# Siberia and the Exile System/Volume 2/Appendix C

Siberia and the Exile System Volume 1
APPENDIX C
REVOLUTIONARY DOCUMENTS
I
Program of the Executive Committee of the Russian Revolutionary Party
By fundamental conviction we are socialists and democrats. We are satisfied that only through socialistic principles can the human race acquire liberty, equality, and fraternity; secure the full and harmonious development of the individual as well as the material prosperity of all; and thus make progress. We are convinced that all social forms must rest upon the sanction of the people themselves, and that popular development is permanent only when it proceeds freely and independently, and when every idea that is to be embodied in the people's life has first passed through the people's consciousness and has been acted upon by the people's will. The welfare of the people and the will of the people are our two most sacred and most inseparable principles.
A
1. If we look at the environment in which the Russian people are forced to live and act, we see that they are, economically and politically, in a state of absolute slavery. As laborers they work only to feed and support the parasitic classes; and as citizens they are deprived of all rights. Not only does the actual state of things fail to answer to their will, but they dare not even express and formulate their will; they cannot even think what is good and what is bad for them; the very thought that they can have a will is regarded as a crime against the State. Enmeshed on all sides, they are being reduced to a state of physical degeneration, intellectual stolidity, and general inferiority.
​496 SIBERIA 2. Around the enchained people we see a class of exploiters whom the state creates and protects. The state itself is the greatest capitalistic power in the land, it constitutes the sole political oppressor of the people, and only through its aid and support can the lesser robbers exist. This bourgeois excrescence in the form of a government sustains itself by mere brute force — by means of its military, police, and bureaucratic organization — in precisely the same way that the Mongols of Genghis Khan sus- tained themselves in Russia. It is not sanctioned by the people, it rules by arbitrary violence, and it adopts and enforces govern- mental and economical forms and principles that have nothing whatever in common with the people's wishes and ideals. 3. In the nation we can see, crushed but still living, its old traditional principles, such as the right of the people to the land, communal and local self-government, freedom of speech and of conscience, and the rudiments of federal organization. These principles would develop broadly, and would give an entirely dif- ferent and a more popular direction to our whole history, if the nation could live and organize itself in accordance with its own wishes and its own tendencies. B 1. We are of opinion, therefore, that it is our first duty, as socialists and democrats, to free the people from the oppression of the present Government, and bring about a political revolution, in order to transfer the supreme power to the nation. By means of this revolution we shall afford the people an opportunity to de- velop, henceforth, independently, and shall cause to be recognized and supported, in Russian life, many purely socialistic principles that are common to us and to the Russian people. 2. We think that the will of the people would be sufficiently well expressed and executed by a national Organizing Assembly, elected freely by a general vote, and acting under the instructions of the voters. This, of course, would fall far short of an ideal manifestation of the people's will ; but it is the only one that is practicable at present, and we therefore think best to adopt it. Our plan is to takeaway the power from the existing Government, and give it to an Organizing Assembly, elected in the manner ​APPENDIX 497 above described, whose duty it will be to make an examination of all our social and governmental institutions, and remodel them in accordance with instructions from the electors. Although we are ready to submit wholly to the popular will, we regard it as none the less our duty, as a party, to appear before the people with our program. This program we shall use as a means of propaganda until the revolution comes, we shall advocate it during the election campaign, and we shall support it before the Organizing Assembly. It is as follows : 1. Perpetual popular representation, constituted as above de- scribed and having full power to act in all national questions. 2. General local self-government, secured by the election of all officers, and the economic independence of the people. 3. The self -controlled village commune as the economic and ad- ministrative unit. 4. Ownership of the land by the people. 5. A system of measures having for their object the turning over to the laborers of all mining works and factories. 6. Complete freedom of conscience, speech, association, public meeting, and electioneering activity. 7. Universal right of franchise, without any class or property limitation. 