HEROES AND HEROINES OF RUSSIA.
Heroes and Heroines of Russia. By Jaakoff Prelooker. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 103. net.)—The " heroes and heroines" are of the revolutionary type ; the stories are certainly " thrilling," and we do not deny that they are " true," allowance being first made for prepossessions. The reader must not fail to begin with the preface on "Russian Revolutions and Revolu- tionists." Mr. Prelooker refuses to condemn the terrorist move- ment, so far agreeing with the second Demo, which refused to pass a condemnatory resolution, and was in consequence dis- solved. But he is convinced of its unwisdom. And he is not blind to other follies of his friends,—to their preaching of Socialism before they have secured even the beginnings of freedom, to their interminable divisions, and generally to their lack of the practical. The stories themselves are curious in the extreme. There is the "True Story of the Nihilistic Marriage," for instance. Sonia Tchemodanoff is the highly educated daughter of a Russian priest, and wants to embark on a career. Her parents, on the contrary, desire to marry her to a local Justice of the Peace. She communicates her difficulty to her teacher, and a sham marriage is arranged. Sergius Sinegub, a student, undertakes the rdle of bridegroom. He makes his way to the heroine's house, equipped with money, presents, &c., raised by subscriptions, and presents himself as a suitor. His position as the son of a land- owner enables him to "cut out" the J.P., the marriage is arranged and solemnised in show. All this is most amusing. Nor are we surprised when it becomes a real union. But the end not amusing by any means. Sinegub falls under the suspicion of the authorities and is arrested, kept for four years and eight months in solitary confinement before his trial, and *after his trial and another long delay sentenced to nine years' hard labour iu the Siberian mines, the long imprisonment and, with a strange punctilio of 'justice, the one month of the journey being deducted. It is melancholy to read that two of the children of this marriage committed suicide. Another strange story is that of Prince Khilkoff, a Russian nobleman who becomes a Stundist—an admirable person, but wrongheaded, one cannot help thinking, in she last degree.
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