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SERGIUS STEPNIAK (1852-1895)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 890 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SERGIUS See also:STEPNIAK (1852-1895)  , See also:Russian revolutionist, whose real name was See also:Sergius Michaelovitch Kravchinski, was See also:born in See also:South See also:Russia, of parents who belonged to a See also:noble See also:family . He received a liberal See also:education, and, when he See also:left school, became an officer in the See also:artillery; but his sympathy with the peasants, among whom he had lived during his boyhood in the See also:country, See also:developed in him at first democratic and, later, revolutionary opinions . Together with a few other men of See also:birth and education, he began secretly to sow the sentiments of See also:democracy among the peasants . His teaching did not See also:long remain a See also:secret, and in 1874 he was arrested . He succeeded in making his See also:escape—possibly he was permitted to escape on See also:account of his youth—and immediately began a more vigorous See also:campaign against See also:autocracy . His sympathetic nature was influenced by indignation against the brutal methods adopted towards prisoners, especially See also:political prisoners, and by the stern See also:measures which the See also:government of the See also:tsar See also:felt compelled to adopt in See also:order to repress the revolutionary See also:movement . His indignation carried him into See also:accord for a See also:time with those who advocated the terrorist policy . In consequence he exposed himself to danger by remaining in Russia, and in 188o he was obliged to leave the country . He settled for a See also:short time in See also:Switzerland, then a favourite resort of revolutionary leaders, and after a few years came to See also:London . He was already known in See also:England by his See also:book, Underground Russia, which had been published in London in 1882 . He followed it up with a number of other See also:works on the See also:condition of the Russian peasantry, on See also:Nihilism, and on the conditions of See also:life in Russia . His mind gradually turned from belief in the efficacy of violent measures to the See also:acceptance of constitutional methods; and in his last book, See also:King See also:Stork and King See also:Log, he spoke with approval of the efforts of politicians on the Liberal See also:side to effect, by See also:argument and peaceful agitation, a See also:change in the attitude of the Russian government towards various reforms .

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Stepniak constantly wrote and lectured, both in See also:Great See also:Britain and the See also:United States, in support of his views, and his See also:energy, added to the See also:interest of his See also:personality, won him many See also:friends . He was chiefly identified with the Socialists in England and the Social Democratic parties on the See also:Continent; but he was regarded by men of all opinions as an agitator whose motives had always been pure and disinterested . Stepniak was killed by a railway See also:engine at a level See also:crossing at See also:Bedford See also:Park, See also:Chiswick, where he resided, on the 23rd of See also:December 1895 . He was cremated at See also:Woking on the 28th of December . (H . H .

End of Article: SERGIUS STEPNIAK (1852-1895)
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