274 REWOLUCJA
Thousands of teachers and pupils responded to appeals to boycott classes until
instruction in Polish was restored. The Russian University in Warsaw was half-
deserted. On 28 January 1905, the PPS and SDKPiL called for a General Strike
which occupied four hundred thousand workers for the next four weeks. It was
the prelude to thousands of spontaneous strikes all over the country. In 1905—6,
a total of 6,991 stoppages occurred, involving 1.3 million people. Industrial
workers in the towns were joined by agricultural labourers in the countryside.
After several false starts, the 'Battle Organization' of the PPS went into action.
The first bombs that they threw failed to explode. One of them was picked up
and pocketed by a casual Cossack. Intended attacks on Oberpolitzmaistr
Nolken, and on General Novosiltsov at the Warsaw Railway Station, failed to
materialize. But on 21 March an explosive device effectively halted a twelve-
man police patrol on Chlodna Street in Warsaw. Henceforth, a murderous
underground war was waged between the terrorists and the immense network
of police agents, spies, and informers. On May Day, mass rallies were organized
in defiance of the authorities in almost every town and city. In Warsaw, thirty-
seven people were killed. There were fatalities in Lodz and Czestochowa. Public
order gradually disintegrated. Minor provocations in the Jewish quarters were
overshadowed by an extraordinary spontaneous campaign against criminal ele-
ments suspected of collaboration. On 24 May, hundreds of workers from the
metal factories of Praga poured across the Vistula bridges and attacked the 'red
light' district of Warsaw. Brothels were ransacked; gang-leaders were lynched;
in the Old Town, a posse of slaughterers' mates armed with meat axes demol-
ished a house where 150 ponces had taken refuge. A stream of assorted hacks
and whores fled into the suburban woods. In this period, the Warsaw police
issued more than forty thousand passports for foreign travel. In June, attention
reverted to Lodz. A renewal of the General Strike degenerated into open hostil-
ities. When barricades were thrown up, the Tsar declared a State of War. For
three days, between 22 and 24 June, General Shuttleworth used all the forces at
his disposal to clear the streets. In one week, 55 Poles, 79 Jews, and 17 Germans
lost their lives. In all, Lodz suffered more than a thousand casualties. On 21
July, Warsaw was again shaken by the execution of 19-year-old Stefan Okrzeja,
a prominent member of the PPS 'Battle Organization' and hero of the battle of
Grzybowski Square. In August, the bojowki filled their coffers with a series of
bank raids. On the 15th, the police organized a diversionary pogrom in
Bialystok. The pace was quickening. The troubles in Poland were joined by still
more widespread disturbances in Russia as a whole. Soviets of Workers'
Deputies were formed in factories; the troops mutinied; peasants went on the
rampage. In September, a humiliating treaty was signed with Japan at
Portsmouth (New Hampshire). The revolutionaries took heart. In St.
Petersburg, Trotsky proclaimed 'All Power to the Soviets', and an all-Russian
strike. The revolt was turning into a revolution.
Under the pressure of war, rebellion, and defeat, the Tsar was gradually
obliged to make concessions. In April 1905, a patent on religious toleration