The nihilist movement in Russia

[L.A.P.]

What was it all about?

How useful are their tactics today?

What relation does it have to the October Revolution?

[ComradeOm]

Essentially Russian nihilism was an intellectual current that arose in mid/late 19th C Russia as a reaction to the perceived failure of liberalisation and Westernisation. The retreat from the highpoint of the 1861 Emancipation, towards a more traditional autocracy, led many reformers to question not just the Tsardom but also the previously accepted notions of 'progress' and moderate change. But given the relative absence of the latest Western critiques of capitalism (ie, Marxism and socialism, which were at this time only taking shape elsewhere in Europe) this bout of pessimism had little to it except a hard radicalism

This is because nihilism in Russia was largely limited to the tiny educated classes; most obviously the aristocracy and intelligentsia. It never took the form of a mass movement in the same way that socialism and liberalism were becoming the creeds of the proletariat and bourgeoisie, respectively, in the West. These classes were too weak in Russia. This would change in the Late Tsardom and nihilism would be largely overtaken by richer and more progressive ideologies

So with regards October the direct influence of the nihilists was nil. Indirectly, nihilism played a role (in that it begat Populism which, in a convoluted way, begat socialism in Russia) but only in the sense that it was a distant ideological ancestor of Russian socialism

[mrmikhail]

Essentially Russian nihilism was an intellectual current that arose in mid/late 19th C Russia as a reaction to the perceived failure of liberalisation and Westernisation. The retreat from the highpoint of the 1861 Emancipation, towards a more traditional autocracy, led many reformers to question not just the Tsardom but also the previously accepted notions of 'progress' and moderate change. But given the relative absence of the latest Western critiques of capitalism (ie, Marxism and socialism, which were at this time only taking shape elsewhere in Europe) this bout of pessimism had little to it except a hard radicalism

This is because nihilism in Russia was largely limited to the tiny educated classes; most obviously the aristocracy and intelligentsia. It never took the form of a mass movement in the same way that socialism and liberalism were becoming the creeds of the proletariat and bourgeoisie, respectively, in the West. These classes were too weak in Russia. This would change in the Late Tsardom and nihilism would be largely overtaken by richer and more progressive ideologies

So with regards October the direct influence of the nihilists was nil. Indirectly, nihilism played a role (in that it begat Populism which, in a convoluted way, begat socialism in Russia) but only in the sense that it was a distant ideological ancestor of Russian socialism

This isn't entirely true, the Nihilist movement gave rise to the Zemlya i volya party, which later would split and form the Narodnaya Volya, which was the first Marxist influenced group in Russia, and the group of which Lenin's brother was apart of. His brother was hanged for treason for attempting to kill the Emperor, thus leading Lenin himself to the revolutionary path. So I would have to say that the Nihilist movement played a much greater role in the later Bolshevik movement in Russia. (btw happy 94th anniversary of the October Revolution for yesterday and today)