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Monuments and Memory: Immortalizing Count M. N. Muraviev in Vilna, 1898

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Theodore R. Weeks
Theodore R. Weeks*
Affiliation:
History at Southern Illinois University, U.S.A.
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Extract

Ernest Renan argued over a century ago that belonging to a nation entails forgetting just as much as it required remembering past events. Certainly this is the case in East Central Europe, where not infrequently different nationalities create out of a single historical event utterly opposing historical memories. In the western borderlands of the Russian Empire, one historical event that has been variously interpreted by different nationalities is the Insurrection of 1863. To simplify somewhat, prerevolutionary Russian historians generally interpreted this key event as a mutiny against the established legal order—the term miatezh (mutiny) was always used in such accounts—while the Poles interpreted the uprising as perhaps naive and foolish, but in any case a noble attempt to regain rights usurped by the Russian occupiers. With such a sharply opposed memory of the uprising as a whole, it comes as no surprise that the figure who did the most to crush the insurrection in the Northwest (Lithuanian and Belarusian) provinces, Count M. N. Muraviev, should also be a controversial figure, praised by conservative Russians and demonized by Poles, Lithuanians, and liberals of all nationalities.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , December 1999 , pp. 551 - 564
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

∗ Research for this paper was supported in part by a grant from the International Research ∧ Exchanges Board (IREX) with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the United States Department of State which administers the Title VIII Program. Writing and revision was aided by a short-term grant from the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. The author alone bears responsibility for the views expressed here.Google Scholar

1. See the interesting discussion of Renan's statement in “Memory and Forgetting,” in Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities , 2nd edn (London: Verso, 1991), pp. 199–200.Google Scholar

2. This clear dichotomy is considerably muddied by the fact that Soviet historiography, as we might expect, chose to glorify the 1863 Uprising as a noble struggle against Tsarist repression. For the best example of this line, see A. F. Smirnov, Vosstanie 1863 goda v Litve i Belorussii (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo AN SSSR, 1963). The best overall account available is the magisterial Piotr Kieniewicz, Powstanie styczniowe, 2nd edn (Warsaw: PWN, 1983). For a Lithuanian view, see Leonas M. Bičkauskas, 1863 metų Lietuvoje (Vilnius: Valstybinė politinės ir mokslinės literaturos leidykla, 1958) and Vida Girininkienė, 1863–1864 metai Lietuvoje. Straipsnai ir dokumentai (Vilnius: Šviesa, 1991). In English, see Robert F. Leslie, Reform and Insurrection in Russian Poland 1856–1865 (London: Athlone Press, 1963).Google Scholar

3. The Northwest provinces were (using the Russian forms) Vitebsk, Minsk, Mogilev, Vil'na, Kovno (Kaunas), and Grodno. This region roughly corresponds to today's Belarus and Lithuania (excluding the westernmost area along the Baltic). The seat of the governor general was in Vilna; his headquarters was the present-day presidential palace in Vilnius.Google Scholar

4. It must always be remembered that the Russian government—and Russian nationalists— consistently refused to admit the existence of a Belarusian (or, for that matter, Ukrainian) nation. For Russian nationalists, Belarusians were (are?) Russians.Google Scholar

5. For an overall account of the Northwest provinces from an ethnic point of view, see Theodore Weeks, Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia: Nationalism and Russification on the Western Frontier, 1863–1917 (DeKalb, Northern Illinois University Press, 1996), especially Chapter 4 (”West of Russia: Land, Nations, Economy) and Chapter 5 (“East Meets West: Russification and Coexistence”).Google Scholar

6. On the Muraviev family, see Muravievy: rodoslovnaia: 1488–1893 (Revel': Tip. “Revel'skikh izvestii”, 1893). A description of our hero's life and works is found on p. 14.Google Scholar

7. Strangely, there exists no full biography of Muraviev. For his life up to 1832 in very great detail, see D. A. Kropotov, Zhizn' grafa M. N. Muravieva, v sviazi s sobytiiami ego vremeni i do naznacheniia ego gubernatorom v Grodne (St Petersburg: Tip. V. Bezobrazova, 1874). For a rather more concise biographical account, see Petr Dolgorukov, Mikhail Nikolaevich Muraviev (London: Imprimerie du Prince Pierre Dolgoroukow, 1864). Here (p. 16) we find the famous anecdote about Muraviev, reminded of his relative Sergei Muraviev-Apostol, hanged in 1826 for his role in the Decembrist revolt, exclaiming, “I am not of the Muravievs who get hanged but of those who do the hanging.” For a short, hagiographic biography occasioned by the construction of the monument itself, see A. O. Turtsevich, “Graf Mikhail Nikolaevich Muraviev,” Vilenskii kalendar': 1899 (Vil'na: Tip. Vil. S.-Dukhov. Bratstva, 1898), pp. 205–254.Google Scholar

