press his satisfaction at seeing so many 66 new friends" around him.*

Still the Government, whilst repress ing all political agitation, did not abandon its policy of introducing reforms by means of the autocratic power. The Zemstvo, a system of local self-government comprising periodical elective assemblies, was created, and preparations were made for thoroughly reorganizing the law-courts and the judicial procedure. But in 1866 a new event came to strengthen the reactionary influence. A foolish, misguided youth, called Karakózof, made an attempt on the life of the Emperor. The effect of such an incident on his Majesty and on those who surrounded him may easily be imagined. Report says though I must add that I have never seen the official documents relating to this affair-that the would-be assassin, formerly a student, belonged to a little domestic community composed of two or three youths of not very satisfac tory moral character, and calling itself by the ill-sounding name of Ad, that is to say, Hell.

This incident, in conjunction with the others which I have indicated, induced the Government to take energetic measures. It was found that the agitation proceeded in all cases from young men who were studying, or had recently studied, in the universities, the seminaries, and the technical schools, such as the Medical Academy and the Agricultural Institute. Plainly, therefore, the system of education was at fault. The semi-military system of the time of Nicholas had been succeeded by one in which discipline had been reduced to a minimum, and the study of natural science formed a prominent element. Here, it was thought, lay the chief root of the evil. Englishmen may have some difficulty in imagining a possible connection between natural science and revolutionary agitation. To them the two things must seem wide as the poles asunder. Surely mathematics, chemistry, physio

Count Muraviéff has left a most interesting autobiographical fragment relating to the history of this time, but it is not likely to be published during the life-time of the present generation. As an historical document it is very valuable, but must be used with extreme caution. A copy of it was for some time in my possession, but I was bound by a promise

not to make extracts from it.

logy, and similar abstract subjects have nothing to do with politics. Certainly they have not much to do with each other in this country, but in Russia it is different. This is one of the many curious and interesting phenomena to be found in the present intellectual condition of the Russian educated classes. To explain it would require at least a long article, so I must content myself for the present with simply indicating the explanation. When an Englishman undertakes the study of any branch of natural science, he gets up his subject by means of lectures, text-books, and museums or laboratories, and when he has mastered it he probably puts his knowledge to some practical use. The man who has studied the medical sciences becomes a doctor; the student of chemistry finds employment as a professor or in a factory; the mathematician becomes, perhaps, an engineer. Probably none of these men feel any desire to enter political life or imagine that their previous studies have specially fitted them for such activity. In Russia it is otherwise. Few students confine their attention to their specialty. Many of them dislike the laborious work of getting up details, and with the presumption which is often to be found in conjunction with youth and ignorance, aspire to become social reformers. But what has social reform to do with natural science? To understand the connection the reader must know that, though very few Russian students have opened the voluminous works of Auguste Comte, nearly all of them are more or less imbued with the principles of Positivism. Now in the Positive Philosophy the study of natural science leads to the study of Sociology. In the classification of the sciences proposed by Comte, Sociology is the main part of the edifice, and to it all the other sciences are subsidiary. Social reorganization is thus the ultimate aim of scientific research, and the Positivist can behold with prophetic eye Humanity organized on strictly scientific principles. Cool-headed people who have had a little experience of the world recognise clearly that this ultimate goal of human intellectual activity is still afar off-that even in the lower parts of the structure there are still enormous gaps which it will require many years, and probably many genera

tions, to fill up, and that consequently it would be folly to attempt at present to construct the higher parts. But the would-be social reformers among the Russian students are too young, too inexperienced, too impatient, and too presumptuously self-confident to perceive this plain and simple truth. As soon as they have acquired a smattering of chemistry, physiology, and biology, they imagine themselves capable of reorganizing human society, and when they have acquired this conviction they are of course unfitted for that patient, plodding study of details which is the only foundation of genuine scientific knowledge.

To remedy these evils the Government determined to introduce more discipline into the schools, and to supplant, to a certain extent, the study of natural science by the classics that is to say, Latin and Greek. This measure naturally caused much discontent among the students. Young men who considered themselves capable of reorganizing society and playing a political part, fretted of course under discipline, and resented being treated as school-boys. The Latin grammar seemed to them an ingenious instrument adopted by the Government for the destroying of intellectual development and the checking of political progress. Ingenious speculations about the possible organization of the working classes and magnificent views of the future of humanity, are so much pleasanter than the irregular verbs and rules of syntax.

