Among the Liberals · fThe Protests of the Liberals and Their Mood .]
Members of our educated society and of the bourgeois classes—those who had demonstrated but limited capacity to fight for freedom—nonetheless, in one way or another, expressed their sympathy for the workers’ struggle.
On Sunday evening, according to a correspondent for the English newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a gathering of roughly 1,000 people took place at the Imperial Free Economic Society. “There was no discernible leadership, no unity in action. The mood of the assembly was one of cautious waiting and fatalistic resignation.”
It is reported that on Sunday evening, during a performance at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, a lawyer addressed the audience, declaring that now was not the time to entertain oneself with spectacles while blood flowed in the streets. His speech—and the wave of revolutionary cries it provoked—stirred such deep emotion that the police did not dare intervene. [(The Times, Friday, January 27).]
[The same correspondent (Mr. Dillon) reports that on Monday a group emerged, styling itself as the future provisional government of Russia and tasking Mr. Dillon—with, of course, no names mentioned—to publish an announcement regarding this development, along with the group’s decision not to assume responsibility for any state loans contracted after January 9 (22). “I am transmitting this news,” Mr. Dillon telegraphed to his newspaper, “fulfilling my duties as a correspondent, without any commentary whatsoever.” From our side, we might note that this report serves more as an indicator of the prevailing mood than as a straightforward factual account. Interestingly, Mr. Dillon himself compared the group—consisting of some 15–20 literary figures who had gathered on Saturday evening to plead with Witte and Stolypin not to open fire on the people—to the “Jacobin Club” of the Great French Revolution! Needless to say, it was highly imprudent on the part of certain Russian [illegal] émigré writers to treat this comparison as genuine news—especially since it was based solely on a brief dispatch from Dillon’s telegram, published in the Geneva-based Tribune—a local Swiss newspaper.]
On Tuesday, several lawyers began refusing to participate in court proceedings and petitioned for the postponement of judicial hearings. Reportedly, judges granted these requests in many cases, and it became evident that many were sympathetic to the popular movement. On Tuesday, journalists convened in protest against censorship; and on Wednesday, a delegation was sent to Stolypin-Mirsky bearing a petition of the following tenor [(according to English sources)]: “The assembly of editors of St. Petersburg’s daily newspapers insists


that, at least in this difficult and turbulent period we are enduring, the press must be granted full freedom to report [the facts] concerning events and occurrences in public life and to discuss them openly. At the same time, the editors feel bound to point out that, in their deepest conviction, the only way out of the present situation lies in convening a Zemsky Sobor to restore order within the Russian state. This Sobor should be composed of freely elected representatives from all estates and social classes, and it must enjoy unrestricted freedom of [deliberation], consultation, and decision-making. The sessions of this Sobor must be absolutely public. The editors of the newspapers Pravo, Nashi Dni, Syn Otechestva, Birzhevaya Gazeta, Novoe Vremya, Novosti, Rus’, Peterburgskaya Gazeta, Svet, Peterburgskiy Listok, Petersburger Zeitung, Peterburgskie Vedomosti have signed.” Suvorin delivered a speech on behalf of all the editors and warned, it is said, that next time it would be impossible to rely on officers and soldiers who might turn to the side of the people. According to reports, Stolypin-Mirsky received the delegation in a rather curt manner, remarking that first and foremost the strike must come to an end and the revolutionary movement must subside—and when asked for a direct response, he mumbled something about the need to consult Governor-General Tretyakov!
The funeral of student Savinkin served as a powerful expression of public solidarity with the victims of the tsarist executioners. “He was killed,” foreign newspapers reported, “near Palace Square by five bullets.” The director of the Polytechnic Institute, Gagarin, and all the students attended the funeral. The coffin was carried by the students, and at the cemetery one of them delivered a speech that went like this: “We bury a comrade whose innocent blood was shed through the fault of the autocratic government. He has died, yet his spirit lives on within us and calls upon us to continue the unwavering struggle for the right to live and to think freely.” Many wreaths were laid upon the coffin. The institute was closed that day.
At the same time, newspapers reported the resolution passed by the 14 members of the Simbirsk provincial zemstvo. The resolution stated that it was no longer possible to remain silent; that the people had been reduced to a state of servitude; and that it was imperative to convene freely elected representatives of the people. The chairman of the assembly did not permit [a vote on] the discussion of this resolution. The Tauride zemstvo unanimously adopted a similar address to the Tsar*

