Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Monday, 14 March 1881

Things are going better.

Cela va mieux.

The Emperor of Russia has been assassinated.1 The newspapers will give you the details; I particularly recommend Rochefort's article,2 which says very aptly that the assassins did not take the man unawares — like traitors.

L'Empereur de Russie est mort assassiné. Les journaux vous donneront les détails, je vous recommande surtout l'article de Rochefort qui dit très justement que les assassins n'ont pas surpris l'homme en traitre.

They began by imploring him to grant some liberty and a constitution, then they threatened. Nothing worked.

On a commencé par supplier de donner un peu de liberté et une constitution, puis on a menacé. Rien n'y a fait.

I hope the heir Alexander III will immediately grant elected chambers and responsible ministers.3

J'espère que l'héritier Alexandre III va donner immédiatement des chambres et des ministres responsables.

Certainly, the tragic death of this old man arouses some pity — very little — but one must almost rejoice at it when one thinks of the dreadful mess that prevailed in Russia, of the atrocious regime under which we were governed, of the bureaucratic red tape, of the pillaging of the country by officials, of the arbitrary power, of the misery of the people! Besides, this event leaves me calm; I grow heated only when I think of the wretched condition of our people and of all that needs to be done for the country.

Certes, la mort tragique de ce vieillard éveille quelque pitié, fort peu, mais on doit s'en réjouir presqu'en songeant à l'effroyable gâchis qui régnait en Russie, au régime atroce qui nous régissait, aux chinoiseries administratives, au pillage du pays par les fonctionnaires, à l'arbitraire, à la misère du peuple ! Du reste cet évènement me laisse calme, je ne m'échauffe qu'en pensant à la malheureuse condition de notre peuple et à tout ce qu'il faudrait faire pour le pays.

It would be good to have no emperor at all — but so abruptly as this, we are not yet ready for it. The new one is very liberal — but they all are on coming to power. The old one was: he freed the serfs4 and lived twenty-six years on that without doing anything else. If the new one grants elected chambers and a responsible ministry — well, that will be very fine, and he will have done everything needful. It will then be a matter for everyone.

Il serait bon de ne pas avoir d'empereur du tout, mais comme ça brusquement, nous n'y sommes pas encore préparés. Le nouveau est très libéral, mais ils le sont tous en arrivant au pouvoir. L'ancien l'était, il a libéré les serfs et a vécu vingt-six ans là-dessus sans rien faire d'autre. Si le nouveau donne des chambres et un ministère responsable, eh bien ce sera très bien et il aura tout fait. Ce sera alors l'affaire de tout le monde.

I go to bed telling myself: Long live the Universal Republic.

Je vais me coucher en me disant: Vive la République Universelle.

Notes

Tsar Alexander II (1818–1881) was assassinated on 1 March 1881 (13 March in the Western calendar) in St Petersburg by a bomb thrown by members of the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) revolutionary organisation — the second attack of the day; the first bomb wounded him but he survived; the second killed him. ↩
Henri Rochefort (1831–1913): radical republican journalist and polemicist, founder of La Lanterne, then writing for his new paper L'Intransigeant. His piece sympathised with the political logic of the assassination. ↩
Alexander III (1845–1894) in fact did the opposite: he crushed the reform movement and tightened autocracy. ↩
The Emancipation Reform of 1861, by which Alexander II freed the Russian serfs, was his principal lasting act. ↩