who sought, by any active method whatever, to bring about

changes in Russian social and political organization. To some of the reformers, iconoclasts, and extreme theorists of that time the term nihilist was perhaps fairly applicable, and by some of them it was even accepted, in a spirit of pride and defiance, as an appellation which, although a nickname, expressed concisely their opposition to all forms of authority based on force. To the great mass of the Russian malcontents, however, it had then, and has now, no appropriate reference whatever. It would be quite as fair, and quite as reasonable, to say that the people in the United States who were once called "Know-nothings" were persons who really did not know anything, as to say that the people in Russia who are now called nihilists are per- sons who really do not believe in anything, nor respect anything, nor do anything except destroy. By persistent iteration and reiteration, however, the Russian Government and the Russian conservative class have succeeded in mak- ing the world accept this opprobrious nickname as really descriptive of the character and opinions of all their op- ponents, from the terrorist who throws an explosive bomb under the carriage of the Tsar, down to the peaceful and law-abiding member of a provincial assembly who respect- fully asks leave to petition the Crown for the redress of grievances. It would be hard to find another instance in history where an incongruous and inappropriate appellation has thus been fastened upon a heterogeneous mass of peo- ple to whose beliefs and actions it has no sort of applica- bility, or a case in which an opprobrious nickname has had so confusing and so misleading an influence throughout the world. The political offenders most misrepresented and wronged by this nickname are, of course, the people of moderate opinions — the men and women who seek to pre- vent injustice or to obtain reforms by peaceful and legal methods, and who are exiled to Siberia merely because they have rendered themselves obnoxious to the ruling powers.