The Editorial "T."

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 31, 6 October 1911, Page 4

The Editorial "T."

Something About Terrorism.

The assassination of the notorious Russian Prime Minister, Stolypin, at the hands of Bogroff—said to be a second AzefT —following upon last year's assassination of Colonel Karpoff, Chief of the Detective Police in St. Petersburg, onco again calls attention to the ever - present revolution in Russia, and the Terrorist excrescence of that revolution. By one of those commonplace coincidences of everyday life, I happened to have selected William Le Queux's "Strange Tales of a Nihilist" as the basis of this week's chatter, and have therefore been giving some attention to Nihilism and the Terrorist movement. Mysterious, fantastical, awful is this Terrorism. It is at the core of Russian revolution as an octopus, and from tlie centre to the circumference with arms in the seats of the mighty, as in tho haunts of the lowly.

That was a terribly thrilling account we all read of the end of Father Gapon. Few of us will forget th© fascinating horror of the realistic anticlimax associated with the career of Gapon. We had to wrestle with ourselves in order to understand it. For Gapom had been our hero and martyr, and what though he might have successfuilly led the overthrow of 'the autocracy on that celebrated Bloody Sunday and failed, yet he had emerged from the scene under a halo of glory. How he es-

caped the massacre, and eluded prison and rope, to finally reach London to be honoured as a Kossuth and a Garibaldi had been honoured —this is well known. His end, we thought, might be banishment to Siberia or torture and death at tlie hands of Czardom, but never could it be in treachery to the people. Then came the astounding revelation. Gapon was a spy in the pay of tlie police, and specifically attached to Ratchowsky, the venomous tracker and slayer of revolutionists. Appalling anti-climax, indeed 1 And Gapon was lured to his doom, swinging from the rope he had designed for his colleagues, hunted down by the. Revolutionary Tribunal and with his guilt proven to the hilt.

Some day, if it hasn't already been, this is to be the fate of that other diabolical traitor known as Azeff. What an almost incredible story is his. Spy for police and spy for revolutionaries, in the very heart of the secrets of ■both, playing off men in each circle against their foes, and permitting the assassinations of some officials in order to add the ambitions of other instruments of Government 1 A superb devilish study in inter-play it all is. This Azeff had the blood lust more pronounced than Deeming. Through his agency, Yon Plehve, Secretary of the Interior, and the Grand Duke Sergius were both hurled to atoms. Ho laid the plans for the shooting of Police Prefect-General Lausitz. His was the guiding hand in the blowing up of the train carrying Grand. Duke Nikelajevitch, and he led in the assassination of Trepoff; He secured the arrest and execution of many members of the Revolutionary Party—of which he was the trusted leader —.and he betrayed his most intimate friends with cunning unsurpassed in Russian diplomacy and secrecy. One of these friends was Gershuni. well known among American Socialists. Gershuni was condemned to death, though later his sentence was commuted to deportation to Siberia He escaped to San Francisco in a sauerkrat barrel, and made a big sensation. Azeff, again, is now known to have been responsible for the exile to

Siberia of 2500 friends of freedom, and for the execution of no less than 1500. And Azeff, by strange enough irony, was the man who planned the killing of Gapon! Then he, too, was discovered to be tlie mightiest traitor of them all; but he escaped, and for aught wo know may to-day be in New Zealand. No work of fiction could do justice to this extraordinary " Jekyll and Hyde." His career is a gigantic flashlight upon the wai-p and woof of Russian events.

It is said that the w r orld is too small to shelter a traitor to the cause of the Russian Terrorists. Whatever may be AzefT's fate, it is interesting to trace how ihe long arm of tho Terrorist organf&ation has overtaken betrayer after/betrayer. I havo in mind the case 'M Ivan Denisevitch. In 1899 he drew}' the black marble which pledged

him to murder tho Cmr. He grow frightened and turned informer. Ihe police smuggled him on board a steamer bound for New York. Deeply, disguised, he yet became pamcstricken before a pair of eyes. owned by a steerage passenger. In New York he buried himself in a mangcr-hko lodging, and didn't stir for a week. When lie owned his window one day and looked out, he saw the eyes! He Jled to San Francisco and confined himself in subterranean China Town. One night he found in his coat pocket ft black marble. It was a reminder of his treachery. He sought police protection and got it, but the next "morning he was dead —poisoned by a poison no analysis could reveal. «. * . - *

