NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Tchaykovsky, N.W. [Telegraphic address: Tchaykovsky, Harrow] N. W. Tchaykovsky. [Langham House, Harrow-on-the-Hill, England,] Broadway Central Hotel New York 22d March 1906 Miss Alice Blackwell 45, Boutwell Ave Dorchester, Mass. Dear Madame, I should be delighted to make your personal acquaintance when in Boston, but as the time of my visit there is not settled yet I have much pleasure in forwarding you at once the letter of my friend & comrade Felix Volkhovsky, hoping in this way to establish a basis for immediate communication with you. Knowing how valuable your assistance has been to our beloved "Grany" I am sure your advice & suggestion will be indispensable to secure success to my efforts as well. My purpose is of course to provoke an oppression of American sympathies to the Russian Revolution not only in words & letters but in sincerest of was. I am engaged here for 1-2 public meetings and possibly 1-2 lectures on burning topics of the day & I should like to have the [*N. Tchaykovsky*] of the New Englanders also and therefore should feel obliged if you express your opinion or suggestion what is to be done for that end. I could be in Boston say about 1st April next. I am, Dear Madam, Yours very faithfully N.W. Tchaykovsky State Duma according to the Manifesto 31st Oct 1) The civic liberties of the population are to be based upon the actual inviolability of person, freedom of conscience, of speech, of meetings & of organization. 2) All classes of the population are to take part in the elections 3) No law may come into force before it is approved by the representatives of the people 4) The representatives of the population are to have effective control over the [administrative] legislative activity of the authorities [*N Tchaykovsky Promises as to [Doumer?] *] TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS : TCHAYKOVSKY, HARROW. N. W. TCHAYKOVSKY [Langham House,] [Harrow-on-the-Hill] [England] 232, W. 52nd St. New York 2d April 1906. Dear Miss Blackwell, I should be glad to hear from you when do you think my presence would be required in Boston. I am going to Philadelphia next Saturday and returning by Monday or Tuesday next. I have several engagements here by Tuesday & could spend in Boston the second part of the week June 11th-14th inst. If that does not suit your convenience I could come between 17-19th inst. But after those dates I shall have to go to Chicago. We have formed a committee here with Mr P. Dunn (Dooley) as the treasurer and Mrs Rob. Hunter the secretary. It is not quite complete as yet and has not commenced its work, but will do so in a few days. An appeal will the published to the Americans and private meetings called in different places. A large public meeting will be organized here with most prominent N.W. Tchaykovsky people on the platform. Mr. Jorky is coming here by the middle of the month and we expect to make the agitation together in the interest of the Russian Revolution. The latest news from Russia confirms our opinion on the current election in the S. Duma. It is a farce and a trap for the naive and credulous people: 54 wormen elected by the factories in Odessa all arrested and the electors are ordered to send more conservative men. It is a repetition of an old story of Zubahoff's system of catching every popular movement turning it into a police organisation led and presided over by principless spies & officials. I am yours sincerely N.W. Tchaykovsky [*N.W. Tchaykovsky*] Tel. 5116 Columbus. N. W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell Boston New York, 4th April 1906 Dear Miss Blackwell, Many thanks for your letter with the enclosure of Mr. Ch. Dole which I return. I could come over to Boston on 13th inst, Friday to stay there till Monday if this Saturday suits your friends, this being Easter Sunday. If not I should better come over on Friday 20th. Please say which you prefer & I make arrangements accordingly. I have seen Mrs. C. Catt & she promised me to help. I have succeeded to get Mr. Clemens (Mark Twain) on the committee, also Mr. Colliers of Colliers Weekly, also Miss Adams of Chicago, & some other very prominent men. Mr. Maxim Gorki is coming here by the middle of this month & I hope to arrange to work together with him. Yours very truly N. W. Tchaykovsky [*N. W. Tchaykovsky*] Tel. 5116 Columbus. N. W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. Miss Alice S. Blackwell. Boston, New York, 6th April 1906 Dear Miss Blackwell, Many thanks for your last letters. I prefer to come over to Boston by 21st inst and have written to that sense to Mr. Charles F Dole and to