In the Name of Freedom: Suicide, Serfdom, and Autocracy in Russia

Abstract

SEER, Vol. 82, No.2, April2004 In the Name of Freedom: Suicide, Serfdom, and Autocracy in Russia SUSAN MORRISSEY THEdate was i September I828.*The place was Russia'sfirstprivate art school in Arzamas, a small town about IOO kilometressouth of the provincial capital, Nizhnii Novgorod. The day began as usual. That morning, Grigorii Miasnikov was painting his teacher, the school's founder and director, AleksandrStupin. At midday, the sitting broke forlunch, and Stupinlaid down afterwardsto rest.Ready to resume in the afternoon, Stupin sent for Miasnikov, but nobody knew where he was. On his bed, however, a note had been found: 'Forgiveme, my most beloved friends.Do not reproachme for my act I am showing you how one must oppose the superciliousnessof ambitious men [kak dolzhno postupat'protiv nadmennosti chestoliubtsev].My dear friend VasiliiEgorovich -write on my tomb that I died forfreedom [napishi na moei grobnitse, chto ia umer za svobodu]. Forgive me.' A book entitled Oproverzhenie na Volterovy zabluzhdeniia ('The Refutation of Voltaire's Delusions') had also been found. With growing concern, Stupin ordereda fullsearchof the premises.When a wing of the school was found unexpectedly locked, Stupin ordered it opened, entered the courtyard, and peered through the windows. Miasnikov had been found: he was lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the School's Gallery of Antiquity. He was dead, shot in the head, and a pistol lay next to him. Stupin went immediately for the sheriff(gorodnichii), on whose report to the provincial administration (gubernskoe pravlenie) my Susan Morrissey is Lecturer in Modern Russian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. * I would like to thank the International Research and Exchanges Board and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for their generous financial support. Earlier versions of this article were presented as papers at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the University of Oxford, and I thank the participants of both seminars for many useful and thought-provoking suggestions. My thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers as well as to many colleagues who have contributed to this project in various ways unfortunately, the list is too long to publish. Any errors are, of course, my own. SUSAN MORRISSEY 269 accounthasbeen based.'It wasa clear-cutcaseof suicide;the doors hadbeenfoundlockedfromtheinside. The officialreactionwasswiftandreallyquiteextraordinary. On 2 Septemberauthorities in Arzamasnotifiedtheprovincialprocurator, AndreiBestuzhev,who, in a letter dated I2 September,informed PrinceAlekseiDolgorukov, theJusticeMinister, inStPetersburg.2 The 'unusualnatureof the [suicide's]causes'('po neobyknovennosti sei prichiny') promptedDolgorukovto contacttheThirdDepartmentof His Majesty'sPersonalChancellery, thesecretpolice,which,in turn, initiateda covertinquiry.3 TsarNicholasI himselfwasbriefed,andhe orderedanofficialinvestigation bylocalauthorities aswell.InJanuary I829, thechiefoftheThirdDepartment, CountAleksandr Benckendorff ,finallyclosedthecasewithareportpresented intheCommittee of 6 December I826, the body chargedwith discussinggovernmental reformandtheactualpowercentreduringtheearlyyearsofNicholas's reign.4 Whilesuicidewas a felonyin Russia,it was usuallyconsidereda criminalratherthan a politicaloffence.5However,Miasnikovhad constructedhis death as a public gesturewith politicalmeaning. Althoughhe hadnotprovidedanyspecificmotivein hisnote,he had evoked'freedom',choosingthe word svoboda, which referredto the abstractprincipleof individualor politicalfreedom.Furthermore, Miasnikov haddescribed hissuicideasaformofprotestand,assuch,a modelofbehaviour. Similarly, hismethodwasdeliberately selectednot justforitspracticaladvantages butalsoitssymbolicvalue.The pistol had long exemplifiedan honourabledeath,and it was favouredby officersandnoblemen;thenoose,in contrast,connotedthedishonour i Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Nizhegorodskoi oblasti (hereafter, GANO), f. 5, i828g., op. 45, d. 202, 11.2-3. This letter states only that Miasnikov's body had been found in a room located in a wing of the school. A memoir written by a fellow student recalls that he was found in the Gallery of Antiquity (which was located in this wing). This has not been confirmed by other sources but seems probable due to the way in which Miasnikov carefully constructed his suicide. For the memoir account, see I. K. Zaitsev, 'Vospominaniia starogo uchitelia I. K. Zaitseva, I805-I887' (hereafter, 'Vospominaniia'), Russkaiastarina,June I887, pp. 663-91 (p. 669). 2 For the letter of the striapchii, see GANO, f. i8o, op. 640, I828, d. I5, 1. i. For the letter sent to the Ministry of Justice, see 1. 3, and Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi federatsii (hereafter,GARF),f. I09, 4aiaEksped,I828g., op. i 68, d. I39,1. 2. 3 GARF, f. I09, 4aia Eksped., I828g., op. i68, d. I39, 1. i. Results of the investigation were collected in this file. 4 For the report, which is dated 9 January i829...