by the writings of Shevchenko (!). From all this I drew the conviction that there was not so much a petty and separate conspiracy as an all-encompassing plan for a general movement, upheaval and destruction. In fact, however, the court turned out to be quite different.

“Butashevich-Petrashevsky,” it is said in the report of the audience general, ““even since 1841 he tried to instill the evil principles of liberalism in the younger generation.” in general, people of different classes and constantly aroused judgments that tended to condemn the state administration existing in Russia.

Not satisfied with this, at the end of 1848 Petrashevsky conferred with Speshnev, Chernosvitov, Mombelli, Deboux, Lvov “on the establishment of a secret society called, as they themselves expressed it, a partnership or brotherhood of mutual assistance from progressives and people of advanced opinions that could move civic life forward on new principles, by elevating each other; however, this society, due to the disagreement of the members, did not take place. So, people have never gone further than abstract reasoning, even in theory they could not agree on any organization.

Nevertheless, the court agreed with Liprandi in the general assessment of the "society" and sentenced all its participants to death. The harsh sentence was motivated solely by "criminal talk", "harmful ideas", "vile liberalism", as Mombelli put it in his repentant testimony.

Political disputes of the Petrashevites

The "harmful thoughts" expressed at Petrashevsky's meetings boiled down to the following: On March 18, Yastrzhembsky delivered a speech that "was sprinkled with salt on the local officialdom." He also spoke with praise of Proudhon, but "he analyzed Lamartine from the worst side." At a meeting on April 1, Golovinsky "distinguished himself by his eloquence, boldness of expression and the most malicious spirit, analyzing three main questions: the emancipation of the peasants, freedom of printing, and the transformation of the judiciary." Kuzmin "took part in the debate about the same issues." Timkovsky, “speaking of his intention to bring a complaint to the government senate about his improper dismissal from service, added that he only wants to set an example for others, like him, who are retired from service, who lose their food along with the service.” Akhsharumov "said that the issues of legal proceedings and the release of peasants should be resolved on the same day." Grigoriev "took part in the debate on the liberation of the peasants." Durov, in the “session” on March 25, read his preface to the works of Khmelnitsky, which was passed by the censors and therefore freely circulated in the book trade. “The whole society applauded. Durov complained that the censorship did not allow much to pass through, but Petrashevsky added: everyone should try to write in a similar spirit, because although the censorship will black out ten or twenty thoughts and ideas, although five will still remain.

Petrashevites and utopian socialism

Only three occupied a special position among the Petrashevskys - Speshnev, Mombelli and Petrashevsky, and from a special military point of view - Grigoriev. In the papers of Speshnev, a draft was found of the obligatory subscription of members of the alleged "Russian society", according to which, in case of need, they undertake to "not sparing themselves to take full open participation in the uprising and the fight."

The court found that this project was an isolated case of Speshnev, about which even the head of the "conspiracy" - Petrashevsky, knew nothing. Mombelli's papers were found "in the highest degree of insolence against the sacred person of His Majesty." The importance of this circumstance was greatly increased by the fact that Mombelli was an officer. From the point of view of violating military discipline, the author of the “Soldier's Conversation” Grigoriev was also guilty, although the “conversation” only stated those difficult conditions of the soldier's service of that time, the improvement of which is always ranked among the greatest merits of Emperor Alexander II. The testimony given by them during the investigation and trial does not testify to the seriousness of the intentions of the Petrashevtsy - testimony that expresses, for the most part, repentance and regret. Only Petrashevsky himself, according to the commission of inquiry, "one of all the prisoners" was "impudent and insolent" and announced "that, striving to achieve a complete, complete reform of public life in Russia, he wanted to become the head of a rational movement among the Russian people"; but Petrashevsky was, as they say, "a restless man", did not want to accept pardon under the amnesty of 1856, insisted on a review of the case, and even in the midst of new trends managed to turn against himself such a person as Count Muravyov-Amursky, who was extremely mild towards political exile.

