Nijni-Novgorod, Penza, Samara, Saratov, Kharkof, Kiev, Odessa, Rostov-on-the-Don and Taganrog; and closer relations were established with the revolutionary Socialists in western Europe, especially with the followers of Bakunin, who considered that a great popular rising should be brought about in Russia as soon as possible. Bakunin’s views did not, it is true, obtain unanimous acceptance. Some of the Nihilists maintained that things were not yet ripe for a rising of the masses, that the pacific propaganda must be continued for a considerable time, and that before attempting to overthrow the existing social organization some idea should be formed as to the order of things which should take its place. The majority, however, were too impatient for action to listen to such counsels of prudence, and when they encountered opposition on the part of the government they urged the necessity of retaliating by acts of terrorism. In a brochure issued in 1874 one of the most influential leaders (Tkatchev) explained that the object of the revolutionary party should be, not the preparation of revolution in general, but the realization of it at the earliest possible moment, that it was a mistake to attach great importance to questions of future social organization, and that all the energies of the party should be devoted to “a struggle with the government and the established order of things, a struggle to the last drop of blood and to the last breath.” In accordance with the fashionable doctrine of evolution, the reconstruction of society on the tabula rasa might be left, it was thought, to the spontaneous action of natural forces, or, to use a Baconian phrase, to natura naturans.
To this and similar declarations of irreconcilable hostility the government replied by numerous arrests, and in the winter of 1877–1878 no less than 193 agitators, selected from 2000 arrested on suspicion, were tried publicly in St Petersburg by a tribunal specially constituted for the purpose. Nearly all of them were condemned to imprisonment or exile, and the revolutionary organization in the northern provinces was thereby momentarily paralysed, but a few energetic leaders who had escaped arrest reorganized their scattered forces and began the work anew. They constituted themselves into a secret executive committee, which endeavoured to keep in touch with, and partially direct, the independent groups in the provincial towns. Though they never succeeded in creating an efficient centralized administration. they contrived to give to the movement the appearance of united action by assuming the responsibility for terrorist crimes committed by persons who were in reality not acting under their orders. During the years 1878, 1879 and 1880 these terrorist crimes were of frequent occurrence. General Trepov, prefect of St Petersburg, was shot by Vera Zasulitch under pretence of presenting a petition to him; General Mezentsov, chief of the political police, was assassinated in broad daylight in one of the principal streets of St Petersburg, and an attempt was afterwards made on the life of his successor, General Drenteln; Prince Krapotkin, governor of the province of Kharkof, was assassinated for having introduced stricter prison discipline with regard to political prisoners; a murderous attack was made on the emperor in front of the Winter Palace by an ex-student called Soloviev; repeated attempts were made to blow up the train conveying the Imperial family from the Crimea to St Petersburg; and a dynamite explosion, by which ten people were killed and thirty-four wounded, took place in the Winter Palace, the Imperial family owing their escape to the accident of not sitting down to dinner punctually at the usual hour. Assassination was used also by the agitators against confederates suspected of giving information to the police, and a number of gendarmes were murdered when effecting arrests. After each of these crimes a proclamation was issued by the executive committee explaining the motives and accepting the responsibility.
When repressive measures and the efforts of the police were found insufficient to cope with the evil, Alexander II. determined to try a new system. Count Loris Melikof was entrusted with semi-dictatorial powers, relaxed the severity of the police régime, and endeavoured to obtain the support of all loyal Liberals by holding out the prospect of a series of reforms in a liberal sense. His conciliatory methods failed signally, and were repaid by an attack on his life. A semblance of parliamentary institutions was not what the Anarchists wanted. They simply redoubled their activity, and hatched a plot for the assassination of the emperor. In March 1881 the plot was successful. Alexander II., when driving in St Petersburg, was mortally wounded by the explosion of small bombs, and died almost as soon as he had reached the Winter Palace. On the following day the executive committee issued a bombastic proclamation, in which it declared triumphantly that the tsar had been condemned to death by a secret tribunal on 26th August 1879, and that two years of effort and painful losses had at last been crowned with success.
These facts put an end to the policy of killing Anarchism by kindness, and one of the first acts of the new reign was a manifesto in which Alexander III. announced very plainly that he had no intention of limiting the autocratic power, or making concessions of any kind to the revolutionary party. The subsequent history of the movement presents little that is interesting or original, merely a continual but gradually subsiding effort to provoke local disturbances with a view to bringing about sooner or later a general rising of the masses and the overthrow not only of the government, but also of the existing social and economic regime. A serious manifestation on the part of the terrorists took the shape of a plot to assassinate the emperor by bombs in the streets of St Petersburg in March 1887. It was the work of a very small group, the members of which were being watched by the police, and were all arrested on the day when the crime was to be perpetrated. The movement afterwards showed occasionally signs of revival. In 1901, for example, there were troubles in the universities, and in 1902 there were serious disturbances among the peasantry in some of the central rural districts; and the assassination of M. Sipiaguine, the minister of the interior, was a disquieting incident; but the illusions and enthusiasm which produced Nihilism in the young generation during the early years of the reign of Alexander II. had been largely shattered and dispelled by experience. The revolutionary propaganda temporarily led to a serious situation in the early years of the reign of Tsar Nicholas II., but a new era opened for Russia with the inauguration of parliamentary government.
The following criminal statistics of the movement during six and a half years of its greatest activity (from 1st July 1881 to 1st January 1888) are taken from unpublished official records:—
| Number of affairs examined in the police department | 1500 |
| Number of persons punished | 3046 |
These 3046 punishments may be divided into the following categories:—
| Death | 20 |
| Penal servitude | 128 |
| Exile in Siberia | 681 |
| Exile under police supervision in European Russia | 1500 |
| Lesser punishments | 717 |
| 3046 |
From the beginning of the movement up to 1902 the number of Anarchists condemned to death and executed was forty-eight, and the number of persons assassinated by the Anarchists was thirty-nine. There is no reason to suspect the accuracy of these statistics, for they were not intended for publication. They are taken from a confidential memorandum presented to the emperor. (D. M. W.)
NIIGATA, the chief town of the province of Echigo, Japan.
Pop. (1903) 58,821. It lies on the west coast of the island of
Nippon, on a narrow strip of sandy ground between the left bank
of the Shinano and the sea, which though close at hand is shut
out from view by a low range of sandhills. It occupies an area
of rather more than 1 sq. m., and consists of five long parallel
streets intersected by cross-streets, which in most cases have
canals running down the middle and communicating with the
river, so that the internal traffic of the city is mainly carried
on by water. The houses are usually built with gables to the
street, and roofs and verandas project so as to keep the windows
and footpaths from being blocked up by the heavy winter snows.
Niigata was originally chosen as one of the five open
ports—Nagasaki, Kobe, Yokohama, Niigata and Hakodate—but it
failed, chiefly owing to a bar which prevents the entry of vessels
