80 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
80 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
The Revolutionary Catechism
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Sergey Genadievich Nechayev was a man so feared by the Czar and the
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aristocrat, ruling classes, he became the Czar's special prisoner. The
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Czar received weekly special reports on Nechayev's prison activities.
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Nechayev was born September 20, 1847. He died at age 35 in prison, on
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December 3, 1882 -- from dropsy complicated by scurvy.
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He was convicted for the murder of a fellow student, but his real crimes
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were political. He frightened the state because he claimed to head a
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secret society four million strong. In truth, it was a small group,
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maybe a few hundred, mainly of St. Petersburg students. The trial
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sentenced him to 20 years in Siberia. The Czar intervened and ordered
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him to be retained for the rest of his life. He was kept in Cell #1 of
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the notorious Alexis Ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
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As a human being, he left much to be desired -- he lied, cheated,
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blackmailed, murdered. Of course, he would defend his actions based on
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the principles laid out in the following document. Regardless his
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personal attributes, he rejected the authority of the state to his
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dismal end and, for that, gained legendary status in Russia.
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In Robert Payne's biography on Lenin, a description of Nechayev's trial
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(p.21):
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"The prisoner who stood in the dock in the Moscow District Court on
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January 20, 1873, did not resemble the ordinary picture of a
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revolutionary. He was short, stocky and rather commonplace. He
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had a long dark face, a flat nose, thick chestnut-colored hair, and
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piercing blue eyes. He was frail, and he lived on his nervous
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energy. Stories were told of his extraordinary adventures; he had
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invented most of them, but those that really happened were
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unbelievable. In the court he wore a black jacket and a dirty
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waistcoat, and he held himself with an air of contemptuous disdain,
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rarely paying any attention to the judges, biting his fingernails.
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A bemused reporter at the trial wrote that the most extraordinary
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thing about him was that he was not in the least extraordinary. He
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was 24, and the court was in awe of him."
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And next page...
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"Every day the minutes of the trial were laid before the Czar, who
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studied them carefully, together with a report written by the major
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in charge of the security guards who watched over the prisoner.
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From time to time Nechayev would stir a little, thrust his hands
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deeper in his pockets, and with the attitude of a man who must do
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something to relieve his boredom, he would shout in his rasping
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voice, "I do not recognize the court! I do not recognize the Czar!
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I do not recognize the laws!" The president of the court would then
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order him to be silent, and Nechayev would be quiet for a while,
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leaning up and gazing at the gallery as though searching for
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someone he knew, or drumming on the ledge. He had some knowledge
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of music, and it is recorded that he played the flute well. Once,
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while he was being questioned by the president of the court, he
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lost all interest and pretended to play the piano on the ledge,
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using both hands.
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"There was method in Nechayev's madness. He was deliberately
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provoking the court, and he was also acting out his role as the
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dedicated revolutionary, contemptuous of all laws, all judges, and
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all courtrooms. Prisoners on trial for murder rarely show icy
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disdain toward their accusers. Nechayev had iron nerves. He was
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determined to use all the weapons available to a defenseless man
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confronted with the power of the state; his principle weapon was
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contempt."
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The Narodnaya Volya (People's Freedom) considered using resources to
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free him rather than kill the Czar -- an offer he rejected, saying the
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death of the Czar was more important. (And, indeed, on March 13, 1881,
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Czar Alexander II was assassinated whilst riding through the snowy
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streets of St. Petersburg.)
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Dostoyevsky used Nechayev as the inspiration for his novel,
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_The_Possessed_.
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Nechayev wrote quite a few pamphlets on revolutionary topics. Probably
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the most famous and lasting is The Revolutionary Catechism.
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