3IO 



The National Geographic Magazine 



truth of those axioms, and had they been 

 willing to allow a gradual development of 

 ■democratic ideas and liberal forms of ad- 

 ministration, they might have had the op- 

 portunity to guide and control the re- 

 generation of Russia ; but they would not 

 listen to reason ; they demanded all or 

 nothing. When I asked Professor Milu- 

 fcofif, their leader, why they did not accept 

 what they could get and wait in patience 

 for more, he replied : 



"Would you have insulted your revolutionary 

 fathers with such a cowardly suggestion?" 



A CARNIVAI, OP CRIME AND ASSASSIN- 

 ATION 



For several weeks after the dissolution 

 •of the douma last August, Russia saw a 

 carnival of crime, assassination, and vio- 

 lence such as never occurred before, even 

 in the bloody history of that empire. The 

 week I spent in Warsaw twenty-two 

 policemen were killed on their beats, and 

 not one of the assassins was detected. 

 There were mutinies in the army and the 

 navy. You will remember how the for- 

 tresses at Cronstadt and Helsingfors 

 were seized and the terrible slaughter that 

 attended those incidents. One of the 

 Petersburg papers, edited by Professor 

 Kovaleski, enumerated the assassinations 

 and gave an amazing estimate of the mor- 

 tality. It declares that 7,300 persons were 

 killed and more than 9,000 were wounded 

 by bombs in massacres and mutinies. 

 Among the killed were 123 governors, 

 generals, chiefs of police, and other high 

 officials. Thirty thousand revolutionists 

 were arrested and most of them were 

 sent to Siberia, while 221 persons were 

 •executed. Twelve railway trains contain- 

 ing . government treasure were held up 

 and successfully robbed, 400 government 

 liquor stores were robbed and destroyed, 

 and $630,000 of government money was 

 stolen by burglars and highwaymen. All 

 •of this was done by the revolutionists. 



According to the authority of the 

 "Retch" newspaper, the organ of the 

 Constitutional Democratic party, one 

 member of the late douma has been as- 

 sassinated, one has become insane, two of 



the peasant members (Mr Stevanduk and 

 Mr Grevoff) have been beaten nearly to 

 death because they did not accomplish 

 anything for their constituents. Onipko, 

 a most repulsive person and the leader of 

 the terrorists in the douma, has been sent 

 to Siberia. He was captured red-handed, 

 leading the mutiny at Cronstadt. Five 

 members of the douma have been ban- 

 ished ; the houses of thirty-three have 

 been searched ; twenty-four have been im- 

 prisoned for political reasons ; 182 have 

 been deprived of civil rights and are un- 

 der indictment for having conspired to 

 induce the people to disobey the law. 

 These were the members of the douma 

 who signed what is known as the "Pro- 

 test of Viborg" against the dissolution of 

 the douma and appealing to the people 

 not to pay taxes or to serve in the army. 

 This was a very foolish procedure, be- 

 cause there are no direct imperial taxes 

 in Russia. The revenues of the govern- 

 ment come from indirect duties paid upon 

 liquor, from duties on imported goods, 

 from monopolies, and similar sources. 

 The manifesto, therefore, did not injure 

 the general government, but only the local 

 "zemstovs" and "mirs," who collect taxes 

 for schools, roads, and other purposes. 

 The men who signed that protest, 218 in 

 number, might have been held for trea- 

 son, but the government merely indicted 

 them for conspiracy, and thus made them 

 ineligible for re-election to the douma. 

 About one-half of them belonged to the 

 Constitutional Democratic party and the 

 remainder to the Social Democrats, Social 

 Revolutionists, and other radical organi- 

 zations. The Constitutional Democratic 

 party, however, is held responsible for the 

 manifesto; its meetings are prohibited 

 notwithstanding the guarantee of free 

 speech in the constitution, and the Em- 

 peror's October manifesto. It has been 

 practically dissolved by proclamation, but 

 has nominated candidates against whom 

 the government can find no objection and 

 is carrying on an active campaign. 



The more conservative element have 

 organized what they call the "Party of 

 Peaceful Regeneration." It- consists of 



