Text addressed to Aleksandra, Liubov, Tatiana and Varvara Aleksandrovna Bakunina (November, 1835)

[Letter to Nikolay Ivanovich Zhukovsky, in Russia]                              May 5, 1870. Locarno.                              Casa Pedrazzini. Dear Zhuk, The day after my arrival, I responded briefly to you few words. Now I want to discuss with you. You probably already know that I have punctually fulfilled, towards Guillaume and Fritz Robert, what we have decided among us; and I see, in the latest issues of Solidarité, which I have found here in the home of a friend, that Guillaume has held strictly to the direction fixed. The last two issues are excellent. I wish very much to know the impression that […]

February 7, 1870 My friend and brother – Forgive me my long silence, and you will forgive me for it I am sure when you know the cause of it. – In response to the question that you ask me, you and Mme D. Z. [André Bastelica], I respond: Yes, the affairs of Mr A. S. [Russia] are very serious and they should become still more serious in the spring. The debacle in that house is imminent, and God alone knows what will result from it! Will it be a failed, fraudulent bankruptcy? Will it be a complete and open […]

A letter from Paris, published in your newspaper on September 2, contains a serious attack against a little paper by the name of Candide, written by young Parisians, whose publication was immediately interrupted by order of the imperial censor. Your correspondent, who does not seem to be an enthusiastic admirer of the illustrious exterminator of thought and freedom who reigns over France today, takes his side this time to the point of almost congratulating him on having avenged religion and public morals by suppressing a newspaper written by young people “uneducated or unexperienced, who, impelled by base culpable vanity, have dared to calmly affirm things that will sow eternal doubt in the minds of all decent people.”