Vera Figner the-people Leo Deutsch gives the following vivid description of one of the most famous of the women revolutionists, Vera Figner. I had come to know Vera Figner personally in St. Petersburg and the "go-to- during the year 1877, at a time when she had already adopted movement the idea of going "among the people." Twenty-two years of age, slender and of striking beauty, she was even then a noteworthy figure among the other prominent women socialists. Like so many other girls, she had thrown heart and soul into the cause of the Russian peasants, and was ready and willing to sacrifice everything to serve the people. In the summer of 1879 I again came repeatedly in contact with her. As I have previously said, this was a time of hot discussion as to our future programme. Some held the opinion that the whole strength of our party should be concentrated on the terrorist struggle to overthrow the existing machinery of State by attempting the lives of the Tsar and the lesser representatives of despotism. Others contended that revolutionary propaganda ought still to be tried and carried further than hitherto; that revolutionists should work among the people, colonize the villages, and instruct the peasants in the manner adopted by the organization called "Land and Freedom." Vera Figner was one of the most strenuous supporters of the former view. I remember well, how once, when our whole circle had met and ignorance together at Lesnoye, a summer resort near St. Petersburg, we were arguing hotly with her as to how propaganda among the peasantry might be made to yield the most fruitful results. She had just returned from a small village on the Volga, where she had been living as a peasant for purposes of propaganda. The impressions she had received there had stirred her deeply, and she described in graphic language the fathomless misery and poverty, the hopeless ignorance of the provincial working classes. The conclusion she drew from it all was that under existing conditions there was no way of helping these people. Show me any such way; show me how, under present circumstances, I can serve the peasants, and I am ready to go back to the villages at once," she said. And her whole The misery of the peas ants ee cription of lutionists, Petersburg o years of en a note- soul into as to our the whole e terrorist State by onize the sburg, we ga, where paganda. at under r whole manner left no doubt of her absolute sincerity and readiness to keep her word. But her experience had been that of many others who had idealized "the people," and also their own power of stirring them; and we were none of us prepared with any definite counsel that could deter her from the new path she had determined to tread - simply because she could see no other leading to the desired end. te When I went to Odessa in the late autumn of the same year v I found Vera Figner there. In conjunction with Kibaltchitch, t Frolenko, Kolotkevitch, and Zlatopolsky she was busy with preparations for an attempt on the life of Alexander II, who was about to return to St. Petersburg from Livadia. The dynamite was stored in her house; she had now put aside all doubt, and devoted herself with her whole soul to terrorist activity. She belonged to the Russian aristocracy; her grandfather had won a name for himself in the guerrilla warfare against Napoleon's invasion. Inflexible determination and tireless perseverance were her most prominent qualities; she was never contented with a single task, even the most enthralling, but would carry on work in all sorts of different directions simultaneously. While engaged in making ready for this attempt on the Tsar's life she was at the same time organizing revolutionary societies among the youth of the country, doing propaganda work in the higher ranks of society, and helping us in Odessa with a secret newspaper that we were starting for South Russia. But Vera Figner was still only in the developing stage of H her strength and capacities. She was already highly esteemed P by all who came near her, winning their sympathy and confidence; yet even her greatest friends could hardly suspect the depth of character possessed by this radiantly beautiful girl. It was fully shown in 1882, when nearly all her comrades were in prison, and the few who had escaped capture had fled into foreign countries; she resolutely declined to entertain the idea of flight, though the danger of arrest menaced her at every turn. In 1883 she fell a victim to the treachery of Degaiev, and was sentenced to death; but "by favor" this was altered to lifelong penal servitude, and she was immured in the living grave of the Schlüsselburg fortress, where she still is (1902). m 334. The assassina tion of Alexander II The bombs are thrown Finding that his cruel police system and manifold precautions against the spread of revolutionary ideas were without avail in checking the opposition to his autocratic system, Alexander II at last consented to summon a deliberative assembly which his more liberal advisers hoped would readily be transformed into a permanent national parliament. But in March, 1881, before the Tsar's resolution was made known to his people, he was assassinated. The following description of this terrible episode is taken from the memoirs of Prince Kropotkin, mentioned above (p. 345). In February, 1881, Melikoff reported that a new plot had been laid by the Revolutionary Executive Committee, but its plan could not be discovered by any amount of searching. Thereupon Alexander II decided that a sort of deliberative assembly of delegates from the provinces should be called. Always under the idea that he would share the fate of Louis XVI, he described this gathering as an assembly of notables, like the one convoked by Louis XVI before the National Assembly