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 564 General History of Europe 1024. The Social Democrats. The Social Democrats were fol- lowers of Karl Marx and looked forward to the time when the workingmen would assume control of the government and manage the land, the factories, and the mines in the interest of the whole population rather than for the benefit chiefly of the rich who owned them. 1025. The Socialist Revolutionary Party. In contrast with these were those Russian agitators who belonged to the Socialist Revolutionary party, which was well organized and was respon- sible for many acts of violence during the years of the revolu- tion. They maintained that it was right to make war upon the government, which was oppressing them and extorting money from the people to fill the pockets of dishonest officeholders. Its members selected their victims from the most notoriously cruel among the officials, and after a victim had been killed they usually published a list of the offenses which had cost him his life. Lists of those selected for assassination were also prepared, after careful consideration, by their executive committee. They did not practice, or in any way approve of, indiscriminate assassina- tion, as is sometimes supposed. 1026. Disastrous War with Japan (1904-1905). The more Plehve sought to stamp out all protest against the Tsar's govern- ment, the more its enemies increased, and at last, in 1904, the open revolution may be said to have begun. On February 5 of that year a war commenced with Japan, which was due to Russia's encroachments in Korea and her evident intention of permanently depriving China of Manchuria. The liberals attributed the con- flict to bad management on the part of the Tsar's officials, and declared it to be inhuman and contrary to the interests of the people. Whatever the cause, disaster was the outcome. The Japanese defeated the Russians in Manchuria in a series of terrific conflicts south of Mukden. In one long battle on the Sha-ho River sixty thousand Russians perished. Their fleets in the East were annihi- lated, and on January i, 1905, Port Arthur fell, after one of the most terrible sieges on record ( 1054).