conditions--and this in spite of the record!

When the members of the Duma arrived at the Taurida Palace next day they
found the place filled with troops who prevented their entrance. They were
powerless. Some two hundred-odd members adjourned to Viborg, whence they
issued an appeal to the people to defend their rights. These men were not
Socialists, most of them belonging to the party of the Constitutional
Democrats, but they issued an appeal to the people to meet the dissolution
of the Imperial Duma by a firm refusal to pay taxes, furnish recruits for
the army, or sanction the legality of any loans to the government. This was
practically identical with the policy set forth in the Manifesto of the
Executive Committee of the St. Petersburg Council of Workmen's Deputies at
the beginning of the previous December, before the elections to the Duma.
Now, however, the Socialists in the Duma--both the Social Democrats and the
Socialist-Revolutionists--together with the semi-Socialist Labor Group,
decided that it was not enough to appeal for passive resistance; that only
an armed uprising could accomplish anything. They therefore appealed to
the city proletariat, the peasants, the army, and the navy to rise in armed
strength against the tyrannical régime.

Neither appeal produced any noteworthy result. The response to the Viborg
appeal was far less than that which followed the similar appeal of the St.
Petersburg workmen in December. The signers of the appeal were arrested,
sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and deprived of their electoral
rights. To the appeal of the Duma Socialists there was likewise very little
response, either from city workers, peasants, soldiers, or marines. Russia
was struggle-weary. The appeals fell upon the ears of a cowed and beaten
populace. The two documents served only to emphasize one fact, namely, that
capacity and daring to attempt active and violent resistance was still
largely confined to the working-class representatives. In appealing to the