Russian 'Nihilism' was a philosophical, political, and social movement akin to that of the 'Anarchists'. It developed into a secret organization designed to overthrow all aspects of the established political and social order. This novel [The Career of a Nihilist] was more avidly read in the west than most of the many tracts, pamphlets, and monographs iss ued by the diverse advocates of change and revolution in Russia.
Sergei Kravchinski, known in 19th century London revolutionary circles as Stepniak, was the Russian who killed the chief of that country's secret police with a dagger in the streets of St Petersburg in 1878.
Stepniak had joined the rising against the Turks in Bosnia in 1876, and used that experience to write a manual on guerrilla warfare. He also joined the anarchist Errico Malatesta in his small rebellion in the Italian province of Benevento in 1877.
?The Anarchists, James Joll, second edition, page 103
In April 1877, Cafiero, Malatesta , Ceccarelli, the Russian Stepniak and 30 other comrades began an insurrection in the province of Benevento. They took the village of Letino without a struggle where they were greeted with great enthusiasm. Arms and expropriated goods were distributed amongst the people, tax money was returned and official documents destroyed. Cafiero, in dialect, explained about anarchism, freedom, justice and the new society without the State, without masters, servants, soldiers and owners. His proclamations convinced even the parish priest who explained to his parishioners that the internationalists were 'the true apostles sent by the Lord'. The following day the village of Gallo was taken in a similar fashion. Unfortunately, as they were leaving Gallo the Internationalists were surprised and surrounded by government troops and all were arrested. Held in prison for over! a year before being brought to trial all the accused were eventually acquitted in August 1878.
This excerpt from the Anarchy Now! page.
In December 1895 Stepniak was killed by a train.
See Sergius Stepniak on Nihilism and Narodnichestvo [Extracted from Sergius Stepniak, "Nihilism" in The Great Events by Famous Historians, vol. 19 (n.p.: The National Alumni, 1914), pp. 71-85]
Stepniak figures much in the lives of Wilfrid Michael Voynich & Ethel Lilian Voynich (Boole); see http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/HERM/VMS/biografie-old.html
Johnson, Barry C., ed., Olive and Stepniak. The Bloomsbury Diary of Olive Garnett, 1893-1895 (London: Bartletts Press, 1993).
Stepniak, Sergei. (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski) Andrey Kazshukhov, oder, der lebens-tsvek fun a nihilist. [Andrei Kazhuchov, or, The Life-Goal Of A Nihilist] Trans. A. Frumkin. Leeds: 'Yehi Or' ('Let there be light') Publishing Association, 1898. 189pp. [Prager p115; BL:012591.c.28.]
Stepniak, Sergei. (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski) [The New Convert] (Yiddish title not given) Trans. Tuvye-Borekh Eyges. London: Arbayter Fraynd. [Prager p224]
Stepniak, Sergei. (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski) Dos unter-irdishe Russland. [Underground Russia] Trans. A. Frumkin. London, 1896. 264pp. [Prager p663; BL:8183.w.14.]
Stepniak, Sergei. (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski) Dos unter-erdishe Rusland. [Underground Russia] Trans. A. Frumkin. Nyu York: Max Mayzel, 1921. 253pp. [M4032/1292]
Mart Vabar <mesinik@xxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 15 Jul 2004, Jorge Stolfi wrote:
> Dennis asks who was the handwriting expert who saw only one hand.
> http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/mirror/reeds/docs/carter.txt
irregular speculations about handwriting
has any (hi)story a logical beginning
or vice versa - is our sight determined by standpoint?
when looking at these dzhigitating lines of text as a picture,
I often thought about a writer with military background.
I somehow had in sight the light cavalry (of Eurasian grasslands)
with sables etc ... but the artillery (where Kravchinsky comes from)
could fit it, too - let us have in mind the "strange letters",
could these remember cannons
(accompanied by a lot of horses anyway in these old days)?
but also it seems,
there isn t everything very OK with the sexual life of this writer.
! first, I keep my opinion - he is not a sexually oriented person at all
(at least mr. Pelling wrote, he thinks the same, did he?).
surprisingly, despite of this disinterest,
he seems to have a very regular sexual intercourse.
more surprisingly, it seems to me, his partner isn t really "interested" too.
so why all the fuzz, if no she, nor he doesn t care about sex ...
... and no more don t they care "to be like everybody"???
some explanations:
*) they are emigrants both and feel just lonely.
they have no much loyality (or should it be said "respect"?)
against each other, but they search for far home in each other.
*) she could hang on him just for economic protection,
but I don t think so. she seems to be a woman, who feels somehow
lost, but probably lives not in economic poverty.
*) again, we have to remember, if the writer is Kravchinsky,
so the secret services must be interested about him. so - could "she"
be a kind of prostitute,! who is paid by ss-es (to keep them informed)?
anyway, my impression:
there is hiding something really ugly here.
what could it be? let me give one (more or less possible) speculation:
... the people in ss-es hear (somehow thru his sexual partner),
that this strange manuscript is not a static tome, but a dynamic,
developing thing. how could they benefit from this information?
when looking at the stormy past of Kravchinsky, it is clear -
there existed people, who was worried about his memories
... take this "Italian operette" par example. to organise such
just-like-rebellion, you need money. could these means come from
the same structures, which finally benefitted from the happening?
if so, could this side to be ready to pay good money also
for an accident with Kravchinsky ... to keep away his political memories?
really, Kravchinsky had his enthusiastic fingers in many games a little bit.
the hypothetical "Italian client" is j! ust one possible grant
for his surveillance and killing; probably not the first one in the list
(just maybe the most poetical one).
but let us make a short end to this long lore:
*) the writer of VMS could be Kravchinsky
*) a manuscript in cipher by this author could make nervous many clients
(i.e. clients for structures, which organize "accidents" for money)
... another question is, could we find much believable data about him in
(more or less clandestine) archives of any country.
could a manuscript kill it s author?
JEAN
