The Present Situation in Russia.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 9730, 6 January 1908, Page 4

The Present Situation in Russia.

(Bv Samuel If. Harper, in the World ; To-Day.) .

- Russia's second Duma -was dissolved ! aft(n--.T r shflrt,'ses^iolV; of', aiittle .over three months/ For the'tlurd 'Duma, which is to meet in November, a new electoral law was made. This was a coup d'etat, a direct infringement of the fundamental laws. And no protest against all this was heard from the Russian people. The foreign reader might well wonder if this meant the end of that movement for liberation which has been going on since 1904. Does the apathy which one seems to find in all classes of Russian society vindicate the claim of those who tell us that the Russian people lias proven itself still too immature; too uncultured for a constitutional form of government? Before the dissolution, Jlr Bernard l'aiis, of the University of Liverpool, and myself had planned an extensive journey through several of the interior provinces, 'lhs dissolution left us in a kind of mystified state, we could see that the American and English publics were even more uncertain as to what to think, and the Russian newspapers could tell us nothingStrict press regulations were introduced. Papers were, fined right and left for publishing'articles "hostile to the Government." Our projected journey became therefore all the more important. It was necessary to talk with local men oil the spot. We have travelled over three thousand miles, stopping off in no less than thirty places, in each city, town or village addressing ourselves to a local ■ worker to whom we liad been recommended. The questions we put to these men were oil tne past history of the particular place and on the present mood. We always got an emphatic 110 in answer to our nuestion, "Is it all over?" Some were inclined to the pessimistic ; they did not see how they were going to make the next i move. But the majority were showing admirable pluck, were going on with the work, following the example of their liberal leader, Professor Milyoukov, who comes up after each setback fresh and energetic, active and enthusiastic. It was often difficult to reach the men wc were seeking. Repression in the pro- \ i iKcs is much more oppressive than ill the capitals. It was difficult to remember that we were back again to the system of police surveillance when one looks around to gee that no one is listening. This t.inkiity was especially noticeable among the Literals. The Revolutionaries, 011 the other hand, were inclined to be too outspoken, and realising as we did that we \ve:e not in the same comparatively free country of six months ago, we felt uncomfortable when our friends would ii irango away 011 a public boat pier or in a railway carriage. Wc found evidences of the present period of reaction at every turn. Newspapers were receiving- tines of £SO to £IOO for offensive articles. Often the editor wa.3 not told which article had given offence to the local governor. One paper was fined. £2O for printing a few lines fi 111 the London Times. Book stores were receiving lists of forbidden books frjin the police. Ex-deputies whom we htd known in the Duma were not at heme. They had found it advisable to go off for a rest. Kven electors had been

fiiinJ politically "untrustworthy'' and "set out" to another province. All of the exd< puties belonging to oppositionary par-

ties, who had been in 6tate or social service had been dismissed. Alexis Bakunin,

a nephew of the famous revolutionary Bakuuin, though a cadet, was dismissed from a Zemstvo hospital where had served for many years. The governor offered to give him letters of recommendation, but quite frankly said he did not want him in hiii province. The most disheartening aspect of the present reaction is its effect upon the Zemstvo or provincial councils. This last year many of the Zemstvo elections have been reactionary. The large landowners hive been terrified by the radical agraii:n programme proposed in the two Dumas. But. often the "mutilation" of the Zemstvo was done administra.tivelv.

1 ie most flagrant example of this de-

liberate mutilating was in the Government of Viatka. This is a peasant Government. There are only about ten thousand landed gentry to almost three million peasants, this gentry has been most democratic; in the Zemstvo work it has devoted itself to the peasants' interests, and in no government has the Zemstvo been able to do so much as in Viatka. • The school organisation here is second only to that of Moscow. Household industries have been devi loped and the peasants' earnings greatly increased. Agricultural experts have been employed, model farms started, the standard of agriculture among the peasants enormously Taised. All tic's meant a high level of consciousness among the peasants. Tue deputies to the. two Dumas from Viatka were all oppositionary.

