The prisoners were severally arraigned, and in answer to the questions as to
their age, occupation, and religious belief, it appears that none of them
exceed thirty years of age and the majority are below twenty-five;
[Page 994]
three of them are women; eight are
without any fixed occupation; ten are of the orthodox Russian church; four
are atheists, or without religious connection, one is a Catholic, and one a
Jew. The indictment which was read at the opening session was very long, and
I have only thought it desirable to send you a brief abstract, which is
herewith inclosed. The trial is likely to be of considerable duration, and
to attract general attention.
[Inclosure in No. 51.]
Abstract of indictment
Tribunal of the Military District of St.
Petersburg,
October 25 (November 6),
1880.
The prisoners were interrogated as to their names, ages, &c.
After calling the witnesses the indictment was read, of which the
following is a résumé:
A long series of political crimes of an exceptional gravity, and the
clandestine publication of an anti-governmental sheet entitled Zemlia i
Volia (Land and Liberty), establish in an undeniable manner the
existence in Russia of a criminal association seeking to overturn the
established order. The members of this association, who ca]l themselves
the Russian socialistic democratic party, and which possesses, as has
been stated, its printed organ has since 1874 undertaken the active
propagation of their doctrines among the people, acting either
separately or in small groups, and not having as yet either regular
organization or direct and intimate connection among themselves.
At the end of 1876 there was formed out of this revolutionary agitation a
party designated by the name of the “party of the people,” having an
organization and a programme of action better defined. Their
predecessors confined themselves to the propagation of socialistic
doctrines; the members of the new party sought to act directly upon the
people, impelling them to the manifestation of their desires and
requirements. The ultimate aim was the overthrow of the established
order and its replacement by another order of things, upon the basis of
the socialistic theories adapted, as they believed, to the requirements
and real aspirations of the people. The party was divided into distinct
groups, city and rural. The rural groups devoted themselves to
propagandism among the people and to the study of their wants and their
condition. The city groups were to furnish the pecuniary resources, to
stir up the youth, to display a literary activity, to devote itself to
passports, &c.
About the middle of the year 1878 there commenced to be formed within the
body of this party a new group calling themselves “the terrorists,” and
demanding violent, bloody measures for the propagation of their ideas.
This group soon signalized itself by a series of the greatest
crimes.
A division was thus occasioned, a new doctrine was affirmed, a doctrine
which has nowhere been adopted in full by the other members of the
socialistic revolutionary association. This divergence of views
occasioned the idea of the organization of a congress. There were two
congresses of this kind in the course of June, 1878. The first took
place at Lipetsk (government of Tambow), and the members of the
terrorist party attended there almost exclusively; the other was held at
Veronej immediately after the first, and was composed of members of the
“party of the people” properly so called.
It was at the congress of Lipetsk that the division was definitely
established, and that the programme of the terrorists was elaborated
simultaneously with the definite organization of their party.
The criminal activity of this fraction, the greater part of whose members
were participants in the crimes anterior to the congress at Lipetsk, is
manifest in the publication of a new clandestine sheet, entitled
Narodnaia Volia (Will of the People), seized at the printing office
clandestinely established at St. Petersburg, in Saperny street, and
especially by a series of attempts upon the life of members of the
government and the sacred person of His Majesty the Emperor.
These crimes, among which there exists an intimate connection, form the
subject of the present indictment. The acts in question have relation to
the following events:
- 1st.
- Assassination of Prince Krapotkine, governor of
Kharkow.
- 2d.
- Attempt on the life of His Majesty the Emperor, the 2d of
April, 1879.
- 3d.
- Congress of the revolutionists at Lipetsk,
- 4th.
- Attempt at the life of His Majesty the Emperor by means of
amine placed under the railway in the environs of Alexandrovsk
and Odessa.
- 5th.
- Attempt of the same kind, in the vicinity of Moscow, the 19th
of November, 1879.
- 6th.
- Explosion in the Winter Palace the 5th of February,
1880.
- 7th.
- Discovery of the clandestine printing office in Saperny
street.
- 8th.
- Armed resistance of the persons arrested at the time of that
discovery.
- 9th.
- Armed resistance following the assassination by the accused
Presmiakow in June, 1880.
- 10th.
- Furnishing pecuniary resources to the members of the
socialistic revolutionary party.
Then follows a detailed statement of each one of the above ten
specifications, with the arraignment of the respective prisoners.
