he future
organization will, without doubt, proceed from the movement and life of
the people; but that is the business of future generations. Our task is
terrible, total, inexorable, and universal destruction."[28] These are
in brief the tactics and principles of terrorism, as understood by
Bakounin and Nechayeff. As only the criminal world shared these views in
any degree, the "Catechism" ends: "We have got to unite ourselves with
the adventurer's world of the brigands, who are the veritable and unique
revolutionists of Russia."[29]

It is customary now to credit most of these writings to Nechayeff,
although Bakounin himself, I believe, never denied that they were his,
and no one can read them without noting the ear-marks of both Bakounin's
thought and style. In any case, Nechayeff was constantly with Bakounin
in the spring and summer of 1869, and the most important of these
brochures were published in Geneva in the summer of that year. And,
while it may be said for Bakounin that he nowhere else advocates all the
varied criminal methods advised in these publications, there is hardly
an argument for their use that is not based upon his well-known views.
Furthermore, Nechayeff was primarily a man of action, and in a letter,
which is printed hereafter, it appears that he urgently requested
Bakounin to develop some of his theories in a Russian journal.
Evidently, then, Nechayeff had little confidence in his own power of
expression. We must, however, leave the question of paternity undecided
and follow the latter to Russia, where he went late in the summer,
loaded down with his arsenal of revolutionary literature and burning to
put into practice the principles of the "Catechism."

Without following in detail his devious and criminal work, one brief
tale will explain how his revolutionary activities were brought quickly
to an end. There was in Moscow, so the story runs, a gentle, kindly, and
influential member of Nechayeff's society. Of ascetic disposition, this
Iwanof spent much of his time in freely educating the peasants and in
assisting the poorer students. He starved himself to establish cheap
eating houses, which became the centers of the revolutionary groups.
The police finally closed his establishments, because Nechayeff had
placarded them with revolutionary appeals. Iwanof, quite unhappy at this
ending of his usefulness, begged Nechayeff to permit him to retire from
the secret society. Nechayeff was, however, in fe