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PRO

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1917-1918.)

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U.R.S.A.

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Por Ltst of Committee, see page %v>

U.R.S.A.

THE UNITED RUSSIA SOCIETIES
^'^ ASSOCIATION

PROCEEDINGS

V^OL. I
(1917-1918)

488496

LONDON

DAVID NUTT

1919

TRADE SDPPt.tED BY

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON. KENT ft Co., Lid., K.C. *

CONTENTS

A%MaAL GEKERAL MF.BTtUd OF THE RUSSIA SOCIETIES. MARCH, 1917

VmQGRADOFF, Prof. Sir Paul. o.m. Some Impressions of the

Russian Revojlotion
PuRiNGTON, Chester Wells. Pacific Routes to Siberia
Heykinc,, Baron A., d.c.l. Duei-ling frqm a Russian and

EN&Ltsii Point of View .......

HoVm, Mrs. Sonia. Petrograd — Moscow, May. and August

tpi?

Apostol, M. Mouravief. The Russian Red Cross .
Heyking, Baron A. Intellectual Coalescence between

England and Russia ....

Lampson. Commander Locker, r.n.v.r., m.p. Address on

Occasion of abov£ Paper
Penty, Normaj^. The Gloom of Tschaikovsky
Davidson, Mxss Emma. Some Characteristics of Russian Song
Maupe, Aylmer. Tolstoy and his Influence
Wilton, Robert. The State of Parties in Russia
Rastorgoueff, L. p. The Land and Veople of the Ukraine
Ghambashidze. D. The Caucasus : Its People, Histokv

Economics, and Present Position .
Annual General Meeting Russia Society, March

Committee, List of

Hodgetts, E. a. Brayley. Russian Armenia

Simon, Dr. A., f.g.s. Siberia . .

Nathan, M. Montagu. Music and Poiitics in Russi

t9i8

104
113

121
129

144
105

182
206
220
221
235
245

FORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS OF
THE RUSSIA SOCIETY

President, the Right Hon. J, W. Lowther, M.P.,

(The Speaker of the House of Commons) in the Chair

The President, after calling upon Mr. James A. Malcolm,
Hon. Secretary, to read the notice convening the meeting,
said that the resolutions had all been distributed, and had
better be taken as read. (Agreed.)

Mr. James A. Malcolm, Hon. Secretary, read his report :

Since the 24th March last year, when the first annual
meeting of the Society was held, the membership had in-
creased to upwards of 800, and they were now by far the
largest Society of the kind either in the United Kingdom
or Russia. He regretted the loss, through death, of Count
John Tolstoy (formerly Minister of Public Instruction in
Petrograd), of Mr. W. J. Birkbeck (a great authority on
the Russian Church), and of Mr. Robert Yerburgh, M.P.
(Chairman of the Navy League), His ExcpUency Count
Benckendorff , and Mr. Robert Porter, of The Times, who
gave the Society so much invaluable assistance.

In spite of the difficulty created by the War and other
circumstances, the work of the Society had been carried
on with continued vigour, and had been appreciated not
only in the British Isles, but also throughout the Empire,
in Russia, and in the United States. The Society had
taken a census of 1400 leading educational establish-
ments in the United Kingdom on the subject of leactjiiig
Russian.

The Society inaugurated a system of con 1 pet it ions for
gold, silver and bronze medals for essays on subjects re-

2 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

iating to Russia, including music. The medal had been
designed by Mr. Branguyn, r.a. The Society recently
issued a bulletin of " Current Notes on Russian Studies."
This publication had had a wide circulation, and met a real
aeed. The Times of September 30th, 1916, in its editorial
columns paid the Society a high tribute for " having done
a great deal of very valuable work in fostering Russian
studies." The attention of members was also drawn to the
statement by Mr. J. D. Holland in the Bulletin showing the
practical value of the free register of teachers of Russian,
one of whom alone had been responsible for the teaching
of no less than 170 pupils in Northampton, with such
excellent results that some of them could have obtained
positions in the Russian Government service.

Although this is one of the otitstar.dirg exiimples of
what can be and has been accomplished, the teaching of
the Russian language through our instrumentality (prob-
ably not less than 4000 are now learning it at our instigation)
has been carried on with increasing satisfaction all over the
country, and on an entirely self-supporting basis.

In 1916 the Society began with a surplus of £206 15s. 2d.,
and it commenced 1917 with a surplus of ;^220 lis. 5d.,
plus overdue subscriptions which kept on coming in from
far and near since the accounts were made up. The differ-
ence between the arnount received in 1915 and in 1916 is
partly accounted for by there having been fewer Life
Members joining the "Society in the latter period.

The Society recommended a number of lecturers to
lecture all over the United Kingdom, and these lectures
were well attended. The lectures in London under the
direct auspices of the Society have probably been more
successful. Some of them deserved special mention. A
lecture on the " Moral and Intellectual Development of
Russia," given by General Doukhovetzky on July loth,
1916, at Marble Arch House, contained much fresh matter
and proved most entertaining. Lord Portsmouth, the
Hon. Treasurer of the Society, presided on that occasion
and gave an address, whilst 'Lady Portsmouth assisted in
the distribution of the prizes to the students of the Russian

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 3

Classes, held at the Institut Fran9ais du Royaume Uni,
under the auspices of the Society and the direction of
Mr. Basil T. Timotheieff.

Mr. Wm. Hy. Beable's lecture in the Grand Hall of the
Hotel Cecil, on October 25th, 1916, entitled " Fifteen
Thousand Miles through Russia," was also largely attended.
Baron Heyking, the Imperial Russian Consul^General in
London, presided.

The lecture on Russian Music, delivered by Monsieur
Mouravieff-Apostol, the donor of St. Mary's Russian Hos-
pital in London for wounded British officers, one of our
distinguished Hon. Vice-Presidents (assisted by well-known
Russian and British artists), in the Victoria Hall of the
Hotel Cecil, on November 25th, 1916, was a remarkable
success. There was an enthusiastic and overflowing audience,
and not the least interesting feature of the proceedings was
the address given by Lady Maud Warrender, who presided.
The musical arrangements were carried out by Miss Emma
Davidson, the Secretary of the School of Russian Music.

In response to the request of leading public schools, the
Society appointed a Board of Examiners for the purpose of
granting certificates for proficiency in the Russian language.
The Society's thanks are due to the gentlemen who are
kindly serving on this Board, and to Mr. Aylmer Maude,
Secretary to the Board.

The Society continued to encourage and supply informa-
tion to individuals and institutions with similar aims. The
Russia Quarterly, recently published by the Russia Society
of Portsmouth, is a creditable example. The Society has
become a recognized source of information about Russian
ducalional and other matters. The ever-increasing refer-
nces made to the work of the Society in the British,
Russian and American Press testify to the value, success
and scope of its activities.

The President moved the adoption of the Report and
Balance Sheet, which

Sir Bernard Mallet seconded. He said that as Chair-
man of the Committee which had m,et very frequently
during the past year he felt that the credit of what had

4 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

been done was entirely due to other members of the Com-
mittee of the Society, and more especially to the Hon.
Secretary, Mr. Malcolm. The Society might be justly proud
of its record. To have done so much in so short a time was
a very remarkable achievement for so young a Society
as this.

Dr. John Pollen, c.le., then formally moved : That
the name of Mr. James Malcolm be included in the list of
Honorary Vice-Presidents.

The President in seconding said he would hke to take
this opportunity of saying how much personally he was
indebted to Mr. Malcolm for his assistance.

The motion was carried by acclamation.

The President then referred to the question of amalga-
mation with other Societies engaged in carrying out some-
what similar work, and to a letter from Sir Bernard Mallet
setting out the reasons. It was far better that those who
were thinking the same things, and anxious to obtain the
same results, should work shoulder to shoulder and pull
together rather than that they should be pulling in what
possibly might be different ways.

He was appealed to some two months ago by Lord
Weardale and the late Mr. Cust, who were anxious to discuss
the prospects of an amalgamation which would be agreeable
to all parties. A Joint Committee was then appointed upon
which Lord Weardale 's friends and Sir Bernard Mallet, Sir
Robert Perks, Lord Portsmouth, Dr. Burrows, Mr. Brayley
Hodgetts served, an amicable arrangement had been
arrived at, and embodied in Resolutions now submitted, the
bond which for the moment was uniting us with the Anglo-
Russian Friendship Society would he hoped be stronger
when these Resolutions had been passed. There was only
one^ question of any particular importance — ^the change in
the name of the Society to the United Russia Societies
Association, which marked the point reached, and the
initials U.R.S.A. were not a very bad combination for a
Society interested in the Russian bear.

He then formally moved that the Resolutions i to 4 be
adopted.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 5

Dr. Ronald M. Burrows seconded, and referred to the
Russia Company as the oldest of all the bodies that represent
England in Russia. They acquired their trading rights in
1553, and they had a very honourable name in Russian
politics and commerce. In the Crimean War, for instance,
they represented the interests of England in Russia when
Russia and England were at war. A Chartered Company
could not become formally amalgamated with another
society ; but they could be represented on a Joint Com-
mittee, Two Members elected by the Russia Company
would sit on the Committee.

The Resolutions were put to the Meeting and carried.

Lord Weardale, with other members of the Anglo-
Russian Friendship Society, now entered and were addressed
by Mr. James Lowther, President of the former Russia
Society, as follows :

I have pleasure in informing you that the Russia Society
at the present meeting has just adopted the four Resolu-
tions which were agreed upon by the Joint Committee upon
which you sat together with our representatives. Those
Resolutions have been unanimously adopted, and we have,
therefore, ceased to exist as the Russia Society, and have
become now the United Russia Societies Association, and
we think it would be desirable if you, Lord Weardale, would
mark the occasion by saying a few words before we proceed
to the next Resolutions which really are only formal ones.

Lord Weardale was sorry to be obliged to make a
painful announcement ; the gentleman most active in these
negotiations, a late Member of ParHament and a personal
friend of his own, Mr. Harry Cust, had died suddenly that
morning. He then said :

The particular object with which we have met has been
explained by Mr. Speaker. But perhaps you would hke to
know a little more of the forces with which you, the members
of the Russia Society, have joined in this new Association.
I may be permitted to speak with some knowledge of Russia
with which I have been connected by the closest ties, and
.large parts of which I have known intimately for nearly
forty years. Therefore I have always taken keen interest

6 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

in improving the relations between the people of Russia
and Great Britain. The first attempt made in that direction
was at a meeting held here in connection with the Inter-
Parliamentary Conference held in 1906 in this very House
of Commons by representatives of the first Russian Duma,
including Professor Kovalevsky. This gave rise to an in-
creasing desire amongst various classes to become better
acquainted with Russia, and by a corresponding desire on
the part of Russians to become better acquainted with us.
Various visits were arranged. One of these included forty
Members of both Houses of Parliament, four bishops, great
and most distinguished military and naval officers, among
them Lord Beresford, together with a great number of
representatives of the scientific world. That deputation
visited Russia. Unfortunately, in consequence of a domestic
bereavement, you, Mr. Speaker, were not able to accom-
pany it, and I had inadequately to take your place.

One result of that deputation, which was cordially re-
ceived in Russia, was that we formed an organization called
the Anglo-Russiaji Friendship Committee, which made no
appeal to the public, but did much useful though unobtru-
sive work. Among other things we started a Russian
Review, and we have taken a large part in welcoming dis-
tinguished Russians when they paid us a visit ; in short,
we have done what we could to promote Anglo-Russian
relations.

Then it was suggested that we should join forces with the
Russia Society, and that all friends of the movement should
be approached. We approached the Russia Company, a
very old organization, dating back, as you may know, to the
time of Philip and Mary, By the union of these forces we
hoped to contribute largely to the success of the cause.
We have now been fortunate in arriving at a satisfactory
conclusion, and I am glad to see this meeting here to-day,
a meeting which is already the nucleus of what I hope will
grow into a large and representative institution doing a
great work for the further development of British-Russian
relations. A similar society has been for sotne time past
established in Russia.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 7

Mr. Barton Kent proposed that Messrs. Hayes and Co.,
Chartered Accountants, of 28 Basinghall Street, E.C., be
elected as Auditors.

S'-i Albert Spicer seconded, and the Motion was carried.

Su Robert Perks proposed a vote of thanks to the
Speaker, not only for presiding to-day, but for the tact and
judgment which he had shown in guiding the Society.

Dr. Ronald Burrows seconded the resolution, and pro-
posed that a Vote of Welcome to the Society at Petrograd
be sent.

Tlie Vote of Thanks to the Speaker was carried by
acclamation .

SOME IMPRESSIONS OF THE RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION ♦

BY PROF. SIR PAUL VINOGRADOFF, O.M.

2-]th April, 19 1 7

When I came back to Oxford from Petrograd in the begin-
ning of April I was astonished at the strange notions and
rumours circulated in England on the subject of the Russian
Revolution. To mention but one fact out of many, a leading
paper had an article by a well-known writer, in which
almost every word jarred on one like false notes in a tune.
" The events in Russia will come as a greater surprise to
the millions there than in England. Indeed British pubhc
opinion has helped a very great deal to bring about the
success of the movement. If the Tsar has indeed abdicated
he has acted nobly. He could undoubtedly have found
forces greater than those at the disposal of the Duma, and
fought a civil war. The Russian believes in revolutions,
etc. etc." In any case these and similar pronouncements
are not only awkward but mischievous, and it is the duty
of all those who had an opportunity of following events
from a position of vantage to collect and state frankly their
observations so as to enable the British public to form a
correct opinion on the greatest crisis in contemporary
history. Without attempting in the least to present a
Complete estimate of detailed analysis of the Revolution,
I should like to record some facts which came under my
notice and seem to characterize one or the other main
feature of the movement.

To begin with, nothing could have been more gradual
and inevitable than the growth of the Revolutionary spirit
in Russia. The public in Great Britain and France was to
some extent misled by an indiscriminate censorship and
out-of-date sentimentalism on the subject of " Holy
Russia." Btit in Russia itself the only people who refused

* Reprinted by kind permission from the Contemporary Review.
8-

I
I

VINOGRADOFF. REVOLUTION 9

to see and to understand were to be found in the immediate
vicinity of the Tsar, within the narrow circle formed by
the Court camarilla clinging to arbitrary power. The most
dangerous person affected by that curious colour-blindness
was the Empress Alexandra. When the intelligent and
generous Grand Duchess Victoria, the daughter of the late
Duke of Edinburgh, -tried to make Alexandra Feodorovna
understand that the reactionary policy followed by the
Tsar and inspired by the Empress was creating universal
discontent and threatening the dynasty and the throne,
she was met by a flat denial. " I know you mean well,"
the Empress is reported to have said, " but you do not
know in the least what you are talking about. It is only
the wretched intellectuals who agitate against autocracy,
in their lust for power and at the instigation of the Germans.
The Russian people is with us and will support us." The
hypnotiser's — Rasputin's — ^testimony had more weight in
the view of this unfortunate woman than the warnings and
entreaties of Grand Dukes hke Nicolas Mikhailovitch, of
the Empress Marie, or of her own sister Elizabeth Feo-
dorovna. As for the Tsar he felt what was coming, and at
times made feeble attempts to free himself from the coils
of the camarilla ; but he was as much fascinated by his
wife as she was fascinated by Rasputin and other quacks.
Quos perdere vult Jupiter prius dementat.

All those who had eyes to see watched the tide of dis-
content rising day by day. It was not mainly a case of
accumulated grievances on account of high prices, lack of
bread and fuel, defective transport. Of course the appli-
cants standing in long queues in front of bakers' shops had
no reason to bless the provident efficiency of the adminis-
tration, and the enforced attendance at these peculiar
clubs in wind and snow was not'hkely to improve the
temper of householders and servants. But the talk at
such clubs, as well as in the tramcars, in barracks, even at
village gatherings, ranged over political topics of a much
more complicated kind. It was not only among intellec-
tuals that people speculated on the scope and dimensions
of the palace catastrophe to come, on the spread of ter-
rorism, on the connection between home disorders and
inefficiency at the front, on German intrigue and the
treachery of high officials. Ominous, though simplified,
formulas were passed from ear to ear. A great commander
had said, " Victory is not the aim at headquarters." The

10 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

common people had a ready explanation for the dragging
course of the war : " How can we expect to win against
the Germans with a German Empress in possession of
military secrets ? "

The magnitude of the approaching catastrophe, the
danger arising from unfathomable currents of opinion and
from the awakening of incalculable forces were not under-
estimated by the intellectuals. On the contrary everything
was done by the leading politicians of the Duma to avoid
a downright conflict with the Tsar. In spite of growing
discontent a golden bridge was held open for the traditional
authorities in case they thought fit to avail themselves of
it. After the collapse of the munition service in 1915, that
would have ruined any other but the stubborn Russian
army, the appointment of an intelligent bureaucrat Krivo-
shein might have satisfied the reformers. Stuermer was,
however, preferred to Krivoshtin because he had been thei
henchman of Plehve. Even afterwards the prevaihng deM
mand was not for a Republic nor for a purely Parhamentary
Government, but for a ministry "of Public Confidence,"
that is for a set of bureaucratic officials enjoying the con-
fidence of the people. Count Ignatieff, General Pohvanoff,
Mons. Sazonoff would have been accepted with enthusiasm
as fit representatives of the Imperial Government. The
Cadets, a party which had held doctrinaire opinions in 1906,
supported the moderate programme of " public confidence "
in 1916, and opposed strenuously the more radical views
advocated by the so-called Progressives as well as by the
Labour group and the Socialists. On this basis a bloc was
formed between the Cadets and their former enemies, the
Octobrists and the Liberal Nationalists. It was not the
fault of the Duma majority if a compromise was not effected
in the shape of a moderate Constitutional Monarchy.

Such a compromise was prevented not only by the
blindness of the sovereigns, but also by the cynical attitude
of the most influential bureaucrats. Men like Stcheglovitoff,
Protopopoff, Kurloff, Beletzky, did not indulge in senti-
mental fancies as to a mystic bond of affection between
the Tsar and the peasantry ; but they firmly believed in
brute force. They had witnessed and misimderstood the
onslaught and the collapse of the first revolutionary move-
ment— ^that of 1905. They thought that a determined
police could cope with any rising by the help of machine-
guns, and that eventually the propertied classes would side

VINOGRADOFF. REVOLUTION ii

with the Government for fear of expropriation and looting.
These calculations proved erroneous, because "they did not
take into account the immense changes which had taken
place in the course of ten years — the altered dispositions of
the army, the weakness of a police force left to its own
devices, the advance achieved by all classes in political
education. It is not of the inevitable disappointment of
reactionary schemes, however, that I am treating at present,
but of their influence on the pohcy of the Government.
While the Duma leaders were doing aU in their power to
secure a basis for Constitutional Monarchy, the leaders of
reaction were striving with all their might to render a
moderate solution impossible. It is only in the light of this
pecuhar orientation of parties that one can understand the
actual course of events. In the poisoned atmosphere of
police conspiracy plots of so-called " provocation " were
hatched. It was deemed advisable by belated disciples of
Machiavelli to provoke a rising in order to quell it with the
help of machine-guns and to regain the complete power of
autocratic Tsardom which had been lost after the Japanese
War. With the connivance of the Minister of War, General
Belayeff, some 600 machine-guns, to a great extent con-
structed in Great Britain for the purposes of the war, were
transferred to the use of the police for the shooting down
of the unruly population of Petrograd. Positions were
selected for that purpose, notably the upper floors of
buildings overlooking busy thoroughfares. Strikes and
manifestations were confidently expected on February 27th
and March 4th. The factory workmen abstained on these
occasions to comply with the wishes of Protopopoff and
Beletzky. The actual signal was given at last by the
Government itself, which threw 40,000 workmen out of
work on March 5th (February 20th) on the pretence that
there was not enough fuel and metal to go on with the
preparation of munitions. This signal feature of the March
movement has been very httle noticed abroad, and even
Russians have failed to realize its significance. And yet it
proves conclusively that all hesitation as to the advisa-
bility of a rising at the critical stage of the war was brushed
away by the action of the Government. Protopopoff's
Secret Service wanted riots — it got a revolution instead.

The first steps on the inclined plane were characteristic
enough. On Thursday, March 8th, the first day of the
general strike, the crowds in the streets were in a very good

12 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

temper and indulged in good humour bantered with the
Cossacks and soldiers, bidding them go home and mind
their own business. On Friday, although stray shots
began to fall and the mounted police charged the crowd
on one or two occasions, the seriousness oi the situation
was not yet apparent. I should like to call attention to one
fact which is not without interest from the British point
of view.

A meeting of the Anglo-Russian Society had been arranged
for Friday, March 9th, at which various papers were to be
read on the part taken by Great Britain in tlie war. I had
to deliver an opening speech as Chairman of the Executive
Committee ; a colonel of the General Staff'was to speak on
the deeds of the British Army ; General Klado, Professor
of the Naval Academy, to explain the role of the British
Navy ; and Mons. P. Miliukoff, the well-known Cadet
leader, was to describe the progress of public opinion in
England in connection with the war. The disturbances
had begun on Thursday the 8th, and the next day it looked
very doubtful whether the lecturers or the audience would
be able to reach the Kalaskinkcff Hall, where the meeting
was to be held. It was decided, however, to proceed with
the arrangements, and all the speakers except one found
their way to the appointed place, although we had to avoid
the main streets filled with excited crowds. Some 700
persons had assembled, and it was gratifying to note with
what interest and sympathy they followed our discourse
and expressed their admiration for the British Allies and
their resolve to go on with the war until a decisive victory
had been won.

Saturday the loth and Sunday the iith were days when
the heaviest toll was paid by the public for the revolutionary
demonstrations. The mounted police charged the crowds,
machine-guns and rifle fire were freely used to clear the
streets. The Cossacks, usually employed on such occasions
to support the police, showed clearly that they were not
inclined to cut down the rioters. Infantry was ordered to
fire on several occasions and did so with evident reluctance.
In fact the Pavlovsky regiment of the Second Division of
the Guards, after having fought through the day by the
side of the poHce, mutinied on returning to barracks on
Sunday night. This event opened, as it were, the second
act of the drama, when the troops gradually went over to'
the revolutionists. It is well known that the defection of.

VINOGRADOFF. REVOLUTION 13

two regiments of the Third Division of the Guards — ^the
Volhynsky and Litovsky who on Monday morning stormed
the arsenal on the Liteinaya — ^turned the scales against the
old Government. The very limited support afforded by
the soldiers to the poHce, and the rapid spread of the revolu-
tionary movement through the ranks, are of course features
of the greatest importance in the history of the movement.
The facts of 1917 form a sharp contrast in this respect
with the occurrences of 1905. The earlier date is marked
by the strenuous fight between the troops and the insur-
rectionists in Moscow. The Semenovsky regiment for
instance was especially conspicuous in quelling the Moscow
rising in 1905, while in 1917 its battalion stationed in
Petrograd contented itself with holding the Liteinaya
Bridge for a couple of days and then joined the revolu-
tionary force. Of course it must be remembered that the
regiments of the Petrograd garrisons were really represented
only by reserve battalions in training for the army ; the
first line battalions of seasoned soldiers were at the front.
This explains to some extent the reluctance of the men to
take part in the fight against the people. Indeed they were
themselves part of the people. Most of them had not been
in the ranks for more than a few months, and from the point
of view of the authorities it was a great mjstake to employ
these raw recruits to keep order in the capital. But apart
from that the course of the war had taught many a lesson
to simple people in Russia. The. soldiers who had been
through the retreat of 191 5 had very definite opinions as
to the War Office which had left them without munitions ;
the townsfolk and the villagers of all districts of Russia
had come into contact with the misery of the fugitives
from the western provinces ; everybody was feeling the
effects of the devaluation of the currency, of transport and
provision difficulties. Altogether the Tsar's power had
ceased to be the unchallerged, dominant element of Russian
political life ; and as for bureaucracy and police, they
were discredited even in their own eyes. In view of such
a general transformation P. Miliukoff was right when he
said a couple of days before the outbreak that if the Duma
were driven to adopt extreme decision it would have the
country at its back. Another feature of the situation was
fully explained in a speech of our most eloquent lawyer —
V. Maklakoff. "The iiurlia of the pe^ople is great, and it
does help to maintain order ; but orxe the order has been

14 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

disturbed the weight of the democratic mass will press the
more decisively in the direction of the coming change."

I need not dwell more particularly on the many interest-
ing incidents of the next few days. The only thing I should
like to mention in connection with them is the curious
mixture of good nature and fighting spirit which prevailed
in the revolutionary crowds. I have been out on the
Nevsky in bright sunshine in a stream of armed workmen
and soldiers who filled the whole of the wide street. They
were, as a rule, joyfully excited, discussing the news, eager
to join in any street corner-meeting, snatching at fly-leaves
scattered by passing motor-cars. Suddenly the rattling
noise of machine-guns would burst out from some adjoining
building, and a sudden transformation of the picture would
take place. Some of the passers-by would fall flat on the
pavement in order to avoid the bullets, others would dis-
appear rapidly in by-streets, and, in a couple of minutes,
an armoured car would drive up and open a fusillade against
the hostile building occupied by the poUce. Swarms of
soldiers would discharge their rifles in the same direction,
and, in most cases, the improvised fortress was stormed
from the back stairs and from side entrances. Such occur-
rences were quite usual during the revolutionary week —
from March I2th to March i8lL — and the usual fate of the
policemen concerned was certain death. The people were
naturally infuriated against thtm, ard these victims of the
Government's folly were exterminated like wasps. Some
officers were also killed during these days, but they were
comparatively few, and the worst outbreaks took place not
in Petrograd but in Helsingfors, Kronstadt and Reval.

Turning now to the immediate consequences of thest
historical events, I should hke to emphasize the fact that
up to March 15th, when the Emperor Nicholas signed his
abdication, a maintenance of the Monarchy was still possible.
The formulas of abdication as proposed to the Tsar by
Gutchkoff and Shulgin provided, as we know, for the
transfer of the title to his son, the Grand Duke Alexis.
Nicholas II, however, refused to leave his son in the hands
of his former subjects. Thereby he cut the thread of the
Morarchy in Russia : his brother, Michael Alexandrovitch,
very properly refused to accept the anomalous position
created for him by the transfer of the Imperial dignity.
In this way one may say that the old Government tcck
care to preclude all possibilities for a compromise with the.

VINOGRADOFF. REVOLUTION 15

forces of progress. Before the Revolution it discarded all
attempts at a moderate constitutional change ; after the
•revolution it prevented a reconstruction of the Monarchy
on democratic lines. This is why a Republic has become
the inevitable form of Government for New Russia. The
Romanoffs have rendered themselves impossible, and their
is no other candidature in sight for a Russian Monarchy.
No one can striousiy contemplate the quest of a new sover-
eign in foreign countries ; the Russians are not likely to
imitate the Bulgarians, who discovered their future Tsar
in a Vienna cafe. As for the election of the scion of some
historical house of Russian origin, the permanent objection
against it is the fact that such families as the Trubetskoy
or Dolgourcuky are mixed through their many branches
with the commonalty of the land, and could not aspire to
the exalted isolation of a reigning dynasty. As a matter
of fact a republic has become a necessity for the time being ;
and if the Extremists of the Left do not foolishly spoil its
chances there is no reason why it should not be successful.
A federal coi siitution of the kind adopted by the United
States would hardly be an appropriate form of government
for Russia. Even apart from the difficulty of introducing
Federalism into the compact mass of the principal Russian
race, the theory of the division of powers with its possible
deadlocks, its exaggerated independence of the Executive,
and its frequent eleciions would never do for a great
Commonwealth of the Old World. On the other hand some
system siinilar to the French, with a six or seven years'
Presidency and a responsible Parliamentary Obinet, would
present great ach^antages in Russia's case. Undoubtedly
the halo surrounding a historical dynasty would be absent
from it ; but it is the Romanoff dynasty itself which has
to bear the blame for that national loss. The ceremonial
glamour of Imperial tradition could not outweigh the dis-
grace of what the French have aptly called the Pourriture
Impenale.

Success can, however, be achieved only on one condition,
namely, if the Socialist groups which have played a prom-
inent part in carrying out the Revolution realize the duties
imposed upon them by the victory. Russian democracy
has become responsible for the conduct of the State, and
any attempt at any one-sided exploitation of the present
situation for class purposes is sure to corr promise the
results obtained and possibly to open the way for a counter-

i6 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

revolution. The diificulties ahead are enormous. The whole
poUcy of the . country has to ba considered and resettled :
the various nationalities of the Empire are claiming in-
creased liberty in determining their life ; the workers in
town and land are striving for all the rights enjoyed by
their comrades in the West as regards wages, hours of labour,
land allotments, insurance, co-operative action ; the long-
suppressed fermentation of religious thought and ecclesias-
tical reconstruction is reasserting itself with increasing force
the most momentous issues of foreign relations centrin,
around the war have to be dealt with. And all such prob-
lems converge at a time when the main pillar upon which
the fabric of the State has been resting for centuries has
proved to be rotten and has had to be removed.

Such a situation would not be an easy one under an
circumstance, and it cannot be concealed that the " dema
cratic control " under which it has to be approached is
likely to complicate matters a great deal. The great bulk
of the Russian peasantry is not prepared to discuss and to
decide the distant problems of world politics and of social
organization ; their range of view is limited to the simple
and concrete issues of agriculture, land tenure, business
transactions of an elementary kird, ratioral preservation
in the narrow sense of the word ; besides, they are aspiring
to an immediate resettlement of agrarian corditions in
favour of the tillers of the soil. The town workmen, a much
less numerous body, which has acquired an importance out
of all proportion to its numbers on account of its share in
the Revolution and its developed class consciousress, are
naturally excited by the victorious struggle ard apt to in-
dulge in extreme schemes of Socialistic recor si ruction.
The middle classes ard the constitutional parties which
represent them in politics have certainly acquired a great
deal of political experience while oppcsing the old regime
and performing useful work under most discouraging con-
ditions ; but they have yet to learn the practice of rt spon-
sible government, ard many of them will find it difficult to
exert authority instead of criticizing and opposing it.

For those who have been witnessing ihe events in R^sia
during the fateful March days, all these apprehcr sions and
misgivings assume a concrete shape. We have watched the
crowds of workmen aid soldiers surrt'Ui cirg Ihr T^^tiris
Palace and tlroi gii g tie Ntvsky Prospect ; we have seen
the bonfires wiL per le its of the Emperor Nicholas aji^l

)-
h

VINOGRADOFF. REVOLUTION 17

Imperial crests piled up on them ; we have listened to the
discussions about capitalists, speculants and marauders in
the streets ; we have read tl e declamations against inter-
national " slaughterers " in Socialistic fly-sheets. Besides,
the world knows by this time that Marshal Hindenburg,
Count Reventlow, Herr Rohrbach and the rest are firmly
reckoning on the Russian front, while that disinterested
Socialist, Herr Scheidemann, is offering to Russian " com-
rades " an olive branch in the sh^pe of a German, Austrian
and Turkish Protectorate over Central Europe ; and yet
we read. every day accounts of the different policies pursued
by the two centres of authority in Petrograd — ^the Pro-
visional Government and the Council of Delegates of Work-
men and Soldiers. All these symptoms ought not to be
minimised, and testify to a great and real danger.

It is well, however, in the " troubled times " through
which Russia has to pass at the very moment when the
world war is reaching a crisis to keep firmly in view the
positive assets on which we may reasonably rely. The
elementary instinct of national self-preservation which has
led the Russian people out of even mere difficult situations
— ^some three hundred, some two hundred, and one hundred
years ago — is sure to reassert itself in the face of the object-
lessons of foreign invasion. Indeed it is reasserting itself
already in the army at the front ard in such national centres
as Moscow. The Constitutional parties are gradually con-
solidating themselves in opposition to the revolutionary
ones, and the formation and activity of the Provisional
Government is the best proof of patriotic spirit and of the
great advance in political understanding in the case of party
leaders. The fact that Gutchkoff and Miliukoff, the Octo-
brist and the Cadet, have joined hands in a policy of national
reconstruction speaks volumes in itself for the immense
progress which has been made in Russia in the direction of
mature statesmanship. It is no lame compromise that has
brought them together, but a profound insight into the
needs of the time and a self-sacrificing devotion to a common
cause — ^the service of free Russia. Both have renounced tlie
narrow aims of party advantage for the sake of constructive
action. As for the Premier, Prince Lvoff, he stands for the
mightiest organizing effort made by modem Russia — the
stupendous work of the Zemstvos and Municipal Unions,
achieved in spite of all sorts of discouraging influences on
the part of the old bureaucracy.

i8 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

A most important point to notice is the fact that the Con-
stitutionaUsts are bertainly not averse to social reforms.
On the contrary all practical demands of the Labour groups
are sure to be supported by them. In fact reasonable
Socialists ought to understand that a high road is opened
for the activity of their party by the present pohtical com-
bination, and that their chief interest lies in consolidating
the new regime. Men like Plekhanoff, the leader of the
" Minimalists," or Burtseff, the Social revolutionary, are
well aware of this, and it may be hoped that their influence
with the working men will prev?il. But trouble can hardly
be avoided in the immediate future, as the double-headed
control of affairs cannot continue indefiralely : the Revolu-
tionists will challenge the Constitutionalists if they are not
challenged by the latter.

As things stand every step in the direction of a National
Government is bound to strengthen the hands of the Con-
stitutionalists. Petrograd is not Russia, and no amount of
propaganda can give the Petrograd Extremists the leader-
ship of Russian public opinion. Their'* strergth is derived
chiefly, if not solely, from the intoxicating influence of the
Revolutionary catastrophe. The main line of policy to be
followed by constructive statesmanship is clearly indicated ;.
the centre of government must be shifted and regular
institutions substituted as quickly as possible for the
emergency powers of the day. Moscow is the historical
centre in which a National Government ought to regain
its balance. As for institutions, it is unfortunate that
the Constituent Assembly cannot be summoned forthwith
on account of the absence of millions of electors at the
front.

It seems to me, however, that there are other means by
which the Provisional Government might obtain decisive
national support. The Duma, elected on the vitiated
franchise devised by Kryjanovsky and enforced by Stolypin,
would be obviously inadequate as a body representing the
country. But the register of the Zemstvos ard Municipal
Councils is to be altered on a democratic basis without delay,
and it is to be hoped that the Government will at once take
advantage of this refc«-m to summon a congress of Zemstvos
and town representatives, on the pattern of the Union
Congresses of 1905, to discuss the principal questions of the
day. Such a congress would provide the dictatorial Com-
mittee of the so-called Provisional Government with a .

VINOGRADOFF. REVOLUTION 19

broad background of organized public opinion on which it
could rely in its struggle for law and order. In any case,
and whatever trouble there may be in store in the immediate
future, the main point has been won : Russia has shaken
off her fetters.

PACIFIC ROUTES TO SIBERIA

BY CHESTER WELLS PURINGTON

(Sir Robert W. Perks, Bart., in the Chair)

\Tth May, 1917

Few persons realize that the celebrated Robinson Crusoe,
or in reality Alexander Selkirk, homeward bound from his
lonely island, traversing the Pacific Ocean to China, pro-
ceeded back to England via Manchuria, Nerchinsk, the
whole of Siberia to Archangel, and thence to England. On
the authority of Defoe he may be called the first English-
man to have taken the trans-Siberian Route.

Too little attention has been paid to the Pacific side of
Siberia, and probably there are no people more ignorant
of that coast than the present-day Russians themselves.
It is fairly safe to assert that there was a better disseminated
knowledge concerning the settlements of Petropavlovsk,
Kamchatka, of Ochotsk, of the Aleutian Islands, of Anadir,
and of the Amur among educated Russians of the eighteenth
century than there is to-day. In twenty years' experience
amongst the Russians I have rarely found a man, except he
be a naval officer or a scientist, who took more than a pass-
ing interest in the doings of the intrepid pioneers who as it
were conquered the Pacific seaboard for the Russians, and
in the magnificent territories which they annexed, and over
a large portion of which the Russian flag floats to-day.

Who, for example, outside of a few geographers knows
the deeds of Vitus Bering, Tschirikof, Glottof, Saalaurof,
Nevodsikof, Krenitsin, Levashef, Bragin, Stadukin, Korelin,
Solovief, Liakhof, or others of that company which, in the
eighteenth century, braved the Pacific and the Arctic in
fragile boats, either of planks sewed together with leather
thongs or built with materials transported thousands of
miles overland from Russia and navigated largely by chance
from Ochotsk and Petropavlovsk eastward to the barren
shores of Alaska.

PURINGTON. ROUTES TO SIBERIA 21

In the nineteenth century the spirit of the adventurer, so
far as it concerned the Pacific, appeared to have faded and
become extinguished with Baranof and with Muravief
Amursky. Vladivostock and Nikolaievsk, the only settle-
ments which in that period pretended to the name of sea-
ports, remained nevertheless up to the time of the Russo-
Japanese War as httle more than fishing villages.

As for Anadir and Ochotsk, founded in the seventeenth
century. Port Ayan, Petropavlovsk and Bolsheretsk, of
which I doubt if one reader in a thousand knows even the
situation on a map, they remained, and still remain, desolate
and unattractive semi-official, semi-native outposts of
ci\alization, though destined to become of world fame and
importance as some of Russia's eastern, windows to the
world.

It is indeed difficult to-day to picture the old type of
Siberian merchant-adventurer who traversed the Pacific in
the frail " shittiks " or sewed boats in the early eighteenth
century. Notable among the names of these early traders
were those of Trapezriikof and Solovief, merchants of
Irkutsk, whose descendants in the nineteenth century
became pioneers in gold mining in the Northern Taiga of
the Yenesei, and afterwards in the mountains of the Vitim.
Another name notable in these expeditions was that of
Glotof, whose descendants to-day nm a line of steamers
on the Lena River,

After the discoveries by Bering in 1728 in the sea which
bears his name, expeditions for fur-trading purposes sent
to the various islands of the Aleutian group became fre-
quent.

Small syndicates of merchants of Irkutsk fitted out
expeditions which had to proceed by sledges overland to
Ochotsk, Anadir and Petropavlovsk. There the frail boats,
many of them actually sewn together, were constructed,
and with crews of from forty to seventy men set out on
those perilous voyages to Unalashka, to Kodiak and the
Aliaska Peninsula.

Beside the rigours of the sea these traders had to meet
the opposition of the native Aleuts, who in the eighteenth
century were by no means the docile race which the traveller
finds them to-day.

From two to four years elapsed from the time of dis-
patching these expeditions until their return, laden with
the skins of the fox and sea-otter. How valuable theie

22 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

cargoes were when once they had reached Irkutsk after
their long and varied journey by sea and land may be
judged by the following typical description.

In 1772 a voyage made by one Ivan Popof to the Aleu-
tians was financed by a company of merchants. Ten per
cent of the skins brought back went to the Russian Custom
House for the Crown, and the remainder of the proceeds
were divided in fifty-five shares. It resulted as follows for
the adventurers : each share consisted of twenty sea-otter
skins, sixteen black and brown fox, ten red fox, and three
sea-otter tails, and the share' sold for Rs.900 at Irkutsk,
making an approximate value for the cargo of Rs. 50,000.

Even after payment of ten per cent Customs duties to
the Russian Crown this sum is said to have represented a
handsome profit on the venture.

If the value of the sea-otter skins alone is considered,
taking the very moderate estimate of £200 per skin, at
present Alaska Commercial Co. prices in Alaska, this part
of the cargo of looo skins would be worth £200,000.

The Irkutsk trader of those days appears to have acted
as a middleman for China, and his furs were sold at Kiakta
on the border of Mongolia, to Chinese, especially the pelts
of the sea-otter. This trade has persisted even to the present
time among the Aleutian Islands, and I had the privilege
of spending a few weeks on a small trading steamer en-
gaged in the business in those waters in the year 1894.

Incidentally it may be mentioned that whereas the price
of red or stone fox skirs in Kamchatka in 1770 was Rs.2,
after reaching Kiakta, the great market point for deahng
with the Chinese, the same skins sold for Rs.9. The
quotation for sable skins at Kiakta in the eighteenth
century is given as Rs.io each.

Although the Russians reached Ochotsk by land, 12,999
miles east of St. Petersburg, in 1647, and although for 270
years Ochotsk has been asleep, it is well to remember that
the Russians are to-day railway builders. A look at the
map will- show that the distance from either Ochotsk or
Ayan to Yakutsk on the Lena River is less than 500 miles ;
also that the existing Amur railway, connecting up the
great grain fields of the Blagoveshensk plateau, approaches
to within 700 miles of Ayan. Both Yakutsk and the Zeya
are immense grain and cattle regions, and the former, on
the 62nd parallel, although sparsely cultivated, is said to
vie in fertihty with the Saskatchewan.

PURINGTON. ROUTES TO SIBERIA 23

The sea -haul from Vancouver, or Prince Rupert, is
shorter to Ayan in the Ochotsk Sea than to Yokohama,*
say 3300 miles from Vancouver to Ayan as against 4320
from Vancouver to Yokohama. There is an additional
1200 miles to add from Yokohama to Vladiv^ostock for
heavy freight going by the regular steamer route via
Nagasaki.

The distance between Ayan and Petrograd is 600 miles
shorter via Ayan, Abazin, north of Baikal, Kansk, Kras-
r'oyarsk, than the present route via Vladivostock and
Irkutsk. Thus freight destined for points in Siberia east of
KrasriOyarsk from western Canadian ports will save on
total haul from 2000 to 2500 miles by the Ayan route as
compared with the present roundabout route via Vladivo-
stock.

If you trace the route from Petrograd, the European
Continent, England, Montreal, across Canada, to Prince
Rupert, thence across the Pacific to Petrograd, you will set-
that the journey, on practically the 54th parallel of latitude,
appears to constitute the nearest practical approach to an
ail-rail route around the world.

The Siberian rail portion of this route will most assuredly
be built by the Russian Government in carrying out its
truly imperial railway programme. It is safe to prophesy
that it will be constructed within the next fifteen years.

On cost of freight transportation, in normal times, the
Ayan route possesses great advantages. The pre-war rate
for pieces under one ton in weight from Vladivostock to
Irkutsk was £5 per ton. From Irkutsk to the Lena River to
average points about £10 per ton. Say, that a piece of
agricultural machinery is to be sent either from Hull,
England, or Chicago, U.S., to Yakutsk on the Lena River;
freight Chicago or Hull say to Vladivostock via Kobe £2.
to £4 ; Vladivostock-Irkutsk via the mountainous route
of the Chinese eastern portion of the trans-Siberian £5 ;
Irkutsk-Yakutsk via 250 miles carting and 1500 miles river
haul £10 at least. Total with transfer charges £20 to £22.

Via Ayan route, say, HuU-Ayan, direct £2 ; Ayan to
point on the Lena river, say Usk-Kut, being a compara-
tively non-mountain route £3 ; Ust-Kut- Yakutsk, 1300
miles down stream River Lena, on good navigation, £2.
Total, say, with charges £8 per ton as against £22.

* Recently it was reported that Vice-President G. Bury of the Canadian
Pacific Railway had personally gone to Siberia to inspect conditions.

24 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

What may not be apparent, however, is the fact that
the northern route between Ayan and the junction point,
Kansk, traverses a dissected plateau region where the route
following the low watersheds avoids heavy grades, whereas
the present trans-Siberian route from Vladivostock to
Kansk traverses at least three mountain ranges, and the
alternate route via Nikolaievsk, Amur River to Sretensk
and Amur and trans-Siberian railways presents difficulties
which render transport equally expensive.

The pre-war freight rates in fact charged on the so-called
CI i.tse Eastern Division of the trans-Siberian, were from
one hundred to two hundred per cent higher than those
charged to the west of the Yenesei River.

It should be mentioned that as a preUminary to the
construction of the Ayan rail route a comparatively very
inexpensive improvement on present transportation is
possible, viz. the construction of an automobile chaussee
having a length of one hundred miles from Port Ayan to
connect the Maya River with this seaport.

On the Maya, which is a tributary to the Aldan, itself a
tributary of the Lena River, steamer navigation is possible
for four months of the year. The chaussee noted will link
up the ocean transport with the whole of the Lena region,
affording an outlet for grain ard cattle with all the atten-
dant products which will compete in the world markets.
The markets of the Far East, viz. China, Japan, etc., them-
selves will absorb the great part of the products thus
transported.

Ships coming to Port Ayan can bring cargoes of machinery
and foreign supplies badly needed by the inhabitants of
the Lena region, a population now estimated at close on
1,000,000, and constantly increasing.

Port Ayan possesses a harbour with a depth of eighteen
fathoms, and is, well protected from northerly winds, and
in the vicinity are several other harbours of similar size,
all possessing protection from the north, and good deep
water.

It is possible that detailed exploration may result in the
discovery of an even better port for transportation ter-
minus than Ayan, but eveh this port itself presents far better
terminal facilities than many of the great ports of the world>

As regards the ports of Vladivostock and Nikolaievsk on
the Siberian east coast it is of course well known that
Vladivostock is at present Russia's principal port of entry.

PURINGTON. ROUTES TO SIBERIA 25

It affords a fortunate opportunity for shipment of foreign
goods into the Empire, goods so badly needed during
Russia's time of stress, but it took a calamity of the present
magnitude to convince the Russian people that the Pacific
coast was important to its progress and success.

Enormous development has taken place at Vladivostock
since the beginning of the war, but the description of this
activity under present extraordinary conditions hardly
forms a proper part of the present article.

As regards NikoJaievsk, the writer had opportunity over
a period of several years of seeing the futile attempts at
the development of this port.

Founded in 1851, about contemporaneously with San
Francisco, Nikolaievsk, at the mouth of one of the greatest
rivers in the world, remained a dirty fishing village with
only a few good buildings practically up to the outbreak
of the present war. This, in spite of the fact that an im-
portant annual salmon catch of about 100,000,000 pounds
of fish was taken during the year within sight of the town.
It is true that American trading houses of Boston, Mass.,
such as Boardman & Co., H. Pearse & Co., Esshe, and
Cohen & Newman of San Francisco, were established at
Nikolaievsk in i860, while Enoch Emery had there a large
trading store in the 'eighties. This American trade died
out, however, and during the years 1907 to 1911, while I
was at Nikolaievsk, practically all foreign trade was in
German and Japanese hands.

The Government discussed aimlessly year after year the
project of deepening the south channel, giving entrance to
the river from the Straits of Tartary, but it was not until
1915 that a definite appropriation was made for this, and
for constructing adequate docks.

It is said that during the year 1915 the imports at Niko-
laievsk aggregated about 32,000 tons, and the exports of
soya beans, fish, etc., were about the same in tonnage.

Coming to the Arctic routes of transport, that via the
mouth of the Lena River is next to be considered. This
project has now reached the stage when a large Siberian
company has made an appropriation for the investigation
of this much -discussed route to Central East Siberia. It
has been shown, for example, that transportation to points
on the Upper Lena River from foreign points of shipment
can be practically cut in half if the Arctic Sea route can be
developed.

26 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

It is remarked by Mr. Schklovsky in his fasciralirg
account of the Kolyma River country that even in the
seventeenth century the Cossacks Bujin and Stadukin,
travelHng in small clumsy boats without map or compass,
made voya^s from Yakutsk on the Lena to the mouth oi
the Yana and Kolyma from 1200 to 2000 miles to the east-
ward through the unknown waste of water of the Lowei
Lena and the Arctic. These men accomplished voyages
which in the nineteenth century a succession of finely
equipped Arctic expeditions failed to achieve up to the
time of the notable voyage of Nordenskiold.

In 1628 the Cossack Vasili Bugor passed' from the Yenesei
to the Lena on ski, being a journey of some 1200 miles,
and perhaps the earliest winter spbrts excursion on record.

In 1735 Lieutenant Prontishef sailed from Yakutsk down
the Lena and out into the Arctic, but after wintering M
the mouth of the Olenek returned to Yakutsk. it

On August I (O.S.), 1736, Laptef left the Lena and pro-
ceeded westward as far as Cape Thaddeus to the westward ,
only sixty miles east of Cape Chelyaskin.

In 1648 a trader named Dezhnef is reported to have sailed
from Yakutsk in a small, boat and have proceeded io<^^'0
miles to the mouth of the Lena, and so to the eastward
around the Chukotsk Peninsula and East Cape, through
the Behring Sea, and reached the Anadir River. ^

This claim, although formerly upheld by Captain Cook,.
has more recently been discredited on account of the
vagueness of the records.

Bering, in 1728; sailing from Petropavlovsk in Kamchatkii,
penetrated the strait which now bears his name, and pro-
ceeded westward as far as Serdze Kamen on the north shore
of the Chukotsk Peninsula.

Shalaurof, a Russian merchant of Yakutsk, in one of the
" shitiki," or sewed boats, successfully made a journey from
that town down and out of the mouth of the Lena, thence
as far eastward as Chaun Bay and the Aiun Islands, 170 deg.
lat. E. of Greenwich, in 1761. But he was unable to double
Cape Shelagskoi, and returned up the Lena to Yakutsk m
1761. His total distance covered must have exceeded
4000 miles. Again, in 1764, he made another attempt,
and as nothing was heard from his voyage except vague
rumours that he was killed by the natives of the Chukotsk
Peninsula it is likely that his attempt to pass through the
Bering Strait was unsuccessful.

I
1

PURINGTON. ROUTES TO SIBERIA 27

Liakhoff, another Yakutsk merchant, discovered the New
Siberia Islands, off the Lena mouth, in 1771, and after that
for many years, especially after the further exploration of
these islands by Hedenstrom in 1809, there were numerous
Russian expeditions out of the Lena to the islands in search
of the Mammoth ivory which there exists in great quantity.

In recent years the Siberian or Liakhoff Islands have
been systematically explored by the late Baron Toll.

In 1780 Captain Cook succeeded in reaching Serdze
Kamen from the Bering Sea, but neither he nor any white
man before him, unless it were possibly Dezhnef, appears
to have rounded Cape Shelagskoi in either direction. Nor
had anyone succeeded in passing west from the Lena
beyond the Taimir Peninsula.

In fact, in spite of the heroic attempts of nineteenth
century navigators, including the ill-fated De Long, to pass
from Bering Sea to the eastward, there is no record of
successful voyages in this direction until within the past
few ,years.^From the westward, however, the brilliant
exploit of Prof. Nordenskiold successfully solved the
problem of the north-east passage from Europe around the
continent of Asia.

In 1879, with two vessels, the Vega and Lena, he made
the trip from Gothenburg, Sweden, to Yokohama, although
the Lena went up the Lena River while Nordenskiold went
on in the Vega. It should be mentioned that one of the
financial backers of Nordenskiold 's enterprise was Michael
Sibiryakof, the picturesque Siberian gold miner, who in
1863 staked the fabulously rich Blagoveshensky claim on
the Bodaibo River, from which he made a fortune. The
celebrated voyage of Nordenskiold is too familiar to be
dwelt on, but it may be recalled that the Lena, under
Capt. Johansen, a small vessel of ten feet draft, parting
company with the Vega north of the Lena delta on Sep-
tember 7th, entered the west or Bikof mouth of the Lena
and proceeded up stream 1800 miles, or to within 350 miles
of Bodaibo, on the Vitim, the centre of the rich gold-fields
of the Lena. The Vega doubled Cape Chelagskoi, and at
the end of September was caught in the ice at Kaluchin
Bay, proceeding on her voyage the following year. Nor-
denskiold remarks that on the very day he was caught an
American whaler, only five miles to the eastward, was in
water entirely free from ice, and returned to the Pacific the
same year through Bering Strait.

28 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Baron Toll, if I am correctly informed, in 1900 success-
fully sailed from the Kara Sea eastward, passed the Taimyr
Peninsula, but was forced to abandon his ship, and finaUy
perished on Bennet Island.

During the past five years the Kolyma, a Russian trans-
port, has twice made the journey from Vladivostock to the
Kolyma river-mouth and returned, while the noteworthy
voyage of Captain Vilkitsky, lately described in The Times
from Vladivostock to Archangel, has solved the problem of
the northern trip in a westerly direction.

In a letter recently at hand from Mr. Copley Amory of
New York, he gives an account of a voyage which he with
six other men made in 1914-15 from Seattle to Nizhni
Kolymsk in a sixty foot gasolene fishing schooner. They
left Seattle, Washington, in June, 1914, proceeded via.
Nome, Alaska, to the Kolyma, wintered there, and returned
to Seattle in the summer of 1915.

Commercially considered, the various accounts seem to
substantiate the following facts, namely, that the great
sea lying between Taimir Per insula and Bering Strait is
relatively free from ice, possibly on account of the immense
discharge into it of water comparatively warm from the
Lena, Yana, Olenek and Kolyma Rivers ; that the journey
from Bering Strait to New Siberian Islands (and conse-
quently to the east mouth of the Lena) can under favour-
able circumstances be performed in less than a month, and
that a deep bay, Borkai, directly to the east of the Lena
mouth, affords anchorage and safe harbour for unloading
of ships and transfer of freight to river barges.

Lena River steamboat captains tell me that the sea-
going tugs used on the Lower Lena have not infrequently
made trips to the Siberian Islands to accommodate the
fossil ivory hunters. Captain Bartlett, of the Stefanson
expedition, stated to me that he would have no hesitation
in taking a cargo from San Francisco to Borkaia Bay.

The development of the Lena route will afford water
transport for a distance from the mouth up stream as far
as the head of navigation on the Lena, a distance of over
2500 miles, and also up its great tributaries, the Vilui, the
Vitim, the Aldan and the Olekma. It will also afford an
outlet for grain and other agricultural products of the
Upper Lena valley ; also for cattle, hides, fish, ores, timber
and other products which are known to exist in the dis^
trict.

PURINGTON. ROUTES TO SIBERIA 29

It is even possible that rock salt, of which the Vilui
region contains the largest known deposits in the world,
may be profitably shipped via the Lena all-water route.

It should be stated that the area drained by the Lena
River and its tributaries comprises 895,000 square miles,
and of this it may be said that at least 10,000 square miles,
or over 6,000,000 acres, possess agricultural possibilities,
while its resources in animal products and in mineral wealth
have hardly been investigated. There are also strong indi-
cations of the existence of a great petroleum field in the
Lena drainage.

As has been stated, it seems hardly practical to attempt
the journey past the Taimir Peninsula for commercial pur-
poses in either an east or west direction. Nor does there
seem to be any particular need for doing so.

WTien we come to the western portion of Siberia .and
Russia and the northern sea routes of transport thereto it
is evident that their development commercially was much
earlier than was that of the Bering Sea route.

The earliest navigation from the Atlantic to the White
Sea was by the Norwegian Ottar in 870 a.d., referred to by
King Alfred the Great, and Eric, afterwards King of York,
is reported to have fought in a battle in 920 a.d. with the
~Biarmians at the mouth of the Dviua, at the point where
Archangel now stands.

By the middle of the sixteenth century there were many
English at Archangel, and Sir Hugh Willoughby in 1553
undertook an expedition into the Arctic with three ships.
Finally Stephen Borough in 1556 was fitted out by the
Moscow Company and started in the Search Thrift to tr}'
the north-east passage. He got no further than the Kara
Sea, not reaching the Gulf of Ob.

Barentz and Heemskirk, two Dutch navigators in 1594.
succeeded in rounding north-east Cape of Nova Zcmla, but
it was not until 1738 that Malgin and Skurakof, saihng
from Archangel and proceeding eastward, succeeded in
rounding the Samoyed Peninsula and getting to the Gulf
of Ob. Also in the same year Ofsin and Koskalef got even
further into the mouth of the Yer.esei.

It was not, however, until nearly a century and a half
later that any successful attempt to navigate commerciallv
from England via the Arctic Oct an 'to the Yentsei River
was made. A voyage of tl is characttr was performed by
Captain Wiggin in 1874, wl o reachtd the mcuth of the Ob

30 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

in the Diana. In 1875 Nordenskiold reached the mouth oi
the Yenesei and travelled up the river.

The first cargo of goods to the Yenesei was taken by the
Ymer in 1876, and the first vessel built in the Yenesei
which sailed to the Atlantic Was the Dawn, which, built at
Yeneseisk in 1878, was navigated by a Russian, Captain
Schwannenberg.

From 1894-99 Mr. F. L. Popham made several voyages
from Hull for commercial purposes to the Yenesei mouth,
and cargoes of machinery were brought from England and
transhipped to barges at the river-mouth for transport up
to Krasnoyarsk. A concession had been made by the
Russian Government in the way of abolishing all Custom
duties by this route, but in 1899, owing to a mistaken
pohcy, duties were put on, and Popham's attempt was
abandoned.

The writer was in Krasnoyarsk in 1898 and saw in the
Company's warehouse a collection of English-made goods,
which had been transported the previous year via the
mouth of the Yenesei. There they were transferred from
ocean-going steamer to barges and towed up the river a
distance of 1500 miles to Krasnoyarsk, the then terminus
of the trans-Siberian railway. The attempt was made
during two years, and it is understood that no physical
difficulties were encountered. One trip a year was con-
sidered possible for a steamer or a fleet of steamers.

The character of the merchandise imported, however, was
not such as the local market required, and apparently there
was a lack of judgment displayed in selecting the goods
shipped.

In 1900, according to Mr. Jones iied, twenty-four
steamers were sent by the Russian Government from
England and Germany to the Yenesei mouth, bringing
cargo for transhipment to Krasnoyarsk. This was due to
the congestion of the trans-Siberian line due to the Russo-
Japanese War.

In 191 1 Captain Webster in the Nimrod, purchased from
Sir Ernest Shackleton, reached the Yenesei, and he returned
to Europe via Krasnoyarsk.

Altogether up to 1914 the Russian maritime records take .
note of 150 ships which have attempted the voyage to the
Yenesei, and of these 80 per cent reached their destination.

From 1887 to 1898 100,000 tons/ of cargo came into
Siberia by this route.

I
I

PURINGTON. ROUTES TO SIBERIA 31

The recent successful revival of this transportation route,
now carried out for five successive years, is due to the energy
of Mr. Jonas Lied, Dr. Nansen^ and to Mr. A. E. Derry.
The activities of the Company which is carrying on the
enterprise have been chronicled in a paper in Proceedings
of the Royal Geographical Society and the Russian Sup-
plement cf The Times.

In 1912 the first attempt was made, but was unsuc-
cessful.

In 1913 a steamer, the Correct, of 1550 net tons, draft
17 feet, kft Tromso, Norway, August 5th, and entered the
mouth of the Yenesci August 27th, ard the following year
a 3000-ton boat drawing 23' I'jaded was sent, and after
discharging c?,rgo loaded Siberian butter at the Ob mouth
and returned to England.

In 1916 the Edam of 3500 tons accomplished the voyage
to Yenesei mouth, leaving Newcastle on August 9th and
arrivirg at a point 300 miles up the Yenesei River about the
20th September. Here the cargo was transferred to barges
and presumably reached its destination successfully. A
return cergo with grain, butter and other products was
brought to England.

For the 1914 season the writer was quoted by a shipping
firm in London a rate of £4 per shipped ton from Hull via
the Yenesei mouth to Krasnoyarsk, and it may be assumed
that this will be an approximate rate after normal condi-
tions are restored. This compares with a pre-war shipping
rate to the same point via sea route to Libau and thence
all rail to Krasnoyarsk of approximately £7 to £8, or prac-
tically one half. The lime from Hull via Yenesei mouth
route would be approximately forty days as against sixty
days via the Linau route.

Mr. Lied mentions the fact that already in 1914 Govern-
ment wireless stations were in operation at three points in
the Arctic coast adjacent to the Yenesei and Ob mouths,
namely Yugor Strait, Vaigach and Mare Sale.

As regards the transport to the mouth of the Ob, an
equally important project, it should be noted that the two
rivers, Yenesei and Ob, debouch into the Arctic Ocean at
points not far apart. While it has been found possible for
barges to take on freight destined for Upper Ob and Irkutsk
points at the mouth of the Gulf of Ob, it is not a scheme
for practical consideration. Therefore the project some
time ago reviewed in the Russian Supplement by Mr.

32 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Nosilof ior a capal connecting through the lamal Peninsula
from the Gulf of Kara to the Gulf of Ob is extremely impor*
tant. It is stated that this canal is already under construc-
tion, and eventually two separate routes will doubtless be
established, one with cargo destined for the Yenesei River
and one destined entirely for the Ob.

As to retiu^n cargoes, those from the Ob will be of aS
great importance as those from the Yenesei. These return
cargoes will include grain, timber, flax, hemp, frozen meat,
butter, hides and leather, furs and other animal products,
and very possibly mineral ore and concentrates, such as
zinc, lead and copper. The establishment of fish canneries
may be looked for in these Arctic regions, and canned fish
will form an important cargo.

The fourth route, which has received Httle consideration
up to the present time, is to connect with railways now
constructing from the Perm Goverrment to the Gulf of
Pechora at the northern end of the Ural chain.

Though tributary to a comparatively unproductive
country in agricultural products, the Arctic coast in this
vicinity is rich in timber and fish products. The railway in
question will assist in the development of an oil fit Id on
the Upper Pechora, which is considtrtd of no little impcrt-
ance. Railways are already projected connectir g Obaorsk
with Kaipudnya Bay to the north-west. Ural railways
connecting the Arctic with Pechora will be of great sigi ifi-
cance in the development of this immense timbered region
of the Northern Ural.

