From business correspondence with K.P. Pobedonostsev (1900–1904)

I left Russia in May 1881, having spent some time, immediately before leaving abroad, in St. Petersburg, where I had connections in areas that claimed to be “reliable” information from the behind-the-scenes, but decisive side of Russian domestic politics. Such information to this day, apparently, plays a huge role in the actual events of Russian life, but then they were based even more than now on rumors and gossip coming from court circles, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, and when transmitted from mouth to mouth took the most diverse, often downright fantastic forms. It was a very difficult, nervous time, when public opinion was extremely tense; the new, young emperor was a more or less undecided figure, the government, apparently, was in an uncertain state, shaken by events, and no one knew, but everyone tried to guess where and how it would turn - to the right or to the left, and every most insignificant symptom was interpreted according to the personal sympathies and antipathies of each. Nevertheless, stories about the meetings, the participants and the history and authorship of the famous manifesto of April 30 circulated in the public, and then they were inclined to the version of them that is now documented and beyond any doubt. Moreover, the name of the now deceased K.P. Pobedonostsev and the unconditional predominance of his influence were on everyone’s minds and lips. A few far-sighted people who did not allow personal sympathies to guide their ideas about reality at that time already foresaw the empty place of the eighties and nineties in Russian history and were very pessimistic about the future. With similar thoughts and under their overwhelming mood, I then left Russia, and for fifteen whole years, prompted by the material needs of life that completely captured me, I had only rare, fragmentary relations with my fatherland, which, however, since they concerned Russian social life, always again invariably reminded me of K.P. Pobedonostsev in his still dominant influence on Russian internal affairs. In 1898, the resettlement of the Doukhobors from the Caucasus to Canada began, which, over time, attracted everyone's attention. This movement was explained in the press exclusively by government religious persecution, and they were still attributed to the same K.P. Pobedonostsev. The American press was full of articles about his personality and role in the Russian government; - most of them contained, of course, all kinds of nonsense, but there were also serious, more or less impartial articles. By the time I became somewhat familiar with the literature on the subject, which always seemed to me extremely one-sided, the Doukhobors turned to me for help, and I investigated in every possible way, up to a personal trip to their places of residence, their situation and hopes for the future. What struck me most was their fragmentation, the absolute absence of any common goal, plans, assumptions; - it was a boat “without a rudder and without sails,” sailing completely at random. The few intellectuals who accompanied them, who tried to put the aspirations of the Doukhobors into well-known theoretical forms, did not enjoy any authority among them and struck me with their childish impracticality and lack of any business ability; They were obviously unsuitable for any kind of leadership, and all of them very soon left Canada, leaving the Doukhobors to fend for themselves. The natural leaders, from their own midst, were all exiled to Siberia even before the resettlement, so that only a gray mass found itself in Canada without any leadership, a mass that quickly became demoralized and fell apart. All of them treated “Petrusha” Verigin, who was somewhere in Yakutsk or Berezovo, with some kind of superstitious reverence; Besides him, they also mentioned other exiles whose families were in Canada. Every conversation revolved around Veregina and the need for his presence - just to get “Petrusha” and everything would work out and go great. With a request to “get” Petrusha for them, they turned to all their patrons - English and American Quakers, and correspondents of various newspapers, who often visited them at first, so this question soon spread to the local press. Personally, of course, I did not have the slightest idea about Verigin himself, or about his creative abilities, but I could not help but feel the deep faith that these dark masses placed in him and decided to try to “get” him. All of the above, of course, pointed me to the only practical way to achieve this goal, and in January 1900, I decided to write to K.P. A long letter to Pobedonostsev, setting out the circumstances of the case as it seemed to me, and emphasizing mainly that the entire American and Canadian press accuses him of excessive cruelty in keeping Verigin and other Doukhobor leaders in exile, even after the Doukhobors themselves were allowed to move out. It seemed like revenge, unnecessary to anyone, although it doomed the settlers to disaster. Personally, K.P. I didn’t know Pobedonostsev, I never knew him or had any relations with him, and my only credit was my usual