by German socialism. Lassalle's thought was based upon that of Hegel; the thought of Marx and Engels was based upon that of Hegel and Feuerbach. As thinkers and socialist organisers, Lassalle, Marx, and Engels exercised decisive influence upon the more revolutionary Russians, and especially upon those who were in a position to study socialistic organisation abroad. Russian emigrants became acquainted with, and in part received their political education in, the international and the working-class organisations founded by Lassalle and the Marxists.
Like Marx and Engels, Stirner wielded some influencein Russia, but that of French socialism was more extensive.
The influence of Young Germany must here be given due weight, not forgetting its manifestations in the field of literature, and Heine's writings in especial. But all the similar movements had their effect upon Young Russia: Young Italy; Young Poland; the Mazzinist organisation known as Young Europe; and the analogous movements in France, Belgium, Spain, etc. Even before 1848, but still more after that year, during the epoch of reaction, Russian political refugees entered into association with German and other refugees in Switzerland, Paris, and London.
All these influences continued to affect the aristocracy, but the bourgeois intelligentsia was now increasing notably in numbers. The intelligentsia reacted upon the mužik, inclining the latter to the adoption of similar ideals. The mužik may be conservative or progressive, but is in any case oppositional and even revolutionary in outlook, as is shown by frequent revolts. The mužik is as a rule illiterate, but reading is not everything. He thinks and observes, doing these things often no less successfully than his cultured teachers. The mužik notes the technical changes and improvements rendered possible by scientific progress, he has a word with an official, an officer, a merchant, a commercial traveller; he hears what is going on in "Piter" (St. Petersburg); sometimes he reads, and passes on the result to his fellows. Ex-villagers return to see him from the town; as workman and as soldier he makes the acquaintance of a wider world; he has personal experience of the arbitrariness of officials and the indifference of popes; he experiences hunger and suffering, and again suffering and hunger—he becomes oppositional and revolutionary.