The best-known route connecting the Russian Arciic
coast with the interior is that recently developed via the
Kola Peninsula to the north-west of Archar.gel. It is very
surprising that the Murman coast las bt^en allowed to rerraiii
for over 200 years as merely a seat (^f n lonely morastery;
lying as it does within 700 miles of St. Petersburg.

Sirce rail commuricaiion was cstablislied between Arch-
angel and Vologda the situation was a little improved, but
as this was orly by narrow gauge and a roundabout route
to St. Petersburg rates were very expensive, and the h.ai.e-.-
iirg of freight was awkward and slow.

Nothing is more illustrative of the imprcctical methods
pursued by the Russiars previous to the outbreak of tie
present war in hardlirg trarrpc rial ior prebhn-s.

The urquestior jble value et 1he Ki k-Peiregn.c- nilw?y,
recently opened, gives en a sni:.ll seile 1 1 ie ti et il.e b\upti-.-

PURINGTON. ROUTES TO SIBERIA 33

dous value of the Arctic and Pacific ports to the develop-
ment of th^ Russian Empire.

The estabhshment of a chain of wireless stations on the
Arctic coast from East Cape on Bering Strait westward to
Kola is now a definite project, and several of the stations
are abready in use. The immense assistance which the use
of aircraft can give locally in crossing barren and trackless
tundra stretches of the north will be taken full advantage
of during preliminary work in Russia's present Empire-
building plans for developing her northern and eastern
waterways, and in the vast railway construction programme
necessary to make the connections with these new-found
outlets to the sea.

DUELLING FROM A RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH
POINT OF VIEW

BY BARON A. HEYKING, D.C.L.

(The Right Hon. Sir Albkrt Spickr, Baki., in ihk Chair)
7.2nd June ^ 1917

1 CANNOT help thinking that the revolution in Russia, which
has brought about great changes of a democratic and radical
character in the social standing of the soldiers with their
officers, must also affect what wa s considered a privilege of
the latter, viz. duelling. From the democratic point of view
of equahty in honour there is no plausible reason why duels
should be confiijed to officers only. But if on account of
equality of rights the privilege of duelling must be extended
to the privates of the army, this would at the same time
entail a reductio ad absurdum of the whole institution of
duelling. The revolution may therefore revolutionize also
the existing regulations about duelling of officers of the
Russian Army. But even a greater influence upon the prac-
tice will probably be exercised by the close, friendly rela-
tions which very happily unite Great Britain and Russia.
There seems no more fruitful aspect of these friendly
relations than in a co-ordinatiori of the English and Russian
point of view upon the duel honoris causa.

It is a strange coincidence that it was approximately at
the same time that Eri gland suppressed duelling and Russia
introduced it, for very different, if not diametrically opposed
reasons. This institution existed in England for centuries
as a relic of feudal times, until civac progress and the dic-
tates of reason prevailed against it. On the contrary,
Russia, who was not labouring under the same historical
conditions as England, and had hitherto not believed in
duelling, adopted it in her somewhat indiscriminate imita-
tion of Continental Western methods. The presentnday
social irviluence of England upon Russia may now produce

HEYKING. DUELLING 35

a fundamental change in the aspect of duelling in that
country, as a result of the foreign, not Russian, origin of
the practice, and the desire to follow the lead of England
in this matter.

There is perhaps no civilized country in the world which
has more reason to reconsider its views on duelling than
Russia, who lias had the great misfortune to lose through
it two of her most gifted poetical geniuses, Pushkin and
Lermontoff. And since Russia has, thanks to the revolu-
tion, shown her intention of becoming an up-to-date
country, she is doubly interested in shaking off the old
fetters of the ancient regime, and amongst them the
medieval practice of duelling.

One of the most interesting and convincing proofs of
biological change and evolution is shown in the rudimentary
organs contained in the bodies of living beings. These
organs have now no functional value, and often bring about
obstruction, disease, and even death. They are the rem-
nants of a previous form of existence, and though they were
of importance and necessity then, they have, under present
conditions of life, lost their utility and reason (or existence.
Science has recognized the desirability of removing such
organs as, for instance, the appendix, which is a constant
danger to the life of the individual.

As in the case of the individual, so with human communi-
ties. There, owing to a conservatism which tends to inter-
fere with the capacity for adaptation, coupled with a mental
backwardness which does not sufficiently realize the change
in the conditions of social life, we see the survival of customs,
habits and rules which have long ago lost their significance
and necessity, and are an encumbrance and danger to
society. This applies particularly to duelling, which is still
in vogue on the G)ntinent, but has been recognized as an
exploded method of settlirg disputes which has no place
whatsoever in modern civilized society.

The War has in so many ways brought about enlighten-
ment and progress that we may suppose that it will also
exercise an influence upon the custom of resorting to the
duel. Russian public opinion has now expressed itself
openly in favour of Enghsh methods of education, Enghsh
"stoms and habits, and the question is whether British

iluence, which is at present felt so strongly in Russia,
will also m?ke iiself felt as regards the practice of duel-
ling.

36 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

The English point of view is not only in harmony with
the existing law, which in all civiHzed countries considers
duelling to be a punishable offence, but it is also in full
consonance with the stage of civilization which we have
reached, and which cannot in any way be regarded as
inferior to that of ancient Greece and Rome. To the Greeks
and Romans dueUing was unheard of, for the simple reason
that the idea of citizenship prevailed so much over con-
siderations of a purely personal nature that the possibility
of avoiding the law by a personal vindication of one's
honour was unthinkable. And this is exactly the way in
which all the Anglo-Saxon world, the British Empire and
the United States of America treat this question at present.

An Englishman appreciates honour, but his idea of it is
bound up with the idea of citizenship. An Englishman
leaves it to the law and to public opinion to vindicate his
honour, because he recognizes the law and public opinionm
as paramount under all circumstances, just as it was in theV
days of the Greeks and Romans. He does not admit per-
sonal interference. If anyone has been slandered and his
good reputation injured, he knows that his best course is
to bring the matter before the law-courts, where he will
receive satisfaction by a judgment which will be publicly
recognized. If he has suffered through ill-treatment,
provocation, or bad behaviour he knows that the rules of
society and public opinion are so strong that the offender
and not himself will be the sufferer, and in that way also
he gets satisfaction, and there is no need for a vindication
of his honour by a duel. . •

If a' man, through some act of aggression against hitnt*
is not in danger of losing the esteem ofliis own class, his
honour cannot be involved. Only too often, when honour
was supposed to be the motive for settling a dispute by a
duel, the true motive was personal revenge. But personal
revenge by the use of deadly weapons cannot be admitted
in a civihzed community, where the law must in all cases
be the weapon for redress. That is why an Englishman is
always ready to apologize if he has been found guilty of
transgressing against the rules of society and good form.
If an Englishman under such circumstances does not
apologize he is not considered to be a true gentleman, and
his position in society is endangered. The power of pubUc
opinion is so strong in this respect that the consequences
are of great importance to every Englishman, and he has

HEYKING. DUELLING 37

to submit. Buckle, in his History of Civilization in England
(vol. ii., p. 137, note 71), says quite truly: "The learned
professions have each their own tribunal, to which their
members are amenable, and the highest ranks of society,
however imperfect their standaid of morality may be, are
perfectly competent to enforce that standard by means ol
social penalties, without resorting either to trial by law or
tri?,l by battle."

Defenders of duelling often proclaim that good manners
in society can only be assured by the possibility of duel?.
But this is not so, judging from Erglish society, which is
more fastidious as to forms and manners than many Con-
tinental societies which uphold duelling. Some people
think that Enghshmen use in speech with one another such
strong language that the manners of society suffer through
it, and thal^^this would not occur if there were duelling.
As a matte/ of fact good English society observes a very
elaborate phraseology, and even men who are incensed
against one another would not resort to strong language,
because, as already mentioned, they would be regarded as
ungentlemanly and vulgar. Good English society has a
horror of vulgarity, and is certainly not less refined than
society on the Continent. Of course Englishmen do not
suffer from an overstrained point of honour, and they would
not feel themselves offended if, for instance, they were once
convicted of having said or done an unwise thing.

It is also sometimes said that a man must always be
ready to prove his courage, and that this can only be done
by duelling. That is a point of view which can scarcely be
admitted. Apart from the fact that a duel is not at all a
test of courage, every man has a right to be considered
courageous, whether he is a duellist or not. Besides, there
are many and better ways of showing courage. During
''the present war no one can accuse the millions of British
fighters of lacking in courage, yet they have never fought
duels. Napoleon was the sworn foe of the duel. One of
his best-known sayings is, " Bon duelliste, mauvais soldaL"

During the agrarian upheavals in Russia in 1905, when
the landowners had to prove their courage in* order to
maintain themselves on their estates, it was rather strange
to see that notorious duellists, who were always ready to
make a show of their alleged courage, were the first to
desert their estates and to seek safety in flight. It can
hardly be considered as a fair test of courage to fight ujider

38 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

moral compulsion exercised by perverted public opinion
on the combatants.

But the surest sign that the duel is a relic of the past
can be traced in the anti-democratic spirit which underlies
it. A democracy like Great Britain or the United States
could not tolerate it. Democracy means that every honest
man has the same sense of honour irrespective of his walk
in life. The English meaning of the word " gentleman "
is an honourable man commanding respect in all classes
of society. The term can apply whether he be a duke or
a small merchant. Folio win]g this train of thought, " honour
means nothing else than the esteem assured to any man
who has decent manners, is honourable in his business
dealings, and is a useful member of society." According,
therefore, to the democratic ideal, the conception of honour
applies to all classes alike. Duellirg stands in open con-
tradiction to this conception. Amongst the lower classes^l
there has never been a question of duelling, owing to theUJ
fact that this practice has its origin in the feudal idea of
chivalry. In the year 501 Gondebald, kirg of the Bur-
gundians, passed a law authorizirjg trial by judicial combat,
and from there this custom spread to every country of
Europe. The judicial duel is the direct parent of the
modern duel.

Of course only freemen could fight. The underlying idea
was that he who was in the right had special help from
God, and must therefore be the victor. The right to fight
out quarrels by arms was also derived from the idea of the
feudal state, where the central government had a com-
paratively small part in regulating the affairs of the State.
The settling of differences was thus left in the hands of the
individual, owing to the weakness of the central power
and prevailing superstition.

Fighting duels has been, as already said, the privilege
of the higher classes. But it is not quite clear wherein lies
the limit for people who are supposed to be worthy of
fighting duels and those who are not. In olden times only
the nobility and the military were considered to have this
right, while later on University students were also deemed
to p)ossess the right to take satisfaction and demand it by
duels. But when industry and commerce made themselves
felt as important factors in the life of the State the repre-
sentatives of those classes began to claim the same right.
However, the right to demand satisfaction by a duel is

HEYKING. DUELLING 39

still not supposed to belong to all men and all classes, and
It is this feature which makes it unacceptable to the modern
democratic structure of society. The duellists form, so to
say, a caste — ^a society acting contrary to the law, such as
the Caraorra in Naples, the Mafiia in Sicily, or the Black
Hand in America, associations which, of course, pursue
different aims, but, in common with the duellists, are in
open opposition to the existing law and addicted to violent
methods.

Unbridled pugnacity, which pays no regard to human
hfe, or considers duellirg a kind of sport, can no longer be
tolerated in modern communities, where it is considered
to be the duty of each individual to respect the rights and
personality of the other. It is a rather curious fact that
the less a man is living by his own ex( rlions the more in-
clined he is to lay stress on amour propre and sensitiveness
on the point of honour. Men of the working classes and
those who have to earn their own livings have no time to
indulge in such egotistic and petty preter.siors. In England
the idea of class honour has, broadly speaking, been replaced
by the ideas of honesty and respectability comprising all
classes of society — ideas which are, from an ethical point
of view, infinitely sounder, and are applicable to all members
of society. Honesty and respectability cannot be ensured
by duelling or any other ilk gal act, but are only acquired
by a conduct of life which secures such a reputation. It is
said, " By their fruits ye shall know them." There is a
patent difference between the conduct ard behaviour of
duellists and non-duellists. The duellist does not need to
be so careful as to his behaviour because he has a weapon
at his disposal which is supposed to repair any wrong done,
and gives him the opportunity of putting himself in the
right. It is a well-known fact that when a duellist sees
that he is in the wrong he endeavours to put himself right
by challenging his enemy, and it is also a fact that the
duellist claims to be able to make good any offence coi^-
mitted by offering " satisfaction " with arms to the injured
party. On the contrary, the non-duellist does not harbour
such illusions, but endeavours to avoid being aggressive or
quarrelsome or trespassing on the rights of his fellow-men.
He is, moreover, always ready to apologize if he is in the
3?/vrDng. .

-. The absence of duelling has strongly influenced modem
English ways in social life, and forms a distinct character-

40 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

istic of Englishmen. It is considered very bad form accord-
ing to English ideas to be quarrelsome, to contradict, or to
provoke an oversharp discussion. For the same reason in
English mess-rooms it is the custom to avoid speaking of
women. Respect for individual personality is responsible
for this. It is truly said of Englishmen that " their passion
for personal freedom has made them chary of treading on
one another's toes."

The absurdity of challenging anyone to a duel and
making his honour dependent on it is illustrated in the
case of a man who enjoys a good reputation and has proved
during a long lifetime to be of a high moral character. If
such a man is provoked by unseemly behaviour on the part
of another it cannot conceivably endanger his reputation,
and it would be absurd for him to fight a duel on this
account as his reputation is already estabhshed. In this
respect the careers of the great English statesmen are
especially noteworthy and can be models for others. Many
a public man in England has in the heat of political con-
troversy been accused by his adversaries of stupidity,
arrogance, and so forth without the slightest disturbance
10 his own self-respect or that of others towards him.
These men had espoused the cause of the public interest,
and had acquired a discipline of character by which they
subordinated their own personal feehngs to the public aims
they were prosecuting. The provocation of duels amongst
Parliamentarians and Ministers of State on the Continent
always produces a pitiful impression in England, where it
is considered that such men do not sufficiently realize the
great public interests in which they are engaged.

According to Continental legislation duellists are not
considered as ordinary criminals. In England this point of
view was abandoned at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. In 1808 a Major Campbell was sentenced to death
for duelling, and in 1813, in the case of Captain Blundell,
who was killed in a duel, the surviving combatant and the
seconds were convicted of murder and sentenced to death
by hanging. In 1844 the Articles of War were amended to
the tffect that " every person who shall fight or promote
a duel, or take any steps thereto, or who shall not do his
best to prevent a duel, shall, if an officer, be cashiered, or
suffer such other penalty as a general court-mar-^ial shall
award." By the same Article it was expressly declared
that to accept or to tender apologies for wrong or insult.

HEYKING. DUELLING 41

given or received, were suitable to the character of honour-
able men. English sociiety, always being on the side of the
law, adjusted its opinion about the duel in conformity with
these enactments.

The problem of settling disputes affecting honour has
also a religious aspect which, strange to say, is on the Con-
tinent ordinarily left entirely out of account. It is supposed
that in affairs of honour not only considerations of public
order and the requirements of the law, but also the tenets
of religion must give way. Such a p)oint of view amounts
to anarchism coupled with egotism. In the Middle Ages,
when the Christian religion confined itself mainly to miracle
stories, it was perhaps easier to overlook its ethical mean-
ing. But at the present day, when the moral principles of
the Christian religion have been more and more placed in
the foreground of religious teaching, it is hardly possible to
overlook the fact that the vindication of honour by wilful
vengeance is diametrically opposed to a Christian line of
conduct. The necessities of the State |nay perhaps serve
as an excuse for infringing the Christian moral code, the
more so as we are told Christ urged that w^ must render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's. A Christian soldier has
to fight when the State commands him to do so. But in
the case of'duelling this excuse does not exist, as the modem
civilized Sate forbids expressly this sort of private warfare.
The principles laid down by the First Epistle of St. Peter
ii. 19-21, the Gospels of St. Matthew v. 39, and St. Mark
xi. 25, make it abundantly clear what the Christian attitude
towards duelling should be :

1. " For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience
toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

" For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your
faults, ye shall take it patiently ? but if, when ye do well,
and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with
God.

" For even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow
His steps " (i Peter ii. 19-21).

2. " But I say unto you. That ye resist not evil : but
whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him
the other also " (St. Matthew v. 39).

3. " And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have
ought against any : that your Father also which is in heaven
may forgive you your trespasses " (St. Mark xi. 25).

42 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Can one conceive the possibility of one of the Saints, or
Apostles, or Martyrs ^taking part in a duel ? Even the
heathen — as, for instance, the Hindus, whose religion is
too often underestimated by Christiars — ^would never fight
a duel because it contradicts their religion. But Christian
duellists may be good church-goers, ard consider them-
selves orthodox, arid yet do not seem to reahze that to
fight a duel is in direct opposition to the fundamental
Christian principles to which they proftss allegiance.

A duellist cannot excuse himself on the grounds of having
acted on the spur of the moment on passion or strong
provocation, which could be considered as somewhat
mitigating the offence and minimizing his personal respon-
sibility, as duellii g often takes place days after the act of
provocation, and amounts, therefore, to premeditated and
cold-blooded murder, the outcome of a long-standirg vin-
dictiveness. Continental jurists, who wish to give the duel
a different appearance frcm pr^ m.editated murder, attach
great importance to the fact that in duelling certain rules
must be observed ; that both adv^ersarics are on the alert
and can defend themselves, and so forth. But in reality
these circumstances only serve to aggravate the offence
from the point of view of crime, as they clearly manifest
the animus delinquendi. One would thinlc that European
civilization, which God be thanked has reached the age of
reason, and looks down with scorn on the superstition and
absurd practices of the Middle Ages, would have long ago
abandoned duelling as contrary to common sense. As a
matter of fact it often happens that in a duel the offended
party and not the offender is the one to suffer.

Duelling is altogether unfair and unsportsmanlike. There
is no handicap provided for the better swordsman or, the
superior shot.. The great exponents of duelling are too
often sure to avoid any danger by killing their adversary
before he can possibly have a fair chance of defer.ding him-
self. Having the issue in their own hands, there is really
no bravery on their part in being wilUng to face their
adversary. The equipment of a French journalist of repute
is not only his style but also his mastery in fencing. Rcche-
fort and Paulde Cassagnac could insult a man with impunity,
because should a duel be the result" they were quite safe,
owing to their proficiency in fencing.

If needs be, a boxing bout is a much better test of per-
sonal courage. At a public meeting in London an orator

I
I

HEYKING. DUELLING 43

was interrupted by the remark, " You are a liar ! " " If
you repeat that once more I shall punch your head,"
ejaculated the orator. " You are a liar ! " repeated the
interrupter. Whereupon the orator left the platform and
carried out his threat, amidst the applause of the meeting.
Before continuing his speech, he said : " I know I should
not have done that as a gentleman, but before being a
gentleman I am an Englishman." This way of dealing with
the offender was certainly more humane, more courageous,
and more sensible than fighting a duel under similar provo-
cation. At an English railway station a girl came out of
a railway carriage, and, pointing to a man who followed
her, addressed herself to a gentleman standing on the plat-
form, saying, " I have been insulted by that man." The
gentleman, without a moment's hesitation, went up to the
man, told him of the girl's accusation, and, receiving a
rude reply, dealt him a blow which felled him to the ground.
This act of chivalry was much more to the point than a
duel could possibly be. In a tube lift in London, where
people were standing closely packed together, a man whose
toes had been trodden on struck his neighbour with his fist
on the chin. The gentleman who received the blow re-
mained unperturbed, and said in a quiet but determined
tone, " I shall give you in charge of the police." He did
so, and his aggressor was brought to justice and received
a well-deserved punishment. This manner of dealing with
petty instances of bad behaviour is palpably preferable to
duelling. It requires that self-control which Englishmen
justly consider one of the primary aims of the education
of a gentleman.

Englishmen do not acknowledge the medieval, selfish,
and overdrawn sensibility called the point d'honneur, which
produces a kind of hot-house atmosphere in which the
pernicious fungus of the duel thrives and prospers.

But even admitting the claims of the point d'honneur, it
remains a_ fact that an infinitely small number of offences
and quarrels touching honour lead to duels. Social relations
have become more and more comphcated and varied, and.
are not of a nature to admit of settling them by the rudi-
mentary practice of dueUirg. Many men have somehow
trod on each other's toes without bringing their grievance
to a head. Many avoid each other's company or are simply
not on speaking terms, without, however, feeling the neces-
sity of resorting to a duel. The consciousness that in the

44 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

great majority of cases duelling offers no possibility of a
practical issue dim^ishes more and more the number of
duels.

It is a rather strange fact that duellists trying to vindi-
cate their honour leave out of account the fact that the
offence committed may be in itself dishonoiu^able, as, for
instance, in the cases of impropriety with women, false
accusations, slander, and so forth. The combatants in a
duel are considered to be both men of honour, as according
to the code of honour no duel can be fought with a man
who has lost his honour. Now, if a man has offer.ded
another by a dishonourable action, he has lost his honour,
and, strictly speaking, such a man should not be called out
to a duel. If, none the less, a duel takes place, it implies
the unwarranted and nonsensical rehabilitation of a man
who has lost his honour. A typical example may serve as
an illustration. Duellists are specially uncompromising
about the obligation of fighting a duel in cases of seduction
of a near female relative and a refusal on the part of the
seducer to marry her. There can be no doubt that such
an action is dishonourable. And yet a duellist finds himself
bound to call such a despicable man out to a duel, and in
doing so to give him the privilege of being considered a
man of honour by the very fact that he is challenged to
fight a duel. In countries where duelling is out of the
question — for instance, in Norway ar.d Sweden — no one
would dream of doing a scoundrel the honour of fighting
him in a duel ; he may be horse-whipped or punished other-
wise— that would certainly be more to the point. In
England public opinion ostracizes' men of that sort ; they
become outlaws of society.

According to a dueUist's point of view, a man loses his
honour if he does not take revenge by a duel for an offence
committed against him or his women -folk. It needs no
further explanation that the wrong committed must be
redressed by all possible lawful means. Revindication of
honour is indispensable. But the question is whether the
duel can be considered as a proper method of redress, and
whether in case of an offence committed against a woman
a man is under the obligation to fight a duel for her sake.
In our present state of civilization a woman has the possi-
bility of vindicating her honour herself, and only so far as
she expressly wishes in doing so to be assisted by a man
has the latter the right to t3,ke the matter up in her place.

HEYKING. DUELLING 45

This way of dealing with the matter recognizes the principle
of equality of personal rights of women and men, and gives
at the same time a chance to women to develop their sense
of moral responsibility. Owing to the tutelage exercised
over them by men throughout the past centuries, they are
sometimes deficient in that respect.

Up to the present time a difference was made in principle
between the honour of a man and that of a woman. This
was due to the different positions occupied by men and
women in society. It was argued that it was the man's
duty to uphold social order in the State, local community,
family, and so forth, and to that end he must guard his
person against any attempts to deprive him of the character
of an esteemed and recognized member of society. On the
other hand, the woman's duty was limited to her position
as a wife and mother, and anything which endangered that
position would minimize her personal value in the eyes of
human society, which is built up on the institution of
marriage. The man lose^ his honour when he ceases to
uphold the laws of that society, the woman when she
endangers the proper observance of her present or future
duties as a wife and mother. But this difference in man's
and woman's honour has now been effaced to a great extent
by the changes which have taken place in the position of
women. In the modem Slate women have become factors
in pubhc life, and claim equality of rights with men. Ac-
cordingly, the honour of a woman can no longer be limited
to sex honour, but must be in its essence identical with the
man's honour.

Up to quite recently men considered it their duty, from
motives of chivalry, to defend the honour of women, and
this proved to be the most prolific source of duelling. But
things are changing. There are nowadays many women
who consider that this sort of chivalry is very far from com-
plimentary to them, and places them in an inferior position,
by reason of their supposed inability to defend themselves.
As long as physical force played the chief part in regulating
the affairs of society this was necessarily so, but since the
arm of the law and the police takes the place of physical
force, and women derive the same benefits from these
safeguards as men, this sort of chivalry has becon:e out
of date and unnecessary. The duel is supposed to be a
prerogative of n^an, but all that has been said about its
uselessness as a true weapon of justice in settlirg the quarrels

46 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

and affairs of men applies in the same way to those ol
women. If a woman's reputation has been damaged, from
a dramatic and theatrical point of view perhaps it may be
desirable to fight a duel, but a real reparation can only be
secured by the law, when the oifence committed can be
pubhcly redressed by evidence to the contrary. If an
offence committed is in itself irreparable, it is obvious that
a duel cannot be an adequate remedy, as a duel is in itself
a cataclysm, and though it may satisfy vengeance, it
cannot redress. The fact that an offender is ready to place
himself at the disposal of a man who will shoot at him
or thrust him through with a sword is considered by the
duellists as a circumstance which must give satisfaction
to the person offended. But, after all, it is a poor thing
for someone who has suffered an irreparable wrong to be
allowed to wreak his vengeance on the wrongdoer. There
is no moral sense in it.

The case of self-defence when hfe is endangered may be
looked upon differently. Quite recently Lieutenant Mal-
colm, who was tried and acquitted of the murder of Anton
Baumberg, a Russian Jew, in an affair regarding Mrs.
Malcolm, in the first instance called Baumberg out to fight
a duel. When the latter did not accept the challenge,
Malcolm soundly thrashed him ; but, on finding out that
Baumberg had provided himself with a revolver and was
resolved to use it, Malcolm shot him. The acquittal of
Malcolm speaks for itself : his course of action was much
more to the point than a duel could possibly have been.

Of all the writers and philosophers who have expressed
themselves against dueUing, Montesquieu in his Lctircs,
Persanes, Labruy^re, Greyile de Girardin, Jtan Jacques
Rousseau, Edward von Hartmarn, and Schopenhauer, the
latter is perhaps the most convircing. He explains that
according to the tenets of the point d'honneur, honour does
not consist in the opinion of others about our moral value,
but simply in the outward acts which would imply such
an opinion, irrespective of whether such an opinion existed
or not. Others, therefore, may have a very bad opinion
about our conduct and despise us. Our honour remains
untouched so long as no one dares to express that opinion.
On the contrary, even if we by our actions and qualities
win the high esteem of our fellow-men, it is only necessary
for some person, even the most ignorant and foolish, to
express his lack of esteem for us, and lo, our reputation for

HEYKING. DUELLING, 47

honour is gone if we do not repair it by a duel. The con-
duct of a man may be good and honourable, his conscience
may be clean and his mtelligence great, but all that cannot
save him from losing bis " honour," if another man, who
perhaps has not infringed the point d'honneur, but is in
other respects a scamp, a gambler, ard altogether good for
nothing, chooses to belittle him in the eyes of his fellow-
men. If such a man insults him, the insult is taken as true
and well founded until it is washed out in blocd. In short,
the offended is supposed to be what he was called by the
offtndt.r, if he has not challenged him to a combat by duel.
The m.en of " honour " will despise bim, ostentatiously
avoid his society, ard so forlh. " Duelling," says Schopen-
hauer, " tends to place might for right. It is an easy matter
lor people with hmitcd intelligences to appeal to a decision
by arms each time they firid themselves losers in arguments.
If, for instance, clever C-a.jus debates with stupid Sem-
pronius on a scientific question, and Cajus by better judg-
ment and sounder logic proves to be the superior debater,
causing S;mprorius to appear in the public eye as the
losing party, the latter needs only to become rude and
offensive and the legitimate and indubitable triumph of
Cajus is annihilated if he does not answer the rudeness of
S. mpronius by greater rudeness. Sempronius, by these
means, is in the eyts of men of ' honour ' the victor. Truth,
knowledge, intelligence, wit, are of no avail. Rudeness
beats them all. But if Cajus answers wiih greater rudeness,
a duel becomes inevitable, ard should Sempronius happen
to be the better shot, he will have it all his own way,
and will be admired for his ' victory ' by the men of
' honour.' "

The best way of dealing with the duel is to recogrize the
necessity for resorting to arbitration in affairs touching
honour if the parties do not like to appeal to the law. This
principle has already been introduced in Russia and other
countries by special regulations, and there is every reason
to believe that it will be further developed, especially if
British influence is allowed to have a voice in the matter.
The principle of arbitration could be introduced by law,
and also by public opinion. It would have to be estabhshed
as right and proper that arbitration should take the place
of the duel. There is no necessity fcr a permanent court
of arbitration, but in each single case the pr.rties would
have to elect arbitrators, one or an equal number of arbi-

48 U.R.S..A. PROCEEDINGS

trators for each party, and the latter would have to etec*
a superarbitrator as their president. It would be the difty
of the court to investigate the case, and to 'fix the blame
on the party at fault ; .that party would have to withdraw
the offence, express his regret, recognize his guilt, and
offer formal apologies. This would be the best possible
reparation for any wrong committed against honour.

Such Courts of Honour have been very rarely resorted
to in England because Enghshmen, as already mentioned,
find it more expedient to apply to the ordinary law-courts.
At the same time it is very characteristic of Englishmen
that the question of honour, from a Continental point of
view, does not play a great part in English social life.
Englishmen believe much more in duty than in honoilr,
and duty certainly stands on a higher plane from a moral
point of view.

In ancient Rome civic honour was an attribute of the
citizen, guaranteed by the State. Every Roman citizen,
every vir bonus et honestus, who led an upright and moral
hfe, had a right to the esteem of his compatiiots. The
civic honour exi$timatio was the recognition by society of
the ethical value of an individual. This also in our ovy-n time
forms the idea of honour, only it has ceased to be a juridical
conception, and has become of a purely social valiie.
Everyone receives recognition of his own personal value *
in the esteem which he enjoys in his particular sphere of
life, approximately in the same way as the value of a writer
is deduced from the criticisms of his works. Thus, in iiie
case of honour, it is not sufficient that a person is conscious
of his own value, but in order to maintain his social position
it is necessary that this self-consciousness of honour "i^
shared by his fellow-men. '^••

Not so with duty. Here th^ opinion of others does not
matter. If a man acts from motives of duty, every con-
sideration of the opinion of others must be lost sight cf in
order that the idea of working for moral good, whicli he
t:onceives to be his duty, can be accomplished. Moral duty
is superior to the judgment of the multitude. Morahty is
derived from the yearning of the soul towards the goofl,
and the obligation which is felt towards that which is
recognized as good. The man who is conscious of his d-aSfy
has the one aim in view that his action shall correspoili
with the moral principles which he recognizes as obUgatdr^.
The result of doing one's duty is self-respect, while iht '*#■•

HEYKING. DUELLING 49

joyment of " honour " assures respect on the part of others.
Thus duty and honour complement one another, being
different in their essence. The difference between them is
not apparent so long as thfe carrying out of duty assures at
the same time the esteem of others. But as soon as duty
and honour come into collision it becomes apparent whicik
of them stands higher from an ethical point of view. The
confession of the Italian priest-astronomer, " E pur si
muove " (And still she moves), was heroic, inspired as he
was by the holy duty of faithfulness to personal convictions,
but none the less only brought him dishonour, hatred and.
excommunication. On the other hand, lack of duty often
does not interfere with a man's honour or the place which
he occupies in society. Honour, on the whole, is far more
easily satisfied than duty, which has for its judge the in-
exorable tribural of the conscience. In the light of duty,
duelling appears particularly petty and insignificant.

It is good to defend one's honour (not by fighting duels,
but by legal and social means), but it is even better to reahze
that duty stands higher than honour.

The conclusion to be drawn, therefore, is that duelhng
Ls^ hke a dangerous rudimentary organ in the human body,
a pernicious anachronism in the body politic and social of
modern life. It is objectionable from the point of view of
the law ; it is contrary to reason and common sense ; it is
a cataclysm which, far from repairing any injury, adds
another wrong to the wTorg committed ; it stands in
fligrant opposition to the Christian religion ; it is not only
altogether unnecessary, but has proved itself to be an
unmitigated evil, which should and could be suppressed by
the rigour of the law, by stringent adverse public opinion,
and by appreciation of the duties of democratic citizen-
ship. Duelhng in England has been abolished by an
adequate improvement in legal remedies and by a change
in social opinion with regard . to it. Both these factors
would also be necessary in Russia in order to obtain the
same result.

If one reahzes that the great majority of the population
of Russia — ^namely, 80 per cent — ^who belong to the peasant
class, have never had the slightest inchnation to fight duels,
and that the peasant class all over the world does not fight
duels ; that the entire population of Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, the British Empire, the United States of America,
and China have never indulged in this practice, it appears

50 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINKiS

that those believing in duelling form a very small minority.
In the twentieth century amongst the classes who hitherto
believed in duelling a propaganda has been initiated in
favour of abolishing this custom. In the August number
of 1908 of the Fortnightly Review there appeared an interest-
ing survey of the fight against "duelling in Europe, by
Alfonso de Bourbon et d'Autriche-Este. According to this
article an Anti-Duelling League was formed in 1902 in
Germany under the presidency of Prince Charles of Lowen-
stein, which in 1907 comprised 3000 members. At a general
meeting of that League at Munich on October 13, 1907, it
was moved that whoever comrhits adultery dishonours
himself, and by this act becomes incapable of giving satis-
faction by arms.

In France a committee was formed in Paris for the same
purpose in 1909, under the presidency of General Baron
de la Rocque and Admiral Kuverville. In 1903 the first
Court of Honour was created in Paris, composed of dis-
tinguished military people, amongst whom there was also
M. Paul de Cassagnac — since dead — who was previously a
noted duellist.

In Austria a national Anti-Duelling League was formed,
and in 1902 a general meeting was held at Vienna. An
Anti-Duelling Association for students at the University
was organized at Vienna in 1905. In 1907 the Ladies'
Austrian Anti-Duelling Association was formed.

In Italy an Anti-Duelling League was formed at Rome
in 1902, and a Ladies' Committee was form.ed in 1906.

In Hungary an Anti-Duelling Movement was founded in
1902, and at the University at Budapest Courts of Honour
for students were created. In 1906 a Ladies' Anti-Duelling
Association was constituted at Budapest.

In Galicia Prince George Tzartoryski in 1903 formed a
League for the Protection of Honour, and a Ladies' Asso-
ciation was also founded. Nearly the whole of social
Galicia has joined the League, and questions of honour are
arranged by juries.

In Belgium an Anti-Duelling League was formed in 1903,
and in 1905 rules were drawn up for Courts of Honour.

In Belgium the duel was almost unknown, but none the
less an Anti-Duelling League was formed.

In Spain, in 1914, an Anti-Duelling League was started.
In 1906 King Alfonso accepted the honorary presidency of
that League.

HEYKING. DUELLING 31

The above-mentioned particulars about the anti-duelling
campaign in Europe show that the movement is universal,
and that public opinion in Europe is about to be strongly
influenced against duelling. The War has brought the
movement to a standstill, but as soon as it is over the anti-
duelling campaign will continue, and probably be taken up
also by Russia.

PETROGRAD— MOSCOW, MAY AND AUGUST, 1917

BY MRS. SONIA HOWE

(Dr. Hagberg Wright, LL.D., in the Chair)
i6M October, 191 7

In the absence through illness of the author her notes
were read by her husband, the Rev. S. W. Howe.

Dr. HA<iBERG Wright, in opening the Proceedings, ex-
plained the absence of Mrs. Howe. He added that among
those present was the new Consul-General for Russia, to
whom they ought lo give a hearty welcome. (Applause.)

The Rev. S. W. Howe prefaced his Reading with a re-
quest for indulgence. Mrs. Howe had written these pages
not for the purpose of being read, but to keep herself in
mind of her impressions and experiences during the his-
toric months she was in Russia. As she had had excellent
opportunities of finding out what was going on, the papers
that would be read would give some idea of the trend of
things. They would show that the froth that naturally
comes to the top of a big wave was gradually subsiding,
and that the really good material which the tide brought
would make itself felt before very long.

Mr. Howe then read the pages written by Mrs. Howe.

A New Order of Things, New Laws, but the
SAME OLD Conscience

A peasant woman from Ryzan summed up conditions in
the above-written words, an epigram so true that it hurts.
Things are apparently not better in Russia than they used
to be. There is as much, if not more, bribery ; there is
corruption, there is profiteering, there are scandals, there
is treachery, there is betrayal, there are still the same
grabbing, bribe-taking officials, and as much red tapers
52

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 53

ever. True, there is no police, but a militia equally open
to bribery, and some of the militia men are convicts let out
of prison. There are agrarian troubles, there is a lack of
fuel in the cities, and famine is knocking at the gate.
Licence is stalking about the land under the guise of liberty *
civil war is threatening.

What then has Russia gained by the Revolution ? Much
in every way. All that is bad is the legacy of the old regime,
for people are not remade within five months, and the old
conscience is still there. Until a new conscience is evolved
much will remain as it was before. And what then is the
present gain ? Liberty, freedom, the right to act, to work,
to create, to prepare for a condition of affairs where right
and not might will reign — ^where every man and woman
may live up to their ideals ; ' where men can develop their
interests ; where there is no longer any distinction of race
oj creed. In a word, political, civic and religious liberty,
those blessings without which no Anglo-Saxon would dream
of existing. Russia has now her Magna Charta and her
Habeas Corpus. But these blessings have to be appro-
priated, and the people have to train themselves to benefit
by them.

And what about the men who worked to bring about this
freedom, who suffered loss of liberty, who languished in
prison or in exile, and who were set free when Autocracy
fell ? What are they now doing ?

Idealists are not necessarily statesmen, and some idealists,
unfortunately, have un-National ideals, such as Lenin, the
man whose name has become a byword, and which in many
minds stands for treachery ? Prince Peter Kropotkin is
debarred by his principles from holding office, but is giving
advice to all those who ask for it. Plechanoff, the famous
old Social Democrat, is working and editing a newspaper,
but the people will not listen to him because he said " The
War must go on until Victory." Madam Breshkofskava,
the grandmother of the Russian Revolution, is travelling
all over the country and trying to revive the flagging
courage of the army at many meetings, and these three
veteran Revolutionists are all speaking up for the continu-
ance of the war as the only means of saving the new-won
liberty ; but their voices are drowned by the voices of the
Council of the Workmen's and Soldiers' delegates. However
loyal and true some of these delegates may be, they are
not statesmen. There are statesmen in Russia, but they

54 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

have to be silent at present. Having been considered too
radical by the old regime, they are now considered too
conservative by the popular leaders of democracy.

Those in power during the last few months are not really
Kerensky and the Provisional Government, but the Council
of the Workmen's and Soldiers' delegates. One may well
ask who are these delegates ? Some of them are men of
well-known revolutionary past ; some are German agents ;
others are " accidental people " ; many are dark horses.
There is much riff-raff in these Councils which have been
established in every town.. Many of the members are the
scum which the tidal wave of the Revolution has flung up
from the abyss of political life. They are only able to wield
power because the people of Russia never have believed in
or trusted the autocratic Government, and have trans-
ferred this fear, this distrust, to the democratic Provisional
Government ; and the Executive Committee of the Soldiers'
and Workmen's delegates has constituted itself with the
full sanction of the nation as Controller of the Provisional
Government. There was tyranny under autocracy, there
is now the tyranny of the Councils, ard there is equally no
appeal. They control the Press ; they influence the cen-
sorship in every town ; in every village there are Councils
or Committees whose word is law. Yes, truly there is a
new order of things — there are new laws, but still the old
conscience. It will take time for a new conscience, whether
political, civic, or personal, to develop, buf at last there is
a chance for it to do so. •

The whole nation is looking forward to the Constituent
Assembly which is to decide the great burning questions^,
and it alone will give stability of government. And when
a stable government has been established, then we must
hope that the reconstruction of Russia will begin, and with
the exercise of Hberty, with the right to think and act, the
possibility to live useful and happy hves, all those evils, at
present so pronounced, will give place to honesty, integrity,
to order and harmony.

A Revulsion of Feeling

Is there not a great deal of truth in the French proverb :
"Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner " P B.nd probably
the feeling of irritation and resentment that has sprung up
against Russia is due to the fact that the British people are

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 55

ignorant of the causes which have brought to naught the
hopes raised by the coup, d'etat of last March.

Those people who to-day speak in impatient tones about
Russia, do they honestly wish to understand the causes of
her chaos and anarchy, or is the feeling that British in-
terests are injured too strong to permit of generous S5mn-
pathy ? That present conditions in Russia are injurious
to those of her allies is an undeniable fact, but the collapse
of discipline in the army and anarchy within the country
are just as harmful to Russian interests. It is Germany
alone which profits by the military paralysis and internal
disorganisation from which Russia has been suffering during
the last few months. Yet this seemed to be a new point
of view to some Swedish Custom officials, cne of whom said
fo me at the Russo-Swedish frontier : " Wc 11, and is Eng-
land now satisfied with what she has done ? " Puzzled by
this enigmatic poser, I, asked what he meant. " Was it
not English money that brought about the Revolution ? "

I laughed outright.

" Do you really believe that Great Britain would bring
about a revolution in the midst of this war, when nothing
could more seriously hamper military operations ? The
only Power which does gain by the present state of affairs
in Russia is Germany."

Unfortunately this Swedish official was not the first from
whom I have heard this absurd insinuation. I was told the
same thing by some reactionary Russians, and consequently
I came to the conclusion that this was again one of the
many German lies spread about to cause distrust of Great
Britain, just as is the following contradictory statement
made pubhcly by a pro-German member of the Soldiers'
and Workmen's Council in Kronstadt on June 30th that
" the headquarters of the Counter-Re volution is the British
Embassy at Petrograd."

" So it is Germany which is benefiting by the Revolu-
tion ! " the Custom official repeated meditatingly. "And
here in Sweden we are convinced it was engineered by British,
money and for British interests."

Amiable Anarchy

" Conditions here might well be described as amiable
anarchy," an English major said to me. He had just arrived
in Petrograd.

56 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

" I think you are right," I replied, "it -is undoiibtedly
anarchy, and just as undeniably it is amiable."

What struck everyone was the general atmosphere of
holiday-making. There seemed to be a great gulyanie
(promenading). The streets were crowded with people
sauntering, loitering — apparently no one was bent on any
business. There was an universal off -time attitude. Perfect
order reigned, and yet the police force had been abolished,
and its substitute, the militia, was conspicuous by its ab-
sence. The trams were packed full, and the people inside
were discussing the politic?.l situation in a friendly way.

" How long has this holiday-making lasted ? " I asked
a friend.

She laughed merrily as she replied : " For months, but
you must remember that we now have an eight-hour
working day, with two hours off for dinner, and this, wfth
varying shifts, gives people time to promenade."

Everywhere were impromptu open-air meetings and
crowds of people trying to hear the speeches of male and
female orators. These meetings were held at street comers,
in front of shops, even in the middle of the road regardless
of blocking the traffic. Yet what did it matter ? This was
freedom ! The temper of the crowd was always amiable,
but what struck me was a certain weariness and languor
in the people, in fact it reminded me very much of what
we felt as children when, on some rare occasion, our elders
had left us to our own sweet devices. First we had been
charmed with the novelty of freedom to do what we hked,
but as the day wore on this palled and we grew weary.

Everybody seemed in a kind mood. There was a total
absence of fear, a new feeling of freedom and ease such as
I had never witnessed in the time of the old regime. The
only people who did look subdued and at times nervous
were the higher officials, who seemed anxious to pass un^
noticed, not to obtrude their presence, and yet six months
ago these same men would have shouted and sworn if way
had not been made for them at once. Now they seemed to
feel themselves on sufferance. One day in a tram I had a
very graphic illustration of altered relations. The tram was
crowded, the conductor's platform full of soldiers, and I
amongst them, when a fat and pompous colonel got on to
the step. No one made way for him. " Let him hang on,"
some soldiers said, " it won't hurt him ; in truth he should
be hanged, for is it not the likes of him who have caused.

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 57

the people to be hanged ? It is his kind that has sucked
our blood ; let him hang." I felt sorry for the colonel, who
tried to look unconcerned at these loud remarks. I pre-
sume discretion kept him silent.

" Comrades," I said, turning to the soldiers, " you can
ne\er expect to wdn the war if there is no discipline."

" Don't you worry," one of them rejoined good-
humoredly, " not letting that fat one pass in has nothing
to do with winning the war."

" That is where you are mistaken," I replied. A few
minutes later the colonel was able to get into the tram —
the soldiers did not salute him as he passed.

I soon discovered that it was almost impossible for
ordinary citizens to use the trams, for ever since the Revolu-
tion the soldiers had been given the right to travel every-
where free, and as many of them had nothing to do they
spent their days in travelling up and down the town,
hanging on to the step like swarms of wasps if there was no
room inside, doing so to the ruination of the tramcars and
at the risk of being killed by passing motor-cars.

The rext experience of amiable anarchy was to touch
me personally. My sister had told me that the manageress
of the Vegetarian Restaurant, at which she used to dine,
had warned her that next day there would be a general
strike of hotel employees.

" You had better find out whether the strike will affect
your hotel," my sister advised me, "and if you cannot
get any food come to me and share my rusks and straw-
berries."

" Is it true no one is going to do any work to-morrow ? "
I asked the old servant who was doing my room. She had
been lady's-maid to an Empress's lady-in-waiting, had
travelled all over Europe, and had seen a good deal of life.
She was an Esthonian,and spoke both Russian and German
incorrectly. My question took her aback.

" How is it the gnadige Frau knows it ? It was to be a
secret. Oh, what have we come to ? " she sighed, shaking
her head, her kindly old face full of sorrow. " What times
we live in. No order ! No law ! Nothing but so-called
svohoda (hberty). Yes, yes, there will be a strike," she added
in undertones as if afraid to be overheard, " and although I
have nothing to gain by it, as I am only a temporary worker
here, I must do as the others or " — and she looked terror-
stricken — " I shall be beaten^ they said so."

58 U.R.S.A. PRODCEEINGS

Soon after the boots came alorR. " True, true," he
rephed to my question as to this strike. " But, Baryiria, I
Mill give you a hint. Go down early to-morrow morning
to the coffee kiichen and you will find coffee there, and also
you can get dinner at the restaurants of the big railway
stations, for they have accepted our conditions of 15 per
cent on profits instead of tips."

" Is that what you are striking for ? Well, good luck to
you."

The boots grinned. " Yes, that is what we are out for."

A weedy, pale young waiter lounged up.

" So the lady sympathises with our grievance ? "

" Of course I do, and I am very willing to pay 15 per
cent extra on my bill for service." ^

"No, no, that is not what we want," he said eagerly.
"It is not for the guests to pay more ; we want the pro-
prietor to fork out."

" I am afraid your plans won't come off," I said. " He
is sure to charge visitors more."

"No, that he shall not," the boy said emphatically^
"for we will see that he does not. In fact the Urion of
Waiters means to take over the provisioning question, and
then all will be well."

The next morning I saw the staff go off, everybody
dressed in Sunday best.

" We are going to march in a procession carrying banners,"
the young waiter told me, his pale face all aglow with pride
and joy, " and we are paying five hundred roubles for the
band."

Nodding condescendingly at me, he strolled out.

" I hope you'll enjoy yourselves," I called after him.

In a few days the hotel employee's strike was over.
The hoteliers gave in as they wished to avoid what had
happened in other towns. In Moscow the strike had lasted
a fortnight, in Kieff four weeks — ^at what inconvenience to
visitors can be guessed.

Notices were put up in the hotel to inform us that tipping
was abohshed, but the price of my next meg.l was raised
by 33 per cent. When I commented on it the manageress
rephed with a complacent smile, " From to-day everything
costs more."

- One morning coming down to the library I found one of
the office boys rocking gently in the rocking-chair.

" Please ring up 401-56," I said to the boy.

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 59

" I am not the telephone boy," he repHed, going on
rocking.

" You are evidently a guest," I remarked sarcastically.
" And so perhaps you will do me the favour of 'phoning ? "
I Si^id to another boy who was standirg, duster in hand.

" I am too busy dusting," he replied. " The manager
will scold me if I have not finished my work."

" When did you begin it ? "

" Oh,>we come now about 8.30," he replied grandly, and
it was then quite 9 o'clock.

" Children," I said seriously, " what you want is a sound
whipping, and if you don't get it soon, with a birch, you
will one day with a Cossack's whip."

" Perfect anarchy," the manager said to me later in the
day. " The servants do exactly as they like ; I really do
not know how we shall be able to carry on the hotel — and
they call it Liberty," and he shrugged his shoulders in
despair.

(Liberty — or Anarchy according to the point of view —
and yet everything was done in an amiable manner.)

As days went on the crowds in the streets increased —
more meetings were held everywhere-^yet no jostling, no
swearing, still merely amiable anarchy.

"There is no law, no order," a droshky driver said to me
as his horse stumbled over the loose wood pavement.
" Look at the conditions of our streets ; but of course we
have svoboda."

It was at the railway station at Orel that I had excellent
opportunity of watching amiable anarchy. I sat on my
luggage for four hours waiting for an overdue train. The
platform was crowded, as in addition to the ordinary
passengers and soldiers, young couples were walking up
and down, and citizens on a jaunt were making use of the
station as a sort of boulevard. It was 11 p.m., yet wounded
soldiers in their long white cotton dressing-gowns were
mixing with the crowd.

" Have you come here for a change of scenery ? " I said
to one of them.

" Exactly so," he replied with a smile. " We cannot
sleep, and it is dreary in the hospital, so we come here.'''

" Haven't you to be in by a certain hour ? "

" Formerly — yes, but now we stay out as long as we
like ! It is true we are supposed to be in by nine, but," he
laughed merrily, " now we haye Uberty ! "

6o UR.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Let me carry your luggage," a burly soldier said to me
unexpectedly.

" Should you not be in barracks by now ? "

" Oh, that's nothing," he said with a chuckle ; " why
shouldn't I earn some money ? We are deadly weary of
our food — of Kasha and rotten fish — but when I earn
money I can buy myself some better food."

A woman who sat next to me on her bundles was glad
of his help. Shouldering them on his strong back the
soldier, who should have been in barracks, marched off
with her to the train. But what a train ! Soldiers on the
roofs of the carriages, soldiers sliding down between the
coaches and creeping into first-class carriages, soldiers
climbing in through the windows, and a very poor chance
for the civilian passengers unless they did the same. And
they did it ! '

" You are helpless at present," a man growled, " this is
svoboda ! "

" Is this not my train ? " I asked the porter who had
promised to see to my luggage.

" Oh no, it is the ii a.m. train-.-only twelve hours over-
due, but you had better come away with me to the line
where your train should come in. It is three hours overdue,
and who knows, it may turn up now."

We left the station platform and walked out into dark-
ness, where I settled myself on my holdall and listened
with interest to the porter's conversation with another
tiaveller.

" Anarchy, pure anarchy at present," he said senten-
tiously ; " everybody does as he likes. There is no law,
no order. Formerly the station-master was made respon-
sible if the train was not punctual in leaving, and if there
was any loss of time on the journey the engine-driver was
fined. Now no one is made responsible, and so naturally
there is no order. Perfect anarchy !" he . ended with a
deep sigh.

I marvelled that under such conditions any train reached
its destination at all. It is really surprising that your
luggage is put into the train by which you intend travelling,
for a tram for quite a different place comes in at the time
yours is due ; still you arrive, and so does your luggage.

Anarchy everywhere, and yet so little turmoil, so little
crime, but few instances of violence in the whole of Russia,
so little robbing, such safety in the streets.

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 6i

Somehow even anarchy if amiable is quite bearable — at
least in Russia, where fortunately the sale of spirits is still
prohibited.

The Congress of the All-Russia Union of
Peasants

" You should come to the Peasants' Congress," my
friend said to me on the telephone — " it is sure to interest
you."

" Of course it will," I replied, " but how can I get admis-
sion ? "

" I will arrange it if you will come along at two o'clock."

It was my last day in Moscow, and I was in luck to have
the opportunity of attending so interesting a gathering as
the Congress of the All- Russia Peasant Union.

When I reached the hall I found that the afternoon
session had not begun. Just outside in the street groups
of peasant delegates were being harangued by men of a
different stamp, men whom I afterwards knew to be mem-
bers of the Soviet — the Central Councils of the Workmen,
Soldiers' and Peasants' delegates. In the entrance hall a
crowd of peasant delegates was gathered round a young
woman who was talking eagerly.

" The people did not go to the priests or to the doctor,
but it was to us they came," I heard her say.

Suddenly a tall woman in nurse's uniform pushed through
and began to attack the first speaker violently. Voices
were raised, but what it was all about I could not make
out, so I walked up the staircase. On the first landing was
a large table with literature for sale. As I had not yet
received my pass into the Conference Hall I remained near
this bookstall and for some twenty minutes watched
peasants buying booklets and pamphlets, mostly dealing
with the agrarian question f The books by Chernoff — the
Minister of Agriculture — were much in demand. It had
been his incitement to the people to take land which had
led to the troubles between landowners and peasants. It
was interesting for me to watch the faces of the delegates
as they turned over the literature — they seemed so keenly
anxious to understand the problem ol the redivision of land,
the most vital question for them.

Three hundred and sixteen delegates had come, repre-
senting thirty-two goveriiments ai.d the district of the

62 ^iR.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Don Cossacks ; also thirty-four peasant soldiers, who had
been sent from different army units. As the Peasants'
Unions have not yet been organized all over Russia
the whole peasantry was not yet able to send repre-
sentatives. On the other hand, many of the delegates
represented very powerful unions. For example, the dele-
gates from Tomsk and Tobolsk represented 325,000 home-
steads.

This was the 'fifth day of the Congress, and the question
under discussion was whether there was to be indemnifica-
tion of the landowners or not.

The Secretary, advised of my presence, now sent for mc
and handed me my pass. "I understand there are some
women delegates ; would it be possible for me to talk to
one of them ? "

" I will see if I can find one for you. Oh, here is one,"
she said eagerly, as the same woman whose words I had
caught in the entrance hall came towards me.

The Secretary introduced us to each other, and this
young woman of about twenty-five years of age sat down
beside me, quite ready to talk.

" I have been sent here as the representative of the
Peasants' Union of three provinces in South Russia. 1
was elected unanimously."

" But are you really a peasant ? " * I asked, for she
looked and spoke like a cultured woman.

" Oh yes, I am a peasant, and when in 1910 I was sent
into exile for political propaganda I had only attended the
village school. It was in exile that I prepared myself for
the University, and now I am a student of medicine," she
said quite simply. " There are two other women delegates
here, both with University degrees."

The Chairman's bell rang, peasants were crowding into
the hall, it was time for me to find my seat, so after thank-
ing the delegate for speaking to me, I made my way to the
gallery.

On the platform, behind a long table, sat the Chairman,
the Vice-President, S. P. Mazurenko, the founder of the
'All-Russia Union of Peasants, who after twelve years'
absence had returned from abroad and was able to continue

* In Russia one is born a peasant, a burger, or a nobleman, and until the
Revolution, however well educated people might be, there was no civic equality
and one remained in the class into which one had been boin''-Jk3w everyone is a
. citicea.

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 63

the work he had begun in 1905. Beside him sat some men,
and further along two women delegates.

The hall filled very gradually. No definite time had
been fixed for the reassembly my friend informed me. On
the platform there was coming ard going. Two of the
men, who repeatedly came up to the President or to the
Secretary, specially caught my attention. 'One was dressed
up in farcy peasant dress, but had in addition a stiff collar
and a white bow with streaming ends. His long hair was
carefully brushed straight off his forehead, and a look of
St If -com placer cy and conceit gave the finish to his studied
appearar.ce. He jarred on me. The other man was tall,
refined -locking, and dressed in a well-tailored suit of light
grey material, with good linen and a white everirg tie. I
watched him talking to the Chairman, gracefully bending
over him, his fingers locked, his arms stretched out, as,
sighirg deeply, he would lift his eyes in supplication to the
ceilirg. A poseur and an affected ass, I thought.

"I'm glad you've come," I heard my friend's cheery
voice say.

" It was good of you to give me the opportunity, for it is
intensely interesting to watch the delegates. Look what
thoughtful, manly chaps these peasants are," I said,
pointing to the rows of seated men.

" Yes," she replied, " but look at that creature there,"
pointing disdainfully to the poseur in grey. "He is one of
t e dek gates from the Scviet. Oh, these Soldiers' and
Workmen's delegates, what mean creatures they are — ^they
sop at nothing. Would you believe me," she went on
excit d y, " they actually sent notices to ths Provinces o
tell the peasants that the All-Russia Union of Peasants haa
ceased to exist, just to prevent the peasants attending the
Congress, and as that trick didn't answer they are doing
their best to dissuade the men from comirg into the sejs n
by stopping them in the street-, outside. What they want
is >o wield sole power. ^Read their proclamation ! " and she
handed it to me. " This is the gist of it — listen ! ' We —
your representatives from the Council of Workmen's,
Soldiers' and Peasants' delegates, have worked out an
agrarian programme to which nothing could possibly be
added or deducted : you must accept it as it stands.' "

" ^^^lat arrogance," I exclaimed.

Then the President's bell rang, business was about to
begin ■. more delegates poured in.

64 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

" Comrades," the President said, " I propose that a
Commission be appointed to, draw up a resolution on the
dehberations of the morning, and in order that you may
elect one representative from each Government, I suspend
the meeting for a few minutes."

The proposal was accepted, and, gathering in small
groups, the peasants talked eagerly among themselves.

The young man who affected the peasant's dress began
to talk to the poseur in grey, who was again wringing his
hands, so far as I could judge, in impotent despair. It was
the independence of the peasants, who were so evidently
refusing to accept wholesale the Soviet's proposals, which
caused him such anguish.

" Will that man never keep silent ? " my friend whis-
pered to me impatiently, pointing to the former.

" Who is he ? " I asked.

" Unfortunately a member of our party (Nationahst
Socialist), but such a fool," she added grimly. " If only
he would be silent ! "

Excitement was specially great this afternoon because,
as my friend explained, for the first time since the high hopes
of the peasants had been raised by Chernoff and his party
the social revolutionaries, the truth had been told them.
They had been promised land, without indemnity, and
this morning the Assistant, Minister of Food Supply made
it very plain in his speech that there must be indemnifica-'
tion of private owners if national bankruptcy was to be
avoided. This buying-out would cost the S.ate foiu mil-
liards of roubles, but if confiscation were adopted rational
credit would be ruined and the value of the rouble so
lowered that in the end we would lose Seventeen milliards.

Naturally the peasants were furious to find they had been
deceived by the Social Revolutionaries' party cry of "Land
and Freedom," and by Chernoff 's frank advice " To take
the land ! " especially as it Svas a Cabinet Minister who
shattered their hopes. The temper of the metlirg was
rising against the delegates from the Centri i Civincil of
the W.S.P., delegates who had been doing thtir best to
deceive the peasants.

"Look how uncomfortable those Petrograd members
look," she said, point ii g to a few well-dressed i- dividua(l^j
"they are nevi. rthc less doirg their best to cbs-ruct pro-
ceedings. I actually Letrd one of the pti-sint spii.kvrs
say this mornh g, ' We will he.ve i.oi.^ of yen ; we Lav©

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 65

been the slaves of one man— Nicholai II — ^we refuse now
to become the slaves of one hundred of you.' The dele-
gates are boiling with rage."

Even now I could pick out the members of the Soviet^ —
hardly a single genuine peasant amongst them, in fact very
bourgeois-lookirg men or ostensibly dressed like the anar-
chist in a sensational novel.

The Commission had been elected, and one by one the
delegates walked out of the hall and business was resumed.
The President asked aryone who wished to speak to send
up their name, and opened by saying : " The order of the
day is to hear the speeches for and against indemnification
— we shall now hear what mandate our comrades have been
given."

The speakers followed in quick succession — ^the majority
were short and to the point ; some spoke extempore, others
from notes. One of the delegates offered a very simple
solution to the perplexing question before the house.

" If there must be indemnification," he said, "then let
Nicholai II pay the four milliards out of the many milliards
he has safe in English banks."

One of the peasants in soldier's uniform marched up to
the platform, took his stand behind the little reading-
stand placed there for the delegates, and began with great
.>elf-assurarxe : " Comrades, there can be no two opinions
— we are told that unless there is indemnification there will
be a financial crash. That is absurd. Let the Councils of
the W. &. S. delegates manage everything ; let them have

full power and then " He stopped dead short, his head

drooped in anxious thought. The audience sat in perfect
silence, when suddenly a peal of merry laughter rang
through the hall.

" He has forgotten what they put him up to say ! " a
voice called out.

Everybody laughed. The speaker looked peevish, but
not at all ashamed, as he stepped back from the desk.

" I have a burden to share with you," said another
delegate, looking at the audience with serious, thoughtful
mien. " I have no mandate about indemnification, but I
have jjeen sent to tell you that famine has come to our
|>rovince. The Kaluga province produced " — (then he gave
the com statistics for the last five years which showed a
rapid decrease in production). " Now there is actual star-
vation. Women have come to me and said ; ' Give us bread

66 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

for our children ; we are willing to go for five days without
it if only our children get bread.' "

" I have not heard a single delegate say a word for the
widows, orphans, and invalided soldiers ; surely all these
must receive their share of the land when it is divided,"
said a young delegate with a gentle-looking face.

Another delegate spoke in matter-of-fact tones. " We
have been informed that those estates that are mortgaged
to the Peasant Bank must be bought out, as otherwise the
savings of the small investor and of the labouring classes
will be lost. I don't believe it ! I am against any indem-
nification, for it would be the thin end of the wedge. I
have nothing more to say," and he got down.

