The Anarchist Peril, Translated & Illustrated

About the year 1841, a young Russian aristocrat arrived at Berlin. Educated at the school for cadets in St. Petersburg, he had been for a brief period an officer in the army; but in 1835 he had thrown up his commission. He was then twenty-one—an age when most soldiers are dreaming only of war and military honors. He, on the contrary, was pondering over the writings of Hegel and Schopenhauer. This eccentric stripling was none other than Prince Michael Bakounine, the future founder of the Anarchist party.

On quitting the army, he established himself at Moscow, where he frequented the society of a group of young men, who were endeavoring to penetrate the nebulous and gloomy doctrines of the two German philosophers, studying them passionately, while they watched with attention the intellectual movement of Western Europe. Several members of this circle were destined later on to become known to fame in various ways. Alexander Herzen, the novelist and notorious Russian revolutionist, who founded the Kolokol at London ; G. Bjelinski, a writer and journalist famous for his talented advocacy of advanced opinions; the brothers Aksakoff, who played so important a part in the Panslavist movement; and, finally, Katkoff, who, as editor of the Moscoiv Gazette and head of the old Russian party, became more widely known than any of his companions-in-arms.