This article is about the Russian political and revolutionary movement. For the philosophy of nihilism, see nihilism.

The Nihilist movement was an 1860s Russian political movement marked by the questioning of the validity of all forms of authority and by a penchant for destruction as the primary tool for political change. The Nihilists championed the independence of the individual and shocked the Russian establishment.

History

Nihilism finds its roots in 1817 with the foundation of the first Russian secret political society under Pavel Pestel . Partly as a reaction against the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I who was seen as an absolutist, especially after the comparatively open reign of Tsar Alexander I, it culminated in the Decembrist Revolt of 1825. Later, anarchist and freemason Mikhail Bakunin developed nihilist thought in opposition to Karl Marx's political philosophy, which Bakunin saw as inevitably leading to a totalitarian state.

The Nihilists first attempted to convert the aristocracy to the cause of reform. Failing there, they turned to the peasants. Their "go to the people" campaign became known as the Narodnik movement, which followed the philosophy of Narodism, taking advantage of disgruntled peasants to achieve their aims.

While the Narodnik movement was gaining momentum, the government quickly moved to extirpate it. In response to the growing reaction of the government, a radical branch of the Narodniks advocated and practiced terrorism. One after another, prominent officials were shot or killed by bombs. Finally, after several attempts, Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, on the very day he had approved a proposal to call a representative assembly to consider new reforms in addition to the abolition of serfdom designed to ameliorate revolutionary demands.

Political philosophy

Nihilist political philosophy rejected all religious and political authority, social traditions, and traditional morality as standing in opposition to freedom, the ultimate ideal. In this sense, it can be seen as an extreme form of anarchism. The state thus became the enemy, and the enemy was ferociously attacked. After gaining much momentum in Russia, partly due to liberals' dissatisfaction with the intelligentsia, the movement degenerated into what were essentially terrorist cells, barren of any real unifying philosophy beyond the call for destruction.

Nihilism greatly resembled anarchism, though there are three main differences:

1. Nihilism advocated violence as the best method to affect political change. This is not necessarily the case with anarchism (see Emma Goldman).
2. Nihilism was characterized by a rejection of all systems of authority and all social conventions. This is not necessarily the case with anarchism. In fact, many forms of anarchism rely on the existence or creation of a strong community.
3. As a political movement, nihilism was primarily a Russian phenomenon.

The Nihilism movement differs from the modern philosophical concept of nihilism, literally meaning belief in nothing, which supposes that human existence has no purpose, meaning, or essential value. To the contrary, Russian Nihilists had very strong beliefs that they were willing to risk their lives for. What they had in common was a belief that the existing establishment had no value; radical Russian Nihilists sought to solve this problem by destroying the existing establishment.

Extreme anarchy such as that demonstrated by Nihilism has become a theme in a number of modern works of art, such as Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel Fight Club, in which the ultimate goal of the book's 'project mayhem' is the destruction of society in order to rebuild humanity.

References

• History of Russia#Nihilism