The next man to get up to the lectern was so obviously
not a peasant that someone in the audience exclaimed,
" Art thou a peasant ? " " No, I'm a nobleman," the
delegate replied curtly, " but I've been duly elected."
" Well, all right, go on ! " the voices called out. This dele^
gate was a born orator and a demagogue into the bargain.
He knew how to handle his audience. He began by point-
ing out why no indemnity was necessary, and used the
stereotyped phrase "the peasants' blood has paid it over
and over again." As to the estates of the big landowners,
these were given to their ancestors in reward for services
rendered to the Tsars, and therefore the present owners
have no claim to indemnification, nor have the owners of
medium estates whose land has beeij. purchased, for the
proverb holds good, ' By honest labour no man becomes
the owner of a stone house,'* therefore these landowners
must have got their money by other than honest means.
Then there are those peasant owners who possess more
than the four dessiatines, f neither must these receive
compensation, and I am convinced personally that they
will not mind losing this extra land, as under the new
scheme the State will provide them with agricultiu-al im-
plements which will be 'greatly to their benefit. We are
told to wait for the Constituent Assembly to settle the Land
Question for us, but this matter brooks no delay. What
then are the peasants to do ? They must take the land,
take it now " — and his voice grew hoarse and low as he
almost hissed out these words " now, now ! "

* All Russian peasants live in wooden houses,
t A land measurement about an acre.

I
1

HOWE. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 67

" That would be violence," some peasants called out in
genuine horror of this open incitement.

" No, no," the orator went on, his voice swelling, " there
need be no violence. The Land Committees which have
been organized everywhere will take over the land."

" That will still be violence," the delegates called out.

At this persistency the orator began to look disconcerted.

" How much are you paid to sit in the Council of the
W. & S. Delegates ? " a loud voice enquired. " It is easy
for you to come here and speak ; you just talk and talk
and get paid for it, but we toil and labour."

A regular uproar began. In vain the Chairman rang his
bell. Excitement had taken hold of the audience, and when
at last order had been restored the Chairman informed them
that the delegates of the W. & S. Council received 25
roubles a day as their expenses. At this statement a new
uproar broke out : the demagogue grew agitated. He
looked anxiously at the Chairman to give him an oppor-
tunity to reply to this statement, and at last when he
made himself heard he told the audience that it was only
15 roubles the members of W. & S. delegates received a
day when in Petrograd,* and 10 roubles a day extra if they
went away.

" Then you are receiving 25 roubles," the delegates
shouted. Pandemonium broke loose, and the speaker was
obliged to step down.

" Now you see how unfit peasants are to carry on a
Congress — look at their behaviour ! " my friend said to me.
' " They will soon learn the procedure ; all they require
is practice," I replied.

At last excitement spent itself and the business of the
day was resumed, yet all through the afternoon there was
an undercurrent of unrest which my friend explained was
due to the tactics of the Petrograd delegates who were
trying to obstruct proceedings. For instance, it was their
supporters who walked in and out while the peasant dele-
gates were speaking.

The impression I gathered from listening for four hours
to the speeches was that the peasants were against indem-
nification of the large landowners, but on the other hand

* At the Moscow Conference the Minister of Finance, himself a Revolutionary,
told the audience plainly that Revolutionary Russia was a much more costly
machineiy, and this was due to the expense! caused by innumerable Councils and
Committees all through Russia.

68 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

neither did they want to take the land by violence. What
they want is the legal transfer of the land to those who
work on it by the Constituent Assembly. This is not as
illogical as it may seem, for the Russian peasants have
always contended that the land was theirs, and even in
the days of serfdom they used to say, " We belong to the
masters, but the land belongs to us," and therefore what
the landowners call confiscation the peasant considers to be
merely restitution. What the peasants dread is the further
taxation which would result from State purchase. They
know only too well what they have had to bear since the
abolition of serfdom, as it is barely sixty years since they
paid off the debt for their liberation.

Coming down the gallery steps I heard the sound of
angry voices on the landing below, and as I came to the
bookstall I discovered the cause. Leaning over the balus-
trade was a well-dressed Petrograd delegate, and just below
him on the bend of the stairs stood a peasant who was
shaking his fist at him. In a voice choking with anger he
roared, " What in God's name are you doing ? Here I
have left my work and my family to come across Russia
to attend this Congress, but what is the sense of it all !
You only talk of Party ! Party ! " and he shrieked the
words out. " I have wasted five days in Moscow because
of you ! "

Never before in my life have I witnessed such a scene —
righteous anger let loose on the part of the peasant and
controlled fury and hatred in the face of the Petrograd
delegate, whose eyes were almost bulging out with rag^.
His deadly white face was twitching, his mouth was work-
ing, he was gasping for breath, the muscles of his fingers
were contracting. Yet not a word did he utter. WhaX he
apparently craved to do, but couldn't because of the on-
lookers, was to take hold of the peasant by the throat and
throttle him. Murder was in his eyes, murder in his ner-
vous claw-like hands. The spectators were struck dumb
with terror. My friend, however, taught hold of the irate
peasant by his coat :

" Do come away," she said soothingly. Evidently his
anger had spent itself, for he followed her meekly. ^^^f
looked back. There, with his face still twitching, si(iB6
the delegate of the Central Committee of the Petrogr^
Council of W. S. Peasant Delegates. - '

" Their power is being shaken," my friend said gleefully

HOWX. PETROGRAD— MOSCOW 69

to me, " for the peasants are beginning to realize they are
being duped, but the Soviet will not give in without a
struggle."

I had heard the Chairman say after one of the heated
discussions between a peasant's delegate and a Petrograd
delegate that it was not at all his idea that the Council of
Peasant Delegates should be abolished, but that it should
be merely the mouthpiece instead of the master of the
All-Russia Union of Peasants. I had seen enough to
realize that the struggle between these two bodies would
be fought with tooth and nail. Who will win, I wondered —
the All-Russia Union of Peasants or the Council of Peasant
Delegates ?

Dr. Hagberg Wright hoped the thanks of the meeting
would be conveyed by acclamation.

He then called upon the recently appointed Consul-
General for Russia to say a few words.

Mr. Alexander Onou, who spoke in French, said that
he greatly appreciated the descriptive talent of the Lec-
turer. He had been greatly interested in much that had
been said, but the caricature and humorous touches had
occasionally perhaps given a somewhat one-sided impres-:
sion of events in Russia to an English audience.

Mr. E. A. Brayley Hodgetts said Mr. Onou had just
arrived from Russia and very naturally protested against
the humorous side which had been read in Mrs. Howe's
very interesting paper. We had perhaps rather a tendency
to look at the humorous side of things, and perhaps it
was not altogether an unhealthy tendency. In seeing the
humorous side we also seemed to get a great deal of the
pathos. He thought we ought all to feel very grateful to
Mrs. Howe. (Cheers.)

The Rev. S. W. Howe in summing up the Discussion
began by remarking that any misunderstanding may have
arisen from the fact that he himself was Irish. From
among his wife's papers he had himself chosen the bundle
of impressions he had read. He might add that if the
Consul-General knew Mrs. Howe he would know that she
had the deepest sympalliy v/ith i^rd lovo for tie Ru.ssian

70 . U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

people. Her notes, as he had read them,, ha.d been written
primarily for her own use. Had she been present she
would have spoken ex tempore and in such a way that no
possible misconception could have arisen.

She was of course interested in the women of the Bat-
talion of Death, about which something had been read in
the Papers. The Commander was a very powerful person,
and if those women under her were not orderly she adminis-
tered discipline with her own hand. These women main-
tained that now, having liberty equal with men, they
should take the same responsibility as men.

One story told about them was that when on the march,
perhaps to the Front, a party of mefi belonging to the
Council of Workmen and Soldiers' Delegates tried to
oppose them. At once they made a barrier of their persons
across the road and, by command, fixed bayonets. Th^
men fled !

THE RUSSIAN RED CROSS

BY M. MOURAVIEF APOSTOL

(The Honble Sir Arthur Stanley in the Chair)

19/A November, 191 7

The Chairman. It is my pleasing duty this afternoon
as Chairman of the Joint War Committee of the British
Red Cross and Order of St. John to introduce to you
M. Mouravief iVpostol, who has been kind enough to come
iiere to-day to give us some idea of the Russian Red Cross,
and of the work it has done.

My association with M. Mouravief has lasted now some-
thing over eighteen months. It was just about eighteen
months ago that M. Mouravief came back from a visit to "
the Enghsh and French fronts in France, and full of the
idea that he would hke to show the friendship of Russia
to England by establishing a Hospital in London ; and
when he came back he found that exactly the same idea
had occurred to Madame Mouravief Apostol while he was
away. The result of it was that I had a very pleasajit visit
a few days after from them, and the outcome of their
resolution was that one of the very best of our Hospitals
was established by M. and Madame Mouravief Apostol in
South Audley Street. I know that anyone who has seen
that Hospital will bear me out when I say that you could
not possibly have anything better. I have had the oppor-
tunity of talking to some of those who were there. I do
not suppose it would be regarded as anyone's good luck
to be in hospital at all, but so far as it can be called good
luck, it is good luck for them when they come to the Hos-
pital of M. and Madame Mouravief. I am sure that nothing
has been done and nothing could be imagined that would
71

72 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

better tend to increase and strengthen the friendship which
exists between Russia and England, and which all of us
here hope to see strengthened year by year, than the estab-
lishment of this hospital by the gentleman whom I now
introduce to you and who is going to lecture to us.

Introduction

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Principal, Ladies and Gentlemer. —
I have been honoured by being invited here to-day to
speak on behalf of the Russian Red Cross, and I have come
with the greatest possible pride and pleasure to perform
this duty, all the more so that the present war has elevated
the emblem of the Red Cross to an unprecedented eminence.

What love, charity, self-sacrifice and heroism, what
womanly modesty combined with virile strength will hence-
forth be embodied in these words which have become so
dear to us all ! Every activity of the Red Cross would be-
come impossible without material support, but at the same
time money counts for nothing with its servants.

The Red Cross, accepted by all nations as the emblem of
healing, requires" r.o explanation. But the whole compli-
cated mechanism of its activities frequently compels it to
exceed the hmits of its own regulations in the matter of
coping with the needs of the wounded and sick — ^that is
why the latter remember with peculiar esteem any contact:
they may have had with the Red Cross.

The Red Cross in its united activities in all countries
constitutes a huge moral capital contributed — albeit un-
equally— ^by every State on the face of the globe ; it is
sufficient to say that even the Germans are contributors to
this moral capital, although they have dishonoured its flag
in the present war ; this, however, only helps to prove the
Christian greatness of the Red Cross.

In this lecture I will endeavour to explain the various
functions of the Russian Red Cross during the time of war,
and its points of contact with and differences from the other
Red Cross organizations in Europe. Of course I shall not
avoid figures, but will only quote them as illustrations and :
for the purpose of comparison ; in this connection I may
say that my sketch comprises the period of the war up to

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 73

the 1st January, 1917, firstly because after that date I am
not in possession of exact data, and secondly because since
the time of the Revolution the activities of our Red Cross
have diminished in proportion to the diminished activity
on the Russian front.

Whoever wishes for more detailed information can
obtain it, for sixpence, 'in the booklet which has just been
printed containing the report of the activities of the Russian
Red Cress.

Setting aside politics, which are happily ignored by the
Red Cress, I will begin by stating what is now no longer
a secret even for the German Chancellor — ^that Russia was
not ready for war. One of the proofs of this — although not
an excuse — is that our Red Cross was taken unawares.
Certainly, as far as this goes, I think that Russia was not
the only exception, but not being an industrial country,
this unpreparedness weighed all the more heavily upon her.

In Russia the Red Cross, according to its traditions, in-
cludes the most varied branches of both military and civil
hfe : clearing, the fight against epidemics, hospitals, flying
motor divisions, feeding stations, refugees, dressing stations
and help for disabled soldiers and officers.

Speaking of evacuation, I must remind you that in the
present war this has been harder for Russia than for our
allies, because she has had to organize not only for the ad-
vancing but also for the retreating army, for instance, in
Poland in 1915. Suffice it to say that in France our brave
allies, having the use of the railways, were able to accom-
plish the evacuation in a few hours, whereas in Russia this
had to be done by means of horse-power. Equally little do
our allies know of the sad picture of our fleeing refugees,
whose number in the year 191 5 reached a total of over
7,000,000.

It also had to organize and superintend all the estabhsh-
ments of our Red Cross outside Russia — in Roumania, in
Serbia, in France and Salonica, and even in England, where
its flag waves above the modest Russian hospital for the
heroes of the British army at 8 South Audley.

Only England, with its colossal organizations at home,
in France, in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in Salonica, in Russia,
Roumania, etc., can understand and appreciate the diffi-
culties of the work of the Russian Red Cross. In August
of last year I had the pleasure of witnessing the efficiency
and splendid organization of the British Red Cross at the

74 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

front in France behind the hnes, and was even there during
a boipbardment, so that I am with justice able to assert
that this astonishing British organization serves as a model
and an object of wonder to Russia.

I will now pass, ladies and gentlemen, to the separate
sections of my lecture.

\
The Russian Red Cross Budget

The chief activities are urtdertaken by the Central Bureau
of the Red Cross, with its controlling branch, the- Council
of the Stores, whose principal source of income is derived
from the treasury and from collections. The Council of
the Stores was organized ten years ago, as the result ol
lessons learned during the Japanese War, and from this
establishment all the various outposts at the front and at
the base receive absolutely everything they require.

On the day of the declaration of war the value of the
property in the Red Cross Stores amounted to 2,644,000
Rbls. Under the guidance of the Council of the Stores, the
Chief Store carried out within a stipulated time and with
due precision the whole mobilization programme, which
consisted of 149 different hospitals.

After the formation of the medical institutions the Coun-
cil of the Stores proceeded to the accomplishment of another
task — the organization of a network of field stores and their
branches and the feeding of such stores. During the first
two months of the war field stores were opened in Vitebsk,
Kiev, Warsaw. A little later in Lublin, Lemberg and Tiflis.

Funds. The extensive activity of the Red Cross natur-
ally demands a large amount of funds. At the beginning
of the war the funds, whose direct object was to satisfy
the requirements of war-time, consisted of a reserve fund
amounting to 10,552,544 Rbls. (or £1,000,000) — that was all.

The amount of voluntary contributions paid into the
central cash office of the Society from the beginning of
the war up to November, 1916, amounted to 15,312,284
Rbls. In view of the total exhaustion of the Society's own
means, the State ^Treasury paid a sum of 138,686,766 Rbls.

A special source of income in the present war were tlie
taxes levied by the Government in favour of the Red Cros^^
namely 10 Cop. per each telegram sent, and the railway
tax amounting to 20 Cop. for each first-class railway ticket ;
15 for each second-class ticket, and 10 for each third-class

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 75

ticket. These taxes yielded a profit by November, 1916,
of 10,000,000 Rbls. (or £1,000,000).

The total revenue of the Red Cross for November, 1916,
amounted to 167,629,233 Rbls. 26 Cop. This does not in-
clude the different sums laid out by various organizations
under the auspices of the Red Cross — entirely out of their
own budget.

In the Control Section of the Chief Department of the
Society an account is kept of all the days spent by the sick
and wounded in the medical institutions of the Red Cross,
as part of all sums granted by the Treasury is given to the
Society as an advance-payment on account of each such
day. In Russia a soldier's cost in hospital amounts to an
average of four shillings, and an officer's six shillings a
day.

Supply of Drugs. For Russia, as for her allies, Germany
was unfortunately the chief purveyor of drugs and surgical
instruments, and when that source of supply failed, the
urgent necessity arose for grappling immediately with the
problem of how to provide for the wants of the hospitals.
This crisis was, however, soon met and overcome. To give
an example : in 1915 goods to the value of over £220,000
were .transported from abroad, and of this sum £106,870
was spent in England. In 1916 the Red Cross Department
of the Russian Government Committee in London spent
£354,591 for drugs bought only in England. This Russian
Red Cross Section in London started work in March, 1916,
and is supplying the Central Russian Red Cross with different
drugs which are not obtainable at all in Russia, or are only
obtainable at much higher prices than in England. It is
also supplying Petrograd with all kinds of other requisites
besides drugs — motor-cars,, different kinds of warm woollen
clothing for the winter campaign, and undertakes the com-
plicated task of shipping the goods by sea to Petrograd.

The Russian Red Cross Committee in London is in the
hands of experienced people, and its Director, Mr. Ostro-
grodski, has more than once remarked upon the facilitation
of his task by the British authorities, and he was greatly
impressed by the many private donations which came
through his department, and which constitute during the
present war a direct link between Great Britain and Russia.

Among other sources of income of the Red Cross in
Russia must be reckoned such organizations as Flag Days,
in which, as in England, the principal part is played by

76 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

ladies and girls whose sweet smiles melt the wintry Russian
days.

I will not tire you with more figures. While they show
you on the one hand the important work done, they also
show the comparative modesty of the resources for the
development of this work. We have no " Times Fund,"
which has reached the stupendous figure of £8,000,000 — in
Russia organized charity has not by any means attained
the point of development which it has reached in England,
and I doubt whether we are in a position to say with mathe-
matical exactitude whether for instance this week the
activities of the Red Cross have brought in £60,000 or £6
a minute — as is the case in Great Britain. We have, un-
fortunately, no Manchester, no Birmingham, no Liverpool,
and above all no London, with its 7,500,000 inhabitants — ■
finally we have no rich colonies which, as in the case of the
British colonies, so successfully blend their finances with
those of the metropolis. In Russia, with the exception of
two or three wealthy towns, 8o per cent of the country
consists of villages with their peasant husbandmen, steppes,
and in place of colonies, Siberia, which is as yet not even
fully opened up.

Constantly compelled to receive subsidies from the
Treasury, the Russian Red Cross never has a large balance
at its disposal which would permit it to announce, as was
done here at the end of 1916, that " while we have spent
over £1,800,000 in the past year, we have received a sum
so much greater that we have in hand to-day a balance
sufficient to meet our estimated expenses during the current
year." Such a foundation can carry the weight of the whole
edifice. In Russia this is not the case, and therefore we
may perhaps console ourselves with the thought that the
Russian Red Cross, notwithstanding its reduced means for
so vast a task, has still been able to uphold its part in that
moral capital of which I spoke at the beginning of the lecture.

II
General Outlines of the Red Cross Establishments

1. Flying Columns. The most important adjunct to a
Fljdng Column are ambulance horse-wagons, in which the
wounded in the fight are carried away, mostly by night.

2. Forward Horse Transport Service. These forward units

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 77

are situated a couple of miles from the battlefield. In
huts or tents dressing and ambulance rooms are promptly
arranged for the worst cases. The Red Cross now disposes
of 118 such units.

3. Movable Hospitals. These establishments are equipped
with fifty beds, but in actual practice double or treble that
number of beds is quite usual. They are situated in the
immediate rear of the troops. At present their number
is 85.

4. Base Hospitals. Somewhat further in the rear — ^be-
tween 10 and 15 miles — is the base hospital of the ^Red
Cross. The number of base hospitals now amounts to 54.

Apart from the establishments acting at the positions of
the army, there are special bodies formed by the Red Cross
for giving food to the wounded. We see them on the
battlefield, we meet them in the line of clearing by carts,
and we finally find them at railway stations, where they
furnish the passing parties of wounded with warm food,
linen, warm blankets and other articles. Such units, with
a daily kitchen output of about 12,000 portions of warm food,
are of great value.

On January ist, 191 7, the Red Cross had 140 of these
dressing and feeding stations.

5. Ambulance Trains. Their equipment and mainten-
ance was not originally among the duties of the Red Cross ;
however, soon after the outbreak of the war the Red Cross
was called upon to co-operate in this, and at present it dis-
poses of 54 ambulance trains.

The Red Cross has 6 hospital ships for the clearing of the
wounded in the Caucasus by sea. Two hospital ships, the
Portugal and the Equator, were adapted and transformed
into model institutions with every possible technical con-
v^enience. The hospital ship Portugal was blown up and
sunk by two torpedoes from an enemy submarine, on which
occasion the chief officer, the doctor, 16 nurses and 79
ambulance men and crew were drowned.

The total number of beds in the Red Cross Hospitals in the
active army amounts to 250,000.

6. Infectious Diseases. The fight against infectious
diseases did not at first enter into the programme of the
Red Cross service. As time went on, however, the experi-
ences of the present war induced the Red Cross to undertake
the care and protection of the general health of the army.
At present we meet with special epidemic, disinfection and

78 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

suchlike bodies of the Red Cross along the whole line of
the fighting front. In the records drawn up on January 1st,
1917, they were estimated at 87 disinfecting and 84 epidemi(i
bodies.

Disinfecting units for railways, and -others for cart roads,
furnished with disinfecting chambers and " Helios " appar-
atus, drive out to the scene of the epidemics and to the places
where those sick with infectious diseases are concentrated,
disinfect the place, and remove the dead. Their task
finished, they move on to the following place. After we
have become acquainted with the general outlines of the
main types of Red Cross establishments we will endeavour
to give a short sketch of the work regarding the relief given
to the wounded and sick. Russia commenced her dashing
offensive at a moment when not all the ambulance societies
had had time to get formed, and hence there was no means
of getting th« great work of clearing into regular shape.
At the time of the offensive in East Prussia the station
of Wirballen was the main clearing depot. In^pite of the
fact that from 700 to 800 wounded were brought daily from
the fighting positions to Wirballen, there was not a single
ambulance depot then established there. Within two days
the Red Cross equipped with its own funds a temporary
hospital, a feeding station, and organized a service for the
clearing of the wounded. Similar feeding and dressing
stations were eventually erected at all the chief stations.'
By the end of September the head officer on the south-^
western front" had under his control eighty Red Cross units;'
In the course of one month only, ten movable dressing
and feeding units, two movable depot sections, and two-
ambulance trains were equipped.

The period of fighting operations in South Poland was
extremely drastic for the work of the Red Cross. The utter
absence of railways, all the highways damaged by shells, "
and in some places absence of any highways at all. Under
these conditions the wounded had to be transported in
carts, and often carts used for the transport of supplies '
over a distance of from sixty to eighty miles. There were *
many cases of freezing. The work of the Red Cross undef '
the direction of Alexander Goutchkov (the late War Minister)'*
was very intense. '^^^

In November, 1914, in Warsaw, all the hospitals with *fi
total accommodation for 13,000 men were crowded ahd'^^
even overcrowded. The Red Cross immediately set to work^'?

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 56

to occupy all the vacant apartments suitable for the wounded.
Feeding and dressing stations with 6060 beds were arranged.
Over 30,000 wounded were attended to in these throughout
the eight days pending their removal from Warsaw.

With regard to the Red Cross on the south-western front,
the number of beds in public and private nursing homes
placed at the disposal of the Red Cross amounted at the
iid of 191410 32,120.

The part played by the Red Cross in the Carpathian
operations will ever occupy a glorious page in history.
TJie mountainous region, deep snows, absence of roads,
tlu ws, flooding of rivers and the impossibihty for the Red
CroLS to use the local roads caused great — ^almost invincible
—-obstacles in the matter of the transport of the wounded.
riie number of wounded and sick to whom the Red Cross
- ve relief at the time of the Carpathian battles is estimated

many tens of thousands.

Particularly worthy of mention was the service of the
Red Cross at Sorakamysh, in Armenia, where a feeding
depot was established at the railway station, and a clearing
service was arranged for hundreds and thousands of wounded
who were removed to the town from the forward dressing
statior.s, and warm clothing was distributed to soldiers
suffering from cold in the positions right in the midst of
the snows. Soon after the .December battles which ended
with the downfall of the Turkish army on the Caucasus
front, the transport of a large number of captured Turks
resulted in the outbreak of an epidemic of typhoid fever,
a^d for the purpose of combating this a special ambulance
disinfecting unit was formed.

Period 0/ Retreats in 1915. In the spring of 1915, as is
known, there was a break in the course of the fighting
operations. The Russian . army, owing to the shortage of
shells, was compelled to fall back gradually from the posi^
lidns which it had oceupied daring the winter campaign.

The vast system of units, hospital trains and feeding
stations which the Red Cross had established by the time
of. the commencement of the spring battles in 191 5, was
able to give assistance to all the innumerable victims of
the fighting operations throughout the summer of I915,
both to those of the army and of the civil population. As
ap example of their activity may be quoted the dressing
dep6ts in the railway stations of Lemberg, during the
evacuation of this town under continuous fire frotn the

8o U.R.S.A, PROCEEDINGS

enemy's aeroplanes, for it must not be thought that the
cultured German only bombards English and French hos-
pitals— he also frequently honours the Russian hospitals.
The units operating at the Lemberg dressing depots had
dressed many thousands of woimds and had given food to
over 280,000 men within the course of three weeks.

It was under entirely different conditions that the Red
Cross bodies had to work at the time of the retreat. The
hospitals in the rear had to concentrate and get away, and
in view of their ignorance of the point where the retreat
would have to stop, and of the extreme constraint in the
movements of the railway, these hospitals were unable to
deploy for a long time — in some cases for two months.
Naturally the hospitals remained on the spot until the last
moment, and in certain isolated cases, as for instance in
Warsaw, when it was impossible to remove the grievously,
wounded and sick, they did not leave their posts even after
the departure of the troops. The work of the forward '
units at the time of retreat was very strained. Continuous
movement, and especially the necessity of having to remove
the wounded during the retreat of the troops, rerdered the
very difficult task more complicated still. " It is impossible
to describe the difficulties," says one of the reports, " which
the hospitals have met with when compelled to move.
Over an unmade country road, much worn and covered
with mud, there proceeded simultaneously army transport
trains, ambulance and commissariat wagons, artillery stock,
hospitals, many thousands of refugees and large droves of
cattle. All this moved along, forming one great mass,
hurrying along to reach some spot of refuge for the night,
each trying to get ahead of the other. In mary cases
horses gave way, and the corpses of horses and cattle were
found lying on both sides of the. road. And yet in spite of
all the obstacles with which the evacuation was connected,;
'all the wounded and the Red Cross units were removed* in
good time and. reached their destination safely." One
dressing and feeding train handled throughout August alone
9000 wounded and distributed 23,000 meals. The Ei glish
writer, Hugh Walpole, in his attractive book, "The Dark
Forest," gives a very good description of the life of the
Russian soldier and the work of the Red Cross during .the
retreat of 1915.

Upon first leaving their villages, the refugees carried with
them some supplies of food for themselves ai.d fcii ge f€>r

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 8i

their horses, but eventually, when their supplies had been
used up, their position became critical : hungry, in many
cases ill, devoid of any medical assistance or food, and
without anyone to direct them ; ignorant as to where they
were going, they moved in crowds of many thousands over
Jiundreds of miles, along the highways, impeding the move-
ments of the retreating troops and transport trains, and
spreading disease as they went. Those who have seen the
road to Baranovitchi and beyond it, bordered on either
side with a continuous row of graves, are able to confirm
the extremely hard conditions in which the refugees found
themselves.

From the outbreak of hostilities all the Red Cross bodies
came largely to the relief of the refugees.

By January, 1916, the Red Cross bodies of the western
region had given to refugees over 10,000,000 meals. During
their service from August to November, 1915, they gave
"food to 1| million men. The Red Cross rendered relief in
1915 on the Caucasus front to Armenian refugees ; the
greatest number of these were in Etchmiadzin, when in
August there arrived 30,000 refugees gathered together in
the open air.

Ill
Zemtsvo and Town Unions

The totals of the work done by the Union of Towns are
recorded as follows : for the relief of the sick, wounded and
refugees, from the beginning of the operations of the Union
'6f Towns up to January, 1916, the sum of 51,323,485 Rbls.
was expended. These expenses were covered by the annual
payments of the members, by donations, and 'the sum of
67,012,159 Rbls. was assigned by the State Treasury. By
July; 1916, the Union had equipped 107 railway feeding
stations in the interior of Russia, in which 7,000,000 sick
and wounded military men and 9,000,000 refugees were
.provided with food. For the purpose of combating con-
tagious diseases the Union installed bath-houses and dis-
iiifecting chambers in different towns.

Originally called upon to work exclusively in the interior
of the country, the Union of Towns gradually spread its
operations also to the frgnt. By December, 1916. the Union
had at the front 117 detachments of various denominations.

82 HJ.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

medical feeding,, hospital transport, epidemic, bandagu]g„
feeding, disinfecting and other stations. The results of the
Work of these institutions are recorded in million figures.
At the 36 Dental Surgeries the number of patients was^
105,290.

The work of the All-Rtesia Zemstva Union was not less
mtense. By 1916 the local administrations and State
Treasury had placed 164,000,000 Rbls. at the disposal of
the Union.. The number of hospitals in all the local com-
mittees of the Union amounted to 3,333 with 192,268 beds.
Over 110 million roubles were expended on the maintenance
of the sick and wounded in the hospitals of the Zcmstvo^'l
Union from the beginning of the war up to the middle of -
1916. The Zemstvo Union disposes also of a considerable
number of special beds, particularly for those suffering
from tuberculosis, and for such patients as need -balneo- .^j
therapic treatment- ^

Like the Union of Towns, the Zemstvo Union does not
limit its activity to the interior of the cotfntry, but is also
working at the front. By August, 1916, the Zemstvo Union
had at the front 693 medical organizations, including 179-
hospitals and nursing homes, surgical, clearing barracks,
262 medical-assistant -surgical-bandaging, stations, 2 am-
bulance hospitals for diseases of the eye, 72 epidemic
detachments, 91 dental surgeries,, etc. The following figures
show the dimensions- of the medical work executed by these
institutions at the front during the first half of 1915 alone,,
when the number of patients reached 2:,OO0,OOO.

The chief representative of the All-Russia 'Zemstvo Union,
K Prince G. E. Lvoff (late Prime Minister).

Both the Union of Towns and the -Zemstvo 'Union intheir
huge work at the front and in the rear act in agreement
with the Red Cross and under that flag.

A whole series of other public organizations have rendered
their beneficent services, such as for instance the Union of
the Nobihty, and also numerous separate institutions and
private individuals who placed the medical organizations
created by their means under the flag of the Red Cross.

The work of the Red Cross Society for the relief of the
sick and wounded has spread far beyond the limits of our
toountiy. We kxtaw thai the foreign Red Cross Societies

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 83

deemed it their duty to humanity to come to the assistance
of our warriors. Great Britain gave us a richly equipped
hospital in Petrograd, and the Anglo-Russian advanced
detachment in the name of the " Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland, Alexandra." The Japanese Red Cross sent a
hospital with 100 beds.

Amongst other donations must be particularly men-
tioned automobiles and motor ambulances presented to the
Russian Red Cross :

4 Reo Motor Ambulances, presented by the Wounded
Allies Relief Committee.

5 G.M.C. Motor Ambulances, presented by the 'Sports-
men's Ambulance tFund.

The British Red -Cross very generously presented to the
Russian Red Cross in the Caucasus :

10 Vulcan Motor Ambulances ; 2 Soup Kitchens-; 10
Cases of Spare Parts for 10 Motor Ambulances ; 10 Motor
Ambulances, a Gift to their Imperial Majesties, Alexandra
and Marie Feodrovna, for the Russian Red Cross Society.

The British Red Cross haye also presented Hospital
Supplies estimated at €1,350.

Various other Societies and organizations have generously
contributed to the great cause of helping our soldiers at the
front.

The Russian Red Cross Society received from the Director-
( ieneral of Voluntary Organizations, Scotland House, il25,0 10
different articles.

From the Canadian Red Cross Society we received three
consignments "of Hospital requisites, making a total of
2,850 cases. Each case was estimated as containing from
£5 to £7 worth of supplies. A contribution of £600 for
Drugs for the Russian Red Cross^Society was received from
the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Red -Cross Society.

From New Zealand we received two tons of bandages,
and from the Australian Red Cross Society a large quantity
of warm wearing apparel.

Through the Russian Red Cross the refugees in Russia
received a great number of articles presented by the " Friends
of War Victims Relief Committee."

With the warmest thanks the Russian Red Cross Society
received the sum of £400 presented by Mr. Heath Harrison,
£127 from Colonel Lyndon Bill and many others, for award
to the inventor of the best alleviative for the suffering of
wounded soldiers, etc.

84 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

The United States sent us surgeons, sisters-of-mercy, and
of late a very considerable stock of medicaments and in-
struments.

In Serbia the work of rehef accomphshed by the Russian
Red Cross acquired special importance during her heroic
struggle. First of all a surgical hospital with separate
Rontgen ward was detailed to Nish. The same Committee
sent railway wagons with provisions to the inhabitants of
Serbia, and opened cost -free dining-rooms in Belgrade. Later
on there arrived at Nish the hospital organized by the
Russian Red Cross, equipped with 500 btds, to fight the
epidemics, and this was reorganized into a surgical hospital.

When the Setbian army was concentrated on the Isle of
Corfu the Russia,n Red Cross placed a hospital of 100 beds
at the disposal of the Serbian Red Cross.

Roumania. The time has not yet come to add up the
totals of the extensive work accomplished by the Red Cross
on the new Roumanian front from the moment of the entry
of Roumania into the ranks of the combatants. Here is a
short summary only. By November the Red Cross de-
ployed on the Dobrudja front 6 hospitals of from 50 to 100
beds each, 3 medical transports, 4 barges for the transport
of the wounded, 5 dressing and feeding stations, and 2
hospital trains. In the region of the front clearing and
feeding stations, as well as a hospiial, were completed.

In Salonica there is also a hospital of the Russian Red
Cro.ss. With the development of the war operations on the
Salonica front this hospital increased its activity by aug-
menting the number of beds and building new barracks.
Not long ago a second hospital was detailed to Salonica.

It gives one a special pleasure to mention this fact in
presence of the great statesman of modern Greece.

On the French front besides the hospitals and detach-
ments maintained by the funds of the Special Committee,
another hospital and a base hospital of the Russian Red
Cross are also working. These were detailed by the Chief
Department of the Red Cross for the special service of the
Russian troops fighting in the ranks of. the French army.
Besides this, a detachment of sisters-of-mercy in Moscow
was sent for the relief of Russian soldiers of unsound mind,
and all measures were taken for the supplying of any
Wounded and sick lying in the hospitals of France with
books. In France, and more particularly in Champagire;,
is concentrated the chief activity of the Russian motor

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 85

ambulances, which have placed at the disposal of the French
army, besides their hospital, 7 complete ambulance forma-
tions, each consisting of 20 automobiles for the transporta-
tion of the wounded from the front line. I have seen the
efficient work of these motors, many of which have now
been destroyed by enemy fire. The total number of French
wounded and sick who have enjoyed the benefits of the
Russian Red Cross comes to several hundred thousand.

Information regarding the wounded and sick was at first
received in Russia only from the medical institutions of
the Red Cross. Gradually information began to arrive
from the different other medical institutions, and in this
way, little by little, the real Bureau of Information was
formed. Up to the present the bureau has given informa-
tion in the case of 280,000 people.

Independently thereof, for the information of the popu-
lation regarding the fate of wounded and sick officers and
soldiers, the Chief Department of the Red Cross organized
on its account the printing of lists of wounded and sick
soldiers. These lists are sent out as supplements to the'
paper. Village Messenger, to all communities.

The class of persons whose fate the Red Cross is striving
to relieve by its work of mercy is not exhausted only by the
sick and wounded, as we have over a million prisoners of
war.

The purely benevolent nature of the organization of the
Russian Red Cross is specially shown in this branch of its
work, as all their efforts tend to help and reheve not only
our own men but in the same degree the prisoners taken
by us.

The dimensions of the activity of the Bureau may be
judged by the fact that it has to answer daily 3,000 written
enquiries and about 500 verbal ones.

According to the latest information, relating to March,
1916, the Bureau redespatched many thousands of parcels
and money orders. In conclusion, it is impossible not to
mention the energetic work accomplished by the Bureau in
the registration and the despatching of correspondence
addressed to these prisoners. Owing to the complete lack
of means, help to the prisoners was very limited at first,
but afterwards considerable funds were placed at the dis-

S6 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

posal of a separately formed Committee for the Relief of
Prisoners of the War in the enemy countries. With the
organization of this Committee and the assignment of a
subsidy from the Government amounting to 4,500,000 Rbls.
the Russian prisoners of war began to receive the most
urgently needed articles.

By February, 1917, 40,000 escaped and discharged pris-
oners had passed through the institutions of the Red Cross
at Torneo, a small town at our Swedish frontier.

In order that the Red Cross might become personally
acquainted with the conditions under which the prisoners
live and endeavour to improve these conditions as far as
possible, the Chief Department of the Russian Red Cross
Society detailed to Germany and Austria in the autumn of
1915 six sisters-of-mercy and in the summer of 1916 twenty
sisters-of-mercy,

Disabled Soldiers

The Russian Red Cross ?lso takes an interest in the fate
of those invalids who will not return to the front.

The question of the care for and attention to the disabled
has latterly undergone a progressive evolution. So far this
question has been confined within the borders of philan-
thropy • the disabled soldier received a very inconsiderable
State pension, in some cases the men would be maintained
in special homes, and there the matter ended, and the men
themselves became in their turn the " honourable burden "
of humanity.

The present war, exceptional not only by its horror and
its dimensions, but also by its social and economical side,
could not disregard such an anachronism. Last month I
took part here, in London, in the meetings of the Inter-
national Permanent Disablement Committee, and w^s con-
vinced that this question would henceforward be placed
upon a very much more statesmanlike and wider basis. Our
chief aim to-day is not the isolation of the disabled behind
a Chinese wall upon which is inscribed the word " Care,"
but, on the contrary, the destruction of this old wall and
the setting of their feet in the path of education and train-
ing, their reinstatement in social life, rendering them useful
members of society.

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS Sy

!''Such an attitude towards the disabled is very much more
Tational. Translated into practical language, every country
will preserve huge forces, a whole army of producers hitherto
lost to it. By maintaining the -disabled man's cheerful
spirit, his physical capacity and the knowledge of his worth,
the joint vahie of these men's labour will gradually increase,
nd with it the importar^ce of our strength from a Christian
!!id social-economical point of view. This is our bounden
<iuty towards theberoes and victims of the war. This view
1.^ shared in Russia and in England.

In Russia there are three principal Institutes for the
making of artificial limbs — in Petrograd, in Moscow, and
in Kiefi. The Petrograd one existed since the Russo-
Turkish war. The Moscow and Kieff Institutes were opened
in 1915. They have several branches working under them,
•as in Rostoff (on the Don), Ekaterinoslav, HarJcoff. -Up till
jQiy over 30,000 limbs were distributed, and I am afraid
the total number oi amputated has now reached 200,000,
which shows how much work there is still ahead.

The Russian limbs are very sohd, to be able to stand the
hard work on the land. The foot alone is made of wood,
-the leg being entirely of leather and felt firmly bound
tugether by steel rods and hoops.

Each limb weighs from 7 to 8 lbs., and costs from £15
to £20.

As most of the disabled soldiers must hurry back to the
land, they are not c^liged to -go through a -course of training,
having obtained their full dismissal from military service
iind received their pension as soon as their amputation is
-done.

There are, however, good training schools arranged for
them where, while their limb is being made, they can learn
the following professions : shoemaking, carpentering,
-addlery. electrical and telephonic service, bookbinding,
tailoring and typing.

There are several large homes for the blind, where they
are taught by all the latest methods.

On the whole these institutions are nm on much the same
lines as Roehampton and St. Dunstan's, whose brilliant
results can hardly be beaten.

88 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Vll
Personnel

Up to the time of the Revolution the chief Patroness and
President of the Russian Red Cross was the Dowager Em-
press Marie Feodorovna. Her Majesty always took the
keenest interest in the activities of the Society, and all her
life devoted much of her time to the Red Cross. After the
Revolution the Red Cross became a Government institu-
tion, having at its head various people well known for their
social activities. However great be the importance of the ;
material portion of the organizations of the Red Cress, it
is still only a basis for the work accomplished by the medical
men, sisters-of -mercy, stretcher-bearers, etc. The medical
institutions of the Red Cross may justly be proud cf their
personnel, which has shown such self-denial, such a know-
ledge of and love for their work. It must be borne in mind
that it is one of the duties of the Russian Red Cross Society
to provide with a staff of nurses not only its own medical
institutions but also all the hospitals of the War Depart-
ment and all other medical institutions in general. At the
beginning of the war the reserve amounted to 6000. By
January ist, 1917, up to 26,000 sisters-of-mercy had been
detailed to the front.

By January, 1917, there were about 58,000 stretcher-
bearers in the institutions of the Russian Red Cross. At
the beginning of the war the Red Cross had at its disposal,
out of those liable to military service, 380 medical men
belonging to the reserve and the territorials. As this number
proved to be far from sufficient, it was necessary to invite
the services of women doctors in the field institutions of
the Red Cross, and their number has now attained 500. I
must here draw your attention to the fact, pecuhar to
Russia, that our nurses and sisters accompany the stretcher-
bearers on the field of battle, where they dress the soldiers'
Wounds under fire. The total number of doctors in the ser-
vice of the Red Cross by January, 1917, amounted to 2500; ~
which is still inadequate to the needs of our huge army.

Ladies and gentlemen, my lecture draws to a close ; ii^j,
is only a rough sketch of an immense theme, but the differentv^
headings imder which it was formulated cover very wide;
^ound. You have been able to convince yourselves of the

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 89

stupendous activity manifested by the Russian Red Cross
in difficult and unforeseen circumstances.

Finally, the results caused Russian society to have confi-
dence in it, and if to-morrow our army again marches against
the enemy — in which we beUeve and upon which we count,
notwithstanding the present terrible chaos — ^that efficiency
of the Red Cross will be even more complete.

I would like to say a few words on the part played by
women in the Red Cross, and the link forged by them
between England and Russia on the ground of charity and
care for the wounded.

Women's work and the self-abnegation of the Russian
woman during this war have become an established fact
and we can say with pride that in this respect the women
of all countries stand upon the same level as the men — ^they
also can work, they also can obey, they also can die for their
country, and the Russian " death battalion " has shown
that they also can be heroes on the battlefields.

In Russia we have had the opportunity of close acquaint-
ance with the English nurse and sister, of whom we have
the highest opinion.

I must remind you here that the first steps in woman's
work for the wounded in Russia were taken by the English ;
the first community of sisters-of-mercy in Russia was founded
in Petrograd in 1844 by the greatly esteemed English doctor,
William Higginbotham. Until this year there were no
trained nurses in Russia, except a few in Warsaw, probably
belonging to a Roman Catholic Order. It was years before
the Crimean War, and before the foundation of the Red
Cross, but these sisters or nurses were not trained for the
army. The first woman to tend the Russian wounded
soldier and nurse him under fire was the remarkable English
woman, Florence Nightingale. This name has been dear to
the Russian heart since the days of the Crimean War, when
she performed miracles of mercy not only in the English
hospital in Scutari but also in places nearer the firing line.
Sixty years ago Miss Florence Nightingale laid the founda-
tions for the proper training of nurses, and strange to say
that the work of the Florence Nightingale group of nurses
in hostile Russia soon became known to us, thanks to the
accounts given of them by our wounded and prisoners of
war whom she tended, and whom she quickly transformed
from being the foes to being the friends of England.

Not long ago I happened to come across an interesting

90 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

book, The Pictorial History of the Russian War, published
in 1856. In it I noted the instructive facts of the relations
between the Russian and English prisoners and wounded,,
and I may say that enmity between them was at an end an
hour after the last shot was fired, and thanks to women like
Miss Nightingale the battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inker-
man laid the foundations of endm^ing sympathy between
England and Russia.

AU these touching details, together with the heroic end
of Nurse Cavell, are for ever imprinted upon the hearts of
Russian women, and from her name I give to the English
sisters and the British women the deep respect and wonder
of Russia.

The Russian Red Cross will never forget the help which
it has met with and continues to meet with from the Allied
Red Cross, and from among them may I be permitted to
single out the British Red Cross in the person of its official
representative present here to whom I wish to express the
sincere gratitude of the Russian Red Cross and of the whole
Russian nation !

Lord Weardale. I am sure you would all desire to
tender to our friend M. Mouravief Apostol the waimest
thanks of this gathering for the most interesting lecture
which he has given to us. My friend, the Chairman, has
already borne witness to the noble act of generosity which
M. and Madame Motu-avief Apostol have most kindly don<^
in order to testify to their feehngs of warm friendship for^
our own country. We have heard from him to-day a very;
interesting account indeed of the operations which we.
already had taken great interest in, the working of the Red
Cross in Russia, and we must all have been impressed with
the enormity of the figures. Where we in this country have
had to deal with tens of thousands, they in Russia have
had to deal with hundreds of thousands, running into
millions, and often under conditions of the greatest diffi- \
culty — absence of railways, absence of roads, absence foF.*
great distances of inhabited towns of any magnitude ; ^
fact the conditions are infinitely more difficult than any^r
thing we have had to deal with on our own Western Front,
Therefore I am sure we can render our Russian friends a

MOURAVIEF APOSTOL. RED CROSS 91

tribute of the greatest respect for what they have done —
the men and women, and particularly the women — for thf^
wounded in this war.

Before I conclude and take this vote from you perhaps
you would allow me to make passing reference to the cruel
trials through which our Russian friends are going at the
present time in Russia. We desire to extend to them our
most ardent sympathy, and to give them, as I am sure you
will all do, the most absolute testimony of our faith in them
and of our belief that a new Russia, a great Russia, and a
glorious Russia will emerge at the end of those troubles.

I have great pleasure in asking you to accord a hearty
vote of thanks to our Lecturer for his admirable address.

Sir Douglas Mackenzie Wallace. I have great pleasure
in seconding the motion from my friend Lord Weardale,
who has relieved me of any duty which it has imposed. He
has told you why our Lecturer deserves our admiration.
As has been pointed out to us more than once M. Mouravief
Apostol is no mere theorist ;. he is engaged on useful work,
and I can speak; with some authority, having visited the
admirable Hospital which he has opened. Therefore we
must accept what he has told us. Perhaps you will not be
able to carry away the numerous statistics with which he
has provided us ; but at all events they have produced a
general impression of the enormous amount of work which
is being done by the Russian Red Cross. In addition to
that, in order to estimate at all justly what has been done
you jnust remember the enormous difficulties with which
the Red Cross people have had to contend, difficulties of
which in this country we have happily no practical experi-
ence. However, in spite of all that, they have done their
part with the extraordinary energy which the Russians
possess, and not only energy, but a peculiar trait of the
Russian character of which I can speak after many years'
residence amongst them, and that is their intense good
nature and kindly sympathy. You cannot live in Russia
without being constantly touched by it ; and not only in
the upper classes, where a certain amount may be the result
of education, but even amongst the peasants. If you go

92 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

into a peasant's house as I have done — ^the first house I
happened to come to I was always received in a most
kindly way, and probably after talking with the host in a
very few minutes we should be calling each other " Little
Brother " and other terms of endearment which are very
common in speaking the Russian language. Throughout
the war this quality, and their impulsive energy, these two
qualities which I have ofteH noticed among the Russians
have come out in a very remarkable degree ; and I have noj
doubt that a better acquaintance with the activity, tl
wonderful activity of the Russian Red Cross, cannot fail t^
have a further effect beyond that already achieved in drai
ing the two nations a little closer together.

More than forty years ago I ventured to express public!
a faint hope that such effect would be produced, by wh2
means I did not Icnow, and I confess that I did not thinl
I should hve to see it. But happily I can say now that the
two nations have been drawn together, and I hope that thi
drawing together will go on and prosper.

The HoNBLE. Sir Arthur Stanley. It is hardly neces-
sary, but as a formality I should like to put this vote of
thanks to M. Mouravief Apostol which has been so elo-
quently moved and seconded by Lord Weardale and Sir
Donald Mackenzie Wallace, because I am sure you would
like particularly to give expression to our thanks to M.
Mouravief Apostol for the most interesting lecture we have
listened to this afternoon.

The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation.

Mr. E. A. Brayley Hodgetts proposed a vote of thanks
to Sir Arthur Stanley for taking the chair, which Professor
Burrows seconded.

INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE BETWEEN
ENGLAND AND RUSSIA

BY BARON A. HEYKING

(Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, in the Chair)
14/A December, 191 7

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. My duty as President
dent this evening is very light, and therefore my remarks
will be very brief indeed. All I have to do for the moment
is this : to introduce to you Baron Heyking, whom I dare
say most of you already know because he has lived a long
time in England, and has won golden opinions from all sorts
of people. I will not attempt to sketch his lecture because
I do not know what it contains : he will do that himself,
and I have no doubt he will do it very satisfactorily. 1 will
now call upon Baron Heyking to deliver his lecture.

A Plea for a Closer Russo-British Intellectu.\l
►v Coalescence

R The plea for Russo-British intellectual coalescence may
P seem problematic at the present moment, when paralysis
of power in external as well as in internal affairs has befallen
the Russian nation. Great Britain was whole-heartedly at
one with Russia, when the Revolution overthrew the auto-
cratic form of government for a Government controlled by
the nation itself. But when the further development of
revolutionary events made it more and more apparent that
the discipline of the army had been shaken to its founda-
tions and that it had lost its fighting spirit, the British
pubhc reahzed that Russia was nb longer in a position
actively to assist her allies against the common foe. More-
over, the loss of State control over the massts, the contest
lor supreme iX)Wer between different factions, the disappcar-

94 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

ance of any form of government which could be considered
as representative of the nation, are events which could iiot
commend Russia to the British.

At present Russia offers a spectacle of turmoil not unlike
that which followed the French Revolution, when one of
the diplomatists who was' accredited to Royal France made
the remark : "La France a disparu de la carte politique de
V Europe, c'est un vide," to which a distinguished French-
man made reply : " Oui, c'est un vide, mats ce vide est un
volcan ! " And so it was. France emerged from that
volcano stronger than she was before. Mutatis mutandis,
the same may be said of Russia.

The tragic condition of Russia has proved to be the
touchstone of sincerity of our British friends. Although
Great Britain has in consequence suffered great losses in
the conduct of the war, she has continued her sympathy
for her -Russian ally. Even the most dissatisfied onlooker
must feel that the present rage of licence of the slave who
has broken his chains cannot be regarded as permanent ;
it is only a passing thunderstorm which will be followed
by lawful order, peaceful development, prosperity, and the
fullness of national power.

The plea for Russo-British intellectual coalescence aims,
therefore, not at the passirg events of the moment, but is
founded on the lasting character of the two great nations.

Up to the beginning of the twentieth century an intellec-
tual Entente between Great Brits.in and Russia could rot
be achieved because -Russian affairs were not sufficiently'
understood in Great Britain. Moreover, there existed, un*
fortunately, a lack of mutual sympathy between the two
countries as a result of the more or less open political an-
tagonism which for so many years kept them apart. On
the other hand, Russia, by the repeated immigration of
poUtical refugees from France, and thanks to a series oi
reforms in State administration, carried out after the
German pattern, found herself strongly inHuenced by Ger-
man administrative methods and French ideas of social
education. The German and the French languages were
the two foreign languages which were mostly used in Russia^ j
Russian bureaucracy was imbued with German principles;
while so-called " good " society took its tone from France

The world war and the revolution in Russia have chargtxJ
this state of affairs. German influence has been extirj)at«l
in Russia as well as in Great Britain, and there is now fio

;

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE 95

obstacle to, but, on the contrary, every incentive for, the
estabUshment of an intellectual Entente between Great
Britain and Russia.

The benefits to be derived from such an Entente embrace
different aspects. Both countries are in many respects
complements to each other, not only from an economic and
pohtical, but also from an intellectual point of view. To
begin with, English education is pre-eminent for its appre-
ciation of the practical side of life, while the Russian peda-
gogy is- more theo-retical. Both sides have carried their
peculiarity to an extreme which makes mutual adjustment
desirable. Great Britain, with her rich cultural experience
of ihe past, has the possibility of educating her youth first
of all on practical fines, and in so doing she consciously and
;t vGwedly lays stress on the building up of character. Russia,
lacking such experience, had to revert to theoretical methods
which from that point of view bore good results. There are
text -books in Russian which would easily bear comparison
with similar volumes in the English language, and which
are even considered by competent authorities to be superior.
During his years of study the Russian youth acquires in the
aggregate a greater range of knowledge than the English
student. Russian educated men generally possess a more
universal training and a greater amount of knowledge than
Enghshmen. But the former are often deficient in the
practical application of such knowledge, and here they may
be improved and made more efficient by being taught
English ways. In the struggle for life Englishmen are
superior to Russians. The success in life of the English is
partly due to factors in which Russians are inferior, namely,
firmness of character, tenacity of purpose, and eagerness
for work. English educa.lion does not consist so much of
cramming into the students' heads the greatest possible
amount of positive knowledge as in making them fit to be
useful workers in State and society, an aim which is palpably
much more concrete and useful, and produces not so brilliant
but more valuable results for the ultimate object of pre-
paring the youth for his proper place in the world. 'Russians
are often highly educated intellectually, but they are lacking
somehow in balance of character.

Sports and the inculcation of the sporting spirit is another
side of the question. Up to the present sports are very little
known, and equally little appreciated, in Russia ; but after
tke war this will change, as the example of Great Britain

96 U.R.S.A, PROCEEDINGS

has taught a useful leSson. It was chiefly due to the sport-
ing spirit of the nation that Great Britain was able to iifi-
provise an army of many millions. In Russia miUtary train-
ing was considered superior to sporting games. But if, as
everyone hopes, this War is to put an end to militarism, it
will become necessary to adopt a system which, while pos-
sessing all the advantages of military training, has none ol
its drawbacks. Games are indeed in many ways preferable
to military training, especially from the point of view of the
development of. initiative and character.

On the other hand, by a study of Russian Uterature and
character Englishmen might conceivably benefit. Russians
are more sympathetic in their attitude towards foreign
nationalities, the historic development of their country has «
led them to be more appreciative of foreign nations than the h
English. Owing to the geographical position of their island ™
and the remarkable successes they have achieved the Erg-
lish have in the past paid too little attention to the methods
and experiences of other nations. The war has been a
revelation to England and at the same time an invaluable
lesson from which she will derive immense benefit in the
future. Her eyes have been opened to the r.ecessily for
getting into closer industrial and intellectual touch with
other nations, and above all with her allies. Amorgst thest
Russia stands in the first rank owing to her actual and
potential commercial, industrial, and intellectual wealth.

Russian and British intellectuality could supplement and
to a certain extent correct each other to great advantage,
more especially as to their respective mental attitudes when
forming a judgment. The Enghsh mind is more positive
and creative, while Russian intellectuality excels in criticism.
Englishmen often are so much engaged in reaching the prac-
tical end in view as quickly as possible that they do not.
always attain the best possible results. Russian endeavour
on the contrary, is often deficient in attaining that result
which under the circumstances, although not representing
perfection, is the only possible solution. The English are
more ready to compromise, thus proving their statesmanhke
spirit, while Russians are possessed with a craviig for the
ideal. Russians desire to comprehend a subject from every
point of view as completely as cah be imagined. This ex-
cessive introspection hampers action. The Russian liig^H
and delays in true Hamlet fashic^n. Russians lave f.lwa^
seen in Hamlet a type of their own national character. Q^

HBYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE 97

the contrary, Englishmen think there is " no time Hke the
present," and they recognize that "the tide in the affairs
of men " should be " taken at the flood." They strive to be
ready for their opportunity, and this was rightly described
by Gladstone as the " secret of success." How opposite is
the underlying significarce of Russian proverbs such as:
" Business is not a bear, it will not escape into the wood " ;
or " Before crossing the water first discover the ford." This
shows the standpoint of the Russian towards action. He is
all for circumspection and reflection. Russian literature is
full of descriptions of types of " Cunctators." The Russian
expression for being in the act of doing something is a verb
which means " to gather oneself," implying a somewhat
comphcated process. It is pulling oneself together — a
collecting as it were of coat, hat, goloshes, latchkey, and
so on before the stage of readiness to go out can be reached.
The example of English reckless energy would certainly to
some extent benefit the too contemplative Russian, who
often misses his chances. Vice versa the Russian capacity
of criticism may serve as a wholesome corrective to too
great impetuosity of action.

. The \'iew taken by the British and by Rus.sians of time
and space is vastly different. Russians seem sometimes to
overlook that very real entity which has been called, not
without reason, " the enemy " — Time, upon which men are
unavoidably dependent. A Russian labours under the illu-
sion that he is more or less master of time, that there does
not exist a clock which pitilessly and relentlessly marks the
minutes and hours. He does not want to be reminded of
the shortness of his span of earthly life, and that each pass-
ing moment brings him nearer to the end ; that if the right
moment is not taken advantage of it slips into eternity and
cannot be recalled. Realization of time is life, as human
existence is circumscribed by its passing nature. Too soon
the moment comes when it is too. late, when the time for
volition and action has lapsed . Englishmen , on the contrary,
live, so to say, with a constant eye on the clock. The
Russian is absolutely unable to enjoy life under the ban of
the consciousness of time. It is beautiful to imagine your
self to be free from the trammels of time, and to be guided
only by the impulse of the moment. Russian life would
certainly become more fruitful of good results if the spe'nd-
thrifts in time would only realize a little more fully the
necessity of conforming to the duty of each moment.

95 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

As liberal and uncompromising as Russians are in respc;^
of time so the British are as regards space. The difference
in social conditions and the historic past of each nation
exercise an influence in the moulding of their particular
individuality. Great Britain, an essentially seafaring
nation, has estaWished her rule in abnost every quarter of
the globe. Owing to the necessity for corstant intercourse
between the Mother Country and the distant Dominions
of the gigantic British World-Empire, love of exploration,
adventure, change of surrourdii gs, restlessness and con-
stant tra\'cl have become ch?r?,cteristic features of the
British nation. Space, an obstacle which had to be over-
come, appeared as a negligible quantity, a factor which,
with the help of more and more perfected mears of commuiii-
cation, seemed practically non-txistcnt. An Englishman
travelling in a comfortable and luxurious liner, or in the
saloon carriage of an express train, can accomplish ih^
correspondence connected with his business, social enter-
tainments, and so forth without realizing that he is passing
rapidly through space. Be it in the name of duty or enter-
prise or for the sake of pleasure the Briton becomes a globe-
trotter, a week-end hunter, and a travelling enthusiast.
It would be instructive to compare if possible the amount
of money spent on travelUng per capita in Great Britain
and in Russia. The difference must be enormous. Like thtj
British Empire, Russia possesses a stupendous stretch oi
territory, comprising no less than one-seventh of the dry*
surface of the globe. But Russians do not sufficiently ex-:
plore their own territory, for they have not sufficiently
developed the energy required. Their territory forms or.e
compact block, and offers no special difficulties in the estab-
lishment of intercourse across it. Communication on that
great plain which stretches from the Pacific to the Ural,
and further to the Carpathians, and on the great waterway
which traverse Siberia and European Russia from north to
south and from south to north, is comparatively easy — ^too
easy to challenge and develop human energy, as in the case
of seafaring — that great school for strengthening human
endurance, enterprise and energy. Russians do not knowi
their country sufficiently well, and with few exceptions, ^a]
in the cases of the Cossack leader Yermak, Prjevalski, atinh
some others, the travellers and explorers of Russia havwt
been mostly of foreign nationality. While Britishers travoVj ^
too much, Russians travel too little. Both go to extreim$>fl

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE 99

in this respect, and, as it is said " Les extremes se toucheni,'"
here again they may, by coming into closer intellectual
touch, exercise a beneficial and moderating influence on
each other.

Amongst the peculiarities of Great Britain there is om-
which is not to be found in Russia, namely, the conscientious
objector. The existence of this species, which is a monu-
ment to English sentimentality, is, from the point of view
of common sense, unintelligible. The simple idea 'of justice
requires that obligations of the individual toAvards the State
should be extended to all its citizens without exception.
Everybody has, as Kant puts it, to act in such a way that
his action can be taken as the standard applicable to all.
To show the absurdity of the standpoint of the conscien-
tious objector it is only necessary to assume that all citizen^
of a State were conscientious objectors, and it becomes
apparent at once that the Siate and community under such
conditions could not exist at all. The conscientious objector
is a remnant of past hierarchical rule, when religion and
State rule were undivided 'and were supposed to serve the
same ends. There is, however, r o Ici ger any doubt that the
laws of Jiloses and the Christian religion do not advocate
killing, and that, on the other hand, the State cannot exist
if its citizens are not ready to defend it with arms against
foreign aggression. If those M'ho take advantage of the
order of the State assuring peace are not ready to defend it,
but prefer to leave such necessary duty to their fellow-
citizens, they are profiteering. During the present war
public anger has been justly manifested against able-bodied
men whd declined to join the ranks and made a profitable
business by taking advantage of those who had to leave
their calling for the defence of their country.

There is a difference in the idea of freedom as conceived
by the British and by Russians which makes an Anglo-
Russian Entente specially desirable. There is, of course,
no difference in the civic liberties as they exist in modern
civilized States. Russia possesses now the same personal
rights — " les droits de I'homme " — which are ccmmon to
France, the British Empire, America, and other States;
but the Russian " broad nature," the necessity for a wide
owtlook on humanity, leads the Rtissian to regard freedom
from a vastly different standpoint. For the Britisher it
riieans the possibility of observing a mode of living and
conduct pleasing to the individual, without causing inter-

100 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

ference to the freedom of others, and in conformity with
rules which he himself and the community recognize 'as
binding. Freedom, being a social conception, involves self'
imposed restrictions upon one's volition. Public opinion,
not less than the law, determines the limits of free decision
of the individual in so many ways that freedom appears
often to be not very unlike life in a workhouse, where nearly
everything is prearranged, regulated, and systematized for
the benefit of the community as a whole.

