CHAPTER XXII

THE TREND

Whither? The future of Russia--Why the revolution has not yet

succeeded--Probable outcome of the struggle--Inevitableness of

eventual overthrow of present régime--Attitude of foreign

Powers--The Russian people during the period of rebellion--Effect

upon national character--The Czar and the people--The Czar and the

world--What we may expect.

Say not the struggle naught availeth,

The labor and the wounds are vain,

The enemy faints not, nor faileth,

And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;

It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,

Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,

And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

Far back, through creeks and inlets making,

Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,

When daylight comes, comes in the light;

In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly!

But westward, look, the land is bright!

_Arthur Hugh Clough._

When the troubled year 1906 ended, the shadow of reaction began to

deepen over the Russian empire. One by one the granted liberties and

promised reforms of the manifesto of October, 1905, were being revoked

and recalled. Early in 1907 the second Duma met, struggled through a

brief existence, and was dissolved by the magic word of the Czar.

Discouragement then possessed the people--a sense of heartbreaking

hopelessness. To the men and women who had borne the heat and burden of

the struggle it seemed as if all the efforts and the sacrifices, the

lives surrendered to the cause of liberalism and progress, had been in

vain. The world at large passed hasty judgment: “The revolution has

petered out.” The announcement that a new Duma would be convened in the

late autumn of 1907 sounded hollow, for the new election laws, which

disenfranchised millions of peasants, promises so completely to

devitalize the results of the elections at the very outset, that the

whole institution of parliamentarism seems reduced to a mere shell.

The results of my observations lead me to accept this period of

stagnation and temporary inactivity as a matter of course, a natural

phenomenon, consistent and compatible with the mighty struggle in which

the Russian nation is now plunged.

At the beginning of this book I pointed out that the periods of great

revolutions are seldom brief. M. Leroy-Beaulieu said to Tolstoi that

Russia’s struggle might continue fifty years. Even that, it seems to me,

is a comparatively short time for the working out of all the changes

which Russia must undergo before she will be brought to the standard of

modern civilization. The political phases of the situation are secondary

to the vital social and economic changes which are working out. The

ideas of a nation, as well as the customs of a great people and the

forms of an ancient government, are all in the flux. Decades must

necessarily elapse before such vast renovation is completed. And in the

meantime the movement making for this renovation remains of world-wide

importance, palpitating as it does with human interest, and involving as

it does the concern of a substantial amount of the world’s commercial

interest. France, Germany, Austria, England, and America all have

business and commercial associations in Russia which are affected by the

development or retardation of industrial and agricultural Russia. The

intellectual influence of the philosophy of the revolution is equally

universal, watched closely by Germany, and Austria, and France, and

ultimately destined to touch the uttermost parts of the world. So was it

in France--to a greater degree, perhaps, shall this be true of Russia.

Precisely as there cannot be mountains without valleys, or flow without

ebb, so there cannot be revolution without counter-revolution, or

progress without reaction.

In the manifesto of October, 1905, Czar Nicholas II said:

“We charge our government to carry out our inflexible will as

follows:

“1. To establish an unshakable foundation of the civic liberties of

the population, such as inviolability of the person, liberty of

conscience, of speech, of meetings, and of unions....

“3. To lay as an unchangeable rule that no law can enter into force

without the approval of the imperial Duma; and that the

representatives of the people should be entitled to an effective

control over the executive power....”

All the world knows how speedily every one of these glorious promises

was swept aside. The “inflexible will” of the present Emperor of Russia

is the most anarchistic influence in the world to-day. It submits to no

discipline, it bows to no law, refuses to remember even through brief

days most solemn pledges made to the Russian people before the world,

and nonchalantly acquiesces in the careless breaking of even God’s laws.

The government of Russia to-day rests not on law, or order, or right,

but on might, militarism, and simon-pure terrorism.

In Appendix D may be found the report of Captain Pietuchow on the

Siedlce pogrom, in which is quoted the following utterance of Colonel

Tichanowsky: “We must set against the terrorism of the revolution a

still more frightful terrorism.” And this is what the officials of

czardom are doing to-day. And the terrorism of the government is not

only a “more frightful terrorism” than the “terrorism of the

revolution,” it is the most frightful and the most monstrous terrorism

of modern times, because the forms of government are converted into the

tools of absolute lawlessness, and the victims of this terror are often

the helpless among the people of the empire--women and girls thrown to

the lust of Cossacks, old men and children the marks of police

brutality. In the chapter on governmental terrorism, and in the

appendix, there is adduced overwhelming evidence, and proof, of official

complicity and governmental connivance with this terrorism. Beside the

terrorism, the brutality and the ruthlessness of the Russian government,

and the soldiers and officials acting in the name of the Russian

government, the most heinous offenses of the people pale into

insignificance. Individuals are human, and there comes a snapping-point

when the sturdiest intellect can no longer beat back frenzy. But a

government! A government, surely, cannot be exonerated on these grounds.

Madness, desperation, passion should never possess the government of a

great empire. If it does, then is the incapability of that government

amply proven, and its fall deservedly imminent.

After the dissolution of the second Duma the Moscow “Viedomosti,” a

reactionary organ, printed the following:

The population of Russia amounts to some 150,000,000 souls. But in

the revolution not more than 1,000,000 are inclined to take any

active part. Were these 1,000,000 men and women shot down or

massacred, there would still remain 149,000,000 inhabitants of

Russia, and this would be quite sufficient to insure the greatness

and prosperity of the Fatherland.

I myself heard a prominent Russian officer coolly advocate the immediate

execution of _two million men and women_ judiciously chosen from every

section of the empire, in order to stamp out the movement toward

constitutionalism!

As for the attitude of the Czar himself I have a conception which is

based on careful observation, but which may be at variance with popular

opinion in America. I believe that the Czar considers himself a

God-ordained autocrat. I believe that he aspires to hand over to his

heir and successor as absolute an autocracy as he inherited from his

fathers. Elsewhere I have quoted a remark said to have been made by the

Czar in 1906 to the effect that he believed “Russia could go for twenty

years more without a constitution, and he purposed to do all he could to

guide Russia back to where it was before the manifesto of October,

1905.”

Everything that has transpired in Russia since these words were spoken

points to their truth. The manifesto was wrung from the Czar by the

sudden tide of revolution which for once caught the government

unprepared. The granting of the constitution was like oil upon troubled

waters. But as soon as the government had recovered from the shock it

sustained through the revolutionary activity culminating in the general

strike, it began quietly to take back everything that had been promised.

The first Duma elections were seriously menaced, then on the eve of the

meeting of the parliament its powers were substantially reduced. During

the sessions of that body insults and rebukes were heaped upon it, and

finally it was disbanded. The elections for the second Duma were still

more seriously restricted, and although Duma number two was in many

respects an advance upon the first Duma it was presently dissolved upon

a ridiculous pretext. It will be no surprise if the career of Duma

number three is quite as short as that of the others, and if at the

dissolution of it the government will say, in effect: “We have now

experimented with parliamentary government, and the people of the

country have shown their unpreparedness for self-government”--with the

announcement of an indefinite postponement of further Duma experiments.

This is practically what happened in Turkey. And in Russia itself, one

hundred and fifty years ago, a similar incipient experiment was made. If

this should occur now the world may well believe that the Russian

government never had the faintest intention of introducing parliamentary

government at this time.

As for M. Stolypin--I believe him to be a shrewd, able administrator. I

do not believe for a moment that he has liberal sympathies. In this I

consciously take issue with many able writers, and even old and tried

Russian correspondents. A member of the Constitutional Democratic Party,

a deputy in the first Duma, a prominent university professor, who sat on

a commission with M. Stolypin, and who had unusual opportunities for

studying the premier, said to me: “I believe M. Stolypin to be the

strongest man the government has, but _a fanatic_

[Illustration: Nicholas W. Tchaykovsky “Father of the Russian

Revolution”]

_of reaction_.” I would not use the word “fanatic,” but I do believe him

to be a devoted champion of reaction and autocracy. At the same time, he

appreciates the desirability of appearing before the world in the rôle

of a would-be reformer. No modern statesman has watched the press of the

world more closely than he, and none has been quicker to trim his sails

according to the weather indications that he has there discerned.

M. Stolypin, besides being a clever and able minister, is also a brave

man. And withal he is blessed with a charming and gracious personality,

and it is through the irresistible influence of his polished and

cosmopolitan manners that he so diplomatically throws dust in the eyes

of the world through the correspondents and business representatives of

different countries who from time to time are accorded interviews with

him.

It remains true, however, in spite of his grace and affability, that

previous to his administration women and young girls and boys of sixteen

and seventeen were not hanged and shot for “suspected” revolutionary

activity. It was M. Stolypin who inaugurated the field courts-martial

which endeavor to confuse petty civil offenses with revolutionary

crimes, thus affording an excuse for hundreds of executions.

An Associated Press despatch from St. Petersburg under date of July 23,

1907, read as follows:

From many quarters come reports of summary executions under the new

regulations for the military district courts, which went into force

Saturday. These regulations undo the work of the recent Duma, which

abolished the notorious reign of the drumhead court-martial.

Under them only seventy-two hours are permitted to elapse between

indictment and execution, including the appeal to the Military

Court of Cassation, whereas a fortnight was permitted under the old

régime. These courts, too, have jurisdiction in all provinces,

whereas the old drumhead courts could act only in provinces that

had been placed in a state of extraordinary defense.

At Kieff yesterday five sappers were executed, and to-day another

sapper was sentenced to death. Three peasants have been executed at

Moscow, another at Warsaw, and at Yekaterinoslaff three workmen

have been put to death.

At Riga a young man, named Berland, went into a clothing-store,

chose an overcoat, and then started for the door. When asked to

settle his bill, he drew a revolver, covered the clerk, and got

away. He was captured and sentenced to death. Another young man,

named Danbe, was sentenced to death at Riga for the theft of $5,

and two girl accomplices, aged 12 and 20 years, were sentenced to

exile and hard labor for life.

I quote this telegram because the Associated Press has never been

suspected of pro-revolutionary proclivities so far as I know, and

because it indicates the true character of M. Stolypin and his

non-temporizing administration.

In thus emphasizing the offenses--not to say crimes--of the present

government, I doubtless lay myself open to the charge of

anti-governmental bias, yet I believe I am neither guilty of this charge

nor blind to the faults, weaknesses, and mistakes of the revolutionary

movement. My endeavor has been to present a true picture of Russia

to-day, and of the struggle going on there as I have witnessed it. Yet I

must point out once more that the responsibility of a government is

necessarily of a more serious nature than that of individuals who are

the victims of governmental and official lawlessness, and whose life and

environment, in spite of all they might do, is made insufferable through

the corruption, inefficiency, and general immorality of the officials

who are set to rule and to administer the land.

There is a terrible menace, a grave danger, it seems to me, in this

prolonged struggle. Where all standards of public and private morality

are shaken--where rulers

[Illustration: Catherine Breshkovsky

The first woman ever sentenced to hard labor in the mines of Kara.

After spending 23 years in prison and in Siberia she escaped, and

after making a visit to America in behalf of her countrymen she has

returned once more to her hazardous work in the heart of Russia,

where she is now at work disguised as a peasant

]

and lawgivers are arch lawbreakers--the characters of the individuals

living under such a régime must suffer. And alas, for the rising

generation! When one thinks on these things the prophecy of Tolstoi has

greatest weight--perhaps the seer in this, as in so many other things,

is right, and Russia will continue to go from bad to worse, until the

whole people awake in the very bottom of the abyss, and then, and then

only, will they turn to God as their only hope of salvation.

If the public opinion of the world would cry out against foreign bankers

periodically advancing money to the present government to maintain its

grip at the very throat of the people, governmental concessions would

have to be granted. As it is, the people of Russia feel themselves

pitted not only against their own government which has all of the

machinery of the army and police to support it, but also against the

financial interests of Europe and the rest of the world. The mere moral

sympathy of America is not much of an offset to a French loan, or an

Anglo-Russian alliance, unless it results in preventing American bankers

from advancing American money to perpetuate the existing régime.

These foreign loans are a terrible discouragement to the Russian people.

Whenever the people reach the point where they believe their government

will be obliged to yield certain fundamental human rights, through sheer

inability to longer feed the forces of reaction, and to pay for the

upkeep of the army, then the foreign bankers spring to the rescue.

In Russia I do not look for any voluntary “grant” of liberties or

freedom from czardom. I believe that, however much one may desire

constitutional reform, the Russian people will eventually obtain their

liberties through fighting for them. I foresee a long, long struggle.

Since October, 1905, the Russian people have advanced enormously, and

the Duma experiments, handicapped as they were, have yet proved immense

educational influences; they have served to arouse the whole people to

what may be, and to awaken within them a realization of what sooner or

later must be. On this count alone the value of these short-lived

parliaments must not be underrated. The Russian people now understand

their own situation as they never have grasped it before. They have not

merely lost faith in the Czar, they have learned that the trouble with

Russia to-day is that it suffers a blight, and that blight is autocracy,

which in its very essence is incompatible with modern civilization, and

that while the obliteration of autocracy may be a long task, the only

escape from their present bondage is the accomplishment of this task.

And the period of the struggle making for this end will be recorded in

history as the Russian Revolution.

APPENDICES

A--Caucasian testimony; B--The Duma’s Reply to the Throne Speech;

C--M. Lopuchin’s letter to M. Stolypin; D--Report on Siedlce

pogrom; E--Notes on Wages and Cost of Living.

APPENDIX A

TRANSLATION OF A FEW PAGES OF TESTIMONY FROM A WHOLE VOLUME OF

SIMILAR EVIDENCE COLLECTED BY A SOCIETY OF TIFLIS LAWYERS ON THE

“PACIFICATION” IN TRANS-CAUCASIA, 1905-1906 THE EXCERPTS HERE

PRINTED ARE NOT OF EXCEPTIONAL CASES, BUT ARE APPALLINGLY

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ENTIRE TEXT.

_The Village Sos_, April 4, 1905.

(1) PARISH PRIEST TER-AKOP BAGDASARYAN: We learned that a special

detachment of Cossacks, under the command of Colonel Vevern, was coming;

that the detachment was going from village to village, instructing the

Tartars as well as the Armenians to live peacefully, threatening to

punish severely all those that will disturb the peace. We were glad of

this, and when we learned that the detachment was approaching our

village, we at once set out to prepare bread, meat, forage, and also a

lodging for the detachment. On the 11th of March, at about 2 o’clock, we

noticed the detachment from afar. I called together the prominent people

of the village, donned my vestments, took a cross and a Bible, bread and

salt, and we started out to greet the detachment. In front of the

Cossacks walked many Armenians from various villages, leading the

Cossacks’ horses. These Armenians, on noticing the women in our village,

were astonished, and they said: “What does this mean? Have they lost

their reason? Why have they left their women in the village? The

Cossacks violate the women everywhere.” When our women learned of this,

they began to run from the village. Justice of the Peace Yermolayev rode

first. He said to us in the language of the Tartars: “Go back, you are

not worthy to receive us.” After that the same Yermolayev had a

conversation with the commander of the detachment, and then turned to me

and to our representative people and said: “Your bread and salt cannot

be accepted. There will be a different settlement with you.” We returned

to the village in a painful frame of mind. As soon as the Cossacks

entered the village--there were several hundred of them--a signal was

sounded. The Cossacks dismounted and rushed after the women; they caught

them in the ravines, on the roads, in the forests. Terrible cries were

heard on all sides. The Cossacks violated the women, tore off their

headgear, their ornaments, and other valuables which they had taken

along with them as they hastened from the houses. All this was witnessed

by the officers, the district chief, and the justice of the peace, but

they did not stop them. Among the women that were violated in the

outskirts of the village was a girl of 16-17 years of age, Kola

Arutyunyanz. As there were some women that did not succeed in running

away in time, I asked all those that remained to come to my house and I

said: “As long as I am alive I will defend your honor, and if they kill

me, then you shall also die.” Some twenty women gathered in my house,

but there were still some women that remained in their houses. Some of

these were old, and they thought that they would not be attacked on that

account; others did not have time enough to take their children along;

still others had sick children. When it became dark the Cossacks began

to break into the houses, to plunder, beat and violate the women that

were in the houses. Cries of men and women for help came from

everywhere. The authorities heard the sobs of the unfortunates, they saw

and knew what indecencies were being perpetrated, but they did not check

them. It was about 12 o’clock at midnight I was called out of the house.

I asked what I was wanted for. I was told that the Cossacks had beaten

Ovanes Airetetyan Krikoryanz, that Ovanes was dying, and that they

wanted me to come and give him the communion. I went to Ovanes’s house

and found him unconscious. The mother of Ovanes, the old woman Nubara,

related the following: “When the Cossacks began to break into the houses

Ovanes went down to guard the yard, and told me to lock myself in the

house and watch it. Suddenly the dogs began to bark. The Cossacks had

entered the yard. Ovanes (he was a reservist of low rank) began to

implore the Cossacks, half in Russian, half in Tartarian, to spare his

life. At that time a powerful blow resounded and right after it Ovanes

cried out: ‘Oh, I am dying!’ For a short time a faint rattling was

heard, and then all became quiet. A few minutes later the Cossacks

turned to the doors of our house and started to break in; at last the

doors gave way and the Cossacks came in; there was no light in the house

and they did not see that I was an old woman. Despite all entreaties

they threw me down and violated me, one after another.” After the

assault the old woman, almost 70 years old, did not come to herself for

half an hour. Having heard Nubara’s statement and finding it impossible

to give the communion to Ovanes, as he was in a state of

unconsciousness, I returned to my house. In the morning I was notified

that Ovanes died. Then I went to the superior officer of the district,

Freilich. Yermolayev was also there. In answer to my information he

said: ‘Well, what of it? If he died, bury him.’ After I had left,

Freilich and Yermolayev went to the commander of the detachment and told

him what I had said about Ovanes. He sent two soldiers to investigate.

These reported to the commander that Ovanes was alive. Then the

commander ordered me to appear before him, and told me that I gave him a

false report. Yermolayev, who was present, began to assail me, saying

that it was I who had organized the attack upon the Tartars, and that I

and my daughter led the attack upon Kadjakh, and that I was in general a

dangerous man. I remarked to Yermolayev that his accusations were

unjustified, that my daughter had been studying in the Moscow Gymnasium,

that she had been in Caucasia for two years and that she had been in

Siberia since September, visiting at her brother’s. The commander of the

detachment ordered my arrest for the “false” report. The detachment

stayed in our village until 2 o’clock of the next day and before leaving

heaped the most painful indecencies upon the population. The Cossacks

dishonored another girl who was suffering from paralysis, Nubata

Musayanz, 12 years old. Her grandfather, Musa, a man of about 70, took

his grandchild into his arms and was about to carry her away from the

Cossacks, but they threw the old man down and beat him mercilessly, and

trampled him with their boots; he is very sick now and the doctors say

that unless he undergoes a serious operation he will die soon. The

paralyzed little girl, Nubata, was dishonored by the Cossacks in front

of the old man.

* * * * *

_The Village Sos_, April 5, 1905.

(1) KOLA ARUTYUNYANZ, 18 years old: “I ran together with Saarnaza

Arutyunyanz. Three Cossacks overtook us and violated us. I was a virgin.

The assault was committed upon us after a hard struggle. After the first

three Cossacks, three others came, and they also violated us.”

(2 and 3) SAARNAZA ARUTYUNYANZ and TUTI KASPARYANZ corroborated the

above given testimony, adding that the Cossacks robbed them of several

valuable things which they managed to take along with them. Tuti showed

the skirt that was torn while she was dishonored. Saarnaza is 40 years

old and Tuti--50. The Cossacks tore from the sufferers their silver

head-ornaments.

