Free Russian printing house

Herzen had his first thoughts on creating an uncensored printing house outside the borders of Russia back in 1849 . Shortly after emigration, the family capital was arrested. When, thanks to the support of James Rothschild , financial affairs stabilized, and with the move to London, household matters, Herzen began preparations for the opening of the publishing house. On February 21, 1853, the appeal “Free Russian typography in London. Brothers in Russia ”, in which he notified“ all freedom-loving Russians ”about the upcoming opening of a Russian printing house on May 1. In the first years of his life abroad, Herzen wrote about Russia for Europe, - published brochures "Russia", "Russian people and socialism", a large book in French "On the development of revolutionary ideas in Russia." Now, "the hunt to talk with strangers passes." Herzen turns to the Russian reader. "I am the first to remove the stigma of a foreign language from myself and again set to my native speech."

In Russia, the beginning of the 1850s, the number of different censorships was approaching twenty ^[1] . Herzen, however, promises a free tribune to the authors. “Send what you want, everything written in the spirit of freedom will be printed, from scientific and factual articles on statistics and history to novels, short stories and poems. We are even ready to print without money. If you don’t have anything ready, yours, send forbidden poems by Pushkin , Ryleyev , Lermontov , Polezhaev , Pecherin and others that go hand in hand. "To be your organ, your free, uncensored speech is my whole goal." However, there is still no bilateral relationship with Russia, and "for now, in anticipation of the hope of receiving something from you, I will print my manuscripts."

For several months, Herzen, with the help of Polish emigrants, found everything necessary for a printing house: a machine, paint, a room. Polish emigrants also became typesetters of the new printing house (which, incidentally, subsequently caused readers to complain about a large number of typos). A small but clear Russian font was ordered at the time by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences to the Paris-based Dido company. However, the academy did not take the font. He went to Herzen.

London booksellers N. Trubner (shop at 60, Paternoster Row), Tkhorzhevsky (39, Rupert Street, Haymarket), A. Frank in Paris , F. Schneider in Berlin , Wagner and Brockhaus are engaged in the sale and distribution of print media in Europe. - in Leipzig , Hoffmann and Kamp - in Hamburg . Bookstores are used not only to sell products of the Free Russian Printing House, but also to contact publishers. Their addresses are published on the pages of Herzen publications. In addition, for the needs of the printing house, Rothschild gives him the opportunity to use his own address at New Court in London . Herzen now has everything except communication with readers in his homeland.

June 10 (22), 1853 , on the very eve of the Crimean War ^[2] , the printing press was launched. First edition - brochure “St. George's Day! St. George's Day! ”, In which Herzen calls on the Russian nobility to begin the liberation of the peasants. At the end of July, the proclamation “The Poles forgive us!” Was issued, dedicated to the promotion of the union and cooperation of Russian and Polish democracies. In August, Herzen's brochure “Baptized Property”, also directed against serfdom, saw the light of day. In two years, fifteen leaflets and brochures were printed.

The first three years, most of the publications of the printing house were the works of Herzen. It was not possible to gain confidence in the homeland, the Crimean War broke the printing house’s ties with Russia ^[3] and did not send materials from there. March 25 (April 6), 1855, Alexander Herzen publishes the announcement of the first periodical of the printing house - the Polar Star . The first issue comes out in August. It is also equipped with immigrant materials. In the afterword, the publisher reminds readers: “The question of whether you support us or not is extremely important. According to the answer, it will be possible to judge the degree of maturity of Russian thought, the strength of what is now bent <...>. Without articles from Russia, without readers in Russia, the Polar Star will not have a sufficient reason for the existence of <...>. Your silence, we frankly admit, will not at all shake our faith in the Russian people and their future; we will only doubt the moral strength and fitness of our generation. ”

Unable to guess the success of the new publication, Herzen does not open a subscription to it, does not give obligations about its frequency, although he hopes for three or four issues a year (in fact, the almanac manages to be released about once a year). The second issue, published in May 1856, already contains a letter from Russia, although 190 of 288 pages still belong to Herzen.

