A RUSSIAN CONSPIRACY.

West Coast Times, Issue 338, 23 October 1866, Page 1 (Supplement)

A RUSSIAN CONSPIRACY.

The St. Petersburg " Northern Post," the official organ of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, publishes the following article on the Katakosoff conspiracy :—: —

The special commission, with Couut MouvaviefF at its head, which has been instituted for inquiring into the crime of M. Karakosoff, who attempted the Emperor's life, has finished its labors after two months and a half of incessant application. Notwithstanding the mendacity and intricate subterfuges resorted to by the principal criminal and other conspirators, their designs, dealings, and "connexion with foreign revolutionary societies, and more particularly with the Polish Propaganda, have been fully detected. Pursuant to the Imperial decree of June 28, a special court has been appointed to adjudge the criminals whose names will 5 be subsequently made public. At pre- ! sent the following particulars may be jj communicated concerning a crime so unprecedented in Russia as to attempt to murder the Czar. KarakosofF at first endeavored to deceive the authorities as to his name and rank. He represented himself as a peasant named Alexis Petroff, from the southern provinces, and made false statements as to his last 'employment and places of sojourn. Tt was ascertained that he had frequented lectures at the Medical Academy, where he called himself. Dimitri WladimirofF ; but this, too, was not his real, at least, not his full name, which was as length discovered to be Dimitri "Wladimiroff KarakosofF. He is twenty-fouv years of age, and the son of a small proprietor in the province of Saratoff, whose claim to the nobility title had never been recognised by Government. He has some brothers and sisters. He visited the Grammar School of Pensa, and matriculated at Kasan University, where he was expelled for unruly behavior in 18G3, but was afterwards re-admitted. In the autumn of 1864 he was admitted aa undergraduate of the Moscow "University, but was subsequently expelled for being behindhand in the payment of the professor's fees. During his stay at Moscow he became a member of a secret society, chiefly composed of students and young men attending the lectures of the agricultural and other institutions of that capital ; the leader of the society, a cousin of KarakosofF, likewise belonging to another fraternity, called '• Land and Liberty," notorious for the proclamations it issued in 1862 and 1863. This secret society, which had existed for several years past, and repeatedly changed its object, towards the close oi

1865 assumed the name of "Organisation," adopting it at the same time as their aim to spread socialistic doctrines, to destroy the principles of public morality, shake religious belief, and ultimately overthrow the state by revolutionary means. This programme they intended to carry out in the following manner : —The peasants were to be told that all landed property was j theirs, and that the noblemen and the Government generally were their natural enemies. Elementary schools and small industrial associations (on the same model as those so frequent in Ilussia) were to be established, in order to graft socialistic doctrines upon the members and pupils, and, through them, the people generally. 'For the same purpose- libraries /were to be opened and lectures gratis to be given

in provincial towns, the whole organisation to be dependent upon the directions of the Central Society at Moscow. Above all, the village teachers were to be gained over, and a special agitation was to be kept up along the banks of the Volga, through the facilities offered by the numerous steamers on that river. The requisite pecuniary means were to be supplied by the members, and voluntary contributions to be collected among the public uuder the pretext of charity. In case of necessity, theft, murder, and embezzlement of property were expressly enjoined for enlarging the funds. Of the public societies founded by the brotherhood, with apparently commendable intent, we will mention only those for mutual assistance, for encouraging labor, &c. All of them were open to everybody, and had been sanctioned by Government. Through the reading rooms the members of the universities and * other literary people were to be brought under the influence of the secret organisation. Independently of this, the society endeavored to enter into connection with the socialistic circles of St. Petersburgh and other towns of the empire. Their exertions were seconded by the pernicious principles disseminated by the professors in a large number of public institutions. A considerable fraction of the press, too, openly advocated the ideas of socialism and nihilism, irritating public opinion against Government and its several •agents in the .administration of the state. The destructive tendencies thus fostered at home were further developed among the rising generation by foreign revolutionary papers, secretly imported and circulated even in schools and universities. Many of the young men travelling abroad to complete their education entered into relations with the agents of revolutionary societies, and, returning infected with socialistic principles, commuuicated the poison to our youth. To conceal their evil-minded agitations from the Government, especially on the field of public instruction, they had, according to the evidence given by one of them, agreed to assume the mask of Conservatism, and pretend to bo the most loyal of men, while in reality they were pursuing their ovui malicious objects. To get the schools into their power/ and, if possible, cause men of their own class to be appointed Government inspectors of public instructions, was one of the principal items in their programme. There were two factions in the society, one of which proposed to pave the way for revolution by the gradual spread of socialist principles ; the other, more impatient, advocated immediate revolution, and sooner or later intended to resort to the extreme measure of murdering the Czar. Among the latter was Karakosoff, who offered to execute the terrible crime at once. The idea of having recourse to extremes was first mooted at the time of KarakosofF's cousin, a principle leader in the socialistic circles of Moscow, returning from a journey to St. Petersburg to his usual residence. While at' St Petersburg he had made the acquaintance of a person of extreme revolutionary views, who had been abroad in 1865, aud had just come back from Switzerland. Karakosoff's cousin no sooner got home than ho informed his political friends of the existence of a Central European Revolutionary Committee, which had its seat abroad, aud which, he added, was willing to aid the action of the society by supplying it with arms, Sec. •He also said that the murder of sovereigns figured among the recognised tactics of the Central Committee, and that he proposed to form an inner circle to promote the realisation of that peculiar theory in Russia. The members of this circle, which bore the name of " Hell," had to promise that thoy would murder at the behests of the society, the uninitiated, as well as such of the fraternity as refused to fulfil the duties imposed upon them. The murder of the Czar was resolved upon. The member charged with the- execution of this enormity was to poison himself if unsuccessful, means for this end having been furnished him. He was to carry about his person a proclamation to the people, which it was calculated would attain general notoriety by being found on his body. Until a fitting opportunity arose, the murderer was to keep aloof from the society, and, with a view to evade suspicion, give himself up to all sorts of dissipation. Their object in- attempting the life of the Czar was to produce a general ferment and revolution in the empire. Karakosoff, having undertaken to perpetrate the deed, repaired to St. Petersburg, where he put himself in communication with the agent of the Moscow society. The latter, who

