page 229 of 752 of My Past and Thoughts: The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen

“After monopolizing everything else, the [Russian] government has now taken the monopoly of talk and, imposing silence on everyone else, has begun chattering unceasingly.”

The story of Alexander Laurentevich Vitberg is heartbreaking but an all too common story of an artist pushed down by those jealous of him. Again it’s a story of pride and insolence and the powers that be offended by this ‘insolence’. Petty.