The quiet voice of a thoughtful Russia

Abstract

The article presents an autobiographical narration by the local historian A. Mertsalov (1847–1906), resident in Vologda region. The manuscript now prepared for publication comes from the Shaytanov family archive. In the article Mertsalov is introduced as a shrewd witness of the crucial events in Russian history in the second half of the 19th century. His school years in the gymnasium can be cross-viewed by other men of letters, Mertsalov’s contemporaries in Vologda, Gilyarovsky, Panteleev, and Kruglov among them. His short experience as a civil servant was followed by a disappointment and a lifelong stay as a small landowner deeply involved in collecting local documents and pondering over Russian history, past and present. Mertsalov was guided by the idea that at the core of the Russian tragedy was laid the authorities’ unwillingness to hear the public opinion that could be voiced by the Zemsky Sobor. As a decisive moment in the flow of Russian history Mertsalov considered the murder of the infant prince in Uglich in 1591 and a faked presentation of the event with Boris Godunov blamed. In a historical perspective, at the turn of the 20th century Mertsalov anticipated the future Russian catastrophic progress due to the uncompromizing radicalism deeply inherent in the national mind.