or suppress the " Black Hundred " papers. The other "Black Hundred" papers inclined towards the same point of view, but expressed it a little more mildly.
But the "Black Hundreds" were not content with merely expressing defeatist sympathies, or with propagating and spreading their views; they were themselves acting as defeatists. For instance, their share in the notorious Miassoiedov affair is undoubted. Not only were all the chief accomplices in this treachery influential members of "Black Hundred" organisations; but the whole spirit of "Miassoiedovism" was permeated with the defeatist ideology of the "Black Hundreds." It is a great misfortune that the Miassoiedov affair was never cleared up in its details. It was decided by a court-martial at the front, and thus the whole tragic reality of the business was hushed up and never came to light. This much, at any rate, is certain: Miassoiedov and his chief associates were intimate friends of the Minister for War and the Minister for the Interior, and they based their defence on the "Black Hundred" contention that the crushing of Germany would be more disastrous for Russia than the defeat of the Russian armies in the field.
They hinted that very influential members of the Government and high personages at the Court were in sympathy with their views; and they considered that they were fulfilling a very necessary function by helping the German armies. This was their defence. The traitors were executed, it is true, but the Government never made any attempt to investigate, to clear up or to refute the very grave allegations which the traitors made against members of the Government and the Court. Miassoiedov announced that the money they received from the Germans for their treacheries had been handed on to the "Black Hundred" organisations. But even this was never investigated.
The doubts which were sown in people's minds by this affair were accentuated by the fact that the conduct of General Rennenkampf, whose incompetence or suspicious behaviour was considered as the chief cause of
