Nikolai Nikolaevich (9 (21) II 1857, Mamadysh of the Kazan province - 13 (26) XII 1918, Kyiv) - Russian. singer (lyric-drama tenor). Graduated from the Marine cadet corps Petersburg (1878), served in the Navy, in 1881 he retired with the rank of lieutenant. In 1879 he briefly studied in St. Petersburg. conservatory at V. M. Samus; He also took singing lessons from IP Pryanishnikov and J. Everardi (K. Everardi's wife). Improved in Italy with F. Lamperti, E. de Roxas and other teachers. In 1882 he made his debut in Naples (in Gounod's operas Philemon and Baucis and Faust). In 1882-87 he successfully toured the countries of the West. Europe and South. America. In 1887 he made his debut as Radamès; Faust; Raul: ("Huguenots") on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where he worked until the 1903/04 season. Then he performed on private opera stages in different cities Russia, in Moscow Big t-re, in own. entreprises (Nizh. Novgorod, Tbilisi), as well as in concerts. In 1907 he returned to Mariinsky t-r, where his farewell benefit performance took place in the same year (sang the part of Romeo in the opera Romeo and Juliet by Gounod). In 1910-15 soloist, art. hands and director of the Petersburg Opera Company. nar. at home (the operas Boris Godunov, The Snow Maiden, and Prince Igor were staged under his direction). Striving for a high staging culture of the performance, for the coherence of the stage. ensemble, attracted to work in the troupe of the famous dir. A. A. Sanina. In 1915 he left the stage, took up teaching. activity. In 1917 he settled in Ukraine, in 1918 he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory (taught an opera class). Creativity F. - a bright page in the history of Russian. opera t-ra. His voice was not distinguished by beauty and strength (it was somewhat dryish in timbre), but thanks to a magnificent wok. school F. was a first-class singer. He perfectly mastered the art of bel canto: wide, free breathing, excellent mezzo voce, thinning, the finest gradations of sound from light piano to powerful forte, cantilena. He knew how to form and diversify timbres, to give his voice either softness and tenderness, or severity and courage. His singing was distinguished by accuracy of intonation, flexibility and elegance of phrasing, distinct diction. F. paid great attention not only to the wok. side of the party, but also her stage performance. incarnation. Expressiveness, bright temperament were combined in his performance with art. tact. Striving for a truthful disclosure of images, F., however, was not free from opera clichés. The singer did not achieve complete reincarnation, he emphasized only the predominant feature of the created image.
F. was the first performer of the plural. parties in Russian operas, including German (1890, studied the part under the direction of P. I. Tchaikovsky), Vaudémont (1892), Vladimir Dubrovsky (1895). For a long time was the best Lensky (before the classic image of Lensky created by L.V. Sobinov). Among other parties - Synodal, the Pretender, John of Leiden, Fra Diavolo, Jose, Werther, Alfred, Duke, Lohengrin. J. Verdi praised the performance of F. the role of Othello. Tchaikovsky dedicated a cycle of romances to him, Op. 73. F. translated into Russian. lang. libretto of a number of foreign opera.
Literature: Twenty-five years of fame in opera, comp. Fignerist, St. Petersburg, 1907, "Russian Musical Newspaper", 1912, No 1 (dedicated to F.); Stark E. (Siegfried), Petersburg Opera and its masters, L.-M., 1940; Levik S., Notes of an Opera Singer. From the history of the Russian opera stage, M., 1955, 1962; Figner M., Brother and sister, "Theatre", 1964, No 1; H. H. Figner. Memories. Letters. Materials, L., 1968; Gozenpud A., Russian opera theater of the 19th century. 1873-1889, L., 1973; its own, the Russian Opera Theater on turn of XIX-XX centuries and F.I. Chaliapin. 1890-1904, L., 1974.
A. P. Grigorieva.
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Figner Vera Nikolaevna- (June 25, 1852, Mamadyshsky district of the Kazan province, - June 15, 1942, Moscow). From nobles. In 1871 she studied at Kazan University. In 1872-75 she studied at the Universities of Zurich and Berne, ........
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Figner- Medea Ivanovna (1859-1952) - Russian singer (dramatic soprano), Italian by origin. Wife N. N. a. She sang at the Mariinsky Theater (1887-1912). The first performer of parts ........
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Figner — 1
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Figner Alexander Samoilovich- Figner (Alexander Samoylovich, 1787 - 1813) - a famous partisan. He was brought up in the 2nd Cadet Corps; in 1805 he was appointed to the troops of the Anglo-Russian expedition in the Mediterranean .........
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Figner Vera Nikolaevna- Figner (Vera Nikolaevna) - Russian political activist. Born in 1852 in a noble family in the Kazan province; graduated from the Kazan Institute for ........
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Figner Medea Ivanovna- - his wife, Medea Ivanovna (former surname - May) - also a famous soprano singer; born in 1860, musical education received in Italy. Sings on the Imperial stage ........
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Figner Nikolai Nikolaevich- Figner (Nikolai Nikolaevich) - a famous Russian tenor singer; was born in 1857, brought up in the naval corps, and in 1878 he entered the navy as an officer. Leaving the service with the rank of lieutenant, ........
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Figner, Alexander Samoilovich- famous partisan Patriotic War, a descendant of the ancient German surname, who left for Russia under Peter I, b. in 1787, died on October 1, 1813 Grandfather F., Baron Figner von Rutmersbach, ........
Figner, K. I.- senator; † in May 1880
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Figner, Nikolai Nikolaevich- - famous Russian tenor singer; genus. in 1857; was brought up in the Naval Corps and in 1878 he entered the fleet as an officer. Leaving the service with the rank of lieutenant, F. studied at the St. Petersburg, ........
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Figner, Nikolai Samoilovich- Captain Mariupol. hussars, partisans; R. 1787, † 1812
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Figner, Samuil Samuilovich- Art. Sov., Pskov Vice Governor, 1809-1811
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Figner, Friedrich- a physician in the Russian service since 1749, was listed as an employee in 1794
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Russian singer, entrepreneur, vocal teacher. The husband of the singer M. I. Figner. The art of this singer played an important role in the development of the entire national opera theater, in the formation of the type of singer-actor who became a remarkable figure in the Russian opera school.
Once Sobinov, referring to Figner, wrote: “Under the spell of your talent, even cold, callous hearts trembled. Those moments of high uplift and beauty will not be forgotten by anyone who has ever heard you.”
And here is the opinion of the remarkable musician A. Pazovsky: “Having a characteristic tenor voice that is by no means remarkable for the beauty of the timbre, Figner nevertheless knew how to excite, sometimes even shock, with his singing the most diverse audience, including the most demanding in matters of vocal and stage art.”
Nikolai Nikolayevich Figner was born in the city of Mamadysh, Kazan province, on February 21, 1857. At first he studied at the Kazan gymnasium. But, not allowing him to finish the course there, his parents sent him to the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps, where he entered on September 11, 1874. From there, four years later, Nikolai was released as a midshipman.
