Training the Nihilists: Education and Radicalism in Tsarist Russia PDF
Preview Training the Nihilists: Education and Radicalism in Tsarist Russia
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY _ . st.tiTA Training the Nihilists EDUCATION AND RADICALISM IN TSARIST RUSSIA By the Same Author The New Jacobins: The French Communist Party and the Popular Front 1934-1938 , (Editor) The Soviet Experience: Success or Failure? Training the Nihilists EDUCATION AND RADICALISM IN TSARIST RUSSIA BROWER DANIEL R. Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON \ © Copyright 1975 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 1975 by Cornell University Press. Published in the United Kingdom by Cornell University Press Ltd., 2-4 Brook Street, London W1Y 1AA. International Standard BookNumber0-8014-0874-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 74-25371 Printed in the United States ofAmerica a F. K. B. contestataire chronique Digitized by the Internet Archive 2015 in https://archive.org/details/trainingnihilistOObrow Preface In the mid-nineteenth century, Russian schools began to play a key role in training young “nihilists,” that is, radical youth. The evolution of this peculiar relationship between education and radi—calism forms the theme of my book. It examines Russian education the term is used loosely to include the entire system o—f socialization and learning in the advanced and secondary schools in order to explain the factors producing the young rebels: Where did they come from? How did it happen that year after year the schools turned out a steady stream of recruits for the revolutionary movement? % The evidence and conclusions in answer to these questions are pre- sented in analytical, rather than chronological order. I treat the period of the 1840’s to the 1870’s as a whole, during which time the important innovations in radical recruitment took place. The radicals began their lives among Russia’s upper and middle classes, where they received their first instruction in moral behavior and social rela- tions. Later, formal education assumed these responsibilities; young people deviated toward radical revolt in their years of schooling through a unique adaptation of the process of learning. The argument is summed up schematically in a flow chart in the concluding chapter. My work began as a study of the Russian intelligentsia. Some read- ers may still see it as such, although I have chosen to avoid use of the word completely, for reasons made clear in Chapter 1. The im- pact of education on recruitment into the radical movement raises complex issues having nothing to do with the old debate concerning the intelligentsia. I have tried to solve the problem of terminology by using the simplest labels for groups defined by easily identifiable traits. What the argument loses in sophistication it gains, I hope, in clarity.
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