Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-04-25
SERGIUS STEPNIAK.
THE MYSTERIOUS NiHtllST WHO WAS
KILLED BY A LOCOMOTIVE.

He Carried tho Secret Of His Identity to
His Grave-A Remarkable Man In Many
Senses, HE Career Was Filled With
Thrilling Experiences.
Sergius Michael Dragomanoff Stepniak,
linguist, ethnologist, author and nihilist,
met death as dramatic as the life he had
lived. Stepniak, while more prominent as
a nihilist, will probably be remembered
rather rs one Of the three novelists whom
Little Russia has given to the world
Petroff, Masoch and Stepniak all called
that corner Of the Russian empire their
fatherland Stepniak's whole life was
shrouded in mystery, and his birthplace
and name have never been authoritatively
established. He is supposed to have been
born in ls41 ut Hadjatsch, in the Ukraine
mountains, and to have come from u
seminole family descended from the Cos
sacks Of Little Russia. From 1853 to 1868
he was student at Kiev, and he pub
lished several works during that time,
In 1869. In 1870 he became professor at
the University of Kiev, but was removed
from his chair by the government three
count of his criticism Of the system pur-
sued by Count Tolstoi, one of the minis
tiers of Justice and he thereupon settled in
Geneva, writing various popular works in
the Little Russian dialect He began to
work hard for tho establishment of equal
political rights in Russia and declared
against socialism as well as absolutism.
On Aug. 49, 1878, Vera Sassulitch, q
TOD tnA
eral Trepoff, project of police in st. Pc
tersburg Five months later Trepoff's
successor, General Mezentzeff, was stabbed
IN the street, but tho assassin jumped into
q carriage in waiting and escaped. Tive
other occupants OF the carriage, however,
wero captured, and proved to be DR.. Wei
mer, the court physician, and his wife
Both were sent to Siberia. The suspicion
has been persistent that man named
kazcheffsky was the assailant and that
kazcheffsky was Stepniak.
London was his refuge for many years,
md there he published Free Russia, a
newspaper devoted to the interests of an
Archy. He came to the United States in
December 1890, on lecture tour for the
purpose of arousing sentiment against
Russian despotism. In London he was
tempts We're made to carry him off.
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 25
years he was one of the best known men
in Europe, yet none knew him. He was
the recognized leader of the nihilists, but
not manager of the bomb throwing CAM
oi HE cffOrfc alone bn linn -
moral persuasion and appeal to the intel
lect. His whole life, as we have said, was
enshrouded in mystery, and none, save
perhaps few, could say whether he ever
participated in physical force plots, al
though he was often suspected. 1t is GER
tain that in later years he looked with less
favor upon radical measures and frequent
ly spoke against them. Yet he did not
disguise his sympathy for the slayer of tho
late car. Stepniak means literally 1.-The
Son of the Steppes, and he admitted 1t
to be an assumed name.
Apart from all questions of right or
wrong, or of expediency, as far as related
to the cause TO which Stepniak had devot
ed his life, the personal equation Of the
man had much which is remarkable. He
had given US in his Career of Nihilist "
of 1889, the peculiar traits of those mon
who have thrown down their challenge to
the car. Human bravery has its heroic
side, and Stepniak had shown indifference
to life thousand times, but in manner
which is special
Sergius Stepniak, though modest to q
degree, was known among his fellow rev.
olutionists to have planned out many a
method of escape for a condemned prison
~ersand by his own personal prowess and
49, daring effected rescues. What great
what self control, it must have TAX
~ to try at least in a crowded Russian
City to get to man whose fate was sealed
pStepniak, who drove a sledge alongside,
would have done his best to pluck the con.
demned man right out of the grip of the
armed soldiers, so as to put him in his
own sledge, and so driven him Off This
effort, as the political prisoner Volkhovsky
tells us, failed, but not from any fault Of
Sergius Stepniak. If on this occasion All
unforeseen accident prevented the accom-
plishment of the escape, nevertheless the
cool daring of Stepniak remains as salient
as ever. Many a man and woman who
lives today outside of Russia is Of this
world now because of the strong hand and
Tn ,rpaarapce ha was a man not orita