The coup d’état of June 3 (16), 1907, opened an era of counter-revolution in Russia. We know what judicial and administrative arbitrariness, what persecution and the torture of those sentenced to hard labour crowned this triumph of tsarism. The upper strata of the bourgeoisie, frightened by the revolution, supported the counter-revolutionary nobles. Tsarism believed it would find help and support from the counter-revolutionary elements of the bourgeoisie and the landowners. The electoral law of June 3 (16), 1907, is an example of shameless falsification. Here are some data characterising this law: The population is divided into “curiae”: landowners, first- and second-category urban residents, peasants, Cossacks, workers. Electors, elected separately by curiae (sometimes not directly, but through commissioners), are grouped by the government into provincial electoral assemblies, and these latter elect deputies to the Duma! The law distributes the number of electors in such a way that, in advance, a majority in the electoral assemblies is obtained in 28 provinces (out of 50) only by the landowners, and in others – by the electors of the first urban curia (big capitalists). The general picture is as follows: 200,000 nobles send to the electoral assemblies of 53 provinces 2,594 electors, i.e., 49.4% of the total number of electors; the roughly half a million capitalists of the first urban curia dispose of 788 electors (15%); about 8 million townspeople of the second urban curia send 590 electors (11.2%); about 70 million peasants and Cossacks dispose of 1,168 electors (22.2%), and about 12 million workers – 112 electors (2.1%). It is not surprising that such an electoral law produces a “Black”, counter-revolutionary Duma – a genuine “Chambre introuvable”. But what is surprising is that not only the bourgeois liberals, but even the Social-Democrats nevertheless managed to get their representatives into this Duma. In the workers’ curia all the electors are Social-Democrats. The ultra-reactionary nobles, who command a majority in the provincial electoral assemblies, are forced to allow Social-Democrats in (in six provinces the law compels the election of one deputy from among the workers; in other provinces the Social-Democrats obtain mandates through agreements with the liberals).

In the Third Duma the Octoberist party predominated – a party of reactionary nobles and big capitalists, subservient to tsarism. But even these “slaves” could not satisfy the camarilla of Nicholas II – that Black band, organising pogroms and attempts on the lives of opposition deputies. The government, which falsified the elections in order to get Octoberists into the Third Duma, is now falsifying the elections so as to send to the Fourth Duma more “loyal” parties – the “Nationalists” and the “Extreme Right”. The pressure has surpassed everything. Priests were ordered to participate en masse in the elections and to vote for the Right; arrests of opposition candidates, fines on the press, closures of newspapers, striking suspect persons off the electoral rolls – all this was applied with such cynicism that even the Right and even the nobles protested.

As a result we have an even more “Black”, even more right-wing Duma, but for today the defeated ones are the Octoberists. The liberal opposition and the revolutionary democracy (Social-Democratic workers and peasant bourgeois democrats) have almost preserved the status quo. The latest data on 438 (out of 442 elected) deputies of the Fourth Duma allow us to make the following comparison:

|                       | III Duma | IV Duma |
|-----------------------|----------|---------|
| Democracy:            |          |         |
|   Social-Democrats    |   13     |   14    |
|   Trudoviks           |   14     |   11    |
|    **Total**          | **25**   |         |
| Liberals:             |          |         |
|   Cadets              |   52     |   61    |
|   Progressists        |   36     |   33    |
|   Poles               |   18     |   14    |
|   Muslims             |   9      |   5     |
|    **Total**          | **113**  |         |
| Right:                |          |         |
|   Octoberists         |  131     |   79    |
|   Nationalists        |   91     |   74    |
|   Extreme Right       |   46     |  140    |
|    **Total**          | **293**  |         |
| Non-party             |   27     |   7     |
| **Grand Total**       | **437**  | **438** |

Let us add a few more words to explain the names and grouping of the parties better:

Social-Democrats: the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party.
Trudoviks: peasant democracy, i.e., revolutionary bourgeois democracy, whose programme includes the expropriation of the nobles.
Cadets: the Constitutional-Democratic Party, in reality a counter-revolutionary liberal bourgeois party.
Progressists: the same liberals, only somewhat more moderate.
Poles and Muslims – the same, but national groups.

In general the opposition consists of 25 democrats and 113 liberals, or 138 deputies (142 in the Third Duma). The government parties: the Octoberists rarely and in an undertone speak of a constitution; the Nationalists never speak of a constitution. The Right openly stands for a return to autocracy and against a constitution. The falsification is pushing towards opposition not only the Octoberists, but even a section of the Nationalists.

As for the Social-Democrats, so far the following have been elected:

The six deputies of the workers’ curia are Social-Democrats: Badaev from St. Petersburg; Malinovsky from Moscow; Samoilov from Vladimir; Shagov from Kostroma; Muranov from Kharkov; Petrovsky from Yekaterinoslav. All six are workers.

Then Social-Democrats got through in three provinces thanks to an agreement between the democrats (socialists and Trudoviks) and liberals against the Right. Thus got through: Khaustov from Ufa; Buryanov from Taurida Province; Tulyakov from the Don Region.

Then three more Social-Democrats got through from the Caucasus: Chkheidze, Chkhenkeli and Skobelev; the latter was elected by the Russian population of the Caucasus.

Two Social-Democrats got through from Siberia: Rusanov and, from the Amur Region, Ryslev.

Let us add that in Irkutsk Province (Siberia) the election of one Social-Democrat was almost assured (out of 20 electors, 11 were Social-Democrats). But the governor invalidated the election of six Social-Democrats in the city of Irkutsk.

The elections have not yet taken place.

It is also necessary to add that in Warsaw, as a result of a bloc of the Bund and the PPS, Yagello, a member of the Polish Socialist Party, was elected deputy.

All these data are preliminary. The full composition of all the groups of the Fourth Duma, including the Social-Democratic group, will be determined after the opening of the Duma, which will take place on November 15 (28).

Krakov, November 11, 1912.