Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-04
Monday Morning, April 4, 1881.
WHAT .NIH1LIsTs TOLD RocHEFoR1

WHAT NIHILISTs TOLD ROCHEFORT Henri Rochefort, the French revolution
 1st, has made journey to Geneva the refuge
 of many of the Nihilist conspirators, in order
 to get from them exact and reliable informa.
 tion concerning the plot to kill the Czar. He
 has published the results of his investigation in his journal printed in Paris, and as he en- joys the confidence of the Nihilists his reve- 1 lations are as important as they are interest ing
 Rochefort says the revolutionary associa- tion of Russia is not, as has often been said
 species of carbonari with general meetings and regular periods of convocation. It is composed of young people who have made up their minds to die They present them l selves at the office of the society and have their names entered for such and such an operation" For the Moscow affair, where the work to be done was to blow up a rail- 1 road and to destroy an imperial train, the were fifteen in number for the explosion of l the Winter Palace, they were eighteen; for | the assassination of Mezentzoff, they were three. This last time the executive commit 1 tee did not determine on the death of Alex
 
 of volunteers ready for the work that one failure would not hinder the final success of the enterprise. In the earlier period of the Nlhlllst society, it appears, men charged with the execution of decree were designated by lot, but the increasing n7mber of volun- teers now renders this unnecessary When the last and successful attempt had been so absolutely settled that the question of date was under consideration, 8 choice was made of a number of young people apt in the fab rication of bombs and of women whose light ness of touch rendered them fit for the dan gerous manipulation of nitro -glycerine. AL most all the conspirators offered to throw the bombs Five were chosen, but there would have been thirty of them if the committee had not feared that the presence of so many young people in the street, the greater num- Der of whom were more less suspected by the police, would serve to give the alarm. Russakoff. who was not known to the other conspirators before the attempt, had, it seems, been affiliated to the society but few days. M. Rochefort is of opinion that the man who threw the bomb which killed the Czar is not the one who died of his wounds in the hospital. The real au- thor of the Czar's death escaped. If the second bomb had failed three others would have been thrown, and if the whole attempt had miscarried another would shortly have been made. Of the nature of this attempt in prospect it is sufficient to say that since the affair of the Winter Palace and that of Moscow the Nihilists have seriously studied ! the use of dynamite and illuminate of mercu- ry. It is not true, says Rochefort that the | bombs used in the assassination of the Czar were made of glass
 In addition to these interesting particulars | Rochefort seeks to justify the murderers. ! They had grudge, it seems not only against | H., but against his whole family | Both were careless of the lives of their sub- jects Says Rochefort: Nicolas the Taci- turn said simply, T wish to have the Winter Palace rebuilt in a single year, and this was done according to the masters orders Only | in order to rebuild in such a time an edifce 1 of this importance it was necessary to en- ! ploy methods till then unknown in architec- ture. AS fast as the walls were raised they ! were heated to make them dry, and they were heated to such an intensity that the l workmen who did the masonry had to work fifteen hours day in an atmosphere of 20 ! degrees centigrade. To prevent their very | heads from bursting they wore helmets filled with ice. On returning to the open air they generally got congestion of the brain, and he unfortunate wretches fell never to rise lgain. The Winter Palace was finished in he year, but B, 900 workmen died to do it-t o much of Nicolas. AS to his son Alexan- Ter, one of the rare Romanoffs who have ! , ,een assassinated by other than their own , citations, this benefactor, this friend of hu- l nanity, this liberator, this abolitionist, sent o Siberia 1n the year 1880 8, ,OOO men and { 7omsn, or only 2,O0O less than it cost to re- I uild the Winter Palace. Still, he enfran- t hised the serfs. No one can talk of him | Tithout knowing it. Yes, but he did not s 1ake up his mind to that measure till the ontinual instructions of the peasants which ( roke out in all parts of the country from S s53 to 1860 made him tremble at the pros r ect of second Jacquerie. Some of the t ,rds were burned alive; others sawn in half | y their serfs and. unfortunately, it is only f y means and warnings of this delicacy. that U ou can make autocrats understand that the 6 our for reform has struck" It