had made himself known by the publication of elementary books for the people and the young, belonged to the socialistic circle of the late M. Nojine, a Red Radical, who died last April. Nojine was an instrument of the foreign agitators. Among the plans devised by him was that of liberating M. Tchemishcw, the r/otorious convict, that he might publish a revolutionary journal at Geneva, to assist his friends' operations at home. For this purpose a member, who was to proceed to Siberia, was furnished with forged passports and letters of introduction to different exiles of Polish origin living in Siberia, and connected with the society. They also gave him poison with which to despatch himself in case of failure, and narcotic drams to intoxicate the guards. Already in 18G1 the same society had succeeded in setting at liberty the Pole Donibrowski, while passing Moscow on his way to Siberia, and in 1865 they had .planned to compass the same in the case of M. Serno Solovieyitch, another state criminal

transported to the for east. At St. Petersburg, Avhere Karakosoff arrived fit the beginning of Lent, he lived Avithovjj any apparent object, lodging in inns and furnished apartments, and at one time at a doctor's, avlio received him in his house though knowing him unprovided Avith a passport. The latter also conspired Avith him in the interests of socialism, and, as Karakosoff deposed, acquainted him Avith the existence of socialistic • and political societies at St. Petersburgh. All this while Karakosoff led a dissipated life, frequented public-houses, and circulated among the people a proclamation addressed by him "To my Friends the , laborers." Karakosoff had been three Aveeks at St. Petersburgh Avhcn some member of the Moscow Hell, knowing Avith Avhat intent he had gone there, and fearing the consequences of his deed to themselves, came thither to find him out and persuade him to return. Some of them, it appears, objected to an attempt upon the Emperor's life, others thought the plans premature, and the people insufficiently prepared to appreciate revolutionary tenets. Karakosoff having been discoveved on the quay opposite the Winter Palace, Avhere his friends found him lounging about, arrayed in a peasant's dress, was taken to an inn, and induced to give up his intention and return to Moscow. A week after Good Friday he actually Avent to Moscow, but a feAv days subsequently he again found his way to St. Petersburg, put up at an inn, aud visited his old friends and. haunts. The author of the books ot popular literature supplied him Avith money and other necessaries, and in return Avas trusted with the information that he Avas going to murder the Czar. He had brought a pistol from Moscow. The balls he -bought at a gunsmith's shop, and managed to procure the powder atthelaboratory. On all this circumstantial evidence Avhich has been elicited from the members of the Moscow Organisation and Hell, AA'ho also denounced seA r eral persons of Polish origin as having furnished them Avith poison, these and other Poles, affiliated to the conspirators, have been arrested in both capitals. According to the confession of some of them, they have assisted in the flight of political criminals, collected money for Polish exiles, and, Avith- a vieAv to the same end, imported forged Russian bank-notes from abroad. With a like purpose a "special Polish agency has been established at Moscoav. In 'addition to these, other persons, among them the founders of free schools, lecturers, &c., Avcrc imprisoned, on the evidence, obtained by the seizure of pri r vate papers. A considerable number of the conspirators, while openly aA'Owing their guilt, declare th6mselves to be carried away by those organs of the public press Avhieh so long indulged in the systematic diffusion of subversive principles. It AA r as, moreover, so easy to obtain prohibited books, both in the Russian and foreign languages, and theinfluence of revolutionary literature upon the young and inexperienced Avas so great, that intellects Avere led astray, and unlimited personal liberty and universal equality appeared attainable. Thus all moral and religious obligations were set aside, and crinie^ planned Avhich at last led to the sinful act consummated April 4.