However, the views expressed in the newspaper appeared fairly conservative to those embracing the ideas of revolutionary groups such as the People's Will and the Liberation of Labour . The book was a mixture of autobiography and an analysis of the social, political and ideological developments that had taken place during his life. Alexander Herzen died in Paris on 9th January, 1870. We will not call for the axe as the ultima ratio so long as there remains one vestige of reasonable hope for a solution without the axe. The further I look into the western world, into the chain of events which brought Europe to us Russians, the more there arises in me a disgust for all bloody revolutions.
Social progress is possible only under complete republican freedom, under full democratic equality.
A republic that would not lead to Socialism seems an absurdity to us - a transitional stage regarding itself as the goal. On the other hand, Socialism which might try to dispense with political freedom would rapidly degenerate into an autocratic Communism. Alexander Herzen wrote about the use of violence to obtain political reform in an article published in 1867. Violence and terror are employed to spread religious and political creeds, to establish autocratic empires and indivisible republics. But force can merely destroy and clear the place - no more.