Enlisted in the naval crew, Figner was assigned to sail on the Askold corvette, on which he circumnavigated the world. In 1879, Nikolai was promoted to midshipman, and on February 9, 1881, he was dismissed due to illness from service with the rank of lieutenant.
His maritime career came to an abrupt end under unusual circumstances. Nikolai fell in love with an Italian Bonn who served in the family of his acquaintances. Contrary to the rules of the military department, Figner decided to marry immediately without the permission of his superiors. Nikolai secretly took Louise away and married her.
A new stage, decisively unprepared by the previous life, began in Figner's biography. He decides to become a singer. He goes to the St. Petersburg Conservatory. At the conservatory test, the famous baritone and singing teacher I.P. Pryanishnikov takes Figner to his class.
However, first Pryanishnikov, then the famous teacher K. Everardi made him understand that he did not have vocal abilities, and advised him to abandon this idea. Figner obviously had a different opinion about his talent.
In the short weeks of study, Figner comes to a certain conclusion, however. “I need time, will and work!” he says to himself. Taking advantage of the material support offered to him, he, together with Louise, who was already expecting a child, leaves for Italy. In Milan, Figner hoped to find recognition from renowned vocal teachers.
"Having reached the Christopher Gallery in Milan - this singing exchange - Figner falls into the clutches of some charlatan from the "singing professors", and he quickly leaves him not only without money, but also without a voice, - writes Levik. - About his woeful position recognizes some supernumerary choirmaster - the Greek Derokzas - and extends a helping hand to him. He takes him to full dependency and prepares for the stage in six months. In 1882, N. N. Figner makes his debut in Naples.
Starting a career in the West, N.N. Figner, as a perspicacious and intelligent person, carefully looks at everything. He is still young, but already mature enough to understand that in the path of one sweet-voiced singing, even in Italy, he may have many more thorns than roses. The logic of creative thinking, the realism of execution - these are the milestones that he focuses on. First of all, he begins to develop in himself a sense of artistic proportion and determine the boundaries of what is called good taste.
Figner notes that, for the most part, Italian opera singers almost do not own recitative, and if they do, they do not attach due importance to it. They are waiting for an aria or a phrase with high note, with an ending suitable for filleting or all sorts of sound fading, with an effective vocal position or a cascade of seductive sounds in terms of tessitura, but they are clearly switched off from the action when their partners sing. They are indifferent to ensembles, that is, to places that essentially express the culmination of a particular scene, and they almost always sing them. in full voice, mainly to be heard. Figner realized in time that these features by no means testify to the merits of the singer, that they are often harmful to the overall artistic impression and often run counter to the composer's intentions. Before his eyes are the best Russian singers of his time, and the beautiful images Susanin, Ruslan, Holofernes.
And the first thing that distinguishes Figner from his initial steps is the presentation of recitatives, unusual for that time on the Italian stage. Not a single word without maximum attention to the musical line, not a single note out of touch with the word... The second feature of Figner's singing is the correct calculation of light and shadow, juicy tone and subdued semitone, the brightest contrasts.
As if anticipating Chaliapin's brilliant sound economy, Figner was able to keep his listeners under the spell of a finely pronounced word. The minimum of overall sonority, the minimum of each sound separately - exactly as much as is necessary for the singer to be equally well heard in all corners of the hall and for the listener to reach timbre colors.
Less than six months later, Figner made his successful debut in Naples in Gounod's Philemon and Baucis, and a few days later in Faust. He was immediately noticed. They got interested. Tours began in different cities of Italy. Here is just one of the enthusiastic responses of the Italian press. The newspaper Rivista (Ferrara) wrote in 1883: “The tenor Figner, although he does not have a voice of great range, attracts with the richness of phrasing, impeccable intonation, grace of execution and, most of all, the beauty of high notes, which sound clean and energetic with him, without the slightest efforts. In the aria “Hail to you, sacred shelter”, in a passage in which he is excellent, the artist gives a chest “do” so clear and sonorous that it causes the most stormy applause. There were good moments in the challenge trio, in the love duet and in the final trio. However, since his means, although not unlimited, still provide him with this opportunity, it is desirable that other moments be saturated with the same feeling and the same enthusiasm, in particular the prologue, which required a more passionate and convincing interpretation. The singer is still young. But thanks to the mind and excellent qualities with which he is generously endowed, he will be able - subject to a carefully selected repertoire - to advance far on his path.
After touring Italy, Figner performs in Spain and tours South America. His name quickly became widely known. After South America performances in England follow. So Figner for five years (1882-1887) becomes one of the notable figures in the European opera house that time.
In 1887, he was already invited to the Mariinsky Theater, and on unprecedented favorable terms. Then the highest salary of an artist of the Mariinsky Theater was 12 thousand rubles a year. The contract concluded with the Figner couple from the very beginning provided for payment of 500 rubles per performance with a minimum rate of 80 performances per season, that is, it amounted to 40 thousand rubles a year!
By that time, Louise had been abandoned by Figner in Italy, and his daughter had also remained there. On tour, he met a young Italian singer Medea May. With her, Figner returned to St. Petersburg. Soon Medea became his wife. The married couple formed a truly perfect vocal duet that adorned the capital's opera stage for many years.
In April 1887, he first appeared on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater as Radamès, and from that moment until 1904 he remained the leading soloist of the troupe, its support and pride.
Probably, in order to perpetuate the name of this singer, it would be enough that he was the first performer of Herman's parts in The Queen of Spades. So the famous lawyer A.F. Koni wrote: "N.N. Figner in the role of Herman did amazing things. He understood and presented Herman as a whole clinical picture of a mental disorder ... When I saw N.N. Figner, I was amazed. I was amazed to what extent he is true and deeply portrayed insanity ... and how it developed in him. If I were a professional psychiatrist, I would say to the audience: "Go, see N. N. Figner. He will show you a picture of the development of insanity, which you will never meet and never find!. How N. N. Figner played all this!When we looked at the presence of Nikolai Nikolayevich, at the gaze fixed on one point and at complete indifference to others, it became scary for him ... Whoever saw N. N. Figner in the role of Herman, he could stages to follow the madness on his game. Here his great creativity affected. I was not familiar with Nikolai Nikolaevich at that time, but then I had the honor to meet him. I asked him: "Tell me, Nikolai Nikolaevich, where did you study madness? Did you read books or seen? "-" No, I did not read and did not study, it just seems to me that it should be so. This is intuition…”
Of course, not only in the role of Herman showed his remarkable acting talent. Just as breathtakingly truthful was his Canio in Pagliacci. And in this role, the singer skillfully conveyed a whole gamut of feelings, achieving in a short period of one act of a huge dramatic increase, culminating in a tragic denouement. The artist left the strongest impression in the role of Jose (Carmen), where everything in his game was thought out, internally justified and at the same time lit up with passion.
