The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.
THRUSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1906. RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION.
»— — nM iiiiiftWl. Mr «*• fmsmm «■ flk* IHHiin, Am* 9m em* 9m* mc em 4m.
There is very little in the latest news from Russia to encourage high, hopes either of the immediate success of the Revolution or of the future or the country when authority has passed from the tyrants to those whom they have so long enslaved. We know that the reactionaries have for the moment regained some of their lost ground, and that a systematic campaign legalised violence and outrage is being conducted against all suspected of sympathy .with the reformers. But, on the other hand, the peasants in many of the rural districts appear to have broken loose from all restraint We hear horrible tales of the mutilation and slaughter of cattle, of fire and -rapine, and even of idolatry and human sacrifice, For months past in. the Baltic provinces bands of peasants have been ranging over the country, plundering and murdering almost at will Now the flame of insurrection has broken out among the peasants in.South Russia, with aE the horrors that might be expected to mark the desperate struggles of ignorant and brutalised serfs against their hated oppressors. Sympathise as we must with the woe 3 of the Russian people, it is impossible to avoid feeling that a statesman in De Witte's unfortunate position might well hesitate to grant political privileges and selfTgovernment to savages whose barbarities recall the Oriental pagan at his worst.
The Russian "monjik" has always been a curious problem to the foreigner who has had any opportunity for studying him. His stolidity, his loyalty to the Tsar, his good humour his barbarous coarseness, his domestic virtues and his monstrous ignorance have all been freely descanted upon with a nnanimity that leaves little doubt about his general character. The moujik has suffered severely through the extravagance and brutality of the landowners and nobles whom he recognises as his rightful lords and masters. But hitherto he has been, unflinchingly loyal to tbt Autocracy. It is only since the revolutionary propagandists have found their way among the peasantry and since the disasters of the war in the Ear East, as well as the abuses and the corruption that accompanied it have opened hi* eyes to the true nature of the tyranny, that the "moujik 35 has wavered in hia fidelity. "His ignorance," says Joubert, is colossalj hjs patience is infinite; his stupidity is profound; and he possesses a humour of his own. Beneath these qualities there is a smouldering fire which occasionally breaks out and is at once suppressed by order of the Tsar; but it is never altogether extinguished and some day it will get beyond control." The moment predicted in these words seems to have come at last; and the "moujik" has broken free from all the traditions of the past. We need not assume that the better class of. peasantry is concerned in these outrages. But there are in Russia millions of men and wbmpn who are still below rather than above the level of civilisation attained by the French peasants before 1789, The men of the Jacquerie, the great peasant rising in 14th century France, or the half-human, half-bestial creatures described by La Bruyere in his picture of France before the "old order" changed, are the closest historical parallels that can be found for the i Russian "moujik" to-day. Readers who have no taste for historical research may find a sufficiently accurate presentiment of this type of humanity in Conan I Doyle's "White Company/ and in Dick-1 "Tale of Two Cities." And the horrors described in those fantastic visions of the past arc being daily recalled by the events that have stained the records of Russia's history within the past twelve months.
Yet, in spite of its horrors, we believe that the Revolution ought to succeed, and that it will succeed. As we have said, it is easy to understand why even the wisest of Russian statesmen would hesitate to entrust political rights and powers to these maddened hordes of savages. But the obstinate rejection of the rUTnund for liberty is the cause that has led most directly to these terrible results. However long the event may be delayed, the cause of Freedom must ultimately triumph. And we have the precedent of the French Revolution to prove that a. nation driven to frenzy by the tyranny of its rulers and by the lust of blood and vengeance, may regain its self-control and may learn to guide its own destinies when once it ■feels the full burden of its responsibilities. In spite of the Keign of Terror and the guillotine, and the horrors of the Vendean war, the French Republic attacked by the rest of Europe combined, rose at once to the full height of heroic patriotism. The more brutal and sanguinary of the revolutionaries Boon disappeared from view., and the guidance of public affairs fell at once into the hands of men who speedily proved- themselves at ksist the equals of the financiers, the statesmen, and the generals of other Powers. There is in Russia ample material for the foundation of constitutional ■liberfiy- on a brood and secure basis, and when" tmca £he
bzote strength of tfie autocracy is broken, the "intellectuals - " , and the patriotic reformers who have Sireeted this great movement from its inception will take their rightful place at the helm of the State. In ability, in public spirit, in courage, in dil that makes for strength and -success in national life elsewhere, the Russian ' revolutionary leaders may challenge comparison with their French prototypes, and it is not to them that we should impute the blame foT the frenzied excesses of the ignorant peasantry driven to maJnpcsi by the consciousness of their wrongs and the knowledge that now* at last their hated tyrants are helpless in their hands.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19060208.2.36
Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 34, 8 February 1906, Page 4
Word Count
991The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THRUSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1906. RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION. Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 34, 8 February 1906, Page 4
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Auckland Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Auckland Libraries.