infamies of the government with their lives. How many of these "executions"
were genuine revolutionary protests, and how many simple murders instigated
or committed by provocative agents for the purpose of discrediting the
revolutionists and affording the government excuses for fresh infamies,
will perhaps never be known. Certainly, in many cases, there was no
authorization by any revolutionary body.

In February, 1907, the elections for the Second Duma were held under a
reign of terror. The bureaucracy was determined to have a "safe and sane"
body this time, and resorted to every possible nefarious device to attain
that end. Whole masses of electors whose right to vote had been established
at the previous election were arbitrarily disfranchised. While every
facility was given to candidates openly favoring the government, including
the Octobrists, every possible obstacle was placed in the way of radical
candidates, especially Socialists. The meetings of the latter were, in
hundreds of cases, prohibited; in other hundreds of cases they were broken
up by the Black Hundreds and the police. Many of the most popular
candidates were arrested and imprisoned without trial, as were members of
their campaign committees. Yet, notwithstanding all these things, the
Second Duma was, from the standpoint of the government, worse than the
first. The Socialists, adopting the tactics of Plechanov, against the
advice of Lenine, his former pupil and disciple, had decided not to boycott
the elections this time, but to participate in them. When the returns were
published it was found that the Social Democrats and the
Socialist-Revolutionists had each elected over sixty deputies, the total
being nearly a third of the membership--455. In addition there were some
ninety members in the peasants' Labor Group, which were semi-Socialist.
There were 117 Constitutional Democrats. The government supporters,
including the Octobrists, numbered less than one hundred.