8. The substitution of a territorial militia for the army. We shall follow this program, and we believe that all of its parts are so interdependent as to be impracticable one without the other, and that only as a whole will the program insure political and economic freedom aud the harmonious development of the people. D In view of the stated aim of the party its operations may be classified as follows : 1. Propaganda and agitation. Our propaganda has for its object the popularization, in all social classes, of the idea of a political and democratic revolution as a means of social reform, as well as IT 32 ​498 SIBERIA popularization of the party's own program. Its essential features are criticism of the existing order of things, and a statement and explanation of revolutionary methods. The aim of agitation should be to incite the people to protest, as generally as possible, against the present state of affairs, to demand such reforms as are in harmony with the party's purposes, and, especially, to demand the summoning of an Organizing Assembly. The popular protest may take the form of meetings, demonstrations, petitions, leading addresses, refusals to pay taxes, etc. 2. Destructive and terroristic activity. Terroristic activity consists in the destruction of the most harmful persons in the Government, the protection of the party from spies, and the punishment of official lawlessness and violence in all the more prominent and important cases in which such lawlessness and violence are manifested. The aim of such activity is to break down the prestige of Governmental power, to furnish continuous proof of the possibility of carrying on a contest with the Government, to raise in that way the revolutionary spirit of the people and inspire belief in the practicability of revolution, and, finally, to form a body suited and accustomed to warfare. 3. The organization of secret societies and the arrangement of them in connected groups around a single center. The organization of small secret societies with all sorts of revolutionary aims is indispensable, both as a means of executing the numerous functions of the party and of finishing the political training of its members. In order, however, that the work may be carried on harmoniously, it is necessary that these small bodies should be grouped about one common center, upon the principle either of complete identification or of federal union. 4. The acquirement of ties, and an influential position in the administration, in the army, in society, and among the people. The administration and the army are particularly important in connection with a revolution, and serious attention should also be devoted to the people. The principal object of the party, so far as the people are concerned, is to prepare them to cooperate with the revolution, and to carry on a successful electioneering contest after the revolution — a contest that shall have for its object the election of purely democratic delegates to the Organizing Assembly. The party should enlist acknowledged partizans among the more prominent classes of the peasantry, and should prearrange for the active ​coöperation of the masses at the more important points and among the more sympathetic portions of the population. In view of this, every member of the party who is in contact with the people must strive to take a position that will enable him to defend the interests of the peasants, give them aid when they need it, and acquire celebrity among them as an honest man and a man who wishes them well. In this way he must keep up the reputation of the party and support its ideas and aims.
5. The organization and consummation of the revolution. In view of the oppressed and cowed condition of the people, and of the fact that the Government, by means of partial concessions and pacifications, may retard for a long time a general revolutionary movement, the party should take the initiative, and not wait until the people are able to do the work without its aid.
6. The electioneering canvass before the summoning of the Organizing Assembly. However the revolution may be brought about — as the result of an open revolution, or with the aid of a conspiracy — the duty of the party will be to aid in the immediate summoning of an Organizing Assembly, to which shall be transferred the powers of the Provisional Government created by the revolution or the conspiracy. During the election canvass the party should oppose, in every way, the candidacy of kuláks of all sorts, and strive to promote the candidacy of purely communal people.
Letter sent by the Revolutionary Executive Committee to Alexander III., after the assassination of Alexander II.
March 10, 1881.
Your Majesty: Although the Executive Committee understands fully the grievous oppression that you must experience at this moment, it believes that it has no right to yield to the feeling of natural delicacy which would perhaps dictate the postponement of the following explanation to another time. There is something higher than the most legitimate human feeling, and that is duty to one's country — the duty for which a citizen must sacrifice himself and his own feelings, and even the ​feelings of others. In obedience to this all-powerful duty we have decided to address you at once, waiting for nothing, as will wait for nothing the historical process that threatens us with rivers of blood and the most terrible convulsions.
The tragedy enacted on the Ekaterínski canal was not a mere casualty, nor was it unexpected. After all that had happened in the course of the previous decade it was absolutely inevitable ; and in that fact consists its deep significance for a man who has been placed by fate at the head of governmental authority. Such occurrences can be explained as the results of individual malignity, or even of the evil disposition of "gangs," only by one who is wholly incapable of analyzing the life of a nation. For ten whole years — notwithstanding the strictest prosecution; notwithstanding the sacrifice by the late Emperor's Government of liberty, the interests of all classes, the interests of industry and commerce, and even its own dignity; notwithstanding the absolute sacrifice of everything in the attempt to suppress the revolutionary movement — that movement has obstinately extended, attracting to itself the best elements of the country, — the most energetic and self-sacrificing people of Russia, — and the revolutionists have carried on, for three years, a desperate partizan warfare with the administration.