Music critic V. Kolomiytsev wrote at the end of 1907, when Figner had already completed his performances:
“During his twenty-year stay in St. Petersburg, he sang a lot of parts. Success did not change him anywhere, but the repertoire of the “cloak and sword” that I spoke about above was especially suitable for his artistic personality. He was a hero of strong and spectacular, although typically Russian and German operas in most cases were less successful for him.In general, to be fair and impartial, it should be said that Figner did not create various stage types (in the sense that, for example, Chaliapin creates them): almost always and in everything he remained himself, that is, still the same elegant, nervous and passionate first tenor. Even his make-up hardly changed - only the costumes changed, colors thickened or weakened accordingly, certain details were set off. But, I repeat, personal, very bright qualities of this artist were very suitable for the best games his repertoire; moreover, it should not be forgotten that these specifically tenor parts themselves are, in their essence, very homogeneous.
If I'm not mistaken, Figner never appeared in Glinka's operas. He did not sing Wagner either, except for an unsuccessful attempt to portray Lohengrin. In Russian operas, he was undoubtedly magnificent in the image of Dubrovsky in the opera Napravnik and especially Herman in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades. And then it was the incomparable Alfred, Faust (in Mephistopheles), Radames, Jose, Fra Diavolo.
But where Figner left a truly indelible impression was in the roles of Raoul in Meyerbeer's Huguenots and Othello in Verdi's opera. In these two operas, he many times gave us enormous, rare pleasure.
Figner left the stage at the height of his talent. Most listeners believed that the reason for this was the divorce from his wife in 1904. Moreover, Medea was to blame for the breakup. Figner found it impossible to perform with her on the same stage ...
In 1907, the farewell benefit performance of Figner, who was leaving the opera stage, took place. “Russian Musical Newspaper” wrote in this regard: “His star rose somehow suddenly and immediately blinded both the public and the management, and, moreover, high society, whose goodwill raised Figner’s artistic prestige to a height hitherto unknown Russian opera singers… Figner stunned. He came to us, if not with an outstanding voice, then with an amazing manner of adapting the party to his vocal means and even more amazing vocal and dramatic acting."
But even after ending his career as a singer, Figner remained in the Russian opera. He became the organizer and leader of several troupes in Odessa, Tiflis, Nizhny Novgorod, led an active and versatile public activity, performed in public concerts, and was the organizer of a competition for creating opera works. The most noticeable mark in the cultural life was left by his activity as the head of the opera troupe of the St. Petersburg People's House, where Figner's outstanding directing abilities also manifested themselves.
Vera Nikolaevna Figner
Imprinted Labor
Memories
in two volumes
Vera Nikolaevna Figner and her "Implemented Work"
Women played an outstanding role in the Russian revolutionary movement. The heralds were the Decembrists, far from the revolution and politics, but courageously shared the burden of exile with their revolutionary husbands. The turbulent process of women's emancipation in Russia in the 1960s gave rise to the first few active fighters among women. The best of them - E. L. Dmitrieva, A. V. Korvin-Krukovskaya - became the defenders of the world's first proletarian revolution - the Paris Commune of 1871.
The era of "active populism" intensified the role of women in the social movement to an unprecedented extent. The names of three became known to the whole world: Sophia Perovskaya, the first woman executed by the tsar in 1881 in a political process; Vera Zasulich, whose shot at the St. Petersburg mayor Trepov served as a signal for a new upsurge in the populist movement; Vera Figner...
The remarkable Russian revolutionary populist Vera Nikolaevna Figner lived a long and extraordinary life. She was born in 1852 - during the reign of Nicholas I. She devoted the best years of her life to the struggle with his heir Alexander II. Alexander III and Nicholas II “rewarded” her with decades of fortresses, exile, and persecution.
Figner was 9 years old when they canceled serfdom. And only a few months she did not live up to the 25th anniversary of Soviet power.
The ordeals that befell Vera Nikolaevna - a life full of dangers in the revolutionary underground, the loss of loved ones, the death of her beloved work and the collapse of many ideals, 22 years of solitary confinement - did not break her. The best evidence of this is the memoirs of Vera Figner "The Imprinted Labor".
V. N. Figner managed to "capture" - and capture vividly, with talent - a whole period in the history of the Russian liberation struggle. Her memoirs are an irreplaceable historical source.
The brilliant constellation of Narodnik revolutionaries produced many memoirists. The memoirs of O. V. Aptekman, N. A. Morozov, M. F. Frolenko and others are widely known. But among various memories there are those who collect and concentrate all the most characteristic of their time, becoming, as it were, a mirror of the era. For the 30-60s of the 19th century, such a book was A. I. Herzen's "Past and Thoughts", for the 70s - early 80s - "The Imprinted Work" by V. N. Figner, who received not only the All-Russian, but and worldwide recognition.
Vera Nikolaevna wrote in the same way as she spoke: profoundly truthful, simple, restrained, stern. The content of the book, full of drama, connected by a single style and mood; the skill of the artist, reviving the pictures of the past and people who have long passed away; spirituality and moral purity of the author put forward "The Imprinted Work" among the outstanding historical and literary works.
V. N. Figner was essentially " special person"- from among those who, according to N. G. Chernyshevsky, are "motor engines", "salt of the salt of the earth." He wrote that he had met eight such people in his life, including two women, that their characters had nothing in common, except for one main feature- purposefulness.
The conscience, honesty, way of thinking of Vera Figner were like many others. But her way of thinking was in no way and never separated from the way of actions. Its goal is a revolution that destroys tsarism and brings liberation to the people, and there was no fear or hesitation on the way to the goal. Therefore, there is no doubt about the sincerity of the words of the revolutionary, written already from prison while awaiting a death sentence: “To tell the truth, I believe that my life was happy (from my point of view), and I don’t demand more.”
***Family, childhood, study, conflicting influences of young years, the formation of character and worldview, joining the revolutionary movement and, finally, the “core” of memories, 1876–1883, the time of V. N. Figner’s active revolutionary activity, ending in arrest, - such is the content of the first book of The Sealed Labor.
Vera Nikolaevna came from a wonderful family. Six children - and no one passed through life without a trace. Three sisters - Vera, Lydia and Eugenia - became revolutionaries. The younger Olga followed her husband into exile, to Siberia, and devoted a lot of her energy to cultural and educational work. Brother Nikolai became an outstanding singer, another brother, Peter, became a major mining engineer.
In the childhood and youth of a future revolutionary, it is difficult to find circumstances that gave impetus to the development of exceptional qualities - hundreds of girls from noble families lived and were brought up like her. Among others, she was distinguished by her character - direct, honest and lively, excellent abilities, sharp, inquisitive mind. Favorable environment is progressive thinking people(albeit within the framework of moderate liberalism) and advanced literature completed the job.
Vera Nikolaevna decides to become a doctor, settle in the countryside and treat the peasants. It seemed to her that it was in this field that she would be able to bring the greatest benefit to the people, to make their life easier. But the doors of higher educational institutions Russia were closed to women, and Figner traveled to Switzerland, where in 1872 she became a student at the University of Zurich.