This extreme socialization of the idea of freedom is far
from being acceptable to the Russian. He yearns to be
himself, irrespective of others, to follow his own pursuits in
his own way, and not to be hampered by ihe doirgs of others.
The limitless Steppe, the solitude of regions sparsely popu-
lated, and the love of a life in close touch with nature, far
from the anthills of human existence, produce in his soul
the idea that freedom must give more possibility for un-
restricted action than can be conceded in a civilized com-
munity. He does not care for pubhc opinion. He wishes
to be the sole judge and mastei> of his own actions in the
widest possible sense. Even under autocratic rule this
feature of Russian character was very noticeable and could
no: be suppressed. Formerly nothing was known to the
masses in Russia of the wonderfully regulated and stereo-
typed social life of England, where everybody lives more or
less in the same way, follows the same train of thought, and
ib concerned chiefly about the same things. To the Russian
soul conventionality is irksome to the last degree. Russians
are perhaps very fond of the koye kak, kak nyeboutch, avos,
nyebos neetchyevo expressions signifying the unexpected, un-
regulated, unrestricted, and accidental, in fact comprising
the very conception of freedom as the Russian under-
stauds it.

The Russian rnay be right or wrong, Tie is always interest-
ing, because he endeavours to work out his own salvation,
to have his own ideas of Hfe and of the universe. He does
not believe in shibboleths ; he wants to be free. English-
men allow their intelligence to be narrowed down inten-
tionally by an ultra-conservative spirit which sometimes
imp^iirs originality and individuahty. But the worship of
unrestricted freedom by the Russians is liable to becoijle
dangerous, especially in critical times of radical reform and
uplieaval, when |t jmanifests itself in an exaggerated diver-
^ty of thought and endeavour, making a co-ordination of

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE loi

forces for the attainment of practical results viribus uniiis
exceedingly difficult. The British idea of methodical free-
dom would, therefore, assist the Russians in bringing tho^e
centrifugal forces into the orbit of practical statesmanship.

There is one aspect of Hberty common both in Englard
and Russia : the liberty to strike, which is due to the idea
of conceding to the great majority. It is a form of libtriy
which is bound to produce the opposite effect, at least en
those suffering from the application of it. This concession
to great lumbers means nothing more nor less than endors-
ing the dargcrous and ethically unsound prirciple th?t
might is right. Can any right-thinking man affirm that a
breach of contract committed simultaneously by a number
of persons has not the same nature and aspect of unfaithful-
ness and lawlessness as that of a breach of promise given b^'
a single individual ? Laziness is an attribute which belorgs
to the vast majority of mar kind. Is it not, therefore, plain
to everyone that if the lazy are allowed to cease workirg,
claiming at the same time to be kept at the expense of the
community, such a state of thirgs must lead to bankruptcy,
misery, and want of those thirgs which are necessary to life.
The principle of liberty to strike is wrong in its very con-
ception. Any other device for bringing Labour and Capital
into line with each other, for the establishment of fairness
and justice — -as, for instance, adjustment of wages and the
fixing of prices by compulsory Arbitration Courts — is pal-
pably preferable to strikes, which undermine the order, ard
ecomonic fabric of State and society, and are tantetmount
to licence, extortion and blackmail.

In accordance with the difference in the conception of
freedom, the social structure and intercourse in Russia and
in Great Britain bear a very different aspect. Elaborate
forms of ceremony and the pomp of rehcs of the past are
little known and thoroughly unsympathetic to »Russian^.
The complexity of social relations, so dear to the hearts of
Englishmen, is uncongenial to Russians, who treat every-
thing in their simple genuine fashion, in the spirit of laissez-
jaire, with broad-minded intention to live and let live.
Englishmen who know Russian life well are fascinated by
this atmosphere of sans gdne, sincerity, and absence of cant.
It is precisely this feature of the Russian character which
makes the British " Tommy " feel at home with the Russian
private whenever he has a chance of getting into personal
touch with him.

102- U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Of course a simple-minded child of nature cannot possess
the highly evolved mentahty of a man of public affairs.
Russia has, in a few months, reached a degree ci political
freedom* for which Great Britain required centurits of slow
-and steady reform. By this abrupt movement historical
contirAiity was lost. England ft It her way towards progress
with caution, in the light of Burke '^s dictum : " With in-
clination to preserve and capacity to reform." The super-
quickness of progress which has fallen to the lot of Russia
may easily produce in the mind of the reformers a hope to
a.ccomplish the impossible, to realize Utopia, and to let the
solid ground of practical experiei.ce slip away from beneath
their feet. An appreciation of the organic evolution of
State and social institutions in England should have a
beneficial influence in Russian politics and steady the forces
which brought about the revolution.

Since Russia has become a democracy she is liable to be
compared with the older democracy of Great Britain, and
the question arises in consequence as to the actual concep-
tion of democracy, apart from its literally mearir g that the
people are the ruling power. A certain levelling of the
differences which divide the various classes of scciety is of
course the true aim of democracy, but all deper.ds upon the
standard of the " level " taken as normal. Human scciety
can be levelled from below or from above. It may be laid
down that the mode of life, moral principles, and manners
of the lower strata should be the rule for the whole com-
mimity ; or, on the contrary, the tendency may exist that
the masses should adjust their ways and customs to those
of the higher educated classes. With all their democratic
tendencies the British avowedly follow what may be styled
the cult of the gentleman, that is to say that the higher
standard of life is considered to be the universal aim. This
distinctive feature of British democracy has given it the
polish of aristocracy. The preponderance which the British
exercise in international life is due to a great extent to their
aristocratic tournure d' esprit. The British gentleman, to
whatsoever class of society he may belong, has taken the
lead in culture and civihzation all the world over.

Now what constitutes the character of a gentleman ?
It is honesty and straightforwardness of character com-
bined with gentleness and sua\-ity of behaviour. It is this
frame o:{ mind which colours all the actions of the. British

• I leave out of account revolutionary licence.'*^' *^i«*-'ii'*'^*i;.'

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE 103

and gives them that quiet confidence of self-possession
which marks a high station in life. Of course such a type
of gentleman is the out^^ard sign and result of a thoroughly
balanced personality which can only be attained by a com-
bined adequate education in the moral as well as the mental
sphere. As in the case of British democracy, similarly with
Russian democracy, the different classes of society may be
brought into harmony by establishing a standard taken
from the higher social strata. Intellectual coalescence
between the British and the Russians from this point of
view seems an aim worthy of erdeavom- and realization.

One of the pillars of British cominercial success is the
reputation of the British business man. Russians may have
a clear conception of a gentleman, but their idea of the quali-
^cations which are the hall-mark of a capable business man
is not always in accordance with British ideas on the sub-
ject, which define a business man as synonymous whh regu-
larity, consistency, reliabihty and serious endeavcur. Any-
thing that is erratic, amateurish, and without observer ce
of a steady hne of conduct prejudices the British mind and
must therefore be avoided by those who desire to entertain
business relations with the British. During my Consular
career in Great Britain I had to hsten to tales from perplexed
Englishmen who had entered into commercial relations with
Russians only to find that without rhyme or reason no
answer was forthcoming, even in response to advantageous
propositions. The root of the matter lay in the fact that
if for certain reasons the Russian did not want to keep up
relations with the other side he simply did not consider it
^worth while to give the matter any further attention. Such
ian independent course of action is evidently outside business
"etiquette and consequently does harm to Russo-British in-
tercourse. A httle more attention to the business formality
to which the British are accustomed and the matter would
soon be put right.

From the point of view of humanitarianism Great Britain
is already in close and sympathetic touch with Russia.
Mr. Mouravief Apostol, in his lecture on the Russian Red
Cross, has lately brought to notice the great work done by
this humane society in tending the sick and wounded, in
feeding the hungry, and relieving much of the distress en-
tailed by the conditions of war. That work appeals to the
British, who are themselves so untiring in their zeal for
philanthropic institutions and in their lavish liberality and

104 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

munificence extended to the poor and needy. The moral
sense of the human race is rooted in sympathy. Where this
quahty predominates, there the moral sense can be' fostered
and will grow and develop strongly. A prominent charac-
teristic of the Russian is sympathy showing itself in an yn-
rescrv^ed readiness to help without any calculation or re-
flexion of a selfish nature. Christian love and brotherhood
are deeply rooted in the Russian soul, which is closely akin
to British humapitarianism in indissoluble co-ordination of
pirpose.

The cor elusion to be drawn, therefore, is that both coun-
tries have only to gain by comirg into closer contact with
each other in order that they may be teachers, helpmates,
and friends to one another.

The present world war is to be the forerunner of closer
and more potent ties of intellectual and moral brotherhood,
far the sake of mutual progress and prosperity and the
advancement of the common ideals of civilization, culture
and religion.

The encouraging and strengthening of the ties of intel-
lectual affinity between the two countries may be .best
attained by fostering mutual earnest study of things Russian
in Great Britain and of things British in Russia by means
of textbooks, the acquirement of scholarships, professor-
ships, the attending of lectures, interchange of the results
of research in the domain of science and knowledge, and
last, but not least, by personal visits each in the other's..,
country. Much has been done already, but much more can^
be done'in future.

Commander Locker Lampson, R.N.V.R;, M.P. Mr.
Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure tq'^
me to be allowed to come up to this platform and to supr
port Baron Heyking in his admirable address. Here have
I been a matter of two years in Russia ; I find it difficult,
in spite of my two years, to ask for tea and milk aiid salt
when I go into a restaurant in Russia, and Baron Heyking
is. able to stand on this platform and deliver an address
absolutely as an Englishman, ard it proves to me, though lii
am only too keen for Intellectual Coalescence, I feel the^^r
balances will be weighed against us in the future when aliju
the intellect will be on the side of Russia and we must try-i
to produce something to coalesce with besides that. . '

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE 105

I was particularly interested to see that Baron Heyking
was going to speak upon what is here called Intellectual
Coalescence, because after all we are as nations, I hope,
coalesced in other respects. We are, after all, allies. Let
us never forget that, and anybody who says anything against
Russia as an ally is playing the game of the Germans.
(Hear, hear.) I will not say a word against the Russians,
first of all because I have no reason ; but even if I had a
reason I should never dream of saying it as long as Russia
is our ally and while she can be of use and value to us as
she undoubtedly will be in this war.

But Intellectual Coalescence is a very interesting word
because it really means this, that to be an ally over a treaty,
an ally in war, or to be commercially interlocked in one's
relation is really nothing ; that what matters is to be intel-
lectually allied in some form or another. You can destroy
treaties, armies can vanish away ; but the things you can-
rot kill are ideas. Therefore I admire so much the words
iliathave fallen from Baron Heyking, and in particular this
idea of his that we should intellectually coalesce.

I came here this afternoon, I am afraid, not to make you
vn address at all ; I came to listen. It is three and a half
years since I opened my mouth on a public platform. I
bc'\e the melancholy privilege of being a Member of Parlia-
ment— before the war began ; and I have been trying to
forget that I was a Member of Parliament ever since because
it has stood me in such evil stead. I find people always
sayirg, it is time not for words but it is time for deeds, and
therefore I feel very out of it in addressing any meeting on
a subject like this. But I come straight from Russia, and
I feel that in one sense, and not only myself personally
but my men, we do know Russia better than" the average
Englishman, and though it may sound rude to say it, we
know it better than any Embassy can ever know it. I do
not sr.y that we know it better than any Consul could know
it,, because I am sure if everybody followed the experience
Sitd the conduct of my friend on the right we should know
the countries we lived in thoroughly well. The average
person in an Embassy, the average foreigner in a country

io6 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

lives in a small, gilded, select, superficial society. \WiM
happened of old ? Thefe was a Bureaucracy in Russia
which governed the country under a Tsar ; an Englishman
living in one of the big citits was in close touch with this
Bureaucracy ; he got to know the GDurt and other circles,
and never came to understar.d the people. I do not profess
to understand the Russian people at all ; all I can profess
to have done is to have slept with some of the Russian
soldiers beside their camp fires, and to have fought with
them on the battlefield, and I have come to feel a sincere
friendship for them. I cannot tell you how much I have
been through with them, and I cannot tell you how fond
of them I am.

Our Lecturer to-day has said that an outstarding Russian
characteristic is humanity. I only wish the EngHsh people
were really half as human and humane. I rather feel that
Nvhen we talk about intellectual coalescence that the Eng-
lishman, though he may be a very fine person, yet he is.
singularly lacking in intellectual ard other sympathy, and
especially towards a foreign country he takes a long time
to understand it. Now there is nothing comparable to
Russian humanity. I have been all alone once with a
small group of Cossacks in the Turkish mountains. 1
remember there were only about twelve of us, and I had
no food and no kit of my own : well I remember seeing
these men get together and come to some arrangement
which I did not understand. Then all the time I was with
them I had tea, sugar and everything else available, and
had a royal time. I found afterwards that these men had
combined to conceal from me the fact that they had not
enough for themselves, and had agreed to pool what they
possessed in order that I, a stranger, should have all I
wanted, and that they should go without what they wanted.
(Cheers.) That is not an isolated case. There is not a man
or officer in my Force who cannot give a thousand instances
hke that. I remember one petty officer dying, the first
man we lost in Russia ; I remember so well the funeral we
had. A Union Jack was put over his i^ffin and we buried
him in a lonely churchyard hundreds of miles away from

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE 107

English cities. He was left there, and none remained be-
hkid. What happened ? The wife of the General in com-
mand of that district used to go every week for two months
and put flowers upon that man's grave. I ask you, where
IS the wife of an English general that goes once a week to
tlie grave of anybody and puts flowers upon it ? I am not
saying anything critical or unkind, I only say, show me the
lady !

And I have seen other things. I remember being in
Turkey with the Russian troops when a lot of villages were
captured. The people of military age had left, and they
had left behind them the older people and some of the
children. Then the Russians would come along and occupy
ttie towns and, of course, there would be a lot of derelict
children. Now if there is one thing a Russian loves it is a
cldld. I have seen a little child found in a field shot through
the arm, and it was put into the hospital where I was. I
v.as ill in hospital at the same time the child was there
and there was a competition among the soldiers to adopt
this child. It had to have its arm dressed every day, and
lised to dislike very much the nurses who caused it pain
and trouble. The soldiers got very fond of this child, and
used to come in sometimes when it was having its arm
dressed. Sitting in a semicircle would be a number of
Russian soldiers, who would sit down with the tears trickling
doj wn their cheeks at the thought of the child being in pain-

So when people come to me and say the Russians are a
bad people for not going on fighting, I say there are greater
potentialities for good in that race than in any other race
1 have ever known, except my own. I must be excused for
putting my own first because, after all, I am first and fore-
most an Englishman.

I think Baron Heyking was perfectly right in what he
said about character. He said, and he is quite right I sup-
pose in saying it, that the Russians lack for the moment
a little development of character ? But how could these
people have developed their character. Do you realize that
ihey were under a tyranny more extreme and more out-
rageous than that existing in any country at the present

io8 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

moment. After all, I have fought under the old regimj^-^
I am not going to say anjrthing against the old regime—
and also under the new, and I can tell you this that we
should never win the war if we had continued under the
old regime ; it was absolutely impossible. I am not alone
in saying this myself. There is hardly a Russian authority
who, thinking the matter over carefully, will deny ttat
victory could have been achieved under such conditions.
The old regime, let us never forget it, had got to go. Of
course all of us would like to see the same sort of Govern-
ment in Russia as in England, a Government of order. We
all talk as if the Russians had been in a state of chaos and
revolution for a hundred years. Do you realize how long
the revolution has lasted, that the revolution is not yet a
year old, and that in spite of that on July ist the Russians
made an attack and took over 20,000 prisoners in a week ?,
You must never forget a thing of that sort, and never forget
how young they are in questions of self-government and of
revolution. And if you say, as people do say, that they
lack character, all one means is this, that for a generation
they have been not so much governed as crushed — there is
no question about it. There has been a top dog to keep
them down, a -bureaucracy that has governed everybody.
Father, mother, tj^ant, call that Government what you
like, the people were in leading strings. Then suddenly
you give these people in leading strings the power and
chance of managing their own affairs, their own lives. Well,
I say for the first few months you may expect difficulties,
you cannot fail to expect difficulties, but it is going to be
all right in the end. But some will say, will it be all right
for this country? I still hope it will ; and I am awfully
keen that even although it does not get right quickly that
we should go on hoping meanwhile and doing our best for
Russia, and always be talking well of her.

Baron Heyking mentioned one or two matters that
brought back Russia well to me. He said they were people
who did not have a constant eye on the clock and who were
given to the policy of Nichevo. Well I remember so well
that we always thought that the two great words in the

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE 109

Russian language were Niche vo and Sechos, which means
' Never mind " and " In a moment." And the word Sechos
struck us as such an excellent word that once when we had
a car that nothing could get to move we called it Sechos ; and
I think there was not a Russian who did not appreciate tbt
humour of that situation. It is quite true that owing to
the fact that ihey have been governed from above they
have not yet learnt some of the needs of modern practice!
•life. But at heart they are a sound people, far more intel-
lectual than we are, far more universally sympathetic, ar.d
they have the opportunity of doing magnificent things to
promote the world's progress. At the present tncment 1
suppose in a sense that chaos reigns in Russia, and you
may wonder why it is that they don't, some of them, want
to go on with the war. Well what has been the position ?
You had a bureaucracy in power in Russia which made
use of huge armies ill equipped, and hurled them against
the best -equipped enemy in the whole world. I remember
when I first went to Russia I saw men advance across the
trenches with no other equipment in their hand but trench
spades, which they held in front of them to keep the bullets
away, and they went not by hundreds but by thousands to
death in that way. And I have talked to many wounded
soldiers in the trenches. I would say, " I hope you are not
suffering very much," and they would reply — I am afraid
I have not got the words right in Russian, but I will trans-
late into Enghsh — " Never mind about my sufferings, Christ
suffered more than me."

Then these ill-equipped soldiers would advance again,
and more would be mowed down to no purpose, without
rifles or ammunition. And these men believed all the time
that they were being sent against an enemy by officers in
the pay of the Germans ; and that is the belief of a lot of
the Bolsheviks to-day. You have to remember that at the
present moment you have to educate them to the know-
ledge that they were not fighting for the Tsar but for the
greatest ideal of freedom that the world has put before
people, and once you get them to realize that you will find
them move together as a great nation and a grcc.t army

no U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

against the common enemy. It is the custom to say thirgs
now look dark ; and there is no question that^with an armiir-
tice a lot of troops and guns may be released from that
front to exercise their power elsewhere. But I have greet
belief in the Russian people. Personally I am not going
to give in , indeed I have every hope myself of fighting against
Germany on German soil, and therefore I should not dream
of giving up. I think I am entitled to say that — that in my
opinion whatever present difficulties, there is inherent in the
Russian people a love of liberty that will carry them through
even these difficult times, and not only during this war but
afterwards when two great people, two great races unite
together not only intellectually but in all other respects to
carry on the mission of freedom and democracy which, after
all, must be before the eyes' of everyone at this momei^
and must for ever be the object of our race. t

I have come with the greatest pleasure, and once more
may I congratulate our Lecturer on his admirable address.
And may I myself be with the victorious Russian army on
German soil before the war is over. Meanwhile may I wish
Go4-speed to the Russians in their time of difficulty ?

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. I believe it is the.
custom at these meetings to invite any who wish to make
rertiarks to do so, but as the hour is getting late I wouMj
ask them to be brief. q

' As I have suggested to others to be brief I must follow
the same advice myself. I regret this because I should hkei
to say a great deal about the address which we have just*
heard. Baron Heyking's description of the Russian charac-
ter is in my humble opinion quite admirable. I had the
opportunity of studying the subject for eight years in Russia
in very close relation with all classes of the population, ard
I find that nay impressions during that long period agree
admirably with Baron Heyking's remarks. He spoke about
the education of the Russian and the results of that educa-
tion-^and how very different it was from education amongi^ts
ourselves. Well every word on that subject spoken by «
Baroti Heykirg I can say is absolutely true. Perhaps yoi»t
will allow me to illustrate the subject by an example. Aq

n I

HEYKING. INTELLECTUAL COALESCENCE iii

student in Russia comes out from the University or from
the Higher Schools with, as Baron Heyking has indicated,
a large stock of general principles, and this is characteristic ;
these general principles are almost invariably the latest
products of Western thought. I can remember the time
nearly fifty years ago when, as you may have heard, the
mania for the moment here in the West was table-turning —
the Russians threw themselves into that. Then Spiritualism
gailcd the upper hand, and the Russians threw themselves
into Spiritualism. Then I remember Daniel Hume, of whom
perhaps most of you have heard ; he was a universal
favourite and exercised very great influence not only
amongst fashionable society but even in the Winter Palace
itself. I refer to this for. the purpose of telhng you that the
t ducated Russian always throws himself into the very latest
theories. Ard of his political theories one of the most im-
portant is Socialism;, nearly all throw themselves into
Socialism of the most advanced type, and in those days the
K \'oluiionaries, who at that time were known as Nihilists,
they even explair.cd to me that by adoptirg those newest
\icws they constantly had the best, and they would natur-
ally get ahead of other nations in Europe. They would
often say, " You English, you have so many historical
prt judices to overcome before you do anything, so we will
get far ahead of you in a very short time."

I quote that lo explain the similar tendency we see at
the present day. The Russians have jumped to extremes,
and unfortunately they have met with the natural result.
If the transition from Autocracy to Constitutional Govern-
ment or even to Democracy came more gradually, had they
gained a little experience, the result would have been very
different . Unfortunately those theorists, absolutely wanting
in experience, have by chance gained the upper hand, and
we see the result.

Baron Heyking has explained that most admirably from
a philosophical point of view and in a philosophical manner,
and Commander Locker Lampson has supplemented those
remarks of Baron Heyking by giving you his personal ex-
periences and impressions of the Russian soldier at the

112 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

present day, and these I may say coincide admirably with
my own recollections. He is the kindest-hearted man
living — ^that is what I always found ; I do not mean only
the soldier but the peasants, who, of course, are identical
with the soldiers at the present day. I may tell you ^Iso
that during the eight years I was in Russia I was perpetu-
ally struck by the radical differences between the Russian
character and the English character, and yet after a certain
time I had no difficulty in getting into thorough sympathy
with those people who were so very unlike myself, and we
lived very happily together ever afterwards. Even at that
time, forty years ago, I ventured publicly and in black and
white to describe the state of things existing, at the samt-
time expressing the beUef that a thorough understandir/g
between the two nations was, in my opinion, not at all im-
possible. Though there are only few people here (^Id enough
to remember it, at that time our reblior s with Russia wert
anything but friendly ; but I ventured then to predict that
very likely the day would come when we should ur.derstand
each other better and draw closer together. I cor- less that
whgn I made that prediction I did not -expect to live lon^'
enough to see the day in question. I am happy to say 1
have, and 1 beheve now in future the two natioi.s will fi?Lr
better understand each other.

I hope you will allow me in your name to convey our
very grateful thanks to the two speakers.

The informal vote of thanks was carried by acclamation. .

THE GLOOM OF TSCHAIKOVSKY

BY MR. NORMAN PENTY

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF RUSSIAN SONG

BY MISS EMMA DAVIDSON

With Musical Examples from Moasorgski, Rimski-Korsakov
and others

(Mr. E. A. Bravley Hodgetts, in the Chair)

\Tth December^ 191 7

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts, in opening the proceedings,
explained that Mr. Norman Penty would first read his
paper upon Tschaikovsky, and then Miss Davidson would
kindly give a number of Russian songs. I hope, he added,
that she will act as a counterpoise to Mr. Norman Penty's
somewhat melancholy subject. I hope she will show us
that while Tschaikovsky in some cases can be correctly
described as melancholy, that cannot be said of Russian
music generally.

All civilized nations are distinguished by their contribu-
tions to culture, and that contribution takes the form usually
of what we call imaginative art, namely, literature, pictorial
art and musical art ; and in these three domains of art
Russia stands eminently foremost. In her literature, and
in her paintings, and more especially in her music, Russia
has contributed greatly to the culture of the education of
the world. More particularly is this true of her music,
because in Russia composers have had the courage to depart
from the conventional form of art, and have gone straight
to the heart of the people. They have taken the national
i "3

114 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

music which they found among the people and they have,
so to speak, elevated that, harmonized it, made it classical,
and that is a great achievement.

That is one of the reasons why Russian music appeals so
strongly to everybody who hears it, because it comes from
thfe heart, from the great Russian heart, and goes straight
to our hearts who Usten to it.

Mr. Norm.\n Penty prefaced his reading with the
remark, " The title of my paper is hardly complete. It
was 'The Gloom of Tschaikovsky,' ar.d I have added, ' lis
Justification.' "

Perhaps, first of all, I may read an Introduction by
Mrs. Bronsky. She is the wife of Dr. Bronsky of the Royal
College, Manchester.

Introduction

This study of Tschaikovsky 's music shows, it seems to
me, a real understanding and appreciation.

People often try to explain the deep sadness expressed
in many of Tschaikox-sky's works by his persoiial trials or
disaippointments ; but could a sadness which had its origin
in selfish, personal experience move people to such an ex-
tent that they, in hundreds and thousands, hsten breath^^
lessly. as if awestruck, every time such works as his Fourth'
and Sixth Symphonies are performed ? Only a sadness
based on a universal all-embracing sorrow, based on a love/
of humanity and sympathy with its sufftrirgs, could pro-j
duoe such an expression. Everyone who knew Tschaikov-t
sky intimately was aware that he was a man who could
altogether forget himself and his own sorrows in greater
things.

I should not call his sadness morbid ; his melancholy and
his grief are of a nobler character, and the love and sym-
pathy he conveys bring consolation to the listener.

An explanation of Tschaikovsky 's sadness lies to a great
extent, it seems to me, in the nature of his native land.
His love for Nature, and for Russian landscape es|)ecially,
was boundless- When in Russia he was sometimes seiz^
with such an ecstasy of love that he felt tempted to kne^l.
aod kiss the very earth on which he stood ! The predomir?
nant features of Russian landscape are the. large, limitiesBii.

PENTY. TSCHAIKOVSKY 115

plains, with nothing between the beholder and the horizon ;
a. Nature encouraging boundless freedom of thought, en-
couraging meditation and melancholy — for if you give
limitless freedom to your thought you must come to in-
ijoluble problems. Also there is much in the past and present
history of Russia which evokes deep sympathy for the suffer-
ings of its people, and from this the mind easily passes to
universal human suffering — and that is the keynote of the
deep and noble sadness expressed in Tschaikovsky's music.

Anna Brodsky.

A Foreword

In defence of gloom !

Surely what unnatural, unhealthy pessimism to prompt
a eulogy on so questionable a characteristic in musical com-
position. On the contrary, it is rather by essaying an
analysis of the very core of such a characteristic, by viewing
it in the right perspective, that the writer hopes to exonerate:
himself of such criticism.

It may also be urged that there is already no paucity of
books concerned with the merits and demerits of Tschai-
kovsky's musical creations. True enough, but is there any
one of these which really looks into and determines the
tnie relationship existing between these two paramount
factors — the raison d'etre and the manifestation of this
characteristic trait in his music ? For while almost all these
writers have undertaken a study of the man and of the
musician separately, and thtn have truly si own that to
arrive at a real estimation of his work the one cannot be
separated from the other, they all have decried the same
characteristic of his music entirely on the strength of
odious comparison, and have judged by the most approved
standards — as set up by a school of academic pedants.

The canons of all true art are beauty.

Beauty — is it necessarily of one order only ?

May it not be manifest in sorrow as in joy ?

In pensive melancholy as in bright happiness ?

Each writes in the idiom which comes most natural.

While the subject of this thesis will be quite familiar to
uU who know the music of this greatest of Russian masters,
the writer yet feels that some explanation for the appear-
ance of the thesis is required of him.

i£6 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

It is then, as suggested in the foreword, primarily intended
as an attempt to refute that most hackneyed criticism of
Tschaikovsky's creations, namely, "an unwarrantable pur-
suit of the morbid, which characterises the greater part of
his work,"

' That morbidity is perhaps one of the most prominent
features of his music is readily admitted. In fact the most
casual reading of any one of his works will at once reveal
some suggestion of this sombre tone which may be manifest
in the erratic pulsations, strange progressions, peculiar
positions 'of chords, and in his inimitable orchestration.

Chambei'-music, symphonies, suites, concertos, overtures,
almost all are stamped with this individuality.
I Of course this study is concerned only with the absolute
music. And yet now and again a transient joy seems to
have hfted the cloud, there to reveal such bright gems as
the " Capriccio-Italien," the " Casse-Noisette Ballet," and
the brighter movements in the symphonies. But even here
the shadow is faintly discernible, so that at best the joy
seems affected.

Without further introduction it will be expedient to get
into touch as it were with this very abstract subject by
attempting an analysis of the mental experiences produced
by the first hearing of Tschaikoysky.

We may recall our first impressions of the lovely slow
movement from the Fifth Symphony.
> With low, mournful sound the movement wakes, calm
and impressive. Soon we become conscious of a strange
subtle tonal atmosphere being diffused with a sense of im-
pending gloom. The solemn grandeur of these impressive
chords for low strings fitly attunes our hearts to a ti'ue
sympathy. - ■■■ •'^: "^^^^ .

It is well so, for the sad tale now unfolded by the melloW'
voiced horn demands an understanding as it flows almost
reluctantly along.

But now, as if to cheer, other voices are heard approacl-
ing. Their sympathy seems to give new strength to the
sorrowful voice as the tremor of its first utterances slowly
gives place to a new-born confidence. Wild and impassioned
become the cries as the tale grows more and more dramatic,
until we seem to feel the very throbbing of hearts as their
sorrow increases. At last, however, the grief is spent ; the
cry of oppression is lulled by the calm, subtle charm of the
peculiar, languid theme which now asserts itself.

PENTY. TSCHAIKOVSKY it;

But such peace is only transient. The sorrow, reheved,
gives place to a reaction of feverish excitement and a nervous
energy as, with fiendish glee and utter abandon, they one
by one catch up this theme, tossing it to and fro, and, as if
in a mad desire to drown their sorrow, rush it along into a
fearful gallop until a hitherto hidden fury seems to wake
in it.

Yet wilder and wilder they get ; the fury becomes almost
demoniacal, as if they would drag the discord from out
their souls. And then there crashes into this frantic revel
the voice of cruel fate — an ominous warning — mocking them
in their efforts to drown their sorrow in a superficial joy.

Disheartened and sad, the sorrowers again take up their
tale, now to the impressive accompaniment of big mournful
chords, their voices strained and nervous as they ponder
such gloom.

So feeding and nursing their grief it grows and grows in
their fevered brains, as with ever-increasing sound the
frenzy develops, until it becomes distressing to hear suCh
cries of grim despair. . -

But at length, as from sheer exhaustion, the freitzy dies
down and gives way to a dull, sad moanirg, as if the soul
were becoming reconciled to its destiny, when again, with
more fearful import, comes the thunder of fate, shrieking
out its curse in awful pulsations :

" Thou hast tampered with Fate ! "

Alone, numbed and despondent, the sorrower sinks down,
and, as he lies, we hear him sigh out his song, a dying lament,
•as his spirit enters the^'Great Calm.

•: And the peculiar trait of the music that can engender
such emotion, that can exercise such a strange fascination
ever the listener, what is it ?

" The Gloom of Tschaikovsky."

In a clever study by,' we think. Dr. Charles Sarolea, TolsttJi
has been truly called " the supreme anatomist of the soul."
This title the author deduces from Tolstoi's wonderful power
of " dissecting living bodies and bleeding hearts " whilst he
himself maintains a calm indifference to the sufferings of
his subject. ,'

If we, however, look for the words of the subjects them-
selves experiencing such emotions we shall turn to the work
of Dostoieffsky, for in it there lies that ineradicable spirit
of fatalism and gloom which at once bespeaks a ^a|niliar,ity
with the sufferings so truly described. • r;^:iJr'-M

Its U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Imagine such portrajral transcribed into the idiom of music.

It is now Tschaikovsky who speaks, who expresses the
s«f!ering of a mind.

Tschaikovsky, a Slav, truly, but a Slav bereft of those
(piahties which go hand-in-hand with the characteristic
melancholy, those intermittent gleams of sunshine which
conjure up from the depressing clond of gloom even a
passing bright spot.

And here is afforded explanation of the seeming obliquity
of the man's mind, the cause of his excessive morbidity.
Naturally of a very lovable, almost womanly, nature, his
whole being craved the support and love of friends, but, by
his cruel power of introsjxiction, he realized that the thoughts
on which his mind fed — he morbid sweetness of sad musings
— ^would never be tolerated by others, and so the unhappy
man crushed the very life-giving spirit of intimate com-
munion and for ever imprisoned that inner self lest it should
be ridiculed for its sensitiveness. ^'^

' How natural then that one of so gentle and kindly a
nature, yet whose spirit was ever depressed by the caprices
of a strange mind, should choose for his mate — gloom !

To the average mind such a " giving in " to a mere ner-
vousness, as it would doubtless be called, seems almost
cowardly ; but in so judging a simple psychological fact is
ignored, namely, that abnormal sensitiveness and persistent
introspection might be, in their significance, synonymous
terms for this mental condition. It is not, however, within
the sphere of this study to consider the ethics of Tschai-
kovsky s life ; it is concerned only with the vindication of
his musical idiom.

It may be safely asserted here that of all the arts in the
art of music only is there possible the subtle, indefinable
expression of every shade of emotion in which the tempera-
ment of the artist manifests itself. Further, the mind of the
artist will of necessity choose for its subject that with which
it is most in sympathy.

And a subject must have its genesis.

Hence the spirit of Tschaikovsky 's work. His themes,
almost all, are inherently sad, with a strange morbidity
underlying them. -

Then from these thematic premises he, with sound logic,
deduces perfectly relevant, indeed, the inevitable, conclu-
sions or developments.

Of such sound treatment the Finale of the Pathetique

PENTY. TSCHAIKOVSKY lig

symphony is perhaps the finest example ; and it seems very
perverse that this movement which constitutes the strongest
argument against Tschaikovsky's gloom, is really the best
reiutation of such argument !

The objection is that the melancholy ought to have been
relieved in the recapitulation of the second subject.

" Oak leaves do not grow on beeches."

Without a doubt " the wish is father to the thought "
Alone engendered sucb criticism ; for any modification of
the movement would have been an outrage against art.

The present writer does not, however, attempt to carry
a theory too far, ard insist that from the opening discords
the development ar.d recapitulation a^ they now stand were
inevitable. It is after the enunciation cf the second D
major subject, known as the " consolation " theme, that the
premises are irrevocably stated ; and from these it was
that Tschaikovsky made his development axd recapitula-
tion aesthetically, as logically, inevitable.

It is perhaps worthy of note here that for every supposed
authentic statement as to the composer's intended modifi-
cations of this movement there is one equally authentic to
be given in contradiction. At best it is obvious from these
conflicting statements alone that the whole question is based
largely on hearsay ; and it is more than probable a case of
" we wish it had been so."

The keynote of Tschaikovsky's music is sincerity.

His gloom and discord are but the natural exprtssion in
tone of thoughts inherently sad — sad because engendered
by a fundamental melancholy.

So are his discords, his strange combinations and some-
times even distressing climaxes all pertinent and legitimate
treatment of given material. Those terrific sequences and
ascending chromatic passages with the full orchestra thun-
dering behind ; really one gasps for mental breath, so to
speak, in following them. (>i and on they forge like some
f^reat shape beating a strange path, heedless of foothold.

Can such vindication be given for many of the discords
which alone appear to characterize the work of some present-
day composers ? Can their progressions be justified in the
same way as the throwing into rehef of a given subject ?

Instead of a means to an end are they not with them
tather an end in themselves ? -

Tschaikovsky wrote in his true idiom : to accuse him oi
reveUing in the morbid (if the incongruity may be permitted)

I20 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

is but lamenting a spirit for him as anomalous as a Pickwick
Papers by an Edgar Allan Poe.

For his sorrow was the soul of inspiration, the germ from
which were evolved his tonal schemes.

For him, as for some others, the true joy was found in
sorrow. Nay, without sorrow Tschaikovsky the composer
could never have been.

From what has been considered in this essay it would
seem that to fully comprehend the work of such a composer
calls for more than a mere determination of the intrinsic
worth of the music ; it solicits also a broader appreciation
of the mentality in which it had its irxeption.

Since the only irue art is that which expresses the sincere
thought and feeiirg, it follows that in such art ^vill the ego
of the creator be faithfully mirrored. In this — which may
be regarded as the dissociation of the spiritual from the
aesthetical understanding of a work — may the personality of
the artist be studied.
*5 What then of Tschaikovsky ? '

■ One -v^ho found sorrow kinder than joj' ; who lived
" Slrugghng in vain with ruthless destiny."

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. I think we have all been very
much interested by the charming and artistic paper which
we have just heard. There is one particular point which I
may perhaps be permitted to underhne, a point which
Mr. Norman Penty has not raised in connection with " The
Gloom of Tschaikovsky," but which | think is peculiar not
only to Tschaikovsky but to all Russian workers under the
old regime, to all sincere artists who were overwhelmed by
the dreary conditions which surrounded them ; they were
overwhelmed by the terribly abject misery of the lower
classes, of the millions of people who had no education and
no rights and no privileges, who were not considered in any
way. On the other hand the men of intellect, men who
wanted to bring their ideas to the front, were oppressed,
they were not allowed to give voice to their opinions and
their views ; and consequently there existed in Russian
society a state of melancholy and oppressive gloom which
seemed to act as a sort of extinguisher of all cheerfulness
and brightness, and naturally that gloom was reflected in

DAVIDSON. RUSSIAN SONG 121

the sincere art of Russian artists. There were insincere
artists who did not reflect the gloom of the nation but who
produced a meretricious and frivolous brightness which had
about as much warmth in it as electric light/or as the
painted sun on a theatrical scene. .-^^ ..*']'

I will ROW call uf)on Miss Davidson to give us her paper .

, SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF RUSSIAN SONG

BY MISS EMMA DAVIDSON

Russian music had already been coming into notice in
Engla.r d a long time before the war, but although the choice
of all kinds of music has to a certain extent been affected
by the events of the last three years, vocal music has betn
most touched of all. So many of the finest Lieder by
German ard Austrian composers had become so familiar to
cor cen -goers in the original that to sing them in transla-
tions, generally quite inadequate, was unthinkable. Singers
1 ave there fere perforce been driven to tap other source?,
ond a veritable mine of unexpected treasures has been
revealed through the exploration of Russian song-music.

Poetry and sorg are two of the oldest arts, and the first
expression in a ration's musical development takes the
form of a sorg. The folk-sorgs of Russia reveal the charac-
ter of the Russian peasantry, and the Russian art-song is
r.L'tioral to an extent hardly matched in any other school
(f music. But while Russian folk-song has existed for cen-
turies, the Russian art-song has scarcely completed its
center ar\'.

Russia being a vast country, with a population consisting
chiefly of tillers of the soil, and with even to-day a very
much smaller proportion of educated people to the thousand
than other European countries, art was either of the folk
or popular type, or the kind fostered by the court and
aristocratic party, who generally inclined towards the lead-
irg foreign school of the moment. In music this was in the
^l-venteenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries the
Italian school. It was not tiU after the Napoleonic wars
that composers arose who determined that Russia should

122 U.R.S.A, PROCEEDINGS

have music that was distinctively national, and the first of
these was Glinka.

The story of the rise of the Nationalist School of Music,
started by Glinka and Dargomijski and carried on by
Balakiriev and his band, has been told many times already
by such well-known writers and lecturers on Russian music
as Mrs. Rosa Newmarch and Mr. Montagu-Nathan, and
doubtless many members of the old Russia Society present
to-day heard the lectures given on Glinka and the Five by
Mr. Montagu-Nathan in the summer of 1916 at the Boudoir
Theatre. But these lectures dealt with the work of the
Nationalists as a whole, and seeing that their songs and
those of other Russian composers rank very high, a special
consideration of their features can but emphasize many
interesting points.

With an immense store of folk-lore and folk-music to
draw upon Russian composers have been enabled to invest
their music with the picture squtness, imaginativeness, gor-
geous colouring and strong and varied rhythms which give
to Russian music such a markedly national and peculiar
flavour. It is a music of strong contrasts, from deepest
despair to wild hilarity ; and many moods ; from tender-
ness, pathos, melancholy and abject misery to humour,
Ughtheartedness, rapture and reekkss abandon. Russian
dancing proves conclusively that Russians do not take their
pleasures sadly. But just as there is no light without shade
and the outwardly gay are often sad at heart, so the Russian
temperament is subject to moods of the deepest gloom and
depression. The centuries of struggle against enemies ard
oppressors both without and within the gates have of course
helped to make the Russian character what it is ; but from
whatever cause Russian song-music reflects the contrasting
moods of the Russian character, and this is especially seen
in the songs of Mousorgski. l^

It is not proposed to discuss Russian folk-songs and art-
songs separately, and indeed it would be almost impossible
to do so. For the truly national Russian composers have
so absorbed folk-music, built up their music upon its foun-
dation, and interwoven it into their finest work that the
two have become inseparable.

A strong determining influence in the development of
Russian song has been the fact that Pushkin, the first and
greatest modern Russian poet, and Glinka, the founder of
the school of Russian music, both found inspiration in the

DAVIDSON. RUSSIAN SONG 123

tales and songs of the people, both fairy- and folk-tales and
stories from the national history. The unlettered peasant
who lives in a wild mountain district near a deep gloomy
forest, or surrounded by vast limitless steppes, is full of
fancies and beliefs in witches, water-nymphs, talking animals,
strange portents, voices in wind and water, and other
marvels. There is Baba Yaga, the wicked old witch, who
lives in a hut on chickens' legs, and rushes about in a mortar,
sweeping away her tracks with a broom ; the Roussalki,
who live in the streams and lure rash youths to destruction ;
the miraculous chained cat, who tells wonder-tales under
the magic oak ; and countless other legendary beings.

For the benefit of those present, if there be any who have
httle or no knowledge of music, I will just say that folk-
music consists of the many tunes and songs which originated
amongst the people in a primitive state and were handed
down from one generation to another till finally some en-
terprising collector wrote them down, in fact " potted "
them, so that they should be preserved for all time. Folk-
music goes so far back that the originators of the tunes
can rarely be traced, and some folk-lorists go so far as to
say that they were not invented by any one individual, but
were evolved by a tribe or community. Mr. Cecil Sharp is
of this opinion. On the other hand Liszt in his valuable
critical study of Robert Franz states very decidedly his
belief that every folk-tune is the invention of a single
individual. This, however, is one of those vexed questions,
like the correct pronunciation of Latin, which will never
be cleared up because the facts of the case are lost in the
mists of antiquity. The art-song on the other hand is the
work of trained musicians, particulars of whose life and
career are usually accessible to all enquirers.

Another characteristic of Russian song is the Oriental
element. Both through the geographical position of the
country and the period of Mongol rule Russia has been
strongly tinged by Eastern thought and customs, and this
is seen in Russian song as well as other forms of art, such
as architecture, decorative art, and national costume. It
is the combination of Western and Eastern influences that
give to Russian art a character and fascination all its own.

The third special characteristic of Russian song is the
fact that Russian song composers have drawn so very
largely upon Pushkin and Lermontov, as well as other poets
of real merit, and have been influenced by them to such an

124 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

extent that in some cases, notably that of Mousorgski, the
composer has endeavoured faithfully to convey the meaning
of the words in and by the music. Dargomijski was the
pioneer of this point of view, and he wrote his last work,
the opera " The Stone Guest," entirely in melodic recitative.
Being a pioneer he was not entirely successful, but his
disciple and follower Mousorgski elaborated this idea, and
with such good results that he is one of the most, if not the
most, successful composer of dramatic and declamatory
songs. The tender. cy of modern vocal music has of course
been all in this direction. Schubert was one of the first to
write a dramatic song, as opposed to the -older composers,
who wTote lovely melodies which might or anight not illu^
trate the words ihey set. c

Many old Italian songs beautiful as music might yet be
sung to other words without great loss ; one could not by
any stretch of the imagination think of, for example, the
music of Schubert's ErKKing apart from Goethe's poem,
still less Mousorgski 's Trepak without the poem of Golenist-
chev-Kontouzov describing the death of the peasant in the
snowstorm. One can cite numerous instances of the kind
from Mousorgski's songs, such as " The Orphan," the music
or which reflects the misery of the begging child, Savishna
the village idiot courting the village beauty, the Child Songs,
of which the original words are by Mousorgski himself and
in which the music with wonderful realism follows the in-
flections and meaning of the words, the Songs and Dances
of Death (Trepak mentioned above is one of this set of
four songs), and which present extraordinarily vivid an<^
dramatic pictures, and many others.

Yet one more remarkable feature of Russian song music
is the fact that it was, and is, so much in advance of its time,
and this, considering that Russia as a whole is generally
regarded as being very much behind other European coun-
tries in general development, is a noteworthy fact. Such a
song as Rimski-Korsakov's " Eastern Romance " strikes
quite a fresh and individual note, .yet it was one of the com-
poser's earliest songs, and he died in :i9o8 at the ager,e)|
sixty. r<

Borodin in his " Sleeping Princess " uses one of the old
scales long before Debussy. Mousorgski died in 1884, iiyt
period in England of the aesthetic movement, parodied by
W. S. Gilbert as the " Greenery Yallery Grosvenor Galle^ry ^''
epoch, which seems so very long ago>.as in fact it ^4»JP^

DAVIDSON. RUSSIAN SONG 125

his songs, written mostly in the 'sixties and 'seventies, when
tyrannical tenors and sopranos were making havoc and
forcing composers to consider the singers at the expense of
artistic fitness, are so entirely different from the music of
his day, and so wonderfully modern in feeling and expres-
sion that they are only now beginning to be known and
understood.

It is of course only necessary for anything to be discovered
to be beautiful and successful for a heist of detractors to
arise. Some from ignorance, perversity, ill nature, or honest
conviction may say : " But you claim too much for Russian
songs. Have you forgotten the Lieder of Schubert, Schu-
mann, Robert Franz, Brahms, Hugo Wolf and other German
and Austrian composers, the Italian songs and airs of the
sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, French
music classical and modern, or the glories of the Ehzabethan
lyrics and madrigals and Purcell's fine songs ? " To those
^e obvious answer is that all these schools are the growth
6i centuries of civilization and culture, whilst the Russian
school has not yet completed its centenary. Russian music
is still in the glory of youth, the tim^ of fresh enthusiasms
and daring experiments. Arisirg much later in the develop-
ment of music than the other schools, it started with the
accumulated knowledge of the past behind it, and yet
developed on its own lines, and produced a group of com-
posers more national than that of any other country. These
having passed away, besides a group working on more
classical lines, there are coming forward composers who are
developing new methods of expression, many of them as
yet mere names to the general public. Whether or not they
have a message to deliver it is still too early to say, but the
mere fact of there being this new trend proves the vitality
of the Russian school of music.

It is not claimed that all songs by Russian composers
show all the above-mentioned characteristics, but all the
best songs of Russia possess one or more of these charac-
teristics, and the examples sung will prove this. There afie
songs by composers with Russian names thSt might have
b(;en written by a Frenchman or a German. These stand
outside the scope of this paper and are rot intf resting as
Russian music.

Balakiriev, Borodin ard Rimski-Korsakov all show sln^rg
traces of Oriental irfluences, the last named especii lly
revelling in the fantastic. Mousorgski is both distir.c.ivily

126 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Russian and universal in his appeal, and will certainly in
my humble opinion (in which I do not stand alone) bo
reckoned among the world's greatest song writers. Ctear
Cui helped the cause more by his writings than his music,
though many of his songs are charming others are merely
ordinary, and more French than Russian. Tschaikovski is
unequal in his songs as in his other work, but at his best is
very fine, as in " Was not I once like a tender blade th?t
sprung ? " and " Why so pale are the roses this year ? "
Grechaninov, Arenski, Glazounov, Korestchenko, Cherepnii*
have all written many fine songs. Metner shows traces of
his partly German origin, but has individuality and great
talent, and is counted among the younger Russian com-
posers. Song composers of a later date than Cui showing a
French tendency are Catoire, Akimenko and Vassilenko.
Songs in the extreme modernist style are being contributed
by Miaskovski, Gregory Krein, Gniessin and Rosslavets.
Stravinski has written only a few songs, and they do not
equal his orchestral work in intelrest and excellence. There
is quite a large output of the sentimental ballad type by
such men as Blaremberg and Wrangel, which is much the
same in all countries. Popular songs of a peculiar type
called " gipsy songs " form a class apart. These are simg
by a particular type of singer who do nothing else. The
tunes are often very attractive and are made extremely
effective by means of using a great deal of rubato ard porta-
mento and the verve with which they are sung. But they
are quite apart from the concert or drawing-room song,
and are generally surg in cafes. The singers often have
fine voices and are artists in their own way.

The illustrations will convey more than any words the
true characteristics of Russian song. It is said that there
is a silver lining to every cloud. If one result of the war is
tliat Enghsh people come to know more of the Russian
nation and their beautiful and inspiring songs we can but
rejoice that the lining to our cloud of sorrow is of such great
interest and attraction.

Miss Emma Davidson. I propose, as you will see from
tlxe programme, first to sing some songs — of these in turn
I will give a brief explanation — ^then to read my paper, and^^
theft: to sing a few more songs, v .atmioj. ^ .froebiv^C. ikM

The first, a Hagyegit, 3£tfig>r I j^aa^ATchc^epibecgiusfr. it i^^ml
typical. folk-tune^ V'H fc^;Tt»f.? hjs'-^^ >H!S£;fir;tc srov vjv^-.va -■

DAVIDSON. RUSSIAN SONG 127

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. There is one great impression
left upon the mind after hearing these two lectures and that
K» tfie extraordinary alternation in Russian music between
absolute wild joy and delight and, on the other hand, dark
despairing gloom. You hear the jolhty of the people, and
at the same time when later comes that great sadness which
is called in Russian the Tolska — the heavy gloom which
hangs over all Russia.

The illustrations we have received from Miss Davidson
ha\'c given us a very good idea of this charming change
which prevents Russian music from ever being monotonous.

But I have to quarrel with Miss Davidson, a quarrel that
is wiih all expounders of Russian music, that they will not
give any credit to Rubinstein. Rubinstein is not the fashion
to-day. but it was Rubinstein who really introduced the
Russian folk-song — far more than GHnka ever did — ^and
wrote those charming romances which made Russian music
popular in the drawing-rooms of the world. He set to music
that beautiful poem of Lermontof, "The Angel," and a
number of other Russian folk-songs pure and simple, lo
which he gave the name of Romances, and those Romances
had a music and sweetness in them which haunt me still.
I remember them as a young man in Russia, and I must
say that they partook of the nature of those beautiful Irish
melodies of Thomas Moore, who took the national songs of
Ireland, harmonized them and made them into poetry. So
did Rubinstein take the national songs of the people and
raise them to the point of classical literature — shall we
say.

lie has been repudiated by modern composers because
he was too popular and too melodious, who seem to think
that music ought to be resonant, but need not be melodious.
That is my quarrel with modern composers. But then I am
a.Cathohc in music, as you may gather from my remarks.

I hope you will join me. Ladies and Gentlemen, in giving
a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Norman Penty and
Miss Davidson, accompanying her name with that of Miss
Iviney, for having given us so delightful an afternoon.

A hearty vote of thanks was carried by acclamation.

128 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Miss Davidson followed with an announcement about
the Fund for the Lettish War Victims.

I am glad to say, she added, that I have been able to
collect a little money in my department at the War Office,
and I hope to give a concert in order to raise a little more
money for these unhappy people. I do not think we realize
the frightful miseries of the civil population in so many
countries affected by the war— not only Belgium but Poland,
Serbia and parts of Russia where the people are absolutely
starving. Circulars have been and are being sent to all
members of our Association about the Lettish War Victims,
and I hope you will do what you can to encourage us in
raising money for this cause by coming to the concert.

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. I wish to second that appeal
as I am Chairman of the Fund and therefore interested in
collecting such money as I can for those poor people who
really represent the commercial backbone of Russia, and
who have been hard hit by this war.

Miss Emma Davidson next sang the last four songs of
her selection.

Miss Fitzgerald proposed a vote of thanks to Mr.
Brayley Hodgetts for presiding.

This was carried by acclamation. The proceedings then
tcrmirated.

TOLSTOY AND HIS INFLUENCE

BY MR. AYLMER MAUDE

(Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, in the Chair)

\lth January y 1918

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. I.assume that all
here present are interested in and lovers of Russian Utera-
ture, and therefore I assume, further, that you are already
acquainted with the name of the Lecturer. Well, he will
tell you, possibly, something at least which you do not know
about Count Tolstoy. For myself I will say nothing about
the contents of the lecture, and for one very good reason
that I have not read it. So it simply remains :£pr me to call
upon Mr. Aylmer Maude to speak.

Mr. Aylmer Maude. I have to speak to-night about
the connection between Tolstoy and the present state of
things in Russia ; but in order io make his influence plain
to you I shall have to go back to the very roots, and speak
of him at the age of five. But first of all let me say that
twenty years ago, when I was living in the neighbourhood
of the Tolstoy Colony at Purleigh in Essex, Vladimir Bonch-
Bruevich, whose name you will have seen in the papers
recently when the membership of the present Russian
Government was announced, was also resident there. He
was not a disciple of Tolstoy ; on the contrary he was
frankly a Marxian Social Democrat, as most Bolsheviks
are, but he was an intelligent man, and knew that in the
struggle the revolutionary parties were cnrryirg on against
the regime then ej^isling in Russia — ideas counted for much.
He grasped the truth of Lowell's saying :
K 129

130 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

" O Lord, ef folks wuz made so's 'tithey could s«e.
The begnet-pint there is to an idee 1
Ten times the danger in 'em th' is in steel :
They run your soul thru an' you never feel,
But crawl about an' seem to think you're livin'.
Poor shells o' men, nut wuth the Lord's forgivin',
Till you come bunt ag'in a real live feet,
An' go to pieces when you'd ough' to ect ! "

Having grasped that truth Bonch-Bruevich was engaged
in studying the Russian sectarian mov^ements to see hov
they could be utiHzed by his parly, and at that time the
Tolstoyans were engaged on the migrciion of the Doukhcbc'rs
from the Caucasus to Canada, an operation in which he took
great interest.

Well Bonch-Bruevich knew that if his party were to do
anything they had to get hold of ideas, and even to under-
stand ideas they did not accept, and utiHse those ideas as
far as they could for the attainment of their ends, in which
course he was remarkably successful.

I commend his attitude of mind to you. It is not my
business to convert you to Tolstoy's teaching but only to
explain a iew of the fundamental ideas which entered into
his philosophy and which have largely influenced the pro-
gress of events in Russia — not always in the way we desired.

To begin with Tolstoy at the age of live. One of the prin-
cipal events of his life was that his brother, a few years
older than himself, told him that by the edge of a ravine
he had buried a green stick, on which was written an in-
scription telling how to make all men happy, to abolish all
quarrelling, strife, unhappiness and distress, and to make
us all brothers of one anotheV.

That idea fired Tolstoy's imagination, and he aijdently
desired to discover the stick, with its magic inscription.
That desire to find an extremely simple formula which
should make all men happy for the rest of the existence of
humanity dominated his whole life.

I now take a skip to Tolstoy at the age of fifty, and will
show how the same idea reappeared in another form.
Tolstoy was then an eminent author. He had published
War a fid Peace smd Anna Karenina, his two greatest novels ;
he was successfully managing his estates and becoming
wealthy ; he had purchased large properties in Samara*
where the value of land was rapidly increasirg. He was
happily married, had a large and affectionate family, and
eri<jved good health. In short he had apparently all that

MAUDE. TOLSTOY 13I

man can desire ; but he found life coming to a standstill
because he could not see any meaning or purpose that
justified the trouble and pain of living. The question was
always recurring to him-^What is the meaning and purposes
of my Hfe ? I have, he would say, £50,000 ; if I could turn
it into ;^5oo,ooo will that satisfy me ? Will that furnish
sufficient purpose for life ? And he felt it would not because
however precious one's possessions may be, every day
Death is drawing a step nearer, and a step nearer, and a
step nearer, to take me from them, or them from me. Yo\i
may have heard the story told of Sir Henry Hawkins. He
was a man of considerable means, I believe, and a friend wa
remonstrating with him one day about something he had,
or had not, done with his money. The friend said to him,
" You know, Hawkins, you cannot take it with you when
vou go, and if you do it will probably melt I "

Tolstoy did not put it exactly that way ; but he had the
same idea, that the acquisition of property was an activity
doomed to ultimate failure, because Death will destroy our
enjoyment of it. Then he asked himself :' Is family happi-
ness a sufficient reason for living ? And there came the
same answer. However. fond he might be of wife and chil-
dren, of friends and relations, there was always Death
threatening not only to take him from them but them from
him, and the v^ry fear of death poisoned the happiness in
life. Then he asked himself. Is not literary fame — ^which
lasts one's death — d. sufficient juslification for life? But
he could rot persuade himself that it was, for what is the
use of it when one is not here to er joy it ? Js not, he said,
the very language in which we write gradually becoming
archaic ? How many books are read 100 years after they
are written, or 1000 years f.fter ? And what, book is read
10,000 years afxrwards ? So he came to the conclusion to
which Solomon came : " Vanity of var.ities ; all is vanity " ;
and reached the opirion of Schopenhauer, that the mcst
reasonable course for a brave and sincere man is to commit
suicide. Did not Buddha teach that the best we can hope
for is to escape from life to Nirvana, in other words that life
IS an evil from which iris good to escape.

S.ill Tolstoy did not commit suicide. And why not ?
Because he found a purpose in life that satisfied bim. Again
I must be brief. It is i.ot ec sy to condense Tols.oy's phil-
osophy into a feAjb' sentences ; but I must try to make the
k rnd of it plain to yOu.

132 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Very briefly, the philosophy of life to which Tolstoy came
was this, he perceived that rational beirgs necessarily and
inevitably approve and disapprove. If anyone asks you
home to supper and serves you with boiled baby you will
feel scruples about cor sumirg it. But why ? It is nourish-
ing. It is a dish praised by those who have tried it. Where
there is a superfluous population it should be a cheap food.
It is nourishing, very digestible, and wholesome, and there
are many other arguments in its favour, yet everyone of
you has scruples which would cause you to prefer to go
supperless. If, however, there is anythirg in the world of
which you are justified in disapproving it must be because
we live not in a moral chaos but in a moral cosmos. There
must be spiritual laws of which we have some sort of per-
ception through the workings of our reason and conscience.
Now Tolstoy said, " How does it come about that we have
faculties, reason and conscience which oblige us to approve
and disapprove ? Where do they come from ? Did we
give them to ourselves or to one another ? No, they come
from somewhere outside ourselves, and that is what religious
people mean when they talk of God," He went on to say
that people get themselves confused when they go on to
define God too exactly— when they make God three Persons
or thirty-three Persons, or a male or a female, or affirm
something we do not know by our own experience. They
then stumble over the difficuliy that perplexed John Stuart
Mill, who asked. How could a good and omnipotent God
create a world with evil in it which we have to try to get
rid of ? Tolstoy says that to have a reasonable religion yoti
must do as the mathematicians do, and that is confine your-
self to what is " necessary and sufficient " for the solution
of your problem. His problem was to find a meaning and
purpose for his life. We are endowed with certain faculties
and powers, but what are we to do with them ? The con-
clusion he came to was that there is a Power outside our-
selves which we may poetically call " Our Father in Heaven,"
and this power has endowed us with the faculty of discrimin"
ating between what we approve of and what we disapprove
of ; and by the use of these faculties we may reasonably ^
come to the conclusion that the will of God is the establish-]
ment by us of the Kingdom of God here and now. That ik^
to say we come back to the green stick : the secret to enattfe'
men to hve lovingly in harmony with one another. So a^'
the age of fifty Toktoy returned with a fuller and cleafifer-

MAUDE. TOLSTOY 133

expression to what he had sought at the age of five — when
his brother buried the green stick.

To know more about Tolstoy's religious perception you
should read in his Essays and Letters (World's Classics Series)
the articles on " Reason and Religion," " Religion and
Morality," "A Reply to the Synod," "How to Read the
Gospels," and " What is Religion ? "

He went through various stages. There was a stage at
first when he attached great importance not only to the
philosophy of life contained in the Gospels but even to the
very words recorded as being those of Christ Himself, 'and
he then built whole theories on certain particular wT;rds.

Later on he reached a wider standpoint, and in his final
essay on the subject he says that the fundamental truths of
life can be found in all the great religions — Mahommedan,
Buddhist, Confucian or Christian, and that the things which,
divide those religions are the superstitious accretions that
overlie the fundamental truths.

However that may be he always believed that the essen-
tial truths for the guidance of our life can be found in the
Gospels, and that to give to our Hfe a reasonable meaning
which death cannot destroy we must be in touch with the
Infinite.

