494 RUSSIAN CORRUPTION 



which have dried up his milk of human kindness, and 

 made him naturally as savage as the wolf with which he 

 has metaphorically fought. There are plenty of wolves 

 in Russian forests, but they seldom come to a poor man's 

 door as they do in England. When they do come the 

 man becomes a Nihilist. 



During both my journeys in Russia, as well as on a 

 subsequent visit to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Warsaw, 

 at the time of the assassination of the late Czar, I made 

 many enquiries respecting Nihilism. I found no difficulty 

 whatever in entering into conversation on the subject, 

 but considerable differences of opinion as to its nature 

 and extent prevailed. One set of opinions, which I 

 found principally held by the foreign residents, repre- 

 sented Nihilism as being confined to a handful of half- 

 crazy fanatics. I was told that the Russians were the 

 most conservative nation in the world, that when there 

 has been another revolution in France, and a revolution 

 in Germany, and when England has become a republic, 

 that then, and not till then, the Russians will enquire 

 whether their turn has not come. There is some truth 

 in this idea. There is a strong party, whose head- 

 quarters are in Moscow, who are very conservative, 

 attributing all the troubles of Russia to the introduction 

 of Western civilisation and Western ideas, and only 

 desirous of going back to the days before Peter the 

 Great. 



The other class of opinions, which I found held by 

 many influential and well-informed Russians, represent 

 Nihilism as a much more important and wide-spread 

 influence, which is said to be especially rife in the army, 

 and is being rapidly disseminated in the country by the 

 soldiers who have served their time and have been 

 dismissed to their homes. The pessimist party naturally 



