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Kavelin and Russian Liberalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Daniel Field
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Extract

Konstantin Dmitrievich Kavelin has long been regarded as both a leader and archetype of nineteenth-century Russian liberalism. It is not clear, however, what “liberal” and “liberalism” mean with reference to nineteenth-century Russia. Russian liberals of the early twentieth century, seeking to create a tradition for their movement, put the most diverse figures from the past in the liberal pantheon. Soviet historians, with somewhat more justice but the same kind of zeal, have sharply demarcated mid-century radicals, with, whom they sympathize, from the liberals. American historians of Russia tend to characterize as “liberal” almost anyone who tried to achieve social and political improvements by nonrevolutionary means. And almost all historians have resorted to the tautology whereby “liberalism” denotes the activities and doctrines of those public figures whom we know to be “liberals.”

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 59 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1973

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References

1. “Pis'ma P. B. Annenkova k I. S. Turgenevu,” Trudy Publichnoi biblioteki SSSR im. Lenina, 3 (1934) : 82-83.

2. See Emmons, T. L., The Russian Landed Gentry and the Peasant Emancipation of 1861 (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 266–81 Google Scholar passim, and A. M. Unkovsky, “Zapiski,” Russkaia mysl', 1906, no. 7, pp. 96, 115.

3. For Kavelin's biography see D. A. Korsakov's introduction to Kavelin's Sobranie sochinemi, 4 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1897-1900), 1 : ix-xxx; also Rozental, V. N., “Peterburgskii kruzhok K. D. Kavelina v 1855-1857,” in Nechkina, M. V., ed., Revoliutsionnaia situatsiia v Rossii v 1859-1861 gg., fasc. 3 (Moscow, 1963), pp. 383–98 Google Scholar, and the other studies by Rozental cited there; and Darrell P. Hammer, “Two Russian Liberals : The Political Thought of B. N. Chicherin and K. D. Kavelin” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1962). A judicious essay on Kavelin is V. A. Miakotin's “Publitsisticheskaia deiatel'nost' K. D. Kavelina,” Russkoe bogatstvo, September 1902, second pagination, pp. 70-97.

4. A., Stankevich, T. N. Granovskii i ego perepiska (Moscow, 1897), vol. 2, p. 457.Google Scholar

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6. See, for example, Chernyshevsky's remark quoted in Reiser, S. A., ed., Dobroliubov v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov (Leningrad, 1961), p. 235.Google Scholar

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8. See Kavelin to Granovsky, Mar. 4-10, 1855, in “K. D. Kavelin o smerti Nikolaia I,” Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 67 (1959) : 610-11.

9. See W. B., Lincoln, “The Circle of the Grand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna, 1847-61,” Slavonic Review, 48 (1970) : 380.Google Scholar

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12. Pis'ma k Gertsenu, pp. 3-4. Kavelin to Herzen, early 1858, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 62 (1955) : 386.

13. Kavelin to Katkov, Oct. 20, 1858, in M. Kheifets, “Pis'ma K. D. Kavelina k M. N. Katkovu o Chernyshevskom,” Lenin Library, Moscow, Zapiski Otdela rukopisei, 6 (1940) : 62; letter to A. I. Koshelev, Mar. 2, 1858, in “Iz literaturnoi perepiski Kavelina, “ Russkaia mysl', 1896, no. 2, p. 33.

14. N., Barsukov, Zhizn' i trudy M. P. Pogodina, vol. 14 (St. Petersburg, 1900), p. 203.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 211; the dashes represent a word omitted by Barsukov, presumably for propriety’s sake.

16. Kavelin, “Iz dnevnika,” Sobranie sochinenii, 2 : 1169.

17. Ibid., p. 1179.

18. Panaeva, A. Ia., Vospominaniia (Moscow, 1956), p. 252.Google Scholar

19. Kavelin, Sobranie sochinenii, 2 : 5-87; the first section (pp. 5-23) was published anonymously in Herzen’s Golosa iz Rossii, fasc. 3 (London, 1857), pp. 138-71.

20. Kavelin, Sobranie sochinenii, 2 : 29.

21. Ibid., p. 39.

22. Ibid., p. 48.

23. Kavelin to Pogodin, Mar. 17, 18S6, in Zhizn’ i trudy Pogodina, 14 : 213.

24. The government considered making a beginning in the western provinces, because the marshals of the nobility from the area seemed more amenable to reform of serfdom; the fact that the rescript setting forth the government’s first plan of reform was addressed to the governor-general at Vilna was a vestige of this line of policy. See A. I., Levshin, “Dostopamiatnye minuty v moei zhizni,” Russkii arkhiv, 1885, no. 8, pp. 484, 509Google Scholar, and N. N., Ulashchik, “Iz istorii reskripta 20 noiabria 1857 g.,” Istoricheskie zapiski, 28 (1949) : 164–81.Google Scholar

