CHAPTER X.
AN IMPERIAL SUGAR PLUM.
The incident at Borki, when the train in which the Tzar Alexander and Tzarina were travelling was wrecked and partially burned, will no doubt be remembered by the majority of readers. Although generally attributed to a Nihilist plot, the perpetrators of the outrage have never been discovered. It is true that thirty-seven persons of both sexes were arrested at Kirsanoff and Atkarsk and sent to the Kadainski silver mine in Eastern Siberia as a “precautionary measure,” but all were innocent, and notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the Russian “Security Section,” aided by the police of the whole of Europe, the matter has always been regarded as a mystery.
Now, for the first time, I have resolved to explain the manner in which that attempt was made, the cause of its failure, and the means employed by the conspirators to effect their escape.
Foreign critics—those in the pay of the Russian Government—frequently stigmatise Nihilists as frenzied enthusiasts who seek to reform society and reconstitute their country by the aid of dynamite and bombshells. Nevertheless, although the means employed may, perhaps, appear reprehensible, yet the majority of patriotic Englishmen are in sympathy with the cause of Russian freedom. Have we not had many examples thrust upon us of the tyranny and callousness of the late Tzar? When the Lord Mayor, representing the City of London, petitioned his Imperial Majesty regarding the inhuman treatment of Jews, what answer did he receive? The representative of English liberty was snubbed; the petition was returned with a curt reply that Russian Jews did not concern the Lord Mayor. Such an illustration of Muscovite despotism should be borne in mind by those who look upon Nihilists as murderers.
Our object is to free our beloved country from the terrible yoke. In the great sorrow-stricken land, tens of thousands of our countrymen groan beneath the curse of infamous laws and the burden of unjust taxation. The young Tzar on his throne is powerless, his myrmidons who surround him keep their grip upon the desolated country, and no man can breathe with absolute freedom. The police are infamous spies who will sell a man’s life for a few kopecks; the magistracy is corrupt, and justice a burlesque. Poverty, misery, and starvation are rampant, and happiness is unknown, beneath the crushing weight of this monstrous form of despotism. The so-called Nihilists desire to free their country from this curse, and would do it by peaceable means, and without bloodshed, were it possible. But it is not, and therefore the Executive are compelled to be merciless, and are determined to strike enemies of Russia without pity or remorse.
To sweep the Autocrat from his throne, to break his power, to destroy the corrupt ministers and infamous advisers by whom he is surrounded, to bring enlightenment, peace, and freedom to millions of honest, God-fearing men, women, and children in Russia, are the objects and aims of those who are so frequently designated as murderers.
Yet the work goes on, silently, steadily, deadly. Each day brings the power of the Tzar’s nearer its disastrous termination; each day increases the hopes of those thousands of “political suspects” buried alive in Siberian snow-drifts; each night brings us nearer the dawn of a bright and prosperous day.
Already my readers have learnt the reason I, Anton Prèhznev, loyal soldier of his Imperial Majesty, became transformed into a revolutionist. My case is but one of many thousands. In Russia, one must be either a flunkey or a Nihilist, and most persons prefer to work for the cause of freedom.
It was in a small room over a dingy and uninviting-looking café in Gerrard Street, Soho—to which our headquarters had been transferred, in order to elude the vigilance of the spies of the Embassy—that there was arranged one of the most bold and terrible plots since the assassination of Alexander II.
The meeting was held hurriedly at midnight, and I attended. Paul Pétroff—who had that day returned from Petersburg—presided, and Tersinski, Irteneff, Grinevitch, and Bounakoff were present.