1. SIGNS OF BANKRUPTCY.
Famines have taken an enormous toll of victims since 1891. Since 1897 they have followed one another almost without interruption.
[...]
The goal of the tsarist government has been attained. Today's huge famine is taking place in an atmosphere of dead silence unusual even in our country; the groans of starving peasants are not heard; there is no public attempt to combat the famine; newspapers say nothing about the situation in the villages.
An enviable silence, but don't Messrs. the Sipyagins feel that this quiet is highly reminiscent of the calm before a storm? 1
2. NOTES ON PLEKHANOV'S SECOND DRAFT PROGRAMME.
The more "indulgence" we show toward the small producer [e.g., the peasant] in the practical part of our programme the "more strictly" must we treat these unreliable and double-faced social elements in the theoretical part without sacrificing one iota of our stand.
Now then, we say, if you adopt this our stand [the Party's declaration of war on capitalism] you can count on "indulgence" of every kind, but if you don't, well then, don't get angry with us! Under a "dictatorship of the proletariat" we shall say about you: there is no point in wasting words where the use of force is required.1
3. THE AUTOCRACY IS WAVERING.
We must endeavour to get into the liberals' meetings, declare our opinion there too, as widely, publicly and openly as possible, voice our protest against servile gratitude, declare our real answer to the tsar's Manifesto of February 26 by distributing leaflets as well as by speaking publicly at all such meetings whenever possible (even though the chairmen will try to stop such speeches).1,2
4. SECOND CONGRESS OF THE R.S.D.L.P.
The Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party was held from July 30 to August 23, 1903. The first 13 sessions unfolded in Brussels, the rest in London. 37 sessions were had in all. Lenin drafted the Iskra report, the Party Rules, sundry resolutions and the agenda or standing orders of the congress. The minutes register more than a hundred and thirty speeches, remarks and rejoinders made by Lenin.
Five Bundists abandoned the Second Congress and left the Party when their motion proposing the Bund as the sole representative of the Jewish proletariat was rejected by an overwhelming majority. Thus the Martovites lost five faithful allies! Two more when Rabocheye Dyelo delegates exited after the congress anointed Lenin's "League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad" as the sole Party branch abroad.1 The final voting chart at the congress then became 24 Leninists versus 20 dissenters.2
5. DRAFT RESOLUTION ON DEMONSTRATIONS.
The Congress considers the staging of public demonstrations against the autocracy a highly important method of educating the working masses politically. In this connection the Congress recommends that special efforts be made to (i) demonstrate when some atrocity of the tsarist government has aroused particularly widespread indignation among the people, (ii) secure the participation of many workers in the demonstrations, training them to resist the troops and the police, (iii) start preparing armed demonstrations, keeping strictly to the instructions of the Central Committee.
The Congress also recommends that all committees and other Party organizations should thoroughly discuss the question of preparing an armed uprising and should make every effort to convince the working masses of the need for and inevitability of an uprising. The practical steps to prepare an uprising are entrusted by the Congress to the Central Committee exclusively and entirely.
[...]
6. DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE PUBLICATION OF A PERIODICAL FOR MEMBERS OF RELIGIOUS SECTS.
Bearing in mind that the religious sectarian movement is one of the democratic trends in Russia, the Second Congress calls the attention of all Party members to the necessity of bringing members of these sects under Social-Democratic influence.
By way of experiment the Congress allows Comrade Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich to publish under supervision of the editorial board of the Central Organ a popular newspaper entitled, "Among Sectarians".1 The Congress instructs the Central Committee and the editorial board of the Central Organ to take the necessary steps to ensure a successful publication of this newspaper and to create suitable conditions for its proper running.
7. DRAFT RESOLUTIONS NOT SUBMITTED TO THE CONGRESS.
The Congress calls the attention of all Party organizations to the importance of Social-Democratic propaganda and agitation in the Army and recommends that all efforts be made for the speediest strengthening and proper channelling of all existing contacts among officers and other ranks. The Congress considers it desirable to form special groups of Social-Democrats serving in the Army and that these groups take their place in local committees (as branches) or in the central organization (as institutions created directly by the Central Committee and subordinate to it).
The Congress requests the special attention of all Party members to the importance of doing and strengthening work among the peasantry. It is necessary to acquaint the peasantry (and especially the rural proletariat) with the entire Social-Democratic programme and to explain the significance of the Agrarian Programme. It is necessary to get class-conscious peasants and intellectuals in the countryside to form solid groups of Social-Democrats that keep in constant touch with Party committees. It is necessary to counter the propaganda conducted among the peasantry by the Socialist-Revolutionaries, for their propaganda spreads unprincipledness and reactionary Narodnik prejudices.
February 12, 1902. El Diario de Pontevedra, page 3
Telegraphed reports from Russia inform that the inmates of the women's jailhouse of Smolensk mutinied and slew thirty-eight guards.1
March 1, 1902. El Miño, diario de Orense, page 1
The British do not only prolong their war in South Africa stubbornly, they also seem disposed to conjure up against themselves the odium of all European nations. Presently they have subscribed an alliance with Japan, ostensibly to protect the Empire of the Rising Sun from the greed of European powers, and no one sees in it England's desire to satisfy her own greed in China and to dispute Russia's ascendancy in Manchuria.
March 2, 1902. El Miño, diario de Orense, page 3
Student unrest continues in Russia, particularly in St. Petersburgh, where the working class makes common cause with the students. Bloody clashes are feared.
March 22, 1902. La Idea Moderna, diario de Lugo, page 3
Bloody clashes in Russia between the Cossacks and the revolutionaries. There were many casualties as a result.
April 26, 1902. El Diario de Pontevedra, page 1
Around noon on the 15th a student named Balmashov, wearing military aide's uniform, casually strolled about in front of the entrance to the palace used by the Imperial Council. A short while later Mr. Sipyagin the Czar's councillor arrived by car, as usual. As he stepped off, the student drew near, saluted courteously and explained that he had been given the mission of handing him a message from Grand Duke Sergei. As the minister inclined to receive it the other strode forward and fired five shots from a revolver. Mr. Sipyagin fell to the ground instantly, unable to defend himself. Taken immediately to a hospital he passed away two hours later, for two of the wounds must needs be fatal. The assassin was seized without offering resistance. He declared his motive to be revenge for a disciplinary correction received at the University over some hoo-has among students.
May 9, 1902. El Norte de Galicia, diario de Lugo, page 1
Notwithstanding the severity of Russian censorship, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party of Russia has managed to print and widely distribute a pamphlet describing in detail the assassination of Minister Sipyagin and making the apologetics of the crime and its perpetrator.
July 28, 1902. El Norte de Galicia, diario de Lugo, page 3
The Czar of Russia has declared the state of siege in Crimea and in some Caucasian gubernias owing to a great increase in peasantry unrest.
February 19, 1903. La Correspondencia Gallega, diario de Pontevedra, page 1
A correspondent in London sent us the following telegram: "It is said that a two-hundred-year-old man has been admitted to the Hospital of 'Tornok' (?) in Russia.—Moore." Despite this fellow's good reputation in London we are placing his piece of news in quarantine. Because those are many years indeed.
March 2, 1903. El Regional, diario de Lugo, page 1
The heavy snowstorms affecting Russia for the past few days have occasioned the death of many hundreds of people especially in Samara Gubernia. The cold is so intense that many peasants froze to death on the trails and in the very vehicles they rode, horses, sleighs, carriages. During the initial days the snowdrifts were so tall that churchbells rang day and night in an effort to orient travellers. Inside the villages many people also froze to death, on the streets and some even on the doorstep of their homes.
March 20, 1903. El Norte de Galicia, diario de Lugo, page 1
The leading newspapers of Russia and of all Europe have in general acclaimed this document, comparing it to the one published on April 29, 1881, by the emperor Alexander II the emancipator czar. German newspapers do not constrain their accolades... British newspapers do likewise.
May 7, 1903. El Correo Gallego, diario de Ferrol, page 3
The Czar has ordered the promulgation of the new penal code.
May 18, 1903. El Norte de Galicia, diario de Lugo, page 3
Agitation against the status quo grows daily. Police are continually on the prowl and so uncovered a terrible conspiracy against the emperor. They found a big cache of dynamite stashed away by the revolutionaries. A segment of the officialdom of St. Petersburgh is implicated in the affair.
May 30, 1903. El Correo Gallego, diario de Ferrol, page 3
The jails of St. Petersburgh overflow with political prisoners despite the daily transfer of many among them to the Siberian steppe.
June 16, 1903. El Regional, diario de Lugo, page 1
St. Petersburgh police hit upon an underground printing shop which put out very violent diatribes inciting the Russian workers against their employers.
July 30, 1903. Gaceta de Galicia, diario de Santiago de Compostela, page 3
Thirty oil wells of Baku inflamed.1 There is no firefighting equipment. Many people have perished. The town is in a great state of alarm.
August 6, 1903. El Regional, diario de Lugo, page 1
A truly tropical heat wave is currently over southwest Russia where it has never been so hot. Livestock gets sunburned and many animals have succumbed in the heat. All kind of crops were scorched; the losses are huge.
August 13, 1903. El Áncora, diario de Pontevedra, page 1
Two thousand strikers blocked rail traffic in Kiev, and not satisfied with this, assaulted the Cossacks. These opened fire, killing three rebels and wounding twenty-four. A Cossack officer and several regulars were seriously hurt. The dispatches from Russia add that the strikers abused the troops and these had to defend themselves with sabres.
August 24, 1903. El Áncora, diario de Pontevedra, page 2
News from Russia confirm that the efforts of the revolutionaries, when completed, will provoke a tremendous crisis.
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