Mr. Meyer Bloomfield. I asked Mr. Hunter about making the names of the New York Com. given to the press & he said it is better to delay the statement for a few days until they are quite ready in full quorum, which is expected to be about 10 or 12 persons if not more. I shall be delighted to give you personally all the information I possess. The question is very complex and require first of all correct setting it, which [is] as you know, means a half-solution. No amount of row facts may supply it unless they are placed in proper perspective. I am afraid that a short address in the Club will admit merely a superficial outline of the situation. However I shall try to do my best. Yours sincerely N.W. Tchaykovsky New York, 12th April 1906 Dear Miss Blackwell, Many thanks for the book of your poems. They are quite refreshing. As to the Russian "nagas kas" it would take 2 months at least to get them here. I am sending to Mr. Ch. Bloomfield the clippings & my photos. Do you require another set or one would do? I shall send you the synopsis of my lecture & the speech tomorrow. Your sincerely (in haste) N.W. Tchaykovsky [*N.W. Tchaykovsky*] [*Tchaykovsky*] Tel. 5116 Columbus. N. W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. New York, 13th April 1906 Dear Miss Blackwell, I send you on the other side the syllabus of my lecture. As to the meeting - it will be more general on the same heads. Your sincerely N.W. Tchaykovsky 4 photos have been sent to Mr. Bloomfield. Syllabus of the lecture Russia of Geo. Kennan & of the present time. Changes in the economic & political conditions of the country working up of a common political platform. Bloody Sunday of Jan. 22 1905. “The organizing work of the libertarian forces in 1905. New born Russian democracy. Councils of delegates & Union of unions. Struggle for the new life for 2 months. General political strikes. Moscow rising Repression. Manifest of 31st Oct. Black hundreds. State Duma & the present situation. [*Dr. Tchaykovsky*] Tel. 5116 Columbus. N. W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. New York, 14th April 1906 Dear Miss Blackwell, When I refered my compatriots of Boston to you I expected you to tell them whether it would be advisable to organize their own meeting in Boston to hear me or not. They wrote me afterwards that they decided to have one on Sunday morning. Suspecting that the group who undertook this is an anarchist one I wrote to them that if this is so (they never said who they were) I could not appear in public under such an auspices. Now they write saying that the meeting will be held under an auspices of a Benevolent Society sympathising with the Russian Revolution. I consented to speak in Russia only provided the meeting be organized by the Benevolent Society. If you said after seeing them that one meeting is enough for Boston on the same day I would certainly decline to attend their meeting. Now I am afraid the two meetings will clash and the audience of the evening meeting will be reduced. For this reason I consented to speak in the morning only in Russian. I hope you approve of these arrangements. As soon as the Illustrated "Outlook" is out I shall send you a copy. It ought to be out in a day or so. Thanks for the W.J. I note the insertion of the Speridovna letter. This is good. M. Gorky is going to supply Am. press with allsorts Tel. 5116 Columbus. N. W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. New York, 190 of information & stories. He also intends to write on Speridovna's incident. I am lecturing tonight before an influential meeting of ladies at Mrs. Jay I. White & I shall call their attention to this No. of your Journal. I shall be obliged if you say at what time I am to arrive to Boston on Saturday next & where could I find you after taking my quarters. Your sincerely N.W. Tchaykovsky THE RUSSIAN SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY PARTY 232 W. 52d St. NY City New York New York, 15th April 1906 Dear Miss Blackwell, I have your letter & that of Mr. Bloomfield & I have wired him: "By all means proceed with meeting Russian revolution is not Gorky's." It is very annoying all this sensational campaigns against Gorky. We Russians are so much accustomed to draw a sharp line between a public interests and private matters of personal relation, that it is hardly comprehensible for us this mixing these two things in one knot and allowing the whole thing to be swept off by the hurrican of sensation created by the enemies of our revolution. Therefore the first step in the right direction is to separate these two affairs. [and] The second one ought to be to drown a small, insignificant