Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-06-03
RUSSIAN NIHILIssI.


It's Origin and O6ject-An Interesting Lee.
t"re In Brooklyn by a Pronounced
Nthilfst.
"A gentleman, by birth Pole aud by asso-
citation pronounced Nihilisht, delivered 9
lecture in Brooklyn night before last on the
great secret fraternity which is such night.
mare to the czar of Russia. The gentleman
himself is member of the great order, but
passes under an assumed name, as he
fears the persecution of his relatives at home
should his real name be known. The lee
turer started out with the statement that
the true objects and purposes of the Rus
sian Nihilist are not understood in this
country. Nor is it strange that this is 30.
They are charged with aiming at nothing
less than the destruction of all religion and
all governmens-in short, swith the worst
kind of communism. This may, perhaps.
be in the mind of the common class who
are in the movement, but it is not the al m
of those who offer their lives on the altar of
freedom or are ready to do 30. The leaders
and agitators simply use whatever means
are at hand for great object-a free, con-
stitutional government. The present sys-
! tenn of nihilism was started by Tchikovtski
student at st. Petersburg, and certain So
ciallsts in 1873. The organization had TO-.
it's object the reduction of the Russian peo-
pie TO a universal psasantry, and soon had
| branches all over Russia. With increasing
strength came carelessness and the police
became aware of the whole proceedings.
They followed up every clue and numerous
arrests were made. Though this conspria-
cy was attacked by the government secret
political societies continued to exist and the
doctrines inculcated by the Nihilist spread.
The present design of the rsvolutionists is
to obtain constitutional government in Rus
sia, root out the evils arising from the cor
ruption of the Greek church, mitigate the
seventies of the Russian armies and obtain
religious and political freedom, with right
to free speech and free press. Speaking G
of the Russian military system and the
manner in which the army is recruited, the
lecturer said that village is surrounded
and those capable of bearing arms carried
off to the military headquarters, where
physical examination takes place. If unfit
for service the peasant is allowed to return
home-or if he can buy his way out, other
wise the quota of the village is marched off
and sent to the regiments. In his time, in
Russia the term of service was twenty five
years, now it is fifteen, and the only pension
which the discharged soldier gets, if wound
ed or disabled, is license to beg. All the
resources of the government are used in sup
porting this vast system, which has as many
as 800 generals, and in paying a horde of
250,0O0 oficeholders. Speaking of the
manner in which the Nihilists spread the
kha cold hot ot 80
the manufactures of st. Petersburg
an agent was maintained by the association
and supplied with tracts, some of
them coming from Massachusetts in Ameri-
ca, to distribute aEong the workmen. The
Tchikovtsi also, emulating the example of
the founder of modern Russia, betook them
selves to various trades. Some became ar
tisans and farriers and in course of time
opened blacksmith shops; others turned tail
ors, butchers and cobblers. In fact curious
list of trades and professions were taken up
in order. to bring themselves into closer COM
munion with the people, for which it shows
that up to q late day not single walk in life
except that of policeman was not occupied
by the Nihilists. Princes with high blood
in their veins, from Rurik, bore and are
bearing the hardships Of a factory girls life
in the dens of Moscow and other large
cities. Students, discarding their social posi-
ton, assumed the crossing sweeper's broom,
mutilated themselves and acted as beggars
50 that they might more readily get inside tie
skin of the masses. In the provinces peri
patetic nihilists go about from farm to ia m,
or disguised as religious pilgrims and ped
dlers disseminated their opinions at way
side villages. In this manner were the doc
trines taught the people, and the people are
profting by them. The lecturer denied
that all the attempted assassinations in Rus
sian official life are to be traced to the Mill
lists He declared that for neither the Mos
COW railway explosion nor for
the Winter palace explosion were
the Nihilis!s responsible. With
regard to the Moscow railway explosion the
police, in their efforts to fasten the explosion
upon the Nihilists, proved too much. They
said it was the work of three men and would
have us believe that these three men in one
month removed 200, 900 cubic feet of earth
in the excavation of q tunnel and laid
10000 brick. The removal of the earth and
the bringing in of the brick could not have
been carried on without the police finding
out something about the house, as no
repairs can be made in Russian
house without the consent of the
police. The Winter Palace explosion was
not the work of the Nihilist committee and
they have no desire to kill the Gear, es it
would do no good. His son would succeed
him and things would 60 on ss before. In all
there have only been fourteen assassinations
which can be charged upon the Nihilists, and
| the victims were tyrannical governors OF
provinces, who had sent hundreds of inno-
cent people to death in the Siberian mines
When hundred lives had thus been taken
the governor was warned to desist and no.
titled that he would be tried and punished,
if found guilty, unless he stopped his cruel
ties. One life for q hundred, the lecturer
thought, was not too much un.
| der the cirtumscancea. In closing
his lecture the speaker expressed his opin
ion that within the next two years decisive
revolution will break out in the empire oi
the czar, by means of which the aims and
ends of the revolutionary committee will be
accomplished. The lecture was listened tc
with great attention by the small invited
audience, the auditors evidently deriving
much information from the manner ir
which the subject was treated. The Nihil
ists have not during the past month or sc
done much work to attract public attention
but they are no doubt actively, though Sc
cretly, engaged in laying their plans and pre-
pairing for the great insurrection that is rea
sonably certain to occur in Russia before thi
end of the present decade.
Odd Fenows-Grand Lodge Ofacers.
Especial Telegram to the Globe.