In the early 1970s, Switzerland was the center of Russian emigration. In 1870, a group of revolutionaries headed by N. I. Utin created the Russian Section of the First International in Geneva, whose representative in the General Council was Karl Marx. The most prominent leaders of revolutionary populism came to Switzerland: P. L. Lavrov, whose theory of an unrequited debt to the people was very popular among the progressive intelligentsia; M. A. Bakunin - the idol of youth, an anarchist rebel who visited Saxon, Austrian and Russian prisons, who fled from distant Siberia; Russian Blanquist P. N. Tkachev.
Emigration was a kind of conductor of Western European revolutionary ideas in Russia. The activities of the First International, led by K. Marx and F. Engels, the Paris Commune had a great resonance in the revolutionary-democratic circles of Russia.
70s XIX years centuries were the time of the victorious assertion of Marxism in Western Europe.
In Russia in the 70s, which had recently embarked on the path of capitalist development, where the proletariat was beginning to form into an independent social class, and the labor movement was in its infancy, populism became the main direction of the liberation movement. The Narodniks were quite familiar with Marx's Capital, but considered his ideas acceptable only for Western Europe. Those of them who had a deeper understanding of the teachings of Marx did not find a social force around them on which to rely, and, consequently, found themselves inactive.
Vera Nikolaevna Figner(after Filippov's husband; June 25 (July 7), 1852, the village of Khristoforovka, Tetyushsky district, Kazan province - June 15, 1942, Moscow) - Russian revolutionary, terrorist, member of the Executive Committee of the People's Will, later Social Revolutionary.
Brother Nikolai is an outstanding opera singer, younger sister Lydia is a revolutionary populist.
Biography
Born in the family of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Figner (1817-1870), a retired staff captain since 1847. He served in the Tetyushsky district of the Kazan province under the Ministry of State Property, received the rank provincial secretary, then a forester in Tetyushsky and Mamadyshsky forestries. He was married to Ekaterina Khristoforovna Kupriyanova (1832-1903). They had six children: Vera, Lydia, Peter, Nikolai, Evgenia and Olga.
In 1863-1869 she studied at the Kazan Rodionov Institute for Noble Maidens. In this institution, special attention was paid to the religious education of students, but Vera becomes a staunch atheist, however, having taken out “certain principles” from the Gospel, such as “giving herself entirely to the chosen goal” and “other higher moral values”, which she subsequently linked precisely with revolutionary work. Entered Kazan University.
Since October 18, 1870 (they got married in a rural church in Nikiforovo), she was married to the judicial investigator Alexei Viktorovich Filippov. Together with her husband, they went to Switzerland in order to complete her medical education there (marriage was a typical way for early Russian feminism to “escape” from their parents and choose their own path in life).
In 1872 Vera Finger entered the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich, where she met the populist Sofya Bardina and the circle of Russian students (the so-called “Friches”) that had formed around her. “All the students were crazy about her,” said V. K. Plehve, director of the Police Department and future Minister of the Interior. In 1873 she studied with them political economy, the history of socialist doctrines and revolutionary development in Europe. She claimed that her favorite literary hero is Rakhmetov.
There are natures that do not bend, they can only be broken, broken to death, but not tilted to the ground. Among them is Vera Nikolaevna...
S. Ivanov
“I just“ adored ”, literally adored to the point of religious ecstasy” Vera Figner Gleb Uspensky. The news of her arrest shocked him: "He even sobbed and could not calm down for a long time." On the day of the announcement of the verdict in the “14” case, the writer managed to pass a note to Vera Figner, who had just been sentenced to death: “How I envy you! Gleb Uspensky.
In 1874, she moved to study at the University of Bern, where she met P. L. Lavrov and M. A. Bakunin, after which the circle of "friches" became the core of the "All-Russian Social Revolutionary Organization". In 1875, without completing her education, at the request of her colleagues in the organization she returned to Russia, where she passed the exams for the title of paramedic and divorced her husband, who did not share revolutionary views.
Since 1876 - a participant in the "going to the people"; conducted propaganda among the peasants in the village of Studentsy, Samara province. In 1878, for 10 months she worked as a paramedic in the village of Vyazmino, Saratov province.
Formally Vera Figner was not a member of the Land and Freedom organization, but headed the autonomous circle of “separatists” created by her (Alexander Ivanchin-Pisarev, Yuri Bogdanovich, Alexander Solovyov, etc.), which shared the platform of the landowners and collaborated with them. In 1879 she participated in the Voronezh congress of the landowners. After the collapse of the "Land and Freedom" joined the Executive Committee of the organization "Narodnaya Volya", campaigned among students and the military in St. Petersburg and Kronstadt. Participated in the preparation of assassination attempts on Alexander II in Odessa (1880) and St. Petersburg (1881). The only bright memory of her stay in Odessa for her was a meeting with “Sasha the engineer” (F. Yurkovskiy, who committed the robbery of the Kherson treasury on behalf of the organization), who gave her the nickname “Stomp the Leg”. When the writer Veresaev asked about the origin of this nickname, Figner smiled slyly: “Because beautiful women have a habit of stamping their feet. After the assassination of Alexander II, she was able to escape, being the only member of the organization not arrested by the police. Having left for Odessa, she participated (together with Stepan Khalturin) in the attempt on the military prosecutor Strelnikov V.S.
In the spring of 1883, in Kharkov, she was extradited to the police by S.P. Degaev, arrested and put on trial. In September 1884, according to the “Process of 14”, Figner was sentenced by the St. Petersburg Military District Court to death penalty.
I often thought, could my life have ended in anything other than the dock? And every time I answered myself: no!
After 9 days of waiting for the execution of the sentence, the execution was replaced by indefinite hard labor. In prison, she began to write poetry. She tried to establish contact with political prisoners in the fortress (in particular, with N. M. Morozov and others), to organize collective protests against the harsh conditions of detention.
In 1904 she was sent into exile - first to Nyonoksu, Arkhangelsk province, then to Kazan province, from there to Nizhny Novgorod.
In 1906 she received permission to travel abroad for medical treatment. In 1907, she joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, from which she left after the exposure of E.F. Azef.
In 1910, she initiated the creation of the "Paris Committee for Assistance to Political Prisoners", during its organization she became close to E. P. Peshkova. The committee aimed to organize public opinion in the West to protect political prisoners in Russia and at the same time provide them with material assistance, for which he worked in England, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. Monetary contributions came from Hamburg and Bucharest, Naples and Chicago. Figner herself, who has mastered English well and French, constantly spoke at rallies, in private homes, at student meetings. Published a number of topical articles on political topics in foreign journals. The style of her articles was approved by I. A. Bunin: “That’s who you need to learn to write from!”
In 1915, upon returning to Russia at the border, she was arrested, convicted and exiled under police supervision to Nizhny Novgorod. In December 1916, thanks to her brother Nikolai, a soloist at the Imperial Theatres, she received permission to live in Petrograd.