personal matter of a single worker of the revolution in the great current interests of 140 millions of people who live just now through an epoc making crisis. The future of the whole world is at stake in this crisis and all friends of humanity & progress ought to join hands in saving the right solution of the moment from such hurricans of blind panic. The passions which are awakened in the general public here against our cause are quite of the same nature as national hatred exacted by our enemies in Russia against Jews or Armenians or intellectuals in order to drown the revolutions in natural strife within our ranks. I quite agree with you that it was a false step on Gorky's part to give a chance to the enemy to rise such dark powers at all - whatever may be the nature of his personal cause - but after all if it has happened, is it possible that in this great country there are no class of friends of liberty of human race who would be able to withstand such a panic? I feel satisfied at least to say that Mr. Clemens' statement in the press shows that he is one of them. Mr. Rob. Hunter the organizer of our committee is the other one & Mr. Peter Dunne the third one. I [could] am not in position to speak of them as a formal committee since it is in a process of formation as yet, but I am assured by Mr R. Hunter that they are going to proceed with their further efforts; [and] his personal article on the subject 3 will appear tomorrow; he provided me with many letters of introduction to friends in various towns of the country, to Mr. Rob. T. Paine of Boston among others and I am going to use them at the earliest opportunities & hope to have series of meetings to be organised. Last night I spoke before a selected company of infuencial men & women of this town in the house of Mrs. Jay J. White, which resulted in several cheques; prof. R. Ely being in the chair and assisting in the practical side of the thing. As to Mr. Gorky as I wrote to you before, he never proposed to appear on the public platform and now less than ever. His principal work is to write in the press on the crisis in Russia, in all its aspects. If his personal influence has been undermined by the sensational slanders his knowledge of the country & of the situation remains quite n[???] & can't fail to excite serious interest. In the mean time he will give no chance to the press to force his personal affairs before the public. Please say if you have any particular individuals in Boston whom you think I ought to see & speak to privately? If so please suggest when should I do so, before of after the lecture and the meeting or after? If I receive from you no special suggestion as to the time of my arrival I shall be in Boston about 2-3 p.m. on Saturday, but you have any plan I am at your disposal. Hoping to have happier news I am yours sincerely N.W. Tchaykovsky Some one approached me with an invitation to come over to Yale College to address some interested people there. Have you anything to say about that. It is said that students will not be there before Wednesday week. If this is so I hardly could stay so long at Boston but if this might lead to anything important I should try to arrange. It appears that the Outlook with my article will not appear before 1st of May -- an illustrated number. Therefore I shall send you data of my own self separately. Tel. 5116 Columbus. N.W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. New York, 17th April 1906 Dear Miss Blackwell, Thanks for your yesterday's letter & the wire. It would be impossible to give up Sunday morning meeting as I have consented to speak in Russian already. There is a certain duty upon us to show a special attention to our compatriots colonies, as there are good many points to talk over & to settle beyond what we have to do with the American audience. These were the reasons I consented to speak to them separately. But I believe most of them will come in the evening as well. Many thanks for your invitation It would be hardly justified by the shortness of the time I shall have at my disposal to stay so far away from the centre of the town where I shall have to see several people. I intend to arrive by 8 p.m. on Friday & our comrades propose to meet me. As to staying - I shall either accept the kind invitation of Mr. Ch Bloomfield at the Settlement, or I shall put up at an hotel. However please don't trouble about this - it is a secondary matter altogether. The sensation about Mr. Gorky's private matter is subsiding and we hope to restore soon the Russian cause to it's proper position. It is hundred times pity that he acted so rashly without consulting any one. Although I admit he is only consistent in this matter with his writings Tel. 5116 Columbus. N.W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. 