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Kolokol

Kolokol was the first Russian newspaper published in London and Geneva from 1857 to 1867 without Russian censorship. It had a circulation of up to 2,500 copies and significantly influenced reformist and revolutionary movements in Russia in the 1860s, despite being banned in Russia. Kolokol advocated for democratic reforms like liberating peasants with land and abolishing censorship. It published articles on living conditions in Russia and information about abuses by the Russian authorities. After the 1861 emancipation reform, Kolokol took a more revolutionary democratic position and began publishing texts from the Russian revolutionary underground. However, it lost liberal readers due to supporting the Polish uprising, and ceased publication in 1867 due to unfavorable conditions.

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205 views2 pages

Kolokol

Kolokol was the first Russian newspaper published in London and Geneva from 1857 to 1867 without Russian censorship. It had a circulation of up to 2,500 copies and significantly influenced reformist and revolutionary movements in Russia in the 1860s, despite being banned in Russia. Kolokol advocated for democratic reforms like liberating peasants with land and abolishing censorship. It published articles on living conditions in Russia and information about abuses by the Russian authorities. After the 1861 emancipation reform, Kolokol took a more revolutionary democratic position and began publishing texts from the Russian revolutionary underground. However, it lost liberal readers due to supporting the Polish uprising, and ceased publication in 1867 due to unfavorable conditions.

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Kolokol (Russian: Колоколъ, lit.

'bell') was the first Russian censorship-free weekly


newspaper in Russian and French languages, published by Alexander Herzen and Nikolai
Ogarev in London (1857–1865) and Geneva (1865–1867). It had a circulation of up to 2500
copies. Despite being banned in Russia, it was well known and had a significant influence on the
reformist and revolutionary movements of the 1860s.[1]

The first page of the first issue of Kolokol


Initially the publishers viewed Kolokol as a supplement (прибавочные листы) to a literary and
socio-political almanac, Polar Star, but it soon became the leader of the Russian censorship-free
press. The newspapers Pod sud (To Trial; 1859–1862) and Obshcheye veche (General Veche;
1862–1864) were published as supplements to Kolokol.

Kolokol commemorative postage stamp


At Kolokol's base was a theory of Russian peasant socialism, elaborated by Herzen. Its political
platform included democratic demands for liberation of peasants with land, and abolition of
censorship and corporal punishment. Besides the articles by Herzen and
Ogaryov, Kolokol published a variety of material on people's living conditions, social struggle in
Russia, and information about abuses and secret plans of the authorities. Nikolai
Dobrolyubov, Nikolai Serno-Solovyovich, Mikhail Mikhailov, Nikolai Utin, Lev Mechnikov, Mikhail
Elpidin and others were among the paper's correspondents and distributors. Writers and liberal
figures such as Ivan Aksakov, Yuri Samarin, Alexander Koshelev, Ivan Turgenev and others
delivered material for Kolokol.
After the Emancipation reform of 1861, Kolokol took the side of revolutionary democracy. The
newspaper began publishing texts of proclamations, articles by Herzen and Ogaryov condemning
and exposing problems with the reform, and other material from the Russian revolutionary
underground. Kolokol favored the formation of a clandestine revolutionary organization Land and
Liberty. After the 1861 reform, Kolokol lost most of its liberal readers due to Herzen's and
Ogaryov's active support of the January Uprising in Poland.
In 1866, Dmitry Karakozov tried to assassinate Tsar Alexander II. Kolokol publicly condemned
terrorism, but continued to lose readers. In an open letter to Alexander II, Herzen admitted:
"There were times when you read Kolokol - now you do not read it any more."[2]
In order to strengthen its ties with the new émigrés concentrated in Switzerland, Kolokol moved
its office to Geneva. While retaining its previous orientation, it was now published in French as
"Kolokol (La Cloche)" with the aim of introducing Russia to Western European readers. The
publication was unpopular. Publication of Kolokol ceased in 1867 due to unfavorable conditions.
In 1867–1869, they published Kolokol: A Supplement to the First Decade (Колокол.
Прибавочный лист к первому десятилетию), six issues of Kolokol. Russian Edition (Колокол.
Русское прибавление) and Supplement du Kolokol in French. In 1870, Ogaryov together
with Sergey Nechayev published six more issues of Kolokol, which differed significantly from
Herzen's Kolokol.

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