(4) NUBARA KRIKORYANZ, 70-75 years old, mother of Ovanes Krikoryanz. She

corroborated all the testimony given by the priest, and added the

following: “I was violated by five Cossacks. It was dark in the room.

The Cossacks, entering the room, lit a match, which was soon

extinguished. Seeing that I was a woman, the Cossacks seized me and

violated me, one after another. It was at midnight. The Cossacks

plundered our house. The wife of Ovanes was hiding in the mountains with

others, and only thanks to this circumstance she escaped disgrace.”

APPENDIX B

THE REPLY TO THE CROWN SPEECH BY THE FIRST DUMA, 1906[24]

YOUR MAJESTY: In a speech addressed to the representatives of the people

it pleased your Majesty to announce your resolution to keep unchanged

the decree by which the people were assembled to carry out legislative

functions in coöperation with their monarch. The State Duma sees in this

solemn promise of the monarch to the people a lasting pledge for the

strengthening and the further development of legislative procedure in

strict conformity with constitutional principles. The State Duma, on its

side, will direct all its efforts toward perfecting the principles of

national representation and will present for your Majesty’s confirmation

a law for national representation, based, in accordance with the

manifest will of the people, upon principles of universal suffrage.

Your Majesty’s summons to us to coöperate in a work which shall be

useful to the country finds an echo in the hearts of all the members of

the State Duma. The State Duma, made up of representatives of all

classes and all races inhabiting Russia, is united in a warm desire to

regenerate Russia and to create within her a new order, based upon the

peaceful coöperation of all classes and races, upon the firm foundation

of civic liberty.

But the State Duma deems it its duty to declare that while present

conditions exist, such reformation is impossible.

The country recognizes that the ulcer in our present régime is in the

arbitrary power of officials who stand between the Czar and the people,

and seized with a common impulse, the country has loudly declared that

reformation is possible only upon the basis of freedom of action and the

participation by the nation itself in the exercise of the legislative

power and the control of the executive. In the manifesto of October 17,

1905, your Majesty was pleased to announce from the summit of the throne

a firm determination to employ these very principles as the foundation

for Russia’s future, and the entire nation hailed these good tidings

with a universal cry of joy.

Yet the very first days of freedom were darkened by the heavy affliction

into which the country was thrown by those who would bar the path

leading to the Czar; those who by trampling down the very fundamental

principles of the imperial manifesto of October 17, 1905, overwhelmed

the land with the disgrace of organized massacres, military reprisals,

and imprisonments without trial.

The impression of these recent administrative acts has been felt so

keenly by the people that no pacification of the country is possible

until the people are assured that henceforth arbitrary acts of officials

shall cease, nor be longer shielded by the name of your Majesty; until

all the ministers shall be held responsible to the representatives of

the people, and that the administration in every step of state service

shall be reformed accordingly.

Sire: The idea of completely freeing the monarch from responsibility can

be implanted in the minds of the nation only by making the ministers

responsible to the people. Only a ministry fully trusted by the majority

of the Duma can establish confidence in the government; and only in the

presence of such confidence is the peaceful and regular work of the

State Duma possible. But above all it is most needful to free Russia

from the operation of exceptional laws for so-called “special and

extraordinary protection,” and “martial law,” under cover of which the

arbitrary authority of irresponsible officials has grown up and still

continues to grow.

Side by side with the establishment of the principle of responsibility

of the administration to the representatives of the people, it is

indispensable, for the successful work of the Duma, that there should be

implanted, and definitely adopted, the fundamental principle of popular

representation based on the coöperation of the monarch with the people,

as the only source of legislative power. Therefore all barriers between

the imperial power and the people must be removed. No branch of

legislative power should ever be closed to the inspection of the

representative of the people, in coöperation with the monarch. The State

Duma considers it its duty to state to your Majesty, in the name of the

people, that the whole nation, with true inspiration and energy, with

genuine faith in the near prosperity of the country, will only then

fulfil its work of reformation, when the Council of State, which stands

between it and the throne, shall cease to be made up, even in part, of

members who have been appointed instead of being elected; when the law

of collecting taxes shall be subject to the will of the representatives

of the people; and when there shall be no possibility, by any special

enactment, of limiting the legislative jurisdiction of the

representatives of the people. The State Duma also considers it

inconsistent with the vital interests of the people that any bill

imposing taxes, when once passed by the Duma, should be subject to

amendment on the part of any body which is not representative of the

mass of taxpayers.

In the domain of its future legislative activity, the State Duma,

performing the duty definitely imposed upon it by the people, deems it

necessary to provide the country, without delay, with a strict law

providing for the inviolability of the person, freedom of conscience,

liberty of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association,

convinced that without the strict observance of these principles, the

foundation of which was laid in the manifesto of October 17, 1905, no

social reform can be realized. The Duma also considers it necessary to

secure for all citizens the right of petition to the people’s

representatives. The State Duma has further the inflexible conviction

that neither liberty nor order can be made firm and secure except on the

broad foundation of equality before the law of all citizens without

exception. Therefore the State Duma will establish a law for the perfect

equality before the law of all citizens, abolishing all limitations

dependent upon estate, nationality, religion, and sex. The Duma,

however, while striving to free the country from the binding fetters of

administrative guardianship and leaving the limitation of the liberty of

the citizen to the independent judicial authorities, still deems the

application of capital punishment, even in accordance with a legal

sentence, as inadmissible. A death sentence should never be pronounced.

The Duma holds that it has the right to proclaim, as the unanimous

desire of the people, that a day should come when a law forever

abolishing capital punishment here shall be established. In anticipation

of that law the country to-day is looking to your Majesty for a

suspension of all death sentences.

The investigation of the needs of the rural population and the

undertaking of legislative measures to meet those wants will be

considered among the first problems of the State Duma. The most numerous

part of the population, the hard-working peasants, impatiently await the

satisfaction of their acute want of land and the first Russian State

Duma would be recreant to its duty were it to fail to establish a law to

meet this primary want by resorting to the use of lands belonging to the

state, the crown, the royal family, and monastic and church lands; also

private landed property on the principle of the law of eminent domain.

The Duma also deems it necessary to create laws giving equality to the

peasantry, removing the present degrading limitations which separate

them from the rest of the people. The Duma considers the needs of

working people as pressing and that there should be legislative measures

taken for the protection of hired labor. The first step in that

direction ought to be to give freedom to the hired laborer in all

branches of work, freedom to organize, freedom to act, and to secure his

material and spiritual welfare.

The Duma will also deem it its duty to employ all its forces in raising

the standard of intelligence, and above all it will occupy itself in

framing laws for free and general education.

Along with the aforementioned measures the Duma will pay special

attention to the just distribution of the burden of taxation, unjustly

imposed at present upon the poorer classes of inhabitants; and to the

reasonable expenditure of the means of the state. Not less vital in

legislative work will be a fundamental reform of local government and of

self-government, extending the latter to all the inhabitants upon the

principles of universal suffrage.

Bearing in mind the heavy burden imposed upon the people by your

Majesty’s army and navy, the Duma will secure principles of right and

justice in those branches of the service.

Finally, the Duma deems it necessary to point out as one of the problems

pressing for solution the long-crying demands of the different

nationalities. Russia is an empire inhabited by many different races and

nationalities. Their spiritual union is possible only by meeting the

needs of each one of them, and by preserving and developing their

national characteristics. The Duma will try to satisfy those reasonable

wants.

Your Majesty: On the threshold of our work stands one question which

agitates the soul of the whole nation; and which agitates us, the chosen

and elected of the people, and which deprives us of the possibility of

undisturbedly proceeding toward the first part of our legislative

activity. The first word uttered by the State Duma met with cries of

sympathy from the whole Duma. It was the word amnesty. The country

thirsts for amnesty, to be extended to all those whose offenses were the

result of either religious or political convictions; and all persons

implicated in the agrarian movement. These are demands of the national

conscience which cannot be overlooked; the fulfilment of which cannot be

longer delayed. Sire, the Duma expects of you full political amnesty as

the first pledge of mutual understanding and mutual agreement between

the Czar and his people.

APPENDIX C

A RUSSIAN AUTHORITY ON THE POLICE PARTICIPATION OF _POGROMS_

M. LOPUCHIN’S LETTER TO M. STOLYPIN

Herewith we give the translation in full of the letter of M. Alexis

Lopuchin, formerly Director of the Police Department of Russia. This is

made from a German translation of the original Russian, and is vouched

for, as to its correctness, by the author of the letter.

HONORED SIR:

I deemed it my duty to bring to your attention through my letter of

the 26th of May the fact that I gave to the editor of the journal

“Retsch” the copy of the report of the chief of the special

division of the police department to the minister of the interior,

concerning the organization of the pogrom against the Jews in

Alexandrovsk (government of Yekaterinoslaff), and touching the

participation therein of the authorities of the police department.

I did this in the firm conviction that it was only through the

imperial Duma, when well informed by the public press, we could

hope, once for all, to destroy the great danger menacing the State

because of the systematic preparation by government officials of

Jewish and other pogroms. I informed you of my action lest some

subordinate of Your Excellency might be held responsible for having

furnished that journal with the report.

I deemed it unnecessary in my communication to impart to you the

facts detailed in the report of Markaroff, and with which I was

familiar; I refrained from doing so because it was furthest from my

thoughts that it could be possible that Your Excellency would

conceal the truth that was revealed by the investigation called

forth at the request of the Duma, in connection with the report of

Markaroff.

But yet must I be convinced from the newspaper reports of the Duma

session of June 21st, that in your answer to the inquiry of the

Duma, the material that was put into your hands for the proper

preparation thereof, the real facts in the case, were substantially

set aside. I, therefore, conceived it to be my bounden duty to

impart to you, in this communication, facts that are well known to

me.

In January of this year several persons informed me that there were

indications of the preparation in different sections of Russia of a

Jewish pogrom, and they appealed for my help to prevent such

misfortune. Investigations that were made established the truth of

their statements, and satisfied me of the participation by public

officials in the preparations for a pogrom. They brought me on the

trail of a printing-office in the police department.