Having dealt with religion Tolstoy passed on to deal suc-
cessively with all the great problems fundamental to man's
happiness and life — economic, political, or social, as well as
the problems of Art and Science.

I cannot go over them all, but I mus^ say a word or twc'
about some of the main ones. The first was the problem o±
poverty — the relation of the rich to the poor. In a remark-
able book, not so well known as it should be, What Then
Must we Do ? which is one of the most scathing indictments
ever written of the social conditions of modern life, Tolstoy
lit a fire which has had much to do with what is now happen-
ing in Russia. No doubt it has had evil as well as good
effects, but in the time at my disposal to-day I cannot deal
with that. In my Life of Tolstoy I have tried faithfully to
discriminate between what seems to me sound and what
seems unsound in the teaching.

With reference to Riches and Poverty Tolstoy says, " In
our society " — and this applies to England as well as to
.Russia — " you find a certain number of ever-feasting and
a larger number of ever-toiling people, and wherever you
have that separation into the two casts of the ever-feasting

134 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

and the ever-toiling you may be certain that slavery exists,
however disguised by the monetary system, the system of
taxation, or the economic conditions generally." His
remedy for it was extraordira.rily simple, it was that we —
the educated, governing, possessing ard administrating
sections of society — should " get cff the backs of the people."
To the whole of the posstssirg classes — scientists, artists,
preachers, officials, owners or managers — to all people who
have more than a bare subsistence his advice .and exhorta-
tion was, " Get off the backs of the manual workers .! " His
view is illustrated by a story he was for.d of telling of what
happened to a certain village Commune not far from his
own estate of Yasnaya Polyara, that wanted to emigrate
to Siberia. They found that the land they possessed did
not increase, though the number of people on it did. With
their primitive methods of tilling the soil their land became
impoverished, and they wanted lo go where there was more
land. The landowners of the district, however, had told
the Governor of the Province that agricultural labour was
needed, so the peasant could not get official permission to
migrate. They struggled on for two or three years getting
poorer and poorer, and at last, unable to stand it any longer,
they sold all they possessed, scraped together what money
fhey could, and without waiting for permission tramped
across European Russia, across the Urals, and on through
Siberia.* They did not find suitable land free for them to
take up till they reached a no-man's land, which was really
on Chinese territory ; but they found no Chinese c-fficials
or other inhabitants there, and there was decent land, water
and timber. There they settled down, and after fifteen years
of hard work they became fairly prosperous, with enough
to eat, decent houses to live in, and sufficient clothing.
Then a Russian official, having lost his way, stumbled upon
them. He was appalled to find people evidently Russians
not enjoying the benefits of civilization : no taxation, no
conscription, no priest to pay tithes to, no Government
drink shop, no police courts or opportunities to go to law
with one another ; and here they were prospering in these
terribly barbarous conditions ! He reported the matter at
St. Petersburg. A slight adjustment of frontier was made,
taxes, conscription, drink shop, priest and police station
and all the rest of it were supplied, and in another fifteen
years the f)eople were again poor, and did not know how to
get enough to eat.

MAUDE. TOLSTOY 135

I give you that story, not that I think it comancing {for
I believe it covers a fallacy), but because it illustrates
Tolstoy's view and shows why he considered that all our
civilization, with our Government^ -Art and Science, is a
burden on the working man. If it is not true it is at any
rate a plausible generalisation.

In his eagerness to find the secret written on the green
stick Tolstoy when he studied the Gospels centred on the
Sermon on the Mount, and from that selected the five
Commandments of Jesus, the five sayings beginning : " It
was said to you by them of old time, but I say "... some-
thing else ; and he held these to be the most important
rules for the guidance of human conduct e\'er uttered by
the lips of man. I will only speak of one of them, the one
to which Tolstoy attached special importance and which I
think he overstated. His statement of it has kd to much
confusion. It is the doctrine of Non-Resistance, based on
the text, " Ye have heard that it was said an eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth ; but I say unto you, Resist rot him
that is evil ; but whcsoever smiteth thee on the right cheek
turn to hirii the other also . ' ' Now Tolstoy had been an officer
in the siege of Sevastopol ard had seen the horror ar d suffer-
ing of war ; he had also seen the suffering of people unjustly
condemned to prison, and had talked with men who had been
exiled to Siberia without any kind of trial. He was revolted
by these things, and attributed them to the fact that there
were some men, calling themselves a government, who
arrogated to themselves the right to use physical violence
against their fellow-men, and thereby caused widespread
misery throughout the world, setting nation against nation,
and causing those wholesale, premedilated and long-con-
tinued murders called war — of which he so strongly dis-
approved. He fixed upon this text, " Resist not him that
is evil," and formulated a stringent law of Non-Resistance
which amounts to this : That any use of physical force
by one human being to another is morally wrong and always
indicates malevolence. But it is not really true that the
motive prompting the use of force is necessarily malevolent.
A policeman directing the traffic at Regent Circus may find
it necessary to run in and lock up a drunken coster who is
driving on the wrong side of the road ; but he need not do
this from any malevolent motive. Nor is society malevolent
in decreeing that people must all drive along the same side
of the road. The thing is done for the common welfare. I

136 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

therefore disagree with the law of Non-Resistance, and if
we must formulate a general principle I should prefer to
say that no action should he prompted by malevolent motives.
Non -Resistance is a plausible generalisation, but it covers
a pohcy which leads to enormous social confusion and
renders it ultimately impossible to carry on any stable
government. The moment you say that the use of force
by the police or military is always and necessarily immoral
and should be abolished you strike at the root oi all govern-
ment ; ard mcst of us of the Western world, however much
we may blame I his or that Government, generally thirk
that, on the whole, Government does more good than harm
and can in future be made to do yet more good and yet
less evil.

But let me point out how serviceable this theory was to
Tolstoy. He lived in a country where there was no freedom
of public discussion, or of public meeting, or of the Press.
Even the pulpits were tuned by the political Head of the
Holy Sjmod. In such a country it was extraordinarily
difficult to bring any indictment of the Government home
to the people, and probably the most effective way of doing
it was to say : Here is a Government callii g itself Christian,
yet it defies the simple and emphatic commands of Christ
Himself. It was difficult for the Government to use force
against the man who said that Dostoievsky had been sent
to Siberia, and most of the great Russian writers had been
incarcerated, or exiled, or placed under police supervision.
Tolstoy, by a series of miracles, escaped, and one reason
was that any physical force dealt out to him by the Govern-
ment would have looked like a palpable confirmation of the
very .charge he made against it. The reasonable man, he
said, explains and sets an example to influence others ; the
wicked use violence, hit you, or lock you up. I do not sug-
gest that Tolstoy took up the doctrine for that reason. He
took it up sincerely as WiUiam Lloyd Garrison had done
in America when he indicated slavery at a time when it
was recognized by the Constitution and supported by the
law of the land. Non-Resistance is the most convenient
platform from which an honest man can indict existing
evils when aU the forces of established law are against
him,

I cannot here deal with a tithe of the positions Tolstoy
took up. He said that the land belongs rightfully to himr
who tills it, and his indictment of the land-owning system

MAUDE. TOLSTOY 137

prepared the way for what is 'being done to-day by tlie
Bolsheviks and the Revolutionary Socialists.

Now having come to such conclusion, how was Tolstoy
to bring his influence to bear on the masses of the people ?
He had no official position, no great wealth to spend. on
propaganda. He employed the magic of his literary power.
Till recently the people of Russia were debarred from
politics ; they might not touch it ; and there was compara-
tively lillle commerce, or what there was was largely in the
hands of men inferior of status. The result was that the
mir.d of the intelligent Russian was not nearly as much
absorbed in politics and business as is the mind of the average
Englishman. This kit the Russians more open to the in-
fluence of art, especially of literary art, and the Russians
are a remarkably artistic people ; they are very receptive
to art, and have produced a large number of really great
artists. Probably rone of the arts, not even the drama, or
painting, perhaps not even poetry, is as effective for the
purpose of social propaganda as the art of the novelist and
sLwry-teller, and Tolstoy deliberately, for the last thirty
years of his life, used his artistic powers to influence the
minds of m.en and to shape the future of mankind. In fact
in his remarkable book. What is Art? he deliberately lays
('own that theory of art. Why, he asks, is art important to
mankind ? Why is it more important than billiards,, or
cricket, or games ? Because the artist has the faculty of
infecting (and there can be an infection for good as well
as for evil — an infection of heroism as well as of cowardice)
because the artist has the faculty of infecting the minds
of men with feelings he himself has experienced, and can
in that way " lay in the minds of men the rails along which
their actions will naturally pass." And I will directly give
a striking example of the way in which he laid the rails
along which men's actions did pass before many years had
gone by. ~

At the time when Tolstoy was carrying on his propaganda
the words Russia and vodka went together throughout the
world. Vodka played so large a part in the life of Russians
that it was regarded as a national characteristic, and there
was hardly any opposition to it, I think the first Temper-
ance Society was founded just about the year 1886, when
Tolstoy took the matter up. He was keenly sensitive to the
influences which made for the benefit or the demoralization
of the people, and saw this vodka drinking to be a very

138 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

great evil, so he wrote a little story called The Imp and the
Crust (to be found among the Twenty-Three Tales published
in the World's Ckssics by tie Oxford Press). He then
rewrote it in drama lic form as the First Distiller. (It has
recently been performed in Birmingham ard London.)
Later appeared Culture's Holiday, an indictment of the Way
in which the Moscow U. iversi.y kept its anniversary with
a good deal of drunkenness. Another remarkable essay
was " Why do Men Siupify Themselves ? " (to be found in
Essays and Letters in the same series to which I have re-
ferred— Oxford Pr^ss, Worla's Classics Edition). These
storifs and essays, short, concise and powerfully written,
did much, to draw people's attention to the problem and to
prepare the mind of the nation, so that when, at the com-
mencement of this war, the Tsar abolished the sale of vodka
(I do not, of course, attribute the whole influence to Tolstoy)
the mind of the ration had been prepared in such a way'
that it welcomed this law, which came into operation with
extraordinarily little opposition, and had very beneficent
results. Vandervelde, in a litJe book he recently wrote
after visiting Russia, speaking of members of the Tsar's
entourage and of the late Government, says they probably
owed their lives when the Revolution came to the fact that
they had abolished the sale of intoxicants. Had vodka
been readily available during the Revolution there would
have been more bloodshed and many adherents of the -old
regime would probably have paid with their lives for neglect-
ing the advice given by Tolstoy. That J mention as an in-
stance of " layin'g in men's minds the rails along which their
actions will naturally pass."

It is true of the great .Russian writers generally that, in
the absence of satisfactory guidance for the people by the
authorities of State and Church, they, the literary artists,
stood forth as the spiritual leaders of the nation. Tolstoy
is only the most striking example of this. Gogol had played
a conspicuous part in drawing attention to the social and
official evils of his time. Turgenev had helped to prepare
the way for emancipation of the serfs, and Dostoievsky
had dealt with all sorts of social and religious problems in
a manner that profoundly influenced his readers : none of
them, however, had so great or far-reaching an influence
as Tolstoy. He was persuasive and impressive, and dealt
with religious, philosophic and economic problems in stories,
essays, philippics, plays and novels. Fletcher of Saltoun

MAUDE. TOLSTOY 139

long ago said, " Let me make a nation's songs and who will
may make its laws." Tolstoy might have said, " Let me
write a nation's stories and these will shape its laws."

Many of the little stories in the Twenty-Three Tales are
popular legends, re-told and reshaped by Tolstoy to serve
his purpose. That book contains his general outlook c5n
life. In Ivan the Fool we find the idea of " No annexation
and no indemnity," as well as a general political philosophy
strikingly suggestive of much that is happening to-day. A
strongly anti-war tract is built on a public legend in The
Empty Drum, and Too Dear (an adaptation by Tolstoy of
a story by Guy de Maupassant) is an ironical indictment
of capital punishment. The whole of this activity steadily
undermined the power of the Tsar, the political influence
of the Church, and even the conception Of patriotism itself,
which had played ^o large a part in the history of Russia.
Patriotism was, in Tolstoy's perception, plainly opposed to
the idea of all men being sons of one Father in Heaven and
brothers to all mankind.

Here again, I think, he went astray. If we are ever to
have a kingdom of God upon earth we rriustbegin by getting
matters, right in our separate communities. We are biting
off more than we can chew if we refuse to deal with matters
bit by bit, and insist on rearranging the whole world forth-
with. Charity, to operate successfully, must in this matter
begin at home.

I am not anxious to criticize Tolstoy, but to tell the truth
about him involves the mention of some matters which
lo-day seem unpalatable. The great doctrine of the old
regime in Russia used to be, " Fidelity to the Tsar, to the
Faith, and to the Fatherland." Tolstoy could not effectively
attack any one of these without attacking all three : he
therefore undermined alike patriotism, belief in the Church,
and loyalty to the Tsar, and he did this with extraordinary
efficiency. If you are to-day inclined to regret that efficiency
let me remind you that the natural place of the Russian
Tsar was not on the side of the democratic nations with
whom we are allied. Go back to the days of the Holy
Alliance and you will find that for a whole generation the
Tsardom of Russia, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Aus-
trian Empire were closely combined to oppose all progress
in Europe. And that was the natural tendency of the
Tsardom. It so happened that when the present war broke
ojit the French Republic and the Constitutional Monarchy

140 U.R.S.A. PRODCEEINGS

of Erglard fought hard in hand wdth the Tsardom of Russia,
but it was an unnatural alHance which could not be reason-
ably expected to endure ; and the downfall of the Tsardom
and of all it stood for may pave the way for a better world
in the future, despite the danger to which it seems to expose
us at present.

For the moment Russia falling out of the fight has placed
a great strain on the Western Powers, at any rate until
America can come in effectively ; but whether you like the
influence of Tolstoy or not, and whether the results of his
activity have helped or harmed us, do not make the mistake
of supposing that it can be safely ignored. It cannot I The
ideas he expressed, many of which are drawn from thq
Gospels and many of which exist in the teaching of various
peasant sects the world over, are influencing the world
enormously to-day.

There is no stopping the flow even of the wrong ideas to
which Tolstoy gave currency except by answering them.
And to be answered they must be understood. Bonch-
Bruevich was wise when, at the Essex Colony, he studied
Tolstoy's theories. Those who think that philosophy is
dangerous ought to study it and learn where its weak points
lie and how to answer its fallacies. To allow ideas to cir-
culate and infect the world, unanswered and unexposed,
merely because you dislike them, and do not wish to touch
them, is a dangerous and short-sighted p)olicy. And when
you come to look into Tolstoy's works you will find that;
mingled with some harmful fallacies, there is very much
that is profoundly wise, noble and beautiful. You' may
remember Ariosto's story of a fairy who, by some mysterious
law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain
seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake. . . . That
fairy, Macaulay says, is typical of Liberty. At times she
takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses,
she stings. But woe to those who in disgust venture to
harm her ; and happy those who, having dared to befriend
her in her degraded and frightful shape, are rewarded by
her in the time of her beauty and glory. The cure for the
excesses of liberty is more hberty. The man who on leaving
his dungeon is blinded by the rays of the sun should not
be thrust back into his dungeon, but should be allowed to
become accustomed to the light of day.

I would apply Ariosto's story to Tolstoy's doctrines. I
irapkly admit that they involve danger. I know they have

MAUDE. TOLSTOY 141

sometimes done harm ; but our wisest course is not to
discard or disregard them but to discriminate between the
sterhng gold they contain and the alloy with which it is
mixed.

The reason that many people regard Tolstoy as the
greatest man of his age, and rank his works amongst the
most valuable ever written by the hand of man is, as I
began by saying, because throughout his life he ardently
pursued the ideal of the green stick — with its message of
harmony and 'brotherhood.

No one else in our time has grappled so strenuously Mith
so many of the fundamental problems that perplexed
humanity, or has striven so frankly and efficiently to make
the conclusions he reached accessible to every child of man !

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. I know you have
all enjoyed the lecture to which we have listened. Perhaps
there may be someone in the audience who would like to
make a few remarks.

A Member : What evidence is there that Tolstoy wrote
for the peasantry ?

Mr. Aylmer Maude. A Publishing Company, the
Posrednik, was formed, with small funds originally, specially
to print his short stories and similar books for the people.
They had an extraordinarily large sale amongst the
peasantry. Sytin, the largest publisher of cheap peasant
books in Russia, took up the idea and printed these things
by hundreds of thousands. The short storits of Tolstoy
contained in Twenty-Three Tales (World's Classics Edition)
have probably been more widely read than anything else
in Russian literature.

A Lady : Is the Tolstoy Colony still existing ?

Mr. Aylmer Maude. There was a small Tolstoy Colony
at Purleigh in Essex twenty years ago. It tried to put into
practice what was considered to be Tolstoy's teaching, but
it went to pieces after two or three years, as has been the
fate of all the other Tolstoy colonics in Russia, Holland
and America.

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. I conf( ss 1 have very
little to add to what our Lecturer his si.id. I n; y tell y< u,

142 U.R.S:A. PROCEEDINGS

however, that I had the great pleasure of knowing Tolstoy
personally, and he Was certainly one of the most charming
men I have ever met. But I must add that that was before
he became what, with all due deference, I feel inclined to
call a crank. At that time he was writing Anna Karenina,
and I remember very well a little incident that may interest
you, which was this. It was during the Herzegovinian In-
surrection when a certain number of enthusiastic Slavophils
went to help their brother Slavs. With this movement,
i!,pparently, Tolstoy had not much sympathy, and in a
chapter of Anna Karenina he spoke of putting them in the
front rank of the fighting people and putting behind them
certain Cossacks with whips to drive them on. I am speak-
ing from memory, after I will not say how many years ; but
the Editor of the publication in which this story was appear-
ing refused to publish this remark. Tolstoy said, for he
was alvyays determined to have his own way, "Well, if you
don't publish that, you won't pubhsh the chapter at all,"
and that chapter was never published in the paper : he
published it in the collected edition of his work.

That was at what I would be inclined to call the climax
of his artistic career, and I must confess that it is as a literary
artist that Tolstoy has chiefly interested me personally ;
but my interest in him as something else, as a sort cf prophet,
has been considerably increased by the lecture we have
heard to-day, I have often he^rd of him, of course, in his
estate at Yasnaya Polyana near Tula as a reformer, and
my information about him came from people who were net
in sympathy with him ; consequently my impression was
not altogether sympathetic. From what I heard of him I
was afraid to pay him a visit because I was afraid the
admiration that remained to me of him might be destroyed.

With regard to this second activity of his, which I suf>
pose we ought to call that of the rehgious reformer or
prophet, it has interested me very much because it is
eminently characteristic of Russia. I have known a great
many Russian revolutionaries personally, beginning with
Nihilists and so on, and what has struck me most about
ihtm is this — their desire for boundless activities. To do

MAUDE. TOLSTOY 143

good in a small locality, or even in one country, does not
commend itself to them ; they must do something for
humanity, for the whole world, and they become drowned
in a sea of vague generalities as, with all due deference to
our Lecturer, I think Tolstoy also did. I speak subject to
correction,, for I recognize the liecturer.as a better authority
than I ; but I should have said that the religious, social,
>v'mi-socialistic influence of Tolstoy was- not so very great-
I trtainly those stories to which the Lecturer referred had
;>n immense public, they went through many editions and
- t on, but r should attribute their success rather to the-

rtislic talent of Tolstoy, who let himself down to the level

t the Mouzhik and tried to influende the peasant ; and of
jli peasants the Russian peasant takes the keenest interest
in all matters relating to religion, independently of whether
' e believes or not, and I think it possible that that has a

'eat deal to do with the unusual success of these tales to
V. 1 ich the Lecturer has referred.

I will now ask you to express to the Lecturer our grateful

lanks for what he has said and our admiration for the way
which he has dealt with the subject.
A vote of thank.- to the Le-oturer was carried by ac-

bmaiion-

THE STATE OF PARTIES IN RUSSIA

BY MR. ROBERT WILTON

(Petrograd Correspondent of The Times)

(Rt. Hon. Lord Carnock, P.C, G.C B., in the Chair)

2$th January, 1918

I FEEL a great resp)onsibility in addressing you on matters
relating to Russia at this particular time. Most of my
childhood and adult years have been passed among the
Russians, and I do not conceal from you my deep sympathy
and affection for the country and its people. My views
are, I hope, not prejudiced by that fact. I belong to no
party in Russia ; I serve no personal interests. In what
I am about to set before you in the course of this paper, I
am speaking without bias, as a dispassionate though frierdLy
observer.

The Revolution, true to its name, has been revolving —
turnirg up a new picture of Russia almost daily. It is like
a kaleidoscope.

We are living in the days of Bolshevism. To many the
name has become familiar within recent months. It was
previously unknown here, and if I am not- mistaken it was
first used to define an imminent political factor in the affairs
of Russia and Europe in an article contributed by me to
The Times shortly after my arrival from Petrograd in
London in October last. I then forecast the probable advent
of a Bolshevik Government, much to everybody's surprise.
The forecast was verified within a few weeks. I venture
to say that within a few months Bolshevism will have dis-
appeared in its turn as utterly as did the ill-fated Coalition
Government of Prince Lvov, and the subsequent Coalitions
ur.der Kercnsky that were its puppets.

When the war broke out all the Russian people were
united ?.s never c.i y ration was united before, and went
i.Ao the *.f.r ai d fought i.s whole-heartedly as any nation

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES 145

had ever fought. Bravely, loyally they hurled themselves
into East Prussia and Galicia to draw ofi the onslaught of
the Huns from the French and British armies. The Bol-
sheviks say, in defiance of all evidence, that the Russian
soldiers had no heart in the fight because forsooth they did
not know what they were fighting about. I contend that
the Russian army and the people knew perfectly well what
they were doing — they knew that they were fighting to
save their country from the German yoke, and that their
cause was the cause of the allies and of civilization. There
was only one party in Russia in July, 1914, the party that
wanted to fight for its country^ I remember there was a
strike at the Petrograd mills Lie* the time. As soon as the
German storm burst all the workers returned to their duties.

For two years, despite the terrible handicap of bad
government, lack of munitions, and disheartening reverses,
the Russian people never wavered.

After the terrible retreat of 1915 millions of refugees
from Poland, Lithuania and Galicia crowded the cities
bringing tales of disaster and complicating the food problem.
Money began to be scarce, and prices rose enormously.
Food there was in plenty, but it was badly distributed.
The army required huge quantities, and the cities were
starved. Appalling waste was going on — waste of public
money owing to corruption and bad management, and
waste of food by similar causes. To add to the difficulties
of feeding the urban population and the refugees came the
increased burden of feeding the reserve troops. Milljons
upon millions of men were being called up for service and
quartered in cities and towns throughout the Empire—
millions in excess of practical requirements. This terrible
blunder was due to the absence of proper co-ordination
between the army and the Government. "Every village and
every household in Russia suffered from this senseless drain
upon the manhood of the ration. I do not wish to convey
the impression that Russia had sustained an overwhelming
I03S of men in the war. As a matter of fact her casualties
were comparatively small if we take into account the
reverses she, had suffered and the numbers of her popula-
tion. Altogether during the war Russia has called up
omething like 10 per cent of her population — much less
;han any of the principal belligerent nations — and her losses
in killed and disabled did not exceed one-sixlh of that
number, or about 2 per cent of the population. In prisorers

146 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

she lost as much, but took even more from the enemy. The
drain upon the manhood of the nation was due not so much
to casuahies in the battlefield as to the wasteful and un-
necessary calling out of many millions of reserve troops.

We knew very little in Russia of what was going on at
the Front. The Censorship — a necessary evil in all countries
during war-time — ^was there intensified by all the habitual
s?cretiveness of the Old Regime, its fear of public opinion,
its morbid jealousy of its prerogatives and power. We
knew perhaps even less about the Allies. The Old Regime
and the Press of Russia, owned largely by non-Russians,
who depended upon the a^dvertisements of Germ.an banks-
and German firms, were alike urdtr \he irflucnce of elements
that did not favour the Allies. The Russian nation was
fighting its traditional foe not only under the most dis-
heartening conditions of incapacity on the part of its rulers
not only under inefficient leadership and lack of organiza-
tion and supplies, but also under a regime that was pro-
German to the core. The Hun was without and within the
gates. I repeat we knew next to nothing about the Front,
but everybody — every peasant, every burgess realized from
bitter personal experience that the war was being muddled,
and in the mind and conscience of the masses amon ■' the
soldiers at the Front and among their kinsmen in the
villages the convictions grew and strergthened that the
interests of the war, of the great national struggle against
Germany, were being sacrificed, that the nation was being
betrayed.

StiU the Russian line remained unbroken, and so it would
have been to this day. The heroic Russian army, fighting
under the most heanrending difficulties, would have gone
on fighting loyally, faithfully to the end. I have some right
to speak thus for I have been with the Russian soldiers in
action and shared with them their dange rs ?.nd privations.
I have seen with my own eyes countless examples of un-
obtrusive heroism and self-sacrifice among the common
soldiers inspired by the cause of Country and Freedom. .It
was on the recommendation of these soldiers that I received
the Cross of St. George, the highest hc-nour that could be
bestowed on a civilian, and I wear its ribbon always in token
of my firm unswerving faitli in the loyalty of the Russian:
people, of my firm belief that Al the evil that has beer,
wrought in Russia against her nationhood and against hvi
allies is the result of foul work.

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES 147

How did this evil work begin ? Lenin found himself in
Austria when war broke out, intent on his schemes of
revolution. He was arrested as a spy, but released on the
recommendation of the Austrian Bolshevik Adler, who was
also a secret agent of the Government, and together they
used the enemy Governments for their own dark purposes.
Lenin was given facilities to direct his associates in Russia,
while another agent named Joltuhovski was engaged to
foment an enemy movement among the little Russians of
Ukrairia. Both resided for convenience' sake in Switzerland.

But long before Lenin could return to Russia his methods
and ideas were being applied in another quarter, at the
Court of the ex-Empress Alexandra. Razputinism was
simply a form of Bolshevism. Razputin's preachings and
teachings bear the closest resemblance to those of Lenin.
He also represented a new democratic dispensation. He
also was for peace by agreement with Germany. Himself
a peasant with boundless ambitions and insatiable appe-
tites, he also claimed democratic justification for under-
mining the foundations of all authority and besmirching
the prestige of the Government and the Monarchy. In all
these respects he could have justly claimed a place beside
Lenin, Trotsky and the other bourgeois chiefs of present-day
Bolshevism. The Razputin scandals have closed our eyes
to the Razputin politics. It has been asserted that Razputin
was a German agent, drawing pay from Berlin. I can
positively state one thing : that all the partisans of separate
peace with Germany were Razputin's fervent friends and
supporters, and Razputin served German plans in Russia not
1* ss than the Leninites have done. Without Razputinism
\v(^ would never have known Leninism.

What w^as Germany's plan in Russia ? Obviously to stop
the war. And how could it be served most effectivelv ?
By discrediting the |)ersons or institutions conducting it.
What did Razputin do ? He behttled the authority of the
Tsar and the High Command. Was it not through Raz-
putin's influence that the Grand Duke Nicholas was removed
and the Tsar became Generalissimo ? Was it not Razputin
who engineered the dismissal of Sazonov, a loyal supporter
of the Entente, and brought about the appointment of
Stuermer and Protopopov, avowed partisans of a separate
peace ? Was it not Razputin who directed, like an Enmi-
ence Grise, the p^^licy of the unhappy wc man who wrought
such incalculable harm to her countrv ? Tlic warnires of

148 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

the Duma, of the Tsar's kinsmen, of allied ambassadors fell
unheeded upon the ears of the Autocrat. Why ? Because
Razputin, the peasant, whispered Bolshevist doctrines in
the ear of this woman and through her paralysed the good
intentions of Nicholas II.

The best and noblest ideals of humanity were drafted
into the service of base and selfish political interests. Raz-
putinism acted in this respect exactly as Bolshevism is
doing. The welfare of the masses, the freedom and inde-
pendence of nations small and large for which the Allies
are fighting, have been converted into a mockery by Lenin.
In the same manner the great cause of Temperance in Russia
was exploited by Razputinism. The Duma had long been
advocating measures against the Drink Evil. The best
elements among the people, the Tsar himself were in favour
of these measures. But statesnien and people realized the
dangers of sudden and drastic abolition. These arguments
were disregarded. It ,was necessary for the Razputin gang
to upset pro-Entente Ministers like Count Kukovtsov, wI:o
resolutely and wisely set their faces against revolutionary
methods of dealing with social problems.

The Tsar must figure as the great benefactor of the masses,
as the origin of all good to the detriment of the Duma and
the idea of responsible government. How like Lenin ? He
claims a monopoly of political virtue. He scornfully
repudiates knowledge, statesmanship and culture. Down
with the bourgeois is his cry, although he himself is nothing
else. Down with all institutions or authority except such,
as recognize his sovereign will. Under the Bolshevist-'
Razputin influence necessary constitutional reforms were
repudiated " till after the war." The Duma was reduced
to impotency and derision, and the masses were incited to
expect great things "when peace was concluded." Natur-;
ally the idea took root : " the sooner the war ends the bettei
for us. We are going to get something." The plan of Raz-
putin-Bolshevism provided for a vast redistribution of landsl
among the peasants and for huge land endowments of allj
who had served with the colours.

The Bolshevism of the Razputin school could not oj
course go to the lengths that have been applied by thej
Leninites. But the principles underlying Bolshevism- — i
cynical disregard of enlightened public opinion, crude appeall
to mob favour and covert truckling to the enemy^-equally^
animated the two Bolshevisms.

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES 149

Razputin and Lenin both hated the army. Razputin,
like Lenin, never went near the army — I mean the men in
the trenches. Had Razputin ventured to do so he would
have been torn limb from limb. The Army knew better
than the men who did not fight what evil business he was
transacting. It was a group of young officers acting as in-
struments of the Army's vengeance that finally removed
the protagonist of Bolshevism.

But hatred of Razputin and of the ex-Empress did not ex-
tend to Nicholas II. For a year and a half after they had
lost all behef in Alexandra the people still trusted their
Tsar, and still hoped that he would save them from disaster,
.\nd their hope being so long deferred brought that terrible,
insensate fury which overwhelmed the Monarchy in March
last. The accumulated behefs and traditions of centuries
turned against the Little Father who had remained blind
and deaf to the cry of his children . And only the still greater
bitterness of disillusionment and despair engendered by the
wholesale anarchy of Bolshevism can heal the breach and
produce conditions permitting hope of a re-establishment
of the Monarchy in Russia. The Bolsheviks are uncon-
sciously doing all they can to bring about this reaction.

What was the Okhrana ? A secret organization of politi-
cal Terror. And what is the Soviet? Is it not the Okhrana
of so-called Democracy ? And its Military Revolutionary
Committee ? Is it not a secret organization composed largely
of former okhrana Officials ? And the methods applied, are
they not identical ? Do we not hear daily of editors and
public men being thrown into dungeons and even murdered
by secret emissaries ? What distinction is there between
the dismissal of eminent professors from the universities
and the substitution of time-serving nonentities, and the
present activities of the Bolshevist virago Kollontay, Lenin's
Aspasia, who is in charge of girls' institutes ? The Leninites
are appointing the ignorant peasant servants and watchmen
to take charge of studies, retaining only the few school-
masters and mistresses — a mere handful — ^who agree to
teach Bolshevism.

The Bolshevists have abolished God and rehgion. And
what was the Holy Synod under the rule of Razputin ?
Was it calculated to inspire reverence or piety ? The present
day Bolsheviks have gone one better. Their guns — some of
them our English guns, alas ! — bombarded the Kremlin and
the shrines of Moscow. Do we not know that depraved and

50 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

ignorant adventurers were raised by Razputin to the highest
places in the hierarchy to be bishops of the Church ? Was
that not as bad as the destruction of shrines ? Lenin has
abolished all law except mob-law. Courts of Justice no
longer exist in Russia wherever the Bolsheviks are in con-
trol. And what was justice under the Razputin regime ?
Razputin systematically, for a few thousand roubles, pro-
cured free pardons for the worst criminals.

And the Army ? We know that Razputin hated it and
that his evil influence reacted against its efficiency and
morale. He did all that lay in his power to cripple it. The
Leninite Soviet, being unrestricted and unlimited in its
defeatist pro-German campaign, went much further — to the
uttermost hmits of destruction of Russia's armed forces.

Things were done by the Razputin ite regime deliberately
to stop the war. These acts of conscipus treachery can well
rank with Lenin's conspiracy against the Russian troops in
Galicia last July.

The state of parties in Russia cannot be adequately de-
fined or understood unless we appreciate the above facts.
Let us now turn our attention to these parties. Not less
than 60 per cent of the population subsists entirely on
agriculture, and of this huge mass about one-fourth does
not possess sufficient land to provide a livelihood. Of the
remaining 40 per cent something like one -half are mill
workers or artisans. The middle-class, including all sec-
tions of the bourgeoisie, is somewhat less numerous than the
representatives of Labour, to use the term in our sense.
The proportion of well-educated people in Russia is woe-
fully small. If we take it to represent 2 per cent of the popu-
lation I think we shall be well within the mark. Probably
it is much less. We may assume that 10 per cent are fairly
well educated — they are the so-called semi-intelligentsia.
Below them we drop to another 20 per cent of literates,
more or less able to understand matters outside their daily
round of labour. Between 60 and 70 per cent of the
population are quite ignorant. Such is the composition
of the Russian electorate. It will enable us to arrive at an
estimate of the character and prospects of various political
parties.

The total population is not less than 180 millions. Sixty
per cent of rustics is equivalent to 108 millions, and one-
fourth of this number — ^the landless ones — represents 27
millions of souls, or something hke 6 million households.

WILTON,. TiiE STATE OF PARTIES 151

We may take it that these .6 millions represent more or less
the Bolshevik host — rather less than more.

The Consliimional movement of 1904-5 left the peasant
quite indifferent. The lard was the only thirg that really
interested him. To capture his attention and suffrages the
Constitutional Democrats in the First Duma put foru-ard
vn agrarian programme based on partial compulsory expro-
priation (not confiscation) of landed properties exceeding a
certain area, and had the Government of the day enter-
tained the proposal we should probably have been spared
a revolution. But the GoverLment cf the day, Velyir.g upon
its strength, dissolved the Duma and disrupted the CD.
(Cadet) party. Thereafter the possibility cf a gradual solu-
tion on a constitutional basis bicame almost hopeless. Re-
volutionary formulae obtained precedence. S:olypin under-
took the huge task of sohdng the problem by bureaucratic
methods. His Okhrana dispersed ihe revolmicraries while
the Minister of Agriculture Krivoshein proceeded to help
the peasants to break away from the Commune. At the
same time a huge scheme of emigration to Siberia was put
in practice. The population was increasing twice as fast
as the emigrants could be settled. There were difficulties
of transport and establishment. Moreover the Socialists
had their followers in the village schools, am^ong the sub-
ordinate employees of the Zemsivos sll belonging to the
semi-intelligentsia and inherently disposed in favour of the
parties that were hostile to the oppressive Government.
All these elements were blindly workii:g tcgether to oppose
Stolypin.

Labour in the industrial centres was quite unorganized.
The Okhrana would not permit any trades unions. It tried
to "nobble " discontent by organizing its own workmen's
clubs. This was done in 1903 by a. man named Zubatov,
;ind in 1905 by Father Gapon. The Okhrana even formed
a working connection with secret revolutionary organiza-
tions in order to counteract or direct political assassination,
etc. When it became lawful for the working men to form
hospital funds and other mutual relief associations the
Okhrana systematically opposed them and arrested the
men's delegates.

In 1905 there was a Labour upheaval following upon the
heels of the disastrous war with Japan and the Constitu-
tional movement. The Soviet (council of workmen's dele-
gates) made its first appearance in Petrograd under the

152 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

auspices of Lenin and Trotsky, who remained in the back-
ground while their tool Khrustalev-Nosar stood nominally
at its head. That was the great first' manifestation of
Social Democracy in Russia. The Party split very early
in its career into. Bolsheviki ard Mensheviki (Major ar.d
Minor fractions), the former under Lenin and the latter
und^r the leadership of several Social Democratic luminaries,
notably Chkl.eidze and Tseretelli, both Georgians. It 'was
of course essentially an urban workers' party inspired by
the doclrines of Karl Marx. Lenin and his associates after-
wards " imprcvv d, upon the Marx programme of socializc-
iion of the sppurtt ranees of Labour to the exclusion of
Cp.pital, by including Ihe Land problem. In his latest avatar
he espouses m.ore particularly the cause of unskilled labour
and the landless, although he has not dared openly to defy
the trades urions that came into existence with the Revolu-
tion nor confiscate the land owned by peasant proprietors.
But the revolution of 1904-5 (which like the incalculably
greater movement of 1917 was merely an aftermath of dis-
content and opposition lo the old regime prevailing among
the enlightened minority) collapsed as soon as the propertied
classes perceived its danger and rallied to the support of
the Government. Bolshevism became discredited and the
Men^sheviks ruled Social Democratic counsels.

The Mensheviks, being opponents of armed uprisings
and activist propaganda, might have been amenable to
compromise. But the Okhrana never gave them a chance.
Indeed for purposes of its own it preferred the extreme
elements.

Industries and their concomitaht, the urban labour class
to whom the Social Democrats appealed, have assumed
some importance only within the last two or three decades.
O.i the eve of war they increased very considerably. The
total annual production of industries had risen in 1915 to
about £400,000,000, whereas the produce of agriculture was
valued at something like £1,000,000,000. These figures give
but a faint idea of the relative numbers of the workers
engaged respectively in manufacture and in farming. Agri-
cultural labour counted 20,000,000 able-bodied men and as
many women.

The Socialist Revolutionaries had their own home-grown
doctrines and their own methods, derived from the writings
of Tolstoi and others. Among the fourders of the party,
as it existed at the time of the Revolution, were Mme.

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES 153

Breshko-Breshkovskaia, nicknamed the grandmother of the
Revolution, and the late Gerschuni.

But it was almost impossible to organize the ignorant
peasantry for an uprising under the old regime. The dis-
content of the moderate, non-socialist elements after the
war with Japan, undertaken at Germany's instigation " to
clear the air " for the old regime, afforded both the Socialist
parties an opportunity. Strikes and brutal repressions were
the result.

The rural Socialists stirred up jacqueries, hamstringings
(,f cattle, burning of country houses, and murders of land-
1( rds — just as they did this year, but on a much smaller
scale. It was a dress-rehearsal of what was to come. But
the movement was quickly suppressed. For long years
before that rehearsal the Socialist Revolutionaries — or rather
ore section of them. — had been active. They were the Maxi-
malists, commonly and quite erroneously confounded with
the Bolsheviks. The Maximalists made a speciality of
political assassination. Their predecessors had murdered
Altxarder II. All the murders of statesmen belonging" to
the old regime during the last thirty years are traceable to
this organization and its predecessors. They thought, or
rather they claimed, that by murder they would disrupt,
elisorganize the old regime and compel it to give way to
their demands. But at the worst they hoped by terroristic
methods to gain prestige among the masses and discredit
the authority of the Goverrment, just as we see to-day the
Bolsheviks attacking the Germans with empty phrases in
the hope of gaining prestige among the allied democracies.
These Maximalists were naturally the objects of special
attention on the part of the Okhrana, which had its agents
in their midst. You will probably recall the name of Avno
Azev, the Okhrana agent, who was also an associate of Ger-
schuni, and personally supervised the killing of Pleheve
and of the Grand Duke Sergius, to prove to the Maximalists
that he was a genuine [sic) advocate of terrorism.

The Minimalist or moderate faction of the Socialist
Revolutionary party had no direct share in terroristic
activity, but approved it. To this faction belonged Kerensky.
After Stolypin's rough-and-ready methods of disposing of
Socialist organizations and activities the Maximalists, like
the Bolsheviks, suffered a prolonged eclipse. In the end
Stolypin was murdered by a Maximalist agent provocateur,
presumably with the connivance of the Okhrana, which

154 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

disapproved his disruption cf the village commune and his
leanings towards the Entente.

The Sccialist Revolutionaries had their day of nominal
power when Keren sky was ostensibly ruling revolutionary
Russia — though in reality the Bolsheviks .yvtre pulling the
strings — but they quickly broke up into a num.ber of con-
flicting factions.

The agrarian disorders of 1906 had frightened all the
propertied classes, and the preceding strikes and disturb-
ance of business had irritated the peasants. Both circum.-
stances strengthened the hand of Stolypin.

The leaders in both the Sociahst camps were almost
without exception men belonging neither to labour nor to
the peasantry. The great majority were bourgeois. The
Revolution was a bourgeois revolution. It was again, as
in 1905, a reflection of deferred corstitutioralism. It was
carried out by men who being bourgeois sought pchtical
power and property, but beirg revolmioraries usurped the
power for themselves and disposed of the property of other
people to. enlist popular support. And neither of these
consummations was desired by the vast majority of the
people.

There is yet another category of Socialists in Russia— the
so-called populists, toilists and their like. They do not
represent a serious revolutionary element. Too mild and
moderate for such fiercely competitive times as the present,
they vegetate in semi-obscurity, although among them stand
such luminaries as Plekhanov and Kropot^in.

I have not said anything yet about non-Socialist partie.'^
besides the so-called Cadets. They never represented a
living force except in so far as they were supported by the
old regime. When Razputinism had blocked the avenues
of Reform, these parties formed a Progressive bloc in the
Lower and Upper Houses, and presented a Joint Declaration
to the Throne in 1916, urging the necessity of responsible
government by men enjoying the confidence of the nation.
Their demands were endorsed by the nobles' congress — up
to that time a reactionary organization. But Razputin's
influence was too strong and the Tsar was too weak.

Had the Tsar signed his decree appointing Prince Lvov
to the Premiership a week earlier we should in all proba-
bility have been saved from anarchy.

The Revolution was not the work of a single class. All
classes — the whole nation — were simply tired of the old

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES 155

regime and had lost faith in the Monarchy owing to the
scandals of Razputinism. It was a national revolution.

The Soviet (council of workmen's and soldiers' delegates)
met on the day that the Provisional Government was con-
stituted and easily enticed the demoralized soldiery, in-
toxicated with their easy subversion of the old regime,
gulled into thinking themselves the sole authors and arbiters
of the Revolution, into a fateful alliance. From its very
birth the Revolution was perverted into an anti-national
and anarchistic movement by Bolshevist agencies, under
the auspices of the Socialists at large and a sham Coalition
devoid of any real power. The Bolsheviks impelled Russia
along the road to anarchy and separate peace.

In March, 1917, a few days after the Revolution, I pointed
out in The Times the true character of the Soviet, and warned
my readers that its activities were calculated to bring Russia
to anarchy and a dishonourable and disastrous peace.

I declare in the most categorical, most emphatic manner
that from its very inception the Russian national Revolu-
tion was captured and perverted to their own uses by an
anti-national, anti-democratic gang, the Bolsheviks. I
declare that in concert with the Governments of Germany
and Austria they planned and carried out the ruin and dis-
memberment of their country, and have discredited Socialism
and the Revolution. I declare that were it not for the sane,
sober, devoted and patriotic element in Russia — the real
champions of social progress and civic freedom in the
country — Russia woulfi be without hope of revival or sal-
vation for a hundred years, that the Russian nation would
be slaves a thousandfold more pitiful and wretched than
they were under the Tartar yoke — slaves of the. economic
despotism of Germany, and a name of contempt and derision
among the great democracies of the universe. I declare
that were it not for the Cossacks, the free yeomen of the
Marches, the pioneers and wardens of Russia's progress
and safety, the Bolshevik Huns would have encountered
no organized resistance to their full designs. The Cossacks
are the nucleus around which all that is sane and national
in Russia has rallied for the fight with the emissaries of the
Hun. You will have read in the telegrams from Petrograd
the Bolshevik accusation against the Allies of aiding and
supporting the Cossacks and their close adherents, the Little
Russians of Ukraina. Let us pray that such is really the
case. Were it otherwise, then I would say we are not doing

156 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

justice to ourselves as allies of the Russian people. For
there in the South is now the real Russia, there is the spirit
that will yet save the country from the Bolshevist fiend.
And I say : more power to the arm of those of our country-
men' who are risking their lives in this good cause. May
our Government persevere if it has already joined hands
with the Cossacks, and may it lose no time in doing so if
it has not yet begun the good work.

How was Russia brought so low, humiliated to the very
dust ? I will briefly recount the stages of the debacle and
you will see how plainly the hand of the Hun is discernible
throughout. First the army and navy had to be rendered
incapable of opposing revolutionary plans in conformity
with the designs of German militarists. Order No. i was
devised by Lenin's agent in the Soviet, Nahamkes alias
Steklov, ard spread by Bolshevik agents. The committee
system in the army and navy were a natural corollary of
the Soviet. At the instigation of Bolshevist agents the
sailors at Kronstadt and Helsingfors^ — in the latter place
aided by Finnish and Swedish Socialists — butchered their
officers. The Pravda, now the official organ of the so-called
Government, soon made its appearance. It was printed
and circulated with the help of German money. It instilled
into the minds of the soldiery the doctrines of fraternization
and defeatism. Next came the soldiers' charter signed under
Bolshevist pressure by Keren sky — ^another step towards the
destruction of discipline and fighting efficiency. Lenin
appeared on the scene in April with Robert Grimm, a Swiss
agent of Germany, and a party of Bolsheviks, who were
conveyed through Germany in a sealed compartment. The
Germans connived at and planned this mission. It was
another form of poison gas. But they did not want it to
infect their own people. It was to poison only Russia,
hence the " sealed compartment."

Lenin's first task was to discredit all ministers in the
Provisional Government who stood for a loyal continuance
of the war.

Lenin was in communication with Berlin through his
associate Robert Grimm, who used the Swiss Legation
cypher in Petrograd to ' exchange messages with a pro-
German Federal Councillor named Hoffmann at Berne.
Lenin was receiving money from Germany through banks
in Stockholm and Petrograd.

Under these circumstances of patent treachery — for

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES 157

which Robert Grimm was expelled and Lenin, Mme. KoUon-
tay, Bronstein-Trotsky and other hyphenated Bolsheviks
were afterwards arrested or ostracized by the Provisional
Government — the demoralized soldiery in Petrograd were'
ordered by a Bolshevik " chief of staff " named Linde, an
out-and-out German, to demonstrate against Hiliukov and
other pro-war ministers. The result of this demonstration
was the compulsory adoption by the Provisional Govern-
ment of the famous doctrine of " No annexation no indem-
nity." That was the final blow at all hopes of fighting
capacity in the army and navy. Having lost their faith
in the Tsar and in all authority, devoid of discipline, in-
fatuated by the bribes of land and money, and now seeing
no aim or purpose in continuirg the struggle, hypnotized
into the lying belief that specious formulae, mere empty
words, would bring peace and the " self-determination " of
nationalities — another fatuous promise of Bolshevism — they
deserted wholesale and wandered aimlessly throughout the
length and breadth of Russia, confusing ard disruptirg
railway transport.

Kerensky, an amateurish minister with a gift of hysterical
eloquence and one clear sane notion, for which he earned
an altogether exaggerated reputation, now came* forward.
He saw more clearly than his fellow-Socialists that unless
the revolutionary army could fight all the high-sounding
and inflated promises of Socialism would remain a hollow
mockery. He alone reahzed that if it were to be a national
force, a constructive and not only a destructive agency,
Socialism must be able to fulfil the first law of human nature,
the law of self-preservation. Keren sky's merit consisted
in this that he being a Socialist discerned plain homely
truths that party programmes hid from his associates. The
merit was all the greater because he belonged to the so-called
internationalist wing of his party and had himself espoused
the Bolshevist formulae of "no annexation, no indemnity "
and " self-determination." But he could not persuade the
revolutionary democracy, and in despair hurled at them
the famous epithet, " You are acting not as freemen but
like mutinous slaves."

Kerensky started his crmpaign ?morg the troops after
he had visited the armies at the Front as Minister of War.
It was a sudden and unexpected departure. He hr.d under-
gone the influerce of his surroundings and of arotl er
Socialist-Re volut ion ary, an ex-terrorist named Se.vni kc v.

158 t.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

The great heart of Russia responded to his appeal. Never
was such enthusiasm as the troops displayed when Kerensky
. first preached the gospel of battle for the Revolution .
Never was such dismay and disgust as his campaign pro-
voked among the Socialists, and especially among the
Bolsheviks. They were terrified by the possibility of a
Russian victory. Kerensky was not re-elected to the execu-
tive committee of his party. He was subjected to open
ridicule by Chernov, the Socialist -Revolutionary leader,
and reviled by the Bolsheviks. He did not feel sure w^hether
on his return to Petrograd he would not find himself an
outcast and derelict of Socialism..

However, the Socialist rank and file was still fearful of
taking over the Government. They were quite pleased
with the existing arrangement. The Soviet and its organs
and agents in the various committees wielded all the power,
while the bourgeois Coalition bore all the onus of responsi-
bility. They were drawing all the money they wanted for
propaganda and organization, and quietly biding the time
when they would be ready to take over the Government.
There was no need to hurry. The short experience of
Socialistic realities had not been encouraging. The agrarian
question was a hard nut to crack. It was to be left to the
Constituent Assembly to decide how the land was to be
divided. Meanwhile the peasants were helping themselves,
the workmen were blackmaihng their employers, and anarchy
was fast bringing the country to bankruptcy. So there
was no need for the Socialists to assume the reins of Govern-
ment. Let the bourgeois carry on the farce of nominal
power. Kerensky 's unexpected move upset thtse cowardly
calculations.

The Socialists — ^with the exception of the Bolsheviks —
were led by a comfortable, doctrinaire middle-class con-
tingent inexperienced in public affairs, ' permeated with
re volutionary book-lore, devoid- of connection with human
r.aUties. They were incapable alike of formulating or
carrying out a constructive policy. Their mouths were full
of learned words and revolutionary slang. They had neither
the ability nor the courage to act. Even as revolutionaries
t.^iey were a poor lot, fated from the outset to be dominated
— as they were — ^by the bold, unscrupulous, unprincipled
demagogues of Bolshevism.

I am no admirer of the Bolsheviks, but my eyes are not
tiosed to their efficiency. As revolutionaries pure and simple

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES 159

they were, and remain, the only party in Russia that can
claim our attention. They did not waste their time in use-
less verbiage like the other Socialists. They met every
situation with a clear-cut and appropriate counter-move,
and in this particular case they displayed a master hand.
While the offensive prepared by Kerensky was in full swing
they organized an armed uprising in Petrograd and
Minounced over the -wireless that they had won the day
■nd that the war was over. In this they lied barefacedly,
s they had lied throughout. But the lie had its desired
■ ffect. I saw the men break and run, leaving a gap of thirty
iiiiles between themselves and the Germans at a juncture
when victory was almost in our grasp. You know the rest
—how Kornilov saved the Russian armies from irretrievable
iisaster by restoring discipline with a firm hand and apply-
li g the death penalty to cowards and traitors.

Then Kerensky, having crushed the Bolshevik revolt in
Petrograd, with the help of the Cossacks proceeded to
renounce his own good works. He became once more a
doctrinaire Socialist. The beloved Revolution and his own
{)osition as Minister •President absorbed all the time that he
could spare from the delights and orgies of the Winter
Palace. For this Socialist had become a wealthy bourgeois
voluptuary — without renouncing SccialLst ideals.

After the fall of Riga he professed his decision to adopt
Komilov's programme, and even asked Kornilov to send
troops to stamp out Bolshevik opposition. Then capri-
ciously, insanely, he deserted Kornilov and sought an
alliance with the Leninites, armed, the Red Guard, brought
warships up the Neva, and proclaimed Kornilov a traitor.
Thus the last hope of saving Russia from a Bolshevist
jzovernment was destroyed, although Kerensky himself
remained unconscious of his approaching fate. And we, in
ignorance of the situation, persisted in trusting to Keren-
sky's ability to sa\'e the situation — just as from the begin-
ning we had blinded ourselves to the Bolshevist realities
f the Revolution.

Bat behind the Bolshevist propaganda of misrule, under
;ie fair name of democratic ideals, a rapid process of dilapi-
.ation of the country's treasure and resources wa,s pro-
eeding. It was not enough for Lenin and his crew that
iie army and navy should be destroyed as a fighting force,
hey were taking other measures to prevent all possibility
i Russia being able to defend herself against the Germans.

i6o U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

They exhausted her Treasury by senseless extravagance,
by exorbitant bribes to their supporters — to the Soviets ^ to
the Committees, to the workers, and to t|ie soldiers. It is
estimated — I am quoting Russian official figures^ — that
something hke £200,000,000 went to the revolutionary
organizations and £1,100,000,000 to the troops. As a
result of this deliberate prodigality the Russian Treasiury
at the end of 1917 contained only unpaid bills, in other
words unsecured liabilities to the tune of £15,000,000,000.

What was the good of talking about Russia being able
to fight after that ? The promised laiid flowing with milk
and honey was still remote as ever. Instead there was ruin,
anarchy, a total lack of clothing material and other neces-
saries of life owing to the paralysis of industry, transport
more difficult than ever, starvation in the cities, disorder
in the countryside. Russians high and low saw no prospect
or possibility of going on with the struggle. There seemed
to be no hope from any quarter. The -Socialist Revolution-
aries had split up into five different and conflicting parlies,
part of them siding with the Bolsheviks. The Cadets as
bourgeois were banned by all the Socialists for siding with
Kornilov. Then Kerensky himself fell urder suspicion.
The truth about his negotiations with Kornilov came out
and he was anathema to the partisans of revolution.

The moment for the Bolsheviks to sally forth into the
open had come. Lenin and his associates as usual boldly
faced the situation. The sham Coalition had no supporters
among the masses. The peasants had got no land except
what they'had been able to steal. The Bolsheviks promised
them the land at once. Lenin had the famous Red Guard
and the mutinous navy ; he and his crew were known t;o
lae partisans of immediate peace, of socialization of indus-
tries, confiscation of wealth, etc., in a word " all power and
dominion to the manual workers," "all oppression to the
brain workers and bourgeois." In one brief day the Pro-
visional Government with Kerensky and his coalition were
swept away. Murdering was confined to the hapless officer-
cadets and women's death-battalions that remained loyal.
Kerensky fled after trying to enlist the support of the
Cossacks. He had been denouncing them and their beloved
chieftain Kaledin ?.s traitors only a few weeks before. They
would have notliirg to do with him. The Cossacks and
their supporters WLj;t « :ff to the Don to make their la.st
stand in defence of their country.

WILTON. THE STATE OF PARTIES i6i

The record of Bolshevism as a government is not suffi-
ciently known. We have very incomplete information.
The Press is muzzled and crippled. Advertisements are a:
Bolshevik monopoly. The Censorship is in enemy hands.
But if we know little about Russia under a Bolshevik
government Russia knows still less about us, and 1 can
affirm after reading these Petrograd newspapers that the
Bolshevik cersor exercises most cf his skill in excluding all
information about the Allies that is disagreeable to Bol-
shevism. You may be sure that the Nottingham Congress
and Mr. Mordecai-Litvinov's reception there is travestied
by the Bolsheviks as a positive indication that England is
on the eve of a Bolshevist revolution.

Here are some elementary facts of Lenin's ecministra-
tiOn. A^l private and church lands have been cenfiscated,
ail agriculiural implements have been socialized, all mills
have been placed under labour control preliminary to
socializaiion, all banks and other business enterprises have
been placed under Bolshevist management, the geld reserve
has been impounded and foreign lc£n's repudiated, all ranks
have been abolished in the army, cfficers stripped of orders
and insignia and reduced to soldiers' pay, which is now, on
account of the scarcity of funds, 5 roubles (say, 10 shillings)
per month.

The peace negotiations at Brest-Lit ovsk have been con-
ducted by three hyphenated Bolsheviks. The only Russian,
General Skakn, committed suicide. Another negotiator,
the celebrated Schneur, turned out to be an ex-agent of
the Okhrrna,' end had to be dismissed. He it was wl o
captured G.H.Q. for the valiant " Comrede Abram," other-
wise Ensign Krylenko, the Bolshevist Generahssimo, who
failed to save the unfortunate Dukhonin irotn being
murdered by the Bolshevik soldier mob.

The negotiations have been marked by the usual Bol-
shevik methods, unscrupulous mendacity, unbounded in-
solence. Whole ccnversa.tions representing the Bolsheviks
in the role of virtuous supporters of the allied cause and
sincere opponents of German militarism have been " faked "
to appeal to the gullible public abroad.

Red ruin an,d anarchy have been intensified thrcughout
the kngth and breadth of Russia. Plunder, arscn, murder
are daily, habitual ccncomitants of Lenin's prowess.
" Justice " is applied in characteristic fashicn..

When the 2,000,000 bottles of wine that still remained
■• .. . • I

i6z U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

in the Winter Palace cellars were absorbed by the Bolshevik
soldiery and Petrograd was strewn with drunken ruffians,
Lenin had the fire hoses turned on, swamped the cellars,
and drowned all the men who were sleeping off their libations
inside. But when the unskilled labourers at one munition
works purloined the pay cf the trade unicnists amounting
to 1,000,000 roubles L' nin did not even attempt to make
them disgorge. He told them lo setile ihe matter with the
trades unions as best they could.

When the Ccssacks and the Ukrainians remcnstratcd
wich the Bolshevik Government for invading their lands
Lenin's henchmen said, " You arc not en cur side, therefore
you have no right to self-determinalicn. We recognize the
rights of self-delerminalicn enly for the desiitute masses."
In similar defiance of tl eir own pet Ihccry of " no annexa-
tion " the Bolsheviks are irying forcibly to annex the coal
mines in the Dvinetz, i.e. Ccssack ierritory. The children
in the schools are fore: d -to listen to Bolshevik lectures, and
many have gene on s.rike.

The Bolshevik policy in a nutshell is simply destruction
and anarchy. When the Constituent Assembly voicing the
opposition of the huge majority at last met they were dis-
persed with field-guns and maxims.

The Bolsheviks do not care for peace or social welfar*
They want a Bolshevik peace end a Bolshevik revoluli' n
in every country. "No annexalien, no inderrnity," cl
course, but Bolsheviks may annex and plund'^r with im-
punity. " Self-determination," naturally, but only for tiiose
who support Bolshevism.

The Czech Bolsheviks in Petrograd are issuing proclama-
tions to their countrymen to cease fighting for the Allies.
The Mussulman Bolsheviks are proclaiming a Jihad against
England in Ihe Caucasus, in India, in Persia. Every effort,
every blandishment is being exerted to disunite the Uk-
ranians and Cossacks. These two elements are indeed the
thorn in the Bolshevist side, for L nin and his traiterous
crew know that they may despoil ihe peasantry and workers
of Great Rusfi' and use them for their ends, plunder and
murder the bourgeois of Petrogr.^d, insult ihe Allies, and
evrn murder them if it comes to that.

S )me of our officers travelling in Lenm-land were placed
in a third -class carriage, " like ordinary soldiers," ah hough
tie Bolshevik warriors mere frequently travel gratis in the
fi 'St class. One of them remcnslrat-.d, pointing out that

\\'rLTON. THE STATE OF PAT^TIES 163

Austrian and German officers had come to Petrograd in
saloon carriages. The Bolshevik authorities replied wdth
the frankest brutality, " Yes, but they were Germans ; you
are English." We English are treated in this manner
because we are fighting for our country. To deserve the
respect of the Bolsheviks we must be Germans, or must
overthrow our Governments and apply the Bolshevik prc-
gramme of anarchy.

Bolshevism is naturally pro-German. It is inspired by
the same blind ruthlessness as German militarism.

You may ask what can be the object of Bolshevism ?
As well ask what has been the object of German militarism.
What profit do you think will accrue to Germany from the
plunder of Belgium, from the systematic ejdiaustion of the
fair lands she has invaded and conquered ? On the map —
from a purely military point of view — it loo>ks all right.
But the war must come to an end some time. What then ?
How will Germany ever make up for the loss of her greatest
markets — Belgium, France, the British Empire, and th«
United States ?

Well, the Bolsheviks are in the same position. They have
swamped and ruined Russia. They are trying to poison
and ruin other countries. They have overlooked the iact
that revolution is a means not an end. The German mili-
tarists have similarly closed their eyes to the truism that
war is not \he object of a nation's existence but only a means
to ?.n end.

The German masses are still deluded by the map into the
belief that the war has brought them victory ; the German
Government know that this " victcry " can be assured only
if they can bring about the ruin of the Allies. The Bolshe-
vist appeal to the allied den-ocracies to join the anu-
national, j-nti-elemocratic revolution now desolating Russia
is part of the German game — and the real motive and origin
of the " negotiations " at Brest-Litovsk.

The scheme looks well en paper. We have seen seme of
the results in practice, and we shall soon see more. (The
Germans themselves and their Austrian dupes are beginning
to feel the effects.) The Bolsheviks are just as incapable of
bringing peace to Russia as of solving her great social
problems. They themselves are disintegrating. Lenin is
already being outpaced by other extremists. The misled
and misguidfd soldiers who siill nmain at the Front are
being s.nt inbnd to carry the war into the coiintry. Some

i64 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

of the Leninites are preparing to restore the autocracy.
Razputin's adherents are already in touch with the Soviet.
Bribery and corruption are rampant. It will not be long
before the dupes of Bolshevism discover its true character.

