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Title: Letter to Le Constitutionnel Author: Mikhail Bakunin Date: March 19, 1846 Language: en Topics: Russia, Poland, letter, Libertarian Labyrinth, eastern europe Source: Retrieved on 24th April 2021 from https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/bakunin-library/letter-to-le-constitutionnel-march-19-1846/ Notes: Published in Le Constitutionnel, 19 mars 1846, Paris. Working translation by Shawn P. Wilbur.
Monsieur.
I am Russian, and I love my country. It is for that very reason that I
make some wishes at this moment, like many Russians, for the triumph of
the Polish insurrection polonaise. The oppression of Poland is a shame
for my country, and its liberty would perhaps be the beginning of our
own.
I want first of all to bring my testimony, as an honest man, in an
affair which occupies at this moment all the French papers, I want to
speak of the persecution of the Basilian nuns of Lithuania.
For my part, I am completely convinced of the truth of the facts
denounced by the nuns. I believe them true, because I find them likely
and I know that the evil that is possible in Russia sadly never fails to
become real there. The political and administrative organization of that
country is such that, rendering the good nearly impracticable, it makes
an inevitability of evil.
The first question which presents itself is this: Is it possible that
the Russian government, however absolute it may be, allowed itself to
use violence as a means of religious propaganda? Unfortunately, we are
not allowed doubt it. everyone knows that illegal, oppressive and often
atrocious measures the Russian authorities have used to force the
inhabitants of Lithuania and White Russia to change their religion.
Ordered and sanctioned by the emperor himself, this systematically
organized violence could not be unknown to him.
The Lithuanians, as well as White Russia, making up thus part of the
kingdom of Poland, would pass, in the 16^(th) century, from the Greek
cult to the Roman Catholic religion, they accepted all its dogmas,
recognized the supremacy of the pope, but, on the other hand, the
council of Florence, which designated them under the name of United
Greek, permitted them to preserve the rites of the Greek church. Little
by little, the ancient forms and customs were lost, so that already, in
the 18^(th) century, it became nearly impossible to find the least
difference between the United Greek and the Roman Catholics. This
change, as well as the introduction itself of the union in one part of
these provinces, and especially in Ukraine, was not made without some
difficulties, the means employed then by the Jesuits, whose complete
power in Poland was one of the principal causes of the fall of that
country, offered a great resemblance with those used presently by the
government of the emperor; but finally the thing was done, and when the
provinces were reunited to Russia, the populations no longer recalling
the sufferings of their fathers, were already sincerely attached to
their new worship which, as I just told you, hardly different any longer
from the Catholic worship.
To break Poland, such has been, since 1811, the constant thought of
Emperor Nicolas, a perfectly logical thought, for not wanting Poland
independent and free, he must necessarily tend to the destruction of its
nationality. But, to attain that end, three things were necessary: 1.
The extinction of the Polish language. 2. The subjection of Poland to
Russian legislation. 3. The establishment of the religion of the State
on the ruins of the Catholic and the United Greek churches.
It would be impossible for me, Monsieur, to present to you here a
complete tableau of the acts of the Russian government; my letter would
become too long; so I will only occupy myself with the third point.
It was naturally necessary to begin with White Russia and Lithuania. You
certainly know, Monsieur, that Russian politics if composed of two
principal elements: it ordinarily begins with cunning, and always
finishes with violence. That is then how they went about opening to the
unfortunate dissidents the ways of eternal salvation:
At first showing themselves jealous to make strictly observed the
decisions of the council of Florence, the government rendered obligatory
the article which permitted them to preserve the rites of the Greek
church; it began with some changes inside the churches, such as the
costume of the priests, changes which were made in a very violent
manner, for they had no consideration of any complaint, and the
recalcitrant priests were deprived of their liberty, without prior
trial. In 1838, the government, suddenly adopting a new policy, decided
to strike a great blow: bishop Siemaszko, who was the soul of that
enterprise, convoked at Polotsk a sort of council composed of a very
small number of bishops and priests, one part of which was bought with
promises, and the other intimidated by threats. The joining of the Greek
United and Orthodox churches was voted there unanimously, and a
deputation sent to Saint-Petersburg, under to the chairmanship of
Siemaszko, to beg the emperor to be so good as to permit his very humble
dissident subjects to renounce the heresy. “I give thanks to go, and I
accept.” Such was the response of Nicolas. They heaped favors on the
deputies, with magnificent presents and titles; each day they celebrated
some Te Deum, and while that comedy played out in Saint-Petersburg, the
blood already flowed in Lithuania and White Russia. Then the emperor
sent the archbishop Siemaszko there, armed with full powers, enjoining
the civil and military authorities to lend him aid and assistance.