And yet Petrashevsky himself, when the idea arose in the Durov circle of acquiring a secret lithograph to spread Fourierist views, strongly protested against such an intention, which was abandoned. As soon as the public atmosphere changed, Petrashevsky became a sincere friend of the government.

"Dictionary of foreign words"

One of the main points of accusation against Petrashevsky was the Dictionary of Foreign Words published by him (see above), freely passed by the censors and even dedicated to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. Passionately and captivatingly written, Dictionary was meant to be something like Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique. His style, somewhat similar to a sermon, was generally in use in the forties under the influence of Lamennay's Paroles d'un croyant. The main aspiration of the dictionary is to show that the renewal of dilapidated forms of life is a necessary condition for any true human existence. The dictionary dreams of the harmony of social relations, of universal brotherhood and solidarity. The compilers of the dictionary are not fascinated by the constitution; in their words, "this vaunted government is nothing but an aristocracy of wealth." Equally hostile is the attitude of the dictionary towards capitalism.

In general, the dictionary is a living reflection of the ideas that came to Russia from France in the forties.

Dostoevsky says in The Writer's Diary: “P.'s name is incorrect, because an excessively large number in comparison with those standing on the scaffold, but exactly the same as us, P. remained completely untouched and undisturbed. True, they never knew Petrashevsky, but it was not at all in Petrashevsky that the point was in all this bygone history. P. were, in essence, only the pioneers of ideas that a few years later became an integral part of the government program.

Sentence

The military court dressed over them, however, found that “the pernicious doctrines that gave rise to unrest and rebellion throughout Western Europe and threatening to overthrow every order and well-being of the peoples, unfortunately, to some extent also responded in our fatherland. A handful of completely insignificant people, mostly young and immoral, dreamed of the opportunity to trample on the most sacred rights of religion, law and property.

All defendants were sentenced to death - shooting; but, taking into account various mitigating circumstances, including the repentance of all the defendants, the court considered it possible to petition for a reduction in their punishment, and Palmu even asked for complete forgiveness. The punishments were really mitigated: Petrashevsky was assigned hard labor without a term, Dostoevsky - hard labor for 4 years with return to the privates, Durov - the same thing, Tolya - 2 years of hard labor, Chernosvitov - exile to the Kexholm fortress, on the Vuoksa River, Pleshcheev - return to the privates in the Orenburg line battalions, etc. Palm was transferred with the same rank to the army.

mock execution

Despite this softening, the Petrashevites had to endure, as Dostoevsky recalls with a shudder, "ten terrible, immensely terrible minutes of waiting for death."

On December 22, they were brought from Peter and Paul Fortress(where they spent 8 months in solitary confinement) on the Semyonovsky parade ground. The confirmation of the death warrant was read to them; a priest in a black robe approached with a cross in his hand, they broke a sword over the head of the nobles; all but Palm were put on death shirts. Petrashevsky, Mombelli and Grigoriev were blindfolded and tied to a post. The officer ordered the soldiers to aim ... One Kashkin, to whom the chief police officer Galakhov, who was standing next to him, managed to whisper that everyone would be pardoned, knew that all this was just a ceremony; the rest said goodbye to life and prepared for the transition to another world.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Petrashevtsy- Convicted in 1849, participants in meetings with Mikhail Butashevich-Petrashevsky. Being all "free-thinkers" in one way or another, the Petrashevites were heterogeneous in their views. Few had intentions of a directly revolutionary nature, some were engaged in the study and propaganda of the socio-utopian thought of the 19th century (contemporaries often called the Petrashevists “communists”). A significant part of the convicts were punished only for disseminating or for not informing about meetings. Petrashevsky's circle went down in history, among other things, because of the participation of the young Dostoevsky in it and because of the unusual rite of staging preparations for a public execution, which amazed contemporaries, which the convicts underwent, who did not know that they had been pardoned.

Meeting participants. Circles close to the Petrashevites

Finally, two writers can be reckoned among the Petrashevskys, who only because they did not fall into the number of defendants because they died before the start of the investigation: Valerian Maykov and Belinsky. Valerian Maikov was very friendly with Petrashevsky and took a great part in compiling Kirillov's Dictionary of Foreign Words, which was one of the largest corpus delicti of the process.

