ABSTRACT
One of Serge Nechayev's most intransigent opponents during the student troubles in Petersburg in 1868-69 was an earnest young Jew, Mark Natanson. As against revolutionary adventurism, Natanson preached the gospel according to Pisarev. After the disheartening experiences of the Pilgrimage many an idealist came to suspect that what the French socialist Proudhon had said so ruthlessly was true: the people was a quiet beast interested only in eating, sleeping, and lovemaking! But some, while losing many illusions, stuck to the original tenets of Populist faith. Aptekman was both appalled and strangely attracted by the real peasant as he found him in the course of his pilgrimage. A Ukrainian peasant gave Aptekman sound practical advice, which he followed only after some fifteen years marked by imprisonments and a Siberian exile. Spiritual and physical temptations combined in one Praskovia, a peasant nurse.