The dissident populations would protest unanimously against the council
of Polotsk; there were some partial rebellions, repressed by armed
force, many peasants were shot, others stunned under the knout, a still
greater number sent to Siberia, either to be colonized there, or to
forced labor. A number of recalcitrant priests suffered the same fate,
several of them were thrown in prison, to be given up there to torture,
yes, Monsieur, to torture, for although abolished by a ukase of
Catherine II, it continues nonetheless to be employed, even in Russia,
in the criminal investigations, not against the nobility, if it is not
in the political trials, but often against the people and a part of the
third estate.
Despite these barbaric measures, the dissidents still resist the
tyrannical pretentions of the Russian government: the affair of the
Basilians is one new proof of it, and after all that I have said, you
will admit that the complaints of Mme. Mieczyslawska cannot be taxed
with exaggeration. A man like Siemaszko is capable of anything.
Regarding the ill treatment and insults that unfortunate Basilianshave
had to suffer from the Russian nuns, I find nothing implausible there,
for in Russia the majority of the convents and monasteries, for men and
women, are filled with idle, ignorant people, who, accustomed from their
most tender childhood to all sorts of brutalities, passing their lives
between mechanically recited prayers, gossip and sometimes drunkenness.
You will easily imagine how such nuns would have received some
defenseless, accused of heresy and disobedience to the emperor.
But was the emperor Nicolas informed of all that? Is it possible that he
had himself commanded all those cruelties?
Monsieur, I do not wish to be unjust to anyone, not even towards the
emperor, who has been unjust so many times and towards so many. I must,
however, speak the truth: the condemnations and executions of which I
just spoke to you, have all be ordered and sanctioned by the emperor. He
has certainly not ordered Siemaszko to break the jawbones of poor nuns,
but he has invested him with his complete confidence; he has commanded
him to crack down on them with all the severity of the Russian laws. I
am deeply convinced that it the emperor had had the firm will to not
tolerate unjust trials and bloody violence in his States, all these
cruelties would not have taken place.
The facts which I have just discussed with you are particularly known to
me, because I spent some time in Lithuania as a soldier. If I did not
fear to abuse your attention too mcuh, I would have cited many others in
order to prove to you that if O’Connell could say, in leaving his
homeland that “No people on the face of the earth have ever been as
cruelly treated as Ireland”, it is because he obviously did not know all
the barbaric acts of the Russian government in Poland. The
administration of Poland consists of little else than people who, having
no other aim that to succeed and enrich themselves by any mean, strive
to distinguish themselves by their zeal, and that zeal ordinarily in the
discovery of new conspiracies and in the fierce pursuit of the
conspirators real or fictive.
Recall, Monsieur, that the Russian government ne tend Ă nothing less
than the total destruction of the Polish nation polonaise, that it wants
[to destroy] its customs, its religion, even its language, that it
regards and punishes as a crime of lèse-majesté all that which is
contrary to the will of the emperor, that the forms of the trials and
condemnations are tout Ă fait arbitrary, that those who are charged with
it, that the least employee of the Russian administration enjoys a
nearly absolute power with regard to all the Poles. Combine all of that
together, and you will have a complete and fair idea of the des
sufferings of that unfortunate and noble nation.
Accept, Monsieur, etc.
M. BAKOUNINE
Paris, February 6, 1846.