Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/107

Rh Nietzsche formulated the problem, and in this spirit the problem of nihilism is to-day being reconsidered with renewed zeal by many thinkers.

Since the sixties, nihilism has been the question of questions for thoughtful Russians—and for thoughtful Europeans.

HE great hopes which, after the Crimean catastrophe, had been founded upon the liberation of the peasantry and upon administrative reforms, were speedily dashed, and a revolutionary movement ensued, culminating in the assassination of Alexander II. The outward history of this movement is known; partial freedom stimulated aspirations for complete freedom. We have now to consider the views which found expression in and through this movement, to discuss the program disseminated by secret presses and unlawful secret societies, both in Russia and elsewhere.

i. In 1862 was established in St. Petersburg the first secret society, known as Zemlja i Volja (Land and Freedom). It maintained relationships with the Polish revolutionaries, and through the instrumentality of Bakunin was likewise in correspondence with Herzen, though the last-named mistrusted it.

The program of the Central Committee of the Russian People maintained the duty and the right of revolution as a means of defence against the oppression and cruelty of absolutism; it sharply counterposed the interests of the the cooperation of those whom no danger could affright. The ultimate aim of the revolution was stated to be the summoning of a national assembly which was freely to decide a social organisation of Russia; the activity of the society would terminate when freedom of election to the national assembly had been secured.

Another secret society, to which reference has already been made, was Velikorus' (Great Russia). Černyševskii was said to have participated in the work of both these societies.

The secret organisation of the radical revolutionary elements began at various places and assumed many different forms. Rh