topics: |  literature | russia | history

	In 1866, the liberal poet Nikolai Nekrasov recited a panegyric to
	General M. N. Muravyov, known as "hangman" for his atrocities in
	suppressing the Polish liberation movement of 1863.  Nekrasov, who
	had earlier been exhorting the youth to "go into the flames", now
	urged Muravyov to "spare not the guilty ones!"  Traces the huge hue
	and cry this had caused, with enraged liberals and even some
	conservatives lambasting Nekrasov's duplicity.  Surprisingly, at the
	dinner where Nekrasov sought his audience and recited the poem,
	Muravyov (and others with him) were extremely cool to the poem.