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a systematic, carefully thought-out and gradually prepared plan for stubborn and protracted action, but were the simple and spontaneous development of group work conducted on traditional lines; because the police, of course, almost invariably knew the ring-leaders of the local movement, who had usually "recommended" themselves to attention from their early student days, and only awaited the most favorable moment for the slaughter, deliberately allowing the circle to become sufficiently strong and extensive in order to provide a tangible corpus delicti^[1], and deliberately leaving a certain number of persons untouched "for breeding purposes" (according to the technical phrase, which, I believe, is also used by the gendarmes). Such warfare may be likened to the attack of a band of peasants armed with cudgels upon a modern army. One can only marvel at the vitality of a movement which is able to extend and grow and gain successes in spite of the complete absence of preparation and equipment. It is true that from the historical point of view the primitive nature of the equipment was at first not only inevitable, but even legitimate, for it was one of the means by which fighters were widely attracted. But as soon as real serious warfare began (that is, with the outbreak of the strike movement, in the summer of 1896) the defects of our military organization began to make themselves more and more felt. The government, bewildered at first and guilty of a series

1. ↑ Evidence of crime.