decline; and the idea of revolution - of its possibility and inevitability- - will establish itself in Russia more and more firmly. A terrible explosion, a bloody chaos, a revolutionary earthquake throughout Russia, will complete the destruction of the old order of things. Do not mistake this for a mere phrase. We understand better than any one else can how lamentable is the waste of so much talent and energy- the loss, in bloody skirmishes and in the work of destruction, of so much strength which, under other conditions, might have been expended in creative labor and in the development of the intelligence, the welfare, and the civil life of the Russian people. Whence proceeds this lamentable necessity for bloody conflict? It arises, your Majesty, from the lack in Russia of a real Cause of government in the true sense of that word. A government, in disturbaı the very nature of things, should only give outward form to the aspirations of the people and effect to the people's will. But with us excuse the expression - the government has degenerated into a mere coterie, and deserves the name of a usurping gang" much more than does the Executive Committee. ९९ the peop Whatever may be the intentions of the Tsar, the actions of The gove the government have nothing in common with the popular wel- ment rob fare or popular aspirations. The government has brought Russia to such a pass that, at the present time, the masses of the people are in a state of pauperism and ruin; are subjected to the most humiliating surveillance, even at their own domestic hearths; and are powerless even to regulate their own communal and social affairs. The protection of the law and of the government is enjoyed only by the extortionist and the exploiter, and the most exasperating robbery goes unpunished. But, on the other hand, what a terrible fate awaits the man who sincerely considers the general good! You know very well, your Majesty, that it is not only socialists who are exiled and prosecuted. These are the reasons why the Russian government exerts no moral influence and has no support among the people. These are the reasons why Russia brings forth so many revolu Voluntary surrender lone will save -evolution gladness and sympathy. Yes, your Majesty! Do not be deceived by the reports of flatterers and sycophants; Tsaricide is popular in Russia. From such a state of affairs there can be only two modes of escape: either a revolution, absolutely inevitable and not to he Tsar from be averted by any punishments; or a voluntary turning of the supreme power to the people. In the interest of our native land, in the hope of preventing the useless waste of energy, in the hope of averting the terrible miseries that always accompany revolution, the Executive Committee approaches your Majesty with the advice to take the second course. Be assured, so soon as the supreme power ceases to rule arbitrarily, so soon as it firmly resolves to accede to the demands of the people's conscience and consciousness, you may, without fear, discharge the spies that disgrace the administration, send your guards back to their barracks, and burn the scaffolds that are demoralizing the people. The Executive Committee will voluntarily terminate its own existence, and the organizations formed about it will disperse, in order that their members may devote themselves to the work of promoting culture among the people of their native land. The condi We address your Majesty as those who have discarded all prejudices, and who have suppressed the distrust of you created by the actions of the government throughout a century. We forget that you are the representative of the authority that has so often deceived and that has so injured the people. We address you as a citizen and as an honest man. We hope that the feeling of personal exasperation will not extinguish in your mind your consciousness of your duties and your desire to know the truth. We also might feel exasperation. You have lost your father. We have lost not only our fathers, but our brothers, Our wives, our children, and our dearest friends. We are nevertheless ready to suppress personal feeling if it be demanded by the welfare of Russia. We expect the same from you. We set no conditions for you; do not let our proposition ions of peace irritate you. The conditions that are prerequisite to a change from revolutionary activity to peaceful labor are created, not by us. but by history. These conditions are in our opinion two. I. A general amnesty to cover all past political crimes; for the reason that they were not crimes but fulfillments of civil duty. 2. The summoning of representatives of the whole Russian people to examine the existing framework of social and governmental life, and to remodel it in accordance with the people's wishes. We regard it as necessary, however, to remind you that the legalization of the supreme power, by the representatives of the people, can be valid only in case the elections are perfectly free. We declare solemnly, before the people of our native land and before the whole world, that our party will submit unconditionally to the decisions of a National Assembly elected in the manner above indicated, and that we will not allow ourselves, in future, to offer violent resistance to any government that the National Assembly may