Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/233

SOCIALISM 217 destruction. The future organization will doubtless pro- ceed out of the movement and life of the people, but it is the concern of coming generations. In the meantime all that Bakunin enables us to see as promise of future re- construction is the free federation of free associations, associations of which we find the type in the Russian commune. Bakunin, as we have seen, has had great influence on the socialism of the Romance countries. The important risings in Spain in 1873 were due to his activity ; and the socialism of Italy has been largely inspired by him. In French those countries, as well as in France and French Switzer- anarch- land^ anarchist doctrines of the same general type as that F n ' of Bakunin are still in vogue, and are advocated by men of mark in literature and science like Kropotkine and Elisee Reclus. The views of the propaganda which they repre- sent were most clearly and distinctly brought out during the great anarchist trial at Lyons in 1883. What they aim at is the most absolute freedom, the most complete satisfaction of human wants, without other limit than the impossibilities of nature and the wants of their neighbours equally worthy of respect. They object to all authority and all government on principle, and in all human rela- tions would in place of legal and administrative control substitute free contract, perpetually subject to revision and cancelment. But, as no freedom is possible in a society where capital is monopolized by a diminishing minority, they believe that capital, the common inheritance of humanity, since it is the fruit of the co-operation of past and present generations, ought to be at the disposal of all, so that no man be excluded from it, and no man seize part of it to the detriment of the rest. In a word, they wish equality, equality of fact, as corollary or rather as primordial condition of freedom. From each one accord- ing to his faculties ; to each one according to his needs. They demand bread for all, science for all, work for all ; for all, too, independence and justice. Even a government based on universal suffrage gives them no scope for effective action in the deliverance of the poor, as they maintain that of the eight million electors of France only some half a million are in a position to give a free vote. In such a state of affairs, and in view of the continued misery and degradation of the proletariat, they proclaim the sacred right of insurrection as the ultima ratio servorum. Russian It is an interesting fact that socialism has taken its nihilism mos t aggressive form in that European country whose civilization is most recent. The revolutionary opinions of Russia are not the growth of the soil, and are not the natural and normal outcome of its own social development : they have been imported from abroad. Falling on youth- ful and enthusiastic temperaments which had not previously been inoculated with the principle of innovation, the new ideas have broken forth with an irrepressible and uncom- promising vigour which has astonished the older nations of Europe. Another peculiarity of the situation is that the Government is an autocracy served or controlled by a camarilla largely foreign both in origin and sympathy. In this case, then, we have a revolutionary party inspired by the socialism of western Europe fighting against a Govern- ment which is also in many ways an exotic and is not rooted in the mass of the people. The chief support of the Government is to be found in the reverence of the peasantry for the person and office of the czar, while the nihilists look upon the communal institutions of the country as their great ground of hope. Considered as a national movement, three distinct stages are recognized in the phenomena called Russian nihilism. In its first stage it was a speculative and anti-religious tendency, destructive of all orthodox tradition and authority. It was the spirit of the Hegelian left frankly accepting the materialism of Biichner and Moleschott as the final deliverance of philo- sophy ; and the time was the early years of Alexander II., when the old despotic restraints were so largely removed, a period of reform and innovation and comparative freedom. In a country where religion had little influence among the educated classes, and where philosophy was not a slow and gradual growth of the native mind, but a fashion imported from abroad, the most destructive materialism found an easy conquest. It was the prevalent form among the advanced thinkers ; it was clear, simple, and thorough ; and it suited well the anti-religious mood of the time. By the side of this negative speculation, however, the Russian youth became aware of a new creed, destructive also in its beginnings, but full of the positive promise of future recon- struction and regeneration, socialism. Here they saw the struggle of the proletariat, so terribly conspicuous in the Paris commune, which attracted universal attention in 1871, a proletariat represented in Russia by a nation of peasantry sunk in immemorial ignorance and wretched- ness. At this period hundreds of young Russians of both sexes were studying in western Europe, especially in Switzerland. In 1873 they were by an imperial ukaze recalled home, but they carried the new ideas with them. The period of speculation was succeeded by a period of socialist propaganda, which naturally met with implacable opposition and merciless repression from the Government. As they received no mercy, the nihilists determined to show none ; and in 1878 began the terrible duel of the Russian revolutionists against the autocracy and its servants, which culminated in the violent death of Alexander II. in 1881. How far we are to regard the revolutionary movement of Russia as cognate in principle with anarchism is not easy to determine. In despotic countries, where consti- tutional reform and opposition to government are not tolerated, resolute innovators are naturally driven to secret conspiracy and to violent action. What distinguishes the Russian revolutionary party from other movements of a like nature is the intensity of the enthusiastic devotion and self- sacrifice with which they have braved death, imprisonment, exile, and privation in every form and the calculating skill with which they have called the resources of modern chemistry to their aid. There is no doubt that the doctrines of men like Bakunin have had great influence on Russian socialism ; but so have the writings of Marx, as also of J. S. Mill and other advanced thinkers, who have no connexion with anarchism. It is certain that the leaders of the revolutionary party resorted to violent measures only after their peaceful propaganda was being ruthlessly suppressed. With regard to political reform many of their leaders have declared that they would be satisfied with constitutionalism. In the address sent to the emperor Alexander III. after the death of his father in March 1881, the executive committee of the revolu- tionary party offered to submit unconditionally to a national assembly duly elected by the people. In this recognition of constitutionalism, as well as in the strongly centralized organization of their executive, the Russian revolutionary party are essentially at variance with anarchism. In economics they advocate a thoroughgoing collectivism. We have now given a brief outline of the various forms Classifi- of socialism as they have historically appeared. It may cation of be useful to group them as accurately and clearly as possible. S (1) Experiments in socialism conducted by private initia- tive, as carried on in the schools of Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen; not that they objected to state help, but that, in point of fact, their efforts were conducted by pri- vate means. (2) Productive associations with state help : the programme of economic change favoured by Louis Blanc and Lassalle. (3) The Marx school of socialism, scientific and revolutionary, beyond all comparison the most im- XXII. 28