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THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

the  association  from  the  fragment  that  they  seize.  The  Nihilists ­
  penetrate  everywhere  :  they  shrink  from  no  means  of
executing  the  sentence  of  the  secret  tribunal.  When  they  are
shot  or  hung,  they  die  without  repenting,  and  they  defy  both
judge  and  executioner.  A  real  dread  of  them  weighs  upon  the
upper  ranks  of  society  in  Russia,  especially  since  the  terrible
death  of  the  Emperor  Alexander.  The  life  of  the  present
sovereign  is  in  constant  danger.  It  is  hard  to  say  which  is  the
more  astonishing,  the  audacity  of  the  Nihilists  or  the  impotence ­
  of  the  police.
The  trial  of  Netchaieff  also  enables  us  to  learn  how  the
association  enlisted  its  partisans.  Netchaieff  was  Bakunin’s
lieutenant.  Ogareff  had  dedicated  to  him,  in  Herzen’s  Kolokol,
a  poem  entitled  “The  Student,”  which  has  exercised  a  great
influence  over  the  revolutionary  youth  of  Russia.  Each  of
them  learned  it  by  heart,  and  it  is  the  model  they  endeavour  to
realize.  In  this  little  poem  the  student  devotes  himself  to
science  and  to  the  redemption  of  the  people.  He  is  hunted
down  by  the  police  of  the  Tsar  and  by  the  hatred  of  the
Boyars.  He  adopts  the  poor  and  nomad  life  of  a  vagabond
{skitanie),  saying  to  the  peasants  from  morn  till  eve,  “  Arise,
in  union  and  with  courage  !  ”  He  was  condemned  to  penal
servitude  in  Siberia,  where  he  died  repeating,  “The  people
must  win  land  and  liberty  :  Zemlia  e  Volyia.”  This  watchword
became  the  title  of  a  newspaper  secretly  published,  up  to  quite
recently,  by  the  Nihilists.
In  September,  1865,  Netchaieff,  whom  Ogareff’s  poetry
surrounded  with  the  halo  of  an  apostle  and  a  martyr,  arrived
at  Moscow.  There  he  entered  into  relations  with  the  students
at  the  Academy  of  Agriculture.  He  made  some  recruits  and
formed  a  committee,  which  he  called  “The  Russian  Branch  of
the  International  Working  Men’s  Association.”  He  gave  them
some  instructions  on  the  organization  of  the  Secret  Society.
The  document  was  taken  and  read  at  the  trial.  The  following
is  a  remarkable  extract  “  The  organization  is  founded  on
confidence  towards  the  individual.  No  member  knows  in
what  degree  he  stands  from  the  centre.  Obedience  to  the
orders  of  the  committee  must  be  absolute,  without  hesitation