Among the Liberals

On Wednesday, January 12 (25), at a session of the City Duma in St. Petersburg, Councilor Nabokov [proposed] the following resolution, signed by 15 members: “The official report confirms what all residents of the capital have seen with their own eyes: on January 9, troops opened fire on workers marching toward the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar. Deeply outraged by this incident, the St. Petersburg Duma declares that such brutality [(atrocities)] undermines the very foundations of public order—namely, the safety of citizens’ lives—and considers it its duty to assist the victims by allocating 25,000 rubles to aid the wounded and the families of those killed.” Chairman Durnovo refused to allow discussion of this resolution. Then Councilor Baron Korff proposed that, without taking a position on the justice or guilt of the victims, the Duma simply allocate this sum to provide assistance to them. This proposal was adopted by a substantial majority.
The Moscow City Duma passed a series of resolutions in light of the outbreak of unrest in Moscow. Among other things, it was decided to urge the authorities not to resort to the use of military force against women, children, students, and workers—as long as they confined themselves to peaceful demonstrations. It was also resolved to petition for the granting of the right to workers to freely organize peaceful strikes in order to secure improvements in living conditions, as well as for the right of workers’ unions to hold meetings. (Some sensible capitalists are beginning to recognize, apparently, that police bans on workers’ unions are both absurd and futile.)
The meeting of the [Rural] Agricultural Society in Moscow adopted a resolution condemning the shedding of the people’s blood by the government in St. Petersburg on January 9 [(The Times, January 30, 1905)].
On January 16, a gathering of lawyers was held in St. Petersburg, where measures to aid the population affected by the recent events were discussed. A resolution was adopted stating that the only way out of the current situation lay in convening popular representatives from all social classes.
English newspapers had just released the text of the resolution adopted by the address passed at the Kharkiv assembly of noblemen and members of zemstvo institutions. (It is unclear whether this was a zemstvo assembly, a noble assembly, or a special congress convened by the zemstvo.) As the movement developed and the proletariat moved toward direct struggle, the language of the liberals grew bolder. The address spoke

of years of bureaucratic oppression, violence, arbitrary rule, ruin, and [the impoverishment of] the people’s lack of rights—and of the impossibility of maintaining such a state of affairs. “These conditions inevitably give rise to an approaching storm, and the first rumblings of thunder are already audible. This storm carries with it the danger of bloody civil war and the overthrow of the throne. Your Majesty, deliver the fatherland from these calamities while there is still time.” “Listen to the voice of the Russian people through freely elected representatives and summon them to participate in legislation… Do not trust the negligent and sycophantic [negligent & wily] servants; place your trust in the elected representatives of the people, hasten to convene them and establish from among them a permanent chamber vested with legislative authority…” The address was adopted by 66 votes to 4.
From Vladimir province, we received a letter dated January 12*: 
207G0
CORRECTIONS AND DELETIONS IN THE ARTICLE “TRENIN. MANAGES THE ECONOMY” \
[An English correspondent, evidently well informed, provides some intriguing details about Tretyakov’s brutal reprisals. (D[aily]. Tel[egraph] 80 I).] On Friday evening, four employees of the newspaper Nasha Zhizn were arrested: Prokopo­vich with his wife, Khizhnyakov, and Yakovlev (Bogucharsky).
[The latter returned home at 1:30 a.m. and found the police waiting for him since 8 p.m. The police locked his wife in the study until her husband arrived.]
And among the newspaper’s staff writers, Nashi Dni—Ganfman (Kaufman?) was taken into custody, and Ganeyzer was arrested on Saturday morning. The police were particularly eager to seize funds sent from abroad to support strikers or to help the widows and orphans of those killed. Arrests were carried out en masse: the arrest warrant for Bogucharsky bore number 53, while Khizhnyakov’s was numbered 109. On Saturday, searches were conducted in the offices of both aforementioned newspapers, and every single manuscript was seized—among them detailed accounts of the week’s events, reports compiled and signed by trustworthy eyewitnesses who had recorded everything they had seen, as a lesson for generations to come. All of this material will never see the light of day again. [(We might add, however, that some of it could perhaps be recovered for free publication. Ped.)**]
Further on, a letter is quoted, detailing the proceedings of the provincial zemstvo assembly held in Vladimir. Ed.
** Lenin’s Note. Ed.

CORRECTIONS AND DELETIONS IN THE ARTICLE

By Wednesday, the number of arrests had grown so great that two or three detainees were often crammed into a single cell.
With the workers, the new dictator no longer hesitated to show his true colors.
Starting on Thursday, they began rounding up workers in droves and sending them back to their hometowns.
There, of course, the OPIS would spread [new political ideas],
report on the events of January 9, and preach [dissatisfaction and struggle—notes the Englishman] the struggle for self-determination.
Tretyakov [intensified] his longstanding policy in Moscow: luring large numbers of workers with economic handouts.
Entrepreneurs gathered with the Minister of Finance to deliberate various concessions for workers, discussing the possibility of a nine‑hour workday. The Minister of Finance received a delegation of workers on Tuesday, promising economic reforms while warning against political agitation—clearly, the government was striving to divide the working masses, to bribe whoever could be swayed with meager gifts, to undermine the leaders and organizers. Arrests continued on a massive scale. People were arrested for collecting funds on behalf of strikers and the wounded. Apartments were cordoned off whenever even a dozen people gathered for a private meeting. By Wednesday, the number of arrests had grown so great that two or three detainees were often crammed into a single cell. (Of the arrested liberals, Arsenyev had already been released.)]
... [The populace’s hatred toward Grand Duke Vladimir is evidenced by the story that, on Tuesday evening, the police advised sending not the Grand Duke’s carriage (to the railway station, in order to transport a guest of the Grand Duke—who had arrived in St. Petersburg—to the palace), but rather a hired cab.] . . . *

The article was included in Collected Works, Volume VII, pages 96–98. It was written entirely by Lenin, except for the last two lines of the first paragraph on page 97: “Now scientists and writers from Austria, France, and Italy have joined them.” These words were penned by M. Olminsky.
Part of the manuscript that Lenin crossed out has been lost; the final fragment begins mid‑sentence: “in honor of the fallen.” These words too were struck through. Ed.