The herald., 1898-10-15
A NlHILIST LEADER
EXPLAINS THE PRNcIPLEs OF
HIS ORGANIZATION
Universal, Relentless and Terror
Striking Destruction Il
Their Aim

Beaurivage hotel at Geneva, where the
body of the murdered empress of Aus
tria lay in state watched by praying
nuns and priests, I spent an entire night
cioseted with ex-Prof. Dragomanoff, who
was then and still remains the moving
spirit Of the Nihilist party. and in whose
house Vera Sassoulitch was then living,
after having effected her escape from
Russia in spite Of the effort to arrest her
on her acquittal of the charge of shoot
ing at and wounding General Trepoff.
the chief Of police at st. Petersburg" Z"
said an ex-attache Wednesday,
Just before we parted, long after day.
light. moved perhaps by the bottles Of
Rhine wine that we had drunk through
out that warm autumn night, he intt-
mated that before long would have an
opportunity of learning that he had
given q practical demonstration of his
doctrines.
A few weeks later the entire floor OF
the dining room Of the Winter palace at
St. Petersburg was blown to pieces, a
score of servants and officers being killed
and wounded. The czar himself would
have been among their number had he
not been delayed ten minutes beyond the
appointed time in his apartments by a
visit from Prince Alexander Of Bulgaria.
to which alone his escape was due. And
in the following March the czar was
blown to pieces by nitro glycerine bombs
subsequently proved to have been man.
ufactured in Geneva, In all probability
under the supervision of my learned and
ld-mannered friend, Prof Dragoman-
off. Dragomanoff's theories were to the
effect that the assassinations of the
great, and especially of royal person.
ages, are not the offsprings Of any senti-
ments Of personal hatred or vengeance.
"Nihilists and anarchists - they are
one and the same thing know full
we'll that one monarch killed will be
merely succeeded by another; that twen-
ty officials can be found without delay
to take the place of a murdered dignita-
ry, and that there Is no direct and i'm
mediate advantage to be obtained by
the assassination Of a young girl.
such as the queen Of Holland, or Of an
empress so entirely aloof from all polit-
ical and even social life and influence as
Elizabeth Of Austria.
"'Our mission he declared, is one Of
of. are justified by the necessity of root
ing out from mems minds their habitual
respect for the powers that be. The
more attacks on people Of rank and pow
er increase, the more will the people get
to understand the absurdity Of the re-
spect and veneration with which espe-
cially crowned heads have been regarded
for centuries.
"'Oure mission he declared, is one OF
relentless and terror-striking
and in the selection Of our
victims we are guided by the relative
use which the cause Of anarchists would
derive from the death Of any particular
person. In the foremost rank of these
cases stand the people whose sudden and
violent deaths will have the effect Of ter
rifying both government and classes.
and our enemies on the ofheff haXidF Fsas sfe
so mighty that we are morally justified
in making use of all attainable methods
Of striking terror into the hearts Of our
foes.'
"These principles, in which must be
sought the cause for the otherwise alto
gether unaccountable assassination of
Empress Elizabeth, do not, however, owe
their origin to Prof. Dragomanoff, but to
his friend and mentor Bakounine, who
may be justly described as the founder
of nihilism and Of anarchy. Born a /
noble, with the title of baron. in his
youth a page Of Gear Nicholas. an ex-
man, a giant in stature and
an ogre in appearance, first originated
and founded the gospel of anarchy.
"His school is entirely distinct from
socialism, which merely aims at level
ing everything. for it's object is de-
struction. In its sight everything, as It
now exists Is rotten, and before any
thing now can be created all existing
must be destroyed. Relig-
lon, the state, family, laws. property and
all are equally odious and must
be rooted out and abolished.
"It is because nothing as 1t exists at
present finds favor in the eyes Of the
followers of Bakounine that they have
been called anarchists and nihilists.
They desire to break up actual social or
ganization into mere individualism, with
entire independence for each separate
person. They maintain that no one
should be bound by laws, or even moral
obligations of any kind, but that every
body should be allowed to do as he or
she pleases. The object is anarchy in
the truest sense of the word. The fol-
lowers of the creed are modest enough
to decline the attempt to create new
intend to destroy. That they intend to
leave for a better and more enlightened
generation.
'In 1868, at Geneva, Bakounine found
ed the anarchist movement. Its doc
trines are professed by an organization
which has been in existence just thirty
years. which has destroyed the lives of
two sovereigns, as we'll as attempted
those Of others. and which, in spite of
all sorts of special legislation and con-
certed movements on the part of various
European powers, Is stronger and a !
greater menace to society than ever.
Few people are aware Of the fact that
just in the same way as the police have
of photographs which they de-
scribe as their 'rogues' gallery in the
same way the various anarchist lodges
in every capital of the old world, and in
many of the great cities, such as Lyons,
Leipsic and Milan, have col |
lections of photographs containing the
portraits of all the crowned heads of
Europe, of the members of their families,
of the great dignitaries and officials, and
last, but not least, of the police officers,
in each instance the peculiarlties Of ap-
pearance and of character being espe-
cially noted, while the favorite disguises
of the police are described.
"In a word. the anarchists have their
counter police, which is every bit as well
equipped and thoroughly organized as
that which has as its special mission the
hunting dOWn of thaca r,oovovronto Lot