NICHOLAS RUSSEL

Nicholas Russel was born Nikolai Konstantinovich Sudzilovskii in Mogilev, Russia, in December 3, 1850. He entered Petersburg University as a law student in 1868, but transferred to Kiev University where he forsook law to study medicine.

Incurring the wrath of the Russian authorities by his seditious utterances at a student meeting, his arrest was ordered, and in 1874 he fled. One story has it that he escaped from Kiev with the help of his 16-year-old sister disguised as a Muslim. From Russia he made his way to London where he interned for a time at St. George's Hospital. The following year he went to Bucharest University and enrolled in the Medical School from which he received his M.D. in 1876. It was in Bucharest that he took the English name of Nicholas Russel. Sometime (probably in 1874) in Geneva, Switzerland, he married his first wife by whom he had two daughters.

When the Russo-Turkish War broke out in 1877, Dr. Russel not only dispensed medical treatment to Russian troops passing through Romania but also spread revolutionary propaganda as well. After the war he edited and published a socialist paper, but pressure from Russia caused Romanian authorities to expel him from the country. On leaving Romania, Dr. Russel worked for several years as bacteriologist, chemist, oculist, and pharmacologist in Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland in order to amass enough money to support his family. He then divorced his wife, so that he could give his full time to revolutionary activities.

Dr. Russel moved to Paris where he practiced medicine and continued his political work until 1882 when he left for Bulgaria and then Greece, where he married a lady doctor. Dr. Russel and his wife sailed for San Francisco in 1877. While in San Francisco, Dr. Russel became involved in an argument between two factions of the North American Greco-Russian Orthodox Church. Early in 1890 he brought charges against Bishop Vladimir of the church, following which Dr. Russel was publicly excommunicated. So bitter were both factions that Bishop Vladimir was arrested and libel suits ensued. The argument was finally terminated from St. Petersburg by the recall of the Bishop. He was replaced by Archimandrite Innocente, and the doctor's excommunication was declared inactive.

In May 1892, Dr. Russel came to the Islands and became physician for the Waianae Plantation on Oahu, and also served as government physician for the district. Moving to Honolulu in 1895, he opened an office in the Masonic Building on Alakea Street. In the same year he joined the newly reorganized Medical Association of Hawaii* and was elected to the executive committee to draw up bylaws and a constitution for the group. He also presented a paper, "Our Health Policy" at the 1896 meeting. Mrs. Russel attended the meetings, too, but did not become a member. Dr. Russel was the author of a fee schedule adopted at the meeting, but which, according to the "Advertiser" of May 22, 1896, "proved very unpopular with the public."

During these years he wrote several articles about Hawaii's flora, fauna, and geology and was the author of a pamphlet, "How to Live in the Hawaiian Islands", a tourist guide to Hawaii, which enjoyed considerable popularity.

In March, 1897, he moved to Olaa, Hawaii, where be bought 100 acres on which he planted coffee and where he built his home. In July of that year he began to practice as an oculist in Hilo, which entailed a 17 mile round trip between home and office. Later he became so involved in the growing of coffee that he moved his office to Olaa. For a time Dr. Russel was physician for the Olaa Plantation but resigned in 1900. In 1901 he was named to the honorary staff of Hilo Hospital. The doctor was the prime organizer and the first president of the Olaa Coffee Planters Association, which was formed to look after the interests of the planters.

After the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, Dr. Russel ran as a candidate of the Home Rule Party for a seat in the first Territorial Legislature and was successful. When the Legislature met, he was chosen president of the Senate, but soon discovered that as president he could not participate in debates on the floor or vote unless a deadlock developed. His efforts to keep order in the Senate were ridiculed by the Republicans and he was criticized in the press. His frustration caused him to resign as president, and on April 2, 1901, he took his place on the floor of the Senate. His first session in the Legislature was such a disillusioning experience that he gave up any further effort to participate in Hawaiian politics and decided to devote his efforts to the revolutionary movement.

In October, 1903, Dr. Russel left for the Orient where, according to the "Advertiser" of October 26th, he hoped to raise money for the promotion of a large sugar plantation in upper Olaa. Returning to Olaa in April of the following year, nothing further is heard about his plans for the sugar plantation, and, presumably, his efforts failed. In June, 1905, Dr. Russel was sent to Japan at the expense of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom to propagandize Russian prisoners of war held in Japan at the end of the Russo-Japanese War. So successful was the doctor in advocating the cause of liberalism, that it was estimated of the 70,000 prisoners all became liberals and three-fourths of them revolutionists. His success brought a protest by the Russian government through its ambassador in Washington, which resulted in the doctor's passport and citizenship being revoked when he returned briefly to Hawaii.

Thoroughly disillusioned with American democracy, in September 1906, Dr. Russel left Hawaii for good and settled in Nagasaki, Japan, where he carried on a medical practice mainly among the destitute. In March 1907, Mrs. Russel went to Japan to join her husband according to the "Advertiser" for March 2, 1907. Apparently the marriage was dissolved, for later he was reported to have married a Japanese lady. That same year (1907) Dr. Russel moved to the Philippines where he practiced under primitive conditions on Mindanao, Mindoro, and Negros. In 1921 he went to China. Because of his work as a first generation revolutionary he received a pension from the Russian Society of Political Prisoners and Exiled Emigrants. Dr. Russel died of influenza in Tienstsin, China, on April 30, 1930, at the age of 79.

First and foremost Dr. Russel was a revolutionary whose whole life was devoted to advancing his political beliefs. One of his real regrets was that he never had the chance to actively participate in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. As a doctor, much of his work was with the needy for whom he had compassion and concern. His extensive travels were made easier by his ability as a linguist; he was fluent in eight European languages and also spoke Hawaiian, Japanese, and several Philippine dialects.
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*First organized in 1856, the Association apparently suspended meetings after 1858, and it was not until 1895 that it was revived. Most of the material for this sketch was taken from the excellent and very scholarly article, "The Odyssey of Nicholas Russel" by Ronald Hayashida and David Kittleson appearing in "The Hawaiian Journal of History", volume 11, 1977, pages 110-124.

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