2 New York,________190 I enclose my antecedents written in a hurry. Please excuse. and if nations accept his writings outside of Russia with enthusiasm, they ought to put up with his practicing them. He is one and the same with what he is writing. And it would be a great pity if he were not . . . . But of course for our political cause it would be much better if he left his family affairs behind and came here simply for helping the cause. As it is he almost smashed all our arrangements & wiped off results of some weeks' work. Yours sincerely N.W.Tchaykovsky Amat Victoria Curam HOTEL HENRY E.E. BONNEVILLE. MGR PITTSBURGH. N.W. Tchaykovsky T [I] 7th May 06 Dear Miss Blackwell, As you see I am writing to you from Pittsburg. Your last letter has reached me here only yest'y. I had a fair success here although our Jewish colony forms practically the only element here upon which I can rely. They work hard & clearly but their influence is limited. Rev. J. Milligan advised me to see a certain Rev. either Canton or Franklin whom I failed to find. However I have seen some professional people like Dr. Ed. Young a popular & broadminded reformatory clergyman & some Jewish doctors who are thinking of forming a committee in Pittsburg. We shall discuss this this afternoon. Our meeting yesterday was a moderate success and realised some $150. The press here treated me well with exception of one paper - Pittsb. Sun & Post, which started a [word] violent attack against Gorky just before my arrival here. As soon as I appeared this paper turned her venom upon myself accusing us of rising money for ourselves & for murders I wrote of once a reply in the "Leader", where it appeared in the My antecedents. Born in 1850 in N.E. Russia (Viatka). My father was a nobleman & an owner of a medium size estate. My youth passed in his country seat, where I spent most of my play time with peasant boys and mixed a good deal with their families & learned to sympathise with them from my childhood instinctively. Later on, with age & learning this sentiment grew up into a consistent aspiration to devote my life to my people's emancipation by helping them in all possible ways: in teaching them, spreading books, opening their eyes on their slavish position, by organising them for a revolutionary movement. On entering St. Petersburg University Tel. 5116 Columbus. N.W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. New York, 190 2 in 1868 I soon became one of 5 founders of the circle, which later one was known under "Tchaykovzi." Many well known revolutionists belonged to it. Dr. Kraputkin, S. Perovskyi, F. Volkhovsky, G. Breshkovskyia & others. We were all one brotherhood, loving & trusting each other implicitely. These fast ties made this group (about 50 men & women) a nucleus of the future revolutionary army. Some live till now and play a very important part in the movement. The elated ethical atmosphere of that group was an educating factor in the movement indeed, and preserved our later destinies from the drawbacks of all purely political organizations - [equal] quarrels & splits on a ground of personal ambition & mistrust. 3. In 1872 we started working not only among educated youths to whom we looked often for recrutes for our party, but among factory workmen & village peasants. This work soon bore fruits so much so that in 1874 government reported discovery of revolutionary propaganda in 36 provinces & began relentless persecutions against us. In 1874 (too month before the first blow to our organisation) I went abroad and became an exile ever since & [went to] visited Russia only on special missions. While living in Paris & London I worked together with the revolutionary parties in Russia doing what they requested to be done abroad [*see over*)] Tel. 5116 Columbus. N.W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. New York ..... 