Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/146

 106 most rudimentary kind. It was almost pathetic to see the crude efforts at rudimentary education made by these peasants in order to enlighten a few of their children.

One evening I found myself in conversation with another village character. He was the priest's assistant and choir trainer. At his request we took a little walk together to the outskirts of the village, and for some minutes as we walked along he remained silent as if pondering over something in his mind. Suddenly he turned to me and proceeded to ply me with one question after another about the country from which I came. "What political parties are there in England?" he asked. "Is there a Revolutionary party?" To this I replied by asking what he meant by a Revolutionary party, and I was informed that it meant an organization for the destruction of ministers and governments. I tried to explain that such a policy had not yet appeared in England, and proceeded to ask what good he thought such an organization would do. A blank stare came in his face; an expression which asked, "How could anyone with any education or culture doubt that an organization for destroying governments was necessary for the welfare of the State." What he proposed to put in its place appeared in his mind to be quite a secondary matter, which he refused even to discuss when I broached the matter to him. "An organization," he added, "is necessary to make the ministers of the Tsar go!" and then with a gesture he imitated the explosion of a bomb. I realised then that I was in the presence of a member of the Socialist Revolution Society, and possibly of a former active member of that body for whom the authorities had