SECRET SOCIETIES IN RUSSIA. 



415 



Perhaps the best way of conveying an idea of 

 this peculiar movement is to describe briefly the 

 society which has most recently attracted public 

 attention. 



In April, 1875, a peasant, who was at the same 

 time a factory- worker, informed the police that 

 certain persons were distributing revolutionary 

 pamphlets among the people of the factory where 

 he was employed, and as a proof of what he said 

 he produced some pamphlets which he had him- 

 self received. This led to an investigation, by 

 which it was found that a number of young men 

 and women, evidently belonging to the educated 

 classes, were employed as common laborers in 

 several factories, and were disseminating revolu- 

 tionary ideas by means of pamphlets and conver- 

 sation. Arrests followed, and it was soon dis- 

 covered that these agitators belonged to a large 

 secret association, which had its centre in Mos- 

 cow, and local branches in Ivanovo, Tula, and 

 Kiev. In Ivanovo, for instance — a manufacturing 

 town about one hundred miles to the northeast of 

 Moscow — the police found a room inhabited by 

 three young men and four young women, all of 

 whom, though belonging to the educated classes, 

 had the appearance of ordinary factory-workers, 

 prepared their own food, did with their own 

 hands all the domestic work, and sought to avoid 

 everything that could distinguish them from the 

 laboring population. In the room were found 

 two hundred and forty-five copies of revolution- 

 ary pamphlets, a considerable sum of money, a 

 large amount of correspondence in cipher, and 

 several forged passports. 



How many members the society contained it 

 is impossible to say, for some eluded the vigi- 

 lance of the police; but many were arrested, and 

 ultimately forty-seven were condemned. Of these, 

 eleven were nobles, seven were sons of village 

 priests, and the remainder belonged to the lower 

 classes — that is to say, the small officials, burgh- 

 ers, and peasants. The average of the prisoners 

 was rather less than twenty-four — the oldest be- 

 ing thirty-six, and the youngest under seventeen ! 

 Only five were more than twenty-five years of 

 age, and none of these five were ringleaders. 

 The female element was represented by no less 

 than fifteen young persons, whose average age was 

 under twenty-two. Two or three of these, to judge 

 by their photographs, were of decidedly prepos- 

 sessing appearance, and apparently little fitted 

 for taking an active part in wholesale massacres, 

 such as the society talked about organizing. It 

 would be interesting to inquire how it has come 

 about that there are in Russia young ladies of 



prepossessing appearance, respectable family, and 

 considerable education, who are ready to enter 

 upon wild sanguinary enterprises which inevitably 

 lead in the long-run to the house of correction or 

 the mines of Siberia ; but I must postpone this 

 investigation to a more convenient season. For 

 the present, suffice it to say that there are such 

 young ladies in Russia, and that several of them 

 were condemned as founders and active members 

 of the society in question. 



The character and aims of the society are 

 clearly depicted in the documentary and oral evi- 

 dence produced at the trial. According to the 

 fundamental principles, there should exist among 

 the members absolute equality, complete mutual 

 responsibility, and full confidence and openness 

 with regard to the affairs of the organization. 

 Among the conditions of admission, we find that 

 the candidate should be willing to devote himself 

 entirely to revolutionary activity; that he should 

 be ready to cut all ties, whether of love or of 

 friendship, for the good cause; that he should 

 possess great powers of self-sacrifice and the ca- 

 pacity for keeping secrets ; and that he should 

 consent to become, when necessary, a common 

 laborer in a factory. The desire to preserve ab- 

 solute equality is well illustrated by the regula- 

 tions regarding the administration ; the office- 

 bearers are not to be chosen by election, but all 

 members are to be office-bearers in turn, and to 

 be changed every month. 



The ultimate aim of the society seems to have 

 been to destroy the existing social order, and to 

 replace it by one in which there should be no 

 private property and no distinctions of class or 

 wealth ; or, as it is put in one place, " to found 

 on the ruins of the social organization which at 

 present exists the empire of the working-classes." 

 The means by which the necessary revolution is 

 to be effected are carefully enumerated in one of 

 the documents seized by the authorities. Each 

 member, it is there explained, has the greatest 

 liberty as to the means, but he is to leave nothing 

 undone to forward the cause of the revolution. 

 For the guidance of the inexperienced the follow- 

 ing means are recommended: simple conversa- 

 tion, dissemination of pamphlets, the exciting cf 

 discontent, the formation of organized groups, 

 the foundation of funds and libraries. These, 

 taken together, constitute, in the terminology of 

 revolutionary science, "propaganda." Besides 

 it, there should be " agitation." The difference 

 between propaganda and agitation, we are in- 

 formed, consists in this, that the former aims at 

 enlightening the masses regarding the true nature 



