The nihilist movement was a Russian movement in the 1860s that rejected all authorities. The word nihilism derives from the Latin , meaning "nothing". After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the nihilists were known throughout Europe as proponents of the use of violence in order to bring about political change.
History
Two nihilist revolutions
Russian nihilism can be divided into two periods. The foundational period where the counter-cultural aspects of nihilism scandalized Russia and even the smallest of indiscretions resulted in nihilists being sent to Siberia or imprisoned for lengthy periods of time and where the philosophy of nihilism was formed. There followed the revolutionary period of nihilism when Sergei Nechayev's pamphlet Catechism of a Revolutionist transformed the movement which was waiting and only striking mild propaganda into a movement-with-teeth and a will to wage war against the tsarist regime, with dozens of actions against the Russian state. The revolutionary period ends with the assassination of Alexander II of Russia and the consequential crushing of the nihilist movement.
Mikhail Bakunin's influence
's Reaction in Germany included a famous dictum: "Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!". This piece of literature anticipated and instigated the ideas of the nihilists. In Russia, Bakunin was considered a Westernizer because of his influences that spread the ideology of anarchism outside of his nation to the rest of Europe and Russia. While he is inexorably linked to both the foundational and revolutionary periods of nihilism, Bakunin was a product of the earlier generation whose vision was ultimately not the same as the nihilist view. Bakunin stated this best as "I am a free man only so far as I recognize the humanity and liberty of all men around me. In respecting their humanity, I respect my own". This general humanitarian instinct is in contrast to the nihilist proclamations of having a "hate with a great and holy hatred" or calling for the "annihilation of aesthetics".
was the first to incorporate nihilism in the socialist agenda. The nihilist contribution to socialism in general was the concept that the peasant was an agent of social change, see Chernyshevsky's A Criticism of Philosophical Prejudices Against the Obshchina, not just the bourgeoisreformers of the Revolutions of 1848, or the proletariat of Karl Marx. Agitation for this position landed Chernyshevsky in prison and exile in Siberia for the next 25 years in 1864, although the specific accusations with which he was convicted were a concoction. The first group inspired by nihilist ideas to form and work towards social change did so as a secret society and were called Land and Liberty. This group's name was also taken by another entirely separate group during the revolutionary nihilist period, with the first Land and Freedom conspiring to support the Polish independence movement and to agitate the peasants who were burdened with debt as a result of the crippling redemption payments required by the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Polish independence was not of particular interest to the nihilists and after a plot to incite Kazan peasants to revolt failed Land and Liberty folded in 1863.
Hidden nihilist groups
After the failure, the Russian government began to actively hunt nihilist revolutionaries, so the first secret nihilist societies were created. One of the first to act in secrecy was called The Organization and they created a boys' school in a Moscow slum in order to train revolutionaries. In addition, they had a secret sub-group called Hell whose purpose was political terrorism, with the assassination of the Tsar as their ultimate goal. This resulted in the failed attempt by Dmitry Karakozov on 4 April 1866. Karakozov was tried and hanged at Smolensk Field in St Petersburg. Nicholas Ishutin, leader of The Organization, was also tried and was to be executed before being exiled to Siberia for life, thus ending The Organization.
White Terror
The White Terror began by the Tsar putting Count Mikhail Muravyov in charge of the suppression of the nihilists. The two leading radical journals were banned, liberal reforms were minimized in fear of reaction from the public and the educational system was reformed to stifle the existing revolutionary spirit. This action by the Russian state marked the end of the foundational period of nihilism.
Sergey Nechayev's nihilist revolution
The entrance on the scene of Sergey Nechayev symbolizes the transformation from the foundational period to the revolutionary period. Nechayev, the son of a serf, which was unusual as most nihilists came from a slightly higher social class, what we would call lower middle class, desired an escalation of the discourse on social transformation. Nechayev argued that just as the European monarchies used the ideas of Niccolò Machiavelli and the Catholic Jesuits practiced absolute immorality to achieve their ends, there was no action that could not be also used for the sake of the people's revolution. A scholar noted: "His apparent immorality derived from the cold realization that both Church and State are ruthlessly immoral in their pursuit of total control. The struggle against such powers must therefore be carried out by any means necessary". Nechayev's social cache was greatly increased by his association with Bakunin in 1869 and extraction of funds from the Bakhmetiev Fund for Russian revolutionary propaganda. The image of Nechayev is as much a result of his Catechism of a Revolutionist as any actions he actually took. The Catechism of a Revolutionist is an important document as it establishes the clear break between the formation of nihilism as a political philosophy and what it becomes as a practice of revolutionary action. It documents the revolutionary as a much transformed figure from the nihilist of the past decade. Whereas the nihilist may have practiced asceticism, they argued for an uninhibited hedonism. Nechayev assessed that by definition the revolutionary must live devoted to one aim and not allow themselves to be distracted by emotions or attachments. Friendship was contingent on revolutionary fervor, relationships with strangers were quantified in terms of what resources they offered revolution and everyone had a role during the revolutionary moment that boiled down to how soon they would be lined up against the wall or when they would accept that they had to do the shooting. The uncompromising tone and content of the Catechism of a Revolutionist was influential far beyond the mere character Nechayev personified in the minds of the revolutionaries. Part of the reason for this is the way in which it extended nihilist principles into a revolutionary program. The rest of the reason was that the Catechism of a Revolutionist gave the revolutionary project a form of constitution and weight that the "men of the sixties" did not.
End of Nechayev and the first nihilist revolution
Bakunin, an admirer of Nechayev's zeal and stories of his organization's success, provided contacts and resources to send Nechayev back to Russia as his representative of the Russian section of the World Revolutionary Alliance, which was also an imaginary organization. Upon his return to Russia, Nechayev formed the secret cell based organization People's Vengeance. One student member of the organization Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov questioned the very existence of the Secret Revolutionary Committee that Nechayev claimed to be the representative of. This suspicion of Nechayev's modus operandi required action. Author Ronald Hingley wrote: "On the evening of 21 November 1869 the victim was accordingly lured to the premises of the Moscow School of Agriculture, a hotbed of revolutionary sentiment, where Nechayev killed him by shooting and strangulation, assisted without great enthusiasm by three dupes. Nechayev's accomplices were arrested and tried". Upon his return from Russia to Switzerland, Nechayev was rejected by Bakunin for his taking of militant actions and was eventually extradited back to Russia where he spent the remainder of his life at the Peter and Paul Fortress. Due to his charisma and force of will, Nechayev continued to influence events, maintaining a relationship to Narodnaya Volya and weaving even his jailers into his plots. He was found dead in his cell in 1882.
