g with the officials to benefit the peasantry, and he
showed the simple rustics a forged imperial manifesto in which they were
ordered to form a society for the purpose of raising an insurrection
against the officials, the nobles, and the priests. At one moment
(April, 1877), the society had about 600 members, but a few months
later it was discovered by the police, and the leaders and peasants were
arrested.

* Debogorio-Mokrievitch. "Vospominaniya" ("Reminiscences").
Paris, 1894-99.

When it had thus become evident that propaganda and agitation were alike
useless, and when numerous arrests were being made daily, it became
necessary for the revolutionists to reconsider their position, and some
of the more moderate proposed to rally to the Liberals, as a temporary
measure. Hitherto there had been very little sympathy and a good deal of
openly avowed hostility between Liberals and revolutionists. The latter,
convinced that they could overthrow the Autocratic Power by their own
unaided efforts, had looked askance at Liberalism because they believed
that parliamentary discussions and party struggles would impede rather
than facilitate the advent of the Socialist Millennium, and strengthen
the domination of the bourgeoisie without really improving the condition
of the masses. Now, however, when the need of allies was felt, it seemed
that constitutional government might be used as a stepping-stone for
reaching the Socialist ideal, because it must grant a certain liberty
of the Press and of association, and it would necessarily abolish the
existing autocratic system of arresting, imprisoning and exiling, on
mere suspicion, without any regular form of legal procedure. As usual,
an appeal was made to history, and arguments were easily found in favour
of this course of action. The past of other nations had shown that in
the march of progress there are no sudden leaps and bounds, and it was
therefore absurd to imagine, as the revolutionists had hitherto done,
that Russian Autocracy could be swallowed by Socialism at a gulp.
There must always be periods of transition, and it seemed that such a
transition period might now be initiated. Liberalism might be allowed to
destroy, or at least weaken, Autocracy, and then it might be destroyed
in its turn by Socialism of the most advanced type.

Having adopted this theory of gradual historic development, some of the
more practical revolutionists approached the more advanced Lib