8. “Vsepoddanneishaia zapiska Mogilevskogo grazhdanskogo gubernatora Murav'eva o nravstvennom polozhenii Mogilevskoi gubernii i o sposobakh sblizhenii onoi s Rossiiskoiu Imperieiu,” in “Chetyre politicheskie zapiski grafa Mikhaila Nikoleavicha Murav'eva Vilenskogo,” Russkii arkhiv , April 1885, pp. 161–175.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., pp. 162–163.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., p. 169.Google Scholar

11. Ibid., pp. 172–173.Google Scholar

12. “Zapiska 1831 goda ob uchrezhdenii prilichnogo grazhdanskogo upravleniia v guberniiakh ot Pol'shi vozvrashchennykh i unichtozhenii nachal, naibolee sluzhivshikh k otchuzhdeniiu onykh ot Rossii,” in ibid., pp. 175–186.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., pp. 183–184.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., p. 180.Google Scholar

15. Ar. Turtsevich, Kratkii ocherk zhizni i deiatel'nosti Grafa M. N. Murav'eva (Vil'na: A. G. Syrian, 1898), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

16. Graf M. N. Muraviev, “Zapiski ego o miatezhe v Severozapadnoi Rossii v 1863–1865 gg.,” Russkaia starina, Vol. 30, No. 11, 1882, pp.394, 402. Muraviev's memoirs, published in Russkaia starina in installments from November 1882 to May 1883, provide a fascinating (if one-sided) account of these years in the Northwest provinces.Google Scholar

17. Several local governors mentioned in their 1863 reports (otchety) that the arrival of Muraviev in Vilna—and even the news of his appointment as governor general—made a very strong impression on the “mutineers” and that his stern measures soon ended their “illegal activity” and restored order to the land. See, for example: Russian State Historical Archive, St Petersburg (RGIA), f. 1267, op. 1, 1864, d. 7 (Minsk province, 1863), 11. 34–43; ibid., d. 4 (Vil'na province, 1863), 11. 53–71; ibid., f. 1281, op. 6, 1864, d. 44 (Kovno, 1863), 11. 82–87; and ibid., d. 41 (Vitebsk, 1863), 11. 48–54.Google Scholar

18. On this episode, see Kornei Chukovsky, The Poet and the Hangman (Nekrasov and Muraviev) (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1977). For the text of Nekrasov's poem, see Podvig Murav'eva—nastol'naia kniga praviteliam i pravitel'stvam (St Petersburg: A. Porokhovshchikov, 1898), p. 51.Google Scholar

19. I. V. Nikotin, Iz zapisok Ivana Akimovicha Nikotina (St Petersburg: “Obshchestvennaia pol'za”, 1905), p. 8. The original of Nikotin's memoir may be found at the Lithuanian State Historical Archive, Vilnius (LVIA), f. 439, ap. 1, b. 136.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., p. 41.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., pp. 72–73. Nazimov claims that Bishop Krasiński of Vilna encouraged these expressions of Polish patriotism within Catholic churches. For more on Krasiński's role in these events, see LVIA, f. 378, PS 1863, b. 293.Google Scholar

22. Nikotin, p. 137.Google Scholar

23. Ibid., p. 145.Google Scholar

24. Muraviev quoted in Ia. N. Butkovich, “Iz moikh vospominanii,” Istoricheskii vestnik , 14 October 1883, p. 103.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., pp. 98–99.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., p. 105.Google Scholar

27. On the role of the Catholic clergy in the insurrection, and the measures and punishments meted out by the authorities afterwards, see LVIA, f. 378, PS 1863, bb. 1785, 1801. From the Polish and Catholic point of view, see Aleksander Wazyński, Litwa pod względem prześladowania w niej rzymsko-katolickiego kościola. Szczególniej w dyecezyi wileńskiej od roku 1863 do 1872 (Poznań: Nakładem księgarni Jana K. Żupańskiego, 1872).Google Scholar

28. A. N. Mosolov, Vilenskie ocherki 1863–1865 gg. (Murav'evskoe vremia) (St Petersburg: Tip. A. S. Suvorina, 1898), pp. 136–137.Google Scholar

29. Potapov is generally portrayed by Muraviev's supporters as more interested in wooing Polish opinion than in honestly furthering the Russian cause. See, for example, I. Kornilov, Russkoe delo v Severo-zapadnom krae. Materialy dlia istorii Vilenskogo uchebnogo okruga preimushchestvenno v Murav'evskuiu epokhu, 2nd edn (St Petersburg: A. S. Suvorin, 1908), especially pp. xi, 381–462.Google Scholar

30. Mickiewicz, , of course, a native of the Lithuanian region (Litwa) and had studied in Wilno (Vil'na). The centenary of his birth would fall in 1898. For this occasion, sumptuous statues to honor the poet were erected in Warsaw and Cracow. On the unveiling of the Warsaw Mickiewicz monument, see Kraj, No. 51, 19/31 December 1898, especially pp. 9–19. The entire preceding issue of Kraj, No. 50, 12/24 December 1898, is dedicated to the Mickiewicz centenary.Google Scholar

