The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-10-11
SERGIUS STEPNIAK.
.us MYSTERIOUS NIHILIST WHO WAS
xuLeo BY A LOCOMOTIVE.

Jsergius Michael Draeolnanoff stepniak'
,Isuist ethnologist, author and nihilist,
death as dramatic as the life he had
gsSs Stenniak, while more prominent as
h'eu ,h,ijst' will probably be remembered
mn, ~. a. 5ns OF the three novelists whom
ra.n n,, Russia has given to the world.
b LIFT Masoch and Stepniak all called
fe.FO on,reT az the Russian empire their
ssnnssSerIand. Stepniak's whole fife was
tsbrouded in mystery, and his birthplace
s snS name have never been euthoritatively
S| He is supposed to have been
S sS. in 1s4t at Hadjatsch, in the Ukraine
fountains. and TO have come from a
iO ',nohle family descended from the Cos
son n"s 81 Little Russia. From 1860 to 1868
s''n .os n student at Kiev, and no pub
40 MI several works during that time,
hS nioh we're prohibited by the government
', ,seo In 1870 he became professor Mt
.ho University of Kiev, but was removed
s.o,o his chair by the government three
nv" LATER. He was exiled In 1876 on &C
ut Of his criticism of the system pur-
0Uod NV Count Tolstoi, one OF the minis
so.S If iustice, and he thereupon settled in
Geneva. writing various popular works in
49, Iittle Russian dialect. He began to
WI hard for the establishment of equal
oI,tical rights in Russia and declared
poo;net socialism as we'll as absolutism.
On Aug. 16, 1878, Vera Sassulitch, u
.0,,no woman nihilist, assassinated Gen
s s Trepoff, project of police In st. Pc
t0rshure Five months later Trepoff' S
successor, General Mezentzeif, was stabbed
IN the street, but tho assassin jumped into
a carriage in waiting and escaped. Two
other occupants of the carriage, however,
we're captured, and proved to be DIR. Wei
mer, the court physician, and his wife,
Roth were sent to Siberia. The suspicion
has heen persistent that q man named
Kazcbeffsky was the assailant and that
Kazcheffsky was Stepniak.
London was his refuge for many years.
and there he published Free Russia, a
newsnaper 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
constantly watched, and number of at
tempts were 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 %
wears 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
paign. His efforts were along the line of
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 the
late car. Stepniak means literally 1.-THE
Son of the Steppes, and no admitted ii
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 1882 the peculiar traits of those men
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 a
degree was known among his fellow rev.
olutionists to have planned out many a
method of escape for condemned prison
er, and by his own personal prowess and
sheer daring effected rescues. What great
DASH what self control, IL must have TAX
en- to try at least in crowded Russian
city to get to man whose fate was sealed
etepniak, who drove sledge alongside,
would have done his best to pluck the con-
uemned 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
enort' as the political prisoner Volkhovsky
teiis us failed, but not from any fault OF
oerglus Stepniak. If on this occasion an
unforeseen accident prevented the accom-
pishnent OF the escape, nevertheless the
Vooi DARING of Stepniak remains as salient
as ever Many man and woman who
Nes today outside of Russia is of this
world now because of the strong hand and
courage of this nihilist.
III appearance he was man not quito
ieeV III height, but his solid build and
massive form, with breadth of shoulders
"nu large, well shaped head, made him
appear not so tall as he really was. His
Spe oil face was distinctly Russian, his
.Orenead OF great width and his eyes in
eensely black. 1t was face showing will
Iuu control of power. One might speou-
" ,aso long on the ways of Stepniak and
mOnuer how, with such marked face, he
Wa WAS 50 long capable of escaping detection
a ~ means OF DISCUSSES, for to change his
~ppy'rance, one might fancy required
MARKED mobility of expression.
IT,. S.epnlak spoke English, French and
i'S aiiah perfectly. In conversation in Eng
w @n ne never seemed mt loss for the exact
fooa, u, though he retained somewhat of a
swoa ,eh accent. His voice was singularly
r nv. ana well modulated, and his man.
Tbo never slow, was rather impassive
dit,a oughiy logical in describing the con-
est taTn Oh his country, the efforts made to
P"a olSn some semblance of liberty in
a,ann a' nc was not impassioned. Every
TbS 1 nn9n was quietly, calmly presented
bill ID gi''n usiasin in the man no kept latent.
"'iaaelphia Telegraph.