Moreover, it was pointed out that the revolutionary movement had lost its raison d'etre since August 6th, when the government had granted substantial concessions to the liberal parties, and authorized the creation of the Duma.

The radical factions of the bourgeois, however, insisted upon a republican form of government, and the convocation of a constituent assembly. In fact, the imperial ukase of October 17, 1905, calling for the establishment of the Imperial Duma, satisfied neither the conservative elements nor the radical faction of the property classes. The former blamed the government for having made unnecessary concessions to the revolutionists, while the radicals insisted upon the immediate establishment of a republic.

The Socialist factions, however, were neither satisfied with the existing order, nor did they support the radical factions of the bourgeois.

On October 13, 1905, the first Soviet of Workers' Deputies was founded in St. Petersburg. The society was absolutely independent of the Socialist parties. The majority of its members were self-appointed leaders of the labor movement. At some factories, however, the workmen selected their own deputies to the Soviet, but the bulk of the working population in St. Petersburg refrained from taking part in such elections. Owing to the revolutionary propaganda of the Bolsheviki, Mensheviki and Social Revolutionaries, the political situation grew more acute.

In October, 1905, a general railroad strike was called, and soon after the traffic throughout Russia became paralyzed. In many instances the revolutionary railway committees seized the telegraph stations, and by use of physical violence, compelled satisfied workmen to join the strike. In the meantime, the activities of the Soviet of St. Petersburg were growing bolder. Count Witte, Premier of the Russian cabinet, continued a hesitating and wavering policy, and for a time it looked as though the imperial government would recognize, to a certain extent at least, the authority of the Soviet.

The December revolt at Moscow, however, put an end to the policy of leniency. The imperial government decided to exercise its full power in order to suppress the revolutionary movement throughout the Empire. Regiments of the Russian Guard were dispatched to Moscow, and after five days of hard fighting the revolt was suppressed both in Moscow itself and in the vicinity. An interesting illustration of the international character of

the Socialist movement is found in the exchange of correspondence between the Japanese Socialists and the Russian Revolutionists at this period. On the 20th of March, 1904, a letter was addressed by the Japanese Socialists to their Russian comrades, which was as follows:

"Dear Comrades:

"Our governments have plunged us into a war to satisfy their imperialistic desires. But to the Socialist there exists no barriers of race, territory or nationality. We are comrades, brothers and sisters, and have no cause to battle against one another. Your enemy is not the Japanese people, but your own militarism, the so-called patriotism of your country. Our enemy is not the Russian people, but the militarism and patriotism of our ruling class. Patriotism and militarism are our common enemies, are the enemies of Socialists all over the world. It is the highest duty of Socialists everywhere to fight bravely and unafraid against them. when you are suffering under the cruel persecution of your government and its spies, remember that there are thousands of comrades in a distant land who are praying for your well being and your success in their inmost hearts."

"The Russian Social Democrats know only too well the difficulties that confront us in time of war when the entire machinery of government is working to the utmost to create a blind patriotic fervor How much more difficult and embarrassing is the position of our Japanese comrades, who, at a moment when nationistic feeling was at its highest pitch, openly extended to us the hand of brotherhood."

(Note: "One Year of Russian Revolution," published by the Socialist Publication Society, page 17. These documents are in an article by Sen Katayama, a Japanese Socialist who has been active in the radical revolutionary movement in this country in recent years.)

In another part of this report attention is called to a dramatic climax in the International Socialist Convention at Amsterdam in 1904, during the war, when the audience was roused to a pitch of enthusiasm by the hand-clasp of international solidarity of the representatives of the Russian and Japanese parties.

Upon the restoration of peace between Russia and Japan,

owing in large part to the mediation of Theodore Roosevelt, the imperial government was enabled to devote more attention to the internal situation.

The cabinet of Stolypin adopted a number of important agrarian reforms which restored order in the rural districts. In many provinces the farmers became owners of the land which they had cultivated for decades.

In the first Duma there were 166 deputies representing the peasants; and this representation was increased in the second Duma. But the government aimed to make of the Duma merely a debating society. The Soviets were suppressed, prominent agitators arrested and exiled, the atrocities of the Black Hundreds were renewed; and by 1907 reaction was again in the saddle and all hopes of a pacific application of liberal reforms by the government coming to an end. By the law of June, 1907, the majority of the peasants and industrial workers were deprived of the suffrage, and landed proprietors given ten votes to one of the peasants.

That revolutionary activities were carried on through underground channels is illustrated by the testimony of Ludwig C. A. K. Martens before this Committee.