In general, the dictionary is a living reflection of the ideas that came to Russia from France in the forties.

Dostoevsky says in The Diary of a Writer: “The name Petrashevtsy is incorrect, for an excessively large number in comparison with those standing on the scaffold, but exactly the same as us, P. remained completely untouched and undisturbed. True, they never knew Petrashevsky, but it was not at all in Petrashevsky that the point was in all this bygone history. The Petrashevites were, in essence, only pioneers of ideas, which in a few years became an integral part of the government program.

Sentence

The court-martial charged over them found, however, that “the pernicious teachings, which gave rise to unrest and rebellion throughout Western Europe and threatened to overthrow every order and welfare of the peoples, echoed to some extent in our fatherland. A handful of completely insignificant people, mostly young and immoral, dreamed of the opportunity to trample on the most sacred rights of religion, law and property.

All defendants were sentenced to death - shooting; but, taking into account various mitigating circumstances, including the repentance of all the defendants, the court considered it possible to petition for a reduction in their punishment, and Palm even asked for a complete forgiveness. The punishments were really mitigated: Petrashevsky was assigned hard labor without a term, Dostoevsky - hard labor for 4 years with return to the privates, Durov - the same thing, Tolya - 2 years of hard labor, Chernosvitov - exile to the Kexholm fortress, on the Vuoksa River, Pleshcheev - return to the privates in the Orenburg line battalions, etc. Palm was transferred with the same rank to the army.

mock execution

Despite this softening, the Petrashevites had to endure, as Dostoevsky recalls with a shudder, "ten terrible, immensely terrible minutes of waiting for death."

On December 22, 1849 (January 3, 1850), they were brought from the Peter and Paul Fortress (where each of them spent 8 months in solitary confinement) to the Semyonovsky parade ground. The confirmation of the death warrant was read to them; a priest in a black robe approached with a cross in his hand, they broke a sword over the head of the nobles; all but Palm were put on death shirts. Petrashevsky, Mombelli and Grigoriev were blindfolded and tied to a post. The officer ordered the soldiers to aim ... One Kashkin, to whom the chief police officer Galakhov, who was standing next to him, managed to whisper that everyone would be pardoned, knew that all this was just a ceremony; the rest said goodbye to life and prepared for the transition to another world.

Grigoriev, who was already somewhat damaged in his mind from solitary confinement, at that moment completely lost it. But then they hit the end; tied to a post, their eyes were untied and the verdict was read in the form in which it finally took place. Then everyone was sent back to the fortress, with the exception of Petrashevsky, who was immediately seated on the parade ground in a sledge and sent straight to Siberia with a courier.

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Literature

Semevsky V.I. Mikhail Vasilievich Butashevich-Petrashevsky and the "Petrashevites". Part I // Collection. op. T. II. M.: Zadruga, 1922. 217 p.
Petrashevites in the memoirs of contemporaries: Sat. mat-lov. Comp. P. E. Shchegolev. M.; L.: Gosizdat, 1926. 295 p.
Philosophical and socio-political works of the Petrashevites. Ed. V. Evgrafova. M.: Gospolitizdat, 1953. 824 p.
Leikina-Svirskaya V. R. Petrashevtsy. M.: Thought, 1965. 166 p.
Petrashevsky about atheism, religion and church: Sat. Comp. and ed. V. R. Leykina-Svirskaya. M.: Thought, 1986. 269 p.
Egorov B.F. Petrashevtsy. L.: Nauka, 1988. 236 p.
Dulov A.V. Petrashevites in Siberia. Irkutsk: Publishing House of Irkutsk University, 1996. 300 p.
;
"The Propaganda Society in 1849" (Lits., 1875);
"New time", 1881 No. 1790;
Pleshcheev A. N., in "Molva" (1881, No. 50);
Vuich, in "Order" (1881, no. 48);
Milyukov, in "Russian antiquity" (1881, No. 3,);
"Russian invalid", 1849, No. 276 (verdict);
Op. Miller. Biography of Dostoevsky;
Dostoevsky F. M., "A Writer's Diary";
Semevsky V.I., "The Peasant Question" (vol. II) and in the "Collection of Jurisprudence" (vol. I).

