f liberty to the most extreme point and waging war
against religion as well as against society.

"In the latter respect they were more successful than in the former,
and I regret to say that atheism made immense strides among the educated
class. They had some profound thinkers among them: Tchernyshevsky,
Dobroluboff, Mikhailoff, besides Herzen and Ogareff, the two men who
brought out the _Kolokol_ in London in the Russian language, and by
their agents spread it broadcast over Russia. The stifling of the
insurrection in Poland strengthened the reactionary party. More
repressive edicts were issued, with the usual result, that secret
societies multiplied everywhere. Then came the revolution and commune in
Paris, which greatly strengthened the spread of revolutionary ideas
here. Another circumstance gave a fresh impetus to this. Some time
before, there had been a movement for what was called the emancipation
of women, and a perfect furore arose among girls of all classes for
education.

"There were no upper schools or colleges open to them in Russia, and
they went in enormous numbers to Switzerland, especially to Zurich.
Girls of the upper classes shared their means with the poorer ones, and
the latter eked out their resources by work of all descriptions. Zurich,
as you know, is a hotbed of radicalism, and those young women who went
to learn soon imbibed the wildest ideas. Then came a ukase, ordering the
immediate return home of all Russian girls abroad. It was undoubtedly a
great mistake. In Switzerland they were harmless, but when they returned
to Russia and scattered over the towns and villages, they became so many
apostles of socialism, and undoubtedly strengthened the movement. So it
grew. Men of good families left their homes, and in the disguise of
workmen expounded their principles among the lower classes. Among these
was Prince Peter Krapotkine, the rich Cossack Obuchoff, Scisoko and
Rogaceff, both officers, and scores of others, who gave up everything
and worked as workmen among workmen.

"Innumerable arrests were made, and at one trial a thousand prisoners
were convicted. So wholesale were the arrests that even the most
enthusiastic saw that they were simply sacrificing themselves in vain,
and about 1877 they changed their tactics. The prisons were crowded, and
the treatment there of the political prisoners was vastly harder than
that given to those condemned for the most atrocious crimes, as you may
imagine w