190 The last time I visited Russia was in December/January 1905/6. When the amnesty has been announced in November last - I regarded it as a trap for the exiles & never trusted the administration at the Tzar. I am here now as a delegate of the Socialist Revolutionary Party of Russia, and my mission is to put the actual Russian situation before the Americans and to ask them for their sympathies to our cause & material help as far as they consistently can give it. N.W. Tchaykovsky to Europe with my family I resumed my participation in the Russian Revolutionary movement and was directly connected with it ever since although my headquarters was in England and I spoke Russian only occasionally to see and consult my comrades & friends. In the present case I am delegated Socialist Revolutionary Party to arouse as much interest & sympathy towards the cause of freedom in Russia as possible & hope to attain a certain degree of success. - I took active part in the work of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom in London and was familise with your valuable efforts on behalf of this cause on this side of the water although I never had occasion to correspond with you. If you succeed in organizing any gathering in Boston who would like to give me their ear, please let me know beforehand so that I could arrange accordingly. I am Yours sincerely N. W. Tchaykovsky nobleman by birth, and graduated in the University of St Petersburg in 1873 by the faculty of Natural Science. After working for Russia revolution for 4 years - 1864-74 & having formed my own ideas of reforming the [?] Society - I left Russia in 1874 as an exile & came to the U.S. of America in order to give a practical trial to the scheme. This I did together with a dozen of other Russians, men & women in the State of Kansas for two years. We [?] only partial success and in 1877 decided to abandon our colony in Ceder Vale, Kansas. Before returning to Europe in 1879 I spent about a year in working as a ship carpenter in Chester in Philadelphia, and in studying Shaker communities with whom I stayed near Rochester, N.Y. for about 10 months. On my returning 2. morning of the meeting, by which, as far as I can see, we gained two points - silenced the guns of this agents if not of Russ. [?], anyhow of some backers who are anxious to do a good business in Russian securities, and second we had a free advertisement for our meeting as "The Leader" another Pittsb. paper not only printed my reply but exposed it in the window for the whole day & inscribed the heading of the article in their wall placard, of the day. It seems to me that my yesterday speech of two hours (1/2 in English & 1/2 in Russian) produced here a good effect & I hope to organise a committee tonight or at least to prepare the road for it for the next occasion as I expect to come here once more by 31st May. Many thanks for the letters of introduction. They will help me greatly. I have just received a letter from Mr. A.R. Massey, prof. of economics in the Bryn Mawr College, who spoke to Mrs. Thomas and invites me to lecture before the girls of the college. I wired [2] 3. AMAT VICTORIA CURAM HOTEL HENRY E.E. BONNEVILLE MGR PITTSBURGH. to him that I am coming Tuesday night for that purpose since only two days 7 & 8th inst are available. As to other Philadelphia letters I shall use them later on when in that town purposely which will happen probably about 20th inst. On 12-16th inst. I shall be in Boston & shall attend the Woman Suffrage meeting. Will you please say to whom I shall apply on this matter, perhaps you have told me that but I do not recollect. Of course I could find it out in Boston. I am going to Baltimore on 17-20. Our committees are still in a process of formation. As to the Boston one I should be very glad if you wrote to Mr. Bloomfield suggesting the Boston persons who could be invited to attend the proposed conference of Friends of R.F. called together by Mr. [S.?] Mead. I am afraid this will be a stumbling block with them. Anyhow I am writing to them suggesting that the conference 4 AMAT VICTORIA CURAM HOTEL HENRY E.E. BONNEVILLE MGR PITTSBURGH. should be called together within 12-16th May In New York we are promised to have two committees - 1, a socialist one for working the labour & advanced people, & 2, a national one composed of purely American personages, 2-3 professors of the Columbia University, Mr. R. Ely, Mr. J. Martin etc. They think that they may induce liberty loving rich people to subscribe for the cause of freedom as they understand it, without any further question about economics. Why not, if may do this, but I doubt. PS. This letter was not finished when I had to leave & now I do so at home in New York. Last night I have addresed an audience of about 300 college girls at Bryn Mawr and stayed with Mr. & Mrs. Massey, [what] with whom I was delighted to find Mrs. Barrows. Miss Thomas was tired after having returned late from Philadelphia & did not appear & I could not see her. According to Mrs. Massey she is Tel. 5116 Columbus. N. W. Tchaykovsky 232 West 52d St. 5. New York, _______190 exceedingly unaccessible person and no practical good could come out from my interview with her if I waited for it. Therefore I left Bryn Mawr this morning. The lecture was listened with absorbing