Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

THE NIHILISTS 245palaces. In 1892 a number of Nihilists were arrested atMoscow, for an alleged conspiracy to kill the Tsar on hisreturn journey from the Crimea . An anonymous letter hadwarned the authorities that the attempt was to be madeat a small railway station . The line was examined, and abomb discovered under each line of rails . In spite of thesefailures, the Nihilistic agitation was actively carried on .The revolutionists endeavoured to stir up the lower classesagainst the Tsar by telling them that, though he pretendedto supply the masses with food during the famine, heallowed his subordinates to rob the people . The insinuation,however, had but little success with the Russian peopleof the lower class, brought up in slavish adoration of theemperor, who can do no wrong . In the month of December,Major-General Droszgovski was assassinated at Tashkend, inRussian Turkestan . He had been acting as president of acourt-martial for the trial of a number of Nihilists, most ofwhom were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment .To avenge them their friends killed the president .In May 1893 the decapitated body of a Russian studentwas discovered in a forest, near Plussa Station, on the Warsawrailway. The deceased was supposed to have been amember of a secret society, and to have been killed to preventhis revealing its secrets . Two young men were arrestedfor the crime, and immediately hanged . A widespreadNihilistic conspiracy against the life of the Tsar was discovered(in September 1893) at Moscow, in consequence ofwhich eighty-five university students, eight professors, andfive ladies belonging to the, aristocracy, were arrested .Early in 1894 the Government Commission appointed toinquire into the condition of Siberian prisons issued itsreport, in which instances without number were recordedof merciless floggings, lopping off of arms and fingers bysabre cuts, of cannibalism under stress of famine. Duringthe whole of 1892 there was an almost continuous string ofconvoys of corpses from Onor, the prison on the island ofSaghalien, to Rykovskaya, the residence of the authorities,and most of the bodies were terribly mutilated . In 1893, ifany one of a band of convicts failed in his work, he was atonce put on half rations, then on third rations ; and when hecould work no more, the inspector finished him with a revolverbullet . What wonder, then, that in November 1894three secret printing-presses, in full working order, with agreat quantity of Nihilistic literature, were discovered atKieff, at Kharkoff, and at Nicolaieff respectively? The