登陆注册
5382300000294

第294章 CHAPTER XXXVII(8)

have already mentioned, Zubatof organised a large workmen's association, with reading-rooms, lectures, discussions and other attractions, and sought to convince the members that they should turn a deaf ear to the Social Democratic agents, and look only to the Government for the improvement of their condition. In order to gain their sympathy and confidence, he instructed his subordinates to take the side of the workmen in all labour disputes, while he himself brought official pressure to bear on the employers. By this means he made a considerable number of converts, and for a time the association seemed to prosper, but he did not possess the extraordinary ability and tact required to play the complicated game successfully, and he committed the fatal mistake of using the office-bearers of the association as detectives for the discovery of the "evil-intentioned." This tactical error had its natural consequences. As soon as the workmen perceived that their professed benefactors were police spies, who did not obtain for them any real improvement of their condition, the popularity of the association rapidly declined. At the same time, the factory owners complained to the Minister of Finance that the police, who ought to be guardians of public order, and who had accused the factory inspectors of stirring up discontent in the labouring population, were themselves creating troubles by inciting the workmen to make inordinate demands. The Minister of Finance at the moment was M.

Witte, and the Minister of Interior, responsible for the acts of the police, was M. Plehve, and between these two official dignitaries, who were already in very strained relations, Zubatof's activity formed a new base of contention. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the very risky experiment came to an untimely end.

In St. Petersburg a similar experiment was made, and it ended much more tragically. There the chief r鬺e was played by a mysterious personage called Father Gapon, who acquired great momentary notoriety. Though a genuine priest, he did not belong by birth, as most Russian priests do, to the ecclesiastical caste. The son of a peasant in Little Russia, where the ranks of the clergy are not hermetically sealed against the other social classes, he aspired to take orders, and after being rusticated from a seminary for supposed sympathy with revolutionary ideas, he contrived to finish his studies and obtain ordination. During a residence in Moscow he took part in the Zubatof experiment, and when that badly conducted scheme collapsed he was transferred to St. Petersburg and appointed chaplain to a large convict prison. His new professional duties did not prevent him from continuing to take a keen interest in the welfare of the working classes, and in the summer of 1904 he became, with the approval of the police authorities, president of a large labour union called the Society of Russian Workmen, which had eleven sections in the various industrial suburbs of the capital.

Under his guidance the experiment proceeded for some months very successfully. He gained the sympathy and confidence of the workmen, and so long as no serious questions arose he kept his hold on them; but a storm was brewing and he proved unequal to the occasion.

In the first days of 1905, when the economic consequences of the war had come to be keenly felt, a spirit of discontent appeared among the labouring population of St. Petersburg, and on Sunday, January 15th--exactly a week before the famous Sunday when the troops were called into play--a strike began in the Putilof ironworks and spread like wildfire to the other big works in the neighbourhood. The immediate cause of the disturbance was the dismissal of some workmen and a demand on the part of the labour union that they should be reinstated. A deputation, composed partly of genuine workmen and partly of Social Democratic agitators, and led by Gapon, negotiated with the managers of the Putilof works, and failed to effect an arrangement. At this moment Gapon tried hard to confine the negotiations to the points in dispute, whereas the agitators put forward demands of a wider kind, such as the eight-hour working day, and they gradually obtained his concurrence on condition that no political demands should be introduced into the programme. In defending this condition he was supported by the workmen, so that when agitators tried to make political speeches at the meetings they were unceremoniously expelled.

A similar struggle between the "Economists" and the "Politicals"

was going on in the other industrial suburbs, notably in the Nevski quarter, where 45,000 operatives had struck work, and the Social Democrats were particularly active. In this section of the Labour Union the most influential member was a young workman called Petroff, who was a staunch Gaponist in the sense that he wished the workers to confine themselves to their own grievances and to resist the introduction of political demands. At first he succeeded in preventing the agitators from speaking at the meetings, but they soon proved too much for him. At one of the meetings on Tuesday, when he happened to be absent, a Social Democrat contrived to get himself elected chairman, and from that moment the political agitators had a free hand. They had a regular organisation composed of an organiser, three "oratorical agitators," and several assistant-organisers who attended the small meetings in the operatives' sleeping-quarters. Besides these there were a certain number of workmen already converted to Social Democratic principles who had learned the art of making political speeches.