You are aware, your Majesty, that the Government of the late Emperor could not be accused of a lack of energy. It hanged the innocent and the guilty, and filled prisons and remote provinces with exiles. Tens of so-called "leaders" were captured and hanged, and died with the courage and tranquillity of martyrs; but the movement did not cease — on the contrary it grew and strengthened. The revolutionary movement, your Majesty, is not dependent upon any particular individuals; it is a process of the social organism; and the scaffolds raised for its more energetic exponents are as powerless to save the out-grown order of things as the cross that was erected for the Redeemer was powerless to save the ancient world from the triumph of Christianity. The Government, of course, may yet capture and hang an immense number of separate individuals, it may break up a great number of separate revolutionary groups, it may even destroy the most important of existing revolutionary organizations; but all this will not change, in the slightest degree, the condition of affairs. Revolutionists are the creation of circumstances; of the general discontent of the people; of the striving of Russia after a new social framework. It is impossible to exterminate the whole people; it is impossible, by means of repression, to stifle its discontent. Discontent only grows the more when it is repressed. For these reasons the places of slain revolutionists are constantly taken by new individuals, who come ​forth from among the people in ever-increasing numbers, and who are still more embittered, still more energetic. These persons, in order to carry on the conflict, form an association, in the light of the experience of their predecessors, and the revolutionary organization thus grows stronger, numerically and in quality, with the lapse of time. This we actually see from the history of the last ten years. Of what use was it to destroy the Dolgúshintsi, the Chaikóftsi, and the workers of 1874? Their places were taken by much more resolute democrats. Then the awful repressive measures of the Government called upon the stage the terrorists of 1878-9. In vain the Government put to death the Koválskis, the Dubróvins, the Ossínskis, and the Lisogúbs. In vain it destroyed tens of revolutionary circles. From among those incomplete organizations, by virtue of natural selection, arose only stronger forms, until, at last, there has appeared an Executive Committee with which the Government has not yet been able successfully to deal.
A dispassionate glance at the grievous decade through which we have just passed will enable us to forecast accurately the future progress of the revolutionary movement, provided the policy of the Government does not change. The movement will continue to grow and extend; deeds of a terroristic nature will increase in frequency and intensity, and the revolutionary organization will constantly set forth, in the places of destroyed groups, stronger and more perfect forms. Meanwhile the number of the discontented in the country will grow larger and larger; confidence in the Government, on the part of the people, will decline; and the idea of revolution — of its possibility and inevitability — will establish itself in Russia more and more firmly. A terrible explosion, a bloody hurly-burly, a revolutionary earthquake throughout Russia will complete the destruction of the old order of things. Upon what depends this terrible prospect? Yes, your Majesty, "terrible" and lamentable! Do not take this for a mere phrase. We understand, better than any one else can, how lamentable is the waste of so much talent and energy, the loss, in bloody skirmishes and in the work of destruction, of so much strength that, under other conditions, might have been expended in creative labor and in the development of the intelligence, the welfare, and the civil life of the Russian people. Whence proceeds this lamentable necessity for bloody conflict? It arises, your Majesty, from the lack in Russia of a real government in the true sense of that word. A government, in the very nature of things, should only give outward form to the aspirations of the people and effect to the people's will. But with us — excuse the expression — the Government has degenerated into a mere camarilla, and deserves the name of a usurping "gang" much more than does the Executive Committee.
​Whatever may be the intentions of the Tsar, the actions of the Government have nothing in common with the popular welfare, or popular aspirations. The Imperial Government subjected the people to serfdom, put the masses into the power of the nobility, and is now openly creating the most injurious class of speculators and jobbers. All of its reforms result merely in a more perfect enslavement and a more complete exploitation of the people. It has brought Russia to such a pass that, at the present time, the masses of the people are in a state of pauperism and ruin; are subjected to the most humiliating surveillance, even at their own domestic hearths; and are powerless even to regulate their own communal and social affairs. The protection of the law and of the Government is enjoyed only by the extortionist and the exploiter, and the most exasperating robbery goes unpunished. But, on the other hand, what a terrible fate awaits the man who sincerely considers the general good! You know very well, your Majesty, that it is not only socialists who are exiled and prosecuted. Can it be possible that the Government is the guardian of such "order"? Is it not rather probable that this is the work of a "gang" — the evidence of a complete usurpation?
These are the reasons why the Russian Government exerts no moral influence, and has no support among the people. These are the reasons why Russia brings forth so many revolutionists. These are the reasons why even such a deed as Tsaricide excites in the minds of a majority of the people only gladness and sympathy. Yes, your Majesty! Do not be deceived by the reports of flatterers and sycophants — Tsaricide, in Russia, is popular.