The year 1856 was a turning point for the success of the printing house. In April , N.P. Ogaryov moved to London and joined the management of the printing house. And already in the summer it is possible to establish a full-fledged relationship with compatriots. The printing house receives a large package of materials from representatives of the liberal wing of the Russian intelligentsia - K. D. Kavelin , B. N. Chicherin , N. A. Melgunov . They are ready to take advantage of the rostrum provided by the Free Russian Printing House, but they do not want to be published in the Polar Star. “You wonder why articles from Russia are not sent to you; but how do you not understand that the banner laden with you is alien to us? Start publishing a collection of a different kind than your Polar Star, and you will have more employees, and the publication itself will be better dispersed in Russia <...>. But if you want to continue in the old fashion, then write better in French, because in any case you write for France, and not for Russia. ”

Thus, in July 1856, Herzen and Ogaryov launched another periodical - collections of articles “ Voices from Russia ”, which received articles of a predominantly liberal direction, the line of authors of which did not correspond to the revolutionary line of the Polar Star.

Free Russian printing house is going through its golden age. Manuscripts from Russia are being transported to London, and illicit print media are smuggled back. Despite the promise “everything written in the spirit of freedom will be printed”, Herzen gets the opportunity to choose materials for publication from correspondence. The historian Nathan Aidelman gives three reasons for rejecting materials (apart from poor quality):

1. Materials “in defense of the current situation in Russia” were not printed: the authors of such articles could easily have a completely legal censored press.
2. Such materials were restricted or excluded that the authorities could use to prosecute progressive figures. It was for this reason that Herzen rejected Poltoratsky’s offer to print regular reviews of Russian literature like those that Bestuzhev had once published in The Polar Star of 1823–1825: “We are not so familiar with the new orders that we can speak too frankly about modern writers and books; perhaps Musin-Pushkin will introduce me to the Anninsky Cross for this. "
3. Limited or excluded from tactical considerations materials that could damage the distribution and influence of the Free Press in the broad opposition circles of Russian society.

On March 25, 1857, the third issue of the Polar Star was released. Herzen and Ogaryov come to the conclusion that a publication is needed that can respond more quickly to current events. On April 13, 1857, the publishing house announces a future newspaper with a separate leaflet, and on June 22, 1857 the first “ Bell ” was published. In the declaration, the editors indicate their first goals:

• censorship
• liberation of peasants from landowners
• beat-up

Despite the fact that the newspaper was considered by the publishers as “surplus sheets to the Polar Star”, it very quickly became the most important publication of the Free Printing House. First, the Bell came out once a month, then twice a month, and in its best times it was weekly. The circulation reached 2500-3000, and with additional runs - 4500-5000 copies. Former "surplus sheets" to the "Polar Star", "Bell" will soon acquire its own applications. From 1859 to 1862, the app “ Under trial! ", Publishing documentary materials exposing the anti-people character of domestic politics, and from 1862 to 1864 -" The General Chamber ", a revolutionary newspaper for the people. During the revolutionary situation of 1859-1861 and the preparation of peasant reform, the number of letters from Russia increased significantly and reached hundreds of correspondence per month.

The printing house saves Pushkin’s forbidden poems (ode "Liberty", "Village", "Message to Siberia", "To Chaadaev"), propaganda songs of Ryleyev and Bestuzhev , "The Death of the Poet" by Lermontov . Again he publishes “The Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by Radishchev, “Duma” by Ryleyev, publishes the collection “Russian Secret Literature of the 19th Century”. The “Historical Collection” collects documents from archives, extracts from the diaries of statesmen and public figures. The history of the Decembrist movement is written, notes of the Decembrists are published. Collections of documents related to the history of schism and Old Believers are published. The secret notes of Empress Catherine II are published, containing the statement that the father of Emperor Paul I was Prince Sergei Saltykov , and not Peter III (the notes were not available even to members of the ruling family: the manuscript was sealed and could only be opened by personal order of the emperor). The memories of Princess Dashkova and Senator Lopukhin come out.

Since 1857, the printing house manages to work at a loss: “Until 1857, not only printing, but paper did not pay off. Since then, all costs are covered by the sale, then our financial desires do not go further. " Book dealers willingly accept publications for sale.

The editions of the Free Russian Printing House were banned at home. Sometimes even from legal foreign newspapers, upon delivery to Russia, advertisements for the sale of products of the Free Printing House were cut out ^[4] . However, the Imperial Public Library received in its own closed funds publications purchased through the Berlin embassy or confiscated at customs.

In the first half of 1858, the Russian government succeeded in officially banning the "Bell" in Prussia, Saxony, Rome, Naples, and Frankfurt. Publications crossed the border smuggled. It was easier to transport a small "Bell" than the "live resonators" of the almanacs. But small print and thin paper also made things easier - magazines could be folded in two, four times. Circulations were imported through St. Petersburg, Odessa, the Caucasus, the Chinese border - under the guise of wrapping paper, in double-bottom suitcases, in empty plaster busts, among firewood, with insert pages in lots of foreign legal books, in the trunks of military guns of a military vessel. The number of "Bell" cost the Russian reader five to ten times the London price.

