Not a single one of the measures adopted by the Duma received the support of the Imperial Council.  This body was effectively performing the task for which it had been created.  To the interpellations of the Duma the Czar’s Ministers made the most insulting replies, when they happened to take any notice of them at all.  All the old iniquities were resorted to by the government, supported, as always, by the reactionary press.  The homes of members of the Duma were entered and searched by the police and every parliamentary right and privilege was flouted.  Even the publication of the speeches delivered in the Duma was forbidden.

The Duma had from the first maintained a vigorous protest against “the infamy of executions without trial, pogroms, bombardment, and imprisonment.”  Again and again it had been charged that pogroms were carried out under the protection of the government, in accordance with the old policy of killing the Jews and the Intellectuals.  The answer of the government was—­another pogrom of merciless savagery.  On June 1st, at Byalostock, upward of eighty men, women, and children were killed, many more wounded, and scores of women, young and old, brutally outraged.  The Duma promptly sent a commission to Byalostock to investigate and report upon the facts, and presently the commission made a report which proved beyond question the responsibility of the government for the whole brutal and bloody business.  It was shown that the inflammatory manifestos calling upon the “loyal” citizens to make the attack were printed in the office of the Police Department; that soldiers in the garrison had been told days in advance when the pogrom would take place; and that in the looting and sacking of houses and shops, which occurred upon a large scale, officers of the garrison had participated.  These revelations made a profound impression in Russia and throughout Europe.

III

The Duma finally brought upon itself the whole weight of Czarism when it addressed a special appeal to the peasants of the country in which it dealt with candor and sincerity with the great agrarian problems which bore upon the peasants so heavily.  The appeal outlined the various measures which the Duma had tried to enact for the relief of the peasants, and the attitude of the Czar’s Ministers.  The many strong peasants’ organizations, and their numerous representatives in the Duma, made the circulation of this appeal an easy matter.  The government could not close these channels of communication, nor prevent the Duma’s strong plea for lawful rights and against lawlessness by government officials from reaching the peasants.  Only one method of defense remained to the Czar and his Ministers:  On July 9th, like a thunderbolt from the sky, came a new Manifesto from the Czar, dissolving the Duma.  In the Manifesto all the old arrogance of Absolutism reappeared.  A more striking contrast to the Manifesto of the previous