The Socialism of to-day

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

204 THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. forms in which that activity should express itself may be widely varied : poison, poignard, running noose. The revolu tion sanctifies all means without distinction.” These means will appear somewhat superannuated to-day, but ten years ago petroleum and dynamite did not yet occupy, in the revolution ary arsenal, the position now assured to them by their proved efficiency. To attain to “ pan-destruction,” the first requisite is “ a series of outrages and of audacious and even mad enter prises, striking terror into the powerful and arousing the people, till they believe in the triumph of the Revolution.” Does not this infernal programme seem like a hideous dream ?—and yet the various attempts at assassination which take place almost daily in Russia and elsewhere prove that it is being carried out to the letter. It is incomprehensible how this frightful work of pan-destruction can inspire persons belonging to the well-to-do classes with that savage fanaticism which leads them to sacrifice their own lives in order to kill those whom the Vehmgericht condemns to death. In the West, regicides are not wanting, and they act under the sway of this same hatred of the social order, but they have no accomplices, and the criminal idea springs from a sort of sickly fermentation in disordered brains : the two regicides of Berlin, the two of Madrid, and the one of Naples all displayed the same characteristics. In Russia the assassins are intelligent, well-informed, determined persons, and they act in obedience to a vast association which is everywhere present, but which, nevertheless, baffles the most persistent efforts of the police. There must be a force of mystical exalta tion in the Russian character which has disappeared elsewhere. To find a similar phenomenon, we must go back to the partisans of the “ Old Man of the Mountain,” in the thirteenth century. The organization of the party has not remained unknown ; it was formulated by Bakunin in the “ Revolutionary Cate chism,” written in cipher, but read by the public prosecutor at the trial of Netchaieff, on the 8th of July, 1871. The following are extracts from it :—“The revolutionist is a man under a vow. He ought to have no personal interests, no business, no feelings, no property. He ought to be entirely absorbed in one single

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The Socialism of to-day

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation