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Poland, and the example from Poland could not be
defied in Russia proper. The unrestricted, absolute
power and the unqualified Greek Catholic orthodoxy,
which had been upheld in the western provinces, were
necessarily upheld throughout the whole empire. Now,
when the glamour of the name of the Tsar has become
weaker, we can see the possibility, as a result of the
situation, that in times of disturbance a dictator might
usurp the power, — a man of revolution, for instance,
if such could be found, with a past and a popularity,
like Skobelef, the celebrated cavalry general who died
under such horrible circumstances.
From 1866 the current of re-action continually
increased. Everything helped it on, radical as well as
retrograde agitations in foreign lands. Soon at several
places in the empire the oppression becomes too strong,
produces this revolutionary propaganda or attempts at
political murder, and for every political prosecution
re-action takes a new stride, with doubled frenzy.
Everything strengthens it, everything works to its
advantage. The old “Nihilism,” which was described
by Turgenief, which was substantially an intellectual
emancipation, with its whole energy concentrated on
the attack on Christianity, and with a love for science,
which found its expression in dislike of art as useless
and undemocratic, was over about 1870. The insurrection
of the commune in Paris, and the outbreaks of the
internationals, set the minds of the youth in active
ferment at this time. A generation had arisen, which,
instead of the individualized radicalism of the older
“Nihilists,” had socialism for a religion and the people
for a God.
From all parts of Russia and Siberia young girls
streamed to Zürich to study medicine and socialism. In
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