同类推荐
  • 佛说济诸方等学经

    佛说济诸方等学经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 华严关脉义记

    华严关脉义记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太虚集录

    太虚集录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 姜氏秘史

    姜氏秘史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 练兵实纪

    练兵实纪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 无双七绝(全4册)

    无双七绝(全4册)

    春秋吴越争霸,贤臣文种忠而被诛,绝世奇冤,终酿成千年后武林惊世之争。范蠡设下一局“国破山河在”,以悼亡友,却为武林留下了千古奇谜。宁勿缺一介文弱,却以满腹经纶,赢得绝世武学与奇物血蝉。几番山穷水尽,几番柳暗花明,终洞悉惊天阴谋,在功尽人废之时,凭其天赋奇禀,临阵悟出至高武学,力挽狂澜。
  • 繁华录

    繁华录

    她,聪敏慧黠。睿智的头脑里那五千年的文化积淀,使她在初唐那个繁华盛世里取得一番傲人的成就。从商贾之女到大唐郡主,她头上笼罩着无数耀眼的光环。 然而,就在她集万千荣宠于一身之时,命运之神却给了她重重磨难。 于是,聪明绝顶的她与命运展开一场惊心动魄的较量。 作者群:108911050 读者群:108911250 欢迎各位加入!
  • 暗网争锋

    暗网争锋

    一次监狱改革,换来一场震惊全国的越狱;一次金库大劫案,牵出蠢蠢欲动的黑客团伙;一个黑客,仗着身后犯罪集团提供的支持,肆无忌惮地挑衅我公安系统的权威。王天络,一个入职公安系统的菜鸟,也是网络安全前沿的战将,他将如何还击,上演一幕引人入胜的暗网对决……
  • 绝代无双:废柴大小姐

    绝代无双:废柴大小姐

    刑场上,重斧落下,腰斩重生。重生之后的叶罗瑶本想跳出所有是是非非,不料还是被卷入明争暗斗之中。幸运的事,因为她的‘未卜先知’让她占尽先机。……小时候意外救了个小包子,没想到他竟然就是后来世人敬仰的大星司。分离了十年,他一直在寻她,只希望在他仅有的一年寿命里找到她。终于,他找到了她,他惜她如宝,宠她入骨……然而,时间不多了,他的生命不断的在流逝…………叶罗瑶不相信,救得了他一次,还救不了他第二次!
  • 残暴帝君,又挂了

    残暴帝君,又挂了

    确认过眼神,都是穿越苦命人。穿越进乙女游戏里。男主,你咋一言不合就黑化。你有主角光环,不怕,我可以读档。剧毒,暗杀,不怕,我可以读档。读档,读档,无限读档的古言异世界,杜云发现这个该死的炮灰咋怎么样都死不掉?
  • 谁说男颜不可娶

    谁说男颜不可娶

    一夜之间,我怎么就把自己的男闺蜜给整了?完了完了,看来这次只能带娃跑了再说!五年后,机场重逢,青梅和竹马之间还多了一个鬼灵精怪的宝宝……这日子可真有意思啊!
  • 国初礼贤录

    国初礼贤录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家随笔精品

    诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家随笔精品

    《诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家随笔精品》共收录了1901年至2010年诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家随笔精品80余篇,作品字里行间透露着文学大师对社会的见解和生活的智慧,为所有读者提供一份供学习、欣赏、借鉴的随笔经典之作。《诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家随笔精品》1995年12月初版,此次为修订后再版。
  • 散文(2016年第12期)

    散文(2016年第12期)

    《散文》创刊于1980年1月,是我国第一家专发散文作品的纯文学刊物。创刊之初,便确立了思想上追求高格调,艺术上追求高水准的办刊宗旨,二十年如一日的坚持,使得《散文》成为一份高雅纯净,独具品位的刊物,推出了包括贾平凹、赵丽宏、詹克明、李汉荣等在内的大批优秀散文作家及作品,得到了广大读者和社会的认可。从创刊至今,《散文》一直以它独特的魅力力证着自己的存在,坚持呈现当代中国巅峰笔意,鼓励作者表达发现,呈现了一种罕见的沉思的品质和悲悯情怀,是当代文学界尤其是散文界极具分量的文学读本,在读者、作者、文学评论者心中地位崇高,影响遍及海内外华人世界。
  • 木小绵的竹马记事

    木小绵的竹马记事

    木小绵很痛苦,并为有宋晨这样一个白痴竹马而羞耻,记得小时候不懂事,惹到了一个死胖子,不过将宋晨带了出去装个气势,谁料宋晨这丫的一上去就抱住对方的大腿说:“好汉饶命!”擦!这是一个男人说的话嘛?本姑奶奶是宁愿战死好吗?于是,她真的光荣的被打了,还被抓花了脸!被胖子打也就罢了,谁知道宋晨这个家伙,一路边哭边嚷嚷:“哇~~我媳妇儿被人打啦,呜。。。”于是整个小区都知道木小绵被打了,这个不争气的,本姑奶奶迟早有一天要甩了你这个拖后腿的橡皮糖,木小绵在心里恨恨的想着。可她似乎忘了,如今的竹马,却也不是当初的他了。