Printing houses are struggling with the products and at the same time reading at the very top. Sometimes during ministerial reports, the emperor with gloomy humor recalled that he had already read this in The Bell. “Tell Herzen not to scold me, otherwise I will not subscribe to his newspaper,” Alexander II sneers. Envelopes with the “Bell” were sent directly to the heroes of publications - ministers, important military, civil, and religious officials. The emperor is compelled to warn the ministers so that “in case of receiving the newspaper, not tell anyone about it, but leave it exclusively for personal reading”.

According to contemporaries, at the end of the 1950s, “Herzen’s personality used some mystical charm that exceeded the authority of the authorities.” Both revolutionaries and "people of moderate opinion" write in London. “The officials of the central chancery particularly helped the persecution of major dignitaries” (A.P. Malshinsky). Among Herzen's correspondents are employees of the ministries of internal and foreign affairs, the Holy Synod . Although the then state budget was not made public, the Bell publishes the full budget for 1859 and 1860 . Even the first deputy minister of the interior, N. A. Milyutin, was suspected of sending classified materials to Herzen. The author of the pamphlet on the Minister of Justice Count Panin in “Voices from Russia” is considered the future Ober-Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev .

An uncensored information channel was used during the years of the peasant reform preparation to draw Alexander II’s attention to some alternative reform projects, such as, for example, the project of V. A. Panayev , published in Voices from Russia.

In the early 1860s, the influence of the Free Russian Printing House began to decline. For a new generation of revolutionaries who share the uncompromising character of Young Russia , its publications are no longer radical enough. In their opinion, “The Bell, having an influence on the government, is already becoming completely constitutional.” At the same time, much of the liberal audience is turning away from Herzen. Even in the liberal Russian press, rumors have been voiced that the great Petersburg fires of 1862 were the result of arson attacks - sabotage acts of the "nihilists" brought up on the ideas of Herzen and Chernyshevsky. Interest in publications of the printing house is also declining after the lifting of the ban on Herzen’s name and the resolution of open debate with him. Since 1862, the demand for free press has been steadily declining. The printing house is trying to expand its readership and begins to publish an appendix to The Bell, The General Chamber , a national newspaper written in a simpler, more intelligible language for an uneducated audience. A huge blow to the popularity of Herzen and the printing press was the decision made after serious hesitation to support the Polish uprising of 1863 . By the middle of the year, demand for London editions is declining so that in August Herzen notes a complete halt in sales. By winter, the circulation of the "Bell" drops to 500 copies. Then the stream of visitors to Herzen runs dry. In addition, a slight weakening of censorship in Russia is pulling potential authors of the Free Printing House into the Russian press.

In the mid-sixties, most emigrants from Russia stayed on the continent, and it was easier to maintain communication with their homeland from there. Trying to rectify the situation, in April 1865, the printing house moved to Geneva . Soon after, Herzen transferred it to Ludwig Chernetsky, an emigrant Pole, who since 1853 was Herzen and Ogaryov’s closest assistant at the Free Russian Printing House.

For some time, the outflow of readers and correspondents can be stopped, but after Karakozov’s shot in 1866 and the government repressions that followed, the connection with Russia fades. The last "Polar Star" comes out without correspondence from Russia. Publishers receive information about events in Russia for the Bell from the legal Russian press. The Bell itself diverges little, mainly in Europe, for the European reader, and, as if on the sarcastic advice of the first authors of Voices from Russia, is published in French.

In August 1867, the Geneva printing house was liquidated. After this, Chernetskiy rented another printing house. It also became known as the “Free Russian Printing House” and lasted until 1870, ceasing its activities shortly after Herzen’s death ^[5] .

• St. George's Day! St. George's Day! - brochure (June 1853)
• The Poles forgive us! - proclamation (July 1853)
• Baptismal Property - Brochure (August 1853)
• A.I. Herzen . Interrupted Stories - Compilation (1854)
• Russian printing house in London - a leaflet (1854)
• A.I. Herzen. Prison and Link (1854)
• A.I. Herzen. Letters from France and Italy (1847-1852) - (1855)
• A.I. Herzen. From that shore (1855)
• Poem by A. A. Vyazemsky “Russian God” - a separate leaf
• Herzen A.I. February 27, 1855. People's meeting in memory of the 1848 coup in St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, London - compilation (1855)
• The North Star - Almanac, 8 books, Book VII in two issues (1855–1869)
• Voices from Russia - collections of articles, 9 issues (1856-1860)
• The Bell is a newspaper, originally an appendix to the Polar Star (July 1857 - July 1867)

