Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-03-20


we have not time to make ourselves
heard before our mouths are shut. and
Tor word we are sent to prison or
Siberia. Our press is called Illegal. The
authors Of the articles, even the typo :
srapnsts, know of the sad life in ST.
IBERIA. The simple reading OF our
brochures is regarded by the State as
criminal
we are prosecuted as government
criminals and subject to punishment
for participation in club meetings
where we discuss our tasks. We are
subjected to humiliating corporal pun
ishment, beaten with knouts, trampled
over by horses and fired on when we
decide to come out into the air to de-
clare publicly our views and express
our demands.
I'VE are debarred the protection Of
the law. We are declared interior enc.
| mics Of the people and political GRIM
mails. although this is not one and the
same thing.
Yes these is much force used far
too much, but which side uses it?
therefore let them not say that the
party OF Social Revolutionists is try-
ing to obtain something by means of
force. Neither in the aim OF the marty
nor In the means of attaining it's ends.
is there anything like force. Perhaps
forces refers to that moment when
the hnal ideals Of the party will be
near attainment, when the social con-
dltions will be replanned on the ruins
or tne present government and Russians
VIII become not only subjects but citi-
Zens OF their country. Perhaps the ac-
! cusahon means that the rarty will first
attempt a political change in Russia
ana tfen a social one. To this 1 reply
that the party does not decide the
| question as To how the present con1i-
tons Will be changed to those wished
for. OF the establishment Of the social
| conditions to which our party is pledg-
cd II IS impossible to talk even serious
| ". The organization Of the social con-
dltlons OF the Empire on the basis of
| SOCIALISM would be an impossibility
| even Tor the powerful bureaucracy. The
tasks Of our party are sometimes I'M
| dtlstood. but for un lerstanding them
you are sent to gaOls. Russia will get
| socialist1c reconstruction possibly when
| the Iaine of Russia win not exist longer
on the earth. So far as the final tri-
umph of our ideals is concerned. this
| triumph will take place not only here
in Russia, but over the whole world.
But it will undoubtedly not take place
anywhere while the Russian autocratic
| Empire exists, because up to now the
progressive movements of the best in :
| formed people have broken to pieo es
| against this strength In the mean
| time we are fighting in OtEer states UNI
| der the banner of socialism and have
advanced further than any bourgeoise
party, and we Russian Socialists are
doing the same. We demand serious
labor reforms and serious reforms for
the whole people.
with reference to the question of
political revolution. the Russian Gov
eminent must be made to understand
that it is standing over volcano. We
| Socialist Revolutionists are at present
conducting peaceful propaganda. but
one from which the autocratic regime
Of the Empire received death wound
40 years ago. Its term came to an end
together with the fall of serfdonl,
which was about equal to the patri-
archial system. The people, together
with the delivery from serfdOm. receive
| ed the right to have independent
thought and govern it's own destinies.
The reforms Of the first years of AL
exander the seconds reign showed that
ne understood the needs of the times
and advanced to meet them. ZemstvO
| Courts were built up by him on the
basis Of national autonomy. but having
taken that step on the road to the logi-
cal development of the result of the
fall of SerfdGn, the Government plain
Iy feared the consequences. stopped and
| suddenly turned back. From that time
the Russian people have been awaiting
continuation. The confirmation must
and will come. The question is who will
introduce it and lead it, the people
themselves or will it come from above?
1--WE Social Revolutiohists up to the
present have been struggling with the
existing regime in a peaceful manner
Our task is to make plain to the people
that the present system is unsatiSfac-
tory. Our task is to organize the opinion
of the ma jOrty in the State. that is to
say. that minority which at present
consists Of the leading force in the
country in a moral sense and by its
energy. which is comparatively free
and which has broad views The Gov
ernment stands in the way OF the in
tclligent. 1t will not count any more
with the party of Social RevolutiOn:sts
which the Government accuses of con-
tinued encrOachment on its existence
The party is not to blame in this. II
is right if behind the party are the ma
iority of the people. The duty of the
Government is to meet tine wishes OF
the people.
The method of fighting of the party
is by means Of word. proof and con
vict:on and this is rhe only means OF
agitation which the party has and up
on which the party is conducted.
THE sad necessity Ct terroristic acts
falls OH the rarty wholly taken up with
n peaceful fight.
Terroristic acts are a necessity whicf
suddenly fall on the party as somethnt
Irrelevant and foreign to its original aims
The program of the party declares sue!
acts detrimental. and we would never
have resort to arms but for the unlimited
freedom of action allowed to the chinov
niks, the acts of whom force us to it
Only force is answered by force. Onl,
in those cases when the ministers ant