Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-06-24
THE UNREST IN RUSSIA.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PART TAKEN
BY THE WORKING CLASS.


The characteristic feature of the
! disturbances in St. Petersburg is the
participation of large numbers of fac
tory workingmen in the demonstra-
tions led by college students. states
the New York Commercial Advertiser.
The dispatches from st. Petersburg
tell of "a bloody encounter between
| Cossacks and workingmen.' This is
new departure in the history of
Nihilism. The movement which began
in the seventies by "going among the
people" for purposes of peaceful prop
aganda, and which eliminated in the
killing of Alexander II. in 1881, was al
most exclusively crusade of cultured
young men and women.
The educated revolutionists started
out upon the theory advocated by
Nicolai Chernyshevski. the leading
Russian critic and economist of the
sixties, that the better classes owed
their superior position to the labor
and sufferings of the masses. and that
it was their moral duty to pay the
debt by working for the economical
anu lIlltllCIIUdl GlGNdslOu VI liic plCoo-
antry. Accordingly. the early phases
of Nihilism-a name. by the way,
which is seldom applied to the Russian
revolutionists in their own country
were of purely educational nature.
The first secret organization to which
, the present movement is directly
traced and of which Prince Kropotkin,
the scientist and anarchist. now lee
turing in this country. was an active
member, was started by a man named
Chaikovski. The Chaikovtz. or Chalk
ovists, originally confined themselves
to the spreading Of literature allowed
by the censor and delivering lectures
to working people. Prince Kropotkin
and others were arrested. The move
ment spread. Hundreds OF educated
young people learned to speak the dia-
lect Of the common people, and putting
on peasant garb went to teach the un-
lettered to read and to write. and to
preach the gospel of peaceful social
ism. The agitators were sent to ST.
IBERIA by the hundred. while scores of
them died of consumption or, went in
sane in the political prisons Of st.
Petersburg and Kharkoff.
In 1879 the Russian socialists held
a secret convention and split into two
factions, the majority assuming the
name of Narodovoltzi (party of the
will of the people,, while the minority
remained faithful to the old policy of
propaganda among the peasants. The
NaradovoltZi favored constitutional
government as a first step which
would clear the way of socialist agita-
ton. "In order to preach equality
and liberty one must first make sure
that one will not be buried alive for
trying to teach peasant to sign his
name" they reasoned. "All our eff
forts have been set at naught by this
barbaric government of ours. and be-
fore we do anything let us secure some
freedom of speech and assemblage-
rights which the people of every CIV
ilized country havo been enjoying for
years."
AS an inevitable means to this end,
however, as "deplorable necessity"
the will of the people started a series
of "terroristic" measures, expecting
to demoralize the government by kill
ing off it's more obnoxious officials and
thus to bring the panic-stricken czar
to terms. In order to show that this
terror" was forced on them by the
government, and was iustifiable under
the peculiar conditions under which
the Nihilists had to work. the organ
of the underground party" printed,
among other things, an obituary of
James Garfield. condemning the as
sassin and expressing deep sympathy
with the mourning republic.
The terrorists who staked their lives
by mining the tracks of railroads over
which the cZar was to pass, attacking
the monarch in broad daylight, or
blowing uD his dining-hall included
the sons and daughters of some of
the highest families in the country.
Thus, Sophia Perovskaya. the young
woman who gave the signal to fire
the fatal bomb upon Alexander H.,
was the daughter of a former gov
ernor of province of st. Petersburg
and the niece of a cabinet minister.
The last issue of the paper pub
lished by the terrorists was printed
in 1886. Since that time the party OF
the Will of the People has been dwind-
ling in numbers, gradually giving away
to "the Social Democratic party"
The underlying principles of this or
ganization are identical with the dec
larations of the socialist parties of
western Europe. Like the German fol
lowers of Karl Marx. for example. the
Russian Social-Democrats are bitter
ly opposed to anarchism in principle
as we'll as in practice. and if they
justify, in exceptional instances. "the
terror" they refer the student of their
movement to the special conditions
which call forth such departure
from their general policy.
The basic idea of socialism in west
ern Europe is that the cooperative
commonwealth" is to come as the
natural outcome of the growth of cap
ital on the one hand and of the antag-
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