Vasily Ivanovich Kelsiyev (; 28 June 1835 — 16 October 1872) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

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and political activist, close associate of Alexander Hertzen in the early 1860s. As a political immigrant in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Kelsiyev became involved with

Free Russian Press The Free Russian Press (, also: Вольная русская книгопечатня) was a printing company and a publishing house launched in 1853 in London by Alexander Hertzen with a view to becoming the 'uncensored voice of free Russia'. H ...

, and contributed to '' Kolokol'', promoting, among others, the idea of supporting the

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

as a potentially destructive revolutionary force in Russia. In 1862 with Nikolai Ogaryov he co-founded ''Obshcheye Veche'', a newspaper which he edited for a short while. His two London-published books, ''The Russian Government's Documents on the Old Believers'' (1860—1862, in 4 volumes) and ''The Collected Russian Government's Regulations on the Old Believers'' (1863, in 2 volumes) were met with interest back in his homeland and received at least one favourable review, by the conservative ''

Russky Vestnik The ''Russian Messenger'' or ''Russian Herald'' (, Pre-reform Russian: Русскій Вѣстникъ) has been the title of three magazines published in Russia during the 19th century and early 20th century. ''Russian Messenger'' period I and ...

''.The Latest Feats of Our London Agitators
// Новые подвиги наших лондонских агитаторов. ''

'', 1862, No. 9, pp. 425-438. Among Kelsiyev's more bizarre projects was his translation of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, which he published in 1860, " ith the view apparently, of bringing down what hundreds of millions see as a sacred Word of God, to the level of easy, controversial read," according to another ''Russky Vestnik'' review. In 1862 Kelsiyev illegally visited Russia to spend five week in the country among the revolutionaries and conspirators. In the course of the so-called Process of the 32 in 1863 he was convicted (in absentia) to lifelong exile. In

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(then

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), he founded the Russian Socialist settlement but in 1867, having lost his family to

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

, returned to Russia, disillusioned and broke. He surrendered to the authorities and wrote his "Confessions" (without giving away any names of his former revolutionary associates). The document impressed Tsar Alexander II enough to pardon Kelsiyev. In his later life Kelsiev contributed mostly to the conservative press (''Russky Vestnik'', '' Zarya'', ''

Vsemirny Trud ''Vsemirny Trud'' (, translated as ''World Labour'') was a Russian science and literary monthly magazine published in Saint Petersburg in 1867–1872, with the average of 1500 subscribers. Its original publisher and editor-in-chief was Emmanuel Kh ...

'', ''

Niva Niva or NIVA can refer to: Places * Niva (river) in the Murmansk Oblast, Russia * Nivå, a town in Denmark * Nivå station, railway station in Denmark * Niva (Prostějov District), a village in the Czech Republic * Niva, Iran, a village in Kurdista ...

'') and in 1868 published his confessions under the title ''Perezhitoye i peredumannoye'' (Things I've Lived Through and Thought a Lot About), denounced by the left and praised by the right. Hertzen, who dedicated a chapter in his ''

My Past and Thoughts ''My Past and Thoughts'' () is an extensive autobiography by Alexander Herzen, which he started in the early 1850s and continued to expand and revise throughout his later life. Serialized in ''Polyarnaya Zvezda'', the book in its full form came o ...

'' to Kelsiyev, characterized him as a "religiously-minded nihilist" who "studied everything but learned nothing" and, "through his tireless struggle against all things conventional... succeeded only in undermining his own moral ground."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelsiyev, Vasily 1835 births 1872 deaths Journalists from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Activists from the Russian Empire 19th-century writers from the Russian Empire