Note 1 — Chapter III · BLOOD STATISTICS (continued 2)

In the remarkable letter which, in 1906, Sagonov sent to his parents from the Butyrka Prison, where he was lying for the assassination of Plehve, the writer said: “I have committed the most terrible of all acts. I have killed two human beings, and stained my hands with blood. But it was only owing to the horrible struggle and suffering, only owing to our confrontment with the sad realities of life, that I had to take up the sword.... And, even so, we were not the first to take it up.... Ah, I could not refuse to assume my cross! Try to understand this, and to forgive me. Let people speak of me and my comrades—of those who have been executed, and of those who are still alive—as my counsel spoke. Said he: ‘The bomb which this man threw was not a bomb filled with dynamite, but a bomb charged with the pain and tears of a whole people. By hurling missiles at its rulers, that people hoped at least to dissipate the terrible burden of nightmare from its breast.’”