From such a state of affairs there can be only two exits: either a revolution, absolutely inevitable and not to be averted by any punishments, or a voluntary turning of the Supreme Power to the people. In the interest of our native land, in the hope of preventing the useless waste of energy, in the hope of averting the terrible miseries that always accompany revolution, the Executive Committee approaches your Majesty with the advice to take the second course. Be assured, so soon as the Supreme Power ceases to rule arbitrarily, so soon as it firmly resolves to accede to the demands of the people's conscience and consciousness, you may, without fear, discharge the spies that disgrace the administration, send your guards back to their barracks, and burn the scaffolds that are demoralizing the people. The Executive Committee will voluntarily terminate its own existence, and the organizations formed about it will disperse, in order that their members may devote themselves to the work of culture among the people of their native land.
We address your Majesty as those who have discarded all prejudices, and who have suppressed the distrust created by the actions of the Government throughout a century. We forget that you are the representative of the authority that has so often deceived and that has so injured ​APPENDIX 503 the people. We address you as a citizen and as an honest man. We hope that the feeling of personal exasperation will not extinguish in your mind your consciousness of your duties and your desire to know the truth. We also might feel exasperation. You have lost your father. We have lost not only our fathers, but our brothers, our wives, our children and our dearest friends. But we are ready to suppress personal feeling if it be demanded by the welfare of Russia. We expect the same from you. We set no conditions for you — do not let our proposition irritate you. The conditions that are prerequisite to a change from revolutionary ac- tivity to peaceful labor are created, not by us, but by history. These conditions, in our opinion, are two. 1. A general amnesty to cover all past political crimes ; for the reason that they were not crimes but fulfilments of civd duty. 2. The summoning of representatives of the whole Russian people to examine the existing framework of social and governmental life, and to remodel it in accordance with the people's wishes. We regard it as necessary, however, to remind you that the legalization of the Supreme Power, by the representatives of the people, can be valid only in case the elections are perfectly free. For this reason such elec- tions must be held under the following conditions. 1. Delegates are to be sent from all classes, without distinction, and in number are to be proportionate to the number of inhabitants. 2. There shall be no limitations, either for voters or delegates. 3. The canvass and the elections shall be absolutely unrestricted, and therefore the Government, pending the organization of the National Assembly, shall authorize, in the form of temporary measures, a. Complete freedom of the press. b. Complete freedom of speech. c. Complete freedom of public meeting. d. Complete freedom of election program. This is the only way in which Russia can return to the path of normal and peaceful development. We declare solemnly, before the people of our native land and before the whole world, that our party will submit unconditionally to the de- cisions of a National Assembly elected in the manner above indicated, and that we will not allow ourselves, in future, to offer violent resistance to any Government that the National Assembly may sanction. And now, your Majesty, decide ! Before you are two courses, and you are to make your choice between them. We can only trust that your in- telligence and conscience may suggest to you the only decision that is compatible with the welfare of Russia, with your own dignity, and with your duty to your native land. The Executive Committee. ​THE WORD NIHILIST.
If the reader has read attentively the foregoing documents, he must see, I think, how inappropriate the word nihilist is when applied to the Russian revolutionists, or even to the terrorists. If the authors of these documents are not nihilists, then there are no nihilists in Russia; and the wild-eyed iconoclast whose philosophy is "the flat negation of all faith and hope, whether in the social, political, or spiritual order," and who is "called nihilist because he will accept nothing and only sees happiness in the destruction of everything existing," is a purely imaginary being. Outside of certain books, he has no more reality than the conventional devil with horns, tail, and a three-tined pitchfork.