In Belletre. Petrashevsky’s case is presented in the form of the Petrashevsky case in Palm’s novel “Alexey Slobodin” and in “The Results of Life” by P. M. Kovalevsky (“Bulletin of Europe”, 1883, No. 1-3).

Notes

An excerpt characterizing the Petrashevtsy

Napoleon started the war with Russia because he could not help coming to Dresden, he could not help being misled by honors, he could not help but put on a Polish uniform, he could not help but succumb to the enterprising impression of a June morning, he could not refrain from a flash of anger in the presence of Kurakin and then Balashev.
Alexander refused all negotiations because he personally felt offended. Barclay de Tolly tried the best way manage the army in order to fulfill your duty and earn the glory of the great commander. Rostov rode to attack the French because he could not resist the desire to ride on a level field. And so precisely, due to their personal characteristics, habits, conditions and goals, all those innumerable persons who participated in this war acted. They were afraid, conceited, rejoiced, indignant, reasoned, believing that they knew what they were doing and what they were doing for themselves, and all were involuntary tools of history and carried out work hidden from them, but understandable to us. Such is the unchanging fate of all practical workers, and the more they are placed in the human hierarchy, it is not freer.
Now the figures of 1812 have long since left their places, their personal interests have vanished without a trace, and only the historical results of that time are before us.
But suppose that the people of Europe, under the leadership of Napoleon, had to go into the depths of Russia and die there, and all the self-contradictory, senseless, cruel activity of the people - participants in this war, becomes understandable to us.
Providence forced all these people, striving to achieve their personal goals, to contribute to the fulfillment of one huge result, about which not a single person (neither Napoleon, nor Alexander, nor even less any of the participants in the war) had the slightest expectation.
Now it is clear to us what was the cause of the death of the French army in 1812. No one will argue that the cause of the death of Napoleon's French troops was, on the one hand, their entry at a later time without preparation for a winter campaign deep into Russia, and on the other hand, the character that the war assumed from the burning of Russian cities and inciting hatred for the enemy in the Russian people. But then, not only did no one foresee the fact (which now seems obvious) that only in this way could the eight hundred thousandth, the best in the world and led by the best commander, die in a collision with twice as weak, inexperienced and led by inexperienced commanders - the Russian army; Not only did no one foresee this, but all efforts on the part of the Russians were constantly directed towards preventing that which alone could save Russia, and on the part of the French, despite the experience and so-called military genius of Napoleon, all efforts were directed towards this. to stretch out to Moscow at the end of the summer, that is, to do the very thing that was supposed to destroy them.
IN historical writings about 1812, French authors are very fond of talking about how Napoleon felt the danger of stretching his line, how he was looking for battles, how his marshals advised him to stop in Smolensk, and give other similar arguments proving that then the danger of the campaign was already understood. ; and Russian authors are even more fond of talking about how, from the beginning of the campaign, there was a plan for the Scythian war to lure Napoleon into the depths of Russia, and they attribute this plan to some Pful, some to some Frenchman, some to Tolya, some to Emperor Alexander himself, pointing to notes, projects and letters that actually contain hints of this course of action. But all these allusions to the foresight of what happened, both on the part of the French and on the part of the Russians, are now put forward only because the event justified them. If the event had not taken place, then these hints would have been forgotten, just as thousands and millions of opposite hints and assumptions are now forgotten, which were in use then, but turned out to be unjust and therefore forgotten. There are always so many assumptions about the outcome of each occurring event that, no matter how it ends, there will always be people who will say: “I said then that it would be so,” completely forgetting that among the countless assumptions there were made and completely opposite.
Assumptions about Napoleon's consciousness of the danger of stretching the line on the part of the Russians - about luring the enemy into the depths of Russia - obviously belong to this category, and historians can only at a great stretch attribute such considerations to Napoleon and his marshals and such plans to Russian military leaders. All facts completely contradict such assumptions. Not only during the entire war, the Russians had no desire to lure the French into the depths of Russia, but everything was done to stop them from their first entry into Russia, and not only Napoleon was not afraid of stretching his line, but he was glad how triumph, every step forward and very lazily, not like in his previous campaigns, he looked for battles.
At the very beginning of the campaign, our armies are slashed, and our only aim is to link them up, although there is no advantage in linking up armies in order to retreat and draw the enemy inland. The emperor is with the army to inspire it in defending every step of the Russian land, and not to retreat. A huge Drissa camp is being set up according to the plan of Pfuel and it is not supposed to retreat further. The sovereign reproaches the commander-in-chief for every step of retreat. Not only the burning of Moscow, but the admission of the enemy to Smolensk cannot even be imagined by the emperor’s imagination, and when the armies unite, the sovereign is indignant that Smolensk was taken and burned and not given before the walls of his general battle.
