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extent the commune. This helps to account for twogreat contrasted features of the 1917 Revolution—itsuncanalized, anarchical, hydra-headed character, and, onthe other hand, the ultimate victory of a numericallyvery small party, the Bolsheviks. The victory waspossible because theirs was the only organization whichsucceeded in combining strict discipline, decisive actionand mass appeal.A further reason for the success of the Bolsheviks wasthe fact that they and some of the industrial workers hadbeen steeled by the 1905 Revolution. The main constitutionaland political results of 1905 have been set outearlier (pp. 68-70). Here certain other points requireto be emphasized.'The year of liberties' began with 'Bloody Sunday'(22 January 1905) in St Petersburg, when during a bigstrike mass columns of petitioners to the tsar were shotdown in hundreds by the troops. There followed anoutburst of strikes and protests from very varied classesall over the country. Throughout the year, which broughtdefeat in the unpopular war with Japan and culminatedin revolution in its last three months, the weapon of thestrike was used on a scale quite new to Russia. In allnearly 3,000,000 workers came out on strike in 1905, afigure then far exceeding that for any other country ina single year.Strikes had been growing in the years before 1905, andin 1903 the first general strike had taken place in SouthRussia, led by the railwaymen and the skilled metalworkers. Economic demands still predominated, buteneral political demands were beginning to be heard,fIn 1905 economic demands, which in many cases had tobe met for the time being at least by the grant of theeight-hour day and better wages and conditions, weredwarfed by the political struggle; for a constitution anda parliament, for the franchise, for freedom of press,meeting, association and religion; but not for a republic.Clashes with the police and troops were frequent; largescaleoutbreaks occurred in a number of towns, and inDecember 1905 the armed uprising in Moscow.The workers' movement was uncoordinated and very368