the first year of the constitution, from October 1905 to October 1906, 22,721 persons suffered physical injury in pogroms and other civil disorders.
In August 1908 Stolypin the premier informed Stead the English journalist that the number of executions averaged fifteen per month. Kropotkin promptly contested this statement in the Times, and subsequently in The Terror in Russia (1909) he published a critical compilation of the facts concerning the methods recently employed by the government and the police. I extract the following data:
Death Sentences. | Executions. | |||||
Courts Martial | 1905 | . . | . . | . . | 96 | 32 |
Courts Martial„ | 1906 | . . | . . | . . | 773 | 280 |
Courts Martial„ | 1907 | . . | . . | . . | 1,432 | 508 |
Courts Martial„ | 1908 | . . | . . | . . | 1,835 | 802[1] |
Field Courts Martial August 19, 1906, to April 20, 1907 | — | 676 | ||||
Field Courts Martial January to March 1909 | . . | 396 | 235 |
These data refer only to civilians.
The government alleged in excuse that in consequence of the revolution there had been a great increase in murders and in crimes against property. On June 3, 1909, th following data referring to murder and attempted murder were laid before the duma by the government.
Persons murdered | Persons wounded. | |||||||
1905 | (Middle of October to end of December) | 222 | 217 | |||||
1906 | . . | . . | . . | . . | . . | . . | 1,126 | 1,506 |
1907 | . . | . . | . . | . . | . . | . . | 3,001 | 1,076 |
1908 | . . | . . | . . | . . | . . | . . | 1,820 | 2,083 |
- ↑ The figures for November and December are not included. These data may be compared with those relating to executions under Alexander III, which numbered 26 in thirteen years. In 1909 the minister for home affairs issued a circular to the governors of the administrative districts recommending that in order to tranquillise the country the death penalty should be inflicted as seldom as possible. The following figures relating to the period from August 1, 1910, to September 1, 1912 (old style), show the result of this circular.
1910. 1911. 1912. Totals. Trials followed by death sentences . . 81 136 81 298 Number of persons sentenced to death 185 2936 214 692 Sentence modified . . . . . . 81 136 81 298 Executed . . . . . . . . . . 29 73 83 185