of the old régime, they were bound, in self-protection, to attempt to kill
the Duma in the hope that thereby they would kill, or at least paralyze,
the Revolution itself. Thus it was, while not daring to forbid the
elections for the Duma to proceed, the government adopted a Machiavellian
policy.

The essentials of that policy were these: on the one hand, the Duma was not
to be seriously considered at all, when it should assemble. It would be
ignored, if possible, and no attention paid to any of its deliberations or
attempts to legislate. A certain amount of latitude would be given to it
as a debating society, a sort of safety-valve, but that was all. If this
policy could not be carried out in its entirety, if, for example, it should
prove impossible to completely ignore the Duma, it would be easy enough to
devise a mass of hampering restrictions and regulations which would render
it impotent, and yet necessitate no formal repudiation of the October
Manifesto. On the other hand, there was the possibility that the Duma might
be captured and made a safe ally. The suffrage upon which the elections
were to be based was most undemocratic and unjust, giving to the landlords
and the prosperous peasants, together with the wealthy classes in the
cities, an enormous preponderance in the electorate. By using the Black
Hundreds to work among the electors--bribing, cajoling, threatening, and
coercing, as the occasion might require--it might be possible to bring
about the election of a Duma which would be a pliant and ready tool of the
government.

One of the favorite devices of the Black Hundreds was to send agents among
the workers in the cities and among the peasants to discredit the Duma in
advance, and to spread the idea that it would only represent the
bourgeoisie. Many of the most influential Socialist leaders unfortunately
preached the same doctrine. This was the natural and logical outcome of the