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Title: To the People! Author: Alexander Berkman Language: en Topics: nihilism Source: Retrieved on August 11, 2021 from https://web.archive.org/web/20060508230556/http://nihilpress.subvert.info/nihil1.html#people Notes: Published in The Nihilist #1.
In my mind I see myself back in the little Russian college town, amid
the circle of Petersburg students, home for their vacation, surrounded
by the halo of that vague and wonderful something we called “Nihilist.”
Again I sit among superior beings, reverently listening to the
impassioned discussion of dimly understood themes, with the
oft-recurring refrain of “Bazarov, Hegel, Liberty, Chernishevsky, V
NAROD.” To the people! To the beautiful, simple people, so noble in
spite of centuries of brutalizing suffering! Like a clarion call the
note rings in my ears, amidst the din of contending views and obscure
phraseology. The People! My Greek mythology moods have often pictured
HIM to me as the mighty Atlas, supporting on his shoulders the weight of
the world, his back bent, his face the mirror of unutterable misery, in
his eye the look of hopeless anguish, the dumb, pitiful appeal for help.
Ah, to help this helplessly suffering giant, to lighten his burden! The
way is obscure, the means uncertain, but in the heated student debate
the note rings clear: to the People, become one of them, share their
joys and sorrows, and thus you will teach them. Yes, that is the
solution!
The Nihilists! How much of their precious blood has been shed, how many
thousands of them line the road of Russia’s suffering! Inexpressibly
near and soul-kin I feel to those men and women, the adored mysterious
ones of my youth, who had left wealthy homes and high station to “go to
the People,” to become one with them, though despised by all whom they
held dear, persecuted and ridiculed even by the benighted objects of
their great sacrifice.