With great effort, and in the face of great dangers, woman's suffrage societies were formed in various parts of the Empire. They united into a national Woman's Suffrage League. The brave Russian delegates were present in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam. They belonged to all ranks of society and were adherents to the progressive political parties. Since the dissolution of the first Duma (June 9, 1906) the work of the woman's suffrage advocates has been made very difficult; in the rural districts especially all initiative has been crippled. In Moscow and St. Petersburg the work is continued by organizations having about 1000 members; 10,000 pamphlets have been distributed, lectures have been held, a newspaper has been established, and a committee has been organized which maintains a continuous communication with the Duma. The best established center of the Russian woman's rights movement is the Woman's Club in St. Petersburg. Through the tenacious efforts of the leading women of the club,--Mrs. v. Philosophow, (Mrs.) _Dr. med._ Schabanoff, and others,--the government granted them, in the latter part of December, 1908, the right to hold the first national congress of women. (The stipulation was made that foreign women should not participate, and that a federation of women's clubs should not be formed.) The discussions concerned education, labor problems, and politics. Publicity was much restricted; police surveillance was rigid; addresses on the foreign woman's suffrage movement were prohibited. Nevertheless, this progressive declaration was made: Only the right to vote can secure for the Russian women a thorough education and the right to work. Moreover, the Congress favored: better marriage laws (a wife cannot secure a passport without the consent of her husband), the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution, the abolition of the death penalty, the struggle against drunkenness, etc. The Congress was opened by the Lord Mayor of St. Petersburg and was held in the St. Petersburg town hall. This was done in a sense of obligation to the women school teachers of St. Petersburg and to those women who had endeared themselves to the people through their activity in hospitals and asylums. The Lord Mayor stated that these activities were appreciated by the municipal officers and by all municipal institutions.