During the years 1881 to 1883 numerous antijewish mogroms occurred in the south.
In the reign of Alexander III, revolutionaries were treated with ruthless cruelty. Executions, it is true, were comparatively infrequent, numbering no more that twenty-six during the thirteen years Alexander was on the throne, but the treatment of prisoners and exiles was positively inhuman. In 1884, the fortress of Schlüsselburg was devoted to the punishment of the gravest political offences, and what went on within its walls has become known through numerous reports. The reinstated rod became a favourite instrument of justice. Political prisoners and Siberian exiles were abominably treated, all their natural human feelings being unsparingly outraged. In 1888 whole sections were simultaneously ill-used; in Yakutsk, in 1889, the martyred exiles offered active resistance and appealed to the veto of Europe, whereby the horrors were somewhat mitigated.
The revolutionaries carried a few plots to a successful conclusion and made two attempts on the life of the tsar. On the whole during the reign of Alexander III political depression and stagnation were conspicuous, not only in Russia, but also among the revolutionary parties working on Russia from abroad. The same statement applies to the Narodnaja Volja. The revolutionaries had become disheartened; many of them were abandoning the principles of terrorism and nihilism, and were experiencing an extensive reaction on their own account. The influence of Dostoevskii was increasingly felt in this direction, whilst Tolstoi's preaching against the use of violence was beginning to exercise considerable effect. The intelligentsia was devoting itself to the Consideration of religious questions, and was to a large extent inclining towards the adoption of an extremely nebulous ethical anarchism.
Still weaker during this epoch were the liberal secret organisations.[1]
- ↑ From 1861 there existed in Russia and abroad secret liberal associations which maintained the decabrist tradition in their demand for a constitution, but these secret organisations were of an entirely different character from the revolutionary secret societies. They had no propaganda worth considering, and displayed little power of attraction. Not until 1878 and 1879 did the liberals attempt to get into touch with the revolutionaries, but negotiations proved fruitless. A few secret societies were organised during the Loris-Melikov era, but remained without influence. Better known are the societies Liga, and the Union of Zemstvos and for Self-Government. The periodical "Volnoe Slovo," edited during and after 1883 by Dragomanov, has been generally
