The Labor enquirer., 1883-08-25
NIHILISM.

4Qe ST6S5ut NuA4Sts S@4S ~ Assss>>sy
Advanced Types Of the Labor
Agitators.
II Turghenef, the novelist, who will GER
&ainly live in his writings for many gen.
3rations, has rendered himself immortal
(by a single word. 1t was he who in
vented .sNihilism.o At first the~sEead'
was used in contemptuous sense, but
afterward was accepted from party pride
by those against whom it was employed,
- 50 EbquentIy has occurred in history.
g kould be no need to mention
f6is the fact that in Europe the
B / fftJ eafIz by this name was not thus
called nRhssia, but another completely
different
The genuine Nihilism was a philos
sophical and literary movement, which
flourished in the first decade after the
emancipation Of the serfs, that is to say, J,
Sbetween 1860 and 1870. 1t is now abso-
1utely extinct, and only few traces are
left of it, which are rapidly disappearing !;
for, with the feverishI life of the last few
years, decade in Russia may really be
considered as a period of at least from
thirty to fifty years.
Nihilism was d struggle forthe eman-
cipation of intelligence frsm every kind
of dependence, and itkadvahced side by
side with that forths emanci patton of
the laboring classes from serfdom.
The fundamental principle Of Mill
ism, properly so-can Jed, was absolute in
gdiyidualism. It was the negation, ,n the
name of individual liberty, Of all the OBJ.
legations Imposed upon the individual
by society, by family life, anS by religions
Nihilisnl was passionate asd powerful
reaction, not against political desp potisln,I
but against the mo 81 despotism that
weighs upon the private and inner life
of the individual.
But it must be- confessed that our
predecessors, at least in the earFer days
Introduced into this highly psfac strug-
gle the same spirit of rebellion and
| almost the same fanaticism that charac-
terizes the present movement. / will
here indicate the general character of
- .f-# u
this struggle, beeaus-sit is really q pre-
lude, to the atsdrama, the last act of
which is being enacted in the Empire Of
the Night. #
The first battle was fought in the do
main ofsrelgion.gBut this was neither
long nor obstinate. It was gained, so to
speak, in single assault; for there is]no
country in the world where, among the
cultivated classes, religion has such little
root as in Russia. The past generation
was partly Christian by custom, and
partly athesist by culture. But when
once this band of young writers, armed
with the natural sciences and positive
philosophy. full of talent, of fire, and of
the ardor of proselytism. was impelled
to assault, Christianity fell like an old,
decaying hovel, which remains standing
because no one touches it. 5
The materialist propaganda was carried
on in two modes, which by turns supple |
mented and supported each other. In
directly by means of the press, works
being translated or written which fur
n!shed the most irrefutable arguments
against every religious system, against
free.will, and against the supernatural.
In order to avoid the clutches of the CEN
sorship, passages which were too clear
were vailed under certain obscure words
which, with an ardent and attentive
reader, brought out the ideas even more
distinctly.
The oral propaganda, employing the
arguments developed.by. the instructed,
drew from them their logical conse-
ouences, fiinglng aside the reticence i'm
posed upon the writers. Atheism excited
neople like new religion. The Jealous
went like veritable missionaries in search
of living souls, in order to cleanse them
from the determination of Christianity
The secret press was even set to work,
and Buchner's book, "Force and Mat
ter" in which the German philosopher
directly attacks the Christian theology,
was translated and lithograph ed. The
book was secretly circulated, not without
a certain amount of danger, and was
highly successful. Some push ed their