So the sovereign thinks, but Russian military leaders and all Russian people are even more indignant at the thought that ours are retreating into the interior of the country.
Napoleon, having cut the armies, moves inland and misses several cases of battle. In the month of August he is in Smolensk and thinks only about how he can go further, although, as we now see, this forward movement is obviously fatal for him.
The facts clearly show that neither Napoleon foresaw the danger in moving towards Moscow, nor did Alexander and the Russian military leaders then think about luring Napoleon, but thought about the opposite. The lure of Napoleon into the interior of the country did not happen according to someone else's plan (no one believed in the possibility of this), but came from the hardest game intrigues, goals, desires of people - participants in the war, who did not guess what should be, and what was the only salvation of Russia. Everything happens by accident. The armies are cut at the start of the campaign. We try to combine them with the obvious goal of giving battle and holding the enemy's advance, but even in this desire to unite, avoiding battles with the strongest enemy and involuntarily retreating at an acute angle, we lead the French to Smolensk. But it’s not enough to say that we are withdrawing at an acute angle because the French are moving between both armies - this angle is becoming even sharper, and we are moving even further because Barclay de Tolly, an unpopular German, is hated by Bagration (who has to become under his command ), and Bagration, commanding the 2nd Army, tries not to join Barclay for as long as possible, so as not to become under his command. Bagration does not join for a long time (although this is the main goal of all commanding persons) because it seems to him that on this march he puts his army in danger and that it is most advantageous for him to retreat to the left and south, harassing the enemy from the flank and rear and completing his army in Ukraine. And it seems that he invented it because he does not want to obey the hated and junior rank German Barclay.
The emperor is with the army to inspire it, and his presence and ignorance of what to decide on, and a huge number of advisers and plans destroy the energy of the actions of the 1st army, and the army retreats.
It is supposed to stop in the Dris camp; but unexpectedly Pauluchi, aiming for the commander-in-chief, with his energy acts on Alexander, and the whole plan of Pfuel is abandoned, and the whole thing is entrusted to Barclay. But since Barclay does not inspire confidence, his power is limited.
The armies are fragmented, there is no unity of the authorities, Barclay is not popular; but from this confusion, fragmentation and unpopularity of the German commander-in-chief, on the one hand, indecisiveness and avoidance of battle (which could not be resisted if the armies were together and Barclay were not the head), on the other hand, more and more resentment against the Germans and arousal of the patriotic spirit.
Finally, the sovereign leaves the army, and as the only and most convenient pretext for his departure, the idea is chosen that he needs to inspire the people in the capitals to excite people's war. And this trip of the sovereign and Moscow triples the strength of the Russian army.
The sovereign leaves the army in order not to hamper the unity of power of the commander in chief, and hopes that more decisive measures will be taken; but the position of the commanders of the armies is still more confused and weakened. Bennigsen, the Grand Duke and a swarm of adjutant generals remain with the army in order to monitor the actions of the commander in chief and excite him to energy, and Barclay, feeling even less free under the eyes of all these sovereign eyes, becomes even more cautious for decisive action and avoids battles.
Barclay stands for caution. The Tsarevich hints at treason and demands a general battle. Lubomirsky, Branitsky, Vlotsky and the like inflate all this noise so much that Barclay, under the pretext of delivering papers to the sovereign, sends the Poles adjutant generals to Petersburg and enters into an open struggle with Benigsen and the Grand Duke.
In Smolensk, finally, no matter how Bagration did not want it, the armies unite.
Bagration in a carriage drives up to the house occupied by Barclay. Barclay puts on a scarf, goes out to meet v reports to the senior rank of Bagration. Bagration, in the struggle of generosity, despite the seniority of the rank, submits to Barclay; but, having obeyed, agrees with him even less. Bagration personally, by order of the sovereign, informs him. He writes to Arakcheev: “The will of my sovereign, I can’t do it together with the minister (Barclay). For God's sake, send me somewhere to command a regiment, but I can't be here; and the whole main apartment is filled with Germans, so that it is impossible for a Russian to live, and there is no sense. I thought I truly served the sovereign and the fatherland, but in reality it turns out that I serve Barclay. I confess I don't want to." A swarm of Branicki, Winzingerode and the like poisons the relations of the commanders-in-chief even more, and even less unity comes out. They are going to attack the French in front of Smolensk. A general is sent to inspect the position. This general, hating Barclay, goes to his friend, the corps commander, and after spending a day with him, returns to Barclay and condemns on all counts the future battlefield, which he has not seen.
While there are disputes and intrigues about the future battlefield, while we are looking for the French, having made a mistake in their location, the French stumble upon Neverovsky's division and approach the very walls of Smolensk.
We must accept an unexpected battle in Smolensk in order to save our messages. The battle is given. Thousands are killed on both sides.
Smolensk is abandoned against the will of the sovereign and the whole people. But Smolensk was burned down by the inhabitants themselves, deceived by their governor, and the devastated inhabitants, setting an example for other Russians, go to Moscow, thinking only of their losses and inciting hatred for the enemy. Napoleon goes further, we retreat, and the very thing that was supposed to defeat Napoleon is achieved.

