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STEPNIAK, SERGIUS (1852-1895)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 890 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STEPNIAK, See also:SERGIUS (1852-1895) , See also:Russian revolutionist, whose real name was Sergius Michaelovitch Kravchinski, was See also:born in See also:South See also:Russia, of parents who belonged to a See also:noble See also:family. He received a liberal See also:education, and, when he See also:left school, became an officer in the See also:artillery; but his sympathy with the peasants, among whom he had lived during his boyhood in the See also:country, See also:developed in him at first democratic and, later, revolutionary opinions. Together with a few other men of See also:birth and education, he began secretly to sow the sentiments of See also:democracy among the peasants. His teaching did not See also:long remain a See also:secret, and in 1874 he was arrested. He succeeded in making his See also:escape—possibly he was permitted to escape on See also:account of his youth—and immediately began a more vigorous See also:campaign against See also:autocracy. His sympathetic nature was influenced by indignation against the brutal methods adopted towards prisoners, especially See also:political prisoners, and by the stern See also:measures which the See also:government of the See also:tsar See also:felt compelled to adopt in See also:order to repress the revolutionary See also:movement. His indignation carried him into See also:accord for a See also:time with those who advocated the terrorist policy. In consequence he exposed himself to danger by remaining in Russia, and in 188o he was obliged to leave the country. He settled for a See also:short time in See also:Switzerland, then a favourite resort of revolutionary leaders, and after a few years came to See also:London. He was already known in See also:England by his See also:book, Underground Russia, which had been published in London in 1882. He followed it up with a number of other See also:works on the See also:condition of the Russian peasantry, on See also:Nihilism, and on the conditions of See also:life in Russia. His mind gradually turned from belief in the efficacy of violent measures to the See also:acceptance of constitutional methods; and in his last book, See also:King See also:Stork and King See also:Log, he spoke with approval of the efforts of politicians on the Liberal See also:side to effect, by See also:argument and peaceful agitation, a See also:change in the attitude of the Russian government towards various reforms.

Stepniak constantly wrote and lectured, both in See also:

Great See also:Britain and the See also:United States, in support of his views, and his See also:energy, added to the See also:interest of his See also:personality, won him many See also:friends. He was chiefly identified with the Socialists in England and the Social Democratic parties on the See also:Continent; but he was regarded by men of all opinions as an agitator whose motives had always been pure and disinterested. Stepniak was killed by a railway See also:engine at a level See also:crossing at See also:Bedford See also:Park, See also:Chiswick, where he resided, on the 23rd of See also:December 1895. He was cremated at See also:Woking on the 28th of December. (H. H.

End of Article: STEPNIAK, SERGIUS (1852-1895)

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