134 SIBERIA 



the young people. My American friend, who was 

 an eye-witness of the disturbance, endorsed my 

 reasoning on all points. Had the same thing 

 occurred in England and i,ooo students collected in 

 any pa:rt to defy the law, refusing to disperse at the 

 request of the authorities, there is no doubt that very 

 strong measures would have been taken against them. 



The demonstration against the Government spy 

 was the culminating episode of a curious history 

 which was told me by the same informant. The 

 students had for some time been under the influ- 

 ence of a nihilist agitator, a Jew, named Rabinovich 

 —the name means son of a Rabbi. This man was 

 banished, shortly before my visit to Tomsk, as a 

 result of the investigations made into the affair after 

 the riots. He was a returned emigrant who had 

 spent many years in America. He contributed 

 articles to a paper published in Tomsk called 

 Siberian Life. He had taught English to several 

 of the students, who were subsequently the ring- 

 leaders of the disturbance. His articles were always 

 strongly antagonistic to the Government. He had 

 always a grievance, did no work except teach the 

 students English and photog'raphy and write articles, 

 which were frequently censored and very often 

 entirely suppressed. 



One day, I was told, the police desired to have 

 the use of his telephone to summon the fire brigade, 

 as his was the nearest telephone, but he swore at 

 them' and refused to allow them to enter his place, 

 afterwards niaking a boast of it. He went about 

 the town proclaiming that as he had been in the 

 States a number of years and was a naturalised 

 American subject, although born in Russia:, he was 

 " no cottitnon moujik " and the authorities dared not 

 touch him. He poisoned the minds of the students 

 and incited them against the Government by his 



