The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1895-12-31
His SECRET Is In The CRAVE
Strange Life of Sergius Stepniak,
Recently Killed by an Engine.
Some Think the Wonderful Man Was
the Slayer of the Merciless
General Mezentzeff.

sergius Michael Dragomanoff Stepniak-
his pseudonym in full-the most feared
nihilist In the world, died carrying the
secret OF his identity to the grave. For
twenty-five years he was one OF the best
known men in Europe, Yet none knew HIM.
He was the recognized leader OF the
nihiiists, but not manager OF the bomb.
throwing caini.aitsGs. Iiis Efforts were
along the line or moral persuasion and
appeal to the intellect.
His whole life, as we have said, was
shrouded i'll mystery, and none, save per
haps few, could say whether he ever
participated In physical force plots, al
though often suspected. But il is certain
that IN later years he looked with less
favor upon radical measures, and fire.
quently spoke against them. Yet he did
no. dlsguisc his s.fuiiathy ivr tie slayer
OF the late Gar. stepniak means, literally,
THE Son or the Steppes," and he admitted
il To be an assumed name.
Apart from all questions of right or
wrong, or OF expediency, as far as relates
TO the cause To winch otepniak had devoted
his life, the personal equation of the man
mad much winch Is remarkable. He had
given us, in his Career Ola Nfhiiist" of
1889, the peculiar traits OF those men who
have throMu uowu their ciisii.ciigc to tue
Car. Human bravery has its heroic side
and Stepniak had shown Indifference to
life a thousand times, but in a manner which
is special.
sergius Stepniak, though modest to de-
gree, was known among his fellow rcvolu-
uonlsts to have pla nned out many method
OF escape for condemned prisoner and by
ms own personal prowcss ana sheer daring
effected rescues. What great dash, what
seir-control, 1t must have taken to try at
least In a crowded Russian city to get man
whose fate was sealed! Stepniak who
drove a sIedge n iongside. would have done
his best TO pluck the condemned man right
out OF the grip of the armed soldiers, so as
TO put him In his own sle'ige, and SO driven
him off. This effort. as the political pris-
oner Volkhovsky telisus. failed, but not from
any fault of sergius Stepniak.
III on ,hiscccas,nn an Unforeseen accident
prevented the accomplishments of the escape,
neyertheiess the cool daring of Stepniak re-
mains as salient as ever. Many man and
woman who live today outside OF Russia
are of this world now because OF the strong
hand and courage of this Nihilist.
In apPea ran nee he was a man not quite six
feet In height, but his solid build and massive
form. with breadth of shoulders and large,
well-shaped head. made him appear not so
tall as he really was. His type of face was
distinctly Russian. his forehead of great
width, and his eyes intensely black. 1t was
face showing will and control of power.
One might speculate long on the ways of
Stepniak. and wonder how. with such Il
marked face. he was so long capable of es-
Gaping detection by means of DISCUSSES. for
to change his appearance one might fancy
required marked mobility OF expression.
Stepniak spoke English, French and Ital-
ian perfectly. In conversation i'm English
he never seemed at loss for the exact
word, though he retained somewhat of n
foreign accent. His voice was singularly
sweet and well modulated, and his man
ncr, never slow, was rather impassiye.
Thoroughly logical, in describing The con-
ditioD of his country, the efforts made to
establish some semblance of liberty in
Russia, he was not impassioned. Every
argument was quietly, calmly presented.
The enthusiasm in the man he kept latent.
Some of the principal works which Step
Eiak produced are: THE Turks Within and
without ''Tyrannicidc I'm Russia and
Little Russian Internal ionalism." He
also Contributed to the magazines some pa
pers on East European Peoples and The
Propaganda of Socialism and Historical
Poland and the Muscovite Democracy"
He was also known for his works on the eth
biography, history, and literature of Little
Russia, and, with NJ. Antonowitch. had cd
tied n collection OF Little Russian folk songs.
In literary sense the books Sergius Step
MAX wrote are remarkable. His first was
Russia under the Tzars," then followed
1.-THE Russian Storm Cloud, - a fter that The
Russian Peasantry: Their Agrarian Condi-
ton, Social Life, and Religion" and lastly,
in 1889, novel with the title. THE Career
of a Nihilist,' aud this work has met with
merited success In the United States. In his
Russia Under the TZars'' the subject of
the woes of Russia is treated at times under
the guise of fiction, while The Russian
Storm Cloud gives the conditions OF his
country in a close and logical manner.
In The Russian Storm Cloud may
be read the status of Nihilisn past and
present in Russia, and the many terrible
phases the party that is fighting to the
death has passed through. What is an
exile? 1t is "a horrible