New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-10
RTSSI1N SITE TELLS.

The ceremonial of the coronation in Moscow
has been preceded by series of State trials.
In St. Petersburg seventeen Nihilists have been
condemned either TO death or imprisonment /;
in Odessa twenty more have been sentenced
to hard labor in prison or mine and third
series of prosecutions has been ordered in South
Russia. Apparently these trials have been de-
liberately timed by the officials with view to
terrifying the Tcrrorists and averting new
catastrophe at Moscow. The prisons have been
cleared OF revolutionary suspects and crimi-
mails, and the Nihilists have been warned in
advance Of any fresh outrage which they may
be planning that the Government is well
served by its thousands of spies and will show
no mercy to the murderous enemies OF the
Car. Warnings of this sort, however, have
not proved effective in recent years. Before
the great trial of the 1913 the Nihilists were
only propagandists after IL they were Ter
rorists Next there were trials now Of sixteen
and again of twenty-five and forty, and then
there were dynamite workers in secret mines.
Rigor has only seemed to render Nihism more
diabolcal in its means and more resOlute and
determined in its aims.
One of the prisoners condemned at st. Peters
burg occupies a prominent place III the gallery
of portraits presented in Underground Rus
sia," the interesting Nihilist work for the
genuinencss of which Peter LavrOff has ao-
cepted responsibility in London. This is Jacob
Stefanovic, who is described in those pages as
the highest type of the Nihilist organizer, his
main achievement being the establishment III
Cighirino of a secret society of peasants with
about 5000 affiliated members. He was
arrested after lie had been at work for eight
months in the district, and the movement
when deprived of his leadership speedily col
lapsed. His escape from the Kieff Prison in
1873 is one of the most thrilling incidents
related by the author, who subsequently met
him at St. Petersburg and was impressed with
his eminenty practical mind, his firm and
cautious character, his knowledge of men
and of the art of dealing with Them 1t is
interesting to observe how closely the descrip-
ton Of the man and his work given in the
reports of his trial corresponds with that con-
tanned in this Nhilist book In both he Is
nicknamed "the White Negro" on account
of his prominent cheek bones, flat nose and
extreme ugliness, and the details of his cam
paign given in court are practically the same
as in "Stepniaks" narrative. He declared
that he had never intended to raise an insur-
rection in the Cighirino, but had only aimed
to make demonstration for the purpose of
exposing the poverty and misery of the peas
antry. 1t was with that end in view, he added,
that he took advantage of the rumors and
gossip of the peasants in regard to the Oppo-
stion of the upper classes to the Government.
His speech was not long one, "Stepniak"
having described him as an extremely reserved
man who disliked discussion, and he was APP
parently relieved when BogdanOvic, the leader
Of the Nihilists in the Little Garden-st tunnel,
constituted himself the advocate of the
seventeen prisoners. Stefanoyic's sentence was
hard labor for life i'll Siberia.
A single sentence from Bogdanovic's de-
fence of the Teuorists is worth quoting as
affording striking confirmation of "Step-
niaks plea for the political aims Of Mill
ism. After freely admitting his own share in
the mining operations in st. Petersburg. and