PETERSBURG.--All Russia is in a state of unrest and seething with
discontent. The very air is alive with the rumours of tumults on the
one hand and of _coups d'état_ on the other. The strangest stories are
being bandied about as to what is taking place at Kiev, Sula, and
all parts of the Empire, in fact, but especially in Moscow. There,
it seems, while students and members of the higher classes are being
thrown into prison by the hundred--not a few of them being packed off
to Siberia--the workers are being treated with quite extraordinary
consideration. They are even allowed to say their say and hold public
meetings without let or hindrance, a thing unheard of in Russia. In
Petersburg itself an ominous state of things prevails, and the city is
completely in the hands of the police and the military. The streets are
thronged with gensdarmes; even private houses are packed with soldiers;
and never a week passes without some disorder arising or some public
demonstration being made. In February a terrible scene occurred in the
house of Nicholas II., a sort of People's Palace. In the course of a
theatrical performance there some students threw down from the gallery
into the body of the hall leaflets in which they demanded redress of
their grievances. The place was crowded with law-abiding people for
the most part; nevertheless the gensdarmerie who are always within
hail, rushed in and simply trampled under foot all who came in their
way. One great fellow was seen to deliberately stamp on the face of a
poor lad who had fallen, cracking it like a nut. How many were injured
is unknown and probably will remain so. On Sunday the state of things
was even worse. During the previous week the students had sent to the
leading journals, and even to the police, a formal announcement that
they intended to hold a demonstration in the Newsky Prospect to demand
in constitutional fashion the redress of their grievances. It was taken
for granted that measures would be taken to prevent the meeting, and
the Newsky was crowded for the occasion with the usual loungers and
pleasure-seekers. But so far as everyone was aware the police seemed
to have done nothing in the matter, and it was known only to a few
that the courtyards of the great houses of the neighbourhood were
filled with gensdarmes and soldiers. Up to twelve o'clock all went
well; then quite suddenly not only students but working men began to
stream into the Newsky from every side-street; and within a very few
minutes the place was one vast crowd. In the square before the Kasan
Cathedral alone there were 3,000 at least. Suddenly seditious cries
were raised, red flags were waved, stones were thrown, and in the midst
of it all the gensdarmes began a mad gallop through the crowd. It was
a ghastly sight, for they slashed right and left with their swords,
even at the bystanders bent only on escaping. Many were wounded, some
were killed--how many no two accounts agree--and in the course of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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