The Crisis in Russia

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 2, 1905

The Crisis in Russia

THE crisis appears to have been reached in the revolutionary movement in Russia, the indications being that the movement has gotten wholly beyond the control of the government authorities. The strike has extended to all the railways in Russia, and in most places the strike is effective. There are sympathetic strikes in all classes of industry, and the industrial life of the whole country is practically at a standstill. There are numerous collisions between strikers and the troops. The newspapers, no longer fearing the censorship, are printing whatever they please. A play in which the government is satirized is drawing immense crowds at the theaters. Revolutionary meetings are held in all the principal cities and towns. Food is becoming scarce in many places, and either the strikers will be starved into submission or riot and pillage on a large scale, with military interference and much bloodshed, must naturally follow. The czar has placed the affairs of the government in the hands of Count Sergius Witte, with instructions to draft a plan of constitutional government which will meet the demands of the people. The police in St. Petersburg are becoming frightened, and many of them are offering their resignations. A state of siege exists in Moscow. Many other places are under martial law. One dispatch states that the czar has decided to grant a constitution similar to that of Germany. It is a question, however, whether any measures can now save Russia from a period of anarchy.