The next day after the departure of his son, Prince Nikolai Andreevich called Princess Marya to him.
- Well, are you satisfied now? - he said to her, - quarreled with her son! Satisfied? All you needed was! Satisfied?.. It hurts me, it hurts. I'm old and weak, and you wanted it. Well, rejoice, rejoice ... - And after that, Princess Marya did not see her father for a week. He was sick and did not leave the office.
To her surprise, Princess Mary noticed that during this time of illness, the old prince also did not allow m lle Bourienne to see him. One Tikhon followed him.
A week later, the prince came out and began his former life again, with special activities engaged in buildings and gardens and ending all previous relations with m lle Bourienne. His appearance and cold tone with Princess Mary seemed to say to her: “You see, you invented a lie to Prince Andrei about my relationship with this Frenchwoman and quarreled with me; and you see that I don't need you or the Frenchwoman."
Princess Mary spent one half of the day at Nikolushka's, following his lessons, herself giving him lessons in Russian and music, and talking with Desalle; the other part of the day she spent in her half with books, with the old nurse, and with God's people, who sometimes came to her from the back porch.
Princess Mary thought about the war the way women think about war. She was afraid for her brother who was there, she was horrified, not understanding her, before the human cruelty that forced them to kill each other; but she did not understand the significance of this war, which seemed to her the same as all previous wars. She did not understand the significance of this war, despite the fact that Dessalles, her constant interlocutor, who was passionately interested in the course of the war, tried to explain his considerations to her, and despite the fact that those who came to her god people everyone, in their own way, spoke with horror about the popular rumors about the invasion of the Antichrist, and despite the fact that Julie, now Princess Drubetskaya, who again entered into correspondence with her, wrote patriotic letters to her from Moscow.
“I am writing to you in Russian, my good friend,” Julie wrote, “because I have hatred for all the French, as well as for their language, which I cannot hear speak ... We are all enthusiastic in Moscow through enthusiasm for our adored emperor.
My poor husband endures labor and hunger in Jewish taverns; but the news I have makes me even more excited.
You heard, right, about the heroic feat of Raevsky, who embraced his two sons and said: “I will die with them, but we will not hesitate! And indeed, although the enemy was twice as strong as us, we did not hesitate. We spend our time as best we can; but in war, as in war. Princess Alina and Sophie sit with me all day long, and we, the unfortunate widows of living husbands, have wonderful conversations over lint; only you, my friend, are missing ... etc.
Mostly, Princess Mary did not understand the full significance of this war because the old prince never spoke about it, did not recognize it, and laughed at dinner at Desalles, who spoke about this war. The prince's tone was so calm and sure that Princess Mary, without reasoning, believed him.
Throughout the month of July, the old prince was extremely active and even lively. He also laid a new garden and a new building, a building for courtyards. One thing that bothered Princess Marya was that he slept little and, having changed his habit of sleeping in the study, every day he changed the place of his lodging for the night. Either he ordered his camp bed to be made up in the gallery, or he remained on the sofa or in the Voltaire chair in the living room and dozed without undressing, while not m lle Bourienne, but the boy Petrusha read to him; then he spent the night in the dining room.