February Revolution 1917 Vera Figner met as chairman of the Committee for Assistance to Liberated Convicts and Exiles. In March 1917, she participated in a demonstration of soldiers and workers demanding equal rights for women. At a reception hosted by the Chairman of the Provisional Government, Prince G. E. Lvov, she demanded that women be given voting rights in elections to the Constituent Assembly. In April 1917 she was elected an honorary member of the All-Russian Congress of Teachers, a member of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Council of Peasants' Deputies; At the Second Congress of the Labor Group, she called for the unification of the populist groups into one party.
In May 1917, at the All-Russian Congress of Representatives of the Party of Constitutional Democrats, she was elected its honorary member and became a member of the executive committee of this party. In June, she was elected by the Cadets as a candidate member of the Constituent Assembly. She was a member of the so-called Pre-Parliament.
On June 18, 1917, she signed the appeal of the old revolutionaries to all citizens of Russia for the continuation of the war "to a victorious end."
The October Revolution of 1917 was not accepted.
In May 1918, at the invitation of her niece Vera Sergeevna Stakhevich (daughter of Lydia's sister), she moved from hungry Petrograd to the village of Lugan (Sevsky district, Oryol province). After the loss of her loved ones (in Lugan in 1919-1920, the sisters Olga, Lydia, niece Vera Sergeevna Stakhevich died), Vera Nikolaevna was left alone with her one-year-old grand-nephew, the son of V. S. Stakhevich - Sergey. In March 1920, the wife of the famous scientist-chemist, former People's Will A. N. Bach arrived from Moscow and took Vera Nikolaevna to the capital. The child was taken and adopted by another niece of Vera Nikolaevna - Tatyana Sergeevna Stakhevich, who came for the boy from Ukraine.
In 1920 she wrote the two-volume "Implemented Work" about the history of the Russian revolutionary movement.
In the mid-1920s, she took part in the creation of the All-Union Society of Political Prisoners and Exiles, as well as in organizing its activities (in 1928 there were at least 50 branches in different cities), as well as the activities of many other public organizations (about 15).
In 1927, among the group of "old revolutionaries", she appealed to the Soviet government with a demand to stop political repressions, but her voice was not heard. On the day of her 80th birthday (1932), a complete collection of her works in 7 volumes was published - a story about the horrors of life in the "royal dungeons" just at the time when the new government was creating new prisons and a punitive apparatus for new oppositionists. Figner never became a member of the Communist Party, although people usually perceived her as a communist. They asked her for support during the years of repression, she wrote appeals to the authorities, trying in vain to save people from death, turned to M.I. Kalinin, Em. Yaroslavsky. She died on June 15, 1942 from pneumonia, was buried in Moscow on Novodevichy cemetery.
Appreciation of merit by the Soviet government
In 1926, by a special resolution of the Council of People's Commissars, signed by V. V. Kuibyshev, V. N. Figner, among eight other "participants in the regicide on March 1, 1881", a personal life pension was appointed.
In 1922, Vera Nikolaevna's 70th birthday was celebrated with a solemn meeting at the Museum of the Revolution.
On the day of her 80th birthday in 1932, veterans of the revolutionary movement F. Kohn and Yemelyan Yaroslavsky greeted the oldest revolutionary. Messages about honoring were placed in the central newspapers.
In 1933, by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the pension was increased:
The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decides:
To increase the amount of personal pensions for participants in the terrorist act of March 1, 1881: Vera Nikolaevna Figner, Anna Vasilievna Yakimova-Dikovskaya, Mikhail Fedorovich Frolenko, Anna Pavlovna Pribyleva-Korba and Fani Abramovna Moreinis-Muratova - up to 400 rubles per month from January 1, 1933.
February 8, 1933, Moscow, Kremlin.
Addresses in St. Petersburg
Second half of August - mid-September 1879 - tenement house- Leshtukov lane, 15.
Beginning of January - April 3, 1881 - secret apartment of the Narodnaya Volya IK - embankment of the Ekaterininsky Canal, 78, apt. 8.
Memory
In 1928, a minor planet ((1099) Figneria) was named after Figner.
Memorial plaque on the house where V. N. Figner served her exile in 1904-1905. on the street named after her (Nyonoksa village).
Bibliography
She wrote the memoirs "The Imprinted Labor" in 3 volumes, which were republished in the USSR in the 1920-1930s.
Vera Figner. Selected works in 3 vols.
"The Imprinted Labor" Volume 1
"The Imprinted Labor" Volume 2 When the Clock of Life Has Stopped
After Shlisselburg (1929) Volume h
Vera Figner. complete collection essays in 7 volumes.
Volume 5 Essays, Articles, Speeches
Volume 6 Letters
Volume 7 Letters After Liberation
Poems V. Figner/Poets-Democrats of the 1870-1880s. Poet's Library. L., "Soviet writer", 1968
"Process of 14". The last word V. N. Figner
Letter to V. N. Figner dated July 17, 1932
"Process of 14". Memories of Vera Figner
Artistic image
In 1885, Nadson, inspired by the image of Vera Figner and under the impression of the "Trial of 14", wrote a poem "By vague signs accessible to the few ..."
Barkova, Anna. "Vera Figner"
Voinovich, Vladimir. Degree of trust. The Tale of Vera Figner. M .: Politizdat, 1972. (Series "Fiery Revolutionaries"). Reissue: Voinovich V. The Wooden Apple of Freedom: A Novel about turning point in the history of Russia. M.: Eksmo, 2008. - 384 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-29401-5.
Evtushenko, Evgeny. Glaucus "Figner" from the poem "Kazan University" (1971)
Artsybashev, Boris. Portrait of V. N. Figner
S. Ivanov. [Rec. on the book:] Figner V.N. Imprinted work. M.: Zadruga, 1921. Part 1
Ivanov S.A. [Rec. on the book:] Figner V.N. Imprinted work. Moscow: Zadruga, 1921. Part 1 / S. Ivanov. // Modern notes. 1922. Book. XII. Criticism and bibliography. pp. 349–360.
Page 349
CRITIQUE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
BEPA FIGER. "SEALED LABOR". Part I. Ed. "Zadruga". Moscow, 1921
The name of VN Figner is well known in Russian revolutionary and progressive circles. She owns one of the prominent places in the glorious galaxy of revolutionaries of the 70s and 80s. Bound by close ties of friendship and camaraderie with most of the most prominent revolutionary figures of that time, V.N. and Will”, and then the party “Narodnaya Volya”. “Who, if not me,” she says in the preface, “to trace, within the framework of personal participation and experience (italics mine), the path that my comrades walked, who gave their lives to the revolutionary movement?” These words clearly define both the content of the book and the tasks of the author. Before us is not the history of the revolutionary movement of the given period, not even an attempt to cover its entire cycle. revolutionary events and speeches. She mentions many of them only in passing, some she does not touch on at all and dwells in detail only on those - albeit very numerous and bright - that are closely intertwined with her own life and activity. Such a conscious restriction of the plot may cause some disappointment to the reader, because it was V. N. Figner who would be able, perhaps better than anyone, to fulfill this historical work. But, on the other hand, such an autobiographical character of the book gives it special significance. Not to mention the interest that the author’s personality arouses, everything that V. N. Figner writes about happened directly in front of her eyes, with her personal
nom in all participation, experienced and re-felt by herself, and therefore represents in the highest degree valuable and reliable material for the future historian of the Russian revolution.
