Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/480

454 elder brother was sent to Siberia and killed himself there; the younger escaped shortly before the date fixed for his execution. Thus like an avalanche does a terrible destiny develop out of a students' demonstration, thus does the ruthlessness of absolutism force the most peaceable of men into revolutionary opposition, thus does absolutism as it were compel the very sceptic to the hesitating use of the automatic pistol.

I am unable to say how far A Mother's Reminiscences contains an accurate record of events, but the book suffices to show how Ropšin's conception of the fourth apocalyptic rider Death, whom Hell followed, was a necessary outcome of the pathological state of revolutionary and absolutist Russia.

The Pale Horse is a notable work both from the literary and philosophical point of view, but progressive criticism was extremely reserved in its attitude, partly perhaps because the writing was published in Struve's review. In 1912, however, a second novel by Ropšin, The Tale of What was Not, was published in "Zavěty," the new social revolutionary review. Discussion and polemic concerning Ropšin's writings now became general.

No fresh philosophical contribution is furnished by this second novel, but the philosophy of revolution is exhibited, or it might be better to say experienced by revolutionists, in a different situation. Ropšin describes the mass revolution and the subsequent constitutionalist epoch. The revolutionists bring forward their ideas on the barricades and during the proceedings of the new duma. Ropšin is wholly occupied with his own problem. He makes no attempt to show to what extent the terrorist tactics of the social revolutionaries contributed to bring about the mass rising; he merely describes how his party was drawn into the general revolt, and how this revolt was crushed by the triumphant reaction. The disaster is accompanied by an internal process of dissolution, for general disillusionment ensues upon the recognition that the party has been led by a provocative agent (Ropšin's Azev passes by the name of Berg), who destroys the central committee and therewith the whole party.

Philosophically, Ropšin restates his dilemma thus. Either it is lawful to kill always, or not at all. Nothing but belief