• On trial! - Appendix to the Bell, 13 pages (October 1859 - April 1862)
• General veche - newspaper, supplement to the Bell, 29 issues (July 1862 - July 1864)
• Kolokol - a bilingual newspaper in French with a Russian supplement (1868-1869)
• V.A. Panaev . The project for the liberation of landowner peasants in Russia - a special supplement to the 44th issue of the "Bell" (June 1, 1859)
• December 14, 1825 and Emperor Nicholas (1858)
• On damage to morals in Russia by Prince M. Shcherbatov and A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by A. N. Radishchev (1858)
• Mémoires de l'impératrice Catherine II (1859)
• Notes of Empress Catherine II , translation from French (1859)
• Notes of Princess Dashkova (1859)
• Notes by Senator I.V. Lopukhin (1860)
• K.F. Ryleev . Thoughts and Poems (September 1860)
• A.I. Herzen, N.P. Ogaryov. For five years (1855-1860). Political and social articles - a collection of articles in two parts (1860-1861)
• The bible . The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, translated from Hebrew, regardless of the inserts in the original and from its changes found in Greek and Slavic translations. Old Testament. Division 1, containing the Law or the Pentateuch. Translation by Vadim ( V.I. Kelsiev ) (1860)
• What do people need? - proclamation of N.P. Ogaryov with the participation of N.N. Obruchev (July 1861)
• 19th Century Russian Secret Literature - Compilation (October 1861)
• The historical collection of the Free Russian Printing House in London - two books (April 1859, January 1861)
• The collection of government information on schismatics compiled by V. Kelsiev - four volumes (1861-1862)
• Collection of resolutions on the split, compiled by V. Kelsiev - two volumes (1863)
• N.P. Ogaryov . What people need to do - a leaflet (1862)
• P.A. Martyanov . People and State - Brochure (1862)
• Notes of the Decembrists - 3 issues, the second and third twin (1862-1863)
• Soldier Songs (November 1862)
• Religion of spiritual Christians commonly referred to as Molokans (1862)
• Free Russian Songs (1863)
• Decade of the Free Russian Printing House in London. A collection of its first sheets, compiled and published by L. Chernetsky (1863)

In the second half of the twentieth century, the “Group for the Study of the Revolutionary Situation in Russia of the late 1850s - early 1860s” carried out a commented facsimile reprint of a number of key publications of the Free Russian Printing House. Among them were “The Bell” with appendices (ten volumes + volume of comments, 1962-1964), the North Star (books I — VIII + volume of comments, 1966-1968), “Voices from Russia” (books I — IX in three volumes + volume of comments, 1974-1976), Kolokol (one volume + volume of comments, 1978-1979), notes by Catherine II, Princess Dashkova, Senator Lopukhin, volume On Damage to Morals in Russia, by Prince Shcherbatov and “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A. N. Radishchev, several other books.

• Addresses in London
  • 82, Judd street, Brunswick Square
  • 2, Judd street, Brunswick Square
  • 5, Thornhill place, Caledonian road
  • 136 & 138, Thornhill place, Caledonian road
  • Elmfield House, Teddington, Middlesex
  • Jessamine cottage, New Hampton, Middlesex
• Addresses in Geneva
  • 40, Pré l'Evêque
  • Place Bel-Air, Ancient Hotel des Postes

• Eidelman H. Ya. Tales of the "Bell" // Paths to the Unknown Writers talk about science. - M .: Soviet writer, 1969. - T. 7. - S. 5-54. - 416 p. - (Ways to the Unknowable). - 50,000 copies.
• Eidelman H. Ya. Secret correspondents of the Polar Star . - M .: Thought, 1966 .-- 312 p. - 27,000 copies.
• Page of Natan Adelman at VIVOS VOCO!
• Anna Meshcheryakova. Who called the Russian "Bell" (inaccessible link)
• Gromova L.P. “I Have Your Uncensored Speech” (publishing by A. I. Herzen) // Journalism of the Russian Abroad of the 19th — 20th Centuries / G. Zhirkov . - SPb. : Publishing House of St. Petersburg University, 2003. - 320 p. - ISBN 5-288-02580-0 .
• Free Russian typography in London. Brothers in Russia.

• Herzen, Alexander Ivanovich
• Ogaryov, Nikolai Platonovich
• Bell
• Voices from Russia