The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-05-09
The Russian Nfhilists-What They are
and What They Propose to Do.
New York SUM-

The recent Nihilist riots in St. Peters
burg and Moscow have evoked public
interest and curiosity about Nihilism.
People want to know what it is and what
kind of men the Nihilists are.
Nihilism is sort of nickname given
to Russian radicalism and communism.
1t was first introduced some fifteen years
ago by the celebrated novelist Tourge-
neff, in his Fathers and Sons" Catch
ing the spirit of the young generation as
opposed to the old, he painted in his
hero. the student Bazaroff, an impersona-
tion of all that the radical, socialistic,
and revolutionary ideas of Eastern
Europe had bred in Russia since 1S4S.
Bazaroff repudiated everything society,
law, religion, marriage; and he ques-
toned even the principles of the
sciences, except Of the positive ones,
like astronomy, mathematics, and
chemistry. He believed in nothing
Mill whence the word Nihilist. Had
Bazarof and his followers been logical,
they ought to have disbelieved in them
selves and their theories, too. But this
did not strike their minds as necessary
consequence of their philosophy.
In the person of Bazaroff, Tourgeneff
gave shape and consistency to the vague
and ditluse ideas which then prevailed
in the heads of many Russian young
men. He made solid thing of loose
one, and, in SO far, though himself
fierce opponent Of Nihilism, he practi-
cally became its author. The cheap
and noisy radicals and communists now
had written code. They began to think,
speak, act, and even dress like Bazaroff
Long hair, long, dirty nails, untidiness
in costume, and gruff language became
the highest fashion among the majority
of Russian students. Saint Simon and
| Fourier, who, after 184S, had been the
high priests of Russian liberalism, were
now declared miserable retrogrades, for
they had a religion, while true radicalism
should have none. Socialism, which at
all times and in all its forms had pro-
fessed some sort of theology, or at least
of theosophy, was thus transformed into
the most primitive, brutal description
of communism. The widest communists
of Paris aimed only at revolution in
the system of government and in the
rights of property, while the Nihilists
aim at the overthrow of the whole social
fabric. They propose to make a clean
sweep of everything, and build up new
community, free from all the trammels
of existing laws, manners, habits, and
ideas. As a matter of course, all means
are right with such refolmers, and a
short reign of terror is considered as an
inevitable preamble to the great reform.
The importance of this movement in
Russia has been greatly exaggerated
The Nihilists are troublesome, but not
| In,
organization, except kind of affiliation
after the Carbonari style. Their ranks
are composed of young men and women
many of the lower middle classes. Uni
versity and Seminary students constitute
the predominating element. There il
hardly a person over twenty-five years
of age to be found among them, fol
even the most enthusiastic radical has
to give up this sort of business after {
few years experience. The intestine
quarrels of the party, the evident un
productiveness of the work, and the
const mt danger of banishmeI to Siberia
are sufficient to tire the most sanguin,
of these theorists.
1t is the fault of the czar's govern
, ment that Nihilism has attained it
/ present proportions. Had it been iron
, the start met with ridicule instead O
with severity, it would never have mad
< any progress at all. A hose and a hea,
> of water, applied to the public gather
: ings in which the Nihiists OCCASIONAL,
l indulge, would have done much NOR
e useful work than the policeman's revol
/ vers. The seriousness with which the
have been treated has given them tn
chance of having heroes and martyrs
4 upon the memory of whom they LIVE
thrive, and multiply. II is not of til
y noisy and silly Nihilists that the czar
d government should have been apprehe1
| sive, but of the more quiet Republican
l and Socialists, who, both in Russia an
Germany, make steady and rapi
d progress. who do not go for gener;
G smash. but watch events, study then
d and turn them invariably to the adval
n tage of their party. They are to /
d found in the legislature, in the arm
it and navy, in the civil service, in all th
d learned institutions, as we'll as in til
d humblest workshop. These are the me
a who hold the future of both Russia an
:! Germany in their hands. Bismarck b;
always understood this, and has create
}. semi-Demoeratic German empil
1t mainly for the sake of preventing the
a making a federative German republi
e, But the Russian statesmen have,
ID seems, not sense enough to see the re
danger. They shoot in the streets ar
= exile to Siberia paltry conspirators,
whom none has either intellectual
material means for doing harm; while
l.! really formidable opposition is left
grow and develop itself without Il
a slightest attempt made either to lull
le or to compromise it.
i'd
n Mn oR