RUSSIA A REPUBLIC

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 68, 18 September 1917, Page 6

RUSSIA A REPUBLIC

" You shall have your republic," said M. Kerensky to the ■ Russian extremists, "after the war. Meantime, have the common sense to fight to retain the freedom you have won." That was uttered only a few months ago, but to-day Russia, through Kereiisky's nieditiihship, has become a republic. What is the reason of the change of plan, the acceleration of the constitutional transformation? Quite probably the immediate reason is the Korniloff revolt, and sympathy therewith by the adherents of mona-rchism. Kerensky, when he advocated postponement of the republic, did so as a compromiser. In the days of Tsarism he was classed among the extremists, but the revolution—that mighty earthquake which has raised the whole political shore-line of Russia and upset all the old landmarks—lifted him into a more central position, by creating below him a new and extremer extremism than had ever before flourished in tho open air of the Tsar-ridden Empire. In the words of the'writer whose character sketch we published yesterday, " the radicalism of the revolution left him on a sort of middle ground."

It was from this mid-point, desirous of combining against the common enemy both monarchists and republicans, that Kerensky counselled to the latter a policy of moderation and patience. But the Kovniloff revolt, and its imputed reactionary complexion, has so disturbed the anti-monarchical majority that Kerensky and Russia have been hurried into immediate republicanism; yet not, so long as Kerensky wields power, into unbridled extremism. The exclusion from the new Cabinet of Tchernoff, accredited representative of the landconfiscators, is surviving evidence of Kerensky's unwillingness to turn the ■ property basis of Russia upside down | while the foe is still striking at the gates. Summed up, the position is that I the bourgeoisie and the landowners are too weak toy. govern alone; arid since their case has been compromised by Korniloff, Kerensky is forced to a semiSocialistic Government and a. straight-out republic, which will not, however, throw property to the wolves. In shoit, the Kerensky compromise has shifted several degrees to the left, but it is. still a compromise. It is not anarchy, but a government, and no other possible administration would appear to have a better fighting chance against the external enemy. ■ .