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