was instigated by German provocateurs, for
very obvious purposes. It was not uncommon for German secret agents to worm
their way into the Russian Socialist ranks, nor for the agents of the
Russian police to keep the German secret service informed of what was going
on in Russian Socialist circles. Whatever truth there may be in the
suspicion that the anti-war Bolshevik faction of the Social Democrats were
the victims of the Russian police espionage system, and were betrayed by
one whom they had trusted, as the Socialist-Revolutionists had been
betrayed by Azev, the fact remains that the government ordered the arrest
of five of the Bolshevist Social Democratic members of the Duma, on
November 17th. Never before had the government disregarded the principle of
parliamentary immunity. When members of the First Duma, belonging to
various parties, and members of the Second Duma, belonging to the Social
Democratic party, were arrested it was only after the Duma had been
formally dissolved. The arrest of the five Social Democrats while the Duma
was still sitting evoked a strong protest, even from the conservatives.

The government based its action upon the following allegations, which
appear to have been substantially correct: in October arrangements were
made to convoke a secret conference of delegates of the Social Democratic
organization to plan for a revolutionary uprising. The police learned of
the plan, and when at last, on November 17th, the conference was held at
Viborg, eight miles from Petrograd--as the national capital was now
called--a detachment of police found eleven persons assembled, including
five members of the Imperial Duma, Messrs. Petrovsky, Badavev, Mouranov,
Samoelov, and Chagov. The police arrested six persons, but did not arrest
the Duma members, on account of their parliamentary position. An examining
magistrate, however, indicted the whole eleven who attended the conference,
under Article No. 102 of the Penal Code, and issued warrants for their
arrest. Among those arrested was Kamanev, one of Lenine's closest friends,
who behaved so badly at his trial, manifesting so much cowardice, that he
was censured by his party.

At this conference, according to the government, arrangements were made to
circulate among the masses a Manifesto which declared that "from the
viewpoint of the working class and of the laboring masses of all the
nations of Russia, the defeat of the monarchy of the Czar and of its armies