NIHILISM IN RUSSIA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1733, 25 October 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

NIHILISM IN RUSSIA.

By Leo Hartman, Nihilist. «. NUMBER XL M-# AT CLOSE QUARTERS.

Great excitement existed throughout St. Petersburg at the midnight Nihilist raids. The arrest of Kviatkofsky, on whose person was found a plan of the Winter Palace, with a tell-tale cross designating the situation of the imperial dining room, convinced the police that fresh attempts on the Czar's life might be expected. Hence every precaution was taken. The number of gensdarmes and policemen was largely increased, and they incessantly patrolled all the streets, chiefly near the Winter Palace, which was illuminated with electric lijrht. All members of the household to whom the least suspicion attached were at once dismissed. Nevertheless, the following letter was introduced into the palace and found on the Czar's bedroom table. "To AtEXANIDEB 11., EaiPfiEOß OF ATjli the Russias,— Sire : For the fifth time fate has preserved you from the stroke of justice. " There were five decrees dictated by the law of humanity, a Jaw which you no longer recognise. Your know our power and determination. Beware of the sixth decree I "Do you v ish to be a great monarch ? Do you wish all the Russian people to acclaim you and recognise you as their father ? Do you wish that those who strike to-day shall become apostles instead of executioners? " If you do, then cease to bs a tyrant and become a man, and render to your subjects what belongs to man by the law of nature — namely, liberty. " It is not your person that we attack, but your principles. So long as you remain as you are, our judgment will be always tbe same. Saved to-day, you will perish to-, morrow. Neither death nor persecution will stay our arms. "You possess brute force. Wo possess moral force. We have sworn to vanquish, and we must carry oil the victory in the end. The first apostles of Christianity perished at the stake ; their martyrdom was the cause of the ruin of Rome. Beware and reflecc. (Signed) " The Executive Committee." The corruption so prevalent among Russian Government functionaries stood us in good stead in the merciless war of extermination which the chief of the Secret Police waged upon our organisation. Several clerks of tbe Tbird Soction were cautiously approached with a view of making a bargain fcr special information as to the plans and raids contemplated by the enemy. Jeliaboff picked the right individual. A liberal bribe-stake changed hands, and from time to time one of our number went daily to a rendezvous on a public square near the " Summer Garden," where our new acquaintance would stroll by and slip what appeared to be an ordinary cigarette into the hand of our picket as soon as he uttered the password. The filling of the cigarette was nothing else than a correct list of names, with addresses of suspected Nihilists who were to be arrested and searched during the following night. We had thus many hours' start in which to notify our friends of the impending danger.and so well did the secret information jtally with the movements of the detectives that only two of our active comrades were trapped, and both of them j through mere accident. Yet we were doing something of greater moment than playing a hide-and-seek game with the police. The manifesto placed upon the Czar's desk was no empty threat. Burrowing in the very ground beneath the autocrat was one of the trusted men, and soon he would be ready to light the dynamite fuse. Haltourin, a fellow-Nihilist, had for some months been working in the Winter Palace in the guise of a wood carver and polisher, j but secretly he was planning a new mine, Haltourin looked about thirty, slight, with cleaii-cut features, and fair early hair, and close-cropped beard. His small, sharp, white teeth, hia aquline nose and delicately curved mouth made him appear effeminate, notwithstanding his stubborn face, which the pale reflection of his steel-gray eyes now and then lighted up with a flash of savageness. He and three other mechanics were given lodgings in the basement of the palace, but during the day time, in the course of his work, Haltourin had frequent opportunities to visit the Czar's apartments, which were undergoing repairs during bis Crimean visit. It was through this source that Kviatkofsky obtained the diagram of the palace rooms which were found upon him at his capture. Fortunately the authorities were utterly at sea as to where to direct their suspicions. Numerous night-searchers were instituted within the palace itself, to which all the employees, from the courtiers to the kitchen scullions, were subjected alike.and it seemed as though nothing short of a miracle could Bave our fellow conspirator, who already had one hundred and twenty pounds of dynamite stored in his room. He ventured, however, to stuff the explosive in his bedding, and escaped detection when one night the palace guards, on their rounds, entered his room and overhauled, as they imagined, every article. All who have visited St. Petersburg know the Winter Palace. It is considerably larger than tbe Louvre and Tuileries put together. Its suites of splendid apartments, galleries and halls, filled with marbles, malachites, precious stones, vases ; its wall 3 adorned with portraits of the rulers and princes oE Russia, occupy the site of the palace which was burned down to the ground in 1837. It rose out of its ashes, finished and furnistaed, painted and decorated, in one abort year. In order to complete the task at the time appointed by the Czar, the interior works were continued during the great frosts : and when the thermometer outside was several degrees below zero, six thousand working men were daily shut up in the halls, heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so that these poor wretches bad to endure a difference of over 100 degrees of temperature. A. great number of them died daily. Piled up thus in a hurry to please a caprice, without a consideration of the misery tbe execution entailed, since the completion the events with whioh the palace has been associated have hot unfrequently been of a gloomy character. In order to fully comprehend the boldness of Haltourin's undertaking, I must briefly refer to the inner disposition of the Winter Palacu. The dining room, underneath which the explosion took place, is situated, together with the other private apartments of the Czar and the Czarina, on the second floor oi tbe southwest wing of the huge building. Immediately beneath this room 13 located the watch-room, wi h entrance under the main gateway leading into the inner court of the palace. Beneath the watch-room, as, indeed, beneath the first floor, through the whole palace, runs a high basement, the windows oi which are on a level with the street, and in which the kitchens, servants' rooms and various localities devoted to the service of the hundreds of people inhabiting the palace, are situated. For many days Haltourin came to report as to the state of the preparations to Jeliaboff, who represented the executive committee of the Terrorists, They met at the

