The general railway strike paralyzed the empire. AZR describes the sense of upheaval and the workers who became "the heroes of the day," to the point of controlling food prices:
"The great land of Russia shook, and its leaders were confounded. And we felt that we were sitting on the mouth of a volcano… When the sellers of foodstuffs began to raise prices, the public turned to the workers' organization, and at once… it fixed the prices… and the sellers complied." AZR, "Revolution and Pogroms," Ben-Yehuda read/19888.
Even at the height of the rejoicing AZR does not lose his clear-sightedness, and this is the key point. When his friend "L." argues that Zionism has become superfluous ("soon there will be a 'Land of Israel' inside Russia… Zionism's end has already come"), AZR — optimistic about freedom, yet resolute — answers with a deed:
"And nevertheless I was prepared to leave Russia and exchange its liberty for the savagery of Turkey; and in my thoughts I had already fixed my dwelling there, in the Land of Israel." Ibid. And in a clear-eyed warning: "Liberty is liberty and a pogrom is a pogrom. They are not at all mutually exclusive…" (The young people even organized to buy arms for self-defense.)
On October 17 came the Tsar's manifesto on the constitution, and a spirit of intoxication filled the air — but AZR observes: "The joy was visible only among the Jews." Young people marched to the provincial governor to demand the release of political prisoners, with a red flag and a great crowd — and then everything turned over:
"Suddenly, behold, the chief of police and a squadron of Cossacks arrived… and the chief of police uttered the word: 'Strike them!' And the Cossacks fell upon the crowd and beat them as is their way. They beat women and children, trampled them into the mud, maimed and wounded." Ibid., the chapter's conclusion. (A painful subject, presented with restraint.)
1905 was for AZR a test of clear-sightedness: while many were drunk on "free Russia" and burying Zionism, he saw that "liberty and pogrom are not mutually exclusive," and remained determined to make aliyah. A year later he went up to the Land; and a decade and a half later he would document the Ukrainian pogroms (see "The Ukraine Scroll"). The clarity of 1905 proved prophetic.