For a long time already, the social-democratic press has pointed to the fragility, the groundlessness of the notorious Russian "constitutionalism." So long as the old power holds sway and maintains in its hands the entire enormous apparatus of state administration – so long it is impossible to speak seriously of the significance of popular representation, of the possibility of satisfying the urgent needs of millions of people. The sessions of the State Duma have begun, – liberal-bourgeois speeches about the peaceful constitutional path have poured forth in an especially violent torrent, – and at the same time beatings of peaceful demonstrators organized by government agents have begun and continue to intensify, arson attacks on buildings housing popular assemblies, finally, outright pogroms.

And the peasant movement grows. Workers' strikes become ever more acute, ever more frequent and widespread. The most backward military units, infantry in the provinces, the Cossacks, are coming into turmoil.

There is too much combustible material in Russian life. The struggle is too great and too acute – a struggle prepared by centuries of violence unparalleled in history, torture, torment, robbery and exploitation. One cannot confine this struggle of the people against the old power within the bounds of the Duma's struggle for one ministry or another. One cannot hold back the most downtrodden and benighted "subjects" from asserting the demands of their awakening human and civic personality. One cannot hold back the old power by appeals to legality – the power which has always itself created laws, which fights for its existence by the last, the most desperate, wild and frenzied means.

The pogrom in Bialystok – a particularly vivid fact of this beginning of armed action by the government against the people. The old, but eternally new – eternally new until the people's victory, until the complete sweeping away of the old power – history of Russian pogroms! Here are several excerpts from a telegram from an elector of Bialystok citizens, Tsirin: "A Jewish pogrom has begun, prepared in advance." "Contrary to rumors that have spread, no orders were received from the ministry throughout the entire day." "The pogrom was zealously agitated for two weeks already; in the streets, especially in the evenings, proclamations were distributed calling for the beating not only of Jews, but of the intelligentsia as well; the police looked the other way."

An old familiar picture! The police prepares the pogrom in advance. The police incites; in government printing houses proclamations calling for the beating of Jews are printed. The police remains inactive at the beginning of the pogrom. The troops silently watch the exploits of the Black Hundred. And then, – then the same police continues the comedy of trial and investigation of the pogromists. The trial and investigation by officials of the old power invariably lead to one result: the case drags on, no guilty pogromists are found, sometimes even the beaten and mutilated Jews and intelligentsia are dragged into court, months pass – the old, but eternally new history is forgotten, until the next pogrom. Vile incitement, bribery and the corrupting of the dregs of our accursed capitalist "civilization," bestial beating of the armed against the unarmed, the comedy of trial and investigation conducted by the very guilty parties themselves. And there are still people to be found who, seeing these phenomena of Russian life, think and say that someone's "frivolity" is calling the people to "extreme measures!" Not only frivolity is needed, baseness of soul is needed, political corruption is needed to speak such things in the face of events such as the burning of the People's House in Vologda (the beginning of the State Duma's sessions) or the Bialystok pogrom (a month of Duma sessions). Millions of appeals would not produce on the people even a hundredth of the effect of one such event. And to speak of the "frivolity" of appeals – such hopeless pedantry, such civic death, as condemning the furious cry of vengeance resounding from the field of the Vologda and Bialystok battles.

The State Duma acted very well in immediately putting on the agenda an inquiry concerning the Bialystok pogrom and sending members of the State Duma to Bialystok to investigate the matter on the spot. But when you read this inquiry, when you compare it with the speeches of Duma deputies and the well-known facts of pogroms – a deep sense of dissatisfaction emerges, a feeling of outrage at the irresolute language of the inquiry.

