The Russian Government is worried just now by a series
of student riots. The assassination of the Minister of Education which we recorded last week has been followed by demonstra- tions in Moscow, Kieff, Odessa, and other cities at which treasonable cries have been heard, and have been punished by sentencing those who uttered them to the ranks. This severity irritates opinion, and on March 17th a very serious riot occurred in St. Petersburg. The students assembled in the Kazan Cathedral, and attempted to show their disregard for religion by smoking, shouting, and tearing down the sacred banners. The congregation fought the students, while the latter dis- tributed revolutionary proclamations among the vast crowd which speedily gathered around them. The crowd seems on the whole to have sympathised with them, and the police, supported by Cossacks, charged both. They were resisted with unusual determination, and several persons were killed, but at last seven hundred students were arrested, and the mob dispersed, though not till a very large force had been called out, including two regiments of Cossacks and a body of armed gendarmerie. It is said that in this last affair the female students have entirely sympathised with the rioters, and three hundred of them have been arrested, which in Russia is accounted a serious symptom. It seems certain, too, that the workmen showed a disposition to join the students, but we see as yet no evidence for the report that the movement was organised by outside leaders, and intended as a warning to the Czar.
Previous page