Russia is now divided into two parties : Bolshevism and
the Nation. The Bolsheviks may claim to represent Petro-
grad and one-fifth of the population, but even this minority
is doubtful.

In conclusion I would point out that the Bolsheviks have
repudiated Russia's obligations to her allies. We have
Supplied Russia with a huge quantity of munitions and
armaments. For this purpose we have pledged our credit
to the extent of over £500,000,000. The Bolsheviks decline
to recognize the debt, but they are keeping the goods and
are perfectly capable of selling them — om* guns and muni-
tions— ^to their friends the Germans, or even of selling them
back to us at their price. For the Bolsheviks have been
and can be bought. They are, above all, practical revolu-
tionaries.

The proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to the
lecturer.

THE LAND AND PEOPLE OF THE UKRAINE

BY MR. L. P, RASTORGOUEFF
(Barrister-at-Law)

(Sir Robert William Perks, Bart., in nnRE Chaar)
Monday y iStk February, 191 8

Sir Robert William Perks. I have the honour to in-
troduce to you to-night Mr. Rastorgoueff, a barrister not
only in Russia but in our own country in England, and
who, therefore, has had the opportunity of seeing both
sides of the shield. He understands that section of Russia
with which he will deal to-night from personal knowledge ;
and I think he also understands us, for he frequently has
to advise people in difficulty and that affords the best
opportunity of knowing a man or woman. He has also
been called upon to advise British subjects who happen to
have got into trouble in Russia. When I saw so many of
our friends flocking in to-night I wondered whether you
were disappointed Russian bondholders, who had been
terrified by the notice we saw in the papers to-day. But
this seems to me to be specially a time when we have to
remember the chief characteristics of the British race. We
are not easily upset ; we are not easily discontented.

It is an advantage to us to have the experience to-night
of a Russian student and a Russian intellectual, if I may
say so (using what I fear is not a very popular phrase just
at the present moment), and a native of the Ukraine.

We have gathered our knowledge in this country of
Russia hitherto irom three main sources : first, the traveller,
the writer and the essential photographer : that is the first
sojurce of information.

165

i66 URSA. PROCEEDINGS

Our second source is the merchant, the trader, and the
financier.

The third source of information upon wliich we rely is
represented by the great profession which our Chairman,
Lord Carnock, so well adorns, Diplomacy.

From these three sources we gain our information of
foreign countries.

Well, I would venture to say, as knowing a little of Russia,
having occasionally been there, I would say that this is
not the time when we should lose faith in Russia or lose
heart. Russia is passing through a period of great trial,
but she will emerge as France has en two occasions emerged
from almost similar disaster. We must remember that the
great resources of Russia cannot be dispersed ; she Will
still be one of the great sources of supplies for the world
for timber, grain, ores, and various other products, all of
which will be necessary for the advancement of the world
in all quarters. And I would suggest that this is, of all
times, the time when it is necessary for the ccmmercial
man and the financial man of Great Britain, of France,
and of the United States to put their heads together and
to see how, in this period of trial, they can not only be of
service to that great country but also serve the futuro
commercial and international interests of all our lands.

So, my dear friends, I would venture to ask you to list< n.
as I am sure you will do with interest and attention, to the
distinguished Lecturer upon whom I now have to call.

Mr. L. p. Rastorgoueff. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and
Gentlemen, at the beginning allow me to clear away one
misapprehension : when I looked at the card announcing
my lecture to my astonishment and even horror I observed
that people were invited to hear a paper which I was
expected to read. But as a matter of fact I had no inten-
tion of reading a paper ;; I have not had the opportunity
of writing one. The best I can do is to give you a friendly
chat on the land and people of the Ukraine ; if in this chat
I am too elementary I hope you will forgive me because I
really do not know how far your knowledge of the Ukraine
goes. From my own experience I may say that the average

RASTORGOUEFF. THE UKRAINE 167

Englishman knows vtry little about it. A friend of mine
here was strongly convinced that the Ukraine was part ol
Sibtria, and anoiher asserted that it is situated somewhere
near the Caspian Sea. As a matter of fact it is in quite a
different part of Russia, so in the short lime which is allotted
to me I will try to give you just an elementary knowledge
of the Ukraine. To begin with you must first of all define
where is this mysterious country ? how are we to find it ?
what are the frontiers of ? And it is not at all easy to
answer these questions because Ukraine really never existed
in its entirety as a separate slate, as a separate country.
The very name " Ukrpine " means the borderland, because
the country was incorporated in the second half of the
sixteenth century in the Polish Republic and formed its
southern frontier. It is not earlier then the begirnrng of
the seventeenth century that the name of the Ukraine first
was officially used. Till that time the territory was known
fir.st as Rus and later it was often described as Little Russia.

So I propose to define Ukraine from the ethnographical
point cf view. It is the country where the Ukrainian race,
a people speaking the same Ukrainian language, are living ;
ind this country is situated on the south-west part of Russia,
with Kiev as its capital and Odessa as its port. Ix com-
prises also eastern part of Galicia and Bukovina, which
form part of Austro-Hungary. This is what may be defined
as the Ukraine.

Now the land of Ukraine is very fertile, very rich, it has
a black soil, and it gives good harvests almost without
manuring. The people, therefore, are chiefly engaged in
agriculture and in the occupations connected with agricul-
ture ; it has alcohol distilleries and sugar refineries and
mines. The country is very rich in coal and iron ; and it
cf.n tains one of the best metallurgical works, which was
founded by the Englishman Hughes, who is regarded in
Russia as the father of Russian metallurgical industries.

The people are also engaged in some domestic industries.
They are famous for the painting of icons. You know that
in the Greek Church we do not use statues, we use icons e>r
pictures, and in our churches and houses it is the usual
decoration, and this requirement is supplied mainly by
peasants, whose ordinary occupation is in tilling the land,
but who frequently devote their leisure to the painting of
iains. Some of these have distinctly an artistic value.
Then the people are very famous for laces ; they make

i68 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

embroideries and kces of good pattern. The Ukrainians
are very musical ; the singing is beautiful, and in every
Ukrainian village \here is at least one choir, not necessarily
a trained choir.

I wf.nt now to dispose of two very debatable questions —
?bout the Ukrainian race and the Ukrainian language.
Docs i he Ukrainian belong to a separate race distinct from
Russians a.nd from Poles, or is he only a variety of one of
these ? And again, is the Ukrainian a separate language
or only a dialect cf the Russian or of the Pohsh language ?
These questions have been debated for a Icng time, the
c.ebates somciimf s being very hot. Because of the peculiar
position of the Ukreine, which as I have said was never
really independent, it was subjected to Polcnization and
to Russification, and both of these (Countries have freely
asserted that the Ukrainians are not a separate race but
I nly a variety of the Pohsh or of the Russian race.

After long debate and research, however, anthropologists
have proved by examinalicn of the structure of the skulls
i'nd skeletons that the Ukrainians are a separate race, dis-
tinct from both the Polish and Russian race. The Ukrainians
are much taller than either Russians or Poles, and their
skulls have a more oval form ; and you find that the
Ukrainians are much darker than the Russians or Poles. '

The question of language is also, as I have mentioned,
very acute. The Russian Government has never recog-
nized the Ukrainian language as a lan^age. M. Valoueff,
the Minister of the Interior at the time of Alexander lie
Second, asserted officially that the Ukrainian language has
never existed, does not exist, and tiever will exist, a state-
ment that is very stralnge, considering that more than
thirty milHon of people speak this language, and that the
Ukrainian literature is a great literature, not as great
perhaps as the Russian, but it is quite good enough. In
respect of this question we have now a testimony of the
learned academicians of Petrograd that the Ukrainian lan-
guage is as distinct from the Russian or the Polish as the
Serbian or the Czech or any other Slav language.

I want to give you a short sketch of Ukrainian history.
I think it is necessary in order to understand recent events
in the Ukraine. And I must begin with the birth of Russia.
As you know Kiev is the cradle of Russia, which consisted
of a number of Principalities. It is situated on the Dnieper,
which at that time formed a part of " the great route froih

RASTORGOUEFF. THE UKRAINE 169

the north to Byzantium," in those days the most civilized
country in Euroj)e : so there was a constant commercial
intercourse bttwecn Kiev and Byzantium. In the tenth
and eleventh centuries Kiev was one of the wealthiest
towns in Europe, and was very famous for its churches.
Education was spreading, and its rulers were on good terms
with Western Europe.

In the middle of the thirteenth century the Tartars came ;
they overran almost the whole of Russia, destroyed Kiev,
and greatly devastated the Southern Principalities. By and
by however, these Principalities came to be populated again,
but as they were considerably weakened, the Lithuanians
took advantage^ of this weakness and conquered them.
Lithuanic ns, by the way, do not belong to the Slav race.
As the Russian civilization was much higher than the
Lithuanian (the Lithuanians were still pagans and illiterate),
the Russian influence en the ccnquerors was very great ;
the Russi?n knguage, the orthodox religion and Russian
law was spread r.mcng the Lithuanians, and gradually the
Russian civilization prevailed.

Unfortunately about the middle of the fifteenth century
there was another invasion of Tartars, this time from the
Crimea. The Crimean Tartars invaded the territory of the
Russo-Lithuani?n Principahty, and once again, and still
more thoroughly, destroyed the Russian part of the Princi-
pality including Kiev. When this storm was over the
col( nizaiion of old South Russia began again, at first rather
slowly, but at the end of the sixteenth century, after the
Union of Lublon, its progress became much more rapid.
As I told you, Russian influence in Lithuania was very
strong. Now Jaguiello, prince of Lithuania, married a
Polish princess and that event was for Lithuania the begin-
ning of a new era, the era of Polonization.

It originated with Roman Catholic propaganda and per-
secution of the orthodox Greek Church, which had already
a firm footing in Lithuania. From Lithuania proper the
Roman Catholic activities gradually spread to its Russian
provinces. The Jesuits came and other Roman CathoHc
monks. The people, seeing a menace to their religion and
nationality, sought refuge in a devastated part of the
Principahty and settled there. This was by no means a
secure settlement because there was always a danger of
beirg raided either by the Jartars or by the Turks, and the
settlers had to rely upon their own efforts for the defence

170 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

(ii their new home. They called themselves Cossacks. It
is a word of Eastern origin. I believe it meant at first
robber, freebooter. Laltr on it changed its mes.ning and
began to mean a politically fr^e man. The Cossacks formt d
military commurities ; they were both warriors and agri-
culturists at the same time.

By the Union of Lublon in 1569 a permanent union
between Lithuania and Poland was created, and the Russian
provinces of Lithuania were incorporated in Poland, thus
forming its border — hence the name Ukraine. Now when
the Ukraine came under the Polish rule the Polonization of
that country became more intense. Religious persecution
increased in its vigour. It did not spare either common
people or gentry. Those of the latter who remained faithful
to their religion were deprived of all political rights, even
descendants of the Russian princely families did not escape.
The gentry, attracted by the high standard cf the Po4ish:
culture and by the privileges which enjoyed Pclish nobility,
soon betrayed their people, adopted Roman Catholic
religion, and sided with the Poles.- The common people,
however, stubbornly resisted conversion. Side by side with
the religious question an economic problem arose. Formerly
the chief occupation of the population was either fishing or
hunting ; but at the end of the sixteenth century agricul-
ture superseded all other occupations.

So it came about that there was a great need of men, and
this need could be satisfied only by converting hitherto free
Russian population into serfs and thus fixing them on the
land.

Though the Polish Republic was a free country, the
freest in Europe perhaps, yet its 'constitution was drawn
up purely in the interest of the higher class. The gentry
had all the political rights ; the peasantry were only slaves,
" dog's blood," as the gentry called them. There was,
therefore, no room in the Republic for a free farmer or
mdeed for any free man except gentry and burghers.

These two causes — the rehgious persecution and the de-
sire of the Polish gentry to enslave the people — were respon-
sible for the increased colonization of the territory occupied
by Cossack settlements ; these settlements being situated
outside the reach of the Polish Governinent enjoyed practi-
cally full independence, and naturally attracted all the
oppressed to whom the Cossacks gave ready refuge. The
number of Cossacks grew rapidly, and the area of their.

RASTORGOUEFF. THE UKRAINE 171

settlements extended farther and farther to the east and
south. In course of time all the settlements formed an
army which received a very democratic organization. The
whole territory was divided into regiments, and each regi-
ment elected its own officers, who performed at the same
time both military and civil functions. At the head of the
army stood the Hetman, in whom was vested a very large,
almost unlimited, power, and who was elected by the
assembly of all Cossacks.

The most advanced Cossack outpost in the East was
situated in the lower part of the Dnieper, beyond the rapids.
The Cossacks of that settlement, which was cdUed " Siech,"
formed a separate community quite independent from the
rest of the army. They acquired great fame owing to their
extraordinary valour and devotion to the cause of freedom.
They called themselves " knights," and they were knights
by their traditions, only knights of a remarkably demo-
cratic nature. Everyone could join the community, and
nobody enquired into his past. Their officers were elected
for one year only but could be dismissed by the assembly
even before the end of their term. They lived together in
tents, and had no real property of their own ; it all belonged
to the community ; they were all bachelors, and if one of
them brought a woman into the settlement he was liable
to the penalty of death.

Only those Cossacks who lived in the settlement pos-
sessed all political rights. If a man was weak enough to
want to get married he must settle somewhere outside the
settlement and forgo his power of voting. They had three
categories.

(i) The Cossack bachelors who had full rights,

{2) Married Cossacks who were obliged to help in the wars

but had no political rights, and
{3) Peasants who worked on the land.

The Cossacks took the leading part in religious and politi-
cal wars, fighting against Tartars, Turks and Poles, The
aggressive policy of the Polish Government towards the
Ukrainian population drove the Ukrainians to frequent
revolts, in which the peasantry often found a helping hand
from the Cossacks. The Cossacks had many grievances of
their own against the Poles. Jealous of their growing
power, the Poles tried to destroy it by reducing the Cossack
army to an insignificant number of registered Cossacks^

172 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

proclaiming all the rest to be serfs liable to work for Polish
nobles to whom th^ Polish kings lavishly granted large
estates in the territory of the army. These conflicts, I may
mention, were marked by extraordinary cruelties on both
sides.

The Poles when in suppressing a revolt they captured
prisoners and tortured them. The usual punishment was
either by roasting on a slow fire, or by skinning alive, or
by hanging by the rib, so that the victims were alive some-
times for many days. One leader was condemned to death,
before which, however, he had to be tortured for fourteen
days. Each day for the first ten days one piece of skin had
to be stripped from him. On the eleventh day his hands
had to be cut off, the next da;y his legs, and finally his head.
The Ukrainians when tliey had the opportunity retaliated
by similar excesses. It is recorded in history that after
taking a Polish town they miu"dered practically everyone
who was either a Pole or a Jew, including women and
children, and that some 18,000 people were thus slain in
two or three days.

During these revolts the Jews suffered perhaps most of
all, as they were scattered over the country unarmed and
unprotected, and therefore entirely at the mercy of an
infuriated mob of undisciplined Polish soldiers.

The Polish gentry being always in need of money used
either to mortgage or to let their estates \vith all feudal
rights attached to them to the Jews, who formed in Poland
the middle class, and controlled practically the whole Pohsh
trade. Thus the Jew became in fact the lord of the manor
and the Ukrainians his serfs, from whom he exacted all
services in a very unscrupulous and oppressive manner.
Much irritation was caused to the Ukrainian people by the
mterference of Jewish landlords with their religious affairs.
To the lord of the manor belonged certain rights in respect
of the church situated on his estate ; now these rights were
(exercised, by his substitute the Jew. He kept the key, and
the church could not be used for any purpose without his
permission, for which he levied certain charges not unduly
moderate. No wonder that the people's fury was directed
as much against the Jews as against the Poles. During
the revolt led by Bogdan Khmelnietzky, for instance, not
less tham a quarter of a million Jews were massacred. The
last'mentioned revolt resulted in the liberation of the
Ukraine from Poland and her union with Great Russia. ^ :

RASTORGOUEFF. THE UKRAINE ^73

The leader of the revolt, Bogdan Khmelnietzky, on his
own person experienced the hardship of the Polish rule.
He belonged to the Ukrainian gentry and for some time
even held a certain commission from the Polish king. Living
after retirement on his estate, he happened to be on bad
terms, with a certain Polish gentleman. In the absence of
Bogdan, the Polish gentleman, with" his retainers, entered
into Bogdan's estate, set the house on fire, raped his wife,
and flogged his son to death. Bogdan complained to the
Senate and the King, but being unable to obtain any redress,
raided in his turn thfe estate of the aggressor. Justice, how-
ever, was not so merciful to him as to his rival. Bogdan
was immediately imprisoned and condemned to death. He
succeeded in escaping, fled to the Siech, where he was elected
Hetman, and started a revolt in which the whote Ukraine
joined.

:' The revolt was very successful ; after several defeats
Sustained by the Polish troops almost all the Ukraine was
freed from the Poles. The Hetman saw, however, that in
the long run the Ukraine alone could not stand against
Poland, and he appealed to the Tzar of Moscovia to accept
the Ukraine under his sovereignty. The Tzar hesitated, for
such an acceptance would have meant a war with Poland.
Much time was wasted in negotiations ; meanwhile the
Poles recovered and began a steady reccnquest of the last
provinces. At last Moscow made up its mind. The Tzar
consented to accept the sovereignty of the Ukraine, and the
agreement of union between the two countries was solemnly
made in 1654. Under the terms of this agreement, known
ks the Treaty of Pereyaslav, the Ukraine was to enjoy full
independence with the right to enter into foreign relations
and to elect her own Hetman or the head of the State.

The union with the Ukraine involved Russia in a long and
unsuccessful war with Poland. In 1668 this war was ended
by the Treaty of Androusov, according to which the
Ukrainian territory situated beyond the right bLnk of the
Dnieper, except the city of Kiev, was to remain in Polish
hands.

Thus the Ukraine was divided into two parts, each being
too small to defend its independence against its sovereign
State. The best elements of the Ukra nian people strcve
therefore to unite these two parts under ( ne Hetman v^ith
a view to get rid of Russia and Polrr.d, and for that purpose
they sought the help of a different foreign power. To them

174 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

they offered in turn as an inducement a sovereignty over
the Ukraine which they hoped to be only nominal. For
more than half a century the Ukrainian territory was the
scene of great disturbances and political intrigues. Owing,
however, to lack of unity among the population, divided
into many groups with different, often hostile, political and
economic interests, all their efforts failed to achieve the de-
sired objects. The leaders themselves are much to be blamed
for this failure as they almost invariably sacrificed the
common cause to their personal ambitions. The rivalry of
the Ukrainian leaders and their never-ceasing conspiracies
and treacheries created a convenient ground for interference
by the Government of Moscow in the internal affairs of
Ukraine. The population, tired of endless foreign and civil
wars, desired nothing but peace, which the coming powtr
of Moscow assured them, more than any other neighbouring
country, and took little interest in policies. Moreover the
Ukrainian leading families showed a strong tendency
towards the formation of a new class of landed gentry wilb
the same old Polish ideas that the peasant was a serf. This
unfortunate tendency alienated from them the sympathies
of the Ukrainian people who in consequence weakened in
their support against Moscow which at one time pursued
in the Ukraine a somewhat democratic policy. After the
betrayal of Hetman Maze pa, wlio joined with a small force
of Cossacks the Swedes in their war against Russia, Peter
the Great put the pdministraticn of the Ukraine under
Russian control, left the ofiice of the Heiman for a consicier-
able time vacant, and afterwards himself nominated a Het-
man instead of allowing the Rada to elect him. Katherine
the Great completed the work of her predecessor ; she
aboHshed the office of the Hetman and destroyed the Siech,
this stronghold of Cossackdom. The Cossack-knights
partly emigrated into Turkey where they established a new
$iech under the sovereignty of the Sultan, partly settled in
Caucasus, where they occupied the provnce of Kuban.
There was no organized force left then in the Ukraine to
defend either her political independence or the liberties of
the people. Katherine the Great therefore had no difficulty
in amalgamatmg the Ukraine with the rest of her Empire;
She divided both Eastern and Western Ukraine (the latter
she acquired from Poland after the partition of that country)
into provinces, and they became to all intents and purposes
part of Russia. She generously rewarded her favovurites

RASTORGOUEFF. THE UKRAINE 175

with large estates in the Ukraine, ennobled ^the Ukrainian
elders and high officials, and introduced in the Ukraine
strfdom as it tjcisted in the rest of the Empire.

Thus the Treaty of Pereyaslav came to an end. Nothing
remained of all those "liberties and privileges" of the
Ukraine which the Russian Tsars pledged themselves to
respect. Since that time, during the whole nineteenth
c ntury 3nd the beginning of the tw^entieth the Ukraine
was subjected to a very violent Russification.

Before deahng, however, with this subject I should like
to point out to you those national characteristics which the
Ukrainians acquired as a result of the circurr stances of their
ec.rly history and which distinguish them as a nation from
ihe Russians. As we have seen, the Ukrainicns were mostly
sciihrs who Hcd from oppression ?nd who in d( ftndtBg their
S'Atkments originally had to rely en themselves. Hence
they display energy and initiative, and are prtceming.ntly
indivielualisis, whereas the Russians are ccmmvinists.

Ti c Ukrainians appreciate freedom both in their private
pnd sccial hfe. They prefer individual system of land-
hole-ing to that of communal which prevails in Russia, and
they Qo not live in large families like the Russians do.

When a Ukrciniin peasant marries he lei.ves his family
and star's a home of his own, unlike a Russian who in similar
circumstances remains in his family. It is not unusual to
meet in Russia fcmilj^s consisting of twenty and more
members who hve together under tn autceralic rule of the
head of the family.

Again, in their poliiical hfe the Ukri-iniirs have always
shown an inclinciion to a republican (oim ef government,
while the Russi?ns dev^eloped a very slreng autocracy.

The struggle for independence which lie Ukrainian
people carrieei on for centuries consciously iv.d deliberately
dev( loped in them a stre ng feeling of naticu'li^m.

Notwithstanding the ruthless oppression of the Russian
Government this feeling was always alive in the Ukraine
and manifested itself on many occasiens, but the Govern-
ment igncTtd it or regarded it e nly as ihe result of foreign
intrigues and continued its policy of Russification. Tb(D
Poles, in their endeavour to destroy the Ukrainian naticn-
ahty, forced the Ukrainians into Roman Catholicism, hopirg
that all the rest wculd in course of time ccme by itself, and
to some extent they succeeded.

Among the present Polish aristccracy there are a

176 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

great many distinguished families whose ancestors were
Ukrainians.

The Russians, being of the same rcHgion ?s the
Ukrainians, had to find other means of " unificfition,"
and they laid the whole stress on the suppression 6f the
Ukrainian language and consequently Ukrainian literature.

The Russian language became an official language and
was accordingly used in public offices and in schools. The
Ukrainians always showed a very keen interest in education.
Notwithstanding perpetual civil and foreign war in which
the Ukraine was engaged, education there was steadily
growing. Kiev was proud of its Academy, there were
several colleges in other Ukrainian towns and a number of
primary schools.

In the nineteenth century, however, primary educalicn
in the Ukraine showed a marked decline partly because the
Russian Government generally discouraged education among
the lower classes of Russia, partly because education was
conducted in a language which wf.s not well unders;ood by
the pupils. In the short time which a Ukrainien peasant
is able to spend in school he cannot become a master of the
Russian language.

He cannot read intelligently Russian books ; Ukrainian
books are forbidden, and consequently he remains an illiter-
ate man.

It is true that education came to Russia through the
Ukrainians. Even before the union Moscovite invited
learned Ukrainians to estabKsh schools in Moscovia . Af te r
the union the number of the Ukrainian teachers greatly
increased.

As early as the seventeenth century the Ukrainians
possessed a good literature, though books were writ an in
an artificial language, a mixture of the old Slave nic ind the
Ukrainian.

But the purely Ukrainian literature appeared only in the
beginning of the nineteenth cemury.

It greatly developed in the middle of that century, and
pfoduced such great men as Shevchenko fiid Gogol. The
liiter, however, though a Ukrainian, wrote in Russian.
.Seeing that ctnsorship, arbiirt-ry i^.s h was, could not s.tp
the development of the Ukn.inian Ii\err/iure, the Russit n
Government issued in 1876 a decne by wl icl all wri irgs
In the Ukraini; n k.ngui ge were fe rbice n. But r:o cppres-
sion can kill the spirit cf a nalie n if i\ is sin ng ivA vigorous.

RASTORGOUEFF. THE UKRAINE 177

'' After a brief interval the national feeling of the people
found another outlet. They started the Ukrainian theatre.
They could not write in their knguage, but still they were
not forbidden to speak it, and they spoke from the stage.

The theatre was a great success. It produced a number
of clever actors who soon acquired fame, not only in the
Ukraine but also in Russia. The prohibition lasted about
t(n years, after which it was relaxed. The Revolution of
1905 abolished the c nsorship, and Ukrainian literature
again revived, and the Ukrainian Press came into exist-
ence.

After the conquest of Qjlicia, however, the Russian
Government suppressed all Ukrainian papers c nd closed all
Ukrainian schools, libraries i nd educaticnal societies.

Together with the suppression ni the language there were
numerous prosecutions of Ukrainian patriots.

These patriots desired nothing more than the restoration
in its spirit of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, i.e. they wanted to
see she Ukraine as an autonomous country united or
federated to Russia. They looked enviously upon their
brothers in Galicia who under the Austrien ccnstitutional
regime succeeded in securing the pcssibilities of further
n&iibnal development.

The Ukrainian language was recognizeel there as an
official language. There were numerous Ukrainian schools,
an Ukrainian Press, etc. The Ukrainian autonomists saw
clearly that the main obstacle in the way of Ukrainian Home
Rule of the most moderate nature was the autocratic regime
of Russia, and consequently they gave their support to con-
stiluJonal movements in Russia, working with ihe Russian
constitutionalists.

Extremists who demanded the separation of the Ukraine
from Russia with the view of making the Ukraine an in-
dependent country, or of uniting her wiih Austria, were
very few in number and very weak in influence.

The Revolution of 1905 proved to be abortive. It did
not bring any substantial change in the Russian re gime.
Though Russia in form became a constitutional country,
in substance she remained as autocratic as before. The
Ukrainian question was still waiting for solution. The
abominable policy of the Russian Government in conquered
Galicia made a great impression in the Ukraine. It strength-
ened the. influence of the S.paratisis and prepared a good
ground for pro-Austrian propaganda.

178 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

When the Revolution of 1917 broke out the Provisional
Government was slow to define their policy towards the
Ukraine clearly. The Ukrainians grew impatient. Mean-
while in the Russian Empire the political situation was
changing rapidly from day to dc.y, the ideas of the extremists
gaining more and more the upper hand. The Ukraine ex-
perienced the same process. In a short time Home Rulers
were superseded by Federalists and afterwards by Separa-
tists.

■ I want lastly to sa y only a ft w words & bout the unfortunfc tc
separate peace between the Ukraine zrA tie Quadruple
Alliance.

When the Rada was elected ihere was no question of peace
at all. It was clearly elecued as a local Diet en the pre-
sumption that the Ukraine would remain united with Russia
as a partner in the Great Federation of independent Repub-
lics which cnce formed the Russi?n Empire, and therefore
it had no mandate to conclude a separate peace.

The accession of the Bolsheviks to power changed the
. whole situation. The Rada regarded Bolshevism as anarchy
and feared that the Bolshevik's War-cry, " Down with
bourgeoisie," may bring back to life in the Ukraine old
passions, old hatred against the Poles and the Jtws, 'and
the country would witness once more a massacre similar
to those which took place in the seventeenlh and eighteenth
centuries.

* Again, Bolshevism meant a peace with Germany, for the
Bolsheviks were generally regarded as German agents, and
consequently as ireitors. The Rada therefore began to
fight the Bolsheviks and simuhcneously to reorganize tl e
Ukrainian front, demoralized as it was by the Bolshevik
propaganda, hoping that the Bolshevik Government in
Russia would be overthrown and Russia would remain in
the ranks of the Allies. In so doing the Rada doubtless had
the full support of the bulk of the Ukrainian populatien.

Wlu n peace negotiations between the Germans and tie
Bolshevjks actually commenced the positien of the Rada
became a difficult one. It must be rem^ mbered that the Bol-
sheviks did not recognize the Rada as a body represcntini,
the Ukraine, and brought with them to the peace conference
their own Ukrainian delegates to represent Ukrainian Bel-'
sheviks. T'lC Rada itself elected xo move a separate peace
with ihe Germans apart from the Bolshe\iks. The wisdom
of tiis decisicn is questionable, especially in view of the •

RASTORGOUEFF; THE UKRAINE 179

present situation when there is a possibility that the Bol-
sheviks will reopen hostilities against Germany.

Although it is dangerous to prophesy, I think that this
peace will come to nothing because the Rada had Jio
authority to make it, and the Ukrainian people are not
likely to accept it.

M. Oxou (the Russian Consul-General) . I admired very
much the concluding part of Mr. Rastorgoueff's speech ; it
was very interesting, and I regretted only that the end
came too soon ; there was not time for the unfolding of his
very interesting ideas. But at the beginning of his address
I felt somewhat apprehensive. WTien I came here I wished
to know what was the Ukraine. Mr. Rastorgoueif told us
it was a land watered by such-and'Such rivers ; that it
was fertile, that it produced fine harvests. But this ques-
tion arises, What are the Ukrainians ? Are they Russians
or are they Ukrainians ? Although I am a Russian, and
although Tam not a child, the answer is not quite clear
to me. Upon the answer to this question hangs very
important issues. For instance, Russia, or Great Russia,
is hungry ; Germany also is hungry ; Austria too is
hungry. There is food in the Ukraine. Where must it
be sent ? To hungry Russia ? Or to hungry Germany
r'.nd Austria ? If the Ukrainians are Russian they have no
right to give their bread to the Germans. But if the
Ukrainians are simply Ukrainians then it might be said
that they hav€ th.e right to send their bread to those who
will give them the most money. So the question remains —
Are the Ukrainians Russians or are they not Russians ?
.\nd I did not observe that Mr. Rastorgoueff gave an answer
to that question.

When he came to the history of Poland in connection
with his subject my nervousness became less acute, because
he referred to the dividing line between the Poles who were
Roman Catholics and the Russians and Ukrainians belong-
ing to the Russian or Greek Church. Tht n I began to under-
stand who were the Ukrainians ; they are Russians, because
they belong to the Russie.n Church. He was speaking not

iSo U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

about the Russians proper but about the Ukrainians, so I
came to the conclusion that the Ukrainians were Russians
after all. Well, I am glad to hear it.

In this connection it must be remembered that included
in all nations are people of different races and different
language. Included in England are the Scotch and the
Jkish, together the country is called Great Britain ; in one
sense the people are all English, though strictly speaking
some are Scotch and some are Irish.

So with France. France has four languages.

(i) There are the Bretons ; they speak a language the
French do not understand and which has much in common
with the Welsh.

(2) Alsace. The people of Alsace learn to speak German.

(3) In the part of France bordering on the low countries
they speak Flemish.

(4) The people of the South speak Spanish.

And the Proven9al language is quite separate. The lan-
guage of Provence differs more from the French than does
the language of the Ukraine differ from the Russian.

Therefore I will end by saying that though at the begin-
ning of this lecture I felt somewhat apprehensive as to the
lines along which he proposed to develop his theme, I came
to the conclusion at the end that the Ukrainians and the
Russians are really the same.

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. After all that has been said
and done, what does the word Ukraine mean ? The word
Kraine means border, and U is near the border or at the
border. The people living at the border are called Ukrainians.
And we have very similar borderers in this country. I
believe there are several Scotch gentlemen in tliis room who
would be able to bear me out in saying that the Borderers
do not consider themselves English, and they do not con-
sider themselves Scotch very often.

Sir Robert Perks. We are greatly indebted to the
Lecturer to-night for what he has told us, and especially
about the early history of the Ukraine. We would have
been glad if he had had more time at his disposal to develop

RASTORGOUEFF. THE UKRAINE i8i

the latter part of what he said, the httle he said having
interested us very much. We thank him very sincerely.

There is no doubt a great deal in the heredity of a race ;
and if the Ukrainians possess the same qualities as their
forefathers I have no doubt that they will give the Germs.rvs
some considerable trouble.

With reference to the Cossacks, they are simply, we learn
from the Lecturer, a robber race : whether they are a robber
race now I dojiot know. At all events they were strongly
in favour of some modem Bolshevist doctrines, popular
with a very small section of our own countrymen, namely,
the confiscation of wealth. However, we hope these theories
will not spread into our own more sober country.

We thank you very much. Sir, for what you have said,
and we hope on some "future occasion to have the oppor-
tunity of learning more about the Ukraine when the situa-
tion is further developed, and when we can see more clearly
what is going to happen inT;hat, may I call it, new Republic.

The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation.

Mr. Rastorgoueff, in responding, said he felt he had
not done his subject- justice, that he feared he had dwelt
at too great length, considering the time at his disposal,
upon the historical part. But as a matter of fact he was
not in good spirits, possibly due to two sleepless nights in
consequence of air raids.

With a vote of thanks to Sir Robert Perks for presiding
the proceedings ended.

THE CAUCASUS : ITS PEOPLE, HISTORY,
ECONOMICS AND PRESENT POSITION

BY MR. D. GHAMBASHIDZE
(The Rt. Hon. Lord Carkock, P.C, G.C.B., m the Chair)

Monday^ \%th March, 191 8

Lord Carnock in inlroducrng the Lecturer said : Mr. D.
Ghambashid^e is not unknown, for he has already given a
good many lectures in the provinces ; and, being a native
of the Caucasus, he is able to speak with exceptional know-
ledge on the subject he intends to treat. I am sure we shall
listen with interest, and I have no doubt with considerable
profit, to the lecture which he will now deliver.

Mr. D. Ghambashidze proceeded to read his paper.

I. Geographical Description

The Caucasus is situated between 38° — 30-47° — 30°
Northern and 54-68° Eastern length, and is bounded on
the north by the Don Cossack district and the Government
of Astrakhan ; on the south by Eastern Turkey and Persia ;
on the east by the Caspian Sea,aijid on the west by the
Black Sea.

It is divided by the chain of the Caucasian Mountains
into the North Caucasus and trans-Caucasia. Caucasia un-
doubtedly constitutes the integral part of Western Asia,"
and is included in European Russia only for administrative
reasons.

The total area of the Caucasus is 272,000 square miles.
The Caucasian Mountain chain stretches from the Black
Sea to the Caspian Sea, and is about 1000 miles in length.

The central chain from the mountain of Elbrus to Kazbek
is about 200 kilometres long and in some places about 5000
metres high, and in that part about 20 heights are much
i8a

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 183

higher than the Swiss Mont Blanc. The highest of these
are f Elbrus, 5593 metres, fnd Kazbek, 5043 metres. The
chain is intersected by four passes, the biggest among them
being the Gorgian Mili.ary Road between Tifiis and Vladi-
kavkas.

Among the rivers the most prominent are ; Kuban,
700 kilon^etres long ; Ingur ?nd Rion, 320 kilometres ;
Terek, 450 kilcmetrts ; Kura, iioo kilometres.

n. Climate

The climate of the Caucasus is very complicated, thajiks
to the vertical intersection of its surface and the unequal
fall of rain. For instance, in Sochi the rainfall is 3000 n.n |
and at Baku 241 mm., besides the periodical change of the
wind at various times of the year.

In the westeiTi part of the Caucasus the chmate is sub-
tropical, in the eastern part dry, owing to the influence of
the winds from the trans-Caspian district.

IIL Vegetation and Animats

Under the protection of the Caucasian Mountains and
plenty of moisture there is very rich vegetation, and at a
height of 4000 feet there are whole forests of oaks, beeches,
chestnuts, boxwood, etc.

In trans-Caucasia the vegetatien is of the same character
as in Asia Minor and along the shores of the Mediterranean.

At a height ol 3000 feet there are huge foresis of pine
and of various decorative plants. The utmost limit for
growing cultivated plants is 5000 feet md for cereals
7600 feet.

Along the Black Sea shore and round Batoum are grown
oranges, lemons, bamboos, cork trees, etc. At a height of
9400 feet there are wonderful rhododendrons and Alpine
grass is met even at a height of 11,500 feet.

Among the animals, bears are prevalent, and near Len-
koran on the Caspian Sea there are even panthers and
tigers. In the high mountains there are still to be met
bison, wdld goats, hogs, foxes, reindeer, antelojxs, etc.

Along the River Rion in the western part of Georgia there
is an abundance of pheasants. Altcgetlitr there are 400
varieties of birds.

i84 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

IV. Population

The total population of Caucas.us is about 12,000,000,
divided into :

I: Russians — 2,400,000, chiefly Cossacks, in the north of
Caucasus. In tr?ns-Caucasia the Russian population does
not exceed 280,000, including the army. Total, 2,680,000.

2. Caucasian Mountaineers —

(a) Circrssi. ns — 200,000.

(b) Lesgians and Chechens — 680,000.

3. Georgians— about 3,000,000, including 200,000 Mo-
hnrimidans living in the districts of Batoum, Kars and
Aid' ham, including 300,000 Lazes living in the district of
Ti\bzond.

4. Armenians— 490,000 living in the districts of Erivan,
El'Sc wtpol, Baku, Kars and Tiflis.

5. Tartars and Persians — 2,300,000.

6. Germans — in the north of Caucasus 42,000, in trans-
Caucasia 18,000. Total, 60,000.

7. Greeks — 60,000.

8. Jews— in the north of Caucasus 64,000.

Ti e variety of races inhabiting the Caucasus can be
explained by the geographical position of the Caucasus as
a bridge between Asia and Europe over which many people
have wandered through. The historical transformations in
Western Asia have always directly affected the develop-
ment of the Caucasus.

V. History of the Caucasus

From times immemorial, beginning from Alexander the
Great, many peoples have tried to conquer the Caucasus.
Big towns existed in that quarter long before Athens and
Rome were in existence. Greeks, Persians, Turks, Skethians,
Huns, etc., tried to obtain a foothold in that country.

From among the many races in the Caucasus only Georgia
existed as an itidependent and powerful kingdom up to the

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 185

end of the eighteenth century. Georgia, or Iberian State,
existed long before the Christian era.

The country received its first lessons in civilization from
the Greeks.

In the third century B.C., Alexander the Great conquered
Iberia and established administration ; but a national hero
— Pharnaz — organized a revolt, expelled the Macedonian
Governor, and founded the Georgian dynasty.

During his reign Georgia was converted to Christianity
by St. Nina. The Greek Emperor sent the bishop and priests
to Georgia, and the King and the people were baptized in
the year 332. King Vakhtang Gorgoslan (446-499) com-
pleted ihe conversion of Georgia, expelled the fire wor-
si'ippers, and Georgia became a considerable power in the
Mid.Gle East.

In the year 458 the first Georgian Bishopric was founded
' Mtzkhet, and in 542 the Emperor Justinian recognized
ii^e indeptndtnce of ihe Georgian Church, whose Primate
wi*s Styled Katholicos-Patriarch.

In ihe seventh century Georgia was invaded by the Arabs,
and the ancient kingdom was split up into several princi-
pi* lilies — Kakhexia, Imaratia, Mingrelia and Abkhazia — so
that the Arabs only ruled the country around Tiflis.

Under David III (1080) the country was again reunited,
the Mohammedans expelled, and the greater Georgian
kingdom, extending from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea
and from the mountains to Kars, was constituted. He
reurganized the country, built churches and schools, and
mrde Georgia, a centre of culture and civilization.

The celebrated Queen Thamar reigned from 1 184-12 12.
and her great achievements made the country famous. She
successfully waged a war against the Turks and the Greeks,
-nd helped to form the empire of Trebizond.

The period of her reign is considered the golden period
in rhe history of Georgia ; but soon after her death the
Mongol hordes under Genghis- Khan invaded the country,
and from 1236-1393 it was subject to constant invasions on
the part of the Mongols, Tartars, Turks and Persians.

The position of Georgia, being an isolated Christian king-
dom in the E<LSt, after long centuries of subjugation of the
Armenian kingdom, was very critical. She was surrounded
by enemies like Turks and Persians, and she naturally began
to look towards the north, especially to the Moscovite
country, where she expected to find sympathy and relief

i86 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

on account of common faith. Also Queen Thamar accepted
as her husband the son of the Moscovite, Prince Andrew
Bogolubsky.

Soon, however, the Tartar invasion of Russia stopped ell
connections between Russia and Georgia. Georgia opened
up very close relationship with, the Byzantium, and only
when Constantinople wac taken by the Turks in 1453
was Georgia obliged to look up towards Moscow — after the
suppression of the Tartar rule over Moscow. Moscow rulers
began to pay attention to the Caucasus. Already in 1555
John the Terrible settled down along the River Terek.
Some Cossacks in 1567 formed a military district, and the
^on of John the Terrible, Theodore, opened diplomatic
relationship with the Georgian King Alexander II. But
this;was also interrupted as there were no proper communi-
cations between Georgia and Russia.

From 1602-1607 Persia tried to prevent any alliance
between Georgia and Russia. They took from Georgia
about 15,000 prisoners and made a colony of them in Peisia
near the town of Chiraz.

In 1619 the Georgian King Theymouraz approached the
Russian Tsar Michael Theodoravilch with a view of organiz-
ing a combined expedition against Persia. But the proposal
was not executed, the infuriated Shah, of Persia again in-
vading Georgia. Moscow was not able to help Georgia, the
more so as at that time Russia was at war with Poland and
Sweden.

King Theymouraz's brother Archil started for Moscow
via Astrakhan where he met his son Alexander who had
just returned from France, to which country he was sent
by Peter the Great to study artillery technics. From
Astrakhan father and son travelled to Moscow, where they
were received in a very friendly manner by Peter the
Great.

Alexander took part in the war of Russia against Sweden,
and was taken prisoner by the Swedes, and was kept for a
few years in the fortress of Stockholm. After his release
he went back to Moscow and in 1710 died and was buried
in the Donskoy monastery. In 1712 his father Archil also
died and was buried in the same monastery with^ great
honours.

' The next King of Georgia was Vakhtang VI, a very
learned ruler, and founder of the first Georgian printing
office in Tiflis in the year 1712, He was the editor of the

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 187

ancient Georgian annals and the author of the code of law
of Georgia.

Peter the Great was very anxious to extend his influence
round the Caspian Sea and to penetrate into Persia and for
•that purpo e he concluded an alliance with Vakhtang VI
and in 1721 built saihng ships for transporting troops from
Astrakhan to Persia. About 50,000 Russian troops arrived
in Derbent, occupied Derbent, and in conjunction with the
Georgian troops proceeded to Baku.

Persia did not take up the chalk nge, and ceded to Russia
Derbent, Baku, Gilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad. But
Turkey was very much alarmed and immediately occupied
the Persian provinces of Ta\Tis and Erivan.

With the ascendency to the throne of Katherine I (1725)
relationship with Georgia- was renewed, and Vakhtang VI,
together with a thousand representative Georgians, went
to Moscow, where this colony was of great assistance in
cementing the relationship between Russia and Georgia.
Many notables received vast estates in the Ukraine.

In 1727 King Vakhtang acted as mediator between Persia
and Russia and concluded a very favourable Treaty for
Russia. But in 1734 Persia again invaded her lost provinces
and retook them. King Vakhtang waited in vain for the
arrival of troops from Russia, and, being very much dis-
tressed, died in 1737 in Astrakhan, where he was buried in
the Uspensky monastery.

The Crown Prince Vakushti was at that time in Moscow,
where he organized a very big printing office chiefly for the
publication of ecclesiastical literature.

He was educated by Catholic missionaries in Tiflis, and
was a very good linguist. His book of the Geography oj
Georgia is still recognized by the Academy of Science as the
best reference book on the subject.

During the reign of Queen Anne, according to the Treaty
of 1739 at Belgrad between Russia and Turkey, the north-
western portion of the Cav^casus was entirely abandoned to
Turkey.

In 1747 the Georgian army defeated the Persians and
annexed the provinces of Erivan and Gonja, making them
tributaries to the State.

In 1754 Persia again invaded Georgia and was again
defeated.

With the ascendency of Katherine II to the throne of
Russia relationship with Georgia was again renewed.

i88 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

At that time King Heraclius II reigned in Georgia, whose
' intellectual capacity and hghting power was so great that
Frederick the Great of Russia sent a military mission to
make enquiry about the special methods of warfare.

Katherine the Great in her letters to Voltaire praised
him very much for his stubborn fighting with the Turks
and Persians in defence of Christianity.

In 1768 Russia declared war on Turkey and concluded vn
agreement with King Heraclius II for joint action, and sent
an expeditionary force to assist the Georgians, commanded
by Generals Goilieb, Kurt, Heinrich, Graff von Totleben.

In 1769 the Russian Expedition arrived on the frontiers
af Georgia and, after receiving formal permission to pass the
territory, joined the Georgian army.

On 17th March, 1770, the joint forces attacked the for-
tress of Akhaltsykh, but Totleben suddenly turned back and
abandoned Heraclius. A very stubborn battle was fought
against the superior forces of the Turks, and the Turks were
heavily defeated. But they, recovered and, together with
Persia, began to press Georgia very heavily, and therefore
it was decided to enter into formal alliance with Russia,
for which purpose a special delegation was sent to Russia.
The policy adopted against Turkey at that time did not
permit of the conclusion of the Treaty.

Meanwhile Katherine began very energetic work in con-
structing fortress lines north of Caucasus.

In 1783 Crimea was annexed and the Crimean Khan
Shogin-Girey was defeated by General Suvoroff.

This success alarmed Turkey and Persia very much and
they again began to invade Georgia.

As no help came from Russia King Heraclius despatched
a special delegation to the Austrian Emperor Joseph II ;
mediation was offered by the Catholic Missionaries Domi-
nique and Marvros asking for an alliance for combined action
against Turkey. This offer was very favourably received,
but Katherine II hurried to prevent such an alliance and
sent a special delegation to Georgia headed by Count
Potemkin. This delegation was met by the Georgian envoys
Prince Bagration and Chavchavadze at the fortress of
Giorgevsk, and the Treaty of July 24th, 1783, was con-
cluded.

On 27th January, 1784, Russian troops arrived in Tifiis ;
but this alliance infuriated Turkey and Persia and they
invaded Georgia in 1785.

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 189

At this time the second war in Turkey was declared by
Russia, and on 14th October, 1788, the Turkish fortress of
Anapa was attacked and captured, and, according to the
Treaty of 1791 at Jassy, was returned to Turkey.

Emigration of Ukrainian Cossacks was again undertaken
and the town of Ekaterinodar was founded in 1793.

Meanwhile Persia invaded Georgia in 1795 with 80,000
men, and as there was no help forthcoming from Russia
Iter a stubborn fight they defeated the Georgians and
)ccupied Tiflis. But in 1796 a Relief Expedition arrived
from Russia, commanded by the Georgian G neral, Prince
isitsianolf. This Expedition cleared the Persians out of
all provinces of Eastern Caucasia and pursued them up to
Tavris. But the Relief Expedition again returned to Russia,
and Georgia was left alone. Thanks to the urgent requests
of the Russian Ambassador Burnakso, however, in Tiflis a
new expeditionary corps was sent.

On i8th January, 1801, Russia violated her Treaty with
Georgia, annexed that country, and transferred it into a
simple Russian province. The Russian troops were com-
manded by General von Knoring. The behaviour of
Knoring was atrocious.

The expectations of Georgia were cruelly disappointed,
and the Russian troops were despatched to the western
part of Georgia which was ruled by King Solomon II.

The King, being very much offended, left the country
and went to Trebizond, where he died in 1815, and was
buried in the Greek cathedral there.

In 1827 another war with Persia broke out, and tlie
Russian troops, commanded by the Georgian Genera), Prince-
Eristov, occupied Erivan and Tavris. According to the
Treaty of Turkmenchai, 9th February, 1818, Persia lost the
province of Erivan, had to pay twenty million tomans as
compensation, and had to abandon the right of maintaining
the fleet on the Caspian Sea.

The celebrated Russian writer A. S. Griboedcff took a
prominent part in concluding this Treaty, and was appointed
Russian Ambassador in Teheran, where he was killed en
30th January, 1829. His remains were transferred to Tiflis
and buried in the Georgian mcnasiery of St; David.

After the conclusion of the Persian War the Russian
administration in Georgia beg^n to withdraw all the privi-
leges granted to the Georgia.n nation, and Count Paskevich
acted with such harshness tl at the iicbili\y and the pv;cple

190 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

revolted and the Provisional Government of Georgia was
proclaimed. The revolt was, however, broken down, and
the Emperor Nicholas II, when reading the report, and in
recognition of the valuable services of the Georgian nobility^
abstained from very severe punishment, but made the
following order :

" I know the Georgians are hot-tempered people, and in
order to reduce their temper it will be well to invite them
to the northern cold climate of Russia where they may
simmer down." As a result of this order 34 Georgian
generals and officers were deported to the North of Russia,
where they received every consideration due to their rank.
In 1829 war with Turkey broke out, the fortresses of Kars
and Akhaltsykh were taken, and, according to the Treaty
of Adrianople, Turkey was obliged to evacuate the Black
Sea shores from Anapa to Poti.

At this stage a new religious movement began amongst
the mountaineers under the name of Micridism, which
preaching originated from Asia Minor, It assumed a
political character, and was directed against the Christian
•Russians and Georgians, and the harsh rule introduced
among the mountaineers very much facilitated the spread
of Ibis new movement.

The leader of this movement was the celebrated Shamil.
This genius of mountaineers baffled the world with his
resisting powers. The fight began immediately after the
termination of the war with Turkey f.nd ccniinued iill 1836.
All the mountaineers of Eastern Caucasus were on his
side.

At that time Count Voronisoff was appointed Commander-
in-Chief of the troops operaling against the mountaineers.
He arrived in Tiflis and inaugurated a very friendly policj*
towards the Georgians, taking into consideration the very
important military assistance which the Georgians could
give against the mountaineers.

Count Vorontsoff made improvements in the Civil Service
of the Caucasus and made special recommendations to the
Emperor Nicholas I, to whom he wrote in the following
manner :

" Every reform and measure introduced in Georgia miist
be carefully weighed up, as this nation, which has voluntarily
entered into alliance wiih Russia, and whose' services in
defence of Christianity are immense and on wh<6se loyalty
we can absolutely rely, deserves every consideration.

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 191

Harsh measures would not prevail and would produce very
tragic results."

The aciiviiies of Count Vorontsoff were many*sided, and
lie made many improv^ements which had many beneficial
iffeccs.

During the reign of Alexander II the Crimean War broke
ait. It ended with very disastrous r^esults for Russia.

Ax the same time a movement began amcng the Circas-
sians who were very much pressed to the mountains by the
Cossrcks, On 13th June, 1861, they formed a Union anct
elected Council re presenting fifteen Eldermen. They divided
their country into iweJve districts End appealed for help to
Turkt y end Engknd through the British Ccnsul, Mr.
Dicks. n, cc Soukhum. The Circassians were pressed Jrom
tie rorth c nd from the south. From ihe south there were
six Georgian regiments operating against them. At that
time Aux?rder II arrived on the spot and gave the com-
mand of the armies operating egainst the Circassians to the
Cirorgic-a Gtmral Orbelliani. Prince Bariaiinski went to
Russia and G>.neral Orbelliani was appomted as viceroy.

In 1864 the Circassians were finally defeated and pressed
towards the seashore. They were given the choice either
to submit or tO emigrate \.o Turkey. Only 90,000 ccnsented
to remain, mostly old pee pie — 418,000 emigrated to Turkey.
In this way the war wi.h the mountaineers, which lasted
forcy years, terminated.

In 1864 the autonomy of Gviorgian province Abkhazia
was ybolished and the Georgian General Djtmardjidze was
appointed Governor-General of Dagestan. In the same
year s. rfdom was ebolishtd in the Caucasus.

On 4:h January, 1867, the autonomy of the Georgian
pro\'ince of-Mingrelia was abolished.

In 1877 the Russo-Turkish war began. The Georgina
! gimeiits under the command of General Amiradjebi took
the fortress of Ardahcn. On 6th November the fortress of
Kars was taken ; the Russian troops were standing at the
gates of Constc nlinople and the Treaty of St. Stephano
was .signed. Subsequently at the Berlin Ccngress this
Treaty was abrogated and Russia was forced to return
Bzerum to Turkey, but received pern.issien to annex Kars,
Ardahan and Batoum districts, and by Article 59 was
obligeil to maintain Batoum as a free port.

The Congress of Paris on i8th March, 1856, deprived
Russia of the right of interference in Turkish i ftaiis and of

192 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

the exclusive right of protecting the Christian inhabitants
of Turkey. The Black Sea was neutrahzed, the number of
battleships reduced, and, what is more, was forced to cede
to Turkey the districts of Kars and Bayazid, also the
southern part of Bessarabia.

During the Crimean War the mountaineers took advan-
tage to continue their attacks, but this time they were siip-
ported by the adversaries of Russia, which prolonged the
struggle. [

' Alexander II appointed Prince Baryatinski as the first
Viceroy of the Caucasus and as his assistants the Georgian
Generals, Princes Orbelliani and Melikichvili, who started
various attacks oil the strongholds of Shamil. On 25th
August, 1859, Shamil was defeated and taken prisener, but
his family were deported to Russia and his sons were gi^ <.n
education at the Military Academy in Petrograd.

The annexed provinces were very rich, and were chit fly
composed of the Georgian Mohammedans, of whc^m ioo,eoo
emigrated to Turkey in 1880.

The Emperor Alexander III abolished viceroyalty in
Caucasus arid appointed a Governor-General for the G.u-
casus. In 1886 the free port of Be.toum was also abolisbid.

The military operatic^s in Caucasus made nearly the
entire population a community of warriors, rnd up to 1874
the Georgian national army remained intact and vtry mi:ch
strengthened. But in 1887 conscription was introduced
which Only apphcd to the Christian population but relieve d
the Mohammedans of military duty.

In 1900 Prince Golitsin introduced a law forcing the
Georgians to do their military service in the remotest parts
of the Russian empire.

On 26th Stptember, 1901, the jubilee of a hundred years'
alliance between the kingdom of Georgia and Russia was
celebrated in Tiflis, for which purpose the Grand Duke
Michael Nicholiavitch arrived in Tiflis and read the foUow-
irg ma-nifesio of the Emperor Nicholas II.

" On this glorious day of union of the Georgian kingdom
with Russia I am filled with the greatest joy in remembering
this glorious page of our history.

" A hundred years ago the Georgian King Heraclius II
voluntarily placed bis kingdom under our protection, uniting
it with our empire with indissoluble ties.

"From the v. ry beginning the Georgian people and
nobili'.y have displayed the greatest loyalty and, with thtir

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 193

bravery, have been instrumttital in helping us to fight their
historical and traditional enemies the Turks.

" In recogtlition of their valuable services I beg to express
herewith my Imperial thanks to the Georgian nation and
the promise of my special attention and care to this
brave nation which is united with us by common ties of
religion."

It was tragic that after violating the Russo-Georgian
Treaty of 1783 and depriving the Georgian nation of its
rightful position Tsar Nicholas II could find nothing to say
but a few empty comphments which were in no way taken
as satisfaction of the national aspirations of the Georgians.

It is also worth mentioning that the Romanoff dynasty,
especially throughout the nineteenth century, always pro-
claimed a special desire to act as defender of orthodox
Christian nationalities ; yet on May 26th, 1811, the inde-
psndence of the Georgian Church— which had existed since
542, and had been respected by nearly all the Moham-
medan invaders — was abolished at the instigation of
General Tormasoff. The Katholicos-Patriarch of Georgia,
Antonius II, was invited to Pelrcgrad under the pretext of
conferring with the Holy Synod, and was never allowed to
return to Georgia. The property of the Georgian Church,
to the value of 700,000,000 roubles, was confiscated, and
out of twenty-eight bishoprics only six were allowed to
remain. An Exa.rcl) of Georgia was appointed by the
Russian Holy Synod, and throughout the nixi»eteenth cen-
tury the Georgian Church was reduced to a dependency of
the Russian Holy Synod.

In spite of unjust treatment the Georgian nation made
remarkable progress, especially during t};e second l»alf of
the nineteenth century. Its literature considerably ad-
vanced ; the number of daily papers and weeklies in 1913
was 24, and the number of books published in the same
year on various subjects was about 240 m 460,000 copies.
It must be remembered that 75 per cent e'f the total popu-
lation can read and write, and there are many schools and
libraries. Eighty-five per cent of the total population is
composed of peasants whose chief occupa.tK'n is agriculture
(very intensive) — tobacco, wine, cotton, silk growing Jind
other forms of high agriculture.

The co-operative movement is very streng in Georgia.
There are about 400 co-operative societies, and nearly
70 per cent of the peas?nts are.members.

194 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

During the last eight centuries the nobihty of Georgia
has devoted its attention chiefly to mihtary matters and
the mihtary calling. There were about 5700 officers in the
Russian army, among them very distinguished generals,
like Princes Bagration, Amilakhvari, Tchavachavadze.
Orbelliani, Amiradjebi and others. Prince Imeretlnski
acted as Governor-General of Poland, and through his wise
rule won great respect among the Poles. Incidentally he
was instrumental in obtaining the Emperor's permission
to erect a monument to the great Polish poet Mickevich in
Warsaw. General Kg.zbek acted as commander of the
fortress of Viadivostock, and General Orbelliani was Ccm-
mander-in'-Cbief of the Russian troops stationed in Finknd.

Among the Georgian Bishops the most celebrated was
Bishop Gabriel, wiiose famous serm.cns have been trans-
lated into English by the Rt v. D. Mals.n of Oxford. There
were also a great many Georgian professors at various
Russian universi.ies, among them the celebrated physiolo-
gist Professor Tarkhanoff, the philologist Professor D.
Tchubinoff, and M. Petrieff, the late Dean of Odessa Univer-
sity. Distinguished Georgians, such as Princes Tchava-
chavadze and Eristoff , were members of the Russian House
of Lords. M. Tseretelli, the celebrated Georgian deputy of
the Duma, acted as one of the leaders during the present
Revolution 3.nd Minister of State.

Among the great authorities on Georgia in this count ly
may be mentioned the late Miss Marjorie Wardrop and
Mr. Oliver Wardrop her brother, who together translated
into English the celebrated Georgian poem of the twelfth
century eintitled ** The Man in the Panther's Skin." They
were also instrumental in presenting to the Bodleian Library
at Oxford a great number of Georgian books.

The Armenians, like the Georgians, are an ancient Chris-
tian, civilized race whose independent kingdom was sub-
merged by the Mohammedan invasion many centuries
before the Georgian kingdom's loss of independence. Their
real home is in Turkish territory, only a p)ortion of it being
situated in the extreme south of trans-'Caucasia. So long
as their kingdom remained independent the Georgians
always oflfered hospitality to the Armenian refugees. The
Georgian King Heraclius II especially encouraged their
immigration to Georgian territory. The residence of the
Armenian Katholicos-Patriarch was at Etchmiadzin.

Until the first half of the nineteenth century relations'

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 195

between the Georgians and Armenians were very friendly,
but aiter the war between Russia and Turkey great numbers
of Armenian refugees ponetrated trans-Caucasia and also
settled on Georgian territory, especially in the south, and
quite a considerable number of them devoted their atten-
tion to commerce. On this and the agrarian question there
has been growing animosity between the two nations which
has been sedulously fostered by the extreme Armenian
parties. Whilst the Armenians had no other place of refuge
from Turkey but trans-Caucasia, the Georgian peasants
found their own lands not quite sufficient for them, and
this naturally produced great tension. This was the greater
because for twenty years some of the Armenian political
parties advanced an unjustified claim to the historical terri-
tory of Georgia. The Russian Government treated the
Armenians in quite a friendly way until the end of the
nineteenth century, when Prince Golitsin inaugurated a
very harsh policy against them, forcibly depriving them of
the property of their Church and closing the Armenian
schools. During the viceroyalty of Count Voronstoff
Dashkoff the Russian Government protected the Armenians.

The Tartars, who inhabited the eastern part of trans-
Caucasia throughout the nineteenth century, were of a
somewhat low standard of civilization. In 1906 they began
to publish their first daily paper called Irshad, At present
the number of their dailies and weeklies is about twenty.
Up to 1906 they had practically no published books ; in
1913 the number of bocks published on various subjects
was seventy-three — 126,000 copies.

Baku became a great centre of national wealth of the
Tartars, where they owned a very substantial portion of
the oilfields ; it also became a spiritual centre of pan-
Islamic propaganda. They were in very close touch with
the young Turks of Cctisxantinople, considerably assisted
the revolution in Persia, and played a very prominent part
in the general organizaticn of all Mohammedan races in-
habiting the former Russian empire. As a great many
Armenians in trans-Caucasia are mixed up with the Tartars
very considerable tension has been produced between the
latter and the Armenians. This was cleverly utilized by
Prince Golitsin, and was followed by the Armenian-Tartar
massacres of 1904 and 1905.

In the rehgious sphere the Tartars enjoyed complete im-
munity from the Russian Government, and, what was more,

196 i; R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

up lo the e=nd ol 1916 they were not called up for military
service.