literary pseudonym, the same in Russia and America. I didn’t know whether he would answer me or not, but I believed that my letter could not spoil anything, since it was written in the most correct, most respectful form. In response, with the circulation of mail, I received a refusal from him dated February 19, 1900. But I was not content with such a refusal, but wrote another letter, continuing to insist on my request to facilitate the release of Verigin and other exiles, pointing out the enormous favorable impression that such a release would make on local public opinion, which was then seriously occupied with the Doukhobor cause. Thus began a business correspondence between us, which has continued for the past seven years; – the last letter to me was dated January 22 of this year, that is, just a few weeks before his death, and I still have over sixty of his handwritten letters. Verigin was finally released and released to Canada; I don’t know, of course, how much I contributed to this, but thanks to this beginning, I had the opportunity, subsequently, to arrange the return to their homeland of several Doukhobors and Stundists - and unite them with the families they left there. I don’t know, of course, how sincere my correspondent was in his relations with me, but I think that some of his letters are of serious public interest. “You,” he answers me, on February 19, 1900, “are turning to me under the same impression that for eighteen years now has been weighing on me from all over Europe and America, and even from inside Russia. For a long time, people, both European and Russian, who do not know what and how our administrative springs move, imagine that everything that comes from the government in Russia is moved by the will or whim of someone alone, who at one moment or another is considered an influential force, so to speak, “the first person according to the pharaoh.” And so, unfortunately, a fantastic idea was established everywhere that I am such a person and they made me a scapegoat for everything that one or another is dissatisfied with in Russia, and about which one or another is indignant. So, they saddled me with the Jews, and the press, and Finland, and now the Doukhobors, matters in which I did not take any part, and all sorts of orders from the authorities, of which I was not at all guilty.” Such a burden, the so-called public opinion, has to be endured - it cannot be refuted, and no one will believe it, so the illusion of ignorance, ignorance and prejudice has already taken root. So, now you seem to be asking and expecting from me some kind of “final decision” about the Doukhobors. Yes, the decisions of this matter never came from me in any way and did not depend on me; ordered and are in charge - the Governor General and the Master of Internal Affairs. I learned about the resettlement of the Doukhobors to America when it had already taken place. Therefore, I cannot, and now, as I could not then, give any answer to your questions. The Doukhobor affair, like many things among us, is also a matter of ignorance, ignorance and indifference of the local authorities. In the Caucasus, the Doukhobors form a republic, status in statu, under the rule of their Lukerya. The local authorities put up with this, received satisfaction from Lukerya for all their demands - and did not even care to know what the Doukhobors were, their beliefs and way of life. When Lukerya died, this republic was clouded by disputes between contenders for her inheritance. Unfortunately, the authorities, instead of allowing them to deal with each other, intervened in the matter and raised the alarm. A rebellion arose, a series of inept orders began, and just then they got close to the Doukhobors...1, propagandists of Tolstoy’s teachings, and the Doukhobors turned into Tolstoyans, fasting anarchists. Here, little by little, Tolstoy, Chertkov and the whole company began to persuade the masses to move to America, collected funds for this, resettled them, although the most reasonable part remained in place. The question arises: what is the government’s fault for this resettlement? I am not at all to blame for all this. The only order on my part was that when the story of the Doukhobors arose in the Caucasus - on the part of the authorities who had no direct idea about them - I sent there a person familiar with the sects - to scout them, live and talk with them. That’s all I can tell you in response, because I didn’t want to leave you without an answer... And in addition, I am sending you a printed, truthful account of the history of the Doukhobors"... Subsequently, K.P. informed me that the book he had sent me had probably not yet arrived. “I hope,” he adds, “that it will arrive, but, perhaps, it disappeared under the parcel post. Who knows, maybe your correspondence is being delayed or inspected somewhere. About the Doukhobors and Stundists, you wrote to me in November, asking if it was possible to send families to them, but this is not a feasible matter. Now you write that they themselves strive to go back, but are afraid of punishment, following the example of Goncharov. I hope to arrange this for them, but to do this I need to talk to whoever