Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/65

Rh distinction of race. Classes or estates, he said, differ organically more than.do nationalities. National differences within the limits of a race are similarly explicable.

N the before-mentioned controversy Herzen prophesied that Černiševskii and his adherents would receive the order of St. Stanislaus, which showed that even such a man as Herzen could misjudge the radical mood and could misunderstand the critics of liberalism.

The condemnation and exile of Černiševskii have not yet been fully explained. It was known already in 1862 that the government had long been afraid of Černiševskii on account of his influence, and it was not surprising that the third section should seize any chance that offered for getting rid of the dreaded tribune by sending him to Siberia. But from the legal point of view the grounds brought forward for the condemnation were insufficient, and it is fairly certain that false witnesses were employed against Černiševskii.

We do not know whether the government had at its disposal any true reports from its secret agents, or whether these latter possessed genuine information concerning Černiševskii's personal participation in the revolutionary movement. Such details as are furnished by those associated with this movement and by Černiševskii's acquaintances are indecisive and conflicting. Persons best acquainted with the available material can get no further than suppositions. During the trial, Černiševskii denied all the accusations made against him, and it does not appear that either before or after his arrest he ever said a word regarding his share in the revolutionary movement. His biographers are compelled to base their hypotheses upon his letters and other writings, those of presiberian days and those composed in exile.

During July to September in the year 1861 there were published in St. Petersburg three numbers of the secretly printed periodical "Velikorus (Great Russia). We now know that the proclamation To the Younger Generation which appeared in its columns was composed by Šelgunov, a collaborator on Černiševskii's review, and we are informed by Dostoevskii and others that it was not approved by Černiševskii. But the political program of "Velikorus was in