All this, however, made no impression on me. A frightful relaxation and apathy had taken possession of me; I felt neither pain, nor pleasure, nor sympathy. It was the reaction following the previous hypertension of the nerves.
I cared no longer to stay here, and I resolved to return to Kiew, and later to Warsaw or to Lodz.
XIV.
After a short stay in Rostow, on the Don, I reached Kiew, and was received by the group with much joy. They had believed that I had fallen in the massacre at Baku or Tiflis.
Our successes in Tiflis and Baku in the economic province, by means of the economic terror, were now utilized at every opportunity; they only regretted that, owing to the racial conflict, everything had been once more destroyed.
During my absence there had been many changes here. In Odessa, Kiew, Warsaw, Lodz, and Bialystok, successful “expropriations” had been effected. These “new tactics” had not only been strikingly successful in almost every case, but they had also attracted towards us the sympathies of those who had hitherto not taken in much earnest our influence upon the revolution.
These “expropriations” were carried out in various ways. For example, by one of our associates, who was an official in the postal service, we were kept informed when, anywhere in the neighbourhood of the town, the post-office coach was to pass an isolated place, carrying anything of considerable value. We then attacked it and plundered it.
Or we sent out spies to learn when, in any great person’s house, or in any bank, large sums of money would be on hand, and at what time the fewest employees would be there. Armed to the teeth, we crowded in, and demanded the surrender of the money, leaving in its place a receipt with the dreaded imprint of our organization. It also happened—as in Odessa—that a bomb was exploded in a business locality. Every one ran up to see what had happened. Meanwhile, one of our bands entered the place of business from behind and plundered the safe.
What a quantity of intelligence, energy, perseverance, and knowledge had to be employed, to render such enterprises possible! How we had to watch for weeks, to form plans and reject them; how our arrangements must be altered at the last moment, or the enterprise entirely abandoned! Of this every one and no one can form an idea for himself.
Here, at any rate, I do not propose to give a detailed description of these affairs, because my sketches do not aim at giving a description of the revolution, or of those who participated in it, but simply and solely to represent the motives of my own activity: Therefore I describe my own environment, only in so far as it is necessary to do so for the understanding of these motives.