needs to be, and then I’ll notify you. Goncharov’s case is absurd, but what can we do when we are not used to reasoning. When the Doukhobors left, Prince. G. completely illegally ordered a subscription to be taken from them so that they would not dare return, otherwise they would be exiled to Yakutsk - and when Goncharov returned, he, despite the governor’s convictions, insisted on deportation. Since then, I have been trying so hard to return, but, unfortunately, the whole matter has been contaminated in the offices. However, they promise. Our whole problem is that we have no one to talk to about real things and only one tool - paper. But if your Doukhobors (California) return, where will they sit and will they find their lands unoccupied? So, still wait for notice from me... Good people, deceived, perhaps they will finally understand 1) that there are epidemic absurdities of behavior that no government can tolerate; 2) that in essence there is only one country in the world where people can live freely in their faith, this is Russia - and believe that all the wild cases of violence and persecution are only a matter of disorder (police and otherwise) that dominates our vast expanses. And the main reason is widespread ignorance, combined with the denial of any desire to know, and the most difficult thing that cannot be achieved is “come and see.” People have established one thing like “Jacob’s Magpie” and do not want to know the real truth. “About your Stundists,” K.P. later reported. Pobedonostsev, - from the Kyiv province, in order to give you an answer, it was necessary to see the authorities here. And this is not easy in St. Petersburg. Only today I could talk with Zvolyansky. In his opinion, they need to send a request here addressed to the Emperor. Make them something like that and send it to me, and then I’ll try to move things along. You also need to know; when they left and from where, and whether they accepted American citizenship. I'll try to arrange this. "R. S. About Goncharov, I raised the question a long time ago, but there is still correspondence with the prince. G.". In order to explain all that I have said above, I must state the following; Doukhobors in Canada told me that many of them, upon arriving at their chosen places of residence, did not like the country so much that they were ready to return to Russia - and they sent one of their midst, a certain Goncharov, to the Caucasus in order to test how his return would be accepted by the authorities. He managed to get safely across the Russian border, but immediately upon arriving home, he was captured by the authorities and exiled to the Yakut region. This, of course, forced the Doukhobors to give up the idea of ​​returning. I am firmly convinced that if not for this episode, all the Doukhobors from Canada, over time, would have returned to Russia. I was especially asked to work for the release of Goncharov, since he suffered as a public walker. Then, among the Doukhobors who came from Canada to California were several Stundists from Kyiv, Kharkov and other provinces, who fled to Canada without passports and left their family homes, in the hope of transporting them later. These Stundists - one of them, moreover, considered himself a military deserter, since he was in the army reserve - quickly became disillusioned, both in America and in the hope of soon earning enough money to transport their families; the families were large, and this required relatively large funds, and there were fears that these families would not be allowed to leave Russia. They strenuously asked me to arrange for them to return home with impunity, and in my letters to K.P. Pobedonostsev, I earnestly asked him to settle the affairs of Goncharov and the Doukhobors and Stundists who wanted to return with the relevant authorities. As the reader will see below, over time, he arranged all this, these people returned, and in due time I received news from all of them that they had arrived home safely, and that the local authorities had not disturbed them at all. “...You are asking,” K.P. tells me, on another occasion. Pobedonostsev, April 8, 1901 - isn’t Russia on the eve of the most serious events? I don’t think,” the foreign press describes horrors that are completely fictitious, “everything is being blamed on Russia. They write as if obvious witnesses saw the corpses of the murdered - all this is nonsense. The former landfill near the Kazan Cathedral does not have anything new. As for student gatherings and obstructions, this is not news, but a consequence of the fact that at the university now there is not a society of students, but a crowd left without any leadership, with the decomposition of the previous corporate system - the reforms of the city. (D.A.) Tolstoy. Obstruction has now become fashionable in parliaments. There is no doubt that all these unrest are being fueled from outside. You are asking for a brief description of what is happening. I cannot do this - this is a complex matter, which could be discussed at length in connection with many other phenomena occurring outside of Russia. And it would be necessary to touch upon general issues of domestic policy, on which it