Kolokol was the first Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n censorship

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

-free weekly newspaper

Weekly newspaper

A weekly newspaper is a general-news publication that is published on newsprint once or twice a week.Such newspapers tend to have smaller circulations than daily newspapers, and are usually based in less-populous communities or small, defined areas within large cities; often, they may cover a...

 in Russian and French language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

s, published by Alexander Herzen

Alexander Herzen

Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism...

 and Nikolai Ogaryov in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 (1857–1865) and Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 (1865–1867). Circulation – up to 2500 copies. Initially, the publishers viewed Kolokol as a supplement

Supplement (publishing)

A supplement is a publication that has a role secondary to that of another preceding or concurrent publication.A follow-on publication complements its predecessor, either by bringing it up-to-date , or by otherwise enhancing the predecessor's coverage of a particular topic or subject matter, as in...

 ("прибавочные листы") to a literary and socio-political almanac

Almanac

An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...

 Polyarnaya Zvezda (Polar Star), but soon it would become the leader of the Russian censorship-free press. Newspapers Pod sud (To Trial; 1859–1862) and Obshcheye veche (General Veche

Veche

Veche was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.In Novgorod, where the veche acquired the greatest prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde.-Etymology:...

; 1862–1864) were published as supplements to the Kolokol.

Kolokol’s political platform included several democratic demands, such as liberation of peasant

Peasant

A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

s with land, abolition of censorship and corporal punishment

Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...

. At its base was a theory of Russian peasant socialism, elaborated by Alexander Herzen. Besides the articles by Herzen and Ogaryov, the Kolokol published a variety of material on living conditions of people, social struggle in Russia, information about abuses and secret plans of the authorities. Nikolai Dobrolyubov, Nikolai Serno-Solovyovich, Mikhail Mikhailov, Nikolai Utin, Lev Mechnikov, Mikhail Elpidin and others were among the correspondents and distributors of the Kolokol. Writers and liberal figures such as Ivan Aksakov

Ivan Aksakov

Ivan Sergeyevich Aksakov was a Russian littérateur and notable Slavophile. He was the son of Sergey Aksakov and younger brother of Konstantin Aksakov. He was born in what is now Bashkortostan....

, Yuri Samarin

Yuri Samarin

Yuri Fyodorovich Samarin was a leading Russian Slavophile thinker and one of the architects of the Emancipation reform of 1861....

, Alexander Koshelyov, Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...

 and others delivered material for the Kolokol.

After the Emancipation reform of 1861

Emancipation reform of 1861

The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of liberal reforms effected during the reign of Alexander II of Russia. The reform, together with a related reform in 1861, amounted to the liquidation of serf dependence previously suffered by peasants of the Russian Empire...

, the Kolokol took the side of revolutionary democracy and found itself in opposition to liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

. The newspaper began publishing texts of proclamations, articles by Herzen and Ogaryov, which condemned and exposed the reform, and other material of the Russian revolutionary underground. Kolokol favored the formation of a clandestine revolutionary organization Land and Liberty. After the 1861 reform, Kolokol severed its relations with the liberals due to Herzen and Ogaryov’s active support of the January Uprising

January Uprising

The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...

 in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. In order to strengthen its ties with the new emigrants concentrated in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Kolokol moved its office to Geneva. The publication of the Kolokol was ceased in 1867 due to certain unfavorable conditions. In 1867-1869, they published Kolokol: A Supplement to the First Decade (Колокол. Прибавочный лист к первому десятилетию), six issues of Kolokol. Russian Edition (Колокол. Русское прибавление) and Supplement du Kolokol in French. In 1870, Ogaryov together with Sergey Nechayev

Sergey Nechayev

Sergey Gennadiyevich Nyechayev was a Russian revolutionary associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including political violence.-Early life in Russia:...

published six more issues of the Kolokol, which differed significantly from Herzen’s Kolokol.