Martial now active in more that two-thirds of the Russian Empire, the present ministry usually point to the considerable number of murders and attempts to murder which stand in the official statistics. These figures run as follows:-
| Murdered. | Wounded. | |
| 1905 (2 months) | 222 | 217 |
| 1906 | 1,126 | 1,506 |
| 1907 | 3,001 | 1,076 |
| 1908 | 1,820 | 2,083 |
These are the figures which were communicated to the Duma Commission on the abolition of capital punishment when it came together on June 3, 1909. And in communicating them, the Department of Police added: "In these are included all crimes committed in all the localities placed under the law of siege (extraordinary and increased Okhrana").
However, in order to get any correct idea, these figures must be compared with the numbers of murders and persons wounded in ordinary times; and when this is done, it appears that in the numbers that are mentioned in the above figures there is absolutely no extraordinary increase which might in any way excuse the suspension of ordinary justice, and the surrender of Russia to the laws that prevail in times of war and to the summary justice of the Military Courts.
Here are the figures for ordinary times:-
Numbers of Murders in European Russia Alone.
| During these periods the Population gradually increased from 65 to 70 Millions. | Average Yearly number of Prosecutions for Murder Begun. | Executions | ||
| By Ordinary Courts. | By Courts Martial. | |||
| 1874-1878 | 3,599 | none | Common | Political |
| 1879-1883 | 4,161 | none | 211 | 70 |
| 1884-1888 | 5,170 | none | (from 1856 to 1890) | |
| 1889-1893 | 5,137 | none | 102 | 24 |
| 1894 | 4,991 | none | (from 1891 to 1900) |
Taking the number of acts of violence immediately before the revolution, we find that, in 1904, there were, in a popula-