seems that it would be difficult for you and me to agree... I can assure you of only one thing. Until now, you can’t get it out of anyone’s mind that I am the alpha and omega of everything that happens in Russia. This is a complete untruth, supported only by general ignorance and ignorance. I do not take part in any affairs, except for those that relate to church administration and except for those in which my voice must be cast in the current meetings of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers "... "Now (May 6, 1901) I have received your letter of April 27 with petitions. I will try to put them into action immediately. Perhaps they will not slow down, - although you know how things are going on in our offices. I will write to Kharkov too... Yesterday I wrote you, that I hope to arrange the matter at the request of two soon. But today, having contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I see that there would be no difficulties with one of the two, the one from Kapca, and the matter concerns Prince G., with whom the Ministry of Internal Affairs considers it necessary to contact him. send your protégé back. If the matter depended on me, I would not stop, but it does not depend on me. For my part, tomorrow I will write a book. G. and ask him to quickly resolve the problem. I hasten to notify you in order to eliminate any possible misunderstanding... “...I have already written to you about the fate of the petition you sent. I asked and convinced the prince. G. don’t interfere, but I still don’t have an answer from him and am waiting. You won’t soon overcome indifference and inertia of thought.” Then, in August, he notifies me that he received my letter dated July 18, 2 and adds: “On August 6, I received an answer from Prince. D. He finally agrees to allow, as an exception, your protégé to return to the Caucasus, without giving him land and with the condition that his return cannot serve as a reason for the return of other Doukhobors who moved to America. So, at this moment, we can arrange permission for them, based on the report of the Minister of Internal Affairs to the Emperor. I will immediately write to Sinyagin about this... Your thought that here in St. Petersburg they, being “introduced to representatives of the press, could not fail to make a sobering impression on all its camps (!)” - this thought, excuse me, only shows that you, living in America and having become accustomed to the tools of thought in your region, are completely unaccustomed to Russia. You apparently don’t yet sense what the press has become in Russia, and how far all its camps have sunk into the swamp, even since you left here. And now you’ll hardly believe me when I say that we don’t have a single magazine or newspaper where you can count on the action of reason and common sense. All are nothing more than either dirty shops in the hands of an ignorant street rabble of crooks and half-educated people, or organs (not excluding Russkie Vedomosti and Vestnik Evropy) of a narrow circle of doctrinaires who do not know and do not want to know the people, their soul and needs, who do not believe in anything other than their doctrine, and in stupid opposition to everything that is called government. These, in a different form, are the same offices. If you found yourself among this rotten intelligentsia, your Doukhobors and Stundists would not have reasoned with anyone, unless they themselves would have become confused 3 . Now, it seems to you that you can’t even object to fanatical evidence, but these people don’t care about the fact, they don’t want to know it and don’t believe anything except gossip and curses. And they treat sectarians very lovingly, without any faith and do not understand that you can talk to any sectarian only by entering his soul and into his belief: - and they only know one thing with a sectarian - to turn his faith into naked denial. Only the proverb applies to the best representatives of the press: Jacob’s forty got along, and he repeats (one thing) about everyone. But don’t even ask us for real culture, which is a common occurrence in the Western press! “Another thing,” you write, “is your goal: “to return to Russia, if this is achievable, those already in America” and you add that they will find the means, and that their thoughts are directed to Siberia and Manchuria. Maybe this would be prudent (relative to the Californian ones) - but I can’t do anything here - this is a matter of state considerations, which is not only not in my hands, but in which I cannot even have influence on the rulers (and here again I ask you to renounce the lie that has been put into circulation that I am omnipotent in matters of public administration). According to your letters, I intervened only to the extent that I can act, but I cannot put my thought into the minds of the current rulers. For the sins and mistakes of the administration in sectarian affairs, they are accustomed to holding me and the church administration accountable for everything and blaming everything on my head. In vain: if the administration had not made a mistake in the Doukhobor matter, without the participation and knowledge of the church