Leon Trotsky: 1905

was only 47 years old and that, therefore, he had not yet had time to become steeped in bureaucratic
routine.
Verse and prose offerings were published telling us how "we had been asleep" and how, by a liberal
gesture, the former commandant of the special gendarmerie corps had awakened us from sleep and
pointed the way for a "rapprochement between authority and the people." When you read these
outpourings you have the impression of breathing the gas of stupidity at a pressure of 20 atmospheres.
Only the extreme right managed not to lose its head in this "bacchanalia of liberal delight." The
Moskovskie Vedomosti (Moscow Gazette) ruthlessly reminded the Prince that, together with Plehve's
portfolio, he was also taking over his problems. "If our internal enemies in the underground print shops,
in various public organizations, in the schools, in the press, and in the streets with bombs in their hands,
have raised their heads high to prepare for their assault of our internal Port Arthur, this is possible only
because they are befuddling society, as well as certain ruling circles, with utterly false theories to the
effect that it is necessary to remove the surest foundations of the Russian State -- the autocracy of its
Tsars, the Orthodoxy of its Church, and the national self-awareness of its people."
Prince Svyatopolk tried to steer a middle course: autocracy, but made a little less rigid by legality;
bureaucracy, but with public support. Novoye Vrernya, which supported the Prince because the Prince
was in power, assumed the task of a semi official political procuress. A favorable opportunity for this
was evidently at hand.
The Minister, whose benevolence failed to meet with an appropriate response among the camarilla which
ruled Tsar Nicholas, made a timid attempt to seek support among the zerntsy: this was the object of the
proposed conference of rep resentatives of rural councils. But the excitement rising within society and
the heightened tone of the press made the outcome of the conference appear increasingly dangerous. By
October 30 Novoye Vrernya had definitely changed its tune. "However interesting and instructive the
decisions reached by the members of the conference may be, it should not be forgotten that, by reason of
its composition and the method of issuing invitations, it is quite rightly viewed in official circles as a
private meeting, and its decisions have only academic significance and carry only moral obligations.
In the end the conference of the zemtsy, which was supposed to provide a basis of support for the
"progressive" Minister, was forbidden by that self-same Minister and was held semi-legally in a private
apartment.
V
Leon Trotsky: 1905: CHAPTER 5 -- The Spring
On November 6 - 8, 1904, a hundred personalities prominent in the zemstvos formulated, by a majority of
70 to 30 votes, a demand for public freedom, personal immunity, and popular representation with
participation in legislative power, without, however, pronouncing the sacramental word constitution.
The liberal European press noted this tactful omission with respect: the liberals had found a way of
saying what they wanted while at the same time avoiding the word which might have rendered it
impossible for Prince Svyatopolk to accept their declaration.
This is a perfectly correct explanation of the meaningful omission in the zemstvo declaration. In
formulating their demands, the zemtsy had in mind only the government with which they had to seek
agreement, but not the popular masses to whom they might have appealed.
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