The Russian rule of the Caucasus, and especially of trans-
Caucasia, from I9i3*up to the Revolution was very greatly
influenced by the policy of Count Voronstoff, who tried to
protect one of the nationalities of trans-Caucasia in prefer-
ence to others. But the Revolution of 1905 and the Tartar-
Armenian massacres placed him in such a difficult position
that he had to prese.nt a confidential memorandum to the
Emperor explaining that it was imp(jssible to govern big
provinces situated so far from the centre of the Empire
without some sort of self-government. The result of this
memorandum was that' his powers were considerably in-
creased, and he was in the position of a little Tsar in the
Caucasus. He devoted particular attention to the spread
of Russian influence in the northern part of Persia, where
his experiments produced such deplorable results for the
Persian situation and particularly for the unity of Persia.
He also inaugurated a policy of construction of the Black
Sea Coast Railway and of the electric railway along the
Georgian military road to increase further the centralized
system which has been so fatal for the progress of Russia.
Throughout his rule in the Caucasus he was practically
controlled by the members of the Caucasian General Staff,
from which representatives of the local nationalities were
removed.

The general staff referred to was busier with political
matters than with military, particularly instigating the
Kurds against the Armenians, increasing the number of
police in the Caucasus and, again, removing the local
elements from the administration.

The Revolution of 1905 had a very great effect in trans-
Caucasia, where all the nationalities like the Georgians and
Armenians advanced their claims to self-government. Par-
ticularly vital was the agrarian question on account of the
very unjust policy of . the Russian Government in with-
drawing the Georgian peasaints from the Black Sea shores
and planting there the peasants from the interior of Russia,
and giving the best part of the land to the retired Russian
generals. It was quite obvious that such a policy must
produce animosity as there was not enough land for Georgian
peasants themselves. There was also a strong demand on
behalf of the Georgians, Armenians and Tartars for recog-
nition of their languages. Needless to say the Russian

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 197

Government turned a deaf ear to all these just demands
and further enhanced its policy of oppression. At the out-
break of the . present war all the Ca.ucasian nationalities
resporided to the call, and the suggestion was made to the
Govemmeni by the Georgians end Armertians that their
reserves should be confined to the defence of the Caucasus
from the Turkish side, the more so as the difficult ground
of the mountains required a special knowledge which they
as natives possessed exclusively. But instead of that about
300,000 Georgian reserves were despatched to Poland and
Galicia.

This policy was changed with the appointment of the
Grand Duke Nicholas as the Viceroy of the Caucasus, who
started despatching fresh Georgian 'a.nd Armenian reserves
to the Turkish front. The only result of this was a very
substantial offensive, which was followed by the occupa-
tion of Erzt roum and Trebi^cnd and the greater part of
Turkish Armenia.

Whilst the Grand Duke was actuated by the desire to
meet the claims of the nationalities, so far as it was possible
under autocracy, General Yudenitch began to pursue -a very
aggressive policy against the Armenians and Georgians. As
soon as Turkish Armenia was occupied, thanks to the active
participation of Georgians end Armenians, he issued an
order that in those occupied territories the Armenians and
Georgians should not be allowed to settle, and he intended
to create a Cossack colony in this district. It is difficult to
understand how such a plan coincides with the widely
spread policy of the Allies— protection of small nation-
ahtics !

In connection with the war it must be mentioned that
although the Caucasus possesses deposits and raw material
for producing huge quantities of ammumition the Russian
Government has not permitted the construction of a single
ammunition factory, and the Caucasian front had to rely
upon ammunition being transported from Archangel. There
were many other anomalies during the war traceable to the
same causes as operated in other parts of Russia, thanks to
the autocratic regime. These are knowh to-day through-
out the civihzed world, and we do not need to enumerate
them.

Turning to the economic situation in the Caucasus it must
be mentioned that here again the old Russian Government
has never given a chance to the inhabitants to develop

198 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

properly the almost unlimited natural resources of the
country. The Russian Government, whilst hampering the
economic development of the whole of Russia, has placed
exceptional reslrictio'ns on the economic development of
the Caucasus. But, in spite of these restrictions, there has
been considerable activity for the last twenty years. In
order better to illustrate the situation we give here certain
data :

In 1913 the crops of cereals in the whole of the Caucasus
yielded 204 million bushels. But with the proper applica-
tion of modern methods of agriculture the output could be
increased at least twenty-fold. In the same year 190,000
acres were cultivated as vineyards, and -there were about
2 10, (XK) small vineyard peascut proprietors. Forty million
gallons of wine were produced. The quality of the wine i«^
t^xcellent, and in those cases where moderti chemistry was
applied it was as good as that of the French and Italian
wines.

In the same year there were 19,188 tobacco plantations,
mostly in the western part of the Caucasus, which yielded
about 23,000,000 lbs. of tobacco leaf. The greater part of
this crop was raised from Turkish seed, was of good quality,
and capable of being blended with high-grade Turkish
tobaccos. It is worth noiing that the popular Russian
cigarettes are all manufactured from the Caucasian tobacco.

In the same year in trs^ns-Caucasia 112,000 acres w^ere
used for growing cotton, and 150,000,000 lbs. of ginned
« otton were produced. With the proper organization of
uTigation, especially in the eastern part of trans-Caucasia,
the crops could be increased at least thirty-fold.

Among other branches of agriculture silk production is
the most prominent in trans-Caucasia. This industry has
existed for the last 1300 years, and there are about 3000
villages and 400,000 families engaged in it. In .1913,
14,400 lbs. of grain were cultivated, and about 433,000,000
lbs. of cocoons were produced, which were chiefly exported
to Marseilles and Milan.

Around Batoum, on the Black Sea, there are tea planta-
tions. In 1895 there were only 6 acres. In 1912 there were
1700 acres. In 1895 only 85 lbs. of leaf were obtained ; in
1912 1,106,597 lbs. ; in 1895 20 lbs, of tea were produced ;
in 1912 268,540 lbs. This branch of cultivation is still in
the experimental stage, but there are vast possibilities for
expanding it in the near future.

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 199

Bse-kceping is also one of the ancient occupations in the
Caucasus. In 1912 there were about 26,067 apiaries with
596,924 beehives, and the production amounted to 5,653,302
lbs. of honey and 656,820 lbs. of wax. It is worth noting
that the Russian Holy Synod has not given a chance to the
Geargian Church to develop this minor industry very con-
^.iderably. Had the reverse been the case the Caucasus
could have supplied all the demands of the churches all
over Russia for wax for candles. But considerable quan-
tities of so-called wax {actually cerasinc) have been imported
from abro3,d.

In 1913 the numbers of the domestic animals in the
Caucasus were as follows : horses 1,500,000 ; mules 160,000 ;
cows and oxen 5,500,000 ; buffaloes 638,160 ; sheep
15,000,000 ; goats 767,613 ; camels 16,000 ; pigs 980,000.
Altogether about 20,000,000. The country has vast possi-
bilities for cattle breeding.

In the same year 10,000,000 acres were covered by forests,
.chiefly oak, pine^ birch, etc. There were also fine varieties
of boxwood and walnut. This industry in the Caucasus
has been very feebly developed for the reasons indicated
above. In 1913 there were about 17,700 small workshops,
including also a few large factories which employed about
127,846 workpeople, and produced goods to the value of
about £20,000,000.

Mining is at present very feebly developed, but it could
be made a most important branch of the economic activity
of the Caucasus- The mineral resources of the region are
vast. There is a legend among the people there that when
God Almighty created the world he dropped all the minerals
on the spot where the Caucasus is situated. The unexploited
deposits of copper are practically unlimited. In 1912 there
were 15 copper refineries, out of which only 9 were working.
These produced 9656 tons of copper. In the same year
26,000 tons of silver, lead and zinc were produced ; 900 tons
of iron ; 9000 tons of sulphur ; and 68,000 tons of coal.
Of particular importance is the manganese ore, entirely
procluced in Georgia, of which in 1912 885,000 tons were
exported abroad. Of this Germany had 275,000 tons.
Altogether Germany took for ten pre-war years from 41 per
cent to 47 per cent of the total quantity exported. The
importance of the great oilfields of Baku is well known.
Baku is connected with the Black Sea port of Batoum by the
trans-Caucasian railway and the pipe line. The total length

200 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

of the Caucasian railway is about 3500 miles. The tnink
line from Batoum to Baku goes through Tifiis, and there is
also a direct line from Tifiis leading to Tavriz in Persia.

Present Position

The outbreak of the Revolution of March, 1917, was
cnthusiasticr-.lly greeted by all the peoples of the Caucasus,
who were quite confident that their just outstanding claims
would be at last realized. They watched patiently for a
couple oi months but discovered, to their great disappoint-
m^ n ,- diat these wro were at the head of the Government
in Pctrograd cid not pay much attention to the vital
problems of Russia, preferring to indulge in oceans of
beautiful phraseology.

For the first two months, whilst the Cadets were the actual
leaders of the Provisional Government, the question of
nationalities was not carefully considered. The Cadets
were perfectly honest patriots, but they did not display the
wisdom of the practical politician, and instead of working
for the conversion of Russia into united states — which
would have meant its salvation on account of the mixture
of nationahties in the country — ^they proclaimed a central-
iz d system of government. They appointed a special
c jmmission consisting of four members of the Duma —
Mr. Kharlamov (Russian) (Chairman), Mr. Tchenkeli
(Georgian), Mr. Djaffaroff (Tartar), and Mr. Papajanoff-
(Armenian) — ^to administer the Ca.ucasus in place of the
Viceroy, the Grand Duke Nicholas, who was recalled. This
Commission was given very small powers to deal with local
matters, and had to refer for decisions to Petrograd.

Later on camiC Kerensky's Government, and the question
of nationalities became acute. The following nationahties
advanced their claims for self-government, besides the
Finns and Poles, who claimed complete independence :
the Esthonians, Letts, Ukrainians, Moldavians, Tartars and
Georgians. The Armenians proclaimed that the question
of their future was of an international character and there-
fore they were waiting for the peace conference to settle it.

The demands of the nationalities of the Caucasus for self-
government were met by complete refusal, until they came
to the conclusion that, unless they looked after themselves,
Petrograd was not going to trouble about them. The Geor-
gians, Armenians and Tartars therefore arranged their

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 201

National Assemblies, at which each nationality elected a
supreme National Council. These National Councils tried
very hard to work in harmony with the Soldiers' and Work-
men's Geuncils, but they found it a quite hopeless task. In
a country like Russia, where 85 per cent of the peasants
cannot read or write, it is sheer madness to attempt Social-
istic experiments ; and the Workmen's and Soldiers' Coun-
cils throughout the whole of Russia had on their executive
committees practically every class, with the exception of
workmen and peasants. The climax was reached at the
Moscow C-nference when Prince Kropotkin made a very
passionate appeal to transform Russia into a federated
republic. But this appeal was made in vain — nobody
seemed to care about it.

Meanwhile the nationalities of the Caucasus continued
the process of nationalization. The schools were converted
into national schools ; the Georgians restored the inde-
pendence of their Church, which suffered so much humilia-
tion from the Russian Holy Synod from 1811-1917, and
Bishop Kirion was consecrated as Katholicos-Patriarch of
Georgia. The Russian Holy Synod again started a tremen-
dous campaign against the Georgian Church, and at the
Moscow Church Council it was proposed to proclaim the
Georgian (Church schismatic. About twenty members of
the Council, headed by the most eminent Bishop Andrew
of Ufa, vehemently protested against the proposal as being
contrary to Christian tradition and unjust to the Georgian
Church as defender of Christianity for ten centuries, and
left the Council. It is pleasant to know that the body of
Russian ecclesiastics, who were for a long time governed
by the imbecile Rasputin, should still have some fine per-
sonalities among them.

At the very beginning of the Kerensky regime the Geor-
gia.ns and- Armcaiians proposed that all their units on the
Austrian and German fronts should be transferred to their
native country, where they would form a national army
corps. This very fair demand was supported by the Allied
Governments, but it was not granted until three days before
the fall of Kerensky 's Cabinet.

In November of last year the Bolsheviks seized Petro-
grad and overthrew Kerensky 's Government. This was a
signal to the nationalities of trans-Caucasia to break off all
relationship with the Central Government, and, in the same
way as the Ukrainians and the Don Cossacks, they formed

202 U.R.S.A. PRCXEEDINGS-

a trans-C.?.ucasian Republic. The elected Government was
composed of three Georgians, three Armenians, three Tar-
tars and two Russians, the Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister being Mr. Gegcchkori (Georgian). The Georgian
and Armenian troops were subject to the orders of this
Government, and trans-Caucasia was governed as a separate
republic.

The mountaineers of the Caucasus and the Kuban Cos-
sacks formed themselves into a distinct republic, with a
joint Government, but it proved impossible for them to
work together as the traditions of Shamil still survived, and
the differences between them, especially on the land ques-
tion, were unsurmountable. There were sanguinary fights
between them for some foin months, which constantly
increased the bitterness.

Finally in December of last year the mountaineers separ-
ated themselves from the Cossacks and constituted the
independent Republic of Dagestan in the north of the
Caucasus. The President of the new state is a Lesgian,
Colonel T. Tchermoeff, a striking personality, and one of
the most progressive Mohammedans. The members of his
Cabinet are also men of character. He invited representa-
tives of the Georgian National Council to attend the congress
of mountaineers in Dagestan, an historical spot, where
Shamil made his last defence.

At this congress the Molammedan clergy, together with
the celebrated Sheikh Najmudin, attended. This latter
dignitary had been very active amongst the mountaineers
preaching a " Holy War " against the Christians. Colonel
Tchermoeff strongly insisted that he should abandon his
fanaticism, not only as undesirable and dangerous, but also
as highly insulting to the Mohammedan religion. In this
way this memorable gathering provided a good object
lesson for the Young Turks of Constantinople, who want to
compensate themselves for military disasters by organized
massacres. The trans-Caucasian Republic, and particu-
larly the Georgian Supreme National Council, have achieved
enormous success, thanks to the intelligent co-operation of
Colonel Tchermoeff and other leaders.

With the commencement of the Brest-Litovsk negotia-
tions and the Bolshevik comedy the Ukrainians sent a
special delegation to negotiate peace with the . Central
Powers in order to safeguard themselves from being sold
by the Bolsheviks. The trans-Caucasian Republic, having

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 203

its territory close to the Turkish frontier, was confronted
with violent Bolshevik propaganda, and special agents of
the Bolsheviks penetrated the purely Russian troops on the
Turkish frontier and started a criminal propaganda amongst
them, inciting them to murder the Georgian and Armenian
Christian races, who refused to accept class warfare as a
substitute for national self-respect. Unfortunately the
Russian troops began their devastating work ; but they
were promptly disarmed by the Georgian and Armenian
armies, and most of them then left for the interior of Russia.
The defence of trans-Caucasia was left entirely to the
Georgian and Armenian troops. The only danger was from
the Baku Tartars whose leaders were very busy propagating
the Pan-Islamic and Pan-Turanian movements. In these
circumstances the trans-Caucasian Government had to sign
an armistice with the Turkish military command, with the
proviso that until the peace treaty was signed the Turkish
troops would not be transferred to Mesopotamia.

When the Bolsheviks at last signed peace with the
Central Powers and Turkey they also' agreed to cede Baton m
and Ardahan districts, which are an integral part of Georgia,
and popula;ted by Georgian Mohammedans, and the Kars
district, largely populated by Armenians ; and also agreed
to the reoccupation of the entire territory of Turkish
Armenia by Turkey. This criminal act aroused great indig-
nation amongst the Georgians and Armenians, the more so
as the trans-Caucafeian Repubhc does not recognize the
Bolsheviks, and could not allow them to negotiate with
anybody on their behalf. The Turkish Government had not
the courage to propose the above-mentioned cession of
territory to the trans-Caucasian Government direct, but
arranged it behind their backs with the Bolshevik des-
peradoes. Immediately the Brest-Litovsk negotiations
finished the Porte addressed a Note to the trans-Caucasian
Government expressing its desire to enter into peace
negotiations after the cession of the above-mentioned
territories, which cover about 4000 square miles,- This
offer was indignantly refused.

The Turkish Government next entered into negotiations
with the demoralised sailors of the Black Sea Fleet, request-
ing them to bombard the Georgian towns on the Black Sea
coast. Accordingly a dastardly attempt was made on the
defenceless port of Soukhum, where there is a large concen-
tration in the hospitals of wounded and consumptive

204 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

soldiers. Immediately after this a large Turkish force
advanced on Trebizond and Erzerum and approached the
old frontiers of trans-Caucasia. This emergency was im-
mediately met. The Georgian and Armenian National
Councils concluded a defensive alliance and, as is well known,
fierce fighting broke out with the Turks. The Georgian and
Armenian armies are operating together, and the entire
populatio.a of Georgia has been mobihzed. This heroic
action is worthy of high admiration, for the Georgians and
Armenians are completely isolated from any Allied assist-
cince, and are ihreatened in the rear by the Tartars, who are
in sympathy with the Turks. ^The struggle will be a fierce
one.

It is interesting to note the reasons which prompted
Turkey to undertake this dangerous operation'. First, she
looks for compensation for those military disasters which
Great Britain inflicted upon her by detaching Mesopotamia,
the whole of Arabia and Palestine. Secondly, she wants to
establish direct contract with the Baku Tartars in order
further to extend her influence in Turkestan, and with the
Mohammedans inhabiting the south-eastern part of Russia.
Thirdly, there is the desire to utilize the trans-Caucasian
railways and, through Baku, to penetrate to Afghanistan.
She also claims that the Georgian Mohammedans who in-
habit the Batoum district, which is an integral part of
Georgia, ought to be considered as Turks. But she forgets
that even amongst the Mohammedans the principle of
nationality has been established as supreme. During the
Balkan war Albania broke away from Turkey, in spite of
75 per cent of the Albanians being Mohammedans. In this
war the Arabs of Mesopotamia and Arabia are fighting
against her in spite of being better Mohammedans than
the Turks, as it is certain that the Arabs are not only the
originators of the Islamic religion but much superior as a
race to the Turks.

The Georgian Mohammedans in the Batoum and Ardahan
districts number 200,000. They were forcibly converted
from Christianity to Islam after the devastating wars with
the Turkish invaders. They have the same blood as the
Christian Georgians, and they will never consent to be
separated from their race. There is ample proof of this in
the present war against Turkey in the fact that in the entire
Georgian army there are three divisions composed purely
of Georgian Mohammedans.

GHAMBASHIDZE. THE CAUCASUS 205

This struggle will be watched with lively interest by the
entire civilized world, and by all friends of small nationah-
ties. It will create great suffering for the Georgians and
Armenians, but these two races represent the traditions of
many centuries of self-defence. Especially will the well-
known bravery of the Georgians be demonstrated once
more.

It is the sacred duty of the Allies to help the Georgians
and Armenians in every way so that they may not share
the same cruel fate as other small nationalities who have
suffered so bitterly in the present struggle.

Lord Carnock, in proposing a vote of thanks to the
Lecturer, said : I think I shall be voicing your opinion as
well as my own whe»n I say that I have rarely listened to
a more interesting and instructive lecture than that which
has just been dehvered. I think it is a remarkable feat that
he has been able so succinctly and so lucidly to range over
the whole history of the Caucasus from early centuries ; to
give such information concerning its geography and eth-
nography ; to remove certain erroneous views, and at the
same time to throw new light, at least to me, on the history
of the present situation in the Caucasus. I do not know
which was the more interesting, his rapid and excellent
survey of the history of the Caucasus or the remarks with
which he concluded his lecture. I'think what he said as to
the gravity of the situation in trans-Caucasia we ought to
bear carefully in mind, and especially his remarks as to the
great power and influence exercised by the traders in the
Baku district.

The vote of thanks to the Lecturer was carried by
acclamation.

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts, the Hon. Secretary, brought
the proceedings to a close with a vote of thanks to Lord
Carnock for presiding.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HELD AT THE SPEAKER'S HOUSE, WESTMINSTEFf

Chairman': The Kt. Hon. the Speaker of the House of Commons

Friday^ 22nd March, 19 18

The Speaker. My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I take
it that the Annual Report has been sent to every member
and therefore, perhaps, it would be unnecessary to read it ;
and perhaps you would kindly take it as read. If any lady
or gentleman wishes to ask any question with regard
either to the Report or the Balance Sheet perhaps they
would kindly do so now.

As no one wishes to ask a question, I will ask Sir Robert
Perks to move the adoption of the Report.

Sir Robert William Perks, Bart. Mr. Speaker, Ladies
and Gentlemen, there fs nothing I have to add of any great
importance to the Report which has been so admirably
prepared by our Hon. Secretary, Mr. Brayley Hodgetts.
We refer there to the increase in our numbers, which I
think, taking into consideration the disappointment, the
reasonable disappointment that we feel with reference to
the turn affairs have taken in Russia, most satisfactory
and as showing that this Society intends not to relax its
efforts, but to extend and to strengthen them in the direc-
tion of showing our practical interest in that great country
and our sympathy with the people under present tragic
conditions.

We have lost by resignation a few of the members of our
Society, and sOTne of our members of great distinction have
during the year died. I might perhaps be allowed to refer
just to three men of different ideals in regard to politics
and to other spheres of thought and action : first. Lord
206

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 207

Brassey, one of the oldest, yet one of the most optimistic
members of this Society ; Mr. John Redmond, whose 4oss
at the present time, whatever we may think of his political
I -pinions, everyone must recognize to be great; and the
third name I may just perhaps be allowed to mention is
that of the brilliant, young politician soldier who spoke to
us at our first meeting in this room — I mean our friend
Neil Primrose. The fact that these three tnen were all
members of this Russia Society — and they are only a
selection of ^:he men who are really influencing the world
at the present moment — the fact that these three men of
such diverse views were members of our Society and are
only a selection of many more ynen of equal distinction,
-i;ows how the Russian people are regarded by the many
k adcrs of thought in this country.

INIr. Speaker, I only regret that this Society was not
foimded twenty years ago. (Cheers.) Had it been founded
Lwenty years ago I believe that by means of the information
which we have endeavoured to disseminate we should have
known more of the resources and the difficulties and the
attractions from many points of view of that great country
whose name st?nds at the head of our title ; we should,
perhaps, have been able to remove some prejudices, and we
should I think have promoted more strongly than we have
done the solidarity of action which many of us still hope
to see accomplished between this country and Russia. And
we must always remember that Russia is the warehouse,
the storehouse of boundless natural resources for the en-
richment of the world, resources which are essential to the
commercial life of this country in the generations to come.

I trust that whatever happens next in these days of
darkness and despondency, we shall continue to show
our real interest in Russia and our friendship for its
people by using our utmost exertions to strengthen this
Society which, I am glad to say, is flourishing in every way.

I beg to move the adoption of the Report.

Lord Sanderson. I beg to second the adoption of the
Report. I think the Mover has said almost all there is to
be said with any great advantage to the subject at the

2o8 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

present moment. He has spoken of the enormous material
resources of the country with which the Association has to
deal. I think we must also remember that this is a time of
great difficulty for Russia ; at the same time we must all
acknowledge the great qualities by which that nation is
distinguishe'd, and which must always have our interest
and regard. But at the present moment the difficulty is to
know in what way that sympathy can bo manifested. We
can do something towards promoting knowledge of the
country and of the people ; but it is very difficult, whilst
things are in the present state of confusion, to do very much
more. We must, therefore, confine ourselves for the prtsf nt
to some extent to marking time ; but we may mark time
with rather high action ; we need not by any means confine
ourselves to, or submit to, the role of entire abstention from
action. It is possible, for instance, to do much in the way
of education by lectures, by addresses, i»nd promoting the
study of the language by means of examination and so
forth.

I beg to second the adoption of the Report and Bale nee
Sheet.

The Speaker. Before putting the Resolution may 1 add
a word with regard to another great loss we have sustained
last year in the death of our Hon. Treasurer, Lord Poris-
mouth ? Lord Portsmouth took an active and keen intt.n st
in the welfare of the Association, and I was frequeniiy in
communication with him in regard to its affairs, in f; ct I
saw him on such business only a short lime be fere he vmps
taken ill and died ; my last interview witli him was en s< rhi'
matter connected with the welfare of the Associa.lion. md
I am sure we should not wish at this first meeting afitr his
death to omit altogether seme reference to his name ;;n(l
to the services which he rendered.

I will now put the Motion, that the Annui!.l Refxrl r lul
Balance Sheet be adopted.

Carried unanimously.

The Speaker. As a rcsull; of the a,c;ic n ^; k( n ii Ix n rr.( s
necessary now to elect frtsh mtrrbcrs up7,n ihe Ex. eurive
Committee. By reference to (he Kiixrt yeu will see tttt

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 209

the retiring members are Lord Carnock, Sir Robert Perks,
Sir Bernard Mallet, Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Baron
Heyking, Mr. E. A. Brayley Hodgetts, these gentlemen
retiring in rotation. They are all eligible for re-election,
and are all ready to be elected if you so desire. In addition,
the Executive Committee have selected the following gentle-
men to fill up vacancies on the Executive : Mr. John P.
Blessig, Mr. James Bezant, Mr. Hugh Walpole, Mr. James
Wliishaw. I will therefore move that these gentlemen
whose names I have read out should be elected as members
of the Executive Committee.

Sir Albert Spicer. I have great pleasure in seconding
the Motion that the gentlemen whose names have been
read out should be elected to serve on the Executive Com-
mittee for this year.
Carried.

The Speaker. Our next business is the re-election of
the Auditors, Messrs; Hayes & Co. Perhaps some gentleman
among the audience will kindly move that.

Mr. James Whishaw moved the re-election of Messrs.
Hayes & Co. as Auditors.

Sir Bernard Mallet seconded.
The Motion was carried.

The Speaker. The next Motion is One which I propose
to submit to you rather upon the lines which have been
already indicated by Sir Robert Perks and Lord Sanderson .
A great deal has happened in Russia since our meeting here
last year, which took place on the 2nd March. At that
time, as I dare say you will remember, there were some
forebodings of the storm which was likely to come, and those
who were best acquainted with Russian affairs felt that that
country was living on the edge of a volcano and of a volcano,
moreover, which might at any moment break out. As it
happened the storm burst rather sooner than was expected.
Our meeting was held on the 2nd March, and the Revolution .
which began with the dethronement of the Tsar took place
1 think on the 15th March. Well, a great mi.ny things have
happened since then. I need not go through the scries of
events which followed each other so rapidly and with such

210 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

kaleidoscopic celerity in that country since that time. They
have been burnt into our memories only too deeply. Nor
do I think we should serve any useful purpose, especially
on such an occasion as this, by attempting to allot praise
or blame or to heap epithets upon any section of the' Russian
people. What has been has been, and nothing that we can
say or do will make any difi.rOnce. But I think we should
be well advised to consider not only the present in that
country but also the future. As to the present, certainly
the prospects are very black : ^.n army which has disap-
peared, a navy which is non-existent, all transit practically
stopped, starvation not very kr off, orgj.nizp.tion in a com-
plete state of chaos ; a sm.all, r.s I believe, small section only
of the people assuming for the lime the reins of Government
and exercising that government in a most tyriinnical and
cruel fashion, all constitutional representalicn and Govern-
ment at ain end form indeed a very black picture.

And then if we turn to the so-called ptace between Russia
and Germany we find that the Germans have practically
appropriated about half a million square miles of territory
and brought under their domination somewhere about fifty
millions of the population. Well, in that we ba\'^ an example
of what the Germans consider to be peace without annexi -
tion or without indemnities ; and we may well anticipate
what we may expect in other quarters if they should ha\e
the opportimity cf imposing a similar peace elsewhere.

But I cannot help thinking that in' Russia' will occur whyt
we have seen occur in other countries, and that the black
days wiU pass away — they may be long or they may be
short : that just as Robespierre and Danton did not repre-
sent the true feeling and will of the French people one
hundred and twenty years ago, neither I believe do Trotsky
and Le'nin represent the true views of the Russian people
at the present time.

But the question is whether we are able to do anything
for the Russian people. I feel ccnvinced-^I speak, I am
bound to say, without that knowledge of -Russian affairs
which is possessed by so many whom I see in this room, I
speak only as a student from afar of-Russian afiairs — -but

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 211

T feel convinced that behind what we are seeing, that below
what we are seeing on the surface, there must be a stronj^
and vigorous Russia yet remaining which will never accept
the present state of things, and that it only requires some
assistance and encouragement to reassert its nationality and
its own power and will. I think we are o^ten rather unfair
to the Russian people. Many of us no doubt have been
\ery much distressed at what has occurred, disillusioned,
even disgusted at what has happened ; but we must try
to be fair to the Russian people, and we must remember
the great trials and difficulties which they have gone through
since the beginning of the war. Though they were not
fully organized nor prepared for war on a gigantic scale yet
they did a vast service to the Allies when they invaded
Eastern Prussia at the beginning of the war and practically
saved Paris ; they performed marvellous feats of resistance
during the long retreat which took place in the year 1915,
r-nd for a long time they held the allied armies immobile
rdong that stupendously long Eastern Front, and even
pfter that there was the magnificent advance into Galicia.
We are grateful to the Russians for all they did at that time,
and it was cnly by reason of the fact that they were not
sufficiently organized, that they had not the means of trans-
port, that they did not get sufficient arms and armament
that they were not able to do more. We cannot therefore
blame the Russian people for what has occurred, and I think
it is our business at the present time to do, as I say, every-
thing we can to encourage them and to show them that
we are not prepared to leave them to stew in their own juice,
that we are not prepared to wring our hands and shrug our
shoulders and say this is no more any affair of ours. We
ought on the contrary to do everything we can to bring
them assist? nee and relief. Primarily of course that is a
matter for His Majesty's Government acting in concert with
ihe Governments of the allied countries. They alone have
he knowledge which is necessary of the actual state of
[fairs in Russia, they -alone hr.ve the power to carry out
their objuCiS c nd their views, end we — I mean our Russia
Association — we can do but very little to assist. But I

212 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

think we can do something, and that something I suggest
we should do this afternoon. I think we can pass a resolu-
tion of sympathy, and we can add to that resolution an
expression of faith and of hope that the Russian people
may resume their place amongst the great nations of the
world at some not distant future. I also think that such a
resolution coming from this Association would be very
useful in this country. I am afraid that besides the feeling
of dejection which has come over certain numbers of fairly
well-educated people there is a general spirit in the country
of disgust and disillusionment with regard to Russia amongst
the masses of this country. Now I believe that by passing
a resolution such as I am going to propose, and by showing
that we who have some knowledge of these affairs still
maintain our hopes and are still prepared to believe in
the future of Russia, that we shall set our friends a good
example, and at all events we shall be showing them that
we have every reason to hope and believe that our action
may be useful. Whether any resolution which we pass will
ever reach the Russian people or not it is impossible to say.
If it does it can do no harm, and it may do good. It may
get into the hands of Russophiles in this couniry who may
have it conveyed to Russia ; and although Russia is a large
place, and although it is not likely that our resolution if
known will spread very far, yet so far as it is known and is
spread it will be, I believe, of great utility.

I will not detain you longer but will simply read the words
of the resolution which I propose and which I think sums
up fairly well the observations which I have made :

" That this meeting records its deepest sympathy with
the Russian people in their unhappy plight and its faith in
their recuperative powers and ultimate regeneration."

I will now ask Sir George Buchanan, whom we welcome
amongst us once more, to say a few words in support of the
resolution.

Sir George Buchanan. I beg to second the Motion
which has been moved by the Speaker, and I would only
like to say, Sir, that I most cordially agree with the very
admira We terms in which you have put before the meeting

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 213

what I might call the Russian case. After all that has
happened during the past few months it is, I feel, natural
that there should be a revulsion of feeling against Russia.
The defection of Russia has undoubtedly prolonged the war ;
it has imposed on us heavier burdens and greater sacrificet ;
it has enabled Germany to mass troops in overwhelming
numbers on the Western Front and to commence the great
offensive which has been announced in this morning's
papers. It has, on the other hand, heartened the German
people to bear yet longer all the privations and sacrificts
which the war and the pressure of our blockade entails
upon them, and it has inspired them with fresh confidence
as to the reahzation of their dreams of world dominion.

I remember in one of the first conversations I had with
him at the commencement of the Revolution, Kerensky
said that under the Empire Russia would never have assisted
the Allies to win this war, but that under the new Revolu"
tionary Government we could count on her effective sup-
port. I fear that M. Kerensky with all his good intentions
has proved a false prophet. I do not wish to discuss the
respective merits of the various Governments which have
succeeded each other ever since the war began in Russia,
for I feel that they must all share the responsibility of tlje
breakdown of the Russian military machine. I had always
hoped that with the birth of a new era of liberty in Russia
that the anti-British campaign which had been carried on
by the party of reaction and by German agents would
cease ; but the Revolution, it is impossible to deny, has
been a great disappointment to us both as regards the con-
duct of the war and as regards the establishment of clase
and intimate friendship between our two countries, and
which it has been the object of this Society to promote.
Never were German agents more active in Russia than during
the concluding months of last year, and never were we ex-
posed to more . . . attacks and misrepresentation. On the
other hand the precipitate retreat of the Russian army in
July, the fall of Riga, and the complete demoralization of
the troops has undoubtedly reacted on public feeling in this
country. Some weeks before he fell Kerensky approached

214 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

me with regard to what he termed the anti-Russian feehng
which had manifested itself in Great Britain and other
alUed countries, and he even went so far as to hint that we
contemplated making a peace at Russia's expense. I told
him that he was absolutely mistaken, that such an idea
had never even been mooted, but that if he wished to dis-
cover the origin and the cause of any change of feeling that
might have taken place here he must seek it in the fact
that military discipline in Russia had been completely
destroyed in order that the Russian army might never serve
as a weapon in the hands of any counter revolutionaries.

Since then the work of demoralization has been carritd
to such a pitch that the Russian army has completely ceased
to exist. We must not, however, allow ourselves to be
carried away by any feeling of rcstntmcnt at Russia's
desertion of the cause of the Allies ; we must not allow
ourselves to be influenced by the fatal results of the mis-
taken policy of the present Bolshevik Government or by
the fact that Russia's defection has prolonged the war and
compromised the military outlook. We must not let the
present o Illiterate the past or blind our eyes to the future.
The Speaker reminded you of how when the French capital
was threatened Russia sacrificed hundreds of thousands of
lives to create a diversic n, and I think we ought to remember
more especially that Russia is a country that cannot be
hurried. She was not ready to take that offensive then,
but she did it out of her loyalty to the Allies. Then again,
as the Speaker has also reminded us, no troops have fought
with greater courage than the" Russian troops during that
fatal retreat from Galicia, a great many of them were without
rifles or without ammunition, but they held on, and Ger-
many did not succeed as she had hoped in destroying the
Russian army. We must also, as the Speaker has said, look
to the future. Russia is a land of surprises, and the present
.inarchy and chaos cannot continue indefinitely. Impossible
though it is to foresee under what political conditions the
work of regeneration will be carried through, I am con-
vinced that in the end a new Russia will arise purified and
chastened by the fiery ordeal of revolution through which

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 215

she is now passing. We must not, therefore, leave the field
open to Germany to take in hand the work of reconstruction
for she has but one end, aim and object-— to assert her
domination over Russia permanently : we must keep our
friendship with Russia's suff ring people burning bright
that they may contrast our disinterested friendship with
Germany's barefaced policy of plunder and exploitation,
V nd that they may turn to us and not to Germany for help.
And when the time comes that the work of reconstruction
may be commenced we must assist Russia with all tlie
financial and expert resources, at our disposal iji order to
bi;ild her up once more.

It is to me a great satisfaction to see that your Association
lias continued its work undeterred by all the changes that
have taken place in Russia. The very existence of a Society
like yours i^. a mark of silent sympathy, ^.nd it is but meet
that we should give public expression to that sympathy by
adopting the resolution which I have now the honour of
seconding. There are two remarks, Mr. Spea.ktr, which I
would like to make as to giving pucual form to that. In
the speech which I made on the ist March at the dinner I
referred to the all-important question of education. I am
n')w glad to say that a commictee has already been formed
to take that matter in hand, and I am looking forward to
i-tttending a meeting of that committee at King's College
n:;xt Tuesday. I need hardly say that any assistance your
Association can give as regards promoting education in
Russia, or as regards promoting the study of Russian in
this country, will be very welcome.

But there is another matter to which I would like to call
your attention, a matter which has caused me some pertur-
bation, and that is the position in which many British
subjects and also Russian citizens who for reasons of safety
have been obliged to leave Russia and come to this country
may shortly find themselves in, because they have lost all
their money and have no means of earning their livelihood.
A considerable number of British subjects now on their
way from Russia to England .will shortly arrive here.
Already there are a certain number of cases of British

2i6 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

subjects from Russia who are entirely without means and
without the opportunity of gaining their hvelihood. I had
a letter the other day from Southsea from a lady saying
that she h?.d taken in one of the refugees from Russia, that
she had kc pt her for a week or so but could not go on doing
this indefinitely, and asking me what she was to do with her.
I replied that I was quite ready to pay for her board and
lodging for ten days or so, that I would put the matter
before ihe Foreign Office and see whether it was possible
to arrange anyihing with regard to this and similar cases
of distress. The Government no doubt will be ready to
help in some way, perhaps through the National Relief
Fund or through some other Fund. Meanwhile it is fery
necessary in my opinion that we should form a committee
to which all such cases may be referred, a committee with
power to raise funds, institute enquiries and to see how
best employment can be found for, at any rate, distressed
British subjects. At the same time I think that we cannot
leave Russian subjects in this country, many of whom
belong to parties which have always been true and loyal
friends of this country, more or less to starve ; and I
think, therefore, that any committee formed should have
power to examine any urgent , cases of distress amongst
such Russian subjects with a view to aiding them if
necessary.

At the present moment I fear it is very difficult to raise
funds entirely for the relief of Russian subjects : for this
reason, therefore, and in any case, I think it would be well
perhaps to combine the two functions and to have a common
fund for the relief in the first instance of our own fellow-
subjects, yet allowing considerable latitude for the relief
of Russian subjects.

The first thing to dp, it seems to me, would be to form a
largish committee including a good many influential names
and then to allow that committee to appoint a smaller
working committee which would go into ordinary cases, a
committee which would have a permanent office with one
of its members always in attendance to whom British or
Russian subjects might apply.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 217

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts informs me that such a committee
is ah-eady being formed by the British Russia Club.
As there is no use in having too many committees perhaps
we could get into touch with that committee and see if a
combined committee could not be formed. The question
is, which is the best way to commence, whether to appoint
two or three of our numbers to discuss the matter with this
committee and then to organize a still more influential
committee ? Perhaps the best thing to do in the first case
would be for two or three of our members to discuss the
question.

The Speaker. Might I interpose a few observations
with regard to what has fallen from Sir George Buchanan ?
I cannot help thinking that our Executive Committee might
be useful in considering this matter. It would not perhaps
be necessary for us to form a special committee to deal
with questions of relief of Russian subjects in this country
or of British subjects returning to this country from Russia :
I think our Executive meet periodically — I do not know
how often — ^as occasion requires, and they would perhaps
be kind enough to take that matter into consideration.
Perhaps they could get into touch with the Russo-British
Club, then perhaps some of our members would join their
committee and in that way get the thing to work.

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts made a remark.

The Speaker. Our Honorary Secretary is already on
the committee. (Applause.)

Sir George Buchanan. It is necessary to have on such
committee some people who have been in Petrograd, who
know the people, who are personally acquainted with their
Gondii ions and everything else, or who are even connected
with Russia.

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. That committee is composed
of people who have come from Petrograd.

Sir Robert Perks. Perhaps the best thing would be
for Sir George Buchanan to attend our committee, then
we could discuss details and hope to arrive at some definite
result.

The Speaker. Perhaps Lord Carnock would consider

2i8 U.R.S.A. PROC:eEDINGS

the question of calling a meeting pretty soon in order to
discuss the matter. (Applause.)

Lord Carnock. Before we separate there is a Motion
I would like to submit to you and with which I am sure
you will heartily agree. We members of the Association
owe a great debt of grati ude to our President for hjs con-
stant attention and warm sympathy which he has always
shown in regard to the affairs and objects of our Association.
I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that if this
Association is still alive, and it is not only alive but m
fairly robust condition, it is largely owing to the f?ct that
it has been nurtmred under the fostering care and tx nefict nt
aegis of our honoured President.. Amid the many and
important duties which the high office of Speaker of the
House of Commons imposes upon hkn our President is
always ready to devote much time to the interest and
welfare of our Association. He has always been present
at oiu" social gatherings, and I know that when we have
been in perplexity and doubt as to what course the com-
mittee should pursue we have been benefited very greatly
by the wise guidance and counsel which he has always
been ready to afford us. I have pleasure, therefore, in
proposing —

That we the members of the United Russia Societies
Association desire to tender our deep and heartfelt thanks
to the Rt. Hon. the Speaker of the House of Gammons for
the deep and constant interest which he has taken in the
affairs and objects of the Associatien, for his courtesy in
allowing them to assemble to-day at his house, and for the
hotiour he has conferred on them by presiding on this
occasion.

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. Mr. Speaker, Ladies
and Gentlemen, I rise to second the Motion which h?s been
proposed by our friend Lord Carnock. He has dealt with
the subject so completely, and in my opinion so accurately,
that there remains very little to be said. I have been a
member pf the Society since its origin and I am fully able
to endorse what has been said in regard to the activity of
our President and in regard to his kindly help in every way.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2J9

But for him I do not believe that our honourable Society
wGuld be at this moment in existence in its present form.
And it is not only in existence, but doing useful work, and
I think it will be doing even more useful work if the sug-
gestion put forward by Sir George Buchanan is carried out,
especially if he himself would be kind enough to attend one
of our meetings and would explain more fully in detail
what he thinks we ought to do with regard to those unfor-
tunate people who are obliged to leave Russia. At preselit
by force -of circumstances we are more or less in what
might be termed a dormant condition because with the
best intentions in the world we do not know how to act.
There is no Government in Russia, and it is difficult to do
anything in the way of carrying out or showing in any
practical way our wishes. However, a way is now open to
us in which we can show practical sympathy.

I have pleasure in supporting the Motion before us.

The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation.

The Speaker, in acknowledging the vote of thanks, said,
I am much obliged to you for the Motion you have just
passed. It is quite true that I have taken great interest in
the affairs of the Association. I think I have been present
at every meeting of the committee and generally in the
chair, in fact I find that is my fate at whatever meeting
I attend ; if there is a chair and platform anywhere I
generally find myself in it. I should like by way of a change
to attend a meeting as one of the audience. I am sorry our
members are not here in larger numbers to-day, but I know
the great demand there is upon everybody especially at the
present time, and therefore we can well understand that
many are not able to be here. Perhaps next year if we are
aUve and well, and this building is still standing, I shall
have another opportunity of welcoming you.

The proceedings then terminated.

U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

THE UNITED RUSSIA SOCH'nTES 4SSO(:iATI()X

President : The Kt. Hon. The Speaker.
Chairman: The Rt. Hon. The Lord Carnock, G.C.B.
Committee :
James A. Bezant.
John P. Blessig.

The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Bryce, O.M.
The Rt. Hon. Sir (George Bi;chanax, G.C.B.
Lieut.-Col. John Buchan.
Principal Dr. R. M. Burrows.
William Cazalet.
Lord Hugh Cecil, M.P.
The Rev. F. J. Fynes Clinton.
Sir Richard A. Cooper, Bart., M.P.
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Desborough, K.C, \ .»,;.
F. W. Goodenough.
Stephen Graham.
Baron A. Heyking.
IiEUT.-CoL. Sir Samuel Hoare, M.P.
The Hon. Evelyn Hubbard.
James A. Malcolm.
Sir Bernard Mallet, K.C.B.
The Rt. Eon. Sir Louis Mallet, G.C.M.G.
The Rt. Hon. Sir William Mather.
M. Mouravief Apostol.
Professor Sir Bernard Pares, K.B.E.
The Rt. Hon. Walter Runciman.
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Sanderson. (i.C .15.
The Rt. Hon. Sir Albert Spicer, Bart., M.F.
Lieut.-Col. Sir Mark Sykes, Bart., M.P.
Leslie Urquhart.

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, K.C.V.O., K. C.I.I
Hugh Walpole.
Captain C. E. Sykes-Wright.

Hon. Treasurer : Sir Robert William Perks.
Hon. Secretary : E. A. Brayley Hodgetts.
Secretary : Miss M.' FitzGerald.

Offices : Queen Anne's Chambers, Tothill Stri: et, W

MINSTER, S.W. I.

-SI'

RUSSIAN ARMENIA

BY MR. E. A. BRAYLEY HODGETTS

(The Rt. Hon. thb Viscount Bryce, O.M., m the Chair)

Thursday, \%th April, 191 8

Till the arrival of Lord Bryce the chair was occupied by
Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace.

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. If JuHus Caesar had written
commentaries of Armenia he would have begun by saying
that the whole of Armenia was divided into three parts, of
which one was inhabited by Kurds — ^that part the Turks
have called Kurdistan ; it is nevertheless as much Armenia
as any other part of that great country.

Russian Armenia has been growing ever since it was first
acquired by the Emperor Nicholas I in 1827. Various
provinces have been added, and during the present war
the forces of the Tsar went as far as Trebizond, came down
to Erzeroum, and had the intention of spreading thence to
n^eet the British forces which were arriving from Mesopo-
tamia. That junction was indeed an actual fact, but it
was made only by a very small number of Cossacks and did
not lead to any decisive military results.

The Armenians, settled as they are midway between Asia
and Europe, have been the salt, the civilizing salt, of that
region. I have come into possession of a very intt resting
book called Genealogical Catalogue of the Kings of A rmenia,
by Prince Houboff. This book was translated from the
Armenian into the Russian language by an Armenian called
Lazar Kooznets, and translated from the Russian into Eng-
lish and compared with the original Armeaiian MS. by
James Glen, an English minister, of Astrakhsin. It was
hrst submitted to the Royal Asiatic Scciety of Lendon
In 1829.

This extraordinary genealogical catalogue is based upc«n
the Chronicle of Moses of Khon n and sets forth thi.t Jr phet,

222 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

the son of Noah, was the first ancestor of the Armenians.
Haik, son of Torgom, father of the Armenians, fifth in
descent from Noah, was born, according to the calculation
of the Septuagint, in the year of the world 2533. He com-
menced his reign over the Armenians in 2585 and governed
them for eighty years.

One of the kings of Armenia, having heard of the miracles
performed by our Lord in curing those suffering from
disease, sent to Him and evidently was cured. The next
interesting person is St. Gregory, who after he had been
" tormented in various ways " was put into a cave full of
ferocious serpents and all kinds of reptiles and was there
kept for fifteen years in the hope that he would eventually
starve. -But an eJderly lady, described as a holy virgin,
supplied him for all these years with food. At length he
was taken out of this dungeon and some 4,000,000 Armenians
embraced the Christian religion and were baptized in the
Christian faith, and the holy monastery of Etchmiadzin was
erected.

These were the first Christians in that part of the world,
and the Armenian Christians were instrumental in convert-
ing the Georgians to Christianity. The fame of the piety
of Tridat, King of Armenia, reached the subordinate Prince
Migran, King of the Georgians, by the exhortations of the
holy virgin Noonia. He and his people were induced to
adopt the Christian religion, after which he sent to enquire
of Sc. Gregory as to the rules to b3 observed by the newly
baptized Georgians. The Armenians were thus the pioneers
of Christianity in that part of the world.

The Armenians had m^ny vicissitudes. They were, as
we have seen, a people by themselves, sm-rounded on all
sides by alien races, and consequently they were frequently
the prey of enemies who invaded their territory. They
frequently defeated their enemies, and Tigran the First, the
Great, conquered nearly the whole of Asia Minor. Then
gradually his enemies took these dominions from him until
we find in 1365 the last King of Armenia, Leon the Sixth,
spending a sorrowful life and enduring hardships during a
long captivity in Lutetia now known as Paris.

After his release he considered it his duty to go with
Mary his spouse and his daughter Phinoe to worship God
in Jerusalem, where he offe red thanksgiving to the Almighty
for his deliverc;nce. Ti^e Queen and her daughter remained
there whilst Ltcn visited Pope Urban VI, and then pro-

HODGETtS. /ROSSIAN ARMENIA 223

ceeded to Spain, where he was suitably received by King
John. Later he was employed by the Pope as mediator
between France and EngMnd, and in 1393 he dieda natural
death in Lucelia in the sixtieth year of his age.

Quetn Mary and her daughter spent a life of sanctity in
Jerusalem until the yc?.r 1405 when she died. In the- mean-
time the Tartars and Scythiajis had invaded and overrun
Armtr.ia :And from that time forward the history of Armenia .
' ; n only be described as a tragedy.

The first Christian* Queen of the Armenians was Helen,
who was supposed to be extremely beautiful, and in her
features the type of the Armenian womaji is preserved to
this day. In the villages s.nd. towns you will find a type of
woman exi\c\ly Hke that.

Mount Ararat is the mountain on which. Noah's ark is
supposed to have rested after the Flood. When you are
trave-lhng in ihis district, as I have done for weeks and
weeks together/ you cannot lose sight of that mountain;
i nd there is nothing more annoying when you want to get
on from one point to an?other than to see that mountain
immovably in front o.f you. At one time there was a super-
stition that no one could possibly be allowed to ascend that
mountain. A certain monk, however, who afterwards
became a saint, did ascend part of the mountain but was
overcome by the cold ; an angel then bended him a piece
of the ark which is now preserved at Elchmiadzin and wiiich
may be inspected by the curious traveller. After that it
was assumed in Armenia that no 1 uman being could be
idlowed to reach the summit of ihe moumain ; but here is
.' living rtfutation of that theory in the person of our
eminent Chairman who did ascend Mount Ararat ; but
wl.en he afterwards told the mcnks of Etclmiadzin that he
hi'.d done so they smiled incredulously.

The remarkable old monastery town of Etchmiadzin is
now within the borders of -Russian Armenia. The archi-
tecture of the church is simple and quaint, with a Moorish
!<h. This design was supposed to have b6en revealed in

dream to the architect, and he built the monastery in
accordance with this dream. Moreover, on that plan all
Armenian churches are built ; they all follow that inspired
design.

The Armenian alphabet was also supposed to have been

vialed in a vision to an Armenian sa.int, and has been

nded down in the same way.

224 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

The Armenians are truly a peculiar and remarkable
people, and may well be proud of their ancient traditions.
, There is another beautiful legend that our Lord descended
at Etchmiadzin and manifested Himself there to certain
Armenians. A shrine was built in memory of that event.
Lord Bryce has eloquently and interestingly described that
shrine in his book on trans-Caucasia.

The Cathohcos, the head of the Armenian Church, is not
a Pope,' he does not claim to be infallible, but, elected by
the suffrages of the entire Armenian Church, he is the only
emblem of unity which the Armenian race to-day possesses,
and is looked up to by them as their head, both spiritually
and in a way politically, for he cares for their social welfare
so far as he can and endeavours to protect them from the
depredations of the Governments to which they are sub-
ject.

At the Academy of Etchmiadzin there is a famous library
where- Mr. Conybeare found a hitherto unknown MS. of
the Gospel of St. Luke. -To this academy Armenian youlhs
from every part of that distressed country are sent to be
educated. Some of them stay here all the year round. It
is the only sanctuary they have, and their parents are often
glad to think they are away from home and therefore safe.

The late Catholicos, to whom I had the privilege of being
presented and whom I met on several occasions, was a
remarkable personality, very eloquent, very brave rnd
courageous, who exposed himself not only to physical but -
also to political dangers, who stood up for bis nation not
only against the Turks but against the Emperor of Russia
as well ; and it is much to be regretted that his efforts
were of so little avail.

Armenian monks who have misbehaved themselves are
sent to Sevan which is far distant from Etchmiadzin in a
northerly direction lying amongst the mountains, a cold,
expensed, bleak place. It is called the Armenian Siberia.
There the monks are allowed to catch fish out of the lake
but are not permitted any other amusement.

Here is an ancient illuminated manuscript. I am afraid
I cannot explain the meaning, but it was this script whicli
was revealed to a monk in a dream : you see how very quaint
the letters are.

This is a mcdern script, or the reformed type ; you can
see traces of the eld form in the modern Latinized type ;
it is nA tmlike Rusisii n in appearc.nce at a distance.

HODGETTS. RUSSIAN ARMENIA 225

Tiflis, the queen and capital of the Caucasus, is largely
inhabited by Armenirns. The Armenian churches stand out.

The Armenian school at Tiflis was built by Armenian
funds. There was great difficulty in obtaining education
for Armenians in Russia so seme very wealthy Armenians
provided funds for the erection of this school.

The Kurds are the parasites of the Turkish Armeniatis ;
they are the highlanders, where the Armenians are the low-
landers and workers. The native Armenians in Turkey us6d
to get on fairly w^ with the Kurds, who levied a certain
annual blackmail on the Armenians, but generally speaking
did not molest them b.ycnd that. It was not until the
Turkish Government conceived the fiendish idea of exter-
minating the Armenians that the Kurds began to give
serious trouble.

Aivazovski has been described as the Russian Turner, a
not quite accurate description. He was a great painter of
seascapes. He W2,s an Armenian, and became one of the
most emin nt of Russian artists. His works are to be found
in all the large public galleries of Russia and also in a great
many of the galleries of the Continent.

Prince Lazarof was the first Armenian general to join
'{he Gecrgi?n forces in the days when Georgia became the
aKly of Russia.

Towards the end of the reign of Alexander II when the
internal stale of politics in Russia became so difficult,
when the Statesmen of Russia were at a loss how to govern
the country, the Emperor called to his aid the Armenian
general, Loris Melikoff, who had defeated the Turks, and
made him virtually dictator, much to the disgust of the
Russian statesmen of the time. He drew up, it is generally
believed, a form of constitution which was about to be-
signed by Alexander II when he was foully murdered, and
Russia was plunged back again into the Middle Ages.

General Loris Melikoff has always been regarded as the
type of the Armenia.n general. There is a good story told
alxjut him and the taking of Kars in the Russo-Turkish
war. You will have read, and I dare say a few here present
ire old enough to remember the actual event, but you will
iHve read about the taking of Kars in 1877-8, the place
being stormed by Russian troops. I had a friend in the
Russian army who got the Cross of St. George i nd ihe sword
of valour for being the first in ihe for.ress. He got wounded
and wrote to me from hoi.piial to say that he was so fright-

226 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

ened when ordered to advance that he closed his eyes and
pressed forward and so got in first.

Well, General Loris Melikoff was sittiiig on horseback in
front of the town of Kars whilst the storming was going on
holding his watch in his hand waiting for the keys of the
citadel which the Armenians had undertaken to obtain for
him for cash ; but the keys were brought half an hour late,
much to the General's annoyance, because he said many
Uves would have been saved if the Armenians had been
but a httle more punctual. ■ #

There is very little to be said that is new in the way of
description of the various towns of Armenia to-day. There
has been very little change since Lord Bryce visited Armenia
in 1876, still less since I visi;.ed the place in 1895. I have
read his description, his very brilliant and vivid descrip-
tions, of Tiflis, Etchmiadzin, etc., and I can say that there
was no change twenty ye?rs afterwards when I visited the
country. I am assured that one could say much the same
to-day, that there has been equally little change, although
I am told that in Erivan a great many improvements have
been made and also in Tiflis, and that Baku would not be
recognizable to-day by those who had visited it years ago.
Otherwise, speaking generally, Armenia has not changed
very much.

In travelling through Russian Armenia you come upon
various -villages of different nalionaliiies. In old days the
iron hand of the Russian Government marked them,
labelled them, so that as you came aleng you saw a sign-
post giving the name of the village, iis n?.;ionalily, its race,
the number of the population and various other details of
that kind. But you found on approaching an Armenian
village that it was unnecessary to look at the sign*post, for
you at once became conscious of an atmosphere of prosperity
which seemed to-«xude from the ground ; you saw the look
of independence in the faces of the young men walking
along, they looked you square in the face without any shy-
ness or cringing ; they looked as they have proved them-
selves to be hard-working, self-reliant, splendid men. They
are, or have been, the backbone of the country. The
workers of Turkey are the Armenians. The men of tffe
Ottoman race are falsely called " gentlemen," as defined by
Gobbt tt : " people who have no business in the world." They
are people who will not work, but who sit and smoke and
five on the Armenians. Yet they have foully massacred

HODGETTS. RUSSIAN ARMENIA 227

these Armenians on whom they have been hving. As you
proceed into an Armenian village you see abundance of
cattle, excellent well-fed cows, pigs, well-built cottages,
well-dressed women — every sign, as I have said before, of
industry and comfort.

Why is it that this splendid people with its great history,
its culture and its industry should have beeh so unfortuna.te ?
It is for the very reason that they are a cultured race. They
are a cultured race planted amidst savages, and they have
been the shuttlecock of fate. The Armenians of Tiliis',
where they hve lives approximating to the lives led in
European capitals, have their own 'theatres, artists, con-
certs, their own music, their own literature, their own
exhibitions of Armenian paintings, their own political
parties and their own newspapers ; in fact the oldest news-
paper ever printed in the Near Ea.st was Armenian ; they
have benevolent institutions, for they are extremely benevo-
lent, they have hospitals, they have banks and they have a
great number of home industries, the women making at
home carpets, various embroideries and lace-work which
are of great value. .

It is necessary to examine their history in order to explain
why the Armenians have not had the assistance from Russia
they expected. In the time of Alexander II Russia granted
liberties to all the nationalities under her government, she
gave thtm freedom to promote liberal institutions ; but
when Alexander was murdered by Nihilists a reactionary
party came to the top. This reactionary party felt it neces-
sary to present a theory of political life to the people so as
to give the intellectual classes some sort of pabulum to
work on, and they consequently developed the beautiful
theory of Philoslavism, the theory of the wonderful destiny
of the Russiari race, with the Emperor at the head, the
Church, as its mother, and the people all united in one
brotherhood. It was this theory which underlay the idra
that it was Russia's mission to harmonize the world and
put an end to the horrible diseases of Western economic
life such as pauperism and capital and labour ccnflicts.
That was a very beautiful theory, but it prevented the
treatment with benevolence of the separate nationalities
within Russia. These were to become assimilated to her
while she would gradually expand aU over the world. Thp.t
idea has to-day come to a v«. ry bad shipwreck. But G. rmany
also bad dreams of txp: nsicn. Whilst Russia was develop'

228 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

ing-her beautiful poetical and charming idea of Philoslavism
the kings of Prussia had been toying with a very different
dream. King Frederick William IV, who died a madman,
had already in the middle of the nineteenth century the
idea that it was the mission of Prussia to establish the
Protestant Church in Jerusalem and to become the pro-
tector of Palestine. From that small idea there gradually
developed this tremendous pan-Germanism which we are
facing to-day. We see to-day that the Near East is as
dangerous a region for the British Empire, or as critical as
Belgium, the Danube- and the Balkan Spates. Anybody
who has heard Lord Denbigh's lecture on the Near East
will not need any further words from me. We all know the
great scheme of Germany, with her waterways in the centre
going right through towards the Black Sta, dommatmg the
Caucasus, passing on to the Persian Gulf , rnd thus at length
gradually obtaining the possession of India and so con-
troUing the whole world, with bases in the Black Sea for
submarines which can be sent down the Danube into the
Black Sea and through the Dardanelles into the Mediter-
ranean. All that, Lord Denbigh has explained so gi-aphically
and so well that I will not presume to imitate him.

But at the back of this idea there was also the feehng
that the races inhabiting these countries must be domi-
nated by Germany : and how is Germany to dominate a
race which has an older cuKure and finer tradition than the
Prussians, a race which has, perhaps, a nobler religion than
the Up religion of the Germans under the Hohenzollern
monarchs ? The Germans felt that this Armenian nation,
which had resented every attempt at assimilation by Russia,
must be wiped out before the plans of Germany could be
carried through, hence the massacres, hence the Turks were
instigated to commit the atrocities of which we all know.

The Armenians were being massacred in the eyes .of the
whole civilized world, yet Great Britain, against whom those
massacres were really aimed, stood by and allowed this poor
weak country to be murdered. Are we cowards ? No, but
we are a prudent people. The English people are related
to the Scottish, and the Scottish are proverbially a prudent
people. We were told in 1895 that if we intervened on
behalt of the Armenians we should have to face Germany
and Russia and possibly a coalition of the whole of Europe
against us. That is what we were told. Lord Bryce, who
has been so good as to take the chair this evening, had the

HODGETTS. RUSSIAN ARMENIA 229

courage to state at that time that he did not believe in
these threats ; he had the courage to say that we ought
to help the Armenians in spite of those threats.

We had been living on the prestige of the Battle ol
Waterloo for a hundred years, and we had allowed ourselves
to be misled by statesmen, who called themselves siatesmtn
but were mere vote-catchers, who told us we need not arm
oursclvcG, we n-eed net think of defending the Empire, for
this was a beautiful and happy world and everybody was
good and sweet and nice in it.

Human nature, unfortunately, is largely selfish, and there
is at the basis of human nature, however civilized the race
may be, a certain element of brutality which, the French
call sadism, that element which came out in the " highly
cultured Hun " when let loose in Belgium and which came
out in Turkey. We have a vast empire : goods stored all
over the world for every robber io see and envy, the richest
heritage which any nation ever had, yet we had not the
sense to arm ourselves to protect what it was our duly to
guard. Perhaps this was not so much the fault of the
English people as that of the so-called statesmen who were
vote-catching and who were playing a game very much like
cricket only in another place ; they were playing the game
of party in the House of Commons, and the real interests
of the country were a matter of little concern to them^
(Cheers.)

