Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-10-22
"NIHILISM."
Ii is the Expression OF n Political
Greed which Embraces All That
Freedom Implies, and
It In Sustained by Enthusiasfie Young
Women and Men VINO Are WILL
ing 10 Die for 1t.

This word, first introduced in the Russian
language by Turguenieff for character O
one of his novels, was before him used b,
| the German writer Gufzkow in his Ritter pog
Geisf. Its present applicatios to The state O
| parties in Russia is rather misleading. A,
elsewhere, there are in Russia men Of very
| various opposition shades-lrom the moder.
ate Liberal, who would be satisfied with
some kind OF parliamentary representation
| 10 the Republican and Socialist of different
sectional views, and down to the impracti
| cable anarchist, whose brain has been turned
and set IRE to by incesssntly brooding over
wrongs without the possibility of redress
1t is not fair to lump all these groups to-
gether and to brand them as Nihilists. II
should be remembered that the very terror
lists of the Narodnaia Volta ("Will of the
People") who were driven to their present
tactics by sheer despair of making an impress
sion by any other procedure, have even quite
recently declared In a remarkable manifesto
that if the Gar were to consent to The convo-
cation OF National Constituent Assembly,
they would at once cease using violent
means.
When Cen Garfield was struck down by
the hand of crsck-brained assassin, the
Secret Russian Committee issued y protest
containing expressions of deep sympathy
with the people Of the United States, and an
energetic denunciatiou of the vile murderer.
In country" they said, "where the
personal liberty of the citizens allow of the
pacific agitation fer an idea, and where the
free will OF the people not only frames the
laws, but chooses the government, assassina-
ton as means of political struggle is tanta-
mount to that very despotism the overthrow
OF which is the object of the revolutionary
party in Russia"
Surely these views are not what most peo-
pie would call "Nihilisni." Only ,tep by
step, and very unwillingy at first, were
even the extreme Russian Socialists in
duced to give up their originally peaceful
agitation among the pessantry and the peo-
pie OF the workshops. They began as thor
ough idealists, imbued with an apostolic
spirit. Mostly young men and girls OF the
well-to-do, cultured, even aristocratic class,
they gave up all their worldly prospects;
dressed like working people and peasants;
changed their names; mixed and labored
with the crowd, trying 10 gain it over to the
new gospel of political and social progress
often with very Indifferent success; for the
more british among the ignorant multitude
often handed over their would-be friends and
deliverers to the police. OF these enthusi-
asts book, Subterranean Russia, published
by pseudonym author, NJ. Stepnjak, but
the contents of which are in no small meas
ure authenticated by a well-known Russian
exile, says:
IL.
people. They were ready for every sacrifice;
but they possessed neither the impetuosity
nor the deep passions necessary for the COM
bat. After the first disappointments they no
longer hoped for victory, but aimed more at
the crown of thorns tn an at the laurel-wreath
They were overlooking with love, and unable
to hate anybody-not even their execution
ers."
Not few of these, however, whose career
had off arI oh. ,,,tx
supporters of a system of revolutionary
terror, owing to the wholesale arrest and de-
portalion OF the most peaceful propaganda
lists. The trial of 1913 prisoners at Moscow,
in 1878, destroyed the last illusion as to the
possibility of legal agitation for social and
political reform. Then, in Sshiller's words,
"The milk of pious thought turned into
dragons bane." Conspiratery circles were
formed, in which "a covenant with death"
was the parole.
There is not space enough here 10 give
description, highly instructive it would
be, of the many martyrs of revolutionary
conviction who have suffered the penalty of
their deeds during the last few years.
Among the various typical figures of these
conspiracies, two at least may be mentiened:
Danitri Lissogub, who was hanged, on the
denunciation of his own steward, for having
devoted his whole property to propsgAndism
and revolutionary action Il came cut Ia the
trial OF the sixteen, in 1880, that Lissogub
sold landed estates of the value of 200,000r
for that purpose. Pale, hsggsrd, long-bearded,
of apostolic aspect and demeanor, this enthu-
siast always appeared in most shabby garb,
thinly clad, in the bitterest cold. The author
of Ss5teraaean Russia calls him 1.-THE Saint
of Nihilism." Els counterpart was Valerian
Ossinsky. He is depicted as of great manly
beauty, tall, slim of elegant attitude, with
blue eyes of enthusiastic expression, fair
haired and well-bearded, of charming man
ners-a favorite OF women. He was the best
collector of pecuniary means for the party.
When he asked for contributions, even old
misers did not resist his persuasive voice.
He is called the "Apollo of Nihilism." He,
too, ended at the galloWs.-Rarl Blind, IN the
Contemporary Reuisu