But I must refrain from going deeper into this interesting subject. These few threads in the tangled web of Russian social history during the present reign will, I hope, enable the reader in some measure to understand how the soil was prepared for the growth of secret societies, differing widely in character and aim from those which flourished in the time of Alexander I. The contrast between the two groups is very striking. In the time of Alexander I. the members of the secret societies were all, or nearly all, young men of good family, and very many of them belonged to the jeunesse dorée of the period. The societies which have recently appeared are composed of very different elements. They are violently anti-aristocratic, and draw their recruits chiefly from the sons of the

clergy, the small proprietors, and the minor officials. In strong contrast to the romantic, sentimental, idyllic spirit which animated the conspirators of 1825, they declare war against romanticism in all its forms, despise sentimentality, and declare themselves the champions of the peasantry. In aims, too, they differ widely from the societies of the old school. What they desire is to produce not merely a political, but also a fundamental social revolution, which will abolish for ever all obsolete institutions, such as private property, marriage, and religion, and for ever equalise rich and poor. The overthrow of the Government and the annihilation of officials, nobles, and capitalists, form only the introductory part of the programme. Put for the realisation of even this introductory part, great efforts are necessary. A court conspiracy, though backed by disaffection in the army, will not suffice. It is necessary that the masses should be raised from their ignorance and apathy, and made to understand what a magnificent future they have before them if they would only bestir themselves. To effect this, and at the same time to study the character of these much-talked-of and little-understood masses, intelligent Young Russia must enter for a time the ranks of the people (idti v naród).

Perhaps the best way of conveying an idea of this peculiar movement is to describe briefly the society which has most recently attracted public attention.

In April, 1875, a peasant, who was at the same time a factory-worker, informed the police that certain persons were distributing revolutionary pamphlets among the people of the factory where he was employed, and as a proof of what he said he produced some pamphlets which he had himself received. This led to an investigation, by which it was found that a number of young men and women, evidently belonging to the educated classes, were employed as common laborers in several factories, and were disseminating revolutionary ideas by means of pamphlets and conversation. Arrests followed, and it was soon discovered that these agitators belonged to a large secret association, which had its centre in Moscow and local branches in Ivanovo, Tula, and Kief. In Ivanovo, for instance-a manufacturing town about

one hundred miles to the north-east of Moscow-the police found a room inhabited by three young men and four young women, all of whom, though belonging to the educated classes, had the appearance of ordinary factory-workers, prepared their own food, did with their own hands all the domestic work, and sought to avoid everything that 'could distinguish them from the laboring population. In the room were found two hundred and forty-five copies of revolutionary pamphlets, a considerable sum of money, a large amount of correspondence in cipher, and several forged passports.

How many members the society contained it is impossible to say, for some eluded the vigilance of the police; but many were arrested, and ultimately forty-seven were condemned. Of these, eleven were nobles, seven were sons of village priests, and the remainder belonged to the lower classes-that is to say, the small officials, burghers, and peasants. The average age of the prisoners was rather less than twenty-four -the oldest being thirty-six, and the youngest under seventeen! Only five were more than twenty-five years of age, and none of these five were ringleaders. The female element was represented by no less than fifteen young persons, whose average age was under twenty-two. Two or three of these, to judge by their photographs, were of decidedly prepossessing appearance, and apparently little fitted for taking an active part in wholesale massacres, such as the society talked about organizing. It would be interesting to inquire how it has come about that there are in Russia young ladies of prepossessing appearance, respectable family, and considerable education, who are ready to enter upon wild sanguinary enterprises which inevitably lead in the long run to the house of correction or the mines of Siberia; but I must postpone this investigation to a more convenient season. For the present suffice it to say that there are such young ladies in Russia, and that several of them were condemned as founders and active members of the society in question.

The character and aims of the society are clearly depicted in the documentary and oral evidence produced at the trial. According to the fundamental principles,

there should exist among the members absolute equality, complete mutual responsibility, and full confidence and openness with regard to the affairs of the organization. Among the conditions of admission, we find that the candidate should be willing to devote himself entirely to revolutionary activity; that he should be ready to cut all ties, whether of love or of friendship, for the good cause; that he should possess great powers of self-sacrifice and the capacity for keeping secrets; and that he should consent to become, when necessary, a common laborer in a factory. The desire to preserve absolute equality is well illustrated by the regulations regarding the administration: the office-bearers are not to be chosen by election, but all members are to be office-bearers in turn, and to be changed every month.

