Chapter I: Front Matter

THE DAWN IN RUSSIA

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

NEIGHBOURS OF OURS
IN THE VALLEY OF TOPHET
THE THIRTY DAYS’ WAR BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY
LADYSMITH: THE DIARY OF A SIEGE
THE PLEA OF PAN
BETWEEN THE ACTS
A MODERN SLAVERY

_Art Reproduction Co._

“PACIFICATION.”

THE KREMLIN OF MOSCOW, CHRISTMAS, 1905.

From _Sulphur_ (_Jupel_).]

THE
DAWN IN RUSSIA

OR

SCENES IN THE RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION

BY
HENRY W. NEVINSON

_ILLUSTRATED_

LONDON AND NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS
45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1906

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
PAGE

Summary of chief events since the outbreak of the Japanese
War, February 1904--Scandals of the War--Tolstoy’s
protest--The Königsberg case--Assassination of Bobrikoff
and Plehve--The Zemstvo Petition of Rights--The appearance
of the workman--Father Gapon--Petition to the Tsar--Bloody
Sunday--Trepoff--Assassination of Grand Duke Sergius--Promises
of a State Duma--Outbreak in the Caucasus--The
Moscow Zemstvoists--Death of Troubetskoy--End of the
Japanese War--The railway strike--The general strike--The
Manifesto of October 30, 1905--Restoration of Finland’s
liberties--Mutiny at Kronstadt--Refusal of Zemstvoists
to serve under Witte--Martial Law in Poland--Second
general strike declared--Its failure--Manifesto to
the Peasants 1

CHAPTER I

THE STRIKE COMMITTEE

The Hall of Free Economics--Description of Delegates--The
Women--The Executive--Khroustoloff--The Eight-hours’
Day--The Russian “Marseillaise”--Meeting against Capital
Punishment--Freedom in the balance--Beginnings of reaction--But
hope prevailed 25

CHAPTER II

THE WORKMEN’S HOME

The Schlüsselburg Road--The River--The People and the
Cossacks--Casual massacres--The Workmen’s Militia--The
Alexandrovsky ironworks--The mills--The hours of
labour--Wages--Prices and the standard of living--Standard
of work and food--Housing and rent--Washing--Holidays
and amusements--Connection of work-people
with villages--Passion for the land--The Peasant’s
Congress--The Sevastopol mutiny--The post and telegraph
strike 37

CHAPTER III

FATHER GAPON AGAIN

Meeting of December 4th--The Salt Town--Gapon’s
followers--Barashoff, the Chairman--The Hymn of the
Fallen--Russian music--Police spies--Russian
Oratory--Moderate demands of the Gaponists--Opposition
of the Social Democrats--Scarcity of Anarchists--Conversation
with Father Gapon--His apparent Nature--Charges of
Opportunism 50

CHAPTER IV

THE FREEDOM OF THE WORD

Effect of the post strike--Volunteer sorters--Epidemic of
strikes--Joy in public speaking--The power of speech--Sudden
outburst of newspapers--_The Russian Gazette_--_The New
Life_--_The Son of the Country_--_The Beginning_--_Our
Life_--_Russia_--The Jewish Papers--The Reactionary
Press--_Novoe Vremya_--_The Citizen_--_The Word_--The satiric
papers and Cartoons--Character of Russian satire--The Social
Revolutionists had no paper--Nor had the Radicals--The
dangers of division--The split in a Polish restaurant--The
joy of life--The assassination of Sakharoff--The protest
of the Strike Committee against Government finance--Arrest
of Khroustoloff and the Executive 60

CHAPTER V

THE OPEN LAND

The town of Toula--The road to the country--The travelling
peasant--The wayside inn--A country house--Landowners
at home--A typical village--A cottage
interior--The stove and the loom--Doubts on the Mir--A
beggar for scraps--Flogging for taxes--Tolstoy on the
End of an Age--How Empires will now cease--The aged
prophet--The restoration of the land--The rotting towns--New
ideals of statesmanship--Indifference to poets and
Shakespeare--The grace of sanctity and the limitations of
logic 81

CHAPTER VI

THE STATE OF MOSCOW

The return of the Army--How they were received--Fears and
hopes about their return--Would the soldiers obey?--The
Rostoff regiment--The Cossacks and the crowd--Instinct
of mutual aid--The post strike--Private assistance--Formation
of unions--The tea packers--The shop assistants--Failure
of gaiety--University closed--Lectures for
the Movement--Soldiers in revolt--The Zemstvoists--Miliukoff’s
paper--A Moscow factory--The barrack system--Wages--The post
strike and freedom of speech--Gorky on the rich and
educated--_The Children of the Sun_--The street murders 97

CHAPTER VII

THE OLD ORDER

St. Nicholas’ Day--Fears and expectations--The Black Hundred
Perils of night--The new Governor-General--The sacred
Banners--The crowd of worshippers--The procession--The
bishops and the Iberian Virgin--The Krasnaya--Incitements
to massacre--Appeal to Dubasoff--The stampede of the
patriots 120

CHAPTER VIII

THE DAYS OF MOSCOW--I

My start for the Caucasus--The railway strike begins--The
peasants on the train--General strike--Provisions cut
short--Friendly discussions with soldiers--A red flag
procession--A Cossack charge--Silence at night--Government
preparations--Revolutionists unwilling to rise--The
Government’s design to bring on the outbreak--The attack
on Fiedler’s house--Revolutionary force and arms--Reported
danger of English overseers--The guns begin--The district
of fighting--The revolutionary plan--The
barricades--Difficulties of the spectator in street
fighting--Interest of the crowd--Casualties begin--The red
cross--Assistance to the wounded--The Government guns 129

CHAPTER IX

THE DAYS OF MOSCOW--II

Reports of the revolution--Guns on the Theatre
Square--Explosion in a gun-shop--Increase in the
fighting--Sledges refuse the wounded--The merciful
soldier--A schoolboy killed--The revolutionist
position--The barricade forts--Barricades never held--The
revolutionist tactics--Varieties in barricade--The troops
protect their right flank--Barricades still growing--Police
in disguise 155