- Project Runeberg -  Impressions of Russia /
49

(1889) [MARC] Author: Georg Brandes Translator: Samuel Coffin Eastman - Tema: Russia
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A conception of the stoicism of Russian prisoners can
be gained by reading, in Dostoyevski’s “Recollections
of a Dead House,” the number of lashes they endure
without a complaint or a groan. In later times, there
have been repeated instances of the resolution with
which political prisoners have sought death to avoid
disclosing their accomplices. One has killed himself by the
aid of petroleum, and another has cut his throat with a
fragment of glass, all access to weapons having been
denied them.

Out of Russia, an already extended list of revolutionary
spirits in this land has attracted the attention and kept
curiosity on the alert. We call them Nihilists,—of which
the Russian pronunciation is neegilist, which, however, is
now obsolete. Confined to the terroristic group in Europe
the number of these persons is certainly very small.
Perhaps, as is thought in Russia, there are five hundred
in all, who busy themselves, even if reluctantly, with
thoughts of resorting to bombs and murderous weapons
to inspire terror. But it is not exactly this group that is
meant when we speak of that nihilistic force in society
which extends everywhere, into all circles, and finds
support and strongholds at widely spread points. It is
indeed not very different from what elsewhere in Europe
is regarded as culture, advanced culture: the profound
scepticism in regard to our existing institutions in their
present form, what we call royal prerogative, church,
marriage, property.

The nigilists even do not call themselves by this old
name, to which currency was given by Turgenief, in
“Fathers and Sons.” It dates from the time when Russia
by the death of the Tsar Nicholas had been liberated
from the system of compulsion intensified to the highest
degree under an absolute monarchy, and when not only

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