登陆注册
5380500000181

第181章

TO THE EDITOR OF FREE RUSSIA,--I thank you for the compliment of your invitation to say something, but when I ponder the bottom paragraph on your first page, and then study your statement on your third page, of the objects of the several Russian liberation-parties, I do not quite know how to proceed.Let me quote here the paragraph referred to:

"But men's hearts are so made that the sight of one voluntary victim for a noble idea stirs them more deeply than the sight of a crowd submitting to a dire fate they cannot escape.Besides, foreigners could not see so clearly as the Russians how much the Government was responsible for the grinding poverty of the masses; nor could they very well realize the moral wretchedness imposed by that Government upon the whole of educated Russia.But the atrocities committed upon the defenceless prisoners are there in all their baseness, concrete and palpable, admitting of no excuse, no doubt or hesitation, crying out to the heart of humanity against Russian tyranny.And the Tzar's Government, stupidly confident in its apparently unassailable position, instead of taking warning from the first rebukes, seems to mock this humanitarian age by the aggravation of brutalities.Not satisfied with slowly killing its prisoners, and with burying the flower of our young generation in the Siberian desserts, the Government of Alexander III.resolved to break their spirit by deliberately submitting them to a regime of unheard-of brutality and degradation."When one reads that paragraph in the glare of George Kennan's revelations, and considers how much it means; considers that all earthly figures fail to typify the Czar's government, and that one must descend into hell to find its counterpart, one turns hopefully to your statement of the objects of the several liberation-parties--and is disappointed.

Apparently none of them can bear to think of losing the present hell entirely, they merely want the temperature cooled down a little.

I now perceive why all men are the deadly and uncompromising enemies of the rattlesnake: it is merely because the rattlesnake has not speech.

Monarchy has speech, and by it has been able to persuade men that it differs somehow from the rattlesnake, has something valuable about it somewhere, something worth preserving, something even good and high and fine, when properly "modified," something entitling it to protection from the club of the first comer who catches it out of its hole.It seems a most strange delusion and not reconcilable with our superstition that man is a reasoning being.If a house is afire, we reason confidently that it is the first comer's plain duty to put the fire out in any way he can--drown it with water, blow it up with dynamite, use any and all means to stop the spread of the fire and save the rest of the city.What is the Czar of Russia but a house afire in the midst of a city of eighty millions of inhabitants? Yet instead of extinguishing him, together with his nest and system, the liberation-parties are all anxious to merely cool him down a little and keep him.

It seems to me that this is illogical--idiotic, in fact.Suppose you had this granite-hearted, bloody-jawed maniac of Russia loose in your house, chasing the helpless women and little children--your own.What would you do with him, supposing you had a shotgun? Well, he is loose in your house-Russia.And with your shotgun in your hand, you stand trying to think up ways to "modify" him.

Do these liberation-parties think that they can succeed in a project which has been attempted a million times in the history of the world and has never in one single instance been successful--the "modification" of a despotism by other means than bloodshed? They seem to think they can.

同类推荐
  • 杜环小传

    杜环小传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 渠丘耳梦录

    渠丘耳梦录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 圣观自在菩萨一百八名经

    圣观自在菩萨一百八名经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清太玄九阳图

    上清太玄九阳图

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 柳南随笔

    柳南随笔

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 尼尔斯骑鹅旅行记(诺贝尔文学奖文集)

    尼尔斯骑鹅旅行记(诺贝尔文学奖文集)

    和书中的小主人公尼尔斯?霍尔哥松一样,作者塞尔玛?拉格洛芙也出生在瑞典的一个农庄里。那是1858年,她还小的时候,祖母给她讲了一只公鹅酌故事。故事说:四月的一天,那只公鹅跟着野鹅去了北方,六家都说再也不会见到它了,因而,当十月的一天,它突然带着一家老小回来的时候,所有人都大吃一惊……每当听到这儿,塞尔玛就会问:一路上这只公鹅的日子是怎么挨过来酌呢?许多年以后,她写出了尼尔斯?霍尔哥松的故事:他骑在公鹅马丁的背上,从瑞典一直飞到拉普兰特……这部极其有趣的作品,自1906年作为学生的阅读推荐书出版以后,至今一直受到广大读者酌热捧。
  • 恶少的合居爱人

    恶少的合居爱人

    他是B市里有名的富二代,一双狭长的桃花眼足以魅惑众生。他桀骜不驯,他张狂自信,他为了自己喜欢的人可以不顾一切。她是从乡村里走出的大学生,在陌生的城市里艰苦打拼,她最大的愿望就是能在城市里买一套属于自己的房子,把父母接到城里来享福。一场平凡的抽奖活动,一颗幸运的号码小球将永远不可能有交集的他们联系在同一套房子里。从此开始了他们啼笑皆非的同居生活。只是在这水深火热的生活里,是谁迷了谁的眼,又是谁乱了谁的心。原以为相守的尽头是幸福,却不想那一个冷雨夜后,那个男人就此消失,从此杳无音信。四年后,男人强势回归,变得更加邪魅,更加让女人为之疯狂。他再次出现在她面前,带着颠倒众生的邪笑,修长的大手用力的将她拉至身前,沉声道:“吕蔷仁,从这一刻开始,你就是我的,逃不掉了!”片段一:吕蔷仁笑了笑,拿出手里的小球,给工作人员看。“我是今天拿到幸运数字的人,请问……我是不是可以拿到那套房子?”工作人看了看小球上的数字然后将目光转向吕蔷仁。定定的看了一会,然后语气奇怪道:“你也是六十六号?”“是啊,我就是六十六号……什么叫做‘也’啊,难道有两个六十六号不成?”吕蔷仁睁大了眼睛,无辜的看着对面的工作人员。“还真有两个六十六号,刚刚来了个男的,手里也是那个写着六十六号的幸运小球。去领取他的奖品了!”“什么?”吕蔷仁当场化石。片段二:“我有个提议,希望你能听一听。”良久,吕蔷仁平复了一下自己紧张的心情,沉声道。南风烁一派自然的端起一杯蓝山咖啡,轻声道:“什么建议!”“既然我们都不肯放弃这套房子,如果你不在意的话……我们就一起住这个房子。”吕蔷仁大胆的说出自己的想法,灵动的双眸透过眼睛片紧紧盯着南风烁的反应。“你一个女人都不在意,我在意什么!那就同居呗,反正也就是个住的地方。”南风烁不甚在意的望着吕蔷仁,淡淡道。好的,既然你不反对,那就同居。片段三:南风烁打开车门,帅气十足的走了出来,慵懒的倚着车门,邪笑道:“蔷仁,四年不见,想我了吗?”吕蔷仁一愣,不可思议的望了男人一眼,随即撇开转身就走。还没迈出步伐就被南风烁一把拉住,跌在他怀里。“吕蔷仁,从这一刻开始,你就是我的,逃不掉了!”
  • 弃妇也疯狂

