RUSSIA TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 71

RUSSIA TO-DAY.

— Some Striking Passages from the Latest

Book -on the Czar's Empire — Reasons Why There Can Be No Revolution. — (Argonaut.)

We reviewed briefly last week a translation of a book b\ Hugo Oanz, a Viennese journalist, entitled "The Land of Riddles : Russia of Trt-day." In view of the distrub£iice in tho Czar's kingdom, sonic further extracts from the book may, however, be not uninteresting. It is curious to note, to begin with, that this rigid censorship suipposed to exist was not discovered al all by Hcrr Ganz. He says : Htre I would state that I did not experience the slightest annoyance throughout my entire journey. I was not subjected to police surveillance, nor did I notice in my meagre correspondence

the least trace, of police interference

Warsaw is now the seat of riot and bloodshed, and in vic\v of it, it is interesting to read this writer's description of the relations between Russian officials and the Polish people of the upper class. We quote :

They remain separate lite oil and water. The Russian, even though he isthe master, is of no consequence here. It is only necessary to observe for the space of an hour from some corner ot the elegant, dining 100 mof Hotel Biistol the behaviour of the Polish society and. the complete isolation of the Russian officers or official's ; it is only necessary to be able to distinguish the groups from on.c another — the Baltic nobility with their ahr-ost bourgeois families, merchants from all the principal countries, Russian functionaries n.nd Polish society — and it will at once become clear who is at home here. fismly tooted to the soil, so that all others become strangers and intruders : it is the Poles, and the Pols-, alone 1 .

Warsaw also is now held by Some to be a possible centre of successful revolution. On this point we quote :

I have no faith in a Polish: kiingdom There may bs a Perish revolution tomorrow, perhaps, when the Russians «hall meet defeat in Eastern A*ia, a&

the Russian patriots hope, but a Polish

kingdom there will never be. It is quite apparent bow the influence of the time is changing the entire social structure of the people. No nation can maintain itself ■without a middle class. The material for such a class, the strong Jewish population, has been so ground down that a half -century would not be

sufficient for its restoration, and ths

Russian! regime of to-dlay is disposed to anything rathei' than to the uplifting

and the education of the Polish Jewry.

To those who think everything in Russia rirty, bad, an 1 squalid, this passage about the Russian railways will come as a surpiise:

A hymn of jpraicj ta tfee Russian roil-

way ! The Russian tracks begin &t Warsaw to havo a consideiably bioadei bed. This is ioi a otiategic.il pm-Tose— to rendar difficult the invasion of

European armies. It is also a benefit to the traveller, for the .Russian coaches

aie wider and moie comfortable than the European, and the side-passages

along the coupe are very convenient for little walks during the journey. A separate heating compartment and buffet, with the indispensable samovar, where one may secure a glass of tea at any

time, are situated in the centre of the

long car. The trains do not jolt, although they are almost as fast as ours. The smoke and soot do not drive through the tightly -closed double windows. A

twenty-four hour trip here tires one les.« than a six-hour trip with us. Certainly there is more need of preparation for a comfortable journey in Russia than in the West. The distances are immense, a 24-hour journey creating no comments. Ome interesting chapter Herr Ganz devotes to a great artist, Ilga Ryepin, wwhso s however, is almost unknown outside Russia. Ganz says that this artist is by no means a servile Court painter, and adds :

His so-called nihilist pictures, reproduction of which has been prohibited by the police, are fci the most part in the poese^son of grand dukes, and, notwithstanding his undisguised opinions, he was entrusted with the painting of the Imperial Council, representing the Czar in the midst of hi. councillors. The Czars have always been more liberal than their administrators. Nicholas I prized Gogol's "Revizor" above all else, and Nicholas II is the greatest admirer of Tolstoi. One of Ryepin's mo?t famous pictures is called "Barge Towers," and Ganz says of it:

Whc-re is the action of 12 men wearily

plodding onward, drawing with -hythmic step the boat against the stream, seized more forcibly, snore suggestively than m this plaintive song of the Russia:) p&oplo's soul? It is but necessary to look at the feet of these 12 wretched! toilers to realise with -wonder the cliarac-

ierisation, the full measure of which is

given only tc genius. How they strain :>p;aiTst the ground and almost dig intthe rock! How the bodies are bent forward in tho broad belt that holds the tow-line ! What an old ; sad melody is this to which these barefooted men keep step as they struggle up along the stream ! In all his barefoot stories of the ancient sorrow of the steppe children, Gorky " has not painted with greater insight. A sorrowful picture for all its sunshine, and the more ?onowful because nc tendency is made evident. It means seeing, seeing with the eyes and with tho heart, and, therefore, it >-■

