746 



RUSSIA. 



tion of General Mesentzoff, and that it would 

 henceforward proceed with inflexible severity 

 against all persons guilty of or accessory to 

 machinations directed against the laws, the 

 bases of public or family life, and the rights 

 of property. A ukase was shortly afterward 

 published/ announcing that all state offenses 

 and all assaults on public functionaries must 

 be punished by military law. The pamphlet, 

 "Lite for Life," or "Buried Alive," published 

 at St. Petersburg during September, was re- 

 garded as the manifesto of the Nihilist party. 

 It declared : " We are Socialists. Our purpose 

 is the destruction of the present economical 

 organization and inequality, which constitute, 

 according to our convictions, the root of all 

 the evils of mankind. The question of the po- 

 litical form is entirely indifferent to us." It 

 further threatened that " our daggers will 

 never be sheathed until our oppressors, who 

 strangle and gag us, are expelled from the 

 country ; and a terrible vengeance will be taken 

 if the Russian nation does not put an end to 

 this medieval barbarism." The Government 

 seemed incapable of suppressing the revolu- 

 tionary manifestations. The state of siege had 

 been declared at St. Petersburg and other 

 towns, the police 'was strengthened, and the 

 streets were regularly patrolled; yet the ef- 

 forts to discover the conspirators were fruit- 

 less. The walls were covered with inflamma- 

 tory placards, which were removed as soon as 

 they were seen by the police, but those who 

 printed and posted them could not be detected. 

 The agitation spread among the students at the 

 universities. Early in September some stu- 

 dents at Berlin who were suspected of Nihil- 

 ism were arrested by the police of that city, at 

 the request of the Russian Government. To- 

 ward the end of the same month a number 

 were arrested in Odessa and Kharkov on the 

 charge of being concerned in a conspiracy for 

 breaking into the state prisons and freeing 

 the Nihilists confined therein. Threatening 

 letters were sent anonymously from Kiev to 

 various eminent persons, and the police and 

 gendarmes were authorized to enter factories 

 at any time for the purpose of searching the 

 premises in the presence of the owners, and of 

 making arrests if necessary. A professor of 

 the University of Warsaw was arrested for con- 

 nection with the Socialists ; and an order was is- 

 sued warning employers against engaging work- 

 men from abroad, especially from Germany, 

 on account of the influence they might exert 

 in promoting the growth of the Social Demo- 

 cratic party. The Minister Miliutin received 

 instructions from the Czar to spare no pains 

 and to use whatever means might seem proper 

 for the suppression of Nihilism. The u Golos" 

 was warned for an article which it had pub- 

 lished against the German Anti-Socialist law, 

 and another journal was warned for publishing 

 a letter urging the chief of the secret police to 

 deal leniently with political offenders. The 

 agitation among the students became general 



and serious in December. The disturbances 

 began at the University of Kharkov, where the 

 students of the Veterinary Institute chased an 

 unpopular professor, then went in a body to 

 the university to explain to the students their 

 proceedings and invite cooperation. Several 

 arrests of students were made, in consequence 

 of which a breach took place between the body 

 of the students and the civil authorities. The 

 students sent reports to other university towns, 

 relating what had taken place, and inviting co- 

 operation. The students of the Medico-Chirur- 

 gical Academy, the University, and the Tech- 

 nological Institute at St. Petersburg determined 

 to present an address to the Czarevitch recit- 

 ing their grievances and asking his influence in 

 their behalf. The committee who were ap- 

 pointed to prepare the address were arrested 

 while at work. A second address was pre- 

 pared by a part of the students, and a deputa- 

 tion went to the palace of the Czarevitch to 

 present it. His Highness was absent; a mili- 

 tary officer met the deputation and informed 

 them that their action was illegal, but took 

 charge of the address and promised to present 

 it. The address stated that the prevailing agi- 

 tation was not due to a few evil-disposed per- 

 sons, but extended to all the educational es- 

 tablishments of the country, and had been 

 spreading for several years. Its sources were 

 to be found in the intolerable position in which 

 the youth of Russia were placed It is charged 

 that, notwithstanding the military officer as- 

 sured the students at the palace that they 

 should not be molested for what they had 

 done, several of them were arrested and guards 

 were placed around the colleges. The students 

 of the University of Moscow made a protest 

 against attempts which they alleged had been 

 made to subordinate them to persons uncon- 

 nected with the university. The Moscow " Ga- 

 zette " charged that they also displayed an in- 

 subordinate spirit against their own proper of- 

 ficers. Instructions were sent to the Govern- 

 ors of the university towns to put in force to 

 the fullest extent the laws relating to those in- 

 stitutions, even to closing them. An attempt 

 made by a body of students of the University 

 of Kiev to make a demonstration against the 

 closing of the university resulted in a conflict 

 with the soldiers, in which about eighty persons 

 were killed and wounded on both sides. Or- 

 ders were sent to the police at the frontier to 

 exercise double vigilance in stopping the smug- 

 gling of revolutionary pamphlets and prevent- 

 ing the entrance of revolutionary emissaries 

 from Germany. From the time of the break- 

 ing out of disturbances at Kiev in the spring 

 till the end of the year, more than six hun- 

 dred students of the Universities of Kiev, Khar- 

 kov, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were expelled 

 imprisoned, or sent in exile to Siberia. 



Count Pahlen, the Minister of Justice, who 

 was dismissed from office after the trial of Vera 

 Sassulitch, was a prominent Liberal and a sin- 

 cere reformer, and had been for some time the 



