The Sentinel, v.139 no. 09, 1945

              August 30, 1945
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"Red Prelude," The Life of the
Russian Terrorist Zhelyabov, by
David Footman; Yale; 267 pp.,
$2.75.
Reviewed by SOL JESMER
It is difficult to imagine an unbiased
account of a Russian revolutionary
period and of a terrorist group involved
in regicide, given by a British consular
official. Yet, "Red Prelude" is just such
a phenomenon.
The author David John Footman is
known as a novelist. For fifteen years
he was in British consular service in
various countries. Since his retirement
from the service in 1935, however, he
devoted himself to literary work, of
which this is his latest manifestation.
"Red Prelude" is more than the bi-ography
of the Russian Terrorist
Zhelyabov; it is more than a sketch of
Zemlya i Volya (Land and Freedom),
a revolutionary party, and of Narod-naya
Volya (The People's Will), the
terrorist organization headed by Zhel-yabov.
It is a chapter of Russian his-tory.
It is an earnest attempt to give
an historical, sociological, economic and
psychological interpretation of the
times and the forces that brought
about ferment, discontent and final
eruption against the autocratic and
despotic government.
The reader is introduced to the lead-ers
of the secret organizations; he is
shown how and why they became revo-lutionaries,
how they grew and devel-oped
and how good, idealistic, peaceful
young men and women turned into
dreaded terrorists; what they thought,
how they planned and plotted, and how
they fought and died.
The leadership in the revolutionary
movement at the period in question
was furnished by the intelligentsia. In
the 1860's and '70's the emphasis was
placed on the peasants who, though re-cently
liberated, were exploited and
abused. They were either landless or
with too little land to escape a life of
poverty and misery.
Furthermore, since the peasant re-bellions
led by Razin in the Seven-teenth
century and by Pugachov in the
Eighteenth, it became a tradition with
the intelligentsia to surround the peas-ant
with an aura of revolutionary fer-vor.
The faith in the historic destiny
cf the village population was respons-ible
for the Norodnik (Populist) move-ment
described by the author with
some detail. The city proletariat was
numerically small as yet to play any
appreciable part in the revolutionary
plans. The Norodniks, however, proved
wrong in their expectations that the
peasants would start an "elemental"
or spontaneous revolt to throw off the
yoke of absolutism.
Outraged by the brutality and cor-ruption
of the government and disillu-sioned
with the slow response of the
village, Zhelyabov felt that it was nec-essary
to "give history a push" by
revolutionary activities or by terroris-tic
acts. When his party, Narodnaya
Volya, adopted this policy, a series of
terroristic acts accompanied by public
statements explaining them was initi-ated.
The culmination of this "push"
was a number of attempts on the life
of Alexander II and, finally his assas-sination.
The book appears well authenticated
with references and quotations from
purported original sources. Such is the
masterly defense speech of Zhelyabov
at the trial for the murder of Alexan-der
II. Such are the excerpts from the
memoirs of the terrorists Vera Zusu-lich,
Vera Figner and others.
However, in some instances, conclu-sions
are drawn and sources are relied
on that do not deserve "full faith and
credit." For instance, the allusion is
made by the author that Alexander's
son exerted influence on the policies
and decisions of his father or that
Alexander II intended to abdicate in
favor of his son. One might refer to
the diary of Alexander II to learn that
he had the utmost contempt for his
son and did not take him into his con-fidence.
It is, therefore, hard to be-lieve
that the heir apparent could have
any influence on his father's govern-ment
or that his father would abdicate
in his favor.
Nor is much credence due the allega-tion
that shortly before his assassina-tion
Alexander intended to grant a
constitution to his people. Historians
like M. M. Pokrovsky are authority to
the contrary.
"Red Prelude" should appeal not
merely to the student of history, or to
those who have an interest in Russia,
but also to those who want to know
what makes a revolutionary tick. Seri-ous
as this work is, it is as interesting
and absorbing, intriguing and thrilling,
as the best murder-mystery story. The
personages involved, the very unusual
situations, with now the hunted and
always the hunters being pursued, ac-count
for its great fascination.
The ingenuity and persistence of
the plotters are amazing. So are their
careful scientific preparations. Failure
upon failure is followed by one bold
attempt after another.
When the climax came, Zhelyabov
and some of his assistants were un-expectedly
arrested; the emperor
changed the route he originally planned
to take and the royal quarry escaped
the carefully laid plans. Yet Alexander
was killed in the end - on March 1,
1881, the sentence of the executive
committee of Narodnaya Volya was
carried out and the throne of the Rus-sia
empire was ascended by a drunk-ard
and nonentity.
"Not until Nicholas II did the Rus-sians
discover," says Pokrovsky, "that
the throne of Russia could be occupied
by an even greater nonentity than
Alexander III."
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