RUSSIA. 



59T 



dows, overturned street-cars, and held possession 

 of the streets for five days. The Governor-Gen- 

 eral, the Grand-Duke Sergius, whose palace was 

 attacked, did not venture out. The whole police 

 force was powerless, and a large force of troops 

 had to be brought in to restore order. In St. 

 Petersburg on March 4 students, male and female, 

 gathered in the Kazan Cathedral and interrupted 

 the services with cheers for the Czar. In the suc- 

 ceeding days disturbances took place in St. Peters- 

 burg, in Kharkov, and in Moscow, and corre- 

 spondence was discovered connecting them. Au- 

 thors, professors, and physicians were arrested, as 

 well as students, in St. Petersburg. In Kharkov 

 a sotnia of Cossacks surrounded an assemblage of 

 students and arrested some, but on the same even- 

 ing a crowd of them made a demonstration in 

 front of a newspaper office, and another crowd 

 in the theater, so that soldiers were called out to 

 help the police. On March 8 a large meeting of 

 students of both sexes was held in the hall of 

 the University of Moscow in spite of the warn- 

 ings of the police, and violent speeches were made. 

 The police drove them into a neighboring house, 

 kept the men there overnight, and in the morning 

 took 53 to jail, and on March 10 made 463 more 

 arrests after the students had broken windows in 

 several streets. The tumults continued, and fresh 

 arrests were made daily. In Odessa, after a dis- 

 orderly outbreak, many students were arrested as 

 the result of the discovery of incriminating docu- 

 ments. On March 17 about 3,000 students assem- 

 bled in St. Petersburg on the Nevsky Prospect be- 

 fore the Kazan Cathedral to celebrate the mem- 

 ory of the woman student Veterova who died in 

 Peter-Paul fortress. Printed circulars passed 

 from hand to hand. When a student read an 

 appeal enumerating the demands of the students 

 the police and the Cossacks charged into the 

 crowd. The students took refuge in the church, 

 throwing stones and other objects at the police 

 and Cossacks, and unfolded banners containing 

 various devices, which were snatched from their 

 hands by the police. A sharp fight took place 

 on one side of the cathedral, and when the com- 

 mander of the Cossacks was wounded by a blow 

 from a hammer his men dismounted and, plying 

 their whips savagely, closed in on a part of the 

 crowd, while the rest fled into the church, dis- 

 turbing the religious service that was going on 

 with their shouts until the police entered and 

 expelled them. There were 26 policemen and Cos- 

 sacks wounded, and there were arrested 339 male 

 and 377 female students, and 44 others. The 

 work-people from the factories in the suburbs set 

 out for the town, but could not force their way 

 through the strong guards that were posted at 

 the entrances. The Czar wished to go to the 

 Kazan square to speak to the students about their 

 grievances, but was restrained by the ministers. 

 The students while in the cathedral smoked cigar- 

 ettes, whistled, and threw things at the holy 

 images to show that they wished no longer to 

 belong to the Orthodox Church. This was on 

 account of the excommunication of Count Leo 

 Tolstoi recently pronounced by the Holy Synod. 

 Several hundred students had signed a protest 

 against it and a petition that they also be ex- 

 communicated. The proclamations scattered by 

 the students were not confined to their particular 

 grievances, such as the temporary regulation con- 

 signing them to service in the army. Some were 

 of revolutionary import, calling for the overthrow 

 of the corrupt officials, and even the autocracy of 

 the Czar, and demanding liberty and free govern- 

 ment. Many Working men participated in the 

 demonstration. The police were unable to dis- 



cover here, and still more at Mosrow, whether the 

 working men had indoctrinated tin; students with 

 European socialism or whether it \v;is the stu- 

 dents who were stirring up di.-eontcnt jjnung the 

 working men. It required two regiments of Cos- 

 sacks, a squadron of gendarmes, ; iiid the whole 

 police force of the city to quell the di>,,, der in 

 St. Petersburg, and the fighting lasted i'ron morn- 

 ing till late in the night. The students ii; d onlv 

 sticks to defend themselves, and in the crowds on 

 the Nevsky Prospect that were brutally assail^) 

 by the police with sabers and by Cossacks witi, 

 knouts were the usual Sunday promenaders. On 

 March 22 an attempt was made upon the life of 

 the reactionary procurator of the Holy Synod, 

 M. Pobedonostseff, who was shot at by a petty 

 official, who had been chosen by lot to avenge 

 the excommunication of Count Tolstoi and the op- 

 pressive treatment of the students. A fresh revo- 

 lutionary movement was dreaded, and it was ex- 

 pected to break out among the workmen rather 

 than among the students. Troops were stationed 

 so as to appear immediately whenever any con- 

 course or suspicious movement occurred at any 

 of the mills in the vicinity of the capital, and the 

 operatives were no longer permitted to enter the 

 city. Threatening letters were received by sev- 

 eral of the ministers. At a Cabinet council it was 

 decided to proceed leniently with the students. 

 Although the law for drafting refractory students 

 into the army would not be revoked, it would no 

 longer be put in force for a time. It was also 

 resolved to revise the university statutes. Gen. 

 Vannovsky succeeded M. Bogolepoff as Minister 

 of Education, and his aim was supposed to be 

 to replace the statutes of 1884, which treat pro- 

 fessors and students alike as suspects, by more 

 liberal statutes framed on those of 1863. An 

 almost complete amnesty w r as ultimately extend- 

 ed to the students who were mixed up in the dis- 

 turbances. It was decided to exclude women 

 henceforth from lectures on medicine and peda- 

 gogy. A private person gave a vast sum to endow 

 a separate woman's university in Moscow. An 

 edict was issued restricting the number of Jewish 

 students in the universities to 2 per cent, of the 

 whole number. 



The authors of Russia protested in foreign 

 newspapers against the savage treatment of street 

 crowds, and for that their society for mutual as- 

 sistance was closed by the prefect of St. Peters- 

 burg. Senators and professors published in a 

 foreign newspaper an appeal to the Czar in which 

 they pointed out the evil consequences that had 

 resulted from the measures taken in the last forty 

 years to repress student outbreaks, thousands of 

 vigorous and earnest spirits converted into the 

 revolutionary foes of a Government that had 

 blasted their chosen careers by preventing them 

 from completing their studies, and accused the 

 Ministry of Education of distorting every reform 

 in university education which the Czar ordered. 

 The law forbidding a collective petition to the 

 Emperor they considered oppressive, as all interest 

 in public activity and loyal cooperation is dead- 

 ened if in an autocracy the voice of his subjects 

 can not reach the sovereign. Gen. Vannovsky 

 was appointed Minister of Education on April 7,. 

 and the task was entrusted to him of thoroughly 

 reorganizing and renovating the Russian univer- 

 sities, in which work the cooperation of the na- 

 tion and the assistance of parents was requested 

 in the Emperor's rescript. The new Minister of 

 Education consulted the faculties of all the uni- 

 versities as to the changes that were desirable in 

 the statutes and regulations governing higher 

 education. He desired to get expert opinions as 



