Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/98

72 words of Vogt and Büchner, these utterances of the Force and Matter type which were then arousing widespread interest.

Subsequently Darwinism and naturalistic evolutionism found eager acceptance.

The positivism of the nihilists was derived from Feuerbach and Stirner, and in part from Hegel. We have seen that the Russian Hegelians had much to say about the rationality of the real. The development from Hegel to Feuerbach and to materialism was the same in Russia as in the west.

Schopenhauer must likewise be mentioned as a teacher of the nihilists. His pessimism, his criticism of official philosophy, and his literary style, had during the sixties a potent influence in Russia.

Most of the nihilists acquired their philosophical culture at second hand, from Russian teachers. First of all came Herzen, and subsequently Bakunin. Herzen's influence was displayed chiefly in the theoretical field, whilst Černyševskii directly affected practice, above all in the sphere of ethics.

Russian literature, and in particular accusatory literature, supplemented philosophical schooling, and for many, indeed, replaced philosophical schooling.

Foreign belletristic literature came to play a part beside that of Russia. We may refer to the positivism of George Eliot; to the realism of Dickens and Zola (and Spielhagen with his novel Problematic Natures may also be mentioned in this connection); to Victor Hugo, George Sand, etc. The corrosive criticism of Heine was especially influential.

iii. Turgenev's Bazarov is a man who bows before no authority, one who will not accept any principle as an article of faith, be that principle furnished with as many testimonials as you please. The definition may seem somewhat vague, somewhat tortuous, but we can and must make it clear. Nihilism criticises and negates the authorities and principles of the elder generation; in the concrete, it criticises and renounces the Uvarovian trinity of church, state, and nationality. "Destructive" criticism is aimed chiefly at orthodoxy and theocracy, even though in view of the censorship the onslaught must be indirect. Atheism and materialism are at once preconditions and logical consequences of nihilist criticism and negation.

When Pisarev, like all the realists, is continually engaged