"The Imprinted Labor" is the story of the life of V. N. Figner from her very childhood to her imprisonment in Shlisselburg. The first quarter of the book is quite autobiographical: in an easy, sometimes poetic form, pictures of childhood are drawn, family environment and its influence on the development of the author's personality, institute life, which gave so little to the mind and heart of the child, entry into society and marriage, departure to Switzerland to enter the university and those extraneous influences that gradually brought her to revolutionary road. Already at the institute, the individuality of the future revolutionary is manifested, when already in the senior classes one of the class ladies, who stood out from all the others in terms of intelligence and education and at first very favored her capable pupil, begins to pursue her, as it were - a long struggle arises between them; and only after 3 years this class teacher unexpectedly invites a teenage girl to her place and says: “I'm tired of fighting with you for influence on the class. Let's live in peace." “These words surprised me so much,” says V. N. Figner, “that I could not find what to answer: I did not realize that there was a struggle between us, and even for influence on the class. And this was said by the smart, firm Chernousova to me, who was a girl in comparison with her.
At the age of 17, VN Figner graduated from the Kazan Institute first, with a golden cipher. Before the young beautiful girl, financially secure, brilliant secular prospects opened up. But fate, or rather, the whole turn of her mind and heart, judged otherwise. Leaving the institute, she carried in her soul her own imperatives that she had already worked out on her own. “Agree word with deed, demand this agreement from yourself and from others. And this became, says the author, the motto of my life.
VN Figner gave the best years of her life to the cause of struggle, revolution, and destruction. And this is when not to shed blood, but to squander love young heart. Here is how she describes the feelings and experiences that took possession of her during her stay in the village, where she managed to enter the service as a paramedic (her sister opened a private school there), and where they soon gained the love and trust of others. “Such a life, such an attitude of simple souls towards us had such an enchanting charm that even now it is pleasant for me to remember it: every minute we felt that we were needed, that we
not redundant. This awareness of their usefulness was the attracting force that attracted our youth to the countryside, only there it was possible to have pure soul and a calm conscience. And if we were torn away from this life, from this activity, then we were not to blame for this. And yet this life was hard, hard. “Not luxury - the shadow of luxury was expelled from our everyday life; we didn't use white bread, we didn’t see meat, every extra piece got across our throats in the midst of general poverty and poverty.
And it is understandable, therefore, what a spiritual tragedy, how much heartache the young enthusiasts, pure in spirit and heart, touchingly in love with their work, had to experience when they had to involuntarily stop this work so desired for them and exchange it for a close underground with its secret and forced deceit, harden his soul for a fierce struggle and reforge plowshare into a sword.
This entire autobiographical sketch of the first 20 years of life is, as it were, an introduction to the main part of the book, entirely devoted to those revolutionary events and that many years of struggle in which V. N. Figner took an active part for 7 years without a break. This is truly a “Sealed Work” for teaching future generations.
In a small note, it is difficult even to list the huge material that the book provides. Before us is a whole kaleidoscope of revolutionary events, bright and brilliant, a whole series of acts of fearless struggle, selfless and stubborn, which at one time shocked and excited not only Russia, but the whole civilized world riveting everyone's attention.
The Russian revolutionary movement as a whole, like any long-term social phenomenon, has its various epochs, each of which has its own special color, individual, so to speak, psychological and moral characteristics. The era that V. N. Figner paints is characterized primarily by its vivid idealism. But this is not that dreamy idealism that renounces the sinful earth and lives in the realm of theoretical speculations, turning into utopia. This is an active idealism, immediately striving to apply its conclusions to real life to embody your dreams and ideals in it. With such idealism, word and deed do not diverge.
The first revolutionary movement among the people, mainly propagandistic in the north (Vperyodists) and rebellious (Bakuninists) in the south, by 1876 was already dying down, completing its cycle.
“Both propagandists and rebels in their practical activities among the people failed, that is, both among the people themselves and in the political conditions of the country, they met unexpected and insurmountable obstacles to the implementation of their program ... Despite all the arrests, some of them all survived, and then the more experienced of them began to evaluate the past and then to develop new principles of revolutionary tactics.
As a result of this critical revision, a new program appeared, which was called "populist".
“It was based on the idea that the Russian people, like any other, has its own original worldview, corresponding to the level of its moral and mental concepts... this moment aspirations and desires, and on its banner to put forward the ideals created by the people themselves.
These principles formed the basis of the "Earth and Freedom" society, and their practical implementation was immediately started. Several dozen revolutionaries, already tempted by experience, are settled in the villages of Saratov, Samara, Voronezh, Tambov and other provinces as paramedics, paramedics, volost clerks, artisans, etc. Thus, the painstaking work of rapprochement with the people, attracting the sympathies of the surrounding population begins. and revolutionary impact. At the same time, the townspeople begin agitation and militant activities: a whole series of demonstrations, labor strikes and terrorist attacks take place over the next two years.
This new Narodnik program, which included a certain element of active political struggle, ceased to satisfy, perhaps, precisely the most active and energetic part of the Zemdevoltsy, two years later. New experience the staging of cultural revolutionary work, and not only in the villages, but also in the cities, clearly showed that there could be no systematic, planned activity of this nature within the framework of the existing police regime. The surrounding reality and the growing reaction steadily directed active revolutionaries onto a definite, clearly looming path of active political struggle.
“We have already clearly seen,” writes V. N. Figner, “that our cause among the people has been lost again. In our person, the revolutionary party suffered a second defeat, but not because of the inexperience of its members and the theoretical nature of its program, or
desire to impose on the people alien goals and inaccessible ideals. No and no - we had to leave the stage with the consciousness that our program is vital, that its demands have a real basis in folk life, and the whole point is the lack of political freedom ... But at the same time, we introduced the consciousness that the people understand us, that they see us as their friends. When the gendarmes and the police arrived in Vyazmino (V.N. Figner's duty station), the common voice of the peasants was: "All this is because 'they' are standing up for us." When later the clerk spread a rumor that we had been arrested and Sister Yevgenia had been hanged, the peasants went to the Ermolaevs (neighbors-landlords, friends of V.N. Figner) at night to find out if this was true. They returned reassured and joyful.
