Page:Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin - The Terror in Russia (1909).djvu/59

 48 bloody spectres are here—here in this very hall. They must be removed in order that we may do our work."

One after another member of the Duma, themselves recent sufferers from arbitrary imprisonment, told harassing tales of what they had witnessed.

General Kouzmin-Karavaeff—himself a military procureur and a Deputy sitting on the Right of the Constitutional Democrats—appealed in the Duma against the horrors of official bloodshed.

Sitting after sitting of the Duma's first session was devoted to appeals to the Tsar and the Government for amnesty. This subject also had the first place in the Duma's answer to the Crown Speech. It was an appeal to deaf ears. After a hopeless struggle, which lasted over a fortnight, the Duma gave way and began its legislative work. But complaints and petitions poured in upon the Deputies from every constituency, depriving them of the necessary calmness. Then the continuous interpellations to the Government began.