Smyrna times., 1879-04-30

Nihilism-The Danger Threatning
Russia.


The recent placing of five of the Provin-
ces of Russia under Martial law because of
the attempted assassinations of the Nihilists
is creating intense interest throughout the
world.
The name Of nihilsts was first applied to
the revolutionary party of Russia by the
novelist Tourguenieff, in bitter irony, be-
cause, as he said in his Fathers and Children,
it was a party which was always "doing
nothing and merely finding fault" The
nIhIliStS have gotten bravely over this stage
of inaCtion in their affairs, and they now
promise the Russian government to treat it
to another massacre of st. Bartholomew.
Assassination, however, is not clvlllzlng
process.
European Russia has a population of
sixty-one millions, of whom only 9per cent
can read and write. These five and a-half
| millions reside chiefly in and around the
great towns and cities, and it is from their
ranks that the nihlists recruit, while the
! fifty millions Of ignorant country peasants
are mostly blind adherents Of the Gar and
! loyal to an intense degree. The educated
classes furnish the conspirators and dis
organizers. SOlovief who attempted to
assassinate the Emperor Alexander last
week, was q teacher. Sergi Netchaieff,
rlngleader of the conspiracy that broke out
| in 1871, was a professor in the University
of Moscow, and it was the Universities of
| Kietf, Ka2an, Dorpat, Moscow and St.
| Petersburg which furnished the participants
| in the outbreak of 1872. In Russia, evil
IDENTIFY, with knowledge comes understand
ing Of the defects and iniquities Of the
| government and the enormities done by
| the police camerilla," but at the same
] tiVtra la0l of tho L lnOvplaG Inc nf tho
means to the end Of attaining constitutional
government in the interest of the people.
The social aspects Of the revolutionary
crazo in Russia render it in some respects a
more dangerous movement than the Social
ist agitation in Germany. Men and women
are leagued together against the Govern
ment and the police. Since the days OF
| Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great
Russian women have held position supe'
| riOr to that of their sex in other European
| countries Their husbands have had nc
control over their property, and under the
| civil law they have been on a level OF
equality with men. Catherine was the first
to interest herself in woman's education
and although the doors of the universities
have not been permanently opened to the
sex, dayschools similar to those conducted
in Germany have been established for the
training Of girls Of the middle class. With
these privileges under the law and in the
schools, it is not strange that young women
have entered, heart and soul, into this rev
olutionary movement. Turgenef, in 'Nir
gin SOIL represents Marianne as the
only one of the group of Socialists who wa,
capable of devotion TO lofty ideas; for Solo
mino and Markelof were visionary rather
than enthusiastic, and Neshdanof was sen
timental and cowardly. There are said tc
be as many women as men iu the Nihilis
societies, and some of these are ladies o
high rank. Ina recent outbreak at Kief
three of the rebels under arms were wom-r
Of noble birth. One was a daughter of one
of the most influential officers in the I'm
: pprial service, and another was a counties
whose mother.in.law was one Of the En-
press's ladies in waiting. 1t is this coope
ration of the sexes which imparts threat
enng aspect to this social movement. |
} gives to persecution, selfsacrifce and deatl
magic powers that are irresistible. Mill
ism may be a gospel Of negations, but whel
1t calls upon its followers to labor and dI
for the good Of generations to come, how
3 ever chimerical the ends may be, it kindle
in their breasts fiery religious ianaticism
". Y. Tribune.