On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrei. In the first letter, received shortly after his departure, Prince Andrei humbly asked for forgiveness from his father for what he allowed himself to tell him, and asked him to return his favor to him. The old prince answered this letter with an affectionate letter, and after this letter he alienated the Frenchwoman from himself. The second letter of Prince Andrei, written from near Vitebsk, after the French occupied it, consisted of short description the whole campaign with the plan drawn in the letter, and from considerations about the further course of the campaign. In this letter, Prince Andrei presented to his father the inconvenience of his position close to the theater of war, on the very line of movement of troops, and advised him to go to Moscow.
At dinner that day, in response to the words of Dessalles, who said that, as he heard, the French had already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered Prince Andrei's letter.
“I received it from Prince Andrei today,” he said to Princess Marya, “didn’t you read it?”
“No, mon pere, [father],” the princess answered frightened. She couldn't read letters she hadn't even heard about receiving.
“He writes about this war,” said the prince with that contemptuous smile that had become accustomed to him, with which he always spoke about a real war.
“It must be very interesting,” Desalles said. - The prince is able to know ...
– Ah, very interesting! said m lle Bourienne.
“Go and bring it to me,” the old prince turned to m lle Bourienne. - You know, on a small paperweight table.
M lle Bourienne jumped up happily.
“Oh no,” he yelled, frowning. - Come on, Mikhail Ivanovich.
Mikhail Ivanovich got up and went into the study. But as soon as he left, the old prince, looking around uneasily, threw down his napkin and went himself.
“They don’t know how to do anything, they mix everything up.
While he was walking, Princess Mary, Dessalles, m lle Bourienne and even Nikolushka looked at each other in silence. The old prince returned with a hasty step, accompanied by Mikhail Ivanovich, with a letter and a plan, which he, not allowing anyone to read during dinner, put beside him.
Going into the living room, he handed the letter to Princess Marya and, laying out before him the plan of the new building, on which he fixed his eyes, ordered her to read it aloud. After reading the letter, Princess Mary looked inquiringly at her father.
He stared at the plan, apparently deep in thought.
- What do you think about it, prince? Desalle allowed himself to ask a question.
- I! I! .. - as if unpleasantly waking up, said the prince, not taking his eyes off the plan of construction.
- It is quite possible that the theater of war will come so close to us ...
– Ha ha ha! Theater of War! - said the prince. - I said and I say that the theater of war is Poland, and the enemy will never penetrate further than the Neman.
Desalles looked with surprise at the prince, who was talking about the Neman, when the enemy was already at the Dnieper; but Princess Mary, who had forgotten geographical position Nemana thought that what her father was saying was true.
- When the snow grows, they will drown in the swamps of Poland. They just can’t see,” the prince said, apparently thinking about the campaign of 1807, which, as it seemed, was so recent. - Benigsen should have entered Prussia earlier, things would have taken a different turn ...