“The right of citizenship acquired by Kolokol in Russia”: Presence of the exile Herzen in the files of the Third Department

After Herzen’s refusal to return to Russia and the subsequent deprivation of his citizenship and status rights (in 1851), his name was banned from public mention in Russia. With the establishment of the Free Russian Printing House in London (in 1853) and the appearance of its publications and periodicals (foremost Poliarnaia Zvezda (“The Polar Star”) since 1855 and Kolokol (“The Bell”) since 1857), the ban expanded not only to the physical, but also to the “virtual” presence of the exiled Herzen. The Third Department and other government structures were forced to take extensive and sophisticated measures to keep Herzen out of the socio-political and cultural field. However, after a while, a paradox arises: the absence of Herzen in the public field, but his increasingly extensive presence in government communication, primarily in the document flow of the Third Department, and later in correspondence and personal communication of ordinary people, that is, in fact, in the informal socio-political sphere. Moreover, Herzen’s popularity in Russia in the late 1850s and early 1860s was such that he became not just a political figure, an opposition publicist, but a kind of celebrity, a public figure. The article is largely based on archival data, most of which is being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.