On January 20, Count Witte, the president of the Council of

Ministers, invited me to his office and asked me to give him my

views on the Jewish question, and as to the reason for the

participation of the Jewish proletariat in the revolutionary

movement. After I had clearly presented to him my main point of

view on the question, I told him that, aside from the judicial

aspect of the question, there was another of great importance,

namely, anti-Semitism, that not only existed because of the

long-continued period in which the Jews were without rights, but

because, as well, of the direct provocations against them on the

part of persons in public authority. As a special indication of

such provocation, I pointed to the incident of the printing-office

in the police department, of whose output, however, I had no

sufficient evidence in my hands, and Count Witte assigned to me, as

an officer of the Minister of the Interior, the duty of making a

close investigation into the matter.

I proved the following conclusively:

After the manifesto of the 17th October, 1905, thanks to the

disturbances that broke out in many places after this act of the

government, evidence of a reaction appeared in circumscribed

sections of society. Ratschkowski, chief of the political division

of the police department, an officer assigned to special duty by

the Minister of the Interior, undertook to maintain and strengthen

this reaction by the issuing of effective proclamations. They were

printed by an officer of the gendarmerie, in the building of the

gendarmerie in St. Petersburg, upon a printing-press that was taken

from revolutionaries when a house search was made. I had in my hand

one of these proclamations; it was addressed to the working people,

bore the signature “Group of Russian Factory Workers of St.

Petersburg,” and sought to destroy the faith of working-men in

their radical leaders by maintaining that these leaders had

misappropriated funds that had been collected for the political

campaign. This proclamation was not the only one that was printed

in the headquarters of the gendarmerie; but at the time of

investigation I could not get others because they had all been

distributed.

As the printing-press that served the purpose of the

revolutionaries failed to satisfy the present needs, a complete one

was purchased at the expense of the police department that was

capable of printing one thousand per hour. This was set up in the

secret service section of the police department.

Captain Comisaroff was given its supervision, and two compositors

were employed upon the work. On this machine there were printed in

December, 1905, and in January, 1906, not one but a vast number of

proclamations, all composed variously, but all of the same general

tenor.

In all these proclamations, alongside of a condemnation of the

revolutionary movement, the information was offered that

non-believers, mainly the Jews, were responsible therefor, and

their purpose was to provoke an uprising against these people.

I had in my hands three proclamations that were printed in the

printing-office of the police department. As I positively proved,

they were not the only ones; the fourth one was just set up at that

moment (February 3). It contained the most ridiculous complaints

against the Jews, and urged that they be boycotted in the Duma

elections. But of the printed proclamations that I had in my hand

one appears especially as law violating; the author, addressing

himself to the soldiers, calls upon the army for a campaign against

“the Poles, Armenians, and Jews.” Thousands of copies were printed,

of every proclamation. Of the proclamation addressed to the

soldiers, 5,000 copies were sent to Vilna by the officers on

special duty to Mr. Schkott, the governor-general, for distribution

in that city. Schkott distributed a portion of them himself in the

evening in the streets of the city, and gave the rest of them to

the chief of police of Vilna, who, on January 28, telegraphed to

the police department that in view of the great success that

attended the distribution of the proclamation addressed to the

soldiers, to send him a new lot. Several thousand copies more were

printed and sent on to the Vilna chief of police. The same

proclamation was sent in thousands of copies to Kursk, being taken

by Surgeon Michailoff, assigned there to duty, who, at the request

of M. Ratschkowski, was appointed secret agent of the police

department. Michailoff also telegraphed (February 1 or 2) for a new

lot of these proclamations in view of their great success among the

soldiers. Aside from these, the appeals printed by the police

department were distributed in St. Petersburg through M. Dubrovin,

and the League of the Russian People, over which he presided; in

Moscow through the publisher of the “Viedomosti,” Gringmut, who was

given a large number of these appeals in December, 1905, by

Ratschkowski personally.

The provocative appeals of the police department were also

distributed in other states, by the police and gendarmerie.

All that is narrated above I imparted in January of this year to

Count Witte, president of the committee of ministers, and I gave

him specimens of all the proclamations above referred to (for that

reason I have none at hand for present use). Count Witte at once

called before him Captain Comisaroff, who acknowledged the truth of

all this information. To me, also, he confirmed all these

statements without exception. At the same time he declared that he

acted under orders of Herr Ratschkowski; that he then presented the

text of the proclamation to Wuitsch, the director of the police

department, and did not at any time put them in type until the

director stated in writing that he had read the proclamation.

Express orders were issued by Secretary of State Witte that the

printing-office of the police department should be wiped out of

existence. However Captain Comisaroff merely took apart the

printing-press as a precaution against the printing of further

proclamations, by order of Ratschkowski, in spite of Witte’s

orders; and to make that altogether impossible the press was taken

from the police department to the residence of Captain Comisaroff.

Aside from this and altogether without regard thereto, Your

Excellency was confidentially informed that the proclamations which

called for the extermination of the Jews in the city of

Alexandrovsk (Yekaterinoslaff government) were circulated even

after all the uprisings ceased, even after December 27, 1905; I

consider it my duty to attach herewith a specimen of a proclamation

that was distributed in the city of Alexandrovsk February 7 and 8,

and that called for the extermination of the Jews on the 9th of

February, the anniversary of the breaking out of the war with

Japan.

Your Excellency was confidentially informed that the officer for

special duty, Ratschkowski, remained at the head of the political

division of the police department until the end of April; that

although this office was wiped out by the highest authority, he

remained at the head of the entire secret and protective police;

that the right was given him to supervise, so far as he deemed it

necessary, the course of all political occurrences and trials that

affected the police department, and he was further authorized to

utilize the social organizations in the interest of the government.

* * * * *

Permit me, sir, to regard it as my moral duty, aside from imparting

to you this information, to convey to you, as a former director of

the police department, the reasons, incomprehensible at a first

glance, why it is not only impossible for the central government to

suppress the pogrom politics of the local authorities when the

organization of a pogrom originates with them, but not even to be

well informed as to the organization of the pogrom itself. One of

these reasons _is the freedom from punishment of the officers of

the government who are responsible for the pogroms--no proof need

be given of this_. But there are other reasons of a general

character; at the time I was director of the police department a

pogrom occurred; that of Kishineff. The foreign and our own illegal

press that then had the privilege to speak out on our internal

conditions as well as several circles of society, put upon the

police department the responsibility for the organization of this

pogrom. There was no responsibility that could be attached to the

police department; yet the charge was not groundless in so far as

they started out with the supposition that the police department

and the ministry of the interior were possessed of all possible

power. In spite of the closest investigation as to the

participation of officers of the government in the organization of

the Kishineff pogrom, it was impossible for me; as director of the

police department, to absolutely prove the fact, and yet there

could be no doubt whatever of their participation. And what is

especially characteristic, the secret working of the pogrom

organization became clear to me only after I ceased to hold an

official position in the ministry of the interior.

And in such a position does every official of the central

government find himself if he yields no sympathy to pogrom

politics. That is to be accounted for by the fact that the minister

of the interior and the central political organization are

altogether powerless--the police and the gendarmerie are not in his

hands, but precisely the reverse: he is in the hands of the

superiors of these officials. The fact is that, through the

organization of the secret political police, because of the

exceptional law providing for extraordinary military protection,

and I the long continuance of that condition in the country, the

whole power has been transferred from above to below.

Aside from the continued causes that have been uncovered, the

weakness of the governmental authority, there are existing at

present other causes.

I met no one among the political or general police officials who

was not absolutely and thoroughly convinced that in reality there

were two governments in existence, each of which drove its own

politics to the other, one embodied in the person of Secretary of

State Witte, the other in the person of Trepoff, who, according to

general conviction, brought to the Czar reports of the condition of

affairs in the empire, different than those that Count Witte

brought to him, and in this wise developed a different political

position. This point of view finds its foundation in the fact that

General Trepoff, after his appointment as commander of the palace,

succeeded in having special funds put at his command for the

engagement of a separate force of secret agents, and he, therefore,

became possessed of tools in hand that should only be in control of

the minister of the interior.

This point of view finds further foundation in the fact that

General Trepoff, even after he gave up the post he held in the

ministry of the interior, in October, 1905, succeeded without the

knowledge of the minister of the interior, in getting out of the

police department all the documents, except those of no moment, for

the purpose of looking through them; not only current documents,

but those of no present use--even though all these had nothing

whatever to do with the commander of the palace.

As to what purpose General Trepoff had in mind with reference to

the secret funds, and the documents of the police department, in

what direction he was inclined to utilize his position in regard to

these, there exists, Your Excellency, in the mind of the

undersigned, a firm conviction--rightly or wrongly--that General

Trepoff sought to influence the politics of the government.

This conviction, indeed, is as firm as the conviction that General

Trepoff sympathized with the pogroms politics. And whatever power

the ministry may set to work in opposition to pogroms, they will be

valueless so long as the local police are convinced of the lack of

power of the ministry and the possession of power of other

authorities.

APPENDIX D

REPORT OF CAPTAIN PIETUCHOW, OF THE GENDARMERIE ADMINISTRATION OF

THE STATE OF SIEDLCE, TO THE ASSISTANT GOVERNOR-GENERAL AT WARSAW.

The provisional governor-general of the government of Siedlce,

Major-general Engelke, by virtue of order No. 12, of August 10, this

year, named Colonel Tichanowsky of the 39th regiment of dragoons as

chief of the garrison of defense of the city of Siedlce.

On August 11, at 12 o’clock in the morning, I was called to the

gendarmerie office, where there were already gathered Colonel

Wyrgolitsch, Captains Potosky and Grigoriew, the acting police chief of

the city of Siedlce, Staff Captain Protopopow, and Colonel Tichanowsky,

chief of the garrison of defense. There was advised an adequate blockade

of the city and the undertaking of a general search of the houses in

Siedlce. The last measure was dictated in a telegram of the

governor-general. Colonel Tichanowsky demanded immediately that there be

named to him several prominent citizens of the city of Siedlce, who,

although they had not personally taken part in the revolutionary

movement, yet favored it in any possible way. Colonel Tichanowsky

expressed the view that he would put these people in prison and hold

them as hostages. He would tell them that in case of an attack on the

life of any officer of the government, they would all be murdered.

