Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

246 SECRET SOCIETIESpress at Kharkoff was being worked by the students of theuniversity in that city . Upwards of eighty persons werearrested. In September 1895, it was reported that a widespreadNihilistic plot against the life of the Tsar and theimperial family had been discovered by the Russian police .Some of the leaders were quietly arrested, while dynamitebombs, arms, and piles of revolutionary pamphlets wereseized during a number of domiciliary visits at Moscow. InMarch of the year 1896 six officers of the garrison ofKieff, including a ; colonel, were arrested for participatingin a Nihilist conspiracy . According to the Central News,in October 1896 the Russian Custom-house officers confiscatedon the Silesian frontier a quantity of light canesdestined for sale to the upper classes, and containing intheir hollow interior thousands of Nihilist proclamations,printed on tissue paper. The Nihilists, evidently, are stillat work . There is a Nihilist club, composed chiefly of Jews,in London, who publish a paper, similar in character toMost's Freiheit (512) in Yiddish, and printed with Hebrewtype.641 . Nihilistic Finances.-The number of active Nihilistsnever amounted to more than a few dozen men and women ;they may have had twelve or thirteen hundred supporters,who assisted the leaders by distributing their books, pamphlets,&c ., concealing them when pursued by the police orotherwise in danger, assisting them to escape from prison,assisting them with money, &c . ; though those who sympathisedwith the Nihilists, without, however, taking any activepart in the propaganda, may be assumed to have been perhapsone hundred thousand. Whence did the Nihilistsobtain the means for executing their schemes? for creatinga literature, purchasing materials, travelling, carrying outterroristic measures, supporting and delivering prisoners ?In 1869 Nechayeff had obtained from Herzen the revolutionaryfund collected in Switzerland, and amounting tomore than £1ooo ; the members of the society, of course,gave their contributions ; Lizogoob sacrificed his fortune ofabout 200,000 roubles to the " cause " ; the Justice of thePeace Voinaralski gave 40,000 roubles ; a Dr. Weimar, avery active Nihilist, supplied large sums ; rich people, whosympathised with Nihilism, but would not compromise themselves,contributed money either anonymously, or ostensiblyfor charitable purposes . Besides these voluntary contributions,the Nihilists obtained compulsory ones by threateningtimorous rich men, or such as were known to have enriched