Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/211

Rh Russia suffered economically is indicated by the decline in the population of Odessa, a decline amounting to 100,000.

The elections were concluded on October 1st, and the third duma met on October 2nd. The nature of the new situation was promptly shown by the election of the president and his aides. Homjakov, Octobrist and governmental henchman, a descendant of the celebrated slavophil, was chosen president, and the vice-presidents were likewise members of the right.

During the debate upon the address, Bishop Mitrofan demanded recognition of the tsar's autocracy, a proposal rejected by the house; but Stolypin in his declaration expressed the same idea in a somewhat masked form, whilst in the preamble to the declaration the autocracy was recognised clearly enough. Stolypin uttered grave threats against the revolution and the parties of the extreme left.

The character of the third duma was shown most clearly in the election as deputies of nearly sixty clerics of various grades; but Petrov, a liberal priest, who with a few other clerics had adhered to the opposition in the second duma, failed to secure re-election.

Aided by the majority in the duma, Stolypin's government did all that was possible to restore the old regime. The nobility and in particular the conservative and reactionary landed gentry, now reaped a renewed harvest. The government and the church (the synod) rescinded all the liberties that had been granted. The press, the schools, the unorthodox, priests and officials of liberal views, were harassed and their convictions were outraged. The third duma, like its predecessors, debated the political rights of citizens and the fundamental right of the individual, for these important factors of the constitution had been dealt with by the tsar alone and in a partial manner. Arrests continued in large numbers, so that the prisons were crowded with political "criminals."

Collective trials of a positively ludicrous character were deliberately undertaken. On December 12, 1907, the social democratic "conspirators" of the second duma were sentenced; and on the same day the trial of the 169 deputies of the first duma was begun—of course these, too, were condemned.

The fourth duma, elected in 1912, was similar in composition. The left, however, had gained in strength. The united efforts of the government and of the synod, intervening openly