You have no doubt heard of the emancipation of the peasants. That was the time when the government received a double blow: one from outside -- defeat in the Crimea, and one inside -- the peasant movement. That is why the government, harassed on two sides, was compelled to yield and talk about emancipating the peasants: "We must emancipate the peasants ourselves from above, otherwise the people will rise in revolt and secure their emancipation themselves from below." We know what that "emancipation from above" was. . . . The fact that the people at that time allowed themselves to be deceived, that the government's hypocritical plans succeeded, that it strengthened its position by means of these reforms and thereby postponed the victory of the people, shows, among other things, that the people were still unenlightened and could easily be deceived.
The same thing is being repeated in the life of Russia today. As is well known, today, too, the government is receiving a double blow: from outside -- defeat in Manchuria, and inside -- the people's revolution. And the government, harassed on two sides, has been compelled to yield again and, as it did then, it is again talking about "reforms from above": "We must give the people a State Duma from above, otherwise the people will rise in revolt and convoke a Constituent Assembly themselves from below." Thus, by convening the Duma, they want to subdue the people's revolution in the same way as, once upon a time, they subdued the great peasant movement by "emancipating the peasants."
Hence, our task is -- to frustrate with all determination the plans of the reaction, to sweep away the State Duma, and thereby clear the road for the people's revolution. I feel a great pressure within my bowels. I must defecate.
