The news from Russia, confused and fragmentary though it is
owing to the breakdown of communications, shoWa that the forces of reaction' and revolution are engaged in a life-and- death struggle, the issue of which is still uncertain. In St. Petersburg the Government clearly holds the upper hand, but in the streets of Moscow, the centre and focus of the reform .movement, a bloody, obstinate, and indecisive conflict has;been raging throughout the entire week. The retolutioniets,
beaded by the railwaymen, are in possession of a large por- tion of the town, and, by their ceaseless activity in throwing up barricades and erecting wire entanglements, so far, in spite of their lack of arms, have managed to hold their .own. Both sides show signs of exhaustion, and it is clear that the Govern- ment cannot rely on the loyalty of the garrison, still less on the troops returning from Manchuria. The loss .of life has evidently been very great—being variously estimated at from two thousand to twenty thousand, innocent non-combatants having been mown down wholesale by shrapnel—and the destruction of property enormous. More troops are being. drafted into Moscow from St. Petersburg, while the Governor- General has taken refuge in the Kremlin.
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