An intelligent Russian, who occupied a prominent position in the revolutionary party, and who, at one time, was a member, I think, of the Executive Committee, refers to the misuse in Europe of the word nihilist as follows:
The militant section of the intelligéntsia [the educated or intelligent class], that which I call the revolutionary, has, in Europe, received the strange name of nihilist. The title proves that the most erroneous notions on the subject of Russian revolutionists are current outside Russia. If, in fact, Europe understood the Russian revolutionary movement, and that which is going on among the intelligéntsia, this word would certainly not have been used any more than it is in Russia. The name, indeed, is only used among us in a bad sense, and only by persons capable of saying, "The anarchist party has at last attained to power in England — Mr. Labouchere is Prime Minister." In Russia there are journals capable of writing such a phrase, but if, relying on a telegram of this description, I were to call Mr. Labouchere an anarchist, it would prove only one thing — that I was totally ignorant as to who Mr. Labouchere is, and of what anarchism consists. The name of nihilist arose in Russia under those merely passing and fortuitous circumstances which accompanied the initial movement of the intelligent class at the beginning of the reign of Alexander II. Russia had just escaped from the yoke of the reign of Nicholas, and was preparing to throw off that of serfdom. Ideas, having burst their chains, began to work feverishly. All Russia cursed the past and leaned out toward the future. ... All men began reasoning, criticizing, denying, inquiring. ... The tendency toward democratic ideas manifested itself occasionally by the most exaggerated aversion to everything that was aristocratic, to everything that smacked of the nobility, and consequently to all the ​formalities of superficial civilization. Uncleanly faces, disheveled hair, and fantastic clothes were to be seen. In conversation, to give proof of a wilful coarseness, the language of peasants was used. Contempt for the hypocritical and conventional formal morality, contempt for the ridiculous traditions which had so long been considered the expression of the wisdom of the state, indignation at the oppression borne by the individual were expressed by an absolute negation of authority of all kinds, and in the most exaggerated tendency toward liberty. All this certainly lent itself to caricature, all this allowed prejudiced persons to formulate against the intelligent class the accusation of wanting to destroy everything, of admitting the sacredness of nothing, of being without heart, without morality, and so forth. Even in the intelligent class, a few, from a spirit of contradiction, and by way of provoking the reactionists, began to adopt this name. Thus, in Nekrásof, a son answering his father's reproaches says, "Nihilist — 'tis a foolish word. But if by it you understand a frank man, who does not care to live on the possessions of others, who works, who seeks after the truth, tries that his life may not be useless, who bites his thumb at every rogue and occasionally knocks one down, then I don't see any harm; call me nihilist, why not?"
Nevertheless, only a small number among well-known persons, like Dmítri Písaref, for example, accepted this nickname; and even then only, so to say, for the moment. The absurdity of the word nihilism was too apparent. Besides, the very facts which had called forth the nickname naturally disappeared very rapidly. The leaning toward outward manifestations gave way to positive work with redoubled energy, and soon all these childish things — the women cutting their hair short, or exaggerated rudeness of manner — became discredited. Thus the word nihilism, which in earlier times had some meaning, at least as a caricature, a few years later lost all definite significance. In Russia no serious writer, even though he were reactionary, would use it to designate the revolutionists. The word has passed forever into the domain of pamphlets and of insults. In Europe, on the contrary, the word nihilism has the greatest vogue. The strangest thing is, this caricature is believed in as something real. Nihilism is considered a special doctrine founded on personal negation of all positive ideals. This is repeated again and again, even in other works than those of Cheddo-Ferotti. And this is not remarkable. But it is to be regretted that we do not find much more accuracy in a writer so conscientious and so erudite as M. Leroy-Beaulieu, ... who even sinks so low as to give the following definition of the doctrine of nihilism: "Take the heavens and the earth, take the state and the church, the kings and the gods, and spit upon them. That is our symbol."
​We may certainly admit that if by nihilism we understand nonsense, nihilism and nonsense will have one and the same meaning. But it is equally true that with such methods of inquiry it is very difficult to succeed in understanding the real meaning of words and facts. And if we begin to ask where, in Russia, is the "actual fact" that might correspond to the word nihilism, we shall find nothing but the general intellectual movement that I have tried to describe. ... Assuredly, the intellectual movement in Russia, as elsewhere, may, in certain individual cases, give rise to some ridiculous results, silly, lending themselves to caricature, sometimes, perhaps, even criminal. It is precisely from these special facts that the notion of nihilism has been built up, uniting them without any reason into one single idea, although they had no connection in reality. Thus, in nature, there are creatures that have tails; others that have the scales of lizards; others, again, with paws and claws like tigers; some, finally, with wings. When you combine all these attributes in a dragon, you have before you a creature of your imagination and not a real being. But, although the dragon plays a very useful part in stories with which to frighten children, it has no place in natural history. Neither, in a serious study of Russia, can nihilism, as a doctrine or a special tendency, have a place.
— "Russia, Political and Social," by L. Tikhomírov. London, 1888.
* ↑ Kulák means literally a clenched fist, and is a term applied hy the peasants to petty capitalists, such as money-lenders, usurers, middle-men, etc., who "squeeze" them in their times of distress.
* ↑ That is to say, people from the mirs, or village communes.
* ↑ Alexander II. was assassinated March 1st (Old Style) and this letter was sent to Alexander III. nine days later, when some members of the Executive Committee were still at liberty.
* ↑ The place where Alexander II. was assassinated.
* ↑ The Russian word is sháiki, meaning bands, or gangs of brigands, robbers or murderers. [Author's note.]
* ↑ Two famous groups of so-called "propagandists" who virtually began the modern revolutionary struggle. [Author's note.]
* ↑ The well-known Russian poet and journalist.