way to send in his resignation; and if the courts have
still the right to present candidates for vacant places, the Minister
has also this right, and can, of course, always secure the nomination
of his own candidate. By the influence of that centripetal force which
exists in all centralised bureaucracies, the Procureurs have become more
important personages than the Presidents of the courts.

From the political point of view the question of the independence of
the Courts has not yet acquired much practical importance, because
the Government can always have political offenders tried by a special
tribunal or can send them to Siberia for an indefinite term of years
without regular trial by the "administrative procedure" to which I have
above referred.

CHAPTER XXXIV

REVOLUTIONARY NIHILISM AND THE REACTION

The Reform-enthusiasm Becomes Unpractical and Culminates in
Nihilism--Nihilism, the Distorted Reflection of Academic Western
Socialism--Russia Well Prepared for Reception of Ultra-Socialist
Virus--Social Reorganisation According to Latest Results of
Science--Positivist Theory--Leniency of Press-censure--Chief
Representatives of New Movement--Government Becomes Alarmed--Repressive
Measures--Reaction in the Public--The Term Nihilist Invented--The
Nihilist and His Theory--Further Repressive Measures--Attitude of Landed
Proprietors--Foundation of a Liberal Party--Liberalism Checked by Polish
Insurrection--Practical Reform Continued--An Attempt at Regicide Forms
a Turning-point of Government's Policy--Change in Educational
System--Decline of Nihilism.

The rapidly increasing enthusiasm for reform did not confine itself to
practical measures such as the emancipation of the serfs, the creation
of local self-government, and the thorough reorganisation of the
law-courts and legal procedure. In the younger section of the educated
classes, and especially among the students of the universities and
technical colleges, it produced a feverish intellectual excitement and
wild aspirations which culminated in what is commonly known as Nihilism.

In a preceding chapter I pointed out that during the last two centuries
all the important intellectual movements in Western Europe have been
reflected in Russia, and that these reflections have generally been
what may fairly be termed exaggerated and distorted reproductions of
the originals.* Roughly speaking, the Nihilist movement in Russia may
be described as the exaggerated, di