31. A. A. Vinogradov, Kak sozdalsia v g. Vil'ne Pamiatnik Grafu M. N. Murav'evu (Vilna: Tip. A. G. Syrkina, 1898), pp. 5–9.Google Scholar

32. LVIA, f. 378, BS 1891, b. 595, 11. 4–5.Google Scholar

33. Ibid., pp. 1. 19. Unfortunately this document is not dated, but from its position in the file would appear to be from 1893 or 1894.Google Scholar

34. Ibid., 11. 93, 152.Google Scholar

35. Ibid., 11. 96–98 (clerics), 111–116 (teachers from the Vil'na educational district), 179–180 (direktor of Staropol'skaia gimnaziia in the Caucasus), 198 (direktor of the 2nd Men's gimnaziia, Tiflis).Google Scholar

36. A. T., “Zakladka pamiatnika v Vil'ne grafu Mikhailu Nikolaevichu Muravievu,” Vilenskii Kalendar'—1898 (Vilna: Tip. Vilenskogo Pravoslavnogo Sv.-Dukhov. Bratstva, 1897), pp. 229–230.Google Scholar

37. Kak sozdalsia …, pp. 29–49.Google Scholar

38. “Zakladka pamiatnika …”, pp. 230–234.Google Scholar

39. Ibid., pp. 235–241.Google Scholar

40. Russian State Historical Archive, St Petersburg (RGIA), f. 1282, op. 3, 1899, d. 250, 1. 34. By contrast, in the 1897 Vilna governor's report, the foundation-laying ceremony is not mentioned at all (ibid., f. 1284, op. 223, 1898, d. 4, lit. BII).Google Scholar

41. LVIA, f. 380, ap. 55, 1898, b. 692, 1. 4. On the Muraviev museum, its aims and contents, see: V. G. Nikol'skii, comp., Illustrirovanyi katalog Muzeia grafa M. N. Murav'eva v g. Vil'ne (St Petersburg: Tov. R. Golike i A. Vil'borg, 1904); A. Beletskii, comp., Sbornik dokumentov muzeia grafa M. N. Murav'eva (Vil'na: “Russkii pochin”, 1906); and A. I. Milovidov, Arkhivnye materialy Murav'evskogo muzeia (Vil'na: Gubernskaia tipografiia, 1913). At the present time, the archival contents of the former Muraviev museum may be found in LVIA, f. 439.Google Scholar

42. LVIA, f. 380, ap. 55, 1898, b. 692, 1. 7 (letter dated 10 August 1898).Google Scholar

43. Ibid., ll. 11–18, 40. The idea of Muraviev as a pro-peasant radical may seem astonishing, but belonged to the traditional Russian-nationalist view. See, for example: A. I. Milovidov, Ustroistvo obshchestvennogo byta krest'ian Severo-Zapadnogo kraia pri grafe M. N. Murav'eve (Vil'na: Tip. Vilen. Sv.-Dukh. Bratstva, 1903). For a Lithuanian view arguing that Murav'ev's policies helped Lithuanian peasants by repressing Polish cultural and economic hegemony, see Paulius Šležas, Muravjovo veikimas Lietuvoje 1863–1865 m. (Kaunas: n.p., 1933).Google Scholar

44. LVIA, f. 380, ap. 55, 1898, b. 692, 11. 41–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45. Official statistics some years later (but probably based on the 1897 census) claimed that 39.8% of Vilna's population was Jewish, 28.6% Polish, and 22.9% Russian (which would include, of course, Belarusians) ( Goroda Rossii v 1910 g. (St Petersburg, 1914), pp. 90–93). Polish statisticians saw the matter somewhat differently. Dividing up the population by religions, one statistic claimed that of the 151,482 inhabitants of Wilno in 1898, only 24,835 (16.4%) were Orthodox while just over half of the population was Jewish (76,796) (cited in Kraj, No. 15, 9/21 April 1899, pp. 9–10).Google Scholar

46. LVIA, f. 378, PS 1898, b. 43, 1. 1. For the text of this pamphlet, signed by the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), see 1. 3. The fact that two of the arrested were Jews attests to the cosmopolitan nature of the PPS in Vilna at this time.Google Scholar

47. Ibid., 11. 8, 12.Google Scholar

48. State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), Moscow, f. 215, op. 1, 1898, d. 95, 1. 24. This caricature is printed just before page 81 in Vida Girininkienė, 1863–1864 metal Lietuvoje. Straipsnai ir dokumentai (Kaunas: Šviesa, 1991).Google Scholar

49. Quoted in “Torzhestvo osviashcheniia i otkrytiia grafu M. N. Muravieva v Vil'ne,” Vilenskii kalendar'—1899 , p. 332.Google Scholar

50. Ibid., p. 287.Google Scholar