r in order to fight the white
terror which was cutting down their ranks. The secret goal of this
movement was to replace the autocratic regime with political
institutions emanating from the will of the people. In order to
accomplish its reforms more quickly, this party, which called itself
the "Popular Will," incited several attempts at murder; Russia then
witnessed dynamite outrages against imperial trains and palaces, and
finally, the assassination of the Emperor Alexander II. For a moment
the autocratic regime seemed to totter under these sudden and fierce
blows, but it soon recovered. The white terror proved to be
stronger than the red. Many executions and banishments helped to
crush the partisans of the "Popular Will;" then, when the movement
had been checked, the authorities began to repress even the
slightest desire for independence on the part of the press, the
universities, or any other institutions which could do good to the
people. Dejection and disillusion dominated this period from 1880 to
1900, which has been so faithfully portrayed in the works of
Tchekoff.

Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that their ideals had come to
nought, those of the red terror had not disappeared, and hope
remained in their breasts.

Tchekoff was still living when new symptoms of fermentation appeared
in Russia, and he could have alluded to this in his later works. But
he did not have a fighting nature, and, in his solitude, he looked
at conditions with melancholy scepticism. There was need of a man, a
writer--like Gorky several years later--born right in the midst of
this movement, who would be the very product of it, and for whom its
ideas would be a reason for existence.

Veressayev was this man and writer, and it is as much by his
political opinions as by his literary talents that he gained such a
wide-spread reputation. If his works are not always irreproachable
from a literary standpoint, they are always accurate in describing
exactly what the author himself has seen and lived through.

* * * * *

Veressayev, in three great stories, gives us the three phases of the
movement between 1880 and 1900. These three stories, "Astray," "The
Contagion" and "At the Turn," are of such extreme importance, that
in the following pages there will be a detailed analysis of each of
them.

The two protagonists of the story, "Astray," are Dr. Chekanhov and
his cousin Natasha. The former is at the end of