authorities, there would not have been all this confusion. If the administration and police, without the participation of the clergy, had not begun to transfer the Uniates, there would have been no subsequent unrest, and little by little they would have passed peacefully. If the affairs of sectarians were not in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which does not know the nature and essence of sects, the matter would little by little be handled through church funds. So, it remains for me, after completing the necessary formalities, when permission follows for them to return, to notify you about this. Let them then go to their homeland, perhaps through St. Petersburg, where I will receive them and direct them to a knowledgeable person. As for other immigrants, let them try to submit a petition to the Highest Name with a request for the allocation of lands in Siberia. This is difficult, because in general, with a large number of Russian immigrants, they avoid sending sectarians there”... And soon after, K.P. informs me: “...I received a notification from the Minister of Internal Affairs about your Doukhobor. The Minister, in agreement with the review of Prince. Golitsyn, allows him to return to Russia with the right to settle in the Caucasus (under the conditions about which I already wrote to you in my last letter), which the minister, on August 18, reported to Prince. Golitsyn, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. As for the Kyiv ones, there is still no answer about them from Dragomirov, whom Sipyagin recognized as necessary to ask for - although, in my opinion, there was no need. But people in power are such that they don’t decide on anything themselves, and that’s why it’s more difficult than ever to get things done...” However, three days later, I received from K.P. short message: “I wrote to you the other day about the Doukhobor. Now we have received from the Minister of Internal Affairs that those from Kyiv are allowed to “return to their homeland with impunity.” Having received my letter dated September 15, K.P. replies on September 22: “You write: - I will wait for official papers. But what kind of papers these are and in what form is not easy to say right away. Your main goal, as I see it, is to eliminate any difficulty when traveling across the border - therefore, it is necessary that they have in their hands a paper with the proper identification. This is where we all encounter the routine of office production. This matter is in the hands of the Ministry of the Interior - they will be encouraged to write to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from there they will write to the envoy, - the envoy to the consuls - months will pass before anything needed appears. Keep in mind that the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod is the interceding party here, and not the acting spring. In the official notifications that I have from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is said - about the Doukhobor, which was reported to Prince G. To the Caucasus and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the purpose of declaring the Doukhobor - (!), and about the Kyiv ones (dated September 4), which was reported to Dragomirov and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the purpose of declaring them. “So, we need to get some paper into their hands. Now we are in a dark time - all the authorities are on the move and Sipyagin is not there. I’ll try to see Comrade Minister Durnovo one of these days and ask him. I foresee difficulties, although it would seem to be a simple matter. But if I encounter a refusal, then I will draw up an official certificate on my own behalf for everyone, with my signature and seal, and I hope that this will be enough. Then I will send it into your hands. This is the answer to your first question. On the second. Send them directly to their places of residence. Do not direct to St. Petersburg (if the direct path does not lie there) for the reasons that I have already written to you. The desire to move to America also began among the Caucasian Molokans. Unhappy people! Crazy people confuse them. What do they want? After all, everywhere they will be worse off than in Russia, where there are many gaps in both the laws and the administration, the help of which people use freedom! Those who do not know Russia judge everything by arbitrary generalizations of facts, concepts and prejudices. And the Molokans seem to be some kind of solid force of spiritual and social opposition. But people have been cohabiting with the Molokans for a long time - and in each locality their character is different: - in some places (for example, Tambov province) there are evil ones, and in many places there are good ones - where they were not influenced by the fanaticism of Shtunda and Tolstoyism. Here in the Astrakhan province we have a school where smart priests attracted up to 150 Molokan girls with the consent of their parents - and I sent them an icon. The Caucasian Molokans are of course spoiled by the same Doukhobor movement, transformed into Tolstoyanism"… “Almost every day,” K.P. soon writes. from the Royal Hall, I have to write to you. I