"..vexation seethes in our breasts.."

Most of the nineteenth-century Russian writers and thinkers lived and worked in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In spite of the stresses of urban living, they were fully aware of the hardships and oppressive conditions the peasant classes experienced in Russia’s countryside. Many of these writers and thinkers thought, spoke and wrote about these peasants as possessors of superior spiritual insights as represented in their ancient peasant beliefs and folk traditions. Consequently, the countryside and historical events became the setting for the writers’ thoughts on Russia’s social and moral degeneration. Although Turgenev and Tolstoi works were the most prominent in their expressions for the love of the Russian countryside, almost all of the 19th-century Russian intelligentsia thoughtfully articulated and addressed the repeated attempts of the Russian autocracy to impose its will on the country’s population and the inadequacy of human reason to fully comprehend life”s meaning. As the author of “Past and Thoughts” and “From the Other Shore,” Alexander Herzen survived the grasp of the tsarist’s secret police who doggedly pursued him because of his writings.

“Our hearts bleed and vexation seethes in our breasts when we think what Russia might have become with a departure from the gloomy reign of Nicholas; aroused by war, brought to consciousness, without the collar of slavery around our necks, how quickly, originally, and vigorously it could move forward.”

                                             Literary Apparel for the Enlightened