Russian Nihilism – 6

Today’s installment concludes Russian Nihilism,
our selection by Sergius Stepniak.

If you have journeyed through all of the installments of this series, just one more to go and you will have completed a selection from the great works of six thousand words. Congratulations!

Previously in Russian Nihilism.

Time: 1881
Place: Russia

The peasants, owing to their ignorance and the vastness of the areas over which they are scattered, cannot be effectively ap pealed to in the present phase of our revolutionary struggle. The Russian revolution is a town revolution and has to find its support in the townspeople, who understand and desire political freedom. These are the educated Russians of all classes, including the workmen of large towns as well as representatives of the privileged classes. The nihilist efforts to achieve that great national end have been of a double nature — partly destructive, partly constructive. The first need not be dwelt upon long, for it had an echo all over the world. It consisted in a series of attempts against the Czar, which profoundly stirred the whole of educated Russia, brought forward the political question to the exclusion of everything else and divided Russia into two hostile camps, between whom victory seemed vacillating.

The constructive work of the nihilists is represented by their efforts to take advantage of a time of public excitement to organize a body of conspirators strong enough to attempt an open military revolution. This part of the nihilists’ activity is less known and little appreciated, because they did not succeed in carrying it to a practical result; yet it is certainly very remarkable what difficulties were overcome. The years 1881 and 1882 mark the nearest approach of the Russian revolution to an actual insurrection similar to that of the Decembrists in 1825. From 1880 revolutionary ideas made rapid progress in the army, especially in the St. Petersburg garrison and the Kronstadt navy. An important secret organization was founded, headed by patriotic officers, including Lieutenant Sukhanov and Baron Stromberg in Kronstadt and Captains Pokhitonov and Rogatchev in St. Petersburg. Scores of officers of all arms and different grades joined the conspiracy, which very soon extended its ramifications all over the empire. It included men of the highest reputation and brilliant military antecedents, such as Colonel Michael Ashenbrenner, Captain Pokhitonov and Baron Stromberg, some of them commanders of independent corps. The soldiers were at the same time approached by socialist workmen with their propaganda. In one important body of troops, which I will not particularize but one which was in possession of guns, it occurred that the two rival revolutionary organizations, the Narod-naia Volia and the Tcherny Perediel, happened to have worked simultaneously without knowing it — the first among the officers, the latter among the privates. Both were so successful that after a time the two streams met. One morning one of the officers, coming unexpectedly to the barracks, noticed that the soldiers were reading a newspaper, which, on his appearance, they hastily concealed under the table. He was curious to know what it was and ordered the paper to be handed over to him. It was a fresh number of the Tcherny Perediel. He said nothing and took the copy with him to show his companions his discovery. The soldiers considered themselves irretrievably lost; but great was their delight when a few days later they learned from their friends on the Tcherny Perediel, with whom those connected with the Narodnaia Volia communicated, that they had nothing to fear, because their officers were their brethren in the cause. The result was a deputation on the part of the privates, which respectfully informed their commanders that they were quite willing at any moment to appear before the palace with their guns and make it a heap of ruins in a quarter of an hour.

In several other independent bodies of troops the revolution was so strongly represented as to render almost certain the adhesion of the whole body at the decisive moment. The military organization had its own central committee, independent in all its interior affairs; but all the military conspirators were pledged by solemn oath to rise in arms at the bidding of the executive committee and come to the place assigned to them with as many of their men as they should be able to bring with them.

One word would have sufficed to effect a military rising. But this word was not uttered and no action took place.

The spread of revolutionary feeling was so rapid in the army that the central committee hoped to be able to strike a great blow and make the insurrection successful. The rising was deferred from week to week and from month to month, until the Government learned what was brooding and arrested the lead ers of the military conspiracy in St. Petersburg and then laid hands on many of their affiliated circles in the province, thus rendering any action impossible.

No one was to blame for these fatal procrastinations. It is a tremendous responsibility to decide upon a premature insurrection, likely to serve as a good example but doomed before hand to failure and bloody suppression, when a short delay gives fair promise of success. Conspiracies are like games of chance, in which the keenest foresight is of no avail against the caprice of Fortune.

The years 1882 and 1883 show a series of attempts to reunite the threads of conspiracies. But disasters, once begun, followed in rapid succession. About two hundred fifty to three hundred officers of all arms were arrested in various parts of the empire, one-third of them belonging to the garrisons of St. Petersburg and Kronstadt. Most of these were young officers of the first three grades. But there were two colonels, two majors and a score of captains and lieutenant-captains. The military organization was broken and the committee was not able to muster sufficient forces even for a serious demonstration.

The year 1884 and the following years are those in which militant nihilism passed through the most critical period of its existence. Conspiracies go on uninterruptedly but they are so weak that they rarely ripen into actual attempts. On only one occasion, namely, in March, 1887, the conspirators were able to appear in the streets with their bombs. The revolution had practically entered a new phase.

This ends our series of passages on Russian Nihilism by Sergius Stepniak. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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