A4l the world is asking if there w'll be revolution in Russia, and therefore <lie opinion expressed by a Russian prince — aman., says Ganz, "of European repute and unparalleled authority" — is especially pertinent :

But do not deceive yourself. There is no revolution with us. Our country is too thinly populated. Let us say tint 10, 50, or 100,000 inspired intellectuals would willingly sacrifice themselves if they could help us thereby ; how many Cossacks and gendarmes would there h& for each revolutionist when we a,r spending millions tc maintain an army against the nations? There is. only ona revolution that can be really dangerous, and 1 will not assert that such a revolution could- not break out if the present war iliould end disastrously. That would' be a peasant revolution, directed, n.ot against the regime itself, but against all prop-jity -owning a._d educated persons;

it would begin by all of us being killed and thrown into the river. And the odds would be a hundred to one then

that the police would not be actively aga'iist this revolution, but secretly •nould be for it, in order to rid + hemselves quickly and surely of their real antagonist, the educated class-os.

In conclusion we quote an illuminating passage from am interview with a Russian statesman, dissatisfied with the workings of the bureaucracy, of which he is a part, who svd :

" The Czar is living behind a Wall of China. He has never visited a "duana" (city council), never a "zeinstvo" (district council), never a village, never an

industrial centre. He is kept by the camarilla in constant dread, amd is so closely watched that his sees not a finger's breadth, of heaven, much less of earth. He rejoices when an occasional quarrel breaks out among the Ministers, for he then has the opportunity to learn here and there a fragment oi truth." "And docs no one succeed in representing to him conditions as they are?" "I will mak a confession to you. Not very long ago I nryself prepared a papsr, not bearing my name —that would lnive offered certain difficulties — but anonymous, and had it transmitted to the Czar by a trustworthy person. For eight days there was gTeat joy at theCourt.- Tbs Emperor^amd the Empress were delighted "to know where the trouble lay and how it was to^ be remedied. The whole matter, as it were, vanished, and was forgotten." "Then that already is pathological?"'

A shrug of the shoulders was his answer. "Above all things,' there is the great anxiety and fear at the responsibility. There is also a weakness on account) of conscientious scruples. The Emperor knows nothing thoroughly eiwugh to enable him to overcome the arguments of a. skilled sophist, and he is too indulgent to say to one of his counsellors, ' Sir, you are a cheat.' He hears in the reports only praise of somebody, me-ver any censure. For he has a great dread of intrigue, and i*ot without good reason. The atmosphere is a fearful one in the vicinity of every autocrat. The Czar is pathetically wellmeaning, and is modesty itself, but he is not the autocrat for an autocracy, who must be equal to his task." Further on in the interview, this statesman, being asked how it would all end, replied : "The- terror from above will awaken the terror irom below, peasant revolts will break out — even now the police must be augmented in the interior — and assassination will increase." "And is there no possibility of organising the revolution so tba'< it shall not rage senselessly?" "In- possible. Our rural nobleman is, to be sure, nob a junker ; but. the strength of tbe regime consists in the exclusion of any understanding between the land-owners and the peasants because of the social and intellactual chasm between them." "Your excellency, I remember a saying of Strousberg's, who was a good business man, ' There is nowhere a hole where there ones was land.' One learns to doubt that here in Russia. There is not ona with whom I have spoken who would fail to paint the future of this country in the darkest colours. Can there be no change of tihia fatal policy that is ruining the country?" "Not before a great general eatastiophe. When, we shall be compelled, for the first time, partly to repudiate our debts — and that may happen sooner than we now believe — on that day, being no longer able to pay our debts with new ones — for we shall no longer be able to conceal our internal bankruptcy from foreign countries and from the Emperor — steps will bs taken, perhaps, toward a general convention. No sovmev." Tt will be seen that many passages in this most x'ecent of books ooi Russia tend to confirm the opinion previously sup nortec! in t'liaso columns, that there can be no real revolution in Russia.