qu.ckly bru.-iljinj p;.bt his fiicml, Ilaltoiiiin whispered a few words relative to the prospects of touching off the mine. Gensdarmes had meanwhile been lodged in several underground divisions of the pnlace, and our comrade found hiir>sei£ under a constant espionage. Matters looked, indeed, gloomy, for Haltourin was in the last stages of consumption, and to make it alHhe worse he ran the danger of being poisoned to death by the exhalations from the dynamite in his couch. At last, on the eve of February sth, Haltourin approached our delegate with great agitation risible in the fine lines of his pallid countenance. 11 The fuse is lit," said be in a voice of suppressed excitement. "It burns slowly, but we will know as soon as it reaches the explosive." The words had hardly left his lips when a \ terrific rumbling, followed instantly by a loud roar, shook the ground. The. lights in the palace were extinguished. The dark Admiralty Square became still darker. Presently a number of fire engines came dashing toward the Czar's imperilled manor; crowds of people, too, rushed to the scene, and a compact mass of humanity flooded the great square, curious to learn whether destiny had this time overtaken the autocrat, Mangled human bodies were one by one brought out of the debris, placed on sleighs and driven to the morgue. Jeliaboft and Haltouin felt convinced that the Czar bad met his doom, and they passed unnoticed to a place of safety. When the Czar stayed at the capital he was accustomed to dine at 6 o'clock, and relying on the habit, Haltonrin lit the fuse accordingly. The arrival of Prince Alexander, of Bulgaria, that very afternoon caused, however, a slight postponement of the meal, and when the servant announced that the dinner was served, the Czar and his guest were so intect upon the subject of their conversation that the notice was uisregarded. Shortly afterward the lackey returned. As he opened the door the emperor rose. At that instant the terrible explosion occurred. Tbe banquet hall was wrecked as if by an earthquake, and of the 60 Finland regiment ' soldiers stationed in the guard-room, on the ground floor, not one escaped injury, but the despot himself had not a hair ruffied on his bead. On tbe Bame day a traitor to our cause was "silenced" forever on the ice-bound Neva, almost opposite the Winter Palace. Jarkoff, the informer, to whom I refer, was a compositor by trade, and joined our circle in Saratoff before the division occurred between the propagandists and the terrorists. He served in our secret printing office, but was arrested, and revealed to the authorities the names of all his accomplices, many of whom in consequence were captured and transported to Siberia, In return for the information Jarkoff was pardoned and admitted to the detective service of the Third Section. While following this nefarious vocation he espied me one evening on the streets of St. Petersburg, Ignorant of his treachery, we exchanged greetings, and he began questioning me as to my Moscow undertaking, but with little success, inasmuch as I considered it, at all events, best not to discuss the subject. We had just parted, when Michailoff put his hand on my shoulder, saying : "Do you know that that man is an informant ?" "No," I replied, with considerable surprise. "But I have told him nothing that would compromise me. However, he knows of the Moscow plot." By a zigzag course of walking we managed to elude the spy, who, of course, was bent on shadowing us to our domicile. His extermination, however, was a matter of self-pre-servation, and by a strange coincidence it happened that an opportunity presented itself to administer due punishment to the traitor on the very day of the Winter Palace explosion. While crossing the icecovered Neva, he was struck down and killed by a dagger thrust directed by a Teriorist, N., who pinned a slip of paper to his coat bearing the legend : •' The Informer's Reward."