But such an evolution of opinions in the bowels of the "Earth and Freedom" took place slowly and gradually, causing fierce and passionate disputes. “And if Alexander Mikhailov, Kvyatkovsky and their like-minded people thought so, then in the same St. Petersburg group of Land and Freedom, along with them, there were ardent opponents of the new views, energetically and stubbornly defending the old position; such were Plekhanov and Mikh. Popov, who, with all the sharpness of their bright personalities, fought against innovations. The following episode, transmitted by V.N. Figner, shows how passionate this struggle between the two currents reached: “The bickering and strife reached its apogee when, in the spring of 1879, Alexander Solovyov arrived in St. Petersburg with a ready-made secret decision. "Under the existing political conditions, the life of a revolutionary in the countryside is fruitless," - such was the conclusion he made after the experience of his stay in it. "At any cost, it is necessary to achieve a change in these conditions, and above all - to break the reaction in the person of Emperor Alexander II." And he decided that he would kill him. But for this he needed help, for which he turned to fellow landowners. “The question of the attempt was raised in the central group ... but it was considered necessary to keep silent about the name. During the debate, it was mentioned that the decision to make an attempt is unshakable, and no refusal will avert it. This ... overwhelmed the patience of Plekhanov and Popov. Indignant, Popov exclaimed: “If there is Karakozov among you, will a new Komissarov not appear who does not wish to reckon with your decision?” To this, Popov's friend Kvyatkovsky, who went with him to the people, shouted: "If you are this Komissarov, then I will kill you." The stormy clash ended in a compromise: "Land and Freedom" refused to help the assassination attempt,
but individually individual members could render it. The attempt, as you know, took place.
This episode is characteristic and shows how painfully a new direction was born among the landowners' organization and with what mental breakdown people broke off old friendships and ties, diverging along different roads.
More than half of the book is devoted to the history of the ideas and activities of the Narodnaya Volya party. Even brief retelling all this is impossible. One can only try to note some of the general psychological signs that characterized this moment.
The new trend of revolutionary ideology and tactics, however, did not immediately win a dominant position. “In order,” says V. N. Finger, “to break the opposition and give the new views the final predominance in the revolutionary environment, it took 1-1½ years of tireless propaganda and a whole series of dazzling facts: a general murmur of displeasure rose at the release of the issue of Narodnaya Volya” (No. 1), who, pointing to the monarchy, proclaimed his "D e l e n d a e s t C a r t h a g o", and a unanimous burst of applause greeted March 1, 1881." In turn, the old trend, embodied in the "Black Redistribution", gradually became quiet and died away, and after 3 years completely disappeared from the scene.
The most active and self-sacrificing revolutionary units have gathered under the banner of Narodnaya Volya. The requirements for party members were strict, but from the members of the Executive Committee they were even stricter and, according to V.N. , for the sake of him, forget all family ties and personal sympathies, love and friendship; 2) if necessary, to give his life, regardless of anything, sparing no one and nothing; 3) not have private property, nothing of your own that would not be at the same time the property of the organization of which you are a member; 4) giving himself entirely to a secret society, to abandon the individual will, subordinating it to the will of the majority "...
“These demands,” says V. N. Figner, “were great, but they were easy for someone who was animated by a revolutionary feeling, that tense feeling that knows no barriers or obstacles and goes straight, not looking back, neither right nor left. If they, these demands, were less, if they did not affect the personality of a person so deeply, they would leave dissatisfaction, and now, with their severity and loftiness, they lifted the personality and led it away from any usual
money; a person felt more vividly that the ideal lives and must live in him.
So it really was. From the whole book of V. N. Figner, from the episodes of the struggle of a small handful of people with a powerful enemy scattered over it, despite the simplicity of the story, it breathes heroic. Of the 28 members of the Executive Committee, so to speak, the founders of Narodnaya Volya, only 4 had survived by the beginning of 1883. The rest had already laid down their bones, ending their lives on the gallows or dying out at a rapid pace in the casemates of the Alekseevsky ravelin and Trubetskoy bastion.
All hardships, all the hardships of illegal life were endured simply and resignedly, as something completely natural and inevitable, and not for a day or two, but for months and years. After March 1, S. L. Perovskaya, exhausted and exhausted by the heavy nervous experiences of this moment, in anticipation of the imminent execution of her close friends, preferred to wander and spend the night with her personal acquaintances than to risk, perhaps, ruining one of several safe secret apartments with her arrival. that existed then in St. Petersburg. Two days before her arrest, she came to V. N. Figner in the evening. “Verochka, can I spend the night with you? - she asked, - says V. N. Figner. - I looked at her with surprise and reproach: “How are you asking, is it possible to ask about this?” I ask, - Perovskaya answered, because if they come to the house with a search (then there were massive searches), then you will be hanged. Embracing her and pointing to the revolver that lay at the head of my bed, I said: “With or without you, if they come, I will shoot” ... Such was Perovskaya’s soul, a particle of her soul, because only a particle of her was revealed to me : at that hurried time, we were too superficial about each other's psychology, we acted, not observed.
The idealism that permeated the psychology of most revolutionaries of that time, the ecstasy of struggle and the involuntary accustoming oneself to the thought of the possibility and even the inevitability of imminent death and death, left a special imprint of “sacrifice” and “doom” on many. This imprint was not observed from the outside, but somehow felt, felt and enchanted others. Describing Sukhanov and describing his first acquaintance and further rapprochement with him, V. N. Figner says: “Sukhanov was a man whom it was impossible not to love. He was one of those whom, the more you know, the more you love. Deeply honest and disinterested, completely devoid of ambition, he was truthful and straightforward.
Shen to such an extent that one had to wonder how such a person, pure as crystal, could take shape among the surrounding lies, deceit and hypocrisy "...
... “After the first meeting with him, we (V. Figner, Perovskaya and Zhelyabov) began to see each other often, and the topic of conversation was, of course, social and revolutionary issues, those party interests that we, the Narodnaya Volya, only lived. I wanted to make these questions and interests as close and burning for him as they were for us ... Sukhanov of that time was still far from what our other comrades saw him in February and March 1881. But it was clear that only a spark is needed to ignite it, and at the beginning of 1881 it could already be said that Sukhanov would die on the scaffold, that he would create a scaffold for himself even in the midst of conditions when the government would have preferred the absence of loud executions. And when Zhelyabov, dearly beloved by him, died, whose iron hand could have restrained him within the proper limits, his excited state in that alarming spring for the Committee crossed all boundaries: after March 1, he began to act with feverish haste ... ". We tried in vain to restrain his impulses... “No, no,” he objected, “a year or two of hard work, and then the end.”... It is known that he could have avoided his fate, he was warned of the danger, he himself Finally, he saw her, but still did not want to hide, as he was advised, as he was persuaded, and calmly awaited the arrest, which meant death, because, in addition to overwhelming evidence, his further course of action was determined, thought out and decided.
The same feeling of "sacrifice" and "doom" was left by S. L. Perovskaya in the last months of her life in the wild. Such was the impression which I also had from many meetings with her. Having just returned from administrative exile, then, as a young student, I met S. L. Perovskaya and saw her on some revolutionary and Red Cross matters. After March 1, these meetings became more frequent, and during the last 10 days before her arrest, I saw her 3 times. She came to visits pale, exhausted, but as soon as the conversation began on the case, she came to life and, as it were, transformed.
