Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

efore the Moscow attempt had been seized by the policewith a quantity of dynamite in his possession, and who, tobenefit himself, as he hoped, betrayed a great number of hisfellow-Nihilists . Finding that he did not thereby obtainany alleviation of his own fate, he committed suicide .620 . Various Nihilist Trials .-Another great trial ofNihilists took place at Odessa in August . Twenty-eightprisoners were tried, of whom three were sentenced to behanged. They were Joseph Davidenko, son of a privatesoldier, and Sergay Tchoobaroff and Dmitri Lizogoob, gentlemen. The latter, who had sacrificed nearly his whole fortune,a large one, to the "cause," and of whom Stepniakgives so moving an account in his " Underground Russia,"justly styling him "The Saint of Nihilism," was betrayedby his steward, Drigo, the Government having promised togive him what still remained of Lizogoob's patrimony, about£4000 . The other prisoners were sentenced to variousterms of hard labour in the mines, ranging from fifteen totwenty years .In December another important trial of Nihilists washeard before the Odessa military tribunal. The most prominentprisoner was Victor Maleenka, a gentleman, who wastried for the attempt made three years before to murderNicholas Gorenovitch, for having betrayed some of hisfellow-Nihilists (614) . It appeared that Gorenovitch hadbeen enticed to a lonely place in Odessa, where Maleenkafelled him with blows on the head, while a companion threwsulphuric acid over what was supposed to be the corpse ofGorenovitch, in order to destroy all traces . But the victimsurvived, and appeared as a witness at the trial . He presenteda horrible appearance : the acid had destroyed hissight and all his features, and even his ears ;consequentlyhis head was enveloped in a white cloth, leaving nothingbut his chin visible . It may, by the way, be mentioned,that he was then inflicting his awful presence on poor peopleas a scripture reader, being led about by a devoted sister .Maleenka and two of his fellow-prisoners were sentencedto be hanged .621 . Explosion in the Winter Palace.-The failure of theMoscow attempt did not discourage the Nihilists . Theynow adopted the title of "The Will of the People," andthough in January 1880 two of their secret printing-presseswere discovered and seized by the police, and numerous arrestswere made, they managed to issue on the 26th January aprogramme, in which they declared that unless the Govern-