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He took shelter in the windows of which the

students with revolvers and sticks. house of Professor Kalew, all the students smashed. The deputy was only able to get home under a strong escort of police.

After a half year's experience with war against Turkey and later against the Balkan Allies a large part of the working people and peasants of the country came to share Sakasoff's view and, in the election of the summer of 1913, increased the Socialist vote from 25,000 to 107,000.

The general elections, held on December 7, 1913, resulted in a great victory for the Socialist Party, or, we should say, parties, as there are two, the more Opportunist section and the Radical section, reported London Justice.

The former had 21 members returned, the latter 16, a total of 37 out of a parliament of 211 members.

In the last parliament there was only one Socialist, Comrade Sakasoff, belonging to the Opportunist section.

The programme of the Peasants' League, according to Vorwaerts, demanded that the famine and fearful suffering of the country be met by the most rigid economies, including the dismissal of all ambassadors and higher army officers. The Socialists demanded in addition a democratic republic and a federation of the Balkan states, and improvement of the condition of the Macedonian Bulgarians by peaceful means. Vorwaerts reported:

The opposition parties have put a programme of 15 points before the government. In case their demands are not granted they threaten to bring into the new parliament a law abolishing the monarchy and establishing a republic. Since such a law might easily secure a majority in the present parliament, the day of its opening [which depends upon the consent of the King] is extremely uncertain.

The government, however, called a new election for March 8, 1914, and by the use of police violence finally, succeeded in defeating the Socialist and Peasant Parties. Sakasoff gives us a good account of the result of this election in Vorwaerts:

The Sobranje parliamentary elections of March 8, 1914, resulted as follows: The government gained in old Bulgaria 95 (formerly 94) seats, the Peasants 50 (formerly 47), the Democrats 20 (formerly 14), the Socialists 20 (formerly 37), the Populists 8 (formerly 5), the Radicals 5 (formerly 5), the Progressives 4 (formerly 1). In the new territories the government won 32, the Democrats 8 seats. The government has 127 seats, while the opposition has 118 seats. Two seats have still to be filled.

The first question that arises is, Will the government, with such a small majority, be able to hold its own? In fact, it was believed that the government would resign, especially as 13 Young Turks, elected in new Bulgaria, had to be counted in with the Government Party. It can be said without mistake that the majority is not the majority of King Ferdinand, but also the majority of the Turkish Sultan, for it stands to reason that the Young Turkish deputies will listen more readily to Enver Pasha than follow President Radaslawoff. Anyway, the government decided to remain, and it is not uninteresting to see that this conclusion was reached after the Prime Minister had a conference with the Austrian, Roumanian, and Turkish Ambassadors.

The second result of the election is the maintenance of the democratic character of the opposition, though the loss of seats by the Socialist Party naturally points to a shifting toward the right inside the opposition. Agrarians and Democrats have increased their seats. The increase comes partly from the newly conquered territories, which nevertheless proves that they have not fallen a prey to reaction. The Socialists of both wings have more than 1500 votes in the new territories. This is another good and promising sign.

The loss in seats by the Socialists has, besides those mentioned, other causes. The power of the proletarian movement in Bulgaria has not been large enough to maintain the gain in the last election of the 37 seats and 107,000 votes-a fifth of the entire vote. Several thousand indifferent voters, who voted for us while under the impression of the war, have not done so at this election. Another part was dissatisfied with our work in the house and many voters were frightened away by persecutions of the government.

Our losses were heaviest in the towns. The united Socialists had at the last elections 54,369 votes, at present 47,107;

the other faction formerly had 52,777, at present 38,382; the entire loss amounts to about 21,000 votes, about a fourth of our former votes. That the party, under these conditions, made a showing of 85,000 votes does credit to our party and voters.

The Socialists thus managed to retain 80 per cent. of their enormous vote of 1913 in spite of their republicanism and extreme hostility to war.

The rise of Socialism in Bulgaria, then, gives the most solid support to those Socialists who believe that an anti-war stand may, in case of defeat, greatly hasten the growth of their movement.

LETTER OF SOCIALIST MEMBERS OF THE RUSSIAN DUMA TO SOCIALIST MEMBERS OF THE AUSTRIAN REICHSRATH

At the time of the Balkan Wars, the Russian and Austrian Socialists also worked to maintain the peace of Europe.

On May 8, 1913, the Social Democratic Deputies in the 4th Duma sent a letter to the Austrian and Hungarian Social Democrats, in which the whole situation is briefly reviewed. It proceeds:

We, the few Social Democratic deputies in the fourth Imperial Duma, in contrast to the pro-Slavic patriotic demonstrations, as a sign of brotherly solidarity and Social Democratic greeting, stretch out our hands, over the heads of the reactionary and bureaucratic clique and Liberal and chauvinistic opposition, to you, the representatives of the laboring masses of Austria and Hungary.

Under the cover of the desire of Servia to get out on the Adriatic, and of the autonomy of Albania, there is in progress passionate struggle between Russia and Austria-Hungary for the hegemony on the Balkans. In the struggle between Roumania and Bulgaria we again find that Austria-Hungarian and Russian diplomats have made it their profession

to excite an appetite among the small countries in order that they may use their disunion to advance their own imperialistic intrigues.

And every one of these secondary questions, in which the responsible and irresponsible diplomats want us to see natural forces at work, may be the beginning of a new chapter of bloody shame in European history.

If every desire to lead one nation against another is, according to the Basel International Socialist Congress, "an attempt against humanity and reason," then a war between Russia and Austria-Hungary would be an actual act of insanity; it would result in a savage attack of one nation upon another. The people of Russia do not know of one single cause which could offer a shadow of reason for such a crime. The peasant masses of Russia have nothing to look for on the Balkans. They are at present in need of important agrarian and tax reforms in Russia proper. The poor and starving Russian peasants are not promoters of imperialism. They are the victims of it. The same holds true in regard to the masses of the small bourgeoisie, also suffering from the oppression of militarism. The Russian proletariat cannot support this adventurous imperialism, being a class especially suffering on account of the existing régime of political injustice, police oppression, and nationalistic prejudice.

Just as you are warning the Austro-Hungarian diplomacy not to meddle, in the interest of the feudal and capitalistic cliques, with the affairs of the Balkan nations, so we declare: The St. Petersburg diplomacy has no business in the Balkans, just as the Balkan nations have nothing to hope for from St. Petersburg diplomatic bureaus.

The peoples of the Near East, through their own initiative, must establish on their territories a democratic federation, independent of Russia and Austria-Hungary. This point of view binds us to one another as well as to our fraternal parties in the Balkans. We ask you to believe, dear comrades, that the Russian proletariat, having already freed itself of the effects of the counter-revolution, realizes its own significance and mission, and will be able at the deciding moment to force the Powers to pay heed. In our struggle for peace, as in all our activities, we feel and realize that we are united to you by the indestructible bond of ideals and purpose. This unobscured Socialist solidarity strengthens our

beliefs, notwithstanding the spread of chauvinistic passions. We sweep aside with contempt the Germano- and Austrophobe agitation of Russian Liberalism, which is trying to cover the savage attack of Russia against the Germans and everything that is German with the color of progressivism. We are proud to declare ourselves devoted adepts of German Socialism.

The underlying points of difference between the Austrian and Russian governments were the same in July, 1914, as they were in May, 1913. Then, as now, Balkan questions were the chief issues. This letter, then, gives in brief the attitude of the Russian Socialists towards the issues that were the immediate cause of the present

war.

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