have already written to you about my assumptions regarding supplying them for moving across the border. Today I was in St. Petersburg and, in the absence of Sipyagin, went to see his friend Pyotr N. Durnovo, who immediately ordered the documents attached to this to be drawn up. Perhaps they will replace their passport at the Russian border. I hasten to send them to you immediately. Notify upon receipt"… At the end of the same September 1901, K.P., in addition to one of his previous letters, says: “I have already written to you about the current state of our periodical press. So you, having left Russia, keep all the prejudices of that time that you brought from here, and you have a taboo on Moskovskie Vedomosti. And Moskovskie Vedomosti is now the only newspaper where a reasonable person can write without swearing. You are all chasing some ideal of honesty or a person from our camp,” but this is not the case at all, in the sphere of the press. G. Gringmut, in himself, is a person whom one does not have to respect, but one way or another he saved the newspaper "... Not receiving the promised passes, I wrote about this in October: “I’m surprised,” K.N. answered me, “that you have not yet received my custom package, sent on September 27, too much a month ago. There were papers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the passage of your people. The mail takes a long time - is it possible that letters addressed to you are read? I hope, however, that everything has reached you. It is difficult to count on Kazakevich - he is a formalist. I hasten to warn you about all this. I did everything I could"... Meanwhile, the returning Stundists experienced persecution and K.P. again reports: “I don’t have any information about B. and you won’t find out soon 4.” I could only write to the Kyiv governor Trepov and am still waiting for an answer from him. When I receive it, I will notify you. There is no wonder that if B. took up old sins on the spot, he could have suffered trouble from the police, and as the police can be clueless, he could have suffered without guilt... “Newspapers are not all about finding out the real truth, but about collecting sensational news, especially from Russia. So sending news from Russia has now become the profession of all sorts of scribblers who cannot know anything except gossip and rumors. And now in our living rooms, in clubs, in offices, there is a mass of all sorts of nonsense news, caught on the fly, but only people who are close to the springs of affairs and people in business can get to the truth. We have a lot of unrest and all sorts of other madness in all strata of society, but when it comes to the sources, chatter and absurd lies begin. Our newspapers don’t know much more. All their “news” in English and French newspapers follows the same template. Kav in the puppet comedy there is the eternal Harlequin, Columbine, Polichinelle Chalk and Aces. We set up a person who does everything and the patterns are embroidered on this canvas. How many years have they been able to get rid of my name, which has been an anachronism for about 15 years now, and everything refers to me; - and the paint, of which everything... 5 is a parliament, which some want, others resist. So it turns out that Plehve is a reactionary, in alliance with me, Vannovsky, a hero of liberalism (What nonsense! They would say: a hero of stupidity and ignorance), the Empress Mother turns everything, and so on, and so on. But no one sees or knows the essence of the matter!” In addition to this, I received from K.P. notification, namely, he writes: “I cannot yet give you a decisive answer about B., but I think it would not be superfluous to inform you that I asked Trepov and he writes to me from Kyiv on July 17 that, having received my letter last December, he made an order not to hold B. accountable for crossing the border, etc.; now he has no information that he was brought to trial for anything and put in prison, and demands information from the Uman police officer whether anything like this happened, and when he receives it, he will notify me.” A few days later, I learned from K.P. the following: “I received a response from the Kiev governor: 1) According to a report from the Cherkassy police officer, B. has not been held accountable for any action since his return and resides in the village of K., Uman district. 2) And the other one, who returned from abroad, the Stundist Ch., who was also left without punishment, does not have any icons and, when asked, mockingly says: “Why do I need any icons. If they give me land, I will put an icon in the house.” He presents himself as an ardent Stundist and, undoubtedly, is secretly engaged in the propaganda of Stundism.” “So, if people like him come back, they cannot expect to be left alone. It's better not to come back like that. And it would be better for me not to ask Ch for this."