The writer Alexander Herzen is credited with the phrase: “The state is located in Russia like an occupying army. We do not feel the state is part of us, part of society. The state and society are at war. The state is punitive, and society is partisan». We checked whether Herzen really wrote this.

The phrase about the occupation nature of the Russian state, allegedly belonging to Herzen, can be found in Media, social networks, blogs And quotation books. Historian and writer Evgeniy Ponasenkov published this quote with Herzen’s authorship in his book “The First Scientific History of the War of 1812”, and later in his account in social networks X. Journalist Viktor Shenderovich quoted Herzen’s words about the state at least eight times in a radio interview “Echo of Moscow", "Radio Liberty", The Business Courier and other publications (in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018 And 2021 years). Journalists cited the same quote Mikhail Shevelev, Maxim Shevchenko, correspondent for Radio Liberty Yuri Vachnadze and economist and publicist Irina Yasina, which, however, suggested that the author of the statement was Saltykov-Shchedrin.

In academic collected works Alexander Herzen in 30 volumes, published in 1954–1966, the quotation could not be found. In approximately 18,000 pages, including works of fiction, journalism, essays and letters from the writer, the word “occupation” appears several dozen times in various forms. But none of the sentences containing it mention the Russian state or government.

In 2015, the former editor-in-chief of the Novgorod Vedomosti publication Gennady Ryavkin in his article entitled “Read Herzen" wrote:

“I have a rare edition of Herzen’s articles in his imported Bell, published in London. This is a very interesting read. Alexander Ivanovich wrote expressively and mixed the words thickly.
I will not remove large fragments. The phrases speak about themselves: “The state is located in Russia like an occupying army. We do not feel the state is part of ourselves, part of society. The state and society are waging war. The state is punitive, and society is partisan...
The people cannot be freed any more than they are free from within... Socialism will develop in all its phases to extreme consequences, to absurdities. Then the cry of denial will again burst from the titanic chest of the revolutionary minority, and the mortal struggle will begin again, in which socialism will take the place of the current conservatism and will be defeated by the coming revolution, unknown to us."

"Bell"was the first Russian revolutionary newspaper, which Herzen and his friend and comrade Nikolai Ogarev published in London from 1857 to 1867. About the launch of the new Herzen magazine announced April 13, 1857: “The “bell” dedicated exclusively to Russian issues will ring no matter what it is affected by - an absurd decree or a stupid persecution of schismatics, the theft of dignitaries or the ignorance of the Senate. Funny and criminal, malicious and ignorant - everything goes to the “Bell.”

The passage, which is supposedly taken from Herzen's articles in a London magazine, consists of three parts: about the state, about the people and about socialism. The last two are taken from two different works. The quote about the people (which in the original sounds like “People cannot be liberated in external life more than they are liberated internally”) is borrowed from the letters “To an old friend", written by Herzen shortly before his death. Passage about socialism - from the chapter "Epilogue 1849"of the book "From the Other Shore", in which the writer talks about his disappointment in the revolutionary movement in Europe in 1848. But the phrase about the state could not be found either in “The Bell” or in other articles, books and letters of Herzen.

In 2013, two years before the publication of the note in Novgorodskie Vedomosti, “70 Years of Babylonian Captivity” was published on the website publication “The Prophecies of Alexander Ivanovich Herzen,” which included a phrase about the state and society.

“Verified” found an even earlier mention of a similar quote, also attributed to Herzen. In 1998, the Syntax magazine, which was published in Paris from 1978 to 2001, published an article by Moscow News journalist Ekaterina Karsanova. This article is about 1998 defaultentitled "Lived in the occupied territory"(pp. 156-158), the author allegedly quotes Herzen, albeit in a slightly different form: “A century and a half ago, Herzen said: “The power is located in Russia like an occupying army in a captured country.” However, a search for this phrase in Herzen’s published works also did not yield any results.

Thus, in the most complete collection of Herzen’s works there is no phrase about the occupation nature of the Russian state. Perhaps an unknown author mistakenly attributed these words to the writer, and Internet users circulated the quote with incorrect attribution.

Cover photo: gertsen.lit-info.ru