The Zemstvo elections in Viatica were net reactionary as in the majority of places this last year. But the elections were not confirmed by the governor. He put in his own appointed boards in the places, of those who had devoted their time and strength to the work. The first act cf the government-appointed board of tl'.e Zemstvo was to raise its own salaries in an absolutely irregular way. The elected Zemstvo Council, the elections to which the governor could not cancel, vctcd iis lack of confidence in this board. We applied to this appointed board for information on Zemstvo work. They would not talk about the Zemstvo. They were only interested in trying to find out if we did not have 6ome commercial connections. In a district town of this same government we were disturbed all afternoon by a riotous gathering in the neighboring room. Judging from the singing and shouting, we thought some cabmen or uncultured workmen were holding a drunken feast. Out of curiosity we asked the waiter who our neighbors were. They were the 'appointed president of the' district. Zemstvo and the loca! administrative officials celebrating the birthday of the young heir. Through hie appointed boards the Governor has dismissed', often cent out of the government, many of the former zciiretvo employees, school teachers, doctors, statists—all for political reasons. This ira what reaction has brought to the Vintka Goverment. Here in this name Government we found an excellent example of what the new electoral law had hi view. The peasants have ait overwhelming majority here. Formerly the peasant electors numbered' 154- out of 2CO ; there were only twenty-four gentry electors. By the new law the total number of electors, hasi hcen reduced l to 100, of whom twenty-three are now elected by the peasants and fifty-four by the gentry, In e.-vcral districts there are not enough gentry to elect the allotted quota of electors. The peasants understand this new allotment of electors; they, feel the affront. This io just the point to which we have be:n "iviiig the greatest attention. What are the peasants thinking now? They did not get land' from the two d-unias as they had l expected'. They see quite l clearly that they have nothing to hope from the third Duma. Are they planning to do anything? The peasant is hard to get at. He has been shut off from all other classes—he has been made distrustful. He is still uneducated, though the zemstvos have greatly remedied 1 this. The peasants have had revolutionary agitators working among them. In places: they have started in to burn out the landed: gentry and have eeen tlie Cossacks sent down, to pacify them. Now they are tinder the strictest pal ice supervision, more carefully watched tbani any other class, and' all the "intelligence" are kept away from them. It is almost an illegal act to talk to peasants now.

The Government is trying to win the peasant over to its side by offering him land- at what it considers a reasonable price. By a temporary law, which the Duma would' certainly not have confirmed if it had l eat a little longer, the Government is trying- to break up the peasant village and the communal system of land .tenure,.'and! make the' peasants isolated farmers.

In the first place, the peasants are buying the land offered, to them by the Government. In some districts they are buyiiisr because they are afraid others will buy if they do not. In fact the agents who are pushing this land sale threaten to brin'tr in peasants from other Governments if the local peasants will not buy. This - was dbne' in; the • Government of Saratov. The newcouiers were attacked and had' to be protected' by troops. Often th? peasants, buy, and -pay fir>3t instalment, but have no intention of paying any more. The'land is put .up-for auction. Other peasants do not dare to buy ;

tl*y know the present holders will leave only if forcibly put out. Act for. leaving the village, communes in accordance with the temporary law, ■very lew have entered'a claim to-divide, and in most cases such claims are refused by the '.-.isauts. Those-who entered them. ware told\not to insist ox they would be

ma<Jo to suffer. One ■village \otcd that it would not allow the breaking up of the commune even if the officials came down themselves and demanded? it. This is how the peasants accept what the Government is offering them. But it is not "land" alono that the peasants ha\e been demanding 1' c other their'' watchward"' has been "liberty." Their idea of liberty is very concrete. They want no more of the tutelage under which they have been kept. The land captains who were put over them in 1886 interfere not only in their village administration, but even in their private affairs. They liave come to realise what indirect taxes are, to see that "sugar at ten cents a pound ie really a a most heavy tax," that the vodka is sold by the Government at four times its actual cost. They find 1 that the village police force has been increased these last years, Cossacks are often sent down and lodged on them.