Then there is tho awesome case of Regnier, a French cook, who was also a Russian spy. The Revolutionary Tribunal got on the scent. Regnier .in abject terror left Gothenburg for Antwerp on a.Swedish steamer. When-the— vessel reached the port Regnier was found dead in his cabin—poisoned. Another case: Getzner was a Polo who betrayed revolutionary secrets. He, was permitted to work for a year in a New York mill. Then on one night shift, when an hour's rest had been allowed, he fell asleep. When his companions returned to the spot,. Getzner •frwaa found tied to a shaft making one hundred and twenty revolutions a minute, These are a few of the tragedies of Spydom. ]y.;

Le Queux's novel is full of similar adventures. The foregoing are not from the novel, but "Strange Tales of a Nihilist" contains twelve exciting episodes vouched for by the author as having actually occurred.' The book is an exposure to some extent of the methods of the agents of the Russian Secret Police in London, and is also an insight into the methods of socalled Nihilism, the headquarters of which, says Le Queux, is London. The author claims to have an acquaintance with the conditions of Russian life and with prominent members of the Revolutionary Party. It will be remembered that his story, "Guilty Bonds," was prohibited in the Russian Empire.

The _ strange tales are startling and thrilling. They bring home to the mind the fierceness of the retributive spirit and power, and likewise the horror of "the game" between secret police and secret revolutionists. However exciting the incident or tho escapade, it is always associated with cruelty and death, with self-sacrifice and love, greed and hate inextricably blending in tho relentless Avar. -Le Queux's hero —like Azeff—is a Jew, ever solicitous about concealing his nationality. He is the" narrator of tho history. f Made a Nihilist by Russian persecution of father, mother, sister, and himself—the wrongs and tortures they suffered the sport of fiends— Vladimir Orlovski is transported to Siberia. He makes a solemn vow "of revenge, and after breathless experiences on trackless snows, escapes to Vancouver, and thence to England. As the novel continues, one finds that each chapter is a separate story linked in a continuous narrative. We are taken ; to various parts of the Continent and,; mad© familiar with . many "Upon the face of every victims of the revolutionaries are two deep cuts in tho shape of a eross —the sign of the vengeance of the Brotherhood. Certainly few detective -varus surpass in. plot and mystery these eye-opening tales. In a sense, it's like reading ''The Jungle." For not until you have read this book do you ; realise tlie dreadful nature of the proletarian Night—and not until one reads stories founded upon inescapable facts does one thoroughly grip the agony or woe or astounding character, , of Russian phenomena. . -'.;..■'

It is worthy cf note that what is called the Nihilistic movement has no existence. Nihilism, philosophically speaking, is the* doctrine of universal negation. The Russian revolutionists are erroneously supposed to strive for the universal destruction of all, forms of society, without having any constructive programme. Quite the opposite is the fact. Liberals, Reformers, Socialists, Terrorists, Revolutionists, Republicans, and what not, are "all, in popular estimation, Nihilists. No Russian party accepts the brand of Nihilist in the popular, or even tho proper, significance of the word. Each party has a programme, and many parties work constitutionally. As a matter of fact, what is called Terrorism grew out of Government outrage. It was born of the desire for revenge. Vera. Zassulitch (who shot General Tropeff) really began in 1878 the programme of Terrorism. Many other educated women joined the crusade. For a, time it had a great sway, but; is' slowly wearing itself out —though.°still mighty to slay. Nevertheless, Terrorism is not Nihilism. There would be no Terrorists if there were no oppressors. The Terrorists aim at reform; Ivan Turgenev, the great Rtissian novelist, is responsible for the popular usage and idea of Nihilism. He invenrted tho term Nihilist a.s the nickname of the hero in his novel "Fathers and Children." ' '

For a true and graphic picture of what is- taking place in Russia to-day no better book is obtainable than Prince Kropotkin's "The Terror of Russia." We must not conclude because there are few cables concerning Russia that peace and plenty abide in tho land. Kropotkin's book enables us to see why a Stolypin meets his death. THE EYE.