agitation aims at exciting an individual or a group to acts which are considered, in the existing regime, as illegal.  In time of peace “pure agitation” was to be carried on by means of organised bands which should frighten the Government and the privileged classes, draw away the attention of the authorities from less overt kinds of revolutionary action, raise the spirit of the people and thereby render it more accessible to revolutionary ideas, obtain pecuniary means for further activity, and liberate political prisoners.  In time of insurrection the members should give to all movements every assistance in their power, and impress on them a Socialistic character.  The central administration and the local branches should establish relations with publishers, and take steps to secure a regular supply of prohibited books from abroad.  Such are a few characteristic extracts from a document which might fairly be called a treatise on revolutionology.

As a specimen of the revolutionary pamphlets circulated by the propagandists and agitators I may give here a brief account of one which is well known to the political police.  It is entitled Khitraya Mekhanika (Cunning Machinery), and gives a graphic picture of the ideas and methods employed.  The mise en scene is extremely simple.  Two peasants, Stepan and Andrei, are represented as meeting in a gin-shop and drinking together.  Stepan is described as good and kindly when he has to do with men of his own class, but very sharp-tongued when speaking with a foreman or manager.  Always ready with an answer, he can on occasions silence even an official!  He has travelled all over the Empire, has associated with all sorts and conditions of men, sees everything most clearly, and is, in short, a very remarkable man.  One of his excellent qualities is that, being “enlightened” himself, he is always ready to enlighten others, and he now finds an opportunity of displaying his powers.  When Andrei, who is still unenlightened, proposes that they should drink another glass of vodka, he replies that the Tsar, together with the nobles and traders, bars the way to the throat.  As his companion does not understand this metaphorical language, he explains that if there were no Tsars, nobles, or traders, he could get five glasses of vodka for the sum that he now pays for one glass.  This naturally suggests wider topics, and Stepan gives something like a lecture.  The common people, he explains, pay by far the greater part of the taxation, and at the same time do all the work; they plough the fields, build the houses and churches, work in the mills and factories, and in return they are systematically robbed and beaten.  And what is done with all the money that is taken from them?  First of all, the Tsar gets nine millions of roubles—­enough to feed half a province—­and with that sum he amuses himself, has hunting-parties, and feasts, eats, drinks, makes merry, and lives in stone houses.  He gave liberty, it is true, to