interest & attention and after it the girls surrounded me & asked questions & expressed their interest. When I told them at the very end of the lecture of our plan of school masters conscription in Russia -- some of the girls spoke to Mr. Massey afterwards saying that it would not be bad for themselves to try such a plan. I have found here a letter from the Boston Woman Suffrage Ass. inviting me to speak and to attend their supper. I am going to answer in affirmative. My writing is very slack today in consequence of having carried my rather heavy luggage - please excuse. Yours very sincerely N.W. Tchaykovsky I am very sorry to say that I received a complete denunciation of "Narodny" from absolutely reliable sources and shall have to act accordingly at first privately and then if necessary - publicly. #17 5th Av. 1 Jan. 22nd 07 New York My dear Miss Blackwell: I am so glad you have taken in hand, the question of our meetings in Boston, and my reply to your querys as follows. My particular mission in this country is, to appeal to the American people. Therefore, the meetings ought to be organized so, as to atract them. As to the Russians, well, if they desire to have a meeting or two, they can do so on their own hook, after the American meeting has taken place. As to the question of admission fee, we are of the opinion, that, for the first meeting at least, admission ought to be free, provided ther is a body willing to stand the expense in case the collection doesn't defray same. Now about the body. Having heard from you that you are going away, I have written to 2 Mr James T. Monroe the President of the Mass. Reform Club who[m] has been recommended to me as a person, quite capable and willing to undertake the management of my campaign for the Russian caus. But of this later on. Now, it seems to me that, having the privilege of cooperation, of my friends A. Aladin and K. Durland, we ought to be able to feel up a good size hall, of course, if the meeting is properly advertized. We intend to make a considerable boom of Aladins arrival here. And we'll do our best to make the American press, pay him proper attention. A large meeting in New York will propabably be organized before we go to Boston. Moreover, I can inform you that I attended yesterday Gershuny's meeting in New Haven, with considerable 3 success. I have received a[n] formal invitation to attend a special meeting, about the 12th of Feb. in New-Haven under the auspices of Yale College. I wish to hear your [opinion] advise as to whom is the best party in Cambridge to be interested with arranging a meeting for the Harvard people. I should be very glad, if a meeting could also be arranged in [pr] Providence for myself and Aladin Yours sicerely N. W. Tchaykovsky P.S. I have just seen coun-Gershwin who returned from Boston & I am glad to hear it was a success. This is sure to prepare the ground for our american meetings. N. Tchaykovsky T TEL 6248 GRAMERCY No. 17 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, 27th Jan 1907 Dear Miss Blackwell, The question which Mr. Bloomfield is asking is more important than it may look - it is a pretty general problem for all our meetings - to have admission fee or not. I myself am inclined to look on public meetings as advertisements for seeing people who are taking active interest in the matters privately in order to either organising them in any bodies or for receiving funds from them. If so this whole problem is reduced to a question how to cover the expenses of such meetings? There are only two ways of doing this: either there are found a few individuals (amongst the number of the Committee or outside groups) [or a collection] who would agree to undertake the risk if any, or a collection is made in the course of the meeting for covering the expenses It is to those who know the American public ways to decide which of the two ways is the most suitable. As to myself I don't expect to TEL 6248 GRAMERCY No. 17 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, ____ 190 [have] make money from meetings therefore I am quite agreeable to have no admission fees and to facilitate thereby in filling up the hall without very extensive & prolonged advertising. Please bear in mind that we are bound to be at Pittsburg, Pa. on 20th Febr. and could not put off our stay in New England beyond 18 or 19th Febr. Yours very sincerely N. W. Tchaykovsky [Fersham?] send [his] you his best wishes. There was a serious attempt to columniate him before the Pres. & Mr. [G??] [here] by the Russians authority but failed completely we have direct information. Tchaykovsky. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.