The Bell (Kolokol)

The Bell (Kolokol)
Name	The Bell (Kolokol)
Type	Weekly newspaper
Founder	Alexander Herzen; Nikolai Ogaryov
Founded	1857
Ceased publication	1867 (in Russia), 1870s (abroad)
Headquarters	London; Geneva; Paris
Language	Russian
Political	Radical liberalism; abolitionism

The Bell (Kolokol) was a 19th-century Russian-language émigré newspaper founded by Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov that became a leading voice for political reform, peasant emancipation, and criticism of the Tsarist autocracy in the Russian Empire. Published primarily from London, Geneva, and Paris, it combined reportage, essays, and open letters to influence figures across the Russian intelligentsia, the Decembrists, and liberal circles in Western Europe. The publication played a central role in debates involving the Emancipation reform of 1861, the Crimean War, and the rise of radical movements such as the Narodniks and early Russian socialism.

Overview

The Bell operated as an émigré periodical that bridged networks linking the Russian Empire with hubs of exile and liberal thought in Western Europe. Its founders, Herzen and Ogaryov, drew on contacts among figures like Mikhail Bakunin, Vladimir Odoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, and Alexander Hertzen's contemporaries to distribute material critiquing institutions such as the Imperial Russian Army, the Holy Synod, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russian Empire). Influenced by debates around the Revolutions of 1848, the paper engaged with publications such as The Times, Le Globe, and Revue des Deux Mondes while addressing readers in cities like Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Warsaw, and Odessa.

History and Background

Herzen began publishing during a period marked by intellectual cross-currents among exiles living near London and Geneva. The Bell’s roots intersected with events including the Crimean War (1853–1856), the aftermath of the Decembrist revolt, and pressure from ministers like Count Dmitry Tolstoy and Prince Alexander Gorchakov. Early contributors included activists and writers associated with movements around Vera Zasulich, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, and Alexander Herzen’s circle of émigrés who had fled after the Revolution of 1848 and the tightening of censorship under Nicholas I of Russia. The paper’s circulation spread through clandestine networks used by organizations such as the Land and Liberty movement and later the People's Will (Narodnaya Volya).

Composition and Design

The Bell combined narrative journalism, polemical essays, and serialized reports, often printed using presses available in London, Geneva, and Paris. Layout choices reflected contemporaneous formats found in The Athenaeum, Punch, and radical journals like La Patrie and Die Revolution. Editors arranged content into open letters to figures such as Tsar Alexander II, critiques of officials like Count Aleksandr Milyutin, and translations of work by European thinkers such as John Stuart Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Visual elements occasionally referenced lithographs circulated in periodicals like Le Charivari and engravings similar to those in Illustrated London News.

Publications and Content

The Bell published a range of material addressing serfdom, legal reform, and political violence. Notable pieces included open letters reacting to the Emancipation reform of 1861, commentary on trials such as the prosecutions after the January Uprising (1863–1864), and debates with thinkers from the Slavophile and Westernizer camps including Konstantin Aksakov and Vissarion Belinsky. The paper serialized memoirs and eyewitness accounts connected to events like the Polish January Uprising, dispatches about conditions in Siberia, and critiques of bureaucrats tied to the Ministry of War (Russian Empire). Contributors overlapped with authors of the day such as Nikolai Nekrasov, Fyodor Dostoevsky (in criticism), Ivan Goncharov (in commentary), and satirists influenced by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Reception and Influence

Reactions to The Bell ranged from praise among liberal circles in Western Europe and radical salons in St. Petersburg to condemnation by officials in the Third Section and censorship agents serving Nicholas I and Alexander II. The publication influenced activists affiliated with the Zemstvo movement, reformers linked to Dmitry Milyutin’s military reforms, and intellectual currents that fed into the Narodnik movement and later figures in Russian Marxism like Georgi Plekhanov. Authorities responded with confiscations, arrests, and counter-propaganda from conservative journals such as Moskvityanin and Russkaya Beseda. European liberals in France, Britain, and the German Confederation cited The Bell in broader debates involving the Paris Commune, the Austro-Prussian War, and the development of socialist thought.

Legacy and Modern Relevance

The Bell’s legacy persists in studies of 19th-century Russian political culture, exile literature, and the history of dissidence. Modern scholars at institutions like University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, and Columbia University reference its texts in work on the Russian Revolution of 1905, revolutionary networks associated with Vladimir Lenin, and émigré publishing practices examined by historians of print culture. Archives in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Geneva, and London preserve original issues that inform research on the evolution of movements such as Narodnaya Volya and the intellectual genealogy connecting Herzen to later revolutionaries including Alexander Kerensky and Leon Trotsky. The Bell remains a touchstone in comparative studies alongside journals like Sovremennik and Russkoye Slovo for understanding 19th-century Russian reform and radicalism.

Category:Newspapers published in Russia Category:Publications established in 1857 Category:Alexander Herzen