25. For a survey see N. S. Bagramian, “Pomeshchich'i prokety osvobozhdeniia krest'ian, in Nechkina, M. V., ed., Rcvoliutsionnaia situatsiia v Rossii v 1859-1861 gg., fasc. 2 (Moscow, 1962), pp. 20–27.Google Scholar

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27. See W. B., Lincoln, “The Karlovka Reform,” Slavic Review, 28, no. 3 (September 1969) : 463–70 Google Scholar, and, for Kavelin's defense of the plan, his letter to Golovnin in Russkaia starina, 53 (February 1887) : 443-44. Kavelin was so indiscreetly proud of his invitation to participate that these clandestine deliberations became common knowledge in St. Petersburg. See “R,” “Na zare krepostnoi svobody,” Russkaia starina, 92 (October 1892) : 22-23.

28. Kavelin, Sobranie sochinenii, 2 : 88-102.

29. soveta, Arkhiv Gosudarstvennogo, Zhurnaly Sekretnogo i glavnogo komitetov po krest'ianskomu delu (Petrograd, 1915), vol. 1, p. 19.Google Scholar

30. Kavelin's subsequent complaint that the “Zapiska” was published “without my consent or knowledge” is disingenuous in light of his earlier admission that he turned it over to Chernyshevsky as “literary property.” Compare his letters to M. I. Semevsky of Apr. 12, 1885, in Russkaia starina, 49, no. 1 (January 1886) : 132, and to M. N. Katkov, of Mar. 10, 1858, in “Pis'ma K. D. Kavelina k M. N. Katkovu,” p. 62.

31. N. G. Chernyshevsky, “O novykh usloviiakh sel'skogo byta (stat'ia vtoraia), “ Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 16 vols. (Moscow, 1939-53), 5 : 108. This edition gives the whole text of the version of Kavelin's memorandum as published in Sovremennik.

32. To be sure, the editors of Sovremennik were culpable for failing to resubmit the article to the special censor for articles on the peasant question, at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it was cleared by the regular censorship; see Evgen'ev-Maksimov, V., “Sovremennik” pri Chernyshevskom i Dobroliubove (Leningrad, 1936), p. 231 Google Scholar, and Chernyshevsky, , “Uprek i opravdivanie,” Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 5 : 768 Google Scholar, but also p. 776.

33. “Chernyi kabinet,” in Kolokol, no. 20 (Aug. 1, 1858), pp. 161-63. P. P. Semenov- Tian-Shansky's claim that Kavelin was removed for supplying material for Herzen's Kolokol is not plausible; see his Epokha osvobozhdeniia krest'ian v Rossii … , vol. 1 (St Petersburg, 1911), p. 66; compare Porokh, I. V., ed., Delo Chernyshevskogo (Saratov, 1968), p. 642.Google Scholar

34. See F. O., Oom, “Vospominania,” Russkii arkhiv, 1896, no. 6, pp. 248–50Google Scholar; Dolgorukov, P. V., Peterburgskie ocherki (Moscow, 1934), p. 122 Google Scholar; Levshin, “Dostopamiatnye minuty,” pp. 540-41; Materialy dlia istorii uprazdneniia krepostnogo sostoianiia pomeshchich'ikh krest'ian v Rossii v tsarstvovanie Aleksandra II, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1860), pp. 231-44, and Nikitenko, A. V., Dnevnik (Leningrad, 1955), vol. 2, pp. 19–20.Google Scholar

35. See D. Field, “The End of Serfdom : Gentry and Bureaucracy in Russia, 1855-61“ (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1969), pp. 245-88, for a discussion of the Main Committee in 1858.

36. See Levshin, “Dostopamiatnye minuty,” p. 542, and for a protest specifically against Chernyshevsky’s publication of Kavelin’s “Zapiska” see “N. G. Chernyshevskii i tsarskaia tsenzura,” Kovalev, I., ed., in Shestidesiatye gody, ed. Piksanov, N. K. and Tsekhnovitser, O. V. (Moscow and Leningrad, 1940), pp. 383–86.Google Scholar

37. These are the objections made in two circulars by the minister of education reproduced in Kolokol, no. 20 (Aug. 1, 1858), pp. 162-63.

38. On Kavelin's estrangement from Elena Pavlovna, see D. Korsakov, “Iz zhizni K. D. Kavelina vo Frantsii i Germanii … ,” Russkaia mysl', May 1899, p. 31; on his recriminations against Rostovtsev see Semenov-Tian-Shansky, Epokha osvobozhdeniia krest'ian, 1 : 65; see also Kavelin's letter to Semevsky cited in note 30.