The ultimate aim of the society seems to have been to destroy the existing social order and to replace it by one in which there should be no private property and no distinctions of class or wealth-or, as it is put in one place, "to found on the ruins of the social organization which at present exists the empire of the working classes." The means by which the necessary revolution is to be effected, are carefully enumerated in one of the documents seized by the authorities. Each member, it is there explained, has the greatest liberty as to the means, but he is to leave nothing undone to forward the cause of the revolution. For the guidance of the inexperienced the following means are recommended: simple conversation, dissemination of pamphlets, the exciting of discontent, the formation of organized groups, the foundation of funds and libraries. These, taken together, constitute, in the terminology of revolutionary science, propaganda." Besides it, there should

66

be"

agitation." The difference between propaganda and agitation, we are informed, consists in this, that the former aims at enlightening the masses regarding the true nature of the revolutionary cause, whilst the latter aims at exciting an individual or group to direct revolutionary activity. In time of peace "pure agitation" is to be carried on by means of organized bands, the purpose of which is to frighten the Government and the privileged classes; to draw away the atten

tion of the Government from other forms of revolutionary activity; to raise the spirit of the people, and thereby render it more fit to accept revolutionary ideas; to obtain pecuniary means for the activity of the society; and to liberate those who have been imprisoned. The tendency of the bands should always be "purely socialistico-revolutionary" whatever that may mean. In time of revolution the members should give to all movements every assistance in their power, and impress upon them "a socialistico-revolutionary character." The central administration and the local branches should form connections with publishers, and take steps to secure a reggular supply of prohibited books from abroad. Such are a few characteristic extracts from a document that might fairly be called a treatise on revolutionology.

As a specimen of the revolutionary pamphlets above mentioned, I may give here a brief account of one which is well known to the political police, and figures largely at all the political trials. It is entitled Khitraya Mekhanika (cunning machinery), and gives a graphic picture of the ideas and method of the propaganda. The mise en scène is extremely simple. Two peasants, Stepán and Andrei, meet in a gin-shop and begin to drink together. Stepán is described as good and kindly when he has to do with men of his own class, but very sharptongued when speaking with a foreman or director. Always ready with an answer, he can on occasion even silence an official. He has travelled all over the country, has associated with all manner of people, sees everything most clearly, and is, in short, a very remarkable man. One of his best qualities is that he is always ready to enlighten others, and he soon finds an opportunity of displaying his powers. When Andrei, a peasant of the ordinary type, proposes that they should drink another glass of vodka, he replies that the Tsar, together with the nobles and traders, bars the way to his throat. As his companion does not comprehend this metaphorical language, he explains that if there were no Tsars, nobles, or traders, he could get five glasses of vodka for the sum which he now pays for one glass. This naturally suggests wider topics, and Ste

pán gives something very like a lecture. The common people, he explains, pay by far the greater part of the taxation, and at the same time do all the work: they plough the fields, build the houses and churches, work in the mills and factories, and in return for all this they are systematically robbed and beaten. And what is done with all the money that is taken from them? First of all, the Tsar gets nine millions of roubles-enough to feed half a province-and with that sum he amuses himself, has hunting-parties and feasts, eats, drinks, makes merry, and lives in stone houses. He gave liberty, it is true, to the peasant, but we know what the emancipation really was. The best land was taken away and the taxes were increased, lest the muzhik should get fat and lazy. The Tsar is himself the richest landed proprietor and manufacturer in the country. He not only robs us as much as he pleases, but he has sold into slavery (by forming a national debt) our children and grandchildren. He takes our sons as soldiers, shuts them up in barracks, so that they should not see their brother peasants, and hardens their hearts, so that they become wild beasts ready to tear their own parents. The nobles and traders likewise rob the poor peasant. In short, all the upper classes have invented a cunning bit of machinery by which the peasant is made to pay for all their pleasures and luxuries. But the people will one day arise and break this machinery to pieces. When that day arrives, they must break every part of it, for if one bit escapes destruction all the other parts will immediately grow up again. the force is on the side of the peasants, if they only knew how to use it. Knowledge they will get in time. They will then destroy the machine, and perceive that the only real remedy for all social evils is fraternity. People should live like brothers, having no mine and thine, but all things in common. When we have created fraternity, there will be no riches and no thieves, but right and righteousness without end. In conclusion, Stepán addresses a word to "the torturers:" "When the people shall rise, the Tsar will send troops against us, and the nobles and capitalists will stake their last rouble on the result. If they do not succeed, let them expect no quarter

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