of Nicholas II should send us to the gallows. It turned out that his prophecy came aggravatingly near to being the truth, as only one short step separated us from the very end he sketched for us—and this author of these not quite elegant letters was for a long time an executioner in the Transbaikal. This anarchist, who understood so well how to influence the masses of Russian labourers, had been for five years in a criminal prison as a fiery disturber of the peace, and afterwards, for the sake of a career, became an agent of the political police and finally an executioner!
At the news that the officers were to be had up for trial, Vladivostok staged a great street demonstration, which disturbed not only the military authorities but also the local branch of the Union of Workers. A request came up to our Board for someone to be sent immediately to consult about the dangerous situation in which this port, so capable of paralysing disturbances, now found itself. Inasmuch as I had previously lived in Vladivostok and had enjoyed most friendly relations with the people of the port, the Board chose me for the undertaking. That very same day a service car was coupled to the first outgoing train and carried me to Vladivostok to be a witness to most critical events.
It was seven o'clock on the morning of January 9, 1906, when I reached the city and was met by the members of the local Committee, who informed me that the revolutionary groups in the town were planning to commemorate this day as the anniversary of the bloody massacre of workers by the Tsar's Guard in St. Petersburg on the Place before the Winter Palace and in other parts of the capital. These groups had arranged for a new procession as a protest against the returning reaction of the old regime.
