RUSSIAN POLITICS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15128, 24 January 1917, Page 4

RUSSIAN POLITICS.

It is very difficult to interpret the political situation in Russia, the complexity of which is due, according to a London caljle to-day, to the curious jumble of ancient ritual and modern superstition. The Czar’s rescript brushes aside any 'doubt'that might be entertained concerning Russia’s co-operation with the Allies. • Russia is irrevocably pledged to continue the war to a successful issue, but there are divided counsels as to which party shall direct operations—the bureaucrats and men of conservative tendency, or progressive politicians, such as the Duma represents. Whether the administration is ih the hands of reactionaries or of democrats, it is likely to be a sincere wpr administration, because Tsar and people are bent, on victory, and, though the Tsar may prefer reactionary advisers, he has apparently no favour for those whose reactionism makes towards a premature peace. But the disadvantage of a reactionary Cabinet, sincerely anti-German, is that it is not trusted by the progressive forces in the Duma; and the drawof a progressive Cabinet would be the distrust of reactionary and bureaucratic circles in whom so much of Russian leadership reposes. As long as this conflict exists it will represent a line of weakness, though, despite this weakness, it is reassuring to hear that “Russia will join in the 1917 campaign armed and prepared as never before, and supplying vast masses of new troops, with abundant artillery,” and that Brusiioff says he has “absolute confidence, based on information and conviction, that the enemy will be finally and completely routed in 1917.”.