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# In an 1855 letter, Herzen asks Alexander II for freedom of speech and the abolition of serfdom
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/gosudar-daite-svobodu-russkomu-slovu/
- Published: 2020-01-10T08:11:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:06:19.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Monarchies, Observations, Society

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 dreadful marks 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.

And yet little has changed. So very little. Apart, that is, from a thoroughly decent tsar, Alexander Nikolayevich.