Lord Bryce. I am sure. Ladies and Gentlemen, you
are all very grateful to Mr. Brayley Hodgetts for the interest-
ing lecture he has delivered and for the graphic way in
which he has described what he himself saw, also for the
comprehensive view he has been able to give you of the
conditions of these countries and of their relation to recent
history.

The hour is so advanced that I will not venture to say
more than a few words in regard to the present situation-
The present situation is one which must engage our liveliest
sympathy. As you know, after the Russian Revolution the
Bolshevik Government committed two acts which I think
excite not only deep regret but deserve severe condemna^
tion. They abandoned the front towards Turkey, carried
away their arms, and took no steps before they went to

230 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

secure that the natives of the country — ^the Armenians and
the Georgians — should be in possession of arms and ammu-
nition to defend their country against the savage and brutal
Turks, who were only waiting for an opportunity to invade
it and to massacre their unfortunate victims who had suc-
ceeded in escaping from the massacres perpetrated in 1915.

The other offence which the Bolshevik Government ccm-
mitted was to make a Treaty with Germany by which they
surrendered to Turkey a territory not inhabited by Turks
and which never had been inhabited by Turks, but a terri-
tory inhabited by Christian Armenians and Georgian^ which
had been taken from the Turks, who never ought to have
possessed it, in the war of 1877. And this was in the flattest
contradiction, moreover, to the principles which these Bol-
sheviks themselves professed. They claimed to stand for
the principle of nationality and for the right of a people to
determine under what Government it would live.

Nobody who had ever been under Turkish rule would
ever wish to go back again ; pnd these people, the Georgian
race and the Armenians who inhabited this region, were of
course anxious to maintain their Christian religion and their
independence, in spite of which the Bolsheviks by this
Treaty sacrificed them to Turkey.

The Turks then tried to bring the country under their
rule. They were able to capture Trebizond because the
Russians had retreated from it and the Armenians and
Georgians had not the means to defend it ; then they moved
along the coast and attacked Batoum. Batoum, we hear,
has been captured after a valiant defence.

But the Georgians and Armenians have rallied. They
have done the best they can to create armed forces, and
they have succeeded, if accounts be true, in recapturing
Erzeroum ; moreover they put up a gallant defence at
Batoum and- 1 believe at Kars also. But with scanty
numbers, with want of ammunition and guns, for which
they have the Russian Bolsheviks to thank, they have not
been in a position to offer all the resistance that might have
been offered otherwise to the Turkish advances.

And now we do not know what will happen. But the

HODG^TTS. RUSSIAN ARMENIA 231

Georgians and Armenians are a valiant people and they are
fighting for their country. There are no better fighters in
the world than the Armenians, as the French know. The
f rench, whxj have had a large number of Armenians in their
irmy, are loud in their praises of the gallantry which the
A-menian corps show. I remember being told in Paris an
anecdote to that effect. There was an Armenian corps
olong with a detachment of the French army, the men of
which — their names mostly ended in " ian " — had frequently
vjlunteered for dangerous work ; and on one occasion when
some particularly dangerous service had to be performed
the French general invited volunteers, whereupon the
FVench soldiers called out, " Where are the Ian lans ?
(Laughter.) And I believe the la^is were ready to do what
was expected from them.

So there is no doubt about their valour, and they have
every need for it in order to defend themselves against such
brutal enemies as the Turks and Germans have shown them-
selves to be. There at present we must, unfortuna.tely,
remain — in anxiety about the fate of these countries. We
earnestly hope that it may be possible to send seme relief
to "them, although the difficulties are very great. At any
rate we hope that they themselves with their inborn valour
may succeed in making a defence which will save themselves,
their women and children, their cities and villages, which
the Lecturer has described to you, from the horrors of
another Turkish conquest. Our hearts are with them, and
our wishes and prayers are for them.

In conclusion, I am sure I maj^ present on your behalf
our cordial thanks to Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. (Applause.)

Professor G. Hagopian. Before Lord Bryce departs I
wish to propose a hearty vote of thanks to him for coming
to preside over this meeting at which we have had such
a splendid address from Mr. Brayley Hodgetts who has
travelled in the same parts of Armenia as Lord Bryce has
himself visited. We Armenians are all of us delighted I
think that even at this most anxious and critical time our
country and countrymen are not only not forgotten but
that they have won the praise and good wishes not only oi

232 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Lord Bryte, not only of the leading men and women of the
British Empire, but cf the chief representatives of the
civil zed world, for after all Armenia, which is now a sufier-
ing nation, is able to show a spkndid record far back to the
time whf n s|ie was the first nation in the world to embrace
Christianity. (Cicers.)

M. Armene Ardontz (" Khosrov "), author of Rn^eries
on Stormy Seas. Lpdi'^s and — ^though you are not Turks — I
will add Gen lemc n, for, as you are aware, in order to be
" gentlemen " you must belong to that race which massacred
Maronites, Syrians, Greeks, Bulgars, Armenians and Ar-
m. nians, and again Armenians, And here let me tell you an
inecdote. A lady of some social position asked me once to
tell her about Eastern customs. I said I had heard that
Turkish youths out of respect do not sit down in the presence
of their fathers until they have been bidden to do so.
" How delightfully sweet t " she exclaimed. " But I do
aot wonder at it ; I have always heard that they are gentle-
men." Then I added, "And Armenian youths do not, out
of respect, smoke in their father's presence until they are
married, when the father readily consents to their doing
so," " How absurd ! " was her remark. " You Orientals do
seem to have funny ideas." . Here was a mentahty deeply
rooted about these two peoples.

But I do not grudge. If the Turk is a gentleman, let him
be. In these days of activity and progress, however, to be
is nothing ; one must do "things, and we Armenians have
done a great deal both in our glorious past and in our more
glorious present. You flatter us for being the first Christian
nation, and we rightly boast about it ; but it is not because
of being your co-religionists that we claim the right to your
sympathy and support but because it reveals our mind ; it
proves that we as an intelligent and very practical people
first grasped at the most idealistic religion which preached
peace and progress. We wronged no nation small or large,
near or far, on the contrary we rendered services to both
the smallest and the greatest people, which services are
recorded in their own histories.

Unlike the ungrateful Turks and Bulgars we risked our

HODGETTS. RUSSIAN ARMENIA 23^

very existence and sided with you in this war. In the
nineties (1895) we came htre as refugees bringing accounts
of tremendous suffering, but did not ask for help ; it was
given us spontaneously by the chariiable and freedom-
loving, sympathetic people. We did not cry or cringe. No,
we asked for no help for ourselves, but we did ask you not
to help the unspeakable Turk, because the* Turks have been
helped by your silence and by the support of financiers.
You have left the fairest spots on earth to the Turks trusting
ihat they would settle down and beccme civilized, without
reflecting that disappoinlment must follow. At the same
time another people, the Armenians, already civilized, with
p fine literature, classical and modern, have been perishing
for want of effectual help.

And so long as there is' cne. Armenian left there will be
; n Armenian question, an Armenian question which is
; Iready five hundred years old — ever since our last king
Leo VI journeyed to Paris and London seeking assistance
< gainst the Barbarian Memeluke invaders of Armenia.
Nothing was done for us umil at last the only barrier of
Armenia crumbled down and the Turks succeeded in reach-
ing Vienna.

You have stopped the Congo, Herrero and Putumayo
alrocitics but left us to our fate. This was a homage and
credit to our race because you really meant by it that the
Armenians were a clever and brave people and could stand
their ground. We thank you for that implied tribute. But
now that our men are fighting with yours in large numbers
we hope that you in turn will assist us by money, by muni-
tions, and by your sympathetic attitude.

Palestine and Arabia have been,- thank Heaven, rescued
from the Turk. Shall we have the same luck, we who have
fought most and who have suffered the cruellest fate ? Shall
not Armenia head the list of " small nations " in whose
b:half this world war is being fought ? For our enormous
losses we ask to be recompensed. " But at whose expense ? "
I was asked by a very keen business man. "At nobody's ;
we only ask for what is ours : Armenia should be returned
to the Armenians."

234 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Twenty years ago Germany was not half so well prepared
as when she began this war. Had Turkey been then sevtreiy
punished Germany would not to-day possess in Turkey a
mighty weapon, because, as you know, Germany has relied
upon Turkey to. cause trouble in the British Dominions,
hoping then to find the rest of Europe a ready victim.

Remember how once a lion spared the life of a mouse,
and that the mouse then saved the lion from a trap where
it might have faUen.

I would express the wish that Mr. Brayley Hodgetts'
book, Round about Armenia, had been revised and brought
up to date ; yet as it is it reveals Armenia and the Arme ni.'. n^
in their true light and value, and show that they are not
so black as some people interested in belittling them hi^ ve
chosen to paint them in order lo please the Turks whcse
purses are fat enough with the gold they had robbed froiVi
their victims.

With a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Brayley Hcdgetia
the proceedings then terminated.

SIBERIA

A LANTERN LECTURE

BY DR. A. SIMON, F.G.S.

(TvJr. Leslie Urquhart, in the Chair)

Tuesday^ 21 sH May, 19 18

Mr. Urquhart, in introducing the Lecturer, said he had
known Dr. Simon and the keen interest he had taken in
mining generally in that country for many years.

In view of Dr. Simon's close sttidy and knowledge of the
country and the people and of his efforts to interest British
capital and enterprise in Siberia he was specially qualified
to speak on the subject.

Dr. Simon then proceeded to deliver liis lecture.

Geographical. Siberia stretches from east to west across
the whole continent of Asia. It is bordered on the north
by the Arctic Sea, on the south by China and Turkestan,
: on the east by the Sea of Ochotsk and the Pacific Ocean, on
f the west by the Ural Mountains, It covers an area of
4,817,687 square miles (larger than Canada or the United
States). The northern and western parts are fiat, the south-
eastern part hilly, sometimes mountainous, the most exten-
; sive range being the Altai Mountains, with Mount " Biel-
\icha " attaining a height of about 11,000 feet.

The peninsula of Kamtchatka in the north-eastern part
of Siberia is extremely mountainous, attaining in Mount
Kliutsheff a height of 16,000 feet. These mountain ranges
in proximity to the sea are the cause of quite different
climatic conditions to the rest of the mainland.

Three large rivers, the Obi, Yienissei and Lena, cross it
from south to north, while the Amur, which forms the
boundary line with China, runs from west to east. These
rivers range amongst the largest in the world, and form
important means of communication, 80,000 miles thereof
being navigable.

235

236 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

The northern part of Siberia from lat. 77 to about lat. 65 is
its most unhospitable part, and consist of marshy lowlands,

he vegetation consisting of mosses and lichens only. To the
south thereof the vegetation becomes more and more abun-
dant with magnificent forests* in the eastern and central
part, while the prairie lands of the western part, the Khirgiz
Steppe, offer splendid opportunities for agricultural pursuits
wherever water is available.

. Historical. Until ihe thirteenth century the history of
Siberia is shrouded in mystery. It is known that the
Tartars occupied the couniry, and that in 1242 they had
formed a khana.t wiih Sibir on the River Irtish as its
capital. In 1580, when the Don Cossacks were conquered
by the Russians, Yermak, one of their leaders, fled to Siberia
with 5000 of his men. In a year that number had dwindled
down to 500. Nevertheless he attacked the Khan of Siberia,
Kutshun, defeated him, occupied Sibir, and numerous
Tartar tribes submitted to his authority. He informed the
new Tsar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible, of his successes, who
knighted him with the title of Prince of Sibir and promised
military support. Yermak died shortly afterwards in 1584,
so did Ivan the Terrible. The promised supports were not
despatched in time and the Cossacks had to evacuate Sibir.
During their retreat they met reinforcements sent by the
new Tsar, Fedor I, reconquered Sibir and established them-
selves in Tobolsk which they founded and fortified, and
where in 1587 the first Christian church was established,
the church and monastery to which Nicholas II, the late
Tsar, was banished in 1917. Troubles in the succession to
the throne in Russia are the probable reason for a stagnation
in the spirit of conquest towards the east at that time. We
hear that in 1706 Peter the Great pushes further east and
occupies part of Kamtchatka and the Kourilis Islands.
Anna Ivanovna., his niece, in 1729 established Russian
suzerainty over the Khirgese, and Elizabeth Petrovna, his
daughter, in 1750 finally conquered Kamtchatka, the Tour-
komans and the Aleutian Islands.

The discovery of Siberia, as far as Russia is concerned,
dates back therefore to 1580, or about one hundred years
later than the discovery of America. The development
which has taken place in the two continents since their
discovery does not bear comparison. To my mind the stag-
nation of development in Siberia is due to its lack of acces-

* Of Siberian cedar, willow, pine, birch, larch and others.

SIMON. SIBERIA ^37

sibility by sea and to the pernicious system of communal
land ownership which until a few years ago solely prevailed.

Population. Owing to the large number of emigrants who
within the last fifteen years have settled in Siberia it is
difficult to give accurate figures as to the present population.
In 1907 it was about 8,000,000, and now probably is between
10,000,000 and 12,000,000. In 1907 415,300 emigl-ants
settled in Siberia. These emigranis go there of their own
free will, as against the political deportees and criminals
who formerly were sent out. From 1824 to 1899 1,288,000
persons belonging to that class were forcibly settled in
Siberia.

The majority of the population, the Russians, belong to
the Greek orthodox faith. The Tartars, Bashkirs, Khirgcse
are Mohammedans and may be estimated at about 3,500,000.
Bouriats are Buddhists, and number about 250,000. Jews
may be estimated at 500,000.

Climate. The chmatic conditions of Siberia vary frcm
intense cold in the winter to great heat in summer. The
average temperature in Irkontek is about freezing point.
The average temperature for January in that locality is
45° F. of frost, for July 73° F.

Heat and cold are both generally dry and pleasant. There
are of course periods of heavy rein or snow showers, real
blizzards which are anything but pleasant.

Mosquitoes, sand'-flies and other disagreeable insects
abound in the early part of the summer and are very trying.
With the first cold nights in August all the outdoor insects
vanish hke magic and one is left to battle only wiih the
indoor variety pests which are numerous.

Travelling Conditions. The opening of the trans-Siberian
railway has greatly facilitated the accessibility of various
parts of Siberia. We are apt to look upcm that railway as
a means of communication b.twee n the Far East c nd Europe.
This, however, is to the Russian nation an aspect of insig-
nificant interest. From their poim of view it was primarily
a strategical railway, and affords the means of opening to
the overcrowded European Russia a n^w country of their
own where millions ci n hve and tl rive and n'.ed not seek
new houses in foreign parts. The line ever since it was
started has never been able to kie p pace with requir< menis,
either for military or commercial purposes, rnd has cc n-
clusively shown that more end me,re, end n w lines tre
needed to do justice to the en imou.'^ possibilities ef S.beYii,.

^38 U.R.S.A. '4^0CE£DfNGS

The main line, Tchelyabinsk J Vladivostok, has a length of
4200 miles, the line Omsk Ekatcriburg 500 miles. Novo
Nikolaevsk Semipalatinsk 400 miles, Atchinsk Minousinsk
200 miles, and Nertchinsk Blagovestchinsk Vladivostok
about 2000 miles, all told about 7500 miles. Need I men-
tion for comparison sake that the United States have
railways aggregating 260,000 miles, or thirty-four times as
many ?

Travelling is both cheap and comfortable. In pre-war
days the fare per mile amounted to approximately |d. for
first class, |d. for second class, jd. for third class, and a
still lesser amount for fourth class. The food in trains and
railway restaurants is good and inexpensive.

The river steamers have generally very good accommoda-
tion, the cabins are clean, and the cuisine is all that can be
desired. ^Fdr^ journeys further inland carriages or sleighs
have to be used. The local name for the carriages is taran-
tasse. It consists of a wicker basket lined with leather and
properly hooded. The basket rests on longitudinal springy
poles fixed on a frame connecting front and back wheels.
These conveyances are quite comfortable when the wooden
poles are sufficiently springy, but rigid poles in a tarantasse
give it the character of a refined instrument of torture.

In many of the mountainous parts there are no roads
for wheeled traflftc, but bridle-paths exist everywhere. The
sure-footed Siberian ponies are excellent moun:s and good
pack horses.

Commercial. Just before war was declared Siberia was
booming. The trains and steamers were overcrowded, so
were the hotels, and the departmental stores of the larger
towns were packed with townsfolk, villagers ind fmigrgSits
buying up everything. There waS really a most prosperous
look about the "whole place which promises well for the
future.

The chief item for the prosperity of *CentraFSiberia wjts
the butter trade, in 1913 76,000 tons of butter were ex-
ported to Denmark and Great Britain, and it is unofficially
stated that the butter alone yielded, roughly, £4,500,000 per
annum.

Eggs also were exported on a large scale. The Union
OdW Storage Co., a BriJsh concern wiih a refrigerator in
Kourgan, was probably the largest exporter in that line.
To give an idea of other possibilities it might be mentioned
thjat ior 1913

SIMON. SIBERIA 259

The yield of grain amounted to 8,300,000 tons
oats ,, 1,000,000 ,,

potatoes ,, 1,500,000 7,

The number of sheep was given at 6,ooo,odb and of
• pigs 1,500,000.

It is stated that 1,500,000 beehives yielded 2oo,ooo poods
I honey, hsving a value of about £100,000.

Hemp and fla.x were items of export, and the furs which
at Irbit were brought to market numbered 298,534 skins
wiiha value of, say,'£30,ooo.

Mining. Mining was undoubtedly the pioneer industry

: S:b.ria. As a gold producer Siberia has always played

R important; pcxi;, and latest statistics put its production

: from 1,750,000 to 2,000,000 ounces per annum. The

richest goldfivlds now working are situated in Eastern

Siberic' .

Attempts at working the iron ore deposits while very
prosperous in the middle of last century in the Urals were
ntvtr yet successful in Cen'ral Siberia. The chief cause for
the failure of Ihe iron industry in those parts being due to
inadequc.te fuel. Lctterly numerous coal measures have
bsen optned up and seme of them promise to play an irh-
porti nt part in the industrial future of Siberia. An English
company is working coal measures at Ekibastus en the
Irtysh River and produces a first-class metallurgical coke
which finds a ready markL,t Iccally for the reduction of
lead zinc orcs and'in the Ourals fcr ihe treatment of copper
and iron ores. Furiher east in the Kousnetsk region a
Russian company has erected a most elaborate plant for
the production of coke and by-products.

C^jppcr is b ing produced in fairly large quantities in the
Ounds and Southern Siberia. In 1913 the Ourals produced
16,000 tons, Siberia 5600 tons, the largest individual pro-
ducers being Kyshtim, ah Enghsh corrpany, with 8400 tons,
Bogoslovsk, a Russian company, with, about 4000 tons, and
Sprssky, i nither English company, with 4900 tons.

In 1909 the copper production of kyshtim amounted to
1 135 tons only, it now produces about 8000 tons per annum,
oi:. one-third of the total Russian copper production.

Lead has been produced some fifty years both in the
Altai region and in the Nerichinsk district. The ore could
not, however, hz treated eccnomically anel the mints were
shut down. Within the last few years two English com-

240 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

panics have reopened the Ahai mines and one of these
companies, the Irtysh Corporation, has almost completed
a plant for the eventual production of 50,000 tons of zinc
and 25,000 tons of lead per annum.

British capital is undoubtedly largely responsible for tlie
evolution of modern mining methods in Siberia. Altogether,
British owned companies have a capital of close on
£10,000,000.

It is to be hoped that Siberia, an integral part of Russia,
will soon be again under a sane Government so that its
agricultural and mineral resources -can be worked to full
advantage for the benefit of the country and for the benefit
of those who assisted in its development.

Mr. Urquhart. I am sure that all present will authorize
me to thank Dr. Simon for his interesting lecture and most
illuminating slides. I am sure the statements made bv
Dr. Simon must have impressed most of you with the great
potentialities of Siberia.

It may not be generally realized in this country that
Siberia is far nearer than the United S.ates, The part of
Siberia which is the richest and which has the greatest
population is Western Siberia— Tobolsk, the Kirghiz Steppe,
Central Asia and Turkestan, with a population of 15,000,000,
the whole of Siberia containing 20 millions. The reason for
the larger population in that part of the country is that it
is particularly well served by great river waterways, rivers
of such size and importance as are not to be found in any
other country in the world. This river system taps a country^
of something hke 2,500,000 square miles in area, rising from
the Khangai, the high country of Chinese Mongolia, and
mnning right through to the Arctic Ocean.

To show what the development of Siberia has been during
the last few years, in 1913 the exports from Western STbtria
iilone to Eiuopean Russia and abroad was very nearly
4,000,000 tons by the trans-Siberian railway. And if the
only lin^ running through Siberia to-day is the trans-
Siberian railway, at any rate railway lines are in course of.
construction fun h(r south.

From the c^n rd part, the heart of Siberia, down lo

SIMON. SIBERIA 241

Tomsk, which is the chief distributing centre to Western
Siberia, if a line is built through to Archangel or Krasno-
gorska on the White Sea, the distance would only be 1200
miles, and from there to Liverpool 2000 miles by sea. In other
words, Siberia is only 3100 miles from this country. The
nearest town from the United States to here is 3100 miles,
but that is only at the edge. If you go to the centre of the
United States the distance is nearer 4100 miles, that is, half
as far again as is the he?rt of Siberia to Engknd. It follows,
therefore, that the soon :r we in this country take an in-
terest in the development of, and learn ?s much as we can
about, Siberia the better fcr us. England h,as always in
the past spent a great deal of mon.^y in developing the
means of communication, of transport, in order to obtain
her food supplies : in fact during the years before the war
England speni: ^^258,000,000 in fe^reign couniries in develop-
ing the means of communicaLion ; but in Siberia we have
not spent a sou. If, howcver, we were to take in hand
the deveic>pment of that coun ry so far as the means of
communication are concerned, it would pay us very well.

To-day the Chinese and Mcngoliar.s receive the products,
the manufactured produces, from Germany, from England,
from France, from Western Europe, a distance of nearly
11.000 miles, by sea, whereas it is only 200 miles by rail and
200 miles by caravan across the Gobi desert. If this line
came across there and right down here we get into Mongolia,
a distance of only 4000 miles, whereas China is served
to-day from England round to Pekin, then from tl«:re to
Kalgan and 1500 miles across the desert to supply this
largely populated coun ry. But if we take ?n interest in
developing the means of communication with Siberia it is
evident that England would be in a mucl Ix-Vtcr geographical
position than any otlicr Eurojwan coun fy. Wlurcas from
Omsk to Berlin it is a disiance of 3000 miles all by rail, it
Is only 3000 miles from Moscow to England, Uvo-tl irds d
it by sea,

I have been asked to say a few words about the feeling
there is in this country with reference to the idea of the
sef>8.ration -of Siborii from Greater Russia, r-nd the, idea

242 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

has been prevalent in certain quarters that Siberia pro-
posed to separate herself into an independent republic,
cutting herself adrift from the old country. I think there
is very little doubt that that is a mistaken idea. To my
mind it seems to be a fallacy, if you look at it purely
from the geographical point of view. Siberia is a country
of something like 6,000,000 square miles, yet the popula-
tion, including Central Asia and Turkestan, is only 20,000,000.
Of this number Eastern Siberia has got a population all
told of only 2,000,000 to 2,500,000. And the area of that
country is greater than the United States. Naturally
Eastern Siberia is very vulnerable to foreign aggression for
it has not sufficient popukticn to defend itself; and it
would seem almost obvious that if Siberia is going to
remain Russian, and all the pecple gf Siberia c.re Russian,
except in the Southern Caucasus r.nd in Central Asia— the
trans-Siberian railway passes through countries populated
mainly by Russians — ^^-hey must look to Greater Russia for
protection. Not only that, but Siberia requires a popula-
tion for its future economic development, and she must
look to Russia for it. Apart from that Russia is the market
for all Siberian goods apart from those exported to Europe,
And it must be remembered that in exporting goods to
Europe these goods must pass through Russia. In short,
not to mention political and family ties, the economic ties
are so great that there is very little likelihood of separation
between Siberia and Russia. Apart from that in December
or January last it was specificall}^ stated by the elected
members that the Provisional Government of Siberr?, was
not an independent Government, nor an independent
republic, but that it was a unit of the Federated Russian
States.

Bolshevism in Siberia has not had such hold as in Euro-
pean Russia, and the reason for that is mainly because the
Siberians are people intellectually much more highly
developed, much more prosperous, far more bourgeois, and
lihe agrarian questicn does not trouble them.

We iknow to-day that Russia is going through a hard
tinae. The people of Russia, of Russia proper, afre sufferiag •

SIMON. SIBERIA 243

from want of food — for which they have the Bolshevik
regime to thank. It is not my province to deal with the
ethics or ideaUsm of Bolshevism ; we all have our views
that subject ; but whatever the merits or demerits of
Bolshevism, the Bolsheviks have undoubtedly ruined Russia.
On the other hand, whether the Allies are going to help
Russia or not politically or militarily is a question we cannot
deal with. But I do think that even from the humanitarian
point of view that our Government, and every allied Govern-
ment, should assist Russia through Siberia. (Hear, hear.)
I do not suggest a military mission or any mission of an
aggressive nature ; but there is no question or doubt that
the agrarian troubles that have arisen in Russia make it
certain that before this year is out famine, now almost
rampant through the greater part of the country, will be
much worse, and there is very little likelihood that Russia
with her teeming population can possibly escape the most
terrible famine that God has ever visited Upon this earth.

The only possible hope for Russia must come from the
Allies by means of a pacific mission. There are many ways
of doing it — I do not think it is our province to consider
how it should be done ; but I do think, and every humane
person should believe, that it is a vital necessity to obtain
control of that vast granary in Western Siberia which
remains practically untouched because of disorganization
in the means of communication, in order to help so far as
possible the starving population of Russia.

If we do not do it^ it is practically <^ertain the Germans
will. They have already to-day gone through the Ukraine,
and because we have not helped Russia to the extent we
ought to have done there is no doubt that the Germans are
being received with open arms. Otherwise I do not think
it is possible to explain the fact that the Germans are able
to travel distances of 100 miles in a few days in that country.
It means no opposition, or next to none, and that they are
even assisted. And cne cannot help feeling that the
Russians have reasons for welcoming the Germans, for they
have suffered terribly ; their lands have been expropriated,
their houses burnt, their officers murdered. They hi.ve

244 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

asked the Allies to assist, but because of some curious
political reasons we do not seem to take our courage in our
hands. The Germans are moving from the Ukraine into
the Caucasus because they cannot get coal in the Ukraine
to work the railways ; they want oil also, and they will get
it in the Caucasus and Baku. They will undoubtedly control
the Balkans, and Siberia is only a few hundred miles away.
If the Germans get hold of the vast hoards of foodstuffs
lying in Siberia they will feed when the time comes the
starving Russians. In this they will be doing a humanitarian
work and in consequence will be considered the saviours of
that country. On the other hand if we undertake this work
we shall deserve everlastingly the gratitude of the Russian
people.

Mr. Brayley Hodgetts. Before separating I wish to
ask you to join me in a vote of thanks to our Chairman. I
think you have been exceptionally fortunate this afternoon
in listening not only to one but to two experts on Siberia.
Dr. Simon has visited in a professional capacity nearly
every mine in Siberia, including a great many places not
yet developed. Mr. Urquhart has been developing some of
these mines that Dr. Simon has described. Some of the
places you saw where Dr. Simon told you millions of British
capital has been expended are places which have been
developed and still are being developed as far as possible
under the auspices of Mr. Urquhart. And we British people
should feel proud of the share we have had in developing
that enormous country of Siberia.

The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation.

MUSIC AND POLITICS IN RUSSIA

BY MR. M. MONTAGU NATHAN

(Lord Sandkrson, G.C.B., in the Chair)

Rfiid in the Authors absence by the Hon. Secretary on June 6i/i, 1918

Lord Sanderson, in opening the proceedings, after describ-
ing Mr. Momagu Nathan as an authority on Russian music
read the following quotation from Cardinal Newman :

" To many men the very np.mes which the science employs
are utterly incomprehensible. To speak of an idea or a
subject seems to be fanciful or trifling, to speak of the views
which it opens upon us, to be childish extravagance ; yet
is it possible that that inexhaustible evolution and dis-
position of notes, so rich yet so simple, so intricate yet so
regulated, so various yet so majesiic, should be a mere
sound which is gone and perishes ? Can it be that these
mysterious stirrings of heart and keen emotions and strange
yearnings after we know not what, and awful impressions
from we know not whence, should be wrought on us by what
is unsubstantial and comes and goes and begins and ends
in itself ?

" It is not so. It cannot be. No, they have escaped from
some higher sphere ; they are the outpourings of eternal
harmony in the medium of created sound, they are the echoes
from our Home, they are the voice of angels, or the Magnifi-
cat of saints, or the living laws of Divine governance, or the
Divine attributes — something are they besides themselves
which we cannot surpass, which we cannot utter, though
mortal man, and he perhaps not otherwise distinguished
among his fellows, has the gift of eliciting them."

That, you will say, is the view of the enthusiast, and so
it is. But between the extremes the people to whom church
245

24^ U.R.S.A, PROCEEDINGS

does not matter, and those to whom it matters so very
much, there Ues the great mass of the community, to whom
music matters perhaps more, perhaps less, but still a great
deal. The music of a naticn expresses iis natural emotions,
its more habitual moods, and though the idea may be
fanciful it seems to me to vary in different countries very
much according to the surroundings of the inhabitants.

At all events in order really to understand the character
of a nation it is essential to have a knowledge of the nationa 1
music. I suppose we all of us know something of the mag-
nificent unaccompanied music of the Russian Church and
the splendid voices of their choirs. We have some acquaint-
ance with the composiiions of Tchaikovsky and Rach-
maninoff, and a good many of us felt that the visit of the
Russian ballet to this country was a kind of revelation.
Beyond that the knowledge of a good many does not go.

I will conclude by quo.ing the famous words of Beranger,
"Let who will make the people's laws provided I write
their songs."

Introduction

Mr. E. a. Brayley Hodgetts explained that the duly
f)f reading Mr. Montagu Nathan's paper had devolved upon
him because the author, who was serving his country in the
army, had been unable to obtain leave.

Perhaps you do not share my belief that Russian music
comes within the domain of politics. I propose, therefore,
to give you my reasons for such a belief.

May I begin by reminding you that at a moment when
the existence of a Russian school of composers was unknown
to the general musical public, and when only a few pro-
gressive and courageous musicians had explored this ail-but -
imknown region of 4heir art, I began to wTite a history of
Russian music for the purpose of encouraging investigation ?
Before I could finish this book the Russian school was upon
us — thanks to the enterprise of the late Sir Joseph Beecham
— ^in all the glory of its united strength ; by this I mean
that from the very first it was evident that Russian music
meant Russian art, and that such a work as " Boris
Godunov " would introduce us not merely to Musorgsky's
music and to Pushkin's drama but also to Shalyapin's

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 247

acting and to the scenery and costume design of the fore-
most and most progressive Russian painters of the day.

My purpose in reminding you of my earhest attempts at
the exposition of Russian music is to suggest to you as "a. pre-
caution that I have all the while been taking Russian music
very seriously. And ic is because I have at no time regarded
it merely as a means of ccniributing to the gaiety of pleasure-
loving nations that I so warmly welcome a recent literary
work which gives promin nee to a sentiment which I might
otherwise have hesitated to express on this occasion. I refer
to the lately published volume by M. Rivet, formerly corre-
spondenc of the Paris Temps in Peirograd. In this work, I
rv>joice to learn, are some clear and outspoken remarks in
which I find, with immense satisfaction, the echo as it were
of remarks to which I have more than once given utterance
in recent lectures.

I will proceed at once to the point. I believe that it is to
the state of affairs to which M. Rivet rtfers — the condiiion
of the Russian people for over a century prior to the Revolu-
tion— that we owe the ex.raordinary vitality of the modern
Russian school. I believe thac under a Government that
imposed upon the poet the necessity of conveymg ^is
message in parables or fables, and obhged the painter to
express himself more or less in allegories for fear of a censor-
ship which had no parallel in other civilized states, music
was bound to be enriched ; by the medium of that art alone
could a man express everything he felt without endangering
Ijis freedom ; he could speak as plainly as music would
allow him. If music was not sufficiently articulate to conve}'
the whole sense of his message to those who heard it the
composer could, at all events, pour out his whole soul
without the restraint caused by fear. And this I believe
the Russian composer did, whether consciously or not.

But, you may ask, have the great Russian composers
ever shown themselves to be much moved by the contem-
plation of the oppression which the mass of their com-
patriots suffered under Tsarism ? Is the Russian composer
a political animal ? To this question I am able to reply
unhesitatingly, yes ! I am of the opinion, and I trust you
will have reason before I have-finished to agree with me,
that the information I have to offer you to-day would
probably startle those who have heedlessly listened to
Russian music simply because the trend of fashion demanded
it.

248 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Whether or no it conveys all it contains to us listeners,
Russian music — like the fables of Krylov, or the prose of
Pushkin, or the paintings of Repin — ^is a language of protest.
It is, moreover, a perpetual reminder of what has been
suffered by the people to which is applied the comprehensive
description of " All the Russias." If Russian music has not
— ever since iis revival at the beginning of last century —
been aLtempting to promote " self-determination," it serves
at any rate to recall to us what has been in the minds of the
greatest Russic n literary men and artists.

Cm ? ny Russian, obs*^ rving that the words of Musorgsky's
f m-. us " Gopak " are Ihose of Sbevchenko, fail to recall
tl.^e Ijf' ?nd dti ih cf iMs martyr whose ideal of freeing the
Ukrainian peoples from their bondage and of removing the
bt n on their native vongue was regarded by the authorities
as \h.e vilest of crimes ? Have musicians forgotten the em-
b£ rgo on S:belius' " Finlandia " ? Wh£,t are we to make
of the suppression of Rimsky-Korsakov's ?llegorical opera
" Kashchei Bezsmerlny " — during the disturbances of 1905
— if not to concUde that because it had a text which was
accessible to and understandable of the Censor, its meaning
as a hint of the eventual emancipation of Russia had become
clear to that official ?

But there is another kind of manifestation of the same
kind of thing. The tradition of veiling the truth in satire
which has been carried on by such men as Shchedn'n and
Krylov in literature is to be traced in the work of the artist.
The example I select is the work by Benois called " The
Alphabet in Pictures." Seme of these have been set to
music by Cherepnin, though not the most significant of all ;
the one to which I refer is called " The Hurricane." In this
we see the effect of a dozen gales blowing from a dozen
different directions. The Russian street is impassable.
Every kind of object — human or inanimate — is hurtling
through the air. One thing alone remains firm. Surrounded
by this maelstrom stands a Russian official who contrives,
unmoved by his tempestuous surroundings, to keep his feet.
Are we not then justified in assuming that it is because
the Russian musician from the time of Glinka, who was
himself in close personal association with Pushkin, has per-
sistently foregathered with the foremost poets, artists and
thinkers of the day, that he has readily accepted the burden
of the fight for freedom to which his brother artist has
pledged himself ?

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 249

This is why I, as a friend of the Russian people and an
ally of the Russian artist, have been brought to the firm
belief that Russian music ought, if music has any power at
all over mankind, to play a great part in the propaganda
abroad which, in default of .that propaganda now menaced
at home, will no doubt be promoted for the purpose of freeing
ihe Russian people as soon as may be.

I believe that the music of the young Russians is going
to be pregnant with meaning, and that it is the business of
the friend of Russia to understand that meaning.

I would not go "so far as to say that its comprehension is
to be achieved by a diligent study of Russian music alone.
I earn-stly counsel those who have hitherto neglected the
study of Russian history and hterature to familiarize them-
selves with These. By this means they will render them-
selves better capable of picking up hints as to the true
sign fie? nee of the content of Russian music.

When Miisorgsky spoke of music as a means of human
intercourse rather than an end in itself he may well have
mean: — as a child of his age — ^that it could, however re-
motely, be useful in the respect at which I have somewhat
timidly hinted. As to this I cen only say that since the
day when I discovered that the letters of this stalwart
Nationalist were interlarded with old Slavonic words and
(xprejisiens, and when I saw that they were dated from
"Rirograd" (this in the 'sixties, or half a century before
Peter's German appellation was officially discarded), I have
If.okcd upcn the Russian musician as a man to be watched,
. a man who, if he never voted at the poll (because there
.us no poll), would contrive to play his part in the bettering
( f the human lot.

I have no intention of asking you to be satisfied with what
you might perhaps coasider yourselves entitled to regard as
mere vain theorizings. I will therefore begin at once to
put you in possession of the facts which have prompted me
to assure you that, apart from his passive participation in
political and social affairs, there has been a noticeable dis-
position in the Russian composer to express himself in
relation to such matters quite actively.

It would not seem at first sight (despite the aphorism
that a nation's music can exert a greater influence over its
destinies than its laws) that the musician could take any
prominent place in the central administration of the affairs
of his. country. It is of course common knowledge that in

250 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

many foreign lands music receives a greater consideration
at the hands of the governing body than in Great Britain,
and thus, as he shares with the pubhc the benefits of a
subsidy, the musician becomes specially and directly
interested in the selection of those who are respcns-ible fc.r
such, grants.

His political object — leaving on one side his private
interests — is chi fly that of cultivating a more enlightened
self-interest in the governing clg.ss so that it will recognize
art as a means of completing the education and promoting
the mental and moral refinement of the individucl whose
method of government is to advocate only what he is him-
self in need of, for the musician knows that the performance,
of music is carried out under conditions which will allow of
a general enjoyment of its beneficial influence, evtn though
it may have been organized to satisfy the taste of an indi-
vidual. »

In times when the election cry is if not a ft rgottf n at all
events a discredited expedient it is perhaps even more diffi-
cult than formerly to imagine a contest fought on such an
issue as voic.d by the invocation, " Vote for Robinscn and
the Blue Hungarians," or by the warning, " Your tun( s will
»cost you more "'; suggestions like these will, however,
serve to illustrate how remote from the world of poliiics
the art over which St. Cecilia presides appears to us to be.

For this reason ons hardly expects to discover in the artist,
or at all events the musician, a tendency to become a
" political animal."

But in Russia the case has been and is altogether different.
Under the regime already termed " old," music held a quite,
privileged position. We are just beginning to learn how
for a century or so prior to the recent fall of the Romanov
dynasty every Liberal institution was carefully watched
by a government whose reactionary measures were prompted
by a self-interest not at all enlightened, how the Press
was muzzled, literature censored, verbal utterance gagged
and everything likely to lead to individual thought dis-
couraged.

Under conditions such as these the expressive art of music
was then a means of provoking thought which, was enabled
by its very nature to evade the unceasing vigilance of the
censor. And, lest the very idea of a censorship of music
should seem ridiculous to the uninitiated Western mind, it
should at once be mentioned that in much music of recent

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 251

origin may be found, at the foot of the title page, the legend,
" Approved by the Censor." It will no doubt be assumed
that the censorship operated only upon the text of a musical
composition, but this has not always been the case. An
interesting example of an over-zealous and somewhat too -
cursory examination is to be seen in some copies of the score
' f an opera by Cesar Cui, based on the subject of de Mau-
])assant's " Mademoiselle Fifi." These arrived in London
c arly in the war, and it was found that the pages containing
the words of the " Wacht am Rhein " sung by the Prussian
officers, whose brutality whilst quartered in Rouen (in 1871)
dc Maupassant's story exposes, had been deleted. One
supposed at that time that the censor had feared lest the
British should imagine Russian opera to be an occasion of
a pro-German tendency.

As has been hinted the censorship has not always been
concerned merely with the text of music — ^with the words
of vocal or operatic works — for, ten years prior to the eman-
cipation, the authorities, scenting revolutionary sentiments
in all sorts of odd places, such, for instance, as cookery books,
actually instituted a committee of investigation whose
function it was to examine music in order to ascertain
whether by any chance it could have been made a vehicle
of free expression by means of some kind of code circulated
among those who, while pretending to be harmless disciples
of St. Cecilia, might in reality prove to be dangerous
anarchists.

It is a little disappointing to learn that the search proved
vain.

When literary men, therefore, were subjected to such
treatment as was Pushkin, whose hne " I have never believed
in the Trinity " was altered so that the triple object of his
scepticism became the " Three Graces," and such as that
meted out to most literary men who, according to Aksakov,
were obliged to look upon their work as a kind of contra-
band which their conscience impelled them, if feasible, to
smuggle through the censor's custom-house with a maximum
evasion of " duty," it is not astonishing that the musician,
whose product might if sufficiently inspired arouse emotions
which could engender a desire for social intellectual freedom,
rejoiced at his partial immunity from the surveillance of so
terrible an autocracy ; nor is one surprised to find that the
Russian musician is by no means content with the con-
templation of his own and the kindred arts and of Nature,

252 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

but is deeply concerned with the cause of humanity in
gcn'^ral and his compatriots in particular.

The Russian musician, the history of whose art is brief,
troubles less about its past than its future ; perhaps this
is why he is as a rule, politically, a zealous progressive and.
not a rather passive reactionary.

The most progressive of all the great Russian composers
was Musorgsky. A prophetic instinct impelled him to write
music which was well ahead of his own generation ; his
great genius enabled him io divine that as music is a pro-
gressive art e\'try generdtion ought to concern itself more
about the music of the future than that of the past. It is
clear from the record of his life and activities that he sought
a free Russia and foresaw that one day his country should ,
rise and shake off her chains, should emerge into a con-^
dition of social and intellectual prosperity, should accom-H|
plish a new emancipation which would silence for ever the
pitiful moans of the " Yurodivy " who at the conclusion of
" Boris Godunov " is heard lamenting the hopeless con-
dition of his tortured fatherland.

And this no doubt is why Musorgsky is so intolerant of
the social and intellectual shortcomings of his neighbours
described in the following letter, written in 1863 to his
friend Cui, when on a visit to his country home. "I'm
bored, dejected and exasperated and the devil knows what
and all ! The steward could be trusted to play the goat
with the place. I had hoped to busy myself with congenial
things ; here I am being worried with the need to make all
manner of investigations and enquiries and to haunt the
police quarters and quarters that have nothing to do with
the police. Whence many impressions ! If it were not
that my mother were here at Toropets this absurd situation
would have driven me quite mad ; nothing but the presence
of this good woman could have prevented it ; she is so
tremendously glad that we should be together, and it is
such a pleasure for me to be able to add to her happiness.
But the landlords here ! What rotters ! They have a club
in the town and foregather there daily to make a hubbub.
The ceremony begins with speeches, then come arguments
amongst these noble gentry, and it almost invariably ends
in a brawl and the calling in of the police. One of the
noisiest of them is p>erpetually at cross purposes with an
intercessor ; the latter is his beie de sonime. This brawler
drives round the town soliciting signatures m the name of

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 253

Christ to a petition for the removal of the Intercessor.
Another, a thorough ass, for want of better means of con-
vincing, reinforces his contentions with clenched fisLs, which
arguments fall sooner or later upon his adversary. And all
this occurs in a club for the nobility ! And one is obliged
to meet such gentry every day, to listen to their grievances,
their tearful lamentations about lost prerogatives and
' utter ruin "... to their grumbling and their scandal.
. . . And I, for my many sins, am condemned to vegetate
in the above -described atmosphere. It doesn't exactly
destroy one's instinct for beauty ; one strives only to avoid
being suffocated by such foul air ; but as to thinking of
music ! . . ."

Chaikovsky, who was fortunate enough to know what
were the benefits accruing from imperial patronage, was
well aware of the nature of his country's needs. The thoughts
expressed in a letter to his benefactress Nadezhda von Meek
written a day or two after the attempt in 1879 to blow up
the train in which Alexander II was travelling might well
have been those of one living in 1 he reign of the last Romanov.
" I think the Tsar would do well to assemble representatives
throughout all Russia and take counsel with them how to
prevent the recurrence of such terrible actions on the part
of mad revolutionaries. So long as all of us — the Russian
citizens — are not called to take part in the government of
the country there is no hope of a better future." A few days
later he comments upon the ^boldness of the revolutionaries'
demands, formulated in a document which Rambaud
describes as the Emf)eror's death-sentence. " Ii is im-
possible to conceive anything more astounding and cynical.
That which the Socialists are doing in the name of Russia
is foolish and insolent. But equally false is their pretence
of readiness to shake hands with all pr.rties and to leave
the Emperor in peace as soon as he summons a Parlia-
ment. ..." Chaikovsky is clearly no nihilist, but we must
not blame him ; it should be n me m be red ;hat when refenn s
are at last granted the violence of the exl re mists who first
agitated for them is often ancient history. The e,giiaiors
of 1879 declared that they would cease to men?,ce Ale Xc nder's
life directly he would call a nationc.l assembly. That sounds
reasonable enough. But we hc.ve travelled so frr towards
democracy since that day that to us Chaikovsky 's diffidence
seems almost like a prenounccd reaciicncTy tendency.

And in a letter written about five yet.is subsequent to

254 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

this there is evidence that the composer was Httle inchned
for the mooted constitutional reforms.

" Can you point out any country in Europe," he expos-
tulates with a despairing correspondent, " where everyone
is perfectly contented ? There was a time when I was
convinced that for the abolition of autocracy political insti-
tutions were indispensable and that it was only necessary
to introduce these reforms with great caution, then all
would turn out well and everyone would be quite happy.
But now, although I have not yet gone over to the camp
of the ultra -Conservatives, I am very doubtful as to the
actual utility of these reforms. When I observe what goes
on in other countries I see everywhere discontent, party
conflict and hatred. ... I am driven to the conclusion
that there is no ideal government. ... I am firmly con-
vinced that the welfare of the great majority is not depen-
dent on principles and theories but upon those individuals m
who, by the accident of their birth or for some other reason, 9
stand at the head of affairs. . . . Now arises the question : "'
Have we a man upon whom we can stake our hopes ? 1
answer, Yes, and this man is the Emperor (Alexander III).
His personality fascinates me ; but apart from personal
impressions I am inclined to think that the Emperor is a .
good man. ..."

Rimsky-Korsakov, who came of a family whose connec-
tion with, the militant services is traditional and who might
thus have been expected to favour the old regime, was of
sterner stuff than the composer* of the Pathetic Symphony,
and already in the early pages of his Memoirs, in which
recollections of his youth are recor;ied, one recognizes
certain symptoms of a budding " libtralist."

" There was a fairish library on board the clipper," he
relates of his surroundings soon after leaving (in 1862) for
a three years' naval cruise, and having recently arrived at
Gravesend, "and we read a good deal. We had frequent
lively discussions and arguments. We were affected by the
spirit of the 'sixties. Among us were progressives and
reactionaries. P. A. Mordovin led the former, whilst over
the latter A. E. Bakhtiarov presided. We read Buckle,
then a favourite, Macaulay, Stuart Mill, Belinsky, Dob-
roliubov, etc. Mordovin whilst in England bought a great
quantity of English and French books, they included every
possible kind of record of revolutions and civihzation. Here
was food for discussion. This was the period of Herzen and

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 255

Ogarev and their ' Bell.' We took the ' Bell ' regularly.
At this time the Polish insurrection had begun. Mordovin
and Bakhtiarov had seme warm disputes arising out of the
former's championship of the Poles. All my sympathies
were with Mordovin. Bakhtiarov, an ardent admirer of
Kaikov, was little sympathetic ; his convictions were
counter to my sentimtnis, he was a vehement advocate of
serfdom and an aristocrat with pride of caste. Having
completed the refit, the need of which had brought her to
Gravest nd, the Almaz (Diamond) received orders to patrol
the Lib?.u coast in order to intercept gun-running vessels
which were suspected of bringing weapcns from England
and elsewhere 10 ihe Poles. NotwithsUnding the secret
syrrpaihies which our young hearts felt for the movement
aiming at the freedcm of an independent and kindred
np.ticna.li.y, subjected by its own sister, Russia, we were
obliged willy-nilly to obey the orders of our superiors to
keep faith and perform our duties at their behest."

The above record reveals the attitude of the ccmposer

i the "First Russian SymphiDny," part of which was

sketched during this stormy period and sent home in

sections to Balekirev, guide, philosopher and friend to the

Young Nationalist Group, towards the autocracy of which

; s a naval cadet he was ac^us.lly the servant. . "

At a much later period of his life, when he had long since

;andoned the naval for a musical career, he discovered in

'lat way his art might be affected by the power to which

was, at least in thought, inimical.

The accession of Alexander III brought about many
inges of administration, and amcng the institutions
; {ttcted was the Imperial Chapel in which eccksiastical
musicians were educated. Count Sheremetiev, the new
principal, a man whose knowledge of music was virtually
nil, appointed Balekirev as director, who in turn invited
Rimsky-Korsakov to assist him. The secret wires of
Balekirev's appointment were pulled, relates Korsakov, by
T. I. Filippov ; the latter was a musician whose name is
associated with an energetic search in the realm Cf folk-song.
He was at this time serving as State Comptroller and was
Attorney-General under Pobedonostsev. He and the new
director had formed an acquaintance under the shadow of
the Church and had become firm friends. They were bound
to each other and to Shererretiev, says Korsakov, " by
religiosity, orthodoxy and the remains of slavophilism.

256 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

Supporting the trio were Sabler, Pobedonostsev, Samarin
and probably Katkov, the ancient buttresses of autocracy
and orthodoxy."

In the passage from which the above quotation comj^s
its writer does not conceal ei cher his displeasure at the
manner of conducting the affairs to which he refers or his
dishke of those who conducted them. He reveals, more-
over, a distinct antipathy to the system under whose aegis
such methods could be tolerated. But the time was not yet
ripe for open opposition. He already knew that political
forces exerted through the agency of the censorship could
interfere with his plans as a composer of opera, for exception
had already been taken to certain features in " The Maid
of Pskov," the great assembly scene of which he had been
obliged to tone down. Further troubles of the kind were
to be experienced on the st2.ging of " Christmas Eve Revels "
(after Gogol's famous tale). A warning from the censor
that the character of the " Tsariisa " was too patenily a
portrait of Catherine , II was at first met by ihe obvipus
retort that Gogol himself, whose classic story was perftcitly
familiar to everyone, had made no bones about the sug-
gestion of the Tsarilsa's idemiiy. In Gogol's siory Prince
Potemkin also appears. Substquen ly Rimsky-Korsakov
sought the aid of Prince Vorcntsov-Dashkov who succeeded
in overruling the censor's objections. But the troubles wv re
not yet over. VsLVolozhsky, who was responsible for the
staging of the work, had become intoxicated by the know-
ledge of the snub which had been administered to the ce nsor
and determined, in the face of the composer's remonstrance,
to emphasize the deprecated resemblance, and had ,]:e«>ort
to an excellent porlri.it of Catherine for the purpose. What
would have happe nod had the opera bee n publicly performed
as thus mounted will never be known ; the Gra net Dukes
Vladimir ard Mikhail Alexandrovich attended the final
rehearsal and indignantly reported what they had seen to
the Emperor, with the result that ne^t only vv?s/,tlie
" Tsariisa " altered to a " Serene Highness." with a jean's
voice, but the cloth "representing a view of the capital,"
which includeel the cathedral in which the Romanovs were
buried, was also .subjected to a censorship, and at the
Ts?.r's reqa..s. .U e outlines of ihe cathedral were expunged.
TiMr conipcser, in prou.st, absen.ed himself from the first
pe.rf>..rmi nee. Ti e subs quent substitution of the descrip-
lion " An Appariieh " iVr that of Sc. Nicholas vhe wonder-

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 257

worker in the famous opera " Sadko," wherein the saint
rebukes the minstrel for so disturbing the waters of the
ocean by the frenzied dance which his gusH playing had
caused among the courtiers of the submarine kingdom, and
dashes Sadko's gusli to the ground, will cause no astonish-
ment to anyone conversant with the earlier circumstances.

Rimsky-Korsakov had so far been the victim of the
autocratic system. Towards the close of his life he came
into conflict with bureaucracy and through it with the
higher power as well.

During the troubles of 1905 when as side issues of the
general demand for a constitution every class of society
sought to redress its grievances — including even the school-
boys, who demanded the abolition of Greek — the Univer-
sities, hitherto under rigorous governmental surveillance,
demanded a general autonomy. Numberless unions were
founded, and finally a Union of Unions, in the belief that
strength alone would prevail. Among these bodies was
the Petrograd Conservatoire, the professors and students
of which had long resented the interference in their affairs
of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, under whose
auspices the Conservatoire had originally been founded.

In January, 1905, the students began to agitate, and
Rimsky-Korsakov, who it is said had instilled into their
minds some of the principles of Marxist Sociahsm, was
appointed a member of the committee, to which was allotted
the task of calming their restive spirits. But in consequence
of the intolerant attitude of the committee Korsakov found
himself obliged to defend the students, and was thus saddled
with the blame of having been the actual leader of the
revolutionary movement among them.

On the publication of a letter to the newspaper Rus, in
which Korsakov protested against the continuance of the
controlling power of the Imperial Russian Musical Society
over the affairs of the Conservatoire, and furthermore of a
letter to the director of the institution, whose name be it
observed was August Rudolfovich Bernhardt, blaming him
for his reactionary attitude in regard to the claims of the
students, the writer was informed that his services would
no longer be required. Whereupon the following communi-
cation was addressed to R. N. Cheremissinov, director of
the Petrograd section of the Imperial Russian Musical
Society. " Having learnt of the dismissal of N. A. Rimsky-
Korsakov from the post of professor of the Conservatoire

•258 U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

we have the honour to bring to the notice of the director? te
that we, to our extreme regret, desire to discontinue our
professorial duties in the said institution as from the date
of. the dismissal.

Professors A. Glazungv and An Lyadov,

s^ih March, 1905."

■ Nothing but the direst necessity could have driven
Lyddov, a man of extremely retiring disposition, to as.so-
ciate himself with a political movement. He was by no
means a Marxist, having sufficient belief in the Nieizschean
individualistic principle of an aristocracy based on brain
power and human energy to deprecate a government f n
behalf of an effortless and boeotian proletariat. But hi^
interference, together with that of several colleagues, bore
good fruit. The constitution of the Conservatoire was event-
ually subjected to a number of beneficial changes — the
Teutonic appellation of its director disappeared frcm tl«;
list of its staff and that of Glazunov was substituted, whilst
Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and the rest were reinstated. -
Still more aloof from an acceptation of any formal con-
ception of politics was that great musical prophet Skryabm.
Dying prematurely soon after the outbreak of war, he
bequeathed to us, nevertheless, an utter? nee in which tl^c
relation of music to human progress is outlined and its
power as a political force defined. The communication,
addressed to a friend, is inspired by the then recently begun
hostilities.

As we shall see, the opinions of Skryabin when uttered
constituted a veritable prophecy. For us to-day their
amazing accuracy makes them sound like ancient history.

The following is an extract from a letter written by
Skryabin to his friend A. N. Bryanchaninov, editor of the
New Link, on the bond between Politics and Art :

" How profoundly they err who see in wars only evil and
the accidental outcome of strife between nations.

" Racial history is the expression at the periphery of tlie
development of the central idea, vouchsafed to the coji-
templative prophet and sensed by the creative artist at the
moment of inspiration though completely concealed frcm
the crowd. ...

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 259^

" The development of this idea is conditioned by the
rhythm of individual attainments, and the periodical accu-
ciulation of creative en' rgy operating at the periphery
■ products the convulsions required for the accomplishment
of racial evolutionary progress. These convulsions (cata-
clysms, catastrophes, wars, revolutions and so forth), by
discomposing the soul of mankind, reveal to the perceptive
faculty the ideas which are concealed behind the external
occurrence. . . . We are now experiencing just such a con-
vulsion, and in my opinion it is symptomatic of a matured
idea eagerly desiring incarnation. ...

"At such a time as this one feels the need of uttering a
loud invocation to all capable of new conceptions, to the
disciples of science and art who, though holding aloof from
social affairs, are nevertheless themselves the unconscious,
creators of history. The day has come when they must be
summoned to the construction of novel forms and the
solution of new synthetic problems.

" Artists are searching for a reunion of arts hitherto
segregated for a federation of. provinces till now foreign
one to another. More noticeable still is the public's effort
to promote the performance of works which have as their
foundation philosophical ideas and a blending of the elements,
of different arts. Of this I became distinctly conscious
during the excellent performance of ' Prometheus ' at Queen's
Hall, London. Pondering the message of the war, I am now
inclined to attribute the enthusiasm of the public which at
the time so greatly moved me not so much to the musical
aspect of this composition as to its blend of music and
mysticism."

This expression is the, more fitting, coming as it does
from one who time and again insisted upon the incessant
process of materialization and dematerialization among the
arts, as in universal life, because it so clearly defines the
position of music as a herald of a coming condition. The
function of music is to arouse emotions which will so aid
the perception of essentials as to assist humanity in effect-
ing a timely ordering of its own progress. The Russian
composer was impelled by a consciousness that the time
for a dematerialization of the arts had arrived to blend them
in a conglomerate work. And the world has since realized
that the supreme desideratum in political affairs is a de-
materialization of the artificial differentiation of aims (sueh,

26o U.R.S.A. PROCEEDINGS

for instance, ss party politics) so that humanity shall once
again be enabled by its leaders to seek unhindered the
spiritual and temporal comfort and prosperity which are
its undisputed legacy.

Are not the documents quoted sufficient to prove that
beneath the mere expressiveness of representative Russian
music lies an abundance of social and political thought
fairly comparable with that which inspired the literary
artists of Russia ? Have we not seen that the men to whom
we attribute the development of the Russian musical art
were true citizens as well as inspired artists and ardent
pioneers ? Is it to be wondered at that when we examine
the written opinions of the most progressive and perhaps
the most gifted of the latter-day Slav composers — I refer to
Skryabin— we are impelled to conclude that the terrible
conditions created by a tyrannical governmertt have served
to endow the music of Russia with a significance never before
reached in that or any other country ?

I desire it to be clearly understood that I do not claim
for music the power of communicating a distinct verbal
message. But as no one disputes that music exerts an
influence over mankind I shall be safe in insinuating that
the music of a race whose means of expressing itself have
been strictly limited by harsh authority is likely to be fulkr
of meaning, and therefore richer in the power to influence,
than the art of a free people upon whose music this terrible
responsibility does not fall.

All this, Ladies and Gentlemen, may perhaps lead you to
suppose that as a writer on the subject I am as it were
forced to be interested in the oppression of Russia — to
welcome that oppression as the fount of expressive music.

But I ask you to believe that I have an unshakable faith
not only in Russia's power to recover from her present
deplorable position but also in the power of the Russian
artist (I employ the term in its widest sense) to create for
us a suitable artistic manifestation of the feelings of his
fellow-countrymen at the hour of triumph that will surely

Mr. Aylmer Maude said that a sentence from Beranger
which the Chairman had quoted could be traced back to
Fletcher of Saltoun, who wrote, " Let me make a nation's
songs and who will may make its laws."

NATHAN. MUSIC AND POLITICS 261

The thought underlying that remark was in accord with
che spirit of Mr. Nathah's paper as well as with the spirit
of Tolstoy's work. Whal is Art? for wliich Fletcher's
aphorism might well have served as a motto.

Indeed art lies at the core of human life. Song, poem,
novel, drama, picture, caricature, jest, satire or clever
mimicry all shape and mould man's feelings, and on man's
jeelings dcjx^nd man's manners, customs, habits, beliefs,
social arrangements and legislation. WTiat runs counter to
the general feehngs of the community is sooner or later
rejected, and that is why such a social reformer as Tolstoy,
himself a great literary artist, declared that art is an activity
essential to the life and well-being of humanity.

Mr. Maude, referring to the .revolt of the schoolboys,
mentioned that the girls in a Moscow high school also re-
volted, one of the items in their programme being " frecdoirt
from castor oil."

After a few remarks by Mr. George Setcn, Lord Sandeisoi^
proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Montagu Nat]\;rn which
was passed with acclamation. Mr. Brayley Hodgclls having
proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman, the prccffdijifs
terminated.

rRISTtD BV
By WtLlIAM BRFNDO.N ASV SON. LI

.1. -u^i^ ^■;^^■t.W«ilVvV^t^'* — .^iJli^.:

^^ 4TY\'^^ KiV

BOOKS ON RUSSIA

GLORIOUS RUSSIA

ITS LIFE, PEOPLE. AND DESTtNY

Paper, \i. nel ; cloih, \%. 6d. net
B,

E. A. BRAYLEY HODGETTS

Author of

"The Court of Russia in the Nineteenth Century " 2 vols. 34/- net

" The Lite of Catherine the Great of Russia " 16/- net

" In the Track of the Rus^ian Famine''

"Roundabout Armenia"

et«. etc.

T>11RTY-F1VE YEARS IN RUSSIA. By
George Hi'Me. Illustrated by Photographs and
Map. Cheap Edition. Demy 8vo, cloth, 6s. net.

" It should be read by everybody who wants to know the real
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are." — Toronto Mail and Empire.

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London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT fe Co., Ltd.

4 STATIONERS, HALL COURT, E.G. 4.

*«OINOUST AUG 17 1949

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