Judge for yourselves. The authors of the inquiry say only: "the population fears that by local authorities and malicious agitation an attempt might be made to represent those who suffered as guilty of the calamity that befell them"… "In this direction false reports are being spread." Yes, yes, the beaten and tormented Jewish population fears this and has every reason to fear it. This is true. But is that the whole truth, gentlemen members of the Duma and authors of the inquiry? You, not yet beaten and not yet tormented deputies of the people, perfectly well know that it is not the whole truth. You know that the downtrodden population does not dare name the true guilty parties of the pogrom. You must name them. That is why you are deputies of the people. That is why you enjoy – even under Russian law – complete freedom of speech in the State Duma. Do not place yourselves between reaction and the people in such moments, when armed reaction strangles, beats, mutilates the unarmed people. Stand directly and wholly on the side of the people. Do not limit yourselves to transmitting the bourgeois fear that the vile perpetrators of pogroms will be recognized as guilty instead of the slain. Come forward with direct accusations of these guilty parties – this is your direct duty before the people. Question the government not about whether measures are being taken to protect Jews and prevent pogroms, but about how much longer the government will cover up the true guilty parties belonging to the government itself. Question about whether the government believes that the people will long remain in delusion concerning these true guilty parties. Accuse the government openly and before all, call upon the people to organize militia and self-defense as the only means of protection against pogroms.

This does not accord with "parliamentary customs," you will say. And are you not ashamed even now to advance such arguments? And do you not understand that the people will condemn you if even in such moments you do not throw off the parliamentary game, do not dare to speak directly, openly, loudly what you actually know and think?

That you know the truth about the pogroms is evident from the speeches of Duma deputies. The Cadet Nabokov said: "We know that in many cases the administrations have been unable to rid themselves of the suspicion that the simultaneous arising of pogroms is the result either of Black Hundred organizations acting with the knowledge of local authorities, or, at best, of their systematic inactivity."

If you know this, gentlemen Cadets, then you should have said it in the inquiry. Write it this way: we know such and such and we ask about such and such. And if you know the "better" cases, then it is improper for deputies of the people to remain silent about the worse cases: about the direct organization of pogroms by the police on orders from Petersburg.

"Bialystok is not an exceptional case," – Levin rightly said. "It is one of the consequences of that system which you want to fight." Correct, Citizen Levin! But if in a newspaper we can speak only of a "system," then in the Duma you must speak more directly and sharply.

"Pogroms are a whole system. In the October days… the government… found no other means to fight the liberation movement… You know how this chapter of history ended. Now the same thing is being repeated… This system has been prepared and conceived treacherously and is being carried out with equal treachery. In many cases we know perfectly well who is preparing these pogroms, we know perfectly well that proclamations are being distributed by gendarme administrations."

Once more: correct, Citizen Levin! And it should have been written in the inquiry: does the ministry believe that the Duma does not know the commonly known fact of the distribution of proclamations by gendarmes and police?

Deputy Ryzhkov directly called the explanation of pogroms by tribal enmity a lie – a malicious invention – the explanation of them by the impotence of the authorities. Deputy Ryzhkov cited a series of facts of "cooperation" between the police, pogromists and Cossacks. "I live in a major industrial district," he said, "and I know that a pogrom, for example, in Lugansk did not assume terrible proportions only because (listen to this carefully, gentlemen: only because), unarmed workers drove the pogromists off with bare hands under the threat of being shot by the police."

"Accusation of the government" – the newspaper "Rech'" heads this section of Duma debates. A good heading. But this heading belongs not in the newspaper but in the text of the Duma's inquiry. Either write these inquiries so that they are a fiery accusation of the government before the people – or else provoke bitter remarks and mockery for the glaring disparity between the monstrousness of the facts and the bureaucratic silence of bureaucratically restrained inquiries. Only by taking the first path will the Duma teach reactionaries to stop laughing at it. But as it is, the reactionaries laugh directly and openly. Read today's "Novoye Vremya." These lackeys of the pogromists cackle, make merry: "One cannot but note with particular pleasure (!!) the haste with which the Duma inquired of the minister about the Jewish pogrom in Bialystok." You see: the pogromists are experiencing particular pleasure – the lackey blurts out the truth. Reaction is satisfied both with the Bialystok pogrom and with the fact that now the Duma can be called a "Jewish" Duma. Reaction sneers: "If we should forgive pogroms of peasant property in Russian provinces, as was said today in the State Duma, then we should exactly the same way forgive pogroms of Jewish property in the Western region."

You see, gentlemen deputies: reactionaries are more direct than you. The speeches of reactionaries are stronger than your speeches in the Duma. Reactionaries do not fear war. Reactionaries do not fear linking the Duma with the peasants' struggle for freedom. Do not fear either to link the reactionary power with the pogromists!

Written June 3 (16), 1906

Published June 4, 1906

Printed according to the text of the newspaper in the newspaper "Forward" No. 9