Again I arrived in Russia in September. But upon my arrival I
encountered a new movement, which was rapidly conquering a place for
itself. Marxism was taking hold of, capturing, the minds of the youth,
and the old fighters were regarded as dead forces. But faith in the
force of personality, faith in the healthy strength of the people, a
knowledge of their aims and needs lent so much firm confidence to my
energy that, without hesitating a moment, I began to do some practical
work, which had ripened in my mind as long before as the celebrated
trial, in 1878, when I declared to my judges that "I have the honor
of belonging to the Russian socialistic and revolutionary party, and
consequently do not recognize the authority of the Czar's courts over
me."
Eighteen years passed after that, and my adherence to the party of
socialism and revolutionism lived in me as freshly and ardently as in
the days of my arrest and trial. Confidence that the peasant masses,
these pillars of the state government, will obey the voice of their
friends and will not be slow to follow their leaders--this confidence
urged me to hasten the consolidation of the various forces likely to
join the Social Revolutionary party, as it has been christened from its
very beginning.
It is necessary to bear in mind that from Siberia I came back to
Russia all alone. I did not even have the addresses of the old comrades
who remained in safety in the gloomy folds of Alexander III's reign.
And it took considerable time, care and patience before my tireless
but modest little journeys about Russia netted definite results as
to acquaintance with people and opportunities. The readiness of the
peasants to join the party became ever clearer, and on the fourth year
of endeavor the party loudly proclaimed its existence, and in the
fifth year all the separate committees recognized one centre. Both the
increase in membership and growth in activity attracted the savage
attention of the Czar's government.
In 1903 the party suffered an enormous wreck. Wholesale arrests and
searches robbed it of many of its leading workers, of its best printing
shops and stores of literature. It was necessary to replace all that.
By this time the work of the party had developed and grown strong
abroad, thanks to our talented and zealous emigrants, who bent all
their energies for the publication of party organs and popular books
and pamphlets.
In order to recall this youth to immediate activities at home,
in Russia, I went abroad for the first time. In May, 1903, I
boarded a steamer in Odessa and accompanied by an experienced
contrabandist-intellectual, went, by way of Rumania, Hungary and Vienna
to Geneva, Switzerland, where there centred the group of the party
workers who were scattered in Paris, London and Switzerland. At this
conference we were fully joined by the old fighters of the past '70s,
Shishko, Volkhovskoy, Lazaroff, Tchaikovsky.
The youth, which frequented all our lectures and debates, listened
attentively to the voices of our speakers. Victor Tchernoff, the
editor-in-chief of our central organs (and Minister of Agriculture
in Kerensky's first Cabinet), victoriously defended the position of
the party against the attacks of our opponents. At the same time
I persistently spoke of the necessity to tackle the real task, to
propagate our ideas among the peasants and workmen, to organize all the
forces capable of and ready to enter into a battle with the old régime,
ready to sacrifice their lives for a free Russia. And thus it was that
a stream of young people of both sexes began to flow back to Russia,
carrying with them Social Revolutionary literature, and the booklets
"In Battle Shalt Thou Obtain Thy Rights" were lavishly spread on all
the roads of the Fatherland.