    弃妇也疯狂

    【天涯相思阁出品】虽然穿越了~虽然穿成了一个弃妇~虽然穿成了一个带着拖油瓶的弃妇~但是,偶也不是随便将就的主。前夫,闪一边去~将军,考虑一下~皇子,偶誓死不为妾的说~~~嘿嘿,年轻有为的庄主~貌似是个金饭碗!!且看,芯影的不一样的弃妇故事!!!
  • 夜行歌

    夜行歌

    那年,天山雪满,他和她在杀戮场相遇。她是弹指碎烟花的杀手,为复仇以身试毒,历经寒暑稚颜不改;他不过一介无名小卒,为了生存折节为奴,忍辱负重心事成灰。那月,他跟着她走在死一般的寂静里,歌声忽起,道尽了生之欢悦、死之静穆,却温暖得让人落泪,他愣愣望着她,终止了一切思维。从此,他的命是她的,他的心也是她的。那天,明月破出云海,万里风起,他翻身上马,一把带起她揽在身前,随即纵马而出,直奔江南。他低头轻吻风扬起的发,道:“我们,回去。”那时,他不会想到,昔日生死相托的两人有一日会境地全殊,各分天涯。说好了,一起老,一起死。百年之后我们埋在一起,坟前种上青青的树。春天开出满树的花,风一吹就像我在对你说话。好不好?
  • 大魏能臣

    大魏能臣

    萧逸,字无愁,命犯贪狼,犹如一颗美丽的流星般划过东汉末年历史的天空,搅动漫天风云……曹操曰:“吾得无愁,天下无愁!”刘备曰:“有萧逸在,中原无我立锥之地!孙权曰:“萧逸不死,孤心不安!司马懿曰:“吾若不取,则天下归萧逸矣!”有诗为证:卧龙凤雏隐荆襄,俊美幼麟是周郎,萧墙之内伏冢虎;天意茫茫属萧郎!
  • 垂钓日记

    垂钓日记

    本书收录了《“战”安昌》、《云竹风光掠影》、《冰天雪地独斗寒》、《寒风砭骨》、《倾听冰声》、《在大风中搏击》、《暖泉沟空军之行》、《青海湖散记》、《买鱼竿》、《夏钓清潭》等作品。
  • 荀子大讲堂

    荀子大讲堂

    荀子,战国时著名思想家、文学有。名况,当时人们尊重他,称他荀卿。本书以荀子的基本思想为出发点,在荀子对天人的思考范畴上,对做人、做事、处世、言谈、交际、识人、用人等方面作了深入细致、又浅显易懂的探讨,对读者来说是一部很好的研读范本。荀子“人定胜天”思想的提出,则是发展了孔子仁学的实用性,在一定程度上体现了人的主观能动性的发挥,让人的一生更幸福,让社会走上良性发展的轨道。在中国哲学史上和中国文化心理结构的形成上具有不可低估的作用。
  • 快穿女配:攻略男神爽翻天

    快穿女配:攻略男神爽翻天

    【女主(女配+反派+反派光环!)男主这个嘛说不定】作为新21世纪的美少女林秣,身世地位人气美貌样样俱全。可惜天公不做美,林秣还没来得及享受就被自己从未过面的未婚夫和小三设计陷害而死。怎么可以!关键是命也丢了!什么都没有了!但是这莫名其妙的东西是什么?【系统大人】:伟大的宿主666,下个位面即将开始,请系好垃圾桶安全带,准备发射!“……”被丢出系统空间的某女。
  • 太上秘法镇宅灵符

    太上秘法镇宅灵符

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 救赎(犯罪悬疑小说馆)

    救赎(犯罪悬疑小说馆)

    一起扑朔迷离的强奸,一幕偷天换日的阴谋。小警察陷入黑社会精心设计的桃色陷阱,因“强奸”被抓。强奸案背后隐藏着惊天秘密,案中案一个接一个,关键人物或离奇失踪或相继死亡,所有的线索全部被一只神秘的手掐断了。小警察在看守所差点被“做掉”,为破案他不惜越狱,却发现娇妻已落入黑老大怀抱。公安局副局长陈虎投靠了黑老大刘天龙,新任局长腹背受敌。正义与邪恶的交锋,情场、官场、法场各种角色演绎出黑道、白道与红道的激情对抗,情场迷雾重重、官场勾心斗角、法场黑哨频吹,精彩纷呈。小警察的命运如何?他们将怎样展开救赎?案件扑朔迷离,情节错综复杂,引人入胜。