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# Sire, Give Freedom to the Russian Word
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/gosudar-daite-svobodu-russkomu-slovu-2/
- Published: 2025-04-11T11:34:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:30:34.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Monarchies, Society, People

> Sire, give freedom to the Russian word. Our intellect is cramped, our thought poisons our breast for want of space, it groans in the stocks of the censorship. Give us free speech... we have something to say to the world and to our own people.  
> < >  
> Wash from Russia the shameful stain of serfdom, heal the blue weals on the backs of our brothers, those terrible traces of contempt for man.  
> < >  
> I am ashamed at how little we are ready to be content with; we want things whose justice you doubt as little as anyone...

Herzen, in a letter to Alexander II, 10 March 1855