Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/522

506 We may certainly admit that if by nihilism we understand nonsense, nihilism and nonsense will have one and the same meaning. But it is equally true that with such methods of inquiry it is very difficult to succeed in understanding the real meaning of words and facts. And if we begin to ask where, in Russia, is the "actual fact" that might correspond to the word nihilism, we shall find nothing but the general intellectual movement that I have tried to describe. ... Assuredly, the intellectual movement in Russia, as elsewhere, may, in certain individual cases, give rise to some ridiculous results, silly, lending themselves to caricature, sometimes, perhaps, even criminal. It is precisely from these special facts that the notion of nihilism has been built up, uniting them without any reason into one single idea, although they had no connection in reality. Thus, in nature, there are creatures that have tails; others that have the scales of lizards; others, again, with paws and claws like tigers; some, finally, with wings. When you combine all these attributes in a dragon, you have before you a creature of your imagination and not a real being. But, although the dragon plays a very useful part in stories with which to frighten children, it has no place in natural history. Neither, in a serious study of Russia, can nihilism, as a doctrine or a special tendency, have a place.

— "Russia, Political and Social," by L. Tikhomírov. London, 1888.