. Siberia and the exile system. vel Fathers and Children todescribe a certaintype of characterwhich had then re-cently made its ap-pearance in the ranksof the rising genera-tion, and which hecontrasted, sharplyand effectively, withthe prevailing typesin the generationthat was passingfrom the stage. Asapplied to Bazarof,the skeptical, mate-rialistic, iconoclasticsurgeons son inTourguenefs novel,the word nihilisthad a natural appro-priateness which theRussian public atonce recognized. There were differences of opinion asto the question whether any such class as that repre-sented by Bazarof reall
. Siberia and the exile system. vel Fathers and Children todescribe a certaintype of characterwhich had then re-cently made its ap-pearance in the ranksof the rising genera-tion, and which hecontrasted, sharplyand effectively, withthe prevailing typesin the generationthat was passingfrom the stage. Asapplied to Bazarof,the skeptical, mate-rialistic, iconoclasticsurgeons son inTourguenefs novel,the word nihilisthad a natural appro-priateness which theRussian public atonce recognized. There were differences of opinion asto the question whether any such class as that repre-sented by Bazarof really existed, but there was no dif-ference of opinion with regard to the appropriateness ofthe term as applied to that particular character. It wasfairly descriptive of the type. The word nihilist, how-ever, was soon caught up by the conservatives and by theGovernment, and was applied indiscriminately by them asan opprobrious and discrediting nickname to all personswho were not satisfied with the existing order of things, andII 28. VERA PHILLfPOVA [BORN FIGNEK]. (A terrorist who has been immured in the castle ofSchliisselberg for life.) 434 SIBEEIA who sought, by any active method whatever, to bring aboutchanges in Russian social and political organization. Tosome of the reformers, iconoclasts, and extreme theorists ofthat time the term nihilist was perhaps fairly applicable,and by some of them it was even accepted, in a spirit ofpride and defiance, as an appellation which, although anickname, expressed concisely their opposition to all formsof authority based on force. To the great mass of theRussian malcontents, however, it had then, and has now,no appropriate reference whatever. It would be quite asfair, and quite as reasonable, to say that the people in theUnited States who were once called Know-nothings werepersons who really did not know anything, as to say thatthe people in Russia who are now called nihilists are per-sons who really do not believe in anything, nor respectan
Size: 1336px × 1870px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectsiberiarussiadescrip
