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THE RUSSIAN PRESS CENSORSHIP

censorship of the press in Russia may seem, at first thought, to have no direct connection with the Siberian exile system; but a moment's reflection will convince any one, I think, that it has, upon political exiles, a most important bearing; inasmuch as it is precisely this forcible repression of thought, speech, and discussion in Russia that drives so many men—and especially so many young men—into political crime. The whole Russian revolutionary movement is nothing but a violent protest against cruel injustice and gag-law. Below will be found a list of cases in which Russian periodicals have been punished, or wholly suppressed, for giving voice to ideas and sentiments regarded as objectionable by the ruling class. I have made this list from my own reading of Russian newspapers and magazines, and I am well aware that it probably does not comprise more than a fractional part—perhaps not more than onetenth—of all the "warnings," "suspensions," and "suppressions" that have been dealt out to the Russian press in the course of the last decade. I hope, however, that in spite of its incompleteness and inadequacy it will be of some use as an illustration of the state of affairs that drives so many young and energetic Russians into the ranks of the revolutionists, and that is described by the Moscow liberals, in their address to Lóris-Mélikof, as "extreme dissatisfaction in urgent need of free expression."

The dates in the subjoined list are generally those of the periodicals in which I found the records of the punishments, and they are all in the Russian or Old Style, which is twelve days later than ours.