39. Kavelin, , “Mnenie o luchshem sposobe razrabotki voprosa ob osvobozhdenii krest'ian,” Sobranie sochinenii, 2 : 103–6.Google Scholar

40. Chicherin's “bill of indictment” and Herzen's rebuttal appeared in Kolokol in December 1858; this publication was the occasion of the three-cornered correspondence published in Lemke's edition of Herzen, 's Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem, vol. 9 (“Petersburg,” 1919), pp. 404–24Google Scholar; see also Chicherin, B. N., Puteshestvie za granitsu (Moscow, 1932), pp. 65–67 Google Scholar, and S. S., Dmitriev, “Protest protiv ‘Obvinatel'nogo akta* Chicherina,” Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 63 (1956) : 209–19.Google Scholar

41. Pis'ma k A. V. Druzhininu : Letopisi Got. literaturnogo muzeia, vol. 9 (Moscow, 1948), p. 137.

42. Panteleev, L. V., Vospominaniia (Leningrad, 1958), pp. 189, 200.Google Scholar

43. Franco, Venturi, Roots of Revolution (New York, 1960)Google Scholar, chap. 8; T. J. Hegarty, “Student Movements in Russian Universities, 1855-61” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1965), chaps. 2 and 3.

44. See Kavelin, K. D., “Zapiska ob universitetskom dele …,” Kolokol, no. 119/120 (Jan. 15, 1862), pp. 992, 995.Google Scholar

45. Panteleev, Vospominaniia, p. 201.

46. When Kavelin stated to the new chancellor that “it was awkward and impossible for the professors to distribute rules [for students] to which they had reason to object, “ the latter replied, “State service has its demands; those who do not want to bear these obligations are free to retire.” Spasovich, V. D., Sochineniia (St. Petersburg, 1891), vol. 4, p. 41.Google Scholar

47. Panteleev, Vospominaniia, pp. 259-61.

48. Pis'ma k Gertsenu, p. 81.

49. Korsakov, “Materialy,” Vestnik Evropy, October 1886, p. 744.

50. D. A., Korsakov, “Iz zhizni K. D. Kavelina vo Frantsii i Germanii v 1862-64 gg. (po ego perepiske za eto vremia),” Russkaia mysl', 1899, no. 8, second pagination, p. 11.Google Scholar

51. For the best text of Herzen's letter, of which only a rough draft survives, see Gertsen, A. I., Sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh, vol. 27 (Moscow, 1963), pp. 226–27.Google Scholar

52. Kavelin, , “Dvorianstvo i osvobozhdenie krest'ian,” Sobranie sochinenii, 2 : 131.Google Scholar

53. V. D. Spasovich, introduction to volume 2 of Kavelin's Sobranie sochinenii, p. xxiii.

54. Pis'ma k Gertsenu, p. 9.

55. Ibid., p. 61.

56. Panteleev, Vospominaniia, p. 265.

57. Their exchange of letters, dating from late 1861 or early 1862, is reproduced in Chicherin, B. N., Moskovskii universitet (Moscow, 1929), pp. 61–65.Google Scholar

58. Gertsen, Sobranie sochinenii, 27 : 226.

59. Korsakov, “Materialy,” Vestnik Evropy, February 1887, pp. 634-38; Kostomarov, N. I., Avtobiografiia (Moscow, 1922), pp. 319–20 Google Scholar; Spasovich, introduction to vol. 2 of Kavelin's Sobranie sochinenii, p. xxvii. Kavelin was something of a Polonophile until the Rebellion of 1863, which alienated him from Spasovich and other Poles.

60. “Pis'ma K. D. Kavelina k A. I. Skrebitskomu,” Vestnik Evropy, March 1917, p. 178 passim.

61. Pis'ma Gertsenu, p. 82. But later Kavelin did intercede with the government for the exiled Chernyshevsky; see his letters of Feb. 8, 1865, in Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 67 : 137-40.

62. Kavelin, Sobranie sochinenii, 2 : xxvii.

63. “Iz pisem K. D. Kavelina k K. K. Grotu,” Russkaia starina, 97 (January 1899) : 140.

64. Korsakov, “Iz zhizni,” Russkaia mysl', April 1900, second pagination, pp. 12-13, and December 1899, second pagination, pp. 4-5.

65. Ibid., May 1899, second pagination, p. 40.

66. Ibid., April 1900, second pagination, p. 42.

67. Korsakov, “Materialy,” Vestnik Evropy, October 1886, p. 7Z7.

68. “Zapiska K. D. Kavelina o nigilizme,” ed. P. A. Zaionchkovsky, Istoricheskii arkhiv, 1950, no. 5, pp. 323-41; “Pis'mo K. D. Kavelina k grafu M. T. Loris-Melikovu, “ Russkaia mysl', May 1906, pp. 31-37.

69. Richard, Wortman, “Koshelev, Samarin, and Cherkassky and the Fate of Liberal Slavophilism,” Slavic Review, 21, no. 2 (June 1962) : 261–79 Google Scholar