Situation in Russia

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 20, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 51.

Situation in Russia

The Situation in Russia does not improve. A late St. Petersburg despatch says the postal and telegraph strikers have decided to hold on and paralyze the government until all demands are granted. About one hundred and eighty thousand postal employees throughout the country are taking orders from the the central strike committee, which is said to control 6,000,000 men. In all, the forces of Social Democrats are estimated at 10,000,000 men. Military commanders are everywhere asking permission to resign, the list including even the Minister of War. Count Witte, head of the temporary government, is also said to be losing heart. The people seem determined not to accept anything but absolute popular government, and comparatively few of them really know what that means. The assassin of the late Lieutenant-General Sakharoff has not been identified. An official statement shows that 8,000 people have been killed at Odessa since the beginning of the riots. In the village of Okeno, near Odessa a thousand Jews were recently butchered by the mob, encouraged and assisted by the soldiers. All the British residents of Odessa are leaving. At Moscow troops are held in readiness for another expected Jewish attack, altho there is little dependence to be placed on the soldiers. There is little hope for the Jews through any of the colonizing schemes, as these could only include a small proportion of them. Even St. Petersburg is living in hourly fear of mob and siege. The Manchurian army is killing some of its officers, and the government refuses to bring it home for fear it will use its arms against the czar. Nearly all censorship of the press is non-effective, and chaos reigns.