Repression

• Before 1905 opposition parties were illegal organisations that had to operate underground. They were further handicapped by laws restricting freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. This made it difficult for opposition groups to win support.
• The Okhrana was adept at infiltrating and destroying revolutionary networks. It was also cold-blooded in the pursuit of its objectives : it almost certainly allowed some SR terrorist attacks that it could have prevented to go ahead in order not to blow the cover of its agents and informants
• This cut revolutionary leaders off from their followers. Virtually all Russia’s leading socialists were forced to live abroad following imprisonment or internal exile to Siberia.
• This did not begin and end with political police. Also active in defending Tsarism against its opponents were the para-military Corps of Gendarmes, the regular police and the army.#