Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-06-20


dead" So it is with the tyrants sac
rifced by the Nihilists. Officers of
high rank are executed in the streets
only when Nihilists are reckless of their
own safety; but many others of less
consequence are disposed of in ways
less dangerous to the executioners.
The Government carefully suppresses
al facts in relation to such judgments
and, of course, the Nihilists don't seek
to give publicity to their deeds, so that
the world knows nothing about the ex-
tent to which these judgments are car
ried out in Russia
The organization of Nihilists is pc
culiar. There is no central power.
Nihilists are not grouped around one
point Everywhere in the Provinces
Of Russia exist societies or groups
of Nihilists. There is a general affilia-
ton, and the groups are like chain,
one group having direct connection
only with another group, and not even
knowing the name of any member OF
third group. A group has no officers
except a Secretary and a Treasurer.
Aiming, as the Nihilists do, to destroy
Capitalization of government, they do
not practice it among themselves.
They have no sy stem of dictatorship
Il would be dangerous to even attemp
TO be a leader No individual man an6
no executive or central body of men
issue orders to the Nihilists of Russia
There is no central executive body
not a shade of it. There is a unity of
purpose and all important facts con
earning Nihilists are transmit ] in the
most rapid way to all the groups; but
each group acts independently. The
Russian Government tried to establish
that certain persons we've leaders; thai
those few persons directed and anima-
ted the movement, and that as soon as
the LEADERS should be captured the
movement would collapse; but the
Government found itself to be mistaken.
There are many officers in the army
who donned a uniform with the object
of propagating Nihilism; and the ar
mics of the Gar are permeated with
Nihilstic doctrines. There are Gener-
ais in command of Provinces who are
Nihilists; there are men in the Imperial
Guards who are Nihilists; and in the
Winter Palace in st. Petersburg are
soldiers on guard who are members Of
Nihilist groups. The Nihilists have
paid particular attention to the Impe-
rial Body-GuaFd, from which they ex-
pect in due time to obtain particular
service.
It is an easy matter to achieve a
court revolution, but the Nihilists do
not want that. In regard to the prob
able course of the army in case Of a
revolution, it may be well to mention
an important fact. The people called
Cossacks have been a strong arm Of
the Cars military power, but the
Cossacks are far from being in con-
tented condition. The Uraf CoSsacks
have enjoyed many ancient privileges,
and the Government has deprived
them of these privileges, thus causing
much dissatisfaction. Two years ago
there was an outbreak of the Ural Cos
sacks, which was suppressed only by
armed force. The Cossacks of the
Don do not like the land reforms in
troduced by the present Gar. In case
Of q revolution the Cossacks would be
untrustWorthY.
As to Nihilism among the clergy,
there are two ranks of clergymen, the
Bishops and the Popes or Priests. The
Bishops are old men; many of tho
Popes are young, and among the Popes
are many Nihilists. The clergy were
until very recently an exclusive caste.
Beside the universities there are
colleges in the Provinces, ecclesiasti-
cal colleges, military colleges, and col
leges not in any special class, and
these colleges, as well as the univer-
stiles, are under the influence of Mill
ism, for young people, men and wom-
en- must be taught in the schools the
true principles of Nihilism. Almost
all the graduates of universities and
high schools are under police surveil-
lance. The fact that they are grad
yates makes them suspected, and brutal
policemen, anxious to please their su-
and arrest the college youth.
The present measures are of ORA
comic severity, but the Russian Gov
ernment can go further. It can arouse
the ignorant and rufianly mobs of
large cities against the educated
classes, and can incite its police to
persecute even more vindictively the
unfortunate students, who, in order
that they may be the more easily iden-
titled, are compelled to wear uniforms.
More educated men and delicate
women will be consigned to Siberia,
and the prisons will be thronged even
more than at present with arrested
Nihilists. Imprisonment means death.
Two hundred of five hundred who
were imprisoned recently perished
within a few days; four who were in
Jail with me became insane and COM
mitted suicide.
The Nihilists will not be extirpated.
For half century the autocracY has
been sending Nihilists to Siberia and
otherwise Furnishing them, and the
Czar Alexander has revived the death
penalty, in order to be able to punish
and repress them with the greater
severity. The future may be judged
by the past. As far as any possibility
or probability of revolution is con-
cerned, the Nihilists will turn every
opportunity to account, and there may