Mr. Martens testified that while he resided at Berlin he was engaged in Russian revolutionary activities in connection with Russian revolutionary organizations in Berlin. He stated that he was in constant communication with revolutionaries in Russia, and engaged in smuggling into Russia propaganda which had been prepared largely in Switzerland and in France. The quiet and underground activities of these revolutionaries were laying the foundations for the development of those organizations which were to play so decisive a part in the revolution of November 7,

1917.

In August, 1914, the first shots were exchanged between Russia and Germany in the Great War. A wave of genuine patriotic fervor swept over the Russian Empire. With the first day of mobilization the workmen who had been on strike in Petrograd and Moscow resumed their work. The national crisis apparently united the entire Russian people. This might have been the case had the war been swift and decisive in Russia's favor; but soon after the beginning of hostilities it became apparent that Russia was not prepared to conduct military operations on so gigantic a scale against Germany, Austria and Turkey.

Reports coming out of Russia revealed that there was a sad lack of ammunition, and that the equipment of the Russian armies was in every way inadequate. The government itself admitted that the estimates of the Empire were entirely erroneous. Rumors circulated that the minister of war General Soukhomlinoff was a paid German agent, and had used his position to betray Russia. Public opinion insisted upon his immediate trial.

In August, 1915, after the historic retreat of the Russian armies, the Czar, Nicholas II, ordered an investigation of General Soukhomlinoff's activities which revealed that the Minister had in fact, together with his associates, consciously kept Russia unprepared for a war with the Central Powers. By order of the Czar he was imprisoned, while several officers of the general staff were condemned by courts as traitors to their country, and were thereupon executed. Although during the spring of 1916 the military situation on the Russian front considerably improved, and notwithstanding the fact that the Russian offensive in Galicia resulted in the capture of an enormous number of prisoners, in Russia itself there was a feeling of general discontent, mainly because the food situation in the large cities had become extremely acute.

In addition dark rumors were circulated in Petrograd and in Moscow to the effect that the Czarina was conducting secret negotiations with the Imperial German government for a separate peace. Although tales of this kind had never been corroborated, yet they furnished ground for a solid opposition on the part of the liberal elements of the country which sought to take advantage of the existing conditions to force from the government a grant of further concessions to the liberal movement in general.

The appointment of Stuermer, an avowed pro-German, as premier, and the consequent ghastly betrayal of Roumania to Germany, increased the feeling of desperation.

The revolutionary parties also revived their activities beginning with the summer of 1916. Revolutionary propaganda was started among the soldiers behind the fighting lines, and among the workmen in industrial districts. Labor was urged to stop work at munition plants, and thus force the Russian government to give up the "Capitalistic and bloody enterprise" in which it was engaged. The Social Democrats distributed hundreds of thousands of leaflets among Russian soldiers in which it was argued that the Russian laboring population had no quarrel with

the German people, and that the soldiers should disobey their officers. Immediate "democratic" peace with Germany was urged by the extremists, and the slogan was proclaimed that Russia objected to indemnities and annexations. This was the same kind of revolutionary and pacifist propaganda which was later circulated by Boloists in France, by socialists and Industrial Workers of the World in the United States, as well as by German sympathizers and paid agents.

The tactless policy of the Russian government at that time, its hostile attitude toward the legitimate aims of the Imperial Duma, the sinister influence of Rasputin at the Russian court, the instability of the Imperial cabinet, and the general uncertainty of political and military conditions accelerated the first outbreak of the revolutionary movement in Russia.

THE MARCH OR SO-CALLED BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION

In dealing with the history of Russian revolutions in March, 1917, and November 7th of that year, this Committee will have recourse for its information, aside from unquestionable historie data, solely to the revolutionary press, to such copies of the official Bolsheviki newspapers as have come into its hands, and to the statements made by sympathizers with the Russian Soviet regime.

While this policy of the Committee may result in describing the Russian revolution and the subsequent conduct of the Soviet regime in their most favorable light, the Committee feels that by depicting the Russian Soviet regime in the words of its advocates, it can show more clearly and more effectively how completely subversive of democratic institutions and destructive of civil liberty are the principles and programs of that regime.

The Committee is thus able to show that the advocates of these revolutionary, principles in this country know and understand the precise meaning of their own propaganda. In other words, it is of little consequence to the people of the United States what precise conditions exist in Russia, but it is of great consequence to determine what the revolutionary elements of this country believe them to be.

It will be recalled that the first revolutionary outbreak occurred in Petrograd on March 11, 1917, after a general strike had been ordered on the previous day. At the beginning the movement was confined to mere food riots, but when the government foolishly decreed the dissolution of the Duma all parties united against it and the reserve garrisons joined the mob. After a