I had come to know Vera Figner personally in St. Petersburg during the
year 18 7 7, at a time when she had already adopted the idea of going "
among the people." Twenty-two years of age, slender and of striking
beauty, she was even then a noteworthy figure among the other prominent
women socialists. Like so many other girls, she had thrown heart and soul
into the cause of the Russian peasants, and was ready and willing to sacrifice
everything to serve the people. In the summer of 1879 1 again came repeatedly
in contact with her. As I have previously said, this was a time of hot discussion
as to our future programme. Some held the opinion that the whole strength
of our party should be concentrated on the terrorist struggle to overthrow
the existing machinery of State by attempting the lives of the Tsar and
the lesser representatives of despotism. Others contended that revolutionary
propaganda ought still to be tried and carried further than hitherto ; that
revolutionists should work among the people, colonize the villages, and
instruct the peasants in the manner adopted by the organization called "
Land and Freedom." Vera Figner was one of the most strenuous supporters
of the former view.
I remember well, how once, when our whole circle had met together at Lesnoye,
a summer resort near St. Petersburg, we were arguing hotly with her as to
how propaganda among the peasantry might be made to yield the most fruitful
results. She had just returned from a small village on the Volga, where
she had been living as a peasant for purposes of propaganda. The impressions
she had received there had stirred her deeply, and she described in graphic
language the fathomless misery and poverty, the hopeless ignorance of the
provincial working classes. The conclusion she drew from it all was that
under existing conditions there was no way of helping these people.
" Show me any such way ; show me how, under present circumstances,
I can serve the peasants, and I am ready to go back to the villages at once,"
she said. And her whole manner left no doubt of her absolute sincerity and
readiness to keep her word. But her experience had been that of many others
who had idealized " the people," and also their own power of stirring
them; and we were none of us prepared with any definite counsel that could
deter her from the new path she had determined to tread -simply because
she could see no other leading to the desired end.
When I went to Odessa in the late autumn of the same year I found Vera Figner
there. In conjunction with Kibaltchitch , Frolenko, Kolotkevitch, and Zlatopolsky
she was busy with preparations for an attempt on the life of Alexander II,
who was about to return to St. Petersburg from Livadia. The dynamite was
stored in her house,- she had now put aside all doubt, and devoted herself
with her whole soul to terrorist activity.
She belonged to the Russian aristocracy ; her grandfather had won a name
for himself in the guerrilla warfare against Napoleon's invasion. Inflexible
determination and tireless perseverance were her most prominent qualities;
she was never contented with a single task, even the most enthralling, but
would carry on work in all sorts of different directions simultaneously.
While engaged in making ready for this attempt on the Tsar's life she was
at the same time organizing revolutionary societies among the youth of the
country, doing propaganda work in the higher ranks of society, and helping
us in Odessa with a secret newspaper that we were starting for South Russia.
But Vera Figner was still only in the developing stage of her strength and
capacities. She was already highly esteemed by all who came near her, winning
their sympathy and confidence yet even her greatest friends could hardly
suspect the depth of character possessed by this radiantly beautiful girl.
It was fully shown in 1882, when nearly all her comrades were in prison,
and the few who had escaped capture had fled into foreign countries ; she
resolutely declined to entertain the idea of flight, though the danger of
arrest menaced her at every turn. In 1883 she fell a victim to the treachery
of Degaiev, and was sentenced to death ; but " by favor " this
was altered to lifelong penal servitude, and she was immured in the living
grave of the Schlüsselburg fortress, where she still is (1902).