So long as the contented citizen May sleep without fear, And children, free subjects, May order their lives by their own thoughts, Enjoy nature, Be everywhere adorned by learning, And sing Thy charms <..> So long as Thou grantest freedom to all, And dost

From Karamzin's spiritual ode «To Mercy», addressed to Catherine II.

A good thought, and a sound one: so long as the contented citizen may sleep without fear, and children, free subjects, may order their lives by their own thoughts, so long as Thou grantest freedom to all and dost not dim the light in minds, so long shalt Thou be held in sacred reverence.

The ode was written by Karamzin in defence of his mentor and elder friend Nikolay Novikov, an Enlightenment thinker, who had been confined in the Shlisselburg Fortress in 1792. A bold act, and in part a reckless one. But to no avail. Catherine paid no heed. Novikov was packed off for 15 years. In fact it was for free-thinking, but the charge against him, mark this, was that he had helped peasants dying of hunger: he had set aside 5,000 roubles for the destitute. And that, of course, is incitement! Especially considering his sharp criticism of serfdom.

The Empress's decree read: although Novikov has not disclosed his secret designs, the crimes he has not confessed are so grave that We have commanded him to be locked up in the Shlisselburg Fortress.

Fortunately, the sovereign, like all other rulers, was not immortal. Soon after her death Paul I released Novikov, for want of any corpus delicti. But the man had suffered four years for nothing.