Note 43 — Front matter (continued 3)

Extract from the proclamation of Yermolow. 'Brave sons of Russia! An old man of seventy, who, the contemporary of four reigns, knows well his nation and its sovereigns, lifts his voice towards you, with a heart devoted to the good of his country. He wishes, in the decline of a life which has been agitated by the storms of despotism, to infuse into your hearts the sentiments of liberty, and to die a freeman. Our complaints have been uttered in vain: our blood has been shed in vain. Are these complaints the only arms worthy of the Russian people? No! It is with the sword in hand, in the capital itself, on the field of battle, in the north and in the south, that you should claim your national liberty. The idols of despotism will fall before you. The books of the divine law will be opened. The Czars will become the fathers of their people: we shall be no longer orphans and strangers upon our native soil. As the French and English have done, and even as the Greeks, our brethren in Jesus Christ, have done, we will swear to conquer our liberty, and that achievement will immortalize us. Nations less celebrated, and less populous than ours, surrounded by monarchs who have combined to destroy them, have arisen. Their brave men have joined together. They hasten, at the call of their country, to defend their national liberty, by their arms and their acts of valor. The hour is come. God, who holds in his hands the fate of kings and people, will bless us. Russians! break the chains of despotism! You have sworn fidelity to the Czar, but he also has sworn to be our father. He has perjured himself, and we are therefore released from our oaths. Respect nevertheless the person of the Czar, for he is the anointed of the Lord, and our sovereign. Limit yourselves to a change of the form of the government, and demand a constitution. Rise up, and the throne will tremble. But if the despot should attempt to arrest your enterprize by the aid of the accomplices upon whom he lavishes all his favors, forgetting that he is our monarch, and not theirs, and that he is the father of the great family of Russians; it is then that it will be seen that the autocracy must cease to exist, that the Russians long for liberty, that they can and will be free.

Yermolow.

Samara, 29th of January, 1831.'