THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1907. RUSSIA'S EVIL GENIUS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13862, 27 March 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1907. RUSSIA'S EVIL GENIUS.

Russia's regeneration appears likely to proceed as much by the removal of her oppressois as in the uprising of her deliverer, Whether that deliverer will prove to be a gradually evolving type rather than the prominence of a single personality is a question which may be debated but cannot at present be answered. Meanv.hilo the men who for man}' years

have guided and controlled the forces of reaction in I bo realm of the Czar of All the Russias arc one by one being removed—soma by assassination, otheis fioni old age and other natiual causes. Von Plehve, Bobrikoff, and tlis Grand Duke Seigius himself,-all tyrants and Jew-baiters of the most virulent anti-Semite type, in turn received their quietus at, the hands of the forces of the Revolution; it was left for Trepoff and now Pobiedonostzeff to die quietly iu their beds, although not one whit, less hated and execrated than the others. But of all the men v-'lio have united to lure Russia to . ruin and revolution, Pobiedonostzelf stands out as the arch-peisecutor, the soul of the- Russian autocracy, the man who more than any other has influenced the Czar, the evil genius of Russia. To understand the extent of the sway which the Procurator of the Holy, Synod exercised in Russian counsels it is necessary to glance back over the pages of history to the time c-f the accession of Alexander 111. In the last year of the reign of Alexander II the programme of reform,, 1 virtually accepting the principle of representative government, as drafted by Loris Melikoff, had scarcely 1 been agreed upon, when the Terrorists, ignorant of tho fact that the Czar had at length decided to consult the views of the people respecting the government of the 'Empire, launched the bomb which sent Alexander II to his death. With tne death of the Czar wcro destroyed for many long years all hopes of a change from the reactionary autocracy. When Alexander 111 ascended the throne, although hia first impulse was to carry out the plans of his father so far as they were known to him, ho was naturally predisposed to yield to the reactionary influenco of Pobicdonostzeff lather than to accede to the liberalism of Loria Melikoff. The secret of Pobiedonostzeff's influence over the young Czar lay in tho fact that after tho death of the original heir to the throne he was ordered to instruct Alexander in the system of government, taking the position of tutor to the budding monarch. Although at that time Pobiedonostzelf occupied no particular position, ho had become known as an earnest, hard worker, and a skilled jurist; consequently he was entrusted with the important charge of training the future ruler in those mafcteis which he must primarily learn in order to be able to govern his enormous empire. The tutor 'fulfilled his obligation with the greatest zeal and earnestness. By temperament a cold-blooded, calculating fanatic, he succeeded in instilling into the heir to the throne his blind belief in the ability of the Greek Oithodox teachings and absolutism to direct the destiuy of Russia along the only path which could save land and people. It was also his mission to inoculate his pupil with 'that intoleiance and hate- towards Nonconformist belief and thought which were so characteristic of the later years of Alexander's reign, The earnestness displayed by Pobiedoncstzeff,, his zeal, his conviction that Russian orthodoxy and the Russian Czardom were called upon to make, not only Russia, but also tho rest of Europe and mankind happy—in a word, his thoroughness and his personal integrity—weie bound to have a strong effect on Alexander 111, who had been brought up in a Court where corruption, intrigues, favouritism, and adventurers flourished shamelessly and in broad daylight. Compared with tho vacillating policy pursued by his father, the system inaugurated by Pobiedonostzeff seemed consistent, strong, and hopeful, and among the oppoitunist statesmen of that time the tutor alone adhered firmly to a fixed theory. Hence Alexander 111 drew the conclusion that this theory was tho only correct one. Thus one cf the first acts of the new Czar was, ignoring Loris Melikoffs scheme of reform, to instruct Pobiedonoslzeff to draft a manifesto acquainting his people with tho policy he intended to follow. To what advantage Pobiedonoslzeff used his opportunity may be judged by the exclamation of Loris Melikoff when informed of the nature of the manifesto: "This is a betrayal, a reactionary coup d'etat," What the Czar himself thought of the business is evident from tho tenor of a letter written by himi in April, 1881, to the Grand Duko Vladimir, in which these sentences occur: "I determined to ask K. P Fobiedonostzeff'to draw up a manilesto showing clearly in what way I shall 'manage affairs, ' and stating that I shall never consent to any limitation of the autocracy, way I shall manage affairs, and advantageous for Russia. The,maiiifesto seems to mo to be very well advised." Thus did Alexander 111, yielding to the influence of Pobiedoncstzeff, definitely commit himself to that Panslavistic-Slavophilo policy iu which ho persevered to the end or his reign, nud which inaugurated a new period in the social and 1 evolutionary development of the Kussian Envpiie. Pobiedonostzelf was rewarded with the appointment of Procurator of the Holy Synod, a position with which he was well content, since it enabled him to gratify his ruling penchant for keeping himself as much as possible in the background whilst exercising the supreme authority. In this doubtless lay the secret of his ability to retain for so long a peiiod the reigns of government, for he thus earned a reputation for unselfishness which stood him in »ood stead amid the corruption so characteristic of the Russian autocracy. In itself the position of Procurator stands for little; indeed, Pobiedonosizeft' was the first man, in marked contradistinction to his predecessor Dmitri TcUtoi, to give it its special significince. It was by his personality rather than, by his position that the Procurator made his iufluence felt m the government of Bus'sia. His office corresponds geiipralh to the position of Minister of Worship in Western Euiopean countries The Proemator is tho lej'i'esentative of the Czar and the only non-clerical member of tho highest ecclesiastical body in Russia, the Holy Synod, which is otherwise composed of the Metropolitans of Novgorod, St Petersburg, Moscow, Kolomna, and ICieff. together with nine other members—bishops, ecclesi-

