We read of Radischeff—the first to point out the horrors of serfdom—who was imprisoned, deported, and died by suicide.
We read of the epoch-making Pushkin who was exiled to Kishinev at twenty, and later to Mikhailovskoye, and who escaped permanent political exile in Siberia by accident.
We read of the Byronic Lermontov who was banished to the Caucasus for writing a poem on the death of Pushkin.
We read of Ryleev, Odoevsky, Shevchenko, Griboyedov, Pisarev, Chernishevsky, whose martyrdoms I have already mentioned.
We read of the brilliant and poetic Polezhaev, who was send to the barracks when a minor and died there from consumption.
We read of the popular novelist Bestuzhev, who was exiled to Siberia and then sent to the Caucasus as a soldier.
We read of the great Gogol who suffered at the hands of the censorship.
We read of Turgenev who was arrested and exiled to his distant estates for writing a brief obituary notice of Gogol. Had it not been for his influential friends he would have gone to Siberia.
We read of Leo Tolstoy whose excellent educational experiment was violently abolished by the government, so enraging this extraordinary man that he warned Alexander II. he would shoot the first police officer who would again dare to enter his home.