s the agitators put forward demands of a wider kind, such as the
eight-hour working day, and they gradually obtained his concurrence
on condition that no political demands should be introduced into the
programme. In defending this condition he was supported by the workmen,
so that when agitators tried to make political speeches at the meetings
they were unceremoniously expelled.

A similar struggle between the "Economists" and the "Politicals" was
going on in the other industrial suburbs, notably in the Nevski quarter,
where 45,000 operatives had struck work, and the Social Democrats
were particularly active. In this section of the Labour Union the most
influential member was a young workman called Petroff, who was a staunch
Gaponist in the sense that he wished the workers to confine themselves
to their own grievances and to resist the introduction of political
demands. At first he succeeded in preventing the agitators from speaking
at the meetings, but they soon proved too much for him. At one of the
meetings on Tuesday, when he happened to be absent, a Social Democrat
contrived to get himself elected chairman, and from that moment the
political agitators had a free hand. They had a regular organisation
composed of an organiser, three "oratorical agitators," and several
assistant-organisers who attended the small meetings in the operatives'
sleeping-quarters. Besides these there were a certain number of workmen
already converted to Social Democratic principles who had learned the
art of making political speeches.

The reports of the agitators to the central organisation, written
hurriedly during this eventful week, are extremely graphic and
interesting. They declared that there is a frightful amount of work
to be done and very few to do it. Their stock of Social Democratic
pamphlets is exhausted and they are hoarse from speech-making. In spite
of their superhuman efforts the masses remain frightfully "undeveloped."
The men willingly collect to hear the orators, listen to them
attentively, express approval or dissent, and even put questions;
but with all this they remain obstinately on the ground of their own
immediate wants, such as the increase of wages and protection against
brutal foremen, and they only hint vaguely at more serious demands. The
agitators, however, are equally obstinate, and they make a few converts.
To illustrate how conversions are made, the following incident is
related. At one meeting the cry of