New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-01-26
conspiracy against he will OF the people and
the supremacy of the laws may best be met
4 WHILST NOTEL.

4 NIHILIST NOVEL,
When Neshdanoff, the weakest of the Social
st eroup outlined in Virgin Soil" was hope
lessly striving to interest himseii III tno
revolutionary cause. i'll order 10 snare
Mariarne's enthusiasm he rejected the
idea of writing a political novel ana
of setting secret presses III motloh'
thorough-going Nihilist romance, IN when the
origin, methods and aims of this anarchicm
body of national malcontents are wv
idly described, has recently been pub
lisbed in Paris. The author is
Frenchman, and while he may have
been masquerading underground i'll Russia IL
is more probable that he has won the conn.,
dence of some of the restless spirits who have
taken refuge in Zurich or Geneva. vera
Sassulitch, her lawyer and her victim are
brought upon the stage, and the scenes
are suffused with local color. The command
ing figures are types of revolutonlsts rather
than Socialists. OF the men, one is Nlhillst
because his heart has been touched by the
d stress and ignorance of the pop'uation
another has embraced the same cause merely
from vague feeling OF restlessness;
and another, witlfPolish blood in his veins is
a revolutionist because he is good hater'
These are more advanced types than are
to be found in Turgenefl7s pages; for
his Bazaroff represents social atheism
rather than political conspiracy, and his
Soomine and Markeloff are social reform
ers rather than revolutiOnists. The interest IN
the new story. as is suggested by the tiue'
"Le Roman dune NhiIiste." centres IN the
int1gues and fate OF woman; ana IL Is
to this fact rather than to the details
of the plot, or to the explanations
offered of the anomalous condition of Russian
society, that we direct attention.
The author recognizes the fact that If
great changes are ever effected in the con-
stitution of government and society IN
consequence of the campaign OF the
secret societies, the women rather than the
men have opened a way for them. Iurge-
nef' has virtually acqucsced in this conclu-
sion; for while the men In Virgin SOIL "
are weaklings and dreamers, one figure
rises above them-the woman who lacked
experience but was possessed by the cause,
smiling for JOY when her aristocratic
hands grew red from exposure and toll,
and awaiting with Impotence the mo-
ment when she could mount the scat
fold and sacrifice her life for her princl-
pies From the outset the cooperation OF the
sexes has given great impulse TO the
revolutionary movements III Russia. AS
many women as men have been en-
rolled in the secret societies; ladies Of noble
birth and influential station have shared with
the stronger sex the dangers Of the secret
printing office, the hardshIps of prison life aud
the doom. of exile and it was woman
who set the terrible example Of assassination.
The superior position of women under the
Russian laws to that OF their sex in other conn
tiles has made them the natural companions
of men who have undertaken the risks and
labors of revolution; and consequently the
sexes are lcagucd together for common ends.
1t is this fact which renders the social aud
political uprising in Russia more formidable
than the Socialist movement IN the Fatherland.
Countess Haizfeldt, it is true, was the political
accomphce of Lassalle, the reputed father of
German Socialism and some of the chief
speakers at the annual Congresses of the Work
ingmen's party have been women; but the
movement has been political rather than
social and the sympathics of the gentler sex
have been estranged from it. The facility with
which the Force bill enacted by the Rcichstag
has been kept in operation. and the success which
has attended Bismarck's efforts To muffle
national discomfort, have been in marked con-
trast with the failure OF repressiye measures
and martial law in Russia 1t was
not irrational to assume that the new
doctrines would gain greater Roadway
in a popuous than in thinly settled country
where the population is so inert, and, more
over, that the speculative tendencies of Ger
man thought would promote the Socialist
cause. Yet the evil has been abated in one
country. while in the other 1t defes
the energies of police and soldiers. The ex
panat on is simple. The alliance of the sexes
has given TO Russian Nihism a superior So
cial force. An athoistic movement has de-
veloped a species of fanatcism which fires
the hearts of men and women alike.
/DN-cnT IN 1TTnN ~Nn CDElJrT fTTHN