Colonel Tichanowsky said that he would take upon himself all the

responsibility for the matter. As Colonel Tichanowsky was asked in what

manner these hostages were to be killed, he turned to the chief of the

police with the question whether he could not put at his service a

policeman who would be prepared to simulate insanity, and shoot the

hostages in prison, or put arsenic into their food. “We must set against

the terrorism of the revolution a still more frightful terrorism,”

rejoined Colonel Tichanowsky, and he stuck to his point of view, always

reiterating that he would assume full responsibility.

At six o’clock in the evening of the same day all were again assembled

in the office of the gendarmerie, and considered the plan of a blockade

of the city for the purpose of a general house searching. But it

appeared very clear that it was impossible to undertake a general house

searching with the help of only two battalions of the Libau infantry

regiments, and a single cavalry regiment that were stationed in Siedlce.

Such a house searching would cripple the life of the city for more than

twenty-four hours, and then would lead to no positive result. Colonel

Tichanowsky, however, stood for a general house searching, and demanded,

among other things, that the chief of the police should hold in

readiness during the house searching the fire engines, and that at the

same time all the doctors in the hospitals should be assembled. As for

himself, Colonel Tichanowsky promised to hold in readiness the military

ambulances. As Colonel Tichanowsky was asked for what purpose all these

preparations were required, he answered: “That there might be some dead

and wounded ones, as they would proceed pitilessly and firearms would be

used. It might happen that conflagrations would ensue in that way.” The

officers of the dragoons, as it became known the self-same day, rubbed

their hands in glee as they came together, and said publicly, with a

pleased laugh: “We will make for them a decent pogrom; we will deal with

them pitilessly.” The soldiers also carried on the same kind of a

conversation. On the 13th of August, at three o’clock in the afternoon,

there was another conference held with Colonel Tichanowsky, in the

office of the gendarmerie, which declared that the general house

searching would be taken up that night. At his command I gave him a list

of the persons who were known because of their criminal deeds and also

their addresses. As we learned the decision of Colonel Tichanowsky, as

well as some of the other officers and soldiers of regiments of

dragoons, we determined to protest against the plan of Colonel

Tichanowsky for the house searching, calling attention to the inadequacy

of the means at hand. Colonel Tichanowsky would not allow himself to be

swerved. Colonel Wyrgolitsch, therefore, wrote at once to the governor,

acquainted him with the general side of approaching house searching,

that is, of the time that was necessary for such an undertaking;

acquainted him with the determination of the military and advised the

postponement of the house searching until the arrival of more troops. To

get more troops to help the temporary governor-general went, on the 13th

of August, to Warsaw. The request for troops was denied, however, and on

principle the idea of a general house searching was given up.

On August 18 Colonel Wyrgolitsch became sick and had to take to his bed.

During my visit to the governor I reiterated to him the determination of

Colonel Tichanowsky and the military, emphasizing the matter, and

advised that they be held in check. I said to him bluntly, that such a

decision would lead only to plunder and a needless spilling of blood,

just as happened on the 8th of August after the murder of Police Chief

Delzer. The governor, it seemed to me, gave favorable attention to my

views, made several notes, and promised to take the necessary steps in

the matter. Up to August 26 I saw Tichanowsky a couple of times. He was

then engaged in working out instructions for the military concerning the

defense of the city. Among other things it was provided that in case of

any alarm in the city the telegraph office would be compelled to refuse

to accept private telegrams. I asked the purpose of this regulation.

Colonel Tichanowsky answered, that he made this regulation so that the

residents of the city could not, through the telegraph, ask for the

cessation of the pogroms.

Characteristic of the personality of Colonel Tichanowsky are other

deeds. For example, he said to the chief of police, as he again

discussed the plans for the general house searching: “Perhaps Captain

Pietuchow doesn’t believe that we will arrest people. Those that appear

on the list that he gave us will certainly not be found among those who

are arrested.” That served at once for a declaration of the purpose of

having in readiness the ambulance wagons and the medical staff in

preparation for the house search. During the first night of the shooting

in Siedlce, about three o’clock on the 27th of August, Colonel

Tichanowsky wanted to have the military orchestra of the regiment of

dragoons come to him from the armory, which was, however, denied him.

Then he gathered together a chorus of soldiers, and their singing

resounded in the midst of the noise of the rifles, the spilling of

blood, the plundering, and the conflagration. Colonel Tichanowsky

declared later that he wanted thereby to raise the spirit of the

soldiers.

As it seems, he made it appear that he was upon the field of battle

surrounded by a superior foe; finally, several days after the rioting,

as there was a report in circulation that Colonel Tichanowsky was

murdered, he came to the squadron whose commander he formerly was, told

them of this report, and bade them in case he should be really killed,

they would honor his memory decently and bathe themselves to the ears in

blood. The officers of dragoons told me this later at breakfast and

cited this as an example of the bravery of Colonel Tichanowsky.

On August 26, at half-past six in the evening, as I have already

reported, several revolver shots resounded in the city, to which the

troops replied at once by a bombardment of the city, during which

absolutely no consideration was shown whether or not shots were fired

from the houses attacked. So, for example, on the first night

window-panes were destroyed by bullets in a girls’ boarding-school,

whence surely no shots were fired. The window-panes in the gendarmerie

office were also destroyed. The troops dealt without mercy toward the

unoffending people. I, myself, was present when several persons,

including elderly Jews, were dragged into the police station, and saw

how eagerly the soldiers abused them in the presence of Colonel

Tichanowsky. I also saw how a dragoon fired shots in the vicinity of the

police station at the residence of Circuit Judge Herr Mudrew. I also

witnessed that a dragoon came to Colonel Tichanowsky and asked him for

cartridges, whereupon the latter remarked: “There are too few dead.” As

I saw all this, I begged Colonel Tichanowsky to put an end to the

senseless shooting and clubbing, and rather to busy himself with a

systematic plan for discovering the revolutionaries who really did fire

off the revolvers. At the same time, I drew his attention to the fact

that the soldiers were without nourishment, would be tired out early,

and that toward evening the revolutionaries might undertake something

serious. For reply I was told that the slaughter at Liao-yang lasted

twelve days and that if it became necessary he was prepared to occupy

the chair of the police for two weeks; and, further, that there were in

the city enough stores with supplies of provisions to reach around. This

was all said in the presence of soldiers.

Not being in the mood to witness such scenes, and in no position to make

an end of them, I went home at nine o’clock in the morning (August 27).

Toward ten o’clock the same morning, Colonel Tichanowsky sent for me,

but I did not go, because I deemed my presence superfluous, especially

as during the whole time I knew either Captain Potosky or Grigoriew was

there.

The deputy police chief, Captain of the Staff Captain Protopopow, also

sought to mollify Colonel Tichanowsky, but all to no purpose. To all

arguments he replied: “It is none of your concern.”

The sub-officers of my gendarmerie office, who lived on the Chaussée,

were prevented from entering the city until the morning dawned of August

27, by the military guards, who declared to them that it was forbidden

to allow any one to enter the city. After dawn, the under officers of

the gendarmerie took part in the house searching, but later they were

informed that the troops, in the absence of their officers, would not

undertake any house searches, but would merely plunder, and, without any

cause at all, kill them. One of the dragoons, whom Gendarmerie Corporal

Efinow wanted to hinder in his work, drew his sword against him. The

policemen were chased away in one place by the soldiers.

As early as the first night the dragoons turned to Gendarme Corporals

Anvrejnk and Sajaz and asked them for petroleum for setting the houses

on fire. When asked by the latter how they dare do such a thing, the

soldiers replied: “We are commanded to do it.” Plundering took place

already on the first night.

In the dusk of evening on August 27 the troops became completely

unbridled. They invaded the beer-halls and wine-cellars and everything

was either drunk or plundered.

On the second night the troops almost all were drunk. On September 5

there came from St. Petersburg Herr Gubonim, officer for special affairs

of the minister of the interior, and bade me to be of service to him to

get the truth of the Siedlce occurrences from August 27 to 28. I did not

consider myself justified to conceal anything from an officer who came

by direction of the minister to investigate the condition of things. I,

therefore, told him fully about the personality of Colonel Tichanowsky,

of the tone that reigned among the troops and especially about the

Siedlce occurrences. Then, in answer to his request, I called into the

gendarmerie office those persons who had suffered most loss and helped

at the investigation, helped out much of them as did not speak or

understand Russian. About forty private persons, and all the gendarmerie

corporals were heard by Herr Gubonim.

House-owner Ksentepolsky proved by the testimony of a witness, his

servant, that dragoons set fire to his barn. A similar statement,

substantiated by witnesses, was to the effect that two or three other

houses were similarly destroyed, and that to aid in their purpose the

soldiers took the kerosene oil out of the street lamps.

Dr. Stein and an employee of the Jewish Hospital told how wounded Jews

brought into the courtyard of the hospital were beaten to death there by

the soldiers.

The Jewess, Wolf, told how, on August 27, at three o’clock in the

afternoon, dragoons, with an officer at their head, came to her home.

Her husband and sons were in their praying vestments and saying their

prayers. The officer cursed the husband and battered his head against

the doorposts. Then a dragoon dragged him into the courtyard and killed

him with a club, in the presence of his wife and in spite of her

entreaties.

The head of one firm, Girard Rubinstein, stated that the soldiers had

robbed him of a considerable sum of money, drafts for three thousand

rubles, and other property. He called in as witness the staff captain of

the 129th infantry regiment, Stojanew; a Jewish shoe-dealer named a

dragoon, Akimew, whom she knew as one who, with other soldiers, had

entered her store and plundered it. There were also statements made to

the effect that women were outraged, but as yet these deeds were not

sufficiently proven.

