Show RUSSIAN STUDENTS AND NIHILISM 1 UNDER this head the now new york tribune anbu s has the following app apparently arent logical statement it shows what wha danger clanger might come fr aurely intellectual education t paused by religious restraints or useful employment under ordinary circumstances any attempt to obstruct education and enlightenment li lighten ment would constitute an act 0 of lif almost sen senseless barbarism without accepting it may be useful to recount the argument ts officially put forward in russia at the present tune in defense of the retrograde policy of the imperial administration the object which the latter proposes propose 4 to attain by restricting access to the universities and high schools is to diminish the vast number of college graduates who being unable to obtain employment ment which they consider worthy of their scholastic attainments become discontented with their lot embittered against both government and society r and form the kernel and backbone 0 of I 1 the nihilist movement among the sudden and advanced reforms inaugurated by the late czar after his accession lo 10 the throne in 1856 was one which practically rendered education even in the highest branches of science almo t entirely free AS the expense was merely nominal liberated serfs petty tradesmen and poor artisans made it a point to send their sons to t the college and university sitT with the conviction that successful studies at dies would necessarily involve lucrative lucrative anti and influential appointments in the service of the government unfortunately at elythe the government service was and has continued to be crowded with the sons of the wealthier and more aristocratic classes it was entirely closed to jews utterly unable to deot the multitudinous demands of th the e candidates for employment russia is as yet so poorly developed as regards trade and manufacture agriculture constituting the principal national industry that the students could find no career open to them the absence of any technical training at the university rendered their services unavailable in connection with the progress of russian industry and they were too proud of their classical and scientific fie accomplishments to condescend to follow the humble pursuits of their fathers without profession without regular means of existence and dangerous on account of their unemployed learning and knowledge they became the nucleus of the nihilist party with the object of obtaining through an overthrow of the exi existing tini order both of government and 0 of society the means of livelihood which are now denied to them at least 90 per cent of the nihilists nihilisms lists brought to trial during the last fifteen years have belonged to the student or college lir graduating class and in almost every case they have been the sons of either some peasant or pedy tradesman the late count tolstoi was the first to realize the peril to the monarchy which was constituted by this vast body of highly educated men without employment or means of existence and hold held that it was unreasonable for the government to afford gra instruction and training to the very persons who were destined to become its most moat dangerous enemies during the reign of the late czar he be attempted in v vain in to restrict the educational system so far as the higher branches of science were concerned it was not until two years ears ago that be was able to enforce kis his ideas and to issue an imperial decree debarring the masses from access to the universities it was projected at the time to organize for the lower classes a system of technical and trade schools for instruction in the various forms of manual labor but these have not yet been established since count Tol death last year his policy has been continued with undiminished vigor by the present minister of public instruction count Del Dell ianoff aneff decrees de destined stineR destined to restrict education follow in rapid succession and have led to the present student riota which the czar has taken as a pretext for closing all the universities of the empire mlle mile in her recent public letter to the emperor likened the new educational go policy lick oi of russia to that practiced by i the e spar tans when they deprived their olaves of their eyesight and stigmatized it as being equally barbarous the comparison is a good one the distressing state of affairs which has been made the excuse for sueh such reactionary ma measures daures on the part of the russian government is truly deplorable |