in 1789. The scheme had to be laid before the Council of State, but then again he hesitated. It was only on the morning of March 1 (13), 1881, after a final warning by Loris Melikoff, that he ordered it to be brought before the council on the following Thursday. This was on Sunday, and he was asked by Melikoff not to go out to the parade that day, there being danger of an attempt on his life. Nevertheless he went. He wanted to see the Grand Duchess Catherine, and to carry her the welcome news. He is reported to have told her, "I have determined to summon an assembly of notables." However, this belated and half-hearted concession had not been made public, and on his way back to the Winter Palace he was killed. It is known how it happened. A bomb was thrown under his iron-clad carriage to stop it. Several Circassians of the escort were wounded. Rysakoff, who flung the bomb, was arrested on the spot. Then, although the coachman of the Tsar earnestly advised him not to get out, saying that he could drive him still anifold pre summon a al advisers permanent before the ple, he was is terrible Kropotkin, plot had tee, but its searching. eliberative be called. Louis XVI, es, like the ssembly in El of State, orning of Melikoff, on the fol asked by wever, this He public, led. under his he escort rested on earnestly him still in the slightly damaged carriage, he insisted upon alighting. He felt that his military dignity required him to see the wounded Circassians, to condole with them as he had done with the wounded during the Turkish war, when a mad storming of Plevna, doomed to end in a terrible disaster, was made on the day of his fête. He approached Rysakoff and asked him something; and as he passed close by another young man, Grinevetsky, the latter threw a bomb between himself and Alexander II, so that both of them should be killed. They both lived but a few hours. the Ts There Alexander II lay upon the snow, profusely bleeding, T abandoned by every one of his followers! All had disappeared. It was cadets, returning from the parade, who lifted the suffering Tsar from the snow and put him in a sledge, covering his shivering body with a cadet mantle and his bare head with a cadet cap. And it was one of the terrorists, Emeliánoff, with a bomb wrapped in a paper under his arm, who, at the risk of being arrested on the spot and hanged, rushed with the cadets to the help of the wounded man. Human nature is full of those contrasts. Thus ended the tragedy of Alexander II's life. People could ch not understand how it was possible that a Tsar who had done Al so much for Russia should have met his death at the hands of revolutionists. To me, who had the chance of witnessing the first reactionary steps of Alexander II, and his gradual deterioration, who had caught a glimpse of his complex personality, that of a born autocrat whose violence was but partially mitigated by education, of a man possessed of military gallantry, but devoid of the courage of the statesman, of a man of strong passions and weak will, it seemed that the tragedy developed with the unavoidable fatality of one of Shakespeare's dramas. Its last act was already written for me on the day when I heard him address us, the promoted officers, on June 13, 1862, immediately after he had ordered the first executions in Poland. Here follows the letter sent by the Revolutionary Executive Committee to Alexander III, after the assassination of Alexander II. 335. Letter lutionary (1881) Your Majesty: March 10, 1881 Although the Executive Committee understands fully the of the Revo- grief that you must experience at this moment, it believes that Committee to it has no right to yield to the feeling of natural delicacy which Alexander III would perhaps dictate the postponement of the following explanation to another time. There is something higher than the most legitimate human feeling, and that is, duty to one's country, the duty for which a citizen must sacrifice himself and his own feelings, and even the feelings of others. In obedience to this all-powerful duty we have decided to address you at once, waiting for nothing, as will wait for nothing the historical process that threatens us with rivers of blood and the most terrible convulsions. Hanging will not destroy the Revolution Terrorist deeds will increase on You are aware, your Majesty, that the government of the late Tsar could not be reproached with a lack of energy. It hanged the innocent and the guilty, and filled prisons and remote provinces with exiles. Scores of so-called "leaders" were captured and hanged, and died with the courage and tranquillity of martyrs; but the movement did not cease, the contrary it grew and strengthened. The revolutionary movement, your Majesty, is not dependent upon any particular individuals; it is a process of the social organism; and the scaffolds raised for its more energetic exponents are as powerless to save the outgrown order of things as the cross that was erected for the Redeemer was powerless to save the ancient world from the triumph of Christianity. The government, of course, may yet capture and hang an immense number of separate individuals, it may break up a great number of separate revolutionary groups; but all this will not change, in the slightest degree, the condition of affairs. A dispassionate glance at the grievous decade through which we have just passed will enable us to forecast accurately the future progress of the revolutionary movement, provided the policy of the government does not change. The movement will continue to grow and extend; deeds of a terroristic nature will increase in frequency and intensity. Meanwhile the number of the discontented in the country will grow larger and larger ; confidence in the government, on the part of the people, will |