A NIHILIST DRAMA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1625, 25 August 1887, Page 4

A NIHILIST DRAMA.

The St, Petersburg correspondent of the Daily News tells the story of the murder in St. Petersburg on the 28th of December, 1883, of Colonel Soudeikin, Chief of the Russian Secret Police, for which six men and a young girl were recently sentenced to death. Soudeikin was found dead and horribly mutilated in a room in tlieNevsfci, which he used as a kind of office for his communications with bis spies. By his side lay his relation, M. SuJcffski, who was algo a member of the Secret Police. He too was fearfully wounded, but he was not dead, and he was eventually able to give evidence that put justice on the track of the murderers. Colonel Soudeikin was always open to an arrangement with repentant or impecunious crime, He had found a tool, or he thought he had, in one Degaieff, whom he had tracked as a Nihilist, but not denounced to the authorities, and to whom he appears to have offered a choice between death and treason to the revolutionary cause. Degaieff sent word of Soudeikin’s offer to the Revolutionary Committee sitting in Paris, and he received their permission to accept it, but of course not to accept it in good faith. In his new capacity be was perhaps equally useful to both parties, for the denunciation of certain subordinate agents that won him the confidence of Soudeikin may, at the same time, have served to rid the Committee of persons suspected of treachery to themselves. At any rate Degaieff played his base part basely, for he was, in some instances, the instigator of the very crimes he denounced. He advanced in the favor of Soudeikin, but he was not equally fortunate in retaining the confidence of his friends in Paris, They began to suspect him, and they sent out a kind of commissioner, with full power to enquire into his fidelity and deal with the cause as ho thought fit, This Commissioner, one Lopatin, contrived to reach Sf. Petersburg in safety, and he soon brought matters to an issue by ordering Degaieff to murder his patron, Soudeikin, in proof of his loyally to the Paris Committee, Degaieff at once prepared to obey tbo order. He gave the Chief of Police a rendezvous at the apartment in which they used to meet for business, and he had two assistant murderers hid in an adjoining room. Soudeikin was accompanied by his nephew Sudrffski. As soon as the doomed man had taken his seat, Degaieff engaged hie attention by showing him the proof-sheet of » forthcoming number of a revolutionary journal. This sheet contained a blank space, which was reserved for the announorm'nt of Soudeikin’s murder, and which afterwards was actually filled in that way. Soudeikin had hardly token the proof in his hand when Degaieff slipped behind him and discharged a revolver at his head. Soudeikin rose, badly wounded as he was, and tried to escape, but at th'a moment the arabuehed murderers rushed into the room. One of them dealt him him a heavy Mow on the skull with »n iron bar, whi'e the othr felled Sudr ffski in the same way. There was no troub'e with Sudoffoki, but the Chief of Police made a most desperate fight for life, fie staggered to the door on his w*y to the anteroom, where his own revolver lay in the pocket of his cloak, but his flight was intercepted, and he received blow after blow until ba lull dead, The murderers dispersed in different directions. The Russian Government, however, seem to have followed their movements with sleepless vigilance, arresting ■ them as opportunity served.