The Icon and the Axe

Just as Muscovite Pan-Siavismhad become the policy of the once-liberal government in St. Petersburg, so Muscovite Jacobinism had become the policy of the once-moderate populist counter-government in St. Petersburg. Peaceful, reformatorial optimism in both the government and the anti-government camps" had givejCLway to extremism. Moderate populists like MikhailovsE£]and Shelgunov were carried along by the new extremist en-thusiasm of the l^Trar^moderate lfoeralsimcL.been by the_£arbSlav enthusiasms ofTfi^nght~Tlie^Serist|£^paigns and clandestin^meetnigs and prr^aiiiallOfKiithe Executive CommitteeTof theTeo^^-^Villpro-videH^ftg^mbgovemment forces with^^rm^oFco^flict as colorful and dramatic asme TurkTsTiwarTThe People's Will organization was a prophetic anticipation of and (to a greater extent than is generally realized) model for the next nationwide organization of professional revolutionaries seeking™ to"oy£rthrowtsardom, Lenin'sBolsheyikJParty. At the same time, populist journalists wwe*m^filutiOTaTrzing certain practices that anticipated those of Lenin: ritual denunciations of "enemies of the people," "careerism," and "lack of ideology" (bezideinosf), and a rigid editorial and critical insistence at art must have a realistic style and, a clear social message.

ButJhe^eople'sWillwas still far more deeply rooted in the romantic, compassionate ffioToght-world~of popim'srntnanTnTli^

of TKacEevjjn3 Lenin. Asfme TsaFlay dyingTtyjij^ananii ST^Pefersburg"" on March i, i^8l7Tu^Te^sTsliatfe7ed by alerrorist's bomb, another terrorist forfeited his chancefor escape by rushing in to prop up Alexander's headL with h^sSwripacjyjged_tffiialx The terrorists who were brought to trial

turn to terror and violence.49 Tjje_executive committee of the People's Will addressed its first action after the assassination, not to its own revolutionary affiliates or any potentially revolutionary segment of the populace^^ut^jto^ the new Tsar himself, urging him to summon a national assembly, to initiate reforms ande^^e^a3lie^eliTty!,^f%l6^a4rIEar-

TEeacceleration of the terrorist campaign which climaxed in the assassination of Alexander presents, however, one last piece of high irony. For this turn to_extrem^m_jim^ng_ttie^^u2istsoccurred at precisely the time thafAlexander had begun to turn away from extremism. Serious dis-cussionsJoT social and political reform jyere once more being^mjcUictecJx*5! among the Tsar's inner cjrpj^jjf^adviser?. On March I, the very day of his assassination, Alexander had tentatively approved a year-old project to include part of the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie in the machinery of government. The renewed interest and encouragement which the Tsar had shown the zemstvo movemenF(in an effort*to ehlisf*iTs""support"in combating terrorism) hadled to a rapid \?\?,??**?, in US-jjtality and political ambitions of this nationwide chain_flf_provincial administrative groups. Journalistic friends of populism, such as Mikhailovsky in St. Petersburg and Zaitsev and Sokolov in Ueneva, were actively working to encourage some kind of populist-liberal rapprochement. The objective possibilitiesjor a broadly basedjpo4£ratejreiprm movemeir£^ieejn/te4iave""bTe^ Populism ananberalism wereEoth St. Petersburg-basedmovements inherently opposed to extremism.

But the People's Will knew nothing about the secret constitutional project that the Tsar had"*approved; and tEeTsar's liberal advisers had no knowMlge"of the jnorejoderjrjsjtrends_that were still pres^mVwithin the

popijllst movemerrtJITie differencgs bj^eena populist intelligentand_a pragmatic liberal were in many ways even deeper^ than those between popu-lism and either^ of the Moscow-based extremist ideologies. Revolutionary Jacobinism, evolutionary populism, and reactionary Pan-Slav imperialism^ all developed out of the iconoclastic revolution. Each position contended that drainatic~^^Sg^^«,et^~afeaut^~raEeplace in*1ruTlrair-h1s"tdry; ancTIt was~gasier JOT-gropon5its crt oBe~SB«h-4dtiulugy tcnffiftnito anotji^tlianto. leave ideoloj›y ImSgeOlei for ? ??1?*???????1?????1~???????^?. Once begun, * the search for truth could not'beabandoried ioF~the ptrrsuirof pleasure or the consolation of half-truths. Fragmentary ideas of aristocratic intellectuals were becoming programs for action and articles ot taith in the hands of the new intelligentsia! Wllalevei It mlgMfcrvglMgn, the'Triteffigentsia was to become what katkov feared and" Tkachev hoped it would be: the herald

essel!re~oi4beT5a8^^s offgSus ChriST'. . . was my primary moral incentive" and was at pains to porn? outlibw reluctant all the populists were to

2. The Agony of Populist Art