A LETTER TO RUSSIAN LIBERALS 195
that our Government is very bad^ and who struggle against it. From before the days of Radistchef* and the Decembrists there have been two ways of carrying on the struggle. One way is that of Stenka Razin,t Pougatchef,! the Decembrists, the Revolutionary party of the 'sixties, § the Terrorists of March 1,|| and others. The other way is that which is preached and practised by you, the method of the ' Gradualists/ which consists in carrying on the struggle without violence and within the limits of the law, conquering constitutional rights bit by bit.
Within my memory both these methods have been employed unremittingly for more than half a century,
- Radistchef, the author oi A Journey from Petersburg to
Moscow, was a Liberal whose efforts towards the abolition of serfdom led to his being banished to Siberia. Recalled to Petersburg after five years, he recommenced his activity as a reformer, was reproved and threatened by the Government, became hypochondriac, and committed suicide in 1802.
As to the Decembrists, see footnote on p. 160.
f Stenka Razin Avas a Cossack who raised a formidable insurrection in the seventeenth century. He was eventually defeated and captured, and was executed in Moscow in 1671.
X Pougatchef headed the most formidable Russian insur- rection of the eighteenth century. He was executed in Moscow in 1776.
§ The series of reforms, including the abolition of serf- dom, which followed the Crimean War and the death of Nicholas I., were, from the first, adopted half-heartedly, and since the time of the Polish insurrection (1863) the control of the Government has been in reactionary hands. The more vehement members of the Liberal party, losing hope of constitutional reform, formed a Revolutionary party in the 'sixties, and later on the Terrorist party was started, which organized assassinations as a means towards liberty, equality, and fraternity.
II Alexander II. was killed by a bomb thrown at him in the streets of Petersburg on March 1, o.s. (^March 13, n.s.), 1881. This assassination was organized by the Terrorist party.
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