THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13011, 31 October 1905, Page 4

THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA.

The situation in Russia is certainly extraordinary. There are a million and a-half men on strike, and as they have struck for political objects it is practically a revolution. Except at a few isolated places, however, there has been no serious fighting. During the past eighteen months the Empire has been intermittently in. a state of revolution, without anything more happening than a few Cossack volleys. Behind these outbreaks there must be organisation somewhere, but it is wofully ineffective. The people seem to bo ready to make any sacrifice for the good of the nation, and hundreds of them already have patriotically thrown away their lives, but every revolutionary effort so far has been almost futile. It is now said that the Socialists again have found that the time for armed resistance to the authorities is inopportune. The strikes and the suffering and the loss of life, therefore, may all go for nothing. It is a struggle between the autocracy and modern Liberalism, and the result is inevitable. The Tsar must give way, or the people sooner or later will crush him. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the reports that the Tsar has decided to give the nation parliamentary institutions will be confirmed. The danger is that the people will no longer accept the promises of their Little Father, so often has he failed in fulfilment. Had he kept his promise to the Zemstvo deputation in June, there would have been no revolution to-day. That will be remembered against him. He is wavering now, not because he is willing to surrender any part of his inherited rights, but because his army is disaffected. General Trepoff, the tyrant, is advising the giving of a Constitution. If he could have relied upon his troops to shoot down their fellowcitizens, the revolution by this time would have been crushed under his heel. The Court party, to gain time, may temporise, and there may be a lull. But in the end they will be overwhelmed. The Russian people in their dull, slow, impassive way are suffering and striving for their rights as human beings, and nothing now will turn them aside.