REVOLUTION AND REACTION 275released the residual Uniate communities from active persecution. Trade Unions
were legalized. In Poland, the Polish language was reinstated in private schools,
but not in state institutions. The Polish Macierz Szkolna (School Board) was
given official approval. Poles were to be permitted to buy lands in the western
provinces. Finally on 30 October an Imperial Manifesto promised the introduc-
tion of a written constitution, and the establishment of a parliamentary assem-
bly. In accordance with the Manifesto, elections for seats in the first Duma were
called in April 1906. In this way, the work of the terrorists and revolutionaries
created an opening for the constitutionalists. In Polish terms, Pilsudski and the
PPS had fostered a situation which Dmowski could now exploit. As the terror
diminished, conciliatory politics intensified.
In retrospect, it is easy to see that the Constitution of 1906 was little better
than a confidence trick. It introduced universal suffrage, with a view to keeping
Autocracy intact. Russia was to remain 'one and indivisible'. The Tsar retained
the right to approve all legislation. The Ministers were to be free of parliamen-
tary control. The Duma was to debate, but not demand. The electors were
divided into four curias which gave a preponderant influence to property-
owners and state officials. The new institutions graciously established at the
Tsar's command could be abolished in the same manner. Those observers who
felt that the Reform might plant the seed of later liberalization were soon dis-
abused. The Duma produced little by way of liberalization or regional auto-
nomy. It acted as a screen behind which autocratic power could convalesce. The
constitutional manoeuvres of 1906—7 took place to a background of terror,
police raids, lock-outs, and reprisals. The strikers were inexorably starved and
bullied into submission. Starting on 29 December 1906, all the factories of Lodz
were closed indefinitely until all the manufacturers' conditions were accepted by
all the workers. Thousands of people were deported to their villages of origin.
Hundreds were arrested. The official executioner of Lodz, Ryszard Fremel,
brother of an Ochrana agent killed by the PPS, personally supervised the deaths
of 104 prisoners. The adventures of the bojowki grew increasingly desperate.
The simultaneous attack on one hundred targets on 'Bloody Wednesday' on 15
August 1906; the abortive attempt on the life of Governor Georgii Skalon on 18
August; the raids at Rogow on 8 November 1906 and at Bezdany near Wilno on
26 September 1908, could not hide the obvious fact that the tide had turned
against them.^3
For practical purposes, Polish participation'in the Duma was confined from
the start to the National Democrats. The left-wing parties boycotted the elec-
tions; the right-wing Realists and Progressives were heavily defeated at the polls.
In the first Duma, the Polish Circle consisted of some 32 National Democrats
from the Vistula provinces, in addition to 23 additional members elected in
Lithuania, Byelorussia, and the Ukraine. It stayed close to the Kadets, and
refused to join the active Opposition. In the second Duma, which was called in
October 1906, the Polish Circle was reduced to 46, and was led by Dmowski in
person. A Project for Polish Autonomy presented in 1907 was one of many