Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/199

173 murder of Sypjagin, minister for home affairs, who during his thirty months of office had ordered the arrest on political grounds of 60,000 persons. The turn of Pleve came next (1904): the assassination of Grand Duke Sergius followed; the attempt on Pobědonoscev miscarried.

Apart from these isolated terrorist deeds the organised workers made ready for a mass struggle. From the day of Nicholas Il's advent to the throne, continuous increase in the strength of the political opposition was noticeable, culminating in the widespread revolutionary movement of the year 1905. The following data of proceedings against political offenders give a picture of the growth of the revolutionary movement after Nicholas' ascent to the throne.

The information is derived from the secret reports of the ministry for justice, which were published by the social revolutionaries. The arrests made by the police during the year 1903 under Pleve's regime numbered 64,000.

Doubtless the tsar's government and advisers marked the threatening storm, but they continued to hope that petty concessions would suffice to save absolutism. In a manifesto promulgated in March 1903 the tsar made a few obscurely formulated promises; in June 1903 the Poles were granted the privilege of giving religious instruction in the Polish tongue. But there was no change in administrative methods; discontent continued to increase in Russia proper, in Finland (where Bobrikov, the governor-general, was assassinated on June 16, 1904), in Caucasia, and universally. Svjatopolk-Mirskii, appointed Pleve's successor on September 8, 1904, wooed "the confidence of society," but his attitude towards the zemstvo congress in Moscow showed how weak was his liberalism.