Page:Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin - The Terror in Russia (1909).djvu/58



N the historic day of the 10th of May, 1906, that of the elected representatives of the Russian nation passed through the streets towards the Tavrida Palace, from the dense throngs which lined their passage, one great cry arose—

"Amnesty! Amnesty! Amnesty first!"

And the first speech in the new-born Parliament was was for amnesty. It was made by Petrunkévitch, the oldest leaderof the Russian Liberals:—

"Our honour, our conscience," he said, "ordains that our first thought, our first free word should be dedicated to those who sacrificed their freedom to that of our beloved Fatherland" (storm of applause). "All the prisons in the country are overflowing" (cries of indignation). "Thousands of hands are stretched out to us with hope and beseeching. And conscience urges us to spare no possible effort to prevent the wasting of further lives in the victory so soon to be ours. …"

At the very next sitting of the first Duma the Liberal Deputy Rodicheff, in a speech of passionate eloquence, raised the question again:—

"Everywhere and always during the electoral campaign," he said, "one and the same cry was raised above all others—'Amnesty!' We are witnesses that this is the demand of the whole nation, not only of those who suffer in the prisons or of their friends. Blood is not shed now so often as it was three months ago; but, gentlemen, this last month 99 persons were executed in Russia. … We, here in the Duma, cannot work; that feeling oppresses us. Those