... Our correspondence resumed in August 1902, as a result of the cuttings from American newspapers that I sent to K.P. “You sent me,” he says, “newspaper clippings. It’s sad if this is the news from Russia in the newspapers, and it’s even sadder that they believe it, and you probably believe it. But it would seem that you need to know by what springs the newspaper press moves and what it operates. Especially American newspapers, which are replenished almost exclusively with reporter material. All this is a game of lies, our local newspapers live by lies, and this is all a complete lie, and the game of it has been brought to virtuosity in American newspapers. Everything that is here is fictitious, invented, and there is not a word of truth, except perhaps the general chagrin that the Empress did not give birth to an heir. And in general, know that wherever my name appears, there is a lie. It is used like salt - for how many years has it been since foreign gossip has connected with it what is happening in Russia - then, as for ten years now, I have not participated in any affairs other than church ones. But they put a stamp on false news to certify that it is true. And the previous extract - about newspapers and Ukhtomsky - is empty chatter, presented in the form of some kind of terrible violence. It could have happened that in the press affairs department, as well as everywhere else, there were conversations with Ukhtomsky about the nature of the articles that were published in the newspapers ... " However, I continued to send K.P. clippings from local newspapers, and he again answers me at the very beginning of 1903: “I wish you a prosperous year. Thank you again and again for your messages. Our state of affairs is far from normal and free from anxiety. But, the information reported in foreign correspondence is deliberately exaggerated due to rumors and gossip. The Rostov adventure with the workers is now a common phenomenon everywhere, and especially here, since it is not difficult to excite and rouse the crowd with the most absurd talk and suggestions. 200 killed and 1000 wounded is sheer nonsense. Troops acted, but, as always happens, there were only a few killed and wounded. And 2000 Amazons - what nonsense! “Of course, no one from the liberal press can understand the main reasons for our troubles. They are rooted in the fact that a mass of misunderstood and ill-thought-out reforms and untested laws put someone else’s dress on the vast and motley Russia, not tailored, not tried on, and hence - a confusion of authorities and relations with a general lack of culture...” Answering me in March 1903 to my new questions, K.P. says: “You want information about the origin and meaning of the manifesto. There is hardly anyone who can give them to you. This act came as a surprise to all the authorities, and none of them took any part in its conception, as well as in its drafting. What it means and how it will respond, one can only guess.” “... Having left Russia, you stand at the same point as you were then, believing in the beneficial significance of some reforms in the sense of new freedom. But faith in “institutions,” divorced from life and from the people, has brought us nothing but lies and constraint on true freedom, for we have become so entangled in institutions that there is nowhere to go. And those who carried them out, releasing them to the people, calmed down, imagining that the institutions would move themselves and revive something. But without leadership, nothing comes to life on its own. The Slavic race is not like the Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and even German; there is a spirit of particularism and strong individual development; for us, it is a duty. And it so happened that we were all dressed up in some strange dress, sewn by our own tailor Vaska, and we couldn’t move in it...” The well-known “Kishinev case” gave rise to a new message from K.P. in June 1903 “The Chisinau case, not surprisingly, caused an explosion of indignation in the press. After all, it is all in Jewish hands and cannot judge otherwise, not knowing at all about Russian Judaism. The Kishinev case is outrageous - not for the sake of Judaism, but also like any fury of a maddened crowd - like the fury of the Haidamaks, like the fury of a peasant crowd against the landowners. It is also outrageous due to the inaction of the local authorities, who were unable to stop the horrors that lasted two days. But you need to know what newspaper writers don’t know. After all, nowhere in the whole world is there such Judaism as we have - there is no such nest as we have in the former Polish region, in Romania and from there - in the south of Russia. This countless multiplied crowd does not exist among the people - ignorant, childless and economically inactive. They don’t know to what extent this Judaism exploits the poor working population and with what impudence and stones it treats them - in an environment filled with all kinds of disorder and, I will say, anarchy. The Chisinau case has a background that is still not explained here. The local working population was driven to rage, and as soon as the crowd moved, the most savage elements joined it... You know, and there is no need to explain to you, how difficult it is for a person with ideal aspirations to live in our country, and now it is harder than ever. And I would like to move to other conditions, to real soil; but you have to endure and strive fruitlessly - together