sanction. And now, your Majesty, decide! Before you are two courses, and you are to make your choice between them. We can only trust that your intelligence and conscience may suggest to you the only decision that is compatible with the welfare of Russia, with your own dignity, and with your duty to your native land. THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Section 95. The Industrial Revolution in Russia In an elaborate work of many volumes, giving statistical accounts of the recent development of the chief industries, the Russian government summarizes the reasons for the backward economic condition of the country, and shows how the beginnings of an industrial revolution were made during the latter part of the nineteenth century: This work, translated into English for the World's Fair at Chicago, is one of the best sources available to Eng lish speaking students on the early stages of the industrial 6. The rise Russian dustries lightly ndensed) ow industry as checked the Middle ges eforms of eter the reat offset wars The Russian branch of the Slavonic peoples, occupying as colonists from immemorial times the western half of the immense plain stretching for twenty-five hundred kilometers, from the rocks of Finland to the mountains of the Caucasus, and from the Carpathians to the Urals, from necessity, from the rapidity of its natural increase, from its inclination to peaceful domestic occupations, and finally from its habit of struggling against the difficulties presented by nature, has ever been mainly occupied with agricultural pursuits. Trade relations were assisted by the vast rivers and the winter sledge roads, but were long hindered by the lack of seacoast, by the extensive forests, and by the raids of the tribes of Finnish and Mongolian descent. The division [during the Middle Ages] of the country into many separate principalities, the warring of the princes, the imposition for two centuries of the Mongol yoke, the ceaseless defensive wars undertaken against the Swedes and the Teutonic knights pressing in from the northwest, against the Poles who had deprived Russia of her western and southwestern territories, and against the Tartars who attacked her from the east and southeast, - all this occupied the Russian people even in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries to such an extent that there was little possibility of beginning any lasting industrial development. Only in the seventeenth century the Moscovite Tsars, after uniting the people and strengthening their authority with the aid of the most enterprising inhabitants of the Moscow region, were in a position to present stout resistance to the west, and, having finally broken the force of their eastern enemies, were able to begin to think about the development of Russian trade and industry. Opening with the great reforms of Peter the Great, the eighteenth century already brings Russia into the circle of nations with a trading and industrial organization. But these efforts were opposed by the wars with the Swedes, ending with the occupation of the Baltic provinces, the wars in the south for pushing back the Turks who had succeeded in seizing the northern shores of the Black Sea and the territories of the related Slavs and the ceaseless extension to the cast tha SO were unorganized Asiatic hordes long prevented the establishment exclusi The beginning of the nineteenth century bears the same Russia character in consequence of the invasion by Napoleon, the garded Turkish wars, and the forcible introduction of an orderly rule agricu in the Caucasus and the Central Asiatic territories, where it was impossible to permit the constant raids upon the country and the seizure of the inhabitants by petty Asiatic rulers. At this time relations with the west began to develop principally in agricultural raw materials, the production of which visibly increased in proportion as order was established, and to such an extent that the surplus grain, hemp, flax, timber, and wool began to be sent in abundance to the markets of western Europe, and furnished grounds for regarding Russia as an exclusively agricultural country, a view justified by the whole record of Russia's past history. Although the government and a few enlightened people made great efforts to establish in Russia various forms of mining and manufacturing industry, and although the rapid development of certain works and manufactories-for example, the metallurgical works in the Urals, the factories around Moscow, the beet industry near Kiev, the petroleum industry in Baku -demonstrated the existence of the conditions in Russia essential to industrial progress, nevertheless, the economic development of the empire moved very slowly. In fact, it did not keep pace with the other features in Russian advance, for example, the development of science, the advances of literature, music, and painting, the multiplication of the implements of war, and increasing demands for articles of foreign production. The chief cause of the feebleness of the development of Peasan the home manufacturing consisted for a long time in the whole supply organization of Russian life, which was centered in the peas- wants antry, which directed all its energies to agricultural production, and employed for the attainment of this object only the all the |