All these are concrete grievance?. It does not mean that the revolutionary agitators' propaganda is bearing furit. The Utopian ideas of these latter have not been assimilated. The present attitude of t!ie peasants towards sn-.h agitation is most significant, 'two years ago they listened to and : acted on this agitation. Last year they were more sceptical. Now they listen and then ns'k, "But are the peasants in tho next or in the neighboring- Governments going to do this too? We are not going to start until we are sure that we arc not acting a'one." The great weakne.-s of the Cadet partv is that it has no close ties with the people. Under present conditions n Cadet cannot go down to the village; and talk with peasants a.s can a Social Revolutionary. The latter gc-co dressed as a peasant. Again, the peasant doe* not unJeretan-d-- what -Parliamentary government is. He simply knows t'vit the Kmpcror asked him to scivX to St. Petersburg the "best men" of the t'< confer with him. He was surprised that the Emperor did' not com? to the Duma to talk' over matters with his representative. The peasnnt cannot forgive this. The Emperor had' promised to do so. "-Why did we send our 'best men' if he was not swing to listen to tliem?" An idol had been definitely shattered. Two men very close to the uensants. one an extreme Radical, the other a Moderate Liberal, 1-otb living in different Governments, told me in ah-.iost the ™ni" words that two years a h> the peasants would have stood" up nr-1 fought for the idea of monarchy, but that now this i-'t-i was fast fading away.

Wc see that it is a miii-i on -. iin:-= idea based on. economic coiisidcrati'ms that i» orraT.isin«r the peasant? into a stronger and! better opposition. They are expecting nothing from the third Difma. Rut they feel something must be done. Wc had a voting peasant driver to t al-tr' us from one village to another. He fold' us the chance must come through the anny. ":md in three years the army will have hern recruited' afresh. lam one of this ycm-'« recruits." A village doctor tol.l mr that the peasants- arc now renin];- to him saying. "The peasants must art for themselves-." "It looks to ns a- if v.e would have to go in for agrarian ■'!■'n :!e'S or do as the French did." T!ir.-.> or" the peasants' own words ■ n-i they were vo] cited to me.

I think one can say that the road inn we are. having now is nn.lv agcrivatiug the situation. One must remcnil-.er that ■M. Stolypin's most danjerou.?' opmnciits aro these reactionaries; tin l ! hn did his brst to keep the Duma in ov'er to have it as a. weapon against them. When, however, these reactionary inlliioncr.3 at Court prevailed, he remained in olfice and is continuing the ntrmriile a-a a hist them with that energy and pluck which demand admiration even from his opponents. But this reaction will kill itself. It can be only t«mporary. Tn all these places I have visited 1 lr, vo jvit overlooked the. reactionaries. I found! thorn a'most without exception utterly lacking in political ideas, without convictions, mere careerists. These reactionaries have been demanding that they be given a • hanc-c to show their political ability. In the first Puma they were hardly represented. Iu the second Duma they had some seven or eight men. In the third Duma, in view of the new electoral law, they Will prozably be in the majority. We will be able to see then what they arc worth.

It is impossible in foretell what the composition of the third- Duma will he. Much is left to chance in this new electoral law which has tried to the prevailing voice to the large landowners and the larj>e commercial cla-v-, lias cut -.l.iwn the representatives of "aliens," has riven the Russian population the privilege of voting iu separate curias from these ''aliens."

■Some optimistic Liberals toll .-- they will hnve over a hundred scats. It is <-:']•- tain that there will be an opposition, antii that this opposition, being in the minoritv, will be more outspoken than it was in the irecond- Duma. Such an opposition will be an enormous .oi-caiiip-cr of the Liberal public opinion which will remain'in the majority outside »the Duma. The reaction has the upper ham! because it has physical force on its side. ' But moral forces will eventually be able to prevail over mere physical force, awl if they <lo not, one may be sure thai some physical • force will lie found- ami used. This reform movement will be carried through even if, at the present moment, it appears to h-ave been crushed, down. The journey I have made through nine of the Russian Governments has proven to me that good. Government must be given or the anarchy and demoralisation which is sidwini every day will Force a violent crisis. The Liberals are working to avoid' such a crisis. But they are »iven no encouragement ; they are confounded with the Revolutionaries, their pirty is not legalised. One Moderate Liberal said to me: "In any fight I like to cee fair play. When my opponent makes absurdly etupid mistakes, refuses to ree that be is making these mistakes, it really makeme feel sorrv for him, even if I am .;tru""lh:g against him. We have an uphill' pull before us. but we are certain to come through. Then we will look back and be surprised to see how easily it was done."