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164 Mihailovskii's socialism, his work for the folk and above all for the peasants, harmonise better with the political aspirations which found their climax in the call, "Land and Freedom." I do not know whether and to what extent he was then connected with the secret societies, but in 1878 he wrote on behalf of "Načalo" (beginning, principle), a revolutionary periodical clandestinely printed in Russia, a leaflet in which the acquittal of Věra Zasulič by the jury was made the occasion for the demand for a constitution or for the summoning of the zemski sobor. Should this demand not be granted, a secret committee of public safety must be constituted. "Woe, then, to the fools who oppose the course of history!" Zasulič was represented as the embodiment of the Russian conscience and the Russian idea, but Mihailovskii emphasised the words which Zasulič had uttered before the judge: "It is hard to raise one's hand against a fellow human being."

In 1879, Mihailovskii published in the organ of the Narodnaja Volja two Political Letters by a Socialist. They were political because he had come to the conclusion that the revolutionists were mistaken in despising political work because they aspired to the social revolution. He reiterated his views concerning the consequences of the French revolution, which had indeed brought the constitutionalism of bourgeois liberalism, but had left social inequality. The revolutionaries were wrong in believing that Russia could effect the social revolution without the aid of the bourgeoisie. Russia, he showed, was still under the yoke of its bourgeoisie. Alexander II would not voluntarily grant a constitution; it must be forced from him. Mihailovskii therefore summoned the revolutionaries to the political struggle. In Europe, political freedom was proclaimed after the third estate, the bourgeoisie, had already become firmly established alike intellectually and materially. Russia must learn by Europe's example, and must exact political freedom by force before the bourgeoisie had in like manner become firmly established in Russia. Mihailovskii did not believe that the Russian folk would rise in revolt; and the revolutionaries, the intelligentsia, must therefore take up the political struggle. The social disease of Europe was caused, not by political freedom, but by the system of private robbery. The Russian eagle had two heads, and with one beak he tore political freedom