with your people, no matter how hard it is.” In recent years, before K.P.’s death, I happened to receive objections from him to American newspapers on a question about himself. “You sent me a newspaper article “Marvellous old Fanatic who has a grip on the Czar”,” K.P. notifies. me in half of 1903. “It’s unlikely that you, although you also know me from newspaper articles, could hardly believe such nonsense.” And this article is not news to me - thousands of similar ones have reached me for a long time and serve as confirmation of the ignorance and widespread lies that have now taken hold of the press, and the imaginary public opinion it creates. For more than twenty years now, all the news from Russia has been connected with my name, which has been carried like evil throughout the world, thanks to general ignorance - no one knows the truth and in anger - against what and against whom? – in Russia they are certainly looking for a person who is responsible for everything. I am the scapegoat - but he was kicked out, at least, into the desert, and I, like a ball, was thrown from one newspaper shop to another and from one tavern to another - to be torn to pieces. And you think that maybe they will finally find out something true and quiet down, since here, it would seem, they should know that for ten years now, apart from the affairs of church administration, I have not taken any part in the direction of any government measures. Nothing happened - both here and here, they continue to vilify me everywhere for everything. At least they knew me a little bit or took the trouble – the people here – to ask if everything that is attributed to me is true...” A year later, at the end of 1904, K.P., addressing me, confirms his previous objection: “Why be surprised,” he writes, “at an American article about the Suzdal monastery, when here they write the same nonsense, knowing nothing, just to spread sensational news. And here, many assure me that people are kept in shackles and chains there. And sometimes they send there different, completely frantic priests and monks, who are worse than madmen, but for whom there is no place in the insane asylum - others have to be kept locked up - but many have now been transferred to a hospital for the mentally ill...” He repeats the same thing at the end of 1904: “You sent me a newspaper article: “Pobiedonostzeff in way of reform” (“Pobedonostzev on the way to reform”). How many of these are sent to me from England, America, France, Germany! Know that all this is a lie and fiction. For more than eight years now, I have not taken part in any government affairs (and I don’t know who takes part). I don’t interfere in anything and no one asks me. I do not submit any notes to the Emperor, except for reports on current church affairs. I don’t have any special reports. I have long since become an obsolete figure, and all the people of the past, especially my cultured friends, are already in the grave. I have no relationship with their new deputies. I don’t go anywhere except for meetings of the synod and the committee of ministers (which does not deal with any government issues). Meanwhile, a discordant crowd, not knowing what they want, devoid of culture, is screaming about some kind of constitution. Nobody knows what the situation is in this matter and what its probabilities are. They shout: hurry up! and they are looking: who is stopping?! And so, they attacked my name, perhaps because my opinion about the constitution is known from the “Moscow Collection”. And no one knows me, but in offices, living rooms and classrooms, the most absurd rumors about me are made up, spreading to all foreign newspapers, to the world market of all kinds of lies and gossip. And I have been bearing this cross for twenty years now. But before there were still people who knew me and my activities, but now there is no one left. And not only that, curses and threats are written to me from everywhere. Here is a letter from New York today!..." I also have exact copies of my letters, numbering 54, to K.P. Pobedonostsev. I have collected, as I already said, over 60 letters from him. They are written on a variety of formats and types of paper, and only once at the end is the term “humble servant” used, while all the others end with the word “Hello” and a signature. The handwriting is relatively legible, but some of the letters are very unique, in a way that no one writes anymore. He began letters with a full line, then narrowed them to the middle of the sheet and expanded them again at the end. Los Angeles, California. When a rumor spread among the Doukhobors who were in California that some of them were petitioning through me to return to their homeland, many turned to me with the same request, declaring that if it was impossible to go to the Caucasus, then they would agree to Manchuria, just to return to Russia. My letter dated July 18 contained the contents of this request. I did not believe in the advisability of relocating Russian peasants to America and my idea was to acquaint Russian society with reality through direct victims of such relocation. B., is one of the returning Stundists, about whom I had no news for a long time.