Many stated that the soldiers forced themselves into their homes, looked

for nothing and simply demanded money. In those cases where their

demands were not met, the people were either killed or taken to jail.

According to the testimony, the Jews gave all that they had, and then as

there was nothing left for the next group of soldiers that came along,

the men were arrested and taken away.

There was also testimony as to provocative shots on the part of

policemen. So, for instance, Behrenstein, the owner of a store for arms

and bicycles, saw a policeman, whom he can identify, fire a shot in the

air, and then point out to the soldiers whence the alleged shot came.

Thereupon the soldiers bombarded the house.

The fact that the soldiers plundered is by all means fully established.

The plundered goods were taken back by a portion of the troops to the

police station. During the disturbances it was a common sight to see

upon the streets the soldiers carrying various articles. The soldiers

took only what they could carry away. The other things, as furniture,

they smashed on the spot.

The population of Siedlce unto the last man is satisfied that the

occurrences in Siedlce are in consequence of provocation on the side of

the dragoons, and partly also on the side of the police. They are

convinced that the initiative of this provocation is to be written down

to Colonel Tichanowsky. It was remarked that the dragoons, who otherwise

carried their arms upon their backs, as early as August 26 carried them

already in their right hands. Toward evening the dragoons explained to

the merchants that it would be permitted to keep business open till

half-past ten o’clock, while previously eight o’clock was the compulsory

hour for closing. Inexplicable to the people, also, was the fact that of

the soldiery but one was injured, which was the full extent of the

injury done to the soldiers. One horse was wounded at the ear by a sword

cut and another by a rifle shot through the nostrils. The residents

remarked very rightly that if the revolutionaries wanted to do any

damage whatever to the policemen and guardsmen, there would have been at

least some loss among the troops during the early part of the trouble;

for it would have been no easy matter for the revolutionaries to have

placed two or three men armed with Brownings opposite every place where

the soldiers were stationed, and, protected by the fences, shoot them

and then escape under cover of the darkness. Even if we admit that at

first the shots of the revolutionaries missed their mark, there remained

for them after unsuccessful efforts nothing but to flee, and they surely

would not thus waste the cartridges that had cost them so much pains to

procure.

It becomes difficult to charge the troops themselves with provocation.

So far as they are concerned, it would be easier, perhaps, to look for

provocation on the side of the revolutionaries. These knew full well the

temper of the troops and they wished, perhaps, to call forth what

happened in order to discredit in this wise the government and the

troops in the eyes of the whole public, and wring its sympathy for the

people of Siedlce, who were greatly irritated over the recent murder of

two persons who were of service in the city, President Mirowitsch and

Police Captain Golzew. If we take it that this was really the case, then

the revolutionaries certainly attained their purpose. The most peaceful

and loyal residents say now: “The governor promised that so long as he

was in Siedlce there would be no pogroms, and what do we behold? We need

no investigation on the part of the authorities. We will undertake our

own investigation right on the ground and get at the truth.”

The Russian people no longer look upon the soldiers as their defenders,

and their appearance upon the street of horse-dragoons fills all with

the feeling of unrest. The recall of Colonel Tichanowsky had a quieting

effect upon the whole population.

The whole blame for the occurrences at Siedlce does not rest alone upon

Colonel Tichanowsky, who was not even legally authorized to serve as

commander-in-chief of the city. The blame rests also on the temporary

governor-general, Major-general Engelke, who turned over to Colonel

Tichanowsky absolutely entire power; and also upon the governor, who, as

the permanent chief of the government of Siedlce, permitted the

authority to pass out of his hands at so critical a moment and did not

again take this authority into his own hands when the conditions so

urgently demanded that he do so. The illness of the governor, so far as

I knew, was not at all so serious as to justify a leave of absence.

Furthermore, during his illness, he yielded to Dolgowo-Saburow, a member

of the agricultural office, only the authority to sign documents and the

right to preside at various meetings. All other functions he retained

for himself.

In this report I have sought to set down not only my views but also the

impressions carried away by Herr Gubonim, officer for special duty.

CAPT. PIETUCHOW.

Siedlce, September 27, 1906.

APPENDIX E

NOTES ON WAGES AND COST OF LIVING OF RUSSIAN WORKMEN

The wages of boys in Russian coal-mines amount to about twenty cents per

day. Boys and women are employed to pick the slate and refuse stone from

the coal as in coal-mines in other countries. In Pennsylvania, the boys

who do such work are called “breaker boys”; their pay is from sixty to

seventy-five cents a day. In Russia, the women receive not more than

five cents a day more than the boys. Pony drivers in the pits earn from

forty to fifty cents a day.

The colliers, that is to say, the men who actually hew the coal, are

paid according to the amount of work they do. The iniquitous contract

system is generally in vogue in Russia. A contractor agrees to take out

the coal for a definite sum. He then engages his own workmen and pays

them what he must. Few coal-miners make more than eighty cents a day.

They receive about twelve and a half cents for every thirty-five poods

they take out--one pood being thirty-six pounds; the amount of labor

required to earn a day’s wages is plain.

In addition to the work entailed in getting out the coal the colliers

must do their own timbering, putting up props and supports as they go

along to make themselves secure. For this they are not paid. It is

customary among the foreign companies, and also among some of the

Russian companies, to give their workmen as much coal as they require

for their personal needs free.

Managers, foremen, overmen, and checkers who are paid by the month often

receive their house rent free. Thus an overman receives fifty rubles a

month (twenty-five dollars) and his house rent. A checker receives

thirty-five rubles. As checkers are very often dishonest men who aid in

robbing the men of their proper number of cars sent to the surface, it

has come to be the practice in some districts for the men themselves to

hire a checker of their own, whom they pay one hundred rubles a month.

He is not officially recognized by the companies, but he is trusted by

the men to protect their interests. One of the points of dispute in the

great anthracite coal-strike in Pennsylvania in 1902 was the right of

the men to employ such a man--some of the companies objected. It is

significant that the companies pay their men only thirty-five rubles a

month, while the men pay theirs one hundred.

For purposes of comparison it may be of interest to add that while the

men receive twelve and one half cents for taking out thirty-five poods

of coal, that coal retails for five cents per pood. There is, therefore,

a margin of approximately one dollar and sixty-three cents on every

thirty-five poods, or, of about eleven dollars on a single day’s labor

of one man! This must amply cover other expenses and still leave an

adequate profit for contractors and capitalist!

The best hewers in the Russian coal-mines average forty rubles, or

twenty dollars a mouth. It must be remembered, however, that there are

fewer working-days in a Russian month than in England or America.

Usually not above twenty or twenty-two. Indeed, in the entire year there

are but two hundred and twenty working-days. All of the others are

church, state, or crown holidays. During these working-days, therefore,

the miner, in common with other workmen, must earn enough to carry him

through the holidays.

A schedule of the scale of wages in a given country, or district, like

the above, is valueless if unaccompanied by a parallel schedule of the

approximate cost of living.

Russian coal-miners follow the system of Russian workmen in general in

dividing into three classes: First, the poorest men, who live in free

houses owned by the companies. These houses would rent for about one

dollar a month. Then there are the average men who live in snug little

stone houses of two and three rooms, the rent of which may be from two

dollars and a half to four dollars a month. And, finally, there are the

unmarried men who live in “artels,” which are lodging establishments.

From a dozen to sixteen men live in one of these houses. They all sleep

in a common room, for which privilege they pay about six dollars a

month, including their meals. And fifty cents additional to a

woman-of-all-work, who looks after the place and does the cooking.

The principal articles of diet with the prices current at the time of my

observations are included in the following table:

Meat--10 copecks (five cents) per pound. Equally good meat in

England would cost from fifteen to twenty cents a pound, and in

America probably twenty-two to twenty-four cents.

Black bread--2 copecks a pound.

White bread--3 copecks a pound.

Potatoes--1½ copecks a pound.

Sugar--16 copecks (eight cents) per pound.

Tea--1 ruble, 80 copecks (eighty cents) per pound. (Very cheapest.)

Coffee--40 copecks (twenty cents) a pound for unburned coffee.

Milk--10 copecks a “jug.” (About five cents a quart.)

Cabbage and carrots--2-7 copecks per pound.

Taken the year through this is almost a complete diet-list of the

Russian coal-miners and industrial workers in general in the vicinity of

Yusofka. During the church fasts hemp and rape-seed oil is consumed a

good deal. And vodka should be added, for every workman drinks much of

it. The revenue from the vodka monopoly, indeed, is one of the stablest

sources of income to the government. The more the people drink the

better Russia’s financial balance-sheet appears to the world. Truly

Russian economy this! Five hundred and fifty million rubles a year is a

substantial income even for a government, and this from a liquor

containing forty odd per cent. alcohol. Vodka costs about three copecks

per bottle to manufacture and sells for forty copecks.

From this list it will be seen that the articles which are most

necessary, and most used, are the highest in price--tea, sugar, coffee,

vodka. Meat is cheap, but there are frequent church fasts, when meat is

forbidden.

The clothing worn by the Russian coal-miner is frequently home-made,

like the clothing of peasants. If of cloth, cloth made from hand looms.

Coats are of sheepskin. In the mines of South Russia, especially in the

deeper pits, next to no clothing is worn by the men at the face.

