The History of Repression

Much like living in America in a post 9/11 world, living in in the aftermath of the Decembrist revolt brought a certain paranoia to the Russian regime. So deep was the neurosis that in 1833 Sergey Uvarov -the Minister of Education of Russia-presented the following statement of ideology : " It is our common obligation to ensure that the education of the people be conducted, according to Supreme intention of our August Monarch, in the joint spirit of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality . I am convinced that every professor and teacher, being permeated by one and the same feeling of devotion to the throne and fatherland, will use all his resources to become a worthy tool for the government and to earn its complete confidence. " Thus began The Triad of Official Nationality (Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality). Although it is understood that interpretations of the Trinity are different than they were in the 19th century, commonalities still exist. In fact, so c

The cold unabating silence became unbearable. No laughing voices, no innocent whispers, no pleasant conversations, just the heaviness of her breath as she lay in eternal damnation. As she tried to speak her taut vocal cords, like a noose around her neck, choked off the words; she tried to speak again, this time her tongue forced words out—her once frolicsome voice, now reduced to a spiritless sigh.  As thirty-two-year-old Vera Figner sat in the absolute seclusion of solitary confinement she remembered how Dmitrii Akhsharumov , a member of a utopian socialist group, tried to preserve the function of his vocal cords during imprisonment by reading aloud. A brilliant idea indeed, but now too late for vocal exercise, Vera’s lost her will to speak, energy seemed to bleed from her pores.   But Vera was brassy, a self-described “mischievous romp,” a “squabbler” who, during arguments with her siblings, threaten to “mop the floor” with them. 1 I t should come as no s

Nicholas I (reigned 1825–1855) In the spirit of political debate and in a search for understanding I thought it would be interesting to compare Donald Trump's current regime to that of another oppressive regime, Imperial Russia and the reign of Tsar Nicholas I.  After the Decembrist uprising —the attempted overthrow of the Russian government in 1825—the newly minted tsar, Nicholas I, issued a series of edicts that would be sure to make “The Donald” salivate. In much the same way that Donald Trump attempts to stifle the press, Nicholas enacted the “ Cast-Iron Statute ,” a law forbidding anything published or performed that would be detrimental to the regime. That’s right, Saturday Night Live would have been in violation, and Alec Baldwin would perhaps be relegated to exile. Unfortunately, the madness didn’t stop there. In 1825 Tsar Nicholas created the “ Third Section ,” a clandestine police organization tasked with gathering information on religious g