And so, when there appear such patriotic manifestations as were the
Toulon celebrations, which, though still at a distance, in advance
bind the wills of men and oblige them to commit those customary
malefactions which always result from patriotism, every one who
understands the significance of these celebrations cannot help
but protest against everything which is tacitly included in them.
And so, when the journalists say in print that all the Russians
sympathize with what took place at Kronstadt, Toulon, and Paris;
that this alliance for life and death is confirmed by the will
of the whole nation; and when the Russian minister of education
assures the French ministers that his whole company, the Russian
children, the learned, and the authors, share his sentiments; or
when the commander of the Russian squadron assures the French that
the whole of Russia will be grateful to them for their reception;
and when the chief priests speak for their flocks and assure the
French that their prayers for the life of the most august house
have reëchoed joyfully in the hearts of the Russian _Tsar-loving_
nation; and when the Russian ambassador in Paris, who is considered
to be the representative of the Russian nation, says after a dinner
of _ortolans à la soubise et logopédes glacés_, with a glass of
champagne _Grand Moët_ in his hand, that all Russian hearts are
beating in unison with his heart, which is filled with a sudden
outburst of exclusive love for fair France (_la belle France_),--we,
the people who are free from the stultification, consider it our
sacred duty, not only for our own sakes, but also for the sake of
tens of millions of Russians, in the most emphatic manner to protest
against it and to declare that our hearts do not beat in unison with
the hearts of the journalists, ministers of education, commanders of
squadrons, chief priests, and ambassadors, but, on the contrary, are
full to the brim with indignation and loathing for that harmful lie
and that evil which they consciously and unconsciously disseminate
with their acts and their speeches. Let them drink _Moët_ as much as
they please, and let them write articles and deliver addresses in
their own name, but we, all the Christians, who recognize ourselves
as such, cannot admit that we are bound by everything that these men
say and write. We cannot admit it, because we know what is concealed
beneath all these drunken transports, speeches, and embraces, which
do not resemble the confirmation of peace, as we are assured, but
rather those orgies and that drunkenness to which evil-doers abandon
themselves when they prepare themselves for a joint crime.