A Dilemma for Russian Leaders: To Suppress Protests or Not

MOSCOW — Three weeks ago, when this city was bracing for the first in a series of large antigovernment protests, some commentators seemed to dip into the well of Russian history, when czars and crowds collided in a blur of sabers, poleaxes, cavalry charges and masses of commoners holding icons over their heads.

In the old stories, crowds are a brutal, elemental force, and it is no wonder that Russian rulers sought to suppress them. They are part of the Kremlin’s collective memory, and they hang over the protests today.

Peter the Great, at 10, newly declared the czar, cowered with his mother while rioting guardsmen impaled his relatives on spears. Czar Alexis came out to address petitioners and found himself engulfed, seized by the buttons of his caftan.

But the most instructive tale is probably that of Czar Nicholas II, whose troops fired on 8,000 workers who came to the Winter Palace in 1905 to ask for better working conditions....