INDEX

Abramoff, priestoff, 159, 171

_Agent provocateur_, 223, 404

Agrarian program of Duma, 20

Akatui, mines, 156

Aladin, Alexis, 334-335

Alexander II, 3

Alexander III, story of, 299

Alexanderburg, 140

Alikhanoff, General, 90;

in Kutais, 96;

interview with, 99, 102-114;

description of, 101;

life of, 101;

methods of, 102;

death of, 111

American sewing-machines, 99

Amnesty, Duma’s demand for, 194, 200

Andronnikov, Prince, 25;

embarrassment of, 32, 90

Anipko, Duma deputy, taken at Kronstadt, 252

Appanage lands grant, 337

Ararat, Mt., 87

Armenians, 77-84;

church, 78, 80;

merchant in Kutais, 100;

massacres, 83

Arrest, in Saratoff, 137;

reasons for, 141-142;

other arrests, 153

Assassination, theory of, 391

Babaieff, 83

Baku, 77-78, 84

Bausk, 23

Beaulieu, Leroy, 462, 482

Belentzoff, 403

Berlin, 3;

police records, 4;

departure from, 5

Bezsonoff, Major-general, 244

Bielostok, massacre, 237;

arrival in, 237-238

“Black Hundreds,” 241, 246-247, 468;

headquarters in Odessa, 473;

policy of, 474;

aim, 475, 476

“Bloody” Sunday, xviii

Brigand, Ingoosh, meeting with, 37;

his bride, 45

Bryan, William Jennings, on First Duma, 205

Bund, the, 281

Constitution, xviii

Corruption, official and in Red Cross, xx

Circassian uniform, 27

Cossacks, how regarded by officials, 32;

value from military point of view, 33;

reasons for loyalty to Czar, 33;

how regarded by Jews and peasants, 34;

origin and history of, 35-37;

services rendered to foes of Russia in olden times, 35;

first stanitza, 47, 48;

Mountain Cossacks, 49-53;

jigitoffka, 53-58;

military training of, 59;

Don Cossacks, 60;

agricultural systems, 63;

physique of, 64;

Cossack honor, 65;

promise for future development, 69;

patrol in Kutais, 95;

outrages, 119;

nagaika, 331

Circassian customs, 39, 41

Caspian Sea, first view of, 76-77

Czar, speeches of, confiscated, 122;

manifesto of October, 1905, 177, 181, 483;

and Duma, 178, 179;

and special laws, 182;

at Winter Palace, 184;

nervousness of, 187;

speech of, 191-192;

effect of speech, 192-194;

attitude toward Constitutionalism, 205;

residence of, 209;

rewards soldier for shooting girl, 263;

arch assassin of Russia, 264

Colonization, 124

Corday, Charlotte, of Russia, 155

Council of Empire, 181

Constitutional Democrats, 182, 202;

and peasants, 288

Conspirative meeting in Kronstadt, 207

Comisaroff, Count, 247;

Captain, 510, 512

Christian Socialists, 283

Cheliabinsk, 360

Church holidays, 441

Crimea, the, 465

Crown speech, Duma’s reply to, 502-507

Daghestan, 84

Despotism, only possible justification of, xix

Dnieper Cossacks, 35, 36

Dolgorukoff, Prince, 195

Don Cossacks, 35, 36

Duma, village, in Saratoff, 135

Duma, imperial, 11;

attitude of peasants toward, 135;

first convocation by Czar’s manifesto, 177;

Czar and, 178;

assembling of, 183;

make-up of, 195;

congratulatory telegrams to, 195;

unanimity of, 195;

order in, 200;

work of, 201;

dissolution, 202;

plot upon, 407-409

Durnovo, Minister, 182, 247

Dutch proverb, 10

Empress, at Winter Palace, 187

Empress, Dowager, 187

Exceptional laws, 181

Famine, fund scandal, xx;

extent of, xx;

Simbirsk, 337;

preventable, 340;

in Samara, 345;

frauds, 345;

causes of, 346;

terrible scenes of starvation and ravages of disease, 348;

inadequate relief, 351;

a relief station, 352;

peasant girls sold into bondage because of, 356

Flying bands, 398

Fox, the, police spy, 219

Freedom, forty days’, 177

Fundamental laws, 181

Galitzin, Prince, 78

Gapon, Father, 15, 183

Georgia, capital of, 87;

king of, 87;

pacification of, 102

Gomel pogrom, 245

Gorky, song of, 136

Gorymekiu, Premier, 182

Green, Victor, 252;

assassination of, 257

Hague, The, Peace Conference resolutions, 96, 100

Hertzenstein, Professor, assassinated, 248-251

Hughes, Arthur, 433, 438

Hughes, John, 436

Ingoosh brigand, 38

Insurrection, plans for, 208

Ivan, the courier, 93, 94, 96

Jablonsky, order of, 4

Jacquerie, aim of, 54

Jews, governor-general of Terek’s opinion of, 30;

laws against, 182;

massacres, 242;

in Poland, 281;

in terrorist organization, 281;

Odessa, 466;

total number in Russia, 466;

restriction of, 467;

policy of persecution of, 467, 471;

“Jew-baiting” pamphlet, 472

Kovalevsky, Maxime, xxiv;

newspaper of, 227

Kropotkin, Peter, “Russian Literature,” 5

Kurland, 20

Kabardine villages, 38

Kazbek, 42

Kur, river, 90

Kutais, town of, 90;

arrival in, 95;

terror in, 96, 114-115;

description of, 102;

population of, 102

Kronstadt, 209;

town of, 210;

conspirative meeting in, 216-219;

escape from, 221-222;

under ominous quiet, 227;

garrison, 229;

uprising, 231;

failure of mutiny, 232;

effect of mutiny, 235

Karass, General, 245

Kostroma, 312; peasants, 313-319

Kazan, province, 328

Konoplannikova, Zinaida, 392

Karaites, the, 465

La Grave, Cave, 23

Liski, 144

Loris-Melikoff, Dr., xxiv, 77

Lopuchin’s letter to Stolypin on police participation of massacres, 508-515

Luboshitz, Nahum, 162, 164

Luchenovsky, Lieutenant-governor, 156;

assassination of, 159;

successor of, 174

Mamaieff, execution of, 397

Marseillaise, 136, 217, 219, 224

Martial law in Kutais, 96

Massacres, Caucasian testimony, 497-501

Maximalists, 391, 398-399;

plots, 407;

details of an “expropriation,” 412-416

Medhurst, Consul, 433-436

Military organization, 207

Miliukoff, Professor Paul, characterization of present situation by, xxi, xxiv;

newspaper of, 227;

and Prof. Hertzenstein, 251

Miners, coal, 449-456;

shiftlessness, 453-454

Mines, coal, 449

Min, General, 331, 392-393

Mordwa, 140

Moscow insurrection, 200;

arrest in, 311

Mouromseff, President, 195

Nakashidze, Prince, 80, 83

Nakhitchevan, 102

Nastasia, 410-411, 480

National Democratic Party of Poland, 282

Nationalist Party of Poland, 281-282

New Russia Company, 434, 437

Nijni-Novgorod, 319-321;

the Fair, 321-328

Noutt, 20

Novo-Pebalge, 20

Nucha, 84

Odessa, 466;

a dramatic leave-taking of, 478

Orienbaum, 221, 228, 229

Orloff, General, in Baltic provinces, 20

Ossetine villages, 38, 45

Ostiaks, 362

Ouktomsky, Prince, 328-331

Palkine’s restaurant, incident in, 15

Pebalga, 23

Plehve, von, 77

Persia, 84

Pillage in Kutais, 100

Peasants, morality of, 132;

importance of, 287;

in Duma, 288;

psychology, 288;

awaking, 291, 310

Pesky, 136, 140

Prison, Saratoff, 149

Pasha, 207, 210;

in disguise, 212;

speech to soldiers and sailors, 217-218;

“taken,” 258

Paul, 210;

capture of, 232

Propaganda in army, 209

Pogrom, Bielostok, 237;

Kieff, 242-245;

Gomel, 245;

Odessa, 245;

governmental responsibility for, 424-508

Poland, Russian, 267;

Russian misrule in, 268;

school children

in, 268;

young men of, 271;

Russian police in, 271;

parties of, 281-284

Progressive Democratic Party of Poland, 282

Polish Party Socialist, 283-285

Polish revolution, 285

Pietuchow, Captain, report on Siedlce, 516-524

Protopopow, Staff Captain, 516

Peasant, needs, 293;

characteristics, 297, 309;

religion, 298;

drink among, 299;

indolence, 304;

scarcity of land, 305;

democracy of, 306;

attitude toward Viborg manifesto, 317, 331

Raffalsky, Vice-governor, 243

Reaction, 226-227

Repression, the, 3

Red Cross, revolutionary, 361, 365

Reval, uprising of, 226;

reported fighting in, 228

Revolution, Russian, importance and meaning of, xvii;

number of victims, xxi;

compared to French, English, and Italian, xxii;

aspect of beginning, 1906, 3

Romanoffs, rise of, 312-313

Rottkopf, torture of, 252-257

Route Militaire de Georgie, 42

Stolypin, Premier, and field courts, xxii, 264, 489, 490;

attempt upon, 331, 409;

characterization of, 489;

governor of Saratoff, 153;

a champion of autocracy, 489

St. Petersburg, incident in theater, 10

Sipolena, 20

Saukin, 20

Schiff, General, 20

Schouvoleff, Count, 26

Scherematiev, Count, 26

Saratoff, journey to, 122;

departure from, 122-123;

description of province, 123;

landlords of, 123-124;

entrée to, under arrest, 148

Serfdom abolished, 124

Students in famine districts, 125

Search party in Tsaritzin, 126-129

Syphilis, 132

Spiradonova, Marie, 155;

League, 156;

story of, 156-160;

torture of, 160;

interview with, 162-170;

trial of, 172;

speech in court, 173;

letters from, 173-176;

mother of, 174-175

Semenovsky Regiment, 200

Sveaborg, 226;

mutiny, 228

Sebastopol, rising of, 226

Scallon, governor-general of Poland, 257

Semonova shot in prison, 259-263

Simbirsk, province, 334;

illiteracy in, 355;

peasants, 335-340

Samara, province, 341;

crop failure, 342;

famine in, 345;

arrest in, 357-359

Siberia, first town visited in, 361;

sketch of, 365-366;

system of exile, 367;

a working-man’s exile, 368;

cost of living in, 368-369;

hardships of exile, 369;

a fair propagandist, 374, 382, 385;

politics in, 375;

neglect of exiles, 376;

a group of intellectuals, 379;

prevalence of disease, 380-382

Social Democrats, 390

Social Revolutionists, 390

Sokolow, capture of, 393-394

Sasha, 416;

exploits of, 417;

escape from St. Petersburg, 418-423, 430, 432

Siedlce, 516-524

Timirassiroff, Minister, interview with, 18;

views on Witte, 18-19

Tirsen, 20

Terskoi-Koubansky Cossack regiment, 25

Terek, governor-general of, 30;

presentation to and interview with, 29-37;

vanity, 31

“Times,” London, expelled correspondent of, 30

Terek, province of, 48

Tartars versus Armenians, 78-84

Tiflis, first view of, 87;

stay in, 88-90;

departure from, 93-94;

feuds in, 87;

demolished quarters of, 89;

a terrible incident, 389

Tsaritzin, arrival in, 24;

peasant, 129, 140

Tamboff, province, 155;

prison, 156

Terrorist, 164

Tauride Palace, 194

Throne Speech, 191-192;