I partly knew, partly guessed, about Perovskaya's close participation in the March 1 event (she herself did not say a word about this). The danger of her position, her obvious weariness and nervousness prompted me at the last meeting to speak to her about the need for her at least temporarily leaving Petersburg. In response to my words, she was either angry or
got excited: “Let's not talk about it,” and she made a sharp negative gesture with her hand ... “Is now the time to talk about it.” And, changing, softening her tone, she said: “You have entered our path. Remember that, walking along it, you must always think about one thing: to prepare yourself not for life, but for death and death.
The next day S. L. Perovskaya was arrested. 40 years have already passed since then, but all this still stands vividly in my memory and before my eyes ...
At one time, many accusations were heard from the camp of Russian Marxists against Narodnaya Volya for the alleged Jacobinism of its program, which manifested itself in the inclusion of a clause on the "seizure of power" in it. It is difficult to explain now what was the reason for these attacks. What was more here: a simple misunderstanding, ignoring and misunderstanding of the political situation during the first episodes of any revolution in general, or the Marxist publicists simply sharpened the points of their polemical pens on this point. Who, especially now, after all that has gone through, would begin to reproach the revolutionary party for the fact that, in anticipating or preparing the revolution, it foresaw and noted in its program that transitional moment when the old power was overthrown, and the new one, expressing the will of the people and them elected, had not yet had time and could not organize.
In the program of Narodnaya Volya, this question was debated precisely in such a form, which, it would seem, did not allow for the possibility of false interpretations. “Never,” says V. N. Figner, “we have never had any talk of imposing the will of the minority on the majority, of decreeing revolutionary socialist transformations, which is the core of the Jacobin theory.” Nor were there those incoming individual motives that could evoke the thought of Jacobin designs: there were not and could not have been then personal aspirations, because there was no real ground for the play of personal ambitions. “The very question of a provisional government,” says V. N. Figner, “with the present composition of the party, was rather an academic question for us, without the thought that we would see it (the Provisional Government), let alone enter it, and was raised for harmony of the program, for the future, when the revolutionary party will grow to vast proportions. In his program and in a letter to Alexander III The Executive Committee proclaimed the establishment of democracy (Convocation Constituent Assembly) and the foundations of a democratic legal order, which ensures the possibility of peaceful propaganda of socialism, the resolution of the agrarian question in the sense of transferring land to the people.
We see, therefore, that during the whole decade - from the beginning of the 70s to the beginning of the 80s - a significant evolution took place in the field of revolutionary thought. The revolutionary ideology developed theoretically, corrected itself according to the indications of experience, purged itself of utopias, matured politically, and finally put up on its banner the slogan of political struggle, the idea of a political revolution as a necessary threshold for further achievements in the spirit of the ideas of socialism. This clear presentation of the political question in its proper place is the great merit of the second half of the 1970s, and in particular of the Narodnaya Volya party.
V. N. Figner devotes many pages of his book to depicting the events of March 1, describing the revolutionary episodes that preceded and accompanied him, romantic adventures and tragic individual experiences. All this is read with great interest and throws bright light like psychology actors, so on public environment that surrounded them. The author is an apologist for the act of March 1, both in principle and in time - in the sense of its inevitability and necessity for a given political moment. The psychology and mood of the revolutionaries themselves, their hopes for the success of what was conceived and for its results, were such that they inevitably encouraged them to continue the struggle they had begun, and sympathy public circles and even an exaggerated idea of the power of the Committee inspired these hopes even more and evoked the idea of the need to carry the matter through to the end at all costs. One had to live in that epoch in order to get a true idea of the faith in the omnipotence of the Executive Committee that reigned in Russian intellectual circles. During the nearly two-year period from March 1 to the coronation, semi-fantastic rumors circulated about something grand that was about to happen. They talked about the undermining under the Kremlin Palace, arranged in case of a coronation, about Kobozev, who had already taken a contract for electric lighting of the Assumption Cathedral during the coronation celebration. And there were countless such rumors and legends. Even in the otherwise hostile camp, there was a shift, not in the sense of sympathy for the ongoing events, of course, but in the form of a sense of surprise and even respect for these mysterious revolutionaries. I remember how on the morning of April 1, on the day of the execution of Perovskaya and Zhelyabov, I, who had just been arrested at night, sat in anticipation of a search to be carried out in the office of the Vasileostrovskaya unit next to the watch room on duty. Through the half-closed door came the words
All these and similar reviews, reviews of ordinary people - people of the crowd - are curious and revealing.
The rest of the book depicts the later history of the revolutionary movement up to 1883. It is impossible to convey its content. The interested person must read it himself. This part of the book also contains a lot of interesting and rich material. The emergence of a military organization, a series of arrests and revolutionary failures, futile attempts to restore central organization, negotiations opened by the government with Narodnaya Volya through Vorontsov-Dashkov and Nikoladze, Degaev's appearance on the stage and his disastrous, treacherous role, arrest and, finally, trial, and so on and so forth. In the end, of all the members of the "Executive Committee" by the beginning of 1883, only V. N. Figner remained at large in Russia. And then, with the impoverishment of the revolutionary forces, a period of decline in public mood sets in. The situation becomes tragic. This tragedy and a sense of loneliness permeate the entire last part of the book. This mood is very well depicted in one of the poems by V. N. Figner, dedicated to L. A. Volkenstein, her friend from Shlisselburg. It describes the feelings that she experiences on the day of judgment:
These days I was not up to new people:
The past life was drawn to me ...
Passed before me a row of dead friends,
I remembered the glorious brotherhood ...
With this brotherhood I carried the anxieties of the struggle -
She gave him the strength of her heart:
All misfortunes, betrayals, blows of fate
Before last day shared...
But our union, shattered by the struggle, fell,
Failure crushed him:
Mercilessly, the court punished some with death,
Others were buried in the ravelin...
And I had to appear alone on the day of calculation
With a sad look turned back,
Become lonely between new people
With a heavy thought, with a constricted heart...
An episode that took place at the beginning of VN Figner's imprisonment before the trial is curious.
“A month or a month and a half passed,” she says, “when one day a tall, elderly gendarme general with a rather handsome and handsome face entered my cell. “My last name is Sereda,” he introduced himself. “By royal command, I have been appointed to investigate political propaganda in troops throughout the Empire.”
He took my hand and, despite resistance, kissed it. “You are a good person,” he said. “Your misfortune that, having married, you had no children.”
After this original introduction, when we sat down, I asked the question how he intends to use his wide powers: is he thinking of creating, like Zhelekhovsky, a monster trial and making a career out of it, or, without blowing things up, limit himself to putting a few on trial?
“No, I don’t intend to create a big deal,” answered Sereda, “only the most active will be put on trial.”
“He did just that: 14 people were judged in our case, of which only six were military; but could judge several dozen.
The biography of V. N. Figner brought by her to her entry into Shlisselburg. The 20 years she spent in it and her release in 1904 should form the content of the 2nd part, which will appear in the future.
Very little has yet appeared in the light of memoirs on the history of the Russian revolution, in the richness of the material and in the imagery of presentation, similar to this book. And although it concerns the past, its interest is modern. The revolution in Russia has not ended, and whoever wants to be its leader must know its past.
