The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-03-19
RUSSIA'S REIGN OF TERROR.
Assassin of Won Pehve Tells
Organization of the Revolutionary OF
by he


chial system. The people, together
\ with the delivery from serfdom, re-
ceiVed the right TO have independent
thought. and govern its own destinies.
I The reforms of the first years of
/ Alexander the Seconds reign showed
/ that he understood the needs of the
| times and advanced 10 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 logical development of the results
tOf the fail of serfdOm, the government
! plainly feared the consequences,
lstOpped and suddenly turned back
From that time the Russian peO~le
! have been awaiting continuation. The
| continuation must and will come. The
/ question is who VIII Introduce it and
lead it. the people themselves or viii it
come from above?
Educating the People.
I'VE social revOlutionists up tc the
present have been struggling with the
! existing regime in a peaceful manner.
Our task is 20 make plain to the people
| that the present system is unsatsfac-
| tory. Our task is to organize the
| opinion of the majority in the state,
| that is to say, that minority which at
present consists of the leading force in
! the country in moral sense and by its
| energy, which is comparatively free
and which has broad views The gov
| eminent stands in the way Of the in
telligent. 1t will not count any more
with the party of Social reVOlutiOnistS
which the government accuses of con-
tinued encrOachment on its existence.
! The party is not to blame il this 1t is
right if behind the party are the ma
Jority of the people. The duty of the
government is to meet the wishes of
the people.
/ The method OF fighting Of the party
| is bx-1 of al
ton, and this is the only means of
agitation which the party has and upon
which the party is conducted.
The sad necessity of terrOristic acts
falls on the party wholly taken up with
a peaceful fight.
TerrOristic acts are a necessity
which suddenly fall on the party as
something Irrelevant and foreign to its
original aims. The programme of the
party declares such acts detrimental,
and we would never have resort to arms
but for the unlimited freedom of action
allowed to the chinOvnikS. the acts of
whom force us TO it. Only force is
answered by force. Only in those cases
when the ministers and chinOvnikS re
fuse us the right to speak verbally do
We speak another language" Only
when all other means are exhausted we
answer by death. Only after insult
ferable fortunes. awful humiliation of
citizens and revolutionists do we go to
extreme measures.
Act Upon Impulse.
The activity of the Fighting Organ
! izatiOn' is only called into play on
/ special occasions. The acts of the
| Fighting Organization are of a reflec-
tory nature corresponding TO the char
! aCter of the impulse.
| Look at what the Fighting OTgani-
zation" has done up to now. You will
see that it has never had recourse to
| arms as a special independent means
of fighting the present system. The
| Social reVOlutiOnjStS more than any
body else understand that an idea can
not be done away with by means Of
bullets, and that bombs do not break
down systems. An idea can be con-
quered and destroyed, but a system
| falls only when the foundation which
! UphOlds it is rotten and broken down.
| I'm order to show the real character
of our terroristic tactics remember the
Party of the Peoples VIII which our
party considers its foster mother. The
| theories of that party and we their
| children are the same, but the con-
diuiOnS under which the members of the
| Peoples VIII lived and acted are diff
ferent from the conditions of the pres
| ent day Then the government terror
lied. now we. Then the people only
just freed from SerfdOm were illiterate.
Habit of living and thinking independ-
emily was stamped out of them during
| centuries. In one word, the nation
! had hardly got away from slavery and
was in its infancy. The members of the
! Peoples VIII were persuaded by eX-
perience that to fulfill the difficult mis-
sion of agitatinE socialistic ideas
| among such an unconscious people, and
| heving before them the ghost of the
white terror, was an Unproductive ac-
! ton. Losing hope that the people
would fight Independently for their own
| interests or come to the help Of their
champions, the members of the Free
WHIP by means of the red terror de
cided to conquer or die. But they
were forsaken alone on the field Of bat
tie and had to fight like Titans.
People Behind 1t.
1--WE social revolutionists, children
of the Twentieth century, do not feel
ourselves alone: on the contrary. we
feel behind us the peoples strength.
= Since the monaTCnic regime was mort
ally wounded forty years ago the ma
ton has grown intellectually 1t al
ready has wants. and is able to think
and govern its own deStines- The
members of the party of Free VIII
- dreamed of presenting the nation with
free institutions as a present obtained
from the government in single combat.
We have no such broad aims. We are
much more modest. The system is al
| ready falling under the pressure OF
national needs which it now ceases to
satisfy, and under the pressure of ma
tional discomfort with il. The nation
has problems and demands. If we
followed the example of the members
of the Free VIII and if we have taken
to arms il is only because representa-
tiveS of d government which is dying
out have taken charge of the autocratic
power and have gone quite out of the
bounds Of humanity in their dealings
e with us revolutionists and the dis
satisfied people. We are treated like
| hunted and beaten animals. For this
reason we have barred our teeth and
taken TO arms.
And so against the present system
I we have the peasants. workmen and
[ intelligent classes working in common
with us.
Eye for an Eye.
Terror against the terror of the Of
fcials who have lost their heads in
their actions. Death FOR death,
wounds for wounds and dishOnor for
. dishonor.
A revolutionary tribunal for the
, OiigaTchists who are not answerable
before the law and the nation.