astical dignitaries, and officers who i arc called together from time to time. 1 No decision of the Synod is valid < unless approved by the Procurator, •' who in important matters appeals to j the Czar. In all matters directly or ! indiiectly affecting the State Church ' his opinion must bs consulted, and ho stands in every respect on the same footing as the Ministeis proper. ( 'Iho Procurator at the commencement of his public career made great ostentation of piety by retiring onco , a year to some particularly holy cloister, presumably for tho purpose : of religious contemplation; whilst ' his indisputable and undisputed. : honesty, his learning and knowledge of West European civilisation, his '. extensive judicial studios, and his cynical, cold-blooded sophistry all combined to make him one of tho most dangerous instruments of the reaction. Samson von Himuelsticrna, in his book "Russia under Alexander - III," says of the Procurator: : " Honesty, zeal, intrepidity, and sincere devotion to a, cause rotten thiough and through, the capacity and means of utilising modern civilisation for an unworthy and reactionary, purpose—can any more evil or perilous combination be imagined?" The special direction in which the Procurator's zeal delighted to manifest itself was in the sphere of religion. Pobiedonostzeff, who under .Alexander 111 had absolute control, gave full vent to the spirit of persecution which possessed him. The Jews throughout Russia,, tho Catholics in Poland, tho Lutherans in tho Baltic provinces, and tho Russian sectarians, the Old Believers, the Duchoborzen, Stundists, Molokans, and the rest experienced to the full the fanatical oppression of the reactionary nationalism that animated the Russian decrees. When Count Ignatieff was Minister of the Intel ior Jew-baiting assumed considerable dimensions, but Ignatieff, falling into disgrace, was succeeded by Count Tolstoi, who quietly suspended the decrees against the Jews. In 1889, however, after Tolstoi's death, Pobiedonostzeff assumed the control of the Jews, and not only resuscitated 'the May edict of 1882 but made it; retrospective for the eight preceding years. Under this edict more than ten thousand Jews who had settled on tho land were evicted' under circumstances of inhuman severity, and_ speedily the feeling giew amongst the masses of the population that the governing authorities regarded with favour anything calculated to aggravate the position of the Jews. There is ample evidence to show that this feeling was directly fanned by Pobiedonostzeff and his emissaries, and one of the worst sins that must bo laid to the Procurator's account is the series of horrible massacres and outrages perpetrated upon an unoffending and helpless people. When Alexander 111 died Russia, clung to the hope that with the accession of the present Czar, Nicholas 11, a brighter day would dawn; but it was soon evident that the reactionary counsellors of tho late Czar had succeeded in bringing Nicholas II also completely under their control. The continuation of the Pobiedonostzeff regime was assured, and the Czar allowed himself to be influenced to give his approval to reaction in its worst form. The Czar became little more than a puppet in the hands of tho cabal which was in the main led and inspired by Pobiedonostzeff, and the sorrowful outcome of the leactionary policy pursued is such recent history as to require 'no comment. When forced by the irresistible logic of events the Czar was urged to give ear to the cries of those who demanded some form of a constitutional government, Pobiedonostzeff protested and threatened again and again to resign'. More than once did he succeed in thwarting the designs of tho Reform, party, and by his intrigues he secured the downfall of Dc Witte, the one man who might have saved Russia. But with the assassination of his coadjutor and creature, Von Plehve, the, Procurator's star gradually set, until two years ago he resigned his office, and practically vanished from the scene. There can scarcely bo conceived a more melancholy end—that of the solitary wizened old man, his hopes shattered, and all that he had lived and worked for vanishing before his eyes, in death realising that a. lifetime spent in the pursuit of Russia's greatness has but led to her present pitiablo condition.