gress made during the last half century had been on capitalist lines.

Even if it were possible to arrest the capitalist movement, it is not
desirable from the revolutionary point of view. In support of this
thesis Karl Marx is again cited. He has shown that capitalism, though an
evil in itself, is a necessary stage of economic and social progress. At
first it is prejudicial to the interests of the working classes, but
in the long run it benefits them, because the ever-growing proletariat
must, whether it desires it or not, become a political party, and as a
political party it must one day break the domination of the bourgeoisie.
As soon as it has obtained the predominant political power, it
will confiscate, for the public good, the instruments of
production--factories, foundries, machines, etc.--by expropriating the
capitalist. In this way all the profits which accrue from production
on a large scale, and which at present go into the pockets of the
capitalists, will be distributed equally among the workmen.

Thus began a new phase of the revolutionary movement, and, like all
previous phases, it remained for some years in the academic stage,
during which there were endless discussions on theoretical and practical
questions. Lavroff, the prophet of the old propaganda, treated the
new ideas "with grandfatherly severity," and Tikhomirof, the leading
representative of the moribund Narodnaya Volya, which had prepared the
acts of terrorism, maintained stoutly that the West European methods
recommended by Plekhanof were inapplicable to Russia. The Plekhanof
group replied in a long series of publications, partly original and
partly translations from Marx and Engels, explaining the doctrines and
aims of the Social Democrats.

Seven years were spent in this academic literary activity--a period of
comparative repose for the Russian secret police--and about 1890
the propagandists of the new school began to work cautiously in St.
Petersburg. At first they confined themselves to forming little secret
circles for making converts, and they found that the ground had been
to some extent prepared for the seed which they had to sow. The workmen
were discontented, and some of the more intelligent amongst them who had
formerly been in touch with the propagandists of the older generation
had learned that there was an ingenious and effective means of getting
their grievances redressed. How was that possible? By combination and
strikes. For t