THE RUSSIAN CRISIS—A REVO-LUTION IMMINENT.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3554, 18 May 1880, Page 2

THE RUSSIAN CRISIS—A REVOLUTION IMMINENT.

The Vienna corespondent of the Daily Telegraph, says:—" We may shortly expect _to hear of new measures of repression, fresh prosecutions, more transportations to Siberia, and farther sum* mary executions. To-day's news has dispelled the last illusions with regard to <. liberal concessions on the part of the Czar, and the oft-rumoured appointment - to high office of Coant Scnouvaloff.. General L)ris Melikoff has an impossible task before him, and it is confidently , anticipated here that he will utterly fail m its accomplishment. The arrest of a few hundred suspicions persons will not be of the sligatest avai'. Accounts r«?eived from Russia !in Vienna and Berlin stafj that almost the entire country is anxious for a change, and more or less openly sympathises with the revolution. One report, not destined for publication, says that the revolution is" now ripe, an.d that no human .power can prevent its outbreak. What has already occurred is represented as a mild foretaste of what has yet to come. It is a mistake to suppose that the events with which the Empire of the Czars is threatened will be confined to the large towns, such as St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Eiew. The same exasperation against the maU a Iministration and corruption of the authorities exists in every' town and village of Siberia, and in every inhabited part of Little Russia—in fret, the most remote districts are hot free from v. ' Prior to the inauguration of the Reign of Terror, Russian malcontents belonged to two distinct categories. One. of them comprised people who, though disaffected, with the existing state of affairs, and desirous for a change, hoped to attain their end' by pacific means;: They,. nevertheless, had |an occult literature of their own, and carried on an active propaganda amongst students and working men. - This g.oup included a large number of adherents belonging to the better classes, and professed to be opposed to means of ' violence for the realisation of their theories. Latterly, however, they have rallied to the other group of malcontents, . which since its formation has been a party of action. They, have always.gone, by fhe name of Nihilists. Witu comparatively fevr exceptions they belonged to the middie and lower classes. They have also recruited partisans chiefly; in the universities and factories. Many of them are men of culture, gifted with an iron will, and ready for every privation and sacrifr c in the common cause.' The prospect of being transported in cages like wild beasts to Taghalien, tortured in some prison eel!, or executed in the ,•' citadel of St. Petersburg are matters of sma'l consideration for the Russian Nihilists. Even the peasants, who live far from the centres of revolutionary plots and conspiracies, have an obstinate, dogged way of resisting the ,' authorities, which is without example in any other part of Europe. The magistrates appointed by the Czar find the peasants taiturn, and seldom, if ever, succeed in obtainin^evidence from one against the other. On the approach of the tax* gatherer the^peasant hides all he possesses. Only last year bideoas stories were told of Russian peasants mutilating themselves in order t j shirk the army conscription. Amongst themselves they are honest enough, but every means is justifiable in their eyes for escaping the oppression that poisons their very existence. General Loris Melikoff may imprison, proscribe, and execute; but he will neither pacify > nor terrorise. The hydra of revolution has been let loose, and it has n unlimited scope for action." ' -^