Duma’s reply to, 200, 502-507

Terrorism, governmental, 237, 263, 264;

theory of, 258;

explanation of and justification for, 388-392

Trepoff and massacres, 241, 248, 514, 515

Turau, Senator, report on pogroms, 242

Tyumen, 361, 362

Tobolsk, 373-374

Tolstoi, visit to, 456;

his American friends, 460;

his interpretation of present situation in Russia, 461;

on socialism, 462;

influence on Russians, 464;

prophecy of, 493

Tichanowsky, Colonel, 484, 516, 517-524

Ufa, 360

“Underground” system, 362

Urusoff, Prince, 201;

speech in Duma, 246-247

Vladikavkas, 25;

hotel accommodations in, 26;

midnight awakening in, 28-29;

departure from, 42;

return to, 73

Volga Cossacks, 35, 37

Viborg manifesto, 205;

effect upon peasants, 317

Vilna, 240;

police terrorism in, 241, 511

Vorobieff, Dr., assassinated, 251

Vladimeroff, report on Warsaw tortures, 252-257

Vassiliev, Professor, visit to, 332-334

Vologda, 386

Vyatka, 386

Venediktoff, execution of, 397

“Viedomosti,” Moscow, extract from, 485

Wirballen, 6, 9

Witte, 18, 178;

end of premiership, 282;

and massacres, 245, 509, 514

Wender, 20

Winter Palace, meeting of Duma in, 183-194

Warsaw, 265;

panic of Jews, 265-266;

martial law in, 267;

Russian administration, massacre of police in, 272;

poverty of, 272-273;

prostitutes, 274;

terrors, 275;

riots, 276;

strike of school children, 276

Workmen, Russian, 440;

wages of, 442, 525-526;

standard of living, 526-528;

compared to American workmen, 442;

homes of, 445;

morality, 446;

characteristics, 447;

physically compared with American and English workmen, 447-448

Xanugievitch, Governor, 160;

dinner with, 161-162

Yasnaya Poliana, 456, 459

Yekaterinburg, 360, 361

Yusofka, 433;

departure from, 455

Zaporovians (Cossacks), 36

Zhdanov, Cossack officer, 159, 171

FOOTNOTES:

[1] These figures apply to a period of six months after the dissolution

of the first Duma.

[2] Lowell, “Eve of the French Revolution,” page 11.

[3] Adopted at Second Convention Peace Conference at The Hague, 1902,

Section 11, article 25, “On Hostilities.”

[4] In one district, for example, with a population of 100,000, taxes

were levied to an aggregate amount of $150,000 a year, and in return

the Russian government spent less than $10,000 a year on the entire

district. The inhabitants protested against contributing $140,000 a

year toward the maintenance of an army of oppression and a corrupt and

decadent court.

[5] On Tuesday, July 16, 1907, while driving through the Bebontoff

Street in Alexandropol, with the wife of General Glieboff, at half past

two o’clock in the morning, General Alikhanoff was blown to his death

by a bomb.

[6] See Appendix A for further testimony of this character.

[7] One dessiatine is about 2-5/7 acres.

[8] A Cossack whip with a small piece of lead in a leather pocket at

the end.

[9] The Council of Empire was the upper house, composed of an equal

number of elected and appointed members. The elected members were to

represent the Zemstvos, the Holy Synod, the Universities, the Bourse,

the nobility, and the landowners of Poland. Nominally, this Council

of Empire, like the Duma, would be convoked and prorogued annually,

and have equal powers. Every measure must have the sanction of both

houses before it went to the Czar. As a matter of fact, the composition

of the Council of Empire was so carefully made up that every liberal

measure passed by the Duma was certain of veto in the upper chamber,

and throughout the term of the first Duma the Council of Empire had

practically nothing to do. Indeed it did not meet above four or five

times.

[10] At this time the Siberian and central Asia deputies had not yet

reached St. Petersburg. These added nine to the Group of Toil, and the

remainder went chiefly to the Constitutional Democrats, and to the

Social Democrats, who, at the outset, were not directly represented in

the Duma.

[11] See Appendix B for the reply in full.

[12] The _agent provocateur_ is a governmental spy who provokes

uprisings and mutinies for political reasons, or precipitates them

prematurely in order that the government may be prepared to cope with

them--which would often be impossible if they came to a head according

to the designs of the revolutionists.

[13] The “Quarterly Review” for October contains a careful summary of

governmental complicity in Russian massacres based upon the following

reports and authorities. This article, though published anonymously,

was written, and the reports compiled, by Mr. Bernard Pares of

Liverpool, author of “Russia and Reform”; and Mr. Samuel Harper of

the University of Chicago,--two of the most careful and painstaking

students of Russia and Russian affairs outside of Russia to-day.

1. Report of the senior factory inspector of the government of Kherson

on the events of July 17-19, 1903, in Odessa (published in “Kusskoye

Dyelo,” July, 1905). 2. Memorandum of the minister of finance to the

Emperor on the same subject (unpublished). 3. Government reports

(_Revisionnye Otchety_) of Senator Turau on the events of October 18-20

(October 30-November 2), 1905, in Kieff (unpublished). 4. Government

report (_Revisionnyi Otchet_) of Senator Kuzminsky on the events of

October 18-20 (October 30-November 2), 1905, in Odessa (unpublished).

5. Account of the events of October 18-20, 1905, in Odessa, dictated

by Prof. Stschepkin (unpublished). 6. Law report of the proceedings in

connection with the trial of the governor of Minsk, General Kurloff

(including the report of the crown prosecutor of the law chamber of

Vilna). 7. Diary of an Englishman in Kharkoff for the days of October

22-November 8, 1905 (unpublished). 8. Statements made to the writers

on events in Nijni-Novgorod, Saratoff, Reval, and Moscow, and on

the organization of the police department, and other subjects. 9.

Government report by Actual Councilor of State Savich on the events

of January 12 and 13 (25 and 26), 1906, in Gomel. 10. Report to the

minister of the interior from the director of the special section

of the police department, Councilor of State Makaroff. 11. Speech

of Prince Urusoff in the imperial Duma on June 8 (21), 1906. 12.

“Appeals” of the “Union of Russian Men,” of the “Moscow Gazette,”

and of others. 13. Circulars and telegrams of various officials. 14.

Government report of M. Frisch, member of the council of ministers,

on the events of June 1-4 (14-17), 1906, in Bielostok. 15. Report on

the same by the commissioners of the imperial Duma. 16. Debates on the

same in the imperial Duma (official verbatim report). 17. “Une page

de la Contre-revolution Russe.” By E. Semenoff. Paris: Stock, 1906.

Authorized translation, with introduction by L. Wolf. London: Murray,

1906.

[14] Further facts on governmental complicity in massacres will be

found in Chapter XXI on Odessa and the Black Hundred organization.

[15] See Appendixes C and D for official confirmation of governmental

complicity in massacres.

[16] For further evidence of this character see Chapter VIII.

[17] See Chapter XXI, where the story of these exceptional laws is set

forth in more detail.

[18] Gourko, under Stolypin.

[19] The so-called “underground” system is a secret organization of

men and women with connections in each settlement and town, and with

European Russia. The transactions are made entirely by word of mouth,

no note or detail ever being trusted to paper. A confidential chain

is generally working through every village and hamlet in the country.

The exiles of any given settlement know who are the trustworthy

ones of their village, and in the village nearest to theirs in each

direction. Similar knowledge existing in each place eventually extends

a connection from the most remote parts to the heart of the empire, and

messages, information, money, food, and clothing can be forwarded in

safety over distances of thousands of miles.

[20] “Siberia and the Exile System,” Vol. 1, page 90.

[21] For a summary of statistics concerning the cost of living, wages,

etc., of Russian workmen, see Appendix E.

[22] The Karaites are a lost tribe of Jews who did not hear of the

Talmud for more than 400 years after it was given to the world, and

consequently they have never accepted it.

[23] See the “Quarterly Review,” October, 1906, for authorities on this

and other similar instances.

[24] The aspirations of the Russian people were formulated by the first

Duma, which convened in 1906. The Duma drew up its answer to the Crown

Speech and passed it in less than five sittings. On the fifth of May

the document was read for the third time before the Duma and was passed

“unanimously” by the whole assembly, as the Official Reports of the

Duma sittings show. While seven members of the Extreme Right did not

vote for it, they did not dare to refuse to vote, but merely walked

from the hall, pretending they did not know what was being passed.

The second Duma now in session is ruled by the same two parties that

dominated the first Duma. The party of the Left, representing the

working-men and peasants, 192 men (there were only 116 in the first

Duma) and the Constitutional Democrats, 116 men (there were 152 in the

first Duma) representing the rising middle classes of the cities. The

second Duma was not called to formulate another reply to the Crown

Speech, because there was no Crown Speech, so that the document drawn

up and unanimously accepted by the first Duma, remained binding for the

second Duma also.

As one who took part in the preparation of the original document I take

pleasure in testifying to the accuracy of this English version.--ALEXIS

ALADIN, _Leader of Group of Toil in the First Duma and Accredited

Representative of the Group of Toil in the second Duma_.