THE TRIAL OF THE FOURTEEN—RECOLLECTIONS OF VERA FIGNER—NUMEROUS IMPRISONMENTS—“AGENTS PROVOCATEURS”
When I told the old governor that I was engaged on no plan of escape, I spoke the simple truth. After my establishment in this prison I felt too much wearied out to think of any such matter. Beyond everything else I wanted rest, to recover myself after the frightful tension of the last months. Naturally the desire for freedom did not leave me; no human being in my circumstances could entirely abandon the thought of it. But it remained for the time being in the background of my consciousness; I felt I had not the energy to strive seriously for its fulfilment.
Time at first passed peacefully and quietly; I read a good deal, and talked with my new friends. What they had to tell was in part new to me, and very interesting. I had known nothing at all about the particulars of their trial. It remains to this day an isolated case, in which nearly all the accused were military or naval officers. Two of them, the naval lieutenant Baron von Stromberg and Lieutenant Rogachev, were executed.[49] What most interested me, however, and will most interest others, was to hear about the heroine of this case, the celebrated Vera 116Figner.[50] At that time her name was in everyone’s mouth, and for long she was the most popular personage in revolutionary circles. All the young people worshipped her; and the stories that were told of her talent for organisation, her astonishing powers of invention, her wonderful perseverance, untiring energy, and boundless readiness for self-sacrifice, testified fully to the part she had played in our movement. The dignified and unselfish conduct of this exceptional woman impressed even the members of the court-martial that tried her.
I had come to know Vera Figner personally in Petersburg, during the year 1877, at a time when she had already adopted the idea of going “among the people.” Twenty-two years of age, slender and of striking beauty, she was even then a noteworthy figure among the other prominent women Socialists. Like so many other girls, she had thrown heart and soul into the cause of the Russian peasants, and was ready and willing to sacrifice everything to serve the people.
In the summer of 1879 I again came repeatedly in contact with her. While two years before she had impressed me as a very young propagandist, ready to accept without question the views of her comrades, she had now formed her own independent and keenly logical powers of judgment. As I have previously said, this was a time of hot discussion as to our future programme. Some held the opinion that the whole strength of our party should be concentrated on the terrorist struggle to overthrow the existing machinery of State by attempting the lives of the Tsar and the lesser representatives of despotism. Others contended that revolutionary propaganda ought still to be tried and carried further than hitherto; that revolutionists should work among the people, colonise the villages, and instruct the peasants in the manner of the organisation Zemlyà i Vòlya (Land and Freedom). Vera Figner was one of the most strenuous supporters of the former view.
117I remember well, how once, when our whole circle had met together at Lesnoye, a summer resort near Petersburg, we were arguing hotly with her as to how propaganda among the peasantry might be made to yield the most fruitful results. She had just returned from a small village on the Volga, where she had been living as a peasant, for purposes of propaganda. The impressions she had received there had stirred her deeply, and she described in graphic language the fathomless misery and poverty, the hopeless ignorance of the provincial working classes. The conclusion she drew from it all was that under existing conditions there was no way of helping these people.
“Show me any such way; show me how under present circumstances I can serve the peasants, and I am ready to go back to the villages at once,” she said. And her whole manner left no doubt of her absolute sincerity and readiness to keep her word. But her experience had been that of many others who had idealised “the people,” and also their own power of stirring them; and we were none of us prepared with any definite counsel that could deter her from the new path she had determined to tread—simply because she could see no other leading to the desired end.
When I went to Odessa in the late autumn of the same year I found Vera Figner there. In conjunction with Kibàltchitch, Frolènko,[51] Kolotkèvitch, and Zlatopòlsky she was busy with preparations for an attempt on the life of Alexander II., who was about to return to Petersburg from Livadia. The dynamite was stored in her house; she had now put aside all doubt, and devoted herself with her whole soul to terrorist activity.[52]
She belonged to the Russian aristocracy; her grandfather had won a name for himself in the guerrilla warfare against Napoleon’s invasion. Inflexible determination 118and tireless perseverance were her most prominent qualities; she was never contented with a single task, even the most enthralling, but would carry on work in all sorts of different directions simultaneously. While engaged in making ready for this attempt on the Tsar’s life she was at the same time organising revolutionary societies among the youth of the country, doing propaganda work in the higher ranks of society, and helping us in Odessa with a secret newspaper that we were starting for South Russia.
But Vera Figner was still only in the developing stage of her strength and capacities. She was already highly esteemed by all who came near her, winning their sympathy and confidence; yet even her greatest friends could hardly suspect the depth of character possessed by this radiantly beautiful girl. It was fully shown in 1882, when nearly all her comrades of the Naròdnaia Vòlya were in prison, and the few who had escaped capture had fled into foreign countries; she resolutely declined to entertain the idea of flight, though the danger of arrest menaced her at every turn. In 1883 she fell a victim to the treachery of Degàiev,[53] and was sentenced to death; but “by favour” this was altered to lifelong penal servitude, and she was immured in the living grave of the Schlüsselburg fortress, where she still is (1902).
To return to my comrades in the Moscow prison, Spandoni and Tchuikòv; besides their own narratives of their past experiences I could also avail myself of their formal indictments, which they had with them. The chief characteristic of these documents was their entire failure to show any grounds for the exceptionally heavy sentences inflicted. I will set down here what the Public Prosecutor had to say against these two companions of my captivity.
“Athanasius Spandoni was connected with a secret printing press discovered in Odessa in the house of the married couple Degàiev.” Thus began the indictment, 119and it went on to state that he had refused to make any confession, but that his membership of the secret society Naròdnaia Vòlya was sworn to by Mme. Degàiev, who also stated that he had twice visited her house. That was absolutely all. Two visits to a secret printing office were punished with fifteen years’ penal servitude!
The “crime” of Tchuikòv was scarcely more serious. His indictment ran as follows:—
“When Vera Figner was arrested in Kharkov, the authorities in that place advised us that Vladimir Tchuikòv, among others, had been in cor............