The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-03-03

UuIS bcSA 6TlSIOCIHIlC IeOoiS 68
their inmates, put crowned heads
hi We dwelt there. and have per.
Isl led In cold and filthy cells. under
t4e knives of hired regicides.
The somber shadow of the mad
Emperor Paul, VINO was betrayed
al strangled by his torturers,
VI tn the assent Of his son and
successor, Alexander I, still holds
OYER the Michaelonsky palace in
50 Petersburg. Undoubtedly these
tfAgic incidents will have their in
fqence on the present emperor's
ultimate fate.
AnOther possibility which night
lead to an overthrow of absolutism
would be military revolution, or
pfonunciamento. Modern Russian
history can relate of armed re-
volts. The sacred remembrances
Of the heroic rising OF the Deka-
brists on December IA, 1925, when
a number of regiments belonging
to the Imperial Guard attempted
to force the constitution from
Nicholas I. by aid of sword and
cannon, still live In Russia. The
attempt failed through the con-
spirators treating the imperial
family, who were completely IL
their power,
With Noble chivairy,
thus enabling Nicholas I. to collect
his adherents and to suppress the
rising.
Nicholas I. hanged his noble
minded enemies, or banished them
to the Siberian mines. In spite OF
this, however, another military re-
volt broke out In the military set
Elements, which has been estab-
lished according to scheme
whereby soldiers were not only
taught to fight, but to become use
full as peasants. This revolt was
of only local Importance, however.
The grapeshot which we're fired
few days ago from q battery of
the artillery of the guard at the
emperor is a threatening sign of
the bitterness of heart prevailing
in the army against the latest
Russian despot, and a plain symp-
tom THAT A MILITARY CON-
SPIRACY EXISTS AGAINST
THE RULING DYNASTY.
The modern Russian army >can
play an important part in only one
respect. 1t can refuse to sully its
arms by the degrading service Of
police duties and refuse to use it's
sword for the oppression of the
nation and for the murder of de-
fenseless women and starving
children. There are cases where
Russian officers have preferred to
commit suicide rather than op-
press those taking part in demon
STATIONS. l was told myself of a
young officer in the guards who
sat in the guard room all night
with a revolver in his hand, pur-
posing to shoot himself should he
be instructed to proceed against
the revolutionists.
A whole series of infantry regi-
ments, am told,
/, Are So Unreliable
from a political point of view that
their aid for the suppression of
the revolutionary workmen and
students had to be dispensed with,
and it is not idle talk when the
press relates that cavalry suad-
rons from Peterhof and a whole
division of infantry from Revel
had to be ordered to st. Peters
burg.
1t must be aLled that great dis
gust is shown by the soldiers of
the guard against the police who
perform spy service in the army,
and that guard officers treat all
their comrades who exchange SER
vice into the political police, for
the sake of higher emoluments,
with the greatest contempt.
l will not allude to the terror
lists here. They prepare revolu-
tons, but do not carry them out.
Revolutions are due only to the
masses of the nation, and in st.
Petersburg the revolutionary army
has long been prepared for the
struggle. The revolutionists have
been made by the factories and
industries of st. Petersburg. They
have been awakened from their
dreams by the uncomfortable condi-
lions existing among Russian
workers, which result In a slow
and painful death.
These workmen enter the arena
of political and social strife richly
endowed with affection and mis-
cry. They are so steeled by con-
tinual injuries and expressions
that no cannons in the world are
in a position to repel them, the
martyrs of work and indefensible
exploitation. These men do not
fear death, for
| Life is of No Value
to them. 1t is better to die at
HON ethan on the far distant
plains of Manchuria. To receive
a Russian bullet in ones heart is
preferable to being blown to pieces
| by Japanese schrapnel. 1T is
MORE HONORABLE TO CONSE-
CRATE THE FLAG OF RUSSIAN
FREEDOM WITH ONES OWN
HEART BLOOD THAN TO ROT
BEHIND THE FACTORY STOOL
IN ST. PETERSBURG OR IN
THE EARTHWORkS AT MUK-
DEN.
May hundreds Of thousands Of
these defenseless heroes assemble,
and, like an avalanche increasing
in size, hurl themselves in their
elementary power on the streets;
may they collect round the stand
ard of freedom and of a free ma
| ton, and irresistably force their
/ way to the cZar to demand from
the anointed sovereign and ruler
an account of what he has done
with the work of the nation, with
the might of the people, and why
he has sacrificed thousands Of